Apocrypha Abidel (Abidel Sector Deathwatch)

By SirRunOn, in Deathwatch

Location: Segmentum Obsucras

Created: 788.M36, ref Clockwork Crusade(698.M38-748.M38), Chief Artisan Vacan, Lord Abidel

Previously Sector Ristan(950.M30-289.M32)

Neighboring Sectors: Scarus Sector, Clarius Sector, Mandragora Sector

Size: R-C 300 ly, S-T 240 ly, T-B 200 ly

Total Volume: 14,400,000 cubic ly

Stable Claimed Volume: 157,200 cubic ly

Imperial Claimed Systems: 105

Human Inhabited Systems: 200+ estimate

Imperial Population: 1,754,890,000,000 estimate

Primary Capital: Nova Sea(698.M38-929.M41,977.M41-Present), Cudro(933.M41-958.M41), Port Moseby(958.M41-977.M41)

Subsector Capitals: Ristan(Ristan), Port Moseby(Moseby), Cudro(Hemlet), Vrexa(Widow), Mah'Haret lacks a Subsector Capital

Deathwatch Headquaters Location: Watch Fortress Artarret (Mah'Haret)

Primary Watch Stations: Watch Station Tenrix (Moseby), Watch Station Ignus (Parsaneal Wastes), Watch Station Furaga (Mad Worlds), Watch Station Disel (Fenris Reach)

Deathwatch Leaders: Watch Captain Furundus (Doom Eagles), Watch Captain Mantoy (Hawk Lords), Watch Captain Seren (Iron Knights)

Sector Location Overview:

galactic_custer_trailing_by_sirrunon-dab

From Trailing, Slightly Rimward

Abidel on left

galactic_custer_coreward_spinward_by_sir

From Coreward and Spinward

Abidel on far Right.

Sector Overview:

abidel_3d_overview_by_sirrunon-dabdty7.j

Imaged from Trailing.

Mapping Holo imaged from within resides at:

https://youtu.be/2u60ZW0oW_0

More information to follow.

Edited by SirRunOn

Overview information, Watch Fortress Artarret.

Location: Artarret System, Mah'Haret nebula, Mah'Haret sub sector.

Location overview:

sector_abidel__mah_haret_nebula_by_sirru

Primary Function: Monitoring of Xenos in Mah'Haret nebula. Cross Ref Craftworld Bier Tenebre, Smash Tooth Orks, Skull Knocker Orks.

Station Type: Ramilies Class Star Fortress.

Population: 2.9 million servant workers (Approx 1/5-1/6 normal capacity, highly automated)

Typical Ship Complement: 4 Hunter Class, 6 Gladius Class, 3 Nova Class, 1 Strike Cruiser, varying designations.

Lead Inquisitor: Marcus Vemberke, Ordo Xenos

Lead Marine: Watch Captain Furundus, Watch Commander Blane has yet to be officially replaced.

Librarius Head: Epistolary Duanem (White Scars)

External Pict Capture:

watch_fortress_artarret_by_sirrunon-dabq

More to follow,

The Emperor Protects.

Additional Information, local species 003492,

Taken from a stone carving on the side of the Senatorum building, known to be the eldest man made structure on the planet Fan Cove.

Extract Begins

{

773.M19 The Coming of Man: Humanity arrives on this wild, giant tree covered planet and names it Fan Cove. They begin to push back the planets wild spaces.

145.M20 The Meeting: A being, now known as the Voice of Geliom, meets the human colonists of Fan Cove and negotiations are started. The Geliom offers his knowledge and ability in exchange for peace with his new neighbors.

853.M24 The Battle of Once Friends: The human's old allies, known as Iron Men turn on the citizens of Fan Cove. Geliom wars with the Iron ones to protect the remaining humans and turns the metal menace away.

989.M25 The Long Silence Begins: All communication with worlds beyond the Confluence of Ristan is lost. Fan Cove falls into darkness with no contact possible to the outside Galaxy.

434.M28 Cove Wheat: The first hybrid Fan Cove wheat is born from the scientists of humanity and Geliom. Food is now plentiful.

950.M30 The Coming of the Lion and the Wolf: Two great beings of humanity arrive over Fan Cove with a great fleet, breaking the long Silence. Geliom and man hail them as saviors. Negotiations are started for Fan Cove to join the new Galactic Imperium.

