The Valhallan/Slawkenburg Regiments
Report commissioned by Lord Inquisitor Kimberly Anton of the Ordo Militarum, information compiled by Savant Gregory Peterson, written by Inquisitorial trainee Lee Bradley
Despite theoretically, by the standards of the Astra Imperialis, being a Penal legion, the VS first is a highly respected regiment for the traitor forces. This regiment is equipped with the same equipment that many of the more standard trader regimens have been given and shows similar levels of dedication. Where one would expect Commisars to be present, along with a suitable number of failsafes, In order to ensure this regiment would not turn their weapons on their theoretical jailers, this formation is lacking in such officers. In fact, it is lacking in many of the more notorious failsafes of the Penal Legions. No bomb collars, drug injection apparatuses, or attempts to get the men addicted to substances, held by the officer core. It would appear that for all intents and purposes, these men are trusted or at least respected by the heretics that Command them.
Despite some… Interesting speculation from some of our colleagues within the Ordo Hereticus, who have speculated that these regiments' existence would suggest that Valhalla itself is, in fact, a massive hotbed of heretical activity that is simply waiting for the opportunity to rise up and destroy the imperium, we can actually trace their origins fairly easily. From the recordkeeping that we've been able to access, it would appear that the precursor organization to the VS regiments was created during the Orcish attack on Slawkenburg. During the attack, the Black Commissar ordered that the men of these regimens were to be armed, with a shipment of body armor and rifles, which he had redirected from his own forces to his, at the time, prisoners.
Normally, this would have been a recipe for disaster. After all, he was quite literally sending arms and equipment to men he held in prison camps, isolated up in the mountains, after he killed their commander, and the inquisitor, who led them. For any other comparable plan, this would've been the beginning of a bloodbath, as the men promptly turned their newly acquired weapons on their captors, regardless of the incoming threat. However, this didn't happen, and instead, the Valhallans would willingly join his operation, and defeat the Orcish incursion, heading towards their position. Mirror could be any number of reasons that this happened. Perhaps the chance to fight their, ancestral enemy, was such an opportunity that they could not pass up. Perhaps the Commisar's propaganda was so effective that he had genuinely converted all the members of this imperial guard regiment to his cause. Or perhaps significantly more likely, Valhallans didn't want to die, and the fact he had given them the arms and equipment needed to protect themselves against an enemy who knew no concept of mercy and would not care to spare their lives, rather endeared them towards him.
When the weapons and equipment arrived, it was a mere half hour before the orcs would be at the prison camp's literal gates. For any other heretic formation, I wonder if they would have been able to equip, organize and prepare in time for anything more than a disorganized brawl. However, this was the remnants of the Valhallan 17th Regiment that was being held at this camp. A formation that, despite having taken severe casualties during the battle itself, had maintained most of its good order in the aftermath. Thus by the time the orcs arrived at the gates to their prison camp, they didn't find a disorganized Rabble, who had all risen up against their guards, causing a massive internal riot, but rather well-organized and prepared lines, preparing to fight their hated ancestral foe.
In the aftermath of the main orc threat being destroyed, the natural question of what to do with the now very heavily armed Valhallans must surely have been a contentious point of discussion within the halls of the Liberation Palace. For most men, and even most experienced imperial leadership, the obvious thing to do would've been to immediately disarm the formation, so that they could prove to be a threat. However, instead of taking this seemingly obvious solution, the Black Commissar instead chose to allow them to maintain their arms and equipment. Further, he struck a fairly generous deal with the members of this ad hoc formation, in order to use their generational knowledge to the best advantage. These men would fan out across the planet, and hunt down stragglers of the ork invasion, hoping to ensure that the eventual re-surgence would be a relatively minor affair.
As any planet, which suffers orc incursion, is likely to experience resurgence, as the spores that they drop will eventually create orcs native to the planet, which will have to be fought off. This momentary alliance likely saved the Black Commissar from having to expand significantly higher amounts of resources later on. He effectively was able to avoid a conflict with the remnants of an imperial guard invasion force, help to secure his planet's long-term security and plant the seeds which would eventually allow for the propagation of such formations within his expanding dominion. The sheer level of trust, which Caiaphas Kane showed these men, far beyond anything they had received even from the man who used to command them, seems to have genuinely won many of them over to supporting him. While there would be those who fled in order to conduct an unimpressive guerilla war against him in the mountains, the vast majority of them would remain true to their word, even eventually returning much of the equipment.
