Polarnus Station
| Name | Polarnus Station |
|---|---|
| |
| Sub-Sector | Tenebris |
| Type | Space Station |
| Population | approx. 150 million |
| Climate | Artificial |
| Status | Imperial |
“I found it a noisy, overpeopled sort of place; much like a Hive World but with none of the quaint historical charm. There is an excellent restaurant on level Omega-16 with stunning viewscreens overlooking the asteroid belt. The Epsilon sector was rather too full of the servants of the Machine-God for my liking, all bare metal and no taste for proper interior decoration; we did not linger there. The guards on the hydroponics complex lack a sense of humour.” – Travel Diary of Lucius di Firro, 545.M41
About Polarnus Station
The origins of Polarnus Station are lost to sector legend. The station is in a stable orbit around a star which boasts no habitable worlds, but a vast series of asteroid fields in orbital belts which suggest some ancient disaster struck the system. Polarnus itself is a massive asteroid, hollowed out by some ancient beings or powers unknown into a honeycombed series of sealed chambers and passageways the size of a Hive-continent.
Polarnus has been continuously inhabited as far back as records of the Prosperitas Sector go. Its importance in the Sector comes from a number of factors, including its position close to the tri-subsector boundary, the presence of high natural deposits of iron, adamantium and aeschinyte in the nearby asteroid belts, and the massive hollowed-out bays on the dark side of the station allowing the ingress of ships up to Grand Cruiser size for maintenance and dry dock repair.
The asteroid was originally governed by a cabal of merchant princes, who fought amongst themselves for power and position. With the arrival of the Prosperitas Crusade, the ruling merchant prince capitulated immediately and unquestioningly at the arrival of Imperial forces in 055.M41, upholding a long reputation for being willing to sell anything and everything on the Station to the highest bidder. As a result of their compliance, the inhabitants of Polarnus station were permitted to go about their business largely untroubled, so long as they continued to supply and outfit Imperial forces.
In the centuries since the arrival of the Crusade, an uneasy power-sharing agreement existed between Crusade High Command, the ruling Governor (often tied to local semi-criminal cabals such as the Blue Fin Syndicate), and the Magos of the local Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood. This balance of power shifted radically in the wake of an Archenemy seizure and protracted siege from 592-593.M41, and the station is now firmly under the control of the Crusade Commandant, Admiral Denita Chandier.
The Adeptus Mechanicus arrived in their droves in the last centuries to oversee mining in the system, accomplish vital repairs to the Battlefleet Prosperitas fleet, and investigate the rumours of ancient archaeotech devices hidden at the heart of the labyrinthine asteroid. They were once presided over by a single Archmagos, but with the aftermath of the seige of Prosperitas this form of leadership has evaporated as the Mechanicus enclaves on the station serve Crusade needs primarily while occasionally pursuing archaeotech finds.
The two areas which any Polarnian will take great pleasure in telling a new visitor about are the hydroponics complex and the supposed “missing levels”. The hydroponics complex is a masterwork of ancient engineering, much of it poorly understood even by the priests of the Cult Mechanicum. It comprises an artificial garden the size of a respectable country estate, modelled after the terrain of an Agri world, complete with trees, paths, an artificial holosky and semi-randomised atmospheric controls simulating planetary weather. This artificial landscape has been extensively bioengineered to produce oxygen and water recycling for the majority of the asteroid, and is a Mechanicus-designated Area of Outstanding Artificial Beauty besides. Entry to the complex is strictly controlled by Skitarii guardians. Rumours of sightings of strange humanoid beasts are ruthlessly suppressed by the complex’s custodians.
The “missing levels” are an old spacer’s tale – supposedly, ancient blueprints of the asteroid show the maps of levels Omega-1 through Omega-13. However, any regular visitor to Polarnus will happily tell you that the Omega levels begin at 14, with nothing but solid rock above. Anyone who thinks differently is clearly mad, or a liar.
The Siege of Polarnus - 592.M41
In 592, after a few hours of sudden Warp phenomena at the edge of the nearby Tenebris Arm, the warp-storm disgorged the main body of the Weeping Eye warfleet, Crusade High Command were caught off-guard. Having thought the warband had been committed in entirety to the Kelper Prime campaign; Fleet Intelligence had vastly underestimated the size of the Warband’s fleet.
Arnkatla Tain, Herforingi of the Weeping Eye, accomplished what no Archenemy commander had done in the years since the Lash of the Eye: she successfully crossed the border of the Eye on the edge of the Polarnus Nebula, and plunged a fleet of vessels right into the heart of Crusade High Command, and into the iron gauntlet of the spheres of overlapping defences around the station.
Hundreds of carefully laid minefields and servitor-slaved turrets completely failed to function against the foul tide of Archenemy warships. Before Imperial Forces understood what was going on, the servitor-slaved weapons on the station traversed in their mounts and turned upon loyalist ships. Within the space of minutes, over sixteen ships were destroyed, and twenty others or more were crippled, caught between the heavy guns of the Archenemy Warfleet and the betrayal of their defences.
Although brave Imperial Guard void-suited counter-attacks on the compromised defences minimised losses, it was apparent that Polarnus was going to fall. Though many Imperial civilians, including the local Trade Syndicates and the refugee communities of Caudica Secundus refused to surrender their homes, the body of Crusade High Command began a mass evacuation of the station.
The defiance of local forces trapped on the station led to the propagation of the saying Polarnus Stands amongst those on the station which would later be adopted by Crusade Forces as a whole. It was Sarina Khan, then Grand Admiral of the Battlefleet Prosperitas, who masterminded the military operations to retake the planet, but agents of the Holy Ordos successfully infiltrated the station and aided in its retaking from the Weeping Eye in 593.M41.
Able to wrestle control of the Station from the Archenemy Heretek creation that had taken over its systems, Inquisitorial forces were able to install a loyal Machine Spirit to Govern the Station in the form of the mind of a Knight-frame of House Qureshi called Şahmaran that had been recovered. This new Machine-sprit of the station has shaped it after the successful retaking of the vessel.
Recent History
In the aftermath of the siege, and the actions of the characters who liberated the station, events firmly swung Polarnus into the hands of the Crusade - while it was already the centre of Crusade Operations before the siege, it is now the heart and soul of the Crusade. The native Polarnans alongside immigrant populations like the Caudicans have almost entirely found their businesses focused on servicing the Crusade’s needs. With the Blue Fin Syndicate largely decimated in the siege, new Guilds have risen to meet the needs of the Crusade - though many older Caudicans, who bear the bitter scars of the Exterminatus of their world, resent this invasive military presence, there are still younger generations eager to exploit opportunities for wealth or in service to the Crusade.
During the ongoing campaign to purge the last enemy holdouts from the darker levels, new arrivals came in the form of a family-tribe of the abhuman Raivans, who lost a brother and son to the siege, and who have pledged their services to hunting down what remains of the Archenemy on the station.
No longer ruled by a triumvirate, the station’s rule comes under Station Commandant Admiral Chandier who has done her best to balance the concerns of the civilian population with the needs of the Crusade.
The station seems to have survived the Silence of 595-7.M41 in remarkably good order. As Crusade vessels began to limp home from their isolated Salients, one clear message is broadcast across the fleet: Polarnus Stands. Not only did the heart of the Crusade survive the Silence without starving itself, the vessels there have by all accounts refitted and recrewed in unusually good order; the period without transit in and out has been used to reconstruct the emplaced defences and purge some of the nastier mutant, criminal and Weeping Eye holdouts from the station’s darker corners.