Alpha Legion
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| Alpha Legion | |
|---|---|
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| Primarch | Alpharius |
| Battlecry | For The Emperor! |
| Colours | Dark blue and Silver |
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Alpha Legion are the Chaos Space Marines Legion about whom the least is known. The Legion uses secrecy, spy networks and traitors to attack from as many different vantages as possible.
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[edit] History
[edit] Alpharius
Very little is known about the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, even less than the other Legions' leaders. Alpharius and his Legion were renowned for their secret-keeping, even from their brother Space Marines. He was the last Primarch to be found before the Horus Heresy.
Alpharius was first encountered shortly before the Great Crusade ended and the Horus Heresy began. An advance patrol from the Luna Wolves was surveying a new system when their scoutship came under attack from a swarm of starfighters. Despite their primitive design, the attack was well-coordinated and when the starfighters were forced to flee, the Luna Wolves gave pursuit - straight into a minefield. Reinforcements from the Luna Wolves' fleet arrived, and Horus himself shuttled over to the stricken vessel. He arrived to find the crew on high alert: a small boarding party had managed to establish themselves, and were converging on the bridge.
Horus remained, leading the defence of the scoutship's bridge. Five men were said to have burst onto the bridge. Horus shot four in the head, but the fifth was able to dodge the bolter shell. Advancing, the man came under a dense hail of fire, which slowed but did not stop him. He was an instant away from grabbing Horus by the throat, when the two stopped, recognising each other as brothers.
[edit] The Great Crusade
Instead of sending Alpharius back to the Emperor as soon as possible, Horus began to train Alpharius, often allowing the newly-found Primarch to take tactical command of the Luna Wolves. Horus was impressed with Alpharius' skill and ingenuity, while at the same time Alpharius was in awe of the martial power wielded by Horus, and his knowledge of when and where to use it.
Eventually, Alpharius was sent to meet the Emperor, but they spent little time together due to the pressing needs of running the Imperium. Alpharius was quickly sent to take command of the Twentieth Space Marine Legion, which came to be known as the Alpha Legion.
The Alpha Legion was the final Space Marine Legion created for the Great Crusade, and Alpharius threw himself and his Legion into the Great Crusade, eager to emulate the actions and successes of the more established Legions, and to prove his own Legion's worth. Their first campaigns were highly successful, and Alpharius' preferred tactics were quickly adopted by the Legion as a whole. Alpharius advocated that the best attacks came from multiple directions, and that keeping a commander's options open was the way to success. No Alpha Legion force ever engaged an enemy without a backup plan, with flanking forces and infiltrators always ready to capitalise on any weak points exposed by the enemy.
Alpharius was said to have tirelessly worked towards the training of his officers, encouraging independent thought and listening to their advice. He constantly set challenges for them, sometimes in the middle of a battle, to force his officers and troops to adapt and improvise. On rare occasions, he would disappear entirely, to assess how the Alpha Legion performed without its leader.
[edit] Tesstra Prime
After an argument with the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, Alpharius pushed the Alpha Legion even harder, seeking out the most difficult challenges, so as to prove incorrect Guilliman's belief that the Alpha Legion couldn't hope to compare to the Ultramarines. He knew that he could not beat them in quantity of victories, so the Legion set itself for quality.
Tesstra Prime was the chosen target of the first of these victories, a world violently opposing the idea of Imperial rule. Alpharius delayed the assault by a week, during which the planet's defence forces were able to dig in and prepare for an assault on the world's vast capital city. It was estimated that over a million soldiers were armed and ready to resist the Space Marine invasion.
The Alpha Legion deployed, focusing their efforts on a few key points of the defence, while leaving large reaches of the enemy line unopposed. As the assault was launched, bombs that had been placed by infiltrators were detonated, isolating the points under assault from reinforcement. Various counter-plans were put in action by the Tesstran military, but these were all foiled by the Alpha Legion. Within a week, ninety percent casualties had been suffered by the defenders under a constant rain of bolter shells, with the loss of only a handful of Space Marines.
Expecting praise for such a decisive victory against the odds, Alpharius was shocked when the other Primarchs berated him, declaring his campaign a waste of "time, effort, and the Emperor's bolt shells". Only Horus supported the Alpha Legion's victory against the quantity of opposition. When challenged by Guilliman over the campaign as to why the Alpha Legion had not quickly deployed and beaten the Tesstran military before they were ready, Alpharius replied "Because it would have been too easy."
[edit] The Horus Heresy
Horus was soon to betray the Emperor, through his actions at Istvaan V, and the Alpha Legion were among the seven Legions sent by the Emperor to eliminate Horus and his traitorous allies.
Assigned to the second wave, the Alpha Legion revealed that they too had turned to Chaos, landing on the planet to destroy the three Loyalist Legions in what came to be known as the Drop Site Massacre. Some scholars believed that the trap was planned using Alpharius' assistance, as it bore the hallmarks of many Alpha Legion assaults.