955.M30 The Emperor Arrives: The Great Golden Man comes to Fan Cove to meet with the Geliom and finalize the great treaty between races. Fan Cove joins the Imperium proper and sets tithes as an agricultural stronghold.

110.M31 The Harvest: Fan Cove exceeds tithing quotas for the first time, providing 50% more foodstuffs than required by the administration of the Imperium.

490.M31 Word of the Fall: News always slow to arrive at Fan Cove's door the populace is stunned to learn of the turning of many great ones and the fall of the Great Golden Man some centuries before. Contact is rekindled with the Warriors of the Wolf and from them come recommendations that the Geliom hide its involvement in the new reforming Imperium.

560.M31 War of the Beast: In one of many reported Ork outbreaks of mid M31 Fan Cove is brought under attack by Orks. Forces of the Imperium blunt the attacks, while the Geliom secretly sabotages Ork reproduction on the planet. The war ends in four years and Imperial troops are withdrawn.

289.M32 Darkness Falls: The Death anomaly pulses for the first time in eight million years. Contact with the astronomicon is lost across local space and most of the once thriving sector is lost to the general imperium. Anarchy and lawlessness tears much of the area around the Ristan Confluence apart. Fan Cove is left untouched, it's continued supply of food all the more necessary without the Imperium.

503.M34 The lost Child: Warriors of the Wolf arrive on Fan Cove in accordance to the pacts of unity. The war host of Geliom travels forth with the Warriors of the Wolf to battle a corrupted Sister named Ouroboris. The Geliom learns of many new beasts of war from his embattled sister before her defeat.

596.M34 New Cove Wheat: Fueled by greater need for food in the surrounding area Fan Cove wheat is improved. Much of Fan Cove is now covered by food growing plants. Only a few areas of the ancient forest remain.

932.M36 Quotas Exceeded: Fan Cove's production now exceeds the needs of the Moesby Hive world, Ristan Confluence and Triton Conglomeration. New development continues. All nearby micro-empires expand on the bounty of Fan Cove.

998.M36 The Coming of Abidel: The first recorded contact between the warrior of the Lion Abidel and the Geliom since M31 occurs. Geliom is pleased to see that the normally short lived human has exceeded his years so greatly. Fan Cove is added to the Apocrypha of Abidel and to the new great map.

333.M37 Cove Wheat Mark II: Fan Cove Wheat Mark II is created. A lesser strain than the older Mark I wheat, but considered less of a moral contagion, Mark II wheat allows for planting outside the soil of Fan Cove. Subsidiary planets are planted with Cove II wheat.

344.M37 Cove Wheat Conquers: As of this year Cove Wheat II is the only wheat in general production amongst the Micro-Empires. Fan Cove branches out to the breeding and raising of meat animals including Grox and Ancient Bovine.

950.M37 Death Receeds: The great shroud of death, so long covering the entirety of the old lands begins to receed. Within 500 years only the systems of the Ristan Confulence are coated by it's darkness.

698.M38 Cometh the Crusade: Near its end the great and mighty ClockWork Crusade enters and claims a number of local worlds under the cloak of Death, calling them the Ristan Subsector. A covert side mission of the Crusade, led by Abidel himself, recontacts Fan Cove, bringing it secretly back into the fold of Imperium and reestablishing all the Coves contracts with what is now the Abidel Sector.

001.M39 The Reign of Peace: With the final stabilization of the Abidel Sector's governance, its military and its commercial lanes a period of unprecidented peace descends upon the area. Fan Cove is free to provide and grow wealthy.

350.M40 Renovations Complete: Much of the overt above ground machinery of Fan Cove is moved underground and connected by radial tunnels. Human settlements become smaller and nomadic but more efficient. Fan Cove succeeds in providing seventeen harvests that year, more than ever before.

589.M41 Birth of the Abidelson: With the help of Geliom the great Abidel's genetics are used and improved to facilitate the natural birth of a son. This son of the great is immediately put through rigorous training. Geliom is saddened by the intensity of the ordeal the young Abidelson is put through. One hundred years later the Abidelson is sent on mission across the galaxy by his father.

750.M41 The Confusion: The signal of a new member of the race emerges, yet is strange because it matches the signal of Ouroboris. Many of the brothers and sisters are thrown into confusion. Reports that the new member has engaged in outright war with the Imperium throw the race into an argument still ongoing today.

913.M41 The Loss of Abidel: The great Abidel returns to the Warriors of the Lion. His fate is currently unknown.

