Today we get a glimpse of the unlimited dangers that the Jungle Fighters of Catachan face on a daily bases in today’s LORE.
The dense foliage of Catachan hides 1000 ways to die. Let’s find out what poisonous deaths await the planet’s inhabitance.
Via: Lexicanum On Catachan, every day is a battle to survive, requiring skill and courage only dreamed of on other worlds. Even Space Marines are said to avoid this hellish place. Catachan is home to the single deadliest creature in the galaxy, and some of its wildlife has even been released on other worlds to dissuade invasion.
Every animal species on the planet is carnivorous, and every plant species is poisonous, even the slightest scratch can prove fatal as necrotic bacteria swarm in to putrefy it. 50% of the planet’s human population does not survive infancy, and 50% of the remainder does not live past the age of ten. To survive, children often learn to shoot before they can walk, and must be deadly fighters in their own right by the time most humans have learned to spell.
Those Catachans who reach adulthood are natural survivors, invariably some of the hardiest and deadliest souls in the Imperium. Due to the fact they must constantly fight for supremacy on the most lethal of Death Worlds, the Catachans have become naturally superior to any normal Human and trained well beyond the capabilities of any Munitorum jungle warfare school.
In time, their skill at surviving on Catachan came to the notice of the Munitorum, which realized that the Catachans would make excellent Astra Militarum troops dedicated to service in some of the galaxy’s most hostile planetary environments, and the first regiments of the Catachan Jungle Fighters were raised. The Jungle Fighter’s elite warriors are Catachan’s only resource; since the planet offers no source of sustenance and only death, the planet’s inhabitants are dependent on food and supplies shipped from off-planet, in return for the Jungle Fighters’ service in the Imperial Guard.
This arrangement has stood for thousands of years, and though the Catachans bleed more than most for the Imperium, they would have it no other way. Indeed, most Catachans claim that even the most suicidal of military engagements are as nothing to spending a day in the lethal jungles of their homeworld. This gung-ho enthusiasm is often mistaken for bravado by Guardsmen from other regiments. The fact remains, however, that Catachan Jungle Fighters are the most uncomplaining, determined and valorous soldiers of the Imperial Guard, whether assigned to drudgerous garrison duties or a hopeless assault upon an impregnable fortress
