Faction Name: Adeptus Arbites
Force Name: Yunnalin Precinct Arbites Execution Team
Why Were They Selected: The Yunnalin system is part of a larger, sector-spanning precinct. Ergo, it falls to the Adeptus Arbites of the precinct to enforce Imperial rule of law when the system is threatened with rebellion or worse.
Leader Name: Justicar Hektor Autark
Direct Superior: Lord Marshal Alesha Noren
Leader Bio: Born into a small but noble family, Hektor's life's course would be decided in part by a rebellion of his home planet, his parents perishing to its masses when he was just four. Consequent to this, and to the rebellion being quelled by Imperial forces not long after, he was taken into the Schola Progenium, the memory of the untenable masses who slaughtered his parents burned into his mind, and with it the idea that such awful people had to be brought to justice somehow.
Thus, he found himself growing into a young man obsessed with keeping the peace through any means necessary. In combination with his keen attention to detail and, when appropriate, aggressive application of punishment to those who might act in poor fashion outside the eye of the Drill Abbots, he was a fine candidate for the Adeptus Arbites, and swiftly rose to the rank of Arbitrator, working within the Yunnalin Precinct far from his own homeworld.
Yunnalin, as both a system and a precinct, is not often taken to be contentious as far as Imperial Law goes. Consequently, for the majority of planets in at least the system, the permanent installation of Arbitrators and Judges on a planet's precinct-fortress is limited, often to ten, five, or even fewer ordained Arbites; most law enforcement is left to Enforcers recruited from the system's population, though not necessarily that of the planet they operate upon for the same reason Arbitrators never operate on their own homeworld. Even so, Yunnalin's Enforcers are not necessarily incorruptible in the same way, relatively unskilled as they are.
All this is needed to say that, as an Arbitrator and later as Investigator and Proctor, Hektor spent far less time on any given planet than one might expect. The true precinct-fortress of the Yunnalin System orbits the system's star, and operating from there, he saw concerted field work for a good fifty years in environments ranging from hive cities to agri-farms of all sorts. In that time, he grew to develop a nuanced understanding of the nature of criminal activity, the behaviours they'd take and the hideouts an Imperial criminal might make use of both likely and, for the especially clever, unlikely; but further than this, he developed a deep interest in the Lex Imperialis proper, to the point that he'd quote the specific laws pertaining to the most common criminal cases frequently during the arrest and execution of perps. Hence, after assessment by the Lord Marshal at the time, he was given leave to visit Holy Terra, to enter into the sacred Hall of Judgement, and to learn what he needed to become a Judge.
A decade hence, he returned to his precinct, was declared fit for duty after a fresh course of rejuvenat treatments and cybernetic implants, and was subsequently installed upon Yunnalin V, presiding over many a case where judgement could not be immediately passed. In addition, he continued to deepen his knowledge of the Law ever further, with the help of both implanted knowledge and a great many servitors installed in the fortress for the purpose of retaining such knowledge long-term. This was not to say he never saw field work again, either; many times a year, he would find himself travelling to one of Yunnalin's many hives or even to other planets in the system, equipped to lead an execution team or snatch squad in apprehending or executing the Imperium's enemies. This combination would eventually lead to his promotion to the position of Marshal-Magistrate: a formal recognition of the fact that the two separate roles of Marshal and Magistrate often overlapped at higher levels, with the combined consequent authority of both to those who earned it, and thus the highest authority on-planet.
What raised him up to the position of Justicar, however, was the eventual realisation that the presiding Justicar of the Yunnalin System was working, not based on the Lex Imperialis and Book of Judgement, but on his own self-righteous hunches. The ultimate crime of abstraction: they who pursue the law thinking themselves fit to work beyond the letter of the law, traitors to the oath of the Arbites and worthy of nothing but a traitor's death. It was Hektor who gathered the evidence of abstractionism within the Yunnalin system; it was Hektor who presented it in secret to those Marshals and Magistrates who would not ally with the Justicar, and eventually to Lord Marshal Alesha Noren; and ultimately, it was Hektor who sentenced the Justicar to death for his failure and treachery, a protracted execution following, and Hektor's promotion to Justicar of the Yunnalin System following after that, his new office taken in the system's orbiting precinct-fortress.
Alas, it seems as though the former Justicar's failure has dug its roots in deep. Criminal action has increased manyfold on the world Hektor formally presided over, the Enforcers have failed in their duties time and again despite precautions taken, and with the announcement of Inquisitor Hera declaring Hive IV
Damnatio Memoriae, the Arbites will have to do their part, not only to purge the hive of its populus, but to prove that the hive is as irredeemable as the Inquisitor proclaimed. Such lengthy proceedings will require the presence of the Justicar himself to confirm, as well as a reliable force of Arbitrators and specialists - and if the evidence does not match the proclamation, then the question to answer next will be who is to blame for this misguided purge...
