I have only really worked out backstories for my Guardsman and the Ogryn, who came to the Inquisition as a pair. Their backgrounds are at odds with the options we select at character creation but that’s just the way I am; with so many years of 40k RP behind me, I cannot help but go off and do my own thing. I keep on meaning to write the following up as a short story but I have not been happy with my attempts so far. As it is a long wall of writing, I’ve hidden it before the spoiler thingy. Havelock fits into my own 40k-verse RP stuff I do.
Endeavour Havelock & Punt
Endeavour Havelock is a long-serving Guardsman, called up from his local PDF unit at 16 standard years old into the XXXV Sutralian Lasrifle Regiment. He’s one of those veterans who went from regiment-to-regiment as former ones shrunk with losses and were combined with others to create new regiments. As such Endeavour is one of those strangely lucky types who always turns up amongst the survivors. After 23 years of fighting and with the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major in his most recent regiment, he was sent with them to take part in a campaign to subdue a world that had turned to heresy. The first target was one of the world’s Hive cities, where Havelock distinguished himself by personally leading a constant two-day assault that cleared level after level of the Hive city. Initially he had taken command as the officers in the first wave were killed or wounded, but such was his leadership that the officers of successive companies followed his orders. Recommended for the Order of Ollanius Pius for his leadership and bravery he was to be promoted to officer rank, but was instead taken onto VIII ‘The Lucky Dogs’ Brigade staff as the Brigade Sergeant by their commander.*
Instead of leaving the sergeant to merely run the brigade HQ, the brigadier used Havelock as his ears, eyes and mouth on the battlefield. An effective relationship was built between the brigadier and the sergeant, where Havelock’s extensive experience of warfare was augmented by the brigadier’s authority, allowing the commander to effectively be in multiple places at once. For two years this worked until the brigadier, in charactertistic fashion of brave commanders, was decapitated by a shell splinter whilst he was shouting orders from the open hatch of his Chimera.
The new brigadier, a colonel promoted from a Mordian Iron Guard regiment then in the brigade, despised Havelock and saw him as over-promoted and undeserving of his rank. Unable to remove him from his appointment, she resigned him to a non-combat role during a brutal winter, where there was not any military action anyway. When the weather seemed to have calmed somewhat, an offensive was planned, with the VIII Brigade taking part at the far end of the line. To help the attack, a newly arrived regiment in the brigade was sent with Havelock in theoretical command to make a diversionary attack to try and draw reserves away from the main assault before it took place.
Unwilling to take the experienced Sergeant’s advice and affronted by his attempts to give the colonel orders, the regiment’s colonel decided to make his attack a real one. When Havelock protested, he was arrested along with his command squad. The raw regiment, inexperienced and advancing in tight ranks as though on a parade ground, were absolutely mauled and took heavy casualties. As the regiment was routed, Havelock and his own command squad were able to free themselves and tried to rally the regiment. Several hundred from the thousands of fleeing figures rallied on the Brigade Sergeant and they retreated towards friendly lines on foot as the weather worsened again; unfortunately the transport used to bring the regiment to their attack had been taken by fleeing soldiers to aid their getaway, at least those vehicles that had not been destroyed during the enemy counter-attack.
Havelock’s group retreated in good order but unbeknownst to them the main attack had failed and a counter-attack had pushed the army back temporarily. During their long march, Havelock’s group were dogged by foul weather, with blizzards blowing up without a moment’s notice. Guardsmen fell away from the column as they marched, their numbers dwindling as hunger, exhaustion and exposure weakened them. Eventually, only two figures appeared from the last of the foul weather, Havelock carrying his wife, the corporal of his command squad. Without realising how close they were to friendly lines, they collapsed and Havelock’s wife died soon after from exposure. Havelock was unconscious when a patrol hurried to their position and carried both of their bodies back into the camp of a different brigade. After several days in a coma, Havelock woke up and was able to identify himself, his identity discs having been lost during the retreat.
Blamed for the failure of the diversionary assault and for the sacrifice of a regiment, for insubordination and treachery, Havelock was hauled in front of his brigadier at a court martial, where he was sentenced to death. Following on learning of his wife’s death and the emotional trauma within him, Havelock was relieved at the sentence as he no longer wished to live. However, the Ordo Hereticus had recently arrived, with an Inquisitor Lord taking overall strategic command, with Inquisitors placed within the four Corps of the army. As Havelock’s case was something of a high profile one, due to his appointment and rank, the Corps’ newly assigned Inquisitor, a Lady Aennisse, sat in on the court martial.** Unwilling to see a potentially useful asset be executed, she commuted the sentence and took Havelock into her own warband, where he would serve for some time. At a point before the events in Darktide he was transferred along with a couple of other low-ranking members of Aennisse’s warband to Grendyl’s, where he would remain amongst those at the bottom, perfect fodder to launch into the maelstrom of Tertium’s fighting, but the damned man keeps on surviving.
To go on to Punt the Ogryn, he was the former brigadier’s bodyguard and as such when the former died, his replacement gained Punt, whom she also passed off to Aennisse. Punt styles himself after the former-sergeant, wearing the same muttonchops and moustache so that he looks, in his own words, like a ‘proper sold-jah.’ He also eternally wears a large flak helmet gifted to him by the first brigadier, with its red diamond and β letter. Even though it is old and dented, he refuses to be parted with it.
Note on Brigade Sergeant: I concieved this as a brigade level appointment usually given to an old veteran who is indoctrinated into Guard life and knows nothing else and thus the rank is an appointment for life. They are part-mascot, with their chests full of medals, with their stories and scars of war, but are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the brigade HQ; they would be somewhat akin to the Camp Prefect of a Roman Legion. As all sorts of Guard regiments have their own ranking structures and organisation, I felt that it wouldn’t be too amiss to create this rank.
*Recommended for but never confirmed, nor the award recieved, so whether it was approved or not (it most likely wasn’t) is unknown. The only medal ribbon he wore on his tunic was an aged red ribbon from his first campaign as a Guardsman, despite having had a case of medals including ones for valour and bravery, for participation in campaigns, etc.
**She is named simply because she appears in my 40k RP campaigns usually as a supporting NPC.
