Ebon Magistrate: Fact or Fiction?

[DeJaVu]

[10 January 3069; Jojoken Insider] Our neighbors in the Magistracy of Canopus have what passes for the best intelligence agency in the Periphery in the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry. Of course, national pride forces us to contend that SAFE, as an Inner Sphere agency, is superior, but the rumors abound—and SAFE doesn’t have the best track record these days, do they?
Then there is this splinter group calling itself the Ebon Magistrate. There’s no hard evidence outside of the barroom tales of merchants who travel in the backwoods of the Periphery, but the tales are so prevalent that there’s probably at least a kernel of truth in them. The stories run the full gamut—super soldiers in black armor to half-machine abominations that rival BattleMechs for sheer terror. The Word of Blake, of course, has revealed the technological monstrosities known as the Manei Domini—disgusting man-machine melds that walk and talk and tear common sense to shreds. Why can’t a Periphery nation have the same?
Culling through the reports one theme does seem to exist: this Ebon Magistrate, whatever they are, are fierce Canopus loyalists, and if the Magistracy is like most Inner Sphere nations, these special-ops troops probably answer directly to the Magestrix. Field reports a new type of laser rifle have appeared in recent years, something called an Ebony Assault Rifle—whether that’s its real name or just an affectionate appellation cannot be made. Whatever their nature, if these Ebons do exist as something more than holovid drama, they’ve done little to resist the Blakist hellfire—barely even rumors are coming out of Canopus, and with the communications disruptions everywhere else, that can mean only one thing.