Space Wolves - The Shadow Before the Wolf: Much of the early details of the Founding and intake of the VI Legion remain shrouded under a quite deliberate veil of secrecy woven at the time of their creation, as it is with several of the proto-Legion groupings created in the closing stages of the Unification Wars. Beyond the usual concealment and security that the Emperor chose to surround the Space Marine project with in order to protect the nascent Legiones Astartes, the VI division, along with that of the XVIII Legion (that would later become known as the Salamanders) and the XX Legion who would become the Alpha Legion), was formed and established largely in separation from the rest, and it is generally thought created to very specific ends. There were none save perhaps a handful of the Emperor's closest and earliest confidants surviving from those lost and bloody days who knew the facts regarding this mysterious 'trefoil' of Legions, as it is sometimes known, and the truth likely died with them. Though in the case of the strains of Astartes that would be known as the Salamanders and the Space Wolves, they varied considerably in gene-forged ability to their peers.This element of mystery surrounding the trefoil proto-Legions can be seen to establish a distance between the three and their brethren, particularly in regards to their earliest intake of Initiates, around which dark rumours circled. In the case of the intake of the VI Legion, a vast divergence in origin and genotype was clear even to the briefest of observations. Closer study of the evidence that remains indicates that representatives of some of the most barbarically regressive and hyper-violent cultures and outcast groups of pre-Unification Terra were chosen to found the Legion, though with such diversity that selection appeared to have been taken on an individual-by-individual basis rather than to invoke or capitalise on any single strain of warrior society. So it was that while certain proto-Legions, such as the X (later the Iron Hands) and the XV (later the Thousand Sons), held strong cultural imprints from Terra's subjected warlord-empires, the nascent VI was almost a blank slate. Instead, what bonded it together was its training in isolation as a coherent military force under the direction of the Strategos of the Emperor's inner circle. What also made the VI singular was the unique nature of its gene-seed, although what separated it from the other proto-Legions was not yet apparent to outsiders.Evidence further indicates that the VI Legion's passage between stages of expansion was slower than many of its peers, slower perhaps in its first years than any save the XX Legion's, whose strange and obscured origins are the subject of another record. In retrospect this is likely to have been because of the high levels of fatal implant reaction rates among the Legion's candidates, which was to be demonstrated subsequently as a factor of the VI Legion's gene-seed before its later stabilisation with its Primarch's genetic pattern. Regardless, like the other proto-Legions of the trefoil, the VI was largely held back from full engagement in armed conflict during the closing stages of the Unification Wars and the re-conquest of the Sol System. This not only served to further isolate them from their peers but also denied them the boons of vastly increased recruitment intake gained by those Legions that had participated in the subjugation of Luna and the reward of primacy in the use of its gene-labs. Perhaps ironically, this segregation also spared them the travails of the gene-seed crisis which almost destroyed the III (later the Emperor's Children) and caused damage to the V (later the White Scars) and the IX (later the Blood Angels), as well.It was almost a standard decade after the Great Crusade had broken free of the confines of the Sol System and spread out to distant stars that the VI Legion was to be unleashed openly en masse against an enemy. What occurred in the previous decade remains entirely lost, even to the Space Wolves Legion's own history, but record of that first great battle, the Compliance of "1-122," known to its indigenous human population as Delsvaan, are clear. Despatched from the shadow of the Principia Imperialis, the great Expeditionary Fleet commanded by the Emperor Himself, the then full strength of the VI Legion, some 3,500 Astartes, descended upon a world that had already met the overtures of the Imperium with violence. Delsvaan had weathered the Age of Strife relatively well, maintaining a technologically advanced, highly industrialised society, governed by a militarised plutocracy dedicated to the tangible profits and political control of its many production-combines. Hubris and arrogance rather than any deviancy or deep-seated malignity was its sin, but its people had defied the Imperium and they would be shown the error of their ways.Left to their own devices as to the planning and execution of the operation -- as was no doubt part of the testing of the Legion, for surely a test this was -- Commander Enoch Rathvin, the VI Legion's first master, executed a multi-vector planetstrike operation  aimed directly at Masaanore-Core, the fortified dormitory-city of the most powerful of Delsvaan's combines. Under cover of near-indiscriminate bombardment of the city's outer areas and infrastructure nexus, dozens of separate landing areas were breached in the ensuing confusion by gunship and Drop Pod strike, with