Magistrates
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The magistrates are the enforcement arm of the Barons. They are the police, judges executioners, peacekeepers and hunters. Every citizen in the Villes, and for the most part even in the outlands live and die at the hands of these men who answer to the barons and the barons only.
Because of the way the villes are structured, there are detention cells where lawbreakers are kept until it is determined if they are innocent or guilty. If found guilty, depending on the infraction, they are either fined, exiled or executed. Most of the exiles would rather be executed, rather than be sent to the outlands.
They are actually the descendants of the 'sec men' or security forces that were used by the fledgling barons. But the forces were comprised of males. There are no female Magistrates nor will there ever be. It is a brotherhood and the weaker sex is not allowed to join because of it.
During the initial years of the program of unification, the various baronies across the Outlands waged war against one another, and infamous baron blasters. The weaker barons were destroyed, ousted, or had their holdings taken over by the stronger Barons. After years of struggle, Nine baronies emerged on top. From these baronies, the best of the best 'sec men' were chosen and became the very first Magistrates. After receiving training, new weapons and armor, they were used to clear out the rabble and undesirables, and hunt down anyone who possessed certain knowledge of the Totality concept, as well as wipe out as many of the mutants and genetically engineered races that still threatened the newly formed unified baronies.
In exchange for this, they were granted
citizenship, as long as they could meet the 'requirements'. These requirements
were almost exclusively based on the genetic traits.
You will never find a magistrate with any form of mutation.
The current magistrate force
is now into it's third Generation, and the fourth generation are in
training to replace the magistrates that go into administrative duty or die in
the line of duty to the barons.
Training begins at the age
of twelve and lasts for four years. At the age of sixteen, they graduate and are
full-fledged members of the force. The graduation ceremony consists of a
huge, free for all game, similar to football. Many of the fledgling Magistrates
are seriously injured, and death's are not unheard of. But once the game is
over, every member is looked upon as a full fledge magistrate and treated like a
brother.
During the four years of
training, they are taught the skills of their trade. Basic skills such as
reading and writing, geography, Weapons training, Martial
arts, survival, piloting, and so forth. Six months alone is spent on
training with the Sin-Eater weapon, as anyone not trained could quite easily
harm, or even kill, themselves.
The years also strip away much of the potential magistrates humanity, hardening them to the often brutal and unsavory tasks that they would have to perform in the baron's name. They are trained so thoroughly that any sign of apprehension, or fear would set them off, trigger their reactions much the same way that fresh spilled blood would affect predators. There is no such thing as a weak magistrate. Those who are unable to meet the stringent requirements are washed out quickly, much to the shame of their fathers. Few of these washouts ever survive, as quite often, their fathers might cause an 'accident' to befall the shame to their name. Also, many of the washouts end up leaving the villes, going into self imposed exile into the outlands as the shame of their failure is too much for them to bear. This is in itself, a form of suicide.
Magistrates go by one name. The last name, their fathers name. First names are never given, or if they were, they are dropped once they become full fledged magistrates. Kane, Grant, Salvo, and so forth are typically the the third in line, and in many cases, the forth. The stripping of the first name sets them apart from the other ville inhabitants, and to a lesser degree, strips away part of their individuality.
In the field, the magistrates reign supreme. They have the best weapons and armor available to the, use Sandcat FAV's, Deathbird helicopters, automatic weapons, explosives, whatever their current mission requires. Most missions are brutal and straight forward, and thus subtlety and subterfuge wasn't something that was generally taught in during their training years. As a general rule, if they were to kill someone, they came out and did it, they didn't try to beat around the bush or gain the confidence of the target. Although it isn't unheard of for specially gifted Magistrates to be given extra training, becoming assassins for the barons.
The armor of the Magistrate
is used not only for protection, but at the same time, the way it was designed,
it is to instill fear and apprehension in normal people. And it works very well.
There is a more subtle reason to it. Donning the armor, the Magistrate
surrenders his individuality and becomes a part of the whole group, serving a
greater cause.
