Nova Legion

Nova Legion
Battle Cry	"A Deluge of Fire Upon Them"
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Primarch	Rook North
Homeworld	Taros
Strength	Ranged Plasma and Devastator Barrage
Specialty	The Tinker
Allegiance	Loyal
Colours	Blue and Yellow

This article or section has been selected for Exterminatus by the Ordo Editant. The Emperor Corrects.

Summary

The Nova Legion are the inheritors of ancient tech that graced them with the most powerful ranged weapons to grace the Imperium. Their home houses a rare Dark Age of Technology relic, a plasma reactor providing most of the energy needed in Askelis. The relic is powered thanks to the large amount of Promethium of the planet, and uses the special properties of that Promethium of Taros.

Rook, the Primarch of the Nova Legion, is a brilliant mind, optimistic to a fault and strongly believing in a bright future for Mankind among the stars. After decades of learning in the Lighthouse, the institute housing a DAoC relic and dedicated to the study of it, Rook achieved mastery over what were to be among the most powerful weapons of the Imperium. However bouts with the Adeptus Mechanicus and their abhorrent cult of the Machine Spirit cast the first shadow of doubt Rook ever had about the overall worth of the human species. Dedicated to the care and protection of the DAoC relic, Rook will keep the results of its finding to his worlds and legion, for fear it could fall into ignorant or devious hands.

Legion Information

Legion Doctrine

The Nova Legion are overall optimistic legion. They adopt a defensive stance until full aggression comes their way. They will always give a chance to the enemy to surrender if reasonable communication are possible with them.

But once the hostilities are started, the Nova Legion can be ruthless when it comes to the annihilation of what they have now deemed as evil. They take a massive amount of satisfaction in evaporating the "shadows", those they consider beyond saving.

Nova Legion refrain from excessive military demonstration, once the deed is done, the Nova Legion stops the attack. Celebrations of victory are rare and short, just enough to raise the morale of the legion after many battles. However when dealing with others, humans or not, the Nova Legion pull out the most spectacular demonstrations, showing with pride the colors of their legion and the image of their Primarch.

In a sense, they believe in maintaining their face and prestige, using it to spread the message of the Emperor to other humans and exalt it to other astartes.

Legion Tactics

The Nova Legion aim to maximize the effects of their plasma weaponry. All others arms of an Astartes legion are used but only when they can allow the Nova Legion to unleash plasma bolts and explosions. Assault Marines will stop the enemy's advance, giving time for Tactical squads, armed with plasma rifles, and Devastator units, with plasma cannons, to find the most advantageous position to fire. Once the ranged units are in place, the Assault squads will retreat and let the barrage of fire annihilate the enemy.

This over-reliance on plasma weapons can put the legion in precarious situations, especially when they have to deal alone with an enemy with a important number of strong, relentless melees units. For once the defensive wall of assault units is broken, the only recourse of the Legion are its armored special Predators. Most of the time those are enough to save the day, but in the rare cases they are not, the Nova Legion are forced into a tactical retreat that can be costly to them.

They however excel in situations where they assist other forces, providing their devastating firepower to their allies, letting them focus on distracting the enemy forces.

Ranks of slow and armored heavy infantry forces stand no chances against the Nova Legion, their penetrative firepower nullifying the advantage the enemy could gain from armor and cover.

Legion Equipment

The Nova Legion sports the usual equipment for all their squads but take an extra care for their Devastator and Tactical squads. Tactical squads are provided with extra plasma rifles and and pistols, while Devastators are provided with plenty of plasma cannons. Those plasma weapons are special in that they do not overheat like standard issue plasma weapons, and thus can contribute in a way more secure way to the victory of their legion.

The legion also sports an important amount of Predators, those have special plasma cannons as secondary armaments, capitalizing on the lack of overheating to make them safe tank secondary armaments.

Rook North, Primarch of the Nova Legion

Appearance

WE NEED MORE BLOND PRIMARCHS.

History

Origins

Youth

Rook landed on the world of Taros, a technologically advanced planet. Its denizens were civilized and had lived in peace for centuries. When Rook landed in the middle of the capital city of Taros, Askelis, he was deemed a curiosity by everyone, some swearing the child and its capsule fell from the sky others believing it must have been some new inventions from the Lighthouse scientists.

