Alpha Legion

[Brother Warchild]

Librarium Article

Alpha Legion



Pre-Heresy
Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Space Marine.The last Legion created during the First Founding, work on the XXth Legion was begun only some few decades before the discovery of their Primarch, Alpharius. As a result, when Alpharius Omegon took command of the Legion, it was young, zealous and completely committed to embracing the primarch's directions.

Alpharius believed that secrecy and fluidity brought success, and taught his Legion to apply all such military techniques to both their training and their operations. The Legion's victories in the Great Crusade all feature some form of subterfuge, misdirection or rapid, unexpected movement. Such victories required great skill and dedication to achieve, and the Alpha Legion quickly became an insular and proud formation.

After Alpharius' disagreements with Roboute Guilliman, the Alpha Legion threw themselves even further into their preferred method of operations, largely cutting themselves off from standard Imperial practices and orchestrating greater and greater victorious examples of their approach to the Crusade, even when more conventional attacks would have been more efficient. The most notorious example of this took place on the world of Tesstra Prime, where the Alpha Legion, instead of taking the opportunity to capture the planetary capital and force the world's surrender, allowed the enemy to dig in and defend it so that they could then expertly take the defending forces apart in a number of different ways. After a week of suffering seemingly random mishaps as well as brutal ambushes, the defenders were forced to capitulate, having taken 90% casualties. When asked why the Legion had not taken the simpler strategy, Alpharius is reported to have replied that they avoided it as "it would have been too easy." This campaign brought him censure from almost all of his brother Primarchs; only Horus, always impressed by Alpharius and his work, praised the Alpha Legion's skill.

With such examples existing in the Imperial records, it is perhaps easy to see why the Alpha Legion sided with Horus when the Warmaster made his pact with Chaos; their martial pride and Alpharius' avoidance of all his brothers apart from Horus seemingly led to their downfall. However, another given reason is that, a scant two years before the Horus Heresy began, Alpharius Omegon was contacted by a Xenos organisation known as the Cabal, which presented the primarch with visions of the Heresy to come and other predictions of the future as well as knowledge about the nature of Chaos. They were shown that the only outcomes of the Heresy were that, if the Emperor won, humanity's existence would be ensured for ten or twenty thousand years of decay before they and the galaxy were consumed by Chaos and that, if Horus won, humanity would perish inside two generations, taking the Chaos powers into oblivion with it, thus saving the rest of the galaxy. The Alpha Legion was asked to take on their greatest challenge; to use all their skills of subterfuge, misinformation and sabotage to destroy Chaos from within. Secretly still loyal, they were challenged to defect to the side of Horus and ensure the final destruction of Chaos. Alpharius Omegon appeared to accede to this request, but like nearly all actions of the Alpha Legion, their true motivations are eminently unknowable.

The Horus Heresy
After the virus-bombing of Isstvan III, the presumed loyal Alpha Legion was one of the legions sent by the Emperor to destroy Horus at his base on Isstvan V. Assigned to the second wave, the Legion instead turned on the loyalist first wave. It is thought by many that much of the traitor's Isstvan V strategy was planned by Alpharius and the Alpha Legion.

During the Heresy the Alpha Legion split off from the main body of Horus's forces early, and did not attack Terra, instead embarking upon a series of delaying actions, attempting to hold Imperial reinforcements in place. They also engaged in smaller actions, defeating a White Scars force on Tallarn and a Space Wolves unit at Yarant. Despite their contributions however, Horus was defeated.1

Post-Heresy
The last time the Alpha Legion was known to be active on any large scale was immediately after the Heresy, when instead of retreating to the Eye of Terror like the other traitorous Legions, they moved on into the galactic east, apparently seeking to fulfill mysterious objectives of their own devising. Whether or not being brought to battle with the Ultramarines was one of them is unknown, but it occurred all the same.

