Sunlight filtered into the gloomy interior of the transport
through several locked viewports on each side. The soldiers restrained in the various
seats facing each other glanced around nervously as the tank stopped sharply.
One of them, whom they had christened ‘Brains’ yelped at the unexpected lurch
as it caused him to bite his tongue, the others stifled their laughter as the
rear hatch began to crank open.
A sharp staccato rhythm paced up the grilled surface as a pair of highly
polished boots marched towards them.
If they had dared to glance upwards at that point, they
would have seen a tall man of a warrior’s bearing. Drab green fatigues pressed
to regulation, black body armour polished and proudly displaying the winged
skull symbol of the Astra Militarum. Above this was a stern, scarred face
glowering at them as it chewed around the cigar clenched in it’s mouth.
If they had dared…
Colonel Schaeffer stopped with perfect drill and snapped his feet together.
“This is Ascher’s World, a farming backwater which has been invaded by Aeldari
pirates” he began.
“Why should we care?” the one they had named ‘Demolition Man’ interrupted and
asked.
Schaeffer turned slowly meeting the man eye to eye, he stared for a moment then
lunged forwards and backhanded the Vostroyan across the face.
“Anymore and you’ll all be on half rations, well?” he asked and stared around
the transport hold, “Blaker, stop smoking and get in here”
Trooper Blaker, known to the others as ‘Greasemonkey’ rounded the hatch, the
manacles around his wrist and neck rattling as the chains on them swayed with
his movements. Awkwardly he climbed aboard.
“Now” continued Schaeffer, “Ascher’s World has been invaded by Aeldari pirates,
the regiments have been having a little trouble, so we’ve been called in. Our
targets are the leaders, the so called “Seer Council”…
“Great, a damn suicide mission against freak alien psychics”
“Damn and I was getting short, just two more missions and I was out”
“You wouldn’t know what to do on the outside Fingers, hell, you don’t know what
to do normally”
The soldiers began back and forth at each other accompanied by laughter, the
one they nicknamed ‘Animal’ growled and snarled around his leather gag.
They shut up quickly as the sound of a swagger stick snapping echoed around the
interior, all eyes were drawn to Schaeffer, his jaw muscles working as they
clenched even harder around the cigar.
Once he knew that all eyes were on him, he threw the halves of the broken stick
at “Animal” to shut him up.
“Do you know why you’re all here?” he asked, none replied.
He spun, pointing at ‘Shiv’, “Do you know why you are here?”
“Because I’m a serial killer?” ‘Shiv’ asked, unsure whether
the question was a trick.
“No” replied Schaeffer, “You are here because you are scum, but you are the
Emperor’s scum. You have skills which are useful to our immortal lord and
whether you wish it or not, they will be made use of. They will be made use of
until you receive absolution for your transgressions against humanity and him
on earth.”
“Now, do you know how you receive absolution?” Schaeffer asked ‘Scope’.
“Down the barrel of my sniper rifle” the convicted sniper replied.
“No” cried Schaeffer as if he were lecturing in the Scholam’s
back on Terrax, “I drag you here to some hellhole which you’ve never heard of.
There you fight and most likely die because I am not impressed. But, if you’re
lucky or you’re as good as some of you think you are, they I’ll drag you kicking
and screaming to another hellhole, and another hellhole, and another. Until you
earn absolution from the Emperor in death. Remember, only in death does duty end”.
He turned on his heel and marched out the ramp, beginning the closing procedure
as he went.
“I’ll be back with the provost’s in twenty minutes, we gear up and move out in
an hour” Schaeffer said before the ramp slammed shut, encasing the convicted
soldiers in the almost darkness again…
Colonel Schaeffer – The indomitable colonel leads the Last Chancer’s into battle personally, to ensure that each mission is a success.
‘Rocket Girl’ – Convicted of killing a fellow
Master-Sergeant for unknown reasons.
‘Fingers’ – Convicted of Kleptomania and Black-Market profiteering.
‘Demolition Man’ – Convicted when caught breaking into a
Colonel’s personal drink cabinet.
‘Warrior Woman’ – Convicted of belonging to a banned cult
(Ref: Artemis sub-cult).
‘Greasemonkey’ – Convicted of stealing the grav vehicle belonging
to Iyanden Craftworld ambassadors.
‘Scope’ – Convicted of going AWOL, reason unconfirmed, but
thought to be related to a series of assassinations.
‘Shiv’ – Convicted of killing over twenty civilians over a five-year
period on Lector Prime.
‘Brains’ – Convicted of hacking into the regimental payroll
system and changing his pay grade.
‘Animal’ – see sub-sile 84 beta, cross-reference Militarum
psychologist reports regarding schizophrenia...
*****
Colonel Schaeffer’s Last Chancers are a character unit, one
which I have had sitting half painted for the better part of three years now.
They were released during 40k’s 3rd edition and were meant to be a
kind of “Dirty Dozen” analogue in the universe (remember they had all the different
guard regiment models back then which were based off of various real world
regiments and themes).
Anyway, I liked these as you could field them either as a unit of Hardened
Veterans in a normal guard army, or you had the option of using them as a Suicide
Squad, and facing down the enemies of the Emperor with just the twelve models
in the unit.
I love the photo's from this period of GW, actual modelled terrain, not the same old "Sector Imperialis" boards in ever photo...
I say twelve models, but have only painted up ten. This is because with modern
40k (5th edition onwards) you lost the ability to field these models
as a unit by themselves. With their equipment loadout as well, I had to remove ‘Ox’
who carries a Heavy Bolter and ‘Hero’
who has a power sword and lasgun, so that the rest of them I can run as a squad
of Veteran Guardsmen from the Elites section. To play them narratively, I’ll
just get them in way over their head and hope that they can pull their arses
out of the fight, just like Colonel Schaeffer would do.
‘Ox’ and ‘Hero’ haven’t been abandoned, they been side-lined for different
future projects which may occur once I gather a few more bits for them. ‘Hero’
will have a close job with the Officio Prefectus…
These were really fun models to paint and I do wish that GW would do some box sets like this again. I tried to go for a unified Military Prison look with the drab green uniforms, but then add the individual flavour of each member of the unit through their equipment and skin tones in some cases.
For example ‘Shiv’ is very Native American, so I gave him a Cadian Fleshtone
base washed twice with Riekland Fleshshade, to get a richer colour, compared to
Brains who is very pale skinned by using Deepkin Flesh as a base for the
fleshwash.
A little spot colour of red, unifies the various models into a cohesive unit, much like the artwork for the uniforms on the cover of the latest novel to feature the penal legion guardsmen in. Must admit that I do like this cover artwork.
Well that about wraps the post about these convicts up recently I've also been working on the Leman Russ I began renovating and a few other models for the Imperial Fists,
until next time…
-
Lewis
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