So now we get to Matthrew Farrer's Shira Calpurnia novels. They fall, for me, into the 'interesting' category because they aren't Space Marines, they aren't war. They're more in common with Inquisitor-type novels. That is, they take an organization from 40K, and they show us how the 40K society looks and operates from the eyes of that organization. In this caes, the arbites. The first novel highlights several facets of the Imperium from the view of the ARbites: The Navy, the Ecclesiarchy, and the nobility on Hydraphur. Hydraphur, if you recall, is the Naval headquarters for Segmentum Pacificus. This means it's an important location, and with the first novel we get a good glimpse at the insides of how it (a hive world) works, as well as the naval and reliigous aspects. We even get peeks into how the Genetor aspect of the AdMech is (and Sanja is one of those rare 'likeable' coggies at that.) We of course get a view of the Arbites, but that is perhaps the least interesting. Calpurnia herself is from Ultramar, which means she's pretty simple, straightforward, uncomplicated.. and totally unsuited to the subtle, political enviroment she gets thrown into. Its an interesting contrast, but Calpurnia is really the least interesting aspect of the book. What is interesting is how she interacts with, and reacts to, the enviorment she is put into. Despite (some) development of the character, the series has more in common with Ian Watson's works (in the sense it highlights how things in the Imperium work, and different aspects) than it does as an acutal story. Book 2 and 3 will carry this forward (Rogue Traders and astropaths respectivley.)
Of course, since its a 'lawman' book we also do have a mystery to solve, which also adds some interest, since that will overlap with the various other organizations. It's this interplay amidst the mystery that really carries the book for me, more than the character itself.
Also a yearly religious festival where people have to flagellate their backs bloody with razor edged flails. I wish I were kidding.
Anyhow, on we go:
Page 9
Hydraphur is defined as a "Fortress world", yet also having a hive. Fortress worlds are places like Cadia, which means it is both a hive world of the middle categories, quite probably a highly industrial world (as most hives are), a naval headquarters, and a major recruiting/tithing center for the Guard.Here in his own domain, in the very shrine of the Adeptus Mechanicus in the Adeptus district in what was supposed to be the safest enclave of the capital hive of the fortress world of Hydraphur, Cynez Sanja had found himself under siege.
Page 10
A peculiar form of AdMech augmetic. Not sure what the "layers" are for, but it is implied some sort of auditory or simialr sensory function. Also, the facility appears to have its own void shields.Sanja glowered and cycled the tiny augmetic layers in his skull through a precise series of adjustments, but the walls still muffled the sounds to the point where he couldn't pick out much more than a rhythmic, concussive hammering and the faintest traces of hoarse shouts. He wondered again why nobody had thought it necessary to raise the void shields.
Page 10
Precision of the chamber measurements. No real way to gauge how impressive or not it is objectively that I can think of, but it sure sounds cool.The forechamber was a shortened rectangle, its measurements calculated to within a millionth of a millimetre to mimic the proportions, if not the size, of the forechamber of the high genetor's own shrine on the Mechanicus heartworld of Mars.
Page 11
- Skitarii in carapace armour that has openings for cybernetic cables and leads to the power axes they wield. Also mentioned are "mindless vat grown" servitors agrain reminding us the AdMech appears to have some measure of cloning tissues or growing their own troops (in addition to recycling existing bodies.)Behind them were four skitarii, the dedicated templar-soldiers of the Machine cult, their burnished carapace armour pierced with cybernetic cables and leads and their poweraxes held at arms. Flanking each skitarius, two guardian servitors, mindless vat-grown automata hung about with mechanised implants of their own, weapon-muzzles pointed demurely down.
Page 16
Shira Calpurnia comes from the realm of Ultramar as an Arbitrator. She's a looong way from home, so its obvious that the Arbites are not afraid ot ship someone halfway across the galaxy if it serves an important purpose. This would makr Arbites (along wit Inquisitors and other high ranking officials, and probably AdMech) one of the few factions whose travels can encompass more than a subsector or sector of space."In formal greeting I use Ultramar protocol. The family name is second, the private third. Here I am Shira Calpurnia as you are Cynez Sanja."
