Solar Guardian Array

The Solar Guardian Array was envisioned as the single greatest piece of military engineering in the history of mankind, a project to rival even the ancient masters of the Golden Age of Technology, something Shaaa Hydrades, the projects founder after his appointment as Praetorian of Terra, was insistent on. The Solar Guardian Array, mostly referred to simply as the SGA, was to be a statement as much as it was to be an impenetrable defencive network, tangible proof that the Imperium were the true masters of the galaxy and were worthy successors to the empire of man before Old Night. No longer did they simply rely on the technology of their forebears, but rather with Shaaa, the Astartes and the Solar Guardian Arrayartes and the Solar Guardian Array itself, they had proof that they could exceed them.

Due to the nature of Shaaa’s vision for it, seeing it as much as a project in and of itself than any defences that would ever need to be tested, the Apostasy still an undreamt of future, the Solar Guardian Array was not planned for a quick construction. Many of the mortals who began it were not expected to see its completion, projected as nearly two centuries in the future, a time that matched the length of the Great Crusade at that time. This was a price that Shaaa was willing to pay, his ultimate symbol being more important than the lives of any who laboured upon it, even his own. With it complete, not only would no one be able to take the home system, no one would even be foolish enough to try.

Command of the Solar Guardian Array is split across two worlds, one acting as the primary relay, while the other acts as a failsafe, a thousand systems in place to ensure that should the primary fall, control would not be wrested from the secondary.

The Primary command node is Ceres, largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The dwarf-planet was soon all but hollowed out, its populace moved elsewhere or assigned to run the defencive bastion. There were few bigs guns on the surface, the majority of the world designated as a hanger or a communication node from which the entire array could be directed from, untold thousands of attack craft resting beneath its protective surface. High above however, this changed as the Orbital Trench network slowly took form. Massive orbital plates, made of little more than armour and gun emplacements, constantly traversed the atmosphere of the world, perfectly set to cross over each other, providing a near constant armour shell for the world, crafts having to follow a constantly changing path to reach the surface without being destroyed by the massive plates. In this way, the world’s armour would constantly be in motion, damaged plates soon replaced by new ones, repair crews scrambling to repair the damage done to those out of the line of fire as they orbited around the world. Though Terra was the jewel in the crown of humanity, it would be Ceres that drew Shaaa’s attention the most. The Throneworld would continue to grow through artistry, while Ceres focused solely on the ugly business of warfare.

Secondary to Ceres was Mercury, its mines long since exhausted, it was now designated as a secondary command post, its position as close to the sun as any could reach meaning it would survive longer than the rest of the mighty array. If Ceres fell, Mercury would smoothly take control, but by the time of the Almire Apostasy, only the barest of these systems were in place, its own orbital trenches barely being considered a true defence.

Beyond these two worlds, much of the Solar Guardian Array was constructed from traditional defencive installations. Massive Star Forts that stretched for dozens of kilometers each, taking solar decades to construct, hung in geosynchronous orbit around the systems worlds, ringing them with enough firepower to rival a small battlefleet, or strung in long, connected chains throughout the system, large enough for even battle tanks to move and fight from within. Further still, smaller gun emplacements stretched between the worlds, interlinked with vast minefields, each one ringed with sensor buoys to mark their edge, and the safe passage between the fields that shipping could travel through. Even the mightiest of battleships would not be able to force their way through such a field, requiring any attacker to either spend time clearing the fields while under fire, or brave the heavily defended safe routes through.

In time, all the worlds of the Sol system would feel the touch of the Solar Guardian Array, even Mars bending to accept these new defences, adding to the Ring of Iron’s already considerable facilities.

Beyond the immediate defencive bastions however, the Solar Guardian Array boasted dozens of great dry docks and refueling stations throughout its bulk, each one capable of enacting field repairs and refits for the mighty Battlefleet Solar, even if ships could not reach a true shipyard in times of war. With these, Shaaa planned to allow the orbital siege works to hold for as long as required, the battlefleet remaining active even if vital worlds such as jupiter or even Mars were rendered inoperable.

As with so much however, these were not ready when Almire tore the galaxy apart, even as Shaaa and his Star Guardians rushed to finish the construction. When the Warmaster's forces reached the Sol System, launching what would late become known as the First Solar War, the defences were barely even fifty percent completed, and though they held out well, they proved insufficient in such a state, the IVth Legion all but perishing as Terra itself was siezed from Imperial hands.

