Star Guardians

> "*War is life. In war and in life nothing is so precious as the truth. The truth is the end goal of all things, the ultimate victory. No path is too dark to tread in search of this goal, and thus, no path to victory in war is too dark to walk, for it brings us ever closer to that ultimate victory. Victory is all that matters, the means of attaining it are of little consequence, and that is why we can consign a million million souls to death in the blink of an eye. For what is the life of billions, compared to securing the ultimate victory?*"
> ― Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer in the wake of the Exterminatus of 30-882
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## Star Guardians

### **Allegiance**

Imperium of Man
(*Fidelitas Constantus*)

### **Primarch**

Shaaa Hydrades - The Breacher Lord, The Cold Hearted, The Praetorian of Terra

### **Noteworthy Domains**

The Ring (Homeworld), Graphina (Allied Forge World), Marus (Imperial Knight and Legio Titanicus World)

### **Warcry**

None - The legion fights in cold, eerie silence, commands passed on secure vox channels

### **Legion Colours**

Black & Purple

The **Star Guardians** are the IVth *Legiones Astartes*, engineered by the Emperor's own hand in the final days of the Unification Wars of Terra, forged for the Great Crusade to bring His light to the long-lost human colony worlds scattered across the stars. Renowned for their cold-hearted brutality, mechanical nature and utter remorselessness in battle, the Star Guardians were among the most powerful and famed Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade.

Though the legion did fight on Terra alongside the Thunder Warriors, it was at Luna where they truly showed the warriors they could be, proving themselves experts in void warfare and the oft deadly zone mortalis actions called for when boarding an enemy voidship or assaulting their holdings. At Luna, the Legion would take their first name, the Dark Watchers, to ever ensure that no threats from the stars would seek to challenge the Imperium of Man and live.

When they were united with their Sire, the giant Shaaa Hydrades, the legions reputation for boarding troops grew a thousand-fold, becoming the unwavering hammer that had shattered countless foes in the Emperor's quest to liberate Mankind from the darkness of Old Night. It was Shaaa who decreed that the Legion would no longer merely watch the stars, but be their sole guardians, forever focused on bringing them into the Imperium, those who inhabited the worlds they conquered of little concern, human life representing the cheapest of currencies throughout the millions of worlds of the Imperium. In those days, the Dark Watchers died, and the Star Guardians would rise.

Throughout the Great Crusade, the Star Guardians were called upon to face the toughest of foes, striding into warzones that would have slain others of their kind a dozen times over, advancing in lockstep behind their unbreakable shield lines, the mighty forms of Dreadnoughts and Saturnine Terminators ensuring heavy weapons were ever available to the legion, despite their shortage of heavy vehicles, their prefered combat zones making their use all but impossible. From the deadly confrontations of the Squat Wars to the Twin Wars of Araneus, the Star Guardians never faltered, never tired, and never showed mercy.

   In the wake of the Ullanor Crusade, the Star Guardians commanding the void war against the savage Orks, Shaaa Hydrades and his legion were named as the Praetorians of Terra, retiring from the frontlines of the Great Crusade to work on one of the greatest undertakings in humanities history, the construction of the Solar Guardian Array, a system wide defencive system, a beacon to any who would seek to challenge humanity that such a task was laughably impossible. They poured their figurative lifeblood into its construction, and in time, when Almire rose in open rebellion and struck at Terra, they would pour their physical blood upon it as well, the legion being all but broken in the First Solar War.

Shattered alongside their lord, the Star Guardians turned to the only one they could rely on in these desperate times, forging new allegiances with the Adeptus Mechanicus in their desperation, being reborn anew as a legion far more metal than flesh. Throughout the Frontier Wars this alliance would only grow stronger, the priesthood teaching the warriors of the IVth the deepest and most revered secrets of the machine, ensuring that the bonds forged would never be broken. By the time of the Second Solar War, the IVth was all but unrecognisable from the legion Shaaa himself had forged, a hybrid of skitarii and Astartes, creating a small but terrifyingly potent fighting force.

## Legion History

### The Great Crusade

#### The Watchers of the Dark

In the wake of the Emperor’s conquest of Old Albia, the first recruits of what would eventually become the IVth Legion of the fledgling Legiones Astartes were taken to the genelabs beneath the Himalayan Mountains, the genewrights of the Emperor forging them anew, making them more than men, a refinement on the Thunder Warriors of his army. Of these, the first survivor was a boy named Varinius Rampt, and it was this distinction as the first of the IVth that saw him named the Lord Commander of the newly formed legion.

For the first few years of the legions existence, the IVth were kept apart from almost all of their peers, a part of the mysterious 'Trefoil' Legions, alongside the XIIIth and XXth Legions. In this time, the legions numbers grew slowly but steadly, plagued with issues with gene-seed implantation matched only by a few other of the newly formed forces, seeing far more fatal implantation proceedures than the norm. As such, the IVth would not take part much in the Unification Wars, only making their debut at the closing of the conflict, selected to spearhead the attack on Luna, Terra’s only natural satellite and home of the Selenar gene-cults, a force the Emperor required if his visions for humanity were to see the light of reality, backed by small forces from over half of the other legions. Honoured by their personal selection by the Emperor himself, Varinius Rampt prepared to showcase that despite their small numbers, the IVth would be a force to be reckoned with.

Breaking orbit alongside the rest of the assault force, the IVth put their plan into motion. Their fleet was not one of battleships and cruisers as it would be in the future, but small assault craft, dozens Warhawk and Nephoros-class Stormbirds ferrying the legionaries towards their target, each one equipped with breathing masks to combat the unsealed nature of their mark one armour. At a signal from Varinius, the fleet split, most breaking to engage the void forces of the Selenar, leaving only the IVth to continue on.

Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the IVth Legion drifted silently towards Luna from Mankind's birthworld through the void like arrows fired into the night. The Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna’s surface lashed the oncoming Imperial Force, swatting ships from the void with seeming impunity, but the IVth went undetected, unlooked for and unseen as they landed on the surface of Luna itself like a dagger in the night. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man.

Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead. Broken and humbled, the enslaved gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marine who would carry out Mankind's conquest of the stars. Praise was given to the strategy of the IVth, but for Varinius there were implications in the supreme efficacy of the tactic that reached far beyond that day If he could come up with such a plan to undo all but unassailable defences, then others within the galaxy could to. From that moment on, Varinius made a silent, personal vow that while he drew breath, the IVth legion would be the watchers in the darkness, securing the void from any foe who would seek to rest it from the Imperium. So galvanised, the IVth legion earned their name, the Dark Watchers rising from the victory at Luna.

#### In Darkness and Blood

Almost immediatly after their victory at Luna, already a costly battle that had left the IVth depleted, claiming the lives of many of their warriors, the Dark Watchers were assigned to a new warfront, taking part in their first and last action on Terra itself to aid in the pacification of the Techno-Barbarian state located in the Caucasus Peninsula of the ancient European continent, known as the Caucasus Wastes, their part in the operation recorded as the Assault on the Tempest Galleries. The Dark Watchers would not fight on the surface of the world during the brutal conflict however, instead descending beneath the earth, striking at the vast geo-thermal furnaces which provided power for the Ethnarchy's impregnable defences. Believed by almost all to be little more than a suicide mission the IVth once again entered the darkness, this time within the confines of a world rather than the depths of space, 20,000 warriors making the journey, seemingly none, save the Emperor himself, believeing they would ever return.

In this, they were almost correct, and of the 20,000, barely 1,000 remained, all but ending the Legion as a combative force during the closing years of the Unification Wars, the pacification of the Sol System, and even the opening years of the Great Crusade. It was a price that the Dark Watchers happily paid however, solidifying their reputaion as warriors who would hold any line or take on any assault, regardless of the casualties inflicted upon them, or the seemingly impossible nature of their assigned tasks.

#### The Saturnine Ordos

Faced with not only a complex geneseed that was rejected in almost all recruits, as well as two campaigns that severly depleted their strength, the Dark Watchers would take no further military action in the campaigns to secure the Sol System, spending much of their time on Luna remustering their strength, the gene-cults working to undo the genetic problems within the IVth, something they were unsuccessful in, hampering the Legions growth, ensuring they would remain small, unable to match the size they had been before the Tempest Gallaries and Luna, their recruitment prior to that carried out over decades, not mere years.

In the wake of the alliance with Mars at the Treaty of Olympus Mons, the IVth legion were equipped with new MK II ‘Crusade’ pattern power armour, and many of their number assigned to assist other, combat ready legions, specifically the Vth and XIth Legions as they pushed outwards, many other legions pushing inwards, taking the fight to Venus and Mercury. While the Vth did not break their advance, moving past Saturn to strike at the Jovians and the outer system, the XIth and IVth were ordered to take Saturn and its moons, securing the mineral rich area of space for the Imperium.

As they neared the world, the XIth broke off, descending to the moon of Titan that had been fortified by a xenos race lost to time during Old Night, the action gaining the legion their name, while the IVth moved into the rings of Saturn, scouting the way for the larger legion, and in doing so, making first contact with the humans who called Saturn their home, becoming the first Imperial Force to make contact with those who would quickly become one of the lynchpins of Imperial success.

Combining by far the most powerful fleet in the Sol System prior to Unification and an elite armed force known as the Saturnyne Ordo, the military of Saturn was a force to be reckoned with, rivalling even the early Astartes in skill, especially in void warfare, having honed their tactics over centuries against mutants and xenos alike. While the XIth fought against those same mutants and xenos, it was the Dark Watchers who helped to secure and alliance between the Imperium and the warriors of Saturn. Many have argued that it was only after the Polities of Saturn joined voluntarily with the Imperium that the Great Crusade truly began, their fleets, orbital shipyards and void expertise fundamental to the speed and scale of the early years of Imperial expansion.

While the rest of the Legions continued on, eventually leaving the Solar System as the Great Crusade officially began in M30.798, the Dark Watchers stayed behind with the new found Ordo’s, training alongside the first ten regiments of the newly raised Solar Auxilia, known collectively as the "Saturnyne Rams”. Here they learnt the ways of void warfare from the undisputed experts, and with their gene-wrought superiority over even the most well trained of men, they soon surpassed their teachers. In a show of respect for the Astartes, the Dark Watchers were forever enshrined by the Ordo’s as the 11th regiment of the Solar Auxilia, the final Saturnyne Ram, all others raised simply bearing the title of Solar Auxilia.

Finally, in M30.802, the Dark Watchers finally made to set out into the darkness of uncharted void. With them was a regiment of the Solar Auxilia, raised as the 12th regiment and commanded by the newly minted Legate Braden Jaxer. In their armouries were new suits of armour crafted by Mars for the legions, Saturnine Terminator armour representing an order of magnitude higher than the protective capabilities of standard power armour. The IVth were designated as the test bed for this new weapon, equipped with far more than the other legions as they struck ever outwards.

Their first conflict was on the world of 20-1, a world boasting a not inconsiderable void fleet of their own to challenge the Expeditionary Fleet. Undaunted, the IVth struck, and soon every vessel had been either captured or rendered inoperable by punishing broadsides and boarding actions from the Astartes. Faced with no way to stop the newly turned fleet that now surrounded every planet in the system, they offer the Watchers their unconditional surrender. Most of the ships are returned to the system as the new Imperial defences, but many are kept by the Legion to bolster their fleet.

Even for a legion of Astartes however, the victories were not without cost. At the Hyperion Way, the legion encountered an empire spanning three star systems, all united under a fanatically religious government, who view the Space Marines as daemons sent to test then. The population of the Hyperion Way all bore crude cybernetic modifications, allowing the Lord Cardinal of the Empire to subsume their minds at will, ensuring that none ever retreated in the face of annihilation, forcing the legion to purge each and every planet in turn, void defences on the planet's surface making even Exterminatus Actions impossible.

On each world, the Dark Watchers casualties rose, peaking in the final campaign of the war which saw the last great armoured assault of the IVth legion, the bloody fighting seeing almost all of the legions heavy fighting vehicles ruined beyond repair. When the world was finally purged and the Lord Cardinal struck down, only a handful of vehicles could be recovered back into the Dark Watchers armouries, the legion modifying their standard operating procedure substantially to compensate for the sudden lack. In time, this stop-gap measure became the norm, with Dreadnoughts and ma-portable heavy weapons taking the place of massed armour assaults, that left to the ever growing VIth legion.

In the wake of this harrowing and narrowly secured victory, the IVth needed a victory to stabilise moral, and soon, they were granted far more than a mere compliance, the legion being joined by the Emperor himself, steered towards a newly discovered sector of space, word of their lost sire upon the Master of Mankind’s lips.

#### Shaaa Hydrades

> "*You are my unbent sons, my tempered hammers. You have watched the dark for too long however, and there is far more than the mere darkness in the void of space. My creator bids us to conquer this galaxy for our new Imperium, let the other legions concern themselves with the affairs of the mortals who scurry upon the surface of their worlds. We shall take the only thing that truly matters in an empire such as this, and hold them for all time. No longer will you just watch, now you will become the very wardens of the void itself, the custodians of Imperial space; my Star Guardians.*"
> ― Shaaa Hydrades upon being united with his gene-sons.
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The Dark Watchers, and the Star Guardians they would soon become, were the IVth Legion of Space Marines, created from the gene-seed of the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades. At the dawn of the Imperium of Man, before the Great Crusade had begun, the twenty gene-children of the Emperor of Mankind, the Primarchs, were scattered across the known galaxy through the Warp in a mysterious accident due to the intervention of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The gestation capsules of all twenty Primarchs were stolen from the Emperor's secret gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains on Terra and were flung across thousands of light years, all eventually coming to rest on backwater human colony planets.

It was this first touch of Chaos before the Primarchs had even been born that may have corrupted so many of them and laid the foundation for the agonising tragedy of the Almire Apostasy that was to come. Of all of these young Primarch’s however, only one would come to rest on anything but a planet, Shaaa Hydrades crashing into the ancient megastructure known only as ‘the Ring’.

Smashing into a hanger bay, Shaaa’s mere arrival saw hundreds die as the sealed room was suddenly opened to the void. By the time warriors from the Hydrades empire, where the pod had impacted, arrived, they expected to find nothing but corpses or enemy EVA troopers within the hanger. Instead, what they found was a small child, seemingly no more than five years of age, sitting in the remains of a metallic pod, seemingly uncaring about the airless and freezing nature of the void that now surrounded him. Confused but realising that this was no ordinary child, the warriors quickly brought the child to their ruler, Lord Asher Hydrades of the Hydrades empire. Intrigued by the youth who displayed more talent than any of his years should have been able to, and a seeming immunity to the kiss of space, Asher quickly adopted the child, declaring his name to forever more be Shaaa of house Hydrades, adopting him into his family.

In his new family, Shaaa soon found himself treading both the path of the smith and the warrior, coming to hold full dominion over the great stellar forge complex of the Hydrades Empire when not fighting, or acting as the second in command of the Hydrades army, subservient only to his older brother, and to Ashur himself. A being of ferocious intellect, Shaaa delved deep into all the knowledge the Ring had to offer, crafting new weapons for his father, using STC technology that the Mechanicum of Mars would have waged several crusades to possess, sadly lost to the ravages of war before their arrival. It is even believed that had Shaaa had already reasoned out his true nature and the abstract nature of his origins as an artificial post-human being, created by someone superior to even himself, and someone he fully expected to one day reveal himself to Shaaa, afterall, you didn’t misplace a construct such as a Primarch, Shaaa knowing the word even though none had ever voiced it, and merely leave it to roam the galaxy without guidance.

In these days, Shaaa was almost a completely different man than the one who would one day stride the stars alongside the Imperium. He laughed, he joked, he even loved, taking a husband whom he gave everything too, often describing him as the utter pinnacle of his life, despite their obvious differences. He got on well with most he encountered, his older sister and younger brother both looking to him for guidance on numerous occasions, but this adulation was not universal, and it was from this that dark storms began to take shape.

Asher and Shaaa’s eldest brother both soon became wary of the Primarch, now leading a massive war across the entire space station, having already conquered more of it than any other warlord in history had come close to. Growing nervous that Shaaa would one day usurp him, and urged on by the jealous brother, Asher took steps to remove Shaaa from the equation entirely.

On the eve on Shaaa’s final march of the last remaining warlord to not both to Asher, while he was mustering his closest soldiers to him for a final war council, an agent loyal to Asher above all detonated a bomb, it's like unseen in all of the Ring’s history. An ancient archeotech masterpiece, the weapon continued both radiological and bio-chemical components, creating a blast that would destroy anything that stood in its way, at least in theory.

Shaaa took the full brunt of the sudden blast, as did his inner council, Shaaa’s brother and sister perishing in agony, while Shaaa’s husband survived for but a moment longer, Shaaa shielding him with his own bulk, a futile final act of love from a Primarch none who met him after that day would ever think capable of such.

The blast tore Shaaa in half, bisecting the Primarch at the waist, his body being scorched by the unnatural fire, half his body melting like hot wax, giving the Primarch the hideous visage he carried throughout the Great Crusade. No one else could have hoped to survive the blast, but Shaaa’s will to endure was the stuff of legend, and when Asher sent in his own warriors to clear up the wreckage and ensure his son was dead, they instead found a hideously wounded but very much alive warrior, enraged beyond anything he had exhibited in his life to date. Despite his injuries and his lack of legs, the warriors stood little chance against the Primarch, their corpses soon joining those of Shaaa’s followers in the airless void of the breached section of the station.

From that day forth, Shaaa had only one goal, the destruction of the Hydrades empire in its entirety, wanting nothing more than to tear up his foster-father's legacy root and stem for the ultimate act of betrayal. Fashioning himself crude cybernetics, Shaaa would soon rise at the head of a new army, those who had looked to Shaaa over Asher rallying to his call for vengeance. It was ironic that before the attempt on his life, Shaaa would never have contemplated betrayal of his father, and yet in the wake of his near death experience, Asher had ensured that what he most feared came to pass.

Soon, Shaaa marched on the Hydrades empire at the head of his own army, a changed man from the one who had already conquered the station once. Gone was the joy and laughter, replaced instead with a near incalculable rage, barely held in check by cold, unremitting logic more at home in a machine than a man. In time, it would become clear the blast had affected more than just Shaaa’s body, attacking his mind with the same self-replicating injuries that kept his body from ever hoping to heal. His emotional centres were all but destroyed, his left and right side of the brain practically fused together, making it difficult for the Primarch to process the emotions running hot through his body. In time, this would worsen considerably, making the merely difficult all but impossible, until Terra finally rendered the further degradation irrelevant.

Within five years, less than half of what it had taken him to conquer the station in Ashur's name, Shaaa and his army, the so called Immortals, had smashed apart all opposition before them. The Hydrades army was in tatters, Shaaa slaying his elder brother at the Apex of the last blood battle for supremacy aboard the station. With his victory there, none could challenge the Primarch. Shaaa was poised to strike, and yet on the eve of his victory, something he had all but forgotten about came to pass, appearing to him in a flash of golden light.

#### The Coming of the Emperor

    From the flash of light strode beings Shaaa had never expected to see in the flesh. Glorious giants armoured in exquisitely wrought golden armour, carrying long spears tipped with the wide barrels of projectile weaponry. Behind them came smaller warriors, barely taller than the hulking forms of those who called the Ring their home. Their armour was not as fine, though still looking extremely proficient and adequate for any task the user could use. Clad in black, the only colour the warriors showed was burning orange eyepieces, seeming to pierce the soul of everyone present behind their emotionless faceplates.

Then finally, the last figured stepped through, Shaaa’s face twisting into what would once have been a smile, but now was closer to an ugly leer. The being that stepped forward was undoubtedly a being of supreme power, radiating a golden light that forced all who looked upon him to turn away, all save for Shaaa himself. Here was vindication of everything he had believed about his own past, a being like this was the only one who could have forged a being such as Shaaa.

According to all accounts of what transpired next, Shaaa knelt before a word was said, bowing his head before the Emperor of Mankind. The Emperor spoke of the Imperium, Shaaa remaining silent as he spoke, only rising when the Emperor made to hand Shaaa an army to finish what he had already begun, indicating the warriors in black he had brought with him. When Shaaa spoke, it was to refuse the aid, referring only to the Emperor as his creator, and proclaiming that the warriors of the Ring had begun the war, and only they would end it, asking the Emperor not to interfere in this last, most deserving of victories.

The Emperor agreed, though it was clear the warriors in black did not take the dismissal lightly, but Shaaa paid them little heed. Renewing his conquest, Shaaa smashed apart the last of Asher’s guards, tearing them asunder before finally reaching the man himself, standing before his foster-father’s throne bereft of guards. What passed between the pair has gone unrecorded from history, the next records showing a single shot being fired, before Shaaa strode from the throne room, his father’s frail frame clamped in one hand, still clinging to life, though lacking a right hand.

Flinging Asher into an airlock, Shaaa watched in silence as his father stood on the other side of the thick armour-glass. No words passed between them, to his credit Asher not uttering a sound as he struggled to stand with half a dozen clearly broken bones. And then it was over, the airlock cycling in a puff of expelled atmosphere, ejecting Asher Hydrades into the coldness of space. The Ring was unified under the Hydrades name, but it was Shaaa, not Asher, who was hailed as its undisputed and total ruler.

Now completed, the Emperor returned, Shaaa willingly travelling with his new found creator. Curiously, Shaaa never used the term father for the Emperor, that title forever tainted in his eyes, Creator serving as a term of respect for the being that had forged him. After a brief period in the Emperor's company, fighting alongside Him and consuming knowledge of the Great Crusade, its history, war machinery and operations, Shaaa was handed the command of the IVth Legion as the Emperor had promise, and the transition of authority to him was swift and absolute. His transition from a warlord on the Ring to a general of the Great Crusade was a swift one, aided by his evident hunger for the task set before him and the uncompromising intelligence and diligent application to this greater challenge he displayed. By M30.856, the IVth Legion had now grown from a little over 11,000 warriors to 35,000, with recruitment speeds increasing every month, the people of the Ring taking to Shaaa's geneseed in a way no population had to date, their populace seemingly immune to the genetic rejection issues that had plagued the IVth.

Addressing the assembled warriors, Shaaa took absolute command, the Emperor declaring his induction into the Imperium to be complete, Shaaa renaming and remaking his sons according to his desires. Sweeping away much of what had gone before by way of organisation at a stroke, the Primarch took the IVth Legion apart with the precision and intent with which an artisan might deconstruct a mechanical chronograph, reconfiguring its components and re-assembling it in a fashion more to his liking. On that day, the Dark Watchers were no more, and from them rose the Star Guardians, wearing the purple of the Hydrades empire upon their shoulders, a sign of being Shaaa’s chosen warriors from this day, till the end of days.

#### The Squat Wars

    See: The Squat Wars

In M30.850, the Primarch Shaaa Hydrades, IVth son of the Emperor was discovered and reunited with his legion. Wasting no time in throwing himself into his father's crusade, Shaaa and his renamed Star Guardians pushed out from their home further into the galactic core. The first four planets that fell before the might of the 30th Expeditionary Fleet, the entire might of the IVth legion, coupled with elements of the VIIIth, Imperial Army and Mechanicum forces, rendering them as insignificant compliances. The fifth world however would forever change the IVth legion, and the Imperium itself.