Page 16
Genetor artifacts/tools for performing an immunization task.The relics on the crimson altar-cloth - centrifuge, injector-glove, inscriptions of the gene-codes of Mechanicus saints etched into scrolls of paper-thin steel - reflected the mellow golden lamplight.
Page 16
- Shira Calpurnia is described here as wearing "half-carapace" By which I gather is an analogue to "half-armour" or a kind of armor that provides protection only to key areas but may leave others uncovered (torso covered but perhaps forearms and legs uncovered.Calpurnia saluted the altar from the doorway and then walked to the kneeler without further hesitation, unclipping her half carapace as Sanja faced her from the far side of the altar. Chaim took and held her armour as she unfastened the top of the uniform bodyglove, holding it against her chest but shrugging it down to leave her shoulders and back bare.
Page 17
The injection process. Rather alot of ritual and stuff just to get stuck iwth a needle, but this is 40K and things are always overdone.Her composure was still good, but Sanja was looking at her now through the eyes of the luminants as well as his own, and in the mosaic of images being fed into his augmented cortex her apprehension showed in her breathing her body temperature, the acidity of her skin, her brainwaves. The luminants moved down the row of servitors, dendrites clicking as they took and loaded the vials of biotic fluid and extended their injectors, then glided silently to station themselves behind Calpurnia's shoulders, dendrites extending a glittering fan of needles.
Sanja murmured a brief High Gothic blessing, then switched to machine-code and guided the luminants down. Calpurnia's breath caught for a moment as the hypodermics went home, and then the luminants rose into the air again and it was done.
Page 17
- I find it amusing that simple vaccinations for offworld visitors (long term) require the use of talismans (mention of the Iron Wheel and Caducal Helix) - I'm still convinced the AdMech does much of this to scare people into nto messing with technology outside the purview of the AdMech."The movement will help the anointments to integrate faster. Chaim will have given you the
tokens—" She held them up. "Good. The Iron Wheel and the Caducal Helix are strong talismans of the Mechanicus. Grip them well and they will make your blessing a powerful one."
..
"I would venture to suggest, Arbiter Calpurnia, that this was not the first time that you have had a rite of vaccination performed. You seemed to know your part in it as well as I did."
"My career has taken me through postings across the Ultima Segmentum and now to here, magos. Most of those moves have been across sufficient distances for me to need fortifying for my new position, although the ceremonies were never this involved. They were usually done on board the Arbites ship by one of our own Medicae staff, with a junior genetor overseeing, and they did not involve these…"
Thein again when the warp is involved who knows, it is possible belief will hav ea psoitive influence on this shit.
Also the "Rite of Vaccination." and Calpurnia comments on previous experiences she had experienced.
Calpurnia also seems to have made a habit of moving her way across the segmentum (bit by bit) from Ultramar to her new posting. Rather interesting, that.
Page 18
The last bit about Calpurnia being "monitored" for security purposes is interesting because she intimates that whilst she has not seen luminants before, she has undergone similar observation in the past, so that other methods of such observation are employed by the AdMech and others (on a lesser scale.) In fact, it may be a semi-common security measure."The luminants? They are relics as well as servants, perhaps not common on smaller worlds with less distinguished Mechanicus traditions. The honour of continued service to the Machine God after one's organic death is not earned every day."
..
"They can act by themselves?"
"I am appointed as their instructor as I am the instructor of my servitors. That privilege accompanies my rank here. The luminants assist me with my work and my studies. Their precision and senses are all that one would expect of idols of the Machine God.
Normally such a rite as yours would not require more than one, but for you to have come so far and to a world like Hydraphur, to which viral and bacterial strains from all across the segmentum are brought, you needed a far more rigorous treatment and I called both of my luminants accordingly."
"And they are also monitoring my chemical spoor and behaviour to make sure I am who I say I am and that I carry no psychic or hypnotic taint to cast doubt upon your safety in admitting me."
The Luminants are intersting in that they seem a bit like servitors, but much more aware/intelligent than a mere servitor... something of a higher order type perhaps.
Page 19
yes she is. We're talking literally halfway across the galaxy or more. Pity we don't know how long she took."I am sure the arbiter majore will not regret sending for you all the way from, Ultramar, was it? A long journey. It's a compliment to you."
