Editing Setting:Cloudburst/Cognomen (section)

===Leadership===

As a Subsector Capital, Cognomen is granted an honor and a responsibility that few other Forge Worlds are, although ironically their nearest Forge neighbor, Fabique, also has.  Cognomen bears the burden of leadership for the Subsector, which contains five other inhabited systems and several systems only good for mining.  This requires that Cognomen take a role in the greater Imperium for which it was unprepared.  In this, however, the Cognomen leadership does have the help of Fabique, which has had the same responsibility for far longer.  The establishment of a well-appointed Astropathic and Administrative orbital platform over Cognomen allows for the staff of the Subsector Governor to work without having to visit the dying planet below.  Any desire the people of the platform may have to visit their host vanishes at the sight of billions of acres of dying grasslands on the world below as the planet succumbs to industrial overbuild.

The Subsector Governor coordinates the logistical and political needs of the Subsector from the platform, which possesses a suite of luxury apartments for himself and more spartan accommodations for his staff and less-liked family members.  The platform has only a few small point defense weapons, and is wholly reliant on the Cognomen fleet for protection.

The work of the Administratum here is made easier by the fact that the current Lord Fabricator, Beraxos, couldn’t give a damn about the rest of the Subsector, and has no desire to challenge the Administratum for leadership.  This, given that Cognomen could steamroll the whole Subsector if they chose, is a great relief.  If anything, this lack of concern for their neighbors is convenient for the Overlord, who can simply foist responsibility for any unpopular decisions on his indifferent counterpart.  Should Beraxos ever complain too vocally, the Governor can simply inform Beraxos that he is fully aware of the little secrets of ABX202020, while the Sector Overlord is not.  This also means that Cognomen is in the odd position of the Planetary and System Commander being the same person, not being the Subsector Overlord, and the System Commander not technically answering to the Subsector Overlord.  This makes interactions between the two men perilous at times.

The Basilikon Astra employs Cognomen as a potent reserve of strength on the Quest for Knowledge.  The fleets of the Martian Priesthood scour worlds that the Rogue Traders of the Cloudburst Circuit and Oldlight Exo-zone discover, looking for any sign of lost human habitats or shipwrecks.  Because Cognomen’s theoretical shipbuilding cradle size is larger than all but a dozen Space Hulks to have ever been sighted, any Space Hulks the Explorators are able to transport intact winds up at Cognomen.  Any components removed from said Hulks that are not immediately usable are sold to the Grand Anchor.  However, the relatively young colonies of the Cloudburst Sector have produced few Hulks, and most of those encountered have already been boarded by Orks, Genestealers, or worse.

Cognomen does have its own fleet, including both Explorator vessels and Basilikon Astra warships.  The shipyards that orbit the world have built ships for the Inquisition, but the ancient and more precise yards at Fabique and Accatran usually bear that responsibility instead.  The current command ship of its fleet is the Oberon Battleship Lucubrate, commanded by Magos Dominus Prannan duPree.


====Cognomen Military====

First and foremost in the armies of Cognomen are the vast Titans of its Legion, Legio Congelatio.  The mighty Engines of War number twenty-five intact Titans, with another partially assembled, and the resources allocated for another.  The core of the Legion are four Warlord Battle Titans and a single Reaver Battle Titan.  These five engines traditionally mount as much in the way of directed energy weapons as possible, like Volcano cannons and other lasers.  Cognomen is justly proud of its extraordinarily accurate and powerful laser weapons, and its Titans keep up that function.  Of course, the Titans are able to swap out their weapons as needed, but their preference is for extreme range and accuracy.  Congelatio Warlords are more akin to tank destroyers than tanks, and never fight singly if they can partner up.

The Cognomen combat forces do not yet field a Legio Cybernetica unit, though they theoretically could.  Their Skitarii are loyal to Mars first and Cognomen second, but the Cognomen insistence on exploration and heavy military expansion means that they feel well treated and respected by the Cognomen bureau-clergy.  They augment their forces with extensive combat servitor units, and typically avoid mercenaries or the use of militia; this is academic given the sparse population of Cloudburst anyway.  The Skitarii stationed on this world are Martian in origin, but their ranks are filled by the humans of Cognomen.  Their paint scheme uses russet camouflage, with black and grey trim.  At any given time, the Skitarii legions of Cognomen have approximately two million active troops, a five hundred-thousand-man PDF, and another million Skitarii out among the stars, aiding other Mechanicus forces or on the Quest for Knowledge.  This is, proportionately, a tiny Skitarii formation for a world of such a high population, and thus the Council of Magi is expanding it as quickly as they can.

As go the War God-Engines, so go the Secutarii.  The Corpus Secutarii Congelatio are the most elite (non-Astartes) foot units in the entire Subsector, far above the meager Guard and PDF forces of other Cognomen Subsector worlds.  As with all Secutarii, the Cognomen Secutarii – who have named themselves the Titanshields – are the logistical corps and rear guard of Titan battle formations, and use cybernetic legs and other mobility-enhancing technology to allow themselves to keep up with Titans on the move.  Their default uniform scheme is black and blood-red, with grey trim, highlights, and uniform badges.  Their template is the Martian Corpus Secutarii formation that accompanies the Taranis Knights and Legio Ignatum into war.  As such, their Axiarchs adorn themselves with armor made from components of dead war machines, usually their own, as a sign for each other that they will never again forget their duty.

The Titanshields are dour and miserable folk, except in battle.  They see the Sector itself as striving to keep the Legion down, going all the way back to the loss of their engines in the disastrous Pyrrhic victory of the Corumbino Nebular War in the nearby Naxos Sector.  In battle, they unleash their rage, and use all variety of potent and technoarcane weapons, some that have lasting damaging effects on the battlefield itself.  They also outright refuse to use vehicles of any kind except as back-line transports.  Unlike Skitarii, however, they do allow themselves to be shuttled around a warzone if there is a real danger of being left behind by their mighty war engines.  Secutarii Titanshields also defend and secure caches and dumps of Titan munitions, to prevent their theft or sabotage.  In this, they occasionally make use of the same CATs and Fire Wasps that the Techmarines of the Blue Daggers use, to serve as a light perimeter early warning system.

The Cognomen PDF isn’t much of a PDF.  It has at most a half million soldiers, most of them the youngest children of laborer families that ran out of money to raise offspring.  Given how small the PDF is, and how they are based on a Forge World, at least their equipment is superb.  They use a variety of aircraft in their defense of the world, but prefer the Lightning and Avenger aircraft.  The Techpriests also vat-grow servitors to augment the PDF and Skitarii in battle.