Mecmastran Regular Regiments

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The **Mecmastran Regular Regiments** are Astra Militarum regiments raised from the Union of Mecmastra, the most powerful nation-state on the civilized world of **Merkova**. Mecmastra's Regular Army consists of professional soldiers recruited voluntarily from the populace and sometimes serving for decades, supplemented by the part-time National Guard and conscripted troops raised only during emergencies. For centuries, their tanks and guns have fended off a dreadful foe: The Dominion of Contara, a once-great nation now loyal to the Ruinous Powers.

## History

Since the fall of Contara to the Ruinous Powers at the end of M39, Merkova has been constantly at war. The frontier between Imperial civilization and the Archenemy lies where Romberg once ruled, its plains, forests, and mountains now marred by blast craters. In the west, Mecmastra and its vassals maintain a mobile defense backed by a network of fortresses. In the east, Contara and the few satellite states that it has managed to corrupt hold onto their own keeps and marshaling yards. In the decades after its turn to Chaos, Contara somehow conjured a Warp-fueled storm over much of their homeland, stymieing all Imperial attempts to surveil or bombard them. Gradually, Mecmastra managed to build its own network of interceptor weapons and void shields to safeguard themselves from Contaran intercontinental missiles. They exist in a permanent deadlock.

Every few decades sees a surge in combat as one country tries to push the other back. These surges generally see hundreds of thousands dead within a few months of rapid maneuver, followed by a longer period of slow fighting. After most of a year, the combatants settle back into mutual raiding and harassment along lines no more than a few hundred miles from where they had started. M41 has seen Mecmastra gaining more than they have lost. Imperial analysts predicted that their advantage would grow, but the otherworldly storm over Contara muted any hopes of a decisive victory.

Owing to the war, Merkova was exempt from manpower tithes for centuries. Fighting Contara was, Mecmastran leaders argued, equal in value to a very large contribution of forces to the Astra Militarum. Their rationale became less convincing as Mecmastra's economy grew and the hope of permanent victory faded. In mid-M40, the sector government deemed that Contara was sufficiently contained as to allow Mecmastra to tithe regiments to the Department Munitorum once more.

#### Fall of Cadia & Aftermath

The opening of the Great Rift sparked the greatest Contaran offensive since the War of Alignment. Heretics of every nature assailed Mecmastra's defenses, reversing all of the gains they had made over the last millennium and besieging many of the fortresses that guarded their homeland. Contara's forces even managed a small breakthrough, stopped at the last moment in a bloody battle where thousands of National Guard and conscript troops perished. Reinforcements from the Indomitus Crusade helped the Mecmastrans to retake their fortress network and a small buffer zone in front of them, but it will likely be centuries before Mecmastra rebuilds a comfortable distance between their lands and the frontline.

