Homeworld Quarantine World

Condemned by Holy Imperial Writ and blockaded by the Imperial Navy, though possibly resource rich and habitable; any foot that has trod these mysterious surfaces is one marked
for execution.

“By decree of the Lords of Askellon and the most Holy Inquisition, this world is now deemed to be under Imperial Quarantine. Any who violate this edict are considered Perditious and their lives deemed forfeit.”
–Final words of an Askellian Writ of Quarantine

Characteristic modifiers
Ballistic Skill, + Intelligence, – Strength

Fate threshold
3 (Emperor’s Blessing 9+)

Home world bonus
Secretive by Nature: Those who manage to leave a quarantine world learn how to keep secrets. Whenever the warband’s Subtlety would decrease, it decreases by 2 less (to a minimum reduction of 1).

Aptitude
Fieldcraft

Wounds
A quarantine world character starts with 8+1d5 wounds

Recommended backgrounds
Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Guard, Outcast

Random selection
If using Table 2–1: Random Home World from page 31 of the D ark H eresy Core Rulebook, a quarantine world can be generated on any roll where the ones digit is a zero.

Quarantine worlds are marked as forbidden for visitation, settlement, or contact of any kind. Some might be seemingly benign verdant spheres, others might be foreboding rocks, but the Imperium has determined there is some terrible threat that outweighs any possible usefulness they might contain. Such threats range from biological agents to xenos species infiltration, and even to possible Warp-taint and other unholy threats. Whatever the catastrophe, potential or historical, it is viewed as a far greater risk than any reward it could bring.
Once the edict is given, the Imperial Navy provides the military and defence systems the situation requires, from message buoys at the outskirts of the system to patrolling ships and orbiting weapons platforms. No unauthorised craft is allowed anywhere near the space and any found are generally destroyed without question.
In case of extreme risk to the sector, the human population is often annihilated to prevent any potential escape attempts. Regardless of whether anyone survives this culling, no one is allowed to set foot on those planets without proper authorisation. To be discovered breaking a writ of quarantine is a death sentence.

liFe On a q uarantine WOrld
Details of life on quarantine worlds are scarce, as most who could provide them are trapped on the surface or captured and likely put to immediate death if found to have escaped. Tales whisper of worlds covered with psychic storms that can burn sanity like firewood, or where ethereal remnants of dead races still stalk the ruins of once-grand temples, or simply where events occurred so terrible that the Imperium insists they remain secret forever.
Populations might vary from teeming masses unknowingly tainted with a Warp-based plague to the wretched survivors an alien invasion deemed too spiritually contaminated to be allowed outside contact. Though Inquisitors often seek to interrogate such individuals for information about the world they came from and how they were able to escape from it, most captains readily dispose of them through an airlock should any official investigations draw near their ship.
On some quarantine worlds, the remaining inhabitants are perhaps unaware of their status, knowing only that travel from their planet has been dormant for long generations and such is the way the Emperor has decreed. On others, where the populace knows of their fate, many lose hope quickly and sacrifice themselves in an attempt to thwart any spread of the threat. A few, however, may be motivated to find a way to beat the odds and counteract the threat, whether it is killing the creature or pathogen or containing and eradicating Warp contamination. There are no records of any world ever being released from quarantine, though many planets have petitioned for generations, claiming that they have freed themselves of any taint.
Escape from a quarantine world, however, is very different. Leaving under one’s own power is usually met with death at the hands of gunners or interceptor pilots. Any craft detected leaving the planet’s surface is hailed once and then eliminated. Stationed forces, however, must conduct reconnaissance themselves, whether by scans from orbit or aerospace drones and aircraft doing more in-depth sensor sweeps and visual checks from within the atmosphere. It is in these instances that the local populations may attempt to commandeer or stow away aboard these craft, seeking a one-way ticket to the larger orbiting ship where they can hopefully disappear within the ship’s crew.

Quarantine world characters
Characters from worlds marked for quarantine face immeasurable odds in getting off planet and staying free. Whether the individual lived there at the time of the event, was born afterward, or has been to the surface “liberating” inhabitants or scavenging for ancient relics, anyone who has been past the restriction points of the edict lives on borrowed time. Depending on the nature of the quarantine and the amount of ordnance preventing departure, those who flee risk capture and execution, and therefore must remain on the run.
It is no surprise that they seldom ally themselves with any singular group for too long.
Anyone can come from a quarantine world, for it is the nature of the world or the accident that determines the need for enforced segregation, not the people. Adeptus Mechanicus research stations, agri-worlds, hive worlds…all of these have been the victims of such accidents, condemning their inhabitants to lives of gradual decline and eventual extinction. Those who survive and escape are some of the most versatile and resourceful people in the galaxy.
They are also some of the least trusting and secretive, relying on themselves and often willing to strand comrades in order to stay one step ahead of the authorities. In the rarest of circumstances, the Left Hand of the Emperor finds these individuals and offers them a chance to stop running in exchange for their services. It is a very brave or very foolish person who refuses such an offer.

Sample quarantine world: Vapaus
In the middle of the main Warp corridor between Juno and Pellenne lies the Vapaus System, a formerly prosperous mining hub and trading post, now a mere husk. It boasted over ten billion people and a bustling starport, and was a stable layover between the two processional worlds until all communications went offline abruptly sixty years ago. Trade ships that ventured into the system found no activity and most of the inhabitants in a lax, vegetative state.
Thus far none have awakened, and those who have dared venture to the planet without fully sealed voidsuit protection have suffered similar fates. The Adeptus Administratum on Juno has declared it a quarantined system and has begun the march of ordnance and defence platforms to the system to ward off traffic; this has not stopped Faceless Traders and hereteks alike from attempting to land and learn more of a possible weapon or secretive life form.