Death Korps of Krieg: Forged in Atomic Fire Part I
WARHAMMER 40KDEATH KORPS OF KRIEGASTRA MILITARUM
Oroslan
3/31/202410 min read
General information
The Death Korps of Krieg are the name given by the Astra Militarium to the regiments formed from natives of the planet of the same name in the Tempestus Segmentum. At the moment, Krieg has been assigned the status of “Death World”; life on the surface of the planet is impossible without special means of protection. The surface of the world is a post-nuclear wasteland, inhabited by a small contingent of mutants.
More than 1.5 thousand years ago (at the time of 42k), the rulers of Krieg rebelled against the Emperor, this led to a civil war, as a result of which the planet was subjected to a full-scale nuclear bombardment. After this, fighting continued for about 500 years among the radiation-poisoned ruins, until loyal troops finally managed to destroy every last one of the apostates. The atmosphere of the planet was saturated with radiation and toxins to the limit; even total terraforming could no longer save it. The survivors had to go underground, where they built colossal arcologies and unparalleled underground hive cities.
The Imperial Guard regiments recruited from Krieg are different from other military formations. Their self-sacrifice in the name of the Emperor took on an extreme degree of fanaticism, turning into absolute disregard for their own lives. The only thing that a Krieg soldier values above his service to the Imperium is dying for the Imperium. The Kriegs are excellent in wars of attrition as well as defensive operations. They never retreat and are able to effectively resist any enemy, including the Necrons.
The soldiers of the Death Korps of Krieg truly know no fear. They are known throughout the Imperium as men incapable of giving up their goals, cold-blooded machines of destruction who know no compromise and are born only to die in battle for the future of their race. For them, the highest virtue is self-sacrifice. Wearing the same breathing masks, they look faceless, indistinguishable from each other - and this is a deliberate decision. Every Krieg citizen knows that he is just an energy cell in the clip of a galactic lasgun, which the god-emperor himself holds in his hands. And as soon as one energy cell comes to an end, it is thrown away, immediately replaced by another. This is not Krieg's combat doctrine. This is Krieg's life.
However, this approach to life and service naturally has negative features. Other Imperial Guard soldiers feel... uncomfortable around the Kriegs, silent, withdrawn, efficient. The commissars assigned to Krieg regiments never pursue the goal of monitoring the morale and fighting spirit of the warriors, as is done in other units. The Kriegs don’t need this - their spirit is impeccable and even a lonely surrounded Krieg citizen, who is only a breath away from death, will never doubt the order, his faith in the Emperor will never weaken. Commissars in Krieg regiments are needed in order to facilitate interaction between Krieg soldiers and other units of the Imperial Guard.
It is amazing how much manpower Krieg supplies to the Imperial Guard. Considering that we are talking about a death World, where life in underground arcologies and hives can hardly be called happy and comfortable, the rumors that have long been creeping throughout the Tempestus Segmentum seem quite logical. They say that under the soil of Krieg, women no longer give birth to warriors, at least not only women. Many believe that we are talking about prohibited and even unnatural methods of childbirth. And someone is sure that the Kriegs are mutants.
But at least we can debunk the myth about mutants. In the novel "Dead Men Walking" and the stories "Left to Die" and "Down Amongst the Dead Men" by Steve Lyons, we often see Kriegs without breathing masks. We hear not only their voices, the author conveys to us their thoughts and even feelings (oh yes, Krieg's death machines have feelings!). And there is not a single line in these texts that confirms or even hints that Kriegs are susceptible to mutations. It is assumed that the opposite is true - if a child in Krieg is diagnosed with even minimal deviations, he receives the status of “defective”, deprived of the right to become a warrior and have a family.
In the story “Down Amongst the Dead Men,” the main character’s reasoning and actions clearly show us that the warriors of Krieg are ready to die not only for the sake of the Emperor. They are also ready to die for the sake of other residents of Krieg. That is, in fact, their self-sacrifice is aimed not only at the Master of Humanity, but also at humanity as such.
And all of the listed works confirm another rumor, according to which the life expectancy of Kriegs is below average relative to the inhabitants of most normal worlds. Because all the Krieg soldiers we see without helmets (including veterans) are really young, and many of them are still boys. Moreover, they are all experienced and strong soldiers; age is definitely not a disadvantage for them. It is quite possible that Krieg’s regiments are like torches: they burn out quickly, but they burn brighter than the absolute majority, blinding and destroying in their path all enemies of Humanity, even the most implacable and merciless. Like the Necrons.
Fall of Krieg
It is believed that the real history of Krieg has been lost, possibly (and most likely) deliberately destroyed. Moreover, we know nothing about what Krieg was like before his fall. Scraps of information in the archives claim that it was a prosperous trading planet with colossal tracts of evergreen forests and vast blue oceans. It was an advanced manufacturing center of the system, populated by billions of happy people who were loyal to the Emperor and worked honestly for the sake of their loved ones and the approach of universal peace in a turbulent galaxy.
But happiness cannot last forever. And over time, the government of Krieg, known as the Council of Autocrats, concentrated all the production capacity of the planet in its hands. This group of autocrats, corrupted by power and the availability of any goods, are mired in paranoia, fearing only one thing - that someone will take away the reins of power from them. For years and decades they fortified their hive cities, turning them into impregnable fortresses. They formed their own private armies and armed them with the most advanced, most destructive weapons.
Having finally drowned in vices and endless internecine vendetta, the oligarchs of Krieg practically exhausted the resources of their home world, turning the once magnificent and flourishing cities into cold, lifeless bastions with millions of guns on endless towers. Moreover, the oligarchs began to resent the tithes and resources that the Imperium was taking from them without giving anything in return. And it so happened that the common people of Krieg had no idea what their rulers were planning. But the darkest hour of the once great and proud planet was already close...