"I grew up on Ultramar. lax. But my last post was at Ephaeda, north-west of there. But still across a lot of space. I'm a long way from home"
Page 19
I kind of like how they lbend the religous/mysticism with something that sounds plausible in this book."You have not reacted adversely to our anointments, and their eyes show that your body is accepting the inoculations. The preliminary rites and treatments you had before your arrival here laid the groundwork well. My arts are more sophisticated than those of the medicae, and the process will have completed itself within a day or two more. An envoy of mine will visit you tonight and instruct you in the correct prayers and readings to close the day and open the morning tomorrow to ensure this."
Page 21
The first bullet hit her shoulder at a bad angle, ,whirred off her carapace and strruck a spark off the temple wall...
..
The second bullet struck her helmet over the right eye, not penetrating but cracking the armour and staggering her backwar in a daze.
Pistol fire against Calpurnia's half carapace. Helmet armour takes a hit and cracks, but also fails to penetrate (although its an eyepiece so that may be a weak point.)
Page 21
Pistol fire harmless against Arbites shields, but the cheek guard of the helmet cracks again.As she lurched to her feet, groggy and shaking her head, their shields juddered under two more shots and one pitched over backward as a third shattered the cheek-guard of his helmet against his jaw.
Page 21
- Arbites shields have gunports (for stabilizing the gun and for firing while using the defenses.) Makes sense really, given their doctrine.They held the foot of the ramp in a textbook Arbites firing line: one row kneeling, shotguns locked through the gunports in their shields to pump out a steady, suppressing fire; the second line standing behind them firing more carefully, aiming shots over their heads.
Page 22
Yet another impact stopped by the carapace.As that movement parted them for a split second, a third bullet whipped between their shields and scraped Calpurnia's carapace with an impact she felt all down her ribs.
Page 22
How small "small calibre" is I dunno. But her shoulder takes a hit, and it hits hard enough that she reacts to it or gets knocked around.A bullet cracked into the armour on her shoulder and she staggered and cursed...
...
This was small-calibre ammo, handgun slugs. And there was no one remotely in handgun
range.
Page 23
Calpurnia just took her damaged helmet off, so apparently there are "polarising filterS" in Arbites helmet. Also before taking the helmet off, she takes another glancing hit, although it apparently damages the helmet for her to take it off. Hlmets seem to be a weak point in Arbites armor.She ducked to one side instead of standing to shoot and it saved her life. The bullet gouged the side of her helmet and knocked it askew - a second earlier and it would have punched through her top lip. She wrenched off the helmet...
..
With no polarising filters over her eyes the refractor fog set every light to glittering and sparkling.
Page 23
Incidnetally, the stub-gun she fires carreis at least seven shots, indicated by the quote above. And they're large caliber (.50 cal or more?) for pshyoclogical value and lethality. Arbites make use of all kinda of solid slug weapons it would seem. Rather interesting considering in older fluff they had lasguns and grenade launchers as well.A third [shot] smacked into the heavy wood and she put three booming stub-shots through the space where she thought she might have heard firing. She had been careless about placing her feet and the recoils slammed her through alomst a quarter-turn; as she turned it into a backward jog to regain her balance there was a roar as three shotguns opened up to supportt her.
...
The giant-bore stub pistol she ad been issued with was a commander's weapon,a shock-and-terror weapon, something for a senior arbitrator to use for great, ruinous shots at high profile targets to terrify a crowd of rioters, showing Imperial authority in brutal terms while other Arbitrators and sharpshooters did the actual combat shooting.
Page 32
- The Admech have better forensic facilities than the Arbites verispex laboratoria, unsurprisingly."The Mechanicus have helped us with these kinds of problems before." Nakayama went on, "Although not often. Their genetor-magi have the finest tools and arts for stripping knowledge out of evidence, bar none, better than our own verispex laboratoria."
