Hello all once again.

In my quest to enrich the game for my players, I've combed the pages of my IHB and found the background packages for the Imperial Guard to be lacking (especially since my favorite novels are the IG novels). So, to correct this I've set myself to task in trying to peice together all the named regiments in the books and create them where their are none as well as come up with good traits for them.

One of the biggest ones obviously would be the Skitarii Tech Guard. How best would I be able to mold the Tech-Guard into a workable background package? what kind of Augmetics would be appropriate for them to have? Would they even be able to strike out on their own as part of an Inquistor's retuine or would they be on loan to the Inquistion much like one of their priest would be and answer first and only to the summons of a Magos when called upon?

Since I started Dark Heresy the Adeptus Mechanicus has been one of the areas that has interested me greatly. While searching for background information here is are a few of the fan-made/collected sources that I have found.

An article on the Mechanicus in general: http://forums.tauonline.org/index.php/topic,77852.0.html

A very good Cult Mechanicus 40K codex for unit strengths etc: http://www.tempusfugitives.co.uk/pdf/40k/Codex%20Cult%20Mechanicus.pdf

And a good Dark Mechanicus codex: http://www.tempusfugitives.co.uk/pdf/40k/Codex%20Soul%20Forge.pdf

And a cult mechanicus yahoo group: Adeptus-Mechanicus

There was also a pretty good Inquisitor article that I can email you if they don't have it on the specialist games site.

Salcor

I'm currently writing an entire sourcebook for DH on this...

This is what I made a while back, it got a bit jumbled up when I copy pasted it, if you want the original just leave your email


Skitarii
The regular armed forces of the Cult Mechanicus are the Skitarii Tech Guard, raised as other worlds might form PDF units or regiments of the Imperial guard. Selected and relentlessly trained to defend and enforce order on the Forge Worlds. Most will be part of the Forge Worlds standing forces or enforcement. They have basic cybernetic upgrades which allow them operate in harsh environments.
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New Background Packages:

Skitarii Hypaspist:
Career Path: Guardsman
Home World: Forge World
Cost: 200xp

The lowest of the Skitarri are called the Hypaspist, they are the forge world equivalent of the PDF or Imperial Guard. They are more augmented than the basic Imperial Guard trooper and most of them have received emotional-suppression surgery.

Effects:
Apply all the following changes to your character.
Skills: You gain Common Lore (Machine Cult) and Tech Use as bonus skills
Talents: You start the game with the Chem Geld talent
Insanity Points: You begin play with 1d5 insanity points

Equipment:
Replace your normal guardsman equipment with the following:
Axe, las pistol and 1 charge pack, lasgun with red dot laser and 1 charge pack, knife, guard flak armour, uniform (common quality clothing), Respirator (Implanted), Photo Contacts (Implanted), Mechanicus robes (common quality clothing), 1 week corpse starch rations

Sisters of Cydonia:
Career Path: Assassin
Home World: Forge World
Cost: 200xp
Sometimes there are such threats to the cult or when material of such value is stolen the Magos warrants the deployment of a Mech-Assassin. Besides being masters of stealth they are also the masters of the Adaptes Mechanicus arsenal.

Effects:
Apply all the following changes to your character.
Skills: You gain Common Lore (Tech), Security, Shadowing and Tech Use as bonus skills
Talents: You start the game with the Chem Geld talent
Insanity Points: You begin play with 1d5 insanity points
Corruption Points: You begin play with 1d5 insanity points

Equipments:
Replace your normal Assassin equipment with the following:
Auto stubber, a silencer, Red Dot Laser and two clips of ammunition, Mono Sword, Knife, Black Bodysuit (Common Quality Clothing), Photo-Contacts (Implanted), Mechanicus robes (common quality clothing)

Skitarii Evocati

Required Career: Guardsman (Forge World only)
Prerequisite Background Package: Skitarii Hypaspist
Prerequisite Skills: At least 5 weapon talents
Alternate Rank: 5 or higher (3000xp)

The Evocati are the hallowed ranks of Skitarii veterans, having survived over a dozen battles and being augmented with cybernetics they are a dire adversary indeed.

