Frostwalkers

A Kolostrider Veteran of the 16th legion clad in Frigus Pattern MKV Warplate

"*The other legions are far too concerned with displays of glory and heroism, there are far too few concerned with the real task. Getting the job done.*"
— Vorstus Kalkidra, Primarch of the Frostwalkers
The Frostwalkers were one of the 20 space marine legions created by The Emperor in order to wage the great crusade, when finally helmed by their primarch, Vorstus Kalkidra, they became a workhorse legion, highly motivated by the simple task of completing objectives rather than pointless displays of glory and power.

When the Heresy was declared, the Frostwalkers were a legion that sided with the Imperium and fought alongside the other loyalist legions against the Traitors. While unable to take part in the main fighting within Segmentum Solar, the legion was able to mitigate significant damage to many loyal worlds across the Ultima Segmentum during the Shadow Crusades and led the forces from 3 other loyalist legions when they were finally able to join their allies in Sol.

In battle, the Legion utilises Helfrost, a weapon of the Primarch's own making that uses crystals growing on the legion's homeworld of Poyama to plunge large areas, regions or even continents into temperatures well below freezing, denying the enemy of their will to fight or killing them all completely. Because of this, the legion has adopted tactics centred around this technology, softening up a region with Helfrost bombardments and then advancing across the affected area in force to purge the remnants of their opposition. Due to this slow but effective tactic, the Frostwalkers suffered low casualties and were one of the largest legions by the outbreak of the heresy, a fact that soon came back to bite the Traitor Legions.

## Homeworld

The Frostwalkers hail from Poyama, a death world that sits in the south of Segmentum Tempestus in a system with 3 suns. Despite this, the planet is in constant freezing temperature due to the abundance of a particular crystal that grows within the multitude of lowlands and ravines that dot the arctic wastes.

The Frostwalkers currently occupy a number of bunker strongholds across the planet that act as both a means of reaching the surface, and orbit, but also ensuring that the world's network of supply trains and transports are under supervision. The planetary transit lines all each pass through at least one of these strongholds, making them vital to the security of the world's internal trade and imports.

## History

### Formation

The 16th legion were the 4th generation of Astartes created during the unification wars. Upon observing the tactics employed by the other legions who had already been fighting for years and adopted the use of excessive ordinance for massive shock and awe offensives, relying on the sheer psychological impact of their weaponry to crush the resolve of the enemy and force a swift surrender. With their first recorded conflict at the battle of the weeping city during the Merica campaign, the legion demonstrated a favour for weapons of significant collateral damage and destruction. By the end of the battle, the legion had levelled the city and rendered some districts of the city uninhabitable due to radiation, their strategies were recognised by their sibling legions and the legion was unofficially dubbed *"The Desolators"* by their other legions for the sheer level of ruin and devastation the legion left in their wake. The name stuck and after another successful campaign in Merica, The Emperor officially granted the legion the title and began using the 16th for campaigns that better suited their talents.

### Great Crusade

The legion was rarely used for campaigns of compliance and like their brother legion, the Gorewalkers, were deployed into combat where the objectives were simply to crush and destroy their opponents along with any traces of their existence. During the compliance of 16-9, the Desolators seized control of the world's continental void stations and adjusted their orbits, bringing them crashing down upon the planet's largest cities in unison, creating a single moment of apocalyptic destruction and drowning the world within planetwide dust storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Upon the discovery of their Primarch, Vorstus, the legion was slowly refitted while gaining the mantle of *Frostwalkers* as a sign of the primarch's intent to make his legion as powerful and feared as his most capable special forces. Instead of the devastating weapons carrying huge fallout, Vorstus and his Poyaman commanders worked alongside the legionnaires to develop and perfect the native poyaman *Helfrost* crystal for weaponised use. In time, the Heavy weapons squads already utilised by the legion added *Endothermic Cannons* to their arsenal and marines waged war with bolters carrying prototype *Subthermal Bolts*. Vorstus reorganised the legion into a fighting force organised to deal gradual but consistent attack, gradually wearing down the defence, supply and resolve of the enemy with each passing day by utilising a currently limited variety of weapons fuelled by his homeword's crystals.

### Great Crusade

Vorstus accomplished much during the crusade, often content to let many of his deeds go unrecorded as he would rather accomplish twenty tasks and receive no reward than be lauded for one. Alongside the existing astartes of his legion, The Primarch established the Vascolarium, a branch of the legion that housed the destroyers, artillery and Helfrost weaponry of the 16th so that his astartes had a place to develop and hone their skills.

Another deed attributed to the legion and their primarch was the development of the Codex Eskelari, an algorithm and operations guide that assisted mortal expeditionary fleets and even astartes fleets in efficiently reporting the scale of difficulty they faced, the military might currently at their disposal and the tactical value of their current theatre. Though only the 16th legion were avid users of the codex, it gained traction with the competent officers of the Imperial Army, ensuring that quick and appropriate aid from the frostwalkers was dispatched to them.

Notable campaigns attributed to the 16th legion during the crusade include, The Dvergyr Conflict, The Tharsis Campaign, The second Rangdan Xenocides and The Hive Wars.

### The Great Heresy

Just prior outbreak of his Brother Heizo's rebellion, Vorstus had committed a number of his storm fronts to the galactic North East, ensuring that the remnants of the Hive Wars, upon returning towards imperial held space to rearm and await retasking, the legion detected faint distress calls from a world not far from their route. Upon answering the call, the legion were shocked to discover a battle taking place between the 6th and 17th legions in the orbit of the shipyard world of Hask, eventually coming to the aid of the Celestial Legion and driving off the Wild Hunt.

## Special Formations

**Isvekere -** The 'Frost Wardens', a handpicked cadre of legionnaires that tend to and supervise the growth and harvest of the helfrost crystal both on Poyama and aboard the 16th legion's own vessels.

**Kolostriders -** Heavily inspired by the vanguard deployments and shock tactics used by the 13th legion, the Kolostriders exist as a force used to disable troublesome defences and positions that would otherwise occupy the advance of the legion. Sealed within specialised cold resistant armour, even by the legion's standards, kolostriders are often expected to deploy either immediately in the wake of or just prior to a helfrost bombardment and require the additional thermal protection to ensure their survival. Kolostriders deployments are fast, high risk, high reward operations and through the development of this branch the legion has found a place for its sons that reject the doctrine of slow and steady advance in favour of a more asymmetric form of warfare.

**The Nieuvontar -** While an efficient and critical thinker, it cannot be said that the Primarch does not receive the council of others. Vorstus takes care to include thought processes from both extremes of his command structure. Not only to gauge how best they could be used and get a more realistic image of a campaign, but also to monitor and steady morale. As such, most 16th legion crusade fleets will gather a "Vontar" composed of trusted and honest speaking individuals of varying rank and position, from fleetmasters and company captains to auxillia sergeants and line astartes. The Primarch himself hosts the "Nieuvontar", an informal counsel formed of his most trusted advisors and observers. Amongst them include Captain Kopakka of 1st company, Klarz Holden the Mortal Captain of the Arktika, Gharak Macallen a line chaplain of the 7th company and the Remembrancer Kailum Pierce.

## Notable Frostwalkers

**Zholox Kopakka -** Captain of the Legion's 1st Company during the Heresy

**Jaek Solmon -** Captain of the Kolostriders during the Heresy

**Gharak Macallen -** A Chaplain of 7th Company