Catachan Jungle Fighters - History: The world of Catachan was colonised by Humans many Terran millennia ago during the Dark Age of Technology, long before the Imperium was established. When the first exploratory probes arrived in its star system, the planet was a deceptive, calm green orb when scrutinised from orbit, but when the first colony ships crash-landed on the jungle planet and the colonists had no way to escape, they discovered themselves to have arrived on one of the harshest and most dangerous planetary ecosystems in the galaxy.The colonists only barely survived, holed up in their spacecraft against a living, besieging jungle, a battle for survival in which undoubtedly many of them died before they finally managed to learn enough about their new homeworld to survive, if not thrive, beneath its jungle canopies.In time, their skill at surviving on Catachan came to the notice of the Departmento Munitorum, which realised that the Catachans would make excellent Astra Militarum troops dedicated to service in some of the galaxy's most hostile planetary environments, and the first regiments of the Catachan Jungle Fighters were raised.Catachan is one of the most notorious Death Worlds in the Imperium, and its planet-wide jungles are lethal beyond reason. Yet despite the exceptionally perilous nature of the Catachan ecosystem, the servants of the Emperor inhabit this vast world in surprising numbers.Thanks to the brutal environment in which they are raised, Catachans are physically and mentally resilient on a level that much of Humanity simply cannot match. Cunning, resourceful and uncompromising, Catachans must be born survivors simply to reach adulthood. It speaks volumes of the Catachans that they maintain a population capable not only of fighting their own battle for survival, but of sending forces to fight the wider wars of the Imperium as well.Catachan raises dozens of regiments for the Astra Militarum every standard year, their skills honed to a knife-edge upon the world of their birth. Viewing daily survival upon Catachan as but a microcosm of Humanity's wider struggle, the Death World's warriors proudly answer the Emperor's call to arms.Each regiment raised is exchanged with the Departmento Munitorum for much-needed medical and military supplies. These in turn allow the Catachan settlements to maintain their daily fight for life. This arrangement has stood for thousands of standard years, and though the Catachans bleed more than most for the Imperium of Man, they would have it no other way.The very factors that shape the Catachans into such exceptional warriors also leave them proud, aggressive and insular. Individuality is prized amongst the Catachan infantry regiments, known as Jungle Fighters, and only a handful of traditions are treated as sacrosanct, such as the wearing of red bandanas that symbolise the blood oath sworn by each newly founded regiment.The Jungle Fighters are notoriously dismissive of the shiny medals and gaudy attire flaunted by other Militarum Regimentos -- rank and status are displayed through the inking of specific tattoos, or by the winning of famed Catachan weapons such as a four-foot-long Devil's Claw. Pragmatism is key to these grizzled warriors, with a favoured tactic being to lay explosive traps before hunkering down in dense cover. Those enemies not outright blown to shreds are quickly finished off by las-fire and torrents of burning Promethium.Catachan's armoured regiments are similarly renowned for the destruction they unleash. With their hulking frames, Catachan crewman are able to heft massive shells and magazines into place with ease, allowing their gunners to lay down a near-unending rain of shots. Bedecked with vines, camouflage netting or splatters of concealing mud, Catachan tanks may look out of place on the parade ground, but are invaluable on the battlefield.Catachan military leaders typically eschew the privileges of authority, instead suffering through every hardship alongside their troops, a great point of pride among the regiments. Many Catachan commanders can claim to have personally saved the lives of half their company. Rather than treat their men as servile underlings, Catachan officers command with crude banter that conceals an underlying mutual respect. Though inarguably effective within Catachan ranks, this style of leadership makes the job of outsiders such as Commissars doubly difficult and often extremely dangerous when they are attached to Catachan regiments.