On the world of Eskrador, the Alpha Legion was assaulted by Ultramarine forces. Alpharius was reportedly happy with such a development, as it allowed him to demonstrate the superiority of his flexible, multitudinous and unexpected military strategies on the notoriously precise, methodical and perhaps even moribund Ultramarines. However, the Alpha Legion primarch was apparently taken by surprise when Gulliman departed from his own strictures and led a surprise assault by his elite units on the Alpha Legion headquarters. In the resultant personal combat between Alpharius and Guilliman, it is believed that Alpharius was killed. The Alpha Legion responded, not by breaking and fleeing as Guilliman expected, but by turning on the Ultramarine detachment and harrying them so mercilessly that by the time they had returned to the main body of the Ultramarine force their casualties were almost total. The Ultramarines were driven from the planet in the subsequent battle.

Since then, the Alpha Legion have rarely been seen, and in fact have been declared wiped out by the High Lords of Terra no less than three times. These claims have always been disproved by a subsequent sighting of the mysterious Legionaries, who continue to operate against the Imperium for reasons of their own.

Recently, the Alpha Legion was active in the Kaurava system, fighting the Dark Eldar on Kaurava IV.

Organisation
Pre-Heresy
All Space Marine legions set arduous tasks and trials for potential recruits, but prior to the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion set these initiation tests for squads, not individuals. Squads had succeeded as a group or not at all - foolhardy heroics were frowned upon. The overall plan was paramount and more valuable than any one Space Marine.

The first batch of Alpha Legionaries were notably tall and strong even for members of the Astartes, physical attributes which suited Alpharius' focus on misdirection. For the Primarch put into place a directive that, as far as possible, all Alpha Legion marines had to attempt to look alike; and the visage they patterned themselves on was that of Alpharius and Omegon. As a result, all Alpha Legionaries were at the very least shaven headed, with many going so far as to have cosmetic surgical alteration. Their height also made it easier for them to be confused with the Primarch, although the twins were still the tallest in the Legion. When asked by non-Legion members, all Legionaries gave their names as "Alpharius", even when more than one was present.

This was an extension of the Legion's philosphy that they were a body of one, that could strike in many places at once. This complete solidarity with each other expressed itself in other ways. Decisions within the Legion were made in a fairly open and reasonably democratic way, with all ranks - including the Alpha Legions' non-Astartes operatives - allowed to interject and comment freely during planning sessions. This freedom was allowed not just on military matters - the Alpha Legion internally discussed matters of philosophy and galactic policy that would have been forbidden on frowned upon in other Imperial institutions. Later recruits for the Legion were selected by the Primarch primarily based on high intelligence, and personal initiative was encouraged.

The Legion also made a habit of recruiting non-Astartes specialists in every theatre and campaign they entered, commonly members of the Imperial armed forces, but almost any human could be approached by the Legion for their knowledge or skills. These operatives often remained in their original position, ready to respond to Alpha Legion commands. Compromised operatives were not discarded if it could be avoided, and Alpha Legionaries would go to great lengths to retain them or hide their existence, lengths that included the fatal silencing of other Imperials. Operatives were tattooed with a small hydra symbol.

Whilst known to have possessed Terminator and 'stealth' squads, the majority of the Legion appears to have armed and equipped themselves in a similar fashion, unless tactically imprudent. The Alpha Legion were known to operate behind enemy lines and even mingle with enemy civilian populations. In such situations they were apparently able to pass unnoticed with a combination of appropriate dress and psyker mind-clouding.

Post-Heresy
Even less is known about the internal organisation of the Alpha Legion since the Heresy that what was known before. On occasions there have been successful assassinations of members of the legion thought to be high-ranking officers, but their removal has had little visible effect on their operations.

The Legion's symbol, the hydra, is a multi-headed mythical beast which could keep fighting even if one of its heads was cut off. This legend seems to reflect the Alpha Legion's command structure, as well as echoing its doctrine of multiple attacks.

Alpharius believed in planning and co-ordination, he always sought alternatives and multiple solutions to any given problem, with different elements working together for the end result. These doctrines, thoroughly embraced by the legion as a whole, have apparently been continued by the traitors and have proved effective, especially in the disparate and secretive way they now operate.

Extensive preparations are made before actually attacking, including using spies and corruption to weaken an enemy's resolve. Not only is an enemy attacked from every angle, but every attack is often coordinated to achieve the most destructive results. 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. In this regard, they are similar to the specialist operatives once employed by the Legion, and who may still exist as the leaders of these cults.


Sources
Index Astartes IV
Inquisitor Game
HH novels

[Rellik]

oh very nice stuff!