Neo-Terra Secundus

Type: Civilized World
Orbital Period: 1.68 Earth Year
Day Length: 28 Earth Hours
Average Surface Temp: 25 °C
Surface Gravity: 1.1 g
Mass: 4.895 Earth Masses
Satellites: Luna Delta & Luna Epsilon


Capital: Neo Singapore
Population: 64,700,000 (Estimated)


GEOGRAPHY & CLIMATE

A super earth with similar composition to that of Holy Terra in bygone ages, Neo-Terra Secundus is a planet with moderately rich resources.   It is five times the size of the Holy Terra and situated within habitable zone of its star.  This meant that the planet had very varied zones on the planet itself.

The equator itself is scorching hot.   Deep canyons where water once flowed formed valleys.  Deserts stretch for thousands of miles wide and forming an equatorial desert band around the planet itself.  The night here is exceedingly cold and harsh.  It is here where some of the toughest and hardiest creatures eke out their living.  The most dangerous of these are sand worm, these massive armored arthropods lie deep beneath the sand and ambushes its prey by bursting out from the ground.  It will devour anything that it comes across, even industrial vehicles and tanks have been lost to this behemoth. 

On the edge of the equatorial desert band are hot and humid tropical jungles.  Filled with vicious and hostile indigenous life forms.  Ranging from parasitic nematodes that can burrow through cloth and skin, insects that carry various deadly pathogens, carnivores plants and deadly predators.
Yet this did not deter human colonist from trying to tame the jungle.  With the aid of the Imperial Swords Space Marines, the colonist managed to set up a few settlements here.   But for most part, the jungles are the training grounds for the local military force as well as the Space Marines.

Going further away from the equator and beyond the jungles.  The climate becomes much more bearable and milder.   Filled with rich alluvial plains and temperate rain forests.   It is here the majority of colonist settlements are found.  The rich plains soon put to use as agricultural center for the planet.   Excess produce are shipped off the planet to supply other Imperial worlds.  This land is also home to the mega fauna of the planet, most which are placid herbivores now domesticated by the colonist.  The carnivores predators have mostly been driven to extinction by the colonist.

 Further north lies cold temperate forests and mountains.  The land here are rich in minerals needed for construction of Structures, starships and tanks used by the Imperium.  Mining settlements are established to exploit such natural resources.  Deep within the forest are large and deadly predators that could easily kill a men.   Making this another training ground for the soldiers as well as neophyte space marines.

Venturing even further are polar regions which experiences very little to no sunlight.  This meant that the region is kept in almost in perpetual darkness and temperatures are exceedingly cold.  Strong winds sometimes carry warmer air from the south into the north.  Such interactions often result in extremely violent storms.

Yet despite this, hardy life forms prevail - some of which are dangerous predators extremely hostile to non native species.
The seas and oceans of are quite varied.   The changes in temperature are mild in some and very extreme in others.  Resulting in some very stormy seas and volatile weather.  Whereas some other parts are frigidly tranquil.   These large bodies of water harbour a huge diverse range of marine life form.  Of which several species are edible and very palatable.   However it is not without danger, large amphibious creatures prowl the coastal regions while the marine animals of gigantic proportions lurk beneath the seas.

Very few settlements exist within the polar region and most of these are located closer to mountainous regions bordering the temperate forests where temperature a barely tolerable.  


CULTURE

The cultures and traditions of the human settlers on Neo-Terra Secundus are quite varied.  The humans from the original Neo-Terra itself consist of many cultures and ethnicity preserved from earlier days of Holy Terra in much more ancient times before the Dark Age of Technology.


Each of these cultures belong to a distinct house.  From the Pan-Asian Coalition, to Yndonesia Bloc, Oceanic Alliance, United Federation, Pan European Front, United Arab Leagues and lastly the Del Santos Combine.  The nobles from these houses periodically compete with each other for trading rights or property rights.  Although such freedom comes with a price, these merchants are expected to pay a portion of their earning as taxes to Imperial government.  It is also considered a great honor should any of the male heirs of these houses be selected to become a Space Marine.

The 2nd and subsequent waves of settlers also brought the culture of their original homeworld.   Some were feral tribes taken from feral death worlds.  Placed into some of the most inhospitable environments found on the planet.

The others were from other already colonized but overpopulated worlds. 



