# What Defenses Does Terra have?



## BiOHaTe (Nov 19, 2009)

I need estimated Imperial Guard, SM, Terminators, Dreads, Orbital weapons, titans, vehicles, buildings, Space Hulks, psykers etc etc so i can launch an attack in a book i am writing. 

Also how long it would take for reinforcements to come.


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

Terra is the heart of the Imperium. I am not sure if there are any Imperial Guard Regiments on Terra, however there might be some form of PDF present. For Space Marines, I am sure there will be a contingent of Imperial Fist's present or nearby and on high alert. The entire Segmentum Sol Fleet is based at Mars, so it is fair to say that a few hundred ships and stations are present to defend the world shall they need it. There is also the Grey Knights and other Inquisition Forces at Saturn, or actually it might be Jupiter. There is also the Custodian Guard, the Emperor's Praetorian's, who are superior to Astartes and better equipped. A pair of Titan's, either Warhound's or Warlord's of the Legio Ignatum also stand guard over the Palace, which itself may be called the best fortress within the Imperium. Luna also houses cannons I believe, or did so Pre-Heresy if I remember correctly. Hope that is some form of help, not the best but it is some information. And why would the Imperium use Space Hulk's?


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Probably no SM, 'cos they've got the Custodians instead (My god that tourny army of them was cool). They have at least 2 Orbital Defence Stations, under the South Pole there's no the Inquisitorial Headquarters which will have Grey Knight Terminators and other powerful defences. Ground-to-Space lasers are also in place around the major hives, and in the Himalayas the Astronomican Chamber will have it's attached guards. The Adeptus Arbite HQ is also on Terra, so there will be a shedload of them stationed to defend it. Three of the Assassin training facilities are definitely there (Callidus, Vindicare and Eversor), and whilst Culexus is probably not, it could be. There's a huge Sisters of Battle fortress somewhere in the South hemisphere.

Most of this information is courtesy of Lexicanum.

Midnight


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Its hard to know for sure. But its fairly safe to assume that its one of the most heavily defended positions in the Imperium (alongside the Boros Gate and the Cadian Gate).

If Terra was threatened, the High Lords would essentially pull back all available Astartes & Imperial Guard to defend it, the defence of Terra would have to be successful for the Imperium to endure.


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Its hard to know for sure. But its fairly safe to assume that its one of the most heavily defended positions in the Imperium (alongside the Boros Gate and the Cadian Gate).
> 
> If Terra was threatened, the High Lords would essentially pull back all available Astartes & Imperial Guard to defend it, the defence of Terra would have to be successful for the Imperium to endure.


What/Where is the Boros Gate?

I highly doubt a pair of Warhounds defend the Eternity Gate; Probably not even Warlord - More like Imperator Class...


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## Emporers Champion (Mar 19, 2009)

Theres an audio book called the lightning tower (i think) listen to that. Its all about Rogal Dorn turning the Emperors Palace in to a forteress fot the siege of terra.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

I belive its a pair of Warhounds that stand guard. You also have all four Assassin temples, Inquisition forces, and the all bad ass Custodians. 

Mars itself has... everything. Ships, Titans, Skitarris forces out the ass, enough firepower to destroy Necron fleet, and the freaking Void Dragon.

I thought Jupiters Moon Titan has the entire GK Chapter with all its bad ass goodness. As for SMs theres bound to be mutiple Chapters to recall. 

Then theres the whole Fleet of Segmentem Solar (or whatever) there.

In short its as assaultable as the Eye of Terror or Maelstrom from outside forces.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Warlock in Training said:


> I belive its a pair of Warhounds that stand guard.


Last I read some time ago, four imperator titans guard the palace; it is the home of the Emperor and the seat of power within the Imperium beyond all other bodies.


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## BiOHaTe (Nov 19, 2009)

darkreever said:


> Last I read some time ago, four imperator titans guard the palace; it is the home of the Emperor and the seat of power within the Imperium beyond all other bodies.


Yeah i believe i've seen a picture of 2 titans about the same height of the Palace which the tip reaches into the clouds. So they would be Imperator class.
Warhound class is only 20 meters tall, they are scout titans.

Hmm thanks for the information, My story is about Tzeentch whispering to Nurgle about a disease he's never made before which spreads through the warp and effects psykers souls, effectively turning them into beacons and spreading the disease to others around them, creating giant warp storms that allow chaos onto the material plane. The Storms being so huge that even the dark gods could some what materialize.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

It's 2 Warhounds which guard the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace, I don't know about the rest of the complex.


