Uniform of the 144th Carcharis Armoured Infantry.

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The 144th Carcharias Armoured Infantry are an Astra Militarum Regiment from the n-class Hive World of Carcharias, in the Ultima Segmentum approximately halfway between Badab and Balor. The Carcharias System has four planets, Canrak, the closest to the small star at the centre of the system, a death world with a minimal population. The small number of humans that do reside on Canrak live at the polar caps, migrating from one to the other seasonally in an event known as ‘The Thermal Counter.’ This keeps the minimal population, which is exempt from the Imperial tithe due to its size, from boiling in Summer. In Winter, their thermo-hab blocs keep those inside cool during the day, and the population only venture outside at night time, and only when wearing protective clothing.

Map taken from Warhammer 40k rulebook, property of Games Workshop

The second world in the system is Sexitae, a Hive World like Carcharias albeit smaller. Sexitae has a population of 67 Billion split into six hives, Belna, the capital, Divodurum on the Northern cap, Lutetia, Nicia and Samabrivia. Nicia is unique as it sits on a coastline. Half of the original lower hive projected out over a polluted ocean, which flooded when it sank to become the underhive. Gangs in the underhive of Nicia often attempt to use the huge flood gates to destroy rival gangs, unleashing the ocean into certain areas held by their enemies. Often, this leads to mistakes, with large numbers of civilian casualties.

The control tower was guarded by a group of six enforcers. A number of gangers were lounging around the bottom of the ladder. The enforcers were pretending they weren’t there, but they both had the same goal of stopping anyone from opening the floodgates. Clinro gazed at them from the shadows. His group of eight behind him fiddled with their weapons. They were outnumbered two to one, but they had the element of surprise to even the odds quickly. Clinro turned back into the shadows and rolled a grenade from his pouch. He held it up in front of his men, nodding at two of them. The other gangers grabbed explosives. Pins were pulled and the grenades hurled through the air. As they exploded, throwing down gangers and civilians alike at the base of the tower, autoguns barked. Another pair of gangers fell and an enforcer dropped from the tower, screaming. More screams rang out as the civilians who had been crowded around the market place at the base of the tower fled. Some of Clinro’s gang made a dash for the tower. A heavy stubber roared from the enforcers on top. Clinro’s men fell into bloody piles. Clinro waved another of his men forward. A missile streaked through the underhive gloo.. It struck the tower just under the heavy stubber. Clinro smiled as the stubber collapsed into a cloud of dust. The smile disappeared as the cloud expanded to encompass the whole tower, which began to collapse. The ground started to shake. A great peal of thunder sounded from behind Clinro. Clinro turned. The huge flood gate, plasteel and concrete, began to part. Water began to flow. Until now, learning to swim hadn’t been a significant priority for Clinro. – Failed Gang Raid on a floodgate in Nicia Underhive, Sexitae

Tolosa, the third planet in the Carcharian system, is an agricultural world. As well as its own planetary defence force (PDF), Tolosa has a permanent garrison of twenty Carcharian regiments, as the food from its farm sustains the hives of the rest of the system. Carcharias itself is an ice hive world, brought into infamy by the conflict between the Crimson Consuls, an Ultramarine successor chapter whose fortress-monastry sat within the spire of Niveous, the capital of Carcharias, and Heretic Astartes. In the days before the 13th Black Crusade, the Alpha Legion had used psycho-sensitive graffiti to turn the chapter against itself, wiping it out entirely and stealing the chapter’s geneseeds to replenish the forces of Heretic Astartes in the Eye of Terror. After the event, an entire generation of Niveous Hive’s underhive, who had been exposed to the Alpha Legion’s manipulative graffiti, had been slaughtered, over a dozen regiments – PDF recruited from other hives – marching with flamers to scour the streets of damaged scum, and the walls of mind altering graffiti. The hundred regiments of Carcharias, born before the Scouring, were similarly slaughtered, irregardless of which hive they came from.

Infantry soldiers and a Leman Russ Battle Tank of the 144th Carcharias Armoured Infantry Regiment

Similarly, the PDF units from Niveous Hive were brutally destroyed. The next year the first of the new Astra Militarum regiments was raised – the 101st Carcharias Infantry.

An Offico Prefectus commissar leads troops from the 144th Carcharias in a charge against T’au xenos

The 144th Carcharias Armoured Infantry were originally two units – the 144th Carcharias Infantry and 145th Carcharias Armoured. The two formed a battlegroup sent to reinforce the Cadian Gate during the 13th Black Crusade. They fought side by side on Cadia until the evacuation, where a company from each were selected for extraction, the remainder fighting a fierce rearguard action. After the campaign, the two regiments received orders that they were to be merged. Despite the initial confusion of mixing armoured and infantry units, the two companies were split into three understrength companies of a single infantry platoon and leman russ squadron apiece. The Regiment was sent to garrison duty on Tolosa, where they received a steady stream of reinforcements from Carcharias.

Troops from the 144th hold a defensive position

In the year 15.M21, Tolosa was invaded by a vast force of Greenskins, being isolated for five years from reinforcement. The 144th fought with the other garrison regiments to keep the Orks at bay, but with food shipments blocked, the Hives of Carcharias and Sexitae were beginning to starve, with reports of widespread canibalism in the underhives, and aristocrats in the spires reduced to four meals a day.

The Imperial Navy fleet sent to break the blockade had few ships. After two unsuccessful attempts, the fleet admiral was killed when his flagship was boarded by an Ork Rok. The new Admiral, Admiral Suffen, came up with an ambitious plan to reach the surface and extract food shipments. The Imperial Ships concentrated in an area far behind the Ork lines. The initial attack was successful, with Imperial ships breaching the blockade. However, they were unable to secure the landing zone from which Imperial reinforcements could swiftly carve a path to the Imperial held areas. Knowing this, the 144th led a dash to the landing zone, escorting a convoy of cargo vehicles over seventy miles long across a hundred leagues in six days – moving at a breakneck fifty miles a day, a pace achieved by refusing to stop to assist broken down or disabled vehicles or even to rest, with drivers taking combat stimms to ensure the convoy never stopped. The phrase ‘Keep them rolling’ is used by Carcharias regiments as a general encouragement, and originates from this action.

‘I tell you, it was worse than I’d ever imagined. The convoy stretching from horizon to horizon, burnt out hulks lining the roads. Ramming your fellow tankers out of the way to clear the path, hearing the screams of those abandoned as the Greenskins descended. We did what would could, the cannon shells tearing apart friend and foe alike. Throne, I hadn’t thought it could’ve got much worse. But it did. On the fourth day the lho-sticks ran out.’ Corporal Samilé, 144th Carcharias Armoured Infantry on The Tolosa Convoy

After securing the landing zone and allowing food shipments to leave the agri-world, the 144th were hailed as ‘The Heroes of Tolosa’ and were granted a parade through Niveous Hive, the once starving population cheering the rows of Leman Russ Battle Tanks and Chimera troop transports. Since then, the regiment have been deployed several times within Ultima Segmentum, currently fighting in the Eastern Fringe.