## Notable Campaigns

* **Storm on Trayath, 591.M40** — When the treacherous governor Ulux III of Trayath's corruption became known to the Imperium, a predominantly Mecmastran force was first on the scene. Ulux's planetary defense force was numerous, well supplied with armor, and had recent combat experience. Militarum command anticipated a difficult victory. After months of logistical buildup in territory opposed to Ulux and a few weeks preparatory bombardment by Naval air and void assets, three corps of Mecmastran Regulars and two corps' worth of other regiments surged out from their foothold on a warpath towards Trayath's capital. It was the Mecmastrans' first offworld showing at such scale since their tithe was reinstated. When the opposing forces met in the desert, the results were so lopsided as to shock even fellow Imperial observers. The Mecmastran barrage of conventional and fusion munitions devastated Trayathan command & control, then their artillery assets, and then laid into anything the Imperial forces could see. Ulux's first echelon of forces were put to rout with heavy losses in only three days. The elite capital guards fared only slightly better. Soon after Mecmastran tanks rolled into the capital, a few of Ulux's generals gave him up to the Inquisition in exchange for amnesty.
* **Goguan Intervention, 864-873.M40** — A large, predominantly Mecmastran army intervened in support of Goguan's planetary government, beset by insurgency. A large and well-organized Chaotic rebellion had engulfed large sections of the planet, and the government's control was fragmentary. The Mecmastran forces went in searching for large enemy forces, convinced that a heretic army lurked in enemy-held regions. They were quick to bring firepower to bear on perceived threats, leaving destruction almost everywhere they went. Still the insurgents harassed Imperial and government forces with snipers, mortars, mines, and ambushes. The Regulars' sweeping search-and-destroy missions yielded questionable results, and failed to prevent the heretics from biting at Imperial control and even launching a few major offensives. All the while, Goguan's ineffectual government descended further into graft and instability, while the Imperial force made only basic attempts to improve the planetary security forces. After nearly a decade, the sector government lost patience with Goguan's government and the Mecmastran command's insistence that they were succeeding with little evidence. They diverted Imperial support for Goguan towards an Ork threat, and Goguan fell two years after. The Mecmastran Regulars had utterly failed.
* **Battle of Draeforith, 312.M41** — Five divisions of Mecmastran Regulars joined the grinding conflict on Alira. Novices to trench warfare, they were deployed to the Draeforith region, locked in a back-and-forth mutual siege ever since the blasphemous enemy launched an offensive in the sector. In their first rotations in the trenches, the Mecmastran line regiments suffered an average of 18% losses— higher than than the theater average. They could not sustain such costs. Theater command pulled the Mecmastrans and other mechanized units back from the front, drilling them for months on the planned movements for an upcoming offensive. Imperial forces gambled everything on the offensive. It paid off. When the time came, dawn broke early at Draeforith as a dozen fusion warheads exploded over enemy lines and the Mecmastrans surged forward. Their armored onslaught and massed firepower overran countless enemies. The storm of violence eventually died down with the enemy pushed back nearly to their last defensive lines and Imperial forces holding onto their newly seized fortifications in the face of desperate counterattacks. The enemy's defense was too deep to achieve a complete breakthrough, but victory was less than a year away. Few of the Mecmastrans would see it, as their line regiments suffered 78% losses in the offensive.
* **Havrios Campaign, 757.M41** — Orks menaced the declining hive world of Havrios, and Mecmastran regiments spearheaded the Imperial reinforcements. They met initial success, pushing the xenos back through the wastes one engagement at a time. Their progress ended upon reaching Havrios' vast mountain ranges. The Orks repulsed several large mechanized incursions, with some Mecmastran regiments taking serious losses as the alpine terrain constricted their movement. After these failures, the campaign stood still for most of a year, with the Imperials relying on raids by Sentinel-mounted armored cavalry to hinder Ork activities. The greenskins then launched a major offensive, which the Mecmastrans eventually pushed back in the open wastes. A second wave of Imperial reinforcements brought a much larger force of light infantry, who pursued the Orks into the mountains while most of the mechanized Mecmastran units were reallocated to other theaters.

## Homeworld

Merkova is a temperate civilized world orbiting the star Chaffei in the Aidroya Sector. Most of its surface is covered in oceans, with its sizable landmass boasting a wide range of biomes. Well suited for human habitation, it had been colonized in the Dark Age of Technology but lay undiscovered by the Imperium of Man until M36. Merkova had not had a unified planetary government since long before Imperial contact, and now the Imperial Commander of Merkova rules from orbit, exerting loose control over politics on the surface.

### Nations

Merkova is divided between many countries that vie for influence and occasionally fight small wars against one another, all under the oversight of an official planetary government with limited control over their affairs. Most of these states are small, existing as vassals or satellites to the planet's superpowers. In the past few millennia, three superpowers dominated Merkovan affairs: The Dominion of Contara, Kingdom of Romberg, and Union of Mecmastra. Since late M39, only Mecmastra stands as hegemon in the Emperor's name.

#### Dominion of Contara

An ancient nation covering a massive land area, Contara once exported huge quantities of grain to the rest of Merkova while maintaining a large contribution to the planet's tithe of manpower to the Department Munitorum. They lagged behind the rest of Merkova in some economic areas, with vastly uneven levels of education and development between regions, and between the rural areas and its few hive cities. Contara saw rapid growth through mid-M39 up to the War of Alignment near the end of M39. Then, a series of military disappointments against Romberg sparked turmoil in the Contaran populace, leading to the rise of a new government under the Demagogue Visaryonov. Visaryonov's rule led to greater military success at the cost of the country's soul. Shortly after the dust had settled on the War of Alignment, loyalists uncovered Chaos corruption rooted deep in Visaryonov's government, and the victorious Mecmastra and Contara turned their guns on each other.

