Cretacia
Cretacia, also known as Catachan 2: Electric Bugaloo, is the homeworld of one chapter of the angriest canon Angry Marines in the Imperium, the Flesh Tearers. If you couldn't guess by its name, this planet is Jurassic Park. It is teeming with Dinosaurs and Cavemen...on second thought, it sounds more like the Flintstones than Jurassic Park...huh.
History[edit]
For several millennia after the Horus Heresy, the Flesh Tearers were a fleet-based chapter, engaged on a never-ending crusade to crush mankind's enemies and reclaim the territories lost by the Imperium to Chaos. However, they were suffering heavy casualties, both from combat and the high occurrence of the Black Rage in their ranks.
The oversized world that came to be known as Cretacia was the fourth planet in a system of seven, and at first approach, it appeared to be uninhabitable. Finding the planet was perpetually shrouded in dense clouds, the Flesh Tearers effected landings on the planet to discover what lay below. What the Space Marines discovered was a planet to rival any Death World known in its lethality to human life.
A trackless landscape of dense jungles and steamy swamps harboured many vicious reptilian, amphibious and insectoid forms of life. Many Space Marines were lost to these hostile creatures on the first day before effective perimeters could be established. Even so, patrols still reported casualties from insects as big as men with sharpened proboscises that could penetrate power armour, huge reptilian predators, almost as large as Scout Titans, that ripped through entire squads, and gigantic herbivores that could easily crush an unwary Space Marine with a massive foot.
After ripping and tearing through the forests until they are secure enough to have a proper LZ, the Flesh Tearers launch in patrol squads to gain knowledge on the terrain. As the patrol squads ranged further through the jungles and swamps, incredibly, humans were found. These humans have degenerated into Flintstones-era of technology, yet they proved to be incredibly strong and had superior reflexes to compensate for their more limited intellects, giving rise to a race that was fierce enough to defend itself against the largest of the creatures that preyed upon them.
The Flesh Tearers promptly rounded up hundreds of these humans and the Chaplains and Sanguinary Priests of the Chapter set to work, testing their minds and bodies in soul-destroying trials to determine any evidence of corruption caused by their long isolation from the Master of Mankind. Though extremely backward and primitive, the Flesh Tearers deemed them free of deviancy. Chapter Master Nassir Amit saw the value of the planet. The inhospitable terrain and deadly creatures provided an ideal testing ground for his troops, whilst the primitive humans already inhabiting the world could easily be moulded into potential battle brothers. Declaring Right of Conquest, Amit founded a permanent home for his Flesh Tearers. The Flesh Tearers named the planet Cretacia, from the ancient Baal sandscript meaning "Birth of Wrath".
Since the formation of the Great Rift Cretacia has become almost wholly encircled by a Warp Rift known as the Annihilus. Encircled, not covered. We can assume even Chaos is afraid of this place...or of the Flesh Tearers.
Fauna[edit]
- Ranodon - a four-winged beast that nests on high mountains.