Vetrovnak

This page details people, events, and organisations from The /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

The vetrovnak are the soldiers and overseers of the eponymous Vetrovnak Human Protectorate - a fringe empire with aspirations of challenging the Imperium of Man for the right to rule over all humanity. They themselves are super soldiers genetically engineered from human stock and augmented by alien nanotechnology designed to resist the corrupting touch of the Warp both in mind and body.

History

Early Beginnings

Mankind could never content itself with just having one of something. A single planet wasn't enough. A single system wasn't enough. A single sector wasn't enough. Hundreds weren't enough. Thousand's weren't enough. So if anyone thought that when humanity reached the very edges of the galaxy they would finally be content they would be fools. That was just another boundary to be crossed - a problem to be solved in due time.

In the start of the 22nd millennium humanity began an ambitious project: they would take a brave leap out of the galaxy through the cold and empty void to small, bright globular cluster that become known in the galactic east as the Hvar Cluster. It was still relatively speaking close to home, hovering 7,000 light years over the galactic plane. None the less it was still an epic undertaking. No expenses were spared in building the expedition fleet, it was outfitted with the best equipment and technology of the age and assembled by masters of the trade. No precaution was too outrageous to include. It would be mankind's finest hour yet, a testament to their perseverance and prestige. The 500,000 strong crew set off into the dark, carrying everything they needed to create humanities' newest outpost - haven of science to study the dark of the void itself.

Upon reaching the Hvar Cluster the fleet set to the work of finding a place to build their new home. While they were equipped to make even an airless rock liveable a terrestrial world was of course preferred. While they had known ahead of time there were in fact worlds for the taking they were surprised to find one already bearing life - primitive life but life none the less - with clear signs that it had been visited by some alien civilization aeons ago. They had left behind a great station that hung in the planet's orbit with a mighty beacon pointed out into the void beyond. Here they settled, naming the world Novi Dinarsko due to the geographical resemblence of much of the world's terrain to the old Dinaric Alps of Earth.

For the next several centuries the colony grew as colonies are wont to do. The rest of the cluster was slowly charted out and planets were explored and for those that were could support it, settled. The region never received any major influx of colonists, despite the prestige of the operation and the provided stipends most preferred to settle slightly closer to the civilization. It evolved into a place where research could be conducted away from prying eyes - the kind of work that governments and institutes would rather the common man not know about. The only way in and out of the Hvar Cluster was cargo convoy that came only times a year to deliver much needed supplies. This was changed to only twice a year in early once the colonies were adequately self sufficient as they found ways to obtain and manufacture the rare materials needed to fuel the research and continued this way for some time. Soon the convoys were more important for taking the fruits of their labor back to mankind at large than supplying them.

The Severance

In the middle of M23 the supply convoys stopped coming without warning. Being cut off from the rest of the galaxy was not as much of a shock as the people of the Hvar cluster had thought it would be. The lack of shock was in fact more shocking to the Hvarians, they had been so wrapped up in their work and the exploration of the cluster that very few of them had ever realized just how little that actually needed their connection with the galaxy to continue on. Still, prepared as they made been the reality of it forced many of the engineers and scientists had to turn their attention away from the secrets of space and alien technology to ensure their fortunes were not merely fleeting things.

When it went from years without contact grew to a decade and a half and the Hvarians realized that maybe now that their futures were secure they should perhaps figure out what happened. Only a small percentage of the actual people that were in the Hvar Cluster were actually born there most were simply out at this end of the cosmos because of their careers and duties. Most had loved ones and family waiting for them to return one day and when it became apparent that day they wouldn't come unless they made it the authorities took the steps to do so. Of course the largest problem was getting a navigator. Given their skill set most of them resided at the sister-station in the galaxy.

The return expedition was a disaster. It could have been an inexperienced navigator. It could have been the ship, designed to function smoothly outside the warp currents of the galaxy being battered by the demands of galactic warp travel. The reasons were lost to time but the results weren't. The ship was spat out of the warp with its hull ravaged and systems crashing from the ordeal but as luck would have it they were able to limp the rest of the journey to the midway station. They welcome they received did not match their hopes. It's AI systems had somehow been corrupted, turning the mostly automated facility into a malevolent deathtrap. More correctly it was a malevolent deathtrap. The crew of the cargo convoys had suffered greatly at its machinations but they had managed to turn to tables on the computer and shut down it - along with their only hope of leaving. By the time the Hvarian expedition arrived there were only thirteen weary souls left to tell the tale. War had broken out back home. The very machines that mankind had come to depend upon had turned upon their creators. They had fled, hoping to escape to safety after gutting the sapient systems of their own ship but their efforts were not enough as the madness turned contagious upon arrival at the midway station. It was not an unthinking madness though- it had let them think they were safe just long enough to get their guard down before launching its attack.

It took two years before they expedition's ship was repaired enough to be called a mockery of functional. Luckily the sheer amount of redundancy built into the vessel meant that it was capable of flying without its AI system. With thirteen extra aboard they limped back to the Hvar cluster. 13 years later they arrived thankful to find that the machine rebellion hadn't yet taken hold of the region. When the news spread around the worlds of the Cluster every precaution they could think to take was taken. Any sapient system was gutted down to simple sentience, those that couldn't be due to their important roles had safe guards installed. It was by no means perfect but it went from all out war for survival down to the occasional rampant AI taking out dozens to hundred before being put down.

Golden Age

Lasting from mid M23 to early M25 the Golden Age was an era of growth and progress. At its start the total population of the Cluster was some 10 billion people but at the peak of the Golden Age right before its end estimates place the total population in the upwards of a few hundred trillion. Comparatively speaking the growth rate was astoundingly sluggish compared to the galaxy below but that was to be expected given the academically oriented nature of Hvarian society. The Sol System itself at the same time probably held more people than the entirety of the Cluster.

Tempest Era

In M25 the Golden Aged came to a crashing halt. The concurrent warp storms in the galaxy below were producing a torrential surge that washed all the way out to the Hvar cluster to mix with its own nascent warp brought forth by the human presence in the region. The result was disastrous for the region - even if the storms were tepid in comparison to those that raged in the galaxy proper. Hvarian ships were designed to take advantage of the faint and tranquil signature of the warp in the region; they simply could not hack the "waves" that were being thrown their way. Hundreds of worlds were cut off from one another and orbital stations were left adrift to fend for themselves as interstellar navigation became impossible.

Cut off the once manageable problem of AIs going rampant spiraled out of control. To make matters worse psykers began to appear and with them came the denizens of the warp. Death and destruction became common place as worlds fell to anarchy. The population of the entire cluster is estimated to have been cut to a tenth of its peak during this time as societies crumbled. Only the world of Novi Dinarsko - the first colony settled so long ago - survived with what could be solved a semblance of civility thanks to the seemingly anti-psychic properties of the alien beacon that hung in its orbit. It though was not without its problems: it had long outgrown its own ability to support itself are required imports from near by worlds result in wide spread famine that would take over a century to break free of.