Legio Aequitas

[Privateer]

A little nightshift project of mine...just thought I'd float it on t'interweb and see if anyone spots anything the could use tweaking (or blowing up)...

INDEX ASTARTES: THE LEGIO AEQUITAS

+++ ORIGINS +++

Toward the end of the 35th Millennium, an exploratory fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus discovered the planet now known to be the homeworld of the Xenos species known as the ‘Tau’. This planet is located in the Galactic East, in a particularly densely packed group of stars, near the Damocles Gulf. It was judged that this and neighbouring systems were desirable enough to warrant settlement, thus a colony fleet was dispatched. This fleet included, in addition to the basic personnel transports and supply ships, a small number of Imperial Navy warships and Imperial Guard troops to aid in the cleansing of the ‘Tau’ homeworld. Along side these forces- though they were more than adequate for the task assigned to them- travelled a not inconsiderable force of Space Marines; the Fifth Company of the Skullbearers under Captain Nathaniel Targus, sent to escort the fleet and see for themselves if any possible threat to the Imperium might be lurking in this newly explored area of space, close as it was to areas already well known for strong warp disturbances and other dangers.

The fleet was barely a week from its destination when the warp storm struck. Some ships were torn apart, spilling crew and colonists into the nightmarish maelstrom of the warp; others were flung far off course, dropping back into real space centuries later as empty derelicts or else crippled and stranded thousands of light-years from any possible rescue; still others simply disappeared, gone forever from the knowledge of man. A few ships survived, though. These were, from the colony fleet, the colony ship Pastura Nova, the supply ships Runner and Sanders, the light freighter Esca, the troopship Equus Troianus, the Adeptus Mechanicus support vessel Hephaestus and, from the Skullbearers’ contingent, the strike cruiser Lophius, the Gladius-class frigates Revenge, Retaliation and Retribution and the Hunter-class destroyers Venator, Valiant and Vanguard. Between them, the ships carried approximately ten thousand civilian colonists; a thousand Imperial Guard troops; three hundred and fifty Adeptus Mechanicus adepts, Skitarii and ship crew; one hundred and twenty-five Space Marines and six thousand crewmen- a mix of Imperial Navy and chapter serfs.

These ships, though unfortunate enough to have fallen foul of the storm, were fortunate indeed to fall out of the warp in a system in the Northeast of the Ultima Segmentum; a system which happened to contain a number of planets; two gas giants and three potentially habitable worlds. One of these latter was selected as a particularly favourable site for a colony. While the system’s star gave off a peculiar radiation that made detailed scans of the surfaces of its planets impossible, preliminary scans indicated that this new world was well suited to human settlement. Planet-fall was made four days later, on fertile land at the base of a mountain range in the temperate zone of the largest continent. What was kept from the civilian colonists and most of the Imperial troops was that the same scans had indicated that the planet was not merely suitable for human settlement, but perfect for it, to the extent that the Mechanicus adepts suspected terraforming for just that purpose; it was even tilted on its axis, giving it distinct seasons, much like Terra. That the planet had been terraformed by mankind in the distant past did not concern them. The fact that it was apparently devoid of human life, however, concerned them greatly. While it was hardly uncommon for colonies to fail, this was clearly no neglected outpost; the world had been thoroughly terraformed and seeded with life, but apparently never colonised.. The expedition’s commanders feared the hand of Xenos or the Ruinous Powers and ordered that defences be constructed as a matter of urgency ‘in case of hostile local fauna’. As the colonists built their villages and farms, the soldiers built what could only be described as a castle; a large stone wall surrounded prefabricated barrack-blocks, vehicle shelters and workshops. At the centre of this complex stood a tall keep, wherein dwelt the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard commanders. The Adeptus Mechanicus contingent constructed their own compound some way to the north of the main settlement area on a large volcanic island whose thermal vents provided a useful power source.

