42nd Valen Rangers

"I had faith - and look at what so called "Faith" has delivered us - A thousand men left to plug a hole in the Dam against an endless greenskin Tsunami - each soul selling their lives dearly for some ideal that is lost on the men who weep for their wives and families. Yet here we stand - tossed into the meat grinder without a second thought - We can only do one thing for The Emperor now, plant our feet and fight on ever more fiercely - For it is the only vestige of humanity that our shattered spirits still hold dear."

- Captain Tiberius Kannero

The 42nd Valen Rangers - Colloquially known as Kannero's Martyrs are a Regiment of Imperial Guard Infantry native to the sizeable Imperial Civilised world of Valen - a distant world within Segmentum Pacificus. The 42nd Rangers are renowned for their stoic nature in the face of overwhelming odds, along with maintaining a prolific pride for Lasgun marksmanship - even going so far as to design their own pattern of Long-Las while training its troops in the arts of Ambush and Reconnaissance tactics - including the creation of makeshift traps and luring enemy forces into designated pre-planned killzones.

Pre-Imperial Valen
Valen is the second planet located in the 6 planet, binary star Valen System within the Chiraxis Sub-Sector. The wide rolling plains and Savannah hills of the warm landscape were dotted with towering skyscrapers and glittering palaces across the grassy landscape. The planet was ruled by a Autocratic Monarchy, who had come to power during the Age of Strife. Valen's budding economy was highly reliant on interstellar trade with what was the wider Human Federation of Planets - usually reliant on imports of a wide variety of luxury and raw resources such as Silicon, Gold and Tungsten. Without needing to say - the economy came to a sudden and unavoidable crash with the loss of interstellar trade with the wider galaxy. Violence and chaos ran rampant through the once bustling market towns and killers stalked the ruined cities and countryside alike with impunity.

Unexpectedly in the near constant infighting that plagued the planet, the Shen dynasty was formed - from what it came from, or who founded it is not entirely known and/or has been lost to Imperial Records. Speculation of the dynasty's origin vary wildly - from former mega-corporations prevalent prior to the Age of Strife - to simply a wealthy family who sought to crown themselves as rulers of the planet with a lack of true leadership.

Utilising their vast hoards of wealth to purchase the services, or alternatively to pay off of the many ruling warlords and mercenary bands dominating the landscape - The Shen dynasty managed over several centuries to broker tenuous ceasefires, or crushed dissident factions with armies of Elite mercenaries, and eventually, the early Valen Rangers, of whom acted as a mixture of a military peacekeeping forces and police - Similar in a local level to the Adeptus Arbites. Eventually over the course of a few Millennia, the Shen dynasty was established as the sole rulers of Valen, with several dozens of noble houses - which were made up of their loyal supporters - filling the roles of administrators, advisers and in extreme circumstances, even as Temporary regencies in the King or Queen's absence.

The Valen system had managed to retain a fair portion of STC technology from the Dark Age of Technology - allowing them to construct orbital shipyards, and to develop and construct several sublight speed capable spacecraft - however only in limited quantities. This remained much of the same, with the planet continuing to grow, both at a steady rate, with several small insurrections plaguing the planets surface however - until their discovery by the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade.

Pacification of Valen
Discovered by the Imperium's 368th Expeditionary Fleet, along with a contingent of Salamanders present, the Valen Serene State - as the system was colloquially known - chose wisely to surrender to the overwhelming Imperial force that was present in the system