Rathvin landing nearly his entire strength within a single solar hour and holding back no reserve. Tactical commentaries made by Imperial observers clearly state that what appeared at first sight to resemble the "point of the spear" shock assault tactics already widely practised by the Legions as pioneered by the XVI Legion under Horus -- then the only extant Primarch -- were quickly shown to have developed, or as some detractors had it "devolved," into something else.Most of the defenders were killed where they stood, trying to mount firing lines to hold the advance, or cut down in their hundreds as attempted counterattacks turned into routs, the panicked militia themselves soon tangling with thousands of fleeing civilians. Faced with this stampede of terrified humanity, the VI Legion seemed to redouble its attack as if goaded on by the the scent of blood and terror. They fell on the the people of Masaanore-Core and there was great slaughter. There remains debate in the historical record whether at this time Legion command actually lost control of its units to the ongoing violence, however briefly, but in any case Enoch Rathvin did not quickly rein in his forces, and when he finally accepted the surrender of Masaanore-Core, its streets had been painted crimson with the blood of its inhabitants. The fate of the city was example enough however for the leaders of the other combines, and quickly they saw the folly of further resistance and so Delsvaan was brought into Compliance. The cost to one city had been great, but comparably to other Compliance actions, the cost to the world had been minor. The VI Legion's performance, while disquieting to some in the Imperium's hierarchy, more for its apparent ill-discipline than its results, was clearly sufficient for the Emperor's satisfaction to grant it its own sub-fleet to command; Expeditionary Fleet 115 -- still affiliated to the core of the great Armada of the Principia Imperialis but otherwise internally independent with its own tenders, Escort craft and warships.For the next dozen standard years, the VI Legion continued as an active fleet command of the Great Crusade, its numbers steadily growing to recorded levels of nearly 5,000 at the Battle of Hyn'tal and then 7,000 active Astartes at the start of the Relovs Landing campaign. Given this relatively small size -- Legions such as the Luna Wolves and the Dark Angels of the I Legion numbered thrice and four times that number respectively -- they often served alongside other Legions and large Imperialis Auxilia forces in major campaigns or were entrusted with smaller, often bloody missions to destroy particular knots of enemy resistance in shock assaults. Over time the VI Legion developed particular expertise also in conducting rapidly moving hunter-killer operations, particularly in city-fighting conditions, or in undertaking more generally punitive actions, such as suppressing rebellions by inflicting short, brutal reprisal actions-tasks for which the VI under Rathvin seemed particularly suited, and indeed missions of which type Rathvin often requested for his Legion.During this period, when many other Legions were adopting liveries and slowly forging their own martial traditions, the VI notably maintained a curiously unadorned appearance, seldom varying its armourials other than to feature an indication of combat role and tactical division.One notable exception was when it was placed in command of Imperialis Auxilia regiments, the addition of the twin flame-blade insignia of the "Sanghauta" being prominently displayed. This icon, more commonly used by the Discipline Master and Provost Corp of the Imperialis Militant, carried with it a very definite meaning; it displayed clearly the power of life and death every Astartes of the VI had over the lesser troops under his command. It was a power they were infamously quick to exercise in its extreme, a summary punishment for any merely human forces who they felt lacked militancy or discipline alongside them. During the earliest years of the Great Crusade, the VI embodied feral ferocity and aggression, but exhibited little of the control they later possessed. As a consequence, the Legion employed a far larger number of Disciplinary troops than almost any other Legion, barring perhaps only the XII Legion.This Disciplinary Corps served to maintain order in the ranks, both during and away from battle, as well as curb any attempts to disregard or circumvent orders. The Consul-Opsequiari were selected from among the most stable of the Veterans of the VI and granted the power of life and death over their brothers, and were marked by the distinctive emblem of that oft-maligned Order.The Molorian Revolt stands as a prime example of the need for such detachments. The world, only recently brought to Imperial Compliance, had declared an open rebellion against the Imperium's rule, and the 8th Company of the Legion had been despatched in response.  What began as a surgical strike against the Renegade government's palaces rapidly degenerated into a killing spree as the rebel forces counterattacked. Spreading out across Molar's capital, the Space Marines began to slaughter all they encountered, to the extent that the preservation of the industrial capacity of the world was put at risk. It was only by the brutal efforts of the Discipline Corps that any of the Molorians within the city survived, though that survival was bought at the cost of a number of summary executions.