The Legio Victorum

Once, long ago, I had a rather large force of Titans…

 

Homeworld

Galatia is the second planet orbiting a shrunken and dying sun in the southernmost reaches of the galaxy.  It is a harsh world, blasted for millennia by a once fierce star, now torn apart by huge volcanoes that throw huge plumes of lava and ash high into the permanently blackened atmosphere.  Though human survival was always difficult on this mineral rich planet, this was of little concern to the Adeptus Mechanicus as they sort to find new Forge Worlds after the Heresy ten thousand years previous.

Legions of men, servitors and cyborgs toil in the extreme heat to harness the raw energies of arcane machinery that the Tech Priests themselves now barely understand, their lives spent fuelling the construction of engines of war.  Galatia is a Forge World in a permanent state of war time production levels.

The minions of the Adeptus Mechanicus on this planet manufacture a great proportion of the war materials required by the forces of the Imperium throughout the southern sectors of the galaxy.  From Laspistols, through Leman Russ main battle tanks, right up to the mighty and revered Titans of the Legio Victorum also stationed on Galatia, the servants of the Machine God are vital to the enforced stability of the Imperium.

Both laden with minerals and being the site of one of the Adeptus Mechanicus’ most sacred worlds, Galatia is naturally of vital strategic importance.  The Imperial Navy has a permanent presence here, though the Tech Priests have constructed their own planetary defence systems over the millennia, including an ancient and formidable Ramilies-class Star Fort.  It is rumoured that the planetary defence network relies on captured alien technology for its effectiveness, though any unauthorised space traffic is quickly intercepted and destroyed before it reaches the inner planets.

It has been said that any attacker that actually managed to breach Galatia’s defences would very quickly be up to its neck in its own blood.  The Legio Victorum would be fighting on its own ground with the Titans battling with a doubled fury, being so close to the forges that gave birth to their fiery spirits.  Added to that, there are entire regiments of Imperial Guard permanently garrisoned on the Forge World, for no other reason than to fight and die in defence of the Machine God if the unthinkable should ever happen.  To all intents and purposes, Galatia is impregnable to a direct assault by any known alien race.

 

Origins

The Legio Victorum was originally formed on Mars with the forging of the Primus Malachi, a Reaver-class Titan that was to pass into the legends of the Imperium.  Created with the intention of joining Battlegroup Zara on a crusade of the alien infested galactic core, the Legio Victorum soon found itself embroiled in the civil war that spread quickly across the face of Mars when the Warmaster Horus turned against Mankind’s Emperor during the time known as the Heresy.

The newly born Titans of the Legio were to fight fiercely in the defence of their forges, though they numbered only eight machines in total.  They were denied the ability to find transports to join the Battle of Terra for the rebel forces on Mars constantly threatened to overwhelm the loyalists on this, the most important world in the Imperium after Terra itself.

At the height of the war, the Legio Victorum found itself hard pressed by three rebel Titan Legions that had all but annihilated the Legio’s remaining loyalist allies.  Though the Legio’s Titans were hammered by rebel war machines, their Tech Priests worked tirelessly to repair the crippled machines, the Titan crews rarely leaving their mounts and resting within their cockpits only when their Titan returned to the factories to heal the damage the rebels had wrought.

The turning point in the unequal war came with the forging of the Imperious Cathedra, one of the few Imperator-class Emperor Titans the loyalist Legions were able to produce during the fighting.  The Cathedra proved itself the equal of an entire Battle Group against the rebel Legions, enabling the Legio Victorum to keep fighting on Mars until the Warmaster’s defeat drove his forces from the Terran system.

After the Heresy, major changes were made to the structure of the armies of the Imperium.  The Legio Victorum never received its own fleet of behemoth transports promised before the Heresy and was instead taken to Galatia, a newly developed Forge World far in the new southern frontier of the Imperium.

From the Galatian system, the Legio Victorum started to amass an enviable Roll of Honour as its ranks swelled with newly constructed Titans.  Though the Legion has had losses in its ten thousand year history, it is a matter of some pride that the oldest of the Titans, the Primus Malachi, is still fighting against the enemies of the Machine God.

 

Beliefs

The Legio Victorum has never wavered in its devotion to the Emperor, revered in his form of the Machine God and incarnated in the dominating presence of each Titan that takes to the battlefield.

The screening processes for candidates that may eventually attain the rank of Princeps is extremely vigorous as there are very few mortals that can tame the raging spirits of the Legion’s Titans.  Through their indoctrination to the Legion, they all have one thing in common – an utter belief that Mankind has the sole right of existence in the galaxy.  The fighting men of the Legion do not tolerate the alien in any shape or form.  Their dedication to this goal of eradication has extinguished many races that the Priesthood of Terra originally designated as harmless and has left more powerful alien races, such as the Eldar, extremely wary of the Legion’s presence in any theatre of war.

 

Combat Doctrine

The Titans of the Legio Victorum are renowned for their blitz tactics that are capable of shattering armies of a much greater size.  In battle, their Princeps are adept at taking control of other Imperial units and co-ordinating attacks to cause the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time.  Typically, their Titans are armed for medium to long ranged combat with devastating weapons batteries and super heavy weapons predominately featured, though a few Princeps have dedicated themselves to assault, arming their Titans with a variety of close combat weapons that very few enemy war machines can withstand.

 

Warcry/Motto

‘For the alien, nothing.’

 

Paint Scheme/Unit Markings

The Legio Victorum’s Titans have dark blue coloured armour, lined with a rich gold.  Armour plating on the extremities of weapons is typically of a bright yellow, though the more ancient Titans may use bronze instead.  Kill markings are usually displayed as stars on banners slung between a Titan’s legs.  The oldest Titans constructed on Mars have silver metals beneath their armour plating, whilst those built on Galatia are far duller, due to the different minerals present on the two Forge Worlds.

 

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