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 Fluff Library - Inquisitorial Archivist D'hain +++Thought for the day+++ |
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The Imperial Guard
(White Dwarf 109)Captain Worlak grunted with satisfaction as the gates of the fortress were blown to atoms and J Company advanced on the Traitor's position. Horren's assault platoon gunned their jump packs and flew forward into the gateway. It would all be over soon.
Worlak rubbed one band over his stubbled chin, automatically tracing the zigzag scars that were the mark of a Warrior of the Kratch. He bad feared that his 42nd Vorgarn would be assigned to some other duties because they were raised from the same homeworld as the traitor 38th, and had made sure that his superiors knew of the hereditary blood-feud between the Kratch of the 42nd and the Tarsh of the 38th. He had written long dispatches pleading for the duty of stamping the 38th out - to eradicate this stain upon the honour of the homeworld, to make a centuries-old cultural enmity serve the Imperial cause, and as many other arguments as be could muster
He did not, of course, mention his strongest reason - that the traitors of the 38th were led by Tarsh Mardik. Cultural enmities between units were accepted as natural, but personal vendettas between commanders could interfere with judgement, and were sternly discouraged.
A huge explosion announced that the citadel was taken, and Worlak burled his jetcycle up and forward, puncbing the comm into life as be did so. He had to find out.
"Horren. What news?"
"We have the command bunker, Captain."
"And?"
"We have saved the one you wish."
"Good. You will be rewarded."
"We are rewarded already, Captain trezny." Horren used the Kratch word for a leader of warriors, with the highest honorific suffix. The Imperium was all but forgotten - this was a Vorgarn affair, and Horren was a Kratch warrior who was very happy with his leadership. The screams which could be beard in the background bore out his words.
Worlak strode into the wreckage of the command centre to find the traitor commander chained up, away from the bodies of his men. He paled visibly as Worlak took off his visored helmet, revealing the empty socket of his right eye.
"You!"
"Yes, Tarsb Mardik. Me." He stripped off his uniform jacket, and at his signal one of his men unchained the captive. The others bad begun to spread out into a loose circle around the two.
"It's been a long time, eh, Mardik?" Worlen drew the silver handled Kratch bunting knife from his boot. "What must it be - twenty-five years, Terra standard? I expect you'll almost have forgotten by now. But I never forgot. I have this empty socket to remind me." He dropped the knife on the floor of the bunker and backed away until the knife was exactly halfway between the two of them.
"You owe me an eye, Tarsh Mardik. And I've come to collect."
Simultaneously, the two men lunged forward for the knife.
The Imperium is vast, and wars are constantly raging throughout the galaxy. Rebellions flare up and are crushed; Orks, Tyranids and other alien races attack on a thousand fronts; heretic prophets rise to brief glory and are destroyed; new worlds are discovered, claimed for the Imperium, and pacified. At times, it seems, the whole universe is at war.
Indeed, as far as the line troopers of the Imperial Guard are concerned, the whole universe is at war. The Imperial Guard makes up the vast bulk of the Imperial military machine; recruited from the planetary defence forces of the Imperium's millions of worlds, it is a huge military force of Humans and Abhumans.
No one man knows the true size of the Imperial Guard, and only the huge Codex Exercitus, maintained on Terra by the highest ranks of the Administratum, contains the necessary data for such a calculation. There are some guesses and rumours - some say that if the whole of the Imperial Guard were paraded shoulder-to-shoulder they would cover the entire planetary surfaces of such-and-such a system, or stretch from Terra to such-and-such a star. The only thing known for certain is that the Imperial Guard is unimaginably vast.
Because of its enormous size, the Imperial Guard is also an incredibly diverse organisation. To define the configuration of every company and platoon, to describe every variation in troop organisation, equipment and tactics, would require a work many times the size of this one and the lifetimes of many scribes beside your servant who writes this. Of necessity, then, we must confine ourselves to standard-issue equipment, common troop types and conventional tactics.
