Imperial Landsknechte
The Imperial Landsknechte, (PROSE: Original Sin [+]Loading...["Original Sin (novel)"]) also called the Imperial Landsknechte Corps (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice [+]Loading...["The Sorcerer's Apprentice (novel)"]) or the Imperial Marines, (AUDIO: Original Sin [+]Loading...["Original Sin (audio story)"]) were the military defenders of the Earth Empire up until the 30th century. (PROSE: Original Sin [+]Loading...["Original Sin (novel)"]) It was a combined service organisation. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice [+]Loading...["The Sorcerer's Apprentice (novel)"])
The Imperial Marines fought in the Cyber-Wars. Lieutenant Warner Bruch was among those captured by the Cybermen and underwent partial Cyber-conversion before the Marines liberated the prisoners. Bruch, changing his name to Cain subsequently left the Marines and joined the Mithran Fusiliers, an order of partly-converted mercenaries. (PROSE: One Bad Apple [+]Loading...["One Bad Apple (short story)"])
In 2825, the War Act gave the Landsknechte full authority over their own personnel, planets and spacecraft. The Act was never rescinded.
The headquarters for the Landsknechte were on the planet Purgatory. There were also numerous and varied artificial environments on the planet, used to train the Landsknechte to be able to fight under any conditions.
There was widespread corruption in the upper echelon of the Landsknechte by the late 30th century, which Provost-Major Beltempest resolved to investigate. (PROSE: Original Sin [+]Loading...["Original Sin (novel)"])
By 2991, the Landsknechte had collapsed, resulting in the combined services fragmenting. Imperial security concerns were taken on by new organisations such as the Special Services Directorate in the last years of the Earth Empire. Admiral Nyborg looked back nostalgically on the days of the Landsknechte and opined that SSD personnel such as Captain Shannon lacked the same sense of discipline. (PROSE: The Sorcerer's Apprentice [+]Loading...["The Sorcerer's Apprentice (novel)"])
