Kerrack was an Imperial Agri-World that came under assault from the Forces of Chaos and the warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Slaughterkin and that was eventually cleansed by the actions of the 5th Company of the Star Phantoms Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes during the campaign known as the Scourging of Kerrack.
History[]
In 932.M41 the Chaos Lord Mahaur the Harvester of the Slaughterkin warband of Chaos Space Marines sought to assault the Agri-world of Kerrack in the Varsavus Sector of the Ultima Segmentum. He laid the seeds of rebellion by establishing a series of Chaos Cults, the so-called "Charnel Cult" from among the world's population of primitive agricultural workers who spent their lives harvesting the roots of the world's nutrient-rich Cholam trees for processing into sustenance to support the Astra Militarum regiments engaged in the Karthago Crusade. As the cult spread rapidly through Kerrack's population and unleashed a massive rebellion against Imperial rule, the world soon fell to anarchy and war. The ensuing conflict with the local Planetary Defence Forces and Astra Militarum regiments was fought beneath the dense canopy of the swamp-like Cholam forests and in the air between Imperial Navy pilots and the Hell Talons and Hell Blades brought to the world by the Slaughterkin's arrival after the rebellion had severely weakened the Imperial defenders. The Imperial cause was further damaged when the corruption of Chaos took many of the PDF troops, as they turned to the worship of the Ruinous Powers. Once the Harvester took the planetary capital of Calder's Ark, the victory of the Forces of Chaos seemed assured. Deliverance only came when the 5th Battle Company of the Star Phantoms Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes under the command of Captain Calphax arrived in-system to resupply, and launched an immediate and devastating attack upon the rebel stronghold at Calder's Ark, slaying the Harvester and driving the remaining Traitor Marines of the Slaughterkin from Kerrack.
Geography and Culture[]
Kerrack is a peculiar world where life has always been harsh. The planet is dominated by a single large continent where the human population has naturally concentrated. This vast continent harbours Kerrack's single and most valuable resource: the great forests of mighty Cholam trees, some of them towering more than 200 Terran feet in height. Cholam roots only grow in humid environments, which means that beneath the canopy much of Kerrack's continent resembles a gigantic swamp. Although filtered through ancient technological artefacts that likely predate the birth of the Imperium, the water used to irrigate these forests is highly toxic. The Imperial presence on Kerrack is concentrated in a few factory-cities located on the shorelines. The harvested Cholam roots are processed there into a barely palatable but nutrient-rich grey gruel, before they are shipped to Kerrack's single spaceport at Ven Nys and then on to the overpopulated Hive Worlds across the Imperium and to support the Astra Militarum regiments engaged in the Karthago Crusade.
Since its establishment as an Imperial Agri-world, Kerrack's native population has deliberately been kept in a state of servitude and held to a lower technological standard than that of the wider Imperium. Organised in great family-groups, the men and women of the so-called Harvester Clans have toiled under the stern gaze of their Imperial overseers, hacking at the tough, fibrous roots of the Cholam trees. So thick were these forests that only travel on foot was possible, thus severely hindering quick transport of goods and personnel on Kerrack. Clansmen riots and insurrections were few and far between before the Scourging of Kerrack, though not unheard of.
Sources[]
- Imperial Armour Aeronautica, pp. 76-84
- Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned, pp. 25, 33