Penal Legion — Colonel Saratov’s Punishment Battalion

To be assigned to Colonel Saratov’s Punishment Battalion, one must meet three criteria: unruly, aggressive, and criminal. The sector’s scavs, degenerates, and long‑sentence offenders fit all three, and the governments have learned that wasting them in super‑max prisons is inefficient when the frontier always needs more bodies.

Instead, these convicts are pressed into “Forlorn” units — formations deployed to the worst fronts, the deadliest breaches, and the assaults no sane commander volunteers for. Saratov’s battalion is infamous across the sector: gritty, vicious, and barely held together by explosive collars, threat‑discipline, and the Colonel’s reputation for ending problems personally.

Their equipment is a joke — mismatched armor, scavenged plating, and weapons acquired through “combat acquisition,” which is Penal Legion slang for stealing from the dead. Many don’t even start with ballistic weapons. Explosive collars keep most in line, though a handful of long‑serving veterans have earned enough trust (or lethality) to have theirs removed.

They are savage, dangerous, and barely controlled — and that’s exactly why Saratov keeps them.