Preface: The following text represents a technical preface for a larger body of work that will be written and released throughout 2011 and 2012. These narrations support a fictional character in the Deathwatch RPG universe. While this technical piece might not be an easy read, a full story will follow this work. Enjoy.
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Talos V is located on the Eastern Fringe, in an area of space known as the Forgotten Reach. This body of astrology is known for bordering the contested territories of the Jericho Reach. It was on Talos V that some of the oldest Human Colonization and Expansion projects can be seen, still flourishing thirty millennia after the original terraforming projects were launched in the sector. It is with some irony that Talos V is in the condition it is; being that the planet is, to this day, host to races other than just Terran. This is likely due to the extreme density by which the inhabitants of Talos V are accustomed to living, and the relative ease by which trade traffic now flows throughout the planets many intersteller commerce ports. While not to the standards of a true hive-world, the residents of Talos V are nonetheless quite adept at life in this environment.
Vast amounts of effort, time, and preparation went into the original terraforming projects, thousands of years before hive-worlds dedicated to human breeding sanctions would need to be established. The slow and methodic customs that were put into motion those many years ago are still largely the governing principles under which citizens exist today, save for a few executive military headquarters located around the planets surface. These Navy stations do co-locate the sovereign control to the Chiefs of Defense Tactica in times of battle and war. The remains of these listening stations is largely regarded as an ancillary legacy of military intelligence that inhabited the planet during its many mid-years. During these middle years Talos V, the results of the long fought and hard won capital location, was primarily functioning as host for the Imperium against many races that were to be battled. Subsequently, as many research and development societies were founded upon Talos V, the planet also played host to a great movement in racial intelligence indexing and discovery. This explains why even now, there are some sections of Talos V where even the Eldar are known to dwell yet are not driven from their abodes as the risk to positive intelligence and unit movements would be too great to leave to chance.
Through time however, the need for such drastic military presence has thankfully diminished. The neighboring sectors of space have become the hotbed of battle, thus freeing Talos V to commit thousands of years of labor and growth to the advancement of the Imperium. Forces of various Space Marine Chapters, as well as the Imperial Guard use many of the older installations around the planet as hot ports by which they can quickly touch down, command intelligence gathering and resupply for their fleet, then quickly depart. To the Navy, the modern port like nature of the planet is exactly the feature that allows it to forgo much of the live battle activity; as ship and shipment arrivals are sporadic and run at irregular intervals, this giving the advantage of Talos V no longer representing the very chief concern to warring factions. Alas, present day Talos V is but a shadow of its former military prowess.
Given that the prime interests of Talos V are no longer of direct military conquest, the planet’s state has given itself to more of a sedate standard of living for its inhabitants. The geographical topology of the surface finds a common balance between being quite temperate across much of its area, to downright arid in some of the furthest and remote stretches of the landscape. This has given Talos V something of a reputation for being a clandestine planet, as the business exchange that exist amongst its citizens can usually be classified by the type of surrounding climate systems in place. The more temperate and semi-tropical sections giving aid to the higher population densities, thus allowing for much more social innovation and advancement to be found. The sections of Talos V that are amongst the greatest of ill repute are those found along the arid, nigh chokingly dry stretches of the planet.
The diversity of citizenship is likely due to the fact that over the years, Talos V witnessed its inhabitants evolve throughout millenia as a unified society. The permissible acceptance for humanity’s darkest compromises were slowly pushed out and away of the Talosian value and belief systems. The accommodation of shady figures, and the business dealings of them have been pushed farther and farther from the beacon of the temperate zones. Because of this Talosian society trait, Talos V citizens experience a greater intensity of freedom and confidence in themselves than that of the planet’s neighboring inhabited planets and systems. The originating aristocracy had long since planned and struggled to ensure values such as these were at the forefront of the planet’s fundamental design characteristics. Yet in the later stages of Talos V’s defining adolescence, it was a melding of political intrigue as well as militaristic support that allowed Talos V to advance in the fortuitous covenant that resulted.
The Talos V population is most often surveyed as consisting throughout several major sub-cities as well as many more remote and difficult to chart regions. There is no totalitarian government on Talos V, as the design of the planet’s sub-cities allows for a centralized yet geographically fragmented network design. The leading trans-communication and meta-communication relays allow for instantaneous transmission of all available media messaging to anyone connected to the planetary satellite exchange. This has enabled a very wide range of freedom afforded to Talos V citizens enabling them to communicate discoveries and advancements at an instantaneous pace.
To the extent possible, the citizens of Talos V often consider their planet home to some of the greater scientific minds of the known inhabited worlds. To that end, the planet is indeed the source of many of the innovating ideas and forward thinking benefited of recent time and space. The sub-city design of the planet, featuring small to medium dedicated cities of populations between 9k to 29k, has given rise to the advancement of individual scientific communities dedicated to a variety of goals. Many advancements in the areas of metal and chemical synthesis were originated within the Talos V academic and education sub-cities. Further developments into Ion Drive Mapping as well as Element Transfusion Acceleration have echoed throughout history as nearly indispensable technological breakthroughs.
Given that the planet does indeed still possess some active military, as well as incremental and foundational militaristic history, it should come as no surprise that there are some sub-cities dedicated to the advancement of military application. Known unclassified examples of this would be advancements in ship hull design, resulting in a better ability for ships to withstand the intense electrical and radiation displacements of warp storms. Among the most famous of military innovations of recent history would be the advancements of the Bolter, Heavy Bolter, and Twin-linked Heavy Bolter. Before the successful synthesis of hydranorganic chemicals and infused bolter-steel compounds, weapon longevity was compromised by environmental concerns as experienced by soldiers in remote warfare. The various toxins, gases, and heat exchanges experienced in the field put severe strain on weapon longevity. In the years closely following the end of the 33rd millennium, advancements were finally realized through the combined efforts of Delta-sub and Appsi-sub cities that gave birth to a new metal synthesis that would withstand the extremes of the known elemental countermeasures. These advancements led to the successful defense of several Human inhabited planets under the onslaught of Ork and Dark Eldar advancements. These accomplishments, among others, cementing Talos V’s position as a leader in scientific advancement and innovation.