Arriving in the system in M30.858, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet was hailed by a small fleet orbiting the systems primary world. Identifying themselves as traders of the Khazadi, they were cut off by Shaaa who demanded their complete and utter surrender before the Imperium of Man. Communications quickly broke down, the communications going quiet as hostilities erupt.

The Khazadi made range first, firing at the oncoming Imperial vessels with an unknown ion weapon. A single shot depleted shields almost fully, a barrage would disable an entire vessel, leaving them lifeless and helpless in the void. Three heavy cruisers suffered this fate as Shaaa pushed his fleet into engagement range, the Khazadi lacking any other weapons to finish the helpless vessels. Soon, the Imperial response thundered across the void, reducing the small fleet to burning wrecks in a matter of moments, only a pair of ships escaping, burning their engines at dangerous levels to outrun their aggressors. The way now clear, the Imperial fleet took up positions above the world, preparing for a full scale invasion.

The first to make planetfall were the Dusk Wyrms, warriors of the VIIIth Legion, the first of the Khazadi falling to their bolters as they advanced into the network of subterranean tunnels. Soon they were joined by the Star Guardians, Shaaa leading his sons himself, driving the enemy, now known as the ‘Squats’, deeper into their holes. The death toll rose rapidly on both sides, those human forces left on the surface struggling with the harsh environment, while beneath their feet Astartes fought and died in near total darkness.

Weeks ground into month, the Squats numbers beginning to take their toll. A counter attack across the surface forced the mortal forces to withdraw, cutting off the Primarch and the Legions as their bitter foe sealed the entrances. An armada, equal in might to the Imperial fleet, appeared soon after, forcing Shaaa’s forces to withdraw, their compliments of marines now planetside making boarding a deadly concept.

Now cut off, the Squats set about dividing the Astartes forces left on the world, succeeding in breaking their ranks, but not their resolve. As the Imperials broke through into a transit tunnel leading directly to the capital city of the world, butchering thousands of soldiers destined for the front line, the Squats enacted their final sanction, flooding the tunnels with magma in an attempt to destroy the invaders. Thousands of Astartes perished in the sudden attack, Shaaa himself disappearing, believed by some to be dead.

And then the Imperium responded. Uulious Kaezar, first Captain of the Sol Exemplar, arrived in system with a mighty fleet, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet combined with his own forces. On board was the entirety of the Sol Exemplar Legion, elements of the Sable Choir and Eaters of the Dead, alongside millions more mortal soldiers. Enough warriors to crack a system descended upon 30-5 to reinforce the initial assault. Little resistance was met from the Squats this time, those survivors who had been cut off from the main assault force passing stories of the devastation and the fall of Shaaa. These rumours were put to rest when Uulious broke the last defenders of the Squat city, finding Shaaa deep within the throne room, the world's leader dead in his feet. The Primarch of the IVth was wounded, his armour and weapons close to useless, but he was very much alive, and 30-5 was his. Those who survived the world spread word of his deeds, the Squats coming to hate him above all others, referring to him only as ‘The Beast’.

The battle won, the two forces withdrew to orbit once more, destroying the last vestiges of the squats as they left, but what was once believed to be a single compliance, soon became clear it was something more. Recovered details spoke of an empire, dozens of worlds, billions of soldiers, all mobilising against the fledgling Imperium. The Squat Wars, or the War of Lost Cousins as it would later be known by the Khazadi, had truly begun.

While 30-5 had been the first, and would remain  one of the bloodiest, battles of the war, the next engagement was arguably the most pivotal. The world of Mareen was identified as a lynchpin of the Squat Empires defence. Mustering their fleet, the Imperial force struck at the world, clashing with the Mareen Navy.

The battle was short but bloody, ships on both sides dying in a matter of moments, the Mareen scattering those ships that the Star Guardians boarded, or they boarded themselves, across their empire. This battle also saw Durnan, a survivor of 30-5 and now sworn enemy of Shaaa, cross hammers with the Breacher Lord. Though he failed in his attempt on Shaaa’s life, he survived the confrontation, fleeing to the surface of Mareen. The Battle of Mareen was over, the Squats naval power all but spent, granting the Imperium unrestricted access across the void.

Uulious lead the invasion of Mareen, given command of the invasion by Shaaa himself, leading elements of all the present legions save the IVth against the dug in squats. Here, the squats unleashed their psi-stone weapons, channeling the warp against the Astartes. Only the nulls of the Xth could stand before them, heedless of the weapons power that could not find purchase in their soulless bodies. Even here however, the heretech innovation of the Squats found a solution, creating mines that preyed on the psychic null zone their kind emitted. Soon, as on 30-5, the Imperium found themselves bogged down in brutal, close quarters fighting. The modifications to power armour that Shaaa had overseen on 30-5 soon began to be adopted throughout the present legions, the Mechanicum representatives soon stepping in to standardise what would eventually become known as the Iron pattern of Power Armour, the third distinct mark to make its way through the legions.

While Uulious led the war on the ground, Shaaa took what remained of the fleet that was not required to strike at the Squats in other areas of their empire to muster the scattered Imperial fleet. Worlds burnt under his merciless gaze, with no heed paid to whether or not there was a military presence on the planets.

As Agri-Worlds began to fall, the Squat Empire began to contend with a new enemy, one they thought vanquished generations earlier. Hunger. Starvation began to spread through the Squat’s empire, millions dying without ever seeing an Astartes or the kiss of war. Desperate, the Squats began to develop a weapon of terrible power, one they believed would end the war once and for all. Though Uulious led the war on Mareen against Durnan, the Squat never forgot the Beast who had destroyed his world, believing that to kill him would win the war. Using his position as war leader of the Khazadi he poured every available resource into the creation of three battle suits. Known as the Retributor suits, they were designed to destroy the Beast and bring about victory, but their construction was slow, plagued with difficulties and dwindling resources. What was envisioned as a quick solution spilled into years, and other avenues were subtly explored behind Durnan’s back.

A delegation from the Khazadi stole from their empire, travelling into the unknown in search of allies. No Squat vessel had travelled so far beyond the edge of their empire before, but desperate times pushed aside the superstitious warnings in favour of action. Through luck or chance, the delegation was spat from the warp near the recently rediscovered world of Baa;, home of Sanguinius, Primarch of the renamed Blood Angels. Though much of his legion was now by his side, rejoicing in their reunification, many also fought beside Uulious as the Eaters of the Dead, unaware of their new lord.

At first the delegation made to run, or to sell their lives dearly as they quickly recognised the Imperial ships, but as it became clear they would not be fired upon unless they fired first, the Squats relented, gaining an audience with the Sanguinius himself. There they poured the story of the war as they saw it onto Sanguinius, the Primarch listening in sympathetic silence. He knew of the war, having been preparing to lead his legion to support his brother when the Squat delegation had arrived, but now, as he saw the truth in the words of the delegate, he prepared to set sail for a different purpose. Securing consent for his plan from the Emperor of Mankind himself, Sanguinius and his Blood Angels entered the warp towards the Squat Empire, members of the Crimson Swords and their Rogue Trader allies joining this new wave of Imperial Reinforcements.

Unaware of this new force preparing to enter the war, Shaaa and his reformed fleet appeared above Mareen, eager to assist in ending the war on the planet once and for all. As landing forces began to make their way from the fleet to the surface, alarms sounded throughout the Star Guardians flagship as a ship docked on the main hangar bay. Using a stolen Stormbird gunship, Durnan and two of his best Hearthguard stepped on to the Luna’s Fall, the Retributor battle suits they piloted thrumming with barely contained power. Those Astartes that rushed to meet them stood little chance, crushed beneath the blades of the trio. Even Lord Commander Varinius Rampt, the second in command of the IVth legion, fell before them, his injuries so great he would later be interred within the shell of a Dreadnought.

Then Shaaa entered the hangar, Durnan finally getting his wish to face the Beast on equal footing. Hammer crossed with axe, the mechanical might of the two remaining suits against his gene wrought strength. The sides were evenly matched, and though Shaaa felled one of Durnan’s comrades, he could not stop the Squat leader. The fight seemed to last for hours, none able to interfere without being torn apart, both combatants were soon bloodied and all but spent, refusing to given in while their hated rival still drew breath.

And then the hangar was bathed in glorious golden light. Shaaa and Durnan shielded their eyes from the sudden glare, knocked apart as Sanguinius teleported into the hangar, Blood Angels bearing the new crimson of their legion and Squats flanking him. He brought word of the peace he had been ordered to seek, but neither Shaaa nor Durnan wished to broach that idea. With a roar the pair charged each other once more, but they would never meet in combat again.

Stepping forward, a pair of the Squats raised an ion cannon, a single shot enough to overload the already struggling Retributor suit, sealing Durnan inside the lifeless machine much to the rage of its pilot. For Shaaa however, a more personal touch was required, and one that would shape relations between the IVth and IXth for the rest of time. Sanguinius stepped in front of the charging pair, faster than Shaaa could ever hope to match, delivering a single blow through the Breacher Lords helmet. Shaaa collapsed without a sound as the blow connected, his helmet shattering, damaged beyond repair. Sanguinius was not proud that his first interaction with his brother had been a violent one, but he stood by his actions until his final days.

With Shaaa and Durnan taken away by their warriors for medical treatment, Sanguinius began to arduous task of carrying out the Emperor's orders for peace. While the Squats now desired little else than an end to the bloodshed that threatened their entire kind, many of the Astartes who had fought and bled for victory, their Legions spent close to breaking point. Nevertheless, Sanguinius persevered, and soon a treaty was up between the Imperium and the Khazadi.

In recognition of the strength the Khazadi has displayed, their Empire was not merely absorbed into the Imperium as any other would be. Instead an offer was extended to their kind that had only been extended to one other, the red priests of Mars. Signed upon the war wracked surface of the Squats capital world, the Treaty of Mareen recognised a third empire within the Imperium.

Durnan never supported the peace as his brethren did, spitting on the truce and disappearing from the empire. He was not seen again until the dark days of M31.

When he finally awoke more than a week after the peace had been signed, Shaaa’s vengeful roar reportedly echoed throughout the ship for days, resonating with his sons for the rest of time. The IVth would never truly forgive the Squats, seeing them as a stain on their honour for as long as they lived, but it was the Sanguinius who held the greatest enmity for the Star Guardians, their lord held in the highest levels of contempt above any other.

And so, the Squat Wars or the War of Lost Cousins came to an end, the newly renamed Astra Khazadi standing beside their long lost brethren throughout the Great Crusade, and into the dark times beyond...

#### The Bloody Reprisal

In M30.915, the 30th expeditionary fleet approached a world only ever recorded as 30-206. Soon revealed to be the heart of a human empire spanning thirty two systems and seventy five inhabited worlds or mining outposts. It did not take long for the humans to detect the oncoming IVth, the population immediately turning hostile and launching a void attack against the oncoming Astartes fleet. Brushing aside the resistance with little difficulty, the world seemed to change its mind on the assault in mere moments, a transmission coming from the surface of the world begging for mercy, the fleet, allegedly, having already been in open rebellion against the world's rulers.

Scoffing at the idea, Shaaa made to land upon the world in force, the thought of allowing this surrender never crossing his mind, until Commander Harnt Redal voiced his own support of it. The Aide had been by Shaaa’s side since returning from the training exercise with the XIIIth legion, and had served as a calming influence for the Breacher Lord,forever tempering his more brutal nature. Speaking of the potential validity of the speaker's claims, and pointing that their fleet had already been scattered above this world, potentially in preperation for bombardment, Harnt convinced Shaaa to allow the events to play out, sending the Commander in his stead to accept this surrender.

Descending to the surface of the world with his Division, their weapons ordered to be locked away in a show of peace, not invasion, Harnt Redal strode through the city streets alongside warriors of the worlds military, going helmetless, fighting the common curse of agoraphobia amongst the IVth legion, ensuring he presented the best front for the Imperium’s arrival, despite their bloody meeting. Soon, he reached the parliament building, the rulers of the world descending to meet him. There, they asked if he was the warrior in charge of this force, and with a nod, Harnt told them he was.

What happened next has forever been enshrined within the memory of the IVth legion, one of the rulers raising his hand, a single shot ringing out as an unseen sniper let lose a single bullet, the round striking Harnt directly between the eyes, a divergent type of mass reactive round detonating, leaving the commander a headless corpse that collapsed to the ground, twitching as his body tried to process its imminent demise.

Rage erupted soon after, both the explosive rage of those of Harnt’s own command, unleashing their vengeance at the end of a boltgun and chainsword, and Shaaa’s own rage, the cold calculating, impossibly deep anger of a Primarch slighted, long kept in check by one who was now dead through treachery.

Soon, the order came in bearing the command codes of the Lord Commander himself, acting upon orders passed to him directly from Shaaa. The 3rd Division were to pull back from the world and make for orbit, but the warriors were not in a forgiving mood. Blood flowed through the streets, and only through brutal pacification actions did the Division’s Discipline Corps regain order, ensuring the commands were carried out as their lord had decreed, close to a dozen Star Guardians dead by their hands in the interest of regaining an iron-fisted control.

If the world thought that they had been saved by these grim warriors however, they were sadly mistaken. As soon as the Astartes had withdrawn, lance strikes from high orbit began to plummet through the worlds clouds, boiling away sea’s and destroying entire cities in a venting of pure wrath. Finally, the final axe blade fell, exterminatus-grade phospex weaponry deployed, wiping the planet clean of all remaining life, and ensuring it would be of little use to any, save as a chunk or rock to be stripped mined once the atmosphere had burnt off and the void extinguishing the otherwise eternal living flames.

Even this was not the end of Shaaa vengeance however, the death of one world barely equalling a single one of his sons, and a warrior like Harnt requiring far more blood payment than any one world. None could sway him from his path, only Harnt and Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer having that influence, and the Lord Commander had no wish to stop the bloodshed either, having lost a close brother in the same way Shaaa had lost a son.

In total, sixty one worlds were reduced to little more than ruined craters, mining worlds for the Mechanicum but no longer suited for human habitation, one planet for every year Harnt had been within the Star Guardians. Eventually, even this rage blew out, and though many of his brothers called for Shaaa to answer for his perceived crimes, the Emperor never voiced his opinion on the matter, neither condoning or condemning the actions taken. Soon, the Mechanicum moved in, turning those worlds reduced to lifeless husks into strip mines in short order. The remainder of the empire capitulating with all speed, welcoming any occupation force other than the warriors of the IVth. It was noted that Shaaa’s own mental degredation seemed to accelerate from that day, his emotions becoming harder and harder for the Breacher Lord, or the newly named “Cold Hearted” to express as he once had, his fused mind delving deeper into unfeeling logic than ever before.

#### The Battle of the Endless Arkium

See: The Battle of the Endless Arkium

Responding to a call for reinforcements by Almire and a force of Imperial Justicars, the Star Guardians muster their full strength to strike at the Abominable Intellegence known as the Endless Arkium, or the Colossalstructure, alongside the Consuls Exemplar and the bulk of the Imperial Justicars. While Almire took full command of all Imperial forces, Shaaa Hydrades was entrusted with the vanguard of the assault, commanding his sons almost entierly from the fleet as they pushed forward, the newly deployed Void Pattern Mk3 armour proving its worth in the intense fighting, the death toll amongst units equipped with the new armour far lower than those equipped with standard Mk3 across the other legions present.

#### The Fall of the Favoured Son

See Also: The Blood of Angels

The IXth Legiones Astartes, the Blood Angels, had always borne a single flaw deep within the coding of their gene seed, even when they strode the stars as the Revenant Legion, the Eaters of the Dead. This flaw was dubbed “the Red Thirst”. It was a bloodlust, a need to not only spill the blood of their foes, but to consume it, the drive going beyond the mere desire into a compulsive need. This madness was the darkest secret of the legion, one which they hid from all outside, with those who suffered from it being corralled and contained by the legion, in the hope that this mutation would be cured, never to be revealed to the Emperor. Alas, as the Crusade continued, the condition continued to strike the legion, the number of cases of warriors falling to the thirst continuing to climb as each new conflict struck the IXth. And then, as the IXth fought alongside the XIIth and XXth Legions against the foul xenos menace known as the Nephilim, the unthinkable happened. The last stone in the legions dam broke open. Sanguinius descended into madness, and with their lord stricken, the curse was complete, the  entirety of the legion falling to their inner demons. The Bloody Path began soon after.

A hundred worlds fell to the rage of the IXth, Xenos, recalcitrant human and Imperial alike, none were spared the blind wrath of angels as they turned towards their homeworld. It was with a heavy heart that the Emperor, in his high wisdom, declared the Blood Angels Damnatio Memoriae, moving to stop the destruction once and for all. Five legions were sent to Baal, to end the threat of the fallen IXth, no effort spared to ensure their destruction would be complete. The taskforce was to be led by Shaaa Hydrades, the Breacher Lord known for his unyielding will and willingness to undertake any duty, no matter how distasteful such a task may have been. Supporting the Star Guardians were the Claws of Xipac, War Bears, Light Bringers and the Ashen Crows. Nearly half a million Astartes, over ten million Imperial Army and an assortment of Mechanicum forces were let loose. This was to be one of the largest military operations in Imperial history. It was a tragedy that it would be for such a dark purpose.

Once more, as at the Endless Arkium, the IVth were selected to lead the vanguard, breaking from the warp before any other Imperial Forces. Leading a massed attack against the Blood Angels fleet, the IVth became the first warriors within the legions to do battle against others of their kind, not in a sparring cage, but in a brutal and unrelenting war. For all their maddness, the Blood Angels were still Astartes, possessing the same training, armour and weapons as the Star Guardians, the death toll rising with every passing moment. And yet the IVth persevered, punching deep into the enemy fleet and opening a single corridor towards the planet of Baal Secundus, and through that gap poured the rest of the Imperial Retribution.

The battle raged for weeks on the surface and in the void, few Star Guardians setting foot on the surface, Shaaa himself being the only one of his brothers to not touch land during the assault. Only when he personally led an attack on the *Red Tear*, the Gloriana flagship of the Blood Angels, did the IXth fleet finally start to break apart, by that time, Sanguinius already lying dead upon the sands of the world that had borne him.

#### The Ullanor Crusade

See Also: The Ullanor Crusade

The greatest of the nascent Imperium's victories during the Great Crusade came in the form of the defeat of the largest Ork empire ever encountered, discovered by the War Bears in M30.999, the legion showing uncharacteristic restraint in breaking off their pursuit and seeking reinforcements. Soon, those reinforcements were mustered, the Ullanor Crusade unleashing its might upon the Ork empire of Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The capital world of this Greenskin stellar empire, and the site of the final assault by the Space Marine Legions, lay in the central Ullanor System of the galaxy's Ullanor Sector. The Crusade included the deployment of close to a quarter of a million Space Marines, millions Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Imperial starships and their support personnel, as well as dozens of titan legions and Mechanicum taghamata’s. The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of humanity, and at that time, was the greatest military muster the Imperium had seen in its history.

The other legions and warriors of man quickly busied themselves in cracking the Orks from the surface of the planets, the Stalwart forces of the Scorpus Crusaders led by Almire Leoric marched alongside the feral warriors of Kodiak, his War Bears unleashed in all their pent up savage ferocity kept in check when fighting against the lost sons of man. Behind them came the Blight Wardens, their artillery delivering toxins of such virulent potency that they slowed even the greenskins, helping to kill off the reproductive spores the creatures used to replenish their numbers at frightening speeds.

For the Star Guardians however, there was another role far more suited to their expertise. The Ork Armada was ramshackle in the extreme, but it’s numbers eclipsed the Imperial Forces. With multiple legion fleets commanded by their own fleet masters, dozens of Imperialis Armada flotilla commanded by anyone from a Commodore to Grand Admiral’s and other Imperial Forces besides, each believing themselves to have ultimate command, only the lord of the void himself could strive to challenge the Orks above their worlds, just as only Almire could challenge them upon it. It was a challenge Shaaa rose to with no hesitation.

Striking hard, the Star Guardians focused on cracking open planetary defences, ignoring the bulk of the Ork Armada until the first Space Marines had landed on the world to bring battle to the Orks on all fronts. Their first task done, the Imperial void forces turned as one, hundreds of Nova Cannons firing into the night preceding the inevitable clash, as Mechanicum engineering vied with Ork ingenuity. In bloody battle after bloody battle, the equal of any on the surface, the Star Guardians led the charge against Ork vessels, boarding and destroying countless ships before finally, Shaaa slew the warlord in charge, breaking his ship soon after with the prow of the Bastion, the effect on the Orks being undeniable.

The fleet may have been scattered, but it was far from toothless, and as the more vulnerable transports began to creep ever further into the system, carrying men and women of the Imperial Army to the corpse grinder, the IVth spread themselves thin across the system, erecting a fortress in the void to ensure no Ork vessel would be able to strike at the lightly armoured conveyors. As the battles wore on, the greatest Battleships of the IVth would occasionally break off from their guard duty, moving to provide orbital support for those warriors fighting the Orks on the ground, their guns the greatest available in the system, and their support gratefully received.

Eventually, after many weeks of fighting, Urrlak Urruk being struck down by Almire himself, his corpse thrown to his warriors and finally breaking the spirit of the Ork Waaaaagh. Soon, the route was underway, Almire directing forces with a seemingly preternatural ease that none could deny, even Shaaa yielding to the First Founds will. Millions of Orks perished as they fled the planets, but even the Star Guardians cordon could not stop the sheer number of vessels entirely, many escaping from the system, Kodiak vowing that he would chase them down and destroy their kind once and for all. When the final gun finally fell silent, the Star Guardians were the only Astartes Legion to have never deployed a single warrior to the surface of a world to participate in the ground war, but none could deny that they had helped to secure victory in just as vital a stratum of the war.

#### The Triumph of Ullanor

The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever defeated by the military forces of the Imperium of Man, one not to be rivalled for millenia, and as such, upon their defeat, the Emperor of Mankind declared a great triumph, over half of the Primarch’s managing to reach the Ullanor system in time. The mechanicum laboured for weeks, rendering the entirety of Ullanor Primes greatest mountain range flat and paved, save for a single dais, preparing for a military parade the scale of which had never been seen. Millions, if not billions of soldiers, mortal, augmented and transhuman alike, would march past in celebration of the greatest victory, looking to the Dais where the Emperor stood alongside the Primarch’s, Shaaa standing tall amongst them, his helmet removed at the Emperor’s request, his mood sour as a result even on such an auspicious occasion.

As the parade finally ended, the arrayed soldiers now turned to face the dais, great vid-monitor screens showing the Emperor and the Primarch's, all waiting with baited breath for what came next after this, surely the High Point of the Great Crusade. They did not have long to wait, the Master of Mankind giving voice to his great plas that would one day shake the Imperium to its very core, though none yet knew it. He would return to Terra soon, though for what reason he did not say and in his stead, Almire, undisputed hero of the Ullanor Crusade, was named as Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies who possessed command authority over all of the other Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade, long regarded as the First among Equals, now uniquivicolly raised to such a position in name as well as spirit.

