Kage

Lieutenant Kage is an Astra Militarum officer of the 13th Penal Legion, the Last Chancers, who served under Colonel Schaeffer during the war on Armageddon. The 13th Penal Legion is a formation of convicted soldiers who are assigned to missions with very high casualty rates, with a judicial pardon offered as the reward for survival. Within the setting it is the best-known example of the Imperial Guard’s penal units, and Kage is recorded as one of the men who most fully reflects its methods.

Kage entered Schaeffer’s command on three separate occasions. The first followed the murder of a sergeant and a subsequent pardon. The second followed a further murder and a presumed death. The third was a voluntary return to the legion. This sequence sets him apart from most penal conscripts, for whom a pardon is meant to end service. In Kage’s case each release was followed by a return to the same command, and accounts of his career present this as a pattern rather than a series of accidents.

His most significant service took place on Armageddon, during the war against the invading orks. Kage’s squad was deployed in Hive Acheron, the hive associated with the traitor governor, von Strab. There a daemon possessed Kage and turned the squad towards von Strab. Kage overcame the entity’s control and dragged von Strab into molten lava, and he was officially recorded as deceased. He was later found alive. He attributed his survival to the Emperor and rejoined Schaeffer’s command to deal with the remaining daemonic threat. The Last Chancers, Schaeffer, von Strab and the Armageddon campaign are the graph neighbours that place these events in time and space.

Kage is listed as active. The 13th Penal Legion has no monuments, and his record is its nearest equivalent to a commemoration. It shows that penal conscription can produce a capable and reliable soldier. It also shows that such a soldier remains bound to the regiment’s need for personnel. The events on Armageddon are the only recorded setting for his later career, and no later fate is attested.