Raynes

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Raynes
Raynes.png
War torn Feudal World and seat of House Horne

Segmentum:

Ultima Segmentum

Sector:

Australis Ultima

Subsector:

Centrumeh Sub-Sector

System:

Centrumeh Gate

Class:

Feudal Knight World

Type:

Major

Raynes Map.jpg
'


Physics

Type Large Iron/silicate

Mass 6.61 x 1024 kg

Density 6.02 g/cm3

Composition 39.8% iron, 24.6% oxygen, 18.8% nickel, 10.8% silicon, 4.4% other metals, 1.6% other elements

Gravimetry

Gravity 6.69 m/s2

Escape Velocity 7.31 km/s

Rotation Period 24.28 hours

Axis Tilt 80.71 °

Atmosphere

Type Standard toxic

Pressure 143.71 kPa

Composition 39.5% carbon dioxide, 38.7% argon, 21.8% oxygen, trace other gases

A world in the slow state of death due to the destruction of its fragile eco system during the Compliance. Most of the planets vegetation is dead or dying and its animal life is likewise rapidly becoming extinct, without significant intervention to repair the polluted and radiated atmosphere the world will continue to degrade over the following centuries to become a dead world requiring all goods to be imported and artificial respiration.

Population

A primarily feudal population spread across a number of kingdoms all ruled over by various nobles of the Knight House Horne, numbering just under a billion people, the world is largely geared to supporting the Knight House and its engines of war. Civilian casualties during the Compliance action were quite high, with the Imperial assault initially attempting to avoid collateral damage but quickly abandoning such nicities when the fleet was ambushed by the Mechanicum conclave on Sudeen.

History

Pre-Compliance

It is not quite clear which world came into being first, Raynes or their former oath bound masters on Sudeen. It is possible that the world was colonised prior to the coming of the Mechanicum conclave like many other Knight Worlds via the early stage expansion of Mars, if so the planets records were then wiped clean when Sudeen became their overlord. Either way any significant documentation of the planet appears to exist in ancient cogitators which bare the mark of Sudeen and are preserved and revered by the House Nobles. These archival devices periodically upload their information records to an orbiting station above the world which then conveys the data to the deep underground forge of the desert world.

A number of significant pirate raids, both human and xenos, were recorded in the decades leading up to the coming of the Imperium, all of which were easily repelled by the combined forces of the Knight House. It is possible that a number of these 'raids' may have in fact been a wave of marauding armies dislodged by the Compliance actions Coreward, seeking a new home or easy picking during their wanderings. Without any extra system contact and an isolationist policy in place, the Knight House and their rulers were in no way prepared for the arrival of the Imperium and treated them instead like those who come before; with indifference and live ammunition.


Compliance

Unlike the other two planets in the system, Raynes took the full brunt of the Imperial Compliance action. Following their standing instructions from the conclave on Sudeen, the House Nobles rejected any attempt at communication and executed the first landing party to make planet fall. Without any advanced augury arrays, the Knights could not have known the size of the fleet in orbit around their planet and unknown to them, their masters were adopting a wait and see policy, remaining hidden deep beneath the surface of their world. Oath bound and chivalric as they were, the Knight of House Horne would not have acted any differently even had they known the full strength of the forces arrayed against them.

The opening wave of the Imperials attack caught the Knights completely off guard, never had they faced an opponent who was capable of deploying so rapidly and accurately across such a wide front. Most of the Kingdoms static defenses were wiped out in the first hour of the conflict, along with the limited ground to orbit weapon systems which had been installed by the conclave. However Raynes major strength lay not in its immobile weapons emplacements but in its highly mobile Knights and their larger then normal forces. Being a unified world allowed the Knights to preserve their engines unlike on some worlds where constant internal conflict slowly whittled their numbers. As the Nobles rallied and prepared for their counter attack a brilliant flare appeared in the sky, followed by dozens of others, in response the Imperial offensive faltered, some units even falling back to their ships and withdrawing. Seizing the opportunity the Knights launched their assault, spearheading full detachment deep into enemy lines and breaking hastily erected staging points.

Elated the Nobles ordered the detachments to strike deeper and destroy the enemies command points, a decisions which proved to be fatal for their short lived war. The Compliance force, temporarily stunned by the partial destruction of their fleet, reacted with brutal swiftness, rapidly isolating the Knight detachments and bombarding them with overwhelming fire power irrelevant of the collateral damage. Civilian casualties started escalating and the Knights desperately changed their tactics from one of all out assault to attempting to protect their people; knowing they had little to no chance of being reinforced by the Expeditionary fleet now powering towards Sudeen the compliance forces pressed the attack and took advantage of the Knight perceived weakness, intentionally targeting civilian centers to draw the Knights out.