For a moment, the world seemed to stand silent, before Bartosz of the Palatine Wings moved, dropping to one knee, bowing his head before his brother, already first among equals, now raised to be equal no more. Like a damn breaking, the world erupted in cheers and cries of adulation. Millions of voices raised to celebrate the naming of the Warmaster, the Emperor’s own departure all but forgotten for the time being. Unnumbered human warriors would be deafened that day, their eardrums rupturing with the sheer number of voices joined in chorus, but all who suffered said they would gladly do so again.

Eventually, the cheers died away, the Emperor making one more proclamation before moving for Terra. The Imperium’s heart was to be secured fully, against any interloper that would dare to believe itself the equal of the Empire of man. In this, there could be only one to oversee the defences, Shaaa Hydrades being named as the Praetorian on Terra. While Almire would have undisputed command of the crusade, Shaaa would be given unprecedented authority within the Sol system itself, the better to protect the Emperor’s secretive project.

The cheers were lesser this time, almost infinitely so, Shaaa’s scowl remaining until the cheers died away for a second time. The Triumph so concluded, the muster made to disperse, the Emperor and Shaaa remaining on Ullanor for a time being, Shaaa ensuring his congratulations were passed on to Almire before he left, pausing only to stop at his ancient homeworld, ensuring the IVth would continue to see new recruits fill its ranks before he continued to Terra, plans already emerging in his mind for how he would conduct his newly appointed role.

At this time, Shaaa and the Star Guardians had one of the finiest military records in the Crusade, second only to Almire himself, his logical and analytical mind ensuring that his compliances were numerous, while his unyielding and merticulous nature ensured that worlds he subjugated stayed subjugated, unlike the more numerous campaigns of the Dragon Lords, whose conquests were often rushed, requiring recompliance actions from the Wisps. This record would soon be eclipsed, the Imperial Justicars continuing to outpace all others, while other legions like the Watchers of Akhet and the Dragon Lords surged forward as well, until soon, the Star Guardians combat record was seemingly forgotten, their new role as Castellans all that people equated to them. Whether or not Shaaa and the IVth were angered by this spurning of their priot deeds or not is a matter of conjecture, no opinions being voiced one way or another.

#### The Solar Guardian Array

The Solar Guardian Array was envisioned as the greatest piece of military engineering in the history of mankind, a project to rival even the ancient masters of the Golden Age of Technology. Devised by Shaaa himself in the wake of Ullanor when he was named Praetorian, the SGA was planned to take centuries to complete, Shaaa fully believing that the defences were never truly going to be needed, no force remaining to challenge the Imperium, but would instead stand as a statement in and of itself. Tangible proof that the Imperium did not merely rely on the technology of their forebears, but could improve upon it, and in time, exceed it utterly.

Command of the SGA is split in two, one acting as the primary relay, while the other acts as a failsafe, a thousand systems in place to ensure that should the primary fall, control will not be wrested from the secondary.

The Primary command node is Ceres, largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The dwarf-planet was soon all but hollowed out, its populace moved elsewhere or assigned to run the defencive bastion. There were few bigs guns on the surface, the majority of the world designated as a hanger or a communication node from which the entire array could be directed from, untold thousands of attack craft resting beneath its protective surface. High above however, this changed as the orbital trench network slowly took form. Massive orbital plates, made of little more than armoured plating and gun emplacements, constantly traversed the atmosphere of the world, perfectly set to cross over each other, providing a near constant armour shell for the world, crafts having to follow a constantly changing path to reach the surface without being destroyed by the massive plates. In this way, the world’s armour would constantly be in motion, damaged plates soon replaced by new ones, repair crews scrambling to repair the damage done to those out of the line of fire as they orbited around the world. Though Terra was the jewel in the crown of humanity, it would be Ceres that drew Shaaa’s attention the most. The Throneworld would continue to grow through artistry, while Ceres focused solely on the ugly business of warfare.

Secondary to Ceres was Mercury, its mines long since exhausted, it was now designated as a secondary command post, its position as close to the sun as any could reach meaning it would survive longer than the rest of the mighty array. If Ceres fell, Mercury would smoothly take control, but by the time of the Almire Apostasy, only the barest of these systems were in place, its own orbital trenches barely being considered a true defence.

Beyond these two worlds, much of the SGA was constructed from traditional defencive installations. Massive Star Forts that each took decades to construct hung in geosynchronous orbit around the systems worlds, ringing them with enough firepower to rival a small battlefleet. Further still, smaller gun emplacements stretched between the worlds, interlinked with vast minefields, each one ringed with sensor buoys to mark their edge, and the safe passage between the fields that shipping could travel through. Even the mightiest of battleships would not be able to force their way through such a field, requiring any attacker to either spend time clearing the fields while under fire, or brave the heavily defended safe route through.

In time, all the worlds of the Sol system would feel the touch of the SGA, even Mars bending to accept these new defences, adding to the Ring of Iron’s already considerable facilities.

Beyond the immediate defencive bastions however, the SGA boasted dozens of great dry docks and refueling stations throughout its bulk, each one capable of enacting field repairs and refits for the mighty Battlefleet Solar, even if ships could not reach a true shipyard in times of war. With these, Shaaa planned to allow the orbital siege works to hold for as long as required, the battlefleet remaining active even if vital worlds such as jupiter or even Mars were rendered inoperable.

As with so much however, these were not ready when Almire showed his hand, striking at the SGA with enough force to crack it open, allowing passage to the sparsely defended jewel of Terra, decapitating the Imperium of Man in hopes the body would die. Even Almire however had not anticipated the resolve of humanity, and just as the Imperium survived in the Imperium Secundus, the SGA would survive the long years of the Frontier Wars, machine spirits whispered to have been aided by Shaaa’s own hand fighting the traitors attempts to bring it back online throughout the war, ensuring that when the loyalists finally returned, the SGA would be little further in its completion, allowing them some chance of victory during the Second Solar War.

#### The Council of Nikaea

The Council of Nikaea was a great Imperial conclave called by the Emperor of Mankind in 001.M31 on the world of Nikaea in the midst of the Great Crusade that was intended to determine whether or not the use of psychic powers represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man.Travelling from Terra alongside the Emperor, Shaaa spoke out against Psychers and Sorcery, his opinions on the matter long since known. Unlike many others who spoke that day, Shaaa did not do so with merely accusations and little proof. His intervention was short, impersonal and to the point, citing numerous times all the legions had fought against monstrous psykers who had lost control of their own abilities, and comparing the librarius to a plasma cannon with a ruptured containment unit, one that no amount of training could repair fully.

Ultimately the existence of psykers in the Imperium was sanctioned but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control. The potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was defined as "sorcery" -- bargaining for power with the entities that existed within the Warp -- was officially banned. Unbeknownst to all, many would continue to practice the art of both psychic and sorceress abilities in secret, their Primarch’s continuing to train their sons, or turning a blind eye to the practice within their own legion led by another. Curiously, Camelous, the Invictii, Master of  the Dragon Lords and the strongest Psyker in the entire Imperium save the Emperor himself and perhaps his aide, Malcador, did nothing to disobey his father, instead accepting the decree, forcing his legion to give up their most potent weapon, even as he continued to push them as hard as before, their casualty rates spiking as a result.

As for Shaaa, the Breacher Lord is said to have let out a rare smile at the Edicts voicing, pleased in the final victory over the psyker. Soon however, this was pushed from his mind, returning to Terra to continue work upon the Solar Guardian Array.

### The Almire Apostasy

#### A Brothers Request

Surmah and Shaaa Hydrades had always shared a close bond, their outlook on combat and the ends outweighing the means often causing their methods aligned in pacifying worlds. Unsurprisingly, when Surmah and Almire first joined their minds together, planning for the coming storm, Surmah insisted that Shaaa, despite his position as Praetorian, would see sense, joining his forces to theirs. It was a gamble, Almire knowing that if the plan did not go perfectly, their ruse could be uncovered, but nor could the warmaster ignore the potential of the plan succeeding, his main obstacle instead becoming a powerful boon. Many of Shaaa’s closest brothers had already voiced their support for Almire in their quietest moments, yet another possible way to sway the Breacher Lord. Tentatively, Almire gave Surmah permission for the attempt, stressing the importance that nothing concrete could be mentioned, Shaaa could not know the truth until it was too late, everything hinged on that fact.

Making all speed for Terra, Surmah gained an audience with the Praetorian, Shaaa receiving him aboard his flagship, embracing his brother tightly, Surmah being the only Primarch to return to Terra in decades. For a while they debated strategy, the Hound of the Moors spinning a thinly veiled cover, eventually Shaaa cutting to the heart of the issue, asking his brother why he had travelled from the Crusade to return to the homeworld.

Now Surmah launched his carefully planned strike, swiftly turning the conversation back to the Great Crusade, and what lay beyond it, when the Crusade was done. For a while they continued on, Shaaa insisting as he always did on the subject that the crusade would never be completed, their blood and drive would always force them ever onwards, ever further into the unknown. Surmah remained quiet on his own feeling on the end, before again switching the subject, this time to the Mechanicum, and the grasp they held over the Imperium.

Here he finally revealed to Shaaa the answer to a question the Breacher Lord had often asked to no avail. Surmah spoke of his own weapon, Rancor being a relic from a bygone age, but not merely a single one of its kind. Surmah spoke of the vaults on his homeworld, in which lay dozens, perhaps hundreds more of these terrifyingly potent dark age weapons. He had refrained from using them for fear of the Mechanicum’s reprisal should he not hand them over, but now, as the crusade drew ever nearer to its conclusion, he reasoned this fear was no longer a concern.

Appalled, Shaaa took a step back from his brother, shocked that he would so brazenly insult the Martian Priesthood, to spit on the Treaty of Olympus Mons, and worse, to risk all out war within the Imperium. Seeing his reaction, Surmah finally had his answer, realising that Shaaa would have no stomach for a civil war, and would not be swayed. He could push no harder, reveal no more without compromising Almire’s plans. Without a word he turned, leaving the Breacher Lord in silence.

Shaaa was still stunned by his brothers words as Surmah made to leave the system. Shaaa’s mind raced with every possible outcome of the next actions taken. Civil War with the Mechanicum if he did nothing and Surmah unleashed his weapons, another legion, that of a close brother at that, purged if Shaaa spoke this new knowledge to anyone else within Imperial High Command.

For hours, Shaaa wrestled with his next move, before finally deciding upon a course of action. Surmah could not be allowed to act on his words, but nor could Malcador or the other Primarch’s know the dangers Surmah was playing with. Calling the Hydradyne to his side, Shaaa outlined his plan to his favoured sons. For the first time in their organisations history, the Hydradyne would deploy as a single force, not against xenos or renegade humans, but against Verivaltas itself, homeworld of the Hounds of Surmah.

The Hydradyne did not speak their concerns if they had any, simply bowing their heads as Shaaa told them of their newest task. They would follow the Hounds fleet as it sped for Verivaltas, an experimental stealth vessel already requisitioned by Shaaa, supposedly to test the sensor capabilities of the SGA. Once on Verivaltas they would find the vault, retrieving or destroying all that was within. There were no boundaries for their mission, no lines they could not cross. Shaaa sanctioned legion against legion violence knowingly, convinced that if the weapons were destroyed, Surmah would have to back down, not daring to voice his outrage at his dead sons for fear of what Shaaa himself also knew. The IVth were not known for their stealth, but Shaaa saw no other option.

Soon the Hydradyne departed the system, making excellent time to the world of Verivaltas. For weeks they planned their moves, watching the comings and goings of the Hounds as they slowly closed in on the elusive vault. Finally, convinced that they had prepared as best they could, the Hydradyne struck. The resistance they found along the way fell before them in a heartbeat, their training allowing them to cut through the sparse and surprised defenders with ease, gaining entry to the vault itself.

Explosives were placed, the weapons were prepared to carry, but the Hydradyne had not been as perfect in their insertion as they believed. Surmah had suspected such a strike, though he had hoped Shaaa would not commit his hand so openly against him. With his own sons at his back, Surmah struck at the Hydradyne, battle erupting throughout the halls of the vault. The Hydradyne no longer had the advantage and were cut down by the numerically superior foe, dozens falling to Surmah alone, his warpick making light work of the Star Guardians shields and armour.

Knowing their mission was a failure, the remaining Hydradyne forced their way free, detonating the few explosives they had planted, and carrying the single weapon they had retrieved. Only two of the Hydradyne would survive the journey back to their ship, the mighty weapon still in their possession as they broke from orbit, preparing to flee for Terra, bringing word of the scope of Surmah’s betrayal.

They would never make it to the homeworld in time for their warning to matter. Their cover blown, the stealth ship was set upon by wing after wing of bomber craft from the vengeful Hounds Fleet. Though the Star Guardians were exemplary voidcraftsmen, even they could not stave off all attacks. Fire ripped through the lower decks just as the ship plunged into the warp. Crippled and without the crew required to conduct repairs, the vessel had little hope of breaching the warp, flying thousands of light years off course, crash landing upon a death world within the Ultima Segmentum. There they would remain for years, unable to signal out, attempting to repair their vessel and deliver a message that would soon become entirely unneeded.

Eventually they were found, but the situation was beyond anything they could have imagined. Terra fallen, a Primarch and Malcador dead, the Emperor himself lost, and Shaaa himself reduced to nothing more than a hunk of barely alive meat. All the remaining Hydradyne could do was reaffirm their oaths, none faltering to step into the vacant command positions, their training within the Hydradyne well and truly complete. They did however carry one final gift, the single weapon they had retrieved from Verivaltas. Potent beyond measure, and large enough to be utilised by a tank, it was perfect for the newly reforged Shaaa, the Revenant Lord easily accommodating the weapon, turning it to serve the Imperium of Man against those who had kept it from her for far too long.

#### The Siege of the Ring

    Late in M31.055, the galaxy would know the first sparks that would quickly grow into an all-encompassing firestorm, the Warmaster Almire entering into a betrayal as he began a lightning strike towards Terra, brushing aside the surprised defenders with consummate ease, demonstrating his mastery of battle, and showing how he had earned the title of Warmaster.

As one of a hundred feints and true strikes, designed to wrong foot the loyalists and keep them from mustering a true defence, the XIIth legion, the Brothers Encarmine, were split, the majority of their number travelling to the Istvaan system to strike against the Palatine Wings, but the smaller number, the so called ‘Widow Companies’, was tasked with striking at a different target. 12,000 of them in total split from the legion, the memories of their long dead Conjux partners still fresh in their minds, lending them to the near suicidal task ahead of them as they struck corewards.

The Ring, homeworld of the Star Guardians legion, the Praetorians of Terra, as well as a powerful production base and bastion to rival the greatest fortress worlds. Unaddressed, it would provide loyalist forces with an unmatched bastion from which to reorganise and rearm against the Warmaster’s forces. Almire would not let that stand, but nor would he commit the manpower needed to fully wrest the station from loyalist hands, not when the push on Terra loomed ahead.

Almost in synch with the Ambush as Istvaan, the Widows struck the Ring, catching the Brigade stationed to oversee the legions recruitment completely by surprise. Battle erupted across the station, tens of thousands of civilians and PDF forces falling before the Star Guardians manage to rally and push the Brothers back. The Widows however had planned for this, pulling back before their own losses grew too great, making for the system edge and waiting just outside the range of the stations mighty guns as they stirred into life. As the system defence fleet prepare to strike back at their new found foes and banish them from the Hydra Sector, a new arrival heralded the next stage of the plan.

Emerging from the Immaterium, the Purest Intent, formerly the flagship of the now shattered and fatherless Palatine Wings, entered the fray. With the very hull itself echoing with the death cries of tens of thousands of Astartes, the ship powered forth, already one of the fastest of its kind, it seemed to move ever quicker, its engines burning far beyond their tolerances. Mighty guns of the Ring came about, aiming at the oncoming vessel. This was where the sabotage of the Widows became evident, many of the guns failing to come about to engage the newest foe, while those that did draw a lock experienced the second surprise the widows had planned.

Entering transmission range, the Purest Intent began to broadcast on all frequencies, diabolical scrap-code seeping into the systems of the Ring, while thousands of slaves nailed to the hull itself began to sing, in discordant harmony with  concussively loud music being blasted from the ship’s internal and external speakers, creating a psychic scream that overloaded the senses of those mortals who heard it, rupturing ears and hemorrhaging brains merely by the sound. Unable to do anything but watch and brace, the Purest Intent drew ever closer, before detonating with the power of a captive star, magnified further by salvaged ordnance packed within its hull at the Istvaan massacre.

For a split second, the Hydra system played host to a second star, before it’s light was snuffer out, little remaining of the once proud vessel. In its place was an ugly scar, ripped in the fabric of reality itself, and from this tear in the warp came the never born.

    Chittering and whooping with joy, the neverborn demons flung themselves through the rift, uncaring of the inhospitable nature of space as they poured through the rent hull of the Ring, slaughtering all who opposed them, empowered by the tendrils of their home plane. Only the warriors of the IVth had any hope to turn them back, but they were too few in number to do more than stem the tide, all the while the neverborn running roughshod over the station, millions perishing in agony in the first hours.

The Widows watched all of this uncharacteristically passionately. Long known for their grim attitudes and dour outlook on the galaxy, they were feeling joy as they watched spectacle unknown to their kind for decades. They had played their part, they had delivered the ultimate enemy into the very heart of the Praetorian legion. Now they simply had to watch, those aboard guaranteed a slow, agonising death, possible to stave off for a time, but impossible to halt while the rift remained open. The XIIth remained simply to destroy any who attempted to flee, those who escaped the guns of the fleet soon finding themselves boarded and captured, wishing they had seen the quick death of a macro-cannon, rather than the agony the Widows unleashed to slake their own boredom.

In time, Shaaa and Terra heard of the assault, the Breacher Lord reportedly flying into a rage unmatched since the days of the Squat Wars ending. Only the words of Malchador calmed him, stopping him from sending his own fleet to retake his home. Shaaa was powerless to save the Ring, and those aboard could do nothing but survive, making the neverborn pay for every step they took, holding out for a miracle that seemed to never arrive. Fighting continued for over three years, the death toll continuing to spiral upwards until finally, help came from the most unlikely ally of the IVth legion.

#### The First Solar War

    See: The First Solar War

Of all the battles of the early Apostasy, the First Solar War was undoubtably the greatest in scale, necessity and stakes, the entire Imperium hanging in the balance as eight traitor legions almost in their entierty bore down upon the Sol system and the Solar Guardian Array alongside mortals un-numbered. The Star Guardians and the Dragon Lords were the only loyalist legions present to oppose such a force in any meaningful number, no other able to reach Terra in time to aid in the desperate last stand.

And yet even with the advantage of such overbearing numbers, the loyalists did not capitulate or flee, the chant 'No Backwards Step!' being taken up by all forces, trans-human and mortal alike. For six months, the loyalists held the traitors away from Terra, the death toll spiralling into the mind-boggling within the first few moments of the assault.

Through it all, through every new loss or every new terrible ploy the traitors unleashed against them, Shaaa and his sons stood ready, the Star Guardians countering everything to the best of their ability, forcing the traitors to pay for every step they took with oceans of blood, their own mingling with that of their enemy as they were slowly but surely wittled down, the traitors finally breaking through the loyalists final line of defence above Terra as the IVth Legion were forced to muster their fleet in defence of Sol itself. With the Star Guardians fleet gone, the remaining ships in orbit did not last long, and soon, the traitor ships began to darken the skies of the throneworld with tens of thousands of dropships, bearing troops to the surface to begin the short and brutal Siege of Terra itself.

#### The Betrayal of Mars

See: The Betrayal of Mars

Since the Great Crusades inception, Mars had been a cornerstone of Imperial power and dominance within the stars, providing the Emperor's legions with the weapons and ships they needed to unmake the chaos of the galaxy, bringing the Emperor's order in their wake. Since Ullanor, the red planet had been the cornerstone of the Solar Guardian Array, Shaaa relying on the Mechanicum to help create his magnum opus like no other organisation. Since the start of the Almire Apostasy however, there was arguably no world as vital to the Warmaster's plans as Mars, and no single betrayal that caused such upheaval and destruction.

As the First Solar War ground on, the traitors launched a deverstating attack on the Elysian Gate, more appearing above the galactic plane itself, Mars acted, its guns opening fire not to punish the traitors who followed Almire, but on the loyal defenders of the throne, catching hundreds of ships by surprise in the opening instant. Thrown into disarray, it was only by the direct intervention of Shaaa himself that the surprise did not turn into a rout or a breachhead for a direct assault on Terra itself, at least for the timebeing.

Within hours of the reports reaching him on Ceres, Shaaa was in orbit above Mars, drawing any forces he could to his side as he struck for the Olympus Mons, determined to strike down the traiterous Fabricator General in an uncharacteristic lightning strike that saw the loyalist forces breach the walls of the mighty forge complex before reinforcements finally arrived to combat them.

Unable to resist against such forces with those he had managed to muster, Shaaa and the loyalists fought their way back through the recently captured territory, withdrawing first to their landing ships, and then to orbit, pausing only to retrieve or destroy any information they could to deny it to the enemy. When they left, Mars belonged to the Warmaster, the surviving loyalist fleet stationed at Mars now turning its guns downwards, errecting a hasty blockade that only stood through Shaaa's personal intervention, the Praetorian never returning to his seat of command at Ceres for the remainder or the war.

#### The Battle of Sol

See: Sol's End

One of the last battles of the Solar War, and certainly the last the Star Guardians would partake in at legion strength during the war, the Battle of Sol, later remembered perhaps ironically as 'Sol's End', was a deadly conflict between the IVth and Xth Legions, with nothing less than the entire Sol system and all those who dwelt within it, loyalist and traitor alike, hanging in the balance. The battle would see the battered and beleagured Star Guardians fleet engage the smaller and yet fresh Light bringers fleet, managing to finally board and neutralise the great weapon the *Monad* carried within its hull, a weapon of such power that it could force a star into a state of rapid collapse and expansion, creating a supernova, even in bodies not normally able to do so.

Though the IVth were victorious, it was not without great cost, the weight of it threatening to snap even the indomitable back of Shaaa's sons. Shaaa lay wounded and dying, as did Crikon and ten thousand others, while over four times that many now dwelt upon the plain of the living no more, many following the *Bastion* into the heart of the sun alongside the *Monad*, the Star Guardians forcing the crash to ensure victory.

This battle would forever be remembered by the IVth, for it was in those scant few hours that they turned from a legion that had distinguished themselves throughout the Great Crusade, into a shadow of their former self, no longer able ti reclaim lost glories alone, a fact which soon led them into the waiting arms of the newly reformed Adeptus Mechanicus.

### **Allegiance**

The Martian Mechanicum and the Imperium of Man(Fidelitas Constantus)

### **Founding**

First Founding (30th Millennium)Reborn in the Wake of the First Solar War - M31.060

### **Observed Strategic Tendencies**

Extensive Cybernetic Warrior deployment, Combined Arms Attacks with Mechanicus Forces. Zone Mortalis and Orbital Siege Warfare.