The major unit of the Imperial Guard is the Regiment. Precise numbers vary, but most Imperial Guard Regiments are raised with a strength of 2,000-6,000 men. Each regiment is raised from a single homeworld, and the Imperial Guard trooper regards himself as belonging first and foremost to the Regiment rather than the Army to which it is assigned at its raising.
Regiments are identified by the name of their homeworld, and a number - for example, the 8th Necromunda Regiment is the eighth Regiment of the Imperial Guard to have been raised from the hive world of Necromunda at a particular raising. Regiments are often given unofficial names by their commanders; thus, the 8th Necromunda Regiment call themselves 'The Spiders', and use the symbol of a spider as an unofficial emblem. Their commander, Colonel Raeven Mortz, even goes so far as to keep one of the deadly Necromundan Greenback spiders as a pet and mascot.
Regiments are divided into companies, which can vary widely in their size and composition. The company is the major tactical unit of the Imperial Guard. The heart of a company is composed of a varying number of platoons, and various specialist units and machines are attached to the company as need, availability and individual preference dictate - robots, vehicles, support weapons, ally contingents and the like.
The Codex Exercitus gives the standard configuration of an Imperial Guard Platoon as a Command Section and up to four squads. A Command Section consists of an Officer (normally either a Captain or a Lieutenant), a number of specialist troops such as a Medic, a Commissars, an Orderly who may carry the platoon's standard, and perhaps an attached group of Sanctioned Psykers, in addition to rank-and-file Guardsmen. A squad consists of one Sergeant and nine Guardsmen, and is always attached to a Command Section. Imperial Guard squads always act as part of a platoon.
An unofficial, but very common practice, amongst units of the Guard is the adoption of Battle Badges. These riveted circular metal plates are sold to Guardsman by their officers after major wars and battles The Battle Badge simply has the name of the action and date stamped onto it. The troopers are proud to display such records of their battles and the badges are fixed to helmets and body armour even taking precedence over official unit Insignia.
Each of the populated worlds of the Imperium has its own planetary defence force, raised from among its population. The lex imperla de munimenta publica lays down that each planet shall raise and maintain a planetary defence force, and a further Imperial decree provides that these planetary defence forces shall provide recruits for the Imperial Guard.
Recruitment for the Imperial Guard creams off the elite of the planetary defence forces, according to a series of quotas set by the Administratum. Using a complex system of probability computations and battle forecasts backed up by the Imperial Tarot, the Administratum issues a requirement for troops, which is passed down to the Imperial Commanders of individual planets. The Imperial Commander can then formulate his population control policy for the next generation around the Administratum's requirement for Imperial Guard troops and his own requirements for labour.
Quotas are normally set each generation, but in times of great need, the Administratum may require a planet to supply two or more raisings from a single generation. During the wars of the Horus Heresy, for example, Necromunda was required to provide dozens of separate raisings, supplying the Guard with hundreds of millions of troops in total. Many hive worlds suffered similar burdens, while at the other end of the scale, many agricultural and feral worlds were almost entirely stripped of their meagre populations, and had to be left for several generations in order for their populations to recover.
Among the planetary defence forces, it is considered a great honour to be chosen for recruitment into the Imperial Guard. Many young hopefuls, especially on hive worlds and factory planets, flock to the planetary defence force in the hope of being found worthy of the Imperial Guard - their only chance of escape from their claustrophobic homeworlds.
Methods of recruitment vary according to the world involved. On hive worlds such as Necromunda, it is common to draft entire street gangs into the planetary defence force - in effect, to legitimise their activities and give them formal control of an area. The most successful of these - and some are so successful as to threaten the long- term stability of a wide area - are drafted as complete platoons or companies into the Imperial Guard. On feral and mediaeval worlds, the planetary defence force is recruited from the warrior caste by a series of trials and ordeals, and given names such as the Knights of the Star Lord or the Eagle Warriors. The greatest of these, chosen again by trial, may join the Warriors from the Stars when their great ships come out of the sky. Some feral-world warriors will commit ritual suicide if they fail to meet recruitment criteria.
