DISCLAIMER
As ever, we of the Ordo Ciaphas endeavour to analyze and summarize the units which so many Imperials will face while attempting to deal with the Protectorate. It is not our Endeavor to undermine the other Ordos in what they believe to be their sacred duties but to instead provide a much more reasoned understanding of a potentially devastating foe, rather than painting them with the same brush that we have so many others. after all such was the Folly which cost the Lord Inquisitor his life when he believed that the world was simply damned for being run by heretics, only to be then be slain by their leader.
Finding information on these soldiers has been as ever a fairly easy endeavor as most of it is publicly available from any of the libraries which dot the Protectorate's domain. Whether or not this information is up to date or is fully clean from propaganda is unknown and quite unlikely. Regardless of what we have been able to determine, it is broadly accurate and reflects a working understanding, if not a complete understanding of these units. further information is likely being withheld to prevent explicit targeting of their people or key positions of infrastructure.
Assessment of Protectorate Unit; by Inquisitor Barnaby of the Ordo Ciaphas
Name: Beryllust Assault Troopers. Aka: BATs
Designation: Aerial Insertion Experts
HomeWorld: Beryllust
Threat rating: Moderate
The Hive world of Beryllust is an infamous example of the Imperium allowing worlds to slip through the cracks of our systems and falling into the hands of the Great Enemy. This world was for all intents and purposes, only useful because it had a massive population, from which services, Imperial Guard regiments and other population requirements could be quickly drawn from. Outside of this, it had absolutely nothing of interest to anybody who was looking to do anything of worth within the galaxy. The planet had no agricultural resources to speak of, or mineral value to be extracted anymore. Its strategic position was so poor that it extended Imperial lines to secure its defence, rather than supporting them, and its manufacturing capabilities were poor, to the point where it didn't even manufacture most of its own equipment. It tended to import most of that and outside of a few pieces of particular gear, everything else manufactured in the world was sabotaged by corruption. At some point in the past, it was a major world for Mining and resource extraction, with the planetary infrastructure being brought in Wholesale to ensure that the resources were properly extracted for the Imperium of man. However, the dates on which this occurred are unknown and it appears that no one of the population was trained in how to perform these acts or maintain the machinery. It is also noted that the records I was able to find do not show any major form of industrial capacity on the planet, such would be needed to refine or utilise metals. The metal on the world appears to have been imported from off-world or is of very low quality, so what resources were being mined here is unknown and not recorded by the Protectorate or the Imperium. Regardless of what was being mined, it appears that once most of the valuable resources were extracted, the workforce was moved off-world to more pressing concerns, and the gradually depleting efficiency of the Machinery eventually led to the world being effectively relegated to second-tier status. There, it was allowed to exist in utter irrelevance. That was until the Orks decided to pay this planet a little visit, in the form of a massive fleet of one-way drops, which they somehow dropped directly into the planet's atmosphere.
With the arrival of an Ork fleet, the planetary Governor called for assistance from the nearby Imperial assets. it is noted in official records that the fleet engaged the Orcs And was tragically destroyed with all hands lost valiantly fighting and dying for the emperor. However, as the Ordo Hereticus records, the fleet turned out to have a large chaos cult on board who hijacked the fleet and have been reportedly seen on multiple occasions attacking Imperial Trading lanes. With no assistance on the way, the planet was forced to turn to its own defence, which quickly proved to be a very difficult prospect. The governor's attempts to Commission new ships to be created in time for the arrival were quickly met with ridicule by those who had any understanding of the time necessary for ship production, or a basic understanding of their industrial capabilities, considering that the dry docks hadn't been used for almost six centuries. This left the planetary defence Fleet as the only true line of defence for the oncoming orcs, which quickly proved to have been as poorly maintained as much of the planetary infrastructure, with around 2/3 of the fleet not being able to launch under operational conditions, and being destroyed at drydock. The remains of the fleet were then put to the important task of evacuating the planetary governor, and those Nobles who he viewed as valuable. Their attempted escape was noticed, intercepted, and destroyed by the Ork flotilla which was still advancing on their planet. This is the end of the governor and as he had taken all of his approved heirs with him, his entire line as well.
