637.M33
(POV: Mattius Raspolvev)
Irascible Slopper of the Polluted Furnace...that's what my mean. I'm apart of the 21 Cadian Shock Trooper Regiment, or The 21's Aces. ...It surreal I'm in 40k or 30k to be more Exact. years ago I was just a Normal Geek but now ...I was reborn into this hell. I was born on Cadia in the Year 612.M33. I was an Orphan Raise to be a Soldier, From the Cadian Whiteshields Conscript, To Field Medic Guardsmans to an NCO Corporal, Now an NCO Sergeant. For 25 year of this life, I have experience nothing but hell on Earth or Holy Terra now. but I found out that some how, I can Abused the Warp Fuckery. Yes I can use the Warp to my Advantage. And Maybe, just Maybe get out of this hellish world.
The Imperial Guard (officially titled the Astra Militarum), also known as THE WALL OF GUNS, are the foot soldiers of the Imperium. They exist only to fight (and die) gloriously in the Emperor's name. Commissars (like Holt and Ciaphas Cain) ensure that they do so regularly, and any cowards or deserters tend to be summarily executed. During the Great Crusade, the Emperor only intended for them to be auxilia for his Space Marine (officially titled the Adeptus Astartes ), (and to man masses of tanks, artillery, and aircraft). After Horus Heresy and the breakup of the Legions (officially titled the Second Founding), trillions upon trillions of humans were drafted to make up for the difference. Although these are, for the most part, mere men and women, they have held the line in the Imperium's wars for 10,000 years.
The Guard is so numerous in size that even the Departmento Munitorum cannot place a figure on the number of Guardsmen under arms at any one time; the lists of new recruits and toll of casualties can run into the millions in a single day. Every single year, trillions of new recruits are tithed into the Guard, giving their commanders a functional infinite source of manpower, with it being said that, if the entirety of the Imperial Guard would form up in a column, it would reach from Terra to Armageddon.
It would be unfeasible trying to put any exact number on the strength of the Guard; however, it is believed that there must be many billions of Guardsmen, divided into millions of regiments. This absolute numeracy provides the Guard with its main power; their ability to deploy in numbers that, eventually, result in victory. Attacking in seemingly endless influxes across battle-zones, charging forth under the cover of massive barrages and delivering massed lasgun volleys, in the Guard the individual Human soldier may appear a lost thing, almost forgotten. Yet the actions of these anonymous soldiers daily decide the fate of worlds. In times of crisis the Imperial Guard will call upon their deadliest of soldiers, whether they are the Imperium's famed Storm Troopers or the regimental elite Kasrkin and Death Korps Grenadiers.
The Guard forms the very backbone of the Imperium; without it, Mankind would surely perish. Whilst regular Guardsmen are hardly the equals of Space Marines, fighting neither with the advantages of genetic enhancement or the most powerful personal weaponry, the Guard possesses the courage and the manpower to face and annihilate the enemies of the Emperor across the galaxy.
It is comprised of countless billions of men and women -- hundreds of thousands of different regiments, supported by a vast array of light and heavy armoured vehicles that provide the Imperial Guard's primary offensive punch. The Astra Militarum is usually the first Imperial force to respond to a threat if a world's Planetary Defence Force (PDF) fails to suppress it.
They also garrison major locations of strategic or cultural interest to the Imperium and are often found in defensive roles. Supported by legions of heavy armour and thundering artillery, the Imperial Guard fight a never-ending war for the survival of Mankind in an unrelentingly hostile universe.
There is no universal uniform or regimental command hierarchy in the Astra Militarum, although it is compulsory for every regiment to have at least one commissar to maintain the discipline and morale of the troops while watching for any signs of corruption or heretical taint in the ranks. However, it is worth noting that a number of worlds copy the uniform and equipment used by the regiments of the Cadian Shock Troops, who are viewed as being the most effective of the Astra Militarum's infantry units.
The primary combat tactic of the Astra Militarum is to overwhelm the enemy with their endless numbers, while at the same time hammer them into submission with devastating artillery and crush them with powerful main battle tanks. As a result, the Astra Militarum is often referred to as the "Hammer of the Emperor" -- the sheer amount of force that the Imperial Guard can bring to bear on the enemy is devastating, but is not as direct or as precise as their Space Marine allies in the Adeptus Astartes, who are described as the "Scalpel of the Emperor" and specialise in planetary assaults, special operations and decapitation strikes.
