Nymphadora Valierevna

"If you’re aiming this thing, you’re doing it wrong."

- Captain Nymphadora Valierevna on Combat Engineer shotgun tactics. Nymphadora Valierevna (born 788972.M41) is a a commanding officer in the Astra Militarum’s 203rd Combined Siege Regiment serving as the current captain of the regiment’s 1st Combat Engineer Company. Nymphadora was among the first wave of replacements sent to replenish the ranks of the newly reformed 203rd Combined following its losses and refounding during the Taiga Worlds Campaign. Skilled in the art of planning and scratch-building explosives, she was quickly assigned to serve with the regiment’s combat engineers in 2nd Battalion.

General Information
Nymphadora is the current Captain of the 203rd Combined’s only combat engineer company. Although hailing from one of Valhalla’s Hive Cities, Nymphadora is not an original member of the 203rd Valhallan Mechanized infantry and was part of the first wave of replacements sent to bolster the ranks of the severely undermanned and newly formed 203rd Combined Siege Regiment. She is a very charismatic command officer -- as noted by her superiors -- and maintains a good relationship with her troopers, the only exceptions being the stoic Death Korps troopers under her command.

The daughter of an aristocratic family, Nymphadora originally harbored ambitions into building a career in Imperial politics. The increase in the Valhallan tithe in 991.M41, however, resulted in her drafting at the age of nineteen despite her high-born status. While she is still sometimes criticized by her peers as a result of her former status, Nymphadora has managed to earn the respect of many in the 203rd for her abrasive personality and loyalty to her superiors. She is a close friend of Colonel Skarborovicha and is known to be one of the Colonel’s closest confidants.

Abilities and Traits
Among her superiors, Nymphadora has garnered a reputation for being an aggressive underground and trench fighter. She often emphasizes -- since engineers are equipped with shotguns -- that closing the distance ensures that more damage can be dealt per shot before reloading. Her uncanny skill at synthesizing and constructing effective explosives makes her a highly efficient sapper, trademark skills that areoften put to use by Hanna to collapse and eliminate opposing fortifications during a siege. Nymphadora has been recorded in commenting that her company spends more time on their feet and under the ground in one siege than all of the Line Infantry Corps do in one campaign.

Equipment
Nymphadora is a combat engineer and, while she is ranked as a veteran Watchmaster, much of her equipment is identical to that of her other engineer brethren. Due to the nature of combat engineer roles in combat, she is equipped with a set of heavy carapace plates which have been proven effective at absorbing blasts from shotgun and deflecting some las-beams fired from lasguns and laspistols in close quarters. Her breastplate comes standard with a very powerful flashlight for working deep underground and in extremely dark environments. Nymphadora is armed with a Lucius Pattern Mk 22c semi-automatic shotgun, a standard long-bladed bayonet, alongside a full set of frag and krak grenades. Depending on mission objectives, Nymphadora is also sometimes equipped with melta-bombs, demolition charges, and gas grenades.