Thakomumcos

Segmentum: Pacificus
Forge World +6
Geologically Unstable -2
Barren -3
Dangerous region - there are Orks (-2), pirates (-1), Chaos (-3) in the sector
Good Neighbourhood +2
Abundant metals +2
Very Heavily Fortified +4
Stubborn- Boost to morale

*"Open the floodgates! Purge them in magma!"* - Fabricator-General Korimandas, immediately prior to the destruction of Waaagh! Krownboila

Thakomumcos is a large, fully developed forge world located in Segmentum Pacificus. Owing to its size and its density, the planet exhibits a high level of gravity which is responsible for its high tectonic activity and its strong, somewhat stocky population. The planet is covered almost entirely in mountains, under and into which the Mechanicus has built vast, wondrous forge cities, advanced technology allowing its bio-domes to produce enough food for the entire population and their manufactorums to take full advantage of the planet's bounteous mineral wealth. The air on the surface of the planet is thick and toxic with the combined pollution of the vast industrial processes that take place within its crust and the cloying gasses and ash of erupting volcanoes, of which the planet has many. A single breath will kill a normal human, and the ground is so dead and inimical to life that even ork spores can find no purchase in it (full grown orks are still capable of breathing the air, however, much to everyone's displeasure).

Thakomumcos' colours are black with bronze trim.

## Planetary Information

Thakomumcos is very difficult to attack, which is one of the reasons why it has survived for so long into the Second Age of Strife. To begin with, you must contend with its fleet, whose commanders and crews will stubbornly fight you with everything at their disposal to see you destroyed. Having reached orbit, you must then contend with the rings of defence stations protecting the planet while suffering an endless barrage of surface-to-void missiles launched from the planet. The cloudy, storm-wracked atmosphere of the planet is too thick for augurs and vox transmissions to pierce, so "targeting" with orbital artillery is anything but and communication with groundside forces will be ad-hoc at best. If your shuttles lack the distinctive ruggedness that characterises Imperial vessels, be prepared to lose some of them in the lightning storms that are omnipresent around the planet.

If you have survived all that, congratulations, you have completed the first and second-easiest phase of such a hypothetical invasion. Now that you've begun the ground phase, things will get a lot harder. The first and most persistent issue you will face is the natural environment. If your troops are incapable of breathing poison, or do not have some way around it, you have already lost. If that is not a problem, you will have to contend with acid rain, lightning, treacherous terrain, and, again, the air, which is mildly corrosive and boiling hot as well as poisonous. If you are groundside for long enough, or if you are simply unlucky, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes will be issues to take into account as well. The heavy gravity of the planet may also be a problem for your forces.

Nature is not alone in forcing you to failure, however. Thakomumcos has been scouted, mapped, and settled by its human elements, and you will naturally have to compete with them as well. Macrocannons will pummel you from every angle, skitarii will hound you wherever you go with their familiarity with the terrain, the thick atmosphere will lower your visibility significantly while hampering them little or not at all due to their technology and their home advantage. If you are particularly threatening, ensure that you have multiple armies, for they may be destroyed as the Mechanicus throws open hidden floodgates and annihilates them in tsunamis of hot magma pumped up from deep under the earth. Though they have yet to become necessary, hidden charges are placed at volcanoes and supervolcanoes to detonate them should the situation become dire enough.

If you have fought through the environment, the macrocannons, the skitarii, and the magma, you have done very well, for you have gone further than almost anyone else in your poorly conceived invasion of Thakomumcos. But now that you have reached the cities, here comes the hard part: entering the cities. Every city is a massive bunker, constructed strong enough to defend against unfriendly forces, but also forced to be built even tougher for the earthquakes that wrack the entirety of the planet, and they are all built into or under literal mountains, further increasing their defensibility. Your army, undoubtedly bled by the second phase of your invasion, will now have to manage a way to crack into them, shielded and armoured beyond all reasonable sanity as they are. Skitarii and Magos Militants will further bleed you for every centimetre of your advance, exhausting you even as their mechanical bodies, unyielding wills, and deep stockpiles of fuel and ammunition sustain them. Mines and other traps, a ceaseless barrage of heavy artillery, and yet more releases of magma will cost you mountains of bodies, but if you are determined enough, foolish enough, and supplied with a sufficient amount of troops, you may eventually fight through all these things and breach the massive adamantium outer gate of a city. No one has yet managed this feat, so if you have, you should feel proud.

