Adreatus

"*They call it a mine. A mine. Ha! It is so much more than that. Sure, we mine, produce gems and alloys and everything our lord tells us to, but it is also home. And ill be damned if I let these heretics take it from us.*"
—An unknown Adreatus PDF trooper

The mining world Adreatus is situated within the Toleria Sub-Sector,in Segmentum Tempestus. It is an utterly inhospitable world, its athmosphere nothing more than toxic clouds and the rain a buring acid. Due to this, the vast majority of the human population lives beneath the surfice in massive cave city systems that connect to the mines. Adreatus has only recently been colonized, after the Sub-Sector had been rediscovered, and subsequently pacified by an Adeptus Astartes Greyshield taskforce. During these battles however, a major heretical ship lost control of its instruments and crashed into the planet, changing its once inviting landscape and breathable air into the toxic waste it is today.The ship, wichs name has been struck from all records, left an impact crater so large its black crater can still be seen from space. The withering of the planets Fauna and flora however revealed a meriad of important recources, amongst wich ceramite, gold, marble and several kinds of gems made Adreatus a prime target for a lengthy mining operation, wich later developed into a colony. Adreatus is unusually rich for a minig world, as, apart from the imperial tithe and "offerings" to the nearby Golden Swords Astartes Chapter, it gets to keep most of its output due to the lack of a forgeworld in the sub-sector. Unfortunately for its people however, it seems that several traitor Astartes survived the crash and have been surviving the devastating environment as well. This led to several small wars between corrupted citizens and PDF. The Planets current sociatal situation could be regarded as "unstable" and only the God-Emperor may know what its future holds.

## History

During the opening phases of the Indomitus crusade the Toleria Sub-sector had been rediscovered, and with it Adreatus. A Greyshield fleet had given persuit to a heretical force, but made the mistake of distancing itself too far from the main part of the crusade. This led to an ambush by a far superior enemy fleet and a four year lasting war ensued. During the finishing moves of this conflict, the battle barge "Scutum Imperialis" of the now created Golden Swords Astartes, scored the killing blow on the enemy flagship and it crashed into Adreatus. The planet had at first been an almost paradisic piece of human imagination, clearly manipulated in the dark age of technology to fit humanitys dreams. This tropical paradise however, was swept away by the massive nuclear erruption of the ship, leaving only a barren wasteland with nothing but scorching heat, rocks and acidic rain. This, at first thought disaster, turned out to be a small miracle however when it was discovered that the planet held recources amass, and quickly an expedition with little regard for human life was send out to report their findings. Much to the Administratums delight, enormous veins of Ceramite, gold, gems and many other luxuary materials were found and the expedition was ordered to form into a colony. Under at first horrible conditions the people dug themselves into the planet, to seek shelter from the survice, and, over time, began to form a fully functional society with a Governor, a PDF and, of curse, massive mine shafts. Adreatus, and its rulers especially, grew wealthy and respected, despite horrible corruption rates on every level. At this point in time the Golden Swords also began to occasionally recruit from amongst Adreatuses population in case Toleria couldnt match their rates. Everything seemed to be rather in order, however at some point first ambushes on ressource deliverys off planet would be recorded, and soon there was open unrest on the streets. From the moment of the first rebellion less thsn a year passed, and the government was almost overthrown, still with no reason to be made out to be responsible. It was here the enemy first revealed himself. Apparently several escape pods from the enemy ship had survived impact, and were buried deep within the ground untill they were found and opened by miners. What followed was natural. Physical corruption spread and made the people mad, with traitor marines runnung rampant and attempting to find a way off planet. It was at this moment when the Golden Swords reacted to the cries for help by the Governor, arriving with almost half the chapter and at a loss of any mercy. Any centers of rebellion were bombarded, later manually purged, any and all warp capable craft shot down and the Governor as well as any who gained sight of traitor marines or corruption executed on the spot. This bloody event is still to this day called "Swordfall" and has led to a great fear of the Angels, wich the new Governor was selected to share, as to never dissapoint his real but secret masters.

