Setting:Cloudburst/Guard

The Imperial Guard forces of the Cloudburst Sector serve as its shield, and in the Circuit, its sword. The Guard are as diverse and complex here as in some of the older Sectors of the Segmentum, thanks to the wildly varying standards of living of the Sector’s worlds. The Cloudburst Defenders enjoy the most expensive non-powered armor money can buy, Forge World lasers and shotguns, and even a few Inferno Pistols, while the Fathon population can’t even support a Guard contingent, much less Stormtroopers. However, regardless of the world on which they were raised, all Cloudburst regiments incorporate anti-invasion tactics into their standard training doctrine as a matter of course. The Glasians do not care about human politics or standards of living. They care only for conquest, and their precious Passage.

The Cloudburst Guard

The archetypal Imperial Guard regiments of the Sector base their patterns and their rank systems on that of the Septiim system, itself based on the pre-Unification Terran system of Albiona and Britanne. Prior to their association with the Blue Daggers, new Imperial Guard forces in Cloudburst would generally just create whatever formations they needed, and sometimes still do. Worlds that can’t afford Septiim-level deployments may make do by removing the battalion from the command structure, and scaling down its force organization appropriately (battalions become regiments, Brigades become Divisions, etc.). Common to all organizations of the Cloudburst Guard are special formations designed by the Sector’s Officio Munitorum commanders, as ordained by the Adeptus Terra on Cloudburst itself. Officers empowered to act on the Sector’s behalf in command or even battle, usually holding the rank of Brigadier General, command these formations. They tend to lead large ‘honor guards’ of hundreds of men and machines, sometimes the strength of several platoons, and fly about in reconditioned freight carriers or troopships, taking command of Imperial forces that lack an appropriately ranked leader. Officially, these miniature command elements are called ‘Emergency Command Asset Forces,’ or ECAFs. The troops over whom they tend to command call them glory stars, if not something less polite.

The Cloudburst Guard had seen ample action prior to the Glasian Migrations. The nearby Cloudburst Circuit and Oldlight Exo-zone ensure common opportunities for local Guard forces to travel into the darkness and fight for the Imperium. The nobility and PDF of many worlds in the northern Cloudburst Sector and southern Circuit descend from the Guard recruited or pressed into serving in the retinues of Rogue Traders.

Like many of the martial forces of the Sector, the local Guard specialize in the use of specific weapons. Unlike the Space Marines, Sororitas, or Titans of the Cloudburst Sector, however, individual worlds in the Sector choose which weapons to focus on. Clegran Hunters, for instance, like to use plasma and Hotshot weapons, while Septiim regiments prefer bolters. This specialization ultimately stems in part from tradition, and in part from the real logistical concerns that once held back the production of more diverse arms on Cognomen.

Thanks to the need that Cognomen had to very carefully balance ecological, economic, and political issues and isolationism against each other, the world was not able, nor did it have the need, to build huge volumes of arms as most Forge Worlds did. When the colonization of Cloudburst began in a great Gold Rush, the world was very quickly pressed into disregarding these concerns. Thus, it was not able to keep up. Now that it can keep up in the main, these militaries are now diversifying.

By raw headcount, the Thimble military contributions have been the largest, followed by Hapster by virtue of its age. Contemporaneously, the Septiim and Thimble militaries contribute the highest percentage of their population to the Guard, while Hapster contributes the highest percentage of its population to the Navy followed by Nauphry. However, given the percentage of the Sector that is Feudal or Feral in nature, the forces the civilized worlds contribute are often spread out over a broad area, sometimes thinly enough that all active military assets must move to defense and pause exploration. The Rogue Traders and Explorators of the Sector often hesitate to push too deeply into the Circuit and Exo-zone during the Glasian Migrations, since there will be no backup available if something goes awry out in the darkness. As an institution of the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Guard of Cloudburst is subject at times to the feudal nature of the Imperial hierarchy, with some regiments even using nobles from their homeworld as senior officers. However, the Cloudburst Guard ultimately answers to Rhemortho Quintus, and no other save the Senate and the Master of the Ultima Segmentum.

Whether their command stems from locally appointed officers or an ECAF taking command in the face of an invasion, the forces of the Cloudburst Guard have one task that supersedes all others, at least for now. The forces of the Cloudburst Guard must keep the Glasians from conquering a world. The one time the Glasians were allowed to take a world, Chlorit, they destroyed it, preventing anybody from recolonizing it, including themselves. Imperial Segmentum Command is aware that the preservation of the Cloudburst Sector, though valuable, is not paramount to the survival of the greater Imperium, and is prepared to evacuate the region if needed. Local Imperial Commanders staunchly refuse to consider the possibility. They insist, in the face of a crumbling Imperium and a darkening galaxy, that Cloudburst can hold the line. Against the Ork, against fleets of desperate pirates, against Glasians, and the dread claws of the Lord of Change himself, they insist, Cloudburst will hold the line. Time alone can tell if this is true.  