#### Kingdom of Romberg

Romberg was a heavily industrialized monarchy and the only major power to violently resist the Imperium upon contact. They had been the most powerful country prior to the Imperium's arrival, but their resistance was short-lived and ended in a treaty of compliance. Yet Romberg's ruling dynasty never let go of their resentment. In late M39 after a massive military build-up, they launched the globe-spanning War of Alignment in the hopes of suborning the other superpowers and renegotiating their relationship with the Imperium. They lost. Humbled for the last time, the victors split Romberg into multiple vassal states. In the warring that followed, Romberg's former territory became a wasteland inhabited only by animals, nomads, and armies.

#### Union of Mecmastra

Mecmastra is the largest economy on Merkova by far. It was the chief beneficiary of Imperial compliance, having readily adopted the Imperial Creed and welcomed the requisite Adepti. As the Aidroya Sector grew with new conquests and compliances through M36 and M37, Mecmastra grew into a financial hub for the sector, bolstered by Merkova's position along well-used Warp routes and market-friendly government policies. Their population has a high literacy rate and income per capita compared to sector and planetary averages. Mecmastra's industries are sophisticated and generally prosperous, fueled by resources drawn in from vassal states and, in more recent centuries, from Chaffei's outlying planets. This prosperity has created a very wealthy elite and a large middle class, though even the poor in Mecmastra rarely hit the depths of abject poverty found in some satellite states and elsewhere in the Imperium.

Mecmastra's government is a presidential republic with some democratic features. The country is administered through a complex bureaucracy staffed by hirelings and some political appointees. Many legislative and executive posts are elected, with suffrage extending to the vast majority of Mecmastran adults, but checks by multiple security offices and the Imperial government ensure that no anti-Imperial candidate will ever appear on a ballot. Mecmastra has cultivated a complicated web of security institutions, from municipal police to national law enforcement agencies, capable of hunting almost any form of sedition.

Culturally, Mecmastra is more egalitarian than many Imperial worlds. They lack a strictly defined aristocracy in favor of an informally privileged class defined by generational wealth, cultural signifiers, and connections. Displays of privilege are subtle, sometimes even frowned upon, and Mecmastran social norms require little social deference towards the powerful. These peculiarities can cause friction with high-ranking outsiders, but influential guests can take refuge in a number of exclusive spaces for the rich that would fit in with the most stratified worlds. Mass media is ubiquitous through the country, influenced but not fully controlled by the government. Encouraged by the government, most people greatly respect the military. Service members receive displays of gratitude at many large public events, benefits at many businesses, and frequent thanks from civilians. To veterans, these shows of hero-worship can feel ignorant of the mundane realities of service and so normalized as to be meaningless.

Mecmastra was a major belligerent in the War of Alignment, but their territory did not suffer as much as Romberg or Contara. Their shared victory over Romberg was difficult and required the largest military buildup Mecmastra had yet seen. But the subsequent revelation of Contara's treachery necessitated a transformation. Mecmastra's demobilization halted forever. Their military, once modest, became a large standing force guarding the country and their vassals from the Contaran Archenemy. The threat of Chaotic corruption drove Mecmastra's security state to grow to its current power. The government built increasingly close ties with the nearby Forge World of Lodyneon in order to access better military technologies. With the other planetary superpowers dismantled or corrupted, Mecmastra has grown ever more entwined with the Imperial government over Merkova.

## Regimental Organisation

Owing to Contara's larger population and the need to keep productive industries staffed, Mecmastra pursues quality over quantity. They need forces capable of fighting short, sharp battles at a moment's notice, dealing with known terrain and a known enemy. As such, the Mecmastran Regular Regiments are highly capable in conventional fighting, but their forces are ill-equipped for counterinsurgency and they struggle in static, attritional conflicts. The bulk of their forces are mechanized, but they maintain some light units for fighting in densely forested or mountainous areas. On Merkova, they are part of the Mecmastran Army, working alongside the Surface Navy, Void Force, and Air Force.