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## K3k3000 (Dec 28, 2009)

Terra may be one of the most well defended bastions in the galaxy. It seems drastic measures are taken to ensure that no threat to Terra can even manifest. This can be seen with the hive fleet Leviathan, which came within 150,000 lightyears of Terra. The Imperium was panicky enough to sacrifice so many planets to exterimantus that, apparently, such a strategy wouldn't be viable a second time.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Going by Space Wolves background the Imperial Palace is the greatest fortress in the Imperium (as the Fang is constantly referred to as the greatest fortress outside of Terra), Luna is essentially a vast complex of space defences that also includes extensive docking facilities for fleets (though as pointed out the Fleet Base for the Segmentum Solar is Mars)- actually quite a smart move if large ships can't directly dock with Terra, leaves less chance for disidents to infiltrate through such necessarily large ports, instead they would have to risk being detected by the need to take a shuttle from Luna to Terra.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

I can't remember where i read it and it may have been removed from the fluff now but arn't space marines prohibited for terra since the HH, much in same way the roman army was not allowed in rome

oh and the GK base is on Titan a moon of jupiter


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

In _Flight of the Eisenstein_ there's a description of the Sisters of Silence ship entering the solar system and the checks and defences it has to go through. It also mentions that the moon is a massively fortified base.

As mentioned, there are already huge resources from all branches of the Imperial war machine based in the solar system, and there is an entire segmentum fleet that stays within the single system. We saw that fully half the then huge legions along with titans and demons couldn't take Terra, and it should be safe to assume that the system defences have been upgraded somewhat since then.


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## Coder59 (Aug 23, 2009)

All of them. Seriously If the Imperium has it then you can bet your bollocks that it's on Terra in some way shape or form.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Khorne's Fist said:


> In _Flight of the Eisenstein_ there's a description of the Sisters of Silence ship entering the solar system and the checks and defences it has to go through. It also mentions that the moon is a massively fortified base.


Indeed, But also note that a few Necron ships were able to reach Mars and even land on the surface. Although thats Necrons... 



Khorne's Fist said:


> We saw that fully half the then huge legions along with titans and demons couldn't take Terra


Well essentially they did win Terra, the reason they retreated was because Horus was killed and therefore purpose and unity was shattered.



Khorne's Fist said:


> and it should be safe to assume that the system defences have been upgraded somewhat since then.


Its plausable also that given the Imperium's digression, the defences havn't been able to be upgraded, and many relics of the Dark Age which are said to protect Terra cannot properly be maintained as the technology doesn't exist and due to the Mechanicum's paranoia.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

You have to remember though; Horus lowered his shields in order to lure the emperor in. This would suggest that he was most likely pressed for time and that the defenders had held long enough for the ultramarines or another legion that would be a serious threat to Horus to arrive. So it could be said that the defenses at terra were effective and did do their job, even with the iron warriors pounding. 

I would agree with Khorne's fist that the defenses would be improved. However I also agree that it is possible that the defenses might not be quite as advanced in some aspects but may however be more advanced in others. What I mean by this is that they would most likely have more defensive barriers in place than they did during the HH but some technological elements that the emperor himself had developed might have fallen into disrepair, the golden throne comes to mind, but others that had been constructed with the use of STCs would still be in good shape, assuming of course that the blue prints had survived the Martian upheaval.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

gen.ahab said:


> You have to remember though; Horus lowered his shields in order to lure the emperor in. This would suggest that he was most likely pressed for time and that the defenders had held long enough for the ultramarines or another legion that would be a serious threat to Horus to arrive. So it could be said that the defenses at terra were effective and did do their job, even with the iron warriors pounding.


Well its not clear at all why Horus lowered his shields at the moment, we have at least 3 differing accounts.

And yes obviously the arrival of the Space Wolves, Ultramarines and/or the Dark Angels would have posed more than a serious threat to Horus' Legions. 

But Terra had been crushed and the Imperial Palace all but reduced to rubble.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Well no fortress can withstand a prolonged siege no matter how strong it is built so you really can't expect it to survive indefinably. 

I can't really think of any other reason Horus would drop his shields other than to lure the emperor in and the only reason I could see him doing that was that he was pressed for time and he in immediate danger of losing the siege...... unless he just suddenly became retarded.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

gen.ahab said:


> Well no fortress can withstand a prolonged siege no matter how strong it is built so you really can't expect it to survive indefinably.


Indeed.



gen.ahab said:


> I can't really think of any other reason Horus would drop his shields other than to lure the emperor in and the only reason I could see him doing that was that he was pressed for time and he in immediate danger of losing the siege...... unless he just suddenly became retarded.


Well some sources claim that Horus felt some last pang of regret for what he was doing and actually wanted the Emperor to kill him thus lowered his shields.

