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Maerorus Temple

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The Maerorus Temple is a renegade Temple of the Officio Assassinorum. The Maerorus assassins were known to kill using no weapons but their hands. Their modos operandi was to enter into a target-rich area, typically a meeting or gathering and kill every sub-target present as quickly as possible, without weaponry or failable technology. [1]

Development

First thought of in the early years of M40, the Maerorus Temple was developed by Tech-Heretics under the express orders of the Officio Assassinourm. Centuries were spent trying to gain leverage over Mechanicus Adepts to develop the illegal technology to create the Temple. Whole wars were fought, STC recovered and rare one-of-a-kind technology handed over the priests of Mars as payment for the tests and research needed. The Maerorus Temple started as a huge, illegal experiment camp were thousands of prisoners were rendered down to create the genetic material required to make the first assassin. Forbidden technology, mutant cross-breeding and xeno hybrids, most likely Tyranid strains were combined to create the first and technically last assassin, Legienstrasse.

At some point Legienstrasse went rouge and decided she had the potential to topple the Imperium as she saw fit. Such was the threat she presented, the Officio Assassinourm willingly made pacts with daemons and Chaos Marines from the World Eaters to attack the remote planet of Opis, where Legienstrasse lived. The Assassinourm spent decades seeding the innocent planet, which admittedly had an easily corruptible ruling class, with Chaos cults and creating civil unrest against the Emperor. The result was an investigation by Lord Inquisitor Kekrops and his followers. Upon arriving on Opis, the Inquistor and all but one of his henchmen were assassinated by a Vindicare operative, but the decadent ruling class was blamed. Full out war was declared on Opis and an Imperial Retribution force of dozens of Imperial Guard Regiments and a sizeable detachment of Imperial Fist Space Marines under the command of Lysander were deployed to bring Opis back into line. It was secretly hoped by the Assassinourm that the war would force Legienstrasse into the open to flee the planet, allowing the Assassinorum a chance to finally kill her after almost a millennium on the loose.

Abilities

Legienstrasse, and the temple as a whole, were expected to operate without any weapons during missions. The assassins were to be trained well-enough the first kill was guaranteed. Then using membranes along their bodies, the Maerorus assassins would absorb the biomass of the victim. Using the new genetic material to force massive, rapid mutations across their bodies, the assassin would continue to kill, absorbing new biomass and growing ever more powerful. It was considered virtually impossible for a Maerorus Assassin to be killed. [1] Being female, and in no small part to the xeno DNA used to create her, Legienstrasse was able to lay eggs to create more assassins. At least one clutch of these eggs were known to have hatched and an entire company of Imperial Guard troopers were eaten alive by the infants. The Officio Assassinorum spent centuries hunting down every last offspring. It is unclear if they succeeded. [1]

In combat, Legienstrasse proved to be a near god-like foe. During a confrontation in the city of Krae, Legienstrasse was able to combat Captain Lysander of the Imperial Fists, a squad of Assault Marines and 1st Company Veterans, the Imperial Fists Chapter's Emperor's Champion and a Grand Master of the Culexus Temple, while simultaneously dodging sniper fire from a Scout Squad and a Grand Master of the Vindicare Temple. The Culexus Master, Lady Syncella, alongside a number of Imperial Fists, were killed.

In a second battle, Captain Lysander led a squad of Terminators, the Epistolary of the 1st Company, Emperor's Champion Ucalegon, Grand Master Skult of the Vindcare, and a Eversor operative against Legienstrasse. Only the Eversor berserker was able to stand toe-to-toe with the Maerorus assassin, but even he was defeated. Knowing that Eversor assassin exploded after dying, a deliberate result of their cocktail of chemicals and drugs, Lysander used the Black Sword of the fallen Ucalegon to pin both the Eversor assassin and Legienstrasse to a pillar. The resulting explosion crippled the Maerorus, poisioning her. Lysander cut her head from her shoulders with the still intact sword, but the Maerorus assassin still lived. Only by finally smashing her body to nothing with his Thunder Hammer was Lysander able to finally kill the Maerorus assassin. Only Lysander survived the final confrontation with Legienstrasse.[1]

Notes

The rapidly mutating nature of the Maerorus Assassins is remarkable similar to the effects of the T-Virus and G-Virus from the Resident Evil series of video games and movies. Both the viruses and the Maerorus assassins mutate at an alarmingly fast rate, creating any known bio-mutation available to fight, although the virus victims were not in control where the Maerorus assassins were.

Sources