Summary
Close-range Skitarii infantry whose radium carbines and rad-saturated wargear poison both foe and self in service of the Omnissiah.
Lore
The Skitarii Vanguard, informally styled Rad Troopers, are the close-quarters echelon of the Skitarii cohorts of the Skitarii. Where Rangers serve as long-range marksmen, Vanguard squads advance into the reactor-shadow of the enemy line, weaponising the very radioactive emissions of their Forge World as a mantle of slow death.
Equipped with pack generators that bleed potent radioactive by-products, these Omnissian martyrs are so saturated with radiation that even to approach them is to succumb to their peculiar curse. Their baroque carbines fill the air around the foe with harmful emanations, corrupting the atmosphere itself even as they punch hyper-irradiated shot into the flesh of their victims.
The Vanguard themselves are theoretically safe inside their war plate, rad-leeching robes, and augmetic limbs — but on the rare occasions these warriors unscrew their helmets, the sight of their missing teeth and hairless, sore-pocked skin tells the awful truth. So much radiation bleeds from their wargear that for non-Skitarii to be stationed in the same barracks is a death sentence. It is a price they willingly pay, for their devotion to the Omnissiah is absolute.
Doctrine and Role
Vanguard squads are Battleline infantry of the Adeptus Mechanicus cohort, deployed to seize and hold ground forward of the line. Their tactical signature is the Rad-saturation aura: enemy units within close proximity find their will to contest objectives blunted, their flesh weakened by the unseen tide leaching from Skitarii powerpacks.
A Skitarii cohort is composed of Ranger and Vanguard squads in tandem — foot soldiers fully committed to the Tech-Priesthood and modified with martial protocols uploaded directly into their brains. Vanguard squads do not stand off; they walk into the kill-radius of their own weapons, trusting that the enemy will fall first. The Doctrina Imperatives broadcast across the Noosphere tune their reflexes turn by turn — accuracy, aggression, or speed as the cohort’s commanders demand.
Armament
The squad numbers ten warriors led by a Skitarii Vanguard Alpha. Standard armament is the Radium Carbine — a rapid-firing weapon that unleashes volleys of hyper-irradiated shot at short range, contaminating air and ground long after a target falls.
One trooper per squad may exchange the carbine for a specialist weapon: an arc rifle (anti-vehicle electro-discharge), a plasma caliver (short-range sun-fire), or a transuranic arquebus (long-range marksman piece more typical of Ranger squads but permitted to Vanguard armouries). The Alpha may bear an Alpha combat weapon or a Mechanicus pistol in lieu of a carbine, and the squad may carry an enhanced data-tether or omnispex to amplify cohort coordination.
Rangers and Vanguard
Vanguard and Rangers are siblings of the same Skitarii rite — both born of the Flesh-shriving and the corpus-skitarii augmetic suit, both cut from the same plastic sprue in their model form. Doctrine separates them: Rangers shoot from distance and hold ground by stealth, Vanguard close the gap and hold it by attrition. Together they form the line of every Skitarii cohort fielded by Mars — Forge Primus and her daughter forges.