Alpha Legion

The term is used by heretics to refer to a mythical 20th Legion. It's a nonsensical name, which proves it is a false story since true priests of the Adeptus Ministorum would know 'alpha' is an ancient term meaning "first". But any such 20th Legion would have been the last to be discovered before the Horus Heresy. 'Alpha' is an old word meaning 'A' or represents the first letter in an ancient Terran dialect so the name Alpha Legion translates into 'A Legion' in two ways (heretical falsehoods are rarely original or sensible).

No such legion exists, nor has it ever existed. The remainder of this page is intentionally left blank. There is no need for you to read further, and if you feel any urges to read beyond this paragraph or if you have any suspicion that there is any text following, please consult your local Commissar, Chaplain or Dogmata for re-education. If you happen to be the Commissar, report yourself to your sidearm.

Now that we've got that out of the way...

Alpha Legion... we think.
Battle Cry	"Hydra Dominatus", "I am Alpharius!.", or "For the Emperor!"... probably. this and sometimes this
Number	XX
Original Name	No fewer than 747 informal names recorded, including The Ghost Legion, The Harrowing, The Unbroken Chain, The Hydra, The Azure Serpent, and just "Legion"
Original Homeworld	none
Current Homeworld	Whatever the Legionnaire or serf in question is brainwashed into believing during their current mission. None actually exists, Legion is split too much for any central command.
Primarch	Alpharius. Or Omegon. Or both, maybe neither.
Champion	various
Strength	infinite...maybe
Specialty	Covert espionage and infiltration, information warfare, mass use of cultists...probably
Allegiance	......Yes?
Colours	Dark blue or dark sea green, sometimes, often with green ornamentation and a silver trim. Possibly both, unless neither. Black with silver trim (Effrit Stealth Squad and other Black Op units).

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

– Revelation 22:13, if I recall correctly

"I'm confused. Really, really confused."

– Adam Gilchrist, possibly

"What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it."

– Salvador Dalí, or so they say

"If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."

– George Orwell, maybe

The Alpha Legion (allegedly known as the Chaos Reasonable Marines) are basically what would happen if you gave the CIA from the 1950s onwards a Space Marine legion and told them to go nuts. They are the 20th and last Legion of the Adeptus Astartes from the Great Crusade, and were the last to find their Primarch, Alpharius, in part because Horus was the first to find him and kept him hidden from the Emperor and everyone else for some time. In retrospect, it probably should have been obvious that he was going to go full Chaos.

The Alpha Legion's BIG SECRET is, as you probably know, the fact that their "one" Primarch is actually two guys, the twins Alpharius and Omegon. Since the Emperor made all of the Primarchs, it's unclear how this would be a secret; surely he'd know that he made twenty-one Primarchs, not twenty. Right?

... Right?

As you are about to realize, we know absolutely nothing about the Alpha Legion or their members. Sure, there are a lot of sources with information about them around, but none of this is solid and, as we know that the Alpha Legion are sneaky as fuck, and are properly getting their shit done without anyone noticing it.

Origins

"Such are we that in this art of war are like unto serpents, to lie out of sight, to strike swift, to carry such poison in our mouths that men fear to tread where we may lie."

– Anonymous, quoted by the Emperor

As with most lore, the Alpha Legion's name comes from religion. The two Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon, represent the line Jesus said in Revelation 22:13: "I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." But as Omegon is meant to be a secret, the legion is named after Alpharius. If Omegon was to be the face rather than the secret, the Legion could possibly have been called the Omega Legion (although the Ultrasmurfs would probably file a cease and desist) - or in other words the "last" legion which conforms to your "needing sense in a name" thing.

Adherents to the stories of this Legion make addle-minded claims that prove their insincerity such as: all marines in this legion were surgically altered to look identical to their Primarch; the Emperor himself gave this Primarch command over campaign forces above that of the Lord Commander of the Imperial Army; power fantasies such as the existence of more than one Primarch in this Legion; and other tall tales that defy belief. Most heretical of all is the claims that these Primarchs betrayed his holiness the Emperor of Mankind willingly without being corrupted by Chaos, which conveniently excuses their absence from the Eye of Terror and thus any observable evidence of their betrayal with the other traitor Legions.

It has also been suggested that the Legion, their Primarch, and their symbol may be based on the star Alphard in the constellation of Hydra. What's more, Alphard means "the solitary one", but it has a much dimmer star "hidden" behind it. If this was intended, considering that "Alpha Legion", "Alpharius" and the hydra motif have been around for a lot longer than Omegon has, it means that Games Workshop has been playing a very, very long game. Meta.

