++March of the Legions: III Completions++

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

March of the Legions

Month 17 Completions: The III Legion

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Please only leave the five pictures from your completion in the VI Legion Challenge, and the fluff for your characters. Any other comments or text will be deleted. Thank you.  smile.png

[Kizzdougs]

Legionary Caestrian, III^rd Legion, VIII^th Millennial, XII^th Company.

 

Standard issue Maximus battle-plate (MkIV):

Often favoured with access to the latest and most advanced war-gear, the IIIrd Legion was well equipped with MkIV battle-plate in the years prior to the events of Isstvan III. Widely considered to represent the pinnacle of Astartes battle plate design, the advanced sensors and increased flexibility of Maximus armour was particularly well suited to the IIIrd Legion’s preferred style of warfare. Legionary Caestrian’s armour has been reinforced with molecular-bonding studs and he wears leather pteruges, a privilege of minor within many of the Legion’s companies.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN6004_zpswxjunxnl.jpg

 

Shoulder-plates: Caestrian’s shoulder-plates are lacquered with white enamel to denote his veteran status within the Legion and his Terran heritage.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN6006_zpszvu6fveh.jpg

 

Tigris pattern bolt pistol:

Legionary Caestrian wields a Tigrus Pattern Bolt Pistol. The Tigrus Pattern of bolt weapons was first produced during the final years of the Emperor’s Great Crusade in M31. The pattern is noted for its accuracy and the purity of its machine spirit. Caestrian’s personal side-arm has been embellished with gold-alloy plating, a common practice amongst the Emperor’s Children.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN6008_zpsf9xaywvb.jpg

 

Xiphosus blade:

Many warriors of the IIIrd Legion displayed a preference for bladed side-arms over the standard issue legion chainsword, which many saw as both inelegant and disposable. In the hands of a skilled legionnaire, artisan forged blades such as the Xiphosus blade wielded by Legionary Caestrian, offered the wielder greater speed, balance, and dexterity, but often lacked the psychological and purely destructive qualities of a legion chainsword.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN6007_zpsmlqafkuw.jpg

 

In the wake of the Proximan Betrayal the Emperor of Mankind granted the IIIrd Legion the singular honour of bearing His personal heraldry upon the war-gear. To the Emperor’s Children the Palatine Aquila represented both their unswerving commitment to the Emperor’s vision for humanity, and their Legion’s greatest honour.

Legionary Caestrian proudly bears the Palatine Aquila upon his breastplate. 

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l522/kizzdougs/DSCN6009_zpsi81frljn.jpg

[k0nahrik]

IVth Sergeant Xiomides Condor, IIIrd Legion, XXIVth Company

 

Xiomides Condor was a legionnaire of the Emperor’s Children during the Great Crusade and early Horus Heresy. Condor served as the 4th veteran sergeant of the 24th company, under Captain Arcturus Talmar. 
Condor was present for many of the most important events of the Great Crusade, witnessing firsthand Horus’ coronation as Warmaster on Ullanor. Condor recorded many of these moments using a pict-logger module installed into his helmet’s lenses. 
Sometime after Ullanor, the 24th company were garrisoned on the mining world of Charys, the resources from which Fulgrim planned to use to fuel Horus’ treachery. The whole company was deployed, and as such they were not present at Istvaan.

 

Condor however would not aid in the traitor’s cause. Secretly, he had been inducted into a warrior lodge for many years, worshipping the Emperor as a god. As the majority of the 24th company celebrated the success of the betrayal, Condor lead a group of 150 loyal men below the surface of Charys and deep within the mine shafts. Talmar, upon realising this betrayal, flew into a rage and ordered the entire remaining 850 men of his company to chase down the loyalists and slaughter them.

 

The loyalists, spurred on by their faith in the Emperor, none more so than Condor himself, found themselves at a junction, with traitors approaching from all directions. Here they made their last stand, digging in and fortifying, improvising traps and holding the heretics at bay. The two opposing forces ground eachother out, until none stood - save 7 men.

 

Captain Talmar stood, Phoenix Halberd blazing, surrounded by loyalists he had slaughtered himself. 
5 of Talmar’s honour guard stood with him, their Cataphractii plate humming maliciously. Each wielded a lightning claw and power axe. All the blades were bloodied.

