the fall of calliope vi - foundations

7/31/2019 The Fall of Calliope VI - Foundations

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The chamber fell cold and damp hung in the air as Huginn began his testimony, the

unseen judge and jury remained absolute silence, the only audible sound in the room

being that of a notary scribe, he had concluded, as the scribbling of pen on

parchment cut the air. Inquisitor Lord Huginn Black may be considered old by Terran

standards, having received longevity treatments upon his induction to the order buthis faculties and senses had remained razor sharp in the long decades since his

days as a Neophyte. He paused, maintaining his statuesque stance, awaiting verbal

confirmation to continue once more, knowing just how to push the buttons of those

present. Within moments a voice chimed though the dark,

Why the pause Lord Huginn?

Suppressing a smile, he politely replied;

I did not wish to continue without your permission, or to appear

discourteous to you my Lords.He finished, sounding overtly sycophantic and

topping it off with a flamboyant bow.

The onlookers seemed to murmur in approval at Huginns over the top gesture, none

of them seeming to notice it being a ploy to curry favour with them.

Is there something you wish to ask Lord Huginn? pondered the tinny voice.

Yes my Lord. Would it be agreeable if I were to have the use of a holo-

imager, as I feel it would speed this process up for all of your benefits?

In silent agreement of the request, ancient unseen mechanisms whirred to life as a

large holo-imager descended from the shadows above. The machine itself was a flat

disk suspended by thick cables, chains and the odd rope. The disk was dotted with

several emitter arrays and ports which allowed for direct application to smaller

panels. As it wheezed ever lower, the machine gave off sparks and an acrid burning

smell which added to the opinion that it could have fallen apart at any moment. From

the shadows a servitor stepped out, walking in an unusual but distinctive gait, akin to

that of a child taking its first steps. This wasnt an unusual sight when in service tothe Imperium, servitors tended to random idiosyncrasies from their former lives,

having been criminals and heretics and as punishment for their crimes, lobotomised

and outfitted extensively with mechanical parts to better aid their new lives of

repentance through servitude.

The servitor continued with its unusual walk until it arrived below the holo-imager,

there vacantly it awaited the cable which slowly descended from above, which in turn

bore it before Huginn upon the dais. Taking the cable in hand, Huginn reached to the

base of his skull, fixing it to one of the ports that resided there as the machine-man

plodded back into the dark. No sooner had the cable been fitted in place, than theemitters whirred into life, flashing random images stored inside Huginns data-

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remembrance core; he fought to regain control over them until they eventually

calmed and ceased. With everything now under control he composed himself and

began his account anew and as he began to describe the Calliope system than the

holo-imager burst forth recalling images in pale green representations that hung as

real as life in mid air. It matched every word spoken to every relevant image stored,marking where applicable significant points of interest and throwing up statistics

regarding nearly everything. So the room fell quiet as Huginns account unfolded, the

only noise now being that of the holo-emitters flickering and his own voice echoing in

perfect clarity from its walls,

Calliope was a system that lay south of the Necromunda system on the Terran

spiral arm of Segmentum Solar but lay toward the outer most extremity of it below

the galactic plane. For all intents and purposes the system was all but isolated and

almost unknown to the Imperium as a whole, if it hadnt been for an explorator ship

finding it in the closing years of the Astartes second founding, Calliope would have

remained hidden to this day. Calliope itself was a binary star system, with fourteen

worlds in its numbering satellites. Five were barren, the remaining nine all held life,

but five of those deemed too hostile to risk being colonised. The four worlds that

remained were suitable for habitation, 3 later being Imperial guard barrack worlds.

The last of the worlds as far as official records are concerned, was classified as too

hostile to hold life and risk colonisation.

It is this world, the sixth in the system, which was chosen to station the Xenos baseof operations after extensive period of evaluation. Its cycle was 37 hours long, with

a scant 6 hours of night, this being a direct result of its twin stars. For half of

Calliope VIs 233-day rotation of the system, it faced the galactic shelf, the skies

filled with untold numbers of stars even in daylight. For the other half of the year, it

faced outwards to the Universal void beyond, with no other visible celestial bodies

beyond that of its twin suns being seen. It was an awe-inspiring sight but equally to

those not of a stable mind, would be one to tip them into madness. The planet itself

was catalogued as a verdant death-world, with more unknown flora and fauna

species recorded than any other world in the Imperium before it. It also boasted a

significantly high proportion of indigenous xenos that was either of a toxic or

poisonous nature, this had been previously not been thought possible by xeno-

biolgists, making for perfect natural defences. The land surface was largely tropical

rainforest, covering 80% of all landmass, which in turn accounted for just over two

thirds of the planets surface area, the rest being recorded as being that of desert

and water.

