Catachan Jungle Fighters - Catachan Jungle Fighters: The Catachan Jungle Fighters are the members of the Militarum Regimentum of the Astra Militarum that has been recruited from the Death World of Catachan. They have the well-deserved reputation of being the deadliest practitioners of jungle warfare in the galaxy. They are primarily deployed in the Segmentum Solar and the Segmentum Ultima and are highly skilled at combat in especially hazardous terrain and in carrying out guerilla and asymmetric warfare.Their homeworld of Catachan is a jungle Death World, where natural selection ensures only the most deadly flora and fauna survive. Extremely resourceful and uncompromising warriors, the natives of Catachan recruited into the Imperial Guard are deadly melee fighters with their specialised close combat blades or from ambush with their Lascarbines. In jungle terrain they are unsurpassed by nearly any other mortal soldiers in the Imperium, with each Catachan Fighter being worth ten soldiers from any other regiment. The skills learned in the jungles of Catachan are easily adapted to other war zones.Indeed, Catachans believe that even the most suicidal of military engagements are as nothing compared to spending but a single solar day in the lethal jungles of their homeworld. This "gung-ho" enthusiasm is often mistaken for bravado by guardsmen from other regiments. The fact remains, however, that Catachan Jungle Fighters are the most uncomplaining, determined and valorous soldiers of the Astra Militarum, whether assigned to basic garrison duties or a hopeless assault upon an impregnable fortress.Though their planet's predators, plant life, air, soil and water are all inimical to Human life, these natural warriors not only survive, but maintain a population high enough to raise dozens of new Astra Militarum regiments every year. Though little production occurs in these rough survivalists' few permanent fortified settlements, Catachan is rich in resources it trades for essential goods. These include bio-specimens, exotic vegetation, toxins and rare chemicals and, above all, the native Catachans themselves, for they are perhaps the most worthy component of their world's tithe to the Imperium.They have become legendary amongst the rest of the Imperial Guard. In stories told to children they are almost as lauded as the Adeptus Astartes themselves, and in many ways maybe even more so, for the men and women of Catachan are just that -- mortal men and women. Everything they do, every storied battle they have won, they have achieved without all the genetically-enhanced advantages of the Emperor's Space Marines.Catachans exhibit a fearless and gung-ho attitude to danger. Thanks to the brutal environment in which they are raised, they 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 on their homeworld.The natives of Catachan are renowned for being both taller and more powerful than normal Humans. Due to their heavily developed physiques, Catachans are sometimes referred to as "Baby Ogryns" by other guardsmen, although saying this within earshot often results in serious injury.Catachan is one of the deadliest worlds known to Mankind, and its inhabitants are amongst the hardiest, most dangerous Humans in the Imperium. Almost every creature and plant on Catachan is deadly to Human life in some way, from the monstrous Catachan Devil to the mind-destroying Brain Leaf and the carnivorous Venus Mantrap. The true diversity of life on Catachan has never been catalogued, though many Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator expeditions have tried and failed.Because of these creatures and innumerable others, life on Catachan is unimaginably harsh; fifty percent of the planet's Human population does not survive infancy, and fifty percent of the remainder does not live past the age of ten solar years. Those who do reach adulthood are invariably among the toughest, most uncompromising and resourceful warriors in the Imperium, masters of surviving in one of the most inhospitable environments in the galaxy. With little to offer the Imperium but their lives, many Catachans are recruited into the Imperial Guard, their skills such that each one of them is worth a dozen other guardsmen when fighting in dense jungle.Catachan itself has little need for a Planetary Defence Force, the world's flora and fauna being sufficiently deadly to thwart almost all invaders without the need for Human intervention, and so most Catachan guardsmen are instead recruited from amongst the population of hunters, skilled trackers, and combatants used to clearing the encroaching jungle and driving off or slaying the beasts that would threaten the small, short-lived Human settlements.Their necessary skill with an assortment of weapons, and the dangers they face keeping their homes safe from predators, mean that they are well-prepared for the dangers of the battlefield. Indeed, a state of almost constant mortal peril has resulted in the Catachan mind-set being one of apparent recklessness and bravado, paradoxically mixed with constant vigilance and almost paranoid caution.This seeming contradiction can be explained by the simple matter of familiarity -- natives of Catachan are so accustomed to danger that their responses, while appearing foolhardy, are honed by practice and a perpetual, careful awareness of their surroundings. This is compounded by a contempt for the threat of death, born from that familiarity. To a Catachan, the threat of death is a constant thing, and they do not understand the concept of safety or peace.Catachan regiments are most commonly light infantry, making the most of their legendary talents as scouts and ambushers. However, their daring and aggression have been employed in other ways, with potent armoured regiments hailing from Catachan in the past.The skills employed by some of their most famous regiments -- the Catachan XXIV "Waiting Death," the XVIII "Swamprats," the MXIV "Unseen Lurkers" who have seamlessly adapted to combat in urban sprawls -- include the setting of complex and invisible booby traps, vanishing into dense terrain and effortlessly negotiating and fighting on the most hazardous ground.The Catachan Jungle Fighters take special pride in their officers, who fight side-by-side with their rank-and-file troops, sharing in their suffering on the battlefield. As a result, discipline within Catachan regiments is maintained through trust and respect won over many Terran years of campaigning, rather than purely through the formal rank structures and unearned authority relied upon by many other regiments. This has, however, resulted in a reputation for willfulness amongst other regiments and outsiders, particularly figures of authority such as commissars, who have difficulty earning the trust and deference of Catachan guardsmen.