Tactical Map of Orion 89-Zeta

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[Psy-conduit Gamma 12 Primaris opened]

[Accessing File 88713/A11]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

 

 

>Request tactical information

>Loading...

>Planetary Defense Force Tactical Map of Orion 89-Zeta in the opening stages of invasion

>Force strengths and deployments are approx. 3 hours out of date and only estimated at an accuracy of 43%

>Total forces present are not fully known. Estimated accuracy is 67%

>Request tactical update

>Stand by...

File - Ref: 1739A001

[Authorization Confirmed]

[Psy-conduit Theta 71 Tertius opened]

[Accessing File 1739A001]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

>Last pict received from monitor station Kilo 55 before ceasing transmissions at 08:44:12M41998

>Request analysis.

>Awaiting instruction...

>...|

 

[Psy-conduit Theta 71 Tertius Closed]

[User interface disconnecting…]

[Session terminated]

Battle for Orax Point: Eris Hive TAPs vs Vaetrex Desiato Round 1

Valkyries scramble as pilots from the Elysian 1042nd Squardron fight off a vicious raid from Xenos ships

As fighters streak across the sky, ferocious fighting amongst the starport

[Attn: Arbite Lokran Xe]                                                                          [Encryption level: Alpha 1++]

[From: Black Ship VII ]

Respond to this message with utmost urgency, secrecy and do my bidding with expediant use of violence! 

Zafar Da'chell must be detained, awaiting my arrival. I fear Xenos taint on Orion 89-Zeta.  

I am already on my way to deal with this matter.  Forward any more information to me.

Faith is our Shield

Inquisitor Wodin Grimes

[Attn: Arbitan Lokran Xe]        

[Encryption level: Alpha 1+]

[From: The Emporer's Inquisition ]

Automated Response: Waiting....

....Message Received.....

Ends. 

File: 92710.Orion-89 Zeta

The moon, where the legless servitor sat at a scriptorium, high in the fourth tower of Thornz Tower and recorded the message that the psychic relay had caputred from the imaterium, did not exist.  Not on any imperium maps.  It was a stretch of empty space in an out of the way sector, seldom frequented by even the most desperate of rogue traders.

The moon, the base, and the fourth tower of Thorn Tower, were - if you asked any well-meaning and even well-informed member of the Administratum - were all figments of a febrile imagination.  It was not on their charts, and so was not worthy of discussion.  Which is what made it a perfect place to station the hide out of one of the most feared and deadly of all the Emperor's servants: an Inquisitor.

This one happened to be the field operations hide out of Wodin Grime, Ordo Xenos, currently operating under the blue rosette. 

The servitor, an unthinking torso, had once been programmed to write in the finest copperplate, but with the burning out of brain circuits, it now moved the quill with slow and deliberate movements of the elbow, giving a distinctively archaic look to the message on the paper. 

It reached the end of the message, and the quill remained suspended over the place where the next letter should start. 

Minutes passed.  A drop of ink fell from the quill and smudged the last letter.

A bell rang - high and shrill and distant - and ten mintues or so later, a robed figures entered the room and slid the vellum from the scriptorium desk and onto a red cushion.

Another bell rang and someone - or rather something - screamed.  A terrifying and bone chilling sound.  It came from down below, deep down below.  A drop of blood fell from the servitor's nose.  Water began to freeze around the room.  The scream stopped.

The footsteps receded. 

The message was delivered.

File: 92710 ref: dissident behaviour

[Attn: Inquisitor Wodin Grime]

[Encryption level: Alpha 1]

[From: Adeptus Arbite Precinct 5 ]

It has come to my attention that following the unsubstantiated claims of monitor stations 'going dark' and ships disappearing in neighbouring systems that certain people in positions of what can only be described as potentially influential are beginning to threaten public safety and the security of the hives. One in particular, an artist by the name of Zafar Da'chell, should be dealt with the utmost expediency. Of late he has been circulating sketches and scrawls of what he believes to be approaching Orion-89 Zeta and while they are utterly ludicrous and laughable they need to be suppressed and he needs to be removed from the situation. The fear and deviant thoughts that he incites will spread like a cancer throughout all of the hives if it is not excised immediately. I attach one such offending piece of work, for reference only and I await your instruction on the matter.

Your humble servant

Arbite Lokran Xe

Incoming transmission... security clearance required

[Authorization Confirmed]

[Psy-conduit Beta 81 Secudus opened]

[Accessing File V5/00819IV]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

Log record 0972A110:

>Monitor station Kilo 55 ceases transmissions at 08:44:12M41998

>Picket vessel 'Pride of Tessera' reports shipwide systems interference before contact is lost at 09:30:59M41998

>Relay station 87 transmits distress call from the ore freighter 'Bannus' at 09:44:09M41998

>Relay station 87 ceases transmissions at 10:13:31M41998

>Contact is lost with high orbital dockyard 03 at 12:08:45M41998

[End of Data File]

[Psy-conduit Beta 81 Secudus Closed]

[User interface disconnecting…]

[Session terminated]

Vaetrex Desiato and the Black Sun Kabal

For years Vaetrex Desiato, Archon of the Black Sun Kabal was known for his cunning and ruthlessness and was even grudgingly respected by his enemies and rivals for it. In the depths of Commorough where the fledgling lordlings inevitably begin their careers, Desiato carved out his own small empire and steadily rose, using tactics that gained him no small amount of infamy. When the assassin cult, the Sisters of Gore were sent to eliminate him he faked his own death, only to return a month later with their employer’s head. When Zimm, the archon of the Hidden Blade Kabal, tried to wage his own private war against Vaetrex, he seduced Zimm’s mistress and had her poison him in his sleep. Vaetrex became a small local legend who was said to be able to unlock any door to slay his foe and uncross the legs of any Eldar maiden that took his fancy.