The Documented "Truth"

Apparently, the naming of the Alpha Legion refers to the fact that it actually has no name. In Horus Heresy III: Extermination it goes to great lengths to explain the early history of the Alpha Legion and how it contrasts to other more well-known Legions. It seems that the Primarch either kept the name to be deliberately ironic, deeply meaningful in the sense that "Alpha" can also mean "Supreme" or the early title of "Alpha" just stuck.

All Legions after the First were put through a series of tests and trials by the Emperor before general release into the Great Crusade, quite literally (and un-ironically) an "Alpha Test" where the Legion would only consist of 1,000-2,000 Astartes to see how they would perform their intended function, which was pre-determined by the Emperor before their creation.

The XXth Legion (XX = double cross. Look up Twenty Committee for speculations) was never publicly released or announced by the Imperium; though the initial tests proved positive, it never progressed past this initial stage and remained an "Alpha" Legion, leading some to question whether the XXth Legion were actually intended for a much darker purpose and were intentionally kept concealed by the Emperor.

For the first 40 years of the Great Crusade, the few warriors of the XXth were a "Ghost Legion" who would act in obscure warzones isolated from the other Legions, sometimes act under the heraldry of a different legion or no legion at all. They performed dubious tasks such as assassination, kidnapping, artifact retrieval, escort missions, and other clandestine support roles. It may not be coincidental that these tasks were assigned to the Legion whose number could be represented as a double cross, which also figures prominently in their iconography. These roles would later be taken by the Custodians, Officio Assassinorum and Sororitas Inconcessus, causing the XXth to fall into myth and stagnation. Only the discovery of the Primarch Alpharius (which still might not even be his true name) allowed the Ghost Legion to resurface nearly 160 years later and become a true Legion in its own right, seemingly springing up from nowhere with a full (and rapidly expanding) force of 10,000 Astartes and a battle-ready fleet. If the information in Dan Abnett's Legion is accurate, the Alpha Legion was aware of Chaos some years before Horus had even heard the term, though not fully appreciative of its dangers.

Recent History

The denizens of this wiki failed to detect our infiltration forces. Just as Planned *BLAM* HERESY!!! There are no Chaos forces infiltrating this site. Especially from the nonexistent Alpha Legion. Please stop reading this at once. There are more important, less heretical, things to be done. You should be saying your prayers to the Emperor, or eating your veggies

There are extremely persistent and consistent rumors that the most blessed Blood Ravens chapter of the holy Adeptus Astartes led by Chapter Master Gabriel Angelos and assisted by the Librarian Isador Akios, the PDF and Imperial Guard led by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth, and the Eldar of Craftworld Biel-tan led by Farseer Macha, fought the mythical Alpha Legion led by Chaos Lord Bale and Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr and an Orkish Waaagh! led by the Warboss Orkamungus on the planet Tartarus (what a lovely name for a planet). Attempting to accuse the Blood Ravens of Heresy for spreading lies about fictional legions has universally ended in failure. The same applies to the Legion's alleged involvement in the events surrounding the Exterminatus of Typhon and Azariah Kyras' (almost) ascension to Daemonhood, suggested as the Chaos enemies allied with Kyras in Retribution's campaign list their team name as "Alpha Legion" and wear their colors, but were never explicitly named as such. We're not even going to mention the Metal Boxes incident in the Kaurava System... Also any relation between the Alpha legion and Tzeentch dogma is purely coincidental...or is it. But everyone agrees they are space terrorists, and probably al-Qaeda with a grimdark-startrek-feel.

Here are some of the things that we know about them:

• Do not talk about the Alpha Legion
• Do NOT talk about the Alpha Legion.
• The Alpha Legion never existed.
• The Alpha Legion is the only real Warhammer 40,000 force, the rest are operatives dressed up.
• Alpharius was not killed. Rawbutt Jellyman was the one who died, and Alpharius disguised himself as him. Which means that he now leads the Imperium.
• +++Records Expunged+++

In all seriousness, we really, honestly DON'T have any clue what the fuck is up with the Alpha Legion because Games Workshop gives them so little fluff compared to the rest of the Traitor Legions (possibly on purpose given that part of their schtick is how mysterious they are), and even those few things we know might be misinformation.