### Regiment Types

* **Mechanized Infantry** - Line regiments using infantry mounted in Chimera derivatives. Each has three line battalions, a special troops battalion, a scout company, an air defense company, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters company.

* **Armored** - Line regiments using Leman Russ tanks. Each has three line battalions, a special troops battalion, a scout company, an air defense company, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters company.

* **Armored Cavalry** - Reconnaissance & security regiments using both Sentinels and Chimera derivatives. Each has three cavalry squadrons, a special troops squadron, a light cannon troop, an air defense troop, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters troop.

* **Light Infantry** - Line regiments using infantry without armored vehicles; mostly specialized in either mountain warfare or airborne operations. Each has three line battalions, a special troops battalion, a scout company, an air defense company, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters company.

* **Field Artillery** - Artillery regiments using self-propelled guns and launchers in support of mechanized forces. Each has three cannon battalions, one divisional fires battalion, a forward observation battery, a counterbattery auspex battery, a signal battery, an air defense battery, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters battery.

* **Light Artillery** - Artillery regiments using towed guns and lightweight launchers in support of light infantry. Each has three cannon battalions, one divisional fires battalion, a forward observation battery, a counterbattery auspex battery, a signal battery, an air defense battery, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters battery.

* **Air Defense Artillery** - Anti-air regiments using surface-to-air missiles and other anti-air weapons. Each has three surface-to-air missile battalions, one missile defense battalion, one short-range air defense battalion, a signal battery, and the regimental headquarters & headquarters battery.

* **Ranger** - Reserve regiment holding elite infantry assets to be detached in support of conventional units
* **Combat Engineering** - Reserve regiment holding combat engineering assets to be detached in support of maneuver units
* **Other** - The Mecmastran Army fields many other types of specialized regiment, such as logistics, general engineering, intermediate- and intercontinental-range missiles, theater artillery, and superheavy tanks. All of these are tithed to the Departmento Munitorum in small numbers.

Note: Company, troop, and battery refer to the same level of command. Battalion and squadron also refer to the same level of command. Headquarters & headquarters companies include some logistics assets, making them much larger than normal companies.

\*Heavy Armored or Heavy Infantry regiments use Rogal Dorn tanks or Crassus derivatives in their First Battalions in place of Leman Russes or Chimeras, respectively.

#### Staff Organisations

Every battalion, regiment, and higher command comes with a staff, consisting of several offices handling specific functions on behalf of the commander. The Army tries to assign extra officers and NCOs to staffs in regiments soon to be tithed to the Munitorum so as to replace casualties among leaders.

##### Battalion

* *Master of Personnel* - Handles pay, leaves, and other administrative matters.
* *Master of Intelligence* - Processes and directs the collection of information regarding terrain, enemy forces, and other aspects of the operational environment.
* *Master of Operations* - Oversees current and future operations on behalf of the commander.
* *Master of Logistics* - Handles transportation, quartermaster affairs, and technomats working under enginseer direction.
* *Master of Signal* - Handles communications systems in conjunction with attached Adeptus Mechanicus personnel. Most signalers are technomats of some variety.
* *Master of Fires* - Plans and integrates fires from organic mortars, attached artillery, aviation, and orbital assets.
* *Battalion Chirurgeon* - Chief medicae officer of the battalion.
* *Battalion Enginseer* - Chief of the Mechanicus attachment.
* *Battalion Chaplain* - Chief spiritual leader for the battalion.