Regiments of Renown

The Astra Militarum are the hammer of the Emperor, and the force of stability that has kept His many worlds from collapsing in the face of His divine plan’s opposition. Of course, some regiments are simply better at it than others. Listed here are those Cloudburst regiments that are considered skilled, glorious, loyal, pious, distinctive, or just plain interesting enough for the Adeptus Administratum to keep them on the short list of regiments stationed on Coriolis to be dispatched as a response force to wherever they may be needed in the Imperium that calls for Cloudburst firepower. Most Imperial Guard regiments in the Cloudburst Sector are raised for a single campaign and retire afterwards, but these regiments don’t. If the regiments in question have a sobriquet, it is listed in apostrophes beside its actual name.

Celeste System

As the seat of Imperial power in the Sector, including both its capital and a Subsector capital, the Celeste system is unsurprisingly popular as a recruiting venue for the Officio Munitorum. Therefore, some of its regiments have had ample time to prove themselves in war against the Emperor’s foes.

• 12th Celestial Guard Rifles “Old Line”: This ancient regiment was one of the first dozen full regiments raised in the system after it formally became a Sector capital. It was the only one to survive more than ten years, and history has since shown that it was no fluke. This regiment consists of roughly ten thousand combatants broken into five battalions, each of which is kept identical to the others to prevent logistical logjams. While many regiments become PDF or nobility on new worlds conquered by the Imperium, the 12th Celestial Guard Rifles were raised to destroy a rebellion in the Naxos Sector on a world that was already Imperial in nature. Brought into the Sector alongside eleven other regiments from Celeste and one from Cloudburst proper, the thirteen ill-starred regiments clashed mightily with the Chaotic uprising of Hadlos the Blooddrinker, a Khornate demagogue who had led whole townships to butcher their neighbors in ruthless slaughter. The Guard regiments destroyed Hadlos’ cult army and hanged the man himself, but the casualties suffered by the Guard forces were so extensive that all of the survivors were consolidated into one regiment and brought back to Celeste for examination. Since then, the regiment has partaken in five of the six Migration defenses, and no world under their banner in any Sector has fallen while they defend it, nor have they ever taken more than sixty percent casualties in any campaign.
• 105th Celestial Guard Armored Regiment “Blistering Spear”: Raised as a part of the larger 4th Armored Division during the Calliope Revolutions in nearby Drumnos, the 105th Armored accompanied the great Lord Inquisitor Xanthu on his rampage against the wicked Apostate King, former Imperial Sector Treasurer Regis Keitel. The Division landed on the rebellious world of Lorrne Xag, immediately beset the Apostate King in his fortress, and burned the apostate rebellion to ash in under three years of brutal lighting war. Their regiment was returned to Celeste with honors, and has remained active in guarding the southern Cloudburst worlds from pirate and Ork menaces fleeing the brutal Drumnos Sector Battlefleet.
• 900th Celestial Guard Force Reconnaissance Regiment “Owls”: A regiment raised for a specific task and then left hanging, the 900th Force Recon are a textbook Celeste forward regiment. Their numbers are quite small by the scale of the average Septiim-template regiment, but their task is not to engage enemies in parity. Using heavily up-gunned Salamander and Tauros vehicles to quickly move troops around and collect data on enemies, this regiment is designed specifically to repulse enemy attempts to thwart intelligence-gathering, and works alongside more typical recon units to learn about enemy activities and maneuvers in large-scale conflicts. The regiment was raised to fight against the Orks invading Oglith, and was one of the very few to do so, given that most of the regiments tasked with that role were originally slated to fight the Glasian Migration instead. However, the 900th was unable to leave Celeste in time to reach Oglith before the Orks arrived thanks to the lack of transports, and so has flown to the world Foraldshold instead, to aid the Adeptus Mechanicus in corralling the Orks there before they have a chance to destroy the all-important soy and apple farms, starving the defenders. As a Force Recon regiment, they prefer long-ranged weapons whenever available, and make extensive use of anti-materiel weapons to immobilize enemy vehicles and pick off leaders. The regiment has already distinguished itself, with a shockingly low casualty rate against the Orks and a high affirmation rate for its field intelligence.
• 5th Cloudburst Defenders “Hellknights”: This regiment of capitol troopers is smaller than most Cloudburst Sector Guard forces thanks to the low population of Cloudburst itself. However, that has never impeded their deployments. Whether because of skilled leadership or their advanced Forge World munitions and armor, the regiment has emerged from over four hundred battles with only minor losses, and has faced foes as far afield as Port Maw and the Maelstrom. Shot for shot, theirs is one of the most lethal regiments in Sector history, and their completely blank, unadorned black uniforms and identical facemasks makes them a chilling reminder of Imperial firepower and ruthlessness.

