The Markian Corps

The Markian Corps
Homeworld	The Markian Pact
Doctrine	Combined Arms
Signature Equipment	Atashia/Markia-Pattern Lasgun, Mountain gun
Colors	Red on Black
Associated Legion	Winged Victory/Void Angels

The Markian Corps is the collective Imperial Army forces supplied by the combined worlds of the Markian Pact, that share standardized equipment and organization. Though of greater quality than the average Imperial Army force, the strength of the Markian Corps is not prowess in a particular kind of warfare, but in the ability for its regiments to communicate and coordinate. When the Markian Corps' regiments are raised they are not sent their separate ways across the galaxy, but rather formed into crand corps containing as many as dozens of regiments of many kinds. Thanks to rigorous joint training by the five worlds the grand corps have a level of combined arms rarely found in the Imperial Army, with high morale and a camaraderie between soldiers from many different regiments.

The Great Crusade

Throughout the Great Crusade the grand corps of Markia were attached to the Winged Victory as Imperial Army auxiliaries, often alongside or mistaken for their cousins in the Ciban Chasseurs. In the Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd, the Markians, who have not known war for centuries, had their first taste of conflict since the war with old Ghalhal, facing the race of slavers known as the Amatteir. It was not battle itself that unsettled the Markian soldiers, however as they were still professional soldiers; it was the condition of slaves upon the world Chwiorydd Hardd 3 after contrasting with those on CH-4 that greatly disturbed many soldiers. As photo-journalist Verrell Boucher, a Karmian native, said:

"It was not their physical deprivations that struck me so. I had seen men and women lost in the wilds of my homeworld and returned to civilisation starved and sick before. It was their eyes. Our poor kinsmen, brutalised and degraded, looked at me with the mute ignorance of beasts. Foul aliens have taken human beings and made into them animals! How many more worlds is this happening on?"

Upon return to the Pact worlds for various military and civic reasons, veterans much like Boucher brought word of the atrocities committed by the xenos. Tales of the sheer harm and humiliation suffered by their fellow men galvanized the Markians, and aligned them sternly against the enemies of the Imperium. After further encounters with only more brutal aliens such as the full Amatteir's empire, the Dark Eldar of the Harakien star-empire, and the barbaric orks, the Markians' hatred for xenos was further validated, and to this day the Markians do not believe the only kind of xeno friend is one used as a sandbag to protect humans.

During the first part of the Great Crusade the Markian Corps served admirably alongside the Fifth Legion, especially their sapper regiments who proved vital in the Core Worlds and Harakien Sector campaigns. However, it was only after the Winged Victory's exile to the galactic fringe that the Markian Corps showed its greatness. As their masters departed to the fringe, many Markian regiments stayed behind to carry on with their crusade. It is during this time that names such as Grand Marshal Caieton and Marshal Judas Ranc became known to the larger Imperium, their campaigns leading to the pacification of over a hundred more worlds before the Great Crusade's end.

The Crucible Sector Campaign

"Here, there, everywhere. In front, behind. To the left, to the right. We are surrounded and outnumbered ten to one. We have caught the enemy in our grasp!" --Marshal Judas Ranc on Inkan

One of the first campaigns after the Winged Victory's departure, and Markia's greatest. An empire of hive-mind arthropods known as the Arakan made itself known in the Crucible Sector, consuming neighboring worlds to expand their dominion. With the Fifth Legion sent to the edge of the galaxy and no other Astartes available, it was up to the Markian Corps to purge this threat to the Imperium. The Sky Marshal of the Markian Pact, military leader of all Markian forces, organized the largest army of Markians ever assembled under the direct command of Grand Marshal Caieton, with the goal of neutralizing the Arakan at all costs. With the assistance of Mechanicum forces under Archmagos Khazal ibn Tekhalla, discoverer of the mountain gun STC, the Markian 31st Army set out for the Crucible Sector.

Grand Marshal Caieton decided to make his first strike on planet Pahoehoe, a recently-conquered periphery world of the Arakan Empire. Though it was only freshly colonized, the world was already crawling with Arakan warriors. While the initial landing forces were able to secure solid ground, the 95th Shrike Corps found itself divided, isolated, and unable to complete its mission to discover the enemy base. Caieton was quick to respond, and ordered his subordinate, decorated soldier Marshal Judas Ranc of the 78th Grand Corps, to enact a rescue operation. The 78th abandoned their heavy armor and artillery for the sake of mobility, and rushed quickly through the enemy lines, relieving whatever elements of the 95th Shrike Corps they could find. In the end, 70% of the 95th survived to fight another day, but the Markians were still unaware of the location of the Arakan base.