##### Regiment

* *Master of Personnel* - Handles pay, leaves, and other administrative matters.
* *Master of Intelligence* - Processes and directs the collection of information regarding terrain, enemy forces, and other aspects of the operational environment.
* *Master of Operations* - Oversees current and future operations on behalf of the commander.
* *Master of Logistics* - Handles transportation, quartermaster affairs, and technomats working under enginseer direction.
* *Master of Signal* - Handles communications systems in conjunction with attached Adeptus Mechanicus personnel. Most signalers are technomats of some variety.
* *Master of Training* - Organizes individual training courses within the regiment to fill deficiencies. Only found in regiments tithed to the Astra Militarum.
* *Master of Fires* - Plans and integrates fires from subordinate units, attached artillery, aviation, and orbital assets.
* *Master of Engineering* - Plans and integrates engineering using organic and attached assets.
* *Master of External Affairs* - Interfaces with entities outside of the Astra Militarum.
* *Regimental Chirurgeon* - Chief medicae officer of the regiment.
* *Regimental Enginseer* - Chief of the Mechanicus attachment.
* *Regimental Chaplain* - Chief spiritual leader for the regiment.

### Regimental Ranks

#### Flag Ranks

General officers command divisions, corps, armies, and other large commands not listed below. Mecmastran generals in the Astra Militarum sometimes use varying titles.

* **General** - Army commander
* **Lieutenant General** - Corps commander
* **Major General** - Division commander
* **Brigadier General** - Primarily staff; few line positions

#### Officer Ranks

Most Mecmastran commissioned officers serve within regiments. Their career progression runs through both command and staff positions; typical positions in a line combat unit are listed.

* **Colonel** - Regimental commander
* **Lieutenant Colonel** - Battalion commander
* **Major** - Staff only; no line positions
* **Captain** - Company commander
* **First Lieutenant** - Platoon leader
* **Second Lieutenant** - Platoon leader

#### Warrant Officer Ranks

Warrant officers outrank enlisted personnel and are drawn from enlisted, but are subordinate to commissioned officers. Warrant ranks exist for roles that require specialized knowledge and expertise, often working alongside attached Mechanicus priests.

* **Chief Warrant Officer**
* **Warrant Officer**

#### Non-Commissioned Officers & Enlisted

The bulk of any Regiment. Personnel shortages mean that NCOs often occupy billets above their nominal grade. Positions in line units are listed, but personnel enlisted ranks can serve in staff offices, training postings, and other duties.

* **Sergeant Major** - Senior enlisted advisor to commands above company
* **First Sergeant/Master Sergeant** - Senior enlisted advisor to company command (Master Sergeant title used for any other role)
* **Sergeant First Class** - Platoon sergeant
* **Staff Sergeant** - Squad leader
* **Sergeant** - Fireteam or junior squad leader
* **Corporal/Specialist** - Fireteam leader (Corporal) or experienced junior enlisted (Specialist)
* **Private First Class** - Junior enlisted
* **Private** - Enlisted personnel who have completed basic training
* **Recruit** - Enlistees not yet graduated from basic training

### Regimental Recruitment & Training

Regular Regiments, by definition, are volunteer-only outside of emergencies. The military represents a form of social mobility, offering an opportunity to rise above one's parents' level of income. Those who volunteer to leave the planet as part of the Astra Militarum do so for a multitude of reasons. Imperial service confers many benefits on one's family, even greater than those earned through national military service. Base pay is higher too. Media and the church lionize service in every way possible. And, for the career-minded, the Militarum has plenty of promotion slots open to officers and NCOs willing to make a long commitment. Due to the cost of labor in Mecmastra, the Army's manpower is small relative to its peers on other planets.

Mecmastra's military relies on a broad base of skilled personnel, made possible by the country's public education system. Enlisted personnel come primarily from the middle and lower classes, while commissioned officers are generally middle-class and must have graduated from a university. The minimum four-year service obligation for enlisted personnel allows for a reasonably long training period, supplemented by further training in their units when rotated off the line. As such, Mecmastran training covers a broad base of universal soldier skills followed by further instruction in a soldier's specific job.

Non-commissioned officers have a great deal of authority in the Mecmastran Army. Every level of command comes with a senior enlisted advisor, claiming several years' experience at minimum and broad authority to ensure good discipline and readiness— often to the chagrin of lower enlisted, who sometimes find senior NCOs to be as careerist as any commissioned officer and far more overbearing. Mecmastran doctrine holds that NCOs should be experts in their field, while commissioned officers require a broader knowledge base to match their wide responsibilities.

