Deacon Coletrane

"Any Cadian who can't field strip a lasgun by his tenth birthday was born on the wrong planet."

- Deacon after disarming and disassembling the weapon of a suicidal Penal Trooper before the soldier could react

Deacon Coletrane is the longest-serving member of Tango Squadron on record, and at the rank of Sergeant Major, current squad leader. A killer instinct brought him into the 5th, and it has kept him in the regiment ever since. Either by luck or by skill, he has survived battles that have seen hundreds, sometimes thousands die. In his regiment on Cadia, his squad was subjected to a similar procedure to the Gland Warriors of Dantis III. He was the only survivor.

He earned the nickname "Phillips" and admission to the 5th Penal Legion after stabbing his superior officer (a Lieutenant), and an aide to death with a Phillips head screwdriver over a gambling argument. He has remained in the 5th ever since due to repeat offences, between one count of Manslaughter, several thefts from superior officers and assaulting other soldiers, leaving three in comas and causing four others severe enough injuries to force them out of active service for the rest of their lives.

Personnel Profile

 * Full Name: Deacon Joseph Coletrane
 * Serial Number: 2235-b114x
 * Homeworld: Cadia
 * Crimes: Murder (two proven counts), Manslaughter (at least four counts), Theft (at least seven counts), Aggravated Assault causing Greivious Bodily Harm (fifteen counts), Drunken Assault (at least four counts). There are far more crimes attributed to him, but there was little hard evidence for proof. It can only be assumed that he has evaded conviction for innumerable crimes on top of those listed here.
 * Height: 6' 4"
 * Weight: ca. 275lbs
 * Defining Features:
 * Heavy, Muscular build.
 * Scarring on his neck and underarms from Stimm Gland Implant Surgery.
 * Mohawk haircut, Goatee and Moustache.
 * 5th Penal Legion Tattoo on his Right Bicep and above his Right Ear.
 * Serial Number tattooed on his Left Shoulder and above his Left Ear.
 * Scars on his hands and forearms from knife fights.
 * Distinctive scar on left-hand side of his face from knife a severe fight.
 * Imperial Aquila tattooed on right pectoral muscle, Cadian regimental insignia tattooed on left pectoral muscle.
 * Litany of Hate tattooed on chest and upper abdomen.
 * Litany of Spite tattooed on upper back.
 * The word Hate tattooed across knuckles on right hand. Rage tattooed across knuckles on left hand.
 * "Only the Emperor can judge me" tattooed above Litany of Spite on upper back.
 * Threat Level Evaluation: To be considered EXTREMELY dangerous to all other personnel.
 * Prisoner Transport Recommendations: If segregation from non-Penal Legionnaires is not possible, restraint is recommended if possible, as well as constant supervision.
 * Flight Risk: Coletrane has displayed little desire to escape the 5th Penal Legion. In fact, he seems to enjoy being a member of a band of rogues and convicts.

Brief Summary of selected Crimes

 * Murder 1 & 2: Stabbed a Cadian Lieutenant with a screwdriver, severing his Carotid Artery and puncturing his Trachea. Stabbed Cadian Lieutenant's Aide with same screwdriver, severing his femoral artery.


 * Manslaughters 1, 2 & 3: Killed three Penal Legionnaires in self defence. One broken neck, one crushed skull (bludgeoned with a laspistol), and one crushed windpipe.


 * Manslaughter 4: Accidentally smothered a new convict during a hazing.


 * Suspected Murder 1: Suspected to have drowned a Penal Legionnaire in a latrine after an attack on a Tango. Victim attacked a member of Tango Squadron, and Coletrane has been known to behave violently when Tango Squadron is threatened.


 * Suspected Murder 2: Assumed to have suffocated a Penal Legionnaire with cellophane ration packaging in revenge for an unknown theft incident. No hard proof was found, and no witnesses have come forward.

