Rosskan Strelky

"Imagine more dead than a planet has people. Filling up a field. Fifty of our's gone for every one of them killed. And now imagine it, and call it victory at the same time."

Vlatiskov, Strelky Sergeant after being asked about his service

Rosskan Strelky
Homeworld	Rosskar
Doctrine	Astartes Assistance Actions, Mechanized Infantry, Urban Warfare, Defensive Warfare
Signature Equipment	Vityaz-pattern Power Armor, Rosskan-pattern Lasgun
Colors	Grey, White, Dark Green
Associated Legion	Thirteenth Legion

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Rosskan Strelky were the Legionary Auxilia of the Silver Cataphracts, the Thirteenth Space Marine Legion. Unlike their counterparts in the Imperial Army, were supposed to be a disciplined standardized force drawn up from the Legion's conquests. Alexandri of Rosskar hand crafted the Strelky himself, treating them much in the same way he did his Legion. Starting from a few million recruits drawn up from a single world, to a sector spanning billions large force able to fight and conquer worlds in their own right. The greatest contribution the Strelky had perhaps however, was showing Astartes can be beaten by normal humans alone.

History

Formation and Dalask

Weeks after the Emperor's fleets found Rosskar and his son was brought back into the fold, Alexandri dove into every bit of knowledge he could gather about the Great Crusade and the Imperial war machine. During the next few months new plans were drawn up with his cadre of advisers, leading to the formation of the first Strelky units. The Thirteenth Legion would need armor, weaponry, munitions far beyond what would be normally provided to reach the Regent's desires. Before the arrival of the Imperium, a massive urban expansion and revival project was in its formative stages. All of this was being pushed aside to give the resources necessary to properly build up the Silver Cataphracts. Which left the people of Rosskar with a booming population issue. Too many people were cramped together with resources growing scarce.

The Strelky proved to be an interesting proposal given to Alexandri by a genius administer named Argeski Dalask. More than enough weaponry was left over by his armies before the unification, or even by those before his arrival to the world. All of it was gathering dust away in vaults, rarely kept after except by men like him. It would take little to use men of the state to organize Rosskar's multitudes of youth into a dedicated fighting force. The intent was to give these men and women to the Imperial Army's endless forces. Alexandri decided instead that they would serve as an excellent supporting force for his Legion. All along the frozen wastes of Rosskar, millions drilled and trained to become a force comparable to Alexandri's own original armies.

It would be Dalask leading this newly constructed force, named the first Supreme Commander of Rosskar. Not for his leadership skills, but management. He was not a person capable of being an actual commander in any respect. His body was a twig, sometimes leaving being called 'The Spectral Officer' by his subordinates. His skills in keeping the Strelky operational cannot be overlooked however. As the Legion expanded, so too did the Strelky. It was his idea not to have the Auxilia simply be recruited from Rosskar, and it was he who paved the roadways to keeping a steady supply of manpower and weaponry. As it turned out, other worlds had stockpiles similar to Rosskar. And he who noted to the Primarch that there was a considerable delay between the conquering Expedition Fleet's victory over a world, and the arrival of the Corps Logisticae. Giving more than enough time to gather up volunteers and dregs from the newly conquered planets.

Dalask met his end far from Rosskar's white surface, when his ship was lost to the warp with all hands during transit to a new location. During his command, the Strelky served their purpose well. The Silver Cataphracts were supported by well taught troopers, but beyond this they did little else. With the numbers of the Strelky ever on the rise. Climbing faster and faster compared to the Legion they fought for, change would need to happen soon.

Era of Trilyen

Gevaska Trilyen was a boy from Rosskar's slums who stole from vendors in the underground levels for a living. At thirteen years old, he was caught, and sentenced to service in the Rosskan Strelky. A life sentence. At forty-five years of age, he had risen from frontline fodder to Supreme Commander of Rosskar. His ascent in the stuff of legends, but the true legend began once he had gained full control of the Strelky. His plan, after watching men die by the thousands for the Astartes was to revolutionize the Strelky to be a more offensive and well rounded force. Everything was already laid out to do this, it just required a generation.