The Astra Militarum has numerous subdivisions, most notable of which are
Militarum Vendorum,
Militarum Ordinatus,
Militarum Auxilla,
Militarum Tempestus,
Militarum Regimentos,
Departmento Tacticae,
Militarum Strategos,
Astra Militarum Intelligence Service.
In turn, the Astra Militarum is overseen by the Departmento Munitorum's Officio Prefectus (also known as the Commissariat).
The Astra Militarum's fighting forces are organised into largely autonomous regiments. These regiments are raised by the worlds of the Imperium that have been classified as fit for such a purpose. These regiments can be sent anywhere in the galaxy, potentially serving in designated combat-zones for years at a time. It is not considered likely that any Guardsman will return to their world of origin; a fading memory of home is considered one of the average Guardsman's most constant companions.
Whilst individual regiments are commanded by their own officers, when regiments are combined together to form a battlegroup, overall command is often placed with a General Staff specifically created for the purpose by the Departmento Munitorum. Such officers and tacticians are highly trained in their esoteric art of commanding from the rear, and often stand in stark contrast to regimental commanders at the front, who more often than not lead by example.
The Astra Militarum is ultimately run by the Departmento Munitorum, who have three seats on the council of the High Lords of Terra. It provides all the supplies, equipment, training, and also some of the representatives sent to worlds with an Astra Militarum presence. While they do not directly control the prosecution of Imperial military strategy, they have devolved power to different sections of the Imperium, at the planetary level, subsector level and sector level. Each world compares the threat posed to them against a previously defined threat-level and if it is deemed dangerous enough, the threat is passed to the subsector level and troops from surrounding worlds may be mobilised. If the threat increases further a full scale request to the sector level can see hundreds of worlds mobilising and converging on one system or group of systems.
However this process is notoriously slow and inefficient due to the size and scope of the Imperium and its bureaucracy. A plea for aid may not be acted on for months, years, or even decades. As a result, cries for reinforcements can go unheeded for eons and fleets often arrive to find that the planet they were sent to aid has long since been destroyed.
The regiment is the primary unit of the Astra Militarum. Recruited from a single planet at a single raising, it is founded as a complete entity, complete with its own officer, supply, and support cadres. It should be noted however, that like most everything else in the Guard, the precise details of even these essential elements can vary widely from world to world. Whilst the majority of the regiment, even the non-combatant personnel, will come from their founding world, the Commissars assigned to it are always off-worlders. A regiment at full-strength can consist of tens of thousands of personnel.
After being raised, the regiment is shipped to its posting; they receive their training during the voyage. Their posting can be directly into the heart of a warzone, or it may be to garrison or outpost duty.
An Astra Militarum regiment is essentially a temporary unit, unlike the Space Marine chapters. After being formed they normally receive no further reinforcements. It is rarely practical for regiments to receive new recruits from their homeworlds to replace casualties, mainly due to the immense distances between a regiment's homeworld and its posting. The costs, risks, and time-lag difficulties involved in transporting relatively few soldiers to reinforce their brethren rarely justify themselves, especially when alternate and more efficient means of reinforcement tend to exist. If on garrison or outpost duty, an Astra Militarum regiment may be able to recruit from the local population. If on active combat duty, two or more under-strength regiments may be merged together in order to create a new regiment at full strength. This can result in regiments being bolstered by troopers from their own homeworld, such as in the case of the Valhallan 597th Ice Warriors, or can result in a true mongrel unit, with the Guardsmen included coming from several different worlds (such as the Tanith First and Only).
If any regiment survives for long enough, it can eventually receive reinforcement from children born to the Guardsmen who have been raised inside the regiment and can normally be expected to join it upon reaching the required age. These new recruits, officially designated as "probiters" but more commonly called Whiteshields, are formed into their own platoons where they receive their latter combat training by taking part in actual combat, until they are ready to join the regiment as Guardsmen proper.
One known notable exception to this reinforcement rule is that of Vostroyan Firstborn regiments; due to the peculiar background of the Vostroyans, their Guard regiments are reinforced in the field by new recruits sent out by their homeworld, despite the difficulties involved.
When reinforcement does not occur, for whatever reason, regiments may find themselves gradually depleted through casualties until they are destroyed in battle or mustered out for meritorious service. The former incidence is much more likely to occur than the latter.
Now, I sit here take a smoke of lho-stick (Cigarette) and a Drink of Recaf (Caffeine), in an Abandoned building. My platoon was fighting of Herentic Terrorist. Here and the Abandon part of the HiveCity of Bastadon Secondus [Ecclesiarchical Refuge of Seditious Zealots] of the Planet of Berillid XI.