Lachesis
A system in the Graiae Sub-sector containing a number of habitable worlds. The system capital is Lachesis Prime, orbiting Lachesis B. The system is one of the three Graiae stars, also known as the three sisters, a trio of bright stars often used in local navigation.
The system is strategically important as it lies on the only stable warp route connecting the Eridani Sector to the rimward Achernar Sector.
+++TRAVEL ADVISORY: ACTIVE WARZONE, LEGIONES TRAITORIS+++
Current warzone status
Warzone rules of engagement
History
425.M36: Initial Settlement
The system was an Imperial colony from its founding, starting with Lachesis Prime in 425.M36. Mild terraforming and geo-editing was performed on Sudhata from 504.M36-579.M36. Inama's mineral wealth was unexplored due to a poorly executed geological survey, a mistake only rectified in 782.M38.
Due to the system's Imperial origins, a neo-feudal governmental system has been present from the start, with trading houses enjoying connections to Achernar and Eridani holding great influence to this day.
The Word Bearers' Invasion
As a system strategically placed on a key warp route with a higher than average number of psykers, the planet was a tempting target for the forces of Chaos. The Word Bearers, never before seen in the region, raided Lachesis Prime with the intention of paving the way for a larger invasion. The Raid on Lachesis was repulsed, giving the Imperium a few short years in which to prepare their defences.
When scattered elements of the Word Bearers' armada began to arrive eighteen months later, they were met with ships from both Battlefleet Achernar and Battlefleet Eridani. While the Word Bearers and their allies were able to land troops on all three inhabited planets orbiting Lachesis B, the well-prepared Imperial lines, bolstered by the Cobalt Scions, mostly held against the initial assaults.
Initial engagements in the War on Lachesis
The first assault on the Nova Hevanos Perimeter
Word Bearers forces assault the perimeter defences of Nova Hevanos, Lachesis Prime's capital city. Lord Khoura's force smashes the Planetary Defence Force garrison and seeks to gain entry into the tunnel network containing the local command bunker. The Cobalt Scions prevent him consolidating his gains, and his army is forced into retreat just as Khoura himself gains access to the tunnels. Injured by Atalus, Khoura escapes into the tunnel, pursued by Codicier Tolemias and his brothers. The Word Bearers soon send reinforcements to rescue their lord, but are repulsed, leaving Khoura to navigate the vast tunnel network with an equal parts mix of solitude and belligerence. He eventually finds a sufficiently poorly guarded exit several days later, and emerges in an advanced state of fury.
Psyker Abductions by the Night Lords
The Thirteenth Talon make their move, having infiltrated Lachesis Prime in advance of the Word Bearers' arrival. Despite an intercession by Host Taliesin, a temporary camp of psykers is emptied of its precious inhabitants and taken away by the heretics.
Void war at the Mandeville Point
With the Word Bearers' armada scattered by their long journey through the warp, Imperial Navy flotillas engage them in numerous meeting engagements in an attempt to hamper the Word Bearers' need to consolidate their vessels into a larger, more coordinated fleet. In one such engagement, the Battlefleet Achernar cruiser Gambit makes precise use of its nova cannon to cripple the Word Bearers cruisers Carnodon and Violation of Reason.
Traitors Thwarted at Thadaka
A joint force of Cobalt Scions and House Ulfir, led by Chapter Master Tiberius Drusus, engage and destroy a Word Bearers force attempting to thin the empyric veil outside Lachesis Prime's second city. Drusus defeats both a master of possession and a Night Lords sorcerer in personal combat (with "some assistance" from his personal bodyguard) while House Ulfir are engaged by one of their own, a long-lost traitor named Kaldr. House Ulfir take severe damage, and the Cobalt Scions lose multiple armoured assets, but the traitors' plans are averted.
The Alpha Legion arrive
At the moment the flotilla from Battlefleet Achernar finally converge on the Word Bearers carrier Mortis Lux, simultaneous mutinies occurr aboard the Pride of Machadon and its frigates. The mutinous guns cripple the Lunar class cruiser Triumph and, with alarming precision, destroy the bridge of the Intemperance, killing Commodore Drennik and leaving the Imperial fleet in disarray. Prior to cutting all communications with the Navy vessels, the Pride sends a single transmission on all vox frequencies: "Hydra Dominatus."
The Mortis Lux escapes with only minor damage, and the remnants of Battlefleet Achernar's flotilla withdraw in disgrace. The engagement puts the Word Bearers in a dominant position for the first time in the naval war.
Thadaka devastated by daemonic incursion
Khorneate daemons emerge on the ground below Khairon's Eye, a Word Bearers cruiser built around a giant octed. With the veil temporarily thinned, neverborn cause havoc, and an attempt by the Cobalt Scions and Raven Guard to contain the situation fails. The careful fortifying efforts previously made in the city are utterly reversed, and the city left vulnerable to assault.