## Climate and Geography

Adreatus surface is scorchingly hot, features acidic rainfall and can all in all be described as a wasteland. The same is not to be said for the cavern citys however. The planets population is largely concentrated in four of these citys, each connected to the others and situated in a recktangle formation. Within these cavern citys the temperature is normaly within tolerance, however failiures have been known to happen. The planet does not posess any fauna or flora, so it relies on trade with Toleria as it is the Sub-sectors only planet with the capabilitys to produce food. The mines that traverse the planet are also an important part of Adreatuses geography, as they are vast and one without knowledge can easily get lost in the dark.

## Politics

Adreatus political situation can be described as complicated. It features many riches that could bring even more wealth, however it is forced to trade them away at bad rates to survive. The four cavern citys also tend to compete and seperate from each other, making any hopes of a quick return to the status quo after the "Schwertfall" almost impossible. After the replacement of the old Governor the Golden Swords also installed a proxy as his sucessor, making the already heated situation even more complicated. The PDF is almost constantly engaged against remaining heretics, and any time one uprising is quilled another arises, often only sparked by the ruling castes hatred for each other.

### Citys

Adreatus population is devided into four massive underground citys, each responsible for difrent goods and of design, yet still competing for every scrap.

#### - Exidia

Exidia is the biggest of Adreatus citys, and simultaniously the richest. It is the prime port city of the planet and is the only one with any direct contact to the surfice. Its riches did however not save it from heresy, and the battles during the Awakening and subsequent Schwertfall left much of it in ruins, never to be rebuild. The citys damages greatly impact Adreatus wealth as a whole, and crime and heresy still linger among the ruins of the poorest regions wich were never rebuild. Exidia can often be found within conflict , notably with Extracita and Exacitia, however most of thei rivaly is due to petty trade disagreements or hurt feelings of importance.

#### - Extracita

Extracita is arguably the most important of Adreatus citys, as it is the one all others rely on to exist. This city is entirely within the rock of the planet, its mines spanning thousands of miles, and thus making its primary use the extraction of raw recources and their transport to other citys. Living conditions within Extracita are a wide span from the towers of rich mining ministers to the slums of the workers, but all in all it could be described as a standart imperial hive. unfortunately for Extracita however, it was within its expansive mines that the surviving heretic Astartes were first encountered, and their corruption soon spread throughout the city, its PDF station beeing overrun. Extracita could be won back without further blodshed as the deciding fights mostly took place in Exacitia, but to this day most other Citys mistrust Extracita and its inhabitants, as they were the spread of corruption.

#### -Exacitia

Exacitia is the capital of Adreatus on location of its biggest battles. The citys original funvtion is the manufacturing and reworking of raw reccources arriving from Extracita, and is still maintained today to some extend, however it has also taken the unofficial role as administrative leader of the colony. Exacitia was able to maintain a better defence against the heretic forces during the Awakening due to its geographically higher position in comparison to the other citys, and eventually with the arrival of the Astartes proved to be the breaking point to the heretics. Nowadays Exacitia is recovering rather well despite corrupt politics, and is expected to meet old quotas within the next three generations.

#### -Exploria

Exploria is the smallest of Adreatus citys, but also far from irrelevant. The citys main function is the scanning and exploration of the planet in order to locate new recource quells. This highly specialized task requires scientists, and so Explorias population is made up of more than half of the planets high performance intellectuals, ranging from geologists, to data miners and scanning equipment mechanics. in order to ensure uninterrupted scans the city is furthest away from the other three, and was complety untouched by most events of the past.

## Resources

Adreatus is an icreadibly resorce rich planet. Harboring large quantitys of ceramite, marbel, gold, gems and many other treasures, it has become the single most important supplier of raw and manufactured goods in the entire sub-sector. It is suggested, that the planet harbors enough resources to continue mining operations for at least another five thousand years.

## Military force

### PDF

Adreatus PDF is currently in a very bad state. The recent wars have left much of its military forces and facilitys in nothing but ruin, and funding is very short, yet the PDF is still seen by many as an easy way out of poverty. Due to all these hardships however, most of the remaining military personell are hardened veterans that are well versed in tunnel fighting. At the moment the few PDF troops are tasked with policing and guarding the government districts, but first cautious advances into the other citys are beeing made, as the situation has calmed and the rebuilding is beginning.

### Imperial Guard

The Imperial Guard sometimes recruits from the planet if in need of soliders capable to fight underground and under difficult conditions, however the drafts are rare as the whole sub-sector is considered an underdeveloped backwater and earlier Adreatus regiments were of ill performance.

