Warden Citadel Network

An unique feature of the Corusco Cluster, Warden Citadels are a standardized pattern of Imperial fortifications found in lesser or greater concentration on every inhabited planet within the Cluster and serves as the lynchpin of defensive strategies. The number and size of the Citadels vary depending on that of each individual planet, being proportional to its population and strategic significance. In addition to their value as military fortifications, Warden Citadels also serve as command centers, armories and training grounds.

History
The origin of the Warden Network is relatively recent, only coming fully operational in the closing years of the Compliance’s first century. Finding its name in the original cognomen of the Second Legion as ‘Terra Wardens’, the Citadels were designed by the Primarch Elias Dammerung in an initiative to fortify the whole of the Corusco Cluster against threats. Such was the seriousness of the initiative that before finalizing the designs, Elias submitted the project to the Imperium’s finest Siegemaster, Rogal Dorn, for peer review, assessment and improvements.

The Citadels themselves included designs for four different tiers of fortification with increasingly staunch defenses, weapon systems and facilities. This tiered system’s purpose was that even the smaller, minor world or settlements within the Cluster that would otherwise be ignored as ‘not valuable enough’ by overall Imperial strategists could be fortified with defenses that were cheap and easily built, yet capable of providing protection unexpected of such locations. On the other end of the spectrum, Citadels of the highest tier were designed with nothing less than orbital bombardments by macro-cannon batteries in mind.

The completion of the Warden Network provided Terra with an awesome barrier against any form of invasion from the direction of the galactic core as it turned the Corusco Cluster – already an highly dense sector composed of nearly a hundred settled worlds – into a sector-wide fortress that could supply ground and naval assets for an entire Legion. The result of this widespread fortification effort was such that the fate of the Corusco Cluster became a major preoccupation for both sides of the brewing Inter-Legionary Wars, as its strategic location as the Gateway to Terra could make it either a valuable bulwark or an infuriating thorn.

Design Principles
The overwhelming majority of Warden Citadels were built within major population centers of a world or continent, and usually at the center of said population centers, as one of their main purposes is to protect the civilian populations of the Corusco Cluster. As such, they almost always feature some sort of shelter for refugees, ranging from simple installations to simply bring people ‘inside the walls’ to ward off xeno raiders such as Eldars or Orks to extensive underground bunkers a hundred meters below the rock, safe from all but the heaviest of bombardments.

Warden Citadels also universally feature some level of command and control infrastructure, often linked to a network of auspexes and early warning systems that feed data back from hardwired underground lines. This makes the Citadels well-suited to directing the efforts of units of the Coruscoan Auxilia which invariably have their barracks and armories also located within the protection of each Citadel’s walls. At higher tiers, Warden Citadels also feature entire recruitment and training facilities to raise new Auxilia forces.

The cornerstones of each Citadel are the twin pillars of Ferrocrete and Glasscrete. Relatively inexpensive to produce in massive quantities, yet suitably durable against a wide breadth of weapons if thick enough, these building materials were instrumental in allowing the construction of so many bastions and redoubts across every world within the Cluster. Even the smallest of Warden Citadels features Ferrocrete walls two meters thick and tens high with an outer, bonded layer of Ceramite, allowing the main walls to endure battle tank shells, while proportionally thick Glasscrete ceilings allow the light of day to filter through while keeping jump pack invaders out.

Tier 1
The most basic of Warden Citadels are built to protect the major settlements of worlds with very low population or the secondary settlements of worlds of modest importance and can be quickly built on freshly conquered worlds at very little cost.

First tier Citadels are made up of a single star-shaped defensive wall mounted with crenelated battlements and dotted with heavy weapon towers at regular intervals which often offer overlapping field of fire and relatively good range, depending on how clustered and tall the civilian buildings around it are. Common weapon emplacements include Multilasers, Heavy Bolters and Autocannons for anti-infantry purpose while Lascannons linked to the Citadel’s extensive Auspexes provide adequate anti-tank ad anti-air coverage. Generally, a First tier Citadel will house no more than one Fulcrum of 5000 of Coruscoan Velite infantrymen and a single century of Coruscoan Equites to provide armored assets.

Tier 2
The second level of Warden Citadels are built to protect the major settlements of worlds of modest importance and the secondary settlements of major worlds within the Corusco Sector. Though they represent a significant step up, they remain relatively low in cost allowing them to still be used relatively prolifically. In fact, they represent the most numerous category.

