Browncoats

The Browncoats are an independent mercenary force founded by its first Fleet Marshal, Alberic Willibrod, during the Gothic War around 150-155.M41 They get their name from the leather coats and jackets that are the closest thing they have to a uniform.

History
Imperial Guard General Alberic Willibrod was court-martialed and broken from the service for losing the agri-planet of Pearl's World to a Barbarus Pirate attack. Lord Admiral Ravensburg recognized that Willibrod was being scapegoated by the Sector lord and planetary governor to cover their own failures, but for political reasons Ravensburg was forced to let the conviction stand though he altered the death sentence to dismissal in disgrace. Willibrod however was not about to let that be the end of his military career. Recruiting a mislaid Imperial Guard platoon and about a company's worth of human detritus on Rjorre he bought a clunky old armed freighter and got back into the war as an independent contractor.

The Lost Platoon
The Munitorium is not the most efficient of bureaucracies and many planets and regiments tell the tale of the 'Lost Platoon' but the best known - and well documented - version of the myth concerns the 39th Volta Light Infantry on the planet Rjorre. The regiment had been badly mauled in the battle for Anvil 200 and the remnants were sent to Rjorre for rest, recuperation and eventual reassignment. Thanks to a far from unusual error in paperwork 3rd Platoon, 5th Company was put down as lost in action along with the rest of its company. It took the 32 survivors - which did not include the Platoon Lieutenant or the original Platoon Sergeant - some little time to realize they'd been 'lost' and when they did they were in no hurry to be found again. Exactly how Willibrod managed to convince these soldiers on permanent leave to get back in the war is unrecorded - maybe they were bored. Anyway the 39th Volta became the training cadre of the mismatched force Willibrod christened the 1st Rjorre Mercenary Battalion.

Current Status
The Rjorre Mercenaries are today universally know as 'Browncoats' and even call themselves that, their formal name all but forgotten. The fleet has shifted base several times over the last millenia and is currently operating on the fringes of the comically misnamed Segmentum Pacificus.

Captain Morte Mackaroth
Mortemer MacKaroth was a skinny, underweight sixteen year old with a thirst for adventure when he signed up with the Brownies after being rejected by the Imperial Guard. Nearly three decades later he is an experienced, traumatized and cynical veteran who yearns for a mission where nothing goes wrong. He is now over six feet tall massing some two hundred plus pounds. His dark buzz-cut is tinged with gray, his handsome face scored with long red scars, his dark eyes narrowed in a perpetual, watchful stare. He wears carapace armor under his long brown leather coat, and a Locke Pattern bolter at his his side and a Mordian Pattern power sword.

First Lieutenant Laverna Okoru
Captain Morte's second in command has the long slim build of the Void born, which she is. She lost ship and home and family to crossfire in a planetary rebellion. Laverna is notable for her even temperment, ever calm in the face of the ever present emergency which makes her a good balance for Morte who tends to rave. She ties her long dark hair off her finely featured, deceptively youthful face with a bandana and wears a fur trimmed leather vest over her carapace armor. Laverna has a well crafted augment arm and a small scar bisecting one high arched brow. Her favorite toy is a temperamental Clovis Mark IV Plasma gun which requires her to carry a variety of tools for field repairs and adjustments.

Top Sergeant Varl Tsux
Intimidating is the word for Sergeant Tsux,

Corporal Billye Jerger
Vox and Scan specialist and inveterate tinkerer. Her equipment has an unfortunate tendency to be in pieces just when most needed.

Brother Uzziel
Company Chaplain.

The Revenge:
Commander Harlen Lov

Executive Officer Vena Labo

Sergeant At Arms Hieronymus DeGrandpre

Pilot Officer Gambell Strab