Merrt
Trooper[1] Merrt was a sniper of the Tanith First and Only.[3]
Biography
One of the original Tanith members of the First and Only, Merrt signed up when Tanith was called on to raise its first Imperial Guard Regiments for the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. He was regarded as having a good aim, but was not originally one of the regiment's designated snipers due to the fact that enough snipers had already been recruited by the time he joined. Notably Merrt considered himself a better shot than even the regiment's foremost sniper, Larkin, believing that Larkin had been chosen as the last sniper over himself due to both Larkin's mental disposition rendering him unsuitable for line infantry work and Larkin's friend Corbec pulling some strings, although Merrt admitted that he had a smart mouth that would probably get him in trouble.[1]
By the time of the Tanith First's deployment on Caligula, Merrt's skills had been recognised and he was considered one of Corbec's favoured sharpshooters. While on Caligula, he was part of a Tanith detachment assigned to escort a supply convoy from Aurelian Hive to Hive Calphernia, manning the guns of an outrider driven by Trooper Kelve. When the convoy was attacked by bandits, their outrider was destroyed and Merrt was forced to mercy-kill Kelve after the latter was impaled by the wreckage. Despite this, Merrt performed well in the subsequent battle, managing to snipe a number of bandits before they could launch a missile salvo at the Tanith positions.[2a]
Later on Monthax, Merrt was attached to the regiment's Second Platoon under Colonel Corbec. He was severely wounded when a Chaos Cultist shot him in the jaw with a lasgun[2b] but survived.[3]
Sources
- 1: Of Their Lives in the Ruins of Their Cities (Short Story) — The Founding (Omnibus)
- 2: Ghostmaker (Novel) — The Founding (Omnibus)
- 3: The Guns of Tanith (Novel) — The Saint (Omnibus), DZ or Dead, Section One