Advance Cost Type Prerequisite
Command 100 S
Common Lore (Machine Cult) +10 100 S Common Lore (Machine Cult)
Common Lore (Tech) 100 S
Demolition +10 100 S Demolition
Dodge +10 100 S Dodge
Drive (Walker) 100 S
Pilot (Military Craft) +20 100 S Pilot (Military Craft) +10
Secret Tongue (Military) +10 100 S Secret Tongue (Military)
Secret Tongue (Tech) 100 S
Survival +10 100 S Survival
Autosanguine 100 T
Basic Weapon Training (Melta) 100 T
Basic Weapon Training (Plasma) 100 T
Bulging Biceps 100 T S 45
Die Hard 100 T WP 40
Heavy Weapon Training (Bolt) 100 T
Heavy Weapon Training (Las) 100 T
Heavy Weapon Training (Launcher) 100 T
Insanely Faithful 100 T
True Grit 100 T T 40
Climb 200 S
Drive (Walker) +10 200 S Drive (Walker)
Medicae 200 S
Search 200 S
Tech Use +10 200 S Tech Use
Iron Jaw 200 T T 40
Peer (Adaptus Mechanicus) 200 T
Sound Constitution* 200 T
Exotic Weapon Training (Vivisector) 200 T
Exotic Weapon Training (Breacher) 200 T
Exotic Weapon Training (Graviton Gun) 300 T
Exotic Weapon Training (Rad Cleanser) 300 T
*May take this Talent two times at this rank

Special: All Evocati have an Injector rig (Page 138 IH), if they do not have one, they will gain one for free upon entering this career.

Skitarii Centurion:

Required Career: Guardsman (Forge World only)
Prerequisite Background Package/Rank: Skitarii Hypaspist, Lieutenant
Other Prerequisites: Common Lore (Machine Cult) +10, Tech Use +10, Peer (Tech Priest)
Alternate Rank: 7 or higher (8000xp)

The Skitarii Centurion a roughly the equivalent of the Imperial Guards captain, they have gone beyond even the mighty Evocati and are among the most loyal members of the Machine Cult. These Creatures can no longer truly be called human as they have too numerous cybernetic augmentations.

Advance Cost Type Prerequisite
Common Lore (Machine Cult) +20 100 S Common Lore (Machine Cult) +10
Common Lore (Tech) +10 100 S Common Lore (Tech)
Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) +10 100 S Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis)
Secret Tongue (Military) +20 100 S Secret Tongue (Military) +10
Secret Tongue (Tech) +10 100 S Secret Tongue (Tech)
Air of Authority 100 T Fel 30
Pistol Training (Melta) 100 T
Strong Minded 100 T WP 30, Resistance (Psychic Powers)
Logic 200 S
Tech Use +20 200 S Tech Use +10
Exotic Weapon Training (Needle Pistol) 200 T
Exotic Weapon Training (Web Pistol) 200 T
Iron Discipline 200 T WP 30, Command
Nerves of Steel 200 T
Sound Constitution* 200 T
Talented (Command) 200 T Command
Lightning Attack 300 S
Resistance (Psychic Powers) 300 T
*May take this Talent two times at this rank

Another way to go about it would be to start out with the Cybernetic Resurrection Elite advance with a Guardsman character. Sure it would eat up most ofthe starting Xp (but if the GM like the idea then perhaps you can start out with 800 or 1000 xp for everyone instead). So Guardsman with Forge World as a homeworld and he gets to start out with Cybernetic Resurrection. Would represent a Skitarii Hypaspist pretty well I think...

Reading Titanicus will provide a little bg as well, as they are heavily featured.

I did similar to Santiago, but went a slightly different route. It takes a few minor liberties with the background, but they've proven to work very well in actual game situations, as I wrote them for a player originally.

