Legion of the Damned

The Legion of the Damned is a chapter of Space Marines which mysteriously appears to help overwhelmed Imperial forces, then vanishes just as mysteriously, leaving behind only the destruction which it has caused. The troops that make up the Legion of the Damned do not have strict uniform armour like other Space Marine chapters, instead having a variety of flames, bones, and skull patterns on their black armour. The Legion of the Damned is believed to be the remnants of the lost Fire Hawks chapter of Space Marines.

Loss of the Fire Hawks

In the year 963 of the current millennium, Space Marine chapter Fire Hawks was ordered into the Crows World sub-sector. Crows World and adjacent planetary systems had fallen into anarchy following heavy raiding by Eldar Pirates. The Fire Hawks' intervention would drive the Eldar from the human worlds, restoring Imperial rule and teaching the alien invaders an important lesson. The entire chapter-fleet, including the chapter's mobile fortress-monestary, made a successful warp jump from the Piraeus system a mere 120 light years from Crows World. The five ships, over eight hundred brethren, and two thousand other personnel expected to reach Crows World in half a day. They would never arrive. Twenty years after the event the chapter was officially declared lost in the Warp and presumed destroyed. The great Bell of Lost Souls tolled a thousand times, and it said that the Emperor himself ordered a Black Candle to be lit in the Adeptus Chapel of Fallen Heroes.

Spectres of Death

A good deal of time later, a routine Imperial patrol passed through the Ork held system of Jakor-tal. The squadron uncovered altogether unexpected scenes of devastation. The limited facilities available to the patrol could uncover no clue to the identity of the attacking forces. The incident was noted and passed into the everlasting record of the Administratum.

A rash of similar incidents within the same and adjoining sectors soon began to arouse the interest of the Inquisition. Squadron commanders throughout these sectors were reinforced and ordered to double their routine patrols, in an attempt to find the source of the destruction. The incidents continued apace, increasing rather than declining in frequency and destructiveness. Even so, no sign of the intruders was discovered for almost a year. Then, on 3628987. M41, a patrol ship in the Maran sub-sector narrowly avoided a collision with a space-craft at the Cift jump-point. The ship was entering the Cift system as the unidentified craft was leaving. Alerted by the close encounter, the patrol crew scanned the entire jump-area and discovered two long cylindrical objects within the intruder's projected flight-path. These were hauled aboard and proved to be standard space-coffins without identification markings.

The Legion of the Damned

The coffins were shipped back to Mars and opened by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The coffins themselves were identified as belonging to the Absolute, one of the spacecraft from the vanished Fire Hawk fleet. Inside were the fully armoured remains of two Space Marines. The unconventional armour colours and unofficial insignia puzzled the investigators, not being the same as the Fire Hawks that had dissapeared long ago. But serial numbers tallied with equipment made by or issued to the Fire Hawks. The two sets of Power Armour were expected to house members of the lost chapter, and were carefully broken open. The bodies within were human, but further identification proved impossible due to their unusually advanced stage of decay...

The full truth would not emerge until almost a year later when a besieged Imperial research station received unexpected help. The garrison had been attacked suddenly by Ork pirates. After three hours of fighting the situation looked hopeless. Then, without warning, the Orks found themselves attacked in the rear. The ferocity of the fighting appalled even the station's defenders. Within half an hour, most of the Ork invaders had fallen,The strange, power-armoured defenders proving unusually tough. Then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the warriors vanished. This time they left behind a banner - the ancinet tattered chapter flag of the Fire Hawks - and inscribed upon it was this dedicated motto: In dedicato imperatum ultra articulo mortis ("For the Emperor beyond the point of death"). As well as the banner there was a recorder and sundry other sealed items. These were immediately shipped to Terra.