Page 32-33
First, some psykers can make themselves invisible to other people by blocking themselves from sight."Sanja was sure they'd missed something at first, but they've cast their best augurs and instruments over our friend and there's still next to nothing they can tell us. Was he a mutant? Yes. A trained psyker. That was how he blocked himself from sight. Was he augmented? Of course. His eyes and the motor parts of his brain were massively enhanced, specialised quick-shooter stuff. Is he traceable? Not a chance. His death triggered a toxin implant in the small of his back which caused massive damage right through his tissues. Sanja invoked his secrecy prerogative pretty quickly when I wanted to get to details, but it's clear we'll never get a usable gene-print. Anti-tracing measures like that need a lot of skill and resources, and they're illegal to boot. On an assassin whose psyker nature put him under an automatic death warrant in any event, they add up to a hell of an investment on a single agent and a single attack.
Second: augmentations mentioned that can enahnce the eyes, motor parts of the brain - identified as "specialized trick-shooter" stuff.
Additionally, its possible to implant someone with a toxin that can cause massive damage "right through to tissues" - this prevents an individual from being "Traceable" via gene print or similar measures. anti-tracing measures like this need both skill and resourcees, and they are illegal in the Imperium.
Also Sanja invokes a "secrecy prerogative" to avoid telling the Arbitrators certain details - likely a manifestation of the Admech independence from the Imperium proper, which means it can extend even to the Arbitrators in this case.
Page 33
I dont know if this means it took two weeks to reach the planet from orbit (or why), but she's been on planet less than a week."But you have been in the system for, what, two weeks? And Hydraphur itself for a matter of days."
Page 34
Religious festival seems to draw in crowds subsector wide from over a "dozen systems" in the subsector, and that's not even all the planets in the subsector. In any event it shows of some level of inter-connectedness if the ARbites find it plausible events many systems away could cause them trouble here.The Mass of Saint Balronas pulls in visitors from all over the system and a dozen I can think of from across the subsector. For all we know it could be some minerals baron from Stahl-Theta who's avenging an estate impoundment ordered by one of our colleagues four systems away."
Page 34
A bit of Calpurnia's past before coming to hydraphur. We see the variety and scope of worlds, and how much coping she has to do. She has to get used to things being much different on Hydrapuhr, as we soon see, and her blunt, striaghtforward manner sod ensot mesh in well. I rather like that about this series - Calpurnia adapts in a way, but she never becomes particularily adept at the sort of thing the rest of the arbites take fo rgranted.She was beginning to suspect that one of the truths of a career like hers was that you never did get used to the wandering from one world to another. From one place to another on the one planet was easy, and within a small realm was easy too: her parents had both had senior duties to the governance of Ultramar and she had travelled more than most before her induction into the Arbites.
The training station at Machiun had been bearable because she had been there with seven hundred and ninety-nine other frightened inductees, but her first garrison post at Drade-73 had been much worse.
MG-Dyel, Hazhim, Don-Croix, Ephaeda. She was sure she had exhausted the court libraries in each one by the time she had been reposted, but she couldn't remember any treatises about that wrench that came from being dropped into an unfamiliar world where you couldn't take your most fundamental assumptions about things for granted. Perhaps one day she would write one herself.
...
"I shall recite my own experiences in passing from Ephaeda to the world of Hydraphur…"
Page 37
A comparison of how Arbitrator methodology can vary from world to world. Politics, as usual, can alter the level of "brutality" employed in the Imperium, despite what the "Grimdark" propoganda claims. In this case Calpurnia is a representation of the hard, unyielding and "neccessary brutality" side - the one that will club down someone for obstructing her Emperor-given duty, or not hesitate in shooting people if the situation warrants it. Leandro (her talking companion) like many of the ARbites here, have a more lax view of things, and tend to play politics more to make thigns easier. Which clashes with Calpurnia's way of doing things. It shows far bette rthe diversity and differences that can exist in 40K,a nd how even with just human cultures, things can be very alien and bizarre from our perspective - which works better than that hamfisted "skulls and supersition" approach."If these people have forgotten that the reach of the Emperor's own Adeptus is absolute, then I believe that a roundup of all of those party attendees by Chastener squads would send the message much more effectively. How could it hurt to have so many potential troublemakers penned up for a few days? It would be the lesson that some of these people seem to need."
..