Second tier Citadels are made up of two layers of massive Ferrocrete walls each about 50% thicker than those of First tier Citadels and with a layer of face-hardened Ceramite about twice as thick. As before they are star-shaped to avoid dead zones and create overlapping fields of fire and are designed specifically so that an attacker who manages to breach the outer wall has no cover and no protection from fire by the inner wall, allowing defenders to retreat inward and treat breaches in the outer walls like massive funnels and killzones. In addition to these already formidable defenses, the Inner walls house artillery guns, usually in the form of Basilisks or missile silos

What truly sets apart Second tier Citadels from the First tier however is the presence of a single Void Shield Generator. This allows the Citadel to withstand some degree of artillery bombardment and air raids almost indefinitely, though remains insufficient against heavy saturation bombardment or serious orbital bombardment. Weapon emplacements atop the walls are similar to those found on smaller Citadels, but in greater densities, with Quad multilasers and Quad Heavy Bolters annihilating massed infantry and Twin-linked lascannons being deployed in greater numbers. Generally, a Second tier Citadel will house between two and four Fulcrums of Veltes, for up to 20’000 Auxilia, and one or two Cohorts of Equites armored assets

Tier 3
The third level of Warden Citadels is officially the highest level of protection afforded within the Network and they are a common sight across the major worlds of the Corusco Sector. At this point, the construction of these Citadels represents a significant investment that require serious resource investments.

Third tier Citadels are made up of no less than three layers of defenses centered around truly colossal Ferrocrete bulwarks each nearly 10 meters thick and fronted by an outer layer of pure Adamantium rather than mere Ceramite. As before, every layer of defense is designed to provide overlapping killing fields and to be devoid of any protection from the back so that any wall that falls is of no help to the attacker who finds itself completely in the open inside the courtyards. These Citadels see their battlements mounted with large number of Hailstorm batteries which are capable of decimating heavy infantry in power armor and heavy tanks with their long-range missile arsenals while Hydra Autocannon batteries and Lascannons provide extra support against both air and ground targets. Artillery guns are also present in higher quantities and may even include fearsome Vortex warheads in their Aquilla silos.

The bulk of the expense in building a Third tier Citadel however comes from its multiple, overlapping Void Shield generators which are present within the innermost redoubt of the Citadel. With four such generators, nothing short of an assault from a full Battle Titan maniple or a sustained naval bombardment has any chance of breaking through. Additionally, each such Citadel centers around an enormous Defense Laser which allows it to threaten orbital Voidships right back. For Garrison, a Third tier Citadel will usually feature up to ten Fulcrums of Velite, or up to 50’000 Auxilia, and up to two full Fulcrums of the Equites’ finest battle tanks with superheavy asset such as Shadowswords. Finally, such is the strategic importance of these Citadels that a full Century of Obsidian Wyrm Legionnaires man each of them at all time, usually headed by a Justiciar whose main responsibility is to relentlessly hunt down and exterminate any would be spy or infiltrator.

Tier 4
The final tier of Warden Citadels is very different from those that came before it because it is not intended to be constructed within population centers, completely changing its design paradigms. They represent the ultimate form of fortification envisioned by the Primarch Elias and serve to protect the most critical locations across the entire Corusco Cluster.

Fourth tier Citadels are not surface fortifications, they are built either within sprawling mountain chains or underwater at the bottom of seas or oceans, which combined with their multiple overlapping Void Shield Generators makes them insensible to even protracted and sustained naval bombardment. Even some form of Exterminatus such as Life Eater bombs have no hope of reaching the defenders within one such Citadel, which is the entire point. Invisible to surface scans and augurs, these monstrously well-protected fortresses have few – if any – equals outside of Terra itself and were conceived as base of operations for Obsidian Wyrm Fulcrums in the eventuality of an overwhelming enemy that is somehow able to best everything else arrayed before it.

These Citadels are supported by planet-wide sensor networks and massive silos capable of hurling salvos of capital-grade torpedoes and Vortex warheads into orbit to destroy orbiting battleships. Against more conventional ground targets attempting to infiltrate the complex, a Fourth tier Citadel’s outer perimeter is dotted with hundreds of semi-automated Cybernetica concealed weapon turrets and sprawling minefields while a full Cohort of Obsidian Wyrm Legionaries stand in permanent garrison alongside thousands of Novaean Battle Automata. This is however a skeleton crew as the supply caches, spare parts and ammo dumps deep underground are capable of supporting several full Fulcrums of Legionnaires for months.