The Moebian Domain is a territory that the Imperium of Man can ill-afford to lose.
Trillions of souls live within its borders on worlds both ancient and new, and it is
their faith and their toil upon which the Imperium has come to rely.
Within the labyrinthine mines of Morax, armies of thralls strip the minerals and metals so
desperately needed by the Domain’s unquenchable industry.
Across Crucus, countless pilgrims flock to the holy sites of Saint Messelina, their tithes
swelling the coffers of the local Ecclesiarchy.
On Rocyria, endless farms stretch to every horizon, their Grox-meat and Algae-sludge
the only defense against mass famine on a dozen neighboring worlds.
And over the sparkling oceans of Incron dock the vast warships of the Imperial navy, a
fleet-base and anchorage vital to the entire sector’s defense.
There are no unimportant worlds within the Moebian Domain.
The consequences of losing one would be disastrous, to lose them all, is unthinkable.
The Adeptus Administratum has worked tirelessly to ensure that the populace of the Moebian
Domain persists in ignorance as to the dangers that surround them.
Every citizen is at least vaguely aware that forces aligned to the Ruinous Powers and hostile
Xenos races threaten their survival, but very few can speak to their specific nature.
Collectively, the great enemy of the domain is known simply as the Darktide.
The conflict against the Darktide is similarly named the “Fringe War'', a deliberate choice
meant to imply its distance from the core worlds of the Domain.
Most assume the campaign is being exclusively waged in some far away border-systems, and
perhaps at one time this was true.
But while ceaseless broadcasts extoll the heroic sacrifices of the Moebian Regiments
and the tremendous victories they have achieved, none dare mention that the front lines are
far closer than is believed.
The Darktide is no longer contained on the frontier, but in the very heart of the Moebian
Domain itself.
The battle to survive will not be won or lost in a faraway theater, but in a single world,
a single city.
The world is Atoma Prime.
The City is…
Tertium.
Like most Hive Cities across the Imperium, Tertium is a massive arcology, a self-sufficient
urban center within which many tens of billions will spend their entire lives.
Even by Imperial Standards however, it is unusually widespread.
Its foundation stretches for over a hundred and fifty kilometers, while its tallest spires
extend well beyond the planet’s troposphere.
Hive City Tertium is an artificial mountain, a bastion of civilization that rises from
the inhospitable surrounding seas of drifting sands and dust.
Generally, Tertium conforms to the typical layout of an Imperial Hive City and can be
grouped into five broad sections.
The first and largest is the Lower Hive, which forms the city’s base.
This is by far the most populous section for it holds much of Tertium’s residential housing
and principal industries.
The citizens that live here are almost universally members of the Hive’s enormous workforce,
either laboring within enormous industrial sectors, power plants and manufactoria, or
responsible for the endless maintenance required to keep such areas operational.
“Moebian Iron” forms the core of these industries.
It is largely unique to Atoma Prime and renowned for its valuable metallurgical qualities.
While it has been used in a wide variety of applications, it is most famous for its inclusion
in the armor of Moebian-Pattern Leman Russ Demolisher tanks.
These siege-vehicles are produced throughout the hive-city and are considered essential
for the continued persecution of the Fringe War.
As Moebian Iron veins have been increasingly depleted however, different methods of extracting
the remaining traces have been developed.
Enormous intakes have become a common sight across the Lower Hive, part of a crude method
of extracting raw ore particulates from the dust-storms that wreathe the entire world.
These intakes wear out rapidly and are constantly in the process of being replaced, but have
helped to sustain the planet’s overall production.
The Upperhive is the home of what might be considered Tertium’s middle-class within
the Imperium’s socioeconomic hierarchy.
Its residents are typically members of the Administratum, or other valued Imperial agencies,
and include the various bureaucrats, managers,and officials necessary for the city to function
with any degree of efficiency.
Merit is rarely enough on its own to secure a space within the Upperhive.
Instead, its comparatively spacious and well-appointed residences are often gifted to those in some
way connected with the Hive’s cultural elite.
The elite themselves are found exclusively within the Spires, enormous structures that
extend outwards to form the Hive City’s tallest points.
The Spires possess levels of extravagance unheard of anywhere else in the hive, with
fresh food, advanced medical care and luxury goods.
Imperial nobility, merchants lords, industrial barons, Church officials and important off-world
visitors form the core of its population.
As the Capital World of the entire Moebian Domain, the Spires further host the primary
or secondary residences of the planetary governor, the highest commanders of the Moebian regiments
and even Lord Margrave, sector lord of the entire Moebian Domain.
Only immense wealth or power can secure a spot within the Spires, well beyond what those
in the lower levels can hope to amass in even a thousand lifetimes.
The Outskirts form the perimeter of the Hive’s foundation, where the city collides with the
surrounding wastelands.
There is a constant battle to keep the outside elements of Atoma Prime at bay and large sections
of the Outskirts have fallen into ruin or otherwise been swept up by the planet’s
prevelent dust storms.
