Hethgard

On 7252777.M41, Lord Militant Tiber Achilus began the
Achilus Crusade, emerging from the Jericho-Maw Warp
Gate and immediately pushing towards Spite, Calisi, Alphos,
Hethgard, Pyrathas, and Karlack, six worlds identified by
Achilus and his strategists before the Crusade’s outset as ideal
footholds within the Jericho Reach.
By 782.M41, the Crusade had established itself upon
Hethgard and begun the long and arduous task of fortifying
it against enemy assault, serving as the rimward flank of
the Iron Collar. Over the next four years, forces based on
Hethgard, under the command of Lord General Antevan
Creaigne, pressed forwards in fitful expeditions along the
Reach’s rimward edge.
…
Without warning, nine years after the start of the Crusade,
Lord Militant Achilus was declared dead, his flagship lost
in the Immaterium while on a routine voyage returning to
Karlack after inspecting the defences on Alphos.
…
In the aftermath of Achilus’ death, General Solomon Tetrarchus
was elevated to Lord Militant and supreme commander of
the Achilus Crusade. His first act was to gather the Crusade’s
command staff, several Astartes commanders, and other senior
Imperial officials, to an assembly now known as the Council
of Ashes. In a bold move, Tetrarchus sidelined many of
Achilus’ favoured generals, tacticians and key staff, replacing
them with those he preferred and who would support his
ambitious new strategy.
This strategy involved dividing the strength of the Crusade,
which had thus far been directed against the Tau-held worlds
in and around the Black Reef, into three distinct fronts, or
Salients. The first of these, the Canis Salient, consolidated
Imperial forces fighting to claim Tau-held worlds, while the
second, the Acheros Salient, was intended to push through
the heart of the Jericho Reach and claim the core worlds. The
third, established almost a year after the Council of Ashes
concluded, was the Orpheus Salient, which was to conquer
the rimward flank of the Reach.
…
By the time the Achilus Crusade reached Hethgard, seven
weeks after the fleet passed through the warp gate, Hethgard’s
population was divided into eleven distinct nations, eight of
which capitulated without hesitation to the Imperial forces
that appeared suddenly and menacingly in the skies above
them. The remaining three chose to defy the Imperium,
digging in and fortifying the mines beneath their cities to
stave off annihilation by orbital bombardment.
For four long years, the Imperium fought against the
entrenched population, with millions of men delving
deep into the mines from the already compliant cities to
wage war with those who refused to accept the Emperor.
…
With Hethgard claimed, its fortification could begin. After
millennia of exploitation, Hethgard’s resources were all but
depleted, as had been predicted so long ago, but mining
was not the reason the Imperium had returned to Hethgard.
The newly repatriated citizens of Hethgard were put to
work almost immediately, charged with removing the last
of their world’s mineral wealth even as the landscape was
remade around them. Hethgard’s mountains and volcanoes
were carved and shaped by the searing fire of orbital lances,
clad in massive armour plates and fitted with batteries of
macrocannon and surface-to-orbit missile silos.
By the time the Orpheus Salient was established, the
mountain fortress of Bastion Primaris was complete, and nine
hundred kilometres of tunnels had been excavated, extending
out from the fortress to reach the three nearest cities and their
mines, turning caverns into storage vaults, munitions dumps
and barracks. In addition, work had begun on both standalone
firebases across the planet, and the process of turning
the cities into secondary fortresses, an undertaking that would
take decades to complete.
Hethgard’s defences were first tested a few months later,
when a flotilla of raiders from deeper in the Reach arrived
to extort resources from the miners, as they likely had been
doing intermittently since before the Achilus Crusade began.
Unprepared to face the full might of Hethgard’s defences,
the raiders were obliterated within minutes of arriving in
orbit. Since that first assault, countless foes have attempted
to strike at Hethgard and been found lacking, but only two
instances in the decades-long history of the fortress world are
particularly noteworthy.
…
The Orks had emerged from the warp
mere hours out from Hethgard itself, dangerously close, but
avoiding the picket ships and sentry stations and granting
them a measure of surprise over the forces stationed below
...
Hethgard was regarded as a fortress second only to
Karlack in its might, but even a world that well defended
could not adequately prepare for what was to come next—
Hive Fleet Dagon.
…
No servant of the Emperor has ever set foot upon Hethgard
and felt anything but awe at the scale of what man has created
there. The fortresses of Hethgard are a monument to warfare,
a testament to the toil and labour of millions and the blood
that millions more will shed in defence of the Imperium.
Hethgard exists for one purpose: to defend the rimward
flank of the Crusade’s advance, to prevent the enemies of man
from reaching the Well of Night and the Jericho-Maw Warp
Gate within it. To that end, it has been remade as a world
fortified, with every square kilometre of its surface and many
hundreds of metres below ground devoted to the protection
of its defenders and the repulsion of an invading force.
Designed by a coterie of Divisio Tactica siege engineers
and Adeptus Mechanicus artisans, Hethgard’s fortifications
have been carefully arranged to allow for the swift and
effective detection and destruction of invaders, its structure
devised by ancient strategic lore, arcane formulae, and the
results of intensive prognostication.
