Catachan Devil (Warhammer 40,000)

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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 specialised 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. Grappleweed - Grappleweed represents the most common and deadly variant of barbed vemongorse. Grappleweed is a hideous xenos plant that possesses stumpy bushes with trumpet-like flowers. It is a mobile carnivorous plant, able to shuffle across the landscapes of the galaxy's various Death Worlds in search of fresh morsels of prey. The plant's writhing, barbed tentacles are a deadly menace which will drag any prey that comes too close with its grapple-barbed tongue into the fleshy trumpet of the plant's main body for eventual digestion. It is a ravenous carnivorous plant that tumbles towards its prey with astonishing swiftness before dousing it in highly corrosive biochemicals and consuming the slurried remains.

Brain Leaf - The brain leaf, a carnivorous plant, is actually a small tree, not particularly conspicuous on Catachan, but one that is able to attach its tendrils to the spine and brain of any animal, taking control over their body. This creature may actually be a genetic offshoot of the Tyranid Cortex Leech, a creature with similar abilities, that was cut off from the Hive Mind and went feral. Such is the infamous lethality of this creature that the Catachans have named both their most fearsome knives and deadliest, most elite soldiers after it. Guardsman Marbo is one of the fearsome "Catachan Devils," the closest thing the Jungle Fighters have to the elite Storm Troopers used by other regiments. A natural born survivor and a veritable one-man army, he's the ultimate soldier and possesses skills that surpass any of the Imperium's highly-trained operatives. Despite his unparalleled abilities his commanders inwardly feel there is "something deeply wrong with the boy." Catachan XXIV Regiment, "the Waiting Death" - The "Waiting Death" are known for their almost exclusive and highly successful employment of booby traps. They are known to spend solar days, even weeks, preparing a large area with mines, improvised spike pits, long falls and other deadly traps before their foolhardy "Baiter" squads lure the enemy into the deathtraps awaiting them. Most notable of their achievements was the almost complete destruction of Warlord Krakskull's entire Ork horde with a single massive pit trap. They accomplished this by covering the mile-deep Hellsmouth Gorge on Arandra Five. So perfect was the trap's construction that almost all of the greenskin horde had started to cross the hidden ravine before the fake floor of branches and leaves gave way under their tremendous weight.Shambling Morphs - The Shambling Mamorphs of the world's volcanic lands are tough fighters and put up a good fight even against the Catachan Devil. After the formation of the Great Rift following the Fall of Cadia at the dawn of the Era Indomitus, Catachan was caught within the malignant Warp rift and exposed to a massive Daemonic invasion. However when Roboute Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade arrived at Catachan, its Astartes found that the local Catachan regiments had already dealt with the threat entirely on their own. Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), "Regiments of Distinction - Catachan Jungle Fighters" This proliferation of the species has inevitably led to escapes, and there have been rumoured sightings of Catachan Devil nests on some Hive Worlds and other Human colonies all over the Imperium. Defence of Catachan (972.M41) - Chaos Lord Ratathrax of the Night Lords Traitor Legion invades Catachan. Sending vast orbital barrages down onto the planet aimed at incinerating vast swathes of the Catachan world-jungle, Ratathrax robs the Catachan Jungle Fighters of their most natural defence before systematically bombing their bastion networks into rubble. Ratathrax makes planetfall to enjoy the butchery first hand. Unfortunately for him, Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken of the illustrious Catachan II Regiment lies in ambush in a quagmire of toxic sludge, waiting for Ratathrax to remove his helmet before successfully ambushing him and throttling him to death with a poisonous barb-root.

Sly Marbo does not go hunting because "hunting" implies the possibility of failure -- Sly Marbo goes killing.In Catachan regiments, these elite soldiers are called "Catachan Devils," in reference to their famous Catachan Knives and the voracious predators of their homeworld whose fierceness they emulate in combat. It’s not often we get to witness tales of aeronautical derring-do in the 41st Millennium, but now the action ascends to the skies in Outgunned by Denny Flowers. The pilots of the Aeronautica Imperialis have been thrown into battle against hordes of Ork flyboyz, and propagandist Kile Simlex has been sent to capture the exploits of ace pilot Lucille Von Shard! …if only things were going as well as he was told. The very factors that shape the Catachans into such exceptional warriors also leave them proud, aggressive and insular. Individuality is prized amongst the Catachan infantry regiments, known as Jungle Fighters, and only a handful of traditions are treated as sacrosanct, such as the wearing of red bandanas that symbolise the blood oath sworn by each newly founded regiment.

Catachan XVIII Regiment, "the Swamp Rats" - The Catachan XVIII fought the Tyranids in a seven-year-long campaign on the world of Koralkal VIII under the command of Colonel Gator, during which they covered themselves with the ichor of Lictors to mask their scent. They subsequently spent two standard years in decontamination before they were allowed to return to active duty. They also have a rare Thunderer siege tank as part of their forces. This regiment may have been the second incarnation of the Catachan XVIII Regiment, raised after its former incarnation, "the Drakebats." Currently, the few Human settlements on Catachan which can defend against the jungle and its predators are giant fortresses surrounded by vast plains which have been laboriously cleared to provide improved lines-of-fire. Building on Catachan is difficult at best as vines and lichen take hold anywhere and acidic floral poisons melt the mortar and vines can crush bunkers and tanks. S Tier: Cadia Chainsword, Kantrael la Infantry lasgun, Accatran MG VIIa, Kantrael XII Lasgun, Catachan Devil Claw Swords (all MK versions are great) Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer - A staple piece of gear that Guardsmen are required to have on them at all times—this piece of kit is never to fall into the hands of the enemies of the Imperium. It details everything a guardsman needs to know: principles and regulations of the Imperial Guard, issued arms, attire, apparatus, and equipment, basic battlefield policy and Imperial Guard organisation and structure, elementary battlefield medical instructions, and a detailed guide on the foes of the Imperium. No guardsman should ever be found without possession of a copy of the Uplifting Primer -- the punishment is severe. The Spitting Cactus, is a deadly form of jungle cacti, it is able to fire toxin-coated spines directly at nearby prey. [19]

The people of Catachan exhibit a fearless and gung-ho attitude to danger as a result of growing up in such a horrific place. Thanks to the brutal environment in which they are raised, they are physically and mentally resilient on a level that much of unaugmented Humanity simply cannot match. Cunning, resourceful and uncompromising, Catachans must be born survivors simply to reach adulthood on their homeworld.