Legio Kreuzius

Dies Ignis marches upon the Mining World Ishthalar with Skitarii escort

> *"The strength behind us is holy and divine. The Emperors Light drives us forth, and the Titans of God shall end this war that has consumed you so." - Preceptor Intendant Mondregarde addressing the 76th Cadians*
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The **Legio Kreuzius** (*The Shieldwardens*) is a Loyalist Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica, one of the military arms of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Shieldwardens hail from the Forge World of Hephaestia, located in the Ixaniad Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus, and situated on the far side of the Eye of Terror. There is very little information in Imperial records about this Titan Legion's founding, though it is believed that they were founded before the Age of the Imperium, during the Age of Strife upon Mars and dispatched with the original Explorator Vessels which took to the void in the lulls between warp storms which riddled the galaxy at the time. In the millennia since, the legio has acted as a potent symbol of Hephaestian authority within the sector, and a proverbial blade of Damocles of worlds under the authority of the forge.

## Legion History

The Titan Legion known as Kreuzius (Shield-Wardens) was sent upon the original Explorator Ships which held the original priests of what would come to be known as Hephaestia. Their mission was to search for and locate the whispered treasures of the distant world of Medusa; a mighty world of the Dark Age of Technology said to hold innumerable technological riches.

The lull in the warp storms predicted by the priests of Mars did not last as long as predicted, and the fleet was sent careening off course. Threatened with imminent Gellar Field failure and hull breach within the warp, the master of the fleet, an Archmagos by name of Diomese Guln, was forced to order an emergency translation back into realspace. It was during these early days that the legio would make its mark.

Records of the exact details of what precisely happened are fragmentary, all that is known is that translation was met with sudden and swift engagement in space before the burning light of the systems star, Aglaea, and extensive ground warfare and colossal scale engagement with towering alien constructs and legions of Undying Men which came from the nigh undetectable space-born stations in orbit around Crius and placed throughout the asteroid belts, and from the monoliths upon the primary moon of Hephaestia.

It was this initial and cataclysmic war which led to the shaping of the Legio's doctrines and culture for all time. While the initial records are hazy or censored, thanks to the Hephaestian Mechanicum, sources describing the first long years within the Aglaean system  are more numerous and reliable. Several accounts relate how it was only through the devastating weaponry of the *Legio Kreuzius* that the first forge-fane established on Hephaestia itself survived against the perpetual legions of Iron Men which moved in an unbreaking line from Crius towards them. This means that very much from its inception as an independent Titan Legion, the *Legio Kreuzius* has been a defensive force against the multiple horrors that plagued the Aglaean System. With the eventual defeat and vanishing of the Undying Men, the Hephaestian Mechanicum quickly decided to relocate the Legion's headquarters to the moon of Hephaestia-II, with smaller garrisons of but a few titans cropping up on the various installations throughout the Aglaean system in order to defend the Forge World's nascent colonies. Intended at first to be a merely temporary solution, these deployments or "Watches" as they were known, became near-permanent formations. And so it would be for almost three-thousand years as the Legio defended the forge from countless Xenos horrors and warp spawned devils.

In time, the Imperium, and Mars, would uncovered the Forge's location through its early distress beacon and made contact. The Forge World was brought into Imperial Compliance under the Auspices of Mars and the forces of Hephaestia would pour forth into the void; planets were conquered and war material poured forth. In their distant corner of the galaxy, settlers poured in and fringe worlds were brought into compliance and the influence of Hephaestia spread.

As the forge spread out its winding metal tendrils into the clusters of worlds around it, so too did the legio follow. The great metal behemoths dropping unto new worlds and marching at the forefront of the Imperial Army and the Tahgmata battlegroups. The legion would stand its guard over the local planets.

### The Horus Heresy

The Heresy and its aftermath left great scars upon the Legio as worlds under their protection and dominion of the Forge rebelled. Traitors to the Hephaestian Mechanicum, separated by distance for the hundreds of years of the Great Crusade had fallen under the auspices of the poisonous agents of Mars.

In the wake of the monstrous betrayal by the heretics, the Forge spilled forth into the void and found that many of its domains had turned against it. Many of these worlds were crushed utterly under the very human wrath of the Machine Cult, their cities glassed and valuable technology stolen back. Those worlds which did not recant remain to this day as valued strip mines which feed the perpetual hunger of Hephaestia's forges. The legio itself was responsible for the burning of Cadmantium, New Constantine, and KOI-32-D; the titans descending en mass onto the worlds and leveling them continent by continent until nothing remained save for stock for Forge-Fane Ostrumm. Elements of the Legio would follow the vengeful Magi of Hephaestia on their warpath toward Mars.

After the heresy ended and the Imperium entered its period of great scouring, the disposition of the Legion and Forge would change. No longer would vassal worlds live out their lives in normalcy, paying only in Tithes and manpower. Instead, the Vigilance Domains would be created; colossal factory arks which orbited the worlds under direct Mechanicum control. Proverbial Swords of Damocles ready to slay a whole world should the need arise. Eight such vassal worlds remain in compliance with Hephaestia, and thus eight such Vigilance Domains hang in geostationary orbit above each world's capital, part of an array of weaponry created to raze the world as easily as one could defend it. Over time, the eight worlds would expand and contract, but the most important worlds to the Forge were always watched over by the Legio, and to this day, the Legio remains a powerful symbol of Mechanicum power.