In 433.M40, a man known as the Supreme Autocrat became the de facto ruler of the planet. He ruled the largest hive city and served as head of the Council of Autocrats. Unexpectedly for everyone, the Supreme Autocrat issued a Decree on Obliteration and executed the current Planetary Governor (his name is unknown, because it was erased from all archives in shame, because it was he who allowed these events). After this, the Autocrat introduced martial law on the planet and officially renounced the Emperor of Mankind. Of course, this man went crazy, his paranoia and fear of losing power excluded any other thoughts, feelings and motives from his head. Otherwise, his actions cannot be explained (or we don’t know something...).
The people of Krieg immediately rebelled against their new monarch, but the armies of the Council of Autocrats, subordinate to the Autocrat, promptly exterminated most of those who still remained loyal to the Emperor. Those who managed to survive were forced to flee the cities, but the civil war in Krieg was still just flaring up! The hive city of Ferrograd, where Colonel Jurten from the 83rd Krieg Astra Militarium regiment was located, accepted into the city everyone who was ready to fight for the honor of their world with the vile heretical rebels. Jurten, using the absolute support of the army and the population of the city, quickly carried out a coup in Ferrograd and took full control of the city.
Ferrograd turned into a center of resistance to the Autocrat. Its streets were ready to be defended by millions of ordinary citizens, in whose hearts faith in the Emperor only grew stronger with each deafening shot from the rebel guns. But the hive was cut off from the planet's infrastructure, from supply centers. He was besieged and kept isolated while Jurten and his warriors desperately resisted the overwhelming forces of the Autocrat. Finally, the colonel managed to contact the fleet in orbit - he requested support from the Astra Militarium ships based at the planet's space shipyard. But the fleet's response did not give the colonel the long-awaited hope.
It turned out that over the past years, the oligarchs of Krieg have strengthened the planet on all fronts, including its planetary defense. In the very first hours of the uprising, planetary guns aimed at the loyal fleet and drove it away from the shipyard. Colonel Jurten was informed that approaching Krieg at the moment is the fastest way to die senselessly, and there is simply no free fleet sufficient to suppress the firepower of Krieg in the Segmentum. This meant that no one would come to Jurten's aid; the old colonel received a simple order - to hold on. Do not hold as much as possible. And as long as it takes to exhaust the strength of the Autocrat and defeat him.
The situation seemed hopeless - the colonel simply did not have enough people, equipment and ammunition to fight the oligarch’s troops in open battle. And then Jurten made a fatal choice. He decided that either Krieg would belong to the Emperor or he would belong to no one. From the surviving archival records it is known that not a single soldier and not a single civilian in Ferrograd opposed Jurten’s decision. Because this is the fate of all life in the galaxy - it either carries love for the Emperor and Humanity in its heart, or is doomed to death!
After receiving orders from orbit, Jurten and Archmagos Greel descended into the catacombs beneath Ferrograd to the sealed Adeptus Mechanicus vault. The Mechanicum representatives in Ferrograd fully supported the colonel's plan, so they gave him access to the nuclear weapons stored there. On the Day of the Emperor's Ascension (a great holiday celebrated on every human world in the galaxy), Jurten, unexpectedly for the armies of the Autocrat, launched an all-out counter-offensive, withdrawing all troops under his control from the city.
The Purge of Jurten and the Birth of the Death Korps
Imagine the colonel’s surprise when every civilian who still remained in Ferrograd also came out along with his soldiers. Someone picked up an old lasgun, someone clutched sharpened rebar. But all of them, even women, old men and children, were ready to defend their home world and the sacred name of the Lord of Humanity from vile rebels who did not have the right to walk on the proud land of Krieg. They all knew what awaited them. And no one slowed down, no one stumbled, no one ran.
And then the traitors stared helplessly at their augurs, unable to understand what kind of missiles were soaring into the planet’s stratosphere from the hidden launch silos of Ferrograd. Then the missiles exploded and every person loyal to the Emperor closed his eyes, then rushed to attack the heretics, whose eyes and minds were burned out by thousands of thousands of nuclear suns. The planet was covered in nuclear fire. The ecosystem, already undermined by the manufactorums launched in recent years by the Council of Autocrats, finally collapsed and radioactive chaos swept over this once magnificent world. Billions died instantly, and billions more in the near future.
Jurten's plan was later called the Purge. The nuclear attack broke the rebels, but the loyalists were ready for it. The civil war continued for many centuries. Both loyalists and rebels went deeper underground to escape the radiation. While for the rest of the Imperium, Krieg died - in the ledgers of the Administratum it was marked as a "manufactured death world" and circled in red marker. This meant that the planet was unworthy of salvation and even the gaze of the Emperor. For planet has turned away from her God.
Loyalists and Separatists fought in underground arcologies and dead wastelands. Soon every meter of the damned earth was dotted with trenches, mines, anti-tank hedgehogs or bones. Especially the bones! For it is no longer possible to say how many people died in those forgotten battles that no archives talk about. How many loyal, sincerely devoted heroes died there? How many heretical maniacs were tortured and exterminated?..
Colonel Jurten died in one of thousands of nameless battles, and it is not even known how exactly. But the genes of the fearless warriors of Ferrograd continued to live. For everyone who then, on the Day of the Ascension of the Emperor, left the gates of the city became a warrior. Every. And their descendants were the same - strong, proud, fearless and merciless towards the enemies of the Imperium. War was all they knew on the way from cradle to grave. They knew no other fate and did not want it. For the sin that Krieg committed against the Emperor required atonement. Service, blood and lives.
