Well you didn’t say no, so I'm going to tell you about the Tarkan 52nd. And update them a bit while I'm at it.
Name: 52nd Tarkan Imperial Guard Fireborn Regement
Fluff:
The planet of Tarkan sat unassumingly on the outer fringes of imperial space for thousands of years after the Horus Heresy. So far away, they received little attention from the inquisition and Exelarcy, resulting in a culture unique to imperial worlds. On Tarkan the virtues of universal acceptance within the most holy human race were taken as a given fact of life, even when a man decided that he no longer followed the emperor, he was not persecuted as he would have been on other worlds, small chaos cults flourished, although unpopular, and some even gained some measure of political prestige. With such an accepting society, and little outside influence, little to no army was necessary. The largest armed force on the planet was the city guard of the capitol, numbering less than one thousand men.
Tarkan boasted no imperial garrisons, no temples, and no ancient artifacts of the age of technology, and as such was largely ignored by every galactic power for almost eight thousand years. It did however bost one rescores that would be its undoing, something that was taken as an industrial blessing, and provided food for tarkans 10,000,000 strong population. Forests. Forests covered tarken more thickly than Ice covers Valhalla. not the dark and dangerous forests of Catachan, but great peaceful pine forests, whole continental fruit orchards, and mighty ancient trees that stretched for miles in diameter.
This wonderful natural bounty however lead to Tarkans undoing. For a world with so much life on it will inevitably attract one thing, and one thing only. Tyranids. When a small splinter fleet spun by chance near the Tarkans, it was like a moth to a flame. Within a day the Tyrinids had consumed more bio-matter than they knew what to do with. Which is of course just a saying, they knew full well what to do with it. Tyranids in the billions sprung from the forests, faster than they could be counted. The tarkan had no way to defend themselves, and 3/4ths of the population was decimated within weeks. Transitions were sent to the imperium, and imperial guard regiments, and space marines were dispatched, but could not arrive for weeks. The tarkan turned to anything they could find, industrial flamers used to clear forests for construction became one of the only effective weapons available. They were produced by every factory the Tarkan had, and promethium wells were stretched to their limits. New sources had to be found. And it was here that Tarkan realized its second great advantage. Promethium.
As more wells were searched for, they were found, everywhere the Tarkan turned more wells were found. It became apparent that promethium was as abundant beneath the surface of their planet as trees were above it. By now only about 1,500,000 Tarkan still lived, a tiny portion of the orijgonal population. The first imperial help was not expected for at least two more weeks. Only two major resistances remained, the capital, and the largest promethium well. Both were losing ground fast, and all hope seemed lost. It was then that the greatest event in the Tarkan's history took place. An event that would come to be known as the coming of the angels of death.
12 days and 7 hours before the first imperial aid was supposed to arrive, dark green drop pods rained from the sky. The Dark angels had made preparations on their own, and fully 700 of them had landed on the planet. Raging forth with brutal retribution upon the Xenos, the Dark angels fought them back with flamers fueled by Tarkan promethium. The super human warriors fought the tyranids back, and constructed fortifications that could be easily defended against the hives onslaught. After establishing a perimeter that the Tarkans could defend indefinitely against any opposition, the dark angels inexplicably disappeared overnight. The Tarkan held out for the remaining days until the rest of the imperial aid could arrive, and then it did. And it was quite surprised to find them still alive.
When the Tarkan asked about the dark angels, and why they had left, the imperials knew nothing, the dark angels had all been reported active on other sectors of the imperium, and could not have been on Tarkan.
The Tarkan kept quite from then on, not wanting to anger their new governing body. The imperial fleet proceeded to destroy the majority of the infestation from orbit, allowing the massed ranks of numerous regiments and several marine chapters, as well as the personal army of the inquisitor in charge of the operation, which consisted mostly of adepta sororitas to finish off what was left. During this fighting, none fought braver than the Vostryon regiments, who connected closely to the tarkan on a cultural level. To this day the planets maintain a close relationship, even lending troops to each other to fill shortcomings in regiments.
After the threat had passed, an adepta sorroritas convent was established to bring the imperial doctrine to the world. Within 7 years not one person on Tarkan had any anti-imperial inclinations- the chaos followers and dissidents were completely expunged. After the populace had been cleansed, the world was rebuilt, and an imperial guard and promethium tithe was established. Limited terraforming was authorized by the mechanicum to accelerate the return of Tarkans forests, but even to this day they do not reach their former glory, and whole regions of Tarkan are bare.
