Huaguo Sub-Sector

The **Huaguo Sub-Sector** is a notable region of Imperial space located in the Segmentum Ultima. This particular sub-sector is one of the most densely populated sub-sectors within this region of the galaxy. This sub-sector features twenty eight hive worlds with over 20 billion human inhabitants each, and nearly a thousand agri- and minor forge worlds. There is a prominent stellar void along the eastern edge, with many of the largest hive worlds situated on what is often called the "Space Coast". It is these coastal cities that came under attack most heavily in the recent fighting, and a few of the worlds on the southern end have been lost to rebel groups as so-called "Legation Hives".

In the much less populated north end, encroachment from the xenos T'au Empire has reached unbearable levels, with reports of physical xenos occupation of parts of these worlds. These worlds, mostly mining colonies and medieval worlds, have begun to employ tau tech and expelled their Adeptus Mechanicus branches. Both chaos cultists and genestealer cultists are known to operate with impunity throughout the sub-sector.

The sub-sector is ruled from the capitol hive world, Jingxing. Members of the dominant culture call themselves Zhonghua, and the government apparatus of the sub-sector is called The Purity or The Great Purity, to contrast it with the corrupt former regime.

## History

The Huaguo sub-sector has a history stretching far back into the mists of the Dark Age of Technology, but the genesis of the current situation begins in M36. With the advent of the 15th Founding, the situation around the galaxy was reviewed by Terran High Command, and places requiring assistance had astartes chapters founded to provide it. The Huaguo and neighboring Panoy Sub-Sectors had both been completely consumed by a chaos rebellion, led by the Huaguo sector governor, Lord Yongning. And so three chapters were founded and dispatched to pacify the two sectors. From the sons of Dorn were born the Earthscorchers, and from the sons of the Khan were born the Celestial Heralds and Xiongnu chapters.

The Earthscorchers and Xiongnu headed first to Panoy Sub-Sector and cleansed the once populous region in fire and blood, while the Celestial Heralds came first to Huaguo. There they quickly discovered that this had been no popular uprising, but one lead by the decadent leadership of the sub-sector, with the sector governor himself sitting at the head of a chaos cult that abused the regular citizens, most of whom still retained their piety towards the true Emperor. The Celestial Heralds were sons of Jaghatai Khan, descendants of the White Scars Legion, and Aisin Gioro, the first Chapter Master, saw how they could use their speed to cleanly excise this chaos cult from the region.

In a brilliant manoeuvre still studied by the chapter to this day, Aisin Gioro deployed high velocity kill teams to all twenty eight major hive worlds in the sub-sector, and at the exact same moment across the system each dropped hard into the palace, struck precisely the lead administrators and chaos agents in each senior administration, and occupied the planetary governance offices, declaring themselves interim rulers of the system. So quick was the changeover that many high ranking cultists believed it to be a scurrilous rumor until the purge reached them personally.

The people, who had labored under chaotic overlords for 150 years, only remembered the quietest tales of the Emperor who had once protected them, and their new superhuman overlords brought those secret stories to life in the heart of each loyal man and woman of the sub-sector. For ten years, those who had evil in their hearts lived in fear until they were cut down by the Celestial Herald Astartes interim governors, while those with innocence and loyalty in their hearts felt the first true joy to ever shine upon their life. Those who caught a glimpse of these brightly armored giants as they sped across world after world repeated and magnified the stories until they were angels from the long mythic Emperor, angels who had come to rule over the Zhonghua and bring the sub-sector to a state of perpetual harmony. And the man who stood at the top of these angels, the brilliant and powerful chapter master Aisin Gioro, well, if he wasn't the Emperor himself, something vehemently denied by the angels, then surely he was an emanation of His might and deliverance.

The surgical purges of the old leadership ended after a decade. They weren't finished, and given the nature of chaos probably never would be, but at this point a new threat arose. Warp storms were not uncommon in this sub-sector, often isolating it from the wider Imperium for centuries at a time, but just as the storms became impenetrable, out popped the ragged fleet of the Xiongnu Chapter. They weren't clear on the specifics, but the cleansing of the neighboring sub-sector, through fire and blood rather than wisdom and surgical strikes, had cost them nearly a hundred battle brothers and left their ships and armor battlescarred.

