Guard Heavy Weapon Crewman
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Firstly, I checked about to see if there was an area for this kind of thing but I couldn't really find anywhere so I stick in in 40k General!
Basically I have been thinking of how to make something a little more unusual and one big thing for me when making my armies is the fluff...I mean I did a SM chapter a while ago and I built organisation charts, created chapter philosophies, named near enough every man, wrote stories to give them history and background....really went to town. So I'm doing it again but with Astra Militarum, although my idea is for a PDF, this gives me two big difference for the fluff....for a start, being a PDF means that its under the direct control of the planetary governor (or whatever name I give that rank) and not the Imperium, secondly, when it comes to giving the army some life...things like common loadouts, squad setups etc then it can be because that's what works for them, that's what makes sense because they are always on the same planet fighting the same enemy.
Another thing which I am toying with, although I am not sure whether its just cheesy or downright ridiculous is that I wanted to be able to explain the alliances on the tabletop. You know, WHY is there an inquisitor and retinue fighting alongside them, WHY do I have a mass of cheap men and then two sqauds of SM in the middle of it all? I also want to be able to include WHY I might have a titan, seeing as I bought a Warhound the other day as a little gift to myself to paint up!
So below I have a few paragraphs that I have knocked together into as coherent a descriptive as I can from a pile of ideas, brainstorms and stuff...There's a couple of notes just at the end which I have yet to tie in to the descriptive
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The planet Keenesburg is the 4th planet within the Skregar system, Orpheus Sector, Segmentum Tempus. Originally it was founded 3000 terran standard years ago as a mining colony, over time it has grown into a fully-fledged hive world with a population of around 4,32,000,000 (4.32 billion) Imperial citizens. Its history of slavery still shows through today as Keenesburg firmly upholds its traditions of a caste-based society, the rich merchants and factorum owners live in great hab domes which are built to look and feel like the open world but in reality that is just a facsimile - they are in fact giant man-made domes which sit upon the roofs of the habs below and contain a completely artificial ecosystem. These lower habs are inhabited by what you could call the middle classes; they are the administrators, the floor managers and other trained, relatively educated men and women. So it goes on that the poorer and less important members of Keensburgan society live lower and lower down, further away from the light and fresh air until we reach the mines themselves, home to well over half the population of the planet. To say that they are, unlike their ancestors, free of shackles of slavery is true to an extent but many of them have only two options in life; work the mines for a pittance or join the PDF and have the chance to make something of yourself.
To some this would seem an obvious choice, spend your life working away in the mines to make others rich and probably die young and painfully in anything from an industrial accident to a cave-in or alternatively join the local planetary defence force, get 3 square meals a day, a relatively comfortable place to sleep, decent clothing and equipment and be given the basics of an education so that if you survive your tour of duty you could return to your old life, get that promotion at work and perhaps see some daylight. There is one slight issue, for three millennia the Imperium has been scraping away at Keensburg's insides, tearing the guts of the planet apart to extract minerals and ores and it was only recently, as mining operations moved to a new and very large mineral stream discovered in the Knappa Ice fields of the north polar region, discovered the planet had been hiding a terrible secret. Keenesburg appears to be a Necrontyr Tomb World. Adeptus Mechanicus explorator teams have spent the last 125 years investigating this claim as there is no doubt that there are Necrons laying in stasis on this world, but whether there are merely a few hundred thousand or millions is unknown. All that is known is that the constant mining and exploring of the world's mantle is slowly exposing more and more of the xenos kind. So far there have only been relatively minor excursions, no doubt the foul alien technology has awoken some of the lower forms of Necron to deal with the “intruders”, however, previous experience with tomb worlds has shown that as the battles escalate, so does the number of Necrons awoken. Even though life on Keenesburg goes on as normal, the PDF are desperately under-manned as they spend the whole time cleansing tunnel after tunnel, mile after mile. Each time the miners manage blast a whole into a new section of the Necrontyr chambers, thousands of Necrons pour out to defend their sleeping brethren. It’s just a matter of time before the numbers tip the balance in favour of the xenos, that or something ultimately more powerful finally awakes.
This discovery has had some major and lasting effects on Keenesburg and its inhabitants. In only just over a century it has become of great interest to the Adeptus Mechanicus, looking for STCs and exploring the Necron tombs, the Inquisitorial Ordo Xenos division, secretly keeping tabs on any information or artefacts about the long-dead civilisation and rogue traders looking for alien items to sell on the black-market for a good profit. The most recent, and mystifying visitor to the planet is of a Titan Legion calling itself the War Griffons, they number only a few thousand but there is no mistaking the massive war machines which proudly display the colours and markings of the Legio Gryphonnicus. Long-thought to be either dead or dispersed after the damage caused by Hive Fleet Leviathan, it was a shock when their gigantic titan transport ship appeared in orbit surrounded by hundreds of support craft, requesting sanctuary and offering assistance.
This is a time of grim darkness for the planet of Keenesburg, but by the Emperor's Light and assistance from the Ordo, the Mechanicus and the Titan Legion the PDF has held its ground and will continue to do so.
Special Notes:
Due to the caste nature of the planet, the rich are far more likely to hold positions of rank and power within the PDF. This also means that they can afford the best equipment and it’s not unusual to see customised weapons and armour. In contrast, the basic squads of men are full of the less privileged poor people’s from the mines where they can’t afford anything and do not even sometimes have a full set of basic equipment - it’s not unusual for them to supplement the arms and armour from items found or used in the mines.
Favoured Weapons are explosives, flamers and melta weapons. It is what the men are used to thanks to years of mining and close-quarters fighting within the tunnels.
Due to the constant and obvious threat of the Xenos and the belief that it is the benediction of the Emperor that has held them at bay so long, Keenesburg is an incredibly loyal and fanatic place. Plus many believe that the timely resurgence of the long-lost Legio Gryphonnicus, is another sign of His help.
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