The Mechanicum had better luck finding the Arakan headquarters; or rather, knowing the nature of the Arakan's command structure. Using seismographic data gathered from sensors planted by forward scouts, Archmagos Khazal located dozens of seismic concentrations where the subterranean bases of the Arakan were located, but lines connecting the bases were nowhere to be found. Regardless, they now knew locations of the enemy, and the 31st Army immediately directed actions against the Arakan. The Markians prepared for several subterranean operations led by the Lemartian Sappers.

As expected, penetration of the enemy hives was difficult. Many tunnels were simply too narrow, and armor and artillery supper was useless. To end this battle quickly, Marshal Ranc proposed use of nuclear weapons place precisely in the hives to destroy all enemy resistance, an idea Caieton was reluctant to swallow. Unfortunately, Caieton yielded, and the Markians conducted operations to place nuclear bombs in the hives; one of such was led by Ranc himself, so that another commander would not risk his life in such a perilous and immoral mission. But despite the dangers, Ranc survived the mission where others fell, and was commended once again. After the Purge of Pahoehoe, Khazal deduced that the Arakan were not a monolithic power that initial research on their hive-mind suggested, suggesting there were multiple hive-minds based on the autonomy of Pahoehoe's bases. The campaign in the Crucible would be much more difficult than expected.

Following Pahoehoe, there was the battle for the water world Inkan's sole continent. Unlike Pahoehoe, Inkan was heavily colonized, and Arakan lived above ground in massive cities. Worse, is the system was defended by the Arakan fleet, complicating the naval forces' support. On the ground, nothing was as simple as on Pahoehoe; the Arakan were relentless, and only the strategic intervention of the Shrike Corps and L'Infanterie de Marine saved the 31st Army from destruction early on. Once again, the 78th Grand Corps distinguished themselves by chasing the routed xenos. However, Marshal Ranc discovered too late that Arakan do not flee without reason, and the 78th Grand Corps found itself surrounded by Arakan. Ranc was neither perturbed nor shocked, and simply stated,"Here, there, everywhere. In front, behind. To the left, to the right. We are surrounded and outnumbered ten to one. We have caught the enemy in our grasp!"

The 78th Grand Corps fought its way back to friendly lines with only moderate casualties for an encirclement, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. Meanwhile, the navy finished its battle with the Arakan, in the void, and proceeded to assist the ground forces with bombardment of the Arakan cities, only to find the cities to be defended by void shields. Grand Marshal Caieton hatched a plan: elite rangers of the 95th, 66th, and 180th Shrike Corps would drop directly into the Arakan cities, deactivate the shield generators, and extract before the navy opens fire. The operation completed without any problems, and the navy destroyed Arakan cities long after the rangers were gone.

As deduced by the Archmagos, the Arakan were not completely unified. In fact, Arakan society resembled a feudal empire, where the hive-mind nobles sacrificed the mindless bodies of the Arakan to further their goals, united under the massive Hive-Emperor solely by fear. However, the Imperial forces were proving greater than any horde of bugs, and many hive-minds feared for their own existence. To continue living, several hive-minds cracked a struck a deal with Marshal Caieton to continue living, in exchange for the location of the Hive-Emperor on the world of Culainn. The Imperial Army mobilized, and gave special passage for the traitor hive-minds' fleets.

The battle for Culainn was a difficult one. The Mechanicum deployed its titans, Thallaxi of the Ordo Reductor, whatever forces it brought from the forges of Ghalhal on that burning hive world. However, even with the full might of the Mechanicum backing them, the Markian Corps found themselves outnumbered by the Arakan a hundred times over; numbers only the Legiones Astartes could face. Still, the Markian Corps had one last trick up its sleeve: void missiles. Utilizing these ancient weaponry, the Mechanicum vaporized the cities of the world, shattering the psyche of the Hive-Emperor by destroying the cognitive brain-caste that sustained its thought processes. The Markian Corps and Skitarii finished off the disoriented rabble with ease, and took the world in the name of the Emperor. Meanwhile, the hive-minds that betrayed the Hive-Emperor set course for the outer fringe of the galaxy, settling in a sector under the jurisdiction of the Void Angels, who proceeded to slaughter these random xenos who appeared out of nowhere, and later received a written apology from the Sky Marshal of Markia for the failure in communications.