Skinner felt good. Electricity seemed to come up through the street and flow through his body The Blood Rats were ranged out to right and left of him, and people were keeping off the street. Their street. Just like the old days.
It hardly felt any different - the old feeling was still there Even after eighteen months in the belly of a spaceship in basic training. Even though they were now officially the Second Platoon, F Company, 23rd Vintor Regiment, Imperial Guard. Even though Rubblebead was toting a missile launcher in place of his home-made bombs.
Even the uniforms were a good omen. A hundred- to-one shot, minimum. Owing to local dyestuff supplies in the Hoptor system, the uniforms were a rusty brown. The colour of dried blood. The colours of the Blood Rats.
Hoptor IV was a borne from borne. And the Blood Rats bad some fresh turf to carve themselves out.
Particularly on feral worlds, the taking of scalps, ears, and other trophies is encouraged as an index of martial prowess. Trophy-taking is also common among hive world gangs, which are similar in many cultural respects to the tribal warbands of pre-gunpowder feral worlds. On Necromunda, for example, many gangs take the smallest finger of the right hand as a trophy. Trophies are all-important proof of martial prowess, and thus of worthiness to join the Imperial Guard.
An Imperial Guard Regiment is recruited from a single planet at a single raising. The Regiment is shipped to its posting after it is raised, but does not receive replacements for losses. Because of the vastness of the Imperium, and its huge Human population, it is rare for the transport of personnel to justify the huge costs, risks and time-lags involved. However, in many Regiments the Guardsmen's offspring are brought up within the Regiment, and are recruited when they come of age. Until that time, they perform menial and support duties, and may fight as a probitor unit alongside the rest of the Regiment, being fully inducted into the Regiment when they have proved themselves in battle.
Because of the lack of ongoing recruitment, it is common for Regiments to become severely depleted, and it is thought that a great many Imperial Guard Regiments are currently at less than half their founding strength. In some cases, such as the 22/4 Valeria, two or more Regiments serving on a world may be combined to form a new Regiment, which is given the name of the base world if its parent Regiments came from different homeworlds.
Recruits to the Imperial Guard are already partially trained by virtue of their service with the planetary defence forces from which they are recruited. Advanced training, weapon cross-training and various drills take place during the long voyage from the Regiment's homeworld to their posting. Since it is Imperial policy to post Imperial Guard units well away from their homeworld in order to minimise the risk of revolt, these voyages can take months or even years. By the time an Imperial Guard unit arrives at its destination, it is a highly-trained and cohesive force, ready for almost any eventuality.
The Imperial Guard is most often deployed into war zones or on planets where a garrison is required. Garrison postings are seldom the easy tasks they may seem, for often an Imperial Guard garrison has to conquer a world, or recapture it from Orks or other aliens, before they can garrison it. Less common postings include attachment to the entourage of a Rogue Trader, and posting to a Titan Order as Secutor support troops.
A successful Regiment can look forward to being granted the overlordship of the planet to which they are posted. If the planet remains peaceful and meets all its quotas, the Regimental Commander may in time be rewarded with the title of Imperial Commander and the governorship of the planet, while substantial land grants maybe made to Guard veterans who retire from active service due to old age. In due course of time, the Regiment will become a hereditary nobility, almost indistinguishable from the now-peaceful native population. The descendants of the original garrison may well be recruited, first into the planetary defence force, and then into the Imperial Guard Regiments that are raised there.
Occasionally, the powers and responsibilities of office may corrupt a Regimental Commander who is appointed Governor of his garrison planet, and he may be tempted to rebel, as in the case of the 3rd Vorradion Regiment on Bradur IV. In such cases, Imperial justice is swift and total - less than a hundred days after the rebellion began, the governor's palace was assaulted by the Space Marines of 3 Company, Legio Astartes Blood Drinkers, with orders to take no prisoners and accept no surrender terms.
