[hider=Grenadier 415633-983223-17-Zhatka]
[b]Name:[/b] 415633-983223-17-Zhatka

[b]Age:[/b] Old enough to fight.

[b]Gender:[/b] Male

[b]Approximate Height & Weight:[/b] 170 cm, 54 kg

[B]Former Regiment:[/b] 382nd Siege Regiment of Krieg

[b]Speciality:[/b] Grenadier - Deploy where the fighting is fiercest, charge the front lines and trenches, ideally die in the process. More specifically, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka held one of his squad's special weapons, a meltagun in his case.

[b]Appearance:[/b] 415633-983223-17-Zhatka does not remove his uniform outside of proper quarters. To do so is poor discipline. If you were to catch him off-guard or forcibly extricate him, however, you would see a figure left ghoulishly pale from lack of sunlight, mostly hairless from generations of radiation exposure, and perhaps slightly malnourished, albeit leanly muscled. Pale blue eyes remain constantly observant, if slightly too wide at all times, and a total lack of expression leaves his face unmarred - in fact, its apparent youthfulness makes one wonder just how old he truly is.

[B]Uniform:[/b] 415633-983223-17-Zhatka wears a standard issue Death Korps Grenadier uniform - a thick double-breasted greatcoat and trousers, pale grey as regards the 382nd Siege Regiment, and chemically impregnated to resist chemical and biological attacks, though this leaves it emitting a pungent smell at all times; thick light brown leather boots and dark brown leather gloves, maintained meticulously in all environments; Mark IX plasteel helmet, again pale grey in colour with the Aquila displayed on the front; standard plasteel-ceramite rebreather facemask, depicting a bone-white skull facemask and attached to a Type V Respirator carried on the wearer's back; and heavy plasteel-ceramite carapace armour integrated into the standard uniform, comprised of three-piece shoulder guards, chest and abdomen plates, and shin and knee guards.

The entire uniform is environmentally sealed, and additional supplies are carried in a backpack, including spare respirator filters, ration packs, and an appropriate weapon maintenance kit; additional ammunition cartridges and the standard entrenching tool are carried on leather webbing worn over the uniform. Identification number is stencilled on to the chest plate, former squad number is likewise stencilled on the right shoulder plate, and various [i]memento mori[/i] are carried in a cotton pouch also tied to the webbing - the only hints of personalisation 415633-983223-17-Zhatka portrays.

[B]Armament[/b]: Instead of the standard-issue Type XIV Lasgun (heavy), i.e. the "Hellgun", 415633-983223-17-Zhatka is equipped with a Mars-pattern meltagun, an anti-armour weapon able to fire streams of fusion-based plasma with temperatures ranging in the tens of thousands of degrees centigrade, albeit only at relatively short range. Whilst without a lasgun lug to affix to, the standard 45 centimeter long sword-bayonet is also issued to all Death Korps Guardsmen, including Grenadiers. Lastly, a large number of anti-personnel and anti-tank grenades are issued to all Grenadiers, primarily frag and krak, for use against fortified positions.

[b]Personality/Demeanour:[/b] As with any good member of the Death Korps of Krieg, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka's overriding character trait is the need to atone for his planet's failure over a millenium ago, as demanded of them by their planet's Cult of Sacrifice. Ultimately, he will gladly expend himself in pursuit of this atonement, happily wading into combat situations that other Guardsmen would see as unwinnable suicide charges, almost precisely because they are unwinnable suicide charges that can nonetheless win the day. For the Death Korps, and especially for a Death Korps Grenadier, this is standard operating procedure, and he has long accepted that he is more or less a walking corpse by default; 415633-983223-17-Zhatka is not so foolish as to believe other Guardsmen will dedicate their lives so readily, however, and for the sake of maintaining squad cohesion (and, an idea conceived with unutterably guilty conscience, perhaps even returning to fight alongside his kinsmen someday) is at least willing to cooperate by not simply wading into enemy fire.

This does not mean he is not constantly judging them, however. Even out of uniform, his head will swivel at an odd angle to keep track of as many faults as possible, and he is not shy in pointing out when his fellows are portraying weakness, cowardice, and inefficiency either on or off the battlefield. In particular, retreat is simply unacceptable in his mind: whilst otherwise an utterly dedicated soldier, one of the few orders he will flat-out ignore is that of retreat or even regroup, for to give up so much as an inch to the enemy is tantamount to absolute failure in his mind. Indeed, he is not above the idea of killing a commanding officer and taking command if they attempt to force the matter - faulty firing mechanisms are as worthless as faulty rounds, after all.

That said, he is not entirely heartless. Even in the Death Korps, the Astra Militarum cannot make its soldiers fight and train exclusively; thus it is that in his downtime, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka is at least able to converse, though he prefers not to given the choice, his vocabulary is terse when he does, and his range of topics is rather limited to stories about past training and past battles, all of which are unerringly gruesome in nature. Privately, he also harbours something of a romantic side, insofar as Kriegers can be romantic; naturally, he feels this must be kept a secret from most others, for in the Death Korps, such a revelation of personal weakness would never have been lived down if made public.

