Warrior

‘A dozen to one, eh? Are you sure you don’t want to wait for more of your friends to get here?’

— Mel Garver, just prior to the Honlin Massacre

The Imperial Guardsman, Lasgun clutched in trembling hands, facing down a chittering horde of xenos monsters. The Skitarii Ranger stalking their prey across the salt dunes of their Forge World. Even the lowly ganger waving a rusted Autogun in the face of an Administratum adept to extort another crate of mouldering rations. All these are Warriors in service to one cause or another.

Warriors are as diverse a bunch as any other Role. They all have a common aptitude for violence, but may share nothing beyond this. Although any Warrior is comfortable with a broad array of armaments, many specialise in certain weaponry — those who survive long enough may even become known by their signature weapon alone, the sight of it sufficent to send their foes scrambling for cover. War has been the constant companion of the Imperium throughout the long millennia since its founding, and has a history that stretches back further still. In the wake of the Noctis Aeterna, there is perhaps a greater need of warriors than ever before. The tithes call up countless millions to serve in the Astra Militarum and aboard the ships of the Imperial Navy, but true Warriors see themselves as a breed apart from common conscripts — even if that is where they first became acquainted with violence themselves.

Not all Warriors learned their trade this way, of course. Some came by their skills out of necessity — most citizens of Death Worlds learn to shoot from an early age, and those who live in the depths of of hive cities often do the same. Arbites, Askelline Planetary Defence Forces, and Enforcers of all sorts are also usually Warriors — as is anyone with sufficient skill at arms and a willingness to turn to violence as a first and last restort.

The worthies of the Askellon Sector have an endless need for Warriors. Far from the battlefields and frontlines of a hundred warzones, Warriors skirmish in the shadows to advance the ends of their masters. They fight against and alongside one another, and today’s comrade in arms may be tomorrow’s enemy as alliances shift and erode.

In the shadow wars fought between the powerplayers of the Askellon Sector and against the hidden enemies of the Imperium, violence is often a last resort. Yet when violence erupts, as it inevitably does, it means life or death. Warriors earn their reputation when circumstances are at their most dire.