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I though I'd write up a bit of fluff for my Imperial Guard army, the 701st Novyimir Rifle Korps, in the form of an Inquisitorial briefing. I'll be adding to it in parts, as my previous efforts at these sorts of things have ended up getting a bit lengthy. Comments are always welcome!

+++ SECURE TRANSMISSION BEGINS
+++ ULTRA-MAGENTA SECURITY CLEARANCE ONLY – DESTROY AFTER READING
+++ Transmission Timestamp 47 381987.M41
+++ Transmitted: Cherenkov Sanctuary {Confirmed}
+++ Received: Conclave of Knives [FURTHER RECIPIENT LOCATION REDACTED]
+++ Astropathic relay locum: Kharazin Terminal {Confirmed}
+++ Transcribed by Steno-servitor #ZX-398-Zeta (Liquidated after use)

+++ Message has undergone auto-divination: free of subliminal or explicit heretical content or ciphers.

+++ Attachments: 1 [ONE]

Thought of the day: Better that the heretic be scourged before the heresy than after.

+++ MESSAGE CONTENT BEGINS

My Dear Lord Inquisitor [REDACTED]
I trust the Conclave goes well. My master sends his profuse apologies for his absence at this decade's gathering, but the pursuit of the apostate Eumenidus requires his continued presence within the Cherenkov sector. He has bid me transmit to you, as per your request, the following précis of the Novyimir system, and the Gheistmachen Initiative. I have annotated it where necessary to provide additional context. My master respectfully reminds you that the contents of this missive, classified as they are beyond Magenta level, will auto-delete within ten minutes of gaining access, and that the mnemo-lith’s plasma charge will detonate with lethal force if moved before this time has elapsed.

Your servant

Elem Ytterbius

Inquisitor-legate

Ordo Hereticus

+++ MESSAGE CONTENT ENDS

+++ ATTACHMENT 1[ONE]

PLANETARY DATAFAX: NOVYIMIR, SEGMENTUM SOLAR [EDITED FOR RELEVANCE]

CLASS: Type II Trans -Tellurian [Prior to Gheistmachen Initiative] Type VIII Hades Post-Catastrophe [Subsequent to Inititative] (Rotation 28.1 Standard Hours, 0.97G, 1.55 Solar years)

Population: 68 billion [pre-Initiative] 43 billion [post-Initiative] Full Imperial Citizenry

Tithe Grade: Exactas Median – Manufactured Goods [pre-Initiative] Conscriptees/War Materiel [post-Initiative]

Governmental Type: Elected Senate [pre-Initiative] Hereditary Diktat [post-Initiative]

Current Governor: Actinius tor Grazky Valenkelis

Adept Presence: Minor local Ministorum clergy, Major Administratum, Departmento Munitorum and Arbites.


------------------------------------------------


{The following extract is taken from the petition presented to the Ordo Hereticus Solar by Lord Inquisitor Herrezon Gheistmachen some time in 158.M41. – Y}

Novyimir and its surrounding vassals present a unique difficulty for the Imperium in general, and this Ordos in particular. The circumstances of the planet are, I am sure, most familiar to my fellow servants of the Throne, but I trust a brief summary will be indulged in order to place my proposal in context.

The group of gravitationally bound stars known as the Speroxis Insula has been a loyal part of the Imperium since at least the Heresy of the fool Horus. Eight planets, across four stellar systems, are host to significant populations, the greatest of which is Novyimir. Frequent warp tempests often isolate the system from the rest of the Segmentum, though rarely for more than a few months at a time. Tithes are paid in the most part by the export of manufactured goods from the many fabrication plants in the hives of Novyimir, and have without exception always been delivered promptly regardless of the local unpredictabilities of the Empyrean. Despite a hive-world level population and significant industrial output, the biosphere of Novyimir remains remarkably untouched. Agricultural production is limited, as the majority of the population’s food is imported from the many agri-worlds within the Speroxis Insula. The planetary Ordos could find no trace of cults in thrall of the Great Hedonist as is often the case on worlds so free of strife. Poverty and crime are far below average for a hive-world of its size. The high output of luxury goods, the plentiful supply of nutrition and the planet’s democratically elected senate makes the citizenry of Novyimir one of the most content, and rapidly increasing, in the Segmentum.