Be warned, there's a lot of text here...

Skitarius Hoplite (Guardsman Background)
Home World: Forge Born
Cost: 200 xp
The teeming, faceless legions of the Tech-Guard—Skitarii as they are known to their Tech-Priest masters—are the primary armed force of the Adeptus Mechanicus. For all matters military, the Skitarii are employed, from the hordes of the weapon-servitors and combat helots who make up the bulk of the Tech-Guard, to the serried ranks of augment-soldiers who form its shock troops.
Within the ranks of these augmented warriors there are many further divisions, from the mechanised phalanxes of Cataphractii vehicles, MIU-bonded to their pilots, to the heavy weapon specialists and artillerists of the Balisterai, to the humble Hypaspist infantry and elite Centurions who fight beside the God-Machines of the Adeptus Titanicus and who’s might is equalled only by the legendary Adeptus Astartes.
These Skitarii—for the term applies as much to these warriors specifically as it does to the Tech-Guard as a whole—all begin as mere hoplites, arrayed in mighty phalanxes and expended as readily as the hoplites’ own ammunition.
Through hours of augmetic surgery and alchemical treatments, these warriors are purged of emotion, their weak flesh bolstered with blessed steel and their souls bonded with their weaponry to make them more efficient as the Omnissiah’s sword.
Effects
Apply all of the following changes to your character:
Characteristics: Increase your starting WS by +5, and reduce your starting Fellowship by -5.
Skills: Replace the choice of ‘Drive (Ground Vehicle) or Swim’ with ‘Drive (Ground Vehicle) or Secret Tongue (Tech)’
Talents: Remove the options for Pistol Training (Primitive) and Basic Weapon Training (Primitive). You begin the game with Chem-Geld and Binary Chatter.
Insanity Points: You start the game with 1d5 Insanity Points.
Skitarius Implants (Trait): Your weak flesh has been fortified by blessed steel and sanctified circuitry. You have been judged a worthy host for the following implants:

• Electro-Graft: This is a small port that is grafted into your nervous system. Once you have been properly trained, this will allow you to interface with machine data-ports, and certain types of data-nets. Electro-grafts can take many forms, such as electoos, skull shunts, finger probes or spine jacks, though ruggedly-designed skull shunts or spine jacks are the most common amongst Skitarii.
• Cranial Circuitry: This is a series of linked processors, implants and cortical circuits that augments your mental capacities. Most sit within housing bolted onto the skull, while others nestle within the brain itself. As you grow in the seriousness of your devotions, more and more of the brain that deals with useless things such as emotion and intuition can be scooped away to provide room for additional augmentations. Skitarii cranial circuitry is robust and often crude-looking, and shares many traits with the circuitry of vehicles and other blessed machines of war.
• Respirator Unit: This implant covers the lower half of your face with a network of grilles and tubing. It purifies your air supply, granting a +20 bonus to resist airborne toxins and gas weapons. The respirator unit also houses a vox-synthesiser capable of transmitting your voice in a variety of ways. Respirators can appear and simple grille units or intricate mask-like carvings.
• Weapon Actuators: Your arms are covered in an intricate array of hardplugs, cables, support struts and servo-motors, allowing you to connect directly to your weaponry. In time, your bond with the spirits of your weapons will increase, granting you greater efficiency in battle.
• War-Mantle: This is a framework of metal, wires and impulse transmitters bolted onto your spine, shoulders, lower ribcage, and extending over and through the upper arms and thighs. For most Skitarii, this is a support structure for the other implants, but the more augmented Skitarii have additional augmetics fitted directly to the war-mantle itself—for Balisterai and Cataphractii, these implants connect the warrior more closely to their machines of war, echoing the haptic implants of a Titan’s Princeps, while for the deadly Centurions, their war-mantles allow their strength and size to be augmented and their bodies fitted with armour plating, turning them into veritable juggernauts of destructive power.

