Steel Dragoons of Ziguraet

The Steel Dragoons are generalist frontline formations fielded en masse by the Haven World of Ziguraet, found within the Corusco Cluster. Unlike other more specialized formations of the Cluster, the Steel Dragoons are intended to bear the brunt of the fighting wherever they are deployed and are raised in large Divisions capable of controlling significant amounts of territory directly. Because they collectively make up fully functional independent armies, the umbrella term of the Steel Dragoons refer to a somewhat broad grouping of subordinate regiments that are organized and fight differently from one another.

## History

Ziguraet is a world with a long history dating back to the early days of the Exodus, and as such has had planetary armed forces for longer than the Imperium has existed. That long tradition however came shattered and broken during the Age of Strife, and such was the damage to the world and its body of knowledge that little remains of what its military in the days past might have used to look like. The modern Steel Dragoons bear absolutely no relations to their ancient forebears and were the result of the troubled times of anarchy that unfolded when the galaxy was choked by warp storms and space travel made impossible.

As with most Hive Worlds, Ziguraet did not have enough means of producing food to sustain its population, and the planet descended into tribalistic warfare at both the high and low levels, with Hive Cities fighting one another over food stores and farming complexes while their populations broke down into clans which then fought one another for the rights to the spoils of war. Lives and war material were cheap, as there was an over-abundance of the former, and the latter could easily be rebuild using the world's enormous industrial capacity. By contrast, food was worth its proverbial weight in gold and food production sites were fought over with a near-religious reverence practically matching that which later Imperial populations would employ towards their Saints' Basilicas. To destroy a farming complex was an heresy so unthinkable it would invite a coalition of all other tribes to annihilate the perpetrator.

Because of this, the militia formations that would later evolve to become the Steel Dragons made lavish use of their easily replaced vehicles, including armored transports, tanks and various support vehicles. Their need to take their targets with as little collateral damage as possible to the valuable installations demanded that infantry bear the brunt of the fighting, up close and personal, and if one could rapidly sever and dismantle the enemy's battle lines via focused application of concentrated, overwhelming armored firepower, then all the better to avoid costly wars of attrition that could cause undue damage.

When the Imperium rediscovered Ziguraet during the Imperial Compliance, they found it a dead ecumenopolis where fragmented major factions were in a state of constant warfare over control of the planet's food supply infrastructure and nomad tribes eked out a strange living in the dead zones forsaken by war. They were relatively easily subdued by the Legionnaires of the Second Legion thanks to their lack of unity, and were subsequently reformed to erase the very weakness that had lead to their defeat. Under Imperial control, Ziguraet became a poster story of successful recovery and its ragtag warbands were similarly became a unified legion of steel, engines and guns, able to overwhelm the enemies of the Imperium under a never-ending deluge of armored and mechanized spearheads.

## Doctrine

As a fully mechanized force, the Steel Dragoons make plentiful use of maneuver warfare. This includes a focus on encirclement and overruning positions and choke points such as highways, mountain passes and bridges to lock-in slower-moving forces, racing to favorable terrain, by-passing fortifications or just hounding the enemy from multiple different directions at once. On the defensive, elastic defense, harassing strikes and small-scale counter-attacks aimed at disrupting and cutting off enemy vanguard elements - themselves now encircled - dominate. It is very common for the Dragoons to feign a weakness in the line, draw in an enemy into hastily prepared positions full of heavy armor in hull-down, camouflaged fortification, then suddenly hammer them in from all sides.

On the tactical scale, the Dragoons still rely on speed and armor as their main tools of war. Though their training and equipment is no more special than the average regiment of the wider Imperium, they hold that to seize and keep the initiative is the best way to overcome a deficit of the former two. A foe with overwhelming artillery support can't bring it to bear if it can't keep up with one's movements, or if they are all up into friendlies' face, and even the most disciplined and fearless of gun lines will start to break down and consider a withdrawal if it can be made to look like as if they're about to be encircled, but not quite. Because Dragoon commanders know that an encircled enemy will often fight to the death with renewed spite, it is a common tactic on both small and large scale to purposefully leave a small opening in the encirclement to coax them to either abandon their positions and attempt a withdrawal, or inversely, pour in more fresh troops into a cauldron.

Individually, members of the Dragoons are neither fine swordsmen nor marksmen. They are trained for sharp reaction times and concentrated burst of hip fire solid ammunition to rapidly eliminate whatever opposition they encounter and move on. The reason for the preference for autoguns over lasguns lies in a mix of their higher rate of fire, simple and reliable construction, the psychological impact on the enemy of loud, uninterrupted scything bursts of fire, and the fact that Ziguraet already featured gargantuan amounts of production lines for autogun ammunition. psychological warfare is well known and wholly embraced by the Steel Dragoons, who often forsake stealth entirely and purposefully employ loud engines on their vehicles to create the overwhelming impression that they are everywhere as they advance and that there is no escape.