### **Warcry**

Triumph or Oblivion! (often canted in binaric across all channels)

### **Legion Colours**

Black, Purple and the Red of Mars

Broken more than almost any other legion, only the Dragon Lords and Palatine Wings suffering loss on the same scale, the IVth Legion teetered on the brink of extinction as the remaining loyalist forces retreated from Terra. So many had perished aboard the SGA, from a legion of 200,000, barely 10,000 remained, almost all on death's door and unable to fight, while all but two of the division Commanders had perished along with their commands, robbing the legion of its command structure. Ancient knowledge and irreplaceable history had been lost, alongside heavy equipment, a vast majority of the IVth’s vaunted fleet, and worst of all, Shaaa Hydrades himself.

The Primarch of the IVth was not dead as the warriors who had given everything to stop the traitors had fled from Terra aboard Kastar, but nor was he truly alive. While those few of his sons who were able fought against the daemons that sought to snuff out the last hope of the loyalists, Shaaa fought his own battle, his ruined form little more than a bloody chunk of flesh clinging to life. Even aboard the Ring where he had lost his legs, Shaaa had not been this close to death, none knowing if even a Primarch would recover in any meaningful way.

When Kastar was finally spat out of the warp, the true work of rebuilding began in earnest. Shaaa was taken away by the greatest Magos Cybernetica and Biologis, those few surviving Tech Marines and Apothecaries of the Star Guardians going with him to work alongside those of the Ashen Crows, despite the legions distrust of the XIth. As they did, Crikon Hanfer, the Lord Commander of the IVth legion sought to find a way to rebuild, none seeming viable in the light of day.

The Ring and her population, long the Legion’s only recruiting ground and the only place found to have a population almost entirely suited for Shaaa’s gene-seed had been all but exterminated by the Neverborn siege, two hundred billion perishing over the five years before the siege was finally broken. Those that were left were often half mad, but were also required to man the stations mighty forges and bring its all but undamaged shipyards back to full productivity, the Imperium deciding that this goal was more important than rebuilding a single legion.

Then finally, the Mechanicum, or rather the newly reformed Adeptus Mechanicus, presented the answer through the lips of the long trusted Fabricator Locum, now Fabricator General of Graphina, Canitrak. Canitrak had served alongside the IVth legion for almost as long as Shaaa himself, and now she offered the Legion a way to rebuild, not through finding new recruits, but in saving those who still drew breath, regardless of their injuries. Dreadnoughts were favoured, but the supply nowhere near matched the demand, and thus were the Revenax born.

Based on the Thallax shell, the Revenax was further enhanced and improved upon, the straining meaning that none - save an Astartes - could hope to survive the conversion process. With this, the IVth legion was snatched from the jaws of death, and instead placed directly in the hands of the Mechanicus, Canitrak subtly but totally weaving the fates of the legion until they were all but indecipherable from the mechanicus itself. As it stood, only one being could buy freedom for the IVth now, but Shaaa had greater things to worry on than the fate of a single legion.

    Rebuilt from almost nothing, the Primarch of the IVth was now little more than a head and part of a chest, all but one of his lungs being discarded, replaced by custom wrought cybernetics that gave the Primarch new life. With his old form, his mind seemed to finally surrender to the degradation it had fought for two hundred years, logic reigning supreme, emotion little more than a distant memory. In a cruel twist of irony, Shaaa now rivalled Abner, the one who had brought him to this state, for emotionless conduct from that day forth.

### Notable Campaigns

**The Pacification of Luna (M30.970)** - This early Imperial campaign was the first operation mounted by elements of the early Space Marine Legions beyond the skies of Terra. The Unification Wars were still raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. Luna was the bastion of a conglomeration of resurrectionist gene-cults whose members believed that human nature was both fractal, fractured and transcendent. Each of these Selenar gene-cults clung to a different set of archetypes. Every cult member was a product of creation by the Selenar gene-wrights according to formulae crafted in the Dark Age of Technology. Resurrected in body time and time again they sought to distill the true personification of a single human archetype. In their subterranean complexes the cults were powerful, insular and resistant to the Imperial Truth. The Imperials would have normally dealt with these insular cults in the usual matter they handled all of the other Terran factions and techno-barbarian states that refused to accept the rule of the Emperor of Mankind -- by obliteration. The fact that the Selenar gene-cults had something that the growing Imperium needed complicated such action. The Selenar responded to the Imperial entreaties for alliance with silence. As the threats of the Imperium soon began to outnumber its offers, the Selenar cults began to gird themselves for war. So it was that the Emperor finally ordered Luna to be pacified by the sword, their superstitious beliefs cast down before the Imperial Truth and their gene-craft yoked to the needs of the Imperium. To this task the Emperor set his legions, warriors drawn from over half of their number, though only one was present in great numbers; the IVth Legion, chosen as the most suited to this purpose on what some Imperial chroniclers name as the first true battle of the Great Crusade. The combined force lifted from the surface of Terra in a scattering of rocket flame, the as yet unnamed IVth Legion chosen to serve as the Space Marine force's vanguard, and had brought its full strength to bear. Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the IVth Legion drifted silently towards Luna from Mankind's birthworld through the void like arrows fired into the night. The Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna’s surface lashed the oncoming Imperial Force, swatting ships from the void with seeming impunity, but the IVth went undetected, unlooked for and unseen as they landed on the surface of Luna itself like a dagger in the night. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man. Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead. Broken and humbled, the enslaved gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marine who would carry out Mankind's conquest of the stars. Praise was given to the strategy of the IVth, but for Varinius there were implications in the supreme efficacy of the tactic that reached far beyond that day If he could come up with such a plan to undo all but unassailable defences, then others within the galaxy could to. From that moment on, Varinius made a silent, personal vow that while he drew breath, the IVth legion would be the watchers in the darkness, securing the void from any foe who would seek to rest it from the Imperium. So galvanised, the IVth legion earned their name, the Dark Watchers rising from the victory at Luna.

**Assault on the Tempest Galleries (M30.970)** - Almost immediatly after their victory at Luna, the Dark Watchers were reassigned to the surface of Terra for one of the final actions of the Unification Wars. Descending into the darkness beneath the Caucasus Wastes, the IVth Legion clashed with ancient Artifical Intelligence’s, the brutal fighting claiming thousands of Dark Watchers lives as their foe were all but immune to ranged weaponry, forcing them to close to overwhelm them with brute, kinetic force. Though they were victorious, the legion lost close to 95% of their fighting strength, ensuring they would not see true combat for decades to come as they rebuilt their strength.

**The Compliance of 20-1(M30.802)**  - The Dark Watchers finish their additional training alongside the Saturnine Ordos and join the Great Crusade as the 20th Crusade Fleet, taking War to a non-compliant human nation, their first solo combat action for over thirty terran-standard years. In less than a week, the human’s mighty fleet has either been destroyed or captured by the IVth. Faced with no way to stop the newly turned fleet that  now surrounded every planet in the system, they offer the Watchers their unconditional surrender. Most of the ships are returned to the system as the new Imperial defences, but many are kept by the Legion to bolster their fleet. The Victory becomes their first as a Crusade Force, 20-1

**The Consus Drift Compliance (M31.804)** - The Consus Drift was a belt of stellar debris which lay in the dark between stars close to the Sol System. Stranded far away from the warmth of suns or the life sustaining cycles of planets, it was nonetheless home to billions of humans who had been stranded there for millennia, caught in the Warp tides, whirlpools and flats of dead calm. The Mirror Race was such a pattern, and voidships caught in it were flung through its turbulence to emerge in the Consus Drift. Those who had been stranded in this region of space had managed to build a civilisation grown from lost souls -- vast strings of asteroid cities lay across the Consus Drift, connected together by tunnels made from the metal entrails of shipwrecks. Willow limbed, black eyed and pale skinned, the people of the sprawling archipelago were divided into warring Drift Clans, who continuously fought one another for salvage, territory and resources. The Imperium discovered the Consus Drift by accident, when the 20th Expeditionary Fleet of the Dark Watchers was caught in the Mirror Race and thrown into that region. As the fleet rolled in the void, damaged and confused, the Drift Clans attacked. Though severely outmatched, this was not totally true, for the archipelago of void cities mounted weapons scavenged over thousands of solar years. More significantly, the Drift Clans were schooled and blooded in the brutal arts of void warfare. The first assault waves hit the most damaged vessels and battles swarmed through the Imperial warships even as they tried to return fire, but even as the Drift Clans made progress, they met the first of the Dark Watchers and the battle changed. The Dark Watchers counterattacked, driving the Driftborn from their ships, and then continued their assault by launching gunships, boarding torpedoes and breaching pods into the void cities. Battering their way into the heart of each city, the Dark Watchers stopped only when their hands held the controls of the cities' life support systems. Across every Vox channel and speaker, Lord Commander Varinius Rampt gave the people of the Consus Drift an ultimatum: Imperial Compliance or extermination. The Clan Warriors immediately surrendered. Repairing the damage done to their vessels, the Dark Watchers departed, taking those warriors strong enough to have a hope of surviving the IVth’s difficult implantation process. Only a single warrior survived the process, a young boy named Sirvan Golz, the clustered star heraldry and tradition of elaborate full body tattoos continuing to cover his body throughout his life within the legion, speaking to the great traditions of the ancient clans of the Consus Drift.

**The Disaster of the Hyperion Way (M30.826)** - The 4th Legion encounters their first stumble of the Crusade as they enter the Hyperion Way, a stretch of space encompassing three systems, all unified under a fanatically religious government, who view the Space Marines as daemons sent to test then. The population of the Hyperion Way all  bear crude cybernetic modifications, allowing the Lord Cardinal of the Empire to subsume their minds, ensuring that none will take a step back.The Watchers are forced to take each planet in turn, even the complete destruction or capture of the Hyperion fleet does not dissuade them. In the multiple compliance operations, the 4th suffers heavy casualties, none more so on the final world of Hyperion. In the bloody fighting, most of the  Legions fighting vehicles are destroyed or damaged beyond their capability to continue fighting. Only a handful of vehicles are recovered, the 4th having to modify their standard operating procedures for planetary operations to compensate for the sudden lack of machines.In the decades that follow, the Watchers will rely less and less on the vehicles, learning to operate without them. The continue to receive shipments of them, but they become less and less prevalent for the Legion as they switch to the Dreadnought heavy model that they exhibit for much of the Crusade.

**The Squat Wars (M30.858 - M30.867)** - The first campaign of note for the newly reformed Star Guardians under the command of the liege lord, Shaaa Hydrades, the new 30th Expeditionary fleet, comprising the bulk of the Star Guardians 35,000 strong force, as well as a large contingent from the lordless sons of the VIIIth Legion, the Dusk Wyrms. With such a force, the Primarch expects to make quick work of his early compliances, but upon the world of 30-5, even the might of the 30th is brought to a halt by forces of the “Khazadi Empire”. Hostilities soon break out, and a subterranean war rages beneath the world's surface. The fighting is fierce, rivalling that of the Xenocides, the first suits of Mk3 Power Armour being seen as prototypes designed by Shaaa himself. Eventually the Imperial forces are victorious, Shaaa reinforced by warriors from the IXth, Xth and XIIIth Legions, as well as Imperial Army and Mechanicum Support. Even so, the war grinds on for nine long years, the derogatorily named “Squats” being pushed back meter by bloody meter, slowly losing the war but taking a fearsome toll on their attackers, all the Imperial Forces skirting close to total collapse. It is only when Sanguinius, Primarch of the IXth Legion, is found and petitions the Emperor to allow a truce between the two people that total annihilation on both sides is avoided. Nevertheless, Shaaa is outraged by the seemingly callous dismissal of his sons deaths in pursuit of the now denied victory, the IVth despising the IXth and their newfound lord from that day onwards. It is partly for this reason they were selected for the dark days that would soon befall the vaunted IXth.

**The Liberation of Graphina (M30.875)** - A large though relatively un-assuming Forge World on the edge of the Segmentum Solar, Graphina would likely have remained as merely one of thousands of Forge Worlds within the Martian Empire, forever attempting to gain the notice of those above it, were it not for the patronage of the IVth legion. A world long-since all but uninhabitable in every sense of the world, the system's star degenerated in the times before the Age of Strife, bombarding the world with lethal levels of radiation, killing even shielded life in a matter of hours, melting what remained of the worlds ice-caps, and plunging the world beneath the waves. For those of the Mechanicum however, this was little worry, their forge complexes quickly adapting to become giant underwater domes, shielded from the radiation by thousands of meters of frigid, dark water. During the Age of Strife, the world was cut off from the galaxy by fierce warp storms, cutting off all warp travel by any sane of mind. Unfortunately, those who were not of sane mind soon found the world, an Ork Waaagh under the control of Warboss Ash Claw appeared over the world, no less than three space hulks smashing into the worlds orbital defences. No ship survived the attack, but for the Orks, this was meaningless, two of the Hulks crashing to the ocean floor, still carrying millions of their eager soldiers. Battle raged for centuries between Orks equipped with crude breathing gear battling newly augmented Skitarii and Neuro-slaved Orks captured and turned against their own kind. Both sides dove deeper and deeper, physically and metaphorically, fighting taking place across the world in all areas, while new and deadly weapons were brought to bear from the ancient vaults of the Forge World, or the crazed minds of the Waaagh’s Mek Boyz.  This deadlock would likely have continued for centuries more, neither side able to gain a tangible advantage over the other, were it not for the coming of the IVth legion. As the warp storms around the planet finally abated, the Star Guardians, made whole again after the devastation of the Squat Wars, descended upon Graphina in M30.875. After a short but brutal war, the IVth legion prevailed as Shaaa struck down Ash Claw himself, his sons proving that they were as adept at fighting in the oceans depths as they were in the silent void. In the wake of such a victory, the Mechanicum honoured the IVth legion with a pledge of fealty from the liberated Forges, pledging that for time immemorial, the world would serve the Star Guardians, furnishing them with weapons of war needed to continue the relentless drive forward in the Great Crusade, as well as pledging the support of the worlds Cybernetica defenders, the robots soon becoming a common sight within IVth legion compliances.

**The Whisper of the Void (M30.895)** - The  Star Guardians  face a xenos race known  as the Djunn, advanced in  both technology and Psychic Powers. Initial fights against the xenos prove costly for the Legion, before a discovery is made. The race is entirely blind, not even comprehending the sense of sight, relying on hearing and their Psychic powers to see their foes, even their automated weapon systems being hampered by the same downfall. With this discovered, the  Star Guardians, reinforced by blanks from the Sisters of Silence, persecute the rest of war without a word, driving the xenos to a silent death. Historians remember this as The Whisper of the Void.

**The Twin Wars of Araneus (M30.910)** - The worlds of the Araneus Continuity were a series of nearly forty worlds close to the Halo Stars, each system maintaining contact with one another due to a series of ancient warp gates of unknown origin. These offered the forces of the Continuity unparalleled connection to their neighbours, as ships could travel through stable and near instantaneous routes to each other.  The Continuity was ruled by a caste of Technobility from the world of Araneus Prime at the heart of the network of Warp Gates, their fortified world made rich from the travel around their empire. As such, when an Imperial Rogue Trader made a warp jump into one of their systems, the Continuity responded with violence, the Imperial ship being surrounded by a mighty fleet that seemed to arrive from nowhere, and the vessel boarded by cybernetically-grafted warriors. Soon after, an Envoy fleet was sent back along the Rogue Traders warp path and was allowed to return unharmed by the Imperium. The Emperor’s offer of alliance and absorption into the Imperium was rejected, the Envoy fleet making one final trip to the Imperium with their own offer. They would not bow to the Emperor, but instead invited Him to join their Empire, the Imperium as their tributary. Negotiations soon broke down, and the Legions were called.  The 876th and 1,097th Expeditionary Fleets were the two closest forces at the time, containing the 7th and 8th Divisions of the Star Guardians Legion alongside millions or Imperial Army and Mechanicum soldiers. Banding together, these two forces made a coordinated jump into the Araneus Continuity in M30.905. In a series of rapid strikes, the two fleets quickly captured half of the Continuity’s Warp Gates, cutting their Empire off from trade, most crucially the supply of food from their outer reaches. In essence, the Star Guardians laid a siege across systems, starving the world of Araneus Prime. Soon, the Continuity was pushed back to their capital, and with no other choice, the Technobility surrendered themselves to the Star Guardians. The conflict had been quick, two short solar months of fighting with minimal losses, the sun rising upon a newly compliant Imperial realm but once before disaster struck, a new enemy emerged from the Warp Gates, unknowable and terrible to behold.  At first it manifested as tiny ships flitting around the Warp Gates. By the time they were noticed, the enemy fleets began to move through, vast ships that destroyed and defiled all they touched with seemingly little effort. Within a week, the empire the Star Guardians had fought to bring to compliance as intact as possible was burning as their Stars were snuffed out, stolen by this new enemy. Numerous attempts were made to stop the encroaching forces, battles raged across the stars as calls for aid went out, but none were close enough to answer, and soon, the Star Guardians were pushed back to a single system, Araneus Prime. Reduced to less than half of their starting strength, the two Star Guardian fleets made one last joint effort to strike a killing blow at this beast, aiming for the Warp Gate Nexus, the heart of the network that had made the Continuity so powerful. In a cataclysmic battle, the Nexus was destroyed, overwhelming the network with a backlash that saw them detonate in spectacular localised warp storms. As they did so, the enemy fleet seemed to simply vanish, fading out of existence, sometimes mid battle. The Star Guardians were victorious, but it had not been an easy victory. Over a trillion dead within the Continuity, forty worlds reduced to just one. The 876th and 1,097th Expeditionary Fleets had also been reduced to a fraction of their former strength, barely 100 Astartes remaining from a force of over 20,000, their human Auxillia taking equally huge losses upwards of 90%. More than that, the warp gates had been utterly destroyed, not a trace remaining of their existence, and with them the knowledge that such a network of stable gates may have offered the Imperium. Even the final world of the Continuity had not escaped unharmed, it’s star had been diminished by the invaders as it now spun lazily as a dark world.  Refusing to abandon it, Commanders Julius Atalan and Sirvan Golz stood upon the broken world with their remaining forces and made a proclamation. The world would stand as a fortress against the unknown, a bulwark safeguarded by the Star Guardians themselves. The Continuity had died, but this world would rise again, no longer as Araneus Prime, but as Mortuary.

**The Burning of the Pharun Drift (M30.910)** - The Star Guardians 30th Expeditionary fleet led by Shaaa himself successfully subjugate the rebellious population of the Pharun Drift, brutally putting the population to the sword, warriors of the XVIIIth Legion being unable to reach the system to carry out the task that would normally fall to them. All the target worlds are depopulated, and many are deemed too  far gone for repopulation, being redesignated as Dead Worlds. These losses are deemed acceptable by Primarch Shaaa, as these lifeless husks are now part of the Imperium

**The Bloody Reprisal (M30.915 - M30.918)** - Shortly after the burning of the Pharum Drift, the world of 30-206 is encountered by the 30th Expeditionary Fleet. After a short war in the void that sees the empires fleet shattered, the world seeks to surrender, Commander Harnt Redal, favoured son of the IVth Legion, is sent to accept the surrender, only to reveal that the ruse is a hoax. Assassinated by a populace who believed they were striking at Shaaa himself, the Breacher Lord flies into a rage, reducing the planet to a lifeless husk before continuing on into the rest fo the human empire. In total, sixty one worlds were reduced to little more than ruined craters, mining worlds for the Mechanicum but no longer suited for human habitation, one planet for every year Harnt had been within the Star Guardians. Eventually, even this rage blew out, and though many of his brothers called for Shaaa to answer for his perceived crimes, the Emperor never voiced his opinion on the matter, neither condoning or condemning the actions taken. Soon, the Mechanicum moved in, turning those worlds reduced to lifeless husks into strip mines in short order. The remainder of the empire capitulating with all speed, welcoming any occupation force other than the warriors of the IVth. It was noted that Shaaa’s own mental seemed to accelerate from that day, his emotions becoming harder and harder for the Breacher Lord, or the newly named “Cold Hearted” to express as he once had, his fused mind delving deeper into unfeeling logic than ever before.

T**he Defence of Mortuary (M30.930)** - The  World of  Mortuary comes  under Assault by  a force of Orks, the  Imperial Defenders, comprising of a handful of Solar Auxillia Cohorts, Imperial Army regiments and a single squad of Star Guardians, cry out for aid. As the Orks begin to land, pushing back the defenders, Commander Julius Atalan and Sirvan Golz arrive at the head of their combined Expeditionary Fleet, comprised of the few survivors of their depleted commands. In less than three hours they rout  the Ork fleet in orbit, destroying many times their number of vessels, before landing on the world. The pair remain on the world for almost two Solar Years, ensuring that the Ork menace is defeated and that no follow up attack is forthcoming. In that time the defences are strengthened further still, millions of soldiers and Mechanicum constructs soon turning the world into a premier fortress world where many would muster for expeditions into the Halo Stars beyond.

**Battle of the Colossustructure (M30.945)** - Mustering the entire Legion, Shaaa Hydrades leads his sons against the newly discovered “Colossustructure”, alongside Khnum of the Ist Legion and under the command of Almire of the XVIth. A gargantuan megastructure dwarfing even the Ring, the Colossustructure responds to the aggression with automated defences of near unlimited scope and flexibility, deploying robots smaller than a child or the size of a Battle Titan. Due to the immense size of the structure, the Star Guardians are actually able to bring many of their vessels within the Colossustructure, providing powerful void-borne artillery to those below as the Imperials force their way to the structures heart. Upon finding it however, wonder and the desire to study the structure quickly turns sour, a warp rift at the centre polluting the Colossustructure beyond all recovery. In a final act, the legions destabilise the containment field of the warp rift before escaping, the resultant collapse akin to a black hole, destroying the vast majority of the structure, or so they think. This campaign also saw the use of the “Void” pattern of Mk3 armour that had been in development for years deployed on a legion wide scale. The armour performed above expectations, casualty rates amongst the IVth far lower than those amongst Breacher Squads from the other legions.