### Culture

The Mecmastran military is a highly bureaucratic institution, shaped by its home culture. Leaders at all levels are pushed to fulfill requirements set by their superiors, regardless of how reasonable they are, in order to secure promotion. When off the line of battle, and especially during low ebbs in the war, they value quantifiable metrics of success and seek to minimize any risk that they could be blamed for something going wrong. Winning engagements on the front line with Contara, and performing well in annual regiment-size force-on-force exercises, count more than anything for a combat officer's career.

While disciplined, customs and courtesies are relatively loose in the Mecmastran military. Often a salute and a "Sir/Ma'am" are the beginning and end of formalities between a subordinate and a superior officer. Senior NCOs informally command a similar level of respect, and greater influence in some areas, than junior and field-grade officers. Rank comes with privileges, but also expectations of working harder and doing more. Most leaders frown upon the idea of eating before all of their subordinates have received their food, or of marching with a light pack.

### Combat Doctrine

The Mecmastran regulars' doctrine focuses on fast-moving, highly lethal operations against a foe that, while twisted by Chaos, still draws on the ancient human ways of mechanized warfare. Their military academies provide very little instruction regarding xenos threats or terrain not found in the former Romberg territory. In their concern for Contara's conventional threat, the Mecmastran Army thoroughly neglects counterinsurgency and wars of limited scale, relying on security agencies and foreign proxies to defeat attempts at subversion.

Mecmastran regiments suffer in siege warfare where their emphasis on mobility and rapid reaction is of limited value. Due to their size and relatively expensive equipment, they can be attrited into near-uselessness very quickly during positional campaigns, and proper replacements can be difficult to source. Once a regiment leaves Mecmastra into Militarum service, its useful lifespan is often short. Within a decade, they will often be merged into other regiments or replenished so haphazardly as to be scarcely recognizable.

Mecmastran doctrine itself exists across numerous manuals and publications outlining everything from broad doctrinal concepts to unit structures & responsibilities to defining doctrinal terms. As far as the military is concerned, everything must be in writing. Mecmastran military jargon is notoriously dense, filled with bulleted lists, mnemonics, and highly specific terms that make it impenetrable to most Gothic speakers and foreign even to outside military personnel.

#### Mission Command

Mecmastran doctrine holds that commanders should allow their subordinates freedom to exercise initiative within the commander's intent, and that subordinates must seek to understand that intent and their own situation in order to act appropriately without burdening their superiors. Making decisions and acting on them faster than the enemy can be a critical advantage. As such, Mecmastran regiments have ubiquitous vox communications, supplemented by navigational and force-tracking hardware that, when working properly, can show commanders their situation and plans at a glance.

#### Movement & Maneuver

In order to fight outside of major fortresses, Mecmastran forces must use dispersion and concealment to survive, then rapidly concentrate combat power at a decisive point and disperse again before the enemy strikes a counterblow. Mecmastra relies its large fleet of armored vehicles in order to move quickly even under fire, which is critical to concentrating and dispersing at sufficient speeds. Engineers help to create usable routes where none exist, and to force enemies into disadvantageous positions. Forces seek cover and concealment whenever possible. When the enemy nears, Mecmastran soldiers use high-quality auspexes and sophisticated targeters to see first and shoot first.

#### Fires

The Mecmastran Army knows that firepower kills. Over centuries of fighting, they have developed a highly effective system for coordinating fire. Every soldier receives basic instruction on how to call for a fire mission, and every line platoon or company has an artillerist, or team of artillerists, trained as forward observers. They can send calls for fire to a network of fire direction centers, which send missions to the appropriate battery or platoon to execute the fire mission. When their navigation systems and rangefinders work properly, a Mecmastran maneuver unit can call in hails of artillery shells in just a few minutes and with a high degree of accuracy. Higher echelons possess heavier guns and long-range missiles able to strike deep into enemy support areas. Most artillery guns, missiles, and mortars can use a multitude of ammo types. Simple explosives are ubiquitous, as is smoke at low levels, but Mecmastrans regularly use cluster munitions, scatterable mines, guided weapons, and plasma-fusion warheads delivered by a variety of systems. The Army also works closely with the Air Force, and Mecmastran regiments in the Astra Militarum are able to coordinate well with Naval aviation if the Navy allows it.

