Legio Krytos - Legion History: The Imperium's path to the rediscovery of the Forge World of Krytos was paved with broken worlds, crumbling ruins and barren wastelands the sole evidence that such planets once held life. On each, the perpetrators of such widespread destruction had left the planet ritually scarred, a kilometres-wide sigil carved into the planetary crust, its form that of a stylised winged hammer.Empyreal wake tracking eventually led the 125th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors Space Marine Legion, to the Forge World of Krytos and the chief architects of the witnessed destruction -- the Legio Krytos, a Titan Legion named in honour of the planet it stood sentinel over.The Legio Krytos proved to be a bellicose and destructive Titan Legion, holding firm to the ideals that only through the total eradication of all who resisted could victory be achieved. Much of the Titan Legion's early history had been dominated by warfare with the Agrenium Convocation, a reportedly brutal empire ruled over by a divergent strain of Humanity and built upon a foundation of slavery of both Humans and xenos. At an unknown date during the Age of Strife, the Convocation set its sight upon the Forge World of Krytos, seeking to enslave its Tech-priests and plunder the vast stores of knowledge they possessed.The archives of Krytos state that it was the Agrenium Convocation that struck first, and the opening years of war saw the Forge World besieged and under threat. At the forefront of Mechanicum resistance stood the Legio Krytos, wielding power the Convocation had little answer to. When the Forge World was free of invaders, the Convocation is said to have sued for peace and, in answer, the Legio Krytos laid siege to their worlds.The exact size and scope of the Agrenium Convocation's rule remains unknown, but what fragments exist, extracted from the testimonies of ancient princeps, emphasise the Convocation's deep societal class divides, with its citizens assigned roles at birth based entirely on their heritage. To further enforce segregation between its strata, each city was a veritable fortress, with elaborate fortifications separating the domiciles of different classes.Though intended to prevent the mixing of the Convocation's population, its architects had not been lax in their work and each city presented a formidable challenge to invaders, walls bristling with macrocannon and guarded by slave-infantry whose loyalty was secured through complex psycho-surgery.War against the Agrenium Convocation wrought great changes upon the psyche of the Legio Krytos; faced with armies brainwashed to fight to the last, complete annihilation was the sole option. To achieve such a goal, the fortress cities of the Convocation were besieged and laid low, their armies crushed and their leaders scoured from existence. Warlord and Warbringer Nemesis-class Titans became prevalent amongst the ranks of the Legio Krytos, the fearsome armaments they wielded proving decisive in sundering the Convocation's strongholds.Over a standard century of war, during which time the intensity of conflict waxed and waned, the Legio Krytos visited ruination down upon their foe, burning cities to ash and causing irreversible damage to the biospheres of dozens of planets. All offers of peace extended to the Titan Legion were rejected and victory was achieved upon the world designated as Planet-296A, capital of the Agrenium Convocation, known as Agreniux to its people. There, the God Breakers force assembled in its entirety, dozens of god-engines turned towards a single purpose.Within three solar months, Agreniux bore life no more, inhabited only by crumbling ruins, fire-scorched deserts and the icon of the Legio Krytos carved deeply into its surface.When Perturabo made contact with Krytos and learned of its past, he expressed great admiration for the dedication and skill with which Krytos had subdued its enemies. In acknowledgement of their struggles, the primarch extended the hand of friendship on behalf of the Imperium, binding Krytos to Mars and the Emperor. Once concord was reached, the 125th Expeditionary Fleet departed for new fronts, its numbers augmented by the god-engines of the Legio Krytos.The Terran War Council quickly recognised the unsurpassed skill the Legio Krytos possessed in siege warfare. For the remainder of the Great Crusade, the Titan Legion served admirably alongside the Iron Warriors Legion, lending its superior guns and well-honed tactics to complement the expertise of the IVth Legion. Thesole stain on the God Breakers' records was the direct and brutal methods it employed, with casualties among indigenous populations of invaded worlds often far in excess of operational parameters. Attempts to rein in the destructive potential of the Legio Krytos had little effect, its princeps confident that total destruction was the ideal path, an ethos supported by the stoic Iron Warriors.The similarity between Titan Legio and Astartes Legion saw the two develop a lasting fraternity, with the princeps of the God Breakers holding loyalty to Perturabo above all else, save perhaps their own Forge World.The most apparent explanation for the treachery of the Legio Krytos, who turned against the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, lies with the bonds of fellowship the Titan Legion and its Forge World held with Perturabo and his warriors. Indeed, the god-engines of the Legio Krytos were frequently seen taking to the field of battle alongside the IVth Legion during the fratricidal war that followed.The destructive nature of the Titan Legion appeared to escalate during the Horus Heresy, its princeps displaying a particular enthusiasm when thrown against the fortifications of the Imperium. Combat records note the frequency with which the Legio Krytos would lay siege to strongholds constructed or garrisoned by the Imperial Fists Legion, a singular focus no doubt motivated by the animosity the Titan Legion's Iron Warriors allies held towards the VIIth Legion.The god-engines of the Legio Krytos participated in many of the most infamous conflicts of the Horus Heresy, with a demi-Legio dispatched to the Beta-Garmon Cluster along with lesser detachments accompanying Iron Warriors forces across the galaxy. Perhaps the most lasting mark made by the Legio Krytos was upon the once-verdant world of Tallarn, a significant portion of the Titan Legion's strength participating in Perturabo's invasion of the planet. After the primarch unleashed his virus bombs upon Tallarn, the god-engines of Krytos took to the surface under orders to wipe out all survivors.The ensuing campaign saw the Titan Legion clash with Loyalist armoured companies and the god-engines of the Legio Gryphonicus. The virulent nature of the bombardment unleashed upon Tallarn prevented the fielding of infantry, the Life-eater virus stripping the flesh from any exposed to it. Those of Tallarn that had survived had done so by retreating to subterranean shelters, yet even this did not stop the Legio Krytos from bringing its wrath down upon the planet's defenders. Infamous for the directness of its tactics, the Titan Legion once more proved its ingenuity in the field of siegecraft.Denied avenues for direct assault upon the subterranean holdfasts of Tallarn, the Legio Krytos instead employed allied Dark Mechanicum Taghmata forces to probe the underground network and, with the aid of tremor-sensors hastily retro-fitted into the Titan Legion's Warhounds, undertook malicious acts of terraforming upon the planet's surface. Great rents were caused in the subterranean complexes, exposing vast sections to the atmosphere above and, in doing so, unleashing the deadly Life-eater virus upon tens of thousands of defenders hidden beneath the surface.As a mark of its precise brutality, harking back to its ancient war against the Agrenium Convocation, each canyon, crafted by the guns of Legio Krytos Warlords, bore the crude image of a stylised winged hammer, the God Breakers forever leaving itsmark upon Tallarn and the Imperium.As the Heresy progressed, the God Breakers perfected their methods of scorched earth, often fighting alongside the Iron Warriors Legion to reduce a planet to smouldering wastelands, inhabited only by guttered cities and piles of grinning skeletons.