Editing The Justicars (section)

=Legion History=

''The most difficult task any living being confronts is understanding their place in the galaxy.''

- Uriel Salazar, ''Confessions''

==Humble Beginnings==

[[File:XIII_Sacred_Band.png|thumb|300px|right|The XIII Sacred Band as recorded in ''Orders of the Day'', by Hektor Cincinnatus.]]


The first recruits for the nascent Thirteenth Legion came from the children of the Emperor's defeated enemies in the [[Unification Wars (Hektor Heresy)|Unification Wars]].  From those few who survived the gene-seed, the ten best were selected to make up the Thirteenth Squad the [[Sacred Band]] and fight in the Pacification of the Merican Hives under the command of [[Hektor Cincinnatus]].  Led by Aldous Cadigan, the Thirteenth Squad undertook reconnaissance and kill-team missions.  They were rightly commended for slaying the Psysavant Cabal of San Angelus before the battle for that hive commenced, but the six survivors of the Thirteenth Squad refused to accept decorations and asked that the honours only be awarded to the fallen.  For this reason, only the names of the slain are commemorated: Hong-Lau Shi, Zlatko Tolyan Blazić, Malik Al-Hasheem, and Librarian Kamaraj Kohli. The gesture would later strike a chord with the rest of the legion, and the legions first official tradition began.

Despite impressing with their combat effectiveness and humility, Cadigan and his men played a limited role in the Unification Wars.  New recruits were inducted into their number, now styled the Thirteenth Legion, but they held up no great battle honours.  Circumstantial evidence suggests that the warriors of the Thirteenth carried out small operations against high-value targets, particularly enemy psykers, ahead of the more glorious battles fought by other Legionnaires. Certainly ''someone'' was doing this dirty work, for the chronicles of the Unification Wars often make reference to sorcerers serving Techno-Barbarian Warlords such as Nathaniel Dume or Kalagann of Ursh, but hardly ever speak of these powerful figures intervening against the Emperor's armies after the Pacification of the Merican Hives. 

Had it not been for problems with many of the Legions activated prior to the Thirteenth, it is possible that the gene-sons of Uriel Salazar might have remained a specialist force dedicated purely to the slaying of witches.  But with the exception of Hektor's glorious [[Heralds of Hektor|First Legion]], few of the Thirteenth's elder brothers were truly ready to leap forward into the stars around Sol.  In His wisdom, the Emperor commanded that additional genetic resources be devoted to expanding the Thirteenth Legion and making them ready for the [[Great Crusade (Hektor Heresy)|Great Crusade]] shortly after the Battle of Mount Ararat and the end of the Unification Wars.  To furnish recruits to the expanding Legion, the officers of the Thirteenth Legion sent their agents into the vast subterranean prisons beneath Terra's hives, searching for children who had been born to a ruthless struggle for survival.  In explaining the new course, Aldous Cadigan wrote to the War Council that the work of his Legion, ''"can only be done by saints and monsters, and we already recruit every saint we find."''

However, those who expected the Thirteenth's new men to commit terrible atrocities were greatly disappointed.  In the first campaigns of the Fifth [[Expedition Fleets (Hektor Heresy)|Expedition Fleet]] Cadigan's "saints" kept a careful watch over their charges and the careful, disciplined compliance actions of the Legion soon won them the tongue-in-cheek nickname, ''Guardian Angels''.  Even in the bitter and bloody [[The_Justicars#The_Tartaros_Campaign.2C_813.M30|Tartaros Campaign]] against the sorcerous cohorts of the "God-Emperor" Bassal-Narassur the Undying, the Guardian Angels went into battle, staking their own lives, rather than employ orbital bombardment and inflict civilian casualties.  Bassal-Narassur was slain and the Messonian Empire brought into compliance with the Imperial Truth. But the cost of victory was high; the Thirteenth were so bloodied from the campaign that their Expedition Fleet withdrew to the Sol System to rebuild.

===Notable Campaigns===

*'''782.M30 The Battle of San Angelus''' <br/> Though they played only a limited role, the Psysavant Cabal that ruled the San Angelus Hive were a potent group of psykers, and the XIII Sacred Band's mission to eliminate these sorcerers played a pivotal role in the pacification of the hive and certainly saved many Imperial lives.


