House Military " House Military " was the term for the collective armed forces of the Great House s during the War . Since all Houses were supposedly equally dedicated to the War effort , the House Military was not a cohesive or official unit . It was instead a loose alliance of Houses , notably Arpexia , Xianthellipse , and Mirraflex , and their military presence in the Spiral Politic outside the Homeworld . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) History . Pre - War . Before the War , the Great Houses ' only military force was their ceremonial guard . This ceremonial guard was monstrously ineffective , proving itself completely useless in repelling the ( ultimately doomed ) invasion attempts of aliens ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) like the Sontaran s ( TV : " The Invasion of Time " ) and Dalek s . ( AUDIO : " The Apocalypse Element " ) The one exception to this was the House Military formed under the Imperator Presidency . It was formed from lesser species recruits as well as the Imperator ' s followers , and created havoc across the Spiral Politic until the Imperator ' s execution . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " , " The Return of the King " ) Waves . Instead of dividing their military into legions , or by purpose , the Great Houses primarily organised the House Military into a sequence of generations called Waves . The War took the form of a cycle between the instantaneous deployment of an entire Wave , and a long lull of entrenchment as the Houses concentrated their effort on the design and gathering of biodata for the next . Each Wave tended to curb its predecessor ' s excesses , while emphasising the traits that had lead to success . Instead of numbering campaigns in order , the Houses numbered them based on Wave : the Third Retro - War was named for the Wave involved , not for the number of Retro - Wars preceding it . The First Wave of the House Military was comprised of normal House members , many originally part of the ceremonial guard . They were the only Wave not designed specifically for War , although some were fitted with the few militarily - applicable augmentations available at the time . The First Wave only met with any success because the enemy ' s early forces were equally unready . Few to no First Wave soldiers who fought in the War ' s first battle , on Dronid , survived . The Second Wave was the first created specifically for war , by a Homeworld with only received knowledge of what war entailed . It was extreme by any measure , a crusade which committed frequent acts of genocide , wiping out any species or culture which opposed or even rivalled the Homeworld . Its comprehensive destruction of Faction Paradox sites like Ordifica crippled the Faction for years and ruined the lines of communication between the Faction and the Remote , leaving the Remote unbound by the Protocols of Linearity . Third Wave troops were created in hominid forms , but they became non - hominid with each life to a far greater extent than the Second Wave . House Xianthellipse took initiative with the Fourth Wave , introducing foreign biodata ( including that of human ity ) to the breeding - engines ( much to House Mirraflex ' s chagrin ) . Compared to the Homeworld ' s traditional values , the Fourth Wave was chaotic — its soldiers were undisciplined ( best suited to guerrilla warfare ) , tended to prod the boundaries of the Houses ' Protocols , and even had sexual tendencies . Robert Scarrat was the most high - profile ( and arguably most successful ) of the Fourth Wave . The Fifth Wave was stable and standardised . The Houses incorporated the military cell - codes of the Second and Third Waves and the " mongrel " biodata techniques of the Fourth Wave , but were more careful to keep those Waves ' more extreme tendencies under control . It was the first Wave to be created without any political drama . Officially , no Sixth Wave ever existed — the number was simply skipped . However , there was a suspiciously long gap between the Fifth and Seventh Waves , and " The Book of the War " referred to a non - existent entry on " Sixth Wave Defections " , apparently expunged by the enemy . The Seventh Wave was created when Fifth Wave troops were still plentiful , so rather than a general fighting force , it was used for specific tactical methods . It was overseen by House Xianthellipse , and combined the savagery of the Second Wave with the subtler , less culturally acceptable techniques of the Fourth to psychologically degrade its targets . The Seventh Wave was used in the Seventh Time Assault , a " morally questionable " campaign which took place on Earth and was inspired by apportation . After the enemy became involved , the Assault eventually ( or inevitably ) devolved into the Seventh Retro - War . The Eighth Wave was defensive , designed only to reinforce the troops already in use . The Ninth Wave was odd in multiple ways : the non - military House Tracolix was instrumental in its creation , even though it had never previously been involved in breeding , and claimed a " surprise " was in the works . " The Book of the War " hypothesised that it had something to do with House Lolita , which was allied with Tracolix . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Officers of the Last Wave were older men who were force - regenerated until their skins were covered in black organic blast - proofing . ( PROSE : " Alien Bodies " ) Minor references . Tonton Macoute once cooked with the bodies of House Military soldiers . ( PROSE : " Tonton Macoute " ) The House Military were sent to the Great Houses ' prison planet to stop a prison break orchestrated by Demetra Kine . ( AUDIO : " A Labyrinth of Histories " ) Biology . Because the First Wave was composed of ordinary House members , its troops were all hominid . But when Second Wave troops were killed , their new bodies would be slightly less hominid , with whatever flaw resulted in their death removed . The idea was taken farther in the Third Wave , with regen - inf soldiers who became living siege engines , with built - in temporal senses , defences , and weaponry . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " ) Culture . There was an unofficial cultural schism ( exemplified by the Redemption Cult ) between the House Military and the Great Houses proper back on the Homeworld . House Military troops often saw themselves as the only active upholders of the Homeworld ' s laws and culture , looking down on the Council of the Ruling Houses and even their own time strategists for only acting from a distance . The schism was also encouraged by the soldiers ' biological nature : forced regen mission s created a death - fetishism more natural to Faction Paradox than Homeworld tradition , and the physical incongruity between sheltered hominids and the living tanks of the House Military only grew with time . ( PROSE : " The Book of the War " )