## Notable Components

### The Khthonic Gate

One of the first parts of the Solar Guardian Array to begin construction, alongside the defences around the Elysian Gate and Ceres itself, the Khthonic Gate represented one of the greatest dangers to the defences of the Sol System, due to its nature of allowing attackers to appear far further in system than would normally be possible with conventional warp travel.

As such, the defences here were tightened almost immediately, pluto itself being turned into a gargantuan fortress world, enough guns to destroy a fleet many times over cratering its surface, while the moon of Hydra serves as a potent Astropathic Choir relay, serving to allow communication both to the inner system defences and further out into the galaxy.

Further out, in the systems Oort cloud and by the traditional Mandeville point, scores of gargantuan star forts hang in place, empyrically tethered to ensure they are constantly prepared, and manned by dedicated regiments of Stormtroopers. Aiding these are thousand-mile wide void mine fields, system monitors and vacuum-hardened hunter-Servitors of terrifying aspect, all designed to ensure small scale attacks never even glimpse the greater defences of the Solar Guardian Array, let alone reach it to feel its final touch.

However, all of these defences are but child's play compared to the main features of the Solar Guardian Array, the thing that sets the defences apart from normal void installations. A colossal structure snakes through the void, armour far thicker than any warship, guns as potent as any planetary defence battery, and internals specifically designed to enemies into kill zones and ambush sites, leaving them nowhere to run. This is the way of the Star Guardians, a form of warfare they excel in, and it was this ethos that was key throughout the entire Solar Guardian Array. These structures could not be avoided, they could not simply be pounded into oblivion. They could only be endured, an enemy forced to wade through torrents of fire and the bodies of their own dead to take positions, only to find the Star Guardians already falling back, preparing for the enemy to start their next push, over and over and over.

### The Elysian Gate

Like the Khthonic Gate, the Elysian Gate presented a grave threat to defence of the Sol System, made graver still by how far it allowed penertration inside the system, allowing ships to exit the warp far closer to Terra than should have been possible. As such, as with the Khthonic gate, the Elysian Gate saw some of the greatest defences of the entire Array, and while the Khthonic gate was often used for military traffic in and out of the system, the Elysian Gate was fully locked down, any ships not bearing the sigil of Shaaa, Malcador the Sigillite or the Emperor himself attempting to pass through the gate in either direction were to be fired upon with deadly force, no matter who they carried on board, be it Planetary Governors, or even, though it was never put to the test, a Primarch of one of the other legions.

As such, the entire Elysian Gate, some three thousand miles across, was seeded not only with mighty void mines that could put holes in Battleships with consummate ease, especially those whose voids were lowered to allow for warp transit, but also weapons designed by Shaaa’s own hand. Ionic particles, seeded across the gulf of space, littered the gateway, all but undetectable by standard sensors. Alone they posed little threat to a warship, but in the quantities at the gate, quantilions in any square kilometer alone, they would drain power, corrupt targeting algorithms, in short, making any vessel that tried to force their way through the gate an easy target. Only by following a strict path that alternated on a randomly changing basis could a ship leave or arrive unscathed, and even then, only the smallest vessels could hope to follow the path, larger vessels confined to the Khthonic Gate or the systems Mandeville Point.

### The Jovian Line

Though the Jovian Line did not contain any esoteric warp gates or ways for the enemies of man to enter the system deep within the defences, they were still extremely vital to the running of the Solar Guardian Array. The Jovian shipyards were second only to Mars itself within the Sol system, while Saturn’s moons played host to the Saturnine Ordo’s, the finest void warriors outside of the Star Guardians themselves, many officers for the void ships of the Solar Fleet coming from Saturn's Moons.

As such, both worlds were hellishly defended, each of their many moons fortified with unnumbered guns, while giant orbital plates, the start of a full Orbital Trench Network, hung over both of the worlds, their surfaces large enough to see legio’s of battle titans wage war upon their surface, the systems they housed deep within their armoured bodies meaning that once more, a ground assault would have to be conducted to seize them, rather than a mere orbital bombardment.

