Coral

Departmento Cartographicae pict-file of the desert world of Coral.

The imperial planet of **Coral** is a desert world located in the Yalcus Sub-Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. The world itself is a standard mining world of little note. The planet was named after a form of Coral that used to exist on the planet when it was a tropical world like Caida. This coral was harvested and refined into Promethium for starships, but due to the industry and need of the coral the planet's ecosystem was destroyed turning it into a desert death world.

Despite this change, there still exists a population of people on the surface of the planet. But this tends to be only allowed by the rich and nobility as the cities needed to be reinforced to stand sandstorms, dust storms and radiation storms. The majority of the population live in underground habitation centres that double as mining and refining facilities.

## History

Prior to the Great Crusade, Coral was left largely uninhabited by any known life. Sometime during M30, the planet was colonised by a group of Imperial settlers who soon discovered the propitiates of the coral that dominated the planet's oceans. Production of turning the Coral into starship fuel was soon underway, but due to the fragile ecosystem, the lush green of the planet didn't last.

Over the coarse of 1000 years, the planet turned from a lush green world into a red sanded desert with nothing to show for it. But thanks to the riches it managed to gain, it turned into a mining world supplying resources to the Imperial war effort.

### Horus Heresy

During the Horus heresy, Coral remained loyal to the Imperium and was attacked by a rouge Imperial Guard force determined to get control of the mines. But the local PDF managed to contain them with hit and run tactics that forced the rouge Imperial Guard onto the defensive until a Skitarii force from a local Forge World came to help.

The fighting was bloody, but what was left of the rouge Imperial Guard was destroyed by the Skitarii. After this, the local ruling families were replaced with families loyal to the Mechanicus. No one on Coral was surprised by this development, but it did raise questions on what the situation outside of their world was.

In response to this, the majority of the population were herded into the underground hab blocks and were not allowed to leave. This suppression of information and herding caused even more questions until a riot broke out in some of the hab blocks. The riot was countered by the families own personal forces who took the leaders in and turned them into servitors as a warning to others who'd dare try to riot again.

## The Kindred

The Kindred are a unique part of Coral culture. Commonly known as 'Enforcers' by the local populous, the Kindred are vat-born humans with loyalty to the Coralite nobility. Made from soldiers on the battlefields across the galaxy, the Kindred are used as soldiers and a policing group on Coral.

Even for being vat-born, they are not normal humans as the nobility genetically and cybernetically enhance the Kindred to make them stronger and faster. This makes them almost like astarties, but not quite astarties. They are still superior when compared to other Astra militarum forces.

The Kindred were made some time in M39 when the Kintaris family, in response to another family moving against them, got tired with their own personal forces. Inspired by the Death Korps of Kireg vat born soldiers, the Kintaris family got enough DNA samples from a nearby battlefield and began to create the Kindred. After around 100 years of experimentation the first generation of the Kindred were born. Despite a lack of independence, the Kindred still proved to be a viable force for policing. But this secret didn't last long as the other families found out.

The Overlord at the time soon demand that the tech be shared to the other families, or the Kintaris family would be decimated. In return, the Kintaris family would be the only ones allowed to experiment and produce 'specialist' Kindred. This made the family rich as they demanded a premium for the production and use of the Kindred. No other family is allowed to produce anything than the 'standard' Kindred template. The only thing that they are allowed to do is to change the DNA from time to time to keep the Kindred viable. Because of this, Kintaris members keep an eye on the other families production facilities to ensure that no one tries to challenge their monopoly.

Since their Creation, Coral has stopped using their regular population for the Astra Militarum tithes but use the Kindred instead. This allows them to keep their population at a decent level for their mining and manufacturing operations.

The Kindred seen as the 'middle class' of Coral despite their vat born nature. But because of their vat born nature, this creates a stigma against them both from the general populous and the nobility. Because of this, they are not allowed to breed or do anything outside of being servants of the nobility. But this is relaxed if the Kindred either proves themselves in some way shape or form or to keep the population up.

With the Kindred there exists three types.

**Enforcer**- The 'basic' Kindred are the ones that people would see anywhere. Emotionless, stoic, hard headed and very loyal, the enforces need little explanation for what they are. They are the the footsoldiers of the nobility.

**Stormkin-** Stormkin were originally made as bodyguards for the nobility, but their combat skills were noticeable. Because of this, they were soon used as the Stormtrooper equivalent of the Kindred. Unlike with the Enforcers, Stormkin are made with 3 or 4 sets of DNA taken from heroes of the Imperium. The most popular DNA used is that of Commissar Cain due to both command and combat skills. His particular DNA is also popular with the fairer sex of the nobility for their bodyguards.

When Stormkin are made, they have their arms and legs removed and replaced with augments which have been encased with flesh and muscle. They also have a few organs removed and replaced with cybernetics while organic parts, such as the lungs, muscles, eyesight and more are genetically augmented.

**Comkin**- Comkin are the 'leaders' of the Kindred with only 2 sets of DNA used to prevent them from being true clones. Comkin are made as to control and command their Kindred brethren and have the most amount of genetic and cybernetic augmentations. They are normally compared to skitarii, but with their outlook no one would be able to tell that behind that flesh was something like a skitarii.

## Military forces

The military forces of Coral are exclusively made up of the Kindred abhumans. This is due to the noble families reluctance to use a less superior force to defend their home. The Kindred are the only ones who can survive in the deserts of Coral without much protection due to their genetic and cybernetic augmentations.

#### PDF defence groups

The local military forces are divided into combat groups which rarely exceed 750 members per group. While each group has a dedicated role, they are trained to be flexible with their tactics and equipment. These groups are divided into three different types, Garrison, Raider, Combat.

Garrison groups are tasked with defending and policing the hab blocks and cities. Their armament tends to involve heavy weapons, shields and chimeras with little else. Due to the main task of this group, that being defence, they rarely go outside the city. This makes them very well suited for urban combat and enforcement operations making them perfect as training officers for their younger kindred brethren.

Raider groups are fast, mobile forces that use hit and run tactics in order to decimate enemy forces. Comparable to Rough rider squads, but instead of using animals they used motorised steeds such as sentinels, ridge runners and bikes. But they do use a modified leviathan as a mobile refuelling, re-armament and command centre. While slow, it is noticeably faster than normal leviathans and modelled after feudal world castles for dramatic effect.

Combat groups are as they sound, they are the primary combat groups of the PDF forces. With a mix of both Garrison and Raider tactics and equipment, the Combat groups are hard to take down but are rarely deployed on world or even in great numbers as most of them get sent to the Kindred Regiments. Because of this they are not used.