| “ | They (The Sixth) have been seduced by the creed of the darktide, and they have come home. Not simply to kill and exact vengeance, but more poignantly, to spread the 'truth' they have uncovered. | „ |
| ~ Dan Abnett on the Moebian 6th |
The Moebian 6th are one of the main antagonizing factions in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
History[]
The Moebian 6th Regiment was founded in the Moebian sector. The Regiment was made in order to fight the so called "Darktide", a codename given to various threats on the fringes of Moebian space, such as aliens, heretics, and demons.
For many years, the 6th served the Imperium, fighting threats to the Moebian domain. These many tours took a toll on the troops, both physically, and mentally. As time went on their devotion to both The God Emperor of Mankind, and the Imperium of Man fell. In due time, most of the Moebian 6th accepted the truth provided to them by the chaos god Nurgle, and betrayed the Emperor's truth. During a brutal deployment to the blighted, Chaos-worshipping planet of Nox Alpha, the regiment's commander, Colonel Gortun, was promptly killed by the traitors as the rot of Nurgle spread throughout the soldiers. Dissent against the Imperium became more open, demanding to know why the Imperium was forcing them to fight for a world beyond saving, especially when only the Commissars and other officers were given proper rebreathers, leaving the average soldier to suffer through the toxic air. Loyalists remained in the regiment, but deep into the campaign on Nox Alpha, the traitorous Moebians turned on their loyalist brethren and quickly slaughtered them, leaving the regiment in complete command of the traitors.
Eventually, Atoma Prime, the Capital of the Moebian sector, was besieged by an chaos cult referred to as The Cult of Admonition, a chaos cult dedicated to Nurgle. When this happened, the Moebian 6th Regiment was called in order to fend off the cult. However, as the 6th had already been taken over by traitors, the regiment betrayed the Imperium, and joined the Cult in their rebellion against the Imperium. Under traitor command, the 6th took over the rail system of Hive City Tertium, and filled the trains with barrels of chemical gas infected with the Pox Walker virus.
After their leader, Captain Wolfer, was captured, they boarded the Tancred Bastion and broke him free, and in the process, freed numerous prisoners who then joined the Imperial forces against them.
With Wolfer's return, the 6th have devoted themselves to demolishing the Imperium on Atoma Prime, starting with Hive City Tertium. They wish to spread their dark truth to anyone they come across, and kill any loyalists who dare to get in their way. However, a few loyalist Moebian 6th guardsmen survived the betrayal, and joined the Inquisitorial warband on Atoma to get revenge on their former comrades. Additionally, the skulls of several Moebian 6th loyalists killed on Nox Alpha were retrieved and returned to Atoma Prime, kept in Tertium and sanctified into artifacts known as martyr's skulls, which held Warp echoes of the loyalists at several points in their final deployment.
Abilities and tactics[]
The Moebain 6th generally arm their troops with lasgun weaponry. They rely mainly on swarm tactics, sending massive amounts of troops in order to overwhelm loyalist forces. Alongside that, they use a variety of specialist units, such as bombers, snipers, trappers, and heavy gunner units.
The Moebians prefer to target various infrastructure throughout Tertium, such as railyards, water supply plants, broadcast centers, and important hubs, in order to starve the populace into joining them.
The Moebians are not opposed to outsiders joining them, stating so in their propaganda. They hold an extreme disdain for loyalists, and commonly shout "Loyalists!" when sighting foes. Notably, with the exception of certain units, Moebians are considerably more sane and disciplined than the cultists of Admonition or the average zombie, still utilizing their military training and calling out protocols and other codes in the thick of battle. Their elite units, for the most part, use the same equipment and tactics as their loyalist counterparts.
Noteworthy members[]
Captain Wolfer[]
Captain Wolfer is the head of the Moebian 6th Regiment. Under his leadership, the Moebian's have made many advancements in Tertium. He holds a major disdain for the Imperium, viewing them all as liars and oppressors. He seeks to spread the truth of chaos to all who he can, whether they wish to listen, or not.
The Karnak Twins[]
Rinda and Rodin Karnak serve as Captain Wolfer's head lieutenants. They are a pair of Atoma born twins, who show immense sadism, and pleasure in killing and eating their foes. The two were given control of a habzone, which they oversaw the distribution of stims and oppressed the local populace for their own sick amusement. The two were eventually tracked down by Explicator Zola, and were (presumably) killed by Loyalist forces.
