Mutant Warriors of Grimax

### Specialty

Surprise assaults, camouflaging their vessels, terror attacks, freeing Mutants, mutating prisoners, enslaving humans

## Organization

### Strength

18 million (warriors)~ 1 billion civilians

## Leaders

### Commander

Warlord Kazul Ktrak

The **Mutant Warriors of Grimax** are a faction of mutants and Abhumans, dominated in numbers by Beastmen, who have thrown off their imperial shackles and swore an oath of revenge against the pure humans who enslaved and purged them for the "crime" of being born "unclear" through bloody massacres and enslavement, with some groups even taking it a step further and even mutate their victims as the highest form of justice.

Ever since their initial rebellion on the Hive World of Grimax, have warbands of the Mutant Warriors of Grimax attacked numerous worlds, massacred the defenders, liberated mutants and Abhumans and either enslaved or killed the civilians, leaving the planets shadows of their former glory before any imperial reaction force can arrive. Feared by the faithful and uncorrupted, wander their warbands through Segmentum Tempestus, searching for new to conquer and to settle down, hoping that the Imperium won't find them. The war ensuing when the Imperium finds such planets have always been devastating, and many warbands have been slaughtered alongside their families by the vengeful Imperials, And nevertheless, even with one warband destroyed, a second appears years later founded by cells of mutant agitators or coming from undiscovered planets who had fallen to the Mutant Warriors of Grimax, Their bodies and souls may be mutated and corrupted but their longing for revenge is not.

## History

### The Grimax Rebellion

The Hive World of Grimax was always known for its 5.2% mutation rar - a extremly high worth even for a Hive World - and the policy of sealing the entrences to the unused Underhives. The people believed that they were able to suppress the Mutant population through slavery and exiling them into the Underhives, which worked since Grimax founding. Howerver they had never awaited that a Warband of the Alpha Legion sought to enflame rebellions in the region. And the Mutants where the right target group. Existing Mutant groups proved themself to be easy to train and already having plans for a open rebellion. The Traitor Astartes diddn`t needed to do much as built up the structure of the Mutant rebellion and to take out a handfull of strategic targets like the Astrophat Chore and they could watch how the Mutants overthrew their suppressors. Deactivating the generators crippled the Hives and massive fires in the factories shooed hundred of millions of Hivers into a position confortable for massacers. Light artillery, flamethrowers and bombs obliterated millions while collapsing buildings and bridges killed even more and formed death-ends for the surviving refugees. Four weeks later and all of the 12 Hives were either conquered or freed from the living but instead burning down. The rebellion costed 45 billion people their lives and further 7 billions were enslaved. A handfull of transports escaped with 25 million people into the orbit but were then destroyed by the Alpha Legions. After this left the Traitor Astartes pleased the Mutant Warriors of Grimax and devoted themself to something other.

### The Age of Mutants

After winning their freedom vowed the Mutants to free their brethren in the Imperium and started building up their warmachinery. Unknown ammounts of vessels were constructed and the Hives rebuilt. Mutation and breeding programms for the Human slaves supplied the Mutants with workforce and new recruits. The organisation was restructured and soon was a new target chosen: Xandur a Civiliced World in another Sector. 5 million warriors further 1 million other Mutants were sent there to conquere the world and free their brethren. Xandur`s PDF was not equipped and strong enough to widthstood such masses but were still able to kill a sizable ammount of Mutants. But the success shouldn`t last. When the Mutants rounded up the survivors to kill them arrived an Administratum Fleet to collect the Tithes of Xandur. In the first hours believed the Mutants that they could annhihilate this fleet, until they saw the truth: the vessels were manned with veteran crews and supported by the Tempestor Chapter. Mutant lines were broken every day and finally after seven days were the remaining mutants killed when they attempted to flee to the forests of Xandur.

After winning their freedom vowed the Mutants to free their brethren in the Imperium and started building up their war machinery. Unknown amounts of vessels were constructed and the Hives rebuilt. Mutation and breeding programmes for the Human slaves supplied the Mutants with a workforce and new recruits. The organisation was restructured and soon a new target was chosen: Xandur a Civilized World in another Sector. 5 million warriors and a further 1 million other Mutants were sent there to conquer the world and free their brethren. Xandur`s PDF was not equipped and strong enough to withstand such masses but was still able to kill a sizable amount of Mutants. But the success shouldn`t last. When the Mutants rounded up the survivors to kill them arrived an Administratum Fleet to collect the Tithes of Xandur. In the first hours believed the Mutants that they could annihilate this fleet until they saw the truth: the vessels were manned with veteran crews and supported by the Tempestor Chapter. Mutant lines were broken every day and finally after seven days were the remaining mutants killed when they attempted to flee to the forests of Xandur.

Meanwhile, other warbands had settled abandoned worlds, founding valuable hiding places for their faction in the wake of the coming disaster. Imperial retribution forces discovered by chance the events on Grimax and prepared an invasion. Seeing the coming doom, organised Haklav the Saviour an evacuation to the new worlds with the help of several fallen Navigator Houses. The price for the retreat was high with most transports either being destroyed or leaving the planet with too few passengers, leaving hundreds of millions of mutants being slaughtered by the Imperium.

