Editing Unburdened Horde (section)

===The Immaculate Phalanx===
Having their genesis during the Last Battle of Cadia, during a final stand made in the face of overwhelming Imperial might. With their leaders gone seeing their fellow comrades in arms abandon them, there was no hope. The last few hundred Marines with a few thousand unlucky Imperial Armymen stood in the face of the Space Marine onslaught that threatened to overtake them. Cocytus Raptis, a former protege to Leonidas Manisicus, turned his Battlecruiser around to run across the fleet attempting to tighten the noose around those left on Cadia. His ships were able to save fifty Marines and a handful of mortal men before it was too late. Orbital bombardment had been used by the impatient Imperials, glassing the last pocket of resistance. The flight back saw extreme amounts of damage to Cocytus's ship, forcing it to lay stranded in the Eye.


Only a select few humans had not starved to death, the elite of the ship's crew along with choice survivors from the battle. They managed their resources carefully, but the Astartes would consume all the food they could ration before long. To avoid this, Cocytus convinced his men to enter their Su-san Membrane induced sleep. It did not take long for looters to come to the carcass like maggots to rotten meat. The innards of its cracked, dented hull showed the promise of loot. The allure of glory. Its only reward for these fool-hearty scavengers was an early death. Ship by ship joined a mass graveyard, giving over enough supplies to allow the humans to carry on their work. After many years, and two generations of workers acting endlessly to complete their mission it was done. The vessel was reborn.


The ship arrived at any world held by former Heralds members to lend their assistance in warfare. They entered the fray with battlelust, hungry to prove themselves after decades long absence from the affairs of the Legions and warbands. It did not take long until the signs that a deep madness had overtaken these warriors however. It had become so severe it now affected their very gene-seed, meaning any descendants would be cursed with this slow degradation into insanity. Cocytus felt impotent in the face of this rampant corruption, but remained stalwart for his men. Leading them on to a higher ideal beyond themselves. He transformed into the Immaculate Phalanx, a force to defend their brethren even in the face of their dwindling cognition. 


The Phalanx became an army without fear, charging into the fray with total clarity usually lost upon the Khornate warrior. Due to their mental faculties beginning to degrade, they felt no measure of pain, and rarely even were touched by ethereal aftershocks of Psykic Phenomena. A remarkable mutation was revealed to the human servants guarding their protectors and masters. The Progenoid glands had become hyper-vitalized, producing gene-seed at an astounding rate. Because of this, their numbers continue to grow despite their horrible affliction. Zhardan prized the unyielding characteristics of the Phalanx, using them as the spearpoint in his assault upon the Imperium to unify the Traitor Legions. Cocytus was fed information of Zhardan's plans through a neural link established by a mortal Psyker, able to agree to the plan without ever escaping from his endless dreams.


From then on, the Unburdened has used the Phalanx to crush any major opposition. But they are a dangerous, and limited tool. If a battle drags out for too long, there is a great risk in losing many good Marines to a numbing mental sickness as their brain matter evaporates in their skulls and they go berserk from the pain. 

'''Culture'''
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Normally upon vanquishing their foes in open battle, the Astartes of the Phalanx would enter their deep sleep to keep any possible corruption of the brain frozen. Their hooded, loyal mortal serfs would descend to carry them away in a ritualized ceremony that few outside of the Phalanx truly understand. Very rarely, there is a member of the Phalanx who is not cursed with the chronic mind-collapse syndrome. These Marines form the diplomatic core of the warband, representing them and negotiating the deployment of their sealed warrior-caste. In addition, they train new Neophytes best they can before they are implanted with the Phalanx gene-seed and must immediately enter sleep. Sometimes a Marine can go through several cycles of sleep Su-san sleep before realizing they are immune.


The Awakening is not a simple procedure. Thankfully, the tech-savvy servants beneath the Phalanx Marines have perfected the chemical cocktail necessary to awaken them. Before an assault is made, the first Primer is loaded intravenously into their bloodstream. These cataonic bodies are beginning to rise, but have not completed the rite just yet. Their living-corpses are then loaded onto Drop-Pods, from which a second injection, the Second Primer, brings them to life while falling to the ground into combat. Orders are usually filtered into their helmets as they land or after, directing them to objectives on the field.