Hadd

In the earliest days of the Lathes, Lathe-Hadd was home to
several enormous infotemples that had been set down around
the Hadd Fabricator ship. The data stored within these temples
was essential to the operation of all three Lathe Worlds at the
height of the Angevin Crusade. For production, Lathe-Hadd
was responsible primarily for the ammunition and ordnance that
the Crusade desperately needed. Although such production was
honourable and instrumental, for reasons lost to time, these duties
came to be construed as belittling to the Magos of Lathe-Hadd.
Unrest and centuries of discord followed as the adepts petulantly
went about their appointed tasks, many petitioning to leave the
world at their earliest opportunity. A growing movement on the
planet agitated for the production of such expendables to be
taken off planet to make way for more prestigious works. The
dissemination of much of the data held within the infotemples
further lessened the prestige of Lathe-Hadd.
In the 6th century of M41, Arch-Magos Villem Warik Wahh
was named Forge Master of Lathe-Hadd. Rumors claiming he
had maneuvered himself into that position through manipulating
the simmering feelings of resentment and bitterness among the
tech-adepts were never proven. These feelings had developed
over centuries as Lathe-Het rose to a position of prominence,
and the factories of Lathe-Hesh provided waves of vehicles and
enormous weapon systems famed throughout the Sector. Wahh
declared that he would see Lathe-Hadd rise to a position of
equal importance within the Sector.
This position, and the dissatisfaction from which it stemmed,
was inconceivable to most of the Calixis Mechanicus. One of
the greatest satisfactions within the Adeptus Mechanicus is to
see an important job well-done, and without the ammunition
and armaments Lathe-Hadd provided, the Crusade would never
have succeeded. The vast majority of the Magos on the forge
world, however, followed their new Forge Master in his demands
that the production of these mundane products be moved to off-world
facilities, so that room could be made for greater projects
more befitting one of the three original Lathe Worlds. Over the
next two hundred years, almost all major manufacturing and
assembly plants were moved off planet, causing gaping holes
in the planet’s surface, and leaving the vast ancient infotemples,
now sadly bereft of any but purely symbolic power and
importance, crouching alone around Fabricator ship Hadd.
The stage was set for Lathe-Hadd to rise to equal
prominence with its sister worlds, and to prove its artisans
and manufactorums the superior of any in the Sector.
Unfortunately, this did not come to pass.
Forge Master Wahh had pursued his agenda of division
and discontent too well, and the adepts of Lathe-Hadd had
fractured into countless minor factions, none of which could
agree upon the most basic of tenets with any of the others.
Proposal after proposal went before the Adunatio of Lathe-Hadd, and the other factions vociferously struck each down.
The Fabricator of the Lathes finally granted the request for
the relocation of the many manufactorums, to see it removed
from his docket; the facilities were soon moved off planet,
into orbit, or to several of the stations along the Praeclusio
Anchor Points. Soon Lathe-Hadd was stripped of the vast
majority of its manufacturing capability and paralyzed in its
search for a new identity. Somehow (many speculate through
manipulating the various factions against each other) Wahh
was able to avoid blame for the dissolution of his planet’s
capabilities, and maintain his position as Forge Master.
The Fabricator of Lathe Hadd rules from the Halls of Ignavus,
built around the now-defunct Fabricator ship on Hadd Nord.
Within the hall, all adepts of the forge world come together in
a constant dance of subterfuge and manipulation, hoping to
bring their own projects to the fore. Despite the silencing of
the major manufactorums, the planet is still home to countless
smaller workshops and laboratories housing the experiments
and projects of thousands of adepts, all eager to see their work
rise to the prominence of global production. Debates and
discussions within the Halls can become quite heated, another
uncommon trait surfacing among the adepts of Lathe-Hadd.
It is not uncommon for visiting adepts to surround themselves
with bodyguard servitors or other security measures.
Since the stripping of Lathe-Hadd’s manufacturing capability,
the world has been in a state of flux, constantly searching for
the one project or product that can raise the planet back to
a position of prominence. Desperation is endemic, and those
Magos who have stubbornly stayed are frantic to find a new
path to distinction. Any path, in fact, is seen as better than the
current state of unproductive stagnation.
In this reckless search for a new identity, any number of
strange beliefs, theories, and cults have taken root among a
feckless ruling class despairing of ever recapturing their old
status. For decades now, the vast majority of the factories and
manufacturing works have lain still, internal squabbling and
political machinations paralyzing the planet even at the cost
of productivity. Recently, many adepts have taken to referring
to Lathe-Hadd as the Silent Forge.
