Necromunda 1st "Death's Head" Regiment

The Necromunda 1^st ‘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 1^st ‘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  It was withdrawn towards the galactic south when numbers fell below 4000 and spent the next eight years fragmented as ship board detachments serving with the Segmentum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 1^st ‘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 1^st ‘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 1^st ‘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.