Unconcerned with Flesh: The warriors of the Skitarii are focussed utterly on martial pursuits, honing themselves into perfect weapons in the name of the Omnissiah. Consequently, they have little time or patience for matters of the flesh. You may not purchase Fellowship advances. In addition, any and all Fellowship-based skills cost twice as much to purchase.

Skitarii Hypaspist
WE ARE ALL BUT A WEAPON IN THE RIGHT HAND OF THE EMPEROR.
—Exhortationes Principiis Titannorum, Divisio Militaris
Where Hoplites are generally little more than (often vat-grown) conscripts, those who demonstrate themselves to be fit for a greater purpose are granted advanced training, superior equipment and the blessed gift of cybernetics.
Such warriors are known as Hypaspists, named after a band of elite warriors from Terra’s ancient past. A Hypaspist phalanx (company being the equivalent Imperial Guard term) consists of 256 augmented, weapon-bonded soldiers, purged of emotion and operating with mechanical precision and brutal logic. Each phalanx is further divided into two ‘centuries’ (platoons), each consisting of sixteen maniples (squads) of 8 warriors each. Each maniple possesses a shared identity—the maniple’s designation is used both to refer to the maniple as a whole, and to any one individual Hypaspist, something which is somewhat confusing for those unused to the ways of the Mechanicus, but which the Skitarii themselves are more than used to.
This is not to say that they are not individuals, but as with many servants of the Machine, it is second nature to subsume themselves into something larger, to view themselves as simply another cog within the divine machine, an outlook that only becomes more firmly entrenched with the purging of emotion.
For some Skitarii, even the purging of emotion cannot dampen human ambition or the will to achieve ever greater heights, and such aspiring soldiers consider their time as Hypaspists as a mere stepping-stone on the path towards greater augmentation, greater prowess and greater unity with the Omnissiah.

Becoming a Skitarii Hypaspist
Hoplites, like all Skitarii, are born not chosen. Theirs are lives not of the foolish choices or inexplicable passions of the flesh-bound, but of the ordered purpose and cold logic of the Omnissiah’s chosen warriors. Whether flesh-born or vat-grown, every Skitarius is chosen from millions of squalling children born every day on each Forge World. Through intense genic scrutiny, the weak are culled and the capable are sifted and assigned their life’s vocation.
Those keen of eye, steady of hand, resilient of form and aggressive of temperament are taken for the Tech-Guard, and will know nothing else until their lives end in the Machine-God’s service.
It is likely, as you spend xp on this Alternate Rank, that your character will advance several Ranks in the Guardsman Career Path. While doing so, you can use the following titles for your Skitarii character instead of the standard ones if you wish. After taking this Alternate Rank, you can enter any of the branches, though the Praefect rank (an Alternate Rank which replaces Rank 6: Assault Veteran) gives many more opportunities for augmentation and development into a truly terrifying augmented warrior.

Required Careers: Guardsman
Alternate Rank: Rank 2 or higher (500xp)
Other Requirements: You must originate from a Forge World, have a BS of 35 or more, the skill Secret Tongue (Tech) and the Skitarius Implants trait.

Advance Cost Type Prerequisites
Dodge 100 S -
Drive (Ground Vehicle) +10 100 S Drive (Ground Vehicle)
Ciphers (War Cant) 100 S -
Common Lore (Machine Cult) 100 S -
Tech-Use 100 S -
Basic Weapon Training (Launcher) 100 T -
Quick Draw 100 T -
Sound Constitution 100 T -
Concealed Cavity 100 T -
Common Lore (War) 200 S -
Logic 200 S -
Heavy Weapons Training (SP) 200 T -
Two-Weapon Wielder (Ballistic) 200 T BS 35, Ag 35
Disturbing Voice 200 T -
Autosanguine 200 T -
Weaponsoul 200 T Weapon Actuators
Rite of Pure Thought 300 T Cranial Circuitry
Slaughter Node 300 T Cranial Circuitry