With the release of Forge World's 3rd Horus Heresy book, Extermination, as well as several Black Library short stories and novellas, there are a few confirmed events that the Alpha Legion took part in, for a given definition of "confirmed". They consistently show that when the Alpha Legion is involved, even if they're ostensibly "allies", whether you're a loyalist, traitor, a secret society of aliens ostensibly trying to destroy Chaos (by arranging the destruction of the only being and species Chaos fears and can be destroyed by), or Alpharius himself, they're going to find a way to screw with you.

Finally, if we take Dawn of War to be canon (and Games Workshop certainly does) then we can infer that the Alpha Legion is probably just as splintered and broken up as the eight outright-traitor legions, with some of the sub-groups running off to embrace Chaos outright. Honestly this is not all that surprising if you take into consideration GeeDub's stance on character motivation and adaptability.

Hell, even when they have recently became their own class in the Black Crusade supplement Tome of Fate, the information provided is still somewhat vague and just stuff we already know. What it did reveal though, was that groups of Alpha Legionnaires are seldom seen together. Many are independent operatives working on extended reconnaissance missions sent by some higher up, insurgents waging a one-man guerrilla war, or trying to achieve a personal objective known only to them. Some are even seen amongst "the Severed", a group of Chaos Marines forcibly exiled from their Legions.

Even when by themselves, many often gather a loyal cult of followers who try to help them in their goal. Alpha Legionnaires are more often than not the orchestrator behind Chaos cults and rebellions who fester within Imperial hives. They may not even pose as Marines, as Tome of Fate mentions that they have an unusual and legendary ability to disguise themselves as xenos, mutants, or even loyalists (maybe they are already loyalists, depending on who you ask). If one thinks about it, a terrifying possibility arises: they have somehow acquired the transformative technologies of the Callidus assassins. They frequently travel in and out of the Eye of Terror, setting up decoys, assassinations, and propaganda within Imperial space.

To put it simply there are about as many different categories of Alpha Legion motives as you can think of. Here are just a few (however, most would probably unify upon the return of a Primarch).

• Those who are actually still loyal and aid the Imperium as best it can in sneaky, inscrutable ways.
• Those who are nominally loyal and uncorrupted but still carrying out their Primarch's/Cabal's plan to make the Imperium lose.
• Those who have embraced Chaos to bring about the other version of the above plan.
• Those who have embraced Chaos in a misguided effort to bring about the original version of the above plan.
• Those who have embraced Chaos and no longer care about Alpharius/The Cabal's plan, either just doing their own thing and/or fighting for the cause of Chaos. Sindri Myr comes to mind.
• Those who are loyal only to the distant memory and legacy of their Primarch (either one) and Legion and act in whatever way they think best preserves that legacy.
• Those who are loyal to the Emperor but deeply oppose the current state of the Imperium.
• Those who are loyal to the Emperor and think that by destroying the weakest parts of the Imperium they strengthen the Imperium as a whole. Occam the Untrue specifically believes this in Sons of the Hydra.
• Those who care only about the survival of their warband and brothers, even if they venerate Chaos/The Emperor/The Primarchs/etc. Kassar from Shroud of Night falls in this category.
• Those who do their own thing, just in general.
• Those loyal to their own conception of the Alpha Legion. Whatever the hell that entails. Which is most of them.
• Those who are motivated by their hatred for something in specific, usually Guilliman. Quetzal Carthach from The Long Games at Carcharias and Sons of the Hydra just really fucking hates Ultramarines, allegedly because he was at Eskrador when Guilliman killed “Alpharius”.
• The infinite IQ members who decided to just bunker down and let this whole thing blow over, only caring to make sure their souls don't get raped for eternity. Nobody confirmed here, but someone probably figured this out.
• About a million other things.
• Fuck knows.
• Some Traitor Legion Loyalists chapters who straight up abandoned the Legion. Funnily enough, some Alpha Legionnaires posed as Iron Snakes in the book Harrowmaster specifically because they had similar heraldry.

As you can see, there is simply nothing concrete on the Alpha Legion as there is no longer any Alpha Legion. It is a schizophrenic hydra that has gone mad with each head only in control of itself (if even that, they do love using sleeper agents and brainwashing).

