Ceres

The Dwarf Planet of ceres as it appeared before the SGA encased the world in Orbital Trenches

### Affiliation

Imperium of Man / Adeptus Mechanicus/The Star Guardians

### Gravity

0.029g (artifically increased inside habitats)

### Tithe Grade

Aptus Non

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, slightly closer to Mars's orbit. With a diameter of 945 km, Ceres is both the largest of the asteroids and the only dwarf planet inside Neptune's orbit, and is the 33rd-largest known body in the Sol System.

In the days before the Imperium of Man, Ceres like much of the space around Jupiter was controlled by mutant and renegade human bands, and finally the remnants of the Luna Gene-cult’s, all based from the fortress of Ahuna Mons, and the Cryothermal Facility at its summit.

Captured in the earliest days of the Great Crusade by the XVIth Legion, Ceres would go on to become little more than a Vox relay, passing traffic from the outer reaches of the Sol system to the inner worlds and visa versa. It would have remained this way for the rest of foreseen time, overlooked by any who approached the Sol system, if it had not been for Shaaa Hydrades and the Solar Guardian Array.

Selected to serve as the primary control node for the massive superstation, Ceres was quickly transformed beyond a mere relay station, and was soon regarded as the single most defended world in the entirety of the Imperium eclipsing even Terra’s mighty fortifications, it’s worth paramount even to ensuring the entire SGA remained operational.

Though it was taken during the First Solar War in a bloody and protracted battle, Ceres remained relatively untouched by the forces of Chaos, the artifice of Shaaa being hard to replicate even for the Dark Mechanicum, who instead contented themselves with merely restoring it to working order.

## History

### The Gene-Cults in Exile

Before the time of the Imperium in its future iteration, the early Legions Astartes, led by the IVth Legion, conquered the celestial body of Luna, forcing the famed Gene Cults there to swear loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind. Most did, but some never true it pledged their support, and when the time was right, they made their move, fleeing from Luna to the Asteroid belt beyond Mars, a clutch of genetically perfect children they had been developing for the Emperor with them.

Soon these remnant found themselves fighting a series of battles and full scale wars against the mining guilds, colonists, and gangers living amongst the floating rocks, vying for control of numerous facilities and habitats with the desperate hope of reforming their displaced gene-obsessed matriarchy. It was here that a young gene-perfected child know as Rodrick truly came into his own, trained and drilled rigorously in martial offence and the ethos of the cult.

Manipulated into fighting the wars of the Gene Cults, he was also used as a living template and sample for genetic reconstruction, the Genesmiths of the cult performing rigorous tests and analysis on him and the other stolen children, attempting to recapture the artistry of their genetic perfection. His own biological structure was soon replicated, implanted into the next generation of soldiers, already in the late stages of embryogenesis within their artificial wombs. When they were birthed, Jean Davoust was placed as their leader, despite his youth, already the finest soldier the gene cultists had left.

As the years passed, Jean led these warriors against the cults foes, digging deeper into the Asteroid belt, before finally leading them in their greatest triumph. Upon the meteor pitted surface of the Dwarf planet of Ceres, Jean captured the fortress of Ahuna Mons, claiming the Cryothermal facilities at its core. The gene-cults could grow anew with such a facility, and it was now the Imperium was forced to take notice. The old foe of the ene-cults mobilised it’s forced to do battle once more.

### The First Battle of Ceres

The first the gene-cults knew of the Imperium’s renewed assault upon them was when their outlying asteroid sensors were quickly and ruthlessly wiped out. These early battles against the gene-cult were costly for the Imperium, Jean proving once again that he was the perfect soldier, or at least the perfect warrior not forged by the hand of the Emperor himself. And it was these warriors that soon joined the Imperial Assault, taken from the ranks of the XVIth Legion, the Already known as the Imperial Justicars.

The cleansing of the Asteroid Belt was an arduous and often dangerous task for the XVIth Legion, extra calculations having to be made before every battle,while extra care had to be taken to ensure the safety and efficiency of each deployment. Such were the logistical complications of the situation that the Legion could afford little consideration to the civilians and colonists living within the habitats and stations scattered throughout the asteroids. The death toll amongst those living there would rise quickly in those days, but soon the end was in sight, the skies of Ceres itself darkening as the Imperial Justicars descended.

The entire dwarf planet soon became a swarming battleground as the genetically augmented warriors of the XVIth clashes with Jean’s genetically perfect warriors. The contest was brutal, but Jean did not stand much of a chance to succeed, even the gene-cults not able to match the artifice of the Emperor himself.

Retreating to the final fortress on the top of Ahuna Mons, Jean’s warriors fortified every location, blocking every pathway and daring the XVIth to come in after him. Every step the legion took, Jean had planned the defences, costing the legion dearly for every step they took up the steep mountain slopes.