*'''813.M30: [[The Tartaros Campaign]]'''. <br/> A powerful, self-styled rival to the Imperium, the Messonian Empire were humbled by the Thirteenth in a brutal, and decisive campaign that would bring the Messonians into the Imperium, and silence all dissent in the sector for over four millennia. The Messonian Empire, largely untouched by the chaotic infighting of the Heresy, positioned itself as a major base of operations for the early Imperial pushes of the Scouring into Ultima and Obscurus.

==Uriel Salazar==

''Get men to think less about themselves and more about their brothers. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival as tied to the success of the army as a whole. Do that, and they will never fail you.'' <br/>

- Uriel Salazar

[[File:Uriel starikov.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Uriel Salazar, Primarch of the Thirteenth Legion]]


It has been theorised that the sacrifice of the Thirteenth at Messonia was at the command of the Emperor, for just five years later the Legion would be meet with their Primarch and gain access to the vast manpower reserves of his home world [[Tiberia]].  Fresh genetic material from [[Uriel Salazar]] invigorated the Legion physically, but his moral presence was even more significant.  Uriel's selfless dedication to the Imperium and its peoples, his great humility, and his tremendous self-discipline made him the embodiment of the Thirteenth's principles.  More than just a leader or a father, he was his gene-sons' ideal.  The Primarch's first command was to set aside the name "Guardian Angels".  Uriel explained to his men that such a moniker was boastful and unfitting for their mission.  In place of that grand title, he styled the Thirteenth as ''"The humble fellow-soldiers of the Emperor and His justice"'', but they would be more commonly known as '''The Justicars'''.

Uriel never officially re-based his Legion to Tiberia and always hailed Ancient Terra as the cradle of the Justicars.  However, in reality the Thirteenth moved much of their recruiting and training infrastructure to the Primarch's home world very early on.  The Fifth Expedition Fleet officially rejoined the Great Crusade in 820.M30 under Uriel's command, but it would not embark on major campaigns again until 823.M30, as Uriel brought with him a sweeping reforms to the legion and its methods that required extensive training and acclimation.  Other Expedition Fleets, at first commanded by Cadigan's veterans, soon followed in the footsteps of the Fifth Fleet, and in quick succession the Justicars won many firm victories for the Imperium under their own banner.  Almost as important were the many independent "Compliance Groups" that went to the aid of other Imperial forces confronted by Sorcerers and Psykers.  The skills of the Unification Wars had not been forgotten by the Thirteenth Legion, and small dedicated formations of the legion hunted witches and corruption all across the galaxy. Their talents were also used to great effect in the fight against psychically-potent Xenos, such as the Eldar.

The legion quickly made a name for itself, racking up brilliant victories and earning great respect for their humble and dutiful nature. This run didn't last 3 decades before problems arose. When Uriel had formed the intelligence framework for the legions networks, various formations within the legion pooled their knowledge. The Armorium was one of these formations, and Mars was not happy to hear about its Techmarines sharing their secrets. The legion had been under intense scrutiny from Mars, who had lowered the legions priority on its supply lists. Fate had not had enough with the Justicars yet though, and through a cruel twist a secret cache was discovered in a Justicar voidship by a lowly Munitorum official during one of the regularly-irregular supply stops. Inside the cache were hundreds of mismatched artefacts, all undisclosed by the Justicars. The fury of Mars was relentless and they seized the artefacts in a tense standoff and then left, petitioning the Emperor himself to redress the issue harshly. The artefacts were a strange collection with no obvious common traits save their psychically shielded housing and having been kept from Mars. The legion offered no explanation for the secreted away artefacts, though Uriel was recorded as meeting with the Emperor personally over the matter. After the meeting, judgement had been passed: The legion would find and turn over a complete STC device it had located to the Mechanicum, and the legion was to bring several recalcitrant forgeworlds into compliance with Mars.
The Mechancium were unhappy with the judgement, but their greed placated them enough to accept the judgement begrudgingly. The Justicars delivered, but relations never normalised between the two, and the legion found itself all but cut off from Mechanicum support