As the two millennia since wore on, the planet developed its imperial guardsmen into a feared fighting force, repelling over the years many threats- including eldar and on many occasion orks. The Tarkan developed their own organization for their men, regiments never numbered more than 1000, but were grouped together into divisions. Each division consisted of 10 regiments, and one regiment is named the "command regiment" whos commander has authority over the colonels of the other regiments. Each regiment was divided into 10 companies, lettered A through J. A company is almost always lead personally by the colonel of the regiment.
On one occasion, only a few decades ago chaos space marines attacked Tarkan only to be repelled. It was on this occasion that the 52nd fireborn first distinguished itself.
Approximately 32 years ago, a war band struck out from the eye of terror after angering the black legion and having its forces decimated. They drifted in warp space for many months, until they were forced to exit due to a warp storm that they could not weather. They exited to find themselves in orbit around Tarkan. Having fought against guardsmen raised on tarkan on one occasion, they knew it was a world rich in promethium, and they thought to plunder some to use in raiding other worlds, also they sought to collect sacrifices for the dark gods, and Tarkan over the past two thousand years had regrown to its former immense population.
The traitors set down on top of the largest promethium well in the main continent of Tarkan. The well was well defended, but the chaos space marines caught the garrison by surprise, and teleported in two terminator squads that tore a swath of slaughter thru the facility. Within hours the well had fallen and the workers were being forced to collect the deadly chemical for the forces of the dark gods.
One regiment was relatively close by when this happened, and rushed to help. The Tarkan 52nd was lead at the time by Col. Alexander, who was a veteran of many long campaigns in the Tarkan 79th offworld, and because of his distinguished career, had been allowed to "retire" to a relatively easy life commanding the 52nd on garrison duty on the home world. The regiment outnumbered the chaos space marines 10 to one but they took heavy losses and numbered only 200 by the time reinforcements arrived. two other regiments from the same division, the 57th and 51st, came to the aid of the 52nd. By now the 52nd had reduced the chaos space marines to half their original number, but the terminators, and their lord, Peitriov, held the gates from any attempted assault. Peitriov had erected a powerful warp shield that was protecting them from artillery strikes.
Colonel Alexander told the reinforcements to stay in reserve, and that he would break the gates of the well compound personally. He took up the regiment’s most legendary weapon, the fist of the lady, a masterfully crafted power its that had been gifted to Alexander by the order of the martyred lady during his time on Armageddon. A legend surrounded it that it could fell any enemy no matter how powerful in a single blow. He lead his personal command squad, along with his 6 remaining infantry platoons headfirst at the gate, his squad arrived first, but the chaos terminators easily cut down the four men in his immediate squad with reaper auto cannons. He charged in an attempt to fell the chaos lord with one blow. As the other squads arrived seconds after he engaged, the power fists of the two men met, and lightning arced in every direction. Both fists were shattered by the impact destroying both weapons. Alexander brought his personal power weapon up with his other hand, only to have it torn in half by the sorcerers other fist. The chaos lord then, in front of the 300 survivors of the regiment plunged the sharpened forefinger of his power fist thru the colonels chest. There was complete silence on the field of battle, until with a mighty shout a lowly sergeant charged out from the ranks alone, shouting "For Tarkan!" [Citation: “For Tarkan” was the battle cry entered into the official record, but eye witness accounts give evidence that the actual battle cry was “Go the Fuck away you scum!”] picked up the shattered remains of the colonels power sword, and cleaved tt in one fluid motion thru the skull of the chaos lord, killing him before he knew what had happened.
The terminators were stunned, and they quickly fell into disarray as they each tried to give orders to the others. They were quickly cut down by the lascannons of the infantry platoons. Not however, before killing another hundred guardsmen.
With the gates wide open, the other regiments stormed the compound, The chaos space marines didn’t expect them, and were brought down by the massed rapid fire of literally thousands of lasguns. The workers were set free, and the dead were lain to rest.
The regiment were elevated to the status of heroes. They had broken an unbreakable enemy and reclaimed a critical installation, and suffered heavy losses in the name of the home world. The regiment was given the sobriquet of "the fireborn" a name reserved for those who defended the promethium of Tarkan with unmatched vigor.