**The Gyre Deeps Campaign (M30.961)** - The Gyre Deeps were a stretch of space long since held by the Hrud, an alien species of terrible power over time itself, using the Deeps as a pathway for their many migrations across the stars. By M30.961, this threat could no longer be avoided, and the Ist Legion, the Watchers of Akhet were called upon to pacify the region and to wipe the Hrud from the face of the galaxy. The progress was slow against their kind, the Watchers struggling against a foe that turned the very passing of years against them, aging warriors to naught but dust in a matter of seconds, or causing bolt shells to degrade over a thousand years in the time it took between exiting the barrel of their weapon to impacting upon the Hrud. Help was desperately needed and despite the fact his legion alone had been selected for the action by the Emperor himself, Khnum cried out for aid. For a time, none answered, until finally, a fleet belonging to the Breacher Lord entered the system, Shaaa not announcing his arrival as he and his sons landed upon the main world of the Deeps. Far from helping however, the Star Guardians merely handed the Watchers weapons designed for use in subterranean confines, Sub-Surface Torpedo Launchers seen only within the armouries of the IVth. When pushed for further action, Shaaa refused, stating his sons would provide no support for the attacks of the Ist, Khnum would have to win this war alone. Infuriated by the perceived lack of action on Shaaa’s behalf but unwilling to lose face with further begging, Khnum rallied his sons, drawing up a final plan to end the war once and for all. Linking beacons to the torpedo launchers, Khnum created a rough but serviceable map of the entire Hrud Warrens, and with that information, he struck. As one, the watchers surged forward, striking at their foe and setting up mighty blasting charges, designed to flood the warrens and drown the xenos, killing them a way they could not escape from through time. This was not without loss however, thousands perishing to carry out the plan, chief amongst them First Captain Pihorna, dying mere meters away from Khnum as he refused to retreat, ensuring his bomb was ready, sending it burrowing deeper into the warrens for its final detonation before being turned to dust. Finally, the Hrud pushing against the Watchers, seeking to escape the encroaching trap, the bombs detonated, flooding the warrens totally and annihilating the Hrud almost entirely. Clean-up crews from the Watchers began to fan out, descending into the flooded tunnels to finish off any survivors, but Khnum was not with them, seeking to slake his rage against the one who had done nothing but watch, Shaaa Hydrades. In a rage, Khnum demanded to know what madness had seized the Breacher Lord, accusing him of base cowardice of the worst kind. Shaaa remained impassive as Khnum tried to gain a rise from him, before returning with a bard of his own, laying the deaths of his sons solely at Khnum’s feet. This was too much for the Sunstone King, and with a roar he unleashed his swords, power packs flaring into life. Shaaa was a slow fighter, but he had far more experience than Khnum did, and fought with a level head, while Khnum’s superior skill was hampered by his desire to see the Breacher Lord humbled before him. It was this that was his undoing at the apex of the duel, Khnum opening a real advantage he could use to turn the flow of the fight in his favour. Instead however, he moved to hamstring his brother, not to defeat him more suredly, Shaaa having no such qualms. With a single swing of his hammer, Shaaa landed his first, and last blow of the duel, lifting Khnum from his feet and sending him flying through the air to crash into the tunnel wall, armour cracked and ribs broken. Before he could rise again, Shaaa was upon him, placing a foot Khnum’s chest, forcing him to stay down. It was here Shaaa revealed his own goals in remaining from the field, not cowardice as Khnum had accused, but a lesson, only teachable in one way. The Watchers had never known true loss, their compliances numerous but small in the casualties caused. The IVth knew all too well the realities of war however, and Shaaa had sought to teach this to his brother, allowing him to shoulder the burden alone, forced to rely on himself first and foremost, as all the Primarch’s had to learn. Allowing Khnum to rise, Shaaa pointed to the preparations his own sons had been working upon, bombs eclipsing the ones prepped by the Ist, ready to be deployed to finish Khnum’s plan if it had failed. The victory had never been a sacrifice Shaaa was willing to make, but the lesson had to be taught, no matter the cost, and Shaaa stood by that wholeheartedly. With few words in reply, Khnum turned and left, his sons leaving the graveyard far faster than the IVth did. For a time, Khnum harboured a hatred towards Shaaa even after his explanation, but eventually, Shaaa’s words did pierce his mind, Khnum coming to realise that while brutish, Shaaa had brought forth a valid point, one no other could have taught him so fully, and could have been imparted in no other way.

**The Fallen One (M30.963)** - Shaaa Hydrades is assigned to lead the purge of the Blood Angels legion, commanding from orbit while Necalli leads the Imperial forces from the frontlines. Shaaa Hydrades is the only one of the present Primarch's to not set foot on the surface of the world during the purge, remaining in orbit as he and his sons take apart the Blood Angels fleet. In the battle, they claim the vast majority of captured vessels as the spoils of war, just as other legions plunder the armouries of the IXth on the ground. The IVth's fleet skyrockets in size at this point, becoming the largest of any legion.

**The Diasporex Extermination (M30.975 - M30.977)** - During the latter part of the Great Crusade, the Star Guardians encountered a nomadic, fleet-based civilisation composed of both humans and xenos known as the Diasporex. The Star Guardians shared the Imperial Truth of the Emperor of Mankind and offered the human members of the Diasporex the opportunity to separate from their alien allies and to join the newly-forged Imperium, but they declined the Astartes' offer. Their offer rejected, the Iron Hands passed judgement, and in the following months the Iron Hands fleet attempted to annihilate the Diasporex, but they proved to be highly skilled and experienced in the realm of naval warfare, and managed to easily evade crucial battles, using their superior speed to avoid the ponderous battleline of the IVth. Despite the fact the IVth’s fleet was vastly superior to that of the Diasporex, the coalition refused to leave the sector and move on to someplace safer, and it was this that sealed their fate as Shaaa came to the only logical conclusion for such a desire to hold position. Star Guardian scouts soon confirmed this, finding hidden solar collector arrays to collect fuel for their vessels from a star. This was the reason why the Diasporex remained within the sector. Attacking these vital fuel stations, a portion of the Star Guardians Fleet drew the Diasporex fleet out into open battle as the human-alien alliance sought to avoid utter annihilation at the Imperials' hands, Shaaa making sure it looked like his fleet was far smaller than it truly was. When the Disaporex were committed to the assault, Shaaa sprang his own trap, entering the system and catching the unprepared rear of the enemy fleet. The annihilation was merciless and total, not a single ship escaping, the Diasporex’s entire culture perishing in the cold of the void.

**The Ullanor Crusade (M31.000)**

**The Verivaltas Strike (M31.055)**

**The Battle of the Ring (M31.055)**

**The First Solar War (M31.060)**

## Legion Organisation

### Great Crusade and Early Apostasy

    As is perhaps unsurprising from so calculating and methodical a master as Shaaa Hydrades, the Star Guardians Legion was a highly structured military force, with numerous tactical and strategic divisions of power and organisations within its ranks. Sharing many similarities with the initial formation and structure of the legions as laid down by the Emperor himself, the IVth was nonetheless reforged by Shaaa, particularly in the wake of the Squat Wars, ensuring that the chain of command was rigid, inflexible and known to all within the legion, allowing battlefield losses to be instantly compensated for with predetermined paths of succession being followed until a new surviving leader was reached.

The Star Guardians numbers were anything but consistent throughout the Great Crusade, often fluctuating wildly as the extensive casualties the legion took in their prefered theatre of conflict took their toll. However, thanks to the large population the Ring boasted for new recruits, and the relative ease of implantation amongst their abhuman population, the numbers of new recruits continued to fill the legion, calculated losses allowing the legion to grow, though slowly, throughout the Great Crusade.

Alongside these numbers, the IVth were known to maintain a particularly extensive and sophisticated arsenal of wargear, particularly Dreadnought walkers and heavy, Astartes-portable heavy weapons, though the lacked any substantial numbers of armoured fighting vehicles. Only the Artellions XVth Legion rivalled the IVth for the number of their walker vehicles, but while the XVth focused on speed amongst their venerated dead, the IVth, as ever, focused on armour and firepower, tradining away speed for more of both. Thanks to long-standing ties to elements of the Mechanicum and the technological aptitude displayed by many in their number, the Star Guardians were able to widely reproduce and maintain large stockpiles of Grav-weapons, Conversion Beamer and Laser Destroyer systems, and other arcane and esoteric machineries of death, though in truth, the legion often prefered the simple bolter, easy to rearm and replace in the heat of battle where thousands could die with ease.

This range of materiel extended both to extensive numbers of Servitors (often created from failed Legion Aspirants and, it has long been rumoured, prisoners taken in battle), as well as the numerous Battle-Automata and troops from the Mechanicum Forge World of Graphina, the IVth Legions sworn allies alongside the forces of the Hydra Auxilia, both forces used for strategic support for the legion who was otherwise dismissive of most standard Imperial Army units for anything beyond life and carry or fourth line duties.

It is also worthy of note that the Star Guardians Legion, and its master Shaaa Hydrades, were at the forefront of the introduction of a number of weapons systems and armour patterns over the course of the Great Crusade. The fruits of some, such as their creation of the initial Mk3 ‘Iron’ Power Armour that the Mechanicum would later ratify and mass produce, or the Watcher Pattern Stormshield, that would later be widely disseminated to the rest of the loyalist forces. Yet, the Star Guardians were not wholly selfless in their technological developments; the secrets of certain other weapons and metallurgic and cybernetic crafts they kept to themselves and their most trusted confidantes within the Mechanicum.

This level of technological skill combined with the strength the Star Guardians Legion's system manifested was extraordinary if somewhat inflexible. Whether deployed as a single company or a full Legion in scale, it was a crushing leviathan when in action; extraordinarily difficult to stop, but also at times brutally intractable and slow to change course through its single-minded pursuit of its starting objectives. This was far from an accident however, Shaaa purposely designing the legion in this way, confident in his skill, and that of his sons, to ensure that the legion would only move when all variables had been calculated, and thus, would have no reason to stop or deviate from their plan until it was complete.

#### Specialist Ranks and Formations

* **The Saturnalians** - The Saturnalians are the elite of the Star Guardians, a force already renowned for its excellent training and calibre of soldier. Few in number, almost all of them are a part of the Fist Division and are led by the Lord Commander himself, or deployed in smaller squads across the Legion to act as their Primarch’s Word and Will, empowered to take command of any battle they saw fit if they believed the current leader would fail in his appointed task of victory.  Each member of the Saturnalians is clad in an ancient suit of Mk1 “Saturnine” Terminator armour, the mark falling out of favour in every other legion in favour of the lighter and more mobile Cataphractii, Tartaros or Indomitus Patterns. For the IVth however, who often fight in cramped corridors where there is no room to move and no need for speed over armour, the Saturnine Pattern is perfect. Strong enough to heft the heaviest weapons into battle one handed or upon their shoulders, the Mk1 Terminator armour is the greatest personal armour made by man, outside of the suits worn by the Emperor's Custodes, or the Primarch’s themselves. Each Saturnalian is therefore akin to a walking fire support team, bearing heavy weapons upon an all but indestructible frame, many a foe simply turning and running as the warrior advances, shrugging off even dedicated anti-tank firepower with seemingly effortless ease.
* **The Hydradyne** - It is a well known fact that Shaaa runs his legion in a vice like grip, overseeing every aspect of his sons pursuit of warfare. It comes as little surprise then, that those in positions of high command are not merely offered in by their superiors, but rather selected and assigned by the Breacher Lord himself. This is the role of the Hydradyne. While the Saturnalians act as Shaaa’s Word and Will, the Hydradyne are his Eyes and Ears, dispersed across the legion not to command or to lead, but to obey, to learn what it truly means to command in Shaaa’s name, so they too may one day step into such a role. Taking their name and role from the Hydrades Dynasty of the Ring before even Shaaa arrived on the station, the Hydradyne are each personally selected by their Primarch, brought before him so he may judge their worth one final time. To date, none have failed in this final test, and it is here they are granted their new rank and wargear, one hundred suits of artificer armour personally forged by Shaaa’s own hand, set aside for this purpose, while Breaching Shields and newly designed thunder hammers crafted in the forges of the Ring that Shaaa himself had once tended himself as a child. The Hydradyne hold no sway over the rest of the legion, forbidden from uttering orders of their own by their Primarch, their role lending them to watch so they may better act in the future. In time, these warriors will be summoned back to the Breacher Lord, wherever he may be throughout the galaxy. Here they will know they have passed their final test, the raiment of the Hydradyne taken from them as new wargear is assigned, along with their newly appointed command, be it of a thousand brothers or ten thousand. As one of their numbers leave, Shaaa sends out new messages, a new Hydradyne summoned to take up the mantle and begin the cycle anew.

* **Indomitable Squads** - While most legions will split their warriors into various facets upon the completion of their training, fielding tactical squads alongside assault and breacher formations, the Star Guardians know only one type of starting point, every warrior in the legion serving in an Indomitable Squad when first raised to the legion. A curious fusion of tactical and breacher tactics, the warriors of the Indomitable Squads can deliver the same punishing bolter fusillades that worn tactical squads renown across the Imperium, while keeping themselves secure behind a wall of thick ceramite boarding shields, utilising the unique “Guardian” pattern rather than those available to the other legions.
* **The Fracturam Lords** - Known officially as the Fracturam in High Gothic, this name encompasses all different chassis of Dreadnoughts within the IVth Legion, from the seldom used Castraferrum right up to the mighty Leviathan shell that saw use by the time of the Almire Apostasy. Held in high esteem by the warriors of the Star Guardians, and further boosted by the Legions odd quirk to be able to stave off the need for stasis sleep amongst their walking dead, the Fracturam are often placed in positions of command, known as the Fracturam Lords. In this manner, it is not unheard of to see a talon of Dreadnoughts leading a charge in the manner that would normally fall to Centurions or Praetors in other legions. While many would say that a Dreadnought was unsuited for command, presenting a large and vulnerable target to enemy heavy weapons, Shaaa dismissed this claim and extolling the use of such commanders, his words hard to ignore when he himself stands above even a Contemptor’s chassis.

* **The Syriac** - Less a military formation and more of a personal war council, the Syriac were the personal advisors to Shaaa Hydrades himself. Position within the Syriac was not in and of itself a rank, the Vexillarius Quantil Herok being a prime example of this, holding no command of his own despite being on the Primarch’s council, though the Lord Commander himself was a permanent fixture upon the council. The Syriac existed outside the rest of the IVth Legion's regular command structure, together functioning as the soul of the Star Guardians, supporting their Primarch and steering the IVth Legion's temperament and decisions. Only those warriors who possessed the necessary qualities of strength and charisma were ever allowed to serve at their Primarch's side, he Cold Hearted expected nothing less than the most extreme discipline and loyalty from his advisors, but most of all he expected an unbending obedience to the orders he gave. The Syriac’s members have remained fairly constant throughout the Great Crusade, but there was on who’s death affected the Primarch more than any other, that of Commander Harnt Redal, the Primarch’s favoured son.

#### Legion Tactical Markings and Heraldry

Unsurprisngly, the Star Guardians have a strict rank system that is instantly recognisable at a distance, identifying which unit a warrior belongs to, their rank and any other specialisation they may fall under. In the beginning of the legions life-time, these were used by warriors of the legion for identification purposes, but as the Great Crusade wore on, the Legion began to rely more and more on the tactical readouts of the Mechanicum, each warrior possessing an individual signature in the Star Guardians battlenet which could be instantly downloaded and processed by the Star Guardians to know who it was they were looking at, even without seeing beyond the faceplate. However, numerology and squad designations were kept, aiding allies who did not have access to their battlenet in identifying warriors of the IVth at a glance.

#### Equipment

As with all the Legions, the Star Guardians held many pieces of wargear that were available to them, and them alone, either through tithes and deals made with the Mechanicum and various other factions of the Imperium, or through more direct means, the Star Guardians constructing the unique pieces of wargear themselves onboard the mighty factoriums of the Ring.

Almost all of these pieces of technology prided form over function, designed to be rough and rugged to survive battlefield conditions, and easy to reproduce in great numbers. While other legions such as the Silver Basilisks or the Ashen Crows might boast individually greater pieces of technology than was commonly fielded amongst the IVth Legion, they were far fewer in their numbers, while the IVth could boast thousands of each of their pieces, their brute simplicity allowing losses to be replaced with frightening speed. Hundreds, if not thousands of these semi-unique pieces of wargear were used throughout the legions life, unsurprising for a technically minded legion such as the IVth, but there were a few which stood out, either due to their commonality within the legion, or due to the visibility of their deployment.

The first amongst these pieces were the numerous shields that the legion developed and used in every strata of their war machine, from the first Storm Shields, the “Watcher” Pattern being a heavier and yet more projective version compared to that of the XVIth legion, all the way to the ubiquitous “Guardian” pattern boarding shield that saw as much use through the legion as the humble bolter did, utilising divergent lessons learnt during the Storm Shields construction to boast the protective capabilities of the common Boarding shield. Even Dreadnoughts were not exempt from these advances, the Fracturam Shield often seen equipped on the forearm of a IVth legion dreadnought, projecting an energy shield around the Dreadnought that would later be incorporated into the shell of the Leviathan chassis.

The final piece of these more common sights amongst the legion was the Sub-Surface Torpedo Launcher, a weapon designed specifically for the IVth legion after they discovered the “Mole Launcher” STC during the Great Crusade. Utilising the STC, the Sub-Surface Torpedo Launcher allows the legion to strike at targets behind cover, compensating for the lack of conventional indirect fire artillery, high arcing weapons all but unheard of in the IVth due to fighting in enclosed environments. Utilised by a single Space Marine equipped, the launcher is essentially little more than an upscaled version of the Mole Launcher, designed for use by a single Astartes rather than a pair of Imperial Army troopers. The fired torpedo is capable of digging through almost any obstacles and detonating with the force of a Krak Missile on the other side, be it the walls and floor of a subterranean tunnel, or the metal floor of a starship

The torpedo itself is an advanced weapon that carries a powerful drill in its nose that enables it to burrow through rock, earth or armoured metal, assisted by the small Power Field emitter mounted behind the drills head. This explosive drill is then linked back to the firer, the Astartes able to control the path of the weapon through his own Power Armours connection.

Once the target is located, the torpedo burrows up to the surface and explodes, allowing the user to unleash surprise attacks from beneath a vulnerable enemy-held bunker, building or vehicle. In the hands of a skilled user, this weapon can devastate an enemy without them ever seeing their doom approaching.

#### Void Pattern Power Armour

Beyond mere weapons however, the IVth were one of the few legions to boast a unique mark of power armour that affected the wargears functionality substantially, the so called “Void” Pattern. Utilising some advances found during the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project, the “Void” Pattern in both its Mk3 and Mk5 variations was hardened against the cold and radiation of deep-space, boasting extra ablative plating to ensure that the armour would not be easily punctured, a feature of extreme importance for those who fought in airless or toxic environments as almost standard. While this armour was often imitated, both the IInd and XXth having their own variations of the “Void” pattern, only the IVth could say that every member of the legion could march to war in such void hardened suits, each one produced on the oath bound forge world of Graphina.

#### Saturnine Terminator Armour

Alongside this armour, though far less common, was the Saturnine Terminator Armour suits the legion kept as prized pieces of wargear. Though not developed exclusively for the IVth, they were the first to trial the suits in battlefield conditions, and while the other legions did receive shipments, they found poor reception, quickly being phased out when the lighter and more mobile Cataphractii armour was developed, its loss in protective qualities seen as a near negligible trade-off. For the IVth however, any trade-off in protection was a death sentence in the close in confines of a starship or tunnel, the legion able to field thousands of such suits throughout the crusade.

#### War Disposition

See Also: Star Guardian Divisions

By the time of the Ullanor Crusade, the Star Guardians last true action within the Great Crusade, the Star Guardians is commonly estimated to have had an operational strength of around of 100,000 Astartes, with a huge operating reserve of wargear and supplies, alongside the largest fleet of any legion, befitting a legion who focused on operations in the void. While their numbers placed the legion within the mid-tier of recorded strengths at this time, their resources in wargear, war materiel and supply made them a considerably greater military power in practice than their sheer number would suggest.

By the time of the Almire Apostasy however, the legion had grown considerably. Decades away from the frontline had done little to dampen their considerable training or their numbers. At their absoloute height, in the days and weeks preceeding the First Solar War, the Legion stood at almost exactly 200,000 warriors, Shaaa's own records showing the number as precisely 199,984. divided across twenty Divisions with a nominal strength of 10,000 warriors each, their fleet likewise swollen with new vessels, though many of these were technically part of the Solar Defence Fleet, and not the IVth Legions alone.

Many of these Divisions were designated as Line Divisions, the 2nd to 10th Divisions standing as examples of the Legion during the Great Crusade, lacking any sort of specilisation, and able to easily handle the full bredth of warfare as would have been expected of a crusading legion. However, in the wake of their shift from Crusaders to Praetorians, far more specialised forces began to appear, entire Divisions given over to a single form of warfare, rather than simply specialised Battalions.

#### Notable Bonded Formations

The Star Guardians were well known for their callous attitude towards human life in warfare, be it in their use extensive use of slaves who did not warrant upgrading into servitors, or their use of Imperial Army soldiers as little more than cannon fodder to drain enemy ammunition supplies and to identify strong points in the enemies lines, enemy prisoners also used for this goal as well. Some forces however were treated considerably better however, bonded to the IVth legion for almost the entirety of the Great Crusade.

The following are some of the more notable bonded auxilia units:

**The Hydra Auxilia**

 A fusion of the skill of the Solar Auxillia, tempered with the mentality of the people of the Ring and their wargear, and trained directly by warriors of the IVth, the Hydra Auxillia quickly began to grow in game far beyond the 12th Solar Cohort they were formed from could ever have dreamed, their size swelling beyond that of a single Cohort into a mighty regiment in their own right, millions strong. Often, failed aspirants from the IVth who could still fight but were genetically incompatible or otherwise unable to continue the transition to Astartes through no fault of their own were transferred to the regiment instead, given positions of command and prestige few others could match, their failure not seen as a sign of weakness, unlike those who failed the ascension due to personal failings. Standing side by side with their Astartes Masters, no Star Guardians Expeditionary Fleet forwent Hydra Auxillia Support, the mortals bringing forces to bare the legion itself lacked, armour, speed, mobility, all backed up by the impeccable barrages of heavy stub-fire, the crack of their guns becoming as famous as the las-beams of the Solar Auxillia.

By the time of the Apostasy, the Hydra Auxilia comprises close to one percent of all denizens of the Ring, two and a half billion soldiers fighting across the Imperium as infantry, tank crews or boarding teams almost without equal, Lord Generals and Admirals fighting for cohorts from the elite regiment to be counted under their roster. When the Apostasy struck, almost all of the regiment remained loyal to Terra, many dying as they were turned upon by traitorous former allies. Those that did turn proved a considerable thorn in the Imperium’s side, loyal Hydra Auxilia forces swearing to see their one time brothers dead no matter the cost.

**The Graphinan Taghmata**

Raised from the Forge World of Graphina, itself a world fully oathed to the Star Guardians, the Graphinan Taghmata are led by the tireless will of Fabricator Locum Canitrak, directing the forces of her homeworld since before the coming of the Imperium. Like the legion they serve, the Graphinan Taghmata focuses heavily on heavy Cybernetica and Thallaxi units rather than the tech-thrall swarms some Magos favour, mirroring the slow infantry advances of the Star Guardians, further bolstering their own strengths, both sharing the same weaknesses as a result, faster enemies often able to escape their wrath. Just like with the legion however, in the battles Graphinan Taghmata is often called to fight, there is only so far the enemy can run, and when they are trapped, they are easily slaughtered by the tireless, merciless constructs of the sub-aquatic forgeworld.

**Legio Marus 'The Pulsar Guard'**

Raised from the world of Marus, Legio Marus is not truly bonded to the IVth legion, but instead swearing their fealty to the Mechanicum of Graphina itself. Through that world however, the Legio is bonded to the IVth through proxy, and while Shaaa has no direct control over the titans, their order standing as their own council as they always have, they often heed Shaaa’s requests for aid, marching alongside the legion to provide ultimate fire support.

    Favouring heavy engines, the mainstay titan of the legion is the mighty Warlord, backed by Reaver and Nemesis titans, and lead by the mighty forms of *Ignitus Volt* and *Ignitus Mortem*, Imperator class titans of Emperor and Warmonger classification respectively. The legion does lack scout titan forces, instead using Knight House Nollard to roam ahead of their titan masters, relaying information back to the legios big guns, ensuring none can escape the machine god's wrath.