Wherein lies the problem. The increasing power and comfort enjoyed by the worlds of the Speroxis Insula, isolated as they are from any nearby conflict or ongoing prosecutions of war, will make any future demands placed on them by Terra most unpalatable to both the ruling party and the common citizenry. The socio-algebraists of the Administratum predict with greater than 90% certainty that, left to chart its own trajectory, the planet Novyimir will secede when next it is isolated from the light of the Throne.

My fellow Inquisitors, I humbly propose the following initiative to both avert this coming heresy, and to fashion this world into a potent weapon worthy of Him On Earth.

{The following extract is taken from A History of the Amadean Crusades by Kruzian Tronos. It shows the successful impact of the Initiative in reforging Novyimir into a vital war resource, and also illustrates how brilliantly Gheistmachen’s subterfuge worked: even an historian as thorough in his research as Tronos held no suspicion that the attack that triggered the transformation of the planet was anything other than the work of the Archenemy. - Y}

Following the annihilation of the Necromundan 151st Heavy Infantry at Huyder Primaris, and the loss of the Grovian 78th Armoured to the warp, the advance of the fifth and eighth armies ground to an inglorious halt. The fortress worlds lining the Traxian Reach had proven more formidable than Warmaster Agrippus had reckoned, and his forces simply lacked the numbers that the crusade’s war-logicians calculated would be necessary to break them. Recruitment worlds for the sector had been bled dry over the decades that the Crusade had been fought, and the leaden pace of the Departmento Munitorum would take decades more to organise reinforcements. If progress could not be made within the next few years on the Traxian front, the entire Crusade would be placed in jeopardy.

It was at that point that the infinite will of the God-Emperor intervened. The planet Novyimir lay but five or six weeks warp travel from the Amadean Halo, but, despite a large population, had never founded any regiments for the Guard, paying its tithes in the form of manufactured goods of high quality instead. That (and intermittent warp-isolation) had ensured that its citizens had enjoyed a bucolic and indolent existence.

This was to change in 358161.M41 when the Archenemy cruiser Bringer of Absolution, thought lost to the Immaterium in the early days of the Crusade, translated into realspace above Novyimir. Before the planet’s defence grid could acquire firing resolutions, the Bringer launched thirteen high-ordnance warheads at the surface. The cruiser was destroyed seconds later by defence laser fire, as were six of the warheads, but the rest detonated above seven of the planet’s hives. It is estimated that this resulted in approximately twenty-three gigadeaths, about a third of the planet’s population at that time. The particulate matter propelled into the atmosphere as a result of this resulted in a significant shift in the climate, initiating a dust-winter that remains to this day.

Where once Novyimir had enjoyed a largely verdant and fecund ecological system, now it endured a post-catastrophic, ash-strewn wasteland. Where once the average Novyimiran had enjoyed a life free of much of the hardship common to the rest of the Imperial population, now he knew only the bite of austerity and authoritarianism. But most importantly, where once conscription and mobilisation for war would have been vigorously (and very possibly violently) opposed, now tens of thousands volunteered to join the ranks of those that could hit back against the perpetrators of this outrage.

Manufactora that previously had produced high quality pict-viewers or luxury land-cruisers were re-tooled to churn out lasguns and battle tanks. Military advisors from nearby recruitment worlds shaped the first Novyimir Rifle Korps into efficient and dedicated fighting forces. Within four years of the cataclysm of 161, Novyimir was contributing a total of twenty-one rifle, armoured, artillery and specialist regiments a year for the Amadean Crusade. This remarkable influx of military hardware and manpower resulted in the complete collapse of the Archenemy’s Traxian front in 168.M41, and the eventual end of the Crusade three years later with the destruction of Lokaphis the Blasphemer and his coven.

Novyimir continues its prodigious output to this day, contributing to campaigns against the greenskin infestations of the Hazir Clusters, the extermination of the Vholus, and most recently the collapse of the heretical pocket-empire of Raius the Accursed. But it was the arrival of the hive-fleets that would prove to be greatest test of her armies…

{The following is a partial transcript from an assemblage of senior members of the Ordo Hereticus Solar during the 186th Conclave of Knives in 177.M41, convened to review the success of the Gheistmachen Initiative. Gheistmachen himself, you will recall, is believed to have martyred himself three years prior in order to prevent the reification of the she-daemon Bellatrix. I have indicated the identity of the speakers in the body of the text. – Y}

D {Lord Inquisitor Evoir D’rouve, Ordo Hereticus, chairing the assemblage}: Let us then begin with the question of efficacy. Torus?

