Fortius Prime

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Fortius Prime
Fortius Prime.png
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Segmentum:

Ultima Segmentum

Sector:

Australis Ultima

Subsector:

[[Phonicas Sub-Sector]][[Category:Phonicas Sub-Sector]]

System:

[[Fortius System]][[Category:Fortius System]]

Class:

System Capital

Type:

Minor

Fortius Prime Map.jpg
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Geography

Physics

Type Large iron/silicate

Density 5.64 g/cm3

Composition 42.7% iron, 25.4% oxygen, 19.5% silicon, 9.8% magnesium, 2.6% other metals, trace other elements

Gravimetry

Gravity 14.29 m/s2

Escape Velocity 16.13 km/s

Rotation Period 48.30 hours

Axis Tilt 4.55 °

Atmosphere

Type Standard breathable

Pressure 94.97 kPa

Composition 75.7% nitrogen, 21.0% oxygen, 2.1% carbon dioxide, 1.2% sulfur dioxide, trace other gases


The next planet is Fortius Prime. The capital world of the system is a classic "goldilocks" zone world of oceans and grassy plains. The major geological feature is the Great Equatorial Range, a massive mountain range that divides the pangean continent into North and South. This marks the divide of where the two previously smaller continents smashed into each other millions of years ago.


Population

The main administration Hive is in the South. It houses the administration headquarters, the Ecclesiarchy temple and the Governor's palace.

The rest of the population is spread out in small farming communities, whose produce is the other half of the system's tithe.


History

The system of Fortius is comprised of 6 planets orbiting a sun roughly the solar mass of Sol. It was brought to compliance early in the crusade. At that time, the only inhabited planet, later called Fortius Prime by the Administratum, quickly and willingly accepted compliance and an imperial governor was appointed from among the indigenous population.

During the Horus Heresy, the system was left largely untouched owing to its minimal strategic value. The outermost planet was briefly the battleground for the Emperor's Children and Imperial Army, which shattered the world after a bombardment by the Combined Fleets. Its remnants now orbit the Fortius system as an asteroid field.

This field, known locally as the Girdle, made the system very difficult to navigate after exiting from warp transit as it lies at the very outer edge of the Fortius star's gravity well.

Only one ship managed to make it through to Fortius Prime following the Heresy - The Imperial Truth - a small ship of the nascent Inquisition which took the Spear of Destiny to secrete it in the Mountain.

The Girdle led to the system largely being isolated from the greater Imperium until the 36th millennium when an Iron Hand's Company visited the system after a battle with Chaos forces. After using their superior knowledge of machine spirits to navigate the Girdle, the Iron Hands Captain Geral Sophicus made vox contact with the Imperial governor and was welcomed to Fortius Prime. Despite the 5,000 years that had passed since contact with the Imperium, Sophicus' Company found the system was still loyal and free from any chaos taint.

Sophicus determined that the Emperor's light had let his company to Fortius to reconnect it to the greater Imperium. His company and its Mechanicum forces remained in the system for 100 years, upgrading the local tech to allow for tracking and predicting the movement of asteroids and allow for navigation of the Girdle.

His astropaths were able to pass information back to the Administratum who sent representatives to the system. A full scan of the local planets was undertaken and resources identified. Also arriving in Fortius Prime were representatives from the Ecclesiarchy. The Ecclesiarchy spread the Imperial faith to the locals, who were initially reluctant having maintained their belief in the Imperial truth. But ultimately their inbred loyalty to rule from Terra meant most accepted the new truths.

Shortly after, the Iron Hands departed the system and, apart from the Planetary Defence Force, no Imperial Military forces were present in the system until the Spear of Destiny incident.


Spear of Destiny Campaign

Inquisitor Maximillian Andarchus of the Ordo Malleus had been investigating the Spear of Destiny his entire career. From the very earliest days, his mentor Inquisitor Hadrachus had told him of the great power of this Fulgurite Artefact of the Most Holy Emperor (BBA). A fragment of his most holy psychic lightning unleashed on Terra during the final battle against the Arch traitor Horus Lupercal, the Spear of Destiny is said to be both a powerful weapon and shield of incalculable strength. But the location of this ancient relic has remained a mystery. Smuggled off Terra in the aftermath of the battle by the earliest forces of the Inquisition, its location was known only to the highest of authorities. For they knew that in the wrong hands, the Spear would be a powerful weapon capable of incalculable damage. And then… its location and eventually very existence was forgotten. Except for a sacred few in what would become the Ordo Malleus. Knowledge of this sacred spear was passed from Master to Apprentice and known only to two members at any one time. However, its whereabouts was lost even to these privileged few, with only a heavily coded tome containing this secret. Deciphering this tome was thought impossible for millennia, and given its origin and power, possibly even heretical. That was until Andarchus became the latest inquisitor to inherit this most holy of secrets.

