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Warhammer 40K: Psychic Awakening – Arbitrators Hold The Line

4 Minute Read
May 11 2020
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In the latest piece of Psychic Awakening fiction, a squad of Arbitrators attempts to keep the peace in the oncoming storm.

Port in the Storm by Duncan Waugh is another short story for Psychic Awakening: Pariah. We’re going to be talking about this one and speculating on what this could mean. So…Spoilers, obviously. Go read the story and come back.

via Warhammer Community

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On the world of Mesmoch, Imperial forces struggle to hold back the encroaching jungle – but a new threat has arrived that draws their attention. Ships full of mysterious refugees land, bringing danger that the Arbitrators of the planet will be hard-pressed to keep at bay.

This story kicks off with a squad of Adeptus Arbites arriving on the scene of a refugee ship that has landed on Mesmoch. This landing craft had a cargo of human who looked dishevelled and they had already started to wander away from the craft. Clearly this wasn’t a standard landing procedure and the Arbites attempt to contain the situation. It goes as well as you’d expect.

Something is not quite right with the people coming off this ship. It’s unclear what exactly is going on as more Arbites arrive on the scene but after a few tense moments, the illusion of control is shattered when a shotgun blast goes off.

 

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Apparently some of the refugees were armed and weren’t actually refugees…a riot ensues and weapons are fired. The Arbites fallback to their transport to regroup – and that’s when things really go sideways. Their APC is hit by a blast and the members of the team inside are tossed around. Their transport managed to survive the hit with a damaged track – but one of the other APCs isn’t so lucky.

As the Arbites continue trying to sort out what to do they move up through the buildings and come across a strange scene:

Sitting in the middle of the room, cradling her knees into her body was a young woman. Sirius watched her as the rest of his team checked the corners. As far as he could make out, the frail, rags-covered creature was unarmed. Seeing no apparent threat, he allowed his weapon to lower.

They had been looking for the weapon that took out the APCs and their search had brought them to this point. Noticing that the young woman’s eyes are unblinking, the Arbites start to piece it altogether, and just as the squad leader finally connects the dots, everything explodes into bright green flame!

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Sirius, the Arbitrator’s leader, comes to and is hurt – but he manages to survey the area:

From his vantage point, the Arbitrator could see more of the grounded refugee ships, their aged, ravaged hulls spread out around the city and nestled in the jungle fringes. Taken in all at once, the sheer number of them was staggering, and, as gunfire and explosions rang out from the hab-blocks surrounding many of these evacuees’ vessels, Sirius knew the situation had already escalated beyond any of their control.

This wasn’t just a bunch of refugee ships looking for a safe spot – this was an invasion. Something was influencing the people on those ships; something was coordinating this assault. The heretics had struck first and the story ends with Sirius praying to the Emperor and a glimmer of hope that his prayer would be answered.

What does this all mean? For starters – we got more psychic activity in this story. It wasn’t a missile launcher that took out the APCs, it was a witch/psyker attacking. We also know that it’s some type of cultist/invasion force mixed in among the refugees. But who are the ones pushing the buttons? Is it a Chaos Cult that invaded? Genestealer Cult (probably not them, actually)? Are Necrons involved – we got green flame and they were kidnapping Humans.

This is an interesting story and it’s a neat point-of-view swap to forces that are less super-human. Adeptus Arbites aren’t Space Marines after-all, and having them pop-up and have to deal with an overwhelming situation is a great story-telling angle. It’s basically the craziest episode of COPS, ever.

I think that this sneak attack is a setup for something larger. Once we find out who’s behind it – Necrons or Chaos – I’m sure it’s going to make more sense. Then again, this might just be another one-off short story that is meant to keep us guessing. We’ll have to wait until we get our collective hands on Pariah to find out.

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What do you make of this invasion? Was it just people panicking and reacting in fear? Or do you think something more sinister was planned – and who’s behind it?

 

 

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Author: Adam Harrison
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