Fewood

[Carrack]

 

 

 

Fewood.

 

 

Fewood was a minor agri-class world in the Siliquastrum sub-sector. It's primary exports, and its main tithe burden, were derived from its bountiful orchards and productive timber industries. Hardy fruits with a long shelf life, along with a local variant of supple pine were grown in the regions outside the tropical zones. While a wide variety of exotic fruits, along with a dark hardwood, were harvested in the tropical regions. In spite of the quality of the fruit and lumber, Fewood remained a poor and backwater world. Most worlds in the subsector could produce approximate, if not quite as nice substitutes.

 

The societal structure of Fewood was largely feudal in nature. Landed lords owned vast orchards and timber tracts. These lords answered to, and were taxed by a handful of Bond Lords, who in turn answered to the Imperial Governor. The common men and women of Fewood fell into three categories. The first were the serfs that worked the timber industries for the lords, as well as agricultural and other menial jobs required by their lords. The second group were the clansmen, who migrated to the orchards when the fruit was in season, grouped together in clans of a few to several extended families. They contracted with the lords to harvest the orchards. Several clans were known to support themselves through banditry, when they did not find a contract to their liking. The third group were the freemen, largely consisting of the people living in the few urban areas, but also including specialist employed by the lords.

 

Defense.

 

The official PDF of Fewood was a small, but professional force that answered directly to the Imperial Governor. The officers of the PDF were drawn from the court of the Governor, and while nepotism was common, this was offset by requiring all officers to matriculate from a reasonably modern military academy. Some of the more senior officers had historically attended more prestigious off world academies, with most of the PDF Marshals having sawn to their education under the brutal, but effective academies on Cadia. The PDF is rather officer heavy, yet that fit their role of commanding the disparate militias of the landed lords. The rank and file, as well as the non-commissioned officers were drawn exclusively from the freeman class. The PDF served three roles, one as an elite, quick reaction force, the second was the unifying command of the various militias, and thirdly was as both the functional and ceremonial guard of the Imperial Governor.

 

The vast majority of Fewood's fighting forces were composed of the militias of the landed lords. These ranged in numbers from a squad or two, to regiment sized forces. They also ranged in quality from near Imperial Guard levels to conscripted serfs that drilled and trained two weeks out of the year with antiquated weapons. In spite of their sometimes poor quality, they had the advantage of intimate knowledge of their lord's lands.

 

The migratory clans frequently had strong martial traditions, yet their allegiance was always to their clan before all others, and as such, were infrequently employed by either the landed lords or the PDF. However, in years that the Administratum required a founding of Imperial Guard Regiments from Fewood, the clans often made up the bulk of the recruits. This in part, was an effort to control the sometimes troublesome population of the clans.

 

No matter the organization of the fighting forces of Fewood, they all possessed some valuable skills as warriors. Fieldcraft, camouflage, and the unique challenges of fighting in wooded terrain, all came naturally to the warriors of this heavily forested world. Because of this, the defenders of Fewood almost exclusively fought as light infantry.

 

History.

 

Fewood was colonized along with the rest of the Siliquastrum sub-sector, and had changed very little since. However, three recent events have dramatically effected the agri-world for the worse.

 

The first of these events was the battle of Fewood. This naval battle was the first major attempt by the Imperials to drive the Black Maw Warband of the Black Legion from the nearby planet of Frederic III. It was also the first engagement of the Cardinal Weaver Crusade. The crusade fleet, consisting of the majority of Battlefleet Siliquastrum, an Astartes Strike Cruiser from the noble Angels of Immolation chapter, and the merchant fleet of the Rogue Trader Barnus carrying several regiments of the Emperor's Hammer, had planned to link up in the Fewood system, and from there make the short jump to Frederic III in better fleet cohesion. However, the Imperial plans were compromised, and the Black Maw's fleet lay in ambush at the translation point, which they had heavily mined. The battle was a disastrous defeat for the Imperial fleet, and a huge setback for the Cardinal Weaver Crusade. Subsequently, Fewood was seen as cursed, and trade with the rest of the sub-sector dwindled away.

 

The second event that brought further ruin to Fewood, was closely tied to the first. The destruction of the subsector Battlefleet, along with the reduced traffic to the system, as well as the proximity to the Black Maw's base of operations, combined to see a dramatic rise in piracy in the region. The system was too strategically unimportant for Lord Carrack to send his Legionnaires in to conquer the agri-world at the time, but renegades and pirates loyal to him frequently targeted Fewood, due to its proximity to their port of call, and it's meager defenses. Warehouses and lumberyards overflowing with materials waiting to be exported were emptied by the scum of the void. Towns and orchard plantations were depopulated by slavers. The brave, but undermanned and ill equipped defenders fought the raiders where they could, but when they adequately defended a site, the raiders would strike elsewhere. The Lord Governor was forced to levy crippling taxes, and take out financially unwise loans, just to pay his planets tithes, which were never adjusted to reflect the economic situation. These increasingly burdensome measures stirred up unrest amongst his once loyal Bond Lords, and created fertile grounds for the formation of Chaos Cults, no doubt sponsored by the Black Maw.

