The Phantine Skyborne are regiments of the Imperial Guard that act as Drop Troop Regiments. As their name indicates, the Skyborne are recruited on the world ofPhantine in the Segmentum Pacificus. Given their homeworld's peculiar topography and low population, the Phantine Skyborne count amongst the rarest regiments within the Imperial Guard and are outshone in glory and deeds by more famous regiments such as the Elysian Drop Troops and the Harakoni Warhawks.
History
The Phantine Skyborne's military history is a recent one and one that has been easily overlooked so far, as even on Phantine itself, the greater honor goes to the Phantine Air Corps and not the men and women of the Skyborne. Both formations have only come to the attention of the wider Imperium through their involvement in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, and the hard-fought victories Warmaster Macaroth was able to wrestle from the Khorne-venerating Blood Pact and its likes. As such, the Skyborne's first true military campaign recorded with any semblance of detail is the defence and subsequent purge of their on homeworld of Phantine in 771.M41.
According to a local proverb, Phantine is a world made of sky, but that has not always been the case. Trough millennia of pollution, Phantine troposphere was rendered inhabitable for humans, the toxic gases and corrosive fogs of the lower atmosphere forming a life-eating sea called "the Scald" no known equipment save perhaps Terminator or Power Armour can withstand. In order to escape certain death, Phantine's population was forced to seek refuge in height. On the tallest mountain-peaks and highest spires of their Hive cities, above the cloudline, the Phantine erected their new homes : vast sky-cities under sheltered domes, heated and powered through the chemical wealth of Phantine's soil. This relocation of the population led to profound changes in Phantine society, including its mandatory Planetary Defence Forces. By necessity, with no ground to move on, these PDF regiments became airborn units of Drop Troopers. When necessity demands of Phantine to provide fighting men and women to the Imperium, elements of the PDF-regiments are "activated" or "promoted" to the Imperial Guard and take the title of Phantine Skyborne. This has particularly been the case in the latter part of the Sabbat World Crusade and has continued ever since.
Sources
- The Guns of Tanith(Novel) by Dan Abnett