…
Bastions and fireBases
The defensive benefits of a fortress are something that
will appear frequently during missions on Hethgard,
given the ubiquitous nature of fortifications across
the planet. As a result, it’s useful to know how
strong those defences are.
…
On the surface, the standard curtain walls
found on each firebase and bastion are ceramiteclad
ferrocrete, two metres thick.
…
The external gates are triple-layered plasteel
Composite…
…
Enclosed bunkers are tougher still, comprised of
three metres of plasteel-reinforced ferrocrete with
armaplas internal cladding to minimise shrapnel
from damage to the bunker.
…
Within the tunnels, the fortifications are less
substantial, but still noteworthy. The majority of
tunnels are simple bare rock, but those in secure
regions of the planet are faced in machine-fitted
slabs of rockcrete.
…
These secure sections are fitted with
defensive alcoves sufficient to conceal an Imperial
Guardsman and provide him with cover against an
aggressor, and heavy armaplas bulkhead doors to
seal off compromised sections
…
Bastion Primaris
The single largest and oldest of Hethgard’s fortresses,
Bastion Primaris is built within the hollowed out shells of
three of Hethgard’s tallest mountains, with the billions of
tonnes of rock excavated from within turned into outlying
firebases and picket-forts.
The very peak of the Bastion, 13 kilometres high, is capped
with a colossal defence laser battery, greater in magnitude
than the weaponry found aboard ancient battleships and
powered by a geothermal power plant many kilometres below
the planet’s surface. The entire complex is wreathed in many
layers of protective void shields and clad in sixty metre thick
plasteel-ceramite composite armour plate, rendering the entire
fortress nigh-impervious to assault by land or from orbit.
Within the Bastion’s immense walls are thousands of
barracks sufficient to house over a million men, armouries,
manufactories and generatoria to keep them supplied
with weapons, power and ammunition for generations,
and immense storage depots and supply vaults containing
potable water, preserved food and raw materials to supply
not only Hethgard but the conquering armies of the
Orpheus Salient as well.
Deeper within are archive crypts, shrines, the chambers of
the astropathic choir, and the strategium-maximus, designed
to serve as the command centre for both Hethgard and the
entire Orpheus Salient beyond it. The strategium-maximus
in particular is a monumental chamber, fitted with unending
rows of cogitators arranged in precise accordance with
ancient numerological and technomantic rites, and equipped
with some of the most sophisticated hololithic projectors
and vox-simulacra available. It grants a commander intricate
and precise simulations of any conceivable strategic scenario,
rendered in light and sound a hundred metres across.
…
Hethgard anchorage
Ringing the nearest of Hethgard’s three moons, the Anchorage
is a massive network of docks, hangars and cargo yards,
originally constructed to ease export of unrefined ores and
the import of necessary supplies. Shortly after the conquest
of Hethgard, a massive effort was made to reconsecrate and
expand upon the Anchorage to allow it to support the great
battlegroups and flotillas of transport ships that would soon
be a near-constant presence in the world’s orbital space.
Since that time, the Anchorage has been a hive of activity,
operating at all hours to keep hundreds of starships of all
kinds active and well supplied. Since the Tyranid assault
began, the Anchorage has been a battleground, fending off
Tyranid bio-ships while attempting to repair and rearm the
system defence ships. Heavily armed and armoured armsmen
and Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii troopers patrol the docks
and hangers, fending off the Tyranids as best they can with
flamer, shot-cannon and melta-cutter.
…
The planet has no surface water, though many subterranean reservoirs exist.
Much of the landscape is dominated by artificial structures in the form of abandoned mines and quarries, and extensive
fortifications. Beneath the surface exist tens of thousands of kilometres of tunnels and caverns, most of which are of
Imperial origin
…
Population: Estimated 338 Million
…
Military: As a fortress world, 85% of the Hethgard population is engaged in actions of a military nature or in support of
military operations. Actual military forces (as opposed to support personnel) comprise 48% of the population, consisting
primarily of Imperial Guard, with contingents of Adeptus Astartes and Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii in support, both of
which operate under their own, independent, chains of command.
…
Since its conquest, Hethgard has been a world in a constant state of change. Billions of tonnes of rock have been
excavated to form tunnels and caverns extending for kilometres beneath the surface, the rock shaped into massive
interlocking blocks according to STC designs to create an extensive network of fortresses and firebases on the surface.
The fortification of Hethgard has been ongoing since it was conquered, part of a decades-long plan devised by the finest
siege engineers and strategists in the Crusade, to create a world entirely covered in overlapping fields of observation and
fire, where no foe could make a landing without being obliterated by defensive fire from at least three fortified positions.
As of late 811.M41 the fortresses of Hethgard were deemed 70% complete, though the world has repelled numerous
assaults during the intervening years. The first and largest fortresses were established within vast mountain ranges,
sheathed in interlocking plasteel plates a metre thick and a mile across and fitted with powerful surface-to-orbit weaponry
and artillery batteries. Beneath these initial redoubts, the first tunnels and stasis-locked supply vaults were constructed,
eventually forming a labyrinth that now spans almost the entire planet.