Septiim System

Septiim is more than a host to the Blue Daggers. It is the seat of some of the most successful and broadly-copied Imperial Guard forces in Sector history.

• 1st Septiim Grenadiers “Exemplars”: This elite heavy infantry regiment has carved its name into history again and again. As is often the case with Septiim regiments, their unit number is not abandoned, but rather recycled if their total numbers drop too low. The 1st Grenadiers, however, have never suffered that fate. They have returned intact from every campaign they have ever waged, including the ones against the Techno-Recidivists of the Pox Ring of nearby Naxos Sector. This regiment has a few distinctive features, such as their broad equipping of grenade launchers to the underbarrel rails of as many lasguns in their regiment as can affix them, or their septet of Praetor Assault Launchers, which they have outfitted with extra bolters and missile launchers to allow them to get closer to their targets than most Praetors dare, just to shorten missile travel durations and allow them to strike faster.
• 6th Septiim Spearmen “Hailstorms”: This regiment is part of the reason that Septiim regiments are the template for the rest of the Sector. Although supplying this regiment was a logistical nightmare for the overworked forges of Cognomen, the regiment’s battle profile is a blazing streak of Septiim blue and Cognomen red across the battlefields of Cloudburst, Drumnos, and even as far coreward as Port Maw. Armed with a broad variety of IFVs and APCs, the Spearmen of the 6th are blitz-strike experts, who use a mixture of high-quality vehicle suspension packages and Hunter-Killer missiles to surround and thin the forward elements of hostile forces, then sweep past physical obstacles to claim advantageous territory. The Septiim love of bolters began here, and spread to the rest of the system’s military. Every single pintle mount, hardpoint, hull mount, and sponson mount on every 6th regiment battle vehicle is packed with bolters, from their Leman Russ Punisher-equipped First Company to their recon platoon transports, excluding their ambulances. The regiment has a long-standing hatred of the Drukhari, thanks to the brutal losses inflicted on the first incarnation of the regiment by the piratical xenos that dwell in the spinward reaches of the Naxos Sector.
• 61st Septiim Airborne “Seagulls”: A notable exception to the usual avoidance of airdrop troopers in Septiim tactical doctrine, the 61st employ a mixture of parachutes, gliders, gravlifters, and ultra-high-altitude cargo planes fielded by their attached Imperial Navy transports to deliver soldiers well behind enemy lines. This regiment is modelled after similar Elysian and Harakoni regiments, but is understandably somewhat less specialized than them, and can field limited numbers of vehicles and AA using conventional forces to secure their paratrooper beachheads.
• 95th Septiim Conservators “Unrivaled Few”: The most heavily lauded and decorated of all Septiim regiments, this elite city-fighting regiment is over ten thousand strong and outfitted with a whole park of Hydra batteries. Their armored spearpoint vehicles are modified Leman Russ Executioners and Demolishers, and even Eradicators. Each is outfitted with dozer blades, which allows them to plow holes in city barricades and through collapsing buildings, then deploy their Hydras and Gorgons to establish impenetrable firebases in the urban rubble. They are an irremovable thorn in the side of their foes, and have put down local rebellions in seven Sectors in their eight hundred years of war.

Clegran System

While Clegran is not a system that focuses on military actions, some of its regiments are shockingly effective in battle.

• 1st Clegran Hunters “First and Finest”: Without doubt the most elite and decorated regiment in the Cloudburst Sector, this ancient and glorious regiment is the Sector’s best and they know it very well. Outfitted to Martian quality, packing a Stormhammer tank, and numbering over fourteen thousand strong with all of their attached specialists and advisors, the Clegran 1st are nigh-unstoppable in plains and rural warfare, and not far less deadly in arboreal or agrarian combat. Their Stormhammer does not fight alone, and is accompanied by well over a thousand other armored vehicles, including four hundred eighty-five tanks. These run the gamut from three whole battalions of Leman Russ Vanquishers and Conquerors to a special platoon of Valdor Tank Hunters. The 1st Hunters have a well-deserved reputation as the bane of the Ork Speedwagons that are assaulting Oglith, thanks to their ancient sensoria suites on their armored vehicles.

