Elysian Drop Troops
"We're paratroopers Lieutenant. We're supposed to be surrounded."
- – Band of Brothers
"The enemy commanders think themselves safe from the Emperor's Wrath behind kilometres of fortifications and legions of warriors. They did not account for us. Make your peace with the Emperor, men—we drop in two minutes."
- – Colonel Johanna van Meer, Elysian 13th "Helldivers" Drop Troops
Elysian Drop Troops use rapid deployment tactics to throw troops straight into (or more often, behind) enemy lines. They are famed in battles such as the Taros Campaign, the Anphelion Project and the Defense of Betalis. They come from Elysia, a planet about 30 light years away from Armageddon. Elysians are well trained in ship-to-ship boarding actions, ambush and guerrilla warfare as well as fighting in concert with orbital support when attacking enemies. (It was later revealed that their elite squads are not even their own soldiers, but Tempestus Scions sent to babysit the regiment, which kind of takes away from their overall badassness).
Hilariously enough, despite being the most competent guardsmen around, in pretty much all canon conflicts they take part in they get dicked over for one reason or another, though it's always due to incompetent command, betrayal of some allies or the fuck-ups of other regiments. The Elysians, on the other-hand, always accomplish their missions and then get killed to a man due to not receiving reinforcements in time. Such is a life of space paratrooper. Maybe they're getting slapped with some kind of bad luck, or there's some heresy going on at Forge World. The actual reason behind this is actually simple: as a Paratrooper regiment, Elysians rely heavily on other regiments' support, which require from those regiments to be fast and creative at dealing with troubles they should inevitably encounter on the way - and if you know anything about the Imperial Guard, you know that that's the exact opposite of what you should expect from 99% of non-Elysian regiments. More so, the Guard is deliberately designed to be flawed like that to ensure other branches of Imperial military may exploit these weaknesses when an army or two turn traitor. Why the fuck did someone decide to make an elite (i.e. expensive to train) force of space paratroopers who most likely are gonna die in their first serious engagement, since Imperial Guard is not designed to effectively work with them at all? Because grimdark, that's why.
Training Elysians usually include throwing kids from the back of moving Valkyries until they learn to use grav chutes, or being shown how to clusterfuck even Orks from behind with only a lasgun. It is a good time to mention that the Guardsmen being trained to do these kinds of things all volunteered to do this, which adds some rather wiry hairs to their massive steel balls. They also often employ Drop Sentinels and the Tauros and Venator vehicles because the Leman Russ Battle Tank is too ponderous for their way of deployment...and heavy armor is for pussies, anyway.
As Elysia is smack dab in the middle of an important trade route, it is a rather wealthy planet, and they actually go trough the trouble of outfitting their men with better bling than you would expect from your usual guardsman, they forego the T-shirt almost all other imperial soldiers are relegated to wearing and replace it with some honest to Emperah carapace armour, the same stormtroopers use (unlike them, their version covers less body area however), pressure helmets with respirators (that both allow them to drop from crazy high altitudes and survive the vacuum of space or toxic environments once on the ground), and sight enhancing visors among other toys. They are still stuck with standard issue flashlights for getting down to business though.
In 6th Edition, with the ability to spam flyers from hell to breakfast, Elysians turned from "interesting tactically-flexible army" to "cheesy cheese of cheesiness," broken far beyond (almost) anything you faced before. Although, like with the Grey Knights, Necrons or Tau, you can create a balanced and interesting army with lots of deep striking guardsman, multi-melta sentinels, and heavy (but not cheesy-heavy) flyer support if you do not want to be a power-gaming douchelord. And by "can" we actually mean "must", unless you want to be beaten to death with old metal dreadnought models by everyone playing with you and/or watching you play.
All in all, the Elysians appear to be an amalgamation of many of the Western world's airborne troops throughout history with a bit of Starship Troopers thrown in for good measure.
Further fulfilling the fate of the Elysians to get dicked over, it's beginning to look like Forge World might even Squat them soon, as most of the squads on the Forge World site are now sold out and no longer available (even though they advertised one to be used in Shadow War: Armageddon).This was confirmed in April 2018 with the remaining available Elysians moved to the "last chance to buy" section. Vale Elysians.
We have a tactica for these guys, it's here.
Song
Blood on the Thrusters (Sing along the tune of Blood on the Risers)
He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright.
He checked off his equipment and made sure suspensor's tight.
He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar.
You ain't gonna drop no more.
Chorus: Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.
Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.
Gory, gory, what a hell of way to die.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
"Is everybody happy?" cried commissar looking up.
Our hero feebly answered, "Yes", and then they stood him up.
He dropped into the icy blast, Valkyrie's hatch unlocked.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
He counted long, he counted loud, he waited for the shock.
He felt the wind, he felt the cold, he felt the awful drop.
Promethium from thrusters spilled out and burned through his legs.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
The fuel lines swung around his neck, generator cracked his dome.
Gravity fields were tying knots around with his skinny bones.
The jet stream became his shroud, he hurtled to the ground.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
The days he lived and loved and laughed kept running through his mind.
He thought about the girl back home, the one he left behind.
He thought about the chirurgeons and wondered what they'd find.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
The chimera was on the spot, sentinels running wild.
Enginseers jumped and screamed with glee, rolled up their robes and smiled.
For it had been a week or more since last a 'chute had failed.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
He hit the ground, the sound was "Splat," his blood went spurting high.
His comrades they were heard to say, "A helluva way to die."
He lay there rolling 'round in the welter of his gore.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.
(Chorus)
There was blood upon the thrusters, there were brains upon the 'chute.
Intestines were a-dangling from his guardsman's suit.
He was a mess, they picked him up and poured him from his boots.
And he ain't gonna drop no more.''
(Chorus)