## Legion Strength and Combat

The Shieldwardens are a primarily defensive force used for the subjugation and control of worlds within the Forge's sphere of influence, even more so with the coming of Old Night once more. The power of the Legio is centered around Forge Hephaestia in various defensive formations focused around the Forge Moon of Hephaestia-II. In addition to this, among the 8 worlds under the influence of the forge, are eight battlestations which hang in high orbit over each world. Each Vigilance station is comprised of 8 titans in a demi-legio:

* Warlord Titan x2
* Warbringer-Nemesis Titan x1
* Reaver Titan x3
* Warhound Titan x2

Hephaestia itself is guarded by a special formation consisting of the remaining titans, as well as various prototype and variant class titans that do not see broader imperial use, while a part of the legio, they do not see deployment off the forge.

* Warlord Titan x10
* Reaver Titan x5
* Warbringer-Alpha x3
* Warlord Sinister Titan x1

In battle, the legio follows a highly aggressive defensive doctrine, focusing around both the protection of worlds beneath the Vigilance Domains, and swiftly responding to any hint of rebellion. Periodically, the titans will march among a specially constructed path upon Mechanicum influenced worlds known as the Giantspath, both as a show of Mechanicum presence and force but also to serve as a reminder of the protection provided by the Cult. Due to in part the defensive nature of the Legio, Scout Titans are broadly disused with their tactical role shifted to flank or harassment maneuvers, favoring line battle titans in their entirety. The most specific part of this aggressive doctrine is rapid deployment and redeployment.

The Hephaestian Magi's creations are still regarded as the greatest achievements of the Crawn forge-fane and their Forge-Domini at the time, Archmagos Pattonus Maji. Each titan inducted into the legio is constructed with several additional umbilical points added to the titans superstructure on the chest, flanks, back, and upper legs which are designed to connect to drop rings. These drop rings contain massive Boson Dispersal Field generators, anti-grav pylons, and directional guidance thrusters. When attached to the titans and activated, titans may drop from properly outfitted ships or the Vigilance Domains onto planets below without need of a drop ship. These rings were made use of by the majority of the Shieldwardens God-engines and had become commonplace by the time of the Horus Heresy. No longer requiring dropships to spirit the titan down to the planet, deployment time was cut to near nothing. Bulky coffin ships are not needed to land, thus the vulnerability time of the titan is cut to near zero and operations can begin immediately. The drop rings are also equipped with electronic countermeasures intended to twist and distort electromagnetic signals, these nigh-blasphemous countermeasures are made possible by malifica-djinn and hostile blight-code which prevent hostile ship-bound augeries and telemetry plotters from locking on to the descending titans and destroying them.

Due to these arcane technologies, the titans are able to be swiftly brought down from the stations, and then when it is time to move again, heavily shielded and armored coffin ships are able to easily lift off with the much lighter titans and carry them, allowing the demi-legios to project force over a wide area.

This rapid deployment is made ever more potent by a shipboard array known as the *Iron Sight*. This specially created sensor array is based off of the Omniscience-Class augeries. Dedicated satellites cloaked with reflex shielding constantly take in data from orbit around the worlds they watch over and feed it into a special manifold connection. In this way, titans walking on their worlds replace the functionality of Warhound Titans, instead relying on the eye of watchful gods which peers upon them at all times. When the forces of one or more Vigilance Stations are called away to some conflict at the whims of the Home Forge, the coffin ships of the Legio fulfill a similar function, providing watchful orbital eyes.

In addition, following the extremely close political ties between forge and legio, each Watch is supported by well equipped Secutari in various patterns, autokrator legions and support tanks, cybernetica maniples, and armies of tech priests, servitors, and work-thralls who maintain the defenses of the legio. The Legio holds what is referred to as 'judgment conscription' authority. In times of war to defend a world, the the commanding Princeps of a Demi-Legio may order as many civilians as they please to be converted to Adsecularis. Typically this authority is used on any rebels, to better reinforce the penalties for heresy.