Somewhat supporting the above, the best look we get at the modern culture of the Alpha Legion is in the book Harrowmaster. In it we see a conclave of disparate Alpha Legion warbands meeting to discuss the appearance of the Primaris Marines. The warbands present are completely different in beliefs, dogma, and culture, though they all share a similar enough mindset common to their Legion. One warband, the Penitent Sons, are openly loyalist and put spikes on the inside of their helmets to punish themselves for their traitorous history. Another warband, the First Strike, are fully Khornate, skulls and all. Despite their Khornate leanings and wanting to rip and tear, they like being pointed at the best strategic point to rip and tear for the overall war effort. Strategic Khornates? Never thought I’d see the day. And yet somehow these two get along better with each other than they do with “the Faceless”. The Faceless are another warband who attended the conclave, and I shit you not they are literally the “I am Alpharius” meme. When the Faceless, who all wear identical power armor, take off their helmets in unison they reveal they all have the same face. Allegedly the face of their Primarch, whom they then immediately claim to be. In a room full of other Alpha Legionnaires. Needless to say everyone else was really sick of their shit. The Faceless are the stereotypical Alpha Legion who don’t engage in frontline battles and only do devious plots that take decades. Only in the Alpha Legion can you have a repentant loyalist, a Khornate berserker and a literal annoying meme sit in a meeting together and try to decide what to do together. And the scary part is they actually succeed. The combined forces present at the conclave all unite to achieve a singular goal. There is no other group in the Galaxy that can do that. Each head of the hydra may be completely independent chasing their own goals, but they’re still attached to the same body. And when all of those heads begin working in unison they are practically unstoppable.

The End and the Death Vol. I muddles things further, as it is revealed that every Alpha Legionnaire had been hypno-programmed with six specific trigger words at the outset of the Heresy that would irrevocably influence their behavior with regards to the Imperium and Chaos. Once a trigger word was spoken, it didn't matter what loyalty the Alpha Legionnaire had held beforehand, as their behavior would now be dictated by the directives of said trigger word. The hypno-conditioning behind these triggers was so powerful and intricate that undoing it was nearly impossible. Case in point from the book: First Captain Ingo Pech (Grammaticus' old buddy) was prepared to side with the Imperial defenders on Terra and use the trigger word "Xenophon" to activate more XX Legion assets for the loyalist cause until Actae hijacked him by using her psychic powers to trigger "Orphaeus" instead, forcing him to act on the "Control Chaos to Fight Chaos" imperative.

This opens a WHOLE new can of worms, especially with regards to present-day Alpha Legionnaires.

Tactics

"Hail Hydra! Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb and two more shall take its place! We serve the Master, as the world shall soon serve us! Hail Hydra!"

– Alpha Legi-wait a minute!

During the Great Crusade the Ultramarines had a proverb: "Information is victory." What they meant to say is, "If you know an opponent, you can defeat them." The Alpha Legion took this doctrine and turned it up to eleven: why focus only on the intel you have? An enemy that doesn't know you (or better has nothing but carefully crafted disinformation about you) is doomed. That's pretty much what their strategy revolves around: fucking with their opponent's mind. Since then no one knows anything for certain about them. If you think you know more, start worrying: this means Alpha Legion is messing with your mind right now. That's why the Ultramarines and Alpha Legion absolutely despised each other during the Horus Heresy, as their battle doctrines antagonized each other.

Notable examples (allegedly) include:

• Making everyone believe their primarch was killed by Rowboat Girlyman, despite even the Ultramarines having no records about such a thing ever happening.
• Leaking their attack plans to a subsector governor, so he strips nearby planets of garrisons to reinforce his defense, and then attacking those weakened nearby planets.
• Hypno-indoctrinating natives of a Space Marine recruiting world with a trigger switch, and then turning the unwittingly brainwashed Marines on their brothers when the Alpha Legion attacked their fortress-monastery after arranging for the Chapter in question to suffer a series of "accidents" that left them badly undermanned. And they did that twice.
• Conquering hundreds of planets during the Horus Heresy with a single agent planting rumors of the Warmaster's advance, and causing civil wars and rebellions of people trying to plead their allegiance to Horus only to make sure he doesn't nuke their homes upon arriving. Did I mention all these were made by a single fucking person who wasn't even a full-fledged Marine?
• Plotting and executing the Night of a Thousand Rebellions, that effectively severed the Segmentum Pacificus away from the Imperium, leaving it at the mercy of Chaos. Yeah, you heard it right - the entire segmentum, and while it is the smallest one, it's still like 15% of the Imperium.
• Adopting the battle cries of their enemies. Yelling "For The Emperor!" before you charge will cause any true loyalist opponent to hesitate - usually fatally.

