The Adeptus Colonizus is a department within Adeptus Administratum which's primary responsibility is to organize the creation of the Imperium of Man's colonies. They are tasked using available data to find suitable world's to place Imperial citizens on and then find those imperial citizens and ensure the colony survives until the first tithe is called when the colony is then given a planetary governor and entered into Imperial records as another word
History
Dark Age of Technology
When Humanity first discovered a means to leave Terra they started off with small exploration to the Solar System but in time there technology grew more advanced and they began to leave the Solar System Albeit with sub-light craft and although colonies were made they were massively isolated from each other and had to be totally self- sufficient colonies. Many of these colonies were founded by independent nation states who never coordinated both the placement of their colonies and the best method of establishing one. With the discovery of the warp drive and navigator gene suddenly colonization massively increased. Now they could learn which of the sub-light travelled colonies had survived and how. This led to a lot of valuable knowledge about colonizing to be taken in but it was never properly shared out as there was no central repository for it. More colonies continued to be made with the Warp Drive fuelling expansion until the various cataclysmic events caused the Age of Strife
Age of Strife
The Age of Strife led to all of the human colonies being cut off from each other and slowly devolving into a technological recession along with the destruction of countless settlements. This led to a great amount of worlds which had become uninhabited or taken over by Xenos and would give room for later resettlement.
Great Crusade
The Emperor had watched in hiding from Terra as humanity tore itself asunder before he reunified the cradle of humanity, Terra into one world and then set out. As the Crusade set off and multiple worlds which were habitable but had no human presence, it was decided that humanity must take grow into new lands as well as those they already held. Placing humanity on a new world and survive was no simple matter or a task which could be carried out by simple force. It would require one organisation to be responsible for the population of new worlds then to let them grow and prosper. The Emperor tasked Malcador the Sigilite in 799 M30 to create a single organisation with expertise and resources to be independently responsible for the colonisation of uninhabited worlds.
Malcador was faced with his first challenge as to who lead the project and eventually chose 60 year old Corvo Grane a former techno barbarian leader who had bent knee 40 years early during the Wars of Unifcation and had served as an administrator of his former state. As the Great Crusade went underway Malcador offered Corvo the position of director of colonisation although no formal organisation was made yet and asked him to settle an uninhabited but mostly habitable planet within Solar Sector.
Afareo
Afareo is an ice world within Solar sector which while had a human population when it was settled in the Dark Age of Technology it was wiped out during the Age of Strife due to an initial civil war and later Xenos invasion leading to death. The planet did not present a great deal of strategic value other than it's proximity to Terra and Terra's constant need for resources and to dispose of population from Terra in which Afareo could help quench it's thirst for minerals and provide space for people.
The near impossibility of quickly setting up a colony capable of feeding itself and mass extracting resources on an Ice World was obvious to Corvo but determined none the less he set to work. The first issue which he set about resolving was the lack of access to the planet as he needed to be able to land large spacecraft, after a great deal of begging and promises of aid to future Ultramarine conquests he managed to convince the XIII legion to place a Stormbird coming fresh out of Mars onto a freighter and send it to Afaero to aid in the offloading.
The Stormbird was capable of landing on the ice, uneven terrain and in the rough weather and had the capacity to offload a number of large vehicles. The first drop the Stormbird offloaded 10 men and a survival bubble which was basically an airtight tent and it filtered the air was well as had an electrolysis machine which took in water and gave out oxygen allowing the workers to be able to change their air tanks.
Once they had established this they moved onto landing a number of heavy construction vehicles taken from Terra. First of all they placed grit down on a 3.5km stretch to melt the snow and ice as well as increase traction before sending in a series of plough armed machines with Caterpillar tracks levelling the ground as snow and ice above the level of the plough is pushed out of the way while the snow under the plough is flat. Then a road roller goes over the ice and compacts it pushing the air out between the crystals turning it to blue ice.
Once they had a flat stretch of blue ice the Stormbird left for the Great Crusade as the first aircraft came down. Launched by magnetic rails and brought back into hangars by tractor beams these aircraft were atmospheric craft but could go out of and into orbit with the air of their void based mother ships.
With the first issue of offloading sorted they set to work on habitation. Tunnelling machines ploughed into the side of a glacier and then the entrance was sealed off to create an air tight environment and then more electrolysis machines were brought into extract oxygen from water. With this inside of a glacier base they also set to work on setting up a fusion reactor.
Food no longer needed to be brought in once they set to work constructing a greenhouse which could grow Soylens Virdians. Now having power, food water and habitation Corvo Grane had achieved a lot but it would have all been for nothing if they could not access the vast mineral reserves under the ice. Rather than drill through ice they drilled down and then detonated a thermonuclear warhead before repeating in the crater forcing their way down with these nuclear explosives. The work was done by Servitors due to the radiation. Once they had cracked through the massive thick layer of ice mining of known deposits could begin.
