Cadian Shock Troops - Cadian Shock Troops: The Cadian Shock Troops, also sometimes called Cadian Shock Troopers, are the highly disciplined Militarum Regimentum soldiers conscripted in large numbers from the Fortress World of Cadia for the Astra Militarum, which once stood sentinel as the preeminent bastion of the Imperium of Man in the fight against the Emperor's ancient Archenemy, Chaos. They are deployed in every segmentum of the Imperium and are particularly skilled at defending fortified positions against extreme assaults and in warfare against the forces of Chaos.From the famous Shock Troops of its infantry regiments to the dedicated crews of its armoured war engines and the gunners who man its artillery and heavy weapons, the discipline and highly-professional warriors of the Cadian Regimentum are lauded throughout the Imperium as born soldiers.Cadia was one world amongst many tens of thousands in the Imperium, and has an honoured and violent place in its history, for Cadia stood upon the edge of the Eye of Terror within the Segmentum Obscurus, in a narrow corridor of navigable space known as the Cadian Gate. As a result, for 10,000 standard years Cadia endured the constant assaults of the forces of Chaos from within the Eye and remained unbowed and unconquered until Abaddon the Despoiler unleashed his 13th Black Crusade. This history of unending threat from the Archenemy bred a world of warriors who are still known to possess unsurpassed discipline and skill, and whose Astra Militarum regiments stand as examples to the rest of the Imperial Guard and Mankind.Cadia is a by-word for stalwart defiance and righteous contempt on countless worlds, and for good reason. Sat within a narrow stable passageway known as the Cadian Gate into the heart of the Eye of Terror, the Cadian Sector stands as a bastion against the encroachment of the forces of Chaos, holding fast for millennia against the onslaught of Traitors, Heretics, and Daemons. Cadia was amongst the foremost Fortress Worlds in the Imperium, with every soul trained from childhood to defend their world, and all the Imperial worlds beyond, against the abominations that dwell within the colossal Warp Storm that dominated their skies.Barring a small minority composed of those unfit to serve as soldiers, every child on Cadia was expected to serve in the Cadian Youth Army, better known as the Whiteshields, from the age of fourteen standard years until their maturity, learning the combat skills and discipline regarded as essential. From these, many continued their service by joining the Interior Guard (the Cadian Planetary Defence Force) as adults, pledging their lives to the defence of Cadia, a force of hundreds, even thousands of regiment-strength units, and the equal of any comparably sized Imperial Guard force.Even those who did not remain in military service -- fulfilling some rear-echelon role essential to the upkeep of an immense defensive army -- were expected to maintain their skills and remain vigilant, stepping up to fight should the Interior Guard be overwhelmed. Indeed, such was the number of capable youth soldiers, Interior Guardsmen, reservists, and the sheer quantity of new recruits on Cadia every year, that many invasions were been defeated through attrition alone, the invading armies unable to match the hundreds of millions of Cadians.In addition to defending the Imperium from the horrors of the Eye of Terror, Cadia also provided a large tithe of troops to the Departmento Munitorum, and some of the most legendary regiments in the Imperium still hail from the lost Fortress World. These soldiers are selected at random, without fear that they might be rejected by the Departmento Munitorum -- a testament to the quality of the Cadian Interior Guard.The legendary status of these troops still sees Cadian regiments serving in warzones vast distances from Cadia. As such, the influence of Cadian regiments can be felt on worlds in every segmentum, influencing combat doctrine and logistics. Cadian Interior Guard forces employed standardised Departmento Munitorum equipment and vehicles, allowing them to seamlessly transfer into the service of the Astra Militarum, and there are only a few types of regiment that cannot be raised from Cadian forces.Cadians believe that discipline is the single most important factor in the operation of any army. While there are those who justifiably disagree with this position, it has nonetheless served the Cadians well for millennia, and countless Imperial victories can be attributed to the effort and determination of the sons and daughters of Cadia. Even with the loss of their homeworld after the Fall of Cadia, millions of Cadian troops, many now raised and trained in transit to war zones, remain a vital cog in the defence of the Imperium from its myriad foes.That there will be no more of their kind born on Cadia itself is not the death knell that many fear: the Cadian lineage continues in every new generation that comes of age as the fleetborne armies make their standard-years-long transitions through the Warp between war zones. Cadian tactics and dogma have spread to many other worlds and Cadian regiments are frequently reinforced with soldiers from other regiments. In these ways the lost Fortress World's culture survives, its huge armies now marshalled by Lord Castellan Ursula J. Creed.Every generation of Cadian soldiery still undergoes total military indoctrination. At the age of most other worlds' raw recruits, every Cadian already has had more than a solar decade's military experience; through constant drills and endurance trials, they train to be deadly shots in the bloody cacophony of war and proficient in hand-to-hand combat.They even receive a carefully monitored introduction to the perils of psyker-taint and mutation -- for such were once the risks of living on a world so near to the Eye of Terror -- and this grounding has proved more beneficial on the numerous other worlds now cursed with the Great Rift's caress in the Era Indomitus. This approach leaves Cadian soldiers mentally and spiritually fortified, with a grim accepatance of things that would send lesser Humans screaming in terror.