*BLAM* These stories are obvious and self-contradictory falsehoods, trash that pollutes the minds of the faithful. We apologize for any discomfort this wiki article may have caused you -- speak to your local Chaplain or Commissar if you require counseling. If you witness anyone spreading these harmful lies about a 20th Legion, immediately report the heretic to your local representative of the Inquisition or to your unit's commissar. If you happen to be the commissar and you witness yourself spreading these rumors, please report yourself to your bolt pistol.

So to sum it up, they are in the top league of the Warhammer 40k universe, fighting when and where they want to achieve great goals with very limited forces, much like the Eldar and Thousand Sons except with less smugness and arrogance. Also, while the Eldar and TS rely on extremely complicated plans that either excel brilliantly or fail horribly, Alpha Legion plans, on the other hand, are mostly simple at their core, but are extremely well thought-out, with multiple backup plans, and are executed as stellarly, so even if they are not successful (which happened multiple times, especially when they fought against equally smart or unpredictable opponents) they rarely suffer much from their defeats. It helps that they often excel at feeding completely inaccurate intel to their opponents. For example, their grand operation against the Raven Guard during the Heresy failed at the final stage with their undercover agents being compromised, and their backup plan of direct assault with their Mechanicum allies also failed, but due to extensive planning and a second fallback plan they still managed to steal the gene-codex and clear all the loose ends that could bite them in their asses later.

The Alpha Legion is basically an army of James Bond clones, like some unholy combination of the Mossad, CIA, and American MACV-SOG. No, really, that is how they fought. They were known for popping out of freaking nowhere and curbstomping the shit out of the enemy at the best possible moment (or worst, depending on whose side you were on). The Alpha Legion was also known to have a training doctrine that actually matches the idea of a super-soldier. That is, they trained all their Marines in how to use all their equipment and weapons in addition to picking out individuals to be trained as specialists. Every Alpha Legionnaire was at least capable of, in the short term, replacing or deploying as an Assault Marine, Devastator, Fast Attack (like speeders and bikes, etc.), with flexible plans and adaptable soldiers (hence the Hydra, because in the short term you couldn't decapitate their command structure and, being Space Marines, soon someone similarly competent would take over). They were also masters of stealth (though to a lesser degree than, say, the Night Lords or Raven Guard) and knowledgable of psychology, making them the best among the Legions of infiltrating and suborning enemy organisations and governments. All this while keeping their elites fully capable of matching a specialist from another Legion. This meant that the Alpha Legion was capable of fielding as many specialists as the mission required and their equipment allowed. They also had specialized kill-teams used to sow chaos among the enemy during the Heresy and the late Crusade. These so-called Headhunters had these awesome combi-bolters with two barrels. Omegon supposedly led the Alpha Legion's black-ops division, no one really knows who is who though, so just consider "Alpharius" and "Omegon" to basically be titles.

Another interesting bit of their tactics is heavy focus on team play. Alpha legion squads move, fight and think as one, and are trained to quickly adapt to new squads. There is no "battle brotherhood" bullshit in this - just a simple extensive training and lack of typical Chaos Space Marine hubris, jealousy and occasional backstabbing. It goes so far that Alpha Legion initiation trials are passed by squads rather than individual aspirants like in other loyalist chapters or chaos warbands, so you either get to play as a team or do not play at all (likely being killed if your squad fails the trial).

Their devotion to Chaos is not entirely concrete, either. Alpharius himself never turned to Chaos, only following Horus into the Heresy as he saw it as the best outcome. Of course some Alpha Legion members like Sindri Myr are balls-to-the-wall Chaos worshippers but they are a radical minority. Most may see Chaos as a means to an end, using it simply to advance whatever goals they have. Their devotion can depend entirely on the place and the time. Some may loathe it while others are zealous in their belief. In terms of Chaos worship the Alpha Legion is one of the more diverse, some theories even claiming that some operatives within the Legion are in fact closet loyalists seeking to protect humanity and stop Chaos. It should also be noted that their devotion being in question doesn't make them less corrupted; they do after all field the full gamut of Chaos goods available to the other Legions and are represented on the tabletop using "generic" Chaos Space Marine models, player and modeller's choice aside.