GOVERNMENT

The planet governed by both the planetary governor and Chapter Master of the Imperial Swords Space Marine Chapter.

Members of the Adeptus Arbites serves to reinforce the laws of the Imperium while the Adeptus Sororitas see to the needs of the faithful.   Crime is relatively low and intervention from the either the Arbites or Sororitas is called in toe settle dispute between the houses.

While the Astra Militarum serves as the Planet's primary defense force, consisting mostly of locals.

Imperial Swords: Chanced Discovery

Imperial Swords patrol consisting of Strike Cruiser "Murasame" and several frigates picked up a distress beacon deep in space.   Fearing that history would repeat itself, the Imperial Swords took extra precaution to avoid the tragedy that struck their chapter half a century ago.

Brother Sergeant Zheng Ho, agreed to volunteer his frigate for the scouting mission.   Approaching the coordinates, they discovered that it was a derelict space hulk orbiting close to a brown dwarf in a desolate star system devoid of any planets.  Adjusting the frigate to compensate for the gravity of the brown dwarf, a few brave space marines including Brother Sergeant Zheng Ho prepared to board the space hulk.  

Performing a initial scan of the vessel, they found that the vessel had sustained significant damage, with the structural integrity of the space vessel compromised with several areas of the ship unaccessible.  It would require an arduous and time consuming process of using mag boots to traverse on the exterior of the ship to access the areas that are closed off.  They also discovered some parts of the ship that is still emitting power signatures, some which are beyond their reach.

The Sergeant then led this team onto the space hulk.  Upon entry, they discovered that there has been a battle within the vessel itself.  The corridors were strewn with debris and wreckage floating in the weightless environment.   The walls were also riddled with many holes that could only have been caused by boltgun shells.  Scorched sections of the wall with metal fused together indicated that plasma and melta weaponry was also utilized.  

Assessing the risks and the time that they had.  The Sergeant decided to led his team towards the closest and most accessible area still emanating the power signature.   After plowing through the wreckage, they came across the bridge.  Within it was the corpse of several Space Marines encased within Black Power Armor along with their the human support staff floating in the weightless environment.   Most of them still clutching to their weapons.  Yet no sign of the attackers or remains of the attackers were found. 

It turns out the power signature detected was actually the distress beacon.   The remaining power signatures lay beyond the reach of the team.  Realizing that they will need more time and additional support to conduct a thorough investigation.   Brother Sergeant Zheng Ho led his team back to the frigate to report to his superiors.

Not long later, the frigate was joined by the rest of the patrol along with the Strike Cruiser "Murasame".  Together they begin the process of towing the derelict space hulk away from the brown dwarf's gravity field to another location which the Imperial Swords can conduct their investigation safely.  

Now with additional support, the Imperial Swords renew their investigation on the derelict space hulk.  The 1st team was sent back to the bridge to try and extract any data from the ship's logs as well as act as command point.  The 2nd team explored the areas within the space hulk to gather as much information as they could.  The 3rd team used their mag boots to traverse to areas emanating power signatures that are inaccessible from within the space hulk itself. 

Not too long after the 2nd and 3rd team begin their exploration into the space hulk, they begin to encounter strange creatures that they have no seen before.  The creature is a massive bulbous head with multiple tentacles, upon sensing the Space Marines it unleashed devastating psychic attack on them.   Soon the radio was filled with combat chatter, sounds of boltguns rattling off and impact explosions caused by the bolter shells.  More and more of these creatures appeared out of nowhere and begin to assail the Space Marines. 

After several hours of battling the unknown xenos, the Imperial Swords took severe casualties.   Most were scouts that have completed their training and received their power armor for the first time.
Eager to prove their worth despite their relative inexperience, the Space Marines fought on bravely.

Eventually reinforcements from nearby frigates was dispatched to support the 3rd team while the 1st team moved to aid the 2nd team. Accompanying the reinforcements were Chief Librarian Davros Gremmell, who used his psychic abilities to bolster the psychic defense of his brother marines.

The tide eventually turned and the strange xenos was eradicated.   The Imperial Swords are finally able to continue their investigation.