Of all the moons however, there is but one that few ever set foot upon, the construction of its defences overseen by Shaaa as with all things, but the work carried out by servitors, their human brains and cybernetic cogitator banks scrubbed if any ever left the surface, a rare occurrence, as often they were worked until they burnt out, their remains incinerated as a matter of course. None knew why this moon garnered such special attention, but the order bore the seals of both the Emperor and Malcador, genelocked to Shaaa’s eyes only, and so, Titan stood apart from all others.

### The Asteroid Defence Grid

Representing a natural barrier that differentiated the ‘Outer’ and ‘Inner’ system, the asteroid belt was intended to be a hellhole to pass through, every asteroid housing gun platforms, torpedo tubes, attack craft hangar bays or other, yet more esoteric weapons of mass destruction. For an enemy passing through the asteroid belt, this should have been as hard as any other aspect of the defences they had faced thus far, but when the Warmaster first came, work had barely begun, less than 1% of the planned defences completed in that sector.

Though it was still a deadly killing field, hastily seeded with mines and defence platforms, it presented little challenge to the Warmasters forces, save for a single jewel in the belts crown; Ceres

### Ceres

See also: Ceres

With the possible exception of Terra itself, and even then only due to the overwhelming presence of the Legio Custodes themselves, Ceres was regarded as the mostly heavily defended area not merely in the Sol System, but in the entierty of known space, eclipsing Fortress Worlds and Legion Fastnesses, no expense spared on the dwarf planet, for in it, Shaaa secured the key to the Solar Guardian Array, Ceres becoming the central command node for the entire defencive network.

From Ceres, a commander would have visibility over every system of the Solar Guardian Array, able to direct the fire of thousands of gun platforms, or give orders to everything from vast battle fleets to a single man strike fighter. Indeed, while Ceres was operational, the entire Array operated almost akin to a single organism fighting an invading virus, boosting the combat effectiveness of every individual part a hundred fold.

Ceres was also the only known example at the time of the First Solar War to have a fully operational Orbital Trench System, great plates of ferrocrete and adamantium that slide past each other on never ending pathways, ensuring that fresh armour was always presented to the enemy.

### The Ring of Iron

The Ring of Iron is the name given to the massive complex of orbital shipyards, refineries and construction facilities that encircle the equator of the Mechanicum’s homeworld of Mar, and as such received much attention from the Breacher Lord, expanding upon its defences ten fold. More than this, Mars was designated as the focal point for the defences stretching from Ceres back to Luna’s orbit, acting as a lynchpin in the penultimate defensive line before the throne world.

When Mars showed its true colours in the mid-months of the First Solar War, rising in rebellion, the Ring of Iron became the site of fighting just as fierce as anything seen in the rest of the system as loyalists and traitor Mechanicum forces vied for control of the mighty ring, even after the surface itself was deemed lost by Shaaa after his reclamation attempt was repulsed. The terrible destruction could be seen from the surface of Mars as a blazing fire in the sky, but in the end, the loyalists were ousted by the oncoming traitors, Mars indeed providing respite before Terra, but for its attackers, not its rapidly diminishing defenders.

### The Last Line

With the exception of Ceres itself, no world, indeed no system, could boast defences equal to that of Luna and Terra when they stood together. Indeed, even apart the moon of mankind's ancient home eclipsed all but the mightiest of fortress worlds, while Terra was rated to be matched only by Ceres itself. These two celestial bodies represented the last true line of defence, a rock upon which any invasion that had reached that far would finally break upon, at least in theory.

#### Luna

Luna itself was home to many great facilities, even before Shaaa had turned from the Great Crusade, and as such received little in the way of defencive upgrades, those works that were planned being expected to be started late in the Solar Guardian Array’s construction, while hurried additions were made at the outbreak of the Almire Apostasy to try and stem the inevitable.

Perhaps most notable of these defences was the massive defensive bastion that encircled the moon, mirroring Mars’s own Ring of Iron for grandeur, though admittedly on a smaller scale. In days past, when the Great Crusade was young, this installation had been known simply as ‘The Ring’, but with Shaaa’s founding and the rediscovery of his home, such a title seemed to no longer fit a defensive structure around a mere moon, most beginning to refer to it as the Port Luna  instead, referencing its naval capacity more than its shape, something only one structure could truly claim as its namesake, that of the Star Guardians home, The Ring.

