Tranch

A minor hive world in the Adrantis Nebula of the Calixis Sector, Tranch’s only lasting fame is a slow burning and vicious civil conflict that, despite countless lives lost, shows no sign of abating. Even by Imperial standards, the war on Tranch has been a brutal and thankless affair. What started out
as a simple mutant uprising on an unimportant minor
hive world quickly escalated into political collapse and
a catastrophic civil conflict drawing in forces from all
over the sector to contain it. Even though the war’s heat
has quelled now from the quarter-million strong troop
landings six years ago that broke the insurrection’s back,
the slow burning, bitter conflict has continued on a world
tainted, twisted, and brutalized by centuries of malice and
festering despair.
General Kasir is the commander of Imperial forces on Tranch, and today the efforts to rebuild the world
and re-establish order continue as fresh regiments are
continually cycled-in for tours of duty to brave the fire-blackened
spires and the treacherous dark furnaces of the
Soot Warrens. Their thankless and dangerous task is to
defend the remaining citizenry, to bring Tranch slowly to
heel and prevent the festering enemies of mankind from
claiming the place again. 
In recent years, Tranch has been known to foster necrophagic cults in the wake of its civil war, with human sacrifice, cannibalism and necrotic rituals becoming widespread.
==The Tranch War==
Tranch is a grimy and relatively minor hive world whose ruling elite, the Oligarchs
of Tranch, maintained the economic output of the their furnace hives
by the use of a massive, enslaved mutant population and a
downtrodden worker underclass kept in check by brutal
controls and oppression. So pitiless and sadistically harsh were their methods that
the Oligarchs became a byword for tyranny. Such was the
arrogance of the Oligarchs, and their confidence in their
bloody-handed rule, that they did not dream the mutants and
the worker underclass could mount more than the weakest
challenge to their enslavement. Nor did they consider it
foolish to leave the mutant population largely alone, contained
in the lawless deeps of the Soot Warrens that descended
into the bowels of Tranch’s hives. After all, their reasoning
went, they would always need a large population to meet
their production demands, and the huge level of fatalities
inherent in their industrial process required a steady stream
of replacement workers.
For centuries, matters in the furnace-hot darkness beneath
Tranch’s hives worsened, and murmurs of discontent started to
echo among the vast masses whose lives of brutality, poverty,
and misery left them little to lose. Meanwhile, hidden in the
deeps, an increasing number of the Tranch-born mutants
displayed a tendency towards witchery and wild psyker
talents. 
Unknown to the Oligarchs, a group who called themselves
the Shroud Masters sprang up amongst the mutant population.
It remains unknown whether they were newborn in the
sweltering blackness of the Soot Warrens or if they slipped in
unnoticed from elsewhere, but swiftly their power grew and
they began to make preparations to bring down Imperial rule
on Tranch and bathe the Oligarchs’ realm in blood. Those
the “Shrouds” recruited to their cause they called the “Pale Throng”
---an apt description for the numberless ranks of
those that toiled in the sunless depths of Tranch’s hives.
The rebellion began with a sudden ferocity, as if a lit fuse
had reached a powder keg, and the forces of order were
beaten back, surrounded, and slaughtered. Hordes of twisted
freaks, including powerful witches and horrors, rose up to
overwhelm and butcher the hive’s population, carving a bloody
path through the upper hives. Within weeks, a hive world of
billions spun out of the Imperium’s control and saw millions
dead. The mutant’s onslaught was further aided by the terrorist attacks of hidden Chaos cults that struck without warning in the upper hives, sowing confusion and terror in the spires. As the situation rapidly worsened,
the Oligarchs’ grip on power began to slip and, giving in to fear, they redeployed troops away from the mid-hive levels
in order to protect their own interests---with disastrous results. The mutants surged up from the depths and slaughtered
thousands. Soon the Oligarchs faced a second popular revolt by the masses they had all but abandoned. Tranch descended
almost overnight into anarchy, and as news and lawlessness spread, nearby worlds, many long suffering from woes of their
own, threatened to do the same.
