22nd Warjumpers

“These damn Warjumpers don’t wait for the battle to come to them — they leap into the storm of battle with nothing but a Grav-chute and a heart that forgot how to fear.”

Lord-General Kael Ryn, 5th Army Group

Background

Hailing from the sky-hives of Veerna, the Warjumpers are a specialist, combined arms regiment expert at airborne assaults.

The world of Veerna was discovered by the Rogue Trader Waheem Mumbada O’Wahelle who traced a data spike from a highly sophisticated probe back to the world. After several diplomatic delegations Veerna accepted compliance without any fighting. For the Veernians who had been isolated since Old Night, it was welcome to know that there were others out there.

During their isolation, the Veernians had faced repeated assaults from Aeldari raiding parties and from the void beasts known colloquially as the Patient Scream. To combat both, the Veernians had pushed its technological advances, especially in warfare.

Whilst some within the Mechanicum wanted to unpack their technologies, with intervention of Archmagos MuΦeξi it was decided that a mere delegation would be assigned to the planet, rather than a full terraforming congregation.

This leniency was done on two conditions. Firstly Veerna was to grant Mars the exclusive mining rights for the system’s asteroid belts and secondly it must provide men and women to the proposed 216th Expeditionary Fleet.

Thus the Veernians sent 30 regiments, which were assigned to the 2nd Naval Assault Group under command of Sub-Admiral Kostya. The Naval Assault Group’s mission was to clear the way as much as possible for 216th Expeditionary Fleet landing operations by taking out orbital stations, planetary defence batteries and anything else that might threaten the landing craft.

Equipment & Fighting Style

A marvel of Veernian development, the carapace suit worn by all Veernians is a combination of vulcanised hydramite reinforced with fixed plates. This creates a sturdy level of protection as well as combating the extreme changes in pressure and g-force common with their deployments. Given the suit’s high neck, helmet and Mk6a rebrether unit, the Warjumpers can deploy from high altitude and can even participate in void warfare (though the suits seals do degrade if exposed to the void for too long).

As seen on trooper Artegue, Grav-chutes are another piece of standard equipment. They allow the Veernians to deploy from high altitude craft such as the Quito skyship, triggering their grave-chutes to arrest their fall before landing. So vital are they to the way of war that the ‘Warjumper’ nickname stems from this deployment method of jumping straight into battle.

Due to the risks of high altitude, low orbit deployments, the standard patterns of lasguns proved dangerous and risked breaking on landing. As a result the Veernians developed a compact lasgun with a detachable stock. This weapon allows the soldier to fire immediately on landing, and can then afix the stock once able to provide more accurate fire.

Whilst Primus-Strategos Dymov tried to have the Warjumpers reassigned to the First Army during the re-shuffle in 998.M30, his proposal failed due to the key role performed by the Naval Assault Group across the fleet.

Notable Conflicts

• Operation Mellvivue – During the War for Axion I, this operation was to take out a massive gun battery that would wreck havoc on landing troops of 5th army. The entire regiment jumped in, but geomagnetic storms scattered everyone. Urqlion attempted to gather as much strength as possible, but with the 5th Army’s timeline unable to be delayed, was forced to attack the battery with only a portion of his strength. However, with grit and skill the 22nd Warjumpers were able to disable the battery such that the 5th Army’s landing was unopposed.