Early Life & Career before the 5th
"I was good. Damn, I was good. Well, every Cadian can say that to a Mordian runt like you, but I was good, even by those standards."

- Deacon Coletrane

Coletrane was born a typical Cadian. Strong, hardy and healthy, he was a genetically pure human, and so avoided suffocation at birth. Unlike most Cadians, he was born with raven-coloured hair and grey eyes, testament to his Feral World-born mother's off-world heritage. Even larger and more heavily-built than typical Cadians, he shaved his hair into a mohawk early in life and has retained that hair type ever since. As with all Cadians, he was conscripted into the Cadian Military, and was considered for the Kasrkin from very early-on. However, after a near-brawl incident in the barracks after he finally snapped at several fellow Whiteshields for taunting him over his mixed blood, the Kasrkin looked elsewhere for recruits. He was moved to another barracks to prevent him from injuring his fellow conscripts, as he was significantly stronger than even his powerful build would suggest.

Upon the eve of his first battle as a full Shock Trooper, Coletrane and another soldier spent some time drinking, and eventually staggered back to their barracks. Coletrane was found to be quite protective of the woman the next day, as the two found themselves fighting back to back against a hoard of mutated beasts and traitor guard as a small force hurled itself forward from the Eye of Terror. In spite of holding their position for so long that they expended all of their ammunition and were reduced to using lasguns looted from Traitor Guardsmen, piling bodies dozens deep around themselves, Coletrane and his comrade were severely chastised for their drinking and liaison the night before the battle and separated. This was to be the final infraction on Coletrane's record before the violent crime that led to his conviction to the Fifth Penal Legion. The woman later gave birth to a daughter, but by this time, Coletrane had been stationed in a Kasr, literally on the other side of the world to her.

Stationed in a fortification almost at the south pole, Coletrane became intorverted and sombre, rarely socialising with his comrades, and rarely drinking with them when he did. It had been said of him that while he was a brilliant soldier, he always seemed on edge, just about to snap. And snap he did, eventually reverting into heavy drinking and gambling, and carousing with other soldiers. Coletrane was noted to have an extremely high tolerance for intoxicating substances, and even began to use the stim Spook. Rather than reprimand him for such behaviour, the commanders at the fortress suggested Coletrane to a new project to modify soldiers, to increase their survivability in the face of the horrible bio-weapons put to use by the forces of Chaos. One night, after a particularly heavy session of drinking and gambling, Coletrane and a dozen other extremely inebriated soldiers were accosted by a group of large, strong, and heavily equipped men with strange symbols on their breastplates and subdued. When the men woke up, they noticed scars at the base of their necks and below their shoulder blades, as well as the joints between their biceps and triceps.

Crime & Conviction
"That thieving bastard deserved it. No one steals from me."

- Deacon Coletrane

Career with the 5th Penal Legion
"There you are, you fuckin overgrown Runner Bean..."

- Deacon Coletrane hunting an Blood Axe Ork Sniper

Personality
Deacon is a bitter, angry man. He is openly derisive of armoured battalions and officers, and endeavours to make life as difficult for them as possible without actively hampering their ability to help win the war. This generally means stealing from them as often as possible. Many tank crews have had to spend mornings clearing ice off their tanks with flamers and shovels as Deacon stole their antifreeze to make moonshine, and many an officer has woken up to find his breakfast rations stolen. Deacon has even stolen from Commissars, and has amassed quite an expansive collection of Commissarial trenchcoats and hats (which he often uses as disguises to get past guards in officer's quarters. His most dramatic theft from an officer was when he broke into the dugout of an Armoured Regiment's Colonel, shaved the colonel's prized moustache and glued it to the an Aide's face after he spiked their drinks with moonshine made from their own tank's antifreeze.

