“PC-5728”

Penal Colony 5728 is an Imperial penal colony situated on the desolate, toxic planet of Nothus, established in 798.M41 by the Imperial Navy. Its purpose is twofold: to serve as a resource extraction hub and to provide replacement crew for the Imperial Navy and visiting star vessels. Despite its functionality, it stands as a grim testament to the harsh realities of Imperial justice.

Key Features

Location and Infrastructure

  • Ancient STC Arcology: The colony occupies a sprawling, ancient Standard Template Construct (STC) arcology, predating its Imperial foundation. Its immense hive domes were not designed for penal use, leaving most of the arcology desolate. Only Hive Dome 1 is fully operational, housing the colony’s population.
  • Toxic Atmosphere: The planet’s atmosphere is poisonous, necessitating life-sustaining infrastructure. The toxic environment also provides a layer of obscurity, making external detection more challenging (-5 to detection checks).
  • Mineral Production: Prisoners extract minerals from the equatorial lowlands, which are processed in a chemical facility. These operations are maintained under contract with the Chorda Dynasty, which also supplies the colony with new prisoners.

Population

  • Current Inmates: 575,000 prisoners, far below the arcology’s potential capacity of 10,000,000. Most of the domes remain unpowered and unused.
  • Social Structure: Prisoners self-govern within the confines of Hive Dome 1, but the colony’s Fortified Rally-point ensures strict control over power and life support.

Operations and Management

Imperial Role

  • Supplies replacement crews for Imperial Navy vessels.
  • Maintains a chemical processing facility of poor quality for mineral refining.
  • Includes a Medicae Deck and Imperial Figurehead for administrative and symbolic purposes.

Governance

  • Vladir, Prison Warden: Oversees the colony’s day-to-day operations, maintaining a fragile balance between Imperial oversight and the prisoners’ semi-autonomy.
  • Morcutor, Rune-priest: Adds a spiritual and mystical dimension to the colony, potentially stabilizing the volatile population.

Unique Components and Features

  1. Grand Gladiator Arena: Located in Hive Dome 5, this arena seats 100,000 spectators and serves as a brutal form of entertainment, control, and population management.
  2. Cult of Alkaline Water: A peculiar faction inhabiting Hive Dome 17, this cult focuses on health and exercise, existing semi-independently with its own power and life support.
  3. Fortified Rally-point: The heart of operational control, enabling the warden to exert power through life support attrition if necessary.

Challenges and Opportunities

  1. Underpopulation: Despite its massive capacity, the colony remains severely underpopulated, which limits productivity but allows for future expansion.
  2. Harsh Environment: The toxic atmosphere and poor-quality chemical processing facility create persistent logistical challenges of high mortality rate.
  3. Chorda Dynasty Dependence: The reliance on trade and external prisoner supplies ties the colony’s success to the Chorda Dynasty’s stability.
Penal Colony 5728 is a stark, oppressive facility emblematic of the Imperium’s unforgiving nature. While its potential is vast, it remains a barely populated outpost, struggling under the weight of its harsh environment and the burdens of Imperial bureaucracy. Speed: — Manoeuvrability: — Detection: 0 Armour: 10 Void Shields: — Habitat Integrity: 40 Space: 100 Power: 45 Turret Rating: 1 Weapon Capacity: — Crew rate: 25 Population: 575.000/10.000.000 Pow output: +45 Pow consumption: 23 Reserve: +22 Space used: 42/100 Essential components:
  • Fusion core Industrial configuration Pow: +45 Space: 6
  • Prison HQ/Bridge Pow: 2 Space: 2, +10 scrutiny checks, +20 to command checks vs mutiny/rebellion.
  • M-1 life sustainer Pow: 4 Space: 2
  • Quard Quarters Pow: 1 Space: 2, +20 to command checks vs mutiny/rebellion
  • M-100 augur array Pow: 3 Space: 0
Supplemental components:
  • Chemical procession facility Pow: 4 Space: 6, quality poor
  • Medicae Deck Pow: 2 Space: 1
  • Imperial Figurehead Pow: 1 Space: 0, donated by Judge Mordechai
  • Hive dome 1: Prison dome, each dome can house 1.000.000 convicts
  • Hive dome 2: Prison dome
  • Hive dome 3: Prison dome
  • Hive dome 4: Prison dome
  • Hive dome 5: Prison dome Grand gladiator arena, able to seat 100.000 spectators
  • Hive dome 17: Health center of Cult of Alkaline Water, over 10.000 ecstatic exercisers, independent power and life support.
  • 14X Hive Dome Pow: 1 Space: 80, 19 of them are UNPOWERED
  • Luxury quarters Pow: 2 Space: 1
  • Lighter Bay Pow: 1 Space: 1
  • Fortified Rally-points, concentrated to the control room of the active hive dome.
Weapons:
  • Minefield Pow: 1 Space: 0
Special:
  • Ancient Arcology: was not originally designed to hold prisoners. Fortified Rally-point controls the power and life sustainers and if prisoners do not comply they can be forced with attrition to submission. But within the hive dome the prisoners rule themselves.
  • Toxic atmosphere: gives -5 to detection checks of the arcology.
  • Easy to spot: Focused augury automatically reveals hive domes as they are visible beyond planetary sphere.

New components

Hive Dome Pow: 1 Space: 4 (foundation, actual height 300 meters), Scarce -Gravity bound, suitable for surface habitatations only. -Component has independent life sustainer. -Is able to house 1 million citizens. -Visible component and detected by augury automatically. -Requires supply of air, water and nuclear fuel. -Space: 40, divided between structural reinforcement space: 10, housing projects space 20, essential components space: 9, sumplemental components space: 1 Pow: 8/8 Space: 40/40 Essential components: 4 pcs Genatorium Fissio Pow: +2 Space: 1 Control Room Space: 1 Pow: 1 Hive Life Sustainer Pow: 6 Space: 4 Suplemental components: (Pow: 1 and Space: 1 available) -Common components are Shrine to God-Emperor, Imperial figurehead, Scholarium, Librarium Vault, Trophy Room or Crew Reclamation Facility. Special: Easy to spot: Focused augury automatically reveals hive towers as they are visible beyond planetary sphere. !GM notes!