Ganymede
"Henceforth no man shall set foot upon the world, and all around shall be set sentinels to ward away unwary spacecraft. We must accept that this place is lost to us forever, and is now the eternal habitation of abomination."
- – from The Contagion of Ganymede
The largest moon of Jupiter and formerly a Forge World. The Adeptus Mechanicus infamously used this world as a test bed for stolen Squat technology, specifically their "Warp Fission" technology, wherein the Squats would use raw warp energy and process it as a form of power.
The Squats, being extremely more advanced than the AdMech, who have religious ceremonies to reboot the vending machines in the Forge World Lobbies after they eat your credits, are able to handle this technology. The Imperium is not.
The resulting breach caused a warp rift -- a miniature eye of terror -- to form on the planet's surface, and it has been declared off limits for all time.
It is somewhat difficult to understand how this came about, seeing as any annexed world (or abhuman species) must share all its technology with the Imperium, who must share it with the then Mechanicum (now Adeptus Mechanicus). Otherwise, it gets forcibly taken and probably ripped out of uncompliant fools' minds. The Emperor especially is all-but guaranteed to take keen, personal interest in any Warp related technology. Either reason (annexation or the Emperor's interest) is enough to ensure there is no way for the Imperium not to understand Warp fission technology. On the other hand, this may have been intentionally screwed over at the behest of the Emperor to prevent its proliferation. Better to lose a small Forge World (well Forge Moon really) than for that risk to be carried over to almost every freaking planet in the Imperium.
This episode is similar to Doom 2016's plot where the UAC (a profit-seeking megacorp) tried to tap into a dimension adjacent to literal Hell to solve Earth's energy crisis, triggering a demonic invasion in the process.
Given the time since this lore was published, the dubious canonicity of anything to do with the Homo sapiens rotundis and that more recent lore has listed the moon as the central hub of the Jovian Shipyards up the Horus Heresy at the least, it seems quite likely that this record of events is no longer entirely accurate to the contemporary 40k setting.
Forces of the Squats/Leagues | ||||||||
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Command: | Brôkhyr Iron-Master - Einhyr Champion - Guildmaster Kâhl - Living Ancestor (Grimnyr) - Squat Warlord - Votann | |||||||
Troops: | Brôkhyr Thunderkyn - Brotherhood Heavy Weapons Team COG - Commissar - Chthonian Beserks - Hearthguard Hearthkyn Warrior - Hearthkyn Salvager - Ironkin Mole Mortar Team - Tech Priest - Theyn | |||||||
Vehicles: | Cyclops War Machine - Colossus War Machine Land Train - Leviathan - Magna-Coil Bike - Rhino Squat Bike - Squat Trike - Tunneling Transport Vehicles Hekaton Land Fortress - Sagitaur ATV | |||||||
Flyers & Bombers: |
Iron Eagle Gyrocopter Overlord Armoured Airship | |||||||
Artillery: | Heavy Quad-Launcher Thunder-Fire Cannon | |||||||
Heavy Ordinance: |
Goliath Mega-Cannon | |||||||
Spacecraft: | Automated Barge Drone - Automated Bombing Drone Automated Fighting Drone |