**Knight House Nollard**

Raised on Marus like the Pulsar Guard, House Nollard was the ruling elite of that world when the Mechanicum found the world once again. During the great games of prestige, the House’s hubris became their undoing, House Gallux stealing their “rightful” victory and ascending to the realms of the titans, not the Knights. House Nollard would forever stand as second of Marus, subservient to the true god machines.

Now, House Nollard acts as the eyes and ears of the heavy Titan legion, boasting numerous Cerastus Pattern Knight armours within their armoury, making them a fast and deadly skirmishing force ranging ahead of the titans and the legion itself. Even some of the rarer types of armour, Magaera, Styrix and a full half dozen of the deadly Porphyrion pattern, are owned by Nollard, all used against the enemies of the Pulsar Guard. Like their titan legion, they owe no direct fealty to the Star Guardians, but just like the Pulsar Guard, they take the requests of Shaaa and his sons as higher than requests of others, often marching alongside the IVth legion as well as their towering masters.

### The Frontier Wars

In the wake of Terra, the shattered and effectively leaderless Star Guardians were approached by representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus, offering the Legion a new chance at survival in exchange for far greater links with the priesthood than any Legion had experienced to date. In days past, this alliance would have been opposed and halted, the old order wishing to keep the Legions and the priesthood separate; but in these new dark times few objected, and those who did were brushed aside, the Legion’s continued survival and combat efficiency mattering above all.

As a mark of their new alliance, utilising the massive casualties the Legion had suffered, the IVth reformed its structure almost entirely. Old ranks were discarded as new forms of combat, long denied the Legion by Shaaa’s own doctrines, began to flourish. The Legion was soon a hybrid, in line with both the organisation of the Legions as laid down by the Emperor himself at the beginning of the Great Crusade, and the Belicosa Potentis Omnissiah.

At the heart of this new restructuring was the Axiarch Council, those who now ruled and directed the Legion. Shaaa Hydrades still storde the universe, his position forever enshrined at the pinnacle of the Legion, but with his attentions elsewhere, leadership passed to the former Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer. No mere Space marine could replace a Primarch however, and so the Council was ratified, leading the Legion collectively until Shaaa returned to disband them.

Taking the title of Axiarch Majoris, Crikon Hanfer acted as the first amongst equals, the title of Axiarch Secundus going to Sirvan Golz, the only other Commander to survive the Solar War and the Siege of the Ring. Alongside them, freshly raised Axiarch’s of standard War Clades would act as advisors to the pair. Finally, there was a third senior position of Council, though not one held by an Astartes. The Voice of Mars, a triad of senior Mechanicus Magos, would forever be welcome within the council, solidifying the alliance beyond all doubt. Fabricator Locum Canitrak was the first to fill this spot, two aids from different Forge Worlds sitting alongside her in this new and influential role.

Beyond this, the Legion split further under the Macro-Divisions, two separate structures designated as Cybernetica and Biologis, commanded by the Axiarch Majoris and Axiarch Secundus respectively. The Legion would rally to one of these two forces, depending on their own situation and status.

Macro-Division Cybernetica would take on a role far closer to the old Legion, though even this was changed. Super heavy assets, terminator squads, heavy breaching units, and those who had achieved or required extensive and near total cybernetics filled its ranks, initially seeing the macro-Division swell far beyond Biologis. It was here that the Revenax were stationed, as well as the newly formed Frater Domitechnicus, their members giving into the machine almost entirely.

Macro-Division Biologis initially started its life as a far smaller force, comprised of those few who had escaped the battles of the Apostasy’s opening relatively unscathed, representing a phenomenally proficient force, though one few in number. Under Sirvan’s eye however, they oversaw the fresh recruitment of Aspirants into the Legion, attempting to combat the instability of the IVth’s geneseed in baseline human candidates, the Ring devastated in the wake of the Siege unable to provide the Legion with the numbers of recruits needed and keep its production capabilities near acceptable levels.

Beneath these were the War Clades, filling the role of Chapters and Grand Companies within the other Legions, and commanded by a single Axiarch. They represented the largest standardised formation within the Legion, the macro-Divisions above them being seen as designations, rather than strict numbers to follow. Each would be capped at 10,000 warriors like the Divisions of old, and by the time of the Second Solar War, there were seven full strength Clades within the Legion, an eighth approaching half strength.

Next were Battle Groups, Commanded by an Axiarch Minoris, they represented a large scale battlefield deployment, entrusted with the command of a pair of Millenon While most of these were combined arms detachments, combining multiple different battlefield roles, specialised Battle Groups could be assembled, Armoured Groups, Boarding Groups, and even Infiltration Groups being seen throughout the Frontier Wars. The most infamous of these however were the Revenax Groups, the new fist of the IVth legion.

Within a Battle Group were two Millenon each commanded by Millenrius and overseeing the deployment of 1000 battle brothers. Like the Battle groups, these were normally combined arms, though could be specialised as required. The rank of Millenrius represents the highest of the ‘Centurion’ ranks within the Legion, those above rising to the rank of Praetor.

The final two formations within the new IVth were the Maniple and the Cohort, commanded by a Centurius and a Legionary Primus. Unlike the Battle Group and the Millenon a Maniple was always a single dedicated force, its warriors specialising in a single form of combat, before being spread out across a Millenon as the situation dictated. Likewise, the Cohort was a singularly dedicated force, representing the smallest formation within the Legion, analogous to a squad in other Legions. Unlike most forces within the IVth, the numbers within a Cohort were not set, depending heavily on the type of warriors who made up the formation. Newly formed Assault Squads would often reach 20 strong, while Revenax Cohorts could be deployed as just 3 mechanical warriors.

#### Specialist Ranks and Formations

**The Revenax** - In the wake of First Solar War, the wounded of the IVth legion far outripped the supply of dreadnought shells the legion had available, those who did not rank high enough to warrant entombing in the mighty sarcophagi all but being consigned to death. It was a fate the legion could not afford, already teetering on the edge of destruction, and with Shaaa himself incapacitated, it fell to Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer to find a solution, one eventually presented by Commander Sirvan Golz and the Mechanicus in exile.

Thallax troops were no stranger amongst the forces of the Imperium, produced in their thousands on Forge Worlds across the empire, notably in this case on the Forge World Graphina, sworn to the IVth legion, and having been spared much of the fighting as the Warmaster sped for Terra. Soon these shells were turned to a different purpose, the wounded of the IVth were quickly spirited away for reconstruction, ruined flesh discarded, leaving them as little more than brains, skulls and spinal columns. Placed within their new bodies, the IVth walked again, truly the robotic legion that many had always seen them as. Named the Revenax, they finally embodied the whispered name of the IVth legions elite 1st Division, rising from the dead as true Immortals.

The Revenax differed from the Mechanicus Thallax in many ways, stripping away the jetpacks common amongst their base models, instead boasting heavier armour and enhanced servo motors, allowing them to form a battle line akin to the Saturnalians of old, often taking to combat with Terminator or Thallax grade weaponry, advancing on the enemies of Imperium Secundus with merciless efficiency.

In time however a second variation of the Revenax suit was developed, designated as the Revenax Mk2, the idea coming from Khnum. Though he saw the Revenax as an affront to the Astartes and a legion skirting closer and closer to the Mechanicus over the Imperium, he also recognised the fact the IVth needed them to survive, suffering more than almost any other legion in opening of the war. Working alongside the Tech Marines of the IVth, Khnum pointed out that the IVth was still hamstringing itself, limiting its use of certain pieces of wargear of the Astartes simply in the name of tradition, rather than adapting to the need of the times. Without Shaaa to face down his brother, the IVth had little rebuttal to Khnum’s influence, the Mk2 being crafted along this line of thought. If the Mk1 is similar to a Thallaxi, the Mk2 is an Ursarax model leaping through the air on tongues of fire, carrying potent melee weapons from mighty lightning wreathed claws to thunder hammers and chain fists. They were the first of the IVth’s new aerial units, but they would not be the last, more units of the Star Guardians beginning to take to the skies, Shaaa’s age old traditions slowly slipping away, giving way to new ones, and a legion who were slowly becoming unrecognisable without the steady hand of their lord to guide them in these dark times.

**The Frater Domitechnicus** - Alongside the Revenax, the Frater Domitechnicus were one of the more common breeds of new soldiers within the IVth legion after loss during the First Solar War. While all legions had sent some of their number to Mars since the dawn of the Great Crusade, few had done so in as high numbers as the IVth, and this continued throughout the Frontier Wars, the legion sending warriors who showed potential to the new capital of the Mechanicus to learn the ways of the machine. For those who showed true potential however, there was a greater mystery to be unlocked, one barred to the other legions.

This was the path of the Frater Domitechnicus, Astartes Adepts of the highest order, inducted into the Mechanicus almost completely. For most legions, this would be too different a calling from their own, Tech Marines already struggling to hold both loyalty to the legion and to Mars. For the IVth, those were one and the same, and when the Frater Domitechnicus finally finished their training, it was difficult for some to distinguish them from the priesthood itself, many whispering that as with the legion itself, Mars was where their loyalty ultimately lay.

All warriors of this new order were clad in warsuits that were part armour, part cybernetic Machinator Array, every bit as bulky as the Saturnine terminator armour of old, though nowhere near as potent as that venerable battle plate. Instead, this armour allowed the warrior within an unprecedented level of connection to the machine and their own augmentations, their vast array of mechadendrites and cutting lasers rending flesh and patching together sundered machinery.

Others forsook the multitude of mechadendrites, instead carrying only a single servo armour for rudimentary repairs, using the extra space they gained within their armour to carry and power mighty conversion beamers, striking all those who opposed them.

Whether they went to war in a conclave of their own kind, surrounded by multitudes of Servo-Automata or mighty Mechanicus constructs, the result was the same. To face the Frater Domitechnicus is to face the might of a Martian Legion, few foes able to stand before the twinned wrath brought to bear by these potent warrior-magos.

#### Equipment

Just as in the times before the Almire Apostasy, the new IVth were ferociously well equipped for an Astartes Legion, owing to their new alliance with the Mechanicum. That being said, the legion did lose almost all of its oldest and heaviest equipment, very little being scavenged in the retreat from Terra, most being destroyed by either enemy guns or the IVth legion themselves, ensuring as little as possible would fall into the hands of the traitors.

Of these losses, the dreadnoughts were perhaps the greatest blow, almost all of the ancients dying in defence of the Solar Guardian Array, their forms little more than molten slag, only those awaiting occupants within the holds of surviving IVth legion ships seeing survival, and they were far too few in number for the legions needs. Similar to this, the legions vast supplies of Mk1 Terminator Armour was all but wiped out, nevermore would the vaunted Saturnalians march to war again, those few surviving suits now placed in the hands of individual warriors rather than deployed on a Squad or larger level.

While one door closed however, many more now lay open, the greatest and darkest secrets the Mechanicus had to offer now gifted to the IVth, the legion inducted into the Cult Mechanicus as none had been before, none within the Imperium Secundus seeking to challenge this alliance and risk further division amongst their already scattered forces.

With this knowledge, new and strange augmentations and technologies began to be seen within the IVth, their workings all but indistinguishable from magic to the uninitiated or the ignorant. From the forms of the Revenax to the mysteries of deeper cyber-symbiosis, all were laid bare in front of the IVth, and they took to it like flames did to dry grass.

One of the most common of these new augmentations was  the Hydradyne Bolter, named after the now extinct warrior order from before the Apostasy. Based on an incredibly ancient design, the weapon was initially kept from the legions, its utility lessened due to requiring the complete and permanent replacement of the primary limb of the warrior, a trade-off most were unwilling to accept despite the superior firepower. For the IVth however, the loss of a little more flesh was of no consequence, and the weapon began to be rolled out across the legion. Possessing a sophisticated variable ammunition feed, the weapon has two firing modes. One fires a more powerful shell, capable of piercing greater levels of armoured protection and reaching longer ranges, while another is chambered in smaller shells, allowing the weapon to unleash far greater levels of firepower over a shorter distance.

This is but the tip of the iceberg however, with thousands of unique augmetics soon seen within the legion, each one containing terrible powers that few could hope to wield without a deep connection to the machine that even an Astartes would balk from. In the name of victory however, the Star Guardians dived into this pit, all knowing that once the leap was taken, they would fall forever, diving deeper and deeper into the chasm of the Cult Mechanicum.

#### Standardised Augmentations of the New IVth

With the help of the Mechanicus, new recruits slowly began to fill the ranks of the IVth legion, but it was slow going, the IVth’s own geneseed working against them, necessitating either a risk attempt to implant normal humans, or the use of disgusting mutant or abhuman stock that their geneseed was keyed too. Even this was too slow however, and the mechanicus resolved that if their chosen warriors would not swell their ranks to match their foes, they would instead be augmented beyond their peers.

Alongside the numerous augmentations of a normal Space Marine, all warriors of the IVth, from veterans to new recruits were provided with new implants, either refined from another source, or even created solely for the IVth. These merely represent the standard augmentations within the legion, used as much for utility as their combat applications. For most within the legion however, these are merely the first stepping stone, and thousands of different augmentations are present in the Star Guardians ranks, whether ubiquitous bionic limbs, or bespoke weapon interfaces forged by an individual marine. The standard augmentations are:

* **Noospheric Connection** - A new construction of the mechanicum, the creators and those augmented with the new technology remaining loyal to Terra when Mars fell, the Noosphere became commonplace through the Adeptus Mechanicus, and was likewise gifted to the Star Guardians. To the Star Guardians, information and communication became one and the same, a form of collective consciousness that emerged from the interaction of trans-human minds where knowledge became visible in shoals of light. Those connected to the aether are rendered sensitive to such things, and as a warrior developed their abilities, they would eventually see more and more of the information that surrounded them. To a new initiate, this process could prove dangerous, for it was a realm of thought and emotion that existed outside of the physical realm, this requiring additional training to master. When it was mastered however, combat efficacy was increased, orders being transmitted and acted upon at the speed of thought.

* **Data Spike** - This is an augmentation set into the forearm of all IVth legion warriors, comprising a short metal probe designed to interface with standard Mechanicus data ports, allowing warriors of the IVth to inload and exload information to a cogitator array near instantaneously. Armour was modified to allow these spikes to still slide forth, and could ever be used as a weapon if a situation was dire enough, though this would quickly render the augmentation useless for its intended purpose. Beyond this, the Data Spike served another purpose. Capable of splitting apart into multiple hair thing mechadendrites, a pair of warriors could present the spikes to each other, interfacing in a complex pattern that was changed regularly, even within deployments. This augmentation and coded greetings, combined with the noosphere meant it was difficult to infiltrate the IVth legion by conventional means, though it was by no means an infallible system, especially when presented with foes using the boons of the ruinous powers.

* **The Catograph** - A cartography unit using preloaded maps and positioning devices to create a three dimensional map. Implanted into the right eye of the Astartes, the warrior can mentally see the map, display it onto connected monitors or transmit it via the noosphere. Key points can be highlighted, and various distances calculated in an instant. This information can either be pre-loaded into the warrior, or mapped in realtime using optical sensors implanted into the marines eye

* **Frontal Lobe Fusion** - The last augmentation a Star Guardian aspirant will undertake, this takes the form of a black, spider-like implant in the centre of the warriors brain, bridging the gaps between left and right hemispheres of the organ. In doing so, the warriors of the IVth can completely bypass the fear receptors of the brain, while still being able to sense the emotion, unlike other Mechanicus force who fully scrub the brain, rendering the warrior blind to the very idea of the emotion. Few warriors outside the Legiones Astartes could hope to survive such an augmentation and still process their mental inputs enough to fight, and few amongst the legions would consider such a bastardisation of the brain. For the IVth however, no sacrifice was too great in the name of survival and ultimate victory.

#### War Disposition

Almost wiped out in the wake of the First Solar War, the IVth could barely muster 10,000 warriors in the wake of the devastation, most being injured beyond their ability to survive,  were it not for the aid of the Mechanicus.

Even with such a powerful body throwing their force behind the Legion, there was little any could do to speed the recovery of the legion, less than 80,000 warriors standing ready by the time of the Push for Terra and the  Second Solar War, making them numerically one of the smallest legions to stride the galaxy.

If they could not be a large legion however, the Axiarch Council decreed that each warrior would have to pull the weight of many from the old legion. Limbs were discarded, weak flesh replaced with strong metal, the numbers of the Revenax swelled with volunteers, not just the wounded, and brain implants in each warrior allowed them to download petabytes of combat data in an instant, sifting through it to glean some small theoretical advantage that could be turned into a physical manifestation of victory.

When the Legion stood ready for war, their 78,000 warriors were bolstered by the greatest weapons of the Mechanicus, thousands of bonded cybernetica units swelling their ranks, the legion now truly a hybridisation of Astartes and Martian might, and with that power, few could hope to stand against them for long.

## Legion Homeworld

### The Ring

Constructed in the distant past of the Dark Age of technology, the Ring is a technological marvel, and yet by estimates it is barely even half completed, the rings structure alternating from enclosed cramped corridors, to the skeletal construction opened to the void. Standing at roughly one million miles wide and with an approximate diameter the size of Terra’s orbit, the station encircles a large blue star, and a mineral rich Death World, known as Hydra. Anyone who observed the station from a distance would be forgiven for thinking that the system is a binary star system, the second smaller star being encompassed by The Ring. This is not entirely true, the second sun is a Dark Age solar siphon, the Ring drawing its power directly from the star to power its own fusion reactor.

The origins of the Ring have long since been lost to time, stolen away in the Age of Strife as with so much of human history. However, the Mechanicum of Mars has come to several potential ideas of its beginnings, and that of the people who now call it home. In ancient times, Terra’s own mineral wealth has all but dried out, leading to thousands moving towards the Core World’s, establishing mining colonies to feed their ancestral home. These worlds would eventually go on to form the Astra Khazadi Empire, but in the time before the Navigators, travel was much harder over long distances. A refinery was needed to gather the mineral wealth, to transform them into useful products to be shipped out across the stars. Enter the Ring. Constructed by the mastery of pre-Imperial human technology, it used the very planets within the system in its construction, utterly consuming all of them, only Hydra remaining, unconsumed due to the stations unfinished nature.

A truly gargantuan structure eclipsing the defensive rings that many worlds had, the Ring used the power of a star itself to fuel its forges, STC technology allowing it to create everything from personal firearms to the keels of mighty battle cruisers. It was hard work, living in cramped quarters in the depths of space, entirely reliant on other worlds to continue to function. Normal humans could not function for long in these conditions, burning themselves out with the back breaking work in short order. This was where the people of the Ring diverged from baseline humanity.

With gene-therapy to enhance the population and with a simple increase of the gravity aboard the station, the new breed of human were born. Massive, hulking beasts, they were said to be similar to smaller Ogryns, bred for strength over brains. As the gene-therapy took hold, they began to rely less and less on vegetation, transitioning to a meat-based diet and lessening their reliance on other worlds to provide their own sustenance.

It was this that allowed the Ring and its people to weather the Age of Strife cut off from all around them, but it did not grant them unity. Prized for their strength, factional warfare was inevitable when faced with such a dire situation, the people tearing each other apart in a bid for dominance. Though the people of the Ring have begun to evolve past their forces evolutionary step, their brains returning to close to baseline levels of intelligence, they are and will always be, brawn over brains, making them perfect soldiers for the Great Crusade.

When Shaaa arrived, the station was in a near constant state of war, various factions vying for the important forges or few agri-domes that were dotted around the station. The largest of these was ruled by Ashur Hydrades of the Hydrades dynasty, and it was this one that Shaaa was adopted into. Soon, the Hydrades dynasty was poised to rule the station, before Shaaa and his father came to blows. In short order, Shaaa tore down the old order, uniting the station under him as the Imperium arrived.

With a fledgling empire to call on, the Ring prospered in ways that hadn’t been seen on its surface for centuries. Food supplies meant the population that had always teetered on the edge of starvation could flourish, and the expertise of the Mechanicum, who flocked to the rediscovered relic in the tens of thousands, helped to bring the stations manufacturing capabilities and defences to full efficiency.

Now operating at the peak of its capacity, the Ring boasts some of the greatest defences and production facilities in the Imperium, eclipsed by only a few Fortress worlds and Forge Worlds in terms of raw power. It’s orbital facilities in particular were regarded as some of the greatest in the Imperium, creating exceptionally powerful ships for the IVth legion in quantities few other places could match. As such its defences were bolstered even further, creating a bastion by the time of the Apostasy, Indeed, against a conventional foe, few foes could ever hope to land upon its surface, even with a skeletal crew of Astartes manning its defences. In the end however, when the Apostasy struck, the Ring was not assaulted by a conventional enemy, instead being assaulted by creatures that had never been born in the mortal realm, its defences useless against such a foe.

### Hydra

A Death World to rival many within the Imperium, Hydra is the sole planet within the Hydra system, sharing the space with the gargantuan form of the Ring and the Blue Giant star. The world bears shows signs of being torn apart by highly advanced technology, likely during the construction of the Ring itself. Owing to the massive holes that expose the core of the world itself, Hydra has extreme gravitational anomalies that seem to defy any and all efforts to predict or track. The world is however extremely mineral rich, and as such saw heavy fighting during the days before the Imperium as factions sought to claim as much as they could before retreating once more.

## Legion Combat Doctrine

> "*The Star Guardians are not saviours, nor should we be. A man who cannot save himself is weak, and the weak do not deserve to be saved. For such a man, only death is fitting. This, we can provide.*"
> ― Unknown. Attributed to 2nd Commander Fazel Manesh of the IVth Legion
>
>

### Great Crusade and Early-Apostasy Era

The IVth conduct war with an aching slowness, whether in the void or upon the surface of a planet. Boasting the largest fleet of any of the legions, they will often overwhelm an enemy in the void, seizing ships via hundreds of boarding torpedoes to turn their guns against their one-time owners, establishing void dominance before even contemplating a landing. Often this dominance will be established weeks in advance of any landing, the fleet pounding the planet with their extremely potent firepower while the legion prepares to make planetfall. Whole worlds have been starved by the IVth legion and their fleet, blockaded and unable to bring in supplies from off-world. Though they are no more adept in cracking a fortress on the ground than other legions, none can deny that the IVth legion’s planetary and orbital siege warfare is a thing to be respected and feared in equal measure.

When they do land, it is not the blisteringly fast attacks of the Palatine Wings, nor the terror campaign of the Wisps of Acheron, or even the tactically complex campaigns of the Watchers of Akhet. Instead, it is a seemingly very simple, inexorable advance towards the enemy, warriors marching in perfect unison, shields locked in front and above in great mobile wall from which most enemy firepower simply bounces off. Indomitable Squads replace tactical squads in the IVth legion, trained in boarding actions above all, while hulking dreadnoughts walk alongside the dreaded Saturnalians, providing extreme firepower where it is needed, or an unbreakable defence when the enemy musters for a counter attack. If possible, the fleet in orbit will provide hellishly accurate firepower in place of conventional artillery which the legion lacks, destroying all but the heaviest of bastions in short order.