Troops:
Unit Count: 15, including 8 Arbitrators and 2 Judges
Extraordinary Troops:
- Justicar Hektor Autark (force leader, off-world but familiar with Yunnalin V, personalised weaponry)
- Magistrate Rheanna Kowl (high-ranking judge, on-world, personalised weaponry)
- Marshal Darius Lance (high-ranking arbitrator, off-world, personalised weaponry)
- Verispex Adept Michael Frea (investigation and forensics specialist, on-world, supported by multiple Verispex Adepts stationed at Yunnalin V's precinct-fortress, possesses AdMech training as part of role)
- Cyber-Mastiff Handler Victoria Ceras (cyber-mastiff controller, off-world)
Equipment:
Basic:
- Ultima Pattern Arbites power maul
- Yunnalin Pattern Arbites combat shotgun (8-gauge, pellets and slugs, 8 shell capacity)
- Yunnalin-Destructor Pattern Arbites autopistol (.45 ammo, 20 round capacity)
- Arbites carapace armour
- Judge armour (carapace armour for Judges and Magistrate Kowl, functionally identical to standard Arbites carapace but gaudily decorated to display the power and majesty of the Arbites)
- Repressor (Rhino-esque APC fitted with a dozer blade, transport capacity of 10 people, 6 can shoot out of slots in the sides, equipped with non-lethal water cannons and grenade launchers firing gas and stun grenades)
- Rumbler x3 (fully enclosed and heavily armoured combat bikes, chassis mounted assault cannons, topped with vox casters and flashing lights, doubles as transport for those not in the Repressor)
Extraordinary:
- Synford Pattern "Lockshield" (special issue to all Arbites for this mission, mag-strips on edges of suppression shield to hold perps in magnacuffs or, more usefully for this situation, to lock together into a barricade of ceramite)
- Executioner shells (a form of target-tracking and homing ammunition for combat shotguns, used by Judges)
- Yunnalin "Witness" cyber-mastiffs (mechanical dogs with a cloned and imprinted canine brain and nervous system, equipped with various systems to track hidden perps, bite patterns presently include mono-molecular blades, armour-piercing spike teeth, and chain-thresher maw, two are used by Handler Ceras)
- Verispex armour (lighter than Arbites carapace, contains various tools for scanning the environment and finding evidence, as well as submitting evidence back to the fortress-precinct for further analysis, used by Verispex Frea)
- Yunnalin Pattern heavy stubber (relatively standard heavy stubber, belt- or drum magazine-fed (50-round capacity), gyro-mounted on hip, used by Marshal Lance)
- Yunnalin-Destructor Pattern "Vengeance" bolt cannon (Yunnalin Sector weapon firing .998 heavy bolts with slide rack and recoil absorbers, much longer range and firepower than standard shotgun, 6 bolt capacity, used by Magistrate Kowl)
- Destructor Pattern power maul (Yunnalin Sector weapon, design options for one- or two-handed grip, power field can be greatly overcharged to inflict massive damage to surroundings and people alike, to the point of killing nearby victims with the indirect shockwave from striking the intended target, used by Magistrate Kowl (2H variant) and Justicar Autark (1H variant))
- Yunnalin Pattern "Justice" bolt pistol (Yunnalin Sector variant of standard .50 bolt pistol, high power at short range, 10 bolt capacity, used by Marshal Lance and Justicar Autark)
Relationships:
Inquisitor Hera: None specifically. Nominally, an Inquisitor is beyond the power of the Arbites, and so their word is beyond its interpretation... though if it transpires that Hera's word is false in its loyalty, even she may not be above judgement.
Adeptus Arbites: WE ARE THE LAW. More precisely, the Arbites represent the final bastion of Imperial law when all else fails; beyond them, the planet's issues will need to be dealt with by the wider masses of the Imperium, something sadly evident here and now.
Adepta Sororitas: Zealots. The embodiment of abstractionism: killing those they feel are heretical without question, even at the expense of the
Lex Imperialis. Without evidence and due process, "heretic" and "traitor" are meaningless words that can be applied to anything and everything.
Militarum Tempestus: More elite than the Imperial Guard, thus more well-equipped for a Hive cleansing. Nonetheless, they are likely to be out of their element, like house cats suddenly thrown out into a forest to fend for themselves.
Temple Assassins: Few in the Arbites will know of them. Those who have may well consider them an antithesis to the idea of justice, for though they technically only slay those found guilty already, their very existence is extra-judicial in nature.
Astra Militarum: The Hammer of the Emperor - what the Arbites do within, they do without. Penal legions aside, the soldiers of the Militarum are noble in spirit, but not suited for cleansing a Hive.
Skitarii: Mere soldiers of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and largely unaware at that. Nonetheless, valuable for their association; mechanical knowledge is appreciated regardless of its source.
