Legio Excruciata - Legion History: Most of the Legio Excruciata’s achievements during the Great Crusade have been lost in the fires of the Horus Heresy.Thankfully, some sources have survived, the most important being the construction logs of the great Temple-Tarantyne, one of Mars' most productive Titan construction yards. These logs confirm the existence and the construction of the initial complement of Titans of the Legio Excruciata before coming under the control of the Dark Mechanicum during the Schism of Mars.Its initial STC-template corrupted by the foul and proscribed knowledge previously sealed away in the Vaults of Moravec but unlocked by the Dark Mechanicum, the Temple-Tarantyne continued to produce hideously corrupted versions of Mars-Alpha Pattern Warlord-class Titans for the armies of the Traitor Warmaster Horus. This role made the Temple-Tarantyne forge complex an important target for the Loyalist Mechanicum forces.While the destruction of the Titan yards themselves were beyond the Loyalist resistance's meager resources, a group of Loyalists led by Princeps Kallistra Lennox conducted a successful raid on one of the nearly finished Titans, the Warlord Ajax Abominata.Conducting a subterranean insertion via Mole, Princeps Lennox's small group emerged at the Warlord’s feet before overwhelming the perimeter's guards and fighting their way to Ajax Abomonita’s command deck. They destroyed the corrupted Titan by planting Demolition Charges in the Titan's cockpit, destroying its Mind Impulse Unit interface and moderati stations.Having achieved their objective, the small group retreated before the Temple's guard before other Chaos Titans could intervene. While on their way back to their secret base, the group was rerouted by the Loyalist resistance's command to help extract a group of fellow rebels who had been pinned down by enemy forces after having located a heavily damaged but salvageable Kastelan Robot.As the group discovered once they returned to the safety of their base, the scavenged Battle-Automata was the last survivor of a failed mission to Mars conducted by one of Malcador the Sigilite's mysterious agents known as the Knights-Errant. In this case a former Techmarine of the Raven Guard who intended to unleash a diabolically powerful Silica Animus, the Tabula Myriad, against the Renegades of the Dark Mechanicum.Having been imprisoned in the dormant frame of the Kastelan Robot for several solar months, the self-replicating Abominable Intelligence quickly took control of the base's power-grid to evolve into a purely code-based life-form. Like the Chaos scrap-code that had infected Martian society at the start of the Schism of Mars, the Tabula Myriad now propagated through the base's Noosphere and hardlines, eradicating the Chaos scrap-code wherever it was encountered.The Tabula Myriad soon took control over the entire base, although thanks to Lexorcist Synk's precautions, the computer virus was unable to take possession of the base's occupants. Using the base's Cogitators for its purpose, the Tabula Myriad soon developed a 4,267-step battle-plan that would end in the defeat of the Dark Mechanicum and the capture of Mars.Realising that the diabolical intelligence of the Tabula Myriad offered them the best chance at victory, the Omnissian Faithful willingly followed the abomination's plan, damning themselves as Hereteks in order to fight an even greater evil.Unknown to the Omnissian Faithful, one of the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal's most trusted lieutenants, Magos Diemon Gordicon, formerly of the Ordo Reductor, had successfully planted an agent within the Loyalist resistance movement in order to discover the location of the resistance's secret base. Following the agent's hidden locator beacon to Phasmi Fossae, Gordicon led a powerful force of Thallax Cohorts, corrupted Krios battle-tanks and no less than three Warlord-class Titans in search of his illusive prey.Using the base's perimeter sensors to infect the Titan identified as Belladon Ventorum and other units of Gordicon's forces, the Tabula Myriad caused the forces of the Dark Mechanicum to fight amongst themselves. Having purged Belladon Ventorum from all signs of daemonic possession, the Warlord was quickly claimed by Princeps Lennox and became the first god-engine of the reborn Legio Excruciata.