Specialists/Elites[]
- Gunners: Well-armored Moebian 6th troopers armed with Hellguns and equipped with distinctive plumed helmet with three glowing optics, arranged in the form of Nurgle's symbol.
- Shotgunners: Elite shotgun-wielding Moebian 6th guardsmen geared for close-quarters combat, able to deal devastating close-range damage with their namesake weapons. They share the helmet of Gunners, but lack the respirator and optics, and have metal spikes attached to their backs with the skulls of their victims impaled upon them.
- Ragers: Moebian Ragers, unlike their fellow guardsmen, appear near-feral and are clad in twisted, spiked armor, wielding dual chainaxes and attacking enemies with extreme ferocity. It is unclear if Ragers were a standard unit in the Moebian 6th or were created after the regiment's corruption, as their closest Loyalist counterparts would be Imperial Guard Brawlers, who are especially strong soldiers specialized in melee combat.
- Maulers: Also a melee-focused unit, Maulers are considerably stronger and more sane than their Rager counterparts, albeit slower, carrying a two-handed chainaxe and fully clad in spiked plate armor with a carapace-armored helmet. Like Ragers, it is unclear if Maulers were a Moebian 6th unit prior to their corruption, although they could have also been an elite type of Brawlers.
- Flamers: True to their name, Flamers carry Artemia Flamethrowers and wear distinctive heat-resistant flak-armored suits with some hazard painting, although their lenses lack the distinctive green glow of traitor Moebians. Flamers are also more unhinged than the typical Moebian, calling out in shrill voices about burning loyalists and laughing maniacally when unleashing their flames.
- Bombers: Carrying a bandolier of glowing grenades and wearing black flak armor with no helmet, Bombers throw incendiary grenades to burn squads of loyalists or force them to reposition themselves, able to quickly drive unsuspecting targets out of cover. Fortunately, Bombers are notably slow and lack any other weapon.
- Trappers: A female unit wearing a distinct facemask and yellow gloves, Trappers carry an electric netgun and seek out isolated or distracted loyalists to ensnare. Upon successfully trapping a victim, the Trapper will move on to the next target and leave their prey for other Moebians or poxwalkers to kill, or dash away if their net missed, as Trappers do not carry any other armament and rely on their hit-and-run tactics. Trappers seem to have no loyalist counterparts in the Imperial Guard, but refer to themselves as "webgun" and use some military code, implying they were a preestablished unit. Like Flamers, Trappers also sound rather unhinged, gleefully cackling about capturing rejects for their "collection" and even mentioning selling captured loyalists- or at least their remains.
- Snipers: Wearing a distinctive grey uniform with a camo-pattern light grey shawl, along with a glowing green binocular headset, Snipers utilize their namesake weapons to take out enemies from a distance, their presence only betrayed by the laser sight of their rifles. Surprisingly fast and completely silent, Snipers can easily eliminate a reject that fails to take cover in time, but lack flak armor and any practical close-range weapon aside from simply kicking an opponent.
- Captains: Aside from Wolfer and the Karnak Twins, other Moebian 6th officers wearing a very distinct spiked helmet, sometimes referred to as warlords, are present in command of traitor companies. These captains are well-armed, carrying plasma pistols, bolters, shotguns, and two-handed melee weapons, as well as being equipped with personal refractor fields to protect them from harm. Due to their high rank and critical positions to Wolfer's operations, Moebian captains are priority targets for the Inquisition to eliminate. At least two captains were successfully assassinated by the Inquisition's reject strike teams- the first had taken control of the transit system of Tertium's underhive, but had his train redirected to Chasm Terminus by a strike team, allowing them to corner and kill him. The second was positioned in the district of the Torrent and took control of Magistrati Oubliette, the former headquarters and prison facility of the district's Enforcers prior to being pushed out by the Water Cartel. In Magistrati Oubliette, the captain reorganized the prison into a fortress, but it was eventually breached by an Inquisitorial strike team, who were directly confronted by the captain but managed to kill him.
- Bulwarks: Bulwarks are Ogryns, hulking Abhumans from high-gravity worlds possessing superhuman strength but low intellect. While Ogryns are famous for their enthusiastic and seemingly unbreakable loyalty to the Emperor, their simple minds can be corrupted the same as any man. In the Moebian 6th, they have been mutated like their baseline human brethren, and carry a shield impervious to melee and small arms fire, armed with a club to break their foes. While Bulwarks are a rank for loyalist Ogryns in the Imperial Guard, Moebian Bulwarks instead appear to have been Bullgryns due to their distinctive shields- albeit lacking the distinctive carapace armor and grenadier gauntlets of Bullgryns. Instead, Bulwarks have armor over their right arms, no shirt, and a respirator that is distinct from those worn by Bullgryns.