#### Intelligence

Mecmastran forces gather information on their enemies through ground-level reconnaissance, aerial surveillance, signal warfare, and any other means that presents itself. The Army on Merkova draws on intelligence from high-level recon aircraft and voidcraft, but regiments in the Imperial Guard must rely on their own assets: Scouts belonging to line battalions and regimental headquarters, servo-skulls held at the regiment level, and attached Mechanicus signals intelligence collectors. Each regiment has a small intelligence company to process and disseminate information from all sources.

#### Protection

Various assets mitigate some of the hazards that Mecmastran soldiers face on the battlefield. Engineers dig field fortifications that can shelter tanks from direct fire. Air defenses and friendly air assets stymie enemy aviation in their attempts to reconnoitre and attack Imperial forces, or intercept some missiles and shells before they impact. Specialized chemical/biological/radiological protection units reconnoitre contaminated areas and decontaminate stricken forces.

#### Sustainment

Running a large mechanized force imposes steep logistical demands. Each regiment has its own trucks, quartermasters, maintainers, and chirurgeons, but they can only sustain the regiment for a short time without support from a much larger logistical network. On Merkova, Mecmastra's front line is at the tail end of a vast series of rails and roads. Sustainment assets often disperse and conceal themselves whenever possible in order to avoid enemy fires, and forces must often fight to enable resupply in the face of opposing recon-strike complexes. Maintenance takes place at every level, from a tanker performing diagnostic rites on a Leman Russ or an infantryman serving as company armorer to an attached Enginseer repairing a damaged vehicle to depots where intensive repairs are done. Supply primarily works on a "pull" system, in which units calculate how much they will need and request it from higher, though they retain some procedures to use "push" logistics when communications are degraded. The medicae has a practiced system for evacuating casualties via ambulance and moving them quickly from one level of care to the next.

## Regimental Equipment

In order to combat the blasphemous hordes of Contara without permanently mobilizing huge chunks of its population, Mecmastra covets superior technology. Early the war with Contara, Mecmastra— already a nation with sophisticated industry— deepened its partnership with Forge World Lodyneon. Making previously unthinkable commitments, the Union allowed Lodyneon's tech-clergy extensive access to the Mecmastran economy. Though some of the deals were painful at the time, they have borne fruit in the centuries since. Mecmastran businesses built empires off of licensed secrets from Lodyneon. Most of all, the military boast a substantial technological edge over Contara, and over plenty of other Imperial defense forces.

Mecmastra's Army is largely mechanized. Their ability to contest Contara on the Rombergian plains relies on a healthy supply of armored hulls and high-yield munitions, and their victories are partially thanks to having some of the best sensors, communications, and targeting equipment in the Aidroya Sector. Most of the manufacturing fueling the war effort takes place in Mecmastra, with only a few highly sophisticated components imported from Lodyneon itself. Tech-priests oversee every factory producing tech for the war effort, and live in sizable enclaves in virtually every major city.

Mecmastra has the facilities and, through Lodyneon's clergy, the expertise to produce high-yield munitions. They began with atomics in early M40, but gradually converted their production to plasma-fusion munitions. Every regular combat regiment in the Mecmastran Army has some capability to use these highly destructive weapons. Without them, their civilization would be helpless against Contara's own atomic and fusion arsenal.

### Standard Regimental Kit

* 1 Lapisax-pattern Lasrifle and 7 charge packs
* Bayonet/combat knife
* 2 frag grenades and 2 krak grenades
* Helmet & flak armour
* Uniform— Undershirt, coat, pants, webbing, socks, boots
* Gas mask
* Vox micro-bead
* Individual first-aid kit
* Wet & cold weather gear
* Rucksack
* Entrenching tool
* Basic toolkit
* Mess kit and 2 water canteens
* Rations; quantity varies
* Sleeping bag with wet-weather cover
* Rechargeable lamp-pack
* Transcription kit
* Grooming kit
* Dog tags
* *Imperial Infantryman’s Uplifting Primer*

### Optional Wargear

* Each infantry squad has either two auspex scopes and two auspex monoculars or one auspex scope and three monoculars.
* Each squad has one portable vox-caster, in addition.
* Chemlights, smoke grenades, parachute flares, and star-clusters are commonly carried, all available in multiple colors
* Heavy lasrifles, lascarbines, shotguns, marksman lasrifles, and auxiliary grenade launchers are widely used.
* Common special weapons include volley lasguns, flamers, meltaguns, long-las, and grenade launchers.
* Heavy weapons include heavy boltguns, lascannons, and missile launchers.