The success of this first colony led to Afareo receiving more workers for the growing number of mines in addition to the Adeptus Colonizus having it's place affirmed in the Imperium.
Further expansion
As the Great Crusade pushed outwards the Adeptus Colonizus was forced to follow behind. While initially they had worked for Malcador on this first project they became a lot freer and while on one hand they could now chose where they colonised they didn't have a constant supply of resources. While the Adeptus Colonizus did have a fleet and some equipment it no longer could replace any or gain expendables such as fuel and food. So for the early part of the Great Crusade a Expeditionary fleet, Adeptus Mechanicus or any other Imperial organisation the would request the Adeptus Colonizus to emplace humanity upon a newly conquered or discovered world and then the Adeptus Colonizus would submit their needs for the colonisation of the world and it would be the requester's responsibility to gather the needed materials.
This allowed a rapid expansion but it also led to show a number of structural issues in the Adeptus Colonizus. They were making up their procedure as they went along in addition to lacking trained Adepts. This was solved by the publishing of the Adeptus Colonizus Standard Protocol for the Establishment of a human presence on an uninhabited Imperial World which served as a template while it gave less room for ingenuity on scene coordinators simply reported they were following it and then sometimes interpreted it on their own.
This field guide led to greater standardisation and served as a training manual to new Adepts with it including past examples and guidance.
Council of Terra
The establishment of the Council of Terra led to a change which would bring the organisation closer to it's 41st millennium organisation. Rather than simply moving around the galaxy fulfilling individual requests and having resources given to them on site. They were placed under the Council of Terra who gave them a budget for them to spend. So they established a permanent presence on both Terra and Quitir. On Terra they made their headquarters where they could work with the Council of Terra and the Expeditionary Fleets.
While on Quitir with the budget they were given they were able to purchase the items needed giving them a regular supply flow. They continued to rapidly colonise worlds and due to the rate of expansion the Adeptus Colonizus every year continued to receive a greater budget.
Horus Heresy
The Horus Heresy tore the Galaxy ablaze. Many of the colonies established had taken their settlers from Terra, so largely they did no rise in uprising themselves. Unfortunately for them they were very poorly defended as during the Great Crusade as a counter attack was not feared and they made up the supply worlds for a number off more important planets such as Forge Worlds and Hive Worlds. So chiefly by the Night Lords but also by other Chaos legions many of the colonies were destroyed.
Great Scouring
After the Horus Heresy a number of colonies had been razed and destroyed by the traitor legions. Therefore they were expected to repopulate the Imperium's destroyed worlds with their standard bureaucracy and ability to discount massive deaths.
Age of Imperium
In the Age of Imperium there work is certainly lessened as less new worlds are discovered but even still the Adeptus Colonizis still regularly creates and helps new colonies to grow and become productive Imperial worlds.
Organisation
The Adeptus Colonizus has few resources of it's own it has an office on Terra where it coordinates it's political and archive efforts as well as where the Directors meet. Politically they spend most of their time trying to keep a steady supply of funds as well as working to make sure they are well allied with Magos Explorator and Rogue Traders as this makes their exploration and survey efforts much easier by having them as strong allies. It spends a large amount of its resources in Terra on combing through archives for planetary data which they can use to judge the suitability of a planet for future colonisation. This is of course a mammoth task to search all over the planet for any seemingly to everyone else unimportant but vitally important information to many colonies.
Off Terra their main base of operations is the hive world of Quitir where they produce the majority of equipment and ships which is used on their new colonies. Rather than obtaining it through tithe they directly pay the various businesses whose services they use with the money for these purchases coming from Terra. The Adeptus Colonizus produces nothing themselves only purchasing all they require.
They will run temporary facilities on world nearby growing colonies in which personnel are abducted and trained.
The rest of their work is done on the establishing colonies themselves to go from status as Adeptus Non to a low tithe- grade.
Establishing a Colony
Instruction Manual for the creation of a colony:
- A request is filed with Adeptus Colonizus through the Adeptus Adminstratum for creation of a colony in a specific system for a variety of reasons such as to reinforce or push forward a frontier, to exploit a valuable resource or if a sector/ sub- sector is short of resources and population a colony can be established to provide resources. Requests normally come from Sector governors but groups such as the Imperial Navy, Adeptus Mechanicum and other groups are known to make requests.
- The Adeptus Colonizus may or may not decide to contemplate creating a colony based upon the value of the creation of the colony, the availability off their resources and who is making the request.
