Percipre
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Name: | Percipre | 
|
| Segmentum: | Segmentum Obscurus[1] | ||
| Sector: | Calixis Sector[1] | ||
| Subsector: | Hazeroth Abyss[1] | ||
| System: | |||
| Population: | |||
| Affiliation: | Imperium[1] | ||
| Class: | Agri World[1] | ||
| Tithe Grade: | |||
Percipre is a rather cold and inhospitable world which is nevertheless teeming with life.[1]
Contents
History
Percipre was once a famous Garden World which was extensively terraformed some time before Imperial records pertaining to the Calixis Sector began - possibly as far back as the Dark Age of Technology. Enormous machines provided a lush environment famed for its fertility. However, in a later age, the knowledge to maintain the Great Engines was lost, and the planet's inhabitants were forced to turn to more primitive means as their world's atmosphere began to leach off in to space. As a result much of Percipre's surface is covered by vast gas-tight glasshouses constructed from great panes held in ornate wrought iron frameworks. Within these gothic edifices, most large enough for a Titan to walk erect, row after row of foodstuffs grow in hydroponics beds, tended by massed ranks of faceless servitors. The planet's atmosphere is very thin, much like Mars pre-terraforming. Smallish polar caps of dirty ice. There are no large bodies of water aside from decorative lakes in the larger glasshouses.[1]
Alien Flora and Fauna
The world's biota was completely replaced during the terraforming process. In the millennia since the construction of the glasshouses, complex ecosystems have grown up within them. This has led to the abandonment of large segments of the network as infestation by hostile xenoforms (including pests such as Pyrrusian Dire-Slugs or Catachan Bind-Weed) has made permanent habitation of these areas impossible. Teams armed with flamers and defoliants regularly cleanse such areas, though the strains grow back with aggressive speed and tenacity. Despite this, many expeditions are launched in to lost areas, either to harvest valuable plants growing in ancient, immoveable support beds or to search for valuable species forgotten for centuries.[1]
Government
The planet is effectively a bio-Forge World, operated by the Adeptus Mechanicus Collegia Biologica. Advanced principles of Biological Technomancy are used to produce massive crop yields from the limited space available. Engineered crop strains are grown in hydroponics support beds, tended by Mechanicus Servitors and watched over by Bio Priests of the collegia. Such an interest in biotechnology is considered somewhat heretical by other factions within the Adeptus Mechanicus, although the world has so far proved to valuable to be moved against directly. (See Organicists) Pagan cults are rumoured to worship primal gods in the depths of the domed forests.[1]
The Planetary Governor is the Grand Horticulturalist, Magos Biologis Hessayon. He is first of a council of the Magi who control sections of the glasshouse network, and his control is limited within those regions controlled by other factions as they are universally very protective of their methodologies and breeding programs.[1]
Defences
As a critical resource producer, Percipre is vigorously defended by the planets it supplies, from both Xenos raiders and rival Imperial factions who covet the wealth it generates. There are also a number of dug in AT guns and Heavy Stubber nests to be found throughout the greenhouse complexes, often ominously positioned around an entrance to a long-neglected area.[1]
Conflicts
Some agri-servitors retain or regenerate enough personality to rebel against their overlords. They constantly launch raids to disrupt the Grand Horticulturalist's regime and liberate their fellow servitors. Tens of thousands of years of Ultra Intensive Horticulture has bred weeds and diseases resistant to even the most lethal toxins available to the Imperium. While bombardment with nerve gas is still enough to control most pests, many must be cleansed manually with fire and plasma. Constant fighting occurs between followers of rival Bio-Magi as they attempt to steal or disrupt other factions' crops. More mundane conflicts between Percipre's inhabitants also occur regularly, such as grizzled chem-poisoned veterans of the pest control fronts arguing with farming aesthetic specialists over whether it will be possible to hold the southern beds long enough for certain rare flowers to bloom.[1]
Economy
The entire planet's economy is dedicated to maintaining the glasshouses and producing crops for export.[1]
- Principle Exports: Percipre exports vast quantities of foodstuffs and other organic products. Nega-Wheat grown in the glasshouses forms the staple diet of several hives, while Praxian-Ironwood from its arboreta is an important building material across the sector. Drugs and stimulants extracted from exotic plant species are important in many fields, including medicine and combat-enhancement, and are greatly desired by decadent noblemen or by certain Imperial Guard regiments who are prepared to experiment with these forms of Stimm.[1]
- Principle Imports: Principle imports include organic matter to replace soil nutrients and workers for conversion to agri-servitors.[1]
Planetary Data[1]
- Equatorial Circumference: 13,000 Miles.
- Gravity: 0.4G (Terran standard inside glasshouse networks)
- Satellites: Percipre is orbited by three small captured asteroids, fortified as bastions.
- Population: Mostly servitors. Other denizens, include: Supervisors, Enginseers, Bio-Priests and unenhanced peasants. Some live in semi-independent communities in remote, forgotten glasshouses.
- Mean Surface Temperature: -45°C (though inside the glasshouse networks the temperature is much higher).
- Tropospheric Composition: Carbon Dioxide 95.72%, Nitrogen 2.7%, Argon 1.6%, Oxygen 0.2%, Carbon Monoxide, 0.07% Water Vapor 0.03%, Nitric Oxide 0.01%
- Breathable inside the glasshouse networks: Nitrogen 70%, Oxygen 25%, Carbon Dioxide 2.5%, Argon 1%, Ozone 1%, traces of Methane, Xenon, Krypton, Water Vapour and Fomaldehyde
See Also
Sources
- 1: Black Industries' Calixis Sector: Percipre (saved archive page, dated 6 June 2008, last accessed 9 July 2024)
