Cogger Hive Guard

Cogger Hive Guard
The PDF of the Hive World Cogger are made from those factory workers that don’t meet quota or particularly troublesome Gangers arrested by the Arbites, they then go through a variation of mind wipe and are implanted with new memories and training and are used to protect the great Hive Cities. The most promising of these mind-wiped PDF are formed into the regiments of the Cogger Hive Guard. Cogger Hive Guardsmen undergo a variation of mind wiping known as Neural Programming that is for the mass use of training their soldiers. A subject endures multiple sessions in a Neural Programming tank where they were "programmed" with knowledge and skills needed for the desired occupation. Cogger Hive Guard commanders preferred "obedient" over "improvisational" and use of Neural Programmed soldiers possessing little or no initiative a fodder for the grinding wheels of the Imperial wars. These Cogger Hive Guard are known for the Line Infantry, Armored, and Mechanized Infantry Regiments they produce from the foundries and factories of the Hives on the planet Cogger. Cogger also produces a small number of Penal Legions of those that resist Neural Programming but fill up the over flowing prisons of the Arbites.

The Cogger Hive Guard produce three kinds of Regiments. The first kind of regiment is the Cogger Hive Guard Mechanized Infantry Regiment that is mounted on the Chimerax pattern and other Autocannon Pattern Chimeras. The Chimerax is armed with turret-mounted, quad-linked Autocannons. This design was intended to serve as a mobile anti-aircraft artillery piece in extreme situations where no other anti-aircraft capability was present that could also carry a squad of Imperial Guardsmen and provide close fire support for them. While the Chimerax's quad-linked Autocannons actually fared poorly against aircraft they proved more than capable of supporting the ferried troops.

The second kind of regiment is the Cogger Hive Guard Armored Regiment. Using the Leman Russ Exterminator as it's primary vehicle, it is one of the most common Leman Russ variants, and although it surrenders the ability to effectively combat enemy armour, it is an extremely effective anti-infantry vehicle. The Leman Russ Exterminator is capable of laying down a withering hail of fire. The Exterminator's Autocannon shells can tear through a lightly armoured chassis as easily as they rip through flesh and bone. Though lacking the long range of some other tank variants, the Leman Russ Exterminator is capable of devastating whole ranks of enemy infantry before they have reached the Astra Militarum lines.

The final kind of regiment that is produced is more of a way to get rid of the worst scum of the hives. These individuals are those that resist Neural Programming but are the worst kinds of criminals and heretics the Hives produce. Coming from the various prison facilities that each hive has for those that cross the nobility, the Cogger Hive Penal Legions are massed light Infantry given explosive collars and shock cuffs, are transported as mine sweeper support for the regiments in which Cogger Hives pride themselves on.

Regimental Recruitment & Training
A significant proportion of the Cogger Hive Guard was manned by "culturally challenged" individuals who had undergone neural programming via brain surgery, implants such as aggression inhibitors, and programming tanks. Counseling and drug therapy were also used to help overcome criminal and/or anti-social tendencies. Despite this source of manpower, it was not always sufficient to replace battlefield losses, and instances of law-abiding persons being conscripted and subjected to "programming" were not unknown. In any case, volunteers are few. Recruits and conscripts considered too scrawny or weak for the Cogger Guard are given steroid and stimulant treatments in order to increase their muscle mass. Criminal recruits were given no R&R time.

Regimental Combat Doctrine
The Cogger Hive Guard Mechanized Infantry is the Militarum Regimentum of the Astra Militarum that fights as mechanized infantry alongside Chimera and Chimerax armoured personnel carriers in defense of the strategically-located Imperial Hive World of Cogger and its surrounding star systems. Cogger, located in the Segmentum Ultima, is a planet blighted and poisoned by millennia of heavy industrial output, though it was also a major manufacturing centre of Autocannons.

In addition, Guardsman from Cogger make fine assault troops for fighting in urban and hive city environments as well as heavy industrial zones, chemical sumps, and other such toxic regions. Their equipment and experience with such acrid environments make them invaluable for trudging through all sorts of polluted or otherwise noxious wastelands, from underhives filled with the toxic residue of ancient atomic generators to ruin-filled swamps rife with hallucinogenic flora, quicksand, and near-invisible pockets of lethal gas.

Wargear
Armed with the Merovech Pattern Assault Lasgun, Cogger Hive Guard Mechanized Infantry excel in close environments. Designed purely for close range assaults, the Merovech Pattern Lasgun is heavily reinforced and has a bayonet built into its short and heavy frame. Slots for two power packs are included so the gun can switch to a fresh pack with no reloading. Since the firefights it is designed for are typically over long before two packs are exhausted, it serves its intended function perfectly.

Notable Regiments

 * 18th Cogger Hive Guard Infantry Regiment: Took part invading of a string of asteroids and planets controlled by Ork Pirates.