Every citizen in the Imperium lives under the shadow of war, but in few places is this quite so literal as Hive Fissilicus – the great ring-shaped city that encircles the base of the Great Gun. This is a city entirely dedicated to the reloading and firing of the single most enormous planetary defence cannon in the Imperium, and it’s here that Kill Team: Hivestorm plays out.
This is no ordinary Imperial world, so we’ve prepared this dossier on the Massif Ballistus and its environs to prepare for your airborne insertions.
But first, we must get acquainted with the world of Volkus – a manufacturing centre that produces just about everything civilian and military industries need, from combat boots and flakboard trenchworks to plastek wrappers for nutrient blocks. Its place in the Chalnath Expanse and links to many surrounding sectors make it a juicy target for invading armies, necessitating an immense defence network of orbital guns and anti-aircraft batteries that bristle from every hive city, bastion, and work platform on the planet.
These defences would be the crown jewel in the arsenal of lesser planets, but on Volkus they pale in comparison to the mind-bending might of the Massif Ballistus. None know when it was built, or even who devised such a grotesquely oversized gun – as comprehensive records on Volkus stretch back scarcely over a millennium – but this one-of-a-kind weapon defies engineering logic with anchoring irons that reach down into the planet’s mantle and barrels that scrape the stratosphere.*
It can hurl shells the size of a city block over half a million miles from the planet’s surface.** Singular hits have annihilated entire Chaos fleets, vapourised space hulks, and even split the planet’s moon in half when Ork Freebooters sought to use it as a base for raiding – though in typical Imperial fashion, the resulting gravitational upheaval and widespread calamity was declared a blessed price to pay for the Emperor’s divine aid.
Things aren’t much better for those who live around the base of the Massif Ballistus, as the thunderous recoil and venting blasts ruin structures for miles around. The settlements that exist in its shadow are hastily built shanty towns that survive only as long as it takes the gun to fire again. Beyond the outer ring of its destructive backblast lies the city of Hive Fissilicus, a mighty metropolis encircling the blast zone like a halo and providing the immense workforce required to prepare, aim, fire, and reload the Great Gun.
Each of the districts of Hive Fissilicus contributes part of the gigantic shells loaded into the gun, with warheads, propellants, casings, and more transported on reinforced maglev trains to the final assembly zone of Cascabael. Conclaves of tech-priests must pool their expertise simply to aim, accounting for planetary rotation, stellar phenomena, and the slingshot effect of Volkus’ own gravitational field.
It is no wonder, then, that the Imperial citizens who live here revere it as a divine manifestation of the Emperor’s might. Most know it as Sacred Death, and despite the extraordinary destruction its firing causes, throngs of deafened pilgrims drown out warning klaxons and alarm bells with fervent hymns and sonorous prayer bells.
Successfully disabling or damaging it would crush Imperial morale throughout the system, so the T’au Empire have a considerable interest in taking it out.*** The elite regiments of the Tempestus Aquilons lie only a short Valkyrie flight away should the planet’s biggest stick come under attack.
Plan your own missions to decide the future of the Massif Ballistus when Kill Team: Hivestorm is released later this year, and make sure to sign up for our newsletter for the latest news, rules, and reveals.
* They reach so high that the ends must be warmed by massive electrothermic generators to prevent the build-up of ice.
** That’s twice the distance between Holy Terra and Luna, fact fans.
*** The Earth Caste are also keen to have a look at its inner workings.