Wounded but not annihilated gathered the surviving leadership themself over the planet of Merkir-12 to a conclave about the future of the faction. During this meeting agreed the leadership, now called the Conclave, on a change of tactics. Instead of open crusades they would travel disguised as traders and harmless travelers, using psykers and less mutated ones to infiltrate planets via aircrafts and instigate unrest under the suppressed mutants until the day of liberation comes and hosts of mutants storm the Hives.

## Organisation

### Structure

The Mutant Warriors of Grimax are a decentralises group of wandering warbands and secretly colonised worlds led nominally by a council, the so-called Conclave, a group of mutants tasked with coordinating the various groups and planets to function as an empire. In truth, can the Conclave only control the planets settled by their faction, since each warband leader, a so-called Hordmaster who command one of the 11 warbands, rules their warband with an iron hand more led by ideals than allegiance to their leadership. Even the cooperative Hordmasters are barely controlled by the Conclave since the lack of Astrophats hampers the large-scale communication of the faction, forcing the Hordmasters and their junior officers - Chieftains and Packmasters - to operate separated from central command on their own, raiding and trading in supplies and finding new planets to invade.

### Mutant Strains

Among the planets controlled by the Mutant Warriors and their 11 warbands exist numerous strains of unstable Abhumans species, natural mutants and artificially corrupted Humans. First among them are the so-called Beastmen, an Abhuman race which combines the human physical appearance with the ones of ancient Terran animals like goats and rams. Beastmen have different phenotypical variations, like the Ogrin-sized Minotaurs. Losing more and more their status as sanctioned Abhumans, with the Puritan members of the Inquisition claiming an inherited chaotic taint in their genome, the surviving Beastmen populations more and more radicalised and ready to fight against their oppressors. More muscular and larger than the average human, they form the bulk of the Mutant Warriors of Grimax.

By far less numerous but extremely influential are the Navigators and Astrophats whose Houses support the Mutant Warriors' fleets and council their leaders in basic knowledge about psychic powers. Without them, neither the warbands nor the Conclave could move their fleets around and coordinate their operations and would have been cut down by the Imperium. Fulfilling such important roles in an environment which did not despise them for their mutations gave the Houses the confidence to act as major power players in the political power structure of this faction.

### Types of Warriors

* **Berserkers:** Mutants with a particular physical resistance, physical strength, combat fit mutations and a highly aggressive temperament are formed into Berserker Packs and let loose on their enemies. Armed with axes, heavy clubs, chainswords and high-calibre pistols are those warriors transported with mechanised vehicles or by aircrafts in front of their enemies and then set loose to butcher them.
* **Kazaks:** Mutants armed with sniper rifles, fast-firing guns and flamethrowers form flexible light infantry elements of a warband. Named after the Beastmen Auxiliary Regiments from Kazor-10 whose Regiments follow the same tactics. Kazaks units made from strong and robust mutant types are particularly feared since they can carry even some heavy weapons and more ammunition without losing the light infantry factor and can survive direct confrontations even better than their imperial counterparts.
* **Mutant Warrior/Beastmen Warrior:** The bulk of each warband is made up by simple Mutant Warriors or Beastmen Warriors. Beastmen Warriors are among them the most numerous mutants and the most easiest to classify or group together thanks to their shared strain. Mutant Warrios meanwhile is the catch-all term for the mutants fullfilling grunt duty but cannot be conted to the Beastmen.
* **Mutation Priests:** Among the Mutant Warriors of Grimax exist many who see the mutation of their clean "betters" as the highest form of justice. And those given the duty to mutate the baseline humans are called Mutation Priests, a cruel mirror to the Ecclesiarchy priests, men and women who preach the purity of soul and body. Knowing the demoralising effect of sudden mutation, are the Mutation Priests always seeking for new ways to mutate their victims. Regardless, if they poison water sources or use bullets filled with mutation-viruses, the Mutation Priests seek the damnation of their enemy.

## Combat Doctrine

Originally, followed a doctrine of direct and open actions against their enemies, however after their first attempt to conquere a new world failed with catastrophical results had the leaders to change this. Nowadays use their troops infiltration tactics to sabotage the enemy communications and to learn when new forces would arrive. After the recon phase start members of the infiltration cell terror attacks to weaken the enemy moral and divert the PDF to other places. The invasion forces will wait until they reach the athmosphere before they start with violent attacks dropping the facade of peaceful traders. Mixed infantry formations with mobile light as well as heavy infantry as backbone for regular combat while recruited Mutants attack as irregular forces.

## Planets

* **Grimax:** Grimax, a Hive World of unusual high rate of mutations and Beastmen, was the birth place of the Mutant Warriors of Grimax and their first victim. Thnaks to the help of the Alpha Legion rose the mutant population up in revolt against their better in 108.M40 and butchered most of the Human Population, enslaving the rest. Saddly, the Imperium noticed this revolution and destroyed the world.
* **Huch 7:** Huch 7 was an abandoned colony in the same Subsector and now functions as an industrial centre.
* **Huch 8:** Huch 8 is a conquered Penal World with a population willing to become Mutants if this could improve their living standarts.
* **Atac Secundus:** Atac Secundus is the recent conquest of the Mutant Warriors of Grimax. A Feral World with a hidden Mechanicus research base.