To preserve high impact ammunition and weapons suitable for attacking the Knight engines, the Imperial forces instead unleashed kilotons of phosphex and radphage bombs on the softer targets until the Knight showed themselves and then switching to the harder weaponry systematically neutralised them. By the time the surrender of Sudeen was announced back to the forces on Raynes and the conclave ordered their Knight to stand down, the world was in ruin. Damage done by the poisonous weapons and even a number of large pieces of debris from the fleet ambush has tainted the atmosphere and the amount of surface damage done to the world was staggering.

Broken the House Nobles looked around them in defeat; they had failed their oath sworn masters, they had failed their people and they had failed their brothers-in-arms. To further humiliate them, as part of the capitulation of Sudeen, the oath bond of House Horne would pass the Imperium and their representative on Westarnes.


Post Compliance

With limited assistance from their former masters House Horne slowly rebuilt their world; Fortresses were repaired and survivors were gathered, defenses rebuilt and Knight salvaged. Although their new masters on Westarnes offered additional resources, the House Nobles refused it, their honour already tattered, they could not lose what was left. As the Governor converted and reformed his new Garden World, so did the Nobles reform House Horne; rather than multiple Kingdoms, the world was unified under a single Empire and worst effected areas of the planets were quarantined, the populace relocated and consolidated.

The Knight pilots took it upon themselves to being quests, hunting down fallen Knight Engines and recovering them whenever they could, in this way they felt that they could slowly repair their honour and replenish their order. Without the need to watch the borders or to fight off invasion, these quests were surprisingly successful; dozens of engines were recovered in salvageable condition with dozens more reverently transported back to the new fortress holds and entombed as relics.

The strength of the House grew and with it did their hunger to reclaim their lost honour. Realising that their Pride had been holding them back, the Nobles humbled themselves to their new liege lord and his Imperium and petitioned him for support in all of the formality and fanfare that was warranted. Overjoyed at the reversal of the Houses attitude the Governor was more than willing to provide the Knights were resources, further allowing them to replenish their forces and repairing their world.

Believing themselves to be ready, the House finally approached the Governor with a suggestion of hosting a Hastilude, an event which would not only help protect the System with a time honoured Truce while the games were played, but also opened a pathway for the Nobles to fully reclaim their lost honour.

Campaign Reports

Breaking of Centrumeh Gate
Breaking Ribbon.jpg

Prelude to War

While a number of Houses and at least one Company are known to have ..→

Battle Reports

Battle Name Date Planet Battle Outcome Battle Summary
Breaking of Centrumeh Gate~Ep.1 - ACT of Heresy: Raynes 058.009.M31 Raynes Secessionist

With the Truce of Nobles invoked for the Hastilude shattered, the war on Raynes escalated faster than either of the two other planets in Centrumeh. Dozens of Knight Houses and their engines ..→

Breaking of Centrumeh Gate~Ep.4 - Descent of the Accipiter 460.009.M31 Raynes Secessionist

Crippled and dying, the Traitors Cruiser Accipiter has entered a decaying orbit around the Knight World of Raynes. Together with the revelations that their former masters orchestrated the initial ..→

Skirmish Reports

  • I-ARMY-4140 defeated L-XX-7498 a Secessionist gain.
  • L-XX-1183 defeated L-I-4811 a Traitor gain.
  • L-XX-1183 defeated L-XVI-0204 a Traitor gain.
  • A-MECH-5048 defeated L-XX-7498 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-XX-1183 defeated A-MECH-2541 a Traitor gain.
  • L-XVII-5245 defeated L-XX-7498 a Secessionist gain.
  • L-XX-5058 defeated L-XX-1183 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-XX-1183 fought L-I-4811 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-XX-7498 fought A-MECH-5048 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-XV-1159 fought L-XII-1970 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-XVII-5245 fought L-XII-1970 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-V-2169 defeated L-XII-1970 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-VII-7184 defeated L-XII-1970 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-XV-1159 fought L-III-5069 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-XVII-5245 fought L-III-5069 resulting in a standoff.
  • L-V-2169 defeated L-III-5069 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-VII-7184 defeated L-III-5069 a Loyalist gain.
  • L-XIV-3659 defeated L-XII-1970 a Secessionist gain.
  • L-III-5069 defeated L-I-3135 a Traitor gain.
  • L-III-5069 defeated L-XX-5058 a Traitor gain.