Skitarii Praefect
RESISTANCE WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION. OPPOSITION WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION. HERESY WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION.
—Praefect Maniple 10001-Phi-Omega, addressing the militia of Heretek-Magos Aurelius Thoge on Belacane, before commencing a purge of the heretek’s forces.
To compare the Praefecta of the Skitarii to mortal soldiers is akin to comparing a Battle Tank with a groundcar. Even the Hypaspists are not beyond the frailties of flesh, but a Praefect must aspire to go beyond that, to cast off the shackles of the organic and truly become living weapons for the Omnissiah.
A truer comparison might perhaps be with the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes. Indeed, the Praefecta—sometimes also known as Centurions, Praetorians (not to be confused with Praetorian combat servitors) or Herculiani—bear many similarities with the Astartes. Both are considered warriors of their gods, both are wrought from mortal flesh into something greater, and both are elite warriors of the finest calibre.
The roles filled by the Praefecta are varied. Some serve as bodyguards for important Magi, particularly Magi Militant, while others go to battle with their phalanxes either as shock troops or as an escort for the God-Machines of the Adeptus Titanicus. All Praefecta are alike in one way, however—each and every one of them is both more and less than human, rebuilt for the harshest of conflicts.
Some amongst the Praefecta, particularly (though not exclusively) those serving as Titan escorts, go beyond even those drastic measures. These Praefecta are made larger, stronger and tougher, their bodies armoured and their limbs strengthened to the point where they can wield far heavier weaponry and deal far more damage at close quarters. To enhance their intimidating presence, they are often adorned with trappings that make them seem savage, almost feral, though there is nothing but cold logic and artificial rage within their minds. Draped in furs, given claws and fangs, and pushed to a synthetic frenzy by their slaughter nodes while the logical halves of their brains calculate trajectories and consider tactics, these Praefecta are a terrifying sight to behold, and it is for this reason that they are rarely deployed alongside other humans. It is also for this reason that many high-ranking Magi often select mass-boosted Praefecta as bodyguards, knowing the usefulness of fear as a tool even if they no longer feel it themselves.

Becoming a Skitarii Praefect
The Praefecta are the best of the best, the finest infantrymen the Adeptus Mechanicus can produce, chosen from the sturdiest and most devoted of Hypaspists and rebuilt into something greater.
It is likely, as you spend xp on this Alternate Rank, that your character will advance several Ranks in the Guardsman Career Path. After taking this Alternate Rank, you must continue down the Assault Veteran branch of the Guardsman Career Path.

Mass-Boosted Praefecta
Praefecta characters who take the Hulking trait (and any of the advances that require the Hulking trait) can become extremely potent combatants, easily a match for Space Marines in strength, resilience and armament.
For some games, this is undesirable, and consequently GMs should think carefully on whether or not such advances should be permitted. Even without them, a Skitarii Praefect is a deadly combatant, as is only fitting for a character of 6,000 or more XP.
The option exists for those people who want to see Skitarii at their finest and deadliest represented. Those who do not want this option available are entirely free to restrict or prohibit those advances, which are marked in Italics in the advance table below.

Required Careers: Guardsman
Alternate Rank: Rank 6 or higher (6,000xp)
Other Requirements: You must originate from a Forge World; have Strength 40 or more, and the Slaughter Node and Rite of Pure Thought talents.