From the data contained in the recorder the Administratum was able to determine exactly what had happened to the lost chapter. Following their warp-jump the entire fleet had been caught within a warp-storm of extreme volatility. With ships becalmed and stopped in the warp, the chapter was forced to endure the attacks of powerful warp daemons. Ship after ship was destroyed and absorbed into the fabric of the warp. Soon only one craft remained, presumably the Abosolution. By a daring warp-exit manoeuvre the craft burst out of warp-space, emerging far in the galactic east, thousands of light years off-course and beyond even the Astronomican.

The original survivors numbered two hundred brethren. All gene-seed had been lost, all Neophytes killed, and the Chapter Master, Master of Sanctity, and the Master of the Librarium had all been lost. None of the ordinary Chapter serfs survived at all. To make matters worse, the brethren had changed and mutated, their exposure to the warp now manifesting. This change became more obvious over the next few months. Skins began to blacken and blister, flesh began to fester and putrefy. They realized that they were slowly dying! Within days of the transition into normal space it became obvious that the chapter had been exposed to some form of dangerous warp disease or mutation. It took many years to navigate a way back into the Imperium, during which time almost half the brethren succumbed to the disease. Those 100 who remained were no longer sane. Pain and despair had driven even their hardened minds beyond the point of rationality. Doomed to agonising deaths, they gradually became obsessed with their fate. Now they only wanted to die and end this cursed existance. But they were still marines, still loyal to the Emperor and humanity. They would not die without suiting their purpose to the Emperor.

So began the guerilla war against the Emperor's foes! The marines elected to remove all insignia from their armour. The yellow armour was painted black, the chapter's explosion symbol no longer used, instead each marine chose to decorate their armour in symbol's of death. Most brothers employed a similar theme - skeletons, bones and skulls.

All ranks and companies were abolished, most of the chapter's officers were already dead and the remaining warriors were too few to make up a fully functioning chapter hierarchy. All brothers were to be equal before death - levelled by the certainty of their assured extinction. The warriors decided to expend their lives attacking enemies wherever they could be found. The disease had robbed them of their sanity, but not the Emperor's will. And their condition gave them powers - powers that endow them with incredible fighting abilities.

The legion is not a part of any Imperial force, and employs an unusual modus operandi. Apart from driving them insane, the contagion heightens their psychic awareness considerably. One result of this is the way in which the legion selects and attacks targets. These matters are left entirely to the process of divination provided by the mystic Tarot of the Emperor. This tarot is supposedly bound within the psychic will of the Emperor and is used throughout the Imperium as both a pastime and a form of divination. It is an undeniable fact that attacks seem to fall in 'the right place at the right time', and not exactly by coincidence. The Legion of the Damned certainly believe that the Emperor is guiding them to their deaths in glorious battle, giving them ultimate salvation.

As the fatal contagion takes a firm hold, the victim begins to decay rapidly. However, even as his body decays, he grows to a power that would even rival a normal marine. Even though the marine's limbs become rotten and twisted he gains strength far beyond that of a normal marine. These powers heighten as the disease rages through the victim's body. At the moment of death, each brother reaches a peak in power, at which point the raw energies of the warp transmute the death throes of the doomed marine into a berserk orgy of destruction. Few in number and dying, these marines are still just as, if not more, furious then the normal marines.

Just as their bodies are changed by contact with the warp, so their minds are hardened too. Brethren are nearly immune to all forms of psychic attack or interference. They cannot be affected by the special psychic attacks of warp-creatures - although they may be harmed physically by physical attacks that such creatures may have. Astral spectres and other immaterial creatures cannot harm them in any way. The Legionnares have heightened minds, and as such can use small amounts of psychic power.

Organization

Legionnares are so few in number that they typically forsake the runnings of a normal Space Marine chapter, instead fighting as a single, large group of troops, until the Imperial forces they aid have won the battle, before they dissapear into the shadows.

Equipment

Most of the Legion's equipment is very old, and such it is limited. The Legionnares seldom have weapons other then basic Bolters, but some may be fortunate to have a heavy bolter or flamer, or even an entire devestator squad. Unique as their armour decoration is, their weapons are designed similarly, adorned with skulls and bones.