To make it even more interesting/confusing, what is considered a Legion of Space Marines, was in reality more of a combined effort. More than any other Legion, they recruited outside the Legion for roles besides Astartes, or even agents. They were really, more accurately, a moving society. This trend only seems to have accelerated since the Heresy. No one knows how many regular human soldiers they have, but if their Cultist numbers are anything to go by, the Alpha Legion likely has whole Imperial Guard regiment-strength armies integrated within. That and the fact they don't even hang out in the Eye of Terror or have a recruiting planet and yet seem to only grow indicates that they have a normally functioning society. At this rate, they'll start looking like the Twilight's Hammer Clan from Warcraft, but it doesn't matter. The GOAL remains!...what that goal is, no one knows.

We wish their HMKids theme had had quotes from Sindri Myr, Lord Bale or Carron... Hey, maybe they could do a remake?

Despite their rivalry with the Ultramarines and their similarities with the Raven Guard, their closest comparison among the loyalists might just be with the Dark Angels, the first of the Space Marines just as they are the last. The Alpha Legion mirrors the Dark Angels' uncertain and often confusing loyalties from the other side of the fence. Both have unusual and enigmatic ties to xenos artifacts or beings. Both are heavily involved in "shadow warfare", which goes beyond simply being stealthy like the Raven Guard but also involves seeking advantages in war outside of the battlefield and inside the realm of information, production, communication and subterfuge. Both are completely cloistered in secrecy to the point that virtually none of their allies really know them. Both of their Primarchs were noted to be especially ingenious in the field of military planning.

But they're a mirror, not a clone. The Dark Angels' loyalties are born of an unplanned for (we think) schism that is actually rather more complicated than "the Fallen all embraced Chaos", while the Alpha Legion's mysterious loyalties at least generally seem to be something they planned for. The Dark Angels seem to willingly embrace their ties to the Watchers while the Alpha Legion outlived the Cabal and thought very little of their eventual destruction. The Lion favoured using his intellect to arrive at the plan that would offer the most direct route to triumph with the least chance of complication while still delivering maximum results while Alpharius liked to show off and made his schemes as elaborate as possible to whip his intellectual dick out and invite everyone to gaze upon it in awe.

Notable Members (maybe)