For many long years the terrible warp storm raged on, creating an impenetrable barrier between the Imperium of Man and the world whose inhabitants now called it ‘Salvation’. In this time the colony thrived and farms, villages and small towns grew up in the lands around the Castle. With only limited technological resources, most of the settlements were effectively pre-industrial, with a very limited supply of complex machinery being constructed at the Mechanicus compound and most of these machines were new equipment for the fledgling Planetary Defence Force.

As the strange radiation prevented scans from orbit or high altitude, scout parties and survey teams were sent out, ranging far and wide, exploring their new home and searching for some clue as to why it had been abandoned. None of these teams found anything that could shed any light on what had happened, although the landscape was found to be dotted with strange standing stones and stone circles. It seemed that someone had created a paradise and then simply disappeared without a trace. This was proven not to be quite the case one day in the first year of the 36th Millennium, however, when a survey team discovered an ancient ruined structure on a bleak and isolated hilltop.

Little remained intact above ground level, though below ground a number of chambers were found, with tunnels radiating outward. One room- designated the Crypt- had been found only a little farther along the tunnels. Within the Crypt were several large stone sarcophagi and a number of ancient suits of power armour. Examination of the armour and weapons found in the Crypt revealed that both bore the hallmarks of STC technology. As exciting as this find was, however, it was the discovery of a chamber below the Crypt that precipitated the subsequent chain of events.

The chamber contained hundreds of scrolls and books, many damaged to illegibility by age. One huge tome, largely ruined by mould and damp, was mostly written in a language indecipherable to the Astartes, though enough of it was written in something similar to High Gothic to allow a rough translation.

It purported to be the records of an expedition who had come to the planet to oversee something refered to throughout simply as 'the Project'. Any explanation of what the Project may have been must have been contained either in the indecipherable text or in the ruined pages. The log made no further mention of the nature of their mission in the legible text, as the writer seemed concerned mostly with reporting the discovery and exploration of a number of mysterious ruins on the system's planets. The increasingly breathless reports described discoveries both at the site where the book had been found and at a much larger site on the system's inhospitable innermost planet. The reports talked of labyrinths whose ever-shifting passageways could not be mapped; of huge chambers filled with gaunt and strangely unsettling statues; of ancient machinery of unknown manufacture, much of it crushed by the tectonic activity on the first planet; of the ominous sounds of heavy machinery moving far underground. On entry detailed the loss of a research team on the first planet during an ash storm. The only record found of what had happened had apparently been a badly damaged video recording which seemed to show the team under attack by strange carrion creatures with scythe-like talons whose eyes burned with a baleful green light. The true nature of these assailants was never discovered by the expedition or, if it was, the writer never had the chance to record it. After the entry in question the records became a series of increasingly urgent, scrawled notes that repeatedly mention some apparent trouble or conflict elsewhere that was jeopardising the entire 'Project'. The final entry mentioned that a support team was due within days.

When news of this discovery reached Captain Targus- who had by this point become the De Facto leader of the colony- the archeo-explorator teams were ordered out of the ruins and a team of Space Marines and chapter serfs moved in to investigate the chamber. This team had been on site for only a few days when an urgent request was made for the senior Astartes to attend in person. In response Captain Targus assembled Brother Weland the techmarine, Epistolary Timaeus, Reclusiarch Petrus and Apothecary Galen and set off for the ruins the very same day.

They entered the ruins that night and did not emerge again for a full seven days.

What the men discovered in the maze of tunnels beneath the ruins was to remain a secret, hidden from all but Targus’ inner circle and eventual successors, but its effects on those who saw it were plain enough; all emerged clearly troubled by what they had seen, Timaeus perhaps most of all.

The Captain departed with his Astartes, leaving a force of chapter serfs to guard the ruins and their secrets. The Astartes themselves withdrew to the Castle where they remained in cloistered discussion for nearly a full month, during which time the Imperial Guard outside the Marines’ chambers often heard raised voices and noticed lights burning all through the night.