 

Condor stood alone among the loyalists, his own charnabal sabre casting a pallid green glow across the antechamber they stood in. His archeotech revolver was a smouldering wreck, destroyed by a traitor bolt round. He would have to fight this battle blade to blade.

 

Condor and the 6 traitors fought fiercely. But faith in the Emperor guided Condor’s sword, and traitor fell, and traitor fell again, and again. Lastly, Captain Talmar alone remained of the traitors.

 

Blades clashed, fists collided with helmets, and the 4th Sergeant took grievous wounds!- but faith spurred him on. With a roar of fury, betrayal and faith, Condor swung his sabre with no grace, simply with the desire to cleanse the galaxy of the traitor filth. Atomar was overpowered, beaten, bloodied, and finally impaled through the chest and pinned to the floor by the loyalist's blade. Condor stood alone then, the last man of the 24th company, as far as he knew the last loyal Emperor’s child.

 

The God-Emperor may have guided Condor’s sword, but the Ruinous Powers guided the blades of the traitors. Condor had taken wounds that would fell an ordinary astartes several times over, but fought on by virtue of his incredible faith. Now he sat alone atop a mound of his dead brothers, with no traitors to purify. He knew he would not survive much longer, and any attempt to reach the surface and escape would end with him dying before he made it. Instead of making an attempt to rejoin the loyalists, Condor sat down. He drew his blade from Talmar's still warm corpse, and cleaned the blood from it. Condor laid the blade across his legs, and waited for death to take him.

 

Xiomides Condor’s last words were recorded via his pict-capture module - ‘the Emperor Protects’. He died of his wounds shortly thereafter.

 

 

Condor used a modified set of armour, combining elements of both MkIII and MkIV battle plate. His weapons of choice were his charnabal sabre, and an archeotech revolver. On his left wrist was mounted a digital laser device, he also carried a variety of grenades and an artfully wrought artificer blade.

[Semper Fortis]

He had almost missed it. Caught up in trying to understand why Sergeant Aelianus had suddenly become enraged, he had extracted the geneseed whilst focused on the destruction in the passageway around him. Now the progenoid gland lay in the tray under bright lights, its odd coloration reminding him of the virus time. He assessed the strange, swollen musculature of Aelianus' chest on the next table. Had another foe managed to corrupt the geneseed of his brethren? He'd been only an apprentice apothecary in those days, but remembered well the close battle to save his legion. What evil wished to destroy the Emperor's perfect creation?

Apothecary Caecelius Otho turned to the bulkhead comms and called the bridge. He requested that Commander Tarquin come to the Apothecarion Bay at his earliest convenience. They could not send a message to Chief Apothecary Fabius from this becalmed nowhere of the void, but they could take precautions. He would request that the Commander quarantine the legionaries of the party picked up on Laer and he would perform full physicals on each. Perhaps a psychological assessment was also in order. The Sergeant had displayed some odd behaviors since boarding. For that matter, there had been more than a few odd occurrences since the ship had picked up the special team assigned to recover weapons and materiel from Laer.

As the Commander entered the bay, Caelcelius turned and greeted him as befitted his rank. He explained his concerns and showed Tarquin his findings. Tarquin seemed unconcerned, saying "The Primarch himself informed me that there may be some unusual effects from unshielded weapons on Laer and assured me that there will be no lasting damage from this." Tarquin turned to leave, then paused and turned back with a hard look. "Caecelius, you have done superlative work. I shall recommend to the Primarch that you be made Senior Apothecary in the upcoming action on Istvan III."

[okonomiyakimarine]

IIIrd Legion Legionary Hamilkar, 2nd Assault Squad lead by Sergeant Kadmos,

84th Company lead by Company Captain Sebulon Tertius,

3rd Millenial under Lord Commander Eidolon,

Went missing in action during the Battle of the Kalium Gate.