Now begins phase four, wherein you have entered the city and now fight the defenders within. Things will get only harder from here. The cities of Thakomumcos are massive, cavernous things. You may have noticed a lack of Titan and heavy vehicle support outside of low-flying air assets on the part of the defenders, and that's because, like you, the terrain would've severely hampered their ability to do so. There will be no such issues in the cities. The enemy's heavy and super-heavy assets will now come into play while presenting you with yet more of what you saw on the surface. That means more troops, more fortifications, more traps, more artillery, and of course, more magma. The tunnels, vast as they are, are labyrinthine and ridden with hidden passages, allowing them to move their assets freely, quickly, and secretly. You on the other hand will struggle with basic navigation and will get ambushed by *Titans* of all things. To make it worse, this is just the first of many levels you have to fight through before you get to the cities proper. On the bright side, you are outside of nature's reach, which should make things easier for you. On the downside, the tech priests of Thakomumcos are spiteful bastards and have used their technology to simulate the surface environment to inconvenience you as much as possible.

Phase five. How you have gotten to this point is unknown, but you are undoubtedly a military genius without compare and value the forces at your command atrociously little. Phase five is the easiest phase of the invasion. The ruling Magi will have sent as much as they could to try and stop you in the outer city, but since that has failed, it inevitably means you have destroyed much of their military assets. What remains are hastily-armed menials and what of their regular military has managed to withdraw after the previous failures, as well as some hastily thrown up barricades and fortifications constructed by the menials and tech priests. Being places of pure industrial and agricultural efficiency, you will not find the heavy fortifications and such found above, though you will find that everything is built tough regardless to protect against earthquakes. Ultimately, it should not be too difficult to take the inner city.

Having taken a significant part of the inner city, but before you can take all of it, phase six will begin. Despite the difficulty of the previous phases, it is actually phase six which is the hardest phase. Phase six is you lose. Phase six is the ruling Archmagos of the city sees that defeat is inevitable and decides to take you with them by blowing up the entire mountain and collapsing it on you. Ave Omnissiah and enjoy the magma.

## Technology

Since the death of the Emperor, Thakomumcos has developed what one might call an innovative streak, at least in the eyes of the ultra-conservative Mechanicus of the Imperium. Innovation in Thakomumcos is frowned upon, especially by the older, more conservative Magi, but it does exist, much as it did in the early days in the Age of the Imperium which saw the birth of weapons such as the assault cannon and the ubiquitous lascannon. This technological growth is slow and stable, not dangerously reckless as tends to happen in most cases where tech priests walk upon the path of innovation.

Elder tech priests of Thakomumcos see innovation as dangerous and to be avoided. This is something they teach to their apprentices who in their youth might otherwise think to make a name for themselves by contributing to the Quest for Knowledge by application of nought but their own mind. Better the tried and tested methods than the danger of the new, in their eyes. The fact that previous, successful inventions have gained acceptance has meant that a good amount of young tech priests seek to invent something new in the name of the Machine God anyway.

A tech priest may spend decades or even centuries on their invention before ever presenting it to Magi of higher station for evaluation. The desire of any visionary tech priest is not merely to make something new, but to make something that will be considered as worthy as any of the technologies found in the vaults of Thakomumcos. They thus spend a great deal of time ensuring their design is as good as can be. At the same time, they risk severe punishment if the finished product is bad enough that their decision to present it for evaluation is considered to be unforgivably foolish.

Once they do present it, the Magi who take it upon themselves to judge the design spend several weeks poking and prodding at the creation, intent on revealing as many flaws in the product, eager to prove the inevitable inferiority of the thing compared to the lauded works of times before. Should the device not be so awful as to require that all traces of it and its design be purged from the face of the planet, the would-be visionary is sent away ashamed and disappointed.