In spite of his bitterness, Coletrane is quite reverent of several Imperial Heroes throughout history. In particular, he applies great honour and sometimes prays to the Primarchs of the Space Marines, especially Sanguinius and Leman Russ, Sanguinius for facing Horus alone, and Russ for having commanded Penal Legions. As for worship of the Emperor, Coletrane is not particularly pious, but in particularly trying times, has been known to pray to the Emperor as he was in the Crusade, a powerful warrior and leader, rather than the ascended God he is now. This strange belief system and pantheon is unlike many other Imperial Guard belief systems, and has baffled many who have asked about it.

Physical Traits
Deacon has been described as "made from spare Super-Heavy Tank Parts". He is a large man, powerfully built, with bull-like shoulders and forearms the size of a Grox's thigh. His chest is deep, barrel-shaped and heavily muscled. He has broad, calloused hands, covered in scars and cuts from years of practice and genuine combat with knives, swords and bayonets. Even without releasing stimms into his system, he is capable of shocking feats of strength, including palming a medicine ball in each hand. However, many of these feats are also the reasons he is a long-term member of the 5th Penal Legion. This includes breaking a man's back over his knee, snapping another man's neck so severely it resulted in total internal decapitation and leaving another completely braindead with a single stamp to the head (the second stamp caused death by massive brain haemmorage). His brutal strength is augmented by his Implant Glands, and when he floods his system with the cocktail of combat drugs secreted by these glands, he has been known to defeat at least six attackers, all of whom suffered severe injuries, including paralysis from strikes to the head and spine, permanent nerve damage from shattered joints and detatched retinae from heavy-handed punches to their faces (the detatched retinae were accompannied by broken noses, punctured sinuses and crushed eye sockets). Such attackers have ranged from fellow Penal Legionnaires to Traitor Guard. When he truly pushes his glands to the limits, to the point of overdosing even with the Glands' compensating methods, he has ripped the tusks from Ork's mouths and overpowered a rogue Inquisitor in Power Armour (for which he would have earned pardon had he not headbutted the Loyalist Inquisitor who had requisitioned his services shortly afterwards).

Lifespan
Coletrane is several centuries old, but has the appearance of a man in his late thirties due to the time dilating effect of all the Warp Travel he has undergone during his stay with the 5th. In addition, his implants and surgeries have also extended his lifespan, to an unknown extent, but his records indicate he was born sometime in 744 M.41, making him just over 250 years old by the time of the 5th Penal Legion's involvement in the Wars on the Eastern Fringes.

Skills

 * Cadian Combat Training (CQC, Martial Arts, Marksmanship, Explosives etc.)


 * Lockpicking


 * Pickpocketting


 * Expert Knife Fighting


 * Expert Martial Arts


 * Earned Distinction levels in Advanced Hand to Hand Combat training

Equipment Loadout

 * Regimental Issue Mars Pattern Lasgun with Bayonet, Rangefinder and Motion Predictor scope (scope looted from fallen marksman)
 * Standard Regimental semi-automatic lasgun, standard bayonet. Scopes looted from the body of a marksman killed either by enemy infiltrators or Coletrane himself. No direct evidence indicates Coletrane, but the las burns the marksman suffered indicate extremely close range, and that the marksman had his back turned completely towards his killer.


 * Catachan Fang Fighting Knife (looted from fallen squadmate)
 * A Catachan deserter once weilded this 20" monstrosity. He challenged Coletrane to a fight in a dugout. The knife was embedded in the ground and the two fought to first blood. First blood was drawn when Coletrane ripped the Catachan's throat out with his teeth.


 * Thracian Pattern Laspistol (looted from fallen squadmate)
 * A former Thracian officer placed under Coletrane's command weilded this powerful laspistol, which Coletrane took and used to perform a mercy blow while the Thracian lay impaled by an Ork's Choppa.


 * Carapace Armour Vest (looted from fallen officer)
 * Coletrane pulled this Carapace Plating, complete with shoulder and abdomen protection, from the still-warm body of a Commissar who was killed when he exposed himself to enemy snipers while making a derisive speech to Tango Squadron.


