Federation PDF

Standard-Issue Battle Gear of a Typical PDF Trooper
Biographical information
Homeworld
Birth
Died
Family
Occupation(s)	soldier, but with significant technical training
Alias
Physical description
Species	various, Human, CAST, Neuman, Beast, Wood Elf, Centaurian, Eradenian
Gender	any, the Federation PDF has no gender discrimination
Hair color
Eye color
Height
Statistics
Weapon(s)	Kantrael-pattern Laser Rifle, Cadian-pattern combat blade, Necromunda-pattern laser pistol, Ares Predator 10mm caseless pistol, various other Imperium-designed special weapons.
Abilities
Affiliation	Van Saar Federation, Humankind Empire Abh
First Appearance

The Federation Planetary Defense Forces (Federation PDF) are the defense forces of the Van Saar Federation.

>CIA Field Report Local Dateline May 2016, Rassilonian Era Submitting Agent: 002.461517neminixblipsonara<

Overview

The Planetary Defense Forces are the Federation's primary defensive force on all of its worlds, as every single planet from highly-populated Parum to newly-established colonies like Aramea and Exile maintain a large garrison of PDF.

As is common within the Federation, the PDF is based upon an identical institution from the Imperium of Man. All planets of the Imperium are largely responsible for raising, training, and equipping their own defensive forces from which at least 10% are to be made available for conscription into the Astra Militarum per year as part of the Imperial Tithe. The quality and equipment standards of these local defense forces varies tremendously based on the world in question: a Feudal World's PDF may be equipped with half-plate and muskets while Fortress Worlds like Cadia are indistinguishable from regular Guardsmen. Regardless of their composition, the Imperium's PDFs are not part of the Astra Militarum and are treated as a separate entity.

That's where the similarities end with the Van Saar Federation. The PDFs of all of the Federation's worlds are all part of the Imperial Guard and as such members of the PDF are undergoing Federal Service. The PDF is comprised of prospective Citizens who have either been assigned to planetary garrison duty or (surprisingly) long-time veterans who don't want to muster out but do want a comparatively quieter and more stable posting.

Technology

PDF troopers aren't equipped to the exact same degree as Imperial Guardsmen as they're not classified as active front-line forces. Their allocated equipment is lesser and cheaper, but also easier to maintain and much simpler to resupply. This fits in very well with local logistical networks. Still, their equipment is directly patterned after the Imperial Guard: the partial armor worn by PDF troopers is nothing more than a scaled-down, lighter version of Cadian Kasrkin carapace armor that's easier to wear and move around in, and their laser rifles are extremely simple to resupply.

Tactics

The tactics of the PDF revolve around defense: anyone attacking a Federation world is met with significant resistance incorporating heavy anti-aircraft and anti-vehicle weapons, prepared defensive perimeters established long in advance, overlapping fields of fire, bunkers, artillery shelters, and a garrison force that trains and drills very frequently. Quite a few Guardsmen undergoing Basic Training actually perform the field training segment of their training as part of a PDF garrison. While the PDF does NOT perform law enforcement duties, they are sometimes called upon to assist in containing threats that the police can't handle, but they do this at the discretion of the world's Provost Marshall (who is directly answerable to none other than the Governor-Militant).

Equipment of Note

Flak Armor

The protective body armor of a PDF trooper consists of an impact-absorbent carbonweave fabric with articulated, segmented plates of molded ceramite. The plates are attached directly to the carbonweave outer layer of a hostile environment suit and are designed for easy removal and replacement. This armor is identical to what's worn by the Imperial Guard, but is lacking all of the ceramite plating, leaving the arms and parts of the legs and lower torso protected by the flak-cloth fabric (which gives protection equivalent to Level-2 Kevlar). The plates can be easily removed and replaced if damaged, and if it becomes necessary additional armor pieces can be attached to upgrade it into a full suit of carapace armor.

Kantrael-Pattern Lasgun

The standard weapon of the Federation PDF is identical to one of the more widely-used weapons of the Astra Militarum: the short-pattern lasgun most often seen in the hands of the Cadians and many other forces of the Imperium. The Kantrael-pattern is used partly because of its well-documented reputation for sturdiness, but also because large stockpiles were obtained during the Egae Crusade and Imperial lasguns turned out to be highly efficient weapons. Lasguns aren't the most powerful of weapons (inflicting damage somewhere between that of 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm rifle bullets) but they ARE extremely reliable weapons, able to undergo extensive heavy use, harsh treatment, filthy conditions and still fire without any problems.

Imperial Guard lasguns are the AK-47's of the galaxy because they're just as durable. They're not as powerful as the Morrigan-pattern gauss rifle and certainly lack the penetration, but they're much cheaper to produce, require less maintenance, and don't require physical ammunition. Logistics are easy as the power cells are designed to be recharged from a variety of sources, including light and heat as the Munitorum-issue power cells incorporate thermal and solar receptors and in an emergency can even be recharged by placing them directly inside a fire (although such rough treatment causes significant damage to the charge pack). Optimally, a lasgun power cell is good for sixty shots in "standard" firing mode before needing to be recharged, but only gets half as many shots when firing in "high" power mode (which gives the weapon slightly better armor piercing ability).

Vehicles

The vehicles of the PDF also tend to be simpler, easy-to-maintain variants of what's used within the Imperial Guard with an emphasis on simplified logistics. Tanks are usually the basic Leman Russ battle tank or the Annihilator variant (the twin-linked lascannons require no shells), armored personnel carriers aren't as widely used, but rapidly deployable Aegis defensive barriers, defense turrets, pre-fabricated bunker kits, and automated sentry guns are extremely plentiful, with a special emphasis placed upon multiple layers of stockpiled supplies, in multiple protected locations, supplied from multiple sources.

Other Equipment

All other equipment carried by the PDF, including hostile environment suits, combat knives, biometric cognomen, pistols, grenades, and other gear is almost identical to what's carried by the Imperial Guard. While the Imperial Guard often have slightly better medical equipment and access to more advanced special weapons, the average PDF trooper has access to much more ammunition for his or her lasgun and much more provisions since they're trained and equipped for defensive siege warfare.