When the Astartes finally emerged, a summons was send to the leaders and senior members of the other groups among the colonists- the Ecclesiarchy, Mechanicus, Imperial Guard and Munitorum were to assemble their highest ranking members at the Ruins for an important conclave to decide the future of the colony.

The various organisations obliged and a second conference was held, this time in the back of a Crassus heavy transport vehicle parked near the Ruins. In the event, it came to be even more heated- though somewhat shorter- than the first. After only six hours a group of representatives- mostly, it transpired, members of the Ecclesiarchy, but also including the Magus in command of the AdMech exploratory force, three senior Commissars and the captains of two Navy vessels. A lander was prepared for them and they left to return to the colony, apparently in a somewhat agitated state.

It was later deduced that the induction of a native aerial life-form into the turbines of one the intra-atmospheric engines was the most likely cause of the crash that destroyed the aircraft on its way back, though so destructive was the impact and resulting fire, that no remains of such a creature could be positively identified.

Those who had remained behind stayed on for a further two days, before making their way back to the colony and began to subtly promulgate the New Canon; beliefs that would be considered utterly heretical by the Imperial authorities- namely, that the Imperium's attitude toward xenos species is needlessly and unwisely belligerent. While the New Canon accepts that Mankind is manifestly superior to any xenos species, it counsels against waging needless war and expending resources that might be better used elsewhere and posits that, just possibly, it may sometimes be wiser to ally with other races where possible in order to see off some greater, though never explicitly named, threat. It even goes so far as to suggest utilising xenos technology should it prove effective against this fearsome, anonymous enemy.

While the surviving senior representatives of the Ecclesiarchy joined the Reclusiarch in working on the religious sensibilities of the populace, Epistolary Timaeus was likewise working with- and upon- the colony’s psyker contingent and Weland upon the Adeptus Mechanicus representatives.

At this point a new fortification was built near- but not on- the ruins to better guard their secrets .

The Astartes’ Inner Circle slowly drew up their ambitious plans for the future of their new world and the Galaxy at large.

Knowing full well that they could never safely voice their newly-held beliefs within the boundaries of the Imperium, nor to any of its agents, but feeling unable to participate in the perpetuation of the imbalance inherent in the Imperial system, it was decided that the 5th Company could never openly return to Imperial space; rather, they would consolidate their position in this star system before attempting to spread their influence to nearby Imperial worlds when the warp storms finally dissipated . They also realised that, should they and their goals be discovered, the very least that would happen would be the arrival of an Inquisitorial strike force and that this necessitated the construction of military forces able to withstand such an assault...

Excerpt from 'Pax Legio: Ab Institutio Regnum (Being an account of the origins of the Legio Aequitas and the Founding of the Kingdom of Aequus and the Allied Free States)', A.E. Pessimal, Adept of the Legati Adiminstratio. 191.M36

'While it is undoubtedly true that Mankind is the paragon of life, the very pinnacle of creation, it remains the case that we are greatly outnumbered by lesser foes and that while our attention is occupied by our incessant warring against this seemingly inexhaustible multitude of enemies, the true threats to our dominance of the Galaxy go largely unheeded. It seems as though the forces of Man driven by some insanity to fight endless wars rather than gather their strength for the true battle ahead. Indeed, even now the strength of Man is depleted in petty bickering between corrupt politicians and deranged priests. The mundane ambition and wanton pugnacity of fools threatens the survival of our whole species, blind as they are to the threat lurking, not only in the dark places of the Galaxy, but also at the very heart of the Imperium itself...'

Excerpt from 'Spiritus Hominis', Reclusiarch Petrus of the Ordo Calicem, 989.M35.

+++ HOMEWORLD +++

There are three significantly inhabited planets in the star system that is now home to the Legio: Manes, Iustitia and Pietas, nicknamed Salvation, Perdition and Temptation respectively.