• Alpharius: Primarch of the Alpha Legion, the Threefold Serpent, the Head of the Hydra, the Last Primarch, and also everyone in the Alpha Legion. Has almost as many origin stories as the Joker, some or all or none of which may be true. Is probably dead, having been outguessed at the very last moment by Rogal Dorn on Pluto, but maybe not.
• Omegon: The other primarch of the Alpha Legion. Masqueraded as the commander of Effrit Squad (also referred to as the Effrit Disruption Cadre on the 30k tabletop), except when he was pretending to be Alpharius or someone else. May or may not be dead, since he took over after Alpharius got free brain surgery from Rogal and then might have died on Eskrador. But maybe not. There's a C'tan shard who might know where he is now (the C’tan shard was the Deceiver, who used the bait of pretending to be Omegon to lure in a bunch of Alpha Legionnaires. Needless to say he didn’t know shit).
• Armillus Dynat: Harrowmaster of the Alpha Legion who dual wielded a thunder hammer and power sword like a boss and employed shock and awe tactics. Successfully invaded a loyalist forge world that was defended by Titans and a loyalist Grand Battalion of Iron Warriors.
• Phocron: A headhunter prime who infiltrated the Sol System alongside Alpharius during the heresy era. Seemingly died at the hands of Archamus, head of the Imperial Fist Huscarls, but that’s not where it gets interesting. Phocron features in a short story where he’s ravaging several Imperial worlds through sabotage, terrorism and general Alpha Legion shenanigans. An inquisitor becomes obsessed with hunting down Phocron and does finally kill him, only to realize that Phocron is just another “I am Alpharius” situation where Alpha Legionnaires just take the identity when they need it, seemingly going all the way back to the heresy if that Headhunter is anything to go by.
• Autilon Skorr: Consul-Delegatus who was apparently a very good diplomat prior to the Heresy. Unfortunately, he forgot how to be nice to people after joining the traitors and kept hanging Nârik Dreygur and his Iron Warriors out to dry until Dreygur finally got sick of it and hit the "change team" button at the Battle of Mezoa. Skorr lost an arm and had to be hauled off the battlefield.
• Kel Silonius: Harrowmaster of the Legion who did a brain-switcheroo with Alpharius so the latter could infiltrate Terra in a ridiculously complicated plan that failed at the last second. Or maybe it didn't.
• Exodus: A master assassin who was said to be as skilled as a Vindicare. May have actually been multiple legionnaires with the same name. As of the release of his (very sexy) miniature this is all but confirmed as his title is “The One of Many”. The rules in Horus Heresy 2.0 back this up, as he is only a character and not a unique character. Meaning you can take multiple of him in an army. This opens up the terrifying door that the Alpha Legion is capable of mass producing Vindicaire-like space marines. Scary.
• Quetzal Carthach: Harrowmaster who claimed to have been at Eskrador when Guilliman killed Alpharius, who was either Omegon or someone else pretending to be Alpharius, if it ever happened at all. Declared himself the Number One Enemy of all Ultramarines and their successors as a result (Quetzal is the guy who destroyed the Crimson Consuls chapter, Ultramarines successors, by hypno-indoctrinating all their aspirants with a trigger phrase, thus eradicating the whole chapter through infighting combined with a proper Alpha Legion assault), but died when he tried double-crossing Occam the Untrue, who sent an operative to disable his ship's Gellar field, with the expected result.
• Firaeveus Carron: Alpha Legion Chaos Lord and absolute dumbass who devoted himself to Khorne and basically ceased to be an Alpha Legionnaire thereafter, preferring to run around with a chainaxe instead of doing things the subtle way. Had a deep-seated loathing of MEHTUL BAWKSES which has made him one of the most-quoted and memetic characters in all of 40K canon. Got wasted by the leader of the winning force (canonicallyDUBIOUSLY Gorgutz) at the end of the Soulstorm campaign in a melee duel. Yes, this means that Carron, an ostensible Chaos Lord, can be killed in a fistfight by a fucking Tau Commander.
• Lord Bale: Another Alpha Legion Chaos Lord who forgot what Legion he was in; he outright hated subtle tactics and wanted to go charging in to fuck shit up like some kind of World Eater, even though he was devoted to Nurgle. Got backstabbed by SSSSSSIIIIINNNNNDDDRRRRRIIII, who left him to die at the hands of the Blood Ravens while stealing the Maledictum for himself.
• SSSSSSIIIIINNNNNDDDRRRRRIIII Myr: Alpha Legion sorcerer who actually behaved like an Alpha Legionnaire, sneaking, lying, and backstabbing his way to attempted daemonhood, though Gabriel Angelos roflstomped him with God-Splitter at the last second and he appears to have been eaten by a daemon.
• Occam the Untrue: Loyalist(?) Alpha Legionnaire who believes that his legion is a tool to test the Imperium by carving out the weaker parts so as to strengthen the whole. Is on the hunt for Omegon and seems to think the Necrons know where he is. Doesn’t work out the way he hoped.
• Kassar: Leader of the Unsung warband. In actuality he and his warband have been stuck on a daemon planet fighting for ten thousand years (didn’t feel as long for them, they just killed every other competing chaos warband on the planet and left to find they were in an anime timeskip). Not loyal to the Imperium, the Emperor, any form of Chaos or even the Alpha Legion as a whole. He’s only loyal to his warband. Currently he’s become somewhat of a big player in the lore as he holds the Beacon of Tsadrehka, a Psyker powerful enough to allow the Astronomicon communicate through him to bypass the Cicatrix Maledictum. Essentially he’s the only reason the Astronomicon still functions in the Imperium Nihilus. Also Saint Celestine was the one who entrusted the beacon to Kassar (he doesn’t know that) so if she thinks that a traitor marine of all people should hold something like that, then he must be a pretty special guy.
• Arkos the Faithless: Chaos Lord who turned up at Vraks when he heard there was a big party going on. He nearly killed Azrael in a duel and later called in a whole Chaos fleet for backup, dragging the siege out for years more. At the end of the siege, he killed a Company Master from the Angels of Absolution before being beaten and literally disarmed by an Interrogator-Chaplain who hauled him off for questioning. Speculated to have involved actual Chaos forces in the Siege of Vraks to get the Imperium to take the issue more seriously, which would imply slightly more loyalist motivations. Hard to say.
• Solomon Akurra: Harrowmaster of the Serpent’s Teeth warband and later on the Ghost Legion harrowing (in this context, a harrowing is a collection of warbands). Probably the best bet for reunifying the Alpha Legion as a collective whole again. He’s the titular harrowmaster in the book, Harrowmaster. Has sick dreads, a bionic arm with a tech-daemon sealed inside (to easily break machine spirits and bypass doors and such) and eventually obtains (most of) the Pale Spear, Alpharius Omegon’s very own alien death spear. Bonus points: he’s managed to retain a complement of Headhunters and Lernean Terminators, the special Alpha Legion units from the Horus Heresy.
• Kernax Voldorius: Strike Master and daemon prince who managed to give the White Scars one hell of a headache over the millennia, to the point where he became a specific target of their Great Hunt. Was eventually tracked down and killed by Kor'sarro Khan and Kayvaan Shrike in a bonding exercise. His head is now a decoration at the Scars' fortress-monastery.
• Oinkbane: He may be an abhuman, but his tactics are so subtle that even Alpharius applauds him.
• You: +++Activation commencing: Scarlet. Tempest. Meteor. Retribution. Jawbone. Voyage. Cenotaph. Abyss. Echelon. Operative activation confirmed. Mission parameter: Hecatoncheires. Silence and speed, Operative. Hydra Dominatus.+++