### Imperial Navy

The imperial Navy is not present in the sub-sector, as most forces are bound to the Indomitus crusade, and space protection is entirely dependent on the Golden Swords.

## Notable events

### The Awakening

The Awakening is a time period spanning from roughly 10 years after the first colonisation of Adreatus to 5 years before presnt day. It began with miners from Extracita uncovering drop pods deep within the rock of the planet, and not knowing what was before them, opening them. What revealed itself before them would introduce itself under the name Aggraton, and together with the remains of his warband the chaos lord was able to lure more and more people in the mines and convert them to the ways of chaos. Millions fell to their ways, and soon first PDF garrisons, and later the citys itself stood under siege. What followed was a brutal and lenghty civil war, during wich the traitors came ever closer to their ultimate goal, the capture of Exacitia, and with it its spaceport to get of planet and rejoin their bretheren once more. The Awakening was only ended by the event known as "Schwertfall", rougly 5 years ago.

### Schwertfall

The Schwertfall was a swift, but extremly brutal military campaign that brought the Age of the Awakening to an end. The Golden Swords space marine chapter had monitored the situation on the planet for a while, but was unable to activly interviene due to most of its forces beeing occupied elsewhere. Because Adreatus is one of Tolerias sister planets however, and as such the fourth company was ultimatly tasked with crushing the rebellion when defeat came near. At first, the chapter considered an Exterminatus, but it was ultimatly considered unreliable and a waste on such a resouce rich planet. As such, a large part of the company made planetfall and, together with the remnants of the PDF and heavy armor brought from Toleria, ultimatly crushed the entire rebellion within days. The chapter command was enraged however, that chaos corruption had taken root so close to their home planet, and tasked itself with the complete annihilation of anything, and, anyone that had any contact with the heretical forces. Therefore, in the subsequent weeks, almost sixty-five percent of the remaining population was purged, former friend and foe alike, by the chapters devastators personally. Additionally, almost all warp capable craft were destroyed during the opening phases, leaving the trade orientated planet in ruin. The Schwertfall ultimatly ended with the execution of the previous governor for incompetence, and his replacement with a puppet.

## Personalitys of importance

### Lord Diolus

Lord Diolus was the first sovereign ruler of Adreatus. He was well liked by the people as many of his policys were fair, and generally only added to the planets wealth. During the Awakening however, his acting was too slow, and insufficient, leading to him beeing executed for incompetence. Despite this fate, Lord Diolus remains well remembered and revered, a reminder of better times. It is said, that in the deepest caves and underhives people even began his worship.

### Lord Galianus

Lord Aston Galianus is Adreatus new governor, yet in reality he is little more than a puppet of the Golden Swords who influence the rebuilding of the planet through him. Galianusses rule is not unchallenged however, and to this day he only maintains his position due to outside influence. Ironically enough, his rule however is the only thing keeping the citys from going to war over miniscule disputes, and although he is unpopular at best, the situation remains somewhat stable.

### Aggraton

Aggraton is the Chaos Lord responsible for the Awakening. He and a handfull of other chaos space marines, originally hailing from the Word Bearers, survived the crash in drop pods that were buried deep beneath the surfice. When they were eventually uncovered by miners it didnt take them long to convert the poor and suffering, and soon uprisings and war followed. Aggratons forces were eventually defeated, and it is said that he was killed during the heretics frantic retreat into the mines, yet to this day people go missing where the mines are at there darkest.

## Lost knowledge

Before the crash of the heretical ship Adreatus had been observed to be a vibrant planet, however not of the usual variety. in essence, it resembled paradise. Almost every plant, animal and geological formation on the planet seemed to be specifically created for humanitys need, wich led to the Adeptus Mechanicus theorizing about lost terraforming technology. Any form of recovery was utterly destroyed by the ships explosion however, and to this day no expedition was able to find any knowledge, apart from a small collection of fragments that indicate the existence of more artifacts towards the planets core.

## Relation to the Golden Swords

The Golden Swords are generally seen with great fear, rather than revernce. The Angels of Death are seen as just that, and it is said than anone who looks into their eyes is doomed to a death in fire, as it was the fat of too many not too long ago. The chapter has also been known to commandeer resources and goods for personal use, making the sight of their unofficial overlords even more dreaded.