Maskos System

As a Subsector capital, the Maskos system has produced hundreds of military units, some of which have earned their way onto the roll of Cloudburst heroes.

• 2nd Maskos Warriors Defenders “Breakwall”: This regiment was originally raised to combat the Orks of the Oldlight Exo-zone. Although the Orks in question have long since died, the regiment lives on, its numbers replenished by periodic manpower tithes from Maskos. The regiment has taken to battle various alien foes hundreds of times since the regiment first raised, but no battle defines them more than their losing campaign against the Dark Eldar of the Cloudburst Circuit, some four hundred years before the Seventh Glasian Migration. The regiment reinforced an Imperial outpost that was under attack by Dark Eldar slavers, and managed to save only twelve percent of the Imperial personnel there, at the cost of seventy percent of their troops. The regiment ultimately evacuated, and had to endure decades of shame for the event. Perhaps to redeem themselves, they have thrown their full strength into dozens of wars since then, against foes as diverse as Slaanesh cults and the forces of the Necron Overlords.
• 91st Maskos Warriors Siege Regiment “Walltakers”: Fortress warfare is something with which the Imperium must often contend, and some regiments equip and train for that specific task. The 91st regiment makes heavy use of mortars and mobile artillery, in contrast to other siege regiments that prefer heavy fixed guns. The 91st employs their cheap, fast guns to overwhelm small spots on a defense line while other forces engage the fortress’ static defenses, then use breachers and combat enginseers to rapidly widen gaps in walls and trenches to bypass stunned defenders. Obviously, this technique is best employed against human foes. Eldar and Orks are more resistant to the disorientation that follows such blitz tactics, while the Glasians do not hold territory. As a result, the 91st has fielded on Crusades against reticent human kingdoms and even rogue Imperial officials in the past, sometimes at the behest of Inquisitors who require their specialized skills.

Goldlight System

Beyond its supply of food and gemstones to the Imperium, Cassie’s World has produced some of the most widely-travelled regiments of Cloudburst Guard.

• 23rd Cassie’s Rangers Recon Regiment “Buccaneers”: As can be expected from soldiers of a world of mountains, plains, and gigantic oceans, the Rangers Recon are experts at detecting enemy movement at long range. Thanks to their extensive riverine and amphibious combat training, the 23rd has become a welcome sight on Coriolis staging lists for Imperial Commanders, since they can be relied upon to serve as trustable spotters, rangefinders, and target identification specialists for artillery brigades and airstrike squadrons. The regiment had distinguished itself in battle against the Dark Winds pirate flotilla when they assaulted the southern borders of the Cloudburst Sector hundreds of years ago, by working with Imperial Navy and Adeptus Mechanicus orbital bombardment vessels to pinpoint the landing sites and ammo dumps of the Dark Winds ground militia. Since then, they have worked with Crusaders, with Rogue Traders, and even the Blue Daggers to harry alien landing craft and transports during Glasian Migrations.

Soak System

A planet of desperate criminals can yield Guardsmen desperate to prove themselves. Most Obelisk Guard are disgracefully undisciplined, but occasionally, the planet yields a fine regiment.

• 72nd Obelisk Sea Dragons Regiment “Pirates”: When the people of Obelisk II look at their contributions to the Imperium, the name of the 72nd is usually at hand. Unlike most Obelisk regiments, which are drug-addled, tribal, vicious bands of killers at their best, the 72nd is orderly, stealthy, efficient, and chillingly fast in boarding actions. The difference is an expensive one: this regiment has seventeen Commissars, over eight times the normal number for a regiment of their size. Between that and their SCUBA Psyker team, the regiment is a true oddity among the Obelisk Sea Dragons. They have worked alongside the Blue Daggers, a plaudit few regiments can claim outside Glasian Migrations. Because the Glasians don’t have a wet navy, the regiment usually practices their craft against the endemic Orks and rebels of the border territories of the Naxos Sector and the Cloudburst Circuit.

Spindle System

As a Hive World, Thimble is bursting with people, and their many hundreds of Astra Militarum contributions are ubiquitous across the region. Thanks to their world’s great industrial manufacturing capability and excellent clothing supplies, their regiments can fight in most environments.