As the Great Crusade began to reach the fringes of the Astronomican's light, the Astartes's mission slowly changed.  The Space Marines were too few to hold and expand the vast frontiers of the young Imperium alone.  Human warriors of the enormous [[Imperial Army (Hektor Heresy)|Imperial Army]] formerly kept in support roles, were now committed to the spearheads of the Crusade in ever-increasing numbers.  The Justicars adapted to these changes exceptionally well, having long made use of the Imperial Army in its campaigns. But despite their best efforts, the Justicars felt the increased pressures upon them to fulfil their mandate; Insurrections flared up across the entirety of the Imperium, often led by powerful sorcerers.  To combat the threats within the Imperium, Uriel began to break up his Expeditionary Fleets into ever more '''Compliance Groups''', spread thinly throughout the Galaxy.  Although their lack of force concentration robbed the Justicars of the laurels won by other Legions at the end of the Great Crusade, they gladly gave up honour for duty. 

Yet for every witch-led rebellion that the Justicars put down, more sprang up elsewhere.  Uriel Salazar became obsessed with understanding the patterns underlying these revolts, believing that if he could discover a logical progression to such events he could better deploy his far-flung forces. Uriel is even recorded as having been party to private discussions with the Emperor and Malcador the Sigilite around this time, apparently seeking guidance, though the truth of what they spoke of is lost to us. However, for all the nobility of his purpose, Uriel's great focus led him into darkness.  The logic that he worked to understand was the unfathomable intelligence of the Chaos God Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways.  Every new insight twisted the Primarch's great mind towards the path of Chaos, the very foe which he was created to defeat.  When [[Aubrey The Grey]] came to claim the Thirteenth for the Traitors, Uriel agreed to join with the Arch-Traitor and solemnly pledged his men to Hektor's cause with the words he had once used to affirm his loyalty to the Emperor:

''He wills it''.

==The Heresy==

Having his men scattered throughout the Imperium was at once help and hindrance to Uriel's new plans.  The Justicars swiftly went into action sabotaging Imperial infrastructure, disabling astropathic relays, and securing strategic points such as supply depots for the Traitor Legions.  However, a small minority of the Thirteenth Legion refused to follow their Primarch into damnation.  These "Guardian Angels", as they called themselves, were few in number but were particularly adept at slaying the corrupted Librarians in thrall of the Chaos Powers across the Galaxy.

Aside from dealing with their Loyalist brothers, Uriel's Justicars were also called on to contain the warriors of the Eyes of the Emperor who had spurned the Council of Ten and rallied to Shakya Vardhana.  If these two subtle Legions did not yet confront one another in great pitched battles, their countless skirmishes over six years of war still added up to a terrible toll in lives.  The hatreds formed in the little war between the Justicars and the Eyes of the Emperor would reach a crescendo at the Siege of Terra, where the Legions would finally be matched in a field battle.



==The Scouring==

Hektors body had barely hit the bloodied steps of the Imperial Palace when the traitor hordes began to rout. The tide had turned and the hard-pressed defenders opportunity to avenge their fallen was upon then and their counter-offensive began in earnest. Old habits die hard however; Amidst the chaos of the Traitor retreat, the Justicars began to form a rearguard with practised fluidity. Warriors from the [[Heralds_of_Hektor|First]], [[Sons_of_Fire|Fourth]] and [[Eternal_Zealots|Sixteenth]] either reformed with them, or showed no intention of retreating anyway.
An intense struggle began as rage and hatred on both sides crashed into one another yet afain that day. The traitors lead by Uriel and [[Aubrey The Grey|Aubrey]] fought bitterly, but they were forced back step by bloody step at the hands of the vengeful loyalists. Through the begrudgingly valiant efforts of the traitors, the rearguard served its purpose; Hektors lifeless body had been evacuated from Terra and the majority of the remaining traitors had escaped into the void. Those in the rearguard had all but died to a man, even Uriel himself had been banished into the warp. Only [[Aubrey The Grey]] survived, forced into an escaping ship by his own men. 

Those at Terra had died to a man, but the majority of the surviving Justicars were spared the Scouring, so dispersed were they across the galaxy that they escaped by sheer virtue of their own diffuse deployment and small numbers. Not all were so lucky however, many of the legions networks were violently uprooted, and many hidden caches and forward bases were discovered; the vengeful guns of the Loyalists exacted a heavy toll upon all the traitorous Thirteenth discovered.

==Legion Wars==
The 13th were a divisive group in the Legion wars, earning as much hatred and envy as they earned respect and friendship for their actions in the heresy.

==Post-Heresy==