- At this point an individual is appointed Imperial Colony Commander. This is in effect a proto Planetary Governor and in time the individual or his successors will go on to become the Planetary Governors of this planet when/ if it is integrated into Sub- sector and sector command. If the designated colony is in inter- space either a new sub- sector with the Imperial Colony Commander becoming Imperial Colony Sub Commander and in time Sub- Sector Governor. On the other hand the colony may be merged into an existing Sub- sector.
- The Imperial Colony Commander must then start the process of assessing the viability of establish a colony. All information on the prospective world is harvested with teams searching the vast vaults of Terra for any information on the system. Information is also requested from nearby Imperial worlds and Sectors for details of the system location and appearance. Sometimes the location of the system cannot be found and so the colonisation is put on hold until it can be found. If an accurate location can be obtained for the system then a health and safety assessment is made on whether an exploration should be made. If there is lack of details on the system an exploration will be sent regardless under the assumption that they will never find out if they system is safe without exploring it.
- A long- range observation with a crew of around a dozen vessel will travel to the nearest Imperial held system preferably within 10 light years although observations can be made from much greater distances and will move out of a planet's orbit and into interplanetary space where it is free of atmospheric disturbance. Many will move behind gas giants so they are not obscured by the light from the system's star. At this point the long range observation vessel will begin making observations of the system. As well as scanning the electromagnetic spectrum to both reveal the existence of planets in the system, their mass, the size of the star and any large energy outputs. It will use other long range sensors to scan the system as well.
- Assuming the long- range observation vessel did reveal the existence of a star system and planets within it as well as no obvious infestation. A survey vessel with an 8 man crew of an Astropath, Navigator, 2 pilots, a sensor officer, 2 engineers and a survey commander will warp jump into the system within the system's jump point to allow rapid escape. The survey vessel should first do an observation of the system and verify no vessels. If there are any even Imperial they should immediately return to Imperial space and report their presence. If the system is clear of space borne vessels the survey vessel should move into the system out of the jump point and take at least one reconnaissance shot of all objects over 250m.
- From there the survey vessel should proceed to the best object for colonisation. This may be based on the most hospitable to human life or if mission requirements dictate different criteria. There are no pre- existing requirements for an object although being able to fit a human on it is appreciated. The survey vessel should approach and enter orbit if possible and take more detailed reconnaissance shots before leaving the system and returning to Quitir.
- If successful in it's return and brings back relevant information proving it will fill it's goals an exploration team will be dispatched to the planet with consisting of 10 crew and 18 explorers. After assuming a stable orbit a single shuttle craft will lower explorers down in groups of 6 into various locations around the planet with air, soil, temperature and other data being assembled. Exploration groups may be moved around the planet as the ship off- world gains more details on the planet which requires more information.
- Sensory data from all 4 data collection stages the Imperial Colony Governor will collate the data and asses it giving the system a classification and a favourable report by the ICG (Imperial Colony Governor) which will be presented to the Chairman and the Board of the Adeptus Colonizus. The ICG will then try and convince them to support a colonisation of the system. If the board decides in favour of establishing a colony the ICG will be given full command of establishment.
- In Quitir based on the planets classification and reasons for colonisation a cargo manifest of what equipment will be required and a single Prance class ship in orbit of the planet must be assigned to the role of first wave transport.
- Once all equipment need for the first wave has been loaded the ship must then wait until they are timetabled to leave so they will arrive three month before the first growing season. A 120 strong construction company comprising of engineers, servitors and occasionally Orgyns and other people will be the first wave.
- Converted Valkyrie Sky Talons with two and a half by two and half metre blocks stacked four high of Ceramite with Plasteel tops clamped to the Sky Talons and are released at ground level. In addition Sentinel Power Lifters and an unarmed Tauros Ventrator used for ferrying cargo.
- The engineers need to be landed somewhere flat and capable of enduring a Arvus Lighter regardless of this is where the colony will be established. The Arvus Lighters will deploy the construction company and their tools. This is the start of the colonies construction. To formally establish the colony the leader of the construction company must lead a ceremony called the "First pee" in which he pees on the ground to the cheering of the rest of his company. Ground is chosen for the landing pad preferably already relatively level and secure but explosives can be used to clear ground. The Ceramite- Plasteel blocks which were dropped in are then moved by Sentinel Power Lifters and Tauros Ventrators into a four by four grid and locked together by magnets then welded into place. This forms a makeshift landing site.
- Fuel, food and other equipment is brought down over the next few weeks as the construction company constructs a basic perimeter and landing ports capable of allowing heavy landing craft as foundations are dug and proper landing pads are built allowing more equipment to be brought down to allow a colony to be built.
- Find 1500 'willing' colonists from a nearby overpopulated world and take them.
- Educate the soon to be colonists on how to be good colonists.
- Dump the colonists along with some Adepts and all their equipment on their new home a month before growing season starts and leave them. Retrieve the construction company.