Manes/Salvation:

Salvation is the location of the High Castle, seat of the Lord High Castellan and headquarters of the Legio. The Ordo Gladius is based at the High Castle itself, while the Ordo Baculus is based at the smaller fortification by the Ruins, officially designated 'S001/B02', but colloquially known even to the Astartes of the Legio as the 'White Tower' or, less charitably (and particularly among the Ordo Rota) 'Ivory Tower'.

The planet itself has two major landmasses with almost all human settlement being on the larger, more Northerly continent. The majority of settlements are small farming communities and market towns in the heavily-forested Northern temperate zone, though some smaller villages have been constructed as far South as the foothills of the Blue Mountains, on the Northern edge of the equatorial jungle. Bar a few large predatory animals it is, by and large, a very pleasant world.

For its own reasons, the Legio intend to keep it that way.

Iustitia/Perdition:

Perdition is a mineral-rich world of widespread and near-constant vulcanism, with most of the surface being a windswept desert of sand and ash under a sky filled with yellow, sulphurous clouds. A single, giant mountain range splits the world in two, from roughly 65 degrees North to 69 degrees South. On the windward side of these towering, razor-sharp peaks what little moisture is carried on the wind condenses and falls as an acidic rain, nourishing strange forests of grey-barked and red-leaved 'trees'. What animal life there is is rare and lethal.

The heavily-fortified settlements of perdition are perched atop the mountains, with a narrow, winding road linking them together. Small bastions have been constructed along its length to provide protection and refuge for travellers beset by weather or wildlife.

Great mining crawlers trundle through the wastes on year-long sojourns, collecting minerals blasted out of the planet's ever-churning mantle. These machines return to unload their cargos and change their crews at processing terminals linked by steep, winding tracks to the manufactora far above.

On this world stands the Red Tower, seat of the Ordo Rota.

Pietas/Temptation:

A true paradise planet that would make an idyllic home, Temption is devoid of human habitation. It is, in fact, the Eldar Maiden World of A'Nhau and subject to treaties between the Legio and the Exodites who live there.

Captain Targus has met with the leaders of the Exodites on a number of occassions and a relations are currently peaceful; indeed, though the two cultures could scarcely be termed 'allies', a limited amount of trade in resources and knowledge has occurred.

Other:

Small mining colonies have been established on some of the moons of the two gas giants in what had become known as the Aequus System. The larger, somewhat unimaginatively dubbed ‘Primus’, had four moons; two of cold, bare rock, one entirely covered by a scorching desert of red iron sand and one an icy wasteland of frozen water and liquid methane. The other, predictably named ‘Secundus' had seven satellites, of which only two were of any appreciable size. Of these two both occupied very tight orbits; one was so close to its gigantic companion that tidal forces were constantly tearing its surface apart, rendering any attempt at settlement hopeless. The other, however, was a strange world of deep, damp caverns, heated from below by a core kept molten by tidal stresses. The distance from the system's sun gives the daylight here a weak, wintery quality. While the surface is mostly coated in a thick layer of snow, broken by occassional clumps of small, moss-like plants, the caverns- though still uncomfortably cold by human standards- were nonetheless warm enough to be conducive to the proliferation of various species of bizarre alien life-forms, mostly analogous to fungi. It is on this small, cold world that the Ordo Calicem maintains its seat, the Black Tower.

+++ ORGANISATION +++

The Legio is organised into four 'Ordos', each consisting of a Headquarters Company (called the Cohors Spiritus), a Support Company (Cohors Salis) and a Battle Company (Cohors Mercurius). Each company is grown from a 'seed' of marines who had originally been one of the squads of the 5th Company, with the exception of the Headquarters of the Ordo Rota which was formed around a nucleus of vehicle crews and junior techmarines. The sergeants of these squads became Captains with the other members serving as either a personal bodyguard or squad leaders as required*.