While the other Traitor Legions advanced on Terra, it became clear that the Alpha Legion had its own agenda, going out of its way to find and attack Space Marine opponents. Still stinging from Guilliman's comment that the Alpha Legion were nothing compared to the other Space Marine Legions, Alpharius set forth to prove him wrong again, defeating contingents of the White Scars, Space Wolves, and capturing many small Space Marine outposts. Even after the Heresy ended with the defeat of Horus, the Alpha Legion continued unabated, eventually coming into conflict with the Ultramarines on Eskrador.
The campaign was designed to rip out the heart of the Alpha Legion before wrapping up the uncoordinated remainder. Guilliman led a strike force directly into the camp of the Alpha Legion, and was able to force Alpharius into single combat where Alpharius battled Guilliman and ultimately met his end. The breaking of the Alpha Legion failed to eventuate: Alpharius' focus on his Legion's ability to lead without him meant that his lack of presence did not hamper his Legion's actions, and the Ultramarines suffered heavy casualties. The campaign continued for two weeks before Guilliman gave up and ordered the redeployment of his Legion elsewhere. The account of Guilliman's attack on the Alpha Legion was taken from what appeared to be the personal log of an Ultramarine involved in the strike, though its validity has been questioned by both Inquisitors and the Ultramarines themselves.
[edit] Exile
The Legion disappeared during the reorganisation of the Imperium following the Emperor's ascension. The Alpha Legion did not follow their brothers into the Eye of Terror, instead continuing to operate out of their bases hidden within the Imperium. The destruction of the Alpha Legion is a high priority for both the Space Marines and the Inquisition, and although the Legion has been declared destroyed on three occasions, they always seem to survive, resurfacing with a wave of assaults.
[edit] Organisation
Because of the Alpha Legion's disposition towards intense secrecy, very little is known about the Legion's organisation. It is known that the Legion organises cultist cells on hundreds of worlds, any of which are well trained and organised. These cults would be used as part of the disruption of a world's war efforts against the Alpha Legion, or in the event of an impending attack.
As in the supposed death of Alpharius, the assassination of leaders does not appear to affect the operations of the Legion in any major way. The Legion's symbol of the hydra is appropriate, for when one head is cut off, the other heads take command of the body.
[edit] Recruitment
Prior to the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion was unique among the Space Marines for indoctrinating squad-sized groups as opposed to individuals. A squad had to master the adaptation from man to Space Marine as a group; if one failed, all were considered to have failed. Foolhardy heroics were frowned upon, and the overall plan was considered more important than any one Marine.
The Chaos Space Marine Legions have been able to continue fighting for ten thousand years because of the time-warping effects of their home, the Eye of Terror. The Alpha Legion does not reside in the Eye, or in any similar warp/realspace overlays, so the question must be raised as to how the Legion has managed to survive.
[edit] Combat Doctrine
The tactics utilised by Alpharius revolved around attacking the enemy in as many ways as possible simultaneously, ranging from underground assaults to sabotage of water supplies. Extensive preparations are made before striking out at a target, including the use of spies and corruption to weaken an enemy's resolve.
Often, cults and traitors will be employed as a support network to Alpha Legion actions. Many actions are planned to utilise and support local cultist activity. These cults go to considerable effort to spread propaganda, perform sabotage, and carry out acts of unrest and rebellion, providing a distraction and weakening the enemy before the Alpha Legion strikes.
[edit] Battlecry
The Alpha Legion use Imperialistic battlecries in order to mock and infuriate the forces loyal to the Imperium, for example, "For the Emperor!"; other battlecries used by the Alpha Legion are related to their chapter symbol, the hydra, for example, "Hydra Dominatus!".
[edit] Appearance
During the Great Crusade, Alpha Legion power armour was deep blue, with silver trim and green iconography. After the Heresy, the deep blue was replaced with mottled blue.
The primary colours of the Alpha Legion are blue and green. In the previous Chaos Codex, the example Alpha Legionnaire was depicted as blue with silver trim. In the current incarnation of the Codex, the Alpha Legion's troops appear dark blue-green, with silver trim, although the colours suggested for the effect are blue with green highlights around the edges of the armour.
The Legion's symbol is of a three-headed hydra, a multi-headed mythical beast which could keep fighting even if one if its heads was cut off. This legend seems to reflect the Alpha Legion's command structure, as well as echoing its philosophy of presenting multiple threats to the enemy through extensive use of infiltration.
[edit] Notes
- The composition of the force is disputed, with some believing the reinforcing Legions to be the Alpha Legion, Word Bearers, Night Lords and Iron Warriors, while another statement saying it was the World Eaters, Death Guard, Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors. There is directly contradicting material on this. Although, it is stated in Lord of the Night that the Night Lords were on the Eastern Fringes at the time and did not take part in the Istvaan V massacre.
[edit] References
- Games Workshop Design Staff (2002). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Chaos Space Marines, 1st Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-322-5.
- (January 2003) "Index Astartes – Alpha Legion". White Dwarf: Australian Edition (277). ISSN 0265-8712.
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