Aerial Insertion. Up to the whole gang may begin a battle held in reserve rather than deployed, and from the first round onward its fighters grav-chute down onto the field, each placed anywhere more than 6" from an enemy. This is the strike that defines the Regiment: the Tempestus does not advance across a battlefield, it appears on top of the target. Every hot-shot weapon in the gang strips armour, striking at AP-2, and the officers lean the Voice of Command into the precise kill — 'Take Aim!' to steady the shot and ignore cover, 'Bring It Down!' to focus the armour-cracking fire, and the Regiment's own 'Mark Target!'. There are no tokens and no pool to manage: an officer spends an activation, the Order lands once, and it is gone. The counterplay is the drop itself — a gang committed from reserve arrives in the open, and a defender who punishes the landing can gut the strike before it strikes.
Signatures4
Mark Target! When an officer issues 'Mark Target!' to a friendly fighter, that fighter's next hot-shot attack treats the target as having no cover and suffering -1 to its save, stacking with the armour-stripping AP the hot-shot round already carries. This is the painted kill — the officer calls a fighter, names the mark, and the Scion's next charge goes through cover and armour together as though the target stood in the open and unarmoured. It is the one Order the Tempestus adds to the Voice of Command menu that no other Regiment fields, and it is the heart of the strike's method: not to out-shoot a foe, but to strip away everything protecting the one fighter that has to die. Like every Order, it is spent from an officer's activation and lands once.
Aura of Discipline: while a Commissar — or the Company Commander — stands upon the field, the fear that would scatter a mortal line is held in check by the certainty of his authority. Friendly non-officers within 6" of him automatically pass Nerve tests and re-roll a failed Cool test, standing where an ordinary mob would break and run. This is not the buff economy of Orders but the raw discipline that keeps the expendable line in the fight. Once per battle the Commissar may perform a Summary Execution: a friendly within 3" that has just failed a Nerve or Cool test passes it instead — at the price of that fighter taking a Flesh Wound, the Emperor's mercy delivered as a las-round. When the Commissar falls, the discipline he enforced falls with him, and the courage of the men around him is once more their own.
Voice of Command: the Imperial Guard do not win fights by fighting — their officers win by making a hundred lasguns fire as one. During its activation, instead of shooting or fighting, any officer — a Leader or an officer-Champion — may issue one Order to a friendly non-officer within its command range, either its Initiative or a flat 9", extended to 18" by a vox-caster; a Company Commander, as the senior voice, may issue two. Line of sight or a vox link is required. The Order modifies that fighter's next action this round — a massed volley, a marked shot, a free move, a rally, concentrated fire, or a bayonet charge — and then it is spent. An officer cannot act and command in the same breath, nor bank an Order for later; a subordinate may carry only one at a time, and any Order unused at the end of the round is lost. Nothing accumulates. Kill the officers and the Orders stop the instant they fall.