914.M41 Return of the Abidelson: Taking over his father's place the son of Abidel is initially reluctant to renew treaties with Geliom over his experiences in the far side of the galaxy. Much renegotiation and renewed tenets of faith are required before he is calmed.

925.M41 Invasion of Chaos: Much of the Abidel sector is overrun by the fleets of Abbadon the Despoiler. Quotas are upset as many supply lines become irregular or downright dangerous. Fortunately Chaos forces are defeated by the work of the Abidelson before they can find Fan Cove.

}

Extract Ends

Appended by Lord Crypta Hominis

Spore of the Geliom.
Part II, Volume V, Chapter LIV,
Paragraphs I, XXVIII, XXXIII, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX
Treatise on the Minutae of the Great Crusade
by Addangcalo Spora

It is known that five of the Great Fleshcraft Beasts were known to, and struck treaties with the Emperor during His passage about the galaxy with the crusades in His name.

The worlds of the Fleshcrafters were all without a doubt verdant realms of life, yet unlike the maiden worlds of the eldar, which are highly prized due to their lack of threat and hostile creatures, the Fleshcrafters valued instead a pristine form of natural habitat in which all features that encourage evolution, natural abundance, seperation, and predation, prevail. In truth all worlds of the Geliom have predation and natural disaster to some level, though the varieties and amounts tend to differ between creatures. In truth one could look at the predator filled, eternally harsh world of fire and ice that the Kraken dwells beside the seismologically placid, unchanging but ecologically abundant world of the Cetus and never realize a similar hand was involved.

Besides the youngest of the Fleshcrafters, Geliom, who named himself to the residents of his world, all the breed are named for the mythic beasts of ancient terra their outer shell most resembles. Kraken is known to resemble a mix of cephalopod and nautiloid. Cetus is whale like. Jormungandr, or The Great/Grandfather Devil to natives, is similar to a centipede. Zaratan is known far and wide as a great turtle, and his son Geliom is said to look similar, though it is thought that the creatures being given male and female context is simply a convienience of local folklores.

Due to the passage of time, and ravages of xenos intolerance present in the modern Imperium, the locations of the Fleshcrafters have been purposefully obscured by auspices outside the Holy Orders of Inquisition, though some guesswork can be applied.

The most obvious, as the creature features prominently in local myth and the records remaining from the Emperor's time, hallowed be His name, is the Kraken. A beast of the exact same name is known to rule the oceans on the planet of Fenris. Confirmation is however stimied by the Space Wolf hatred of the Holy Orders of Inquisition, and their unwillingness to share, especially in the case of the Kraken's egg allegedly in their possession.

Descriptions of Jormungandr, and his alternate name as the King/Great/Grandfather/Queen/Mother/etc Devil puts its likely location as Catechan. This of course leads to nearly more difficulty in confirmation as there would be on Fenris, for if local legend is to be believed, the danger level on what is arguably the most dangerous death world in the Imperium anyway, is said to go up remarkably in its prescence.

The creature Zaratan features prominently in an ancient pre-imperial legend from the Golden Age of mankind. In the legend this Zaratan advises the neophyte pre-Emperor on the best way to combat some form of Dragon creature which the Emperor, hallowed be His name, of course vanquishes. While the name and creature similarity might be a conincidence, it might also be why the Emperor knew to look for the Fleshcrafters in the first place. As the script suggests the battle took place in the early Golden age, and apparently before the advent of warp travel, it is likely the Zaratan would reside somewhere in the Segmentum Solar.

As for Cetus and Geliom, almost all record of their location has been lost save the Primarchs that first made contact. Cetus was contacted first in ancient ritual by Konrad Curze under orders from the Emperor. Geliom was located accidentally by the Dark Angels and Space Wolves during a competition of conquest some time after their respective Primarchs became rivals. The presence of Curze at the specific time suggests a location for Cetus in the galactic north of Ultima Segmentum. Likewise it can be determined, as the Wolf and Lion competition happened in proximity to the chapter worlds of both Primarch, that the Geliom would be located in Segmentum Obscurus somewhere galactic west of the Eye.

Wow. I hope your campaign is a success, you've sure as hell earned it!

One thing: If the big E himself made treaties with these entities yeah, it's going to be a sticky situation. The imperium will have to honor agreements uncle Empy made, but still not let the public know His Majesty actually made agreements with xenos. Might raise a lot of questions and issues...

