Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Celeste (section)

===Cloudburst and Celeste Military===

The military of Celeste is divided into two distinct forces of Guard and PDF.  The Celestial Guard are the Imperial Astra Militarum contingent of Celeste itself, while the Cloudburst Defenders are the contingent from the capital proper.  The PDF and Astra Militarum field regiments use the same names for their units, which can lead to confusion among those who fail to notice that PDF units are not numbered as Militarum field regiments are.  Celestial Guard units trend towards riverine, marine, and amphibious combat specialization, thanks to the long, winding coasts of their homeworld, but as a Paradise world, they do tend to be able to afford whatever equipment they need for other roles.  However, the Celestial Guard and Cloudburst Defenders do enjoy one huge advantage over many other PDFs: Mars-quality Leman Russ Annihilator tanks.  This is the result of Cognomen Secutarii finding an intact STC for the base Russ design on a mission against pirates many centuries before, and Cognomen’s focus on perfect energy weapons.  Celeste, as the capital world of the Sector, is the first to benefit from this discovery, though their report of no problems with the new tanks will no doubt encourage Cognomen to spread the design to other fabricators in the Sector soon.  However, Celeste does not field its own Scions.  Instead, graduates of the Schola Progenum’s Commissarial and Scion programs typically travel to either Septiim or Oglith for their final training.

Command of Cloudburst Sector’s military carries on in the complex network of three-dimensional tunnels under the surface of the moon, in an intricate series of parallel and intersecting tunnelways with redundant life support.  Cogitators and communications equipment web the surfaces of the tunnels.  Larger conference rooms jut off into the rock on either side of the tunnels.  These rooms have Mechanicus-built projectors and strategic planning centers built into their floors and ceilings, to allow Lord General Xoss to command the forces of the Imperium and receive strategic updates from his forces afield.  Elsewhere in the tunnels, long stretches of padding and carpeting on the floors and drywall on the wall segments denote permanent duty officers’ quarters and guest housing, under constant guard from Cloudburst Defenders.  Lower down, the Mechanicus operates power plants and waste removal technology, to allow for up to five hundred people to live in the tunnels around the clock, with over three thousand transitory residents.

Cloudburst Defenders are best deployed for urban campaigns, as they have few other places to train, and are uniformly equipped with the heaviest Carapace armor and Padded Carapace armor they can find, down to the last soldier.  While this is expensive, it makes them tenacious in close-in battle.

The martial traditions of Celeste and Cloudburst are not concealed from outsiders.  The few large cities on Celeste on land often host large military parades, sometimes even proudly flaunting strategic and theater-level weapons on huge transports.  As the regiments most often called to defend individual worlds that cannot raise enough troops on their own, such as Underbar and Fathon Prime, Celestial Guard troops rarely get to return home, and even more rarely find themselves blessed with Colonization Rights of Conquest.  However, the regiments raised from the offspring of the Sector nobility can sometimes afford to return home after a mission by pooling their money and buying passage.

In combat, the Celestial Guard enjoy the use of Cognomen precision rifles.  These expensive but highly accurate weapons are a sort of catch-all term for the rifled-barrel projectile auto and slug guns and the long lasguns of the lonely Forge.  As one of the oldest continually deployed military forces in the Sector not under Forge World control, the Celestial Guard have a long and proud tradition of marksmanship contests.  The PDF holds these contests in the great Red Sand basin in Munkaero, which contains the largest military base in the system.  The base, so named because of the non-arable land that surrounds it, boasts a seventeen-mile long firing range.  Of course, that is a range far beyond even Martian las-weapons and slug sniper rifles, but the range also sees use in testing Hunter-Killer Missile upgrade pods, freshly attached to the Celestials’ tanks.

The Commissariat strictly regulates these competitions; they see this as a valid if theatrical means of upholding morale and skill.  Traditionally, each battalion participating in the contest sends its ten best rifle shooters to the contest, and the PDF sometimes sends troops as well.  The contests consist of moving and stationary target tests, and time trials.  The winners divide into laser and slug rifle categories, and prizes are awarded for most consistent accuracy, longest kill shot, and fastest response time for moving targets.  Champions in each category earn a ribbon for their uniform that can’t be earned any other way, and a chance to volunteer for service in the Guard for PDF members.

Cloudburst Defenders sometimes train on Celeste as well, given the lack of vehicle training space.  The competition between Defenders and Guards is fierce, in areas from physical athleticism to recitations of the Imperial Creed to shotgun marksmanship.  The rivalry doesn’t extend as far as actual opposition or acrimony, but Cloudburst Defenders like to mock the Guards’ lesser armor and prestige, while the Guard have their crack at the Defenders’ limited combat versatility and bulky looks.
When they do fight together, the two forces complement each other well, to their irritation.  Defenders are the clenched fist of Cloudburst urban war, with their heavy shields, heavy armor, and Thimble uniforms.  Individual Cloudburst troopers are hard to kill with conventional weapons in the best of circumstances, and when they form an Arbites-style lockwall or lay down a curtain of smoke and advance behind polarized masks, they are an intimidating force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.  Celestial Guard are the masters of rivers, plains, and mountains.  The range of their weapons and the speed of their deployments allow them to forge a beachhead in nearly any terrain, and hold tenaciously.

Because the command and control of the Cloudburst Navy is not centralized, but instead distributed over several anchorages at the Subsector Capitals, Septiim, and Coriolis, the Lord Admiral Maynard commands the fleet from the deck of the ''Vulpes Ferrum''.  However, the capital of the sector needs some connection to its fleet, and so Cloudburst and Celeste share a small Navy anchorage in orbit.  It is too small to build ships, but it is large enough to house a dedicated Astropathic temple and several suites of offices for whichever officers may be present at the time.  The orbitals of Cloudburst moon are colossal, and include the mighty Stormwell Station, which is not far smaller than a Ramilies star fort, and houses nearly all of the command and control offices of the region’s Navy, as well as Lord Admiral Maynard’s office, which he hasn’t used in five years.