• 30th Argent Sword Heavy Infantry Regiment “Silver Soldiers”: Thimble produces more soldiers in total than any other system in Cloudburst, thanks to its enormous and rapidly growing population. Many of its regiments are well overstrength compared to their Septiim templates. The 30th Argent Swords are a typical Thimblan regiment in many ways, but their claim to fame is for standing alongside Lady High Inquisitrix Lerica herself in her suppression campaign against the Cold Trade smugglers caught transporting their Helix Elixir across the Drumnos Voids asteroid belts. Lerica located dozens of tiny asteroid bases across the region and commanded the 30th to suit up in vac suits to capture them, and they did so despite having never trained in the technique. Imperial Navy boarders might have been more effective, or even Sea Dragons, but they were not available in time to board before the enemy escaped, and Lerica wanted the smugglers peddling the alien immortality potions dead at once. The 30th served alongside the High Inquisitrix for ten years after that, flushing out smuggler dens and alien nests along the breadth of the Cloudburst southern border, and were allowed to retire to Thimble with extra pay for their hard work even before their mandatory tour was over in thanks for their service. The regiment reconstituted after that, and has become a mainstay of the Sector’s defenses against alien pirates and raiders, including those besieging the Rampart system at the end of the 42nd millennium.
• 38th Argent Sword Xenohunters Regiment “Beehives”: Naturally stemming from the large pool of recruits that Thimble can produce, specialized regiments such as the 38th usually raise to persecute the enemies of man in long-term planning, rather than raise to aid a single Crusade or settle a new world. The 38th specialize in fighting aliens underground or in urban ruins, where air cover is impossible or hard to use safely. As such, they stock their regiment with vehicles that have heavily armored undercarriages and all manner of auspexes, and employ mining and breaching equipment to chase down enemies that bore or dig to escape divine justice.
• 101st Argent Sword Artillery Regiment: Hive Worlds rarely produce much artillery, given the usually-hostile environments of the planets from which they hail. However, some of the barren polar regions of Thimble are suitable for artillery practice. The 101st Artillery is a typical Thimblan regiment, with a little over twenty thousand men divided into sixteen battalions, and each battalion having a few hundred artillery pieces, spotter devices, hauling vehicles, repair and maintenance trucks, field ambulances, and logistical tankers bearing ammo and fuel. The noteworthy aspect of the regiment is its deployment history, not its composition. Of all of the regiments in the Cloudburst Sector, this is the recurring regiment that has spent the most time in other Sectors, but has never been a part of a Crusade. It has a pair of Banesword super-heavy tanks from Syracuse to its name, and has engaged forces of Nurgle, including the Rot Soul Brigade itself, over twenty times. To protect it from the vengeful targets of its mighty guns, the regiment employs multiple companies devoted exclusively to the fielding of Hydra and Manticore vehicles in AA roles, usually accompanied by Tarantula and Sabre gun platforms with autocannons and heavy bolters for additional air defense. As the logistical costs of fielding twenty thousand men with heavy vehicles are enormous, the regiment has its own Navy transport, the Galaxy-class troop carrier Seismic Events. The Navy will sometimes sortie spotter planes from the carrier as well.
• 476th Argent Sword Stormtrooper Regiment: Cloudburst Stormtroopers are regarded as something of a joke by the Stormtroopers of the frequently-assaulted Naxos and pirate-infested Drumnos Sectors. This is because Chaotic invaders and nimble pirates are the exact enemies against which fielding Stormtroopers makes the most sense, and so they are in constant demand there, with some Stormtrooper regiments and Astra Militarum Scion units having nine-thousand-year pedigrees. The 476th Argent Stormtroopers, however, are no joke at all. The regiment divides into four small companies, each of which attaches itself to another Thimblan regiment of conventional troopers, and each of which is issued state-of-the-art targeting equipment by Cognomen’s mighty Castle of the Forges. This allows their Stormtroopers to land shots on targets through walls, in total darkness, even in hard vacuum, with the precision of a marksman and the range of a sniper. The 476th are more than merely well-equipped, however; they are also led by the best. The regiment’s commander is Lieutenant Colonel Yukimura, the Lord Gemweld himself, a scion of the Highborn of Thimble and a forty-year veteran of the worst wars in recent Sector history, and he has made sure to surround himself with the most talented and experienced Commissars, War Priests, and Sanctionites he can find. He distributes these specialists and advisors evenly over his four companies and leads one himself, to ensure that his men are always holding themselves to the highest standard. Not for nothing is his regiment the preferred Spindle force under arms for accompanying Sisters of Battle on missions in the Circuit.

Nauphry System

Nauphry IV is a world that has been preparing for a civil war that will never come for thousands of years, and has produced vast numbers of specialized Imperial Guard personnel.

