Port Wander

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Map Basic Data Planetary Image
px Name: Port Wander PortWander OrbitalStation.png
Segmentum: Segmentum Obscurus[1a]
Sector: Calixis Sector[1a]
Subsector: Drusus Marches[1a]
System: Rubycon II System[1b] (2.55 AU orbital distance[1a])
Population: Approximately 5,000,000[4]
Affiliation: Imperium[1a]
Class: Battlefleet Orbital Station[1a]
Tithe Grade: Aptus Non[1a]

Port Wander is an Imperial Space Station orbiting on the border of the Drusus Marches. It is the last stop before the Halo Worlds.[1c][2]

History

Origins

Port Wander was founded in 917.M40 as a point of departure for investigations about vessels lost on the Drusus Marches' fringes and as a base for military operations. It became important after the discovery of the Koronus Passage in the late 40th millennium and it lost its military role taking up one of merchant outpost.[1c]

The Siege of Port Wander

In 422.M41, Port Wander was attacked by a Waaagh! led by an Ork named Gulgrog. Due to the limited knowledge of the area and the authorities' lack of interest in rumours about incoming Orks, Port Wander was found unprepared. When the siege proved to be inevitable, some commanders tried a last-minute escape and steadily departed from the docks. Unluckily, most of them (37 merchant haulers and transports and 12 Rogue Trader vessels) were hit by Ork raiders and frigates and faced wreckage. After this first battle, bulkier Ork Kroozers headed towards the port, but its defences stopped them.[3a]

During the first two years of siege (422-423.M41), Port Wander stood alone against many attacks, even fighting the numerous Orks who managed to land on the station about a hundred times. The enemy army lost its momentum and divided into factions; while remaining a menace, it started becoming weaker.[3a]

In the meantime, Battlefleet Calixis and the Adeptus Mechanicus had prepared a rescue fleet and finally attacked the Orks, following a two-step strategy: first, a Sword Frigate squadron supported by Lathe monitor-cruisers cleared the outer reaches of the Rubycon system; then, Imperial Navy warships and Secutor light cruisers supported by Navy warships on patrol from Passage Watch 27 began a conflict in the system's inner zone. As a result, instead of being routed, the Orks packed together around Gulgrog's flagship and launched a one year-long counter-attack.[3a]

At last, the war was won by Admiral Androvast Strophes, who led two-thirds of Battlefleet Calixis in a final assault that lasted two days. The Admiral's flagship, the Retribution Class Battleship Fist of Adamant, crippled Gulgrog's flagship in a broadside duel. The Orks were not pursued into The Maw, because the Imperial Navy chose to reclaim Port Wander instead.[3a]

The Bloodwrath Incident

The 92nd Brontian Longknives, having completed a mission to Dwimlicht to suppress an uprising, returned to Port Wander in 604.M41. It was expected the travel would take 3 weeks, yet 3 years later, it returned having been overrun with Khorne daemons which had massacred all aboard the vessel. Instead of immediately destroying the ship on course to Port Wander, Ordo Malleus Inquisitors Bellas the Elder and Dylhin investigated the wreck. In the end, the vessel passed too closely to Port Wander and the Admiral of Battlefleet Calixis elements near the station ordered the ship destroyed with torpedoes.[7]

Population

Being a border dwelling, Port Wander has a diverse population: traders, spies, merchant factors, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, sailors, Administratum functionaries and servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus.[1c] Due to the fact that through this station lots of riches flow and that the structure itself requires a lot of maintenance, its corridors and outer surfaces are filled with life (approximately 5 million people)[5], whose activity is overseen by Adeptus Arbites from their Precinct Complex.[1d] A Naval Commander, Larius Sans, is in charge of the station's government.[1a]

Known Groups

Aspect and structure

Port Wander orbits around a bloated red star[1b] and is surrounded by shattered remnants of ancient asteroids[1e], some of which were converted into other installations such as shipyards, housing units, research stations, repair docks, storage facilities, depots, palatial manses and estates and crude habitats[1b]. It appears as a cityscape with high cathedral towers in its centre and a lot of docks and piers on its circular rim.[1c]

Due to its fast growth, the Port resembles a patchwork of different textures, since part of its structure was expanded by joining to it many small vessels, such as the Solistice Imperialis.[1c]

The station's keel is characterized by repair yards, dry docks for small vessels and elaborate devices and probes set by the Adeptus Mechanicus in order to investigate the Koronus Expanse's Warp behaviour.[1c,b] Inside the city, there are many corridors[1c], vast markets filled with citizens and local traders (such as the Court of the Dead)[1e], and dark dens.[1f]

The average temperature is 26 °C and gravity is 1.02 G.[1a]

Defences

Being the last bastion of the Imperium before the Expanse[1c], it is well guarded[1e]. Static defences include lances, weapons batteries, torpedo launchers and void shield generators; they are all well maintained.[1e] Dynamic defence is provided by squadrons of heavily armed monitor craft placed outside the station and Battlefleet Calixis battleship patrols.[1e]

Crime

Despite this awkward mish-mash of squabbling officials, mercenary security forces, and roving packs of armsmen from Rogue Trader and Free Captain ships who tend to keep the peace in the civilian docks, Port Wander is generally a safe and lawful place. The laws, when actually applied, are a strange mix of laws from the Imperial Navy and the Arbites, with a healthy dose of obfuscation and legal loopholes generated by nearly every Rogue Trader dynasty and merchant house with a controlling interest in the station. Much of the crime aboard Port Wander is property crime, theft, vandalism, and the like, with a constant stream of kidnapping, public drunkenness, brawling, and murder. There is also a large underground economy based on the trade of stolen goods, proscribed artefacts, and other ill-gotten gains from the constant stream of pirates and smugglers that put in to refit and give their men liberty.[10a]

Flora and Fauna

  • Sporederves - A greenish meat-like disk made from an unknown fungus found in the deepest portions of Port Wander. Only the central stalk can be harvested, as the rest of the plant is poisonous.[6b]

Trivia

TriviaScrollTrans.png

The following information is not to be regarded as officially sanctioned and/ or is not written from an in-universe point of view. A detailed explanation of the term "Trivia" as used in the Lexicanum can be found here.

Conflicting sources

  • In the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook, a map shows Port Wander as part of the Calixis subsector[1a], but in the Dark Heresy Rulebook the area occupied by Port Wander (that is not shown on the map) is depicted as being outside the subsector border. However, such a conflict is fully consistent with the station itself being at the edge of the Imperium.

Sources

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