The old ranks were full of men and women trained in the old way of doing things. A fresh start was required to bring about the kind of radical change Gevaska desired. His secret to success was the understanding of his limitations as one man. Gevaska hand picked a dozen individuals, who then hand picked another dozen, and this repeated until he was able to speak to twelve men who would cause an avalanche down the chain of command. To do this, the old leadership was nearly completely wiped out by his supporters. The move never failed to bring a smile to Alexandri's face, just as when he first heard reports of it. Next was to build up each new recruit taken from Rosskar and other worlds with the new training philosophy planned by Gevaska. Just being able to give suppressive fire and stand before Space Marines was not good enough anymore.

The evidence of the Regent's favor did not show itself with gaudy and impractical excesses or even the finest equipment, but the manner in which their training was completed. Thanks to veterans from the Silver Cataphracts, hailing to the days of Terra's conquest the Emperor, throngs of new trainers were ready to assist in transforming the Strelky. The ruthless men worked from Rosskar to all over the Segmentum Pacificus. Putting boys and girls through some of the fiercest training regimens imaginable, designed to give them iron resolve under fire and total serenity around Astartes. Gevaska could not have been able to do this alone, but thanks to the Primarch more than enough instructors were available to him.

Because of rejuvenant treatments, Gevaska was able to keep himself alive to see the rise of his vision for the Strelky come to complete fruition. Within twenty years, a complete change had accord in the ranks of the Auxilia. Their mass was fearsome, that much was certain, but the soldiers of the Rosskan Strelky had a presence greater than the sum of the bodies which served as component. The hard, efficient men of the Auxilla were like the stone of Alexandri's formidable cities now. And they were polished as such. To watch tens of thousands of men move in perfect synchronicity was to stand in awe. Man and Astartes alike had no choice but to recognize their strength then. Their cold, perfect brutality.

The Auxilia still acted alongside their Legion much the same as before, but were able to fight alone now. More and more Silver Cataphract commanders gave them free reign in certain theatres of planetary assaults, the Strelky proving time after time to be perfectly capable of handling them on their own. None of this was spectacular or revolutionizing to the Imperium at large, but it showed the new beginning ushered by Geveska's ambitious plan.

Supreme Commander of Rosskar Trilyen was assassinated on a newly conquered world, which only a single Company of Cataphracts had fought on. They were however assisted by an entire Division of Strelky, nearly one million soldiers. His vision did not die with him thankfully, as the young ward put under him named Alexey took up his mantle right away. Beneath this man, the Strelky would go far beyond what even Geveska thought possible.

Alexey Ibirien's Age

Alexey was born 17 years after the arrival of the Emperor, in the year 872.M30. At the age of six his parents were murdered in a suicide car bombing by democratic insurgents on Rosskar. For the next seven years he never leave the side of his Great Uncle Alexandri. The Regent of Rosskar intended to groom the lad for command from the start of his guardianship. Alexey would become an Astartes, replacing the current Legionary Commander Sergei upon finishing Alexandri's elaborate training program laid before him. During the opening stages of puberty however, the Apothecaries of the Silver Cataphracts learned that Alexey was incompatible with the gene-seed and would not survive implantation.

Rather abruptly, Alexey was removed from Alexandri. He came into the service as a functionary of Geveska Trilyen, the current Supreme Commander of Rosskar. His role as one of the countless aides attached to the Commander taught the teenager of all the minutiae involved in keeping the Strelky operational. He was able to observe the transformation of the Auxilia into a true fighting force. As he grew into adulthood, Alexandri oddly stepped in. A constant supply of rejuvenants were fed to Alexey, to keep him youthful and spry. Most of the treatments only stall the aging process, but for the son of House Ibirien it kept him at the age of twenty well into his advanced centuries.

At age thirty-five, Alexandri ordered his former ward Alexey to several key locations across the emerging Imperium. His first journey was to Ciban, greeted right away at arrival by the Auxilia of the Winged Victory Legion. Here the journeying Alexey spoke at length with Force Commander Rani Stolarz, focusing mainly about the history of the revolution and of her opinion on the Primarch Gaspard Lumey. His experiences on the planet drove the future commander to achieve a level of excellence he thought impossible of him before. The freedoms of Ciban amazed him to that extent, that he would not rest till his home Rosskar could be as true.

