Penal legion

“The Emperor loves me. Oh yes he does, otherwise why would he be so keen to keep me alive?”
–Sirius Tan, 2nd Calixian Penal Battalion deployed to the Tranch Soot Warrens
The penal legions are a filled with scum of the worst kind.
These murderers, rogues, deserters, cowards, madmen,
seditionists, and drunkards fight for the Emperor in the
bloodiest warzones---whether willing or not. The penal units
in which these villains serve are the product of the harsh
discipline enforced in the Imperial Guard. With millions of
men and women under arms, all armed and trained to kill
for the God Emperor, there can be no leniency if order and
combat effectiveness are to be maintained. The breaking
of any number of tenets of military law and the exhaustive
wealth of Munitorium regulations up to and including murder
are all punishable by death—or service in a penal battalion.
The will of condemned criminals is not easily bound to
the Emperor’s service, and so many methods may be applied
to get these forlorn wretches into battle. These methods may
include the generous application of lashes by electro scourges,
or fitting the penal legionnaires with auto-injectors to flood
their bloodstreams with frenzon, slaught, or other combat
drugs and turn them into raving berserkers. Decimation
of a penal legion that fails to advance is also a common
motivational tool. In some cases legionnaires may be fitted
with explosive collars which can be detonated remotely to
reinforce an order or give instant punishment.
The penal legions are thrown into the most dangerous
and suicidal of engagements where the chances of survival
are minimal. Some go into battle filled with remorse for
their crimes. Others walk like men already dead, their limbs
trembling with fear. Some embrace the carnage and the
prospect of their own death with madness born of fear. Most
die in the first moments of such engagements and pay a quick
price for their crimes---but a few may survive to be cast once
again into the cauldron of blood and fire again and see if the
Emperor is yet done with their service. These rare survivors
are a savage breed who can walk into the mouth of hell and
emerge screaming their defiance at death. In the end, however,
death finds all, and even the most indomitable survivor will
find the only release from their crimes that there can be. A
very few of these rare and dangerous survivors may find
themselves performing new and more lethal service for an
Inquisitor who has use for resourceful and hardened killers.
== Becoming a Penal Legionnaire ==
Becoming a Penal Legionnaire for a member of the Imperial
Guard requires being condemned for a crime that is
punishable by death and taking the choice to meet that death
by surviving in a Penal Legion. It means a decision to meet
the death at the hands of the enemies of mankind rather than
at the hands of the firing squad or Commissar’s bolt pistol. It
is therefore preferable that the penal legionnaire Alternative
Rank be taken at the point of character creation to represent
a rare individual plucked from the ranks of the condemned
to serve the Inquisition. It is ideal for characters created with
more than the basic 400 XP to spend at the point of character
creation. It is possible that a character on the Guardsman
Career Path may opt to take this Alternative Rank later in his
career, in which case it must be consistent with the character
being condemned to serve in a penal legion for a crime he
has committed.
A character who becomes a Penal Legionnaire automatically
is fitted with either an Injector Rig or an Explosive Collar. The remote control
for either of these items will kept by either another Acolyte
or an NPC in the service of the Inquisitor that the Penal
Legionnaire now serves.
Required Career: Guardsman
Alternate Rank: Rank 1 or higher (0 XP)
Note that this means that you may opt to specify this at
character creation as the first rank of your Advance Scheme.
This does not affect your starting Skills and Talents, only
how and on what you can spend your starting XP.