Hatross

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**Hatross** is a Forge World in the Ultima Segmentum. Located within the Tayargund Reaches, it sat close to the fortress system of Katorz and enjoyed a close alliance as a result, equipping their Solar Auxilia. Its ruling synod also forged ties with the Fire Keepers and Halcyon Wardens, chiefly supplying them with warships. In the Wars of Expansion that followed the start of the Icarion Insurrection, it would be besieged after the Sack of Katorz and later conquered by the vengeful Kelbor-Hal, becoming the seat of the renegade Mechanicum's high priest.

## History

The Insurrection first came to Hatross in the form of an embassy from Kelbor Hal, borne in an Akiran Warp-runner. The ambassadors issued both demands for Hatross' priests to do their duty to the Fabricator-General, and offered them STCs withheld from the wider Mechanicum.

However, Hatross was a Forge World bound up closely with the Great Crusade, and devoted as much to the ideals of Unity as it was to the Omnissian cult. Moreover, events elsewhere worked against Martian-Akiran embassy. Hatross’ governing synod had received word of the situation on Mars, where the Warmaster’s forces were advancing on Olympus Mons. Kelbor Hal, they concluded, was no longer Fabricator-General in substance or spirit, and as such his representatives were hereteks and subversives. Sentence was passed immediately, and carried out with vortex torpedoes.

## Seizure by Kelbor Hal

The outbreak of the Insurrection saw the traitors make sweeping advances through the Commena Cluster and against Ysta. The region around Hatross was exposed, leading to the Sack of Katorz by Icarion Anasem.

At the same time, the Insurrectionist faction in the Schism of Mars had fared much worse. Kelbor Hal had ultimately been overthrown, driven from the Red World with his armies in tatters. Now he was acutely vulnerable, and sought a new stronghold from which to rebuild his power. Hatross, supplying the Legions which had done so much to break his grip on Mars, would know his wrath.

Backed by the Harbingers, Kelbor Hal gathered his forces and marched on Hatross. Prefect Rohrbach of the Halcyon Wardens continued to defend the embattled world, but neither he nor the Priesthood of Hatross could withstand the Fabricator-General’s onslaught. Hatross burned and becomes the new stronghold of Kelbor-Hal, now supplying Icarion’s drive towards Terra. During this time most of Icarion’s forces were engaged in imposing his rule upon the territory he has claimed, while the Loyalists raced to rearm and gird themselves against the blows to come.

## The Seat of the Arch-Heretek

Kelbor Hal ordered the rebuilding of Hatross as a fortress world in its own right, and his Basilica Mechanicum was raised as a city in its own right. A towering edifice of red metal, it served as keep, manufactorum and temple, from which the Fabricator-General ruled over the Insurrectionist Mechanicum.

Representatives of those Forge Worlds loyal to Icarion were summoned to make obeisance, affirming their fealty amid surroundings meant to make it clear that Kelbor Hal's power remained, despite his exile from Mars. More ominously, those who opposed him were brought to the Basilica, and there rendered down for raw materials under the pitiless augmetic eyes of the Fabricator-General.