Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Goldlight (section)

===Culture===

The great mining operations may be the moneymakers of the planet, but Cassie’s World is an Agri-World.  The continent-spanning latifundae of the planet are nothing less than a single gargantuan farm.  Originally under the nominal control of the Mechanicus, who settled the world after resolving the debate with House Fordham, the world has long since traded hands.  The Mechanicus had no more use for the planet with the establishment of Foraldshold and Forender, and could get their food far cheaper there.  The Administratum, however, was in urgent need of more food to meet the needs of Thimble’s rapidly-repopulating hives.  A quick exchange was made, and the world transferred owners.

Presently, the giga-farm is a messy affair.  With so many skilled workers abandoning the latifundae for the mountains or the city, the work was going undone.  Great vineyards sagged under the weight of their berries and grapes.  Fisheries darkened with overpopulation.  Stalks sagged, heavy with corn and grain.  Importing convict labor and buying extra servitors helped, but convicts and machines are unenthusiastic workers at best.  The world is barely making its food quota, and the Administratum knows it.  The new High Prince, Louis Rembon, is somewhat less of a fool than his predecessor, but his obsession with off-world culture has distracted him from the needs of his world almost as much as his father’s inexhaustible taste in luxury snacks.

The planet’s moon was thought for millennia to be uninhabitable.  However, discoveries by the Adeptus Mechanicus of colossal sub-surface deposits of oxygen-rich rock formations, ice wedges and veins, and thick blocks of carbon-heavy iron have raised interest in terraformation.  If the planet can be cheaply terraformed, and its low gravity stabilized or artificially controlled, it would make an excellent colony.

====Cassie's Rangers====

The PDF of the world tithes ten percent of its manpower up to the Imperial Guard every decade, and invariably sends volunteer elite.  The best of the planet and well-motivated, Cassie’s Rangers are jaunty in appearance, greedy in desire, and solitary in nature.  The Rangers employ the full range of standard Guard vehicles, and do not refuse to work with Sanctionites as some regiments do.  Although they are capable of conventional warfare and tank battles, their preferred order of battle is as small-infantry specialists.  Their long-lases and hotshots are ideal for sniper battles.  Occasionally, the Rangers also employ Hellhounds and other flamer and melta units, for flushing out buildings or stopping armored reprisal forces.  The Rangers design their own camouflage on a company basis as long as it does not exceed their supply budget, so veteran regiments often appear in a dazzling array of colors and shapes.  Rangers follow the Septiim template for Guard distribution and rank, like most Cloudburst regiments, but place a stronger emphasis on outdoor and nighttime movement.  Their regiments train vigorously in moving silently, whether by muffling and dampening their vehicles’ exhaust, or by crossing ground with their special rubber-vinyl hybrid-soled boots.

Ranger-attached Commissars must quickly adapt to the avarice of their outfits.  Rangers fight when the Emperor demands it, of course, but there isn’t a Ranger alive who wouldn’t prefer to accompany Rogue Traders or Crusaders, looking for new worlds to annex.  Rangers promised Resettlement Rights or the chance to become nobles and officers in a new PDF fight like they’re possessed.  Smart political officers can more easily motivate an underperforming company with promises of extra rum rations or first pick of berths on a troopship than with headshots or the lash.

The relatively loose grasp of the Ecclesiarchy on the world (compared to the Merchant Houses or the lingering influence of the Adeptus Mechanicus) means that fresh Ranger Regiments rarely have more Confessors and War Clerics than absolutely needed; indeed, finding enough can be a challenge.  Of all the worlds in the Sector, Cassie’s is the one hardest hit by the low psyker birthrate of the region.  Since Sanctionites are assigned by Terra and not local Imperial Commanders, this is not a crippling problem, but it does mean that all psykers assigned to Ranger regiments are from other worlds, and getting along with them is a trick for greenhorn recruits.

One point in which the Rangers take great pride is that they are the preferred non-Septiim regiments for Inquisitorial and Space Marine Crusade forces of Cloudburst.  The tough, self-reliant, all-volunteer, well-supplied Rangers can be left alone without getting themselves killed, in one Inquisitor’s immortal words, and their pragmatic worldview and predictable motivations make them good allies for Space Marine expeditions into the darkness.  Of course, their relative lack of priests and psykers limits their helpfulness during full-scale daemon wars, but mortal armies are rarely of much help in such situations anyway.  Given the wide-open plains and high mountains of their homeworld, the Rangers are also of little use in Hulk boarding and capture missions.

The Rangers use little unique equipment besides their shoes, but they do specialize.  Hotshot weapons, Hell-weapons, and long-lases are very popular in Ranger outfits, as are Thimble-made ghillie suits, and Cognomen underbarrel grenade launchers.  The combination of extreme range and accuracy of advanced lasers and squad-level force multiplier effects of underbarrel grenade launchers allows Ranger units with a bit of prep time and good situational awareness to damage enemy formations all out of proportion to their numbers.  This is the other reason they make good companion forces for Space Marines: they need not close to the same range as the Marines do to engage in battle, and thus are less likely to get in the way.

The Rangers do generally not make much use of the Sentinel, even compared to other Agri-world regiments.  The wide-open terrain of their homeworld doesn’t see much use for bipedal machines.  More efficient tracked, treaded, and wheeled vehicles are able to shine on the largely flat planet, and the greater agility of legged units confers little advantage there.  However, that doesn’t mean they never find an opportunity to put the Sentinel to use.  The Rangers sometimes outfit them with expanded vox gear and use them as sentry or spotter units for their marksman teams.