It was a delaying action at most, and soon the XVIth created the mountain, facing down the hail of enemy fire and engaged Jean’s warriors in brutal melee combat. Power armour and superior augmentations won out time and time again in such conflicts, Jean’s forces retreating deeper and deeper into the facility, leaving dozens behind on willing suicide actions to allow their further survival. Finally however there was nowhere else to fall back to, and Jean finally turned, preparing to sell his life dearly, not for the gene-cult, but for himself, the false layers of his being and the inefficient indoctrination protocols placed upon him fading as his fight or flight instinct triggered.

Seizing a chainsword from a fallen XVIth legionary, Jean flight like a man possessed. While his lesser soldiers had not been a true match for the Astartes, Jean was the greatest of his kind, still a child by the standards of humanity, but close to a match for the warriors arrayed against him, and with that skill he cut down a half score of the Astartes, before finally being overpowered.

Watching from afar the Commander of the XVIth, First Praetor Dorsenne Soult witnessed the young man hefting the Astartes blade, fighting to within a shred of his life in spite of the overwhelming odds. He felt something of pride and respect for this meagre foe. It was as though what he’d witnessed, what he’d seen in this boy, held a deeper meaning and in that very moment, Dorsenne knee that not only would the warrior become a member of the XVIth, but would one day replace him as its ultimate commander.

Opening a vox channel, Dorsenne gave the order to hold, just as his warriors knocked the blade from the youths had, poised to execute the enemy commander and claim this world for the Imperium. Stepping forward, Dorsennetook the boy, intent on adding the strength he had just witnessed to the Justicars. The Battle of Ceres was over, but it would not be the last time the dwarf planet knew war, nor would it be the last time that the XVIth were the ones to bring death to its door.

### The Solar Guardian Array

When Shaaa was named as Paretorian of Terra, he took his task of defending the throneworld to heart, preparing to begin construction of the single most ambitious construction in the history of the Imperium of Man, perhaps in the history of all mankind. Shaaa understood, though he was ultimately and nearly fatally wrong in this case, that the need for defences was next to nothing, nothing remaining in the galaxy that could threaten the Imperium’s homeworld, but was instead to stand as a statement to the galaxy, and to anyone who still doubted the supremacy of the Imperium and the Emperor. They were not merely reliant on the technology of their forebears, they could match it, and in time, would eclipse it, all under his guidance. This, was the Solar Guardian Array, the SGA.

The SGA was to be the mightiest orbital defencive network the galaxy had ever seen, but for such a large project, mere orbital stations would not be enough. A control node had to be created, large enough to command the entire array, and it was for this purpose that Ceres was chosen. Far enough into the system to be adequately protected, large enough to house the required technologies, but small enough to make defending the world a simpler affair, Ceres was perfect, and so Shaaa got to work.

Ceres was soon all but hollowed out, the population displaced or recruited to help monitor the systems Shaaa laid down. The Caelestis Terminal, the mighty fortress of Ahuna Mons, was expanded upon, walls springing up and guns as large as those of a battleship put in place, designed to fire at any encroaching army that tried to make their way up the steep mountain slope. Other areas of the world were designated as hangar bays, the Urvara Complex standing as a prime example of this, but the one thing the surface of the world lacked was meaningful quantities of surface to orbit weaponry. This was the purpose of the Orbital Trench Network.

These were the ultimate defencive installations of Ceres, and indeed the entire SGA, helping to solidify the world as the single most defended planet in the Imperium, with only the throne room itself able to boast an equivalent defence, based on the presence of the Custodes. Comprising of dozens of massive orbital plates, made of little more than armoured plating and gun emplacements, the orbital trenches constantly traverse the upper skies of the world, perfectly set to cross over each other, and providing a near constant armour shell for the world. Crafts wishing to land upon the world must first gain the current paths these orbital plates are following, having to stick to a constantly changing path exactly, or risk being destroyed as the massive plates simply slide through them. 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.

Ceres was now a ball of armour and weapons, given over entirely to the purpose of war. Any foe that wished to move on Terra would need to first take Ceres, and in time, exactly that happened.

### The Second Battle of Ceres

In the hellish climax of the First Solar War, Surmah finished his great ritual, creating a rift that ripped the Sol System in two, a warp rift opening directly above Ceres, and through it poured forth legions, supported by mortals and daemons unnumbered. With a host at his side larger than any so far seen in the war, Almire struck at Ceres, bringing forth every weapon at his disposal. From the hold of *The Last Judgement*, the ancient Dark Age of Technology weapon *Scorpions String* leapt forth, no longer a mere weapon, now a fully fledged daemon engine. Leaping free from the flagship, the daemon engine rampaged through the asteroid field that surrounded Ceres, smashing and scouring it’s way through the missile batteries, defence platforms and mines hidden among the rocks, securing the way for the XVIth to strike unharmed at Ceres.