A Regiment is supplied with weapons and other equipment at its foundation, and a Regimental Commander may request equipment from the Administratum for a particular task. However, since these requests can take some time to process and are by no means certain to be approved, many Regiments will take over factories and workshops on the world to which they are assigned.
Uniforms are supplied at the foundation, but are not replaced thereafter; it is the responsibility of the Regimental Commander to arrange the supply of such items, and in an old-established Regiment it is common for uniforms to vary from platoon to platoon. The basic pattern of the uniform will remain the same, as laid down by Imperial regulations, but its colour and material will vary according to what is available at the time. Thus, for example, a Regimental Commander may requisition a batch of material from a factory on the Regiment's posting world, and if only blue material is available, then the replacement uniforms will be blue.
The Imperial Guard incorporates troops of many types and races. In addition to the standard, general-purpose tactical platoon, a wide range of individuals and units see service with the Imperial Guard.
The Imperial Guard's equipment is serviced directly by the Adeptus Mechanicus and their Servitors. The Adeptus Mechanicus personnel and Servitors are directly responsible for the Guard's vehicles and are the custodians of all the Guard's support weaponry and equipment.
Servitors
Servitors are Humans modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus, with the sole purpose of operating machinery. They are selected from various sources - the Penal Batallions, planetary reformatories, captured rebel forces and other sources of unwanted manpower - and then brain-scrubbed, physically adapted if necessary, and given intensive biochem and training. The result is less than Human, but has vastly enhanced mechanical capabilities. Servitors are able to operate their machines without thought, by instinctive response resulting from their intensive training and modification, and a single Servitor can perform the functions of two normal crewmen.
On the battlefield, Commissars accompany the highest- ranking officers in an Imperial Guard force, encouraging bravery and devotion to the Imperial cause, and ensure that cowardice and vacillation are punished and their effects on the force minimised. Away from the battlefield, Commissars act as priests and advisors, conducting rituals, giving instruction and performing other duties to ensure firm adherence to the Imperial cult. This does not necessarily mean that the religious or ritualistic practices of a platoon's cultural origins are forbidden. On the contrary, the Commissars are skilled at adapting such rites and making them an 'official' part of the Imperial Cult.
Not all psykers are killed out of hand or shipped to Terra for absorption by the Emperor. Sanctioned Psykers are often attached to Command Sections of Imperial Guard platoons. These individuals have often led a bizarre life as fugitives, hidden by friends or tribal groups and always in fear of their lives. Consequently, they may manifest considerable eccentricity in their dress and behaviour. They are often afflicted with mutations, an enlarged cranium being particularly characteristic.
Some platoons are specially trained for close combat; recruits from feral and hive worlds are particularly renowned for their ferocity in hand-to-hand fighting. These troops are drawn from the most ferocious and brutal feral-world tribes and hive-world gangs, and take great pride in their fearsome reputation. Ritual scars, facial mutilations and other identity marks characteristic of their homeworld culture are common - as they are throughout the Imperial Guard - and some assault troops invent their own platoon markings in addition, to add to their barbaric and fearsome appearance. The taking of scalps, ears and other trophies is common.
On many undeveloped frontier worlds, with no properly developed communication system, the Imperium has found that horses provide the most viable form of transport. horses have been bred continuously since the early days of expansion into space for this very reason. Imperial Guard units from frontier worlds which have an equestrian military culture are often used more or less permanently as mounted scouts and foragers. These platoons of horse-mounted Guardsmen are known as Rough Riders.