The now largely isolated Hive cities quickly fell into their standard pattern for such an occasion, boosted by the fact that there were no longer any orders from their theoretical leaders to obey. essentially the entirety of the hives devolved into complete anarchy, with gangs, cartels and organizations arming up for the Ork invasion. Some rudimentary defences were constructed at what was believed to be the most likely landing zones for the orcs, with what remained of the PDF marshalling what forces it could order, cajole or bribe out into the waste where they believe that the orc flotilla would touchdown, to meet them before they manage to entrench themselves on the planet. unfortunately it appears that nobody in the PDF command structure which remained had a good grasp of how the Orks operated. instead of sending down landing ships to one of the few open areas on the world, most of them began landing or rather crashing into the cities, often driving their ships into the structures themselves, causing massive Devastation and destroying some of the little infrastructure which remained. the war which followed, often called "The War of the Wings" for its use of the Wing Packs which became the primary method of traversing the now shattered Hive spires, would continue for years, although exact numbers of casualties and engagements are impossible to tell, considering the lack of any kind of command structure, or even bureaucracy remaining to keep track of such things.
With the complete disintegration of local authority, and the Imperium too busy to send any kind of significant reinforcements to the world, the Protectorate was quick to step in, to safeguard human lives on this unfortunate world. By the time they arrive, there doesn't seem to have been much of the upper leadership left, and instead, the entire planet seems to have evolved into near-gang warfare. How much this differs from the previous state of affairs is something of an open question, considering that outside of the occasional section of the world controlled by an off-world institution, everything else was run by local criminals in one form or another. Even the administration of the planet was largely managed by cartels. After a remarkably quick battle in space, where according to records we've been able to gather it was revealed that the entirety of the Ork fleet was little better armed than a mid-sized pirate Fleet, the protectorate began deploying vast quantities of Valhallen soldiers, relying upon their generations of experience with fighting against the vile greenskins to expedite the process and allow them to begin to reestablish civil order. Regardless of the vast quantity of Manpower and time that was put into this endeavour, The process of reestablishing some semblance of orderly conduct on the planet would take the better part of two years, and would only be truly completed, with the famous Ceremony of Peace, with the Liberator himself attending the planet's declaration of its resumption as an actual state. During this interim however, several members of the Protectorate military noted the rather remarkable skills of some of the locals, in a specific kind of warfare that they were unfamiliar with, both of vertical warfare, and the use of Wing Packs to glide into otherwise inaccessible areas. This led to the formation of what was at first a company-sized unit, known as the Base Ariel Assault Team, or BAAT, which would later be expanded to be several regiments large and make up one of the most notable formations of the Protectorate.
These teams are typically employed when the fighting has evolved into largely stationary warfare. These teams are either deployed from aircraft of the USN, or from high enough geographical positions that they can achieve similar results. From here they glide or dive to insert themselves into enemy fortifications, command centres, or other such positions, and launch commando raids from within. These rates are typically most effective on enemies that do not share an unnatural method of command, such as Orks. After taking out local command personnel, and effectively decapitating local leadership, the commando raid will either extract themselves or serve as an obstacle for the enemy for the follow-up attack. This high-risk, high-reward strategy has been intensely effective at limiting long-term engagements against Imperial forces and is particularly effective against members of the Tau, where the killing of several noted ethereal during the Stolas campaign, caused the collapse of an entire Front. These units are significantly less effective against Orks, Necrons or Tyranids, due to their lack of conventional command structures, and so are one of the few Protectorate units which target other humans as a matter of course.
An interest in the quirk of these units is the fact that they seem to be almost entirely female, with no significant male populations within their ranks. This seems to be more related to their home planet's culture than actually being any sort of official policy. Beryllust seems to have a significantly higher female population than male, which has led to a largely female-led society, at least within the under-city, where this population discrepancy is significantly more noticeable. Unlike other units of the Protectorate's military, these units are recruited almost exclusively from Beryllust. This is because the cultural familiarity with many of their tactics, and practises are not widely spread and cannot easily be replicated on other planets. While they will occasionally recruit from outside, this is an incredibly rare occurrence and is more often done at the unit's discretion, rather than as an organic act. This has meant that many of their regimens are often undermanned, or need to be cycled back to their home world for refit and re-arming, as they cannot recruit from worlds they have conquered. As well, the fact that their world was so severely devastated by the orc invasion, and the breakdown of civil society means that recruiting new soldiers is an often time-consuming endeavour, even years later.
