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Legio Solaria

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the Legio Titanicus; for the Imperial Knight, see Solaria.
Colour Scheme Legion Info Symbol
SolariaArt.jpg
Name: Legio Solaria
Solaria-Emblem.jpg
Alternative name: Imperial Hunters
Affiliation: Imperium
Founded: Pre-Imperium
Forge World: Tigrus
Colours: Mottled pale green and white[1][2]
Strength: 104 Titans (Heresy-era)[9]
Arch Enemies: Legio Vulpa[9]

The Legio Solaria[4] (also known as the Imperial Hunters) are a Loyalist Titan Legion.[1]


Overview

The Legio Solaria is an ancient Legio dating from the time of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. They are known for being loud and prideful, seeing each battle as a chance for greatness and glory. They enjoy acts of showmanship and bold tactics, though take even the slightest failure as a personal insult. As such, they are aggressive on the battlefield; wanting to hunt down and destroy the enemy and seeking out powerful foes for a worthy and glorious battle. Their personnel hold their positions via birthright, passing it down their family lines. Their officers are chosen from their planet's nobility and often look down upon those they perceive as their social inferiors.[3]

The symbol of a Legio is a winged claw, the holy symbol of Pahkmetris, the huntress goddess of Procon.[7][Conflicting sources]

History

Founding

The Legio Solaria was founded by the Knight World Noble Mohana Mankata VI in the early Great Crusade after she was denied the right to pilot a Knight suit on her homeworld of Procon VI, despite winning a horseriding competition to decide future Knights. Her skills nonetheless impressed the Mechanicum, and she exiled herself to become the founder of a new Titan Legion with their aid. Paying tribute to the Procon Goddess of the Hunt Pahkmetris the Legio Solaria went on to become an all-women Legio, with vat-born genetically modified subjects serving as pilots and the few number of males acting as Tech-Priests and Servitors. The Legion became known for its embrace of emotions, hit-and-run tactics and humanity - putting it at odds with the rest of the cold and ruthless Mechanicum. Under Mohana, now known as Great Mother, they eventually achieved the 3rd best engine kill/loss ratio during the Great Crusade.[10a]

Later during the Great Crusade, the Legio Solaria clashed with the Legio Vulpa after the latter callously destroyed a city of 50,000 civilians during the Compliance on Dendrictia.[10a] The Legion would go on to develop a feud with the Legio Vulpa that continued throughout the Horus Heresy.[9]

Horus Heresy

By the start of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Solaria fielded some 104 Titans, the majority of which were Warhounds.[9]

Second Battle of Paramar

During the Horus Heresy the Legio Solaria remained loyal to Terra. They battled traitor forces in the Second Battle of Paramar.[5]

Battle of Beta-Garmon

Later during the Battle of Beta-Garmon, also known as the Titandeath, the Legio Solaria contributed a significant force under Domina Princeps Mohana Mankata VI. The legion's forces were decimated during the battle, with Mohana herself dying. It was speculated that so many of their number had been lost that the Legion would now need to recruit men to rebuild itself.[6]

Siege of Terra

During the Siege of Terra the Legio Solaria was stationed inside the Imperial Palace. They later ventured out of the Helios Gate with Sanguinius in order to allow Imperial Army conscripts manning the outer works to flee inside. During the fighting, Legio Solaria Titans destroyed a Plague Tower of Nurgle.[8] The Legio Solaria later took part in the battle for the Mercury-Exultant Killzone, influcting heavy losses on the Legio Mortis through hunter-ambush tactics in concert with allied Knights.[10]

Post-Heresy

Defense of Hive Gelon

The Imperial Hunters, along with the demi-Legio Pallidus Mor, fought on the Hive World Khania to defend their capitol city Hive Gelon against Tyranids. Arriving upon the planet first, and possessing the larger number of titans, the Imperial Hunters (lead by Marshal Adrel Syagrius) took command of the joint battlegroup. Ordering an all speed march, the combined Legios made for Hive Gelon and reinforced the Kataran 66th (who had been deployed upon the planet as well). The Imperial Hunters pushed through the bulk of the enemy forces, despite warnings from the Pallidus Mor of the risk that the Legios would become separated. Due to this, Augustus Secutor (piloted by Syagrius) was isolated and out maneuvered by an enemy hierophant. Syagrius was rescued by the Pallidus Mor's Gloria Vastator (piloted by Princeps Captain Ferantha Krezoc) who pulled the Tyranid's attention away to her. While the hierophant began to overpower the Pallidus Mor Warlord, the Augustus Secutor charged and fired its Plasma Annihiliator, finally killing the beast. The Legios managed to reach Hive Gelon and repel in xenos forces, but soon a second and far larger wave of Tyranids arrived.[2]