After several days of investigation the Imperial Swords discovered that the space hulk was battle
 barge "Blades of Redemption" belonging to their predecessor chapter the Sword Angels.    According to Imperial records, the Sword Angels Space Marine chapter existed some 1000 years ago and was stationed near the Eye of Terror.
The Chapter sustained significant casualties throughout the years and was already considered under typical chapter strength.  The "Blades of Redemption" was actually en-route from Mars to Sword Angels fortress monastery "The Cathedral of Swords" carrying gene seeds to rebuild the chapter before disappearing completely.   And the alien xenos that the Imperial Swords encountered are the deadly aliens known as the Enslavers.


Piecing together bits and pieces of information found in the space hulk and the ship's log.  The investigators surmise that the "Blades of Redemption" was attacked by unknown assailants while traveling back to the Fortress Monastery.  The crew aboard the "Blades of Redemption" entered warp jump prematurely before the Gellar field could be activated.  Which allowed the Enslavers assume psychic control of the crew aboard the vessel.

What happened next became evident.   The Enslavers and their possessed slaves fought against those who were not possessed.  Causing even more damage to the space vessel and subsequently causing it to be lost in the warp.  Eventually the "Blades of Redemption" was thrown out of the warp into an unknown and unpopulated region of space.  And has been drifting in the void of space ever since then.

However this was not to be all...  The 3rd team had managed to venture into an area of the space hulk still emanating power signature.   There they discovered, ten Space Marines that are placed in stasis as well as the stock of gene seed that was intended for the Sword Angels still meticulously preserved.

Amongst the ten space marines remaining, one of them is the techmarine Codon Corix responsible for keeping the machines working.  The other was Salrun Elm, the apocthecary responsible for ensuring gene seeds are properly preserved and recovering the gene seeds from those battle brothers who died in the battle aboard the "Blades of Redemption".

Considering that the Sword Angels was already declared lost or destroyed some 500 years ago.  The Imperial Swords absorbed the remnants of their predecessor chapter into their ranks.  The newly acquired gene seed will mean more recruits for the Chapter.

While the surviving Space Marines tasked with the investigation has also grown stronger through combat experience.

Imperial Swords: A New Beginning

Some fifty years have passed since the Imperial forces first began to colonized the planet they dubbed as Neo-Terra Secundus.   With Rogue Trader House Castellan ever expanding the borders of Imperial Space, setting new trade routes, trading partners and discovering ancient worlds.

There has been a steady influx of new waves of Imperial colonists, merchants and expeditionary forces using Neo-Terra Secundus as a stopover or staging point.   As a result, the colony has expanded greatly over the years.  With new settlements being established by the colonist after subduing the indigenous hostile life forms. 

Various infrastructure was also set-up to help support the expansion of Imperial forces from this system into neighboring star systems.  Such growth also meant that there is now a much bigger population. 

The Imperial Swords has served Rogue Trader House Castellan faithfully in the past five decades.  Serving as vanguard to the exploration force as well as personnel bodyguard to the head of House Castellan.   The current head Valorem Castellan has saw fit to reward Imperial Sword's faithful service with the joint governorship of Neo-Terra Secundus. 
It seems fitting as the first wave of colonist was largely made up of Neo-Terrans who were extremely grateful to the Imperial Swords for rescuing them from Tyranid splinter fleet many decades ago.

As such a large majority of the population were descendants of the Neo-Terrans who welcomed the Imperial Swords as their Joint Governor and Protector.  To have their first sons chosen to be trained as a space marine earns each family great honor and respect amongst the population.

The recruitment base established many decades ago now serves to screen potential candidates.  Candidates that are found physically fit and meeting the criteria are sent for training in another Imperial Swords training camp for some years.

There the candidates will be assessed and those who are found suitable are moved to another Imperial Swords facility where they will finally undergo organ implantation to transform them into Space Marines. 

The candidates that fail the trial and are found not suitable to become Space Marines are given a 2nd chance to join as trainees of the local PDF.   Those display exemplary performance usually inducted into the Tempetus Militarum. 

Despite the large numbers of potential candidates.  Not many passed the trials, Imperial Military Observers note that the Imperial Swords requirements are extremely demanding and stringent.  Even more so than other Space Marine Chapters.   A rather peculiar practice given that the Imperial Swords are functioning well below combat strength.

As a result the Imperial Swords remain cautious and would not readily involve themselves in a protracted battle without support from allied contingents such as Astra Militarum and Adeptus Sororitas or other Chapters of Adeptus Astartes.  So far they are content with small scale engagements and ship boarding actions.