Peckim

'When a man wearies of Peckim, he has wearied of knee-high litter and probably being mugged.'

So begins the biography of Zamwell Peeps, Scion of the House of Innit. Peeps' celebrated travelogue covers a number of worlds and sights of the Starfire subsector, but it is his birthplace, the Peckim system, to which we now turn our attention.

The system, to the galactic north of the Genosan Expanse, and well-placed for expeditionary resupply rimwards from the core, first appears in the Boke of Antown Awstrallys as 'Pechecham Solar', one of the systems reclaimed after the Broken Covenant Conflicts of M36; when the political dominance of the Iron Staff League, an abhhuman protectorate of the Imperium, was broken. The star gives a wan light that is nevertheless warming and pleasant. The system contains dozens of inhabited worlds, and it considered one of the most densely populated in the sector. Brevity means that here we hold our focus on just a select few planets.

Rye is a Hiveworld, whose armies patrol the system's Green Circuit, a large internal boundary that serves the administrative worlds near the arterial warp gate. The planet is unusually green for a Hiveworld, though on closer inspection this is due to the high level of surfactant pollutants on the large oceans.

Previously an uninhabited world filled with verdant forest and jungle, Barak's Arsenal became a fortress world after the events of the Betrayal of Brym's Beard, regarded by most as the turning point in the Broken Covenant conflict. The planet is hostile to human life, and all members of the Imperial Guard assigned to the Barak Patrols, as the duty is known, must wear hostile environmant gear. The patrol is euphemistically known as 'The Behind' Patrol – or similar vulgarities derived from the arsenal's name itself.

Pi-Nmass is a Mechanicus-controlled artifical orbital that consists of a torus of freshwater bounded by monitoring stations. The orbital is a wonder of technomancy, the boundaries of which are water-ice that contain liquid freshwater. In the artifical seas of this diverting orbital grow Djeli-eels, slimy but nutritious beasts that provide a large amount of food for the system's teeming inhabitants.

The backwater Camber's Swell is home to the Devotees of Saint Gyals, a peculiar sect that are quite aware that their object of devotion is purely fictional – the celebrated Saint was the protagonist in a popular Morality Play that led to the Imperium's invasion of the system in M36, leading to the events of the Broken Convenant Conflicts.

The planet Naforf is a cosmopolitan Civilised world. The planet has numerous vassal tribes under the nominal leadership of House Innit and the Wotchusai Dynasty, who occupy large swatches of the major continents. The noble houses have largely abandoned their internecine warfare in favour of out-competing each other in trade and shipbuilding, though the vassal Houses Avinalarf and Chulukinat were – as of M41.180603.941 – fighting a proxy war over the Return of Rover shipyward. The planet has four major satellites, Marmora, Therapia, Mundania and Scutari. All are occupied by minor noble Houses.

Nonehead, an important Ecclesiarchy world, contains a minor Shrine to the Primarchs, and is protected by both a strong PDF and members of the Solar Ascendant, a minor Adeptus Sororitas order. The planet is widely-regarded as one of the most beautiful in the subsector. As a result, it has become a popular place of pilgrimage despite the paucity of items of genuinely important religious significance on the surface.

^{Detail of the entrance to the diverting Shrine to Corvus Corax.}

Internal threats

Being so large, politically important and bordering the unpatrolled Genosan Expanse, the system houses numerous internal threats. Regular sweeps are made by the Sector and Subsector fleets – supported by Merchant Naval shipping– through the system to ensure a critical mass of hostiles is not allowed to build. Planetside, the Green Circus Regiments, a group of Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the various worlds of the system, patrol traditional boundaries in a thirty-year tour. The Green Circus Regiments are unusual in being resupplied from home, allowed to retire to their worlds of origin, and rarely being seconded out of the system – though this is not unknown. Regiments from the Green Circus are justly famous in the subsector for their courage and being well-turned out.

Nevertheless, numerous hostile and neutral alien and rebel forces do operate: 

The notorious ork pirates da Pekim Boyz and Dowlouse Kru operate from the DHSS asteroid belt, a hive of villainy,

Squat privateers and expeditionaries, who still regard the system as belonging to the abhumans, operate out of the hostile inner worlds,  Innis Pierce and Onna Oke (see main picture for an archived image of Onna Oke, taken from Innis Pierce. The atmospheric effects are due to solar plasma agitating oxide storms that ravage the dustworld). Many of the inhabitants hold romantic views of reforming the Iron Staff League, but with membership reduced to these two minor worlds and jealously-guarded asteroid rights, the League will likely remain a political byblow in the future.

The Eldar Pirates of the Fabulous Dandies regularly strike Imperial shipping. Centuries of systematic investigation have failed to uncover their base, leading many to suppose their base of operatations to be outside the system proper, possibly in the star's heliosheath.

Agents of the Brightsword Protectorate are regularly seen in-system, and are annoyingly difficult to root out. Recent years have indicated connections with the Church of the Many-Handed Emperor on the manufactory planet Carbide and the Semantic Objection on Nonehead, an illegal military cult stemming from Administratum hotheads.