Reaper Bones Cultists

87th Motor Rifle Regiment.

Uizawa is populated world within the hegemony of Hydrapour; there are four regions. Sukhumvit, around one of the magnetic poles, is the most populous, with over a dozen hive cities. 

 

Sleve McDiachal was an officer in the PDF; he had progressed from the ranks through platoon command and as an experienced company commander was looking forward to battalion command. 

 

The region of Slemdome was prosperous and reasonably happy; yes most of the population lived in one of the eight Hive cities, but that was largely due to the deathworld like jungles covering Slemdome, nothing like the lethality of Catachan, but still not safe for people or undefended argiculture.

The Motor Rifle regiment to which McDiachal belonged duties included regular sweeps of the fenced and fortified farm areas, warding off and where necessary, hunting down the Giant Wallarb, who would leap the fence and browse on the crops. And occasionally browse on the farmers as well. And dealing with packs of Krung who might find a breach and break in and ravage any unfortunate livestock or agri workers they find. 

 

The inquisition uncovered evidence of heresy; a network of sedition in most of the hives in Sukhumvit. There was suspicion of heresy spreading out to hives in other regions and the man in charge, a Purtian called Hallas Blingnor, having mobilised all of the local law enforcement, called in the Adeptus Sororitas and then the Black Templars as the requirement to purge grew.

"Krung Hunter" Company of 87^th Motor Rifle Regiment was at the furthest extent of their patrol when the Brothers of the Lostwithial came to purge their home hive. Castellian Brodeep was running out of time and patience and the Soroitas had finished their pogrom and were pulling out. He felt disinclined to conduct any screening or interrogation; so the Black Templars carried out a complete purge. 

 

Sleve McDiachal and his men have sworn revenge on the Brothers of the Lostwithial and if they can, Inquisitor Blingnor. Having looked at the available options, they collectively made the deliberate choice to embrace the ruinous powers to improve their chances. 

They too, have now also found their way to Devos IV.

 

Regimental Command cell 540th (Valhalla) Kado Regiment.

These were assembled and painted for me by Col Scipio, so hopefully this post will pass for an expression of my sincere thanks for his hard work and dedication.  

Those of you who have enjoyed Ciphas Kane and his exploits will recognise the figures here, characterfully reproduced by Artel W Miniatures.   

But on to this iteration, the command element of 540^th (Valhalla) Kado Infantry Regiment is headed up by 1* Comrade General Komenechi. He is seen here with his Tacticae and 2ic at the regimental command bird table.  I'll just leave you with a few picts.

Komenechi is a scion of a long line of distinguished Imperial Guard and PDF officers.  Their children all serve, some are more successful than others, the General is the most successful in nine generations.  Of course, measuring success by Imperial Service and promotion, it does mean that those most successful tend to leave Valhalla forever, but this heritage keeps those who come after striving to continue in the same spirit.

His 2iC is Comrade Polkovnik Hayha.  She is an orphan from the Scolae Progenia, never top of her class, never bottom.  Renowned as a solid performer, which always goes down well in Valhallan circles.  Her military career has been one of survival; either managing to be posted away from units before they are overrun or in the best tactical position before a battle.  She is not shy of a fight, but has been popular with those who serve under her as a 'lucky' officer.

She is not loud or overly given to demonstrations of emotion. She does have vast reserves of intellectual and emotional stamina, all of which help her execute her duties.  She is aware that in the four years she's been the General's 2iC, he has had two opportunities to put her forward for advancement outside of the regiment, which she has earned and does deserve.  But acknowledges that his reasons for doing so are valid.

Comrade Polkovnik Hayha used to paint water colours as a younger woman.  Her current appointment leaves no time for personal indulgences, however fencing now serves a dual purpose as her hobby, as well as being a military drill.

Provost Colonel Maconie of the Devos IV 42Bn Heldegad (Vnutrennye Voiska).  Technically an independant unit alongside the 540th, they are, de facto, just another of it's battalions.  He has a Lt Col who commands the Battalion in the field and so finds himself as some time helper, some time observer at 540th's Regimental headquarters.

The Comrade General has had him become familiar with all of the command echelons of each of the Regiment's battalions, with the obvious capability of taking over any of them in the event that the existing commander is rendered hors de combat. 

And he has been variously shadowing the Comrade General himself as well as the 2iC and the Tacticae; he was a Policeman, after all, not a soldier and folding the 42nd VV into the Regiment has been a steeper learning curve for the Devosites than it has for the Valhallans.

1*Comrade General Komenechi finds himself by default the Divisional Commander of 903 Div, being the only full formed, fully staffed unit when it arrived on Devos IV, the other component units of 903 Div added together only add up to 20% of its strength.

The table does do holographic projections, but all of the projector bulbs for this type of interactive networked display equipment were withdrawn from front line units as 72Army Group headquarters did not have enough spares.

Throughout the Devos IV campaign so far, the Valhallans have done everything required of them.  Not with flair or style, but with dogged determination and a workman like attitude of getting on with it. 

The Regimental Tacticae is currently Comrade Starshly Major Gorodnainsky began her career in the cavalry and was commissioned as a platoon commander in the Valhallan 6th Armoured Regiment in the defence of Smolensk.  She later commanded a company in the Valhallan 129th Guards Armoured Regiment, leading counter attacks at Yelerts.

The General pulled shenanigans to get her as a part of his command team; trading the promotion place for his Polkovnik in order to have her posted to the 540th.  She wears the rank slides of a Podpolkovnik, which is a measure of the value he puts on her presence and abilities. 

The General describes what he wants to happen.  He and the other major unit commanders in XVII Korps have a daily vox call with 2*General Tolstoy, the Korps Commander at noon local time. 

Taking a cue from General Welbhann, one of his fellow Divisional Commanders, he has his command team listen in on the call, able to feed him written notes during the call and of course, being up to speed themselves should they find themselves in command.

Hades 'salt drill

The business end of a modern drilling unit.  This DKK one has a multimelta on a spar in the gap.  IRL ones do not have this.  Yet. 

In our mundane world, what tends to happen with things like this at the end of the project is that despite the expense of building and running one of these, is that they are driven into a right angle from the thing they have tunnelled and then just walled in; the expense of getting them out of the tunnels, dismantling, transporting and reusing them is greater than the cost of buying a new one each time.  There are loads of tunnelling machines buried all over the world.

This one is intended to be reused many times by the DKK Engineers.  In my experience, they never survive their deep strike, let alone any round of combat.  Sort of art reflecting life, then.