- Reapers: Mutated, gun-toting Ogryns, sometimes with visible Bone'ead augments, Reapers (also known as Repeaters) carry twin-linked heavy stubbers that they use to unleash a torrent of lead on targets, practically being a larger, more damaging, and considerably tougher variant of standard Gunners. However, Reapers lack the full body armor of Gunners, instead only having an armored shoulderpad and tattered chainmail shirt. Presumably, Reapers in the Moebian 6th were Gun Luggers when still loyalists.
- Crushers: Unlike other Moebian Ogryns, Crushers are fully covered in distinctive dark, spiked carapace armor, making them the strongest unit of the Moebian 6th aside from Captains. Able to shrug off volleys of las-bolts and bullets, even plasma rounds, Crushers can easily close the distance to a reject and aptly crush them with little effort. Notably, rather than wielding a standard-issue melee weapon, such as a power maul or shield, Crushers instead carry a block of concrete attached to a dull tube of rebar, creating an improvised two-handed mace that was likely ripped out of a sidewalk. It is unclear what unit Crushers were before the regiment's corruption, or if their designation predates the corruption, but it is likely that they were Bulwarks.
Loyalists (Martyr's skull warp echoes)[]
- Colonel Gortun: An old, battle-hardened veteran commander, Colonel Gortun was the original commanding officer of the Moebian 6th. He was praised by his men as not knowing the meaning of fear, and appeared to be of noble birth. However, while he seemingly did not fall to the corruption of Nurgle, he did accept a mysterious female priest into the regiment during the campaign on Nox Alpha, who was actually an agent of the Cult of Admonition. Gortun was then noted to be acting strangely, before being secretly killed by Wolfer. His disappearance was noted two weeks into the campaign.
- Captain Helmag: Helmag was a female captain in the Moebian 6th who commonly worked with Wolfer. She would often rely on him, making her soldiers question her ability to lead on her own, especially when Helmag was unable to secure new munitions from command. As Wolfer grew a more hostile attitude during his Nurgle corruption, Helmag appeared to be oblivious to it. Instead, she would repeatedly cover for Wolfer's rage-filled outbursts, and during the campaign on Nox Alpha, she was wounded at Nihil Ridge. A martyr's skull Warp echo notes that the wound "doesn't look good," implying Helmag later died from it.
- Trooper Hollan: A male Moebian 6th guardsman who had a feud with Rinda Karnak, and was presumably killed by her during the Nox Alpha campaign, just before the purging of the loyalists.
- Commissar Magsen: Magsen was a Commissar assigned to the Moebian 6th before the Nox Alpha campaign. Like other Commissars, he was unpopular amongst the soldiers and would commonly execute any who crossed him or failed to uphold absolute discipline, even killing more of his own squads than the enemy did at one point of the Nox Alpha campaign. Notably, Magsen was issued a rebreather to survive in the blighted air of Nox Alpha, which the other soldiers weren't given. Magsen was also known to come into conflict with Wolfer, and was presumably killed by him.
- Danner: A Moebian 6th guardsman who was infected with Nurgle's rot during the Nox Alpha campaign. He complained about bellyache, until one day, his body burst open into a swarm of maggots, killing him.
- Marrick: A Moebian 6th guardsman who was assigned to be a sentry during the deployment on Nox Alpha. Shortly before the purging of the loyalists, Marrick was found dead facedown in the mud with a wide-eyed expression, yet no visible wounds.
- Sergeant Geeren: A sergeant in the Moebian 6th who remained loyalist after Wolfer turned on him. His last known whereabouts was holding a loyalist company at Anchorpoint Jorholm, being slowly overwhelmed by Wolfer's men as he tried calling other loyalist officers for help. His account of the Nox Alpha campaign appears to be the source of most of the Warp echoes.
- Kalladan Company: A company of the Moebian 6th who were lost in the deployment drop on Nox Alpha.
- Zarka Cage garrison: A garrison of Moebian 6th guardsmen who fell victim to the plague in the air of Nox Alpha, forcing half of them to be quarantined. It is unknown what became of them during Wolfer's betrayal.
Gallery[]