• 2nd Nauphry Guards Heavy Tank Regiment “Heretic’s Bane”: As one of the first regiments raised from the Nauphry system after its integration into the Imperium, there were high hopes and high standards to meet for the people of Nauphry. The regiment carried the hopes and honors of two worlds on their shoulders. They failed, and were promptly slaughtered with ease by the greenskins they fought in the Old Plains Asteroid Butchery. The second regiment raised with this number fared far better, and has become a reliable presence on the outermost edges of the Cloudburst Sector and even in the Naxos Sector, as their combination of Macharius tanks and Gorgon transports push back the dark spaces of the map. The 2nd Heavy Tank Regiment have long shed the mantle of humiliation their predecessors suffered in their unpreparedness, and have confronted Chaotic and human raiders and cultists dozens of times since the Glasian Migrations began. This is the favored regiment of Inquisitor Rothschilde as he stands against the forces of Nurgle on the Sector’s borders, and he has even led them into direct battle or commanded them through his Throne Agents.
• 3rd Nauphry Ironclads Fleet “Wave Runners”: A truly rare sight in the Imperial military, the 3rd Ironclads are nothing less than a wet navy Guard regiment, complete with entire warships that are brought about with them in great Imperial Navy transports. The Ironclads are frequently the last thing their targets expect, given the Imperium’s massive dependence on infantry, tank, and fighter battles, and the sheer cost of transporting a warship inside a starship. Nonetheless, it is that very element of surprise that has so often contributed to the overwhelming force of the Fleet and their victories. The ships are appallingly costly to deploy given the amount of fuel needed to airlift a warship, but for shock value and range superiority, nothing beats a half-kilometer battleship bristling with over-the-horizon guided munitions when you’re expecting to fight conscripts and armored vehicles. The Ironclads do not field particularly often, of course, given that even the Imperium doesn’t have enough money to waste fielding them frivolously, and so they spend most of their time staging on Coriolis’ beautiful oceans and beaches, awaiting something to do. They travel in the modified Navy ship Glacier. It is a point of contention with the other ocean-specialized regiment of the Sector, the Sea Dragons, that the Ironclads’ regimental officers outrank the brigade and regiment officers of the Sea Dragons, but given that the Sea Dragons would be unable to fight at all without the much larger ships of the Ironclads to field them, there is nothing to be done about it.

Coriolis System

Coriolis is the core of the Cloudburst Sector’s force under arms, and raises as well as fields their own regiments.

• Coriolis Scharfschutze 9th Force Reconnaissance Regiment “Yellowjackets”: Although Coriolis is justly proud of their status as the hub of all ground military forces in the Sector, their own soldiers are nothing to sneeze at. The 9th FRR is no placeholder for offworld military forces: they are a vicious and surgical strike and fade force that rivals Septiim Special Operations regiments for speed and destructive capability. Fielding from light, fast vehicles that bristle with silenced stubbers and autoguns, the 9th FRR have traversed every conceivable battlefield condition, from the jagged rock spikes and endless moss fields of Oglith to the lightning-wracked forests of Oromet. Each of their vehicles is outfitted with the longest-ranged optical and communications packages that Cognomen can afford to give them, eclipsing even Cassie’s Rangers’ in quality, and their cadre of Hellgun-armed special forces are stealth-trained in the enormous bands of empty buildings that fill the Coriolis training grounds to not make a sound as they kill. The FRR is perfectly capable of functioning like a typical recon regiment, but they are flexible and skilled enough to serve as a special target elimination force or even battlefield controller force if needed. Like Septiim battlefield controllers, the 9th FRR can use combinations of entrenching tools, camo nets, tripwires, and buried explosives to utterly ruin a potential battlefield for enemy use, and do so with such speed that they can often enact this transformation overnight.
• 19th Coriolis Scharfschutze Mechanized Infantry Regiment: Part of the 2nd Coriolis Infantry Division, this regiment specializes in moving huge numbers of infantry under the cover of automatic weapons fire across exposed areas. Their Chimaeras and transport trucks use expensive Mechanicus camouflage netting and painted metal armor attachments to quickly shift their appearance to match that of the surrounding areas, and every last one of their units carries a smoke discharger. The 19th also use Imperial Navy Valkyries and Vendettas to insert small infantry forces into battlefields ahead of their main forces to spot for artillery and airstrike forces staging well away from the front, and make use of four by four light trucks to quickly relocate their men if stealth is no longer an option. The only vehicle larger than a Salamander of which the regiment makes frequent use on the ground is the Cognomen-pattern Field Ambulance, which is essentially the hull of a Valdor Tank Destroyer with all of its weapons replaced with extra storage, fuel tanks, and medical gear. These are rare, but their ability to traverse surfaces over forty degrees in inclination makes them essential for evacuating wounded men without spending the time to look for alternate routes. To provide cover fire for advancing or retreating troops, the 19th makes broad use of Sabre and Tarantula gun platforms, which are relatively cheap, require little or no crew, power themselves for a while, and can put one to five rapid-fire weapons on a target just ten seconds after powering on.