"[i]In life, war. In death, peace. In life, shame. In death, atonement.[/i]"

[B]Greatest Ambition:[/b] To die in service to the God-Emperor, and reclaim some measure of atonement for his homeworld's sins. Preferably, he'd like to do so alongside fellow Kriegers, but if he must do so amongst strangers, so be it.

[B]Greatest Hatred:[/b] Failure to perform one's duty. Lately, he has found in himself an unreasonable hatred for Orks too. The reason is unclear to him.

[b]Skills:[/b] For the Death Korps, the only skills worth learning are those that will aid the planet in its atonement. Thus, all Krieg Guardsmen are trained in combat from a very young age; in a pinch, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka is able to use just about any basic Imperial Guard weapon proficiently, though under normal circumstances accuracy is secondary to the ability to lay down continuous fire in a disciplined formation, and is also well-trained in the use of grenades and explosives. He is proficient in rapid and skilled construction of trench works and defenses, highly useful for rapid formation of cover in a firefight, and most notably shows unrivalled skill in hand-to-hand combat, especially with the sword-bayonets all Death Korps Guardmen are drilled in from childhood; amongst a full squad of Grenadiers, a bayonet charge preceded by a wall of frag grenades is nigh-unstoppable, but as the sole Krieger in the squadron, such a charge from 415633-983223-17-Zhatka would merely be hard to put down.

[b]History:[/b] The early portion of 415633-983223-17-Zhatka's life is simple enough to describe. He was born on Krieg, after all - his childhood consisted of standard Krieg training, up to and including mock battles on the planet's surface, and inexplicably the discovery of romance novels after about ten standard years that would teach him literacy otherwise denied a Guardsman of the Death Korps. Granted, of course, standard training for the Death Korps of Krieg is almost akin to elite training for any other planet's Imperial Guard, intense as it is; by the time he was of age to head out and fight, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka had reached a level of skill that would likely be wasted in a hail of enemy fire sooner rather than later. He wouldn't have it any other way.

That was, until he met 335729-44456-103-Egida, another soldier in his platoon. Whilst as fecklessly emotionless as any other Krieger, something about her sparked what passed for a fire in 415633-983223-17-Zhatka, and shockingly, he found himself surviving battle after battle; perhaps due to uncanny good placement in his squad and platoon, and perhaps because after every fight won and every defense overrun, he could still find her alive and well too. His experience with Krieg romance novels served well: where more socialised humans would chortle at lines ripped straight from titles such as "The Bullet that Let Me Assuage my Planet's Guilt", "I Would Also Die For You", and of course "My Wish to Generate Children with You is Only Exceeded by My Devotion to Him", 335729-44456-103-Egida was steadily wooed by them, or at least felt as much emotion over them as any Death Korps Guardsman could. They grew closer - sharing a ration pack here, discussing the best place to shoot the Emperor's enemies to kill them as effectively as possible there - and steadily developed something which might vaguely be mistaken for a relationship if squinted at from an angle.

Alas, it could not last. Their continuing survival was noticed, and as such, their veterancy led to their recommendation as Grenadiers just before a particularly tough campaign in the Vernum System, one which had been ongoing for nigh-on twenty years by this point. The final push to rid Vernum Primas of Orks was at hand, and the 382nd Siege Regiment of Krieg was on call as part of the 25th Line Korps of Krieg to soften them up and drown them in bodies - including as many Grenadiers as possible to take the brunt of the damage, of course. Naturally, such an honour literally could not be turned down, and both 415633-983223-17-Zhatka and 335729-44456-103-Egida accepted it, knowing it would ensure their demise, and that at least they would die as part of the same squad. As such, they donned the standard skull masks and carapace armour during their training drills, 415633-983223-17-Zhatka in particular drilling for his role as melta gunner, and ultimately they engaged in procreative acts with one another just once before the day of reckoning arrived.

The battle, inevitably, was gruesome beyond reckoning for the 25th as a whole, but especially for the 382nd within that. Even protracted artillery bombardment could not put down the numerous Orks entirely, and though the regiment fought and died as expertly as they ever could, they would prove unable to finish the fight alone, though the Death Korps' contribution would certainly be vital to ensuring other branches of the Guard could. In the end, less than thirty men and women of the 382nd Siege Regiment would survive, a mere two of those being Grenadiers.

415633-983223-17-Zhatka was one of them. 335729-44456-103-Egida was not. She was dismembered in front of him by an Ork's Choppa, and though she was duly avenged, the image remains in 415633-983223-17-Zhatka's mind.

And now, the Lord General Militant insists upon a "victory parade", to "celebrate" and "honour" the "good work" performed by the Astra Militarum in the Vernum Crusade. 415633-983223-17-Zhatka does not see the point. It shows the Lord General Militant's lack of efficiency. It proves the weakness of the rest of the Imperial Guard. He does not want to be honoured. He wants to fight. He wants to die fighting. Hopefully this parade will end soon enough to let him do so.

[b]Miscellaneous:[/b] His inventory secretly includes a stash of the romance novels he has collected and read over the years. He would probably die of what is probably embarrassment if anybody found out - assuming he didn't kill them over it, anyway.
[/hider]