Advance Cost Type Prerequisites
Common Lore (Machine Cult) +10 100 S Common Lore (Machine Cult)
Demolition +20 100 S Demolition +10
Tech-Use +10 100 S Tech-Use
Blademaster 100 T WS 30, Melee Weapon Training (Any)
Combat Master 100 T WS 30
Electrograft Use 100 T Electro-graft
Furious Assault 100 T WS 35
Logis Implant 100 T -
Melee Weapon Training (Power) 100 T -
Logic +10 200 S Logic
Dodge +20 200 S Dodge +10
Sound Constitution 200 T -
Prosanguine 200 T Autosanguine
Noosphere Interface 200 T Cranial Circuitry, Electrograft Use
Exotic Weapon Training (Shock) 200 T -
Exotic Weapon Training (Rad-Cleanser) 200 T -
Exotic Weapon Training (Graviton Gun) 200 T -
Feedback Screech 200 T Respirator Unit
Armour-Plated 200 Trait War-Mantle
Rite of Awe 300 T Respirator Unit
Rite of Fear 300 T Respirator Unit
Auto-Stabilised 300 Trait War-Mantle, Hulking, Unnatural Strength (x2)
Hulking 300 Trait War-Mantle
Unnatural Strength (x2) 500 Trait Hulking, War-Mantle
Unnatural Toughness (x2) 500 Trait Hulking, War-Mantle

New Talents

Binary Chatter (Revised Talent)
Your body has been modified to speak and interpret the binaric cant of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the primary form of speaking the language known as ‘Tech’. This allows you to interact more proficiently with servitors, granting a +10 bonus on any test made to instruct, program or question them. Further, if you have the Secret Language (Tech) skill, you may communicate with any other character possessing that skill and the Binary Chatter talent in the binaric form of Tech, allowing swift transfer of information and more complex interactions in a shorter space of time. This means that you may use the Logic skill as if it were Inquiry only when interacting with characters possessing the Binary Chatter talent who are able to speak Tech.

Haptic Commands
Prerequisites: Tech-Priest (Electoo Inductor) – New Talent, available at Tech-Priest Rank 5 (Tech-Priest) for 200xp
You have been blessed with the haptic touch, the ability to touch and feel machines from a distance. Through the manipulation of electromagnetic fields, you may interface with machines at a distance, the implants in your limbs returning sensations of physical manipulation to guide your interactions. This allows you the ability to perform Tech-Use tests without touching the machine being interacted with. You must still be able to perceive the machine you are interacting with, and it must be within a number of metres equal to your Willpower characteristic.

Noosphere Interface
Prerequisites: Tech-Priest or Skitarius (Cranial Circuitry), Electrograft Use – New Talent, available at Tech-Priest Rank 4 (Enginseer) for 200xp
You have been initiated into the secrets of the Noosphere, the collective data-repository that forms the heart of every true Mechanicus Forge and Facility. You can bear witness to that which is invisible to the unenlightened: the purity of blessed knowledge as it flows around you. In any area where information is transmitted noospherically, you may interact with Cogitators and other linked machinery without physical contact or connection. This confers the same benefits as Electrograft Use, but requires only your physical presence within the Noosphere’s reach.

Slaughter Node
Prerequisites: Skitarius (Cranial Circuitry)
The most ferocious of machine spirits reside within the implants in your skull, and with their help you can unleash bursts of calculated, logical fury. You may enter a Frenzy (as per the talent) as a free action at any point, and while Frenzied, you may continue to parry as though you had the Battle Rage talent. Further, you may voluntarily end your frenzy at any time as a free action. You may only enter or leave a frenzy once per turn – you cannot do both in the same turn.

Weaponsoul
Prerequisites: Skitarius (Weapon Actuator)
Through your blessed implants, you are made closer to the spirits of your weapons, and with that unity comes increased lethality. When you aim with a weapon connected to your Weapon Actuators, you gain an additional +10 to hit. This does not stack with the Accurate quality. In addition, you gain a +10 bonus on all Ballistic Skill tests made to clear a jammed weapon connected to your Weapon Actuators.
100: Blessings of the Omnissiah: Tools and Implants of the Cult Mechanicus

Augmetic Implants

Interkeratic Implants
These implants consist of additional layers built into the cornea of the recipient, whether gene-altered organic matter just beneath the surface, or advanced photo-augur technology implanted over the surface of the eye. Regardless of the source, the implant enhances the vision of the recipient, allowing him to see in ways he would otherwise be unable to.
For all game purposes, Interkeratic implants are identical to photovisors, infra-red goggles (both are in the DARK HERESY rulebook, page 147) or both. However, being implanted means that they cannot be removed without surgery or removing the eyes.