Delving System

Despite its toxicity, Delving has raised many regiments, as well as allied forces to supplement Adeptus Astartes units and their own Abhuman Auxilia.

• 20th Delving Field Guard Hostile Environment Motorized Regiment “Smogbreathers”: One upside of having possibly the worst water and atmospheric quality of any Cloudburst world is that Delving Guards are exceptionally good at fighting in areas of heavy pollution. The metal-contaminated air and liquids of Delving are horribly suited for life, and Delving itself has had literally thousands of years of nonstop terraforming work just to attain its current habitability. While this is terrible for agriculture and entertainment, it at least breeds tough and conscientious soldiers who never need to be told where to step. The 20th Guard-HE Motorized, however, are more than environmentally flexible. They hold the distinction of having worked with the broadest variety of military forces in Sector history. At one time or another, this regiment has worked with Abhuman Auxilia, an Eldar Pathfinder team, the Inquisition, the Imperial Navy, the Tempestus Scions, the Commissariat, mercenaries, the Adeptus Arbites, Rogue Traders, Titans, the Corpus Secutarii, the Skitarii Legions, the Legio Cybernetica, PDFs, SDFs, the Deathwatch, the Blue Daggers, the Celestial Guard, the Red Templars, the Astral Claws (before the Badab War), the Raven Guard, four other less noteworthy Astartes Chapters, and even, one shocking day, a Custodian, who had been told by the Doomscryers to ensure the regiment survived its battle. They have also worked with Battle Sisters, a Templar Militia, private security contractors, and four different Imperial intelligence agencies. On one odd occasion, they were even used as ablative armor for an Officio Assassinorum Eversor Assassin. This long history of cooperation has ensured that they are in high demand for Crusader forces, who have brought the regiment along in their vacuum-sealed transports and helmets with them into the darkness of space on many campaigns.
• 1st Delving Abhuman Auxilia Cohort “The Devil’s Satyrs”: This cohort of hircine beastmen has fought desperately to become more than the second-class citizens they were born to be, and they have done so for over nine hundred years. The Cohort has seen battle honors from Segmentum Command, a rare feat indeed for a non-baseline force of the Imperium. The Cohort earned their first laurels when they held the line without reinforcement during a small insurrection on Obelisk II, despite not having one moment of shipboard combat training, for fifty-seven hours, against over forty thousand rioting locals. As such, they are sometimes called upon to accompany Inquisitors and Rogue Traders who travel the Cloudburst Circuit, pacifying abhuman or caveman populations.

Dranok System

Although Combine uses most of its population to run its amazing global farms, its soldiers can rise to the occasion when called upon to do so. Most of its military forces raise to serve as PDF on freshly-conquered worlds, so few of its field-deployed regiments survive their first campaign. Others have served continually for Mankind, and have earned unique distinctions.

• 18th Combine Swords Fast Response Infantry Regiment “Greenblades”: One regiment has arisen above the rest to prove itself on Combine. The 18th regiment has a lengthy history of serving as the buccaneer-hunters of choice for the Thimble Subsector, which has long had issues with raider armies intercepting Coriolis goods or Combine foodstuffs. The 18th use Tauros and Venator vehicles for great maneuverability, similar to an airdrop regiment, but also use many variants of Salamander Scouts and Sentinels. This combination of speedy, small-silhouette vehicles makes them perfect for catching and surrounding raider forces, and they have managed to prevent hundreds of thousands of tons of Imperial goods from falling into the hands of criminals, as well as capturing hundreds of traitorous humans for servitorization on Cognomen. This regiment has the highest number of ordained Battle Chaplains of any regiment in the Sector as a percentage of its headcount, with Chaplains sometimes attached as low in the command chain as squad or platoon level. It has over two hundred Chaplains total, all of them graduates of the Ecclesiarchial self-defense training programs on Jodhclan’s Paradise.

Hapster System

Hapster’s ancient military has served in many of the most destructive campaigns to have occurred within northern Imperial space. The Bronze Legion is a common sight on many of the region’s battlefields. However, unusually, Hapster regiments never adopt a nickname, seeing it as unbecoming and braggardly.