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Huginns testimony shifted now towards his Imperial sanctioned roll within the

system, the holo-imager grinding gears, hissed and wheezed at the torrent of data it

had to deal with, obviously struggling under its efforts to keep up,

The Protectorate of Calliope was a position of dual purpose, the first being the

public figurehead and Castellan to the system, this included answering the needs

of the people and its defence if necessary but also to enforce Imperial law so as not

to let its subjects sway from the imperial fold. Its second purpose was of a covert

nature, tasked with the cataloguing of every known xenos ever discovered in the

history of the Imperium. No small task by any means but a vital one considering the

threats that are posed to humanity on a daily basis.It had been some 70 years

prior to the trial that Huginn had been granted the Protectorate of Calliope, but the

memories hung fresh in his memory, like morning dew in the web of a Panchellian

spider. He now shifted to recount the loyal followers which accompanied him on this

most important of missions but no sooner than he had started when the old mans

voice interjected yet again,

Your toleration for Xenos is unforgivable! How you can dare to call them

followers and breathe the very same air as them is intolerable, its an abomination to

our very order!he cried loudly.

SILENCE!Shouted the tinny biomechanical voice over that of the old man,

who continued his rhetorical ramblings anyway, Who Lord Huginn holds truck with

is not a matter of discussion for this particular trial, now cease or be removed!

Very well, if that is the courts decision, continue childSpat the old man in

retort.

If I may, my Lords?asked Huginn in a quiet politeness.

You may,said the lead voice, but tread softly, I grow weary of the politics

of this trial already and we have a long road to travel yet.

Bowing graciously, Huginn continued;

My allies are the very reason I stand before you today. You may have your

methods, but I have my own. You call them radical, I call them necessary. The end

justifies the means in this instance.

A few snorts of derision could be heard in reply, Huginn suspected their origin, but

gave no response to them and instead stood statuesque once more. The lead judge

spoke again;

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Very well Lord Huginn. Duly noted, now continue but please avoid further

mentioning your cohorts unless it is vital to your testimony, I have no wish for this to

take longer than it should.

He nodded at the shadows in reply of this order, but Huginn couldnt help but let slip

a smirk of victory over the old man. So he continued describing the building process

and formation of the defences of Calliope VI.

Outwardly the building looked unassuming, being built to look like that of an

explorator base, teeming with sensors and monitoring equipment everywhere. It

had been constructed against a sheer unassailable cliff face which was made from

an unknown jet black material. The complex itself comprised of a main building

which housed several observation decks, sensor clusters, a conning-tower and

topped off with a landing pad which was built for small personal craft. Directly in

front of the main building stood an open area designated for landing craft of a

larger nature, this was slightly raised from that of the facility, with off ramps leading

off towards specific buildings. The buildings in question were of varying size, from

small munitions huts, to large hangers which stored transports, fighters and various

other craft for differing occasions. The facility was then surrounded with a double

layered defence, its innermost and main defence was that of a huge rock-crete

bastion wall, which bristled with servitor manned and automated defence weapons,

as well as hidden bunkers built within it. The outermost defence was that of a highly

advanced laser-wire fence set several meters away from the bastion walls, these

ran the full perimeter and stood nearly as high as the walls themselves. The facade

of the outer base was manned with a small garrison of Inquisition inducted

guardsmen, who wore the uniforms of the explorator fleets to keep the pretence up.

Yet there was so much more to this base than it appeared, it sprawled deep within

the mountain which backed onto the outer facility, housing room upon room of

laboratories that performed unspeakable and indescribable procedures. Beyond

these rooms lay cryo-chambers, where the vast repository of genetic-xenos-data

was stored for use and cataloguing, these rooms were kept in sub zero conditions

with units racked high and deep with chest sized canisters which each bore an

ident-code. One last room lay beyond the sprawling maze that made the inner

complex, it was one that denied access to all but those of the highest of ranks and

upon entering was the most awe inspiring of sights. The rooms shape was similar

to that of the barbaric amphitheatres which could be found on the more devolved of

Imperial worlds, but where youd expect to find seating, lay row upon row of people

in monitored chairs. This was an Astra-Telepathica relay chamber and it stored five

thousand psykers within it, together they formed our mighty communications choir

that served as the base and regions communications emitter.

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High in orbit sat a network of automated laser-defence satellites as well as that of a

citadel-like space station for the Imperial fleet which patrolled the Calliope sector.

All of this made for a nigh on impregnable planet, if not system, due to the outlying

barrack worlds too.With that Huginn fell silent to emphasise the conclusion to his

opening testimony.

Upon Huginns finishing, the judges decided upon a recess. The accused was sent

back to his cell for rest and nourishment, but for reasons unknown, it would be

several days before he found himself before them again. With a guard chaperoning

him as he went, Huginn was now able to attend mass at the chapel and pray outside

the confines of his cell, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldnt shake the feeling

of sorrow that weighed heavily across his shoulders as his mind flitted to the events

of Calliope VI.

Foundations

the fall of calliope vi - foundations

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