Others state that he wished to better witness the destruction of the Imperium and death of his father thus lowered the shields.

Some state that he was pressed for time (with the imminent arrival of 3 loyalist Legions) thus had to gamble everything on a final duel with the Emperor.

And others simply state it is unknown why he lowered his shields.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Well some sources claim that Horus felt some last pang of regret for what he was doing and actually wanted the Emperor to kill him thus lowered his shields.
> 
> Others state that he wished to better witness the destruction of the Imperium and death of his father thus lowered the shields.
> 
> ...


Well the first two, imo, would fall under the suddenly retarded clause:laugh:, the last seems to me to be the only realistic choice...... well the third rather.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

gen.ahab said:


> Well the first two, imo, would fall under the suddenly retarded clause:laugh:, the last seems to me to be the only realistic choice...... well the third rather.


Well the first is perfectly plausable, as you said the third is also. (The second seems a bit iffy to me aswell!)

But I'll guess we'll have to wait until the HH series reaches that point.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Assuming it ever does. I really want to know how they deal with the emperor and horus's final battle. It could provide a lot of insight into the emperors actual strength...... of course they may do it from both perspectives idk. But anyway ya, after thinking about it, it isn’t so much retarded as somewhat pathetic.


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## Initiate (Mar 25, 2007)

It would be quite impossible to attack Terra again. Custodians are second only to the Primarchs in terms of awesomeness and it is they who are charged with Terra's protection. 

The Inquisition has many strongholds on terra, there are thousands of PDF troops, the Sisters of Silence patrol the Segmentum Solar, the moon is an artillery fort, space marines would be recalled if a Chaos fleet so much as takes a piss within a hundred thousand light years from Terra, not to mention Mars with the skitarii, titans, tanks and whatnot. 

This is all before you consider the fortifications on the Emperor's palace, as well as the orbital batteries and the polar defense grids built into the planet.

If 9 legions of around 10,000 marines couldn't get past all the defenses, nothing can.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

I wouldn't say its impossible. However, it is extremely unlikely. Terra is probably the most heavily fortified position in the galaxy, nothing short of a massive invasion force would be able to even scratch the paint.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Initiate said:


> It would be quite impossible to attack Terra again. Custodians are second only to the Primarchs in terms of awesomeness and it is they who are charged with Terra's protection.
> 
> The Inquisition has many strongholds on terra, there are thousands of PDF troops, the Sisters of Silence patrol the Segmentum Solar, the moon is an artillery fort, space marines would be recalled if a Chaos fleet so much as takes a piss within a hundred thousand light years from Terra, not to mention Mars with the skitarii, titans, tanks and whatnot.
> 
> ...


Of course the fact that those Legions (and it wasn't 9 it was only 7) managed to smash through all but the very last defence in 55 days, and probably would have won if they'd had another week or so doesn't speak highly of your theory.


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

Two words.

Orbital bombardment.


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## Leviticus (Mar 27, 2009)

The Real Sanguinius said:


> Two words.
> 
> Orbital bombardment.



Gonna need to slobberknock the hell out of a giant fleet of imperial vessels...


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Two more words.

Void Shields.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Hmmmmm... just me but I dont see how Terra could "prevent" a Warp Storm (i.e. Daemonic Incursion on massive scale) from hitting that Solar System. What could stop Angron doing to Terra from what he did to Armeggeddon? Just Curious.


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

Leviticus said:


> Gonna need to slobberknock the hell out of a giant fleet of imperial vessels...


Or, if you flip the coin, you could argue that a fleet of imperial vessels is going to need to slobberknock the hell out of a giant fleet of heretic vessels...


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## Coder59 (Aug 23, 2009)

The Real Sanguinius said:


> Or, if you flip the coin, you could argue that a fleet of imperial vessels is going to need to slobberknock the hell out of a giant fleet of heretic vessels...


Well that's what Horus did. I was always confused about that did Horus have total air superiority during that battle?



Warlock in Training said:


> Hmmmmm... just me but I dont see how Terra could "prevent" a Warp Storm (i.e. Daemonic Incursion on massive scale) from hitting that Solar System. What could stop Angron doing to Terra from what he did to Armeggeddon? Just Curious.


Thats a good point about the Warp Storms, it's probably got something to do with the Astronomicon (also known as the magical maguffin.) But didn't Angron need a Space Hulk to actually get to Armageddon in the first place? I get the feeling a Space Hulk drifting into the Solar system would have all the Imperial Navy admirals yelling WOO Target Practice!


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## Baltar (Aug 16, 2008)

> Well that's what Horus did. I was always confused about that did Horus have total air superiority during that battle?


