Colonel Iron Hand Straken

"Medic! Stop whining, Brook, you've got another damned leg!"

- Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken, Battle of Moden's Ridge

Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken is the most notorious and storied commanding officer of the Catachan Jungle Fighters Militarum Regimentum of the Astra Militarum. A veteran of decades of constant warfare, Straken has fought at the forefront of more battles and survived more wounds than most Imperial Guardsmen have eaten hot meals. Irascible and gutsy in the extreme, Colonel Straken leads from the front with a vigour that belies his years. Having worked his way up from footslogging grunt to Colonel of the entire Catachan II "Green Vipers," Straken continues to share every hardship of the common soldier. Larger than life and twice as violent, Straken can always be found where the fighting is thickest. Bellowing a constant stream of orders and invective, the Colonel stands shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Catachans. Straken's lack of tolerance for any display of incompetence or cowardice is legendary, and his men redouble their efforts in their determination to live up to Straken's exacting standards.

Straken's personal code of "getting stuck in" is matched by a determination never to waste good Catachan lives for ephemeral gains. The Colonel has nothing but scorn for officers who fritter away lives to further their own careers. This fact has caused endless friction with the commanders of other Astra Militarum regiments, yet Straken displays the same contempt for upper-echelon politics as he does for the foe. Straken's men all but deify their gung-ho commander, and have carried his battered body to safety almost as often as he has dragged theirs.

History
Regardless of the top brass' opinion, none can argue with Straken's breathtaking service record. Fighting initially under his mentor, the infamous Colonel Greiss, Straken has distinguished himself at the Battle of Moden's Ridge, the Dulma'lin Cleansing, the Ulani Aftermath and the evacuation of Vartol City to name but a few. On Ulani IV Straken dragged a wounded comrade to safety across half a continent. On Vendal's Landing he repulsed a phalanx of Daemon Engines with only twenty-two men, ten Lasguns and a case of short-fused mining charges. At the Battle of the Red Rain Straken personally defeated the notorious Drukhari Archon Yrekh Drash in single combat, crushing the degenerate xenos' head in his whirring bionic fist.

During his years of service the Colonel has suffered dozens of wounds in the line of duty, amongst the most serious being the arm he lost to a Miral land shark. Ever willing to turn a weakness into a strength, Straken replaced his missing hand with the deadly "devil's claw," an augmented appendage capable of punching through a ferrocrete wall. Though this and a plethora of other grave injuries should, by rights, have killed the indomitable Catachan several times over, Straken fights on with undiminished determination. His ravaged body is riddled with an ever-increasing number of gleaming bionics, and his are orders punctuated by yells of "Do I have to do everything myself?!"

Like any leader worth their salt, Straken never orders the troops in his command to do something he would be unwilling to do himself. When making a near-hopeless assault against a fortified position, it is Straken who leads the charge. In turn, the grizzled Colonel demands that his soldiers emulate the grit and determination he always displays on the battlefield. Between campaigns, the training drills run by Straken are universally brutal, and it is not uncommon for half a platoon to vomit until unconscious after completing a "light constitutional."

When necessary, Straken himself administers discipline to the Guardsmen in his company. His punishments are only fatal when a grievous crime has been committed, or if he perceives a soldier to be fundamentally unfit for martial service, and if possible he will eschew the involvement of a Commissar. The Officio Prefectus see this as a usurpation of their officer's duties -- they know full well the legendary disregard that Catachans display towards their authority, and there is no better example of Catachan belligerence than Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken. They begrudgingly accept Straken and his men as exemplary soldiers of the Imperium, but always keep a distrustful eye on the Green Vipers.

Wargear

 * Plasma Pistol
 * Shotgun
 * Frag Grenades
 * Krak Grenades
 * Bionic Arm with Devil's Claw
 * Refractor Field