The ensuing millennia have not changed its basic purpose very much; Necromunda is still a world of mines, factories, refineries, and processing plants. The planet is a vast powerhouse of industry, making thousands and thousands of different items for use throughout the nearby Imperial Planetary systems.
Nothing which could contribute to the planet's output has been left untouched. From the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans, the wealth of Necromunda has been extracted.
Mountains have been reduced to rubble for the ore they contain; oceans have been turned into little more than chemical sludge ponds by the constant industrial pollution.
The once-fertile plains of the world have disappeared under huge urban developments of imposing housing and factory arcologies, forming new ranges of man-made urban mountains every bit as tall as the long-since flattened natural topographical features.
"It looks like a shit... and here I thought that my homeworld's plains looked terrible..."
Esdeath stated that as we had left the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Dreadnought, we were now crossing through the wastelands that were practically everywhere the eye could reach.
"Most of these worlds... suffered greatly during the Old Night and Rebellion of Men of Iron."
I felt a certain kind of sadness over this fate.
Even Esdeath looked more solemn than usual, because Fenran Rex IX. remembered vividly the horrors of the Old Night and what it had brought upon them. Fortunately for them, their planet didn't contain Nuclear Weapons, Anti-Matter Weapons, Chemical Weapons, or anything that was equally dangerous and destructive.
The Age of Strife, also sometimes referred to as "Old Night" based on the name for the era on Terra in older Imperial histories, is the name for the apocalyptic and highly-fragmented period of Human history that began roughly in the 25th Millennium A.D. and ended in the 30th Millennium with the birth of the Imperium of Man.
"When the Old Night started, due to the birth of the God of Pleasure, the Federation apparently descended into total chaos, and with the Cybernetic Revolt, many planets were embroiled in the nuclear civil wars, and with the Psykers appearing around all worlds... and what do you think will happen when Psykers start going out of control?"
I asked more like a rhetorical question as Esdeath nodded gravely because she knew what would happen then. I showed her some effects of it... and it was sometimes pretty staggering when a Psyker went berserk with his powers going out of control.
Uncontrollable Psychic Energy flowing into the Realspace directly from the Immaterium was more than enough to obliterate entire cities from existence during the Old Night.
"Come on... we need to cross these wastelands and reach the Special Spires for the Xenos and Abhumans... the checkpoints in there should be easier to bribe or more lax considering the kind of clientele that is arriving at the Hive City."
I said as we continued our journey, which would be rather dangerous to the average person.
Gangs, scavengers, scrap collectors, and who knows what else roamed the wastelands between the various Hive Cities, which were results of the proliferate usage of the Nuclear and Chemical Weapons during the Old Night.
It seemed that Terraforming Technology had been lost during the Age of Strife, which was rather a shame, because in the Age of Terran Federation it had been standart technology used for literally everything, and countless Federal Worlds were created through Terraforming Technology.
The Outskirts of a hive city are not as terrible a place to live as the Underhive, but the Outskirts carry their own terrible risks. The biggest problems are dealing with the toxic environment of the ash wastes that surround most hive cities and the constant threat of attack by the fearsome mutants of those wastes.
Obviously, the two of us travelling through the wastelands between the Hive Cities was something so rarely said that we immediately became targets for anyone who wanted to obtain something from us.
Be it the slavers that were selling slaves, gang members who wanted to rob us and sell us as slaves, scavengers who wanted to rob us and sell us as slaves...
It was like endless drama.
Though the added bonuses from everything were that, Esdeath finally got the fight she wanted as I let her loose on the poor humans.
If they could even be called such, because they were suffering from countless mutations and other genetic defects from being in the vicinity of the radiation and other dangerous materials that were causing them some really severe side effects.
"What are those things? They look utterly disgusting..."
And that was when we finally encountered the mutants after nearing the Hive Primus, as the radiation and poisonous smog was even more prevalent in these parts. Though for us it wasn't any kind of problem because of our enhanced physiology, which was taking care of everything for us.
Even Esdeath, who was a hardened general, looked at the figures that were rising from the hiding places with disgust and recoil, as he attributed it to being some female aversion to really disgusting and filthy things.
These mutants certainly were.
"These are the Mutants... There are millions of people across the Imperium of Man who have been deformed from the baseline Human phenotypic state by genetic mutation. This mutation can be caused from birth by environmental factors like ionising radiation acting in utero or by exposure to the raw psychic power of Chaos, but in the case of these unlucky individuals, it's the radiation and waste."
I explained as while I summoned a huge amount of Psychic Flames in my hands and hurled them toward the Mutants. Pyroamacy was one of the major disciplines of the Psyker Sorceries.
A Pyromancer is a master of fire and flame, a Psyker who is able to create searing infernos out of thin air, powered by the energies of the Empyrean. Pyromancy is one of the most spectacular and destructive forms of Psychic Ability.
Those who face a skilled Pyromancer in combat are often reduced to nought, but a pile of charred bones, and truly mighty Psykers could reduce entire cities to ash.