Gland Warriors

“The killing rush, it’s stronger than Slaught, hypes me better than Frenzon. I’d kill to taste it... even kill you to taste it.”
- Ryant Gos, Gland Warrior Mercenary
To act as an Arch-Militant means being one of the finest
warriors humanity has to offer. Having risen through
the ranks or up from the underhives, survived countless
battles and killed endless foes, it would be easy to believe such a
person is more than a match for any opponent. The longer spent
fighting in the Expanse, however, the more one realizes that being
merely human isn’t always good enough. For some this means
improved martial disciplines, mechanical augmentics, or superior
weaponry. There is another path though, infamously rumored
through the undercircuit of mercenaries and pit fighters and all
others who make their living by the bolter and chainsword---to
submit to the flesh manipulations of the Adeptus Mechanicus
and become a Gland Warrior.
The quest of improving the human body as a fighting
machine has been ongoing for millennia---the Holy Emperor’s
favored sons, the Adeptus Astartes, are living examples of
this quest. The Adeptus Mechanicus favor a more direct
approach, simply replacing troublesome flesh and blood with
the purity of plasteel and circuitry in order to create forces
like the Skitarii Tech Guard. However, the secrets of these
processes are jealously guarded and often too time-consuming
for the needs of the Imperium’s war
machine, so other techniques have
been explored. For many centuries
the Genetors of the Adeptus
Mechanicus strived to improve the
flesh itself via series of operations and
implantations which could be done in
a relatively short period of time. Finally,
on the forge worlds of Dantis III,
they achieved success. An unexpected
Tyranid invasion had caught the system
unawares, and only the nearby Imperial
Guard regiment on Lostok was able
to offer any defense. Unfortunately,
the heavily-polluted planet was already
covered with vile Tyranid organisms,
rendering combat outside the factory
complexes nearly impossible. Several companies of
the toughest guardsmen volunteered for experimental
surgeries to allow them to fight effectively in the
deadly environment. Implanted with series of new
vat-grown organs and drug-secreting glands, those
who lived through the process could now fight
unprotected on the surface and counter the horrific
creatures with an inhuman aggressiveness and
ferocity of their own. After many months,
the swarm was repulsed and the few
survivors of the combat were
recovered for further study
and examination. Of those,
several were quickly plucked away by Inquisitors and others
wishing to have such an individual fighting at their side (or
in their name).
The process of creating Gland Warriors is more art than
science, like much of the Imperium’s works. Despite this, many
more of these augmented humans have appeared in wars
throughout the Imperium, and have acted more covertly as
assassins. Their exploits became legends amongst the Imperial
Guard regiments which have seen action with them. In Calixis,
detachments of Gland Warriors have been used effectively in
the hive war on Tranch, where their ferocity matches that of their
mutant foes. While most Imperial Guard armies in the sector do
not normally contain Gland Warrior units, some elite formations
do feature these specialized squads. It is even whispered
that entire fighting regiments of these flesh-augmentics
operate in the more
desperate and hellish warzones
of Calixis.
While the surgeries that
produce these once-men are
somewhat short, it takes many
months for the recipient to learn
how to properly utilize their new
biological additions, assuming
the soldier survives the process.
Even soldiers already used to
fighting with the aid of combat
drugs must re-learn how to use
their body in order to make use
of their newly-heightened motor
functions and more-durable physiology.
The physical changes can also bring
about mental ones, increasing one’s
focus on killing and combat until there
is little else driving them but impatience
for the next battle.
Given the nightmarish conditions they often fight in, it
is not uncommon for Gland Warriors to decide they would
rather pick who and when they will fight than depend on
the whims of a superior officer. Many become mercenaries,
prized through the sector and beyond. In the Expanse there
are also Genetors both authorized and renegade willing to
work their operations on existing warriors to transform them
from human to more than human. Here their life is filled with
blood, for there is always a conflict that needs fighters of their
caliber. Membership in warrior lodges is not uncommon, for
they often find true fellowship only in the company of other
augmentics. These secretive cults often draw the attention
of the Inquisition, even in the lawless reaches beyond the
Imperium’s rule. The Red Night Brotherhood is just one of
the lodges destroyed by massed Imperial forces lead by the
Ordo Hereticus, but there are many others where the more
feral Gland Warriors gather, and what they may discuss
beyond the heavy fur lodge curtains no one can say. Most
Rogue Traders are willing to turn a blind eye to such activities
as long as the warrior continues his duties and maintains his
loyalty, but a vigilant trader will always keep an eye on every
member of his crew.
==Becoming a Gland Warrior==
While some careers are the result of specialized training or years
of intensive studies, the transformation to a Gland Warrior is
due primarily to a series of surgeries. These introduce tox-filters
into their lungs and bloodways as well as artificial vat-grown
organs and drug-producing gland implants, all designed to
greatly augment an already formidable fighter to levels normally
impossible to attain otherwise. Only those of sufficiently strong
constitution and combat expertise would be selected for the
process, and only those with a sufficiently strong will to live
despite the agonies associates with the process will survive
it. Once they have adapted to their newly augmented bodies
though, they are death incarnate in combat.
Required Career: Arch-Militant
Alternate Rank: Rank 4 or Higher (13,000 XP)
Other Requirements: The character must have a Toughness
of 40 or higher, and must posses the Melee Weapon Training
(Universal), True Grit, and Die Hard Talents.
Traits: All Gland Warriors receive the Lostok Augmentation
Trait upon taking the Alternate Rank.