Arcanium Fortress Hive Worlds[]
The Fortress Worlds of the Arcanium are in simplest terms imaginable. Gargantuan planet sized fortresses manufactured for the soul purpose of withstanding years of brutal and endless attack from an invading force. The Planets are a totally self sufficient system containing two Residential Hives and Two Huge Manufactorums which are capable of creating units for continued reinforcement.
The Planets are notorious among the galaxy and attempts to take them can claim responsibility for a handful of the most violent and bloody battles ever fought in the universe as the Arcanium meticulously designed the planets to be a strategic and logistical nightmare to besiege and occupy however be two dangerous to bypass due to their ability to sustain an offensive even while cut off from their supply routes.
Hundreds of Millions of lives have been lost in battles and sieges on Arcanium Fortress Worlds and to date only a single Fortress world has ever fallen too an invading force that being Fortress Hive World Diabolom.
Design[]
2D Diagram of a Typical Hive Fortress World. (NOT TO SCALE)
While many are vastly different sizes and serve vastly different roles, Fortress Worlds all share the same basic design.
Surface[]
The Surface of a Fortress world is typically a totally hostile and impassible nightmarish world. These can vary from a fiery lava flooded ocean, A Dense hostile jungle or a dead and totally frozen ice world. Fortress Worlds are rarely built on hospitable worlds but when they are their surfaces are annihilated as a hospitable surface would provide an advantage to an enemy invader. To Add the atmospheres are often pumped full of toxins from the exhaust and surface vents from the hive cities and manufactorums.
A layer of thick dense bedrock around the outer crust and on two large citadels which guard the gates into the Hive on the North and South poles. These are the only two ways into the inner hive as the lower surface is layered with a dense stone layer which would prove too troublesome and difficult to drill through. These two entrances are fortified fiercely with Orbital and Surface based anti-ship weapons, Anti-Aircraft weapons and large high walls which are manned 24/7 by the Fortresses many Vanguard regiments. The Vanguards will man one of the two walls of the citadel the outer and the inner walls are nearly a hundred meters high and thirty meters wide and fitted with powerful artillery and gunning towers every fifty to sixty meters.
While the surface is often very inhospitable or toxic it isn't unheard of for the surface to have settlements on it, these are usually no more then the odd village or town. Most of the residential areas are beneath the surface where life is a lot less deadly and hostile.
The Hive[]
Underneath the Poles are the Inner Citadels. Huge Fortified indoor bottlenecks designed to be the last line of defense if the walls were to fall into enemy hands.
Beneath these are the Residential Hives, these areas are dedicated living spaces. Frighteningly huge densely populated cities numbering populations as few as fifty million to as many as five hundred and fifty million. Within the tight corridors of these mega-arcology the citizens have a cramped and often pathetic existence. Many live and die without ever seeing the surface of their planet.
There is no room for slacking or the weak in these hives. There are only three jobs, Manufacturing, Digging or Vanguard. Disability and injury are unacceptable and if a citizen finds themselves in such a position they will not be given any assistance. Putting great pressure on their families or simply lying ill until they die or are arrested and executed for not attending service or meeting their quota for the month.
For more information see Arcanium Hive Worlds
Manufactorums[]
Deeper Still are the Hive's enormous continent sized factories and forges which can be fed by the planets huge mines which are dug and worked on by the millions of miners working around the clock.
The manufactorums can vary their roles however they will typically have a single factory dedicated to hive pattern weapons and armor and the other for a mix of tanks and aircraft however these second manufactorums will often focus on starships.
For more information see Arcanium Forge Worlds