The template for the future organisation of the Legio is as follows:

The Ordo Gladius:

The Ordo commanded by the Lord High Castellan himself. They specialise in 'manoeuvrist' warfare and their training focuses heavily on developing tactical and strategic understanding and the skills of command.

HQ: This company functions as the bodyguard of the Lord High Castellan and as a training cadre for those considered candidates for the captaincy of other companies, who will serve a period in this company honing their skills before being promoted into their post. The 'seed' unit was the command squad of the 5th Company.

Support: This company is largely mounted on bikes or in Landspeeders, acting as a reconnaissance and patrol force and providing detached units to other companies.

Battle: This company is essentially the same in structure and function as a normal Codex company.

Notes: The heraldic colour of the Ordo Gladius is yellow. This was the colour of the marines' armour when they served with the Skullbearers. The colour is not used on a pauldron, but is reserved for personal and unit heraldry such as banners.

The Ordo Calicem:

The Ordo commanded by the Reclusiarch. They specialise in close quarters combat and lightning-fast assaults.

HQ: This company functions as the bodyguard of the Reclusiarch and contains the most skilled close-quarters fighters in the Legio. The core of the unit was the 7th (assault) squad of the 5th Company.

Support: This company is the main recruiting conduit for the Legio. New recruits will be paired with an older recruit who has been granted his power armour. The recruits are armed with bolt pistols and close combat weapons and taught about the art of combat at its most fundamental

Battle: This company is composed of those who have progressed from the Support company. They are initially formed into close-combat squads under a veteran tutor and will fight as such until it is deemed the squad as a whole have achieved an appropriate level of skill and experience, at which point they will be granted full marine staus and issued bolters and given access to heavier weapons (individuals who show particularly high skill level with heavy weapons or close combat will be formed into specialist squads) . They will then fight on under a new tutor until they achieve a desired level of skill, at which point they will be assigned to the Battle Company of another Ordo.

Notes: The use of colour black in heraldry is restricted to Chaplains. The heraldic colour of the Ordo Calicem as a whole is green.

The Ordo Baculus:

The Ordo commanded by the High Mage of the Librarium. They specialise in the use of Warpcraft.

HQ: This company functions as the bodyguard of the High Mage and contains those of the Librarians who are not assigned to other companies, as well as their bodyguards.

Support: This company acts much as the Support Company of the Ordo Gladius, though it includes squads of cavalry mounted on reptilian beasts native to the equatorial jungles of Salvation; an idea inspired by the knights of the Exodite culture.

Battle: This company is essentially the same in structure and function as a normal Codex battle company.

The Ordo Rota:

The Ordo commanded by the High Smith of the Forge. They specialise in the use of heavy armour and heavier firepower.

HQ: This company functions as the bodyguard of the High Smith and contains those of the Techmarines who are not assigned to other companies, as well as their bodyguards. It also fields many of the Legions most powerful warmachines and seige equipment.

Support: This company acts as a fire support company.

Battle: This company is essentially the same in structure and function as a normal Codex company.

Auxilia

Apart from the Legion itself, the Kingdom of Aequus maintains a standing army and a small fleet based on the organisational structure of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy.

+++ COMBAT DOCTRINE +++

The Legio as a whole has yet to see significant combat. Engagements since their reformation have been largely restricted to fighting small bands of Greenskins that periodically raid the mining crawlers on Perdition and a few skirmishes against human forces during salvage patrols.

These patrols usually consist of a few small warships and transports supported by the Lophius.

The Legio has had some success against pirates by using a vessel (usually the Esca, whose crew are becoming particularly adept at these missions) to lure pirate vessels within range of boarding torpedoes from the Lophius. A small number of escort-type ships have been added to the Kingdom's naval forces in this manner.

