The Tech Guard of the Adeptus Mechanicus
Four Facts about the Tech Guard
- They serve the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Tech Guard are loyal only to the Adeptus Mechanicus, no power in the Imperium can compel them to obey them other than Tech-Priests. Though they might march to war alongside Imperial armies they only ever do so at the willing of a Tech-Priest and no other Commander.
- They are cyborgs and machines. All arms of the Tech Guard are heavily augmented with bionics, that is the life they choose sacrificing flesh and autonomy to be created into the elite fighting forces of the Machine Cult. Each one is a powerful creation but each one is also slave to the wishes of their Mechanicus masters their free will largely controlled by implants.
- They use exotic technologies. The Tech Guard are often outfitted with weapons rare or not found amongst the armouries of the Imperium deadly incendiary phosphor weapons considered abhorrent by many, or the heat-rays of Volkite weaponry are not found in most Imperial units, but are more readily available to the Tech Guard, granted to them by the Machine Cults selfish protection of rare technologies for its use.
- No one is alike others. Tech Guard vary from Forge to Forge or even from Tech-Priest to Tech-Priest depending on the interest a Tech-Priest takes in their guardians. Some are created to be tools of fear, while others are weapons testing platforms for their Masters, some might be line troops while others are deadly Tech-Assassins.
The Taghmata Omnissiah
The 'Tech Guard' is the low gothic title for the armies of the Mechanicus known in high gothic as the 'Taghmata Omnissiah' - a holdover of a time when the Martian Empire was a seperate entity ot the Imperium they are the standing forces which protect the worlds, vessels and other assets of the Cult. Highly Stratified along command lines different to those of the Imperial military the Tech Guard are a force largely comprised of heavily augmented cyborg troops that often receive their orders from Tech-Priest Masters far removed from the battlefield in high Orbit.
Though the triad of Forges in the Prosperitas Sector maintain their own Tech Guard forces Legions of these Troops are rarely seen as most are maintained for defensive units protecting Mechanicus installations, one is more likely to encounter such warriors in the company of Tech-Priests as bodyguards, or acting as security for Explorator vessels that probe the unexplored reaches of the Prosperitas Sector. They are split into several forces, noted below.
The Faith-Militant of the Machine Cult
Although not technically 'Tech Guard' there are members of the Machine Cult dedicated to war.
While the grand majority of the Machine-Cult’s military forces are comprised of non-ordained or ‘lay Mechanicus’, there are a number of sects of the Machine-Cult dedicated to warfare. When the Machine-Cult goes to war it does so in a number of configurations; the majority of the time most Tech-Priests prefer to direct their forces from the safety of a vessel in high orbit, an armoured bunker, or a heavily armoured vehicle far behind the front lines of a conflict.
However there are a few unique Collegia within the Machine Cult who consider themselves to be better put to serving on the front lines. Ravening hoards of Electro-Priests dedicate their entire lives to mastering the energies of bio-electricity and motive forces, using cybernetic upgrades and tesla weaponry to engage in combat with powerful electrified weapons – fanatical devotees of the Priesthood, their obsessions often leave them as more ravening hordes then potential leaders of the Cult.
Leadership and direction of the Mechanicus War Machine, comes from the Siege Engineers of the Collegia Reductor and the War Savants’ Collegia Secutor. Both sects worship the Omnissiah in its form as the ‘Unmaker God’, unleashing the destructive power of hidden Mechanicus technologies on the battlefield, using the wars it fights as the testing ground for rediscovered and rare weapons of destruction. Dedicated as they are to the art of war, the singular focus of these beings makes them terrifying to behold; often augmented into war-machines in their own right, they lead the armies of the Cult from the front in contrast to the majority of their fellow Priests.
Skitarii
Among the Lay-Worshippers of the Cult Mechanicus are the Mechancum’s ‘Protectors’ – the Skitarii (singular Skitarius), elite warriors augmented by arcane technologies into a deadly blend of machine and human lethality. The Skitarii act as bodyguards, shock troops and force projection for their ruling Magoi, dangerous and deadly creations of cybernetics, flesh-crafting and Martian practices of eugenics and social darwinism within their menial populations. The majority of these warriors are mentally augmented, either to increase aggression, or to strip them of fear and other threat responses such as the ability to feel pain.
As with much Mechanicus technology, there is no one ‘universal’ pattern of Skitarii; they are as varied as their masters, ranging from monstrous barbaric warriors in ornate plate, to armour-plated killing-machines with only a few scraps of flesh remaining from their original bodies, marching in precise and silent unison to the noospheric command impulses that send them to war. All are augmented beyond the human baseline, and many equipped with strange and deadly Mechanicus weaponry.
Within the majority of Skitarii units there is a designated leader responsible for coordinating the actions of their squads. This individual is known as an ‘Alpha’ in most configurations. The majority of Skitarii configurations have no need for higher ranked Officers as they are often subservient to an attendant Tech-Priest, but it has been known for Skitarii to be deployed with specially constructed units equivalent to superior ranks of Imperial Officers.
Within the Prosperitas Sector, many patterns of Skitarii have been created, from the crimson and hazard-striped iron fist that form the armed forces of Forge Ferraeus, to the strangely augmented Tech-Guard creations of the young Forge Castellum, who retain their autonomy and often go without the mental augmentations common amongst Skitarii with their strange weapon limbs and bone-white armourplast coating. Forge Naximus makes use of two breeds of Skitarii, the disciplined and highly indoctrinated warriors raised from the menial population of Naximus Prime and its satellite colonies.
The Secutarii
Around the feet of the God-Machines the elite Titan Guard, known as Secutarii, act as infantry support and bodyguards to the Titan Legions, clearing the way for their God-Machines to rain fire and destruction down on the enemies of Humankind. Based upon similar patterns as their Skitarii cousins, these troops are augmented for the specialised role of protecting the Titans from infantry attacks and boarding attempts.
The Secutarii of the Prosperitas Sector are either the cobalt-armoured Thunder Guards who serve the Legio Ferraeus a prideful heavily armoured legion of cyborg troops dedicated to the bloodlines that operate the Titans they Guard often representing members of that bloodline not chosen to serve as the Titans crew who undergo the painful process of being cyborged in order to do their family proud fighting on foot alongside the Titan of their bloodline.
The Demi-Legio Custodii Incudatem are protected by Secutarii known as Immortals, who garb themselves more traditionally in the crimson cloth of Mars and wear various forms of artificer battleplate. Like the Demi-Legion the Immortals are treated similarly as opportunities for the Magi of Naximus to test their technological creations on the battlefield and no one Immortal is exactly alike as a result.
The Legio Cybernetica
Incredibly rare in the 41st Millennium and even rarer still in the Prosperitas Sector, the 'War Robots' of the Legio Cybernetica are incredible war machines. Although they lack all but the most rudimentary intelligence because of the Mechanicus fear of true thinking machines, these powerful robots go to war accompanied by a Tech-Priest Datasmith who is responsible for programming their limited memories with various commands to keep them operating.
No Forge of the Prosperitas Sector can claim to have more than a handful of such robots, and to reclaim one from a find on the reaches of the Sector is a cause for much celebration, but until such a time as someone recovers the methods to manufacture them they will remain a rare sight.
The Techno-Barbarian Tribes of Anaximund Alpha
Though they are covered in detail alongside their Knight-Household Masters the Techo-Barbarian Tribes of Anaximund Alpha are a unique addition to the Tech-Guard forces of the Prosperitas Sector even if some do not consider them 'true' Tech-Guard.