Catachan Jungle Fighters



"During the changing course of conflict, many people were ultimately worried about this horrible conflict, and even when you live in one of the most dangerous places in outer space, then there's Catachan too. Also, you don't wanna forget about the Catachan Jungle Fighters, right?"

--Su Ji-Hoon, Welcome to Catachan

The Catachan Jungle Fighters are the members of the Astra Militarum Militarum Regimentum 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. 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 specialized 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 day in the lethal jungles of their homeworld. This "gung-ho" enthusiasm is often [mistake]]n 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 duties or a hopeless assault upon an impregnable fortress.

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 Imperial 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 [[Brainleaf 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 Guard 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 armored regiments hailing from Catachan in the past. 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 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.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, the Catachan Jungle Fighters now get M4 carbines that they have from the United States Armed Forces during the battle of Catachan, thus siding with the Grand Alliance, but half of the jungle fighters became sided with the Imperialist Alliance during the War Against the Imperialist Alliance.