 * Steel-backed Combat Gloves (looted from fallen combat engineer)
 * Coletrane came into possession of the steel-backed knuckle gloves when Tango Squadron's combat engineer accidentally detonated one of his own Melta Bombs in a Spook-addled haze. The engineer's hands, feet and helmet were all that remained.


 * Cadian Standard Issue Helmet, Flak Pants, T-shirt and Combat Boots
 * Coletrane retained his heavy-duty Cadian gear when placed in the 5th Penal Legion.

Implant Surgery

 * Slaught, Psychon, Spur and De-Tox Gland Implants

In order to make their soldiers more resistant to airborne toxins and virii deployed by the Forces of Chaos during the various Black Crusades, the Cadian Military attempted several techniques. Some were more successful than others, while some were outright failures. These varied from Blessed Rebreathers and Innoculations to more outlandish methods. Deacon suffered one of the latter. Gland Implants. His officers decided on him as an ideal candidate during his early career as a distinguished soldier, however, Deacon was less enthusiastic about being turned into a walking drugs laboratory. Using surgeries learned from the files on the Gland Warriors of Dantis III, several Magos' finished the surgery on Deacon and several other Cadian Soldiers, implanting De-Tox, Psychon, Onslaught and Spur producing Glands in all of them, with the intention of boosting the soldiers' immune systems and combat potential to such a level that they would be able to fight almost unprotected and still crush opposition. Deacon is the only known survivor of the first battle these Gland Warriors fought in, the others having gone into a battle frenzy and rushed an enemy Heavy Bolter position.

Over his extremely long career, Deacon has suffered several greivous injuries which have led to massive reconstructive surgery, including having his right arm replaced with a vat-grown organic replacement after an Ork Warboss tore it off at the shoulder (his tattoos were re-applied). His left eye had to be repaired after his eye socket got crushed in a brawl with several Catachan deserters (one of whom he left quardiplegic, earning himself another sentence in the 5th).

By Coletrane
"They said I'm too old. They said I'm too slow. They lied."

- Deacon Coletrane shortly before an unlicensed boxing match in the 5th's Camp. He put his opponent in a coma.

"What keeps me fighting is that I know I'm scum. I'm the bottom of the barrel. If I don't fight, who will?"

- Deacon Coletrane

"I hit him so hard he cried. Then I told him I'd hit him harder if he ever tried to run from the fight. That boy never turned tail because as much as those Orks at the front scared him, I scared him even more."

- Deacon Coletrane talking about a new Tango

"That Commisar? Oh, he fell off something somewhere."

- Deacon Coletrane passing off a missing Commisar

"Well, when an Eldar gives an opening like that, you take it. Otherwise, they'll cut ya up so fast you won't notice til your legs move and the rest of you falls apart."

- Coletrane after breaking an Eldar Ranger's jaw and neck with one punch while it taunted him

"Well, one click down for fully-automatic, two down for semi-automatic. The Magos on Necromunda are not a group to dick around apparently."

- Deacon Coletrane examining a Necromunda Pattern Lasgun

"No one fucks with Tango Squadron on my watch."

- Coletrane while suffocating another Penal Legionnaire who attempted to stab another Tango

"Don't you fucking backchat me you Mordian bastard, I will kill you where you fucking stand. We'll take whatever the fuck we want because as of now, this is ours! You under-fucking-stand me? We'll come back whenever we want and take whatever we want, because we own this place and we own you."

- Coletrane threatening a Mordian Quartermaster with his Catachan Fang while Tango Squadron looted his supply depot

About Coletrane
"Honestly, I hate the fucking bastard. But still, one's gotta respect the Old Geezer. He damn near took my head off for trying to steal some rations from Helmet-Head."

- Virgil Vasquez, aka Frost, talking about the Sarge.

Gallery
Coming soon! Hand-drawn pics will be making an appearance once I get them finished and scanned to my PC.