No, he didn't.

However, that doesn't matter. If you appear fairly suddenly, and then fire an assload of bombs and lazzzzzerz down at the surface, you do plenty of damage long before you can take out loads of ships. It's the rapidity of the orbital strike that is its advantage.

If we were to compare fleets at the time, then the loyalists would have raped the hell out of _everyone_, if only Rogal Dorn hadn't sent his massive flying fortress moon (basically an imperial fist version of the death star) flying off somewhere else (tricked, as I recall).

But, as it was, I think it was a reasonably even battle. But the battle would take aaaaaaaages.... and it only takes a short time to land a bazillion troops and to blast the shit out of the surface... soooo.... it made little difference.


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## BiOHaTe (Nov 19, 2009)

If Mars has one of those weapons that can destroy whole sectors, why haven't they used it against the eye of terror? I'm planning to have it done in the book.
But causes the warp storm to go even crazier as the barriers between materium and immaterium are destroyed.

I was wondering How void shields work and if they have stronger shields than that, if it would stop the warp from coming through. 

Yeah no one has noticed what i said about the warp disease turning sol into a massive warp storm. 

I was thinking of making the humans as a last resort ripping out their souls like they do with those special assassins or pariahs. 
Or creating a shield around the earth that cuts off terra's connecting to the warp.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Well Gellar Fields are used to protect ships traversing the Warp, they essentially trap a bubble of real space around the ship preventing incursion from the immaterium. I don't think they'd be much use against weaponry though.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

BiOHaTe said:


> If Mars has one of those weapons that can destroy whole sectors, why haven't they used it against the eye of terror? I'm planning to have it done in the book.
> But causes the warp storm to go even crazier as the barriers between materium and immaterium are destroyed.


No they wouldn't work. Firstly a weapon couldn't be fired from Mars all the way to the Eye of Terror. Secondly since when does Mars actually have a weapon that can destroy entire sectors? Thirdly it would do nothing to the Eye of Terror anyway (where the barriers between Materium and Immaterium are already destroyed by the way).



BiOHaTe said:


> if it would stop the warp from coming through.


Thats a Gellar Field.


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## Initiate (Mar 25, 2007)

Baron Spikey said:


> Of course the fact that those Legions (and it wasn't 9 it was only 7) managed to smash through all but the very last defence in 55 days, and probably would have won if they'd had another week or so doesn't speak highly of your theory.


Look through the 4th ed SM codex, I'm very sure there are 9 traitor legions.
(Black Legion, Alpha Legion, Night Lords, 1k Sons, Iron Warriors, Emperor's Children, World Eaters, Death Guard, Word Bearers)

The point, however, is that they _didn't _win. They _didn't _have another week. Why? Because Guilliman would have kicked their ass and Horus knew it. Not to mention that everyone being stunned at such a betrayal, all the traitor primarchs being present, various loyalist legions being occupied, the Imperial army stationed everywhere but the Segmentum Solar, the Mechanicum supporting the Warmaster and the traitors outnumbering the loyalists helped the Chaos marines considerably. 

Now though, we have the Ecclesiarchy, a thousand chapters of a thousand space marines, the Assassin temples, more Imperial guard regiments than you can count patrolling the area around the holiest system, the AdMech has sworn their loyalty to the Throne and security forces are forever on the alert. All of these facts lead inevitably to the truth of the matter, which is that it's impossibly improbable to take on Terra and win, because the defenses have likely been doubled since the Heresy (when the traitor legions _almost _won) to ensure nothing of the like ever happens again.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Yes, there were 9 traitor legions, but only 7 took part in the siege of terra. And they had the officio assassinorum during the crusade I believe.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

We should take into account the fact that Abaddon knows the Void Dragon is on Mars though, which would likely effect in some way a Chaos invasion of the Sol System 



gen.ahab said:


> Yes, there were 9 traitor legions, but only 7 took part in the siege of terra.


And none of those 7 Legions were at full strength:

*Sons of Horus* - Isstvan III/V & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra.
*Emperor's Children* - Isstvan III/V & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra.
*Death Guard* - Isstvan III/V & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra.
*World Eaters* - Isstvan III/V & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra.
*Iron Warriors* - Isstvan V (and some presumed method of purging their ranks) & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra.
*Thousand Sons* - Burning of Prospero and subsequent 'Flesh-Changes'.
*Word Bearers* - Second Purge of the Brotherhood, Most of the Legion subsequently attacking the Ultramarines at Calth & the Decade of campaigning up to the Siege of Terra. Only a fraction of the Legion under Lorgar is presumed to have been present at Terra.


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