Marshal Bexley

Marshal Bexley served forty years in the Confederacy's siege artillery before he was given the Brass Bastion. He still fires mortars in synchronized volleys, timed to a martial drumbeat his signalmen play on the ship's comms. An enemy who knows the rhythm can predict the next fall of shot. He does this on purpose. An honorable opponent, in his view, should have a warning, and the drum adds dignity to the craft.

The crew stopped arguing. The drumbeat has become one of the more feared sounds in Confederacy territory, including among friendly ships, because it means Bexley is in the area and the tubes are about to speak. Dignity, in his hands, is not the same thing as mercy.