The Mortekaiser Campaign

Regiments

• Line Infantry Regiments (LIR) are the most common units in a grand corps, consisting primarily of infantry with light armored and artillery support. Highly disciplined and able to handle any situation, though not excelling in any in particular.
• Artillery Regiments (HAR) are highly prominent in grand corps, being able to smash a hole in any line. Artillery regiments are rather large, possessing a mix of mortars, basilisks, medusas, and mountain guns. In case multiple grand corps come together to form an army, the artillery regiments form a single artillery corps.
• Tank Regiments (LTR) are hardly notable. Though well-equipped and handled by trained crewmen, the tank regiments of Markia are simply there to fill a niche, and do not hold a distinct advantage over true tread-heads.
• Mechanized Regiments (HIR) are mobile elements of the Markian Corps meant to exploit breakthroughs and plug gaps in the line, originating from Atashia.
• Les Régiments de la Sapeurs de la Lemartia (SIR), or simply sapper regiments, are heavy siege specialists equipped with breaching drills, mole weapons (No word on mole transports. Yet.), heavy armor, and special weapons. Its men, being from the high-gravity world of Lemartia, are thick-skinned and stocky, and their smallish stature and experience let them maneuver tunnels with little hassle.
• Drop regiments (AIR) originate from the world of Kouralia, trained in high-altitude insertion. As with most other regiments, drop regiments are disciplined but far from the best at their job; though they do have mountain guns for more punch. If multiple grand corps come together to form an army, drop regiments come together with air-mobile artillery regiments and air support elements to form a shrike corps.
• The Air-Mobile Artillery (AAR) regiments of Kouralia are a strange contradiction. The linchpin of the air-mobile artillery regiment is the mountain gun, a light cannon capable of transport by valkyrie; a feature that makes rapid air deployment possible. AARs also contain at least one airship as a command and heavy lifting vehicle.
• L’Infanterie de Marine (STR) are another unique force from Kouralia, as each regiment is an entire fleet of maritime vessels with supporting naval infantry. Vessels within an STR are designed to be easily transported by specialized Mechanicus voidships from Ghalhal, and are equipped with enough firepower to match an artillery regiment, and supported with a complement of highly trained marines to take shore positions and perform maritime operations.
• The Mountain Infantry Regiments (MIR) of Thenar are light infantry specialized in alpine warfare as their name suggests, although they also have experience with forests and plains. What sets apart the mountain infantry from other light regiments the most is the mountain gun, which provides long-range anti-armor firepower to the regiment without losing much in terms of mobility.

Armaments

• The primary armament of the Markian Corps during the Heresy is the Atashia-Pattern bold-action lasgun. Based on primitive designs from the Age of Strife, the Atashia-Pattern's powerful but easily-fried capacitors require a new cell to be loaded after every shot, sacrificing rate of fire for extra punch. It should be noted, however, that expert users of the Atashia-Pattern lasgun can fire dozens of times in only a minute, even including reloading of the ten-shot magazine. After the Verdunian Reforms, the Atashia-Pattern was phased out and replaced with the Markia-Pattern, though the Atashia-Pattern continues to see use as a ceremonial weapon.
• The Karmia-Pattern lascarbine is an improvement upon the Atashia-Pattern. Produced for drop regiments, L'Infanterie de Marine, mechanized regiments, sappers, tank crews, and all Karmian forces, the Karmia-Pattern is semiautomatic unlike the Atashia-Pattern, and is loaded via a twenty- or thirty- capacitor magazine on the bottom. Though it was mostly replaced by the Markia-Pattern lasgun after the Heresy, Karmian regiments continue using it out of tradition.
• The main service weapon after the Hektor Heresy is the Markia-Pattern lasgun, designed to receive the laspacks used by the rest of the Imperial Guard. It boasts equal firepower to the Atashia-Pattern while also being semiautomatic, but also possesses modularity, allowing it to be modified for use by snipers, drop troops, light infantry, sappers, and tank and artillery crews.
• The mountain gun is the main piece of air-mobile artillery and mountain infantry regiments for many reasons. Besides being light enough for transport by valkyries or horses, the mountain gun can also be disassembled easily, allowing it to be moved around in pieces and stored with ease.
• The sniper mantlet is a high-caliber anti-materiel rifle mounted on a heavy shield. Built for trench warfare and countering light armor, the sniper mantlet is capable of sharpshooting enemies, even on the frontline of a siege.
• As experts on siege and tunnel warfare, the Lemartian sappers make heavy use of mole transports to bypass enemy lines, an ability they used to great effect during the Core Worlds Campaign