Daily Routines of the Alpha Legion

04:00 - The Alpha Legionnaires emerge from their - ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

04:20 - The Alpha Legionnaires settle down to pray to ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

05:00 - ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++ - causing much confusion among their serfs.

06:00 - Morning Firing Rites. The Alp- ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++ - the serfs are still left largely bewildered.

10:00 - Covert Sabotage. The Alpha Legion practice their covert warfare. Serfs are still confused on which is which.

14:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. The Alpha Legion are tasked on which pla- ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

15:00 - Daily Facial Surgery. The Alpha Legion undergo daily surgery to continue to look like their Primarch.

17:00 - Eveni- ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++ -ge, that and the serfs are still confused.

18:00 - Covert Sabotage and something involving ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

22:00 - Evening Malal Meal. A feast is prepared by the serfs who are still nervous on which Alpha Legionnaire is which as they try their hardest on picking the correct one, especially when it comes to dietary requirements.

23:00 - ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

24:00 - The Alpha Legionnaires goes back to sleep in thei- ++Information confiscated by orders of his majesty's most Holy Inquisition++

++By order of the Ordo Herecticus, this entire section has been placed under firm observation. Any changes to the above text are subject to heresy. You anons keep away++

Guilliman changes his mind?

"Vanguard Space Marines" have been previewed for the Shadowspear box, and it sounds pretty much exactly like Ultrasmurfs getting their Alpha Legion on (aside from being still definitely loyal, and probably using fewer sleeper agents). Perhaps the Ultrasmurfs are indeed growing beyond their infamous Codex-adherence...

Practicality as a force of infiltration and subterfuge

For all their Reasonable Marine habits, it may be worth pointing out at this point that there's a reason real-world espionage forces don't consist of genetically engineered 8ft beefquakes toting around thick metal armor and fully automatic rocket launchers. Mostly because we aren't there yet in terms of technology. That stated most Imperials are either too deaf from choirs and gunfire to notice the footsteps or too scared to investigate what they think 9 out of 10 times would be a hive scav or ambull instead of an Alpha Legionnare

“Praetorian of Dorn” does a good job of portraying how the Alpha Legion gets shit done. Legionares for the most part stay away from inhabited areas, and rely on camoleoline or sensor jammers to avoid detection. In the event they need to pass through an occupied area, they wear a disguise as a genetically modified laborer of some sort. Once the jig is up, it’s back to conventional ambush tactics, and throwing lots of grenades.

Lots and lots of grenades.

Gallery

• Be wary, this might be the only chance you get.

  Be wary, this might be the only chance you get.

The Traitor Legions and Warbands of Chaos
Chaos Legions:	Alpha Legion - Black Legion - Death Guard Emperor's Children - Iron Warriors - Night Lords Thousand Sons - Word Bearers - World Eaters
Legion Offshoots:	Apostles of Contagion - Bloodborn - Broken Aquila Foresworn - Mouldering Claw - Plague Fleet - Prodigal Sons The Consortium - Warband of Subsector Aurelia
Fallen Chapters (Including Judged):	Adharon's Reavers - Blood Gorgons - Company of Misery Corpus Brethren - Crimson Slaughter - Deathmongers Death Shadows - Invocators - Lords of Decay Oracles of Change - Red Corsairs - Shriven The Brazen Beasts - The Flawless Host - The Scourged Skyrar's Dark Wolves - Steel Cobras - Voidrippers
Unknown/ Other:	Apostles of Minthras - Claws of Lorek - Disciples of Destruction Dragon Warriors - Extinction Angels - Hakanor's Reavers - Punishers The Cleaved - The Purge - The Pyre - Sons of Malice - Sons of Vengeance The Reborn - Violators - Warp Ghosts - Bleak Brotherhood