After graduation, when they received their duty badge, the Magistrates are put to work, most starting out in the Tartarus pits, working on simple patrol and keeping the peace. This is how all magistrates start out and depending on their level of skill are eventually re-assigned to different jobs, such as patrolling the outlands, convoy escort duty, emissaries to other baronies, search and destroy, and so forth. Anyone re-assigned to the Tartarus pits generally were sent back because of some infraction they made.
There are several types of Magistrates. The elite of the elite are the Hard Contact Magistrates, the front line, the baron's soldiers. The other Magistrates look up to them, aspire to become part of the hard contact magistrate division.
Next in line are the Intel magistrates, basically the investigation arm of the force. They follow up on any possible infraction and gather the information needed to send in the Hard contact magistrates.
As already mentioned, when a Magistrate reaches a certain age, or are wounded in the field, they are transferred to the Administrative division. Some consider it a reward, some a punishment.
Finally, there is the low of the low. The grunts. They are what all magistrates start out as and stay that way until they prove themselves otherwise. Most stay that way until they are killed or are given administrative duty.
Occasionally, Magistrates are traded to other Barons who could have more use for a particular skill they might be well versed in, or to replace lost members, if a ville has an excess number of trainees.
Even less often, Magistrates could find themselves on special detail. These lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view) are assigned missions to hunt down and capture entire outland settlements worth of people who are shipped off to parts unknown. Occasionally the magistrates are assigned to ultra secret facilities such as the Dulce New Mexico facility, or Area 51, or even place like Front Royal. Generally, once the transfer has taken place, the magistrate is kept there for life.
Life for a magistrate is one of brutality, discipline and the occasional perk. Most magistrates live their lives in dormitories, eating, sleeping, and working together as a whole. This keeps the sense of individuality to a minimum, as well as enforces the feeling of being part of a single living, breathing organism. The few means of recreation they have are mostly in the form of team sports. This helps enforce the brotherhood.
Hygiene is something that is very strict. Hair is always worn short, as it would be uncomfortable if it was long, under the armored helmets they don. But the other reason stems to the conditions they would experience. Long hair could be used by a foe to gain an advantage over the Magistrate. Facial hair is not allowed, again for the same reason as long hair. Cleanliness is of utmost importance when they are not in the field. All part of the discipline they are taught.
As the magistrates grow older, they are occasionally allowed to take women for short term mates. These pairings must be approved by the approval boards of the villes, to assure that any pairing would result in superior offspring. If a magistrate doesn't find a mate willingly, then the approval boards would find a compatible match and they would be bound by their duty to produce children. It is not uncommon for a Magistrate to have fathered children with two, three or sometimes even more women. In many cases, it's considered an honor to be chosen, to have taken multiple partners, as it proved that the Magistrate had the traits that were smiled upon. Very few Magistrates ever petition for a license out of love, and for those few that do, more often than not the license is refused, as having feelings that strong towards another could interfere with one's duties.
Someone who goes above and beyond the call of duty would be rewarded with a citation. The more citations a magistrate earned, the more perks they would receive. The perks ranged from spending time with women (even if they were not considered ideal breeding material), to extra ville script, to their own private quarters. Of course those who really proved themselves valuable they would be transferred to the Hard Contact division.
When it comes to the pay, they could use it to purchase small luxuries that were allowed by the Barons, or they could spend it in the Tartarus pits on contraband, such as alcohol, smokes, weapons and Predark goods that were brought in by traders. .
Despite the training and the brothership that is instilled in the Magistrates, internal fighting, vying for position, even 'accidents' are not totally unheard of. Ville script, contraband, weapons and even sexual favors with ville women are used to increase ones standing in the ranks. Bribes placed in the right hands could get a grunt transferred to Intel or hard contact, even if their skills are not quite up to snuff. The most common use of bribes would be to have a fellow magistrate look the other way, allowing one to bring contraband into the dorms or private quarters.
Once a magistrate reaches their mid to late thirties, or if they are crippled due to injuries sustained in the line of duty, they are transferred to an administrative posting (see above). These postings range from teaching the new recruits, to surveillance, simple paper work, being part of the approval board and so forth. But, they could be called back into the field at any time, at the baron's whim.
Life is difficult for the Baron's chosen enforcers, but few would ever have it any other way.
Created on 02/18/01