He traveled next to Tisenjoch which was the home of the Mastodontii, fostering a bond with many commanders of the Legion that were shattered during the Lenard Depths Campaign. His next visit was to Terra, meeting with dozens of Legates who commanded vast amounts of troops in the Solar Auxilia. He observed the growing heart of the mighty Imperium he would one day fight to maintain. He attempted to arrange a meeting with Malcador, but was rebuked harshly in a private correspondence sent from the Imperial Palace. He went next to Sepulchra, faced with several complications on his attempts to actually meet a Primarch for the first time. Several of the Entombed gave him complicated and sometimes contradictory advice when speaking to them. After months of waiting, he was allowed to speak to the legendary Gologthos. He never once spoke of what went on in the conversation; but several people note that again just like with Ciban, Alexey was not the same after his trip there.

Though he would meet more Primarchs in his later travels, such as Arelex Orannis and the Emperor's Champion himself Kleisthenes, Alexey's personal conversations amounted to little. What was important was experience gained from witnessing and learning of the countless and varied military forces at work in the Great Crusade. Few travel across the stars as he had, seeking out knowledge hungrily. He had seen the Aeroguard execute flawless for aerial drills, the well timed assaults of the Crusaders, the unending resolve of the Stone Men. It taught him of the Imperial Army and Astartes Legions in equal measure.

In the closing years of the Great Crusade, and the beginning of the Hektor Heresy, this knowledge would come to serve Alexey well.

Great Crusade

At the age of one hundred and one, in the year 973M.30, Alexey would take Geveska Trilyen's position as Supreme Commander of Rosskar. He had served as a commander previously after the culmination of his travels for nearly fifty years before then. His first act was to assemble a highly skilled cadre of scribes to assist in the administration of the Strelky. After having the assistance he needed, the entire warmachine was yet again rebuilt. Some regiments were deprived of mechanical support, and others had a greater allotment of vehicles overnight. Regimental types of such as artillery, armored, mechanized infantry, light infantry, etc. were made. Alexey believed if the Auxilia was to truly support the Legion, they needed an element of specialization unseen in the wider Imperial Army.

His next step was to improve the understanding of the Rosskan dialect of Low Gothic across the many billions at his disposal. Communication would be key to the necessary combination of regiments on campaign, after suffering too many causalities to be combat effective. All outdated equipment was handed over as well, including looted weaponry. Standardization from now on would be the hidden strength of the Strelky. At first, the actions put into place lowered morale and a period of unease arose in the ranks. The Silver Cataphracts equally felt unsure of the new commander's abilities after several failures in the field due to his specialized regiments.

But as the decades rolled on, officers learned how to handle themselves with their new roles. Soldiers began to show greater skill working in a single field. The specialized regiments, when working together, were far greater than their singular parts. Because of this, Alexandri allotted a great more amount of Rhino APCs and Gaudin tanks to the Strelky to help boost mobility and combat effectiveness. Plasma and melta weaponry found its way into the hands of at least one specialist per squad. During warp travel, Strelky regiments would be trained by their Cataphracts brethren in the ways of war.

But upon the Exile of the Winged Victory, Alexey put the entire future of the Strelky at stake when he spoke out against Alexandri. He called him a coward for not bringing up a defense for his brother, who had only ever served the Imperium faithfully. Ciban and Rosskar were sister-worlds of the Imperial Truth, and the Silver Cataphrcats and Void Angels the sentinels of the Segmentum Pacificus. But it was not just his love of Ciban that drove Alexey, for he also mentioned that with the Mastodontii in the Ultima Segmentum, their own region of space was bereft of strength. And that how long would it be until the War Council next turned its eye to him for what transpired in the Lenard Depths? But it did not matter. Alexandri punished the impudent commander by limiting supply and forcing vast amounts of the Strelky to remain on garrison duty, the exact opposite of what Alexey desired for the fighting force that had been built up so long to be respected alongside the Legion.

This act would inadvertently lead to the salvation of Rosskar, and the rebirth of the Strelky once more.

Strategic Organisation

Before the arrival of Geveska Trilyen, the Strelky were organized in blocks of 100,000 men with a simplistic breakdown that did not lend itself well to the style of warfare he wanted. In order to match up to the Silver Cataphracts operationally, huge masses of troops would be required. The entire system as it was, was broken down. New ranks were commissioned and an entirely new system made. Squads were increased from fifteen men to twenty-five, with platoons being replaced by the Section formation, and everything else was reorganized. This allowed large groupings of Strelky to act as one. During the Heresy, the enlarged standard numbers gave the Auxilia an edge that most Imperial Army regiments had yet to adopt.

