This may have been done in case of a sudden reversal of the fortunes of war, or as certain veiled evidence implies, as a weapon to be unleashed in case of disloyalty amongst the Emperor's own.ĭuring this time the XII th Legion was kept in a state of constant readiness, relentlessly training and steadily growing in numbers. After its initial battles, however, the nascent Legion seems to have been largely held in reserve by the Emperor during the latter Unification Wars and right through the subsequent re-conquest of the Sol System. One of its most ferocious and promising candidates, Ibram Ghreer, rose quickly within the ranks of the nascent Legion, and eventually assumed command of the XII th as its first Legion Master.ĭuring the Unification Wars the XII th Legion's first recorded engagement was during the Sa'afrik Liberation where they served as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting direct annihilation assaults on enemy forces, both in open battle and fortified positions, and able to carry the attack despite their then relatively small numbers by sheer courage and the fury of the violence they could unleash. Whether this came to pass is merely supposition, for it is apparent from such records that survived that the XII th Legion were from the outset deemed a highly aggressive force, its warriors hot-blooded and savage. There has been some circumstantial evidence that there may have been psychological screening used to single out the most inherently aggressive and competitive recruits in an experimental pre-selection program. It appears that the Terran origins of the XII th Legion showed no particular bias as to the techno-barbarian tribe or city-state from which the initial influx of recruits were taken as there was in the case of the other Legions. Such sources that survived the later Battle of Terra at the height of the Horus Heresy regarding the origins and formation of the XII th Legion of the Legiones Astartes are fragmentary at best, and in compiling their record Imperial scholars were forced to rely on second-hand accounts from those who fought alongside them, and the apocryphal accounts handed down by those many who had cause to fear and resent this most feared of Space Marine Legions. War Hounds Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by a Legion Tactical Marine in Mark II Crusade Pattern Power Armour These elite forces would serve as the speartip of His Great Crusade, bringing the light of the secular Imperial Truth and enforcing Imperial Compliance with the new regime on every human-settled world encountered. To carry out the Great Crusade and reunite all the scattered colony worlds of Mankind beneath the single banner of the Imperium of Man, the Emperor created the genetically-enhanced superhuman warriors known as the Legiones Astartes, the Space Marine Legions. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification Wars of the late 30 th Millennium. In time, when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He began to raise new armies to fight His Great Crusade. Once united, the Emperor intended to begin the next stage of His great plan to ensure human domination of the Milky Way Galaxy, which He judged to be necessary if humanity was to survive the never-ceasing threats to its existence embodied by Chaos, myriad xenos races and its own fragile human nature. The Emperor of Mankind sought to unite all of humanity under one banner following the Long Night of the Age of Strife, and end inter-human conflict. Bashar-Colonel Alves Scorn, Terran XXII nd Dracos Regiment It remains my fervent hope however, that though I spend my life making war for the liberation of Mankind that I never again see such inhuman butchery as I have witnessed in the halls of Cerberus." " I do not doubt my Emperor's wisdom in creating a necessary evil such as these fearful warriors, nor do I doubt their effectiveness in battle.
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