## Organization

The standard operating building block of the Steel Dragoons of Ziguraet is the Division, which is made up of many subordinate formations. These were originally organized around the 5'000-man Fulcrum standard, but in the 41st millenium they are generally simply called Regiments, as the term has become somewhat interchangeable with the vague and loose definition of Imperial Regiments. These subordinate Regiments are single branch formations technically compliant with the modern Imperial prohibitions against combined arms, but when brought to bear together as a Division - and they very rarely are not - they are very much so a combined arms. A typical Steel Dragoons Division is made up of six Mechanized Regiments with a nominal strength of 30'000 infantrymen, two Armored Regiments with a nominal frontline strength of 500 tanks, and two Logistical Regiments for support. Super-heavy or artillery formations can also be attached to Divisional command on a punctual basis, but this is not as frequent due to the Dragoons' emphasis on speed. Multiple Divisions will form up together to create a Corp of roughly 200'000 men and 2'500 tanks plus supporting elements and super-heavies.

### Mechanized Regiments

The Mechanized formations are the workhorse of the Steel Dragoons, and what gives them their name as Dragoons. These regular infantrymen generally ride either in fast Courser skimmer transports or in the more heavily armed and armored wheeled Destrier, with the latter taking the brunt of frontal breakthrough assaults and the former acting as the hammer to the anvil in flanking and overrunning maneuvers. The Regiment is broken down in 10 Cohorts or Battalions of 500 men, with each one having an homogenous transport pool and subsequently broken down in Centuries.

### Armored Regiments

The Armored formations form the tip of the spear, being concentrated wherever breakthrough need to be made with extreme brutality. Like their Mechanized counterpart, they may feature a mix of Musketeer skimmer medium tanks and Morningstar heavy tank squadrons, with the latter facing the brunt of enemy fire and dealing with the heaviest strong-points while the former enacting flanking maneuvers and wrecking havoc in the enemy's rear echelons after a breakthrough is achieved. They are broken down in 10 companies of 25 vehicles each, further subdivided in 5 squadrons of 5 vehicles.

### Logistical Regiments

Despite their less than glorious name, the Logistical formations are made up, perhaps counter-intuitively so, of some of the Division's finest soldiers. A heavily mechanized force requires an enormous logistical footprint in mobile mechanic workshops and fuel tankers and distribution points, and any foe worth their salt will almost certainly target them in priority. The Dragoons understand and anticipate this and made sure each mechanic and fuel jock is as capable a fighter as any frontliner, dropping wrench and pump nozzle in a blink to grab their autoguns and supported by a small core of hardened veterans. These Regiments also feature highly valuable area air defense assets, strategically deployed to cover not only themselves from air assaults, but also the other Regiments they support.

## Steel Dragoon Wargear

* **Brimstone-pattern Flak Armor** - As with many other formations within the Corusco Cluster, the Steel Dragoons also favor the Brimstone pattern Flak Armor, which is made up of a cuirass of foamed plasteel, a similarly formed helmet, and a greatcoat of thick flakweave. This provides adequate protection against peer threats while remaining fairly lightweight - a must for the Dragoons' emphasis on speed and relentless tempo - as well as simple and cheap to produce, which in turn allows it to be mass produced in the quantities necessary to feed the needs of the Steel Dragoons' enormous field armies. It is not infrequent for veteran Regiments to adorn their armor in manners similar to that of light cavalry of Old Earth's pre-modern era, such as with feathered helmets and crests and polished cuirasses. It is also often supplemented with a respirator.
* **Brimstone-patter Autogun** - Brimstone's Autogun is also the preferred weapon of the Steel Dragoons because its compact size allows it to fit easily within the confines of armored transports and its lightweight magazines allow for significant ammunition to be carried. The Brimstone is a simple, easily manufactured and maintained plasteel weapon using caseless 6.5mm ammunition, capable of withstanding a considerable amount of abuse and adverse conditions without malfunctions.
* **12x Magazines** - No less than 360 rounds of ammunition are carried by the Steel Dragoons on webbing straps worn over their cuirass to ensure a steady supply of fire during protracted firefights.
* **Multipurpose bayonet** - The standard bayonet within the Steel Dragoons is a versatile tool. It is a 40cm long plasteel blade with a regular edge on the primary cutting side and a serrated, saw-like back
* **3x Frag Grenades** - Common fragmentation grenades are often carried to assist in assaulting entrenched positions.
* **1 week of nutrition bars** - The Steel Dragoons' nutrition bars come in many varieties due to the colossal agri-complexes that were built after the end of the Age of Strife, and it is seen as a source of pride that even their emergency rations are varied and rich in flavor and textures. Some are large loafs of shelf-stable semi-soft meat, while others include dark chocolate with dried fruits or resemble breaded cheese sticks.