+++ CURRENT STATUS +++

As of the time of writing (9423201.M36) the Legion continues to lack both the means to produce more advanced technology such as Codex-pattern power armour and the medical technology required to expand their own numbers at anything other than a painfully slow rate. The ongoing strife between the Ecclesiarchy and the wider Imperium provides plenty of opportunity to pick over recent battlefields and derelict ships for salvable supplies, geneseed and even a small number of recruits. These activities have led to a small number of skirmishes with the forces of the Imperium and the Ecclesiarchy, though so far it seems each is attributing these actions to the other.

Small colonies have been established on a small number of worlds in neighbouring systems, signifying the birth of a small, independent empire out at the very edge of the light of the Astronomicon. It is intended that, when practical, at least one colony per system should have a small Astartes garrison, supported by Auxilia units. At this time, almost all are garrisoned by Auxilia only.

The new recruits to the legion are largely clad in carapace armour, regardless of their implant status, due to the shortage of power armour. A few suits have been salvaged after engagements with loyal Astartes and have been pressed into service.

The armour of the Legion is the colour of iron, stripped of the bright yellow of their parent chapter and any Imperial insignia. The left pauldron is a deep red and carries the Legion's 'skull-and-laurel' sigil.

The right pauldron of veterans and specialists are filled with a colour that indicates their position: deep red for those of battle and support companies or Ordo Gladius HQ, bright red for Ordo Rota HQ veterans and techmarines; green for Ordo Calicem HQ veterans and black for chaplains; blue for Ordo Baculus HQ veterans and Librarians; White for Apothecaries.

Other forces wear grey uniforms with coloured piping to denote branch of service.

A Legionary of the Battle Company of the Ordo Gladius

(note the Imperial-style ornamentation, indicating that

this is a captured suit of Imperial origin)

A small force of intelligence operatives was recently formed and the first few agents have been deployed onto outlying Imperial colonies with an eye to informing the Legion of ship movements and any other potentially valuable snippets.

The Legio have discovered several xenos-inhabitated worlds in their remote corner of the galaxy but, uncharacteristically for the Adeptus Astartes, have not attacked them. Debate continues at the highest level as to whether attacking them would help or hinder the Legion's cause. It is said that the Lord High Castellan, under Timaeus' guidance, favours a policy of seeking diplomatic relations and even potential alliance with the Xenos, but has thus far been dissuaded from such a radical act by the more conservative voices among his Inner Circle.

It remains to be seen how long this will continue.

For now the Legio Aequitas bides its time and builds its strength.

* For how this works in most companies, see the Wolfguard.

[voi shet magir]

in some ways a bump post?

 

I enjoy it when people list random/creative ship and tank names. The whole Dr Galen and Rev Petrus is actually good, not blatant at all. So

 

What I really care (?) about is whether the Legio's ideology is a sock puppet for yours. The Imperium is fiction, you know: there is no reason to directly transfer conventional mores. Regardless, the timeline is a little bit skewed, like you introduce terms of the new order like legio before they actually turn.

[Privateer]

Ah, their beliefs as represented are just as they are just now...I'm sure the Ruinous Powers are behind it all somewhere. 40k likes a bit of 'good intentions gone horribly wrong', doesn't it? I'll probably try to make it more conspicuously Grimdark, though. Verisimilitude and all that.

 

Timeline-wise: oops. I'll go through it and have a look.

[Privateer]

Bumpity.

 

I've changed a few things. I'm not sure if I caught the timeline snarls, though.

[Privateer]

A few more changes.

[Octavulg]

Toward the end of the 35th Millennium, an exploratory fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus discovered the planet now known to be the homeworld of the Xenos species known as the ‘Tau’. This planet is located in the Galactic East, in a particularly densely packed group of stars, near the Damocles Gulf. It was judged that this and neighbouring systems were desirable enough to warrant settlement, thus a colony fleet was dispatched. This fleet included, in addition to the basic personnel transports and supply ships, a small number of Imperial Navy warships and Imperial Guard troops to aid in the cleansing of the ‘Tau’ homeworld. Along side these forces- though they were more than adequate for the task assigned to them- travelled a not inconsiderable force of Space Marines; the Fifth Company of the Skullbearers under Captain Nathaniel Targus, sent to escort the fleet and see for themselves if any possible threat to the Imperium might be lurking in this newly explored area of space, close as it was to areas already well known for strong warp disturbances and other dangers.