## Notable Titans

* **Dies Ignis (The Day of Fire)** - Warlord titan of Preceptor-Intendant Raphael Mondregarde. A venerable piece of Archeotech, this Mars Pattern Warlord Titan has served the Legio with distinction since M34. Put into commission during the fourth black crusade and taken as the engine of Preceptor-Intendant Duraness Manafred. Marching at the forefront of the Legio and equipped with a devastating array of energy weapons. As the foremost titan of the Legio, the behemoth is equipped with the most advanced technologies the Mechanicus can produce, and often has the honor to be serve as a test-bed for new and devestating weaponry.
* **Penitar Rex (King of Old Glories)** - A Nemesis Sub-type of the Warbringer class titan who serves as the rear guard of Legio Deployments. The pattern was gifted to Forge Hephaestia by the Adepts of Mars after the forge made contact once more with the prime forge after their isolation in the Imperium Nihilus. Penitar Rex swiftly gained recognition during the outward march from the Forge across the Segmentum Obscura as a siegebreaker and bedrock with which to advance forward.
* **Fidelus Costodes** **(The Protector of the Faith)** - A Reaver Class titan assigned to the Mechanicus Agri-World of Momus, the new homeworld of House Dumontine in the Aglaea system. Upon the union of the House with the Forge and bonding to the Legio, as the Knights swore to walk with the Legio, so did they walk with the knights. In addition to the honor guard status, when the House is deployed en masse by the Forge then *Fidelus Custodes* walks in kind.
* **Dies Cynis (The Day of Ash)** - An ancient and dreaded behemoth locked in the Crypt-Vaults of Forge Hephaestia. Throughout the late Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, rumors persisted as to the existence of other prototypes of experimental Titan patterns hidden even from the eyes of the mighty and the powerful Council of Terra on the forge worlds of the Mechanicum across the galaxy. Dies Cynis is one of these things. Created by centuries of experimentation with Necron Xenoteknica, the foul hybrid allows for the capture of psykers and channeling of their malign powers to devestating effect, allowing for the "weaponized" power of bound Alpha-grade psykers enslaved and bled dry like living batteries by forbidden arcane technologies. This titan has only walked three times in the Forge's History; the attack on the Forge during the onset of the heresy, during the cataclysm of the Cadian System, and the Battle of Momus, in which the Aglean system was besieged by the dark powers of the warp. May it never walk again.

## Legion Culture

The Legio is aggressive in all regards. Princeps of the legion are selected based off of biometric data gleaned from the surveying of the menial and priestly populations of the system. In addition, each Vigilance Station surveys the world below, and suitible candidates are rarely sent back to the Forge. Those who meet suitable criteria are taken from their homeworld and placed within the Adeptus Mechanicus Collegia Titanica of Hephaestia. They are put through grueling trials which result only in physically and mentally durable candidates. Cold logic shackles raging fury, and the members of the Legio are determined and iron willed enough to use that inner fire to fuel a furnace of destruction.

Perhaps unusually for a Titan Legion, none of the Princeps of the Legio are interred in an ammiotic tank but choose to remain independent of body and mind while commanding their Titan. Additionally, this Legion's Titan crews keep themselves in peak physical condition and make use of brutal combat augmetics, armaskin, and personal weaponry to defend themselves in hand-to-hand combat such that even if a titan crew is forced to abandon their God-Machines, they will not go down easily and each of them carries at least one sidearm.

## Notable Legionnaires

* Preceptor-Intendant Raphael Mondregarde: The Princeps of the Warlord-Class titan Dies Ignis and lord of the Legio Kreuzius is a headstrong and bellicose man. He commands his Titan with distinction and has done so for over two-hundred years. A highly skilled tactical mind rests beneath the aura of wrath which hangs about him, often taking it upon himself to fix holes in imperial battle plans when assigned to specific warzones, and often ignoring directives from commanders of the Imperial Guard should their ability and foresight not live up to his judgment. Over time he has acquired many augmentations but does not wish to submit to amniotic suspension, believing it to be a crutch used by weaker men. His voice in the Archmagos parliament carries great weight and it is not unheard of for lesser members of the orders militant to seek his audience and council. As the time of ending draws ever closer…his voice is heard more and more.
* Titan-Priestess Japetus: One of the ranking disciplines of the Stataraga Order of High Techno Arcana, this priestess serves in the Divisio Investigatus, constructing, building, and researching titans. Japetus went with representatives of the Forge to the world of Dekara of the Conservators chapter of Space Marines, in which the titans were a strong symbol of power for the forge in their negeotiations to ally the destitute marine chapter into working with the forge.

## Hereteknica

During its many Terran millennia of periodic isolation and interim duty, the *Legio Kreuzius* has benefited from its parent Forge World's hidden underbelly of illicit practices in the domain of xenotechnomancy, Null-Arcana and other related fields of study. To guarantee the survival of their home-world in the desperate early year and take initiative of warfare, the Magi of the Hephaestian forge-fanes had delved deep into half-forgotten and poorly-understood lore dating back to the Age of Strife that concerned fusing non-human artefacts with the technological creations of the Adeptus Mechanicus. As such, these Magi also studied the strange devices they scavenged from the hulks of vanquished metallic constructs felled by the Shieldwardens in their war against the Undying Men whose constructs held dominion over the system until the magi drove them out. As such research had never been officially censured on Hephaestia at the time, this led to the creation of proscribed techno-artefacts such as the Borel Decomposition Field (the -1 to hit), the Probability Anchor, the Null Field Matrix, and the Boson Dispersal Field Generators in wide use by the legio.

## Naming Conventions

* Warlord Titans: Days of prophecy
* Warbringer Titans: Legacies
* Reaver Titans: Oaths of moment
* Warhound Titans: Promises