Seeing a world under his domain slipping unexpectedly into Chaos and with others threatening to follow suit, a bloody
lesson was clearly needed and Lord Hax himself personally gave the order to raise regiments to “Crush this foul and
treacherous vipers’ nest in our blessed Emperor’s dominion.” Regiments were raised from Scintilla, Malfi, Iocanthos and
elsewhere to descend upon beleaguered Tranch, accompanied by elements from the Holy Ordos who sought to decapitate
the tainted rebellion’s warp-twisted leadership. The war that followed is considered to be the most brutal in living memory
in the Calixis Sector.
A full scale counter-insurgency operation was launched
by forces drawn from across the sector, ultimately crushing
the Pale Throng’s rebellion in a conflict that would become
renowned for its savagery and cost in lives. The progress of
the war on Tranch and the Imperium’s largely pyrrhic victory
is a matter of recent history, as are the ongoing policing
actions trying to bring the now largely ruined hive world
back fully into the fold of Imperial rule. As for the Oligarchs
and their tyranny, they have been consigned to bitter history,
as those that did not fall in the rebellion were purged by the
Imperium for their evident dereliction of rule.
These facts of the Pale Throng’s existence and the Tranch
War’s horrors are widely known. What has remained secret
is the extent to which these shifts in the tide of violence
on Tranch were the product of the great intellect, skill, and
sickening use of warp power wielded by the Shroud Masters
that allowed them to control their forces as if they were part
of a single body, as well as divine their enemies’ purposes
and so bring the Imperial forces to near collapse. Were it not
for the implosion of the Shroud Council and the subsequent
fragmentation of the rebel forces, Tranch may well have fallen
before the Imperium could respond fully.
Although the grip of the Shroud Council was swiftly broken and the mutants’ unity shattered, the
war did not end, and, instead of a single mutant army to face, there were now countless numbers of rebel factions, mutant
bands, cults and scavengers picking over the burned out and shattered hives to contend with---with no easy victory in
sight. The purging campaign took nearly five years of inglorious and dirty warfare. Afterward, Tranch was left a seething
pit of conflict and discord, and many of those “saved” now relegated to the status of empty-eyed refugees eking out what
living they could in the ruins.
Now classified as “officially pacified”, the Calixian Guard regiments who are routinely rotated through deployments on
Tranch still take the brunt of the slowly simmering conflict and must face a thankless war of ambushes, desperate victims,
booby traps, atrocities and ever present terror. Tranch today is still a militarized zone, administered as a fiefdom of the
powers of the Malfian sub-sector. Large-scale efforts to recolonise and restart the world’s industry have only been partially
successful, and whole hive spires, not to mention much of the Soot Warrens, are still lawless battlegrounds---the domain
of rogue mutants and worse.
==Important Locations==
•	Sainted Encarmine Hospital - A holding of the Adepta Sororitas Orders Hospitaller
==Power Groups==
•	Orders Hospitaller - They have a holding on Tranch in the form of the Sainted Encarmine Hospital
•	Red Redemption - The cult has recently gained a footing on Tranch
•	Reclaimators - On Tranch, Reclaimators are murderous bandit scavengers
•	Thorians - The Thorians of the Calixian Conclave have long held a distinct interest in Tranch
==Background Packages==
Guardsman: Tranch War Veteran
Cost: 100 XP
Those Guardsmen who survive their time on Tranch rarely
speak openly of their experiences, but the memories never
leave them. Stories of starving refugees, oppressive dark
catacombs, savage attacks by scav-cannibal infiltrators, of the
pale and terrible witch-kin, and of seeing friends torn apart
by “twist-brutes” are all whispered among Tranch veterans in
the long watches of the night. To an Inquisitor of a militant inclination, Tranch veterans
are the most common source of tough, experienced and
suitably intolerant muscle.
Effects: Apply all of the following changes to your character:
Skills: You gain the Search (Per) skill.
Talents: You start the game with the Hatred (Mutants) and Light Sleeper talents.
Insanity Points: Gain 1d5 Insanity Points.
Category:Hive Worlds
Category:War Worlds
Category:Adrantis Nebula
Category:Calixis Sector
Category:Planets