The Cathedra Sector Wip

[Mr Farson]

Hopefully this is the correct place for this.

 

I've had the idea for a while to write up my mechanicum lore regarding its formation and activities. I'm hoping to add a couple of bits a week. I hope you enjoy my writing but please do criticise. Any way here's part 1

 

 

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The Sevastopol

 

A towering spire floating high above a dead world, the Sevastopol is more akin to hive city than a mere orbital station.The stations original date of construction or purpose are long forgotten in this age of darkness, it is believed that its legacy harken’s back to the earliest days of man kinds dominion of the stars. During some ancient conflict or perhaps disaster the knowledge of the station was lost until its rediscovery during the great crusade.

 

Following a catastrophic drive failure Mechanicum vessel ZX//Spectre dropped out of the warp and into a previously unexplored system. The vessel set about making repairs while surveying the system and much to the priesthoods surprise discovered the lifeless hulk of the Sevastopol floating aimlessly in the void. Skitarii teams rapidly breached the vessel and discovered a treasure trove of aerotech and STC designs. The decision is made to attempt to bring the station back online and after many months of work the motive force once again powered the station.  

 

The station had suffered decay and damage through its long dormancy with its drives only providing enough energy to move it above a planet before they shut off for the last time. In the following years the Mechanicum adepts continue to repair and explore the station and eventually claim the system as their own.

 

The station escaped relatively of the fires of the Heresy, the same could not be said of its inhabitants however. A Dark Angel retribution fleet eliminated much of the high priesthood during a boarding action before being overwhelmed. This conflict may have been beneficial however as the loyalties of the station were lost to time and confusion.

 

In the modern age the station endures and continues to produce advanced technologies at a staggering rate. All who journey to the planet below pass within its shadowed halls, it is believed that less than 40% of the station has been fully explored since its reclamation by the Mechanicus, every year new discoveries are made both amazing and horrifying. In recent years the station has become isolated by the rent in the galaxy suffering heavily from the lack of supply vessels and constant assaults.

[Mr Farson]

Part 2

 

Svestapol subsector

 

ZX//Specter

Planet Class: Large

Planet designation: 5a 58 2f 2f 53 70 65 63 74 65 72

Planet Type: Dead world / storage world

Day cycle: Twilight world

Tithe Grade: Nil

 

A cold desert world wracked by storms and pockmarked by craters, this worlds past has been blasted clean much like the cities of its inhabitants. Records found within the ruins of fallen cities and half collapsed bunkers indicate that at one point this was an armoury world before some great atomic conflict. Much of the world is a rad wracked wasteland of perpetual twilight asides from a small pocket of pure night and life to the true east of the world. This small bastion is the sole city upon the surface and a major manufacturing power.

 

Base Delta Zero

 

While this location was the initial landing site of the the expedition it was not the original site of the proposed first city. Following an unforeseen calculation error regarding the stability of a dust plain the decision was made to make the initial landing zone the site of the city. The exploration of the surrounding mountains revealed an ancient sealed vault containing countless suits of Questoris Knight armour of a presumably fallen house. These suits were secured and the facility brought back online providing the expedition some much needed heavy armour. The explorator vessel ZX//SPECTER was scuttled in the planets atmosphere and formed the basis of the city forge. Over the millenia the city has expanded ever outwards layer after layer of iron coating the ground.

 

To the west on the border of the Divide a vast wall erected and fortresses established to defend against horrors from the rad wastes.