Several scholars have postulated that the world was originally brought into the imperium by the Night Lords, due to the intense and frequent use of Batwing imagery in their markings, as well as the fact that it has largely gone unnoticed by the imperium for as long as their records can recall. This is further backed up by the fact that the existing social structures on both worlds are remarkably similar, and appear to have been at least partially engineered. Other scholars have the that much of the population is descended from members of house Escher, due to their Significant warrior women culture, genetic markers, which seem to favour a large number of women, and several aesthetics that can be traced back to Necromubda. Despite attempts to discern the true origin of the planet, and its population, most have expressed at best apathy towards the question, and more often outright hostility. Many, seem to view the idea that their world needs some long and interconnected history, as more of an insult to them, rather than genuine academic curiosity.
Many of the Protectorates commanders heavily favour the use of the BATs as a quick and relatively bloodless way of dealing with particularly stubborn enemy formations. These women have thus naturally been something of a premium within the Protectorate, and have often acted less as general Infantry, and instead as specialists With clearly defined roles. While theoretically they could be deployed as line Infantry, just as any other formation, no commander is willing to risk losing such a valuable formation for minuscule gains, except under the absolute most desperate situations.
A rather odd but famous brotherhood exists between these units and The Gendarmerie of United Nudquam, or GUN units. The fact that one of these worlds produces regiments which are essentially armed gangs, while the other one is mobilizing regiments that are defined by their use as essentially peacekeeping units, suggests that the two should despise one another. However, they have formed an unlikely brotherhood seemingly through their shared experiences. Some have speculated that the similar gender makeup of the two worlds may have something to do with it, as both Newsome and Beryllust are predominantly run by women, and have forces which have a heavy skewing towards women in their ranks. These units will often prefer to work with the other over more experienced USA regiments. While it is not any form of official policy, nor is it always guaranteed, the sighting of a GUN regiment should always be assumed to be supported by a BAT unit and vice versa.
A rather famous example of their use was during the Midori campaign where several BAT units were deployed from high altitude, to attempt to disrupt planetary defence forces that had consolidated around the Governor's residence. These units were able to slip past the local air defence network, by essentially dive-bombing with their gliders and landing literally within meters of the governor's residence. From there, the commando raid which followed quickly managed to seize the governor, his command staff and complete access to most of the resisting units' command and control infrastructure. Without this infrastructure, no effective way of communicating between each other and no clear line of command, factionalism set in almost immediately, with much of the PDF turning on each other, and abandoning the wider campaign. This turned what was predicted to be a three-year campaign, into a weeklong mop-up operation.
Another, rather infamous example of this group's abilities would be the Ivorstone resupply campaign. During this campaign, several companies of the First Liberator Guard and a collection of other units were trapped firmly behind enemy lines and were forced to dig in on the hilltop. The attacking Orks had set up what amounted to crude anti-air cover and took great joy in targeting any attempts to extract the pinned units or using larger vessels to resupply them. The BATs volunteered to make their attempts at resupplying these units, through slightly unorthodox methods. Their solution was to strap literal bundles of supplies to themselves and glide in during the dead of night. While this resupply attempt could only carry quite limited logistical support to the cornered units, it also had the added benefit of slowly bringing in reinforcement, through the BATs themselves. The upshot was that by the time sufficient reinforcements had arrived to successfully assault the hill, the hill itself had been heavily reinforced with almost 200 members of the BATs having arrived to take up new positions. This held off the orcs for several more days until an armoured column could pierce through the Orks, and relieve the formation.
Equipment:
The BATs tend to avoid using large amounts of armour and instead favour incredibly light vehicles. One of the heaviest pieces in their arsenal is the B61 armoured car, also known as the 'Handmaiden'. This six-wheeled armoured car has both a close support cannon, and seating for three, with a driver, loader, and gunner. However, it is most often only crewed by two, with the gunner also being the loader, and rumours from my sources say there have been attempts to design a sufficiently lightweight autoloading system, to reduce that crew count to one. This is one of their preferred vehicles because it can also be airdropped to their positions with very little logistical hurdle. There are reports of members of the USN who were instructed to simply drop the vehicle from their crafts over BAT positions. Naturally, parachutes and glider systems had already been previously installed on board to prevent this from simply ending up as a particularly ineffective bombing, but it does go to show the ease with which the system is used. There also exists a command vehicle variant, named the 'Krystabelle', which swaps out the close support gun for a multi-laser, and a communication suite. With a miniaturized version of a Leman Russ engine, as well as a secondary charge system which allows the vehicle itself to run on Las Rifle magazines, this has quickly become something of a preferred choice for whenever these units need any kind of localized support. This being said crews have often complained about relatively poor sights at anything approaching the vehicle's maximum range, the engine quite fuel inefficient compared to its larger counterpart, and the lack of any kind of comfort when driving or crewing the vehicle. It's safe to say that this is a very effective vehicle, and much loved for its utility, nobody is going to be going for a ride in one of these unless it's part of a mission.