"The principle of your advice is perfectly sound, Arbitor Calpurnia," he had replied mildly. "As to its exact application, well, the affairs of Hydraphur are perhaps more complex and rarefied than that of your previous postings, the position of the Arbites more fraught and delicate. We calibrate our actions to our circumstances." Seeing her expression, he added, "And our actions here are quite sufficient. We already signalled our intentions when Arbitrators broke up the last of that morass of unraliness that this young man thought he presided over, and we signal them afresh now. The elite of Hydraphur are accustomed to being invited to a diplomatic audience by an Arbites herald, with plenty of notice and due regard for their rank and with any questions we have couched in a dozen layers of protocol. This boy brought here and openly questioned, with none of their own retainers on hand, will have exactly the psychological impact of the roundup you proposed, without the side-effect of stirring up so much hostility to us among the nobility and other Adeptus that any traces of the attack upon you become impossibly kicked over."
Page 41 -
Aristocrat's defense servitor. Note the vat grown (EG cloned) muscle, and that muscles can be maintained by "gene/hormone" commands rather than exercise.The bodyguard servitor stood a head taller than Hallyan; Calpurnia, helmet and all, would barely have come up to the family crest embossed on its chest-plate. Between the augmetic plates and cables its flesh had the sickly, slablike cast of muscles grown in a vat and maintained by gene and hormone commands rather than exercise and use. Clone-grown skin and filigreed armour shone slick with ornamental perfume-oil, but as Calpurnia reluctantly drew closer she realised that underneath the spicy scent it had the same smell that almost all servitors had, the smell of a fresh-cleaned hospital corridor, antiseptic but somehow still faintly sickening. The vision slot in its extravagantly-worked gold visor was shadowed and there was no way to tell where it was looking.
Page 42
Calpurnia's aparmtnet is screened by energy shielding. Void shielding of a sort. Rather interesting as this implies they have portable (in some fashion) forcefields that can be either used in the field (the other caes where Calpurnia saw shields, and considered the "pick of their arsenal) or applied to augment existing defenses (EG Calpurnia's apartment.As she stood there she could feel the faint prickle at the back of her neck from the energgy shields on the other side of the window. Having all Bosporian see an Arbitrator senioris driven into hiding woudl be disastrous, so armoued shutters had been out of the question, despite Armour Thekir's pleas. In truth, she was still a little overwhelmed by having an energy curtain brought to her chambers - before Hydraphur, she had seen a void shield exactly once, during a putsch on Don-Croix when elite enforcer squads had come out with the pick of their arsenal to seal the streets to the Capitol Mount.
Page 43
Hydraphur has a "coast", which in addition to the general way the people seem to be out and about around in the open of the hive suggests this is not one of the overly polluted shithole hives we see in fluff.The precinct commander at the Vastener's Spur over in the Nobles Quarter reported a spat between two cartel families from the mill-hives on the far coast over accommodation precedence in the tower they had co-rented for their stay.
Page 44
- mention of an "air sled" - some sort of airbonre transporrt vehicle on Hydraphur. not specified as being antigrav per se, but it does indicate that the Imperium has some sort of "hover" technology available, antigrav or not (or even if its just ducted air/VTOL like a Valkyrie/Vulture.) available. Of course, being a Rogue Trader (Kvan, that is), he may have acess to tech others generally don't.Now Kvan kept trying to park an air-sled over the Cathedral in defiance of airspace laws and Canoness Theoctista was adamant that they would not, as a matter of principle, let Kvan disrupt the girl's religious duties with even a visit.
Page 44
Those were just three that had been thought worth bringing to an arbitor senioris. There would be more mundane plots and feuds, petty violence or sedition that the Judges at each fortified precinct courthouse would handle themselves, and the cases that would not even reach the courthouses, the lowest of crimes: defacement of Imperial property, malingering, drunkenness, public affray, killings or injuries among the giant hab-stacks where Arbitrator patrols rarely ventured and used the simplest summary street punishments when they did.
Scale and scope of the crimes "typically" dealt with by the Arbites. Curiously, Hydraphur seems to have no enforcers (or if they do noone mentions it), so the bulk of this seems to fall on the arbites. Probably helps to explain the odd way in which they handle things.
Page 44
An example I suspect of the "passenger" traffic from out system that acn happen.The month before the Mass saw the place packed with dignitaries: every branch of the Adeptus, Rogue Traders and powerful merchants, officers from the powerful naval dynasties with their spaceborne estates and fief-fleets.