 

The Divide

 

In truth all of the world outside of the iron walls of Base Delta Zero is considered part of The Divide however the area to the west is generally Considered the true Divide. A vast and cratered nuclear desert of dead sand, forgotten cities and vast craters. Below the surface lies a nest of tunnels and bunkers filled with arms and armour, accessing these however is easier said than done. Countless survey and explorator teams are sent into the Divide to uncover its secrets, many don’t return from these expeditions instead falling prey to rogue servitors, ancient defense systems or worse…

 

Hive Clyse

 

The largest permanent surveyor outpost within the Divide a base camp has been established in the upper sections of the hives spires.The hive itself lies within a vast blast crate of an ancient weapon that targeted the hive. Much of the knowledge of the worlds past has been recovered from within the hive. Data entries and fragmentary personal logs piece together details of an infestation of the planet by a mutagen or xenos agent which twisted the worlds populace into mockeries of the human form. Uprisings and massacres by these changed beings prompted wide scale retaliation by the uninfected, the conflict escalated until weapons of pure destruction were unleashed eradicating all life on the planet. Skitarii scouts of the lower hive whisper of scuttling humanoid shapes horrifically malformed that live deep below, perhaps not all life perished in Atomic fire.

Edited November 22, 2021 by Mr Farson

[Mr Farson]

Sideral subsector

 

Planet Korbelrok

 

Planet Class: Small Terran Adjacent

 

Planet designation: 5a 18 6Y 2f 37 40 1 90 58 65 70

 

Planet Type: Mining world

 

Day cycle: Terran standard +4

 

Tithe Grade: Moderate

 

A red and dust blown rock hanging in the void surrounded by several moons. Korbelrok is a mining world, vast quantities of metals are extracted every year to be forged into arms and exported offworld. The planet's surfaced is pitted with countless boreholes many of which are now used as the main residences of the planet's workforce.

 

Once a borehole is played out more often than not the countless galleries and tunnels are repurposed into a rough albeit very secure town. Over time these towns will dig further, expanding their vaulted chambers and linking with the Great Under Road.

 

Dotted on the surface a number of hives stand like dust choked mountains. Each hive processes raw ore from the great pits and sends it onwards onto the stars.

 

Hive Colney

 

Known as the Hatch to its many residents for some unknown reason, the hive sits next to the great Ferox sea. The hives sole purpose is to filter and produce water for the otherwise dry planet. Holding the monopoly on all water production has made the hive immeasurably wealthy and the defacto capital of the world. From its families the planetary governor has been chosen for millennia.

 

The Great Under Road

Beneath the surface of the planet and criss crossing it like a vast web the Great Under Road stretches.

It was constructed when the planet was settled to link the original bore pits and the foundries that would day become Hives. These endless tunnels have been expanded to over the years as new pits and hives grew riddling the planet like a cancer. A huge number of vehicles use it to transport goods around the planet and it's not uncommon for its workers to never see the surface.

Attached to the tunnels vast secure facilities lay shrouded in darkness. Some are ancient life support and maintenance sites while others are the store houses and training depots of the planets pdf forces.

 

 

House of The Coils Hunger

Korbelrok is tainted

 

The planets infestation was not achieved by some invasion force or armed uprising, in the depths of Hive Colney adepts of the great star god's poisoned the water of the planet. This water borne curse contained the DNA of the star god's themselves and their adepts merely had to sit and wait. Within a century all who lived on the planet bore the taint within them, when the day of ascension arrived the planets populace welcomed the revealed patriarch as a great prophet and king.

 

Since then all industry on the planet has turned to furthering the new ruling beings aims. Tainted water shipments are sent off world alongside the arms from the planets forges. Regiments are raised and sent forth to spread the cults taint as far as the stars will take them.

 

From the great Ferox sea strange creatures have slithered forth and in the deep dark levels of the Under Road vile experimations to meld alien flesh and machine have begun.

 

Alien eyes are looking to the stars hungry and ready for war.

[Mr Farson]

Korbelrok

 

 

The Torrent Depths

 

This vast and deep mine brought riches upon the world for centuries before one fateful day the drills reached too deep and broke into an underground sea. Within hours the great mine was submerged beneath a churning tide of polluted and corrosive water. Only the uppermost levels survived this sudden and deadly rushing flood. Over time this water subsided and the pit was reclaimed not as a mine but a source of machinery and forgotten riches.

 

Dive teams are assembled and sent down into the murky depths to retrieve preserved relics of the past. The depths are not without their dangers however as creatures from the deeps will often crawl their way up the shaft to savage and maim it's current inhabitants.