Rough Rider units are sometimes issued with a nine-foot hunting lance whose head bears a shaped explosive charge. These are used for hunting big game on Feral Worlds - the quarry is driven to bay by troopers acting as beaters, and the officers draw lots to decide who will dispatch it with the lance - but they are also used by the Guard in battle. Rough Rider Lancers have proved particularly effective against riotous mobs and massed hordes of Gretchins and similar opponents; they can sometimes even produce a better result against heavier, power-armoured troops than the standard-issue lasgun of the Imperial Guard.
The Beastman breed of Abhuman is becoming increasingly common on the frontiers of the Empire, and sometimes whole planetary groups are populated by Beastmen. What they lack in intelligence, Beastmen make up in aggression and determination. They commonly have a simple but fierce devotion to the Imperial cult, fired by a desperate wish to atone for their sin of being born mutants by doing the Emperor's will on the battlefield. For Beastmen, the Emperor is portrayed as vengeful and proud, demanding tribute in the flesh and blood of his enemies. The borderline between this crude form of Emperor worship and the Chaos cult of Khorne is thin, and the Beastmen's limited intellect mean that some inevitably cross over to Chaos.
"Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like. Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor Give beads to Emperor Say sorry."
- Packmaster Grasht, attached to 7 Company, 14th Gratanor Regiment
Ogryns are large, powerfully-built Abhumans, thought to be descended from Humans marooned on prison planets long ago. They are valuable troops because of their strength, brutality and childlike devotion to the Imperial cult. However, their limited intellect can make them frighteningly unpredictable and erratic. Ogryn squads must be led by Ogryn leaders, who have received brain- enhancement surgery.
Owing to their size and basic intelligence, Ogryns are normally equipped with weapons that have been designed specifically for them - mainly low-technology weapons and primitive armour. Grenades must be specially made for the Ogryns' large hands, and take the form of large metal cylinders with a ring-pull detonator at one end. Ogryn leaders are often equipped with a weapon they have dubbed the Ripper Gun, a simple but effective drum-fed, large- calibre auto-shotgun firing canister scatter-shot.
Halflings, the smallest Abhuman breed, are known by a variety of names throughout the Imperium, but the name that has passed into common usage within the bulk of the Imperial Guard is Ratlings. They are used mainly as snipers, and are not subject to the otherwise rigid platoon structures. they may operate as independent squads.
The Penal Battalions are drawn from Imperial Guard and planetary defence force troops who have committed capital crimes, and had their sentences commuted to life service. There are a great many capital crimes, so the supply of potential troops for the Penal Battalions is never-ending.
New troops have their heads shaved and tattooed with the unit insignia, and explosive slave-collars are put around their necks. The collars are a disciplinary device rather than a means of turning the troops into Human Bombs - the blast is directed inwards, and will have little effect on anyone standing even a few feet away. The collars are controlled by the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel accompanying the force, and are detonated sparingly, when discipline needs to be enforced without destroying the troops' morale.
Penal Battalions are a part of the regular fighting force of the Imperial Guard, and a commander who regards Penal Battalion troops merely as cannon-fodder and uses them wastefully is liable to end up in a Penal Battalion himself.
"There are those who undervalue the Penal Battalions. But they should consider this: should a man who has wronged the Emperor be allowed to wrong him further?For each man executed is a man who can no longer serve, and to fail in service to the Emperor is the greatest of sins."
- Leman Russ, Meditations on Imperial Command, Book XXI
The troops sentenced to service in the Penal Battalions are there for life, and must live under a tremendous burden of guilt; for not only have they committed crimes, but in so doing they have betrayed the Emperor.
However, the Emperor in his mercy has ordained that Penal Battalion troops should have the opportunity to repent and atone for their crimes - hence, the Human Bombs.
Any Penal Legion trooper may volunteer for service as a Human Bomb. In addition to his normal equipment, he is fitted with an explosive harness. The moment he dons the harness, he is absolved by the Emperor and the burden of his guilt is lifted. He also has a chance of freedom, for some of the harnesses are rigged not to explode - if he survives the battle, he is absolved and free.
