Setting:Cloudburst/Goldlight

System
Galactic Position	Cloudburst Sector, Thimble Subsector
System Overlord	None
Worlds in the system	Ten, one habitable
World Type, Name	Agri-world: Cassie's World
Tropospheric Composition	Nitrogen 73.5%, Oxygen 25%, Argon 1%, Water .4%, Carbon dioxide .04%
Religion	Imperial Cult
Government type	Local High Prince
Planetary Governor	Yes
Adept Presence	Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Ministorum, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Arbites
Climate	Cassie’s World is a split surface world, and experiences intermittent but powerful rainstorms all over the surface
Geography	1.1 times the size of Terra, with one large continent and one large ocean, both full of high mountains
Gravity	1.08 Terran Gravity
Day Length	33 Terran Hours
Economy	Gelt Thrones and Silver Thrones
Principal Exports	Food, Gravel, Talc, Textiles, Gold, Gemstones, Manpower
Principal Imports	Agricultural Machines, Fertilizers, Convicts
Countries and Continents	One supercontinent, no nations to speak of
Military	Cassie’s Shield (low quality PDF), Cassie’s Rangers (high quality Guard)
Contact with other Systems	Periodic
Tithe Grade	Solutio Extremis
Population	84,109,000 (human), 42,000,950 (servitors)

DESCRIPTION

History

Long before the Cloudburst Sector existed, Rogue Traders and Explorators rushed eagerly after the trail of markers and buoys left by the great Justin MacDonald. These brave sorts had not yet come to the agreement that Fabique would later enforce about the use of precision clocks to establish the legitimacy of world claims. The Goldlight system, so named for its brilliant yellow star, popped up in one such claim by noted Rogue Trader Explorer Cassie Fordham. Fordham, egomaniacal and greedy in the extreme, wanted wealth, power, and most of all prestige from the finding of new worlds. Immediately after finding the planet she instantly named after herself, she flew into its low orbit and began scanning the surface with her Cruiser’s sensors, looking for any sign of life. When she detected no aliens, she soared back to Fabique, ready to begin the negotiations over colony rights. When she arrived, however, two Explorator fleets were already present. She waited impatiently for her chance in the queue, and when it arrived, she presented the maps and data of the world she had found with great delight. To her confusion, the Explorator Prime she had shown these data findings to was surprised. The Explorator Prime heaped praise and admiration on her, thanking her profusely for taking the time out of her busy schedule to work so hard for the Adeptus Mechanicus. Fordham demanded an explanation, and the Explorator Prime, to Fordham’s horror, explained that the two fleets that had come just before hers had already mapped the world she had just told him about, but had been in-system for so little time that they had been unable to gather detailed maps of the surface. Fordham, the Explorator magnanimously said, was to be commended for helping the Mechanicus so.

Fordham flew into a towering rage, and threatened bitter violence against the startled Explorator Prime if he did not change discovery and colonization rights to her name at once! The Explorator scuttled from the room and returned with a full bodyguard of Tech Guard, who subdued the Rogue Trader by threatening to impound her ship forever if she did not adopt a more respectful tone.

The House Fordham and the Adeptus Mechanicus nearly came to open war – or, more accurately, the Adeptus Mechanicus was nearly inconvenienced by having to divert a few months to exterminating the upstart Rogue Trader House – before cooler heads prevailed. Under the watchful eye of the Administratum Departmento Astrocartigraphicae and the Mechanicus Astra Explorator, the system of installing the precision Fabique Mapping Clocks began, and all Fabique and Oldlight Proximate Circuit Rogue Traders from there on out would be obligated to carry one. Cassie Fordham was not mollified by this, and demanded to know what would become of her own claim. The Astrocartigraphicae presented her with a choice: she could lay claim to the world as a discovery of her House and be granted the trade rights as usual, or she could name it after herself and respect the more accurate Mechanicus claim. It is a testament to Fordham’s ego that she immediately agreed to the second.

