The Fall of Ceres Tertius

Once, Ceres Tertius rose like a jagged steel fang from the ash wastes—an ancient hive whose spires clawed at a rust-choked sky and whose roots burrowed into the planet’s poisoned crust. Now it groans beneath its own weight.

The tectonic convulsion was sudden—an angry shudder from a world long thought dead. Plates sheared, foundations cracked, and entire districts slid into the abyss in an instant. Whole levels twisted out of alignment. Transit shafts snapped like brittle bones. Hab blocks folded like paper, spilling tens of thousands into the dark.

Authorities, such as they ever were, fled or vanished beneath the rubble. The Mechanicus issued a statement blaming “unpredictable geomechanical divergence.” Administratum officials promised relief that never came. The upper hive simply looked away.

But the gangs remained.

Even as Ceres Tertius lists and collapses—layer by failing layer—the underhive refuses to die quietly. Power vacuums open faster than the ground beneath them. Old grudges ignite. New alliances form from desperation and hunger. Every corridor becomes contested ground, every sump-lit chamber a battleground for dwindling resources: water, promethium, ammunition, salvage, or simply the right to keep breathing a little longer.

There are whispers, too. Rumours of vaults and sealed manufactoria torn open by the shifting strata—treasures and nightmares both brought to light. Some say the quake awoke things better left buried. Others say it merely reminded them how close to the surface they already were.

This is Ceres Tertius: a hive city dying by inches.

And in its final days, the gangs will decide who rules the ruins—and who’s crushed beneath them.