 

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During the early phases of deployment Hamilkar finally realized the apparent replacement of several squads from the ship. The Olympia-Class Strike Cruiser “Ariete Priapos” was a designated Assault striker designed for a specific role within a larger compliance flotilla. While it was capable to operate alone due to its ability for surpressing the enemy defence with blindfire by its heavy barrage weapon during deployment manoeuvers, the heavily modified design used for planetary assault centred operations was normally not meant to be on its own. The damage taken in advance of their last planet fall, a search and destroy operation on a insnigificant desert planet, had just proven this point. Due to the delay for checks before their clearing for warp travel they had missed the legion’s operations in the Istvaan sector only recently catching up with the third millenial of the Emperor’s Children. Yet after the usual quarantine after contact with xeno artefacts a third of their crew had been transferred to other ships, four out of six of their Thunderhawks had been redeployed to other ships and apparently several squads had been replaced with fresh forces from other companies of the third millenial.

 

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He had not been aware of such major changes in the structure of squads at all before landing on the set of platform, which was defined as the defensive flank at the nadir of the Kalium Gate. The composition was shifted in favour of tactical and support squads. Ha, so many possibilities, he called out towards his battle brothers on his left flank as he jollily cranked up his jump pack’s turbines and made last equipment checks. His cry was not received with cheers. His battle brothers, most of them bearing many more white marks on their amour against his two white panels on his jump pack, did not give more than a quick glance over their shoulders. He found the idea of a forthcoming new battle experience most thrilling! Almost as interesting as another chance to earn more white panels on his amour or jump pack. Equal brothers, but also fierce competitors and obviously each one more ingenious than the other. On the one hand each and every battle brother would praise himself for superior strategic and tactical understanding. On the other hand they all had little interest in the decisions and grander correlations they could not control. They would focus on their assignment and try to excel, to prove themselves and to stand out – also against their battle brothers. Such competition was instrumental among the astartes of the IIIrd including competition in between the companies as well as among squads. The rivalry particularly between specialized units was immense.

 

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An angry murmur from a fellow assault marine two or three lines further behind let him realize again just how uncommon the unit composition was that had been fielded in their position for the defence of the Kalium Gate. The different units deployed here allowed a wide range of options for the operation’s commander and sure was unseen within this force specialized on more or less direct assault manoeuvres: At least two squads of veterans grouped in an incoherent way that made it impossible to get a clear understanding of their numbers or organization. Even stranger the type of weaponry, some type of prototypical combi-weapons by the looks of it. Several small heavy support squads, mainly equipped with las-cannons, but also with what appeared to be a new type of heavy bolter. Most uncommon, but then again nothing he would have a word in.

 

http://i.imgur.com/r8SGv3o.png

 

The tactical decisions were nothing he would be involved with on a regular bases, so why try it to discuss it now, Hamilkar told to himself as he glanced over the topography of the area in front of their deployment zone. The long arch at the gate’s nadir appeared to have been stabbed and ripped open by giant claws. A large slope at their feat ran down towards a group of bunker-like structure, which were followed by a field of metal slabs that stood high against the black of the space behind. Like sheets of floating ice that were cast unto the structure’s surface, Kalium Gate’s outer panneling and unidentifiable clumps of debris marked the border of the area of bomb craters, the presuming landing site of their foes. Under no circumstances they would fall back behind their current position.

 

http://i.imgur.com/qHLOpfk.png

 

The sole Thunderhawk that could return them to their ship was meant to remain here in between the metal cliffs just north of the Gate’s nadir valley. Company Captain Sebulon Tertius had been steaming with anger for the transfer of four of the ships six Thunderhawks. Yet he had not mentioned how different the operation would be designed from the usual assault patterns. Even squad leader Sergeant Kadmos had only uttered tacitunely about the changes being order from the very top and would have retired to his private room to gain focus for the coming battle, had it no been for his senior college, Assault sergeant Tyrian who had stood with him between the utility vault and the armoury for at least two hours, before their sergeant had returned to the squad murmuring something about the perfect plan to destroy their enemy and the apparent need to oblige their codex and follow protocol as well as the command structure. Then the ramp had closed shut, the turbines had been reved up and the deck had rumbled under them too loud to provide any chance for a chat and the chance to find out more about the manoeuver until they had deployed at the Kalium Gate.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by okonomiyakimarine