Forlorn Fortress Gahmuret

*Unyielding, Gahmuret stands, a world besieged for all of human memory. - Words of the General Commander Gahmuret, steward of the Forlorn Fortress*

**Associated Pages**

* Forlorn Fortress Fleet
* Fortress Guard of Gahmuret

Against the tides of the Immaterium stands, in the long line of fortresses along the Thetys Rift, a single world forsaken millennia ago. It stands proud and strong, unyielding in its defiance. This is the Forlorn Fortress World Gahmuret, home to a fierce people who have fought for unknown generations on their own.

Under the guidance of their steward, they fight on to this day and stem the advance of those who would see the constellations of Gondwana burn. It is a fierce world of fortified caverns, but none is more highly valued by the Astra Militarum among these stars.

## A fortress indomitable

Like the warships of the Imperium, the Fortress World is clad in ancient armor, adorned with the lights of many thousands of active defense batteries and towering docks, starship forges, and ammunition stores. Every last light on this world is part of the military machinery, every last ship an instrument of war in the hands of the Emperor.

Tunnels and bunkers are dug deep into the fortress moon, siphoning light and energy to feed the war machine from the moon's fiercely glowing core. Every last chamber, corridor and shaft of this labyrinth is one fortified position, the entirety of the world designed to confuse, trap and halt invading foes. Countless times over, these layers of defense have been put to the test and either prevailed or abandoned, to be rebuilt better and more resilient than before. In this way, the fortress Gahmuret ever grows.

## Railways of Gahmuret

The bulwarks, underground cities, and depots of Forlorn Gahmuret are connected by a vast railway network facilitating the majority of all transportation of this world. Ranging from simple transit pods to massive mobile industrial complexes on tracks, these mobile machines are the beating heart keeping the mechanism of the Fortress World functional.

Their maintenance and expansion is the sole purpose of a multitude of dedicated guilds and a major branch of the Cult Mechanicus on Gahmuret and an ongoing process since the refounding of this world at the dawn of the Imperial Age. The origins of this system lie further in the past still, with patterns of locomotives and armored carriages having been traced back as far as the first colonization during the Dark Age of Technology. Tracks left from these ancient times lead still as far out as to the lower orbital rings, connecting the depths of Gahmuret to starports on the verge of space.

The trains traversing the endless depths of Gahmuret are often in perpetual motion, fueled by reactors and thermal energy from below, dragging thousands of carriages and wagons, entire communities and habitats on endless lanes through the dark. This internal mobility allows Gahmuret to concentrate military and industrial prowess as well as population close to any point of potential enemy incursion to mount the strongest possible defense.

## History

In ancient times, when governance of Sector Gondwana lay with the Throne of Trantor undisputed, the Adeptus Administratum declared Gahmuret a forlorn world, bound to fall to chaos within a few centuries time. Too close, they declared, was the Great Rift of the Warp, to numerous the nearby foes.

But Gahmuret never fell. This forlorn world was plagued with incursions of chaos from without and within, fell victim to chaos cults and Xenos infiltration, was shaken to the core by orbital bombardment and burnt in the name of conquerors and defenders. And yet, time and again it rose from the ashes, rebuilt by an extraordinarily stubborn people, kept alive perhaps only by the sheer force of will to overcome the bureaucratic prophecy.

From shelters dug close to the old moon's molten core, they repopulated time and again. In the name of the Emperor and all worlds in his grasp, they called upon the entirety of Sector Gondwana to draft troops and servicemen, sold generations of workers to the Adeptus Mechanicus and sacrificed ten thousand virgins to the altars of the Ecclesiarchy for their favor. They implored the Astartes of the Hallowed Glaive, they bartered with the Rogue Traders of Port All. They sacrificed every last breath, expended more than could ever be gained from this world. And they prevailed.

To the last days of the 41st Millenium, the Forlorn Fortress Gahmuret stands against all odds, all rational through the sheer force of faith and everlasting endurance. It embodies what it means to be a world of the Imperium, to uphold the eternal mandate of the humankind to lay claim on all worlds of this galaxy.

## Astrography

Gahmuret's dim star lies on the fringes of the Thetys Rift, barely escaping the maelstrom of unnatural gravity pulling any and all nearby worlds into the warp. Safe for the fortress world moon and its mighty jovian neighbor, scarce bodies populate the entrenched system. Few inhabited stations and ports are operated by the Gahmuret Fleet, but endless legions of automated harvesters and manufacturing systems inhabit the centaurs and asteroids. These produce an ever-growing veil of mines and clouds of fractured mirrors, creating a nigh-impenetrable labyrinth betraying the sensors of any enemy, leading foes to be set asunder as they crash against the minefields of the Imperial Fleet.

## Forces of Gahmuret

### Fortress Guard of Gahmuret

Blessed are the sons and daughters of the Forlorn Fortress Gahrmuret, who are called upon for duty in the Imperial Guard. Joining the grand force of the Astra Militarum brings the honor of carrying the fight beyond the besieged walls of the endangered Fortress World and to the many distant suns from whence the foes of mankind came.

Millennia of stubborn battle and entrenchment have rendered the surface of Gahmuret uninhabitable for long. Over centuries of bombardment and retaliation, the atmosphere was blown away and bunker systems have grown to become the new natural habitat for its population. The pale-skinned kin of Gahmuret are therefore clad in armor as gray as rockcrete walls, unembellished and unceremonial, purpose-driven and mass manufactured. Their enclosed masks are an ever-present reminder of the constant fear of toxic gas, dangerous pressure drops and countless other ill fates claiming countless souls.

Though relatively well equipped and not lacking in experience, few armies raised from this world are ever seen in the Imperium at large and the Imperial Guard Regiment of the Forlorn Fortress Guard of Gahmuret is little known among the stars. The reason for this is the same stubbornness which kept them alive through eons: Never did Gahmuret call for reinforcements from beyond their own system, all of its forces are invested in this front, to hold the Rift Thetys where it stands - nothing more and nothing less.

But to those few who come to know the ferocity with which they fight, the Fortress Guards become dependable allies, a formidable force to stand against the unending legions of foes among the stars.

### Forlorn Fortress Fleet

Since the early days of the Imperium, the fleet has been Gahmuret's first line of defense, great machinery of blood and steel, ever fighting to preserve and secure the vast estates of void surrounding their embattled home port.

Through the tireless work of the Fleet, the Forlorn Fortress is veiled in minefields and mirrors, rendering any invasion blind. Illuminated by the dim star's shine, the mirrored veil glows crimson red and silver, a new sky for a world embattled so long.