Another change made was multiple redundant ranks introduced in the lower formations. Officers were normally subordinate to Astartes, allowing clear orders to be given on the battlefield. But without them, especially during the Heresy, all officers could be wiped out giving foot soldiers no leadership. The ranks of Junior and Senior Ensign were introduced, who could command both Sections and Platoons. Lieutenants could rely on Ensigns to take command if they fell as well. This gave the frontline formations definitive fallbacks in the battlefield hierarchy to deal with massive losses commonly suffered by the Strelky.

Organizational Breakdown

• Squad, consisting of 15 men, led by a Sergeant
• Section, consisting of 50 men, led by an Ensign
• Platoon, consisting of 200 men, led by a Lieutenant
• Company, consisting of 1,000 men, led by a Captain
• Battalion, consisting of 10,000 men, led by a Major
• Regiment, consisting of 50,000 men, led by a Colonel
• Brigade, consisting of 200,000 men, led by a Brigadier
• Division, consisting of 1,000,000 men, led by a Brigadier General
• Corps, consisting of 5,000,000 men, led by a General
• Army, consisting of 20,000,000 men, led by a Marshal
• Army Group, consisting of 100,000,000 men, led by a Commander of Rosskar

Strategic Command Ranks

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Commander of Rosskar

Marshal

General

Brigadier General

Brigadier

Colonel

Frontline Command Ranks(Commissioned)

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Major

Captain(Senior or Junior)

Lieutenant(Senior or Junior)

Frontline Command Ranks(Non-Commissioned)

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Ensign(Senior or Junior)

Sergeant

Soldiery Ranks

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Specialist

Corporal

Veteran Recruit(Or Droog)

Recruit

Military Doctrine

Towards the end of the Great Crusade, and throughout the Hektor Heresy, the Strelky adopted the concept of specialized regimental structure. Some would be dedicated to fielding tanks crewed by the best men to offer. Others would have engineers, who meditated day and night on explosives, construction, and maintenance. The idea was to create a functioning army with several unique parts that could not operate independent of one another. The sacrifice of utility in the individual formations brought a greater strength when combined. Often led by the Companies from the Silver Cataphracts, assaults would be enacted swiftly and efficiently with all the forces acting not out of pride but duty.

Training

Having to deal with the wastrels from compliant worlds, the prisons and slums of Hive Worlds emptied their human refuse to the Silver Cataphracts Expedition Fleets. Some worlds gave up even more volunteers, sometimes those who came of age after the tithe and could not wait for the next time their world was to give troops to the Imperial Army. Whatever the case, the training was the same. Sleeping on beds of ice, being shouted at by tall men in black armor all day and night, fed gruel from tubes and clothed in sacks of cloth. Training did not begin until the trainers themselves had both taught the recruit the Rosskan dialect to the point of fluency, and that they were sure they were entire loyal to Rosskar.

Recruits were trained in blocks of ten, sometimes with the tenth being a plant. They would go through every hardship the squad would suffer, listening in for any attempt at revolt or escape. Those who would speak up found themselves suffering under the whip the next day, or worse, having their head cleaned from their body. If one went with the training however silently, the harsh period would pass. Proper bedding would be given, the quality of food would improve dramatically, and far more fitting clothing would be received. This is the first step in the conditioning process. Disloyalty is punished without remorse, loyalty is rewarded heartily. After the weeding out of the weak, or the unwilling, came the actual education in soldiery.

Strelky Discipline Master

Tasked with both overseeing morale and loyalty, the Discipline Masters of the Strelky were drawn up from the Secret Police of Rosskar as well as those sent from Terra. Adept at mind breaking techniques and torture, the Masters used their skills to break down recruits before building them back up again as soldiers. The denial of food was a simple trick for any slight, but all punishments focused upon dehumanizing a subject. They would also be teacher, training them in firearms, accuracy, drills, and squad combat. Any sign of dissent was punished ridiculously, and when one who could not be broken was sensed, ruthlessly executed. The majority of fresh recruits did not have the iron resolve to deny the Discipline Masters, falling victim to their cruel methods like lambs to a butcher.