Mem-Coils
Memory coils, also known as mem-coils and eidetic helices, are complex devices used to allow those so augmented to recall vast amounts of information more quickly and efficiently. In most cases, a single eidetic helix is sufficient, but the most ancient and knowledgeable Magi of the Mechanicus may be implanted with several. Beyond the Adeptus Mechanicus, scholars, adepts and archivists of all kinds can be found with mem-coils housed within their brains, and encrypted mem-coils, their contents inaccessible to the owner and only readable by extracting the information via a data-shunt, are implanted into couriers (as often unwilling as willing) whose cargo is too sensitive to be left unsecured and too secret to let the messenger himself know of it. Regardless of the quality, it takes a Tech-Use test (which may be performed by anyone present) and 1 hour to load a mem-coil with a particular set of information artificially. A mem-coil normally can’t be used to remember things in a natural way, though some advanced versions are capable of this.
Poor mem-coils are slow to “spin up” and retrieve information, are limited in capacity, and often incompatible with the mind that must interface with it. It takes 1d10-IB minutes to activate a poor mem-coil each time it is used, and grants a +5 bonus onto a single Common Lore, Scholastic Lore or Forbidden Lore skill relevant to the information loaded into the coil. Incompatibility means that the recipient gains 1d10 insanity points.
Common mem-coils can store information pertinent to three Common Lore, Forbidden Lore or Scholastic Lore skills, granting a +5 bonus to any tests involving them, or a +10 bonus if the mem-coil’s contents are thoroughly searched, taking 1d5-IB minutes (minimum 1 minute).
Good mem-coils are quite rare and exotic items, costing five times the normal amount for a Good-Quality item. However, their adaptive structures and vast storage capacity means that they can store information remembered naturally, rather than requiring data to be uploaded into them (though that function remains). This valuable item grants a +10 bonus to any and all Common Lore, Forbidden Lore or Scholastic Lore Tests, and counts all such skills as Basic Skills, as well as granting the Total Recall talent.
Encrypted mem-coils of any quality do not grant any bonuses to any tests whatsoever, as the contents cannot be accessed by the character that they are implanted within. They can still be recorded upon in all the usual ways, however – meaning that an encrypted Good-quality mem-coil is an excellent way of retrieving a subject’s memories.

Muscle Grafts
Vat-grown muscle, either from a gene-neutral source or cloned from the recipient’s own flesh, is implanted beneath the recipient’s skin and woven into his existing musculature, granting enhanced strength and mass.
Poor Muscle Grafts, the crudest and cheapest examples of this kind of augmentation – common amongst ganger “heavies” and dreg-thugs of the lowest variety – are simple slabs of gene-neutral surgically-grafted meat, prone to rejection sickness and cramping, and can provide only limited and uncertain benefits without skeletal reinforcement. They grant a +1d10 bonus to Strength, but the recipient suffers a level of fatigue if a Strength test is ever failed by 3 or more degrees.
Common Muscle Grafts incorporate bio-alchemical treatments that strengthen bone, and use cloned muscle tissue to minimise rejection, allowing the recipient to better utilise the new strength he has been granted. They grant a +10 bonus to Strength and two extra wounds.
Good Muscle Grafts go a step further still, genetically-enhancing cloned muscle that is not only denser and more efficient than natural human muscle tissue, but is designed to grow into the tissues it is grafted into and supplant their genetics with the grafts’ enhanced structures. They grant a +15 bonus to Strength, a +5 bonus to Toughness, and 1d5+1 additional wounds.