Modernity

Thousands of years later, Cassie’s World remembers their Rogue Trader mapper with a single small monument in their chief starport. The planet’s booming trade economy was, for centuries, based solely about its production of grains, vegetables, fish, swimming mammals for meat and pets, and other life forms. Only in M41.890 was it discovered that whole mountain chains in the world’s rocky single supercontinent are full to bursting with rare ores and precious gems. A mining industry employing over ten million human laborers and four times that many servitors now chip away at Cassie’s massive mountains, grinding hundreds of millions of Thrones’ worth of gems and gold from the rock. Land Trains, based on ancient military designs, chug and rumble down elevated steel tracks to mountain base camps, where separating machines tumble rocks and gems free through huge filters.

The world’s capital, the city of Magno City, is a teeming hub of humanity, and far from what the average hiver or noble would consider ‘Agri-World.’ It is a true Imperial city, like any other on bigger worlds, with massive administration and law enforcement offices, a large starport, Mechanicus and Ministorum shrines, a Defense Laser, multiple PDF bases, sprawling Gubernatorial Mansions, and intrigue in its courts of bored nobles and spoiled scions. Eight million humans and half a million servitors toil in its factories, bottling plants, refineries, and shipping yards.

Geography

The unusual geography of Cassie’s World plays a role in this centralization. The planet is essentially split down the middle. From pole to pole, the planet is half water and half land. It is not a perfect split, and all signs point to it being natural, but the sight from the world’s orbit is stark in its contrast. The world looks like a marble, half dark blue with spots of white and brown, half green with spots of white and brown. The massive, deep ocean serves as a natural heatsink and reservoir for the colony there. Fishing fleets scatter on the currents, harvesting kilotons of fish and mammals for sale or consumption. Deep rivers feed more water into the ocean, and cut lines through the limestone mountains that dot the landmass.

Magno City takes shelter from the naturally-resulting hypercanes of a world-spanning ocean with ingenious technology and architecture. It is the largest population center in the Sector to have no underground tunnel networks at all, they boast (not accurately, but they disregard that). Instead, each major block of buildings, no matter how large or old, brackets itself from its neighbors with wedges of trees. These wedges of trees, bred by Magos Biologis priests and maintained with careful scrutiny by the Ecclesiarchy and Administratum, have root systems over ten times their vertical height, and hold the soil in place beneath them as if it were stuck in a stasis field. Furthermore, the rooftops of nearly all buildings curl upwards in bowl shapes, and their drains lead to purification tanks in the buildings’ basements, where the water is cleaned and added to the local firefighting system’s water reserves or the city reservoirs. Floods still happen, of course, and are dealt with when they occur.

The mountain spikes and ranges that pierce the crust of the planet are a source of great wealth to the world, one it was not expecting. It was a party of hikers, of all people, who found the resource deposits there. The group was inspecting a hiking trail that had just been buried by an avalanche, when one of them noticed the distinct yellow sheen of some of the fallen rocks. Testing in the city established that it was mercury-gold and not pyrite.

Within days, a gold rush of speculators and prospectors fled the cities and latifundae, catching the administrators off-guard. The miners hurried up to the mountains, but met Arbites and local Enforcers. The lawmen explained that the mountains were all property of the planetary rulership, the High Prince.

The Prince was roused from his carnal diversions long enough to give the Administratum permission to sell the mountains for exorbitant prices. However, the Administratum, after only a few weeks’ examination, revealed that the plots of land the miners craved were so heavily valued, there was no way for any individual or even collective of miners to buy them.

In swooped the Cloudburst Mercantile Houses. The rich strike of valuables had attracted the attention of the great merchant and corporate clans, and they saw an opportunity. They appealed to the miners directly, promising all sorts of well-paying jobs and benefits for those workers and prospectors who agreed to enter the employ of the Mercantile Houses. Many did so, and now the banners of the Mercantile Houses of Cloudburst fly high beside Mechanicus Cogwheels and the High Prince Emblem in the mining camps and cities.

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.