The Necromunda 1st ‘Death’s
Head’ Regiment was numbered as the first regiment of six raised as part of
Necromunda’s tithe two hundred years ago.
Traditionally, Necomunda Regiments are given titles that link to their
founding, either by location or by affiliation (ie Hive or Gang). The Necromunda 1st ‘Death’s Head’
Regiment were recruited largely from populations with links to Orlock gangs and
therefore the adoption of skull badge, whilst in keeping with the idiom of the
Imperial Guard, also served to give the newly ‘volunteered’ Guardsmen a sense
of collective identity.
Originally with a strength of almost 7000
officers and men, the foot regiment was dispatched to a series of minor wars
and insurrections in its first ten years, which wore its numbers down to
roughly 6000. Police action on Agripinna
was followed by garrison duty on a number of worlds. After thirty years of active duty the
Regiment was settled on Luxor and with a cadre of veterans, the second
generation entered imperial service. On
Luxor, the settled Imperial Guard communities are/were separate from the native
population, this was encouraged and managed by the Departmento Munitorum to
foster a martial society that would continue for another two generations at
least, that would feed the Imperial Guard with its require recruiting numbers.
The second generation fought at a number of
insurrections in the Cadian Gate region, occasionally facing veterans of long war. It was withdrawn towards the galactic south
when numbers fell below 4000 and spent the next eight years fragmented as ship
board detachments serving with the Segmentum Occularis Fleet on anti piracy and
ship security duties. During an action
to clear an ork pirate nest from the asteroid belt in the Belatis system,
successive parts of the regiment were reunited as they were throw piecemeal at
the green horde. At the end of this
campaign, the regiment was down to three officers and four hundred and sixty
one men. It was returned to Luxor,
de-mobbed and reformed in a new guise.
Once again, the Necromunda 1st ‘Death’s Head’ Regiment was formed with a cadre of veterans and a new
intake of Luxor born Necrodumans. This
time, for three generations of continuous service, they were given the reward
of being re-roled as a mechanised unit; whereupon they were immediately
dispatched back to the Cadian Gate region to counter increases in raids from
the Eye of Terror.
After ten years on campaign, the remains of
the regiment was settled on Quadosh IV, were it wsa effectively ‘lost’ by the
Departmento Munitorium for thirty two years.
However, owing to its legacy of professional soldiering and background
of coming from what had become a martial society, the fourth generation were
trained and ready when the call came.
Back to full establishment for the first time in over a hundred years,
the regiment was attached to the Cadian forces sent to Medusa V. The regiment was rouled out of Medusa V and
remained a part of the Cadian Gate protection forces for another twenty years
before being returned to Agripinna and broken up as cadres for four new
regiments from Necromunda, one of which retained the unit title ‘Necromunda 1st
‘Death’s Head’ Regiment’.
This new regiment was earmarked for the
Damocles Crusade but in the event was re-deployed with the Segmentum Occularis,
fighting a combined arms war wherever it was sent. For the next sixty years the regiment was
reinforced by intakes from Luxor born Necromundans and Cadians. These were always casualty replacements,
however, not the mass-rebuilding of previous generations. Over this time, numbers had dropped below
three thousand all ranks. However, their
reputation as an experienced hard fighting unit meant another change of role.
Most recently, the Necromunda 1st
‘Death’s Head’ Regiment, deployed as a Drop Troop regiment was involved in
actions within the Cadia system itself.
Following the retraining, they were used as 17 Korps mobile reserve on
Kimver, covering the armoured advances flanks.
When the final assault on the recidivists stronghold faltered, they were
committed to tip the balance, which they duly did.
The six officers and one hundred and forty
men who survive remain as a permanent attachment to 17 Korps HQ as its security
detachment.