However, it is in enclosed environments that the legion truly excels; be that on board a starship, within the confines of a Hive City or in the subterranean warrens of a xenos world, the legion showing an extreme preference for these close range, brutal engagements, where their relentless firepower could be brought to its fullest effect. In such situations, the lack of speeds and often vulnerable flanks can be secured with ease, the legion’s lack of conventional barrage weapons no longer hindering them, replaced instead by tunneling subterranean torpedo launchers and powerful direct fire weapons. When combined with the elite Hydra Auxilia, or the Mechanicum of Graphina, the attacks of the IVth leave little more than a smear of blood on the trampled floor, none remaining to mourn their passing as the IVth wipe out their enemies’ root, shaft and stem.

While the legion is undoubtedly a formidable force on the battlefield, they are not without their flaws. Based on the orders of Shaaa himself, many weapons of the other legions are seldom seen within the IVth, jump packs and jetbikes chief amongst them, though other form of grav and light vehicles are also rare to the point of non-existence. If a foe is fast, they can run rings around the ponderous beast of the IVth, but if they cannot break the legion, they will be ground beneath the tread of their boots eventually, their defeat a matter of when, not if.

### The Frontier Wars

In the wake of the devastating losses of the First Solar War, and Shaaa absence from the Legion as a whole, the IVth was forced to change their Modus Operatii almost entirely. Returning to their roots as one of the smallest legions, plagued with implantation issues, the IVth instead focused on exceedingly well trained and augmented warriors, led by the might of the Revenax.

Oddly, despite their newfound closeness to the Mechanicus in Exile, a force renowned for their own ponderous advances, the IVth legion has adopted many methods of combat that the old legion shunned, increasing their speed as a result. Mk2 Revenax units leap through the air alongside Assault Squads, while warriors astride mighty war bikes or within gravity defying landspeeders scream through the enemies of the Imperium Secundus. Even Librarians began to surface within the legion once more, a breed of warrior not seen for over two centuries.

For most operations, the Legion strikes in tandem with their Mechanicus allies, robots and skitarii in the same colouration as the new IVth going to war together, many claiming that the new IVth has become the right hand of the Mechanicus, operating far closer with the priesthood than is desirable. Given the desperate nature of the Imperium Secundus however, none would dare to challenge this alliance for fear of inciting discord within their already shaken ranks.

## Legion Geneseed

The IVth legion’s geneseed during the Great Crusade had one of the lowest rejection rates amongst the twenty legions, though it was not always this way, the legion initially plagued with implantation difficulties before they were reunited with their Sire. The genestock of the IVth seemed to reject implantation into baseline humans, their genetic purity being rejected, while so called “dirty genes”, such as abhumans or even mutated specimens would find the process far easier to survive. When they were united with Shaaa however, their numbers skyrocketed, the children of the Ring taking to the geneseed of the Breacher Lord like none had before them. This finally allowed the legion to grow in size, allowing them to replace the hideously high losses the legion takes when they go to war. Indeed, if they were to pull back from the front lines, or otherwise reduce their casualty rate, they would likely have grown exponentially in size, as happened in the wake of the Ullanor campaign, where the legion returned to Terra, relieved of Frontline duty. In the span of a few decades, the legion doubled in size, it’s swollen ranks being the only reason the legion was not wiped out entirely in the wake of the First Battle of the Solar System.

However, the Legion is not without their genetic flaws even in the wake of Shaaa’s reunification with the IVth, their gene seed granting its recipients various strengths and weaknesses alongside those that are expected as standard.

The first of these flaws was the overactive Mucranoid glan in each warrior of the IVth. The Mucranoid of most Legions is usually dormant, requiring external chemicals to activate in a minor way, or an extreme external stimulus to fully cocoon the Astartes and place him into suspended animation. For a Star Guardian however, this gland is always active in a minor way, coating the legionnaires skin in a sickly looking waxy outer layer. While this unsettles any mortals who ever see a Star Guardian without their helmet on, itself an extreme rarity, it also provides another level of protection from the harshness of the void, and as such is fully embraced by Shaaa and the legion.

The flaw of the IVth is physical ones, and was well documented by the Mechanicum, the gene-witches of Luna and the Emperor's own Geneticists, but the second flaw is far less known. Indeed, it is not believed to have existed in the original geed seed the legion used when they strove the stars as the Dark Watchers, only coming into existence when Shaaa himself was found and recruitment changed exclusively to the populace of the Ring. There is debate as to whether or not this classes as a geneseed flaw at all, or if it is merely a quirk of recruiting from a single population group, an abhuman one at that. However, as none can discern where the condition truly originates from, most link it directly to the geneseed for ease of quantification.

Every marine since that day has suffered from a form of agoraphobia, in greater or lesser degrees. For some it is a minor issue, manifesting only as a slight irritation when in wide open spaces, whereas for others it is far more severe, causing Marines to loathe their time under the sky of a planet, becoming extremely shut off from all others. This is one of the contributing factors to why all Star Guardians prefer to keep their helmets on whoever on the surface of a planet, the enclosed nature helping to calm the Astartes and keep their minds razor sharp. It also explains why Astartes of the IVth seem to interface far more completely with the shell of a Dreadnought, relishing in the fully enclosed nature of their new life where others may despise it. This allows IVth Legion dreadnoughts to stay active for far longer, sleeping for shorter periods of time, leading to many holding permanent officer rank within the legion, leading their men in death as many did in life.

Regardless of whether the Astartes is temporarily sealed within their own armour or permanently within the shell of a Dreadnought, it is a undeniable fact that all those of the Ring prefer to be in the enclosed corridors of a void ship than the surface of a planet, only being truly comfortable groundside when under the ground or in the claustrophobic environments of a Hive city, the enclosed space keeping the marines focused on the slaughter of their foes.

## Notable Star Guardians

### Pre-Apostasy

**Shaaa Hydrades** - Shaaa Hydrades, also known as “The Breacher Lord” and ‘The Cold Hearted”, was the Primarch of the IVth legion a master smith known for creating weapons that were able to inspire awe in any who saw them. Physically amongst the largest and strongest of his brothers, Shaaa suffered heavily at the hands of his foster-father before his reunification with the Emperor, his body being fully cybernetic from the waist down, while half his body looked melted away, giving him a perpetual leering visage. Brutal and unrepentant about it, Shaaa would form his closest bonds with the Primarch Abner of the Light Bringers Legion, but this relationship ultimately ended in tragedy after Abner sided with Almire during the Apostasy. Coming to blows in orbit around Sol during the First Solar War, Abner all but eviscerated Shaaa, his greater speed and potent weapons eclipsing Shaaa’s ability to endure until his own strike could land, before bathing him in phospex from a weapon Shaaa himself had designed for him. In the wake of the battle, little remained of the Shaaa that was, a cybernetic revenant rising in its place. From this day forth, Shaaa was little more than a machine, focused on the sole action of rebuilding a fleet with which to retake Terra. During the Frontier Wars, this great fleet quickly came to pass, led by a ship to eclipse all others, known simply as *The Triumph*. Even in the wake of the Second Solar War however, Shaaa did not return to command the IVth, instead turning his focus back to the Solar Guardian Array, its mighty form pitted by the marks of battle and the touch of Chaos. Years turned into decades turned into centuries, and when Shaaa finally finished its construction, he turned to find the galaxy had moved on to a place he could no longer stand be a part of, his mighty legion shattered not by war, but by bureaucracy. Disgusted, Shaaa sent a single coded message to the last warriors to bear the name "Star Guardians", before disappearing into the Vaults of Mars, sealing the doors from the inside, ensuring none could follow in his footsteps. Thus far, the encryption code in the message has not been cracked, many in the legion believing that when it is, they will have finally proven to their lord once more that they are worthy to stand alongside him once more.

**Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer** - Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer was the second in command of the IVth Legion for the majority of the Great Crusade and Almire Apostasy, fighting alongside Shaaa for over two centuries. Raised to the legion as part of the first batch of recruits from the Ring, Crikon survived the hellish battles of the Squat Wars, rising to replace the fallen Lord Commander who came before him. Clad in ancient Saturnine Terminator Armour, Crikon could forever be seen leading from the front, striving to emulate his sire as he led his Saturnalians against the enemies of man. Surviving the First Solar War, Crikon oversaw the restructuring of the Legion and the alliance between the IVth and the Mechanicus in Shaaa’s absence, continuing to lead the Star Guardians even after the Legion split and the IVth became a mere chapter.

**Fracturam Lord Commander Varinius Rampt** - Formerly the Legion Master of the IVth Legion when they were known as the Dark Watchers, Varinius Rampt was the first aspirant to survive implantation with Shaaa Hydrades’s geneseed, named as the Legion Master as a result. Almost killed during the Squat Wars, Varinius Rampt survived as a Dreadnought, becoming the leader of the Fracturam, eventually being placed within an experimental Olympian Dreadnought. Varinius Rampt would finally meet his end on the soil of Terra itself at the hands of the deadly warp-tech assassin, GL-41-V3. His shell was quickly recovered by the Silver Basilisks, the Legion turning it to their own gain throughout the Frontier Wars before the Star Guardians finally took back control of its mighty form, the ancient sarcophagus becoming a sacred relic for a legion already drinking deeper and deeper from the elixer of the Cult Mechanicum.

**2nd** **Commander Fazel Manesh** - Also know as the Warden, Fazel’s Battalion has the honour of maintaining a permanent presence on the Ring, overseeing training of new recruits for the legion and the Hydra Auxillia, as well as garrisoning the station and its mighty shipyards and forge complexes. In the wake of Ullanor, Fazel and five hundred of his warriors would be the only major force of the IVth legion to not travel to Terra, instead remaining on the Ring to continue on with their duty to the legions future. Fazel would be the warrior in charge during the Siege of the Ring, perishing against the hordes of Neverborn unleashed upon the station.

> "*My Lord is many things, all within the legion know this. A mighty warrior? A smith with few his equal? A tactician to rival any of his found brothers? All of these are true. He is also cold, distant, to some, this would mean a monster, and perhaps they are right. The IVth has burnt worlds and cast down civilisations for standing before the Imperium, but allow me to ask you this; which legion has not? The XIVth? They brought fire to the world of Proxima in the wake of their rebellion, none would deny that was the correct course to follow. Or Galvarian, and his lauded Ashen Crows? They and their Primarch willingly consign millions to their experiments, drawing out their agony for the good of the Imperium. And what of the Xth? Or the XVIIIth? Or the XXth? All of us, Astartes all, monsters to some, saviours to more. The Imperium seeks to reclaim an empire long lost to the blood of madness, and only through blood will this goal be realised. So are we monsters? Perhaps. Are we necessary? Absolutely. Will we ever turn from our duty due to the cries of lesser men and our perceived morality? Never.*"
> ― 3rd Commander Harnt Redal of the IVth Legion
>
>

    **3rd Commander Harnt Redal** - Born on the Ring, Harnt rose through the ranks quickly by dint of survival in the Squat Wars, catching Shaaa’s eye personally, and selected to serve as both the Commander of the 3rd Division and the Primarch’s personal aide, becoming Shaaa’s closest son in short order, confided in before all others, even Crikon Hanfer. A calming presence on the Breacher Lord, Harnt would ever council reason and compassion, the Primarch often listening to his ministrations. He was eventually slain in an act of duplicity from a world who feigned a desire to surrender, Harnt himself convincing his Primarch to accept the surrender, and was granted the task of accepting it from the planets leaders. They had no intention of accepting however, striking Harnt down as soon as he arrived, believing him to be Shaaa Hydrades himself. Enraged, Shaaa soon withdrew from the planet, laying waste to it despite its worth to the Imperium, before continuing onwards, his wrath knowing no bounds as world after world burnt in memory of the favoured son, only fading when 61 worlds of the initial planets empire were naught but ash, one for every year Harnt had served under the Breacher Lord. It is noted that Shaaa’s own mental deterioration seemed to accelerate from that day.

**3rd Commander in Situ Naqu Twaj** - The replacement for Harnt Redal, Situ has never been under any belief that the Division he leads will ever truly be his, nor that he will ever be looked upon favourably by his lord, his position forever a reminder of his predecessors death. Nevertheless, Situ performed his duties to the exacting letter that Shaaa demanded, right up until his death during the First Solar War.

**4th Commander Sirvan Akin** – Sirvan Akin commands the 4th Division of the Star Guardians, famed for his shield and spear “Phallaxa” formations, leading to the Division becoming known as “The Spears of Akin”. Akin was killed in the early months of the First Solar War.

**5th Commander Nader Kardan** – Commander Nader Kardan commands the 5th Division of the Star Guardians, the so called “Corpse Grinders”, regarded by detractors of the Star Guardians as everything wrong with their merciless ways of war. Under Nader’s command, the 5th gained a reputation for hellishly high mortal casualties, mostly amongst penal battalions. A warrior connected body and soul to his flagship, the Goliath-class Battleship *Shaaa’s Retribution*, in a manner similar to a Dreadnought or a vat-bound titan Princeps, Nader watches his charges from on high, delivering pinpoint accurate bombardments during infantry assaults, the penal soldiers attacking positions they cannot hope to take conventionally often carrying homing beacons with them, guiding orbital fire to their position to smash aside both friend and foe alike. *Shaaa’s Retribution* was destroyed in the early days of the First Solar War, attempting and failing to stop the three ‘King Ships’ that Artellion brought through the Elysian Gate.

**6th Commander Gunnar Rayden** – After Julius Atalan, Gunnar Rayden, Commander of the 6th Division, is regarded as the greatest ranged fighter within the IVth Legion. However, where Julius is a crack shot, Gunnar prefersarea saturation with heavy weaponry, a trait passed on to his Division. In battle, Gunnar would stride forth equipped with Cataphractii Terminator armour, cyclone missile launchers upon his back, a master crafted autocannon in one hand and a mighty Storm Shield in the other. Alongside his similarly equipped personal guard, few could stand before the incoming might of Gunnar and his Division. Even this was not enough however, Gunnar falling on Ceres when the traitors took the Fortress Moon, fighting until the last to save the vital moon, a futile effort but a heroic one nonetheless.

**7th Commander Julius Atalan** - The Commander of the 7th Division, Julius Atalan was a Terran born warrior, raised to the legion shortly after Varinius Rampt was, given elevated command as a result. By far the greatest shot within the legion, Julius was unique within the IVth as the only member to not wear the heavier Mark 3 Power Armour or Terminator plate, preferring his Mk2 and eventual Mk4 armour despite the Breacher Lords disdain for the lighter patterns. Fighting with a pair of ancient archeotech pistols, Julius would finally meet his end aboard the Light Bringers flagship, the Monad, fighting at the Battle of Sol to ensure the vessels destruction, even at the expense of his own life and thousands of other Star Guardians.

**8th Commander Sirvan Golz** - Commander of the 8th Division and Champion of the IVth Legion, Sirvan Golz was raised to the Legion from the Consus Drift, surviving the difficult implantation process and becoming a member of the Dark Watchers. Quickly rising through the ranks, Sirvan would be the last of the Dark Watchers to transition to the new Star Guardians, never seeing eye to eye with his brutal and unfeeling Primarch. It is only due to his undeniable skill both in command and with his mighty sword and shield, known together as “The Drifts Due”, that he retained command, becoming hailed as the Champion of the IVth Legion and competing in the tournament of arms at the Great Feast. Sirvan would be one of the few members of the Legion to survive the First Solar War, only he and Crikon surviving from the legions command structure, leading to him taking up position as the Auxiarch Secundus, second only to Crikon Hanfer himself within the Star Guardians.

**9th Commander Hankot Draedo** - Commander Hankot Draedo is a mystery, even to those within the Star Guardians. Both Hankot and the 9th Division were believed wiped out dozens of times during the Crusade, plagued by enemies whose resistance was far greater than any could predict, unforeseen attacks from enemies not planned for, or simply bad luck. However, Hankot always led his warriors through such trials, earning the nickname “The Risen.” Possessing pale, almost alabaster skin, white hair and completely colourless eyes, whispers are abound throughout the Division and beyond that he is more than a simple Astartes, forged with some unknown technology or joint project with another sect of the Imperium. Whatever the truth is, neither Hankot, nor Shaaa himself, will say. Hankot finally met his end at the First Solar War, surviving for almost five months and ‘falling’ many times. His eventual death was recorded by no less than seven separate loyalist sources, corroborated and determined to be final.

**10th Forge Commander Nakom Palmet** – After Forge Master Avalon Saros, Nakom Palmet is the most accomplished tech marine in the Star Guardians, it being little wonder that the 10th Division boasts the highest number of tech marines of any Star Guardians formation as a result. Holding rank as both Commander and Forge Lord, Nakom Palmet is most often referred to as Forge Commander, carrying experimental weapons of the Mechanicum into battle, dispatching the enemies of mankind with a cold detachment and logical viewpoint that makes him such a prime candidate for testing such new devices. Nakom was given command of the Sunward Gulf during the First Solar War, the expanse of space between Sol and Terra, including the secondary control nexus that was Mercury. It was on the systems first planet that the Forge Commander would finally meet his end, struck down by the Consuls Exemplar kill teams that arrived to neutralise the Solar Guardian Array’s control nexus.

**11th Commander Nelik Taarsal** – Nelik Taarsal was once a fringe type within the IVth Legion, part of the reconnaissance battalions that the legion maintained, though often found little use for. However, when the Legion returned to Sol to begin to fortify the system in the wake of the Ullanor Triumph, Nelik was one of those selected to command a new Division, one the crusading legion never would have found use for. Specialising fully as a rapid relief force, Nelik moulded his Division into a fast moving, close support force, forgoing heavy units and instead focusing on lighter ranged combat, exemplified in his own wargear, going into battle in Mk6 Corsair armour, a unique scoped bolter at his side and enshrouded in a cameleoline cloak. All of this however would come to naught, his command whittled down warrior by warrior as they sought to support the frontline in the First Solar War, finally being wiped out wholesale on the orbital plates of Jupiter.

**12th Commander Meysam Tarok** – Renowned as a great pilot even before Ullanor, Meysam Tarok was elevated in the wake of the Triumph to command the 12th Division, specialising in the previously neglected grav-vehicles of the Legiones Astartes. Landspeeders, jetbikes, as well as more esoteric vehicles beside made available from Mars were the bread and butter of the 12th, Meysam ensuring that his warriors were perfect within the saddle, securing training from warriors of the Vth and XIVth to further their skills. Despite the reputation of pilots being loud and brash individuals, Meysam is reserved and focused, rarely giving voice to any words that do not serve the purpose of his mission. Despite his skill, Meysam met his end during the First Solar War, his Jetbike disabled, Meysam cut down soon after by hordes of maddened chaos cultists, an ignoble end for the valiant warrior.

**13th** **Commander Karatok Neymeer** – Commander of the 13th Division, Karatok Neymeer is a brutal warrior, more akin to the Skaran War Bears than the Cold Rage of the Star Guardians. Clad in Tartaros Terminator Armour and carrying a terrifying siege drill into battle, Karatok and his warriors were the final word in close quarters combat amongst the IVth Legion, reaping a fearsome tally amongst the traitor forces at the First Solar War, finally meeting their match as Khorne’s own chosen warriors; the Claws of Xipac, took to the field. The blood that flowed that day would surely have pleased Necalli’s new master, Karatok’s skull offered up for the Blood Gods throne.

**14th** **Commander Tyar Kaltar** – Tyar Kaltar commands the 14th Division, the so-called “Fireborne Host” due to their use of jump packs and other personal flight devices to close the gap. A former assault marine, Tyar is the other side of the close combat coin from Commander Karatok, preferring to fight with speed and skill rather than brute strength and survivability. For this, he was heralded as a great warrior by Sirvan Golz, no small praise from the legions champion, propelling the Commander upwards, forever training to match the Commander of the 8th Division. Such a thing would never come to pass however, Tyar struck down during the Solar War, the exact specifics behind his death unknown, no survivors appearing to report on the battle that finally claimed the warriors life.

**15th** **Commander Ferdous Hassan** – All Star Guardians were at home in the void, but Ferdous Hassan, Commander of the 1th Division, takes this to another level. Ferdous and his Division rarely, if ever, fought in environments with an established atmosphere, the Commander most at home with activated mag-boots and a personal oxygen supply keeping him alive, his bolter soundlessly bringing death to those less skilled in such combat than he and his warriors were. This was proved time and time again in the Solar War, the 15th never losing a battle in their chosen field. However, Ferdous was not immortal, and would meet his end not through enemy fire or blades, but by attrition, wave upon wave of chaos cultists and expendable troops thrown at him and his men, easily cut down, but slowing their progress and clogging the accessways into the Solar Guardian Array’s interior with their corpses. In this manner, in the lifeless void, Ferdous and thousands of his warriors suffocated to death, their lifeless bodies floating through the void, no mortal wounds upon their flesh, yet dead all the same.

**16th** **Commander Ehsan Taghi** – Commander Ehsan Taghi is an oddity amongst the IVth Legion, having preferred armoured support over dreadnought or man-portable heavy weapons since the earliest days of the legion, continuing to lead the Star Guardians armoured core from when they still stood as Dark Watchers after the Disaster of the Hyperion Way. A tank ace without equal in the IVth Legion, Ehsan was heavily wounded in the fighting on Ullanor, placed within a Dreadnought shortly afterwards, something he saw as a punishment, not an honour as almost all of the legion did. However, his service was soon rewarded, Shaaa naming him as the Commander of the newly formed 16th Division, home of the Star Guardians armoured vehicles. By the time of the Solar War, Ehsan had forgone his typical dreadnought shell, being wired directly into the Broadsword Super-heavy Assault Tank *Unbroken*. Ehsan was, in the technical sense of the word, killed during the First Solar War, however, *Unbroken* was salvaged, and later it was found that much of the Commanders personality had been saved in the MIU link he shared with the tank, aiding future armoured commanders of the Star Guardian, it becoming a badge of office for the Star Guardians tank commanders to interface with *Unbroken* as Ehsan once did.

**17th** **Commander Nozar Ershard** – Commander Nozar Ershard of the 17th Division was a rare biological twin within the *Legiones Astartes*, Arash Ershard and him sharing their heritage before joining the IVth Legion. Nozar was the more bellicose of the pair, laughing and roaring with pleasure alongside the roar of his heavy weapons. No Astartes-portable weapon in the Star Guardians was unknown to Nozar, but only the largest were ever wielded by the Commander, size and might being far more important than compact killing efficacy. For this however, Nozar could not stand forever, struck down in the first weeks of the First Solar War along with much of his command, his brother never recovering from the loss, even as the remnants of the 17th Division were combined with his 18th.

**18th** **Commander Arash Ershard** – Commander Arash Ershard of the 17th Division was a rare biological twin within the *Legiones Astartes*, Nozar Ershard and him sharing their heritage before joining the IVth Legion. Of the pair, Arash was more reserved, though still focused on bringing the heaviest weapons to bear upon the enemy, but preferring the single shot prowess of weapons such as lascannons or conversion beamers compared to the high rate of fire weapons his twin favoured. After Nozar’s death, Arash became increasingly cruel in his ministrations of war, aiming to provide slow deaths to his enemies rather than clinically efficient quick kills. He would eventually meet his end upon the Saturnine Orbital Plate of Xerxes that the Division had been assigned to guard and named after, reaping a fearsome taly before he was crushed by an oncoming God Machine of the Titan legio’s.

