Seasonal Duststorms cripple Gound Level

SEASONAL duststorms have once again wracked the city of Dirtside.
While the Plates have adequate protection against the elements, Ground level has once again woefully under prepared for the seasonal event, particularly in the Slum Zones. 
The fighting in Zone 9 and the ruins of Magna Petrum have gone eerily quiet as the local gangs wait out the storms.
In the interim, the Planetary Governor has pledged to resolve the situation, which has resulted in universal derision from the Sector Corporations.

Inter-Corporation emergency summit ends in violence

The Corporations are not well known for working together, however in an unprecedented move, the Sector Corporations held an emergency summit to resolve the Magna Petrum question.

Details are scarce from the closed summit, however each Corporation laid claim to the fallen structure, each citing ever more esoteric and obscure corporate laws and precedence. The Magna Corporations delegation increasingly outraged at the activities of the Corporations stuck to their simple statement, Magna Petrum was built by Magna, and shall remain Magna.

It is unknown who first reached for a gun, however most are pointing at either Magna, Kotu or the "upstart" Corporation Hydra who are known to hire trigger happy mercenaries. While casualties are heard to be light, it obliterates any chance the Corporations had at a peaceful resolution to the impasse.

The Imperial Governor Bryant Percival once more called for calm among the Corporations, however as normal in these circumstances, the Corporations ignored the notoriously flatualant fool.

Bryant Percival

New faces in Magna Downs

A number of few faces have been found in Magna Downs. While there are plenty of new faces around, these folks stick out as the most incongruous.


Name: Colby Irani
Age: appears to be mid 40’s
Appearance: Thin man approximately 175 cm’s in height with medium length near black hair that appears somewhat greasy. Dressed in the clothes of a dapper lower city worker – doublet with some decoration. Cold piercing eyes that sets one on edge (a sociopaths eyes), with a difficult to place accent that is difficult to place. He claims to be from North Liberty. Accent does not match.
Story: Local barfly, looking for new work following moving from North Liberty.

Colby Irani

Name: Elidia Hewett
Age: appears to be late 20’s
Appearance: approximately 165cm in height with brown hair and wearing a pink dress somewhat in the style of a Plate 2 nightlife. Frequents drinking holes around Zone 9 posing as an investor for prospecting in the ruins of Magna Petrum. Has already had a couple of run ins with locals and is known to be capable of handling herself.
Story: Plate 2 Administratum worker, having served tour of duty within PDF for 3 years, she has come into money following an investment with in out system ore drilling business venture, of which she has a small share along with former members of her unit. Is looking to capitalise on her investment with claims in Zone 9.

Elidia Hewett

Name: Gema Wynter
Age: appears to be mid to late 30's
Appearance: A Tall vicious looking women wearing light carapace and carrying several grisly trophies
Story: A renowned Bounty hunter who has worked for Corporations across Farport. She has a reputation for viciousness. It is rumoured that she is in Zone 9 on business on some big contract, however no one has dared yet ask her.

Gema Wynter

Name: Freidrich Heincroft
Age: 50's
Appearance: Wearing worn robes of the Ecclesiarchy, Freidrich is an openly pious priest of the God Emperor
Story: A veteran of the Moonface invasion, having served in the PDF in his early 20's, Heincroft joined the Ecclesiarchy and has served as a preacher, heading out into the most dangerous parts of Farport, converting the masses or bringing fire to his enemies.

Freirich Heincroft

Name: Mom and Pop Potts
Age: Early 50's
Appearance: Dishevelled man and women, clad in well worked overalls, Pop has some jewellery that is made from scrap and Mom always keeps her hair covered. They look like offworlders, or just off.
Story: Just a simple pair of local hard working folk, raising algae and removing corpses from the world. Starch for everyone! Praise the Him in his benevolence!

Mom and Pop Potts

Name:Rusa Jula
Age: Early 40's
Appearance: Odd tattoo's dark skin, workmens overalls and the Imperial Aquila hung around her belt.
Story: A engineer rating from Zone 2, Rusa has apparently come seeking work on restoring the local Mag Lev transportation system into Zone 9, the local links having long fallen into disrepair.

Rusa Jula

Name: Shizuko Bancroft

Age: Appears to be late 40's

Appearance: Approximately 155cm in height with dark hair and a large bionic facial and occular implant. Dressed in combat bodysuit of unknown manufacture.

