3rd Cohort

[Orlunu]

Long-time lurker, I decided last night to get my warband's fluff from my head down on (virtual) paper.

Also started a proper story of them taking their new homeworld, 1525 words in so far, but as it is told from the POV of one of the non-PA squishys it will only be appearing as a link in my sig.

Just a really rough first draft, c&c expected and gladly accepted :(

Index Traitoris

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The Alpha Legion 3rd Space Marines Cohort

Origins

The 3rd Cohort of the Alpha Legion broke away from a warband with the 1st and 4th in 745.M41. Having witnessed the power of the Tyranids the 3rd cohort wanted to guide the Hive Fleets to the warp rifts containing the daemon worlds of their enemies. When the others refused the 3rd cohort set out to try by themselves.

Asylus IV is, thanks to the 3rd Cohort, both a hive world and a death world. They have only taken up residence in the Asylus system recently, invading in late 997.M41. By manipulating and occasionally capturing pathetic fragments of the destroyed Hive Fleet Jormungandr they brought the system to its knees with tyranid infestations and took control with relative ease.

Since they took control, the Alpha Legion have done nothing to exterminate the tyranids. They and their favoured followers live in well fortified areas of the spires, and those not so favoured make good recruits if they survive.

Isolation, Asylus IV’s arctic climate and high radiation levels from the invasion on Asylus I and IV are resulting in rapid mutation amongst the tyranids, taking these worlds from merely infested to fully fledged tyrannoform death worlds.

The Asylus system is directly north of Armato and directly east of Neutra. It is near Vorl Secundus of the Crimso Castellans, south of the Ghoul Stars.

The 3rd Cohort follows the doctrines of the Alpha Legion, using manipulation for all it is worth not only before a battle, but also during it if they cannot win without one. They will almost never form the bulk of their own battle lines, relying on being able to play someone off against their enemies and therefore being able to punch well above their weight. They have, for instance, been at war with a particularly vile Slaaneshi warlord near the Perdian Gap from before they split off from their previous warband. Rallying Chaos Marines who bear a grudge against this warlord or the power he serves, he sends them on campaign where they fight his grudge match for him and come back with plunder.

Whilst their own battle tactics rely largely on stealth and misdirection, the Cohort have few occasions to use them at the moment. Most of their engagements are fought by their human forces, the tyranids or other chaos marines, particularly worshipers of M=][=DELETED=][=, with Alpha Marines only in positions of command or great importance. Those forces who serve them are shown by having the armour of their right shoulder painted as the 3rd Cohort do.

The Cohort has two organisational structures. When they are performing missions on their own or with their most trusted human followers they have a system of five man fire teams, two teams joining to make a section if the scale of combat renders a five man team an ineffective suppression element. While deployed in this way the marines try to look as similar as they can; individuals such as commanders and sorcerers are each part of one of the fire teams and will try to blend in as far as practical. It is when deployed like this, far from the eyes of greedy “companions” that they reveal their treasured modern weapons, plundered from recently dead Imperial forces, and occasionally even traded for.

When in the company of the servants of chaos they use, the Legionnaires hide these weapons away to avoid their theft, for such things as assault cannons are almost irresistibly tempting to those who still bear ten thousand year old twin-linked boltguns. They also do away with their uniformity, to avoid standing out as the efficient elite they are to any snipers or other such threats.

The 3rd Cohort fight for the greater good in a similar sense to the Tau. Along with the rest of the Alpha Legion they turned their coats in the Horus Heresy in the hope the wiping out their own species might save the rest of the galaxy form Chaos. When they were defeated and this desperate gambit failed, they chose to fight the even harder battle of trying to save the galaxy by other means. Between the ever growing power of Chaos, the resilience of the Necrons and the hunger of the Tyraninds they believe that the only hope is that these foes can be made to fight each other until each is at least damaged enough for the Imperium to contain, if not destroy.

The geneseed of the Cohort is as it was before the Heresy, however many of the marines under their command, including some outsider Legionnaires have undergone mutation, to the point of spawndom in some cases.

“For the Emperor!” “Alpharius!”

[Raven Angel]

Very nice