 

The last, most recent, and most tragic event to bring ruin to Fewood, was the invasion by renegades and pirates allied to the Black Maw Warband. This invasion took place shortly after the destruction of the sub-sector seat, at the Red Hive of Siliquastrum. Commanding the heretical forces was Commodore Mallori, who brought three destroyers from her escort squadron along with an equal number of converted troopships, with holds filled with hordes of mutants from the Daemon World of Vaaska, along with mortal warriors of the Black Maw and mercenaries from Howler's Charn. She had also, somehow enticed a few squads of Black Legionaries to take part in this invasion.

 

The first stage of the invasion was neutralizing Fewood's paltry orbital defenses. The speed of Mallori's destroyers did not allow any repositioning of the few orbital guns protecting the world. To make matters worse, many of these guns were merely for show, having broken down or been damaged over the last few decades of economic troubles and frequent pirate raids. In any event, the orbital bombardment of the Chaos destroyers, coupled with surgical strikes from the traitor Astartes and some of the more elite mortal renegades, quickly saw Fewood's orbital defenses neutered, with the exception of the better maintained guns protecting the governor's palace. The Black Maw had achieved orbital supremacy, and but for the space above the palace, orbital dominance.

 

The second stage of the invasion saw the safe landing of Mallori's armies and the initial conquest of most of the world's resources. The invaders were assisted by saboteurs and traitors from the Chaos cults that had been established prior to the invasion. In spite of several defenders valiantly selling their lives at a high cost in the invaders' blood, the second stage was largely a resounding success for the Black Maw. Only the lands around the Governor's palace, as well as those of a few minor lords on the peripheries and marginal lands remained firmly in Imperial control.

 

The third stage was an assault on the Imperial Governor's lands, followed by mop up operations on the minor lords who escaped the second stage. However, Mallori had to contend with several problems at this point in the invasion. Most frustrating, was controlling her own troops. Mallori's designs for Fewood were to conquer the world and rule it as her own. However, most of her troops goals merely wished to pillage as much as they could, and leave the planet wealthy men and women. Because of this, the commodore's long term goals for the planet were damaged by the short sighted aspirations of her warriors. She has had some success keeping the feudal structure of Fewood intact, and installing trusted lieutenants as landed lords. In a few instances she has even kept the existing lord in power, provided they acknowledge her sovereignty. Such was the discontent amongst some of the lords prior to the invasion. Equally troubling, was the incessant guerrilla warfare waged on her forces in lands they ostentatiously control. This irregular warfare forced her to keep her invading army on Fewood longer than she would like, thus further reducing its value as her army continued to pillage. Her intelligence reports already indicate that the guerrilla warfare will be worse when she conquers the marginal lands and the lands on the peripheries, yet the longer she lets them survive unmolested, the stronger the resistance will become. Lastly, the assault on the Governor's palace, which had to happen quickly before the resistance rallied behind him, was not as easy as overcoming the militias of the petty lords. His palace had been heavily fortified, and his guard wad the best trained and equipped of all of the defenders. They also knew that to lose the battle, was to lose not only their lives, but their families as well. They knew that no one with a claim to the Governorship, no matter how tenuous, could be allowed to survive. Their stubborn resistance, though ultimately futile, proved both a blessing and a curse for Commodore Mallori. It was a blessing as she was given the opportunity to rid herself of some of the more troublesome contingents in her army, as well as kill off large numbers of mercenaries that she would have had to pay, but a curse because it cost her more time and resources than she was initially willing to commit to capturing the world.

 

Fewood Under the Flag of the Black Maw.

 

On the surface, little has changed for the subjects of Fewood. The serfs still pick fruit and fell trees for their lords, some of whom are the same lords they toiled for under the Aquilla. Likewise the freemen still work in their same crafts in the cities and keeps of their lords. The lords still collect oppressive tithes for the ruler of Fewood. Life appears not to have changed. Beneath the surface, everything is different. Newly installed lords and bond lords are servants of the dark gods, some can no longer even be called human. The cults walk openly among the people, and build temples to the gods, which offer promises of power to the powerless, and sacrificial deaths to the unbelievers. These temples serve as recruiting stations for mortal warriors of the Black Maw, places where discontent clans and groups of serfs can gather, to be picked up by the warband's troopships to carry them to the next world the Black Maw will devour. The burning of timber tracts and orchards during the invasion, has displaced large numbers of people, many who see opportunity in fighting alongside their conquerers in the stars.

 

Commodore Malori rules Fewood largely as an absentee landlord. She uses the world as a steady, if smaller than expected, line of legitimate trade within the growing kingdom being carved out by the Black Maw, and occasionally other worlds controlled by other warbands of the Despoiler's Black Legion. Beside the trade, she earns influence in the court of the Black Maw each time a troopship fills its holds with warriors eager to earn the glory of the gods. Malori has also found that rewarding the loyalty of her captains and lieutenants with land and titles has helped her keep better control of the ambitious officers of her squadron.

 

 

Note: I'm still working on the next installment of the Shield, but I finished up this background piece I started more than a year ago.