Though it might be silent, it still holds its secrets, such as the
ancient and mysterious construct known as the Baltean Maze.
What appears to be the surface of the planet, still covered in layers
of construction and infrastructure despite centuries of neglect, is
in fact a man-made construct, an artificial crust formed of many
steel platforms, each attached to the others through a labyrinth
of girders, sliding connectors, and gasket-like adamantium
mesh. Each platform is suspended above the mantle of Lathe-
Hadd upon enormous gravitic generators, the likes of which
man has not constructed for thousands upon thousands of years.
Between the false surface and the hidden mantle lies the Baltean
Maze, a network of supports, power conduits, and energy
transfer channels that tie the gravitic platforms and the planet’s
actual surface together. Many believe that beneath the maze are
the legendary deep infotombs, enormous receptacles of faulty
or heretical data, relegated to the permanent dark to protect
the very Mechanicum itself. Whispers cant of malign data-spirits
rising from the deeps, capable of possessing all forms of
technology. The Lathesmasters deny that these schimsaticals, as
the legends call them, actually exist, and act quickly to suppress
any evidence that might suggest their presence.
Home of the tech-priest turned heretek Cyrrik Scayl.
==Fabricator of Lathe-Hadd, Forge Master Villem Warik Wahh==
Adepts serving elsewhere among the Lathe Worlds see Arch-
Magos Villem Warik Wahh as either dangerously incompetent
or suspiciously ineffective. Seeming to never cease in his work to
bring together the divided adepts of his world, he nevertheless
has yet to manage any consensus among them. Suggestions
and suspicions abound around Wahh, as many believe that any
being capable of rising to rule over a forge world could not
possibly be as ineffectual as he appears to be, and thus darker
motives are often implied. Perhaps, go the infra-cants, he works
for some other, more ruinous master, and perhaps the silencing
of an entire forge world is only the beginning.
Forge Master Wahh, contrary to the standard image of
the cold, aloof Fabricator, is a gregarious and approachable
personage. He projects an air of helpful and energetic
efficiency that was instrumental in his earning his present
position. It has only been time and experience, however,
that were able to prove these traits false, and no matter how
energetic the Forge Master seems to be in the pursuit of his
duties, nothing ever seems to be resolved. As a result, Lathe-Hadd is awash with frustrated ambition and desire, awaiting
only the right spark to leap into open rebellion. Watching
over this straining energy conduit is the Crimson Guard
stationed on Lathe-Hadd, the Magos Hiscere.
==Schismaticals of the Deep Infotombs==
"She cried in anguish as her augmetics dragged her to battle, her flesh arm scrabbling for purchase on the vault wall. I killed her first, an aimed shot as mercy, and then the mass of them were upon us---her dead body with them, mechadendrites seeking for my throat."
–Vox-Record of Enforcer Quintus Cortez
The Lathe world Hadd was at first a repository domain of
mighty infotemples set down from orbit, claimed by the
Mechanicus while the Angevinian Crusade still swept xenos
from the stars. Suspensor Magi, layered menial hives, and great
floating manufactory slabs came later, after an Administratum
grant of the Lathes--a political gesture to assuage those
angered that the Mechanicus had already taken the system.
Manufactory and laboratorium layers have grown high
above the surface over the centuries, but the deepest strata of
Hadd remain an endless maze of silent infotombs devoted to
the Omnissiah: silver walls of binary microrunes, millennia–old data transepts, crystal arrays of machine psalms, archeodata
vaults, and sealed tech–librariums and cryogenetoriums. These
are holy places for the Mechanicus Calixis, too holy even for
pilgrimage, as though a relic world of Saint Drusus lay buried
beneath mundane hives of the Imperial Creed.
Unlike the upper manufactory and laboratorium strata,
the infotombs are empty of menials and tech–adepts and
are entered only for infrequent ritual, such as conjunction
invocations or quests for archeotech suspensor devices upon
initiation to deeper mysteries of the Lathe Mechanicus. More
activity takes place within the infotombs than most Lathe
Mechanicus suspect, however, and within the depths of ancient
cogitator cores lurk malign data spirits---the schismaticals.
A schismatical is a memory–cloud of suppressed ideas, an
archive of heretical data that should have been destroyed, a
folio of vile plans and whispers that has acquired forbidden
volitional urges. It incorporates data–patterns by which other
machine spirits can be rapidly corrupted into echoes of itself,
and so the predatory schismatical awaits the one unlucky
machine spirit trespasser that it consumes and supplants so as
to bear it to the forge world above.