The Xiongnu sent a message upon arrival, friendly in tone though weary as well, asking for a situation report. They then sent a message the following day, announcing that the Celestial Heralds chapter was heretical, had disobeyed its orders from the Emperor, and declaring the initiation of mass purgation throughout the sub-sector, including the fallen chapter. They then severed communications and never again spoke to anyone outside their chapter.

The fire and death that followed the Xiongnu's arrival would cause the word Xiongnu to become synonymous with demon in the local language. Before anyone knew what hit them, the lightning fast sons of the Khan had decimated three dozen worlds on the western edge and were pushing hard towards the central agri-worlds. The Celestial Heralds, meanwhile, were scattered across a hundred systems, and with their force so dispersed, even harassment and delaying tactics were too costly against their brother chapter.

Aisin Gioro faced a strategic and tactical challenge. The enemy knew thier playbook and had the advantage of initiative and ferocity. But the last ten years had not seen the chapter master focused exclusively on traitor hunting. Hoping to rebuild the government that he had uprooted, Aisin had studied the great political theorists of the Ultramarines, with their millennia of experience integrated into the 500 worlds of Ultramar, as well as those of the long civilized Zhonghua people. He realized that he would only be able to defeat this threat by employing the advantages unique to the Huaguo sub-sector- manpower and organization.

The local PDFs had been corrupted into chaos militias and been disbanded almost immediately, but the armories were still full of imperial guard standard equipment and the planets were full of recruits eager to defend their newly liberated sub-sector from a threat that was never clearly explained to the masses. The only thing missing was leadership, and so the Celestial Herald squads on each planet took command at Aisin Gioro's order, forming impromptu regiments around the core of each space marine squad. Ships were requisitioned and bureaucrats re-tasked to make it all work out, and one month and one hundred and twenty five burnt planets later, the 1st Zhonghua Provisional Regiment was assembled at strategic locations along the fanatic loyalists' path.

Each battle in the Xiongnu's crusade went much the same as the others. Deploying virtually unlimited hordes of newly raised guardsmen, enough that their sheer bulk came to act as a terrain feature restricting the enemy's movements, and dropping saturation bombardments along the enemy's path from ancient and poorly maintained Basilisks, the few Celestial Herald space marines attached to each regiment, all mounted on bikes, only had to herd the enemy forces in a direction of superior forces. If the Celestial Herald's initial shots drew the enemy forward in a killing rage, there was an ambush they could be pulled to, and if it pushed them back the Xiongnu could be herded into another great bulk of guardsmen. With artillery dropping mountains worth of ammunition on them, standing still was never an option even if the Xiongnu had been inclined to try. While the Celestial Heralds may have been outnumbered in each engagement, purely in terms of Astartes, they were merely the bait while the killing blows were struck by the guardsmen defending their homeworlds, a fact played up in later propaganda. Indeed, chapter records show that not a single Xiongnu Astartes was slain by anyone from Celestial Heralds, and the only man who still survives from the initial founding, the venerable dreadnought Sun Zhanglao, refuses to state otherwise.

Whoever struck the final blow, the Xiongnu chapter was wiped out to a man only fifteen years after their maiden deployment by a chapter of fellow loyalists. Though this weighed heavily on the hearts of the Celestial Heralds, the Zhonghua people celebrated. The people of the sub-sector had secured their freedom from what they thought were warp-spawn, and kept the purges from reaching into any major hive worlds. The people now turned to their new saviors for leadership, and hoping to erase the stain of what he had ordered done, Aisin Gioro took up informal leadership of the sector as the Representative of the Emperor. Aisin's reforms were sweeping, altering the civilian government, properly reforming the sub-sector's imperial guard regiments, and formalizing the system of integration between the squads of Celestial Heralds chapter, the Astra Militarum regiments, and the planetary governors.

All this was accompanied by propaganda, something Aisin had a particular knack for. While the people needed no help in realizing who were the good guys and who were the bad, by carefully controlling the messages that went out to the planets, he reinforced the people's belief in the sanctity of the Adeptus Astartes, and through them the Emperor. He noted that anyone beneath the Emperor could be corrupted, and used this line as an excuse to replace the once monarchical planetary governorship with a council of highly trained and chemically castrated bureaucrats. This Ministry of Eunuchs ruled over planetary eunuch councils and oversaw the administration of the sub-sector with professionalism and even-handedness.