T {Inquisitor Vec Torus, Ordo Hereticus}: My Lord D’rouve. The consequences of losing the Amadean Crusade would, it is generally agreed, have been disastrous for the Segmentum Solar. Even at the peak of the conflict Lokaphis was turning more worlds to his heresy than were being liberated by the armies of Warmaster Agrippus. It is likely that any stall in the Crusade’s advance would have allowed the exponential increase of the Blasphemer’s influence, to an extent not seen since the Plague of Unbelief. In particular the absence of support from the Collegia Titanica and the Adeptus Astartes meant that…

C {Lord Inquisitor Rhevilian Crux, Ordo Malleus}: We’re not here for a history lesson Torus, get to the blasted point.

T: As you say. The addition of the Novyimiran regiments in the first three years following the Initiative increased the strength of the Crusade by only 9% in terms of manpower. However the reinforcements were fresh to the conflict that had dragged for decades, were well equipped and trained, and fought with a particular zeal to avenge the atrocity which brought them into the war. The Traxian front had stagnated for years; several millions of tons of military hardware had been lost trying to break it, and eighteen entire regiments had been effectively destroyed. The Novyimirans broke the stalemate in just four years. Agrippus himself has stated that without them, the Crusade would most likely have failed. In private correspondence, of course: public talk of the failure of the God-Emperor’s will in any context would be considered heretical.

C: Hmmph. What of the long term ramifications? Herrezon’s scheme was partly to prevent secession; I can think of no better way to spark a rebellion than the revelation that the Imperium itself was responsible for the atrocity inflicted on them. Has the complicity of your ordos been contained?

T: The enemy cruiser Bringer of Absolution was genuinely lost in 121.M41 – its hulk was later discovered and commandeered by Ordo Hereticus agents, and towed to our facility at…

D: (Interrupting) This is not an appropriate forum for that information. I trust my colleagues from the other ordos understand.

C: Of course. So the Bringer was actually that of the enemy. Was it freed of taint?

T: The Mechanicus performed a tech-exorcism on its machine spirit. Even so, they reported that it remained in a tormented state. The tech-priests involved agreed that the ending of its suffering in martyrdom would be appropriate. The crew believed that the planet they translated above was enemy-held.

C: Was the Navigator complicit?

T: Not exactly. Psy-agents of our ordos implanted a mind-parasite which subverted his perception of the Astronomican. He believed he was above a world of the Archenemy.

C: And no-one on Novyimir has held any suspicions?

T: Conspiracy theories were always going to be inevitable, but most have been dismissed in the patriotic fervour that followed the atrocity. Certainly none have any evidence. Where proponents have gained any significant following, the services of the Officio Assassinorum have been engaged.

X {Unknown Inquisitor. The thoroughness with which his identity has been expunged suggest Ordo Sicarius}: How long will the planet remain a viable recruitment world? Is it even stable?

T: The Munitorum estimate the population will enter a terminal decline sometime next century, and will undergo a catastrophic collapse maybe another century after that. Given the continuation of current recruitment rates, of course. An unexpected consequence has been a planetary civil war between the two major continents. Both sides have been fed information by agents of the Throne that the other has fallen under the influence of the Enemy.

C: This war has been encouraged? Won’t this accelerate the end of the planet’s useful life?

T: Yes: however it is felt that the advantages compensate for this. The standing armies of both sides gain combat experience before induction to the Guard.

X: And what if either side does fall under the influence of the Enemy?

T: Well, following the shift in climate caused by the Initiative, virtually the entire remaining population live in the planet’s hives. This gives us greater control over their fates. The plasma reactors at the heart of every hive have been rigged to destroy them at the first sign of taint.

D: Thank you Vec. Are we agreed then, on the questions of efficacy and containment?

C: Aye.

X: We are.

D: Then let us discuss other suitable candidates for the Initiative. Vec, I believe you have prepared a shortlist?

T: I have my lord.

{The transcript from this point has been expunged, as the full list of planets upon which the Initiative has been applied is sequestered under an edict of Extraordinary Circumstances. It is known, however, that following the approval of Lord D’rouve, the Gheistmachen Initiative was entered into the Compendium of Sanctioned Planetary Interventions. – Y}