The Cain pattern, Las carbine: A particularly beloved variant of the humble gun, the Cain pattern Las Carbine is well known throughout the ranks of the BAT for a number of features that have put it in particularly good stead with those who use them. Despite having a significantly reduced range, of around 60% of a traditional Las rifle, its stopping power is much beloved by its users. Capable of piercing most armour that would stop a traditional Las round, this weapon takes the ubiquitous Slawkenberg pattern Las magazine. Capable of 50 regular shots, the carbine also has intensity options, using an internal capacitor, which can stretch the shot count to almost 100, or reduce it to 25, by giving the carbine what amounts to hotshot capabilities. This intensely user-centric feature, alongside its collapsible stock, and the fact that it comes with an accessory kit which can allow it to use other patterns of power packs, have made it a particular favourite of deep insertion operations, and the weapon of choice for any BAT Who can get their hands on it. Unfortunately, this weapon has been a bit of a victim of its own success, as orders for this pattern have stretched into the next decade.
The Wing Packs Adapted from the traditional navigation tools of her people, the Beryllust Wing Pack is composed of anywhere from 2 to 6 glider wings, which can fold up into a small package, no more than 2' x 2'. These wings, often coloured and customized by their user are what gives the BATs, such an infamous reputation, as they will often be used in deep insertion operations to essentially collide to their location. While the particular number, style and iconography of these wings will depend largely on the user, the six-wing model called the angel model by some of its more artistic users, are particularly noted for their ability to stop a sudden descent, and have become the model of choice for dive bombing or dive insertion operations. The two-wing model, on the other hand, has become much more favoured for long-range descent, due to its easier control, and more aerodynamic design. The wing unit is often used as a training bed, considering its all-around specs are better for learning the intricacies of flight, seeing as how human minds were not created with that intention.
The P 25 ration bar. Created in collaboration with the Handmaiden and Bringers of Renewed Greatness. This bar is intensely charged with nutrients, carbohydrates and other necessities of life, so much so that each bar is marked with nine sections, to indicate its 9 uses which are supposed to be able to feed a soldier for a day each. The original model of this bar was poorly received, as it was widely regarded as tasting horrible, causing stomach issues and being completely inedible. One particularly theatric member of the testing unit demonstrated this by cracking a helmet in half using the bar. This led to it being re-engineered, and the handmaidens being brought in to handle the redesign of its flavour and texture. This has been an overwhelming success, to the point where it has become a problem again. Unfortunately, these bars are so well regarded that additional security has had to be placed on the warehouse where these bars are kept, as members of the USA are known to pilfer them on occasion. On a personal note, I have managed to procure a few of these bars myself, and they are something nice to keep in reserve for operations where I suspect I might be unable to acquire food before or during the mission itself.
Exerte from an acquired instruction manual labelled "BAT and you: How to work with them to the best of their abilities".
"For any commanders, considering the deployment of these units, it is important to remember that they do have a very strong culture of independent procurement, scavenging, and resource acquisition. Despite the Protectorate's attempts to reduce the population of Beryllust to a more manageable level, and thus mitigate the results of Imperium's strange fascination with having as many people as possible living in squalor, there is still a significant culture of independent procurement that persists in these units. While these actions should not be ignored, especially as they may compromise the rest of the army's effectiveness, there should be some consideration given to their history and culture to ensure that while these actions are not encouraged, they are also not punished simply because they do not conform to a more common understanding of property and ownership. This is primarily meant for when it is an internal matter between units, or within the same unit. This is not an instruction to ignore such occurrences that happen outside of their group, or even to enemy formations. Especially if it happens to those enemies who are cognizant enough to comprehend the ideas of ownership, and personal property. We are fighting a war of liberation for humanity. Please do not allow your soldiers to loot the people who surrender to us. They are enemy combatants and are deserving of respect and dignity. Under no circumstance, should you allow a BAT unit to pilfer the enemy's personal belongings."