**19th** **Flight Commander Soheil Bina**  - While Meysam Tarok of the 12th may have been considered an extremely skilled pilot, Soheil Bina was known to be the greatest pilot within the Star Guardians legion, not by a small margin, but by many magnitudes, aircraft seemingly dancing to his touch in ways no other warrior of the legion could hope to match. At home in the cockpit of his personalised Panthera Fighter far more than when he was on the ground. Under him, the 19th Division became well known as masterful pilots of the largest aircraft in Imperial service, Soheil able to pilot any of these craft, insisting that he would only ask his men to fly into combat in a vehicle he himself had mastered, the number of aircraft used by the 9th standing testament to his skill. Like the rest of the 19th Division, Soheil was lost when the *Ark Imperial*, the Divisions Gloriana-class Supercarrier was struck by a stray torpedo, its warp engines overloading and sending the mighty vessel screaming into the warp, its true fate unknown.

**20th** **Commander Darius Kardmah** - A long serving member of the Star Guardians and one of their most brutal Destroyers who was passed over for promotion many times before the eventual creation of the 20th Division after Ullanor saw him rise to the rank of Commander. Darius allowed the lure of Chaos to work its way into his soul, corrupted by his feelings of anger towards Shaaa and the IVth legion for passing him over for command time and time again. During the First Solar War, Darius and a large portion of the 20th Division, the Astral Ravagers, defected, joining forces with the traitor host, forming a warband by the same name, a stain on the honour of the IVth Legion that would never be expunged.

**Fracturam Lord Bahadur Esteri** - The first of the Ringborn Star Guardians to be placed within a Dreadnought shell, was predictably well respected and revered within the IVth Legion, rising to the rank of Lord, and being placed in command of a Star Fortress during the First Solar War. However, this would be his last posting within the IVth Legion, captured and forcibly possessed by the Hounds of Surmah and their dark lord. Since that time, Bahadur has been a pox upon the Star Guardians, hated and hunted by his former legion, second only to Darius Kardmah and his Astral Ravagers in the scale of his transgression.

**Lieutenant Tarhal "The Fallen"** - A warrior of brutal reknown within the IVth Legion, Tarhal "The Slaughterer" was commander of the 8th Assault Battalion by the time of Nuceria, watching as Khumn of the Ist Legion handed over the potent technology of the butchers nails to Shaaa Hydrades. Though Shaaa used the nails in mortal slave forces, he refused to allow its use within Astartes, even as Tarhal requested the tehcnology for his own Assault Battalion. Refused time and time again, Tarhal eventually attempted to force the issue, stealing and implanting the nails within his own brain. This succeeded in making him a brutal warrior, but robbed him of much of his reasoning. Though he retained his command, Shaaa never looked upon his son in a favourable light again, Tarhal gaining a new epitaph; "The Fallen."

**Forge Master/Arch Domitechnicus Avalon Saros** - Unique amongst the IVth legion, and perhaps even amongst the Astartes themselves, Avalon Saros was born upon Mars in the days before the Emperor’s arrival, a lowly menial who managed to snatch a glimpse of his gods arrival. Attempting to sneak aboard one of the Emperor’s vessels, the youth was easily caught and brought before the Emperor, throwing himself before the mercy of his god and begging for the honour of becoming one of his angels. The Emperor agreed to allow the youth to be tested, stating that if he were not compatible he would be delivered back to Mars to accept punishment for abandoning his work post. Luckily for Avalon, he proved to be a match for the IVth’s geneseed, and was soon raised to the legion, his martian upbringing seeing him move down the path of a tech marine, and eventually become the Forge Master of the entire IVth Legion, part of the 1st Division and part of Shaaa Hydrades Syriac Council. Surviving the First Solar War, if barely, Avalon would become the first to survive the Revenax augmentations, as well as going on to form the new Frater Domitechnicus of the reforged IVth, named as their undisputed leader, the Arch Domitechnicus.

**Forge Lord Talakan** - A long serving tech marine raised from the Ring, Talakan befriended a fellow tech marine of the Consuls Exemplar during his time training on Mars, often working alongside the Legion on technologies Shaaa himself looked down upon, primarily the psi-stone technology of the Squat Empire. After Ullanor, Talakan was recognised for his skills, assigned as the Forge Lord of the newly formed 20th Division, equivalent to the Commander in terms of rank within the IVth Legion's forge. However, Talakan's heart had long since been turned black against his Primarch, Shaaa's desire to limit the work Talakan could have done on the Psi-stone technology a chief reason amongst these. When the Astral Ravagers led by Commander Kardmah betrayed the Imperium, Talakan was counted amongst their number, eventually taking up residence on Mars, working on potent and terrifying weapons alongside the True Mechanicum, known to those outside their ranks as the Dark Mechanicum.

**Ship Master Kaelthron Dramas** - The Commander of Crikon Hanfers flagship, the *Bastion,* Kaelthron was heavily wounded in the fighting at the Endless Arkium, placed inside a dreadnought-like tomb and linked directly into his battleship, to forever command his mighty vessel. When the *Red Tear* was captured and returned to the Ring for reconstruction, Kaelthron was selected to command it in the times when Crikon was leading boarding parties away from his vessel, installed within its bridge from the first day it flew at the Breacher Lords command, until his last day at the battle of Sol's End.

**Chaplain Lord** **Omid Panahi** - In the wake of the Edict of Nikaea, Omid Panahi was reassigned from the Hydradyne to instead serve as the Head Chaplain within the XVth Legion, setting up the headquarters for the new Chaplaincy within the fabled Tower, a former training facility for the librarius of the XVth. When the Apostasy errupted, Omid and those Chaplains within the Tower fought bravely, but were nonetheless struck down by the vengeful legion.

**Tyban Gharz** - A warrior from the time of the Dark Watchers, Tyban was one of the incredibly rare members of the legion to boast psychic powers, trained to master them when the IVth legion still allowed such. When Shaaa was found and the librarius almost instantly dismantled, Tyban was implanted with a dampening chip as with all his kind, forbidden from even accessing his powers. While most of the others who underwent the treatment died soon after, too reliant on their sixth sense to operate without it, Tyban not only survived, but thrived, first being identified as a potential Tech Marine, sent from the legion to learn the ways of the machine, before eventually being selected for placement within the Hydradyne. This latter promotion was oft seen as an honour and a gateway to High Command, but for Tyban this was little more than a holding pen, Shaaa effectively restricting him from ever rising within the legion again. Part of the mission to Verivaltas, Tyban was captured by the Master of the Hounds, and would have died soon after, had it not been for a traitor within the Hounds own legion, Reijo. Together the pair escaped, Tyban suffering an injury that finally destroyed the implant in his mind along with much of his flesh. Upon reaching Terra, the extent of the betrayal was revealed to the pair, while Tyban himself faced execution at Shaaa’s hand, the Praetorian seeing him as having broken the Edict of Nikaea and Shaaa’s own ruling. He was only saved by the intervention of Malcador, selected to serve as one of his Knights Errant, and eventually, as one of the founders of the ultimate weapon against chaos, the 666th Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, the Grey Knights.

**Vexillarius Quantil Herok** - Quantil Henrok is a young warrior, barely a decade of service under his belt when the Legion engaged the abominable intelligence of the Endless Arkium. It was there he made a name for himself, finding himself fighting alongside the vaunted warriors of the 1st Division, Quantil took up the fallen banner of the Star Guardians, fighting to keep up with the far more heavily armoured Saturnalian elite. Despite being injured numerous times, Quantil refused to bend or shirk in his new duty, catching the eye of Shaaa Hydrades himself.  In the wake of a battle his wounds were easily enough to grant him the elevated status as a member of the Dreadnought Division, but Quantil refused, instead desiring to remain the new standard bearer of the IVth Legion. Rebuilt almost entirely, the standard bearer is now more metal than flesh, mounted atop the tracks of a Kataphron battle servitor, his determination caught Shaaa’s eye, Quantil quickly finding himself elevated to the Syriac to stand beside his Primarch. To date he is the only new member to join in the wake of Harnt Redal’s death, and though the Commander is long dead, Quantil knows he will always be in the shadow of the truest favoured son. Quantil would continue to serve in this role throughout the early Almire Apostasy, surviving the Solar War and even the Battle of Mars, before finally meeting his end at the Battle of Sol, dying with the Legions Banner still grasped in his vice like grip, the vessel he was on plunging into the heart of the sun mere moments after his death immolating Quantil and his charge, ensuring he would forever be the last to touch his beloved banner.

## Legion Fleet

When reviewing the Star Guardians Legion, it is impossible to be complete without speaking of the strength of their fleet. At the time of the Ullanor conflict and the Legions return to Terra, the IVth legion had the largest fleet of both capital and escort class vessels under their direct command, with many more bound to them by oath and fealty. Unsurprisingly for a legion that focused so heavily on fleet assets, to the detriment of other parts of their armoury, this naval strength was the greatest of any of the Legiones Astartes, and was further enhanced by the fact that many of their ships were the largest in the Imperium, Shaaa placing emphasis on size, armour and guns over speed or subtlty, to the surprise of no one. Even the Brothers Encarmaine or the Silver Basilisks could not rival such strength alone.

All Star Guardian vessels, whether by initial design or by refits, lacked any viewports, even on the bridge, the change being brought in by Shaaa Hydrades shortly after his founding, and enforced fully in the years of rebuilding after the Squat Wars. In Shaaa’s mind, visual contact with the enemy served no practical purpose other than as weak points in the hull in a void war that could take place over hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and instead drilled his sons and the mortal crews of his vessels to instead rely solely on auspex scans and tactical displays. Because of this, Star Guardians vessels usually boasted extremely advanced sensor arrays, alongside thick armour and heavy guns, prefering to be slow moving hammers like the legion, rather than the light weight rapiers of legions like the XIVth.

In the times after Ullanor, the true strength of the IVth fleet became something of an unknown. Almost all of the fleet was redesignated as part of the new Solar Guardian Array fleet, new ships added through the years before the Almire Apostasy. Many of these ships bore Star Guardian captains, but were otherwise served by mortal crews, making it all but impossible to tell which ships were truly part of the IVth legion, or were simply part of their new initiative to defend the Solar System from all aggression. If one were to attempt to quantify this mighty fleet, a number somewhere between 10-25,000 vessels was usually arrived at, such a fleet befitting the prize it now defended.

In the end however, this mighty fleet power mattered little. With Terra struck by the full force of nine Legions, the mighty fleet of the Solar Guardian Array and the IVth legion was shattered, thousands of vessels, some new and some ancient, were lost as they tried in vain to hold back the oncoming tide of traitors. Those few that escaped bore the scars of that fight for the rest of their lives, no amount of time in dry dock ever truly able to remove the memories.

### Notable Vessels

* *Aegis of Occluda* - Lunar-class Heavy Assault Cruiser - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Severely Damaged - First Solar War)
* *Antipathy* – Eclipse-class Lance Cruiser  (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Antrodamicus* – Jovian-class Battlecruiser - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Antropheles* – Heavy Transport - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Ark Imperial* - Unknown Super-Fleet Carrier (Unofficially designated as a Gloriana-class vessel) - Flagship of the 19th Division  (MIA due to Warp Engine Malfunction - First Solar War - Returned late M32 - Current Flagship and Fortress Monestary of the Void Raptors)
* *Bastion* - Gloriana-class Battleship - Flagship of Lord Commander Crikon Hanfer - Taken as the spoils of war, the Bastion underwent significant repairs and refits to purge the name and markings of its former owners, finally setting forth once more to fight beside the Herald of Destruction, the two ships representing an impossibly powerful force against any who would challenge the IVth legion. (Destroyed - Sol's End)
* *Burnabus* – Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Catastrophic Damage - First Solar War)
* *Campanile* – Fleet Tender - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed)
* *Cavascor* - Olympia-class Strike Cruiser
* *Constellation of Hydra* – Crusade-class Strike Cruiser (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Cornucopia* - Vanquisher-class Battleship
* *Deliverance of Terra* - Maelstrom-class Galleass of War  (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Deus Machina* - Ark Mechanicus - While not truly a vessel of the Legion, The Deus Machina was the flagship of the Voice of Mars, the voice of the Mechanicus within the IVth Legion. Wherever she flew, Mar’s authority flew with her, none doubting the strength of the two organisations new alliance.
* *Emperor’s Wrath* - Legatus-class Battle Barge   (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Executor* - Torrent-class Battleship - Flagship of Commander Nakom Palmet
* Finality - Ironclad-class Battle Barge - Flagship of Fracturam Commander Varinius Rampt
* *First of Shaaa* - Retribution-class Battleship - Constructed in the years after the First Solar War, the Fist of Shaaa was the first new vessel to join the shattered Star Guardians fleet since their defeat. The vessel would serve throughout the Frontier Wars, seeing action in the Second Solar War and beyond.
* *Gauntlet of Glory* – Ironclad-class Battle Barge  - twin of the Glory of Victory
* *Gauntlet of Victory* – Ironclad-class Battle Barge   - twin of the Glory of Glory
* *Herald of Destruction* - Gloriana-class Battleship - Flagship of Primarch Shaaa Hydrades - The first of its kind and a formidable vessel built within Ring’s orbital fleet yards, it served as Shaaa’s flagship during the Great Crusade and early Almire Apostasy era’s, barely surviving the battle of Sol, Crikon Hanfer taking command as Shaaa moved his flag to the Triumph, repaired and refitted for use within the Frontier Wars.
* *High Assent* - Armiger-class Lance Cruiser  - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet
* *Hope of Narmenia* – Ironclad-class Battle Barge  (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Hyperion Spear* - Avenger-class Grand Cruiser (Destroyed - Siege of the Ring)
* *Indomitable* - Ramilies-class Star Fort - Part of the defencive grid of the Ring.
* *Janiverse* – Thunderbolt-class Heavy Frigate - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Jeriko Rex* – Spectre-class Frigate - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Catastrophic Damage - First Solar War)
* *Johanipus Artemisia* – Escort Carrier - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Luna's Fall* - Apocalypse-class Battleship - Serving as the flagship of the IVth legion before the Herald of Destruction was created, Luna’s Fall was the first ship gifted to the IVth legion, constructed within the Jovian Shipyards in the days before the Imperium. The vessel served as Shaaa’s personal vessel during the Squat Wars, before being transferred to the command of Commander Julius Atalan, flying at the head of the 876th Expeditionary Fleet (Destroyed - Twin Wars of Araneus)
* *Lutine* - Thunderbolt-class Heavy Frigate
* *Magnitude of Wrath* - Bellerophon-class Heavy Assault Cruiser - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Mlatus* - Tyrant-class Cruiser - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Captured, Catastrophic Damage - First Solar War)
* *Mlekrus* – Castellan-class Shield Ship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Scuttled to Prevent Capture - First Solar War)
* *Pride of the Drift*  - Legate-class Battle Barge- The flagship of Commander Sirvan Golz, the vessel was the only one of its kind constructed in the shipyards of the Consus Drift, after its completion the Mechanicum deciding the facilities were not adequate for vessels of its size, relegating the belt to produce smaller frigates and destroyers. The vessel would serve the IVth’s champion for many years at the head of the 1,097th Expeditionary Fleet (Destroyed - Twin Wars of Araneus)
* *Rage of Shaaa* - Infernus-class Battleship (Crippled - First Solar War)
* *Remembrance* - Dictatus-class Battleship - Flagship of Commander Julius Atalan and the Uranin Fleet  Constructed in the wake of the Twin Wars of Araneus, the vessel served as the flagship of the 2998th Expeditionary Fleet, Commanders Sirvan Golz and Julius Atalan sharing command as they both rebuilt their Divisions after the devastating conflict (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Remonstrance of Narthan Dume* – Nemesis Battleship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Ringed Malice* - Emperor-class Battleship - This vessel served as the capital ship in command of the Rings defence fleet when other, more prominent vessels, were not in system. (Destroyed - Siege of the Ring)
* *Samothrace* - Vigil-class Siege Frigate  (Captured Intact - First Solar War)
* *Sanctity of Saramanth* – Heavy Destroyer - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Solonim Woe* - Dictatus-class Battleship
* *Spirit of Man* – Tiamat-class Battleship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Captured Intact - First Solar War)
* *Stations of Neptune* – Tesujin-class Strike Cruiser
* *Steinhart* – Unknown-class Carrier Ship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Catastrophic Damage - First Solar War)
* *Suspiria Majestrix* – Inflexible-class Grand Cruiser - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Tarmus Usurper* - Dominus-class Battleship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Catastrophic Damage - First Solar War)
* *Tenacious* - Warspite-class Battleship - Flagship of Commander in Situ Naqu Twaj and the Jovian Fleet
* *Testament of Andromeda* – Unknown-class Carrier Ship - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet  (Moderate Damage - First Solar War)
* *Thunderclap* – Havoc-class Minekeeper - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)

* *Triumph* - Unique Vessel - While the ship is not truly a vessel of the IVth Legion, it was constructed by Shaaa himself, and boasted a large portion of Star Guardian crew members. The largest vessel constructed since the beginning of the Great Crusade, eclipsing even the Abyss-Class vessels constructed by Artellion of the Silver Basilisks in terms of scale, survivability and sheer firepower. Constructed over the course of fifty years, the Triumph first flew as the loyalists pushed towards Terra, Shaaa taking command of the vessel personally, plugging directly into the command structure of the ship. The Triumph boasted a formidable array of weaponry, with hundreds of laser batteries that ran the length of both of its sides. It also possessed an experimental weapon: a Plasma Lance embedded in its prow, developed as a direct fire close-range weapon for ship-to-ship combat, able to fire at point-blank ranges, relatively speaking. Dozens of Attack Craft and starfighter bays allowed the vessel to serve as a potent Attack Carrier, playing multiple roles in naval combat. All of these were but mere secondary armaments however, the true power coming from eight weapons of truly gargantuan size. Each of these cannons had the power to destroy a battleship in a single shot, though they would struggle to bring their firepower around fast enough to hit a moving target. When used in concert however, the cannons could destroy almost any target, specifically designed for one goal; to pierce the orbital trenches Shaaa himself had constructed around Ceres.

* *Ultimus Mortis* – Mortis Rex-class Battleship
* *Valediction* – Nemesis-class Fleet Carrier - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)
* *Vernax Absolom* - Legate-class Battle Barge
* *Vospherus* – Nemesis-class Fleet Carrier - Vessel of the Solar Defence Fleet (Destroyed - First Solar War)

## Legion Relics

* **Artificer Bionics** - The Star Guardians have always been masters of bionics, this only growing after their alliance with Mars, and will often replace undamaged limbs with cybernetics to enhance themselves with greater strength, speed, or endurance. Artificer Bionics represent the height of this craft and the greatest examples of cybernetics available to the forces of the Imperium.
* **The Mantle of the Void** - A near unique form of armour found upon the Ring, it takes the form of an enhanced suit of powered armour, similar to both the powered carapace of the station, and legiones power armour, hinting at a shared STC heritage between the three. When combined with Astartes Power Armour, the resultant suit is capable of bleeding off and dissipating many forms of attack, ranging from thermal, kinetic and radiological attack. Shaaa himself once wore one of these suits during his time aboard the Ring, though even it could not save him from his father's attempt on his life.
* **The Ironstone** - This device must be mag-clamped to the gorget of the bearer, where it gathers power from his armour, gradually awakening the cluster of potent Machine Spirits that lurk within its coldly glowing shell. When a vehicle nearby suffers battle-damage, the Magos-class Machine Spirits within the *Ironstone* will surge out, possessing the wounded machine and swiftly repairing the damage.

## Legion Appearance

### Legion Colours

The appearance of the Star Guardians has changed throughout their lifetime, from the plain unpainted ceramite of early IVth Legion, to the fire blacked armour the Dark Watchers sported after the Assault of the Tempest Galleries. When Shaaa was found, the purple of the Hydrades Empire was added, each warrior bearing the new colour upon their shoulders with pride that they were the chosen warriors of the Breacher lord. In the wake of the First Solar War, the armour changed again, the red of Mars being added to loudly proclaim the new alliance between the two organisations.

Each set of power armour or terminator plate bears the Legions symbol on the left shoulder, while individual markings showing the warriors Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company and Squad, or Macro-Division, War Clade , Battle Group, Millenon, Maniple and Cohort, were displayed upon the warriors right hand side in strictly regimented layouts. In the years of the Frontier Wars, these markings would often be written in seemingly indecipherable binaric code, making it difficult for the uninitiated to determine the legions cohesion.

Specialist ranks, such as apothecaries, tech marines and the Hydradyne each had their own unique designators. Apothecaries replaced the black of their right armour with a solid bone white, while Tech Marines replaced the traditional black armour with full suits in deep martian red, their shoulder still sporting the purple of the Hydrades line. Discipline Troopers, the precursors to Chaplains within the IVth, wore armour similar to that of their line counterparts, with the exception of their right shoulder, the mark of the field overseer body emblazoned there in orange in place of any squad markings. In time, these warriors would also wear the skull-faced helmets of the chaplaincy, though they would never take up the new name alongside the marks of office. Finally, the Hydradyne would wear plain armour, their right shoulder bereft of squad markings, their helmets instead being coloured a dark bronze, marking for all to see where these warriors resided.

In the wake of the First Solar War, the armour of the IVth once again changed to reflect their new allegiance. Maintaining much of the Black and Purple of Shaaa's itteration of the IVth, the new and final colouration of the Star Guardians included a red gauntlet and forearm, the Crimson of Mars representing the legions new honour as the right hand of the Mechanicus. Visibly, this honour bore many similarities to the increasingly rare battle honour of the Vth Legions Terran veterans, though on closer inspection this latter honour had its own differences, the most prominent factor being it was worn on the left, not the right. As more and more of these ancient warriors fell in battle, this battle honour faded, while the new right hand of Mars rose to encompass all of the Star Guardians Legion.

### Legion Badge

The badge of the Legion is an old terran unification symbol, one born in Old Albia on ancient Terra. Before the reunification of Shaaa, this was worn alone on the shoulders of the Astartes, but upon reunification, this too was changed. A ring was added, encircling the honour almost totally, representing the legions new home, many warriors soon taking to wearing the symbol upon their chest as well as their shoulder, a single purple orb sounded by otherwise plain iron.

When the legion allied heavily with Mars, their iconography changed alongside their armours colours. Still retaining the ancient battle honour of Terran Unification and the encircling Ring of Shaaa's homeworld, a new cog motif was added, the legion now fully intertwined with the Mechanicus.

## Sources

1. - Art by ex-project writer
2. - Art by the Carnival of Crows - Author of the Ashen Crows - https://www.facebook.com/TheChaosCarnival/
3. - Art by Shane Cook - Deviant Art - https://www.deviantart.com/slaine69
4. - Art by Blazbaros - https://www.deviantart.com/blazbaros
5. - Art by Algrim Whitefang
6. - Art by James Calderbank - Author of the Sirens of Kastar
7. - Art by The Manufactorum - https://twitter.com/TheManufactorum
8. - Art by Veronica Anrathi - https://www.artstation.com/disarmonia