The scions of this secret brotherhood in the Ordo Malleus also inherited a prophesy from the early masters of the Inquisition. They foretold that when the forces of Chaos again threatened Terra, that this most holy gift of the Emperor would again be uncovered by a most dedicated servant of the Golden Throne – one who would use it to turn the tide of that Great War and return the Imperium to its greatness. With the successes of 13th Black Crusade bringing even Holy Terra under threat, Andarchus, who had never been short on personal belief decided that it was he that the old masters had described. And so from the time Hadrachus’ death at the hands of a Bloodthirster unleashed by Abaddon on a once loyal Imperial world, Andarchus had dedicated the rest of his career to uncovering the secrets of the Spear’s location. He had spent many years and the lives of several retinue members to locate secret and forbidden tomes in both Inquisitorial libraries and ancient Imperial sites. He had even treated with the treacherous Xenos known as the Eldar to obtain knowledge of an ancient script. And now, Andarchus knew he had finally located the Spear of Destiny.

After landing on the remote agricolony of Fortius Prime, he obtained the cooperation of the planetary governor. Before the meeting, Imperial Governor Angelus had believed the Inquisition a myth he used to scare his workers into fulfilling quotas. And now, this myth was very real and very much demanding his compliance. Not quite maintaining his dignity in the face of his fear, Angelus put his personal office, transportation and planetary defence force at the Inquisitor’s command. Andarchus wasted no time in requisitioning a Valkyrie and headed for the coordinates he had determined were the location of the Spear.

The masters of the Inquisition had hidden the Spear in the mountainous district on the planet’s equator and took care to secret it in a location where few would visit. In this, they had the assistance of the Mechanicum, for the Spear was in the heart of a mountain, protected by many layers of tight security – all of which Andarchus would have to penetrate before recovering this holy relic. Landing at the site was impossible as the only entrance was high on a steep mountain face. So the Inquisitor and his retinue had to abseil from the Valkyrie. It was then they suffered their first casualty, with the Crusader’s line snapping and long and painful scream sealing his fate. After the Retinue’s Jokaero weaponsmith had managed to defeat the security on the gate and shut down its auto defences, the team made it inside the holy site. On their way to the central chamber, several other retinue members died from either the site’s defences or from accidents on the treacherous slender walkways that crossed over great chasms. Finally at the heart of the site, Andarchus and his apprentice Gantaro were the only ones left, the Jokaero having perished opening the final door and failing to disable one final defence mechanism which claimed the Xenos’ life.

And there at the centre of an enormous chamber was the Spear of Destiny, suspended in a Stasis Field hovering over a central dais. Andarchus approached warily and solemnly - his life’s work and destiny before him. But as he reached the dais, his dreams were shattered with Gantaro plunging an athame into his master’s back. As his master lay dying with shock in his eyes, Gantaro explained how he had been inducted into the Coven of the Sacred Eye, A Tzeentch Cult on his home world. Discovering his psychic potential, the cult had taught him the ways of concealing his gifts and how to infiltrate the most secretive order of the False Emperor. For the Changer of Ways had made it known to the Cult’s master that Gantaro would one day make a great discovery which would change the fate of the galaxy. And sensing his time had come, Gantaro now took his opportunity, using his sacred dagger blessed by Tzeentch’s holy fire to see his own prophesised destiny fulfilled. And now he bade his former master to watch as he claimed the Spear of Destiny for Chaos and to know as his soul entered the Warp to be devoured by the neverborn, that Gantaro would make a gift of the Spear to the Warmaster himself.

But such was not to be Gantaro’s fate. Instead, as he reached out for the Spear, the psychic residue of the Emperor recognised he was not a Space Marine or servant of the Golden Throne, but instead a servant of Chaos. It reacted by sending out a powerful psychic blast that instantly obliterated Gantaro and pierced the roof of the holy mountain, which immediately began to collapse around Andarchus. His final thought was “Didn’t tell you everything Gantaro… and now I know why.” And he died with a smile on his lips and peace in his heart believing that the Spear would be buried with him.

But rather than burying the Spear, for the Mechanicum had known its business better than that, the collapsing roof peak of the mountain instead collapsed around the central dais leaving the spear untouched on top of a newly formed mountain plateau.

The psychic pulse that had destroyed the mountain and Gantaro continued for a time, as if the spear were celebrating its return to reality after its isolation in the stasis containment field. What it was actually doing was seeking out the Emperor's psychic presence and that of his servants by pulsing through the warp. This pulse was picked up by astropaths and other psykers throughout the sector, and indeed the segmentum – though not all were servants of the Golden throne.

Fortius Prime's quiet existence as an agricolony has come to an end. But will it and the Spear of Destiny be claimed by the loyal servants of the Emperor, will this powerful weapon be made a gift to the True Gods of the Warp, or will the Spear of Destiny guide a Xenos force dedicated to its own alien fate?

Forces involved in the Campaign

Craftworld Malan'Tai - The surviving few

Kildrech Crusade - A Tyrant's force

Bat Lords

Hive Fleet Melusine

MINOTAURS CHAPTER ++ Directive 19453 - Execute ++

The Warband of Kharn the Betrayer and Krov'ka the Cruel

Ultramarines second company; strike force Lancea

Purulent Necrosis

Warband of the Severed Hand, 23rd company VIII Legion

Craftworld Alaitoc

7731st Krieg - Saviours of the Expanse

News

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Battles

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