• 11th Hapster Bronze Legionnaires: As might be expected for the oldest force under arms in the Sector, the Bronze Legions have seen endless battles. Many of the wars of the galaxy’s most destructive periods bypassed the extreme North Galactic Fringe, but not all. Just because the Bronze Legions did not take part in the Reign of Blood or the rampage of the Beast doesn’t mean they haven’t spilled blood on a thousand planets for the Emperor. The 11th is the oldest surviving Hapster military unit, and has taken part in conflicts against Khornate warbands, Ork hordes, cults, and even Abaddon himself – they were present for the Gothic War. The 11th is a general combined infantry and tank regiment, and has served with distinction in reprisal campaigns against the few Chaos warbands that actually try to hold territory, including the Sabbatine Worlds Crusade and others. The Legion has distinguished itself further as being the first Cloudburst military force to survive fighting Tyranids, thanks to having covered the rearguard of the evacuation and Exterminatus of Phelamon 6 on the Eastern border of the Halo Stars in the path of Hive Fleet Behemoth. The regiment is twelve thousand heads, and uses a variety of antique but well-maintained vehicles to augment their standard equipment.

Rampart System

Despite the idiocy of its leaders, the Oglith military is perfectly capable of taking the fight to the enemy, no matter how long they’ve been prevented from doing so.

• 5th Oglith Warrior Arctic Warfare Regiment “Abominators”: While the Imperium usually relies on Ice World regiments to fight in cold areas, some Imperial cities are built in polar areas of warmer worlds, and the Oglith 5th is a specialist unit that has just such an origin. The regiment is only two hundred years old, but it has already had four grueling, decade-long wars to its name, all of them against the Pestilent Children warband of Nurglites that dwell in the clouds of heavy asteroid matter between the Naxos and Drumnos Sectors. The Cloudburst Regiment is stationed there because the Pestilent Children often raid nearby worlds for food and ammo, lacking any Forge Ships or Hydroponic Barques to feed themselves. The Abominators have driven off their opponents every time, though not without brutal losses. The Munitorum swallows the cost of shipping in all those extra troops instead of relying on local recruitment because of the fear of possible Chaos corruption of the Agri-worlds’ populations.
• 1st Oglith Jaegers Elite Scion Regiment: Technically not a regiment at all, but a Tempestor unit of the Astra Militarum and a product of the elite Schola Progenum of Rampart, the 1st Oglith Scions are a rightfully feared force of destruction on the battlefield. They are this both for their exceptional field medical skills that keeps their troops mobile after injury and because they have more clocked live combat hours than any other Scion unit for a hundred light years. Thanks to the frequent activity of pirates and raiders on the outermost edges of the entire Imperium, the 1st Elite field against small-scale incursions constantly, using a mixture of Imperial Navy Fast Clippers and upgraded freighters to move their thousands of men from Oglith to wherever they may be needed. They have fought alongside Inquisitors of two Ordos in the last century alone, and fought shoulder to shoulder with the Blue Daggers against the Glasians on four occasions, each one ending in Imperial victory.

Oromet System

Oromet has few distinguished military units, but their focus on training to contain alien LZs is a necessary one, thanks to the profusion of Space Hulks in the region, any one of which could disgorge a horde of aliens or demons.

• 26th Oromet Shock Troopers Containment Regiment “Quarantine Force”: While most of Oromet’s contributions to the greater galaxy are not martial in nature, they do have an Imperial Guard, and that is the Oromet Shock Troopers. Of all of their regiments, it is the 26th that is the most experienced, and they are a specialized formation. They are a purely defensive regiment, and are equipped as such. Using combinations of high-explosive mortars, artillery batteries, missile launchers, and cluster munitions, the 26th do one thing: they contain alien landing sites. Coordinating with local aerospace forces and Imperial Navy ships, as well as local cruise missile launchers if those are present, the 26th Oromet use these long-range weapons combined with up-armored vehicles to bracket and pincer alien incursions. Ironically, this regiment long predates the Glasian Migrations. However, they have adapted well to the tasks of fighting off the aliens on their precious Passage, and they have found that the lack of Glasian heavy armor is quite a plus over their usual role of stopping Ork Lootas from robbing Imperial planets. When battle closes to nearer distances than their preferred horizon fighting, however, the 26th does not panic: they break out the Bane Wolves, the Devil Dogs, and their pair of Stormblade tanks, each covered in as much armor as the Adeptus Mechanicus was willing to add. These vehicles accompany whole formations of heavy infantry in fast trucks, carrying autostubbers and light rotary cannons with heavy blast shields, for laying down curtains of suppressing fire, the better to pin enemies for the regiment’s abundant snipers to pick off piecemeal.