Legion of the Damned - Saviours from Beyond: Little is truly known about the Legion of the Damned, though a few truths have come to light as reports of its manifestations have been collated and compared. The Legionaries invariably attack to save some part of the Imperium from disaster, a fact that implies they have powers of prediction that even the most gifted of seers and prophets cannot rival.Whenever the Legion of the Damned appears on the field of battle, it does so without warning. Bursting out of a sulphurous cloud of flame, its members stride from nothingness, adorned with icons of the grave. With a terrible efficiency, they cut down the foe, not a wasted motion nor a spoken word giving pause to their dark work. The Legionaries are always clad in ceramite of deepest black.Despite their surroundings, whether they appear in the brightly lit haven of a Planetary Governor or under the glare of a sun at its zenith, their armour seems to consume natural light. Even direct torchlight does not illuminate them. Instead, the pale bones and death's heads emblazoned on their armour are lit by a lambent fire, their armour flickering as if each Legionary has been set alight with some combustible chemical.It is more likely these pyrotechnics are psychic in nature, for they blaze bright whenever the Legion's blades sink into the flesh of their victims. There have been several accounts of Legionaries becoming little more than pillars of flame at the height of an engagement; on such occasions, the individual will fight with terrible ferocity before succumbing to the flame and disappearing from reality.To witness the Legion of the Damned fight at close quarters is to observe true martial prowess, for they combine the brutal power of the Space Marine's gene-enhanced physique with the expertise and insight of a veteran weapons master. Knives plunge deep through exposed joints and into thundering hearts, bone-clad fingers stab through throats and eye sockets before returning, red and wet, to the triggers of their guns. Here and there, a hurled Combat Knife claims the life of an enemy trying to escape; never aiming to wound, always to kill.The Legionaries attack with an economy of motion that leaves even the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes wide-eyed with surprise. Though their ornate suits of ceramite are as efficacious as that worn by any other Space Marine, the Legionaries are able to shrug off wounds that would cut apart even a warrior clad in Tactical Dreadnought Armour. Energised blades slice them without resistance, Melta beams and plasma volleys pass right through them without causing the slightest harm.Sometimes such deadly weapons find their mark, inflicting horrific damage and yet not slowing the Legionaries in the slightest. Those who witness such ethereal sights at first conclude that their deliverers are some manner of ghost or spirit, though the destruction the apparitions mete out soon puts the lie to the idea they exist only beyond the veil.The impression of burning vengeance is always uppermost in the minds of those that witness the Legionaries of the Damned on the attack. Not only do their bolter shots ignite the air in stabbing lances of energy as the Legionaries march towards the foe, but they bring to war a great many Flamers, Heavy Flamers and Multi-Meltas, incinerating with pitiless efficiency those foes that cower from their sudden assault. Those enemies that simply stand agog at their sudden change of fortunes are blasted apart with expertly placed mass-reactive bolts.Once the tide of battle has been turned, and those in need of rescue have been freed from the threat that had closed around them, the Legionaries vanish from sight. Some witnesses say they looked away for a second only to look back and find nothing there, others that the Legion shimmers before disappearing like a fading holograph. The strange static that accompanies these disappearances prevents any proper record of their exit from the field.Those monitoring devices that are able to steal evidence of a Legion manifestation invariably have Machine Spirits that are badly traumatised, and have to be coaxed back into life by a talented magos or Techmarine before they will yield any secrets at all. A peculiar property of any mass apparition is that it will quickly fade from memory.If an investigator wishes to obtain any kind of first-hand account, he must visit those who witnessed the incident within solar days, preferably hours, for the presence of these strange Space Marines erases itself from the mind much as a dream or nightmare. Nonetheless, the scent of burnt flesh lingers in the nostrils and on the tongue for solar weeks, years, or even the rest of the witness' life, resulting in disturbing thoughts that can never quite be traced back to their source.