Story: Shizuko's parents were both stationed on Farport during the invasion and were both killed. Shizuko, rather than serve the Imperium ran away and has worked as a freelance hired gun ever since.

Shizuko Bancroft

Name: Vance Foxwell

Age: 27

Appearance: Thin with a ginger Mohawk and glasses.

Story: Vance, while claiming to not be representing the Magna Corporation, is not fooling anyone, his tattoo gives him away and he only responds with a shrug when asked. He is accompanied by a hulking Combat Servitor to dissuade any would be assassins. One can only guess he is here as the "covert" operative that Magna have sent to secure Magna Petrum. So far, this is the closest any Corporation has come to announcing their presence.

Vance Foxwell - Magna Agent

If I was any ganger in Zone 9 I'd be suspicious of any of these fraggers stories.

Mom And Popp Potts expanding in Zone 9

Mom and Pop Potts, those hard working entrepreneurs of Pottsville. Have turned up alive and well (and why wouldn't they, NOTHING HAPPENED!) in Zone 9
The pair are reported to setup several Algae farms in Zone 9 with the intention of feeding the growing worker population. Our reporters in Zone 9 attempted to speak to the Potts' however the notoriously reclusive pair declined to comment.

Violence in Zone 9 Continues

If the migrants of Zone 9 thought that the BRUTAL violence of Zone 9 would end after a trade post was set up, they were wrong.
In a perceived lull in fighting, the leader of the Goliath Gang Aventine Collegiums leader was horrifically murdered by the Church of St Pyros. The Church of St Pyros, unsurprisingly burned the poor man to death.

Buoyed up by their victory, the Church of St Pyros next attacked the Van Saar gang the Archeo-Reclaimaters, robbing them blind and pushing them off the Tech Bazaar. Jeril Auber, the owner of the Tech Bazaar has thus far remained quiet on the matter.

The Church of St Pyros rampage was cut to a halt by a surprising adversary. The Escher gang the Golden Sirens saw off the Cawdor in a bloody battle that saw most of the Church cut down. 

Zone 9: Season 2

Season 2 has begun!

In each game from here on out the challenge is for territory. At the start of each game (unless it is a special scenario with the Arbitrator) each gang challenges the other for territory, with the winner of the battle able to take one of the opponents territories.

Trade Post
The Trade post is not yet open to gangs unless they have been specifically briefed otherwise. It is being set up by Jeril Auber and should be up and running in the next week or so barring any setbacks. 

New Gangs
New gangs wishing to join the campaign can do so. They will begin with 1500 credits starting and 3 randomly assigned territories.

Searching for Magna Petrum
Each Gang may search for Magna Petrum; this is a post battle action like searching for rare items, needing a Champion or Leader to lead the search. 
To search for Magna Petrum a gang must spend 100 creds, this is for equipment and resources needed for a dedicated search, the player then rolls a D6, on the roll of a "6" the gang has found the entrance to the "Motherlode". On the roll of a "1" a random member of the gang suffers a lasting injury as they are injured in the search. 
A Dome Runner hanger on allows the gang to re-roll the result of the dice roll.
There may be ways in campaign to increase one's chances or mitigate the cost of the search (such as NPC involvement), however these of course come with different costs. The best way is for a gang to find it themselves, however that is both expensive and risky.

Once Magna Petrum entrance is found, its secrets will be revealed. Finding Magna Petrum first will give the gang a significant advantage in the finale to the campaign.

Ongoing plot
There is still ongoing plot. 

• Irada is still after the Golden Sirens Gang and will join any gang to fight against them for free, however she will take any captured fighters.
• In addition, rumour is she is assembling to brute squad to go after the Sirens and may look to recruit other gangs to help.
• Honest Hans now has his mines and is happy, what this means for Zone 9 is anyones guess. There is no longer a bounty on the Church of St Pyros thanks to the actions of the Golden Sirens
• The SSMC, an void based mining company, has interest still in Zone 9, they are still happily working with the Church of St Pyros. Notably there is a number of Void Miners from the SSMC attending the St Pyros sermons. Nevertheless they are very quiet and do not talk more, they seem more interested in listening.
• The Ork issue appears to have been largely dealt with. While Orks will be a recurring problem on planets previously invaded by the Greenskins, for now, the building mobs have been smashed by the Van Saar gangs.
• Jeril Auber has further missions for gangs he trusts. 
• Mom and Pop Potts of Zone 7 have turned up alive and are setting up in Zone 9
• Lastly, a number of persons of interest have started turning up in Magna Downs. They appear to have means and resources and are interested in the Motherlode at Magna Petrum and are looking for help. These people are possibly agents of the Sector Corporations. Details of these individuals will be forthcoming.

