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The Fallax Hammers: Astra Militarum Regiment
Invasions and battles, attack and defend, fire and death. The deadly pattern of war across countless systems.
But what happens afterwards?
When the enemy holds what you sought to prise from their evil grip.
When a world falls?
Destruction and despair. The populace realise that there is no salvation, just survival. Your only hope is what you can pull together, and living for the next minute, hour, day.
In 927.M41 Daemons overrun the world of Fallax. The Hammeront IV regiment defending the civilian population are believed cut down to the last man.
Fallax is lost.
Unaware of the loss of the regiment the Departmento Munitorum send the regiment to join the liberation campaign on Prassium.
Their failure to deploy means the dead regiment is charged with desertion and posthumously sentenced to death.
A grim footnote of an error in a galaxy wide bureaucracy fighting its own war of order against chaos.
But Fallax was a city planet - a city of hives. As chaos turned the streets and ruins into their playground of horror, humanity does what it always does. It clings to life in the rubble. Like a super strain of bacteria it refuses to be wiped out. Eventually the victorious chaos warriors and their brethren from the warp lose interest in the easy pickings of pain and torment. They retreat to their castles of despair built upon the desecrated shrines of the Emperor.
Now the rubble stirs... Fifty years after their defeat, humanity begins the fightback. From the sewers, the collapsed basements, the abandoned factories and wasteland humanity rises. Their armour is the rubble and cover of destruction wrought upon their planet. Discarded tanks, booby traps, ambushes and assaults with weapons cared for and passed down from the destroyed Hammeront forces suck in and wear down the chaos forces. Chaos find that humanity is like a disease itself. A mixture of hope and an indomitable desire to live is the vehicle of its contagion.
Nearly 100 years after it is wiped from the maps on Terra that track the vast Empire of Man, a blinking call whispers forth via the warp. On His golden throne a brief flicker of acknowledgement from the Emperor causes a ripple of instructions to cascade through the zombie like psychic servants that tend to his needs and deliver his instructions.
Less than a fraction of a millisecond passes but the call is recognised and orders to nearby ships to investigate are sent out. They find a destroyed world. But amidst the ruins, humanity has survived.
Eventually Fallax rebuilds. Its people turned back to the ‘salvation’ of serving the Emperor and his will. They are free. Free to serve.
Fallax now teems with life. With most of its original wealth destroyed it provides the commodity it has most of. People. The bodies that the Astra Militarum needs.
The Fallax regiments, known officially as the ‘Hammers’, a nod towards the regiment whose survivors trained the men and women of Fallax and coordinated the fight back that ultimately freed their world. Unofficially they are known as the ‘rubble roaches’ after the tough beetle like creatures that were, along with humanity, the only species that managed to survive the occupation. With a dark humour their motto is ‘third time lucky’, referencing their supposed death at the hands of chaos, followed by the posthumous execution ordered by their own side. This concept has been adapted to form their double cross insignia.
From the hellish existence of poverty in the Fallax hives, the prospect of steady work, pay and food brings recruits by the million. Each accepts 'the contract'. Your life is forfeit for 40 years of service. After 40 years 'the contract' guarantees return to Fallax, a pension and citizenship. The few that make it back, a minute fraction of a percent of those that sign up, are revered and respected like no others.
The Hammers accept men and women in equal numbers. All recruits are able to request a 'trial' at any time, normally done upon application. As a straightforward martial test it builds in a quality assurance of aptitude in line with other regiments. Failure to pass means putting into a 'reserve' unit. Poorly equipped and less effective than other Hammers units, they can still be useful on the battlefield. A mixed regiment sees its fair share of offspring on deployment, and these children of war normally move into the 'reserves' in their early teens.
Over time the male and female elements of the Hammers have developed their own martial cultures. Female Hammers are known for their fast hit and run tactics whilst the men favour a more traditional guard approach of concentrated fire power.
The Hammers specialise in urban warfare, particularly secondary actions where initial assaults have been thwarted, or the Imperium’s forces have fallen back and there is a need to dig in and hold the line. Their regimental colours are the shades of grey that they deploy to blend into the shadows of ruined cityscapes. They also seem to have a high tolerance of psyker’s and as a consequence these are deployed more often and in greater numbers than other regiments, a legacy some whisper, of a world that was exposed to chaos for generations…
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~9200 build and painted
1312 build and painted
1200 