Subdermal Weapon Support Bracing
An articulated, powered network of cables, hydraulic support struts and locking mechanisms are built up the recipient’s arm, beneath the skin and connecting between both muscle and bone all the way up to the shoulder and upper back. All the way along, but concentrated mostly on the forearms and hands, are magnetic clamps that push up beneath or even through the skin, which can affix to specially-altered weapons. The reinforcement spreads the weight of the gun along the arm and absorbs the shock of firing. The system requires no external power source – it runs off of the heat generated by the recipient’s own body – and can accommodate almost any rifle-sized weapon, though ones rebuilt to better fit the bracing (clamping the weapon to the forearm, and relocating the gun’s grip and trigger further forward) can take better advantage of the structure.
Such structures are common amongst various forms of Skitarii, allowing them to more easily use and carry otherwise bulky weaponry, and in some cases (where the bracing has been applied to both arms) to allow them to carry two rifle-equivalent weapons at once (often a Hellgun or other standard weapon, and then a specialist weapon like a grenade launcher or meltagun). In these cases, the weapon support bracing is built as an extension of the Skitarius’ weapon actuators and woven into the war-mantle, rather than built as a separate implant.
Subdermal weapon support bracing is an implanted equivalent to Recoil Gloves (DARK HERESY rulebook, page 147) and functions in the same way, save for the fact that it cannot be removed without extensive invasive surgery.

Blessed Instruments of Destruction

Combination Weaponry
Rare and exotic in the extreme, combination weaponry allows a warrior to increase his firepower and versatility in battle by combining two weapons – sometimes the same, sometimes different ones – into a single man-portable package. Bolters are the most common base for combination weaponry, more commonly known as combi-weapons, but the principal remains the same for any combination of weaponry.
A Combi-weapon can be made from any two basic weapons. Nominate one or other of the weapons to be the base. This weapon functions normally at all times and for all intents and purposes. If the second weapon is different (say, a plasma gun, where the base is a bolter), then apply the Compact modifier to it (DARK HERESY rulebook, page 141). The different parts of the weapon may be switched between as a free action once per turn.
If the second weapon is the same, then it supplements the firepower of the base weapon – double the semi-auto and full-auto rates of the base weapon, as well as the Clip and Reload values. Semi-auto values cannot go above three, but see below. Further, any shot fired by a combi-weapon where both weapons are the same count all semi-auto and full-auto attacks as being assisted (making the shot one-step easier, and granting an additional degree of success).
If a weapon with no full-auto value, but a semi-auto value, is used as a combi-weapon of the latter kind (that is, any weapon where the semi-auto value after doubling would be above 3), then the weapon instead gains a semi-auto value of 3 and a full-auto value equal to double the original semi-auto value, or five, whichever is higher (so a weapon with an RoF of S/2/- doubled up into a combi-weapon would result in an RoF of S/3/5). A weapon with only a Single rate of fire gains a semi-auto value of 2.
The total weight of the combi-weapon is equal to the weight of the base weapon, plus half the weight of the second weapon. The cost is equal to the costs of both weapons purchased normally, plus 50 thrones. The rarity is equal to that of the rarest of the two component weapons, and then worsened by one step. If this would push it beyond Very Rare, then the combi-weapon cannot be searched for normally, and can only be found at GM’s discretion.

Digital Weaponry
While many digital weapons are made by the alien Jokaero, the Adeptus Mechanicus also produce such devices, albeit more rarely. A digital weapon is an energy weapon so compact that it can be disguised as a ring or other piece of jewellery, or concealed within the structure of another bionic (digi-lasers in bionic eyes are particularly favoured, made famous by Commissar Sebastian Yarrick during the Second War for Armageddon and his subsequent campaigns against the Orks).
A digi-weapon can be any form of pistol energy weapon, or a needle pistol (as needler ammo is small and propelled by a laser anyway). The weapon’s damage is reduced by 2, the range is divided by 5, and the clip size is reduced to ¼ of normal (rounding down, minimum 1). A digi-weapon cannot be reloaded in combat – it takes about an hour of recharging from an external supply to replenish the weapon’s power.
Digi-weapons cost ten times the basic cost of the weapon (or 1,000 thrones, whichever is less), and are Very Rare on the highest-technology worlds.