Such seeming harshness may seem cruel, but it is not without purpose. After all, if the device cannot stand up to the vagaries of a few weeks in the hands of those Magi, what hope does it have of weathering centuries of use by humanity in the future? A tech priest having their design rejected may feel shame and disappointment, but such is the determination of those of Thakomumcos that they do not feel discouragement. Instead, they will take the words of those wiser, more experienced Magi and use them to improve upon their design.

The cycle is then repeated until one day, hopefully, their design is found to be as flawless as might be expected by those who are not the Ancients and it is accepted by the priesthood. The techniques pertaining to understanding and constructing the device are disseminated among the priesthood and in time new tech priests will inevitably find themselves thinking of ways to improve it. That tech priest who had once been a pioneer of technology, now an old Magos after elevation for their achievement, will now find themselves fighting against such attempts to modify their own design, just as the old Magi of their time had done.

Most designs that gain acceptance are humble, simple things, such as a new belt buckle that has improved durability without sacrificing cheapness or quality of function. The ones that are more complex or of greater importance (such as weapons) typically get far fewer acceptance due to the greatly increased capacity for faults to exist, but those that are accepted lend great fame and acclaim to their inventors.
Here are a few such noteworthy designs:

* Valerian's Veritably Contempting Implement of Magnetically-Inclined Heavy Armour Perforation (Anti-Tank Impaler): Essentially an upsized impaler sniper (though with many crucial differences), the anti-tank impaler is a large, man-portable/usable gun that holds a single large projectile which is fired at incredibly high speeds. It can reliably punch through medium vehicle armour and power armour, as well as heavy vehicle armour at close enough range (~100m).
* Maria's Macromulti Kinetic Platform of Punitive Perfidy (Volley Tank): As the impaler sniper is upsized, its power increases as expected, but the assembly wears down exponentially faster. At the size of an anti-tank impaler it's not too bad, but at the size of a tank's main gun it can only fire 4 shots before its performance decreases. The Volley Tank says humbug to such a weakness. The Volley Tank is essentially a Manticore Missile Tank modified to mount powerful single-shot impaler cannons in place of manticore missiles. It can only do dumb fire and lacks the versatility of the Manticore, but it has a much higher projectile speed, greater armour-piercing capability, less temperamental machine spirits due to the lack of a guidance system, and is substantially cheaper to produce.
* Sorkver's Serindipidous Focus of Honed Destructivity and Incendious Death (Heat Blade): The pride of Thakomumcos. The heat blade is a blade of conductive metal that when connected to a mechanism becomes superheated. Functionally speaking it's no more mechanically complex than a chain blade and in almost every respect it is its equal, from damage to ease of maintenance to fuel efficiency. The two real differences are that the heat blade produces cleaner cuts and is less hefty, allowing for better handling of the weapon.
* Eregan's Expouser of Suffocating Immobilisation (Gasser): Basically a flamer that instead of shooting flames from its muzzle, shoots a concentrate of Thakomumcos' atmosphere. It's a niche weapon, but a useful one, and its ammunition is cheap. Used mostly for crowd control duties and law enforcement on Corvant, an allied hive world present in the same system as Thakomumcos.
* Ranulf's Revenating Cavalcade of Unrelenting Force (Autoimpaler): An AT Impaler modified to be a belt-fed full-auto gun. It's a gun of significant complexity and as such are fielded only in limited numbers. Its rarity makes it unsuitable for vehicle use, but super-elite troops strong enough to wield the gun have used it to significant effect against other super-elite units such as Chaos Space Marines.

## System Information

There are two worlds in the same star system as Thakomumcos: Corvant and Elios. Corvant is a hive world that regularly drafts and sends out its military forces to fight the enemies of mankind as a means of culling its population and ensuring the planet doesn't become overpopulated. Thakomumcos exports many goods to them, sends tech priests to keep their more advanced technology running, and provides military aid to ensure their own troops don't become soft or complacent. Elios is an agri world protected by Knights that feeds the massive population of Corvant.