Penal Legionnaire

A Penal Legion, one of the Legions Penetante, as they are known in Imperial High Gothic, are drawn from Imperial citizens who have committed capital crimes, and had their sentences commuted to life service. There are a great many capital crimes in Imperial Law, so the supply of potential troops for the Penal Legions is never-ending. The Legions are home to killers and psychopaths, to fraudsters and cheats, and to the insane and the fanatic. Pick-pockets and petty thieves rub shoulders with brutal murderers, cackling madmen, and religious zealots.

Into the Penal Legions pours the Human refuse of the galaxy. New troops have their heads shaved and tattooed with the unit insignia, and explosive slave-collars are put around their necks. The collars are a disciplinary device rather than a means of turning the troops into Human bombs -- the blast is directed inwards, and will have little effect on anyone standing more than a metre away. The collars are controlled by the Adeptus Mechanicus personnel accompanying the force, and are detonated sparingly, when discipline needs to be enforced without destroying the troops' morale.

The Penal Legions provide a massive expendable source of manpower for the Imperial armies. Thrown into desperate battles to hold back surprise offensives, or cast against fortifications to test the enemy's strength, the Penal troops are disposable and they know it. Most die in their first battle, driven like cattle into the heart of the fighting. Yet the toughest, the most dangerous, the born killers, somehow survive. For every hundred pathetic miscreants that die whimpering under the enemy guns one mad killer emerges triumphant, screaming his insane anger. 

Penal Legions are a part of the regular fighting force of the Imperial Guard, and a commander who regards Penal Battalion troops merely as cannon-fodder and uses them wastefully is liable to end up in a Penal Legion battalion himself.

Archetype Abilities

Tier: 1

Species: Human or Pariah

Keywords: IMPERIUM, ASTRA MILITARUM, SCUM

XP Cost: 4

Attributes: N/A

Skills: Survival 1, Increase either Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill by 1

Survival of the Luckiest: Once per combat when you are hit by an attack, but before damage is determined, you can choose to roll a d6; 

• if the die rolls a 6, the attack misses you, and you regain 1 Wrath, 

• if the die rolls between 2 and 5, you suffer 1 Mortal Wound, instead of the weapon's normal damage,

• if the die rolls a 1, you suffer 1 +Rank Mortal Wounds instead of the weapon's normal damage, and lose 1 Wrath; if you have no Wrath remaining you take an additional Mortal Wound.

Wargear: Knife, Explosive Collar, a copy of the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, 3 Sandbags, 2 ration packs, and 1 Dose of Frenzon. Choose one of the following options; an Autogun or Lascarbine

Influence: -1