Once free, a schismatical rampantly converts an army of
machine spirits to its cause. It creates machine covens populated
by its echoes, each of which is an independent schismatical
in its own right. Any vox–aware device can be converted via
broadcast, while others require the use of dataconduit links.
Any Mechanicus device governed by a cogitator can contain
some echo of the full schismatical. Simpler devices fall under
the schismatical’s sway in its presence, but are too simple
to house its essence: voxcasters, augmetic limbs, elevators,
auto–doors, weapons, servitor components, and manufactory
power–manipulators, to name but a few.
A schismatical device cannot accomplish any more than
it was already capable of, but that is more than enough on
a forge–world filled with heavily augmented tech–adepts,
servitors, and cogitators. Even doors and other common
technological devices have a role to play when they refuse to
function at the behest of the schismatical within. The minds
of tech–adepts are the last to convert; there the schismatical
must persuade, threaten, or drive mad. But it does not
really need men---only the machines they have created.
Schismaticals imprison unwilling tech–adepts within their
own treacherous augmetic enhancements, dragging them
screaming and weeping into battle when the schismaticals
must defend themselves. Many claim that the schismatical data-patterns are the work of Nomen Ryne, but no connection has been proven.
In 596.M41, a schismatical rose from the Hadd depths
infused with knowledge of forbidden Empyric technology.
It sought to open the way to transcendence within the warp
and claimed enough of the low Machine Temples of Hadd
Nordus to work effectively in secret. The schismatical was
only discovered before it achieved its aim because it sent
echoes of itself within a Mechanicus vessel across the voids to
Sleef, an act which led the Ordos Calixis back to its machine
coven upon Hadd.
==Unique Equipment==
Concussion Mace
Desperate times call for desperate measures, which may explain
the Concussion Mace’s recent popularity as a melee weapon.
Designed on Hadd for use by asteroid miners who need an
instrument they can employ within the tight confines of a
tumbling zero-gravity rock, the Concussion Mace is essentially
a small explosion on a stick. The flanged shell of the “mace” acts
as a sort of containment cage for an ancient fragment of gravity
plate, which activates when the mace strikes a target with
sufficient force, creating a small crushing field. Unfortunately,
the mace does not discriminate between friend and foe, and
many overzealous Acolytes have been the unwitting cause of
their own demise by attempting to use this weapon in tight
quarters. The shaft is 1.5 meters in length, so when properly
used the wielder is out of the effective blast radius. On a
Weapon Skill roll of 94–00 the user is within the blast radius
and takes damage equal to the weapon’s normal damage.
Melee, 1d10+3, I, PEN 4, Unwieldly, Volatile, Blast (1), WT 15kg, Cost 200, Scarce
Hadd-Pattern Tarantula Sentry Gun
The Tarantula automated defense turret is a common
sight across the Imperium. Many different patterns and
configurations exist, and their ability to mount multiple
weapon systems, from Lascannons to Multi-Meltas, make
them efficient and flexible heavy weapon platforms. The
Hadd-Pattern Tarantula, recently unearthed by the Tech-Priests of the secretive Aurora Novos sect, differs from most
standard Tarantulas in that it lacks the automated point-defence
machine-spirits that make them such excellent
sentries. Nevertheless, the Hadd-pattern is capable of
moving swiftly via its external controls, shifting its role
from a defensive weapon or sentry gun to that of a more
mobile heavy weapons carrier.
Weapon Emplacements are stationary platforms that act as small-scale artillery pieces. They can be targeted independently of their user as though they were a separate character, and have Toughness 60 and 30 wounds. They have the following Talents and Traits: Size (Hulking), Fearless, Machine (10), Strange Physiology, and Unnatural Toughness (x2), and are considered to have an Agility Bonus of 4 (for the purposes of Movement only). They cannot take actions independent of the controlling character, and cannot make Charge or Run Move Actions. If engaged in melee, they are struck automatically (although the Weapon Skill Test should be made to determine Degrees of Success/Failure). Weapon Emplacements do not suffer Critical Damage, and can only be repaired via a Difficult (–10) Tech- Use Test where each Degree of Success regains one Wound. 
All Weapon Emplacements are supplied with control equipment, usually in the form of a large, detachable, handheld control device, or sometimes a backpack control vox. These controls have a range of 500 meters. The character that controls a weapon emplacement can divide their Actions up between themselves and the Weapon Emplacement (e.g. a character might use a Half Action to make a Half Move Action, and then a Half-Action to make the Standard Attack Action needed to fire their Weapon Emplacement). As always, Actions cannot be repeated, so a character controlling a Weapon Emplacement cannot fire a ranged weapon and a Weapon Emplacement’s weapon in the same turn. 