 

Some of those who dive down to the deepest areas of the pit whisper of a great maw eating its way upwards to the surface and claim that it was not the drills that broke into this undersea...

 

 

The wreck of the Nostros

 

Far west up into the arid step lands lays a most peculiar sight, If one were to survey the area from above they would see a verdant paradise in comparison to the rest of the planet. In the mountains of this area murky bodies of water lay among the peaks. This water is the sole region the steppes have some hardy plant life clinging to them. Peculiar still at the tops of these peaks lay a number of rusted hulks, they match the design of ocean going barges and ships the largest bearing the title of Nostros.

 

It's almost assured the remote location of these ships has prevented them from being scavenges over millennia. Some believe that more of these hulks once littered the plains below but have been stripped down to nothing in some ancient past. Only one conclusion can be drawn from the hulks presence that the ocean level must have suffered a calamitous drop.

[Mr Farson]

Korbelrok

 

The Ferrox sea

 

The primary and only natural sea on the planet, this vast expanse of tainted water is the sole reason the planet is still habitable. Great pipes and harvester engines suck up the brackish water for processing back at Hive Colney.

I'm recent years a remarkable discovery was made which was kept a secret amongst the ruling families of Hive Colney, the bottom of the sea was in fact a silt layer. Beneath this silt layer an under ocean of pure untainted water lay, a whole eco system lives in this under sea and the water is greedily brought up from the depths at a number of deep syphon stations.

 

Strange and collosal beings live in this undersea, biophagus's of the cult who are allowed access to the specimens recovered have noted a similar DNA structure to those touched by the Prophets flesh.

[Mr Farson]

Sideral subsector

 

Planet Yakuta

 

Planet Class: Small Terran Equivalent

 

Planet designation: 5a 18 6Y 2f 37 40 1 90 58 65 74

 

Planet Type: Garrison planet

 

Day cycle: Terran standard -2

 

Tithe Grade: Minoris

 

Yakuta is the next closest world to Korbelroks system, designated a garrison planet its role is to safe guard and police the adjacent systems.

 

The planet itself is a harsh but temperature land, the majority of its land mass is made up of swamps and steppe hills. The planets cities are dull grey slabs of ferrocrete designed for utility alone, these cities exists solely to arm the regiments raised from them and ensure they're every material need is met.

 

 

Skjalos Forges

 

Dotted across the landscape lie vast ferrocrete and iron domes that contain the many foundries of the world within them. Yakuta is one of the few planets that still produce the skjalos pattern vehicles that were commonly used during the initial advance into the region during the great crusade. The myriad of vehicle types produced in these forges are comparable to the more traditional vehicles used by the greater imperium. The skjalos pattern vehicles are renowned for their hardy construction and boast advanced cannon ballistics compared to many standard imperial vehicles. The main line battle tank is noted as having a higher yield but more compact shell for its main cannon allowing more shells to be carried into battle than the standard leman russ battle tank.

 

The forges also boast the plans for a crude volkite variant that is often mounted to tanks as a secondary anti infantry weapon. These Volkite cannonades are a relatively rapid firing weapon compatible to the heavy bolter.

 

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the forges is the lack of martian oversight, Yakuta's mechanicus presence has always been minimal due to its distance from the nearest forge world. During the original settlement of the world the pax Skjalos was written detailing how the Skajos regiments who would found the world would only accept a mechanicum presence in the major cities to oversee inter planetary technology's. In exchange for this mechanicum restriction vast quantities of material would be shipped to them from the surrounding mining planets. The ever hungry mechanicum accepted reasoning that the skjalos pattern vehicles were of little technological interest to them.

 

 

Revolution square

 

In recent years the inhabitants of Yakuta have become restless and agitated, a great fervour swept the populace and the old rulers were cast down. The square itself bore witness to the last moments of the planetary governor as uplifted workers and men of the garrison alike hung those who had previously ruled over them.

