Numinal

Numinal is one of the few Agri-Worlds located in the Coronid Reach of the Coronid Deeps within the Segmentum Obscurus. Colonized in the late 890s.M30 when the Imperium expanded along the stable warp-routes of that region, Numinal quickly became a highly important world being located at the crossway of several warp-routes linking it to the Agathon Domain, the Manachean Commonwealth, the Cerada Trinity and to other such minor worlds as Vespasia Infernus or Garella. As such Numinal forms the proverbial gateway to the Coronid Reach. Its exports almost exclusively flow to the densely populated word of the Manachean Commonwealth where it they feed billions of inhabitants. The world suffered harshly during the dire events of the Horus Heresy as it was occupied early on in the conflict by forces of the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum. The imperial counter-invasion led by the Agathean Cohorts under the esteemed Lord Marshal Ireton MaSade has since entered history as the lauded Liberation of Numinal.

History
Numinal is a terrestrial-type Agri-world of the oceanic sub-type which has commonly been called an Ocean World. It is a planet of world-spanning oceans and numerous volcanic archipelagos and islands, the largest of which form Numinal’s principal continent. Numinal’s late discovery occurred when imperial Explorator Fleets followed the stable warp-routes originating from the Manachean Commonwealth which had just been recently liberated from the baleful overlordship of the Mitu Conglomerate. Since then Numinal has formed an important link in the chain of human civilization in the northern Imperium.

With the discovery of several stable warp-routes linking it to the future Agathean Domain and the Cerada Trinity; Numinal’s exploitation as an Agri-World was quickly decided. As would later be discovered, these stable warp-routes extended far into the Eastern Fringe of the Imperium, reaching as far as Honourum - future home-world of the Novamarines Space Marine Chapter - and lost Angelis in the Ultima Segmentum, permitting starships to bypass entirely the illusive Hadexus Warp Channel on which plenty of ships had already been lost. These vital routes would made Numinal a prime target during the civil wars that would follow the main Traitor attack during the era known as the Age of Darkness, but at the world’s beginnings, these proved a boon for the nascent Agri-World.

Segmentum authorities had placed high hopes in this planet and when colonization began in the late 890s.M30, it was almost achieved within a decade. Rapidly constructed prefabricated cities and outpost soon harbored some forty million inhabitants while a navigational beacon was installed on the habitable moon of Numnial V, henceforth known as Quachil. Numinal’s saline seas had since then been given over to aquaculture and epigenetic engineering by especially dispatched Magos Biologis retinues which would further improve Numinal’s native or imported fauna and flora. To exploit these natural resources, well-developed orbital trans-shipping infrastructure and an immense geo-synchronous void –station were constructed. Almost immediately after completion, Numinal began with the export of nutrient-rich compounds - mostly algae and fish – for the densely populated worlds of the Manachean Commonwealth.

Numinal’s oceans had however not entirely been bereft of intelligent life, as the presence of several primitive amphibious and ichthyoid species native to Numinal warranted suppression and extermination campaigns led by specialized units of the 1023rd and 2774th Obed Cohorts of the Exertus Imperialis. These Solar Auxilia veterans cohorts as well as a native detachments of Solar Auxilia security forces they had the duty to train an would be stationed on board of Numinal’s void station were the only standing military forces when the entire region was overcome by the first battles of the Horus Heresy in 007.M31. The attackers were not as one would perhaps have feared traitor Legiones Astartes, but Cyclothrathe-bound battle-automata. Against this relentless foe organized resistance proved difficult and shortly after the void station had been taken, the only loyalist military forces remaining on Numinal were those of the Obed Cohorts. The remnants of these Cohorts quickly splintered into a resistance guerrilla force which used their expertise in the swamps and semi-aquatic terrain that dominated Numinal to their advantage. The terrain was anathema to the Mechanicum heavier units such as Castellax and Thanatar Battle Automata, while the lighter units could often be ambushed through the Obed’s Cohort knowledge of the surrounding lands. The Obed Cohort’s efforts were focused on sabotage and opportunistic assaults, a campaign they maintained for an entire solar year and required further Mechanicum reinforcements to quell. This forced the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum to redeploy troops it had originally intended for other warzones and after the continuous failings of the local Magos the need for Cyclothrathe’s principal warlord, the vaunted Archmagos Yelav Draykavac to be recalled from the frontlines in the Cerada Trinity to deal with the matter.

Still the Obed Cohorts could not readily be drawn to do battle and eluded every attempt at a pitched battl which would soon have seen them crushed against the superior Mechanicum forces. Tired of chasing this illusive target, the ruthless Archmagos would devised a different strategy : if he could not destroy the Obed Cohorts, he would destroy what they had been protecting. Probably intended all along, Archmagos Draykavak ordered the forcibly conversion of Numinal’s civilian population into Mechanicum-bound servitors or Adsecularis Troopers. This would serve two purposes, firstly to increase his own forces as well as diminishing the supposed loyalist population which the Obed Cohorts used for shelter and resupply and secondly forcing the Obed Cohorts to make a stand, their sense of duty compelling them to take actions against this most vile line of actions. In this second matter, Draykavak’s plan would function perfectly; however he could not have predicted that this would take place during famed Liberation of Numinal.