At the head of this siege fleet flew no less than five *Armageddon*-Class Planet Scourers, vessels designed in concert with the Praetorian himself, designed specifically to crack the hardiest of planetary fortresses, their weapons capable of reducing anything they touched to molten slag. With the combined might of five of their kind, a legions worth of ships and innumerable daemons, the Orbital Trench Network would never hold, within hours a breach being created, allowing traitors to pour onto the surface.

Almre watchied from orbit as the assault on the world his legion had taken so long ago, before the Great Crusade had moved beyond the light of Sol, unfolded, unwilling to set foot upon the world himself, much of his power and attention dedicated to combating the Emperor himself in the warp. The Warmaster had expected to clash with Shaaa there, pouring forces onto the dwarf planet to strike down the Praetorian of Terra and crush his legion, but Shaaa had never returned to the world after being drawn to the blockade of Mars, the Warmaster denied his prize. Undaunted, the Warmasters Justicars slaughtered all who stood against him, the world holding for a time, before finally buckling, First Praetor Gobalt Asmodeus striking down Commander Gunnar Rayden personally. When Ceres finally fell, all who had stood upon the walls of the fortress against the Warmaster were dead, not a single survivor escaping from the now enemy held fortress.

## Planetary Data

* Mass: 8.96 × 10^20 kg (0.01 times the mass of Luna)
* Diameter: 950 km (590.303 mi)
* Mean density: 2.08 g/cm³
* Escape velocity: 0.27m/sec
* Mean distance from Sun: 2.8 AU
* Rotation period: 9.074 solar hours
* Revolution period: 4.6 Terran years
* Obliquity: ~4°
* Orbit (inclination degree): 2°
* Average orbital speed 17.905 km/s
* Max. surface temperature: -38.15°C (235 Kelvin)
* Min. surface temperature: -105°C (168.15 Kelvin)
* Visual geometric albedo: 0.090±0.0033
* Highest point on surface: Ahuna Mons - 4 km (2.5 mi)
* Natural Atmospheric components: There’s no evidence of an atmosphere on Ceres, though there is small traces of water vapour, which freezes, giving the world its often frozen appearance.
* Artificial Atmosphere : Regulated to Martian norm of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon
* Surface materials: basaltic rock, Cerium metallic core

## Places of Note

**Caelestis Terminal** - A fortress complex built into the mountain of Ahuna Mons, Caelestis was built in the ancient days of the Dark Age of Technology, housing an advanced Cryothermal facility capable of housing thousands upon thousands of individuals in perfect cryo-stasis. This fortress was once inhabited by the Gene Cults of Luna after they fled the Imperium, and was subsequently taken by the XVIth legion. It remained as the sole structure on the planet for over a century, before Shaaa turned the world into a fortress, Caelestis Terminal becoming the centre of the planetary defence grid.

**The Orbital Trench Network** - These were the ultimate defencive installations of Ceres, and indeed the entire SGA in the days of the Great Crusade and the Almire Apostasy, helping to solidify the world as the single most defended planet in the Imperium, with only the throne room itself able to boast an equivalent defence, based on the presence of the Custodes. Comprising of dozens of massive orbital plates, made of little more than armoured plating and gun emplacements, the orbital trenches constantly traverse the upper skies of the world, perfectly set to cross over each other, and providing a near constant armour shell for the world. Crafts wishing to land upon the world must first gain the current paths these orbital plates are following, having to stick to a constantly changing path exactly, or risk being destroyed as the massive plates simply slide through them. 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.

**Ceres One** - The First of the mighty orbital trench plates that cover the entire world, Ceres one is a huge slab of adamantium, Ceramite and rockcrete, constantly in motion above the world, criss-crossing the planet with dozens of others cast in its design. Mounting hundreds of gun positions, and purposely designed modular armour, Ceres One represents some of the greatest planetary defences known to man. Boasting tens of thousands of kilometers of tunnels within its surface, Ceres One is home to six million permanent workers, with an extra one million transiting through at any given time. Ceres One also houses powerful and extensive berths for the mighty voidcraft of the Imperium, and it is here the Star Guardians fleet was berthed, the mighty form of the *Herald of Destruction* and *Bastion* held in its massive dry docks.

**The Urvara Complex** - Part of the original defences laid down by Shaaa Hydrades, the Urvara Complex is little more than a massive hanger complex hidden beneath the world's surface, able to house scores of strike fighter, interceptor and bomber squadrons, as well as refueling, rearming and storage sections for its charges. Boasting six great opening points, the Urvara Complex can discourage its complement of strike craft in a matter of minutes, flooding the local area of the planet with the deadly craft, mingling with those launched from the orbital trenches.