After that battle, a new colonel needed to be selected for the regiment. In the minds of the surviving men, there was no question on who it should be. The audacious sergeant who had slain the deadly sorcerer. And so was born Colonel O'Malley
The Fist of the lady had been destroyed in that battle, as had been the power sword used by Col. Alexander. The fist was buried with the colonel as was customary with weapons granted by military orders higher than the imperial guard. The power weapon was re-forged by the master tech priests of Tarkan, the sword was emblazoned with the crest of the 52nd regiment in honor of the blades now prestigious past. O'malley took his second weapon of choice from that battle as well. When he picked thru the remains of the chaos space marines, he found an article that interested him. A bolter in the hands of a slain chaos space marine champion. It was obviously plundered, as it bore no marks of chaos, it bore the crest of the dark angels chapter. O'Malley took it, claiming to a protesting priest that it obviously held no taint as it bore no heretical liveries.
With the Regiment decimated to only a tenth of its former strength, and its colonel dead, they received a wave of new recruits from the regional capitol. These inexperienced men were little better than well organized conscripts. To fill the shortcomings of the regiments new members, one hundred vostryan elites were borrowed to mix together with the Tarkan recruits and share their battle experience. This along with the now hardened soldiers from the origonal 52nd regiment allowed from a stable mix of new recruits and experienced veterans. Over the past 32 years the regiment’s men have gained valuable fighting experience, and the regiment had distinguished itself enough to be recognized as command regiment of the 5th division, regiments 50-59.
The regiment's companies currently hold to the following formations:
A company:
4 longtime squads, and 4 newly recruited squads, and one Vastryan armored fist squad (as well as O'malleys command squad, and the primary platoon command squad)
They often go to battle accompanied by B company
B company:
2 Leman russ battle tanks, one basalisk artillery unit, 3 hellhound support tanks, 5 armored fist squads 12 sentinels, and 3 suport units who deploy into battle via valkarie drop ship. They are lead, unorthadoxicaly, by Tech priest Omar.
C company:
100 storm troopers trained in the small Schola Progenium in the regional capitol. They are lead by Commisar Giddion. More recently, 15 of them were killed by orks, despite a favorable ambush, and were replaced with vostran storm troopers until more recruits from the regional capitol were trained.
D company:
2 standard infantry platoons, one of which is wholly vostryan.
E company:
one standard infantry platoon, and one heavy weapon support platoon
F company:
one hundred Roughf riders, mounted on Tarkan pattern war bikes
G company:
3 leman Russ battle tanks, 3 hellhound support tanks, 2 35 man infantry platoons, one only recently formed from new recruits and vostryan allies, after the company suffered a ambush by ork komandos
H company:
6 bombard siege tanks, 3 basilisk artillery units, a standard infantry platoon, and a heavy weapon platoon.
I company:
two standard infantry platoons
J company:
two standard infantry platoons, two squads of one of which are vostran.
Most recently, the tarkan 52nd has been fighting ork mercenaries hired by the Tau to weekend Tarkan for their coming invasion of enlightenment. The fighting has been fierce, and standard lascannons have been replaced with heavy bolters for better suppression of large numbers of green skins.
Named characters:
Col. O'malley- The colonel of the regiment, wields the power sword he used to kill the chaos lord Peitriov. For recent actions against the orks on tarkan he has been awarded the honorifica imperialis. He often places himself on the front line with his most trusted men. He prefers to face his foe head on.
Medic O'Conol- A-companies head medic, a personal friend of O'Malley's. He is counted as a friend by most of the men in A company, and has saved most of their lives on multiple occasions.
Commissar Giddion- A Commissar trained on Krieg. He is a fiercely by the book commander, and has grated with O'Malley on many occasions. O'Malley often chooses to place himself and A company on the front line when protocol dictate that they do otherwise.
Tech priest Omar - A tech priest who was sent to Tarkan directly from mars. He is an overzealous combat repairman, often modifying vehicles from their original design. He never leaves the creed of the mechanicum, but he pushes it to its limits. This is probably why mars sent him away.
LT. Avery: A lieutenant in A company who expresses a vehement dislike for O'malley, who he sees as an overconfident fool. Ironical, he is seen by many as being the same kind of person, and has even taken an ork slugga as his weapon of choice, witch is reminiscent of Col. O'malley.
Sgt. Jacob- The vostran leader of the armored fist squad in A company. He has a drinking problem to which he admits freely, but keeps in control most of the time. He is only very rarely seen drunk on the field of battle, and when he is not, he is a fine leader.
*WHEW!* I went on for a while there. I changed a few things from the last time I wrote this, but I like this better, so this is the official one.
I have some pictures lying around, but I need to find them, I’ll post them tomorrow. Don’t get your hopes up though, I’ve only got A company and a bit of B company done (and not everything is painted)
"A true king is never alone, his will is equal to the will of all of his followers."
-Alexander the Great, kind of