While the chapter master himself had no formal role in this government, everyone knew that he carried a veto over any plans that might disrupt the harmony of the sub-sector, and more importantly stood watch over the administrators to guard against corrosive factionalism and to assassinate any who stepped off the path of the Emperor's Light. This new, purified government form came to be known as The Purity, and as time went on and multiple generations of Eunuchs legislated impartially under Aisin's watchful eye, the people came to call their government the Great Purity.

A century of this had passed when the warpstorms that had isolated the sector abated, and as M37 dawned, the very first contact that Holy Terra recieved from Huaguo sub-sector was a shipment of one hundred years of back taxes, four imperial guard regiments, and a request for an ecclesiarch to come rule over a shrine world newly established to renew the Zhonghua people's bond with the Holy Emperor. Very few questions were asked, and the claim that the Xiongnu had fallen to chaos was accepted without investigation.

## Major Systems

### Jingxing System

Located in sub-sector northeast. Contains Jingxing hiveworld, on which Jingxing hive is located, population approximately 28 billion as of 001.M42. Jinxing planet is orbited by hivemoon Tianyue. Three minor forgeworlds are present in system as well, mostly taking parts mass produced in the Jingxing and Tianyue manufactorums and creating finished products. The largest of the three minor forge worlds is Daxing forge world, famous for their export of motorbikes throughout the galaxy.

### Sihe System

Located in sub-sector southwest. Contains thirty inhabited bodies, and over bodies of planetoid size or greater. Four hive worlds, one middle-class forge world, one shrine world, twenty four agriworlds. Still a net importer of foodstuffs.

### Zhu Jiang System

Located in sub-sector southeast. Four inhabited worlds. The hiveworld once known as Guangxing is currently under rebel control, under the name Planet of Scented Ports.

### Sha'anxing System

Located in sub-sector south central. Home to hive world Sha'anxing and one of the five major shrine worlds.

## Ecclesiarchy and Adepta Sororitas Presence

Five shrine worlds have been established in the sub-sector. Taishan, Hengshan, Hengshan, Huashan, and Songshan. Of these, the general favor that the sub-sector's skilled diplomats have been able to curry among the Administratum and Ecclesiarchy mean that currently four of the five are headed by Zhonghua Ecclesiarchs. The Adepta Sororita recruits as normal throughout the sub-sector and provides services to the faithful, but given the relative security of the sub-sector, their militant arms maintain only a very small presence here.

## Notable Forge Worlds

Perhaps the only major foreign presence that the Zhonghua tolerate without too much grumbling is the Adeptus Mechanicus. There are manufactorums on every planet, six major forgeworlds, with numerous affiliated minor forge worlds scattered throughtout the sub-sector. There is no level of the great hives where the red robes of Mars are an unfamiliar sight, and while the tech adepts aren't celebrated like the Astartes who keep them safe, all are conscious of their vital role in the Great Purity system.

The Eunuchs believe that, due to the general safety of the sub-sector, the major forgeworlds maintain only token skitarii forces for self-defense. This is only partially true, the scions of mars only keep a token force active at any one time, but do maintain in secret vaults very large personal defense forces that can be activated quickly should the forge come under direct invasion.

## Imperial Military Forces

Forces stationed in Huaguo Sub-Sector include the Celestial Heralds Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, the Zhonghua 3rd (Infantry), 4th (Infanty-Penal), 6th (Infantry), 77th (Armored), 313th (Artillery), and 588th (Artillery) Regiments. Nominally, the Celestial Heralds maintain a force disposition in compliance with the Codex Astartes, with a disproportionate quantity of biker troops, but in practice they are heavily integrated with the Astra Militarum, dispersed as small shock squads embedded in the larger army.

Formally, the sector is governed by an advisory council of Eunuchs, but informally they rule in close consultation with the chapter master of the Celestial Heralds. The Lord General of the Astra Militarum in the sub-sector has a seat in sub-sector governance as well, but his voice has been neutered for centuries by reliance on the Eunuchs' supplies and reverence for the Astartes chapter master.

This system has raised more than a few eyebrows among outsiders visiting the sub-sector, but as they have been consistently Tithe-paying and export imperial regiments on a regular basis, the diplomats who represent the Great Purity sub-sector government to the Administratum have managed to keep most major offices filled with Zhonghua natives. The recent troubles may see and end to this, however, and a long look into the internal affairs of a people who are by now quite used to doing things in their own idiosyncratic fashion.