Port Luna, unlike the Ring of Iron, does not have manufacturing capabilities of any kind, for it has but a singular purpose, immense planetary Defence Lasers,  torpedo, and Macrocannon batteries charged with the defence of Terra’s orbit, while its great docks served as the primary dock for Battlefleet Solar as it stood before Shaaa’s bolstering of the defences, and even as Battlefleet Solar grew, Jupiter and Ceres equalling the berths for the Battlefleet, the Lunar Ring was still vital to the logistics of the fleet. Port Luna is made from rock excavated from Luna itself, and during the First, and indeed Second, Solar War, it inflicted devastating casualties upon those who struck at Terra.

On the surface of the world itself were numerous military facilities, some well known and used by a plethora of mortal and trans-human forces alike throughout the Great Crusade and early Apostasy, while one stood forever apart, its reputation a sinister one at best. Well known amongst these facilities, "The Circuit" was the name given to a massive artificial valley that had been gouged into Luna's surface that was home to countless military compounds, command centres, manufactoria, and other facilities designed to aid the war efforts of the Imperium. The Circuit stretched across the surface, finally tapering out at the foot of a massive fortress, carved in black rock seemingly not native to Luna. This, is the Somnus Citadel.

The Somnus Citadel was the headquarters of the anti-psyker Sisters of Silence during the Great Crusade, and contained its own sophisticated and secretive defences beyond that of the rest of Luna. Within its mighty walls were housed warded prison cells, unnumbered automated gun-drones pre-dating the Imperium itself, as well as mighty hangar and launch bays to house the Black Ships that silently plied the Imperium’s space lanes. In the event of an attack, the Citadel could even lower itself partially into the ground, sealing entrances behind kilometers of rock, making assaulting the fortress all but impossible, though as would be proved by Warmasters forces, all but impossible did not mean impossible.

During the Almire Apostasy, the Somnus Citadel also played host to the first generation of Knights Errant, as well as being the place the Ashen Crows and Scorpion Guard loyalists were imprisoned by Shaaa upon their return to Terra, before many of them were moved to facilities on Mimas. However, by the time of the First Solar War, the Knights Errant had instead moved their main base of operations to the White Mountain on Terra, while eight of their number instead travelled to the shadowed moon of Titan.

#### Terra

While he may have initially have been intended to fortify Terra as the Praetorian, Shaaa’s natural predisposition to the Void meant that Terra itself was never overly a focus of the Primarch’s defencive plans, allowing the throneworld to remain as an artistic vision of the Imperium’s grandeur, rather than the blunt fortress Shaaa would have turned it into had he turned his eye to it.

When the Apostasy erupted, Shaaa did change this view, working quickly to upgrade the defences of the Imperial Palace, turning it into a mighty fortress, but it was far from impregnable, as when the traitors finally arrived on Terra’s soil, the greatest of the worlds defences had already fallen, the traitors taking the world in little over a month.

### The Sunward Gulf

While Terra itself was regarded as the last line of defence in the Solar Guardian Array, the gulf of space between the throneworlds orbital path and Sol was still vital to the smooth running of the Array, if not its defence.

Venus was the first world after Terra, serving as an industrial hub, as well as a luxury resort for the high and powerful of the Imperium, as well as many warriors of the Solar Defence Force. It had very little additional work conducted upon it by the time of the First Solar War.

Beyond this was Mercury, once regarded as a mining world of little import, under Shaaa’s gaze the world was slowly turned into a communications hub, serving as a secondary command node in the event that Ceres itself fell. As such by the time the traitors arrived in system the world did boast some formidable defences, as well as the start of a full orbital trench network like the one on Ceres, but alas when the Consuls struck from the shadows, the Star Guardians had little defence to offer, unaccustomed to such a foe.

And finally, past shoals of void mines and long range torpedo launchers and ammunition supply stations, lay Sol itself, the star untouched by Shaaa’s hand by the time of the First Solar War, though this did not mean it had no plans. For Shaaa, Sol would never be a defencive platform for the Solar Guardian Array, an ironic oversight considering the battle he and his sons fought in the stars light, but instead was planned to be the seat of something far greater.

Images of the impossible flashed through Shaaa’s mind as he made his eventual plans for Sol, of a star captured by human artifice, encased in metal and technology, all designed to do but one thing, capture its true potential, to power the entire Sol system with a method that could not be disrupted, could not be squandered, and would ensure human dominance throughout the cosmos by its mere presence. Alas, even 10,000 years later, the idea would be nothing more than that, lost to time.