+++Begin Transmission+++
CLASSIFICATION: DEEP PURPLE
DATE: 343.978.M41
AUTHOR: Curator James Rikard
RECIPIANT: Lord Valo Haksos, High Inquisitor, Ordo Malleus
TRANSMITTED: +++RESTRICTED+++
>FORWARDED: +++RESTRICTED
RECEIVED: Astropath Nortana Greene
SUBJECT: Planetary History, Haemos

Lord,
As requested, I have compiled a brief history of the planet in question, Haemos. The majority of the material that I have compiled has been taken from reputable sources, though some of the pieces and blank spots have been filled in by hear-say, or even my own speculation. I fear that a certain amount of my flair has snuck its way into the writing, though I do not believe that any information here has been compromised, despite any subjectivity in the writing.
Your loyal servant,
James

Haemos should have been dead, killed when its core solidified. The planet’s robust magnetic field and high gravity had protected a verdant biosphere, a thick atmosphere, and shallow liquid oceans. Despite its mineral rich composition, the temperatures below the depths of the planet had rendered all attempts at exploiting the bones of Haemos futile. Instead, the few inhabitants cultivated enough crops to get by. Though the flow of wealth was small, it was consistent. Gradually, the population of Haemos grew. Those already in residence found the land fertile, and began to populate it themselves. As more and more of the surface was turned to agriculture, a steady trickle of new settlers flowed onto the planet to farm.

As Haemos began to die, its magnetic field dissipated. The loss of its natural shield allowed the full strength of its star to blast the world. The shallow oceans all soon turned to steam or seeped into the ground. The flora that had sustained the Haemians soon only existed in greenhouses. The cooling of the core would have killed most other worlds, but it brought Haemos life. The mineral-rich crust and mantle had cooled sufficiently to allow for massive mining operations to take place under the watchful eye of the Adeptus Mechanius. The planet’s crust and mantle contain massive ore loads of adamantite, ferrosite, and the planet’s namesake, haemosine. The tunnel mining complexes began centered around the largest colonial and farming settlements, but soon their tendrils pushed all through out the planet’s crust. It is said that one can circumnavigate Haemos without ever setting foot on her surface.

The settlements that housed the most profitable mines grew steadily into five vast hive cities. Elibe is the largest on Haemos, as well as the oldest. Located in the northern hemisphere, Elibe acts as the seat of planetary power on Haemos. Due to its age, most of the main ore lodes around Elibe have been stripped of their minerals, leaving a vast network of uninhabited tunnels beneath the main hive. These tunnels offer refuge to all manner of undesirables, from underhive gangs to chaos cults. The economy of Elibe Hive is based almost entirely upon trade. The top of the spire penetrates the thin atmosphere of Haemos, allowing trade ships to dock with the spire to haul off the goods produced on Haemos, as well as sell materials to the planet below. In recent centuries, more and more ships have been manufactured in the dry docks of Elibe Spire, the Saint’s Revenge class ship-of-the-line being the most notable.

Hive Tellius is Elibe’s sister spire, separated approximately two hundred and fifty kilometers from one another. Tellius arose several centuries after Elibe when an especially rich vein of the planet’s famous haemosine was discovered. The probing threads of the mines sunk deep into the planetary crust, chasing the valuable ore. The deeper the mines got, more wealth was pulled out of the ground, sending the newly formed Tellius Hive into the sky. The tunnels dug deeper and deeper into Haemos, deeper than any other shafts had been sunk. Many of the miners broke into a previously undiscovered natural cavern system that contained +++++records expunged++++ Those miners that came up out of the shafts were broken mentally, suffering to a hiver from some form of dementia, some completely lost their minds, others developed severe paranoid and homicidal tenancies. Most of the exposed miners were tracked down and culled, but many escaped their fate, hiding in the many tunnels below Tellius. The deepest shafts have since been sealed behind tens of meters of ferrocrete and plasteel. Currently, no one dares venture down into the depths of the mine, for it is the realm of creatures best left undisturbed. In over seven hundred standard years, no one who has ventured into the depths has returned alive.

Though Elibe is Haemos’ most prosperous hive, as well as the planetary capital, Spire Jugdral attracts its own attention. Jugdral plays home to the glorious Emperor’s own Stone Gorgons. Founded from the Iron Hands, the Iron Gorgons began life as a punitive force to cleanse the remnants of a genestealer cult from the abandoned mine workings beneath Hive Jugdral in late M37. After the events of the Tellius incident, as well as the ever-increasing importance of Haemos, it was decided that a chapter of space marines be raised in order to better defend the planet from the forces that may wish to see it wounded. The Iron Hands, whilst usually quite jealous of their geneseed, offered to raise the required resources to garrison Haemos. Soon after, the battle cruiser Heaven’s Fist and her escort squadron departed to Haemos, carrying a small delegation of Iron Hands, including Epistolary Caarn, Ironfather Ghorza, ten veteran battle-brothers, and their leader, the venerable brother Zaeran. The Iron Gorgons have differentiated itself from its parent chapter, adopting a slightly more orthodox organizational structure that is more in line with the Codex Astartes, but still maintains cordial relations with the Iron Hands as well as with the tech priests of Mars.