Unfortunately, such was to be his downfall, for it was only too late that one day he discovered one of his casual conquests to in fact be the wife of overseer Zavax Hulle. Vaetrex disappeared from public view but was soon caught, such was Zavax’s influence over the section of Commorough that he ruled. Vaetrex claimed innocence and when that failed, used every trick of manipulation he could think of. But Zavax had no intention to listen, instead he charged that Vaetrex do him a service as penance. He was to travel out into the Imperium of man and not return with any less than a million slaves to be handed over to Zavax as payment. What was more, Zavax demanded a variety of prisoners, the more dangerous the better. Vaetrex bowed and assured the task would be done, though both he and Zavax knew it was nigh on impossible for a kabal as small as the Black Sun. As insurance that Vaetrex would not simply flee, he had him implanted with a slow acting poison to which only he possessed the antidote. It would kill Vaetrex within a year, such was the fatal deadline for his mission set.

And so it was that Vaetrex ventured out into real-space and when he chanced upon the bloody conflict on Orion-89 Zeta, with its many different invaders vying for supremacy, he knew this to be the perfect arena for him to attempt his quest. But he knew that he could not attempt it alone, he would need allies…

Armies of Orion-89 Zeta

Charon Hive 

Charon had long had to fight to preserve its independence and this gave the was the most militarily prepared Hive. 

Although the 300 year old High Master of Charon, Dreen Charon IVth, did not take the field, both his grandson, Reelan Charon and his half brother, Uter Charon, both made their names leading the forces of the Charon Hive in battle. 

 

Charon Guard

The elite forces of Charon, as soon as the scale of attack on the Hive was known, High Master Dreen sent half his household guard to his grandson, in order to stiffen the resolve of the majority of troops.  The Charon Guard - a mechanised force well supplied with the best armour the Hive could by were by far the strongest force on the planet.  It was rumoured that they even had managed to exhort a trio of baneblades from the Adeptus Ministorum, intended for use against the TAPs: but which would prove instrumental in the war ahead.

Charon 7th

Uter Charon had been the High Commander of the Charon forces in all the recent conflicts with Eris Hive.  His favourite troops were the Charon 7th, and these were quickly mobilised and strengthened with indentured ogryns from the promethium mines. 

While Dreen Charon wheeled his armoured columns around the flank of the hive, the Charon 7th dug in for a vicious fight at the gates of the outer hab zones. 

TAPs

At first disorganised and disaffected, the forces of the TAPs were uncertain where to march, or indeed who or what to fight, as many thought that the  Xenos attacks were surrepticious attacks from the warmasters of Charon Hive.  

Eris Hive TAPs

The TAPs forces started the war with far less effective forces than Charon.  Eris Hive had traditionally maintained a light and fast force, and these were far from the hive when the war broke out performing exercises with the forces of Sedna. 
These forces attempted to take the Orax Point spaceport in order to board the transports back to their homes.
They were led by a wily old IG veteran, the septuagenarian rejuvenat, General Blasser.  

TAPs Brigade

A lightly armoured brigade commanded by Marshal Trallen of Qua Ooa, this unit was a mixed bunch with prospectors, and the mismatched units of the TAPs.
Lightly armed, low on ammunition, it seemed at first that their position was doomed.  If anyone other than Marshal Trallen had been in command, then perhaps this would have been true.  However, the veteran warrior had seen tighter squeezes than this.  

Charon Hive

Charon Hive

The Kildin Sami Tundra is a vast waste of ice and rocks, blasted by the raging winds that whip across the empty landscape.  For hundreds of miles, there is nothing to slow the wind, except the mile high towers of Charon Hive that are continually buffeted by the gales.  Indeed, there is no obvious reason why Charon Hive should be located in this bleak wilderness, until one goes deep underground and finds the vast amounts of promethium that are found there.  

It is no surprise that the folk of Charon are something of a individual lot.  Unlike the other Hives, the Charon Hive are ruled by a hereditary governor selected from House Charon, the last of the great founding families of Orion 89-Zeta, to still retain the original warrant from the Adeptus Ministratum.

The isolated nature of Charon Hive has led to something of a siege mentality, not entirely unwarranted given the repeated intrusions on the North Sedna Fields, by units of TAPs.  The High Lords of Charon began arming for expected war against the TAPs almost a decade ago, and began expanding their household guard into a force that could take the field.  Their fears became almost fanatical following the vast and unexplained explosion in the Central Deserts.  

This Household Guard would prove critical in strengthening the Hive forces in the war that came in 939M40. 

Tripartite Alliance PDF: TAPs

Ever since the earliest mining settlements on Orion 89-Zeta were established in the Draco System, it was decided that these settlements should be able to protect themselves from possible Xenos intrusion.

The earliest members of the pdf were largely formed from mining staff and settlers, with their officers supplied by men and women enlisted from retired and disbanded Imperial Guard regiments. Due to the economic constraints of the mining cartels, who were hostile to the idea of a standing force, which would detract from their production units, the pdf was organised into three musters: which meant that if there was a serious threat to security, then the planet could quickly scale up forces available to the hive commanders. These were named Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.

This early and archaic system has survived in the pdf forces raised from the Tripartate Alliance of QuoOar, Eris and Sedna. Their official name of the Tripartite Alliance PDF is locally shortened to TAPs.

 Although there was initial resistance from the Mine Maesters, the TAPs regiments were quickly assembled, though they were quickly taken over by the military masters of Charon Hive.

 .