Have they ever statted the old boogeyman, "the men of iron"? You mentioed them. It might be interesting too have them still functional in a sector. Yeah, a sector that looks good because it's oddly clear of eldar, orks, even tyranids. Yeah and aftert humanity settles it they findnout why. Maybe the men of iron deliberately engineered a remote sector to be clear of xenos presence to lure humanity in eventually. Maybe they want to lure in and trap a human population for some reason....

We don't really have Men of Iron, they were sort of nommed on. We have xenos threats though!

Deathwatch Brief, Unique Xenos Empire Notations:

Ha'gork Commonality:

As suggested by the nomenclature the Ha'gork were a heretical offshoot of the common Ork Xenos strain. Under magos biologis vivisection it was determined that these orkoids had less genetic information programming, consistently less muscle mass, higher intelligence and sexual reproduction. Indications were found in the animal coding of their genetics that suggested the highly loathsome possibility that these were orks with sacred human genome mixed in. It was duly noted that the stance, bearing, facial structure and build of the Ha'gork did somewhat ape human norms, though their arm and leg length, unusual, or lack, of hair, and unclean xenos psychic abilities seemed no different from the common strain.

It has been noted, on many occasions, that societies appearing with little or no contact beyond their own kind tend to form cultural and societal norms that would not exist, or even be possible, in the presence of outside pressures. In human history very few societies, human or otherwise, have been plagued by errors of context more than the Ha'gork. There is no simple way to describe the insanity of the society discovered just coreward of the Ristan-Sub, yet suffice to say contact between the Ha'gork and another more powerful society proved something of an unmitigated disaster.

The effect that the Ha'gork system had on their society was profound in the fact that, unless things would not possibly work otherwise, the Ha'gork could not in any way shape or form work together. They had come to a point in their technological progress, boosted by their orkoid belief based psychic ability, where instant communication at any distance was possible. Instead of having some sort of xeno-renaissance because of this ability, a few elite in their society, in the name of greed and continual power, usurped it for a completely nonsensical end. No Ha'gork other than an elite few, had any privacy, ever. Every movement, action, duty, consumable, anything that a citizen could do, could be watched by any other citizen at any time. To make things worse a person's worth in society was totally incumbent on how many people they could get to watch them. Even mundane jobs like janitorial duties became instances of hazard as every single janitor competed to be the most watched in their time bracket. The entirety of Ha'gork society was about doing things their individual best and most flashy, and having as many people as possible watch doing it. Even the way they watched other people watching things was rated by number of watchers and how many people approved of their comments in some arcane comment on comments system. The elite groups, known as networks or at least translated to that term, had absolute power over society by the simple expedient they could set how things were done and put down guidelines for how they were done "right."

Happily for the Imperium, in war, opponents who are more interested in fighting the way that makes their sponsors happy, as in waiting to fire in ship to ship combat until they can actually see the opposing vessels for better pictures, fight with no central coordination since everyone is trying to out do the best in line to the point that there is no command structure, and fly in tinfoil armored ships because it makes the explosions prettier, tend to have problems when the opponent has no other interest but to make them dead. That the Ha'gork survived quite as long as they did, if they're truly dead, was simply a testament to the fact that being stupid does not necessarily make you the first target.

Sakkeyd:

An interesting case of a xenos race surviving near the Imperium simply because no one knew where to look, the ichtyoid Sakkeyd avoided Imperial scrutiny for a considerable amount of time. Recent studies have shown that the Sakkeyd are the primary spacefaring race remaining in the Marat-Balovech cluster, a tightly packed stellar grouping between Hemlet Sub and the Fenris Reach. Small border wars between high sub-light speed xenos races had been detected by explorator probes in late M39 but later studies of the same areas showed no further hostilities. It was thought that the wars had died out from uses of primitive but destructive technologies and that any xenos in the area had lost the capacity of spaceflight.

Interest in Marat-Balovech was rekindled quickly by the Sakkeyd themselves when they appeared, seemingly from nowhere to attack Port Winterscale and invade 515/11/FS/W III the planet which that station orbits. Estimates of the invasive force suggest no more than a regiment sized deployment, spread out into a few companies that stuck close to the water before sojourning inland towards the main space port.

