The Tanith First-and-Only
Originally, there were three Tanith regiments raised for the Imperial Guard: the Tanith 1st, 2nd and 3rd - 6,000 men and a small number of vehicles and artillery pieces. When Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt was sent to Tanith to oversee the founding of these regiments, he was not impressed by the appearance of the men, initially describing them as "a scrawny, scruffy mob of soft-voiced woodsmen". His opinion of them changed quickly after seeing them in combat. He impatiently ordered the regiments to begin boarding the carriers that will take them to the troop ships waiting to ferry them to their first war zones - a fortunate move which gets enough men off-world before the Chaos fleet strikes Tanith the same night. He confirms after leaving Tanith that this salvages three and a half thousand men and the majority of their equipment. It is unclear which regiments actually were saved from the fires of Tanith, but the remaining men are formed into the Tanith First, which is soon named the "Tanith First-and-Only". On the regiment's first battlefield on Blackshard, Hlaine Larkin coins the nickname "Gaunt's Ghosts". The term Ghosts has two meanings: the first is that Corbec tells Gaunt that his decision to abandon Tanith "made ghosts of them, hollow echoes". The second is that because of their exceptional stealth and scouting skills, they are ghost-like on the battlefield. The Tanith First excels at recon work as the Tanith never get lost, and using camo-cloaks they can move quickly and stealthily through terrain. The Tanith uniform is black, with optional helmets for standard troopers and forage caps for the regiment's elite scout platoon. Camo-cloaks (made of the fictional material "cameleoline") are standard. Every soldier has a long, double-edged bayonet/combat blade the Tanith call Straight Silver. Their favoured special weapons include long-las sniper rifles and flame throwers, and portable missile launchers the Tanith nickname "tread fethers". The cap badge for the Tanith is a wreath-surrounded skull with three daggers behind it; each dagger representing a Tanith regiment. On the badge is the inscription "For Tanith, For the Emperor". After the destruction of the Tanith 2nd and 3rd regiments, the Tanith snap off the two outside daggers on their cap badges. The Verghastite cap badge is an axe-rake to symbolise their former hive's mining and industrial background.
As Tanith is destroyed, the Tanith First-and-Only has no home world from which to draw new recruits to replace losses. Instead, new Ghosts are adopted into the regiment as the series progresses. The two most significant drafts of new troops occur in Necropolis and His Last Command. At the end of the siege of Vervunhive, the megacity is left in ruins and disillusioned citizens of Verghast were given the opportunity to join the Imperial Guard under the Act of Consolation. This resulted in an influx of Verghastite soldiers, which brought females into the regiment. Several of these women became some of the regiment's best snipers. While Gaunt is on Gereon and the Tanith First is left without a senior commander, the regiment is merged with a Belladon covert unit and becomes the 81st-1st Recon. Following Colonel Wilder's death and Gaunt's return to command, the regiment resumes the name the Tanith First-and-Only. It is worth noting that following the merge with the 81st Belladon, the Tanith First's organisational structure changes; companies using alphabetical call-signs replace the previous numerical platoons. By the beginning of The Armour of Contempt, there are three cultural sections: Tanith, Verghastite and Belladon; led by Majors Rawne, Kolea and Baskevyl respectively (each is native to the section he commands).
Since its founding, the Tanith First-and-Only has served in the following campaigns and warzones:
Blackshard, Voltemand*, Ramilles 268-43*, Bucephalon*, Typhon Eight*, Caligula*, Fortis Binary, Nacedon*, Menazoid Elipson, Oskray Hive (Sapiencia), Monthax, Vervunhive, Hagia, Phantine, Aexe Cardinal, Herodor, Ancreon Sextus, Gereon, Jago, Balhuat, and Salvation's Reach.
(note that campaigns marked with * are not confirmed to be in correct order in time line)
On Phantine, a number of Ghosts took part in "Operation Larisel", an airborne operation that deployed specially selected fire teams into Ouranberg to seek out and assassinate Sagittar Slaith, the Chaos warlord in command of the Blood Pact forces holding the city. This mission took place at the same time as the main assault in which the rest of the Tanith First was deployed. After the battle for Herodor in Sabbat Martyr and before the events on Ancreon Sextus in His Last Command, Gaunt and a hand-picked team of Ghosts were deployed to the Chaos-held world Gereon, on a mission to find General Noches Sturm and rescue him from his captors or kill him if the mindlock on his memories had been broken. The team would later return with the rest of the regiment to liberate Gereon.
Barely half of the Tanith First survived the regiment's occupation of Hinzerhaus on the fortress-world Jago, and the battles waged there. The outpost was almost lost due to lack of adequate resources and inconsistent intelligence regarding the bastion's layout and history.
During Blood Pact, set two years after the events on Jago, the Tanith First has spent roughly eighteen months performing garrison duties on Balhaut. The Ghosts become restless and bored of the lack of action, leading many to commit crime and insubordination. However, Gaunt finds himself drawn into a plot involving a traitor general of the arch-enemy and the Blood Pact assassins sent to silence him. The Ghosts are forced to work behind the backs of Inquisition agents in order to aid Gaunt after he goes to ground in the city following an assault on Balhaut's Commissariat headquarters.
Salvation's Reach sees another influx of recruits to bolster the Tanith First's ranks. However rather than merge with another regiment, reinforcements from Verghast and Belladon arrive to replace losses incurred at Hinzerhaus. Including a Belladon regimental colours band.
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