The fight for Sudhata begins
Word Bearers forces land on the agri-world of Sudhata and attempt a blasphemous ritual in the Chapel of Saint Helene. Their endeavour is thwarted by a joint force of Cobalt Scions and the Order of Our Martyred Lady, the latter of whom force Khairon from the chapel with a barrage of missiles, keen to destroy the building before they see it sullied by witchcraft.
Locations
Lachesis Prime
The system capital is a civilised world boasting a range of biomes. Its population growth is stagnant, and like other worlds in this subsector, a higher than average number of psykers emerge in the population. To handle this, nascent psykers were housed in one of three towers. These towers were destroyed by the forces of chaos during the Raid on Lachesis, and temporary camps have had to be created to manage newly emergent psykers, leaving many with security concerns.
Kulunu Province
The home of many Lachesian noble families, the region's expansive agri-estates stretch outwards from the coastal cities. Eventually the fields of the estates give way to a variety of habitats, including forests and heathland. The estates themselves are heavily reliant on poorly paid farm labourers who are rightly beginning to suspect that the industrial methods being used to harvest the crops are beginning to cause ecosystem collapse. As yet, none of the ruling families have been willing to be the first to accept a reduction in profits, since it would reduce their influence in the financial markets of Nova Hevanos.
Capital city: Nova Hevanos
As a major seaport and starport, Nova Hevanos boasts substantial financial services for traders moving through the system. Historic treaties allow some noble families to operate their own excise depot even after the construction of Port Magellus in M39. The comparative lack of oversight from the Adeptus Terra has resulted in some trading practices that fall short of the standards expected of noble families, and even some investigations by both the Arbites and the Ordos. Despite this, the political damage of cancelling the excise treaties has kept them in place.
Second city: Thadaka
Once referred to as the Green Maze, Thadaka is at the southernmost edge of the province, spread along the tropical coastline. Torrential rains meant that people were only permitted to pave over 50% of the surface, as soil absorption was needed to prevent flooding. This resulted in brutalist Imperial architecture interspersed with plentiful lush greenery even in central districts. During the Word Bearers' invasion, the city was subjected to a daemonic incursion in which much of the city's population were massacred. Following the Word Bearers' defeat, there are no plans to rebuild the city. Instead, the defences built around it prior to the invasion are now used to keep watch in case anything should try to escape the city.
Miduma Province
One of Lachesis Prime's more arid regions, Miduma Province boasts much of the planet's manufacturing capacity. Nobles who own manufactories in this region will often reside in Nova Hevanos, visiting infrequently, and largely numb to the conditions in which the workers live so long as the goods keep flowing out on time. Some attempts and collective labour action occurred in 780.M41 and 822.M41, but were brutally put down by the Planetary Defence Force. Conditions also vary from one manufactory to another, with workers sometimes bribing factory overseers to effectively emigrate from one giga-factory to another. When nobles become aware that one with better working conditions is "stealing" (i.e. attracting) labour from others, this can result in clandestine corporate wars featuring worker abductions and even assassination attempts on rival nobles, but such strife has never become widespread enough to attract serious retribution from the Planetary Governor, other than in 957.M40, in which Governor Frand chastised House Chun for forcibly abducting three thousand labourers overnight from House Frayne. Chun settled the matter by returning 50% of the workforce alongside a substantial fiscal offering. Financial commentators noted a subsequent drop in productivity by both houses due to 'workforce agitation,' but no efforts were ever made to reunite families split by the event, as the administrative burden was considered financially unviable.
Following the arrival of the Cobalt Scions during the Raid on Lachesis, Chapter Master Tiberius Drusus noted the state of the workforce in this province, and dispatched various Praetors to suggest alternative governance methods that would increase productivity and efficiency by improving treatment of the workers. While Houses Frayne, Nurul and Halima have implemented some of these suggestions, most flatly ignored it. As yet, it is too early to tell if the three adopters will enjoy any long-term benefits to the costs they have incurred. For the most part, taking trade advice from a military figure has been met with scorn.
Haeka Province
The wealth of promethium deposits beneath the tundra, boreal forests and ice flows of this southern expanse has resulted in a great deal of industry, despite the harsh climate. Haekans consider 'northers' to be a soft lot.
Sudhata
An agri world with geno-adapted crops designed to survive the partial night of its planetary ring shadows. It exports food across the wider subsector via its vast orbital, Port Magellus.
Port Magellus
The system's largest orbital, built between 402.M39 and 488.M39. Magellus serves as an excise depot, monitoring cargo travelling the warp route connecting the Archernar and Eridani sectors. Failure to post a route map indicating a stop at this port can flag a vessel as subject to impounding by the Eridani and Achernar shipping authorities.
As an isolated Adeptus Terra facility, the port is largely free of the influence of local politics, and is not subject to the rulership of Sudhata's Planetary Governor. Sudhata, in turn, is dependent on the port as its primary means of exporting its produce.
Inama
A mining colony for various rare earth elements. There are small orbital platforms to which shipping containers are attached, and then collected by system ships bound for either Lachesis Prime or Port Magellus.