### Vehicles

#### Chimera Family

Mecmastra uses the Lodyneon-Eta pattern Chimera platform as the basis for many of its combat vehicles. Mechanized infantry regiments use the base Lodyneon-Eta Chimera or upgunned variants thereof as their main fighting platforms. Other Chimera derivatives are found in the weapons companies of both mechanized infantry and armored regiments. Field artillery regiments use Chimera hulls as the basis for all of their firing platforms, such as Basilisks, Manticores, and heavy howitzers, for counterbattery auspexes, and mobile fire direction centers. Armored cavalry regiments use Chimera-derived combat reconnaissance vehicles in their tracked cavalry troops. Many air defense systems, such as Hydras, use the Chimera chassis. Other Chimera derivatives serve as mobile command posts, engineering and recovery vehicles, logistical transports, and ambulances.

#### Leman Russ Family

Lodyneon-Sigma pattern Leman Russ tanks form the core of Mecmastran armored regiments, benefitting from a generally good build quality, a respectable armor package, and remarkably sophisticated auspexes & targeters. Its hull provides the basis for some tank hunters and other weapons platforms found in armored battalions' weapons companies, as well as armored engineering vehicles, assault breaching vehicles, assault bridges, and armored recovery vehicles.

#### Sentinels

Armored cavalry regiments, as well as scouts in armored regiments and some light infantry elements, use the Lodyneon-Delta pattern Sentinel. In addition to armored reconnaissance Sentinels, cavalry units employ a variety of Sentinels outfitted for artillery observation, signaling, short-range air defense, light mortar support, and engineering.

#### Crassus Family

Several heavy vehicles in the Mecmastran military derive from the Mars-Lodyneon pattern Crassus armored transport. Heavy mechanized infantry battalions use an upgunned version, while their recovery vehicles and mobile command posts use the same platform. Various artillery, air defense, and engineering vehicles held at echelons above division also use the Crassus chassis, including Praetor missile launchers.

#### Rogal Dorn Family

Heavy armored battalions use the Mars-Epsilon pattern Rogal Dorn tank, along with tank hunters, assault guns, and flame tanks built from the same chassis in their weapons companies. The Rogal Dorn hull also serves as the basis for some engineering and recovery vehicles in Mecmastran service.

#### Baneblade Family

Mecmastran superheavy armor is grouped into their own dedicated regiments, which parcel out the tanks in company combat teams and, on rare occasions, battalion task forces. Their inventories include Baneblades, Hellhammers, Shadowswords, Baneswords, and Doomhammers, as well as a few breaching, air defense, and command variants— all in Mars-Lodyneon patterns. The Mecmastran Army generally eschews using Baneblade derivatives to transport infantry, since their open tops leave the troops unacceptably vulnerable to heat and overpressure from atomic and fusion weapons.

#### Other Platforms

Mecmastran regiments use families of cargo-4, -6, -8, and -10 trucks. These exist in numerous variants ranging from fuel tankers to field maintenance vans, and are critical to every unit's functions.

## Regiment Appearance

Mecmastra's field uniforms are a dark olive green, with desert or tundra colors issued on a limited basis. The main uniform, worn by infantry and most other roles, consists of a simple coat, undershirt, pants, belt, and boots, with flak body armor, attached webbing, and a helmet capable of mounting auspex monoculars or binoculars. Their uniforms do not match Cadian patterns. Boots and webbing are typically coyote brown, with few exceptions. Vehicle crews wear jumpsuits with lower chances of catching on parts of their station. Cold weather gear includes a coat liner and thicker pants, while a weatherproof coat, pants, and poncho protect from rain. Officers generally eschew ornate dress, preferring uniforms relatively close to those of their troops.