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Jenit Sulla

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the Imperial Guard officer. For other uses of Sulla, see Sulla (disambiguation).

Jenit Sulla was a Valhallan Imperial Guard officer who served from late M41 to early M42. A long period of her military career was spent with the Valhallan 296th and its successor regiment, the Valhallan 597th regiment under Colonel Regina Kasteen.

Sulla later became (according to some sources) the only female Guard officer to reach General's rank.

History

Spoiler!
This page contains spoilers for: Ciaphas Cain (Novel Series)

Early Service

Prior to the creation of the 597th, Sulla was quartermaster sergeant of the Valhallan 296th, one of Valhalla's few all-female regiments.[1a] After the regiment was decimated fighting against Tyranids on Corania, she was hastily promoted to Kasteen's staff as a Lieutenant. She was one of the more vocal protestors against the 296th's merger with the remnant of the all-male 301st, being a firm believer in the regimental traditions. In fact, a fight had broken out in the mess hall of the troopship between the male and female troopers, as a result of Sulla's impolitic decision to serve the meal on the 296th's regimental crockery. When criticized, she hotly retorted that the crockery was always used on the 296th's Founding Day, which the meal happened to fall on[1b].

However, she later adjusted to the merger of the two regiments and served with distinction for years afterwards.[Needs Citation]

Gravalax

At the time of the 597th's deployment to Gravalax, Sulla was a platoon commander. During the chaotic battle between rival factions of the planet and a visiting Tau battleforce, Sulla led her troops in several dangerous engagements. During an assault on a traitor redoubt, she personally led her Command Squad in a flanking charge against the position that drove the enemy away. Subsequent examiners of this action were divided about whether her actions were courageous or reckless, but they were undeniably effective.[1c]

During the final battle, when the native inhabitants of Gravalax were revealed to be acting under the influence of genestealers, Sulla reluctantly led her troops in alliance with the Tau force to eradicate them.[Needs Citation]

Simia Orichalcae

Approximately one year later, the 597th was deployed to the Ice World of Simia Orichalcae to defend a vital promethium refinery from an invading Ork Waaagh!. Sulla was on the front lines for much of the campaign, and her unit inflicted punishing casualties on the assaulting Orks. Sulla also volunteered for the highly dangerous mission of guarding an expedition from the refinery to to mine the route being used by an approaching Gargant. By good fortune, she was in the right place at the right time, to rescue Commissar Ciaphas Cain after he and a small party emerged from the planet's underground caverns after a dangerous mission.[Needs Citation]

Adumbria

Five years after the Simia Orichalcae debacle, Sulla accompanied the 597th to Adumbria, to fight off an expected Chaos invasion.[Needs Citation]

Periremunda

Sulla was also with the 597th during its mission to Periremunda, fighting off another incoming Tyranid horde.[Needs Citation]

Later Service

Sulla's later service is not described in detail, but she was eventually promoted to become the only Lady General of the Imperial Guard. She would later write her memoirs, which took up at least two volumes: Like a Phoenix From the Flames: The Founding of the 597th and Like a Phoenix on the Wing: The Early Campaigns and Glorious Victories of the Valhallan 597th.[Needs Citation]

Personality and Appearance

In his private memoirs, Ciaphas Cain, the 597th's regimental commissar and reluctant Hero of the Imperium, described Sulla as by far the most eager, and the most irritating, of the regiment's junior officers. According to Cain, she had blonde hair that she frequently wore in a ponytail, and had a long, narrow face that reminded Cain of a horse's[2].

As a combat officer she was headstrong, pious to the Emperor, and courageous to the point of recklessness. This last quality may explain part of Cain's personal dislike of her, as she would often commit herself to actions that would get her and her troops (and possibly Cain himself, which concerned him the most) killed.[2] Whatever Cain's misgivings about her, he acknowledged that she was an efficient commander and a competent tactician, and that the troops under her command were extremely loyal to her.[Needs Citation]

Her superior, Major Ruput Broklaw, aptly summed up Sulla's character and abilities with the statement: "She'll probably go far, if she doesn't get herself killed first."[1d]

Ironically, Sulla herself remained largely oblivious to Cain's low opinion of her. In her own memoirs, she always described him in glowing terms, and considered him something of a mentor.[2]. Several times in her career, she claimed that she had decided on some of her most daring (and foolhardy) moves by asking herself what Cain would do in her place[1d][5a] - fortunately, according to Inquisitor Amberley Vail, without having any idea of the true answer.[5b]

Vail used several excerpts from Sulla's biographies to augment her annotations of the Cain Archive. However, as Vail always assured her reader, she did so with extreme reluctance, as Sulla's prose style apparently left something to be desired (Vail often added disclaimers along the lines of "readers with an appreciation of the Gothic language may wish to skip past this"). Vail explained that, since Sulla was so often in the thick of combat actions taking place outside Cain's perception, Sulla's works gave the reader a wider perspective than Cain's typically self-centered narrative (Vail often hastened to add that, had any other source been available, she would have used it).[Needs Citation]

Quotes

See Quotes Imperial Guard

Trivia

Conflicting Sources

Voice Portrayals

In the audio book recordings of For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, The Traitor's Hand and Duty Calls, the excerpts from Sulla's memoirs are narrated by Emma Gregory, who also narrated James Swallow's Faith & Fire and Hammer & Anvil. Insofar as Sulla appears in the main story of the novels, narrated by Cain, she is voiced by Stephen Perring.

Sources