During the fight against this second wave, the Pallidus Mor was tasked with defending Gelon, while the Imperial Hunters left to hunt down enemy bio-titans. The Imperial Hunters were tracking large bio-forms, suspected to be enemy bio-titans, planning to engage and destroy them before they reached Gelon. While the stated intention was to make the Pallidus Mor's defense easier, in truth it was Marshal Syagrius acting from wounded pride and wanting to destroy the bio-titans for personal glory. They tracked the bio-forms far away from Hive Gelon, though as they approached the biomass started to shrink on their auspex. They were faced with only a minor force of Tyranids, far fewer than what they had detected earlier. After easily eradicating the xenos, they moved to where they first detected the large bio-forms and discovered that the Tyranids had tunneled through the walls of a great crater, attempting a subterranean assault upon their target. Realizing they had been fooled into leaving the Hive vulnerable, the Imperial Hunters returned to the hive at all speed. While their return to the hive assured victory, all forces suffered losses, including the commander of the Pallidus Mor: Marshal Eras Balzhan. Despite these losses, the xenos were again repelled. This, along with the destruction of the Tyranid's orbital fleet, secured a total victory against the assaulting Tyranids.[3]

The Doom of Katara

Before the Imperial Hunters could depart from Khania, report arrived of a heretical uprising on the neighboring forgeworld of Katara. A cult of Khorne has risen in and taken over the capitol city of Creontiades, and had been reinforced with traitor Titans. Due to this, the combined battlegroup of the Imperial Hunters and Pallidus Mor were ordered to remain together and lead a counter attack to defend and retake the planet. To reinforce the Pallidus Mor, due to the losses suffered on Khania, the Imperial Hunters lent 1 Reaver and 2 Warhound Titans to complete their maniples. Syagrius then ordered that the Pallidus Mor deploy to the city of Deicoon, the city nearest the fallen capitol, while the Imperial Hunters were deployed to Therimachus. The Pallidus Mor was deployed first, followed by the Imperial Hunters. The stated plan was so that both Hives could be defended from the traitors, but the reality was that the Imperial Hunters were using the Pallidus Mor as a scouting force, sacrificing their numbers to gain better information on the enemy. The Pallidus Mor engaged the traitors (identified as treasonous members of the Iron Skulls) upon the bridge over Kazani Strait, where one of the Imperial Hunters' lent Warhounds was destroyed.[3]

While the Pallidus Mor managed to destroy the bridge, presumably trapping the treasonous members on the island of Creontiades, a section of the heretical cult had been in hiding in Deicoon and rose up when the Titans were docked for repairs. The members of the Imperial Hunters and Pallidus Mor were captured. The cultists took them to a defiled chapel in the city, with the intent to corrupt them and their Titans. Soon afterwards a civilian militia, called the "Company of the Bridge" lead by Ecclesiarchy Confessor Lehrn Ornastas, assaulted the chapel and freed the Titan crews. Upon being freed, crews and their Secutarii rearmed themselves and fought their way back to their Titans. There were few traitor titans remaining at Deicoon, the cultists having expected to corrupt the loyalists, and they were swiftly defeated by a surprise counter attack.[3]

The bulk of the Iron Skulls had marched upon Therimachus. The Imperial Hunters, not expecting to actually engage this soon, were overwhelmed by the enemy forces. Marshal Syagrius was killed when an enemy Banelord ripped the head off of Augustus Secutor. This, along with the destruction of Primum Victor, left command to Princeps Spinther of Magnificum Virum. Spinther called for aid from the Pallidus Mor, though he let it be known that there was little chance of any of the Imperial Hunters at Therimachus surviving until they arrived. This held true as when the Pallidus Mor and remaining Imperial Hunters arrived, the force at Therimachus had been eradicated by the Iron Skulls, though they had sacrificed themselves to assure the destruction of as many traitorous engines as they could. The Pallidus Mor and Imperial Hunters engaged the enemy Titans. Realizing that the city was about to be used for another Chaos ritual, the force opened fire upon the city, leveling it and turning the very ground beneath it into a sea of magma. Suffering more losses in the battle, including the destruction of Gloria Vastator the leading Warlord of the Pallidus Mor, the Pallidus Mor redeployed the still damaged (but functional) Ferrum Salvator in order to engage the final enemy Titan. Princeps Carrinas of the Reaver Nobilis Arma, and the highest ranked Imperial Hunter remaining, engaged the much larger Titan to slow it down and buy time for the surviving crew of Gloria Vastator to reactivate Ferrum Salvator. The enemy Banelord smashed through the Reaver, critically damaging its right arm, but this bought the time needed for Ferrum Salvator to be reactivated and destroy the enemy Titan.[3]

The victory was a Pyrrhic one. Almost all of the Titans sent by the Imperial Hunters, save a Reaver and a Warhound, were destroyed (as well as a majority of the Pallidus Mor), two of the planet's three Hive cities were destroyed (Creontiades was leveled to the ground upon the arrival of Imperial Guard reinforcements), the forgeworld was reclassified as a Penal World (on the verge of being chosen for Exterminatus), and the planet's surviving loyalist population was interred and formed into a Penal Legion. The few surviving Imperial Hunters, now lead by Carrinas, returned to Currus Venatores, formally ending the combined battlegroup of the Imperial Hunters and Pallidus Mor.[3]

Known Assets

Titans

Warlord Class

Reaver Class

Warhound Class

Void Ships

Personnel

Princeps

Moderati

Other Personnel

Images

Trivia

Notes

  • Tigrus, the Forge World that the Legio Solaria is based on, was overrun by an Ork Waaagh! in M35.[11a][11b] Despite this, the Legio has been shown as still being active in M41.[2] Exactly how the Legion continued to function after losing their homeworld is unknown.

Conflicting sources


See also

Sources