- This is the most dangerous part as the colonist now need to settle without dying of starvation, disease, natural disaster, native species, external species, civil war or any other danger listed in the planets survey file of problems likely to wipe out the colony. They must establish their own village with a type 1 number of housing relative to the number of people living in village as well as type 2 perimeter, medical facility, storage base, administrate HQ, sewage treatment plant, communications centre and space port.
- At the start of growing season the majority of colonists must leave the village and start homesteading and farming. All family units must be given 2 hides of land a type 1 shelter, perimeter, medical facility, storage base, sewage treatment plant, communications centre and space port. The growth of the crops provided will depend on what crops provided and the crops provided will depend on the planets ecology report.
- After one growing season the colonist must construct a type 1 fort and a survey ship should return to see if the colony is still alive. If the colony is dead the survey team must find out how the colony died and then report back on whether the second wave should be sent.
- If approval for the second wave is given 3500 colonists and some more Adepts must be found and trained and delivered before the next growing season. They must be spread out near the colony and start farming while the village must be upgraded to a town and all type 2 constructions must be replaced with type 3 and more type 1 housing must be built along with the fort being made a type 2 fort.
- A third wave should be delivered at the beginning of the next growing season consisting of 6000 more trained colonists. Normally at this point ICG will actually land on the colony and assume command directing efforts. A type 2 manufacturing workshop must be set up and mining locations must be found and a type 2 mine must be created to supply the workshop. A type 4 space port must be established
- A detailed survey of the planet must be conducted in search for additional agricultural land across the planet.
- At the start of the next growing season a large fleet must be acquired from the Merchant fleet in accordance with the Chartist captain's oath and a number of colonists must be moved to the colony at the decision of the head of the colony.
- Another wave of colonists must be sent to establish to upgrade the colony's main base.
- At this point it is no longer assesed as a colony and the ICG is now a ful Planetary Governor subject to Imperial law and must pay his tithe to the Adeptus Adminstratum. If he so wishes he may contuine to import labour but that is to be done with his own resources.
*Note* deviation will result in the person being handed over to the Adeptus Arbites for processing their crime.
**Note** due to situations outside of the departments control certain steps may need to be repeat on occasions several times to achieve success regardless of casulties.
Colonists requirement
- Must be aged between 18 and 32.
- Must have a single spouse and no dependable e.g. children, elderly relatives, disabled spouses.
- Must pass a physical and mental test in accordance with their planned role before selection for training.
- All colonists must receive a course for all colonists and an additional course for colonists in accordance with their specific roles.
- The planetary governor of the colonists home -world must agree to hand over the responsibility of the colonists to the Adeptus Colonizus.
- Must not have a criminal conviction recorded even if served with Adeptus Arbites.
- Must be willing to swear a number of oaths in front of a Ministorum priest.
Rank
- Chairman of the Colonizus- The highest ranking member of the Adeptus Colonizus and is responsible for politicking and does not do much planning work himself other than appointing a committee head. He is appointed by the Directors of the Colonizus anyone amongst the Adeptus Colonizus or without as it is not unknown for other organisations to have personnel end up in this role.
- Directors of Colonizus- All members of the Board which administers the Adeptus. Some actually run things such as training, procurement, survey and other roles while some simply take roles as an easy job requiring only regular attendance of meetings and can be used as a way to obtain Imperial position with very little work. While most of the Directors jobs are not on Terra they tend to remain there as it is a good place for the board to convene as well as Terra is the heart of humanity. These are the main actual working directors:
- Director of training: This director is responsible for the education of colonists, Adepts, workers, engineers and all roles. Training is normally carried out from where the prospective candidates are being taken from although some specialist training such as that of Adepts is carried out on Quitir regardless of where they hail from.
- Director of shipping:
- Captain- They are captains of the fleet of the Adeptus Colonizus. They organize the shipping of all equipment and the maintenance of their own ships. They answer to the Director of shipping.
- Imperial Colony Governor- They are in effect the planetary governor of the fledgling colonies and will become the Planetary Governors once the colony is a official planet.
- Adepts- They are the low and mid level officers who operate both on colonies and in admin headquarters. This is where anyone wishing to create a career in the Adeptus Colonizus starts and they are normally recruited from higher education graduates on Terra and Quitir although from other organisations such as the Imperial Guard. Navy, Adeptus Terra groups or highborn individuals.
- Workers- These people all work on ships as crewmen or in Quitir as factory slaves. They are drafted from the Icrasti personnel cartel (a slave ring).
- Colonists- They are recruited and educated from nearby high populated worlds. It is a volunteer system although a lot of information about the hardships and danger so of colonial life is withheld. Normally hive-world workers or any number of other bored Imperial citizens seeking an 'adventure'. They are dumped on a colonial world and expected to fuffil their trained role.