In the coming years, as Cain and the liberation counsel expand their reach far beyond their original holdings, these men would serve as an elite corps that would carry out their ancestral, orc hunting missions, on multiple planets under his control. Often establishing entire Valhallan, descending communities, which Has allowed much of his territory to remain free of the sporadic Orcish uprisings that so often plague imperial space. One of the unique aspects of this regiment, and its offshoot, is the presence of specialized capture units within their formations. While many imperial guards, regimens will have medics and will attempt to capture enemies in order to interrogate them. The VS regiment, takes this to an extreme level, with their attempts to always capture as many enemy soldiers as possible, and to try and provide medical treatment to fallen enemies as soon as possible, is almost unique among Heretic formations, who typically prefer to either massively, kill their opponents, as soon as possible, or to use them as rituals for components. In either case, the medical well-being of those involved is typically not very high on the priority list. instead, these regimens will make every attempt to recover the wounded, and injured, or take prisoners of those separated from the larger formation.
Like so many other Valhallan regiments, they are expert orc hunters, specializing and revelling in the chance to kill green skins whenever the possibility emerges. This is part of the reason why they have been such a useful tool for the canine dominion. As their territory has continued to expand, increasingly orc-infested populations have been brought within the Black Commissars sphere, and efforts have been undertaken to fully eradicate the greenskin menace from within his territory.
Unlike other Valhallan formations, or even formations found within the imperial guard, the VS does not recruit from a single planet, but rather from a vast network of communities, that all can trace their ancestry to the original, Valhallan formations, and those members that somehow managed to make their way to the Commissars dominion. Having a limited supply of true born Valhallan, and it not being likely that they will recruit another entire Legion thanks to the incompetence of a Lord Inquisitor (At least hopefully not), in recent years, the regiment has expanded its recruitment to members who claim ancestry from Valhalla, often being second generation members or the children of those currently serving in these regiments. With Slawkenburg's far more relaxed nature surrounding their troop's service than the Astra Militarum, this has allowed entire populations of Valhallan descendant communities to emerge within the Caniate Dominion. These communities have begun supplying their sons and daughters to these regiments in increasing numbers.
While the exact numbers have yet to be fully confirmed, it is widely believed that this recruitment has allowed for the expansion of the original VS Regiments into multiple independent regiments, including, but not limited to an armoured regiment, two mechanized Regiments, an artillery Regiment, three supply or engineering regiment and a light infantry regiment. Beyond these known regiments, there are theorized, communication regiments, medical regiments, and one regiment designated as the 12th VS, known as 'The Jurgens'. The fact that these men seem to take their name directly from the warp sorcerer, commonly seen as the Black Commissar aide and second in command, suggests that this formation is composed almost entirely of powerful Psykers. How so many Psyckers were created in such a short amount of time, and so predominantly within a fairly select group, is for those within the Ordo Hereticus to speculate on.
The recruitment of the initial regiment, and its eventual growth does raise a very concerning question for the imperium. The Black Commissar was able to take a force that had landed on his capital, planet, with the intention of destroying his power, and having him executed, and turned them into one of his most effective sources of internal security, and anti-orc Manpower. this by itself would not be too alarming, especially considering the calibre of leadership that seems to have preceded and led the operation, however, this is also his second time doing so. It should be mentioned that he managed to recruit almost the entirety of the Slawkenburg Planetary, Defense Force, and then the elite guard and hired guns of the cardinal of the planet. Fundamentally we are starting to see the beginnings of a pattern here, where Cain is able to recruit almost anyone we send against him. It is not hard to speculate that as more and more regiments are brought in to deal with his rising threat, he may find ways to recruit them as well. It is my humble opinion that perhaps we should be a bit more cautious about sending large numbers of imperial guards against his bulwarks and fortifications. Or at the very least we should probably make an effort to ensure that the person in charge of the operation isn't a deranged monster, who threatens to Exterminatus the planet the moment things don't go their way. That may have been a contributing factor.