The Iron Gorgons are dispersed throughout the Haemian sector, each small group of marines acting independently of each other into order to keep the sector secure. Due to the cramped nature of the tunnels that most of the Iron Gorgons grew up in and continue to fight and train in, the chapter has developed an affinity for bloody, close range firefights and melees, favoring fast-moving unmounted troops and dreadnoughts to armor. Flamers and melta’s remain consummate flamers within the chapter for their utility in clearing tunnels. Due to their particular specialization, the Iron Gorgons have found themselves effectively deployed into ship-to-ship boarding actions, a specialization that has become part of the chapter’s reputation.

Hive Barensia is located deep in the polar chem-wastes of Haemos’ southern hemisphere. Carved into a lonely mountain that towers above a continent-sized swamp of toxic effluvia, Barensia is only accessible via the massive transit airships that conduct most of the inter-planetary trade on Haemos. The extreme isolation of the spire is not a hindrance to its purpose, for Barensia is an adeptus mechanicus research facility, the largest in the sector. Thousands upon thousands of magi study the various ores of the planet, the topology of its solidified core, and the various chemical wastes that pool at their doorstep. The vast chem-wastes that surround the spire are used as a weapons proving ground, founded on the principle that if an artillery piece can fire in a rarefied atmosphere of poisonous, corrosive, radioactive waste, it can fire anywhere. However, many of the magi descend into the depths of the planet, studying the vast archives of tainted artifacts and xenotech held in stasis vaults in the crust of the planet. These items are held deep in the mantle of Haemos in modified natural caverns that are reminiscent of the accounts of those beneath Hive Tellius. The facility is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the sector, and the vault is considered one of the most secure storage facilities this side of Sol. And yet, one will hear of strange occurrences in Hive Barensia, or hear of artifacts appearing in the sector that seem suspiciously similar to many that the vault records list as “lost” or “destroyed…”

Ishiin was born to a family of mine-slaves deep beneath Hive Tellius. His early life was marked by the tragic loss of his father to a mine collapse, as well as a pox that swept through the mutant camp when he was nine standard years old. Due to the untimely death of his father, as well as the loss of many of his close friends, Ishiin became devoted to his Mother, as well as to his friends that had survived the scourge of the pox. Ishiin vowed that he would never let those he loved to be taken away from him again.
As soon as his arms were strong enough to heft a pickaxe and to operate the mine carts, Ishiin joined his clan’s miners and set to work in the tunnels around the settlement where they lived. The ore hauled forth from the earth was sold and bartered to unscrupulous traders for supplies and medicine, their diets comprised of the fungus that was grown in abandoned tunnels and any wild beasts that the hunters would bring back from long expeditions into the dark tunnels.
When he was close to nineteen standard years old, one of Ishiin’s friends was dragged off into the darkness by one of the things that inhabited the abandoned mine shafts. Hunting and killing the beast that took his friend, Ishiin discovered his uncanny ability to track down the things that haunted the depths, and was soon allowed to leave the ore trains to become one of the clan hunters. It was during one of his long excursions that the third and most painful calamity befell Ishiin and his kin. A newly raised guard regiment, the Haemite 231st, was ordered to gain some combat experience before shipping across the galaxy to destinations unknown. The commanders of the 231st decided that a purge of the undertunnels of Tellius was not only sorely overdue, but would also provide the green troops with valuable experience in battle.
The 231st burned a swathe through the underhive of Tellius, putting those that affront the Emperor to the blade. After two weeks of crusade, it was decided that the new troops had had enough. Swinging around for the return trip back to the main spire, the 231st stumbled upon Ishiin’s home. Setting upon their foes with zeal, the guardsmen began murdering the mutated residents. As soon as the massacre was fully underway, Ishiin, called “Pens,” the mutant’s slang for hunter, stepped into his home to the sight of his clan being butchered. Flying into a rage, Ishiin pulled out his skinning knife and the decaying handgun he used to cull the beasts in the dark and began to enact his revenge. Fighting through to the hut that he shared with Mother, Ishiin burst through the door to the sight of Mother on her knees, pleading with a scarred veteran guardsman. Calling out for the man to stop, Ishiin lunged towards Mother. With a cackle, the vet pulled the trigger of his lasgun, reducing Mother to a slumping corpse and a puff of red mist. Turning to the shocked Ishiin, the vet fired off three shots from the hip, hitting Pens in the thigh. It was too much for him. Ishiin blacked out.
He awoke to smoke, to screaming. The guard had moved on, leaving the wounded mutants to die and their dwellings to burn. Ishiin stood, wincing with pain. His leg had begun to heal, a byproduct of his mutations. Limping away from what remained of his life, Ishiin knew he had died. Ishiin was Mother, his friends, his clan, and they were dead. All he knew was that those that did this to him were still at large, and that the Imperium would pay for his loss. Pens the hunter walked away from the fires, following the trail of Mother’s murderer.

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There are more wip pictures in my thread