Industrial runoff and other pollutants have made this area toxic to human life, while
even the barest amenities of the hive, like power and water, are intermittent, if not
entirely absent.
Mutants and other undesirables displaced from the hive itself often prey upon the Outskirts
for resources, with skirmishes across its sections especially common during the desperate
months of the year.
Yet the Outskirts are also the one place largely free from Imperial oversight, and have become
a haven for smugglers, mercenaries and all intrepid souls who desire a life in which
they serve no masters but themselves.
The last major section of Hive City Tertium is the Underhive.
Reminiscent more of an animal warren than urban center, it is a collection of ruins
and abandoned structures within which the poorest residents of the Hive have taken refuge.
Like the Outskirts, the necessities of life are rare here, with every utility deliberately
severed so as to not be wasted.
The Underhive is something of an emergent prison, a place where gangs, criminals, and
the dregs of Tertium society might be left to die.
There is no law within the Underhive, only the crude decrees of ganglords built upon
the tenet of might makes right.
A seething, violent anarchy rules the Underhive, one that has come to hate all those, rich
and poor alike, within the other sections of the Hive City.
Each section of the Hive City has been constructed from hundreds of thousands of urban blocks,
specialized to fulfill a certain need.
The most common are habitation and industrial blocks, though transit, religious, administrative,
Arbites, military and countless other kinds of blocks have been scattered across Tertium.
At one time these would have been placed in such a way as to facilitate the easy and efficient
movement of the Hive’s workforce and the materials they produce, but millennia of urban
decay have perverted the city’s original design.
Through the Age of the Imperium, blocks added to Tertium have been placed haphazardly with
little consideration given to their effect on the greater Hive.
Smelter complexes are located on top of residential clusters or Missile propellent silos built
alongside temperamental power matrixes.
Entire levels of the hive might have only a scattered few Precinct Fortresses while
others might be overburdened with twice as many as they require.
The newest blocks are increasingly built wherever it is deemed easiest, and many are completely
useless, too distant from the supporting blocks necessary for their operation.
Additionally, the once distinct nature of blocks has been eroded by those that live
or work within them.
Living space is always in hopeless demand and it is common for rudimentary, ramshackle
residences to be constructed within every kind of block, particularly in those located
too far from purpose-built residential zones.
Likewise, abandoned structures within the Hive will invariably be retrofitted, at various
levels of proficiency, to include new homes, markets and everything else required by its
residents.
This can be particularly dangerous, as those desperate enough to move to an abandoned are,
are not always able to accurately discern what has been abandoned.
Entire communities have been incinerated after being constructed within smelters incorrectly
believed to have been deactivated.
The risk however, is always outweighed by the thought of having a few extra square meters
to live, and in this sense, every block within Tertium might be considered a habitation block.
The extent of these modifications has even begun to deteriorate the divisions between
the various sections, and it can be difficult to ascertain where the border between the
Upper and Lower Hive truly is.
Enclaves of luxury might be found within slums, while urban rot and those who dwell in such
places exist even in the highest spires.
Only the border to the Underhive remains conspicuous, guarded by elements of the Adeptus Arbites
or Militarum.
Their presence here is not triviral.
Rumors continue to swirl that a new power is growing within the lowest levels of Tertium,
something far more dangerous, from which even the most violent gangs have been forced to
flee.
That battle tanks and anti-aircraft batteries have been mobilized within the Hive City itself
would seem to support these rumors, and it is whispered that the Imperial Inquisition
itself has taken interest in the area.
Gunships and troop transports are now a common sight across the Lower Hive, conducting sorties
deep into the lower levels and depositing groups of Inquisition-aligned agents; condemned
prisoners if the rumors can be believed.
That Hive City Tertium faces a new threat to its existence is now obvious beyond even
the ability of Lord Margrave to suppress.
But in what is likely its darkest hour, there are still signs of hope for the teeming billions
that call the city home.
For millennia, the Moebian Regiments deployed to the Fringe War have held back the Darktide,
and none have accrued more honors than the famed Moebian 6th.
They have been deployed back to Hive Tertium, a city many of its guardsmen call home, and
their deployment within the city has revitalized its population.
In their fighting on the battlefields of the fringe, the 6th have come to understand a
great truth to the universe, and are now determined to use this knowledge for the betterment of
all those in Tertium.
The challenges they face are almost insurmountable, the rigid hierarchy of a corrupted system,
the intolerance of a fanatical church, and ignorance in those who should be natural allies.
But with truth, also comes power, and the Moebian 6th is said to have been blessed with
the gifts of the divine.
Wherever they advance, life flourishes in their wake, in such abundance and diversity
never seen before on the planet.
Laughter too might be heard, amidst all the effervescent sounds of regeneration.
If the 6th is successful, if they can convince the Hive of the power of Admonition, then
Tertium might be reborn.
It will stand atop Atoma Prime not as a pile of crumbling adamantium or rockcrete, but
as a vibrant living oasis, an incubator for every fertile seed, and wondrous dream.
A garden worthy of the Grandfather.