 

A new order of brother and sister hood was formed under the guidance of a great thinker who had denounced the excess of the ruling families. This off world thinker brought the knowledge and experience of his time on Korbelrok to begin a great work on Yakuta...

 

Before too long the output from the dome forges had increased as new regiments were raised in order to help defend these newly liberated worlds

[Mr Farson]

Baikal subsector

 

Planet Baikal

 

Planet Class: Large Habitual Deathworld

 

Planet designation: 63 9g 67 HH 42 30 735 11

 

Planet Type: Manufactorum Hive world

 

Day cycle: Nocturne Planet

 

Tithe Grade: Majoris

 

The capital world of the capital sector. Baikal is the true powerhouse of the Cathedra sector. Its vast hives buzz with crackling electricity as they produce cogitators en masse.

 

The planet was settled in the dark ages of humanities reign by chance when a vast sleeper ark happened upon it by chance. The settlers soon raised glittering spires above the verdant world and sunk into the bedrock boreholes filled with the computing power of their new colony. Disaster struck as an unusual convergence of two of the sectors stars flared sending a vast blast of radiation that made the surface of the planet uninhabitable. Those survivors who lived and worked in the cogitating shafts below ground were spared from the horrors above.

 

Those who survived quickly realized that with their limited technology failing their only resource they had to repair these essential cogitation units were the very settlers themselves.

 

Since that day the world has produced quite possibly the finest cogitators and datastacks in the imperium truly pushing the limits of the ability to meld man and machine.

 

Baikal now exports many of these hybrid computation devices off world to the richest and most powerful organisations in the imperium. The vast wealth this has brought in has catapulted them to the de facto power in the Cathedra sector.

 

 

Datastack ZX Commodorus

 

The oldest known datacrypt still operational on Baikal holds a vast trove of information regarding the sector as a whole. Data reports reaching back 10s of thousands of years exist in the archives here sent from remote probes and sister systems on distant world's. The lowest levels are said to contain some of the original processors of the ark ship that settled the world. The stack is typical of many in Baikal, a vast sunken pit lined with cogitators and archive in the walls plunging down into the depths of the world. Many of the newer datastacks reach deeper into the planets crust but hold near none of the prestige.

 

 

Troubleshooters support academy

 

While produced en masse few truly understand how the cogitators turned out by factorums work. A sacred order exists to maintain and repair the various cogitators of the world, known as the troubleshooters. Part engineer, part priest and part gunfighter the troubleshooters bear a striking similarity with the priests of Mars. In truth these troubleshooters are a localised martian sanctioned form of priest. Roving bands of these engineers care for and seek out forgotten data stacks. It's every troubleshooters dream to find a lost datastack to harvest the information contained within and perhaps restart the systems controlled by the cogitators. These engineers rarely travel alone for the lowest levels of the stacks are often infested by strange and hostile creatures. Whole mutant communities have been recording as living in the deepest oldest levels often worshipping the cogitators in a similar manner to the troubleshooters themselves. It's theorised that these mutants are troubleshooters who have been lost down in the darkness for too long even perhaps even descendants of the original settlers.

 

 

The Warrens

 

When Baikal was originally settled the planet has one principal settlement, on the opposite side of the world however was the planets safeguard against disaster. A secondary vault like settlement was constructed in the maze of valleys and jungles nearly perfectly opposite the principle settlement. This vault was designed to over time terraform the planet incase of some monstrous calamity. Within its armoured bulk rested thousands of colonists frozen in time in stasis pods awaiting to reclaim the planet if needed. When the planet was blasted clean by radiation the vault seeded the planet with new rad resistant life,unfortunately for the surviving colonists the newly seeded life turned the wasteland into a hungry writhing hellscape. Even today the vault from time to time expels some new highly tuned form of life. While the current rulers of Baikal know a limited amount of information about the vault gleamed from the stacks all excursions to the area to disable the vault have failed due to high levels of aggressive plant and animal life in the area.