Each Hadd-pattern Tarantula has a pair of heavy weapons,
slaved to fire as a single weapon with the Twin-Linked weapon
Quality. The cost is for the Tarantula and its control systems;
the cost of both heavy weapons (and any ammunition) must be
added to the weapon.
Heavy, Range †, RoF †, DAM †, PEN †, Clip †, RLD †, Special †, Twin-Linked, WT 50kg + ††, Cost 1,100, Very Rare
†The weapon or ammunition type being used determines Range, RoF, Damage, Penetration, Clip Size and additional Special Rules.
††Plus the weight of both weapons.
A Hadd-pattern Tarantula can be configured in one of the following ways:
*Heavy Bolters (120m; –/–/10; 2D10 X; Pen 5; Clip 200; Reload 2 Full; Tearing): +4,000 Cost
*Lascannons (300m; S/–/–; 5D10+10 E; Pen 10; Clip 20; Reload 2 Full): +10,000 Cost
*Multi-Lasers (250m; –/–/10; 3D10+3 E; Pen 4; Clip 200; Reload 3 Full): +4,000 Cost
*Plasma Cannons (120m; S/–/–; 2D10+10 E; Pen 8; Clip 50; Reload 5 Full; Maximal, Overheats, Recharge, Unreliable): +17,000 Cost
*Multi-Meltas (60m; S/–/–; 4D10+12 E; Pen 12; Clip 10; Reload 2 Full; Blast [1]): +17,000 Cost
Hadd-Pattern Mole Mortar
The Hadd-Pattern Mole Mortar launches specialist
burrowing torpedoes that detonate under or just above
the surface. The torpedoes can plough through almost
any material, and the Tech-Priests of Aurora Novos have
rediscovered a number of different munition types to
enhance the tactical flexibility of this peculiar weapon.
Heavy, 50-200m, S/–/–, DAM †, PEN †, Clip 1, RLD Full, Special †, Indirect, WT 60kg, Cost 8000, Very Rare
†The Mole Mortar torpedo type being used determines Range, Damage, Penetration, and additional Special Rules.
Hadd-Pattern Thudd Gun
Spurred on by the reintroduction of the Het-Pattern Rapier,
a small sect of Lathe-Hadd Tech-Priests calling themselves
Aurora Novos began researching and manufacturing other
ancient Crusade-era artillery emplacements in the hope that it
would inspire the restoration of their falling forge world. The
Hadd-Pattern Thudd Gun was the first of these designs, and was
quite a strange one at that. Many siege regiments throughout
the Imperium utilise the Thudd Gun, or Quad Launcher as
it is more commonly called, but most use the Lucius-pattern:
a basic breach-loading weapon that must be towed from
battlefield to battlefield. More sophisticated and with its own
remote-controlled motive system, the Hadd-pattern features
four squat gravity-fed magazines, allowing the weapon to fire
continuously for up to a minute before reloading. How long
the Tech-Priests of Aurora Novos can continue making this
weapon until their efforts are curtailed is unknown, but certain
Guard Commanders, Rogue Traders, and even a few Inquisitors
have taken an interest in the revival of this long-dead design.
As this Thudd Gun consists of four linked mortars that fire as
a salvo, the weapon is always fired using the Indirect Fire Action.
Each individual clip for a Thudd Gun holds 5 shells.
Heavy, 50-500m, –/–/4, 1d10+8, X, PEN 4, Clip 20, RLD 2Full, Blast (3), Indirect, WT 130kg, Cost 12000, Very Rare
Hadd-pattern Data-loom
A limited data-engine and geometric display that has proven
useful to those faced with challenging problems of logic or
fragmentary information. It gives a +10 bonus to Logic skill
Tests, and at the GM’s discretion may reduce the time taken
for research or investigations, provided that the investigator
has the Tech-Use skill.
13kg, Very Rare
==Forge World Origin==
A stifled world of endless procrastination, those who dwell within
the bureaucratic and technological quagmire of Lathe-Hadd tend
to either live a life of looking over their shoulder, or have simply
given up hope of ever seeing any progress in their lifetimes.
Characters originating from Lathe-Hadd start with either
the Paranoia or Jaded Talent.
Category:Planets
Category:Forge Worlds
Category:Calixis Sector
Category:Golgenna Reach
Category:Adeptus Mechanicus