Notice as well tha tthe Navy have their "fief fleets" - I'm not sure if these ar warp capable starships of the Navy, or if these are separate, independent forces under local family control (The space based version of private armies.)
Page 45
Scope of the wealth and politicking/trading that goes on on Hydraphur. If we took the agri world in "cRimson tears" for a sample, we're talking billions, if not trillions of "credits" (or perhaps throne gelt) in "wealth."Families controlling wealth equivalent to a whole planet's production would haggle and trade favours for the itniest change in positions at one of the Kathismas' banquets;
Page 45
Conditions and requirements for hives to evolve from regular cities. As noted in Battlezone Cityfight and other sources, there seems to be no absolute definition or criteria for a "hive" world, and the distinctions cna blur or overlap.She prowled to the window again, ignored the buzzing that the power field made at the base of her skull as she looked out. Her chambers faced away from the Cathedral and out over the slope of the hive as it dropped to the great flat city-plain. She was not new to the great artificial hives that Imperial worlds sprouted when their cities grew too big and concentrated for a simple conurbation to contain. There were no hives on Ultramar, but two had grown up around the orbital freight-launcher silos on Hazhim, and Don-Croix's position astride three well-travelled warp currents had given it a population that had cultivated a respectable twelve hives, jutting up from its ravine-cut surface like tumours.
Also 12 "hives" is considered respectable in number for a world.
Page 45
Another Necromunda-like hive, Vanaheim, is mentioned. Hydrpahur's hives are much more smaller, modest affairs, possibly even mere proto-hives or minor hives.Bosporian was a modest little affair against the mind-numbing scale of hives on Necromunda or Vanaheim. In fact, technically, it was barely a hive at all, more a place where the sprawl that had paved over the entire alluvial plain below had reached a spur of the mountain ranges edging it and crawled up its slopes. Bosporian was on bedrock, not artificial, hollow,a nd packed with people as a true hive was.
Page 46
The Walll, the main Arbites fortress on Hydraphur. Note the usual "supplicants to arbites hhave to wait a fucking long time" to be heard. I suspect in part they may do this to deliberately have a viable recruiting pool for their officers.Dropping away directly below Calpurnia's window was the Wall, tall and wide and with enough room in its towers and bastions to house a city and hold off an army on its own. It joined the Augustaeum wall at the towering Justice Gate, swelled into the imposing fortifications that housed the commanders' homes and chambers and the supreme courthouses, then ran down into the thirty-floor-high ridge of rockcrete and adamantium, sprouting towers that were entire precinct fortresses unto themselves, running all the way down to the foot of the hive to one last monolithic keep and gate.
The Wall held trial chambers, interrogation rooms, execution and penance cells, armouries, barracks, training halls, chapels, transmitter towers, generatoria, hangars full of Rhino APCs and Repressor riot-tanks, libraries of paper books and data-arks so vast that searching for a single old record might be a life's work. Around each gate glimmered the camp-lights where supplicants waited weeks or months or years, however long it took for the wheels of the Adeptus Arbites to grind out a judgement or pass on word of the fate of a loved one held in their walls. Breaking up queue wars was a regular feature of gate duties in any precinct house of this size. Calpurnia had even known Arbites who had been born and lived the first few years of their lives outside the gates of the courthouses they grew up to serve in. In most garrisons they were considered good luck to have on a squad.
Page 46
Calpurnia ruminates on the spectrum of Arbites she might be forced to deal with. It's rather interesting that she herself does not seem to favor the mindless sort of obedience or brutality some arbites (and fluff) might portray - and it is one of the more forgiving aspects of her own rigid application and general grimdarkitude, methinks.However alien Hydraphur felt now, soon place-names would take on meaning. People would stop being faces she passed and names she had to be reminded of. She would start to know who was meticulous and who was slapdash, who could take a broad perspective and who would get lost in details. She would know who backslid in upholding the sacred Lex Imperia, and at the other extreme who hid their own deficient judgement behind paralysing dependence on the letter of scripture. She would know the ones who were devout and truly understood the doctrines they practised, and the ones for whom ''for the Emperor'' was nothing more than an empty phrase to shout before they swung a power-maul down on some random innocent's skull.
