Falco Millenniorum Armsmen
Armsmen of the Falco Millennes
TO: Lord-Captain Giovanni da Solo
FROM: Guard-commander Audatius Murphius
RE: Report on the composition of the Falco’s armsmen
To the noble Lord-Captain da Solo, greetings and Ave Imperator.
As per your earlier request, I have integrated what remains of our Ithacan First Guards unit rescued with you from Troilus into the contingent of armsmen aboard the Falco, and then organised the whole according to Imperial Guard regimental lines. Our current strength is 500-odd, giving us the equivalent of a full-strength company, and another company-minus. Command over the formations is shared between myself and Marshal Vertix: she handles their training and, ah, motivation, while I have taken charge of their regimental discipline, manpower, strategic doctrine, and logistics.
The company-minus has been designated the Falcon First Company, and they contain the core of what remains of our Ithacan First, minus the veterans. The remainder are a mixture of da Solo Dynastic armsmen and shipboard Arbites. Their main mandates are boarding operations, and guarding VIPs such as yourself, and your honour-guard is always drawn from their ranks. I have taken the liberty of assuming that yourself, your general staff, and whatever support elements you will draw from our Mechanicus and other allies will constitute their company HQ.
My lord, you would also have received my complaints that under the influence of Marshal Vertix, they have begun calling themselves ‘Bonehunters’ and collecting trophies from their kills. No disrespect is meant to the esteemed Marshal, but I am unused to seeing men under the arms of the Imperial Guard conducting themselves like… well, like savages. Nonetheless, it seems to have done wonders for their morale, and the prospect of new trophies appears to provide a strong motivation for them to be aggressive during boarding operations.
The full company I have designated the Falcon Second Company, and they contain the bulk of the shipboard armsmen loyal to your Dynasty. Myself and my existing HQ I have placed over them: I have also taken the liberty of embedding our most senior Guards NCOs in their ranks, in order to provide a strong backbone of Guard discipline. As you have earlier observed, thus commingling our forces may prevent conflicts of interest between elements personally loyal to you for your exemplary service on Troilus and those sworn instead to the da Solo Dynasty, who have yet to take your full measure. Our main mandate is shipboard security, due to the armsmens’ familiarity with the ship, as well as constituting our main manoeuvre force if ever we make planetfall. While it may seem counterintuitive to task a force mostly trained for voidship combat with terrestrial manoeuvres, I believe that having a mobile force operating independently from your command enables us to use the hammer-and-anvil tactics we employed to great effect on Troilus. We who fought by your side on Troilus remember your affinity for rallying men to hold the line, and we would feel most heartened to be able to flush quarry into your sights, being the hammer to your anvil.
In organising the elements according to Guard doctrine, I have also eliminated the former practice of having highly-specialised formations with specific equipage, giving us much greater strategic flexibility. As it stands, every squad of ten soldiers should have a designated marksman with a long-las, a squad automatic weapon team with heavy stubbier or lascannon (depending on mission profile), and a point-team equipped for close-combat with shotlas and las-carbines, with the others equipped with the standard Guard-pattern lasgun. Given the strict limitations on storage-space even aboard a cargo-freighter in the void, your prudence in preferring the smoother logistics of las-weapons over projectile-weapons is well-regarded by the officer corps.
In closing, my lord, I wish to register that while we are otherwise capable of operating as a conventional force of Imperial Guardsmen, we lack the vehicle, armour, and aerial support that traditional Guards doctrine presupposes. These factors are less vital for voidship combat, but should we ever have to undertake terrestrial operations, it might be best to secure such materiel before embarking. While we now have the overwhelming advantage of orbital firepower, a ‘medium option’ in the form of artillery and air-support, together with the mobility afforded by motorised transport and armour, would expand our strategic and tactical options immensely.
My lord, I remain,
Your humble servant,
Guard-commander Audatius Murphius