It is not known if the Sakkeyd were simply probing the defenses, or thought their forces would be enough to take and hold the world, for most of their vessels abandoned the attack on Port Winterscale and began traveling out of system during the battle. The remaining ships were crushed utterly by a heavy counterattack by system vessels and firestorms of the Passage Watch group which turned and gave chase to the remaining enemy vessels, just barely catching the incredibly quick but less than maneuverable xenos craft. It is considered unlikely that this would have happened had the xenos known they were being chased, given the fact that their engine was shown to be two thirds of their ship's mass.

The Sakkeyd on the ground proved very dangerous to the local PDF forces but were routed almost immediately by an unexpected visitor to the system. A Space Panther Gladius strike craft, carrying few demi-squads of space marines, just returning from the pacification of a wayward mining colony, slipped through the space battle and deployed its sixteen marines to the surface before turning and joining the pursuit units. After action reports from the Space Panthers list their only difficulty with the Sakkeyd as one of ammunition expenditure, leading to a successful requisition of two more clips to be carried by each marine in combat against the Ichtyoid menace, as the heavily poison based, low penetration, weapons of the Sakkeyd were absolutely useless against Adeptus Astartes.

Feasibility studies for a counterattack are underway. Request for Deathwatch reconnaissance received and approved.

Haieht'Theam:

An ancient, vexing, and not particularly ignoble race of mammal like reptiles, the triple-axis symmetrical Haieht'Theam are most likely the oldest living beings to have a population in Abidel Sector. As a group the race is insular, unobtrusive, and hearty with an almost glacial outlook on existence. For the time being, this race, which simply wants to be left alone, is not worth the massive expenditure of resources it would take... just do destroy a single one of their ships.

The Haieht'Theam have been in Abidel sector longer than any other living race. Their records recount the coming of the elder, emergence of the Krork, passage of the Fleshcrafters and suggest an ancient war in the heavens that they watched begin with little interest and survived with little loss. Most of the features the local galactic cluster have names that relate back to those given to them by this race. This is either directly, as the xenos language is easily recognizable with the first two sounds in each word matching the last two sounds in the preceding word reversed, such as Kah'Hanat, and Mah-Haret, or indirectly through the words combining like Haz'zaroth and Scra-arus.

The secret of their survivability, something which only the orks seem to have ever breached, comes from the Haieht'Theam technological superiority in shielding, structural bracing fields, and auto-regenerative hulls. The smallest Haieht'Theam ship, a light cruiser sized vessel, has hull armor comparative to a marine strike cruiser and Omicron-base resilient shields with twice as many layers than are commonly placed on an Imperial battleship. That they would use such defenses on a ship commonly used as little more than a messenger boat speaks volumes about their obsession with defensive abilities. Note that the only known Haieht'Theam world, Sas-Sat-Talom-Mot in the Parsaneal Wastes, possesses the same type of shielding to a level that has *Demonstrably* survived a collision with a propelled 200km across space hulk and the reason that the Imperium is willing to look the other way as long as the Haieht'Theam stay in their own space becomes somewhat self-explanatory.

Offensively the race's primary capital "weapon" is a beam that can exert kinetic propulsion on an object at ranges slightly longer than a Hecutor pattern plasma battery. This is typically used to move objects around, or out of the way, even push one object into another on occasion, though the low collision speed tends to yield little direct damage unless the objects become entangled. It has been shown that this beam can exert a torsion force over a small area and do some damage to standard hull metals of lower strength than adamantium. A secondary weapon, for use on orks has also been noted. Known to the orkoids as the "Zog off and die" beam it is a weapon in the truest meaning of the term, doing little damage to ships but causing some form of haptic shock which burns out synaptic tissue. Acquiring an example of this ship scale synaptic disintegrator is of special interest to the Mechanicus, though since no known shielding or armor stops the beam, difficulties abound.

*Edit* how did I hit the double space button and where do I get rid of it?

Edited by SirRunOn

As to your ha'gork xenos, hmm, may i suggest something? What if they are in fact a kroot offshoot that was trapped in an environment where they had to eat humans and orks exclusively for so l;ig they in fact basically became human ork hybrids?

Ah, the Ha'gork origins? Suffice to say they're a bit simpler but more insideous than that. No humans were involved however. Good idea though.

The truly interesting part of the Ha'gork tends to be the grisly demise their self centered arrogance earned them. More about that later. Also more about their heavy battlesuits, ships, location and their brief but eventful skirmishing against the Imperium is coming.

It has yet to be seen if the second rise of Oroboris left that all a moot point though.