The Smertiian Regiments of the Undying

Myths and tales are spread within and without the ranks the Cthonian Imperial Army, tales of archaic soldiers who would wage war upon the foes of man in unyielding marches and tanks like how others would, but what makes these soldiers so horrifying is their unwillingness to die for if you were strike one down he will stand right back up, bloodied and wounded but unwilling to die and continue to march onward toward his foes like the tales of the Undead. The regiments born from the death-world of Smerti are a hardy lot, surviving the toxic atmosphere and wastelands with rebreathers and specialised hazard suits, but when they march in unison onto the field of war they rid themselves of their gear and wear their archaic maskless Slavic uniforms and raise their banners high as they deploy archaic mustard gas and other toxins into the air of the battlefield to blind and slowly weaken their foes. Upon the weakening of their foes the Smertiian infantry charges maskless through the gas and smoke, breathing in the toxins which burns their lungs and erodes their skin within minutes but still charge forth regardless, never yielding to the temptation of dropping and dying when they have a battle to win and a foe to crush beneath their pained boots.

The Smertiian regiments are paragons of resilience that face painful death from either their foes or their own poison gases, but even as their bodies are scarred and maimed by their own gases they instil fear and horror into the enemies of mankind as they charge toward them like a horde of the damned, chunks of flesh missing from battle wounds, blood leaking from their eyes and mouths as the gas eats away at them. It is this unwillingness to die and willingness to bloody themselves for the sake of instilling fear that has earned them respect from many other regiments and battalions of the Cthonian Imperial Army, the Eisenaldens pay homage to the warriors of Smertii by dubbing them “Die untoten Märtyrer” which translates to The Undead Martyrs. Amongst all those who respect them stands the astartes of the Sons of the Reaper space marine chapter who themselves are paragons of perseverance and resilience, it is this similarity in their methods and culture that has led to the Smertiians and the Sons of the Reaper chapter working in tandem during conflicts, where the toxic gases and poisons would be deployed across the land and the bloodied dead men of Smerti would charge from the gas clouds alongside the armoured personages of the scythe-wielding warriors of the chapter.

Amongst the number of the regiments and battalions born from Smerti stands the vaunted 32nd Siege Battalion “The Corpse-Grinders”, a battalion made up of little more than 956 troopers that became well known for their almost unbreakable will to persevere and fight even by the standards of those born from Smerti, marching through the gas clouds and breathing in the mustard gas and letting it burn their skin to give them the unorthodox advantage over their horrified enemies and taking hits that would kill most men. Under the command of Commander Yubkin Zinoviy Igorevich (nicknamed Yubkin the Unkillable by his subordinates) and Lieutenant Colonel Teodor Nejman who both have made names for themselves amongst the ranks of the Corpse-Grinders, the former being recorded to have partaken in battles that saw him mortally injured and burned on several occasions as he led his men personally and still getting up and marching onward upon his foes and surviving both the wounds and the excruciating pain of the gas and poisons to continue leading the Corpse-Grinders in their future deployments which spawned his nickname.

The men of the Corpse-Grinders uphold their homeworld's traditions and culture of their fellow Smertiians, seeing the scars left on them from their battles and the marks of the toxic gases as trophies and marks of honour, this practice has led to some Smertiian troopers in these regiments sporting appearances more akin to undead creatures with burns and scars covering the entirety of their faces.

Though the regiment may be bloody and terrifying in their operations on the field, they pride themselves on maintaining their uniforms and weaponry with meticulous care, cleaning them of any speck of grime or blood that fell upon it during the grim deployments. And when the men of the Corpse-Grinders march into the fray of battle they chant in unity their motto, one that embodies their core beliefs.

“We are dying, and we will drag you down to hell with us!”

History
The Smertiian Regiments are the Imperial regiments comprised of enlisted from the few but overcrowded cities of Smerti built and interconnected throughout the world's northern semi-habitable tundras away from the toxic gas filled wastes that make up the rest native environment. Smertiian society has made numerous attempts to expand the borders of their cities through corporate-backed projects for decades but have failed numerous times due to their belief in preserving what little habitable land is left on the world and maintaining the hardy native flora and fauna of the Smertiian Tundras.

To counteract the overcrowding in their city the Smertiian government decreed that portions of the population will either be drafted into the Cthonian Imperial army to bolster the numbers of the at-the-time small Smertiian Regiments or to be sent to neighbouring worlds. Since this decree the numbers of the Smertiian Regiments boomed as new regiments had to be formed to compensate the mass influx of enlisted troops and it would not be long until the Smertiian Regiments would be called upon.

The first recorded deployment of one the Smertiian-born regiment was upon the outer rim world of Fodas where the planet was overtaken and fortified by a cell of the Insurgency. The 4th and 5th Smertiian Strike Battalions were deployed upon the world with a medium number of 1280 men and four companies worth of siege tanks each and air support from the small corvettes in orbit.

The retaking of the world of Fodas was smooth for the most part as the 4th Smertiian fought onward, until they reached the main HQ of the heavily-manned local Insurgency where upon reaching the outskirts near it they were assailed by clouds of toxic gases that killed many of the Imperial troopers within minutes, melting their lungs and burning their eyes along with many dying from the fire brought upon them by the Insurgents within the fortress, leaving the survivors bloodied and wounded with only 350 men surviving out of the 1280 they had prior. But when the officers called for a retreat the remaining commanding officer, a captain by the name of Edmund Galczynski spoke otherwise.

Edmund to the horror of his men tore off his gasmask, exposing himself to the toxins that filled the air around him, as he gagged and spat blood he ordered his men to charge the fortress along with what remained of their tank companies. From the fog of toxins and gases charged forth a horde of soldiers clad in bloody uniforms with blood oozing from their eyes and mouths roaring with unyielding wrath upon the insurgents, bringing to bear their bayonets and tanks as they butchered the horrified insurgents making many flee to the deepest parts of the fortress in sheer terror as they were slaughtered one by one by the Soldiers of the Dead.

It would be a bloody two hour long siege and with the death of the local Insurgency's leader by the hands of the almost-zombified Captain Edmund did the battle for Fordas end with a pyrrhic victory for the 4th Smertiian Strike Battalion, leaving only 42 men standing out of all the others who survived the initial gas attack, Captain Edmund Galczynski being counted amongst the dead after he died of his sustained injuries amidst the aftermath of the siege during the late arrival of the 5th Strike Battalion who had been occupied in clearing out smaller pockets of Insurgent resistance on the world.

The 5th Battalion found the survivors and were disturbed at what they found, from the hundreds of corpses covered in blood and viscera to the men of the 4th Battalion looking more akin to reanimated corpses then men, each of the survivors were sent to the medical squads of the 5th Battalion and when the medics tried to tend to the melted, burned and torn skin and flesh of the 4th Battalion's men they rejected the medic's attempt to heal them saying that their scars and wounds were badges of their pyrrhic victory, for each burn mark and every scar represents each comrade they had lost in the siege. And with the following reinforcement of the planet by standard Imperial forces the remaining survivors of the 4th Battalion were honourably discharged from the army for their service in the reclaiming of Fordas.

It was this battle that led to the sudden surge in popularity of using toxic gas on the field and the beginning of the grim Smertiian military tradition of charging through the gas without masks and making oneself look like the living dead, a tradition that tested the men of Smerti by pushing their perseverance and will to push onward to the limit to see how much fear they can instil into the hearts of those who were unlucky enough to be faced with the Marching Dead Men of Smerti.