 

Yeah...this isn't mentioned anywhere in official fluff that I've noticed, and it's the sort of thing that I would think would be.

 

Tying yourself too closely to official events and important things is rarely a good idea. The reader begins to question why they've never heard of your guys before/why you think you're so important.

 

The fleet was barely a week from its destination when the warp storm struck. Some ships were torn apart, spilling crew and colonists into the nightmarish maelstrom of the warp; others were flung far off course, dropping back into real space centuries later as empty derelicts or else crippled and stranded thousands of light-years from any possible rescue; still others simply disappeared, gone forever from the knowledge of man. A few ships survived, though. These were, from the colony fleet, the colony ship Pastura Nova, the supply ships Runner and Sanders, the light freighter Esca, the troopship Equus Troianus, the Adeptus Mechanicus support vessel Hephaestus and, from the Skullbearers’ contingent, the strike cruiser Lophius, the Gladius-class frigates Revenge, Retaliation and Retribution and the Hunter-class destroyers Venator, Valiant and Vanguard. Between them, the ships carried approximately ten thousand civilian colonists; a thousand Imperial Guard troops; three hundred and fifty Adeptus Mechanicus adepts, Skitarii and ship crew; one hundred and twenty-five Space Marines and six thousand crewmen- a mix of Imperial Navy and chapter serfs.

 

We wouldn't need to know which ships, exactly, survived. This is a good example of the problem you have throughout this section - you're telling us far, far more than we need to know.

 

As of the time of writing (9423201.M36) the Legion continues to lack both the means to produce more advanced technology such as Codex-pattern power armour and the medical technology required to expand their own numbers at anything other than a painfully slow rate. The ongoing strife between the Ecclesiarchy and the wider Imperium, combined with the unusually turbulent state of the warp, provides the perfect cover for raids against Imperial shipping and remote colonies.

 

Why risk provoking Imperial attention?

 

* * *

 

It's not uninteresting. But there are a few problems.

 

1) You give us more detail than is really necessary.

2) The most interesting thing about them is the process that transformed them, but we know nothing about it - the 40K universe is too full of mysterious weirdness for this to stand out as-is.

3) What's the point of it all? What do you want? At the moment, I can't really tell.

[Privateer]

Hoooookay...it's been a while since I've been on here. Trimmed a bit, changed a few things.

 

I'm still trying to think how best to deal with their transformation and it's cause.

[Privateer]

Toward the end of the 35th Millennium, an exploratory fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus discovered the planet now known to be the homeworld of the Xenos species known as the ‘Tau’. This planet is located in the Galactic East, in a particularly densely packed group of stars, near the Damocles Gulf. It was judged that this and neighbouring systems were desirable enough to warrant settlement, thus a colony fleet was dispatched. This fleet included, in addition to the basic personnel transports and supply ships, a small number of Imperial Navy warships and Imperial Guard troops to aid in the cleansing of the ‘Tau’ homeworld. Along side these forces- though they were more than adequate for the task assigned to them- travelled a not inconsiderable force of Space Marines; the Fifth Company of the Skullbearers under Captain Nathaniel Targus, sent to escort the fleet and see for themselves if any possible threat to the Imperium might be lurking in this newly explored area of space, close as it was to areas already well known for strong warp disturbances and other dangers.

 

Yeah...this isn't mentioned anywhere in official fluff that I've noticed, and it's the sort of thing that I would think would be.

 

There's a two- or three-paragraph bit of fluff in the Tau codex that mentions the loss of an explorator fleet sent to colonise the Tau homeworld.