Corporation Focus: Kotu

Kotu have long been affiliated with the immigrant Van Saar House, though this alliance goes far deeper than most realise. 

In 278.M34 Farport along with several other worlds in the Aleph Sector were invaded by an Ork WAAAGH! Led by the Warlord “Gitstabba”. Up until this time the responsibility of arming and equipping the Planetary Defence Force was subcontracted to the Magna corporation, who had a supply agreement with a local Forgeworld who’s name was lost to time. Magna, had repeatedly neglected this contract in favour of more lucrative pursuits and so the defences of the world of Farport was woefully unprepared for the attack. The Van Saar, had long maintained their own armed force, which centred around the city of “Homestead”, a city of Van Saar founding. The whole planet of Farport fell to the Ork invasion save for Homestead which held off against Ork Waagh for weeks having heavily fortified the city. The primary defence of the city fell to Ober Coerator Gretel Kotu, a renowned military strategist. The siege was lifted after 2 months when the Shining Blades Astartes Chapter made planetfall, breaking the siege.

WAAAGH! Gitstabba

In the aftermath of the defeated WAAAGH! Magna, Hayden, Veritas and what would become Hydra sought to cover the mess that Magna had created. If Magna’s own failings were highlighted in the defence of the world, the other Corporations inadequacies may be highlighted. In the months that followed, the Corporate council and the Imperial Governor pinned the blame of the unreadiness of the PDF on the unreliable immigrant Houses, particularly Van Saar and of course Cawdor. With Van Saar, the Corporations pointed to a obscure corporate by-law stating that non-corporate and imperial organisations were forbidden from keeping formal military and paramilitary personell. Magna argued that if the Van Saar had tithed troops to the PDF as was proper then the Ork invasion would never have succeeded. This threatened to destroy the Van Saar immigrant House, who in M34 did not have the power to face down the Corporations. The Van Saar sought to distance themselves from Gretel Kotu, blaming her for the military forces under her command. This caused a schism within the House that lead to the creation of the Kotu Corporation. 

Ober Coerator Gretel Kotu

Thousands of Van Saar soldiers, despite the orders of the House, sided with Kotu. What’s more, her actions had not gone unnoticed among the nobility of the Aleph sector. Niloufar Zedah, young noble of the bloodline Thornglaive, genevowed of the Teglaagh Satrapy came to Farport. Niloufar Zedah while having a rich bloodline was in need of political power as her rivals had sought to oust her from her birthright on her homeworld of Krell. While she had intended an alliance of financial means, Gretel Kotu had what none of Niloufar rivals had - a well equipped and battle-hardened army. While Gretel had been condemned by little known corporate by-laws, she would be saved by one of the most well known. Gretel and Niloufar marriage ennobled Gretel, and with that, allowed her the right of forming her own Corporation. The newly named “Kotu” Corporation immediately shipped out to Krell where it violently suppressed the burgeoning tribal uprising and assasinated Niloufar’s rivals. By the end of the Krell uprisings 15 years later, the Kotu Corporation had gone from thousands of Van Saar soldiers to over a million mercenary soldiers and paramilitary personnel operating within the sector, forming security detail for numerous dignitaries as well as performing wet work for both nobles and corporations. 

Kotu resettled on Farport and while they had chased her away the fickle corporations now welcomed Gretel and her Corporation back with open arms. For her part Gretel held little ill will towards her former House, knowing they did what they had to do, even forming trading agreements that have lasted till this day. However Gretel and subsequently the Kotu corporation never forgave Magna for their actions. A bloodfeud between the two Houses has lasted ever since, while Kotu cannot hope to defeat Magna’s economic might, Magna cannot counter Kotu in any conventional war.

Today, Kotu are one of the primary traders and suppliers of military personnel and equipment not tithed to Imperial purpose, operating in multiple forms. Kotu have been hired by multiple planetary agencies across the Sector. Rumour has it they are on good terms with several Inquisitors who wish to maintain a lower profile when resorting to military solutions. Whether this is true or not is not known.

One notable issue the Corporation has suffered was the creation of the Federacy which plunged them into economic recession that has lasted since. Many contracts were with the Federacy worlds and losing these contracts was devastating. The Corporation was in no way able to influence the outcome of the Chaos invasion, simply able to ensure the protection of its assets.