In any cases the child was sent to an orphanage, where, thanks to its rapid growth and awesome physique, he was able to quickly find a foster family. The family already had several children, and out of generosity or some other misplaced sentiment wanted to adopt a child. One characteristic of the young Primarch caught their eyes immediately, the child was always smiling, and with the most warming smile possible, no later than that day the young child found a place to call home.

The family lived in modest conditions, but they did not suffer from hunger and their home was safe. There the Primarch lived the normal everyday life of a young boy of Askelis, exploring the city, seeing the multiple strange contraptions and, as many before him, dreaming of one day entering the Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse was the political, economical, AND societal hearth of the planet Taros. Towering well above the rest of the city of Askelis, scraping the clouds where other building would merely go above dozens of meters, the most advanced tech the world had to offer were there, the brightest minds Taros had ever known also called the Lighthouse their home. The Primarch promised himself that one day he would be a part of it, and from this day on he worked to achieve that goal.

His parents warned him that only the sons and daughters of the most privileged families of Taros could ever hope to join the Lighthouse, only them could afford the expensive and utterly complicated education necessary to pass the test to enter the Institute. But the Primarch had a gift that would help him thwart the opposition.

Being born a Primarch, Rook already had a more than human intelligence, but his talent as a Primarch was in using it not only with tech but with people too. Armed with his everlasting smile, the Primarch amassed knowledge, tomes, information on the subject studied at the Lighthouse. Through dedication he built his first own machines. In a couple of years, the Primarch was ready.

He was to be the first commoner presenting himself to the test of admission to the Lighthouse. The news quickly traveled around the globe, and soon enough the Primarch became a popular, loved person among the populace. His popularity only skyrocketed when he got first place at the admission test and thus became the first commoner to not only join the Lighthouse in ages but also to reach first place on the admission test.

Life Among the Elites

Soon enough, Rook became an inspiration for all commoners on the planet, he had proved that it was possible to join the elites of the Lighthouse despite humble beginnings. Such was this influence then not too long after, two of his siblings, Naok, the eldest of his brothers, and Tami, a younger sister, would pass the admission test and join him at the famous institute.

Naok had the same dream as Rook, enter the Lighthouse whatever it would take, but he had this dream for somber reasons than his younger brother, motivated by a desire for power. Tami, on her side, was motivated by a feeling that with the technology and knowledge she would learn there, she could help people live better. So the siblings worked together, each with a somewhat shared dream but with different motives.

Life in the Lighthouse was far from easy. The Lighthouse housed not only the most brilliant minds of the planet, but also the most driven, all coming from powerful families and estates. Thus the Primarch had to prove himself everyday, and despite his genetically enhanced intelligence, that fight was not easy. More importantly, the Primarch had insulted the pride of many from those prestigious families, who saw the arrival of a commoner among their ranks as a grave insult.

But still, where he managed to get an upper hand was in the dealing with people. The Primarch had a knack when it came to getting people on his side, armed with his eternal smile, through it he managed to access knowledge, tech, but more importantly the influence to get closer to the DAoC relic, the hearth of the Lighthouse, each day. Naok was not as successful but still managed to climb the ladders, slowly but with a rare determination, Tami on the other side was content with just learning and thus stayed in the lowest echelons of the Lighthouse.

The Prized DAoC Relic

Ultimately, both brothers attained the upper echelons of the institute. Rook finally had access to the famed DAoC relic, a relic of a golden age, one that barely survived the violent wars for its possession during the Age of Strife, but ultimately was there.

The DAoC relic was a technological achievement without compare, a plasma reactor capable of producing tremendous amounts of energy. Many wondered how come the relic managed to remain stable despite the immense amount of plasma the reactor used. The relic was unknown to many of the denizens of Taros, knowledge of the relic being one of the many consequences of the wars men waged on men during ancient times. The days of the greatest minds of Taros was spent in fanatical analysis of the relic in order to break its secrets and recover the secrets still inside.

This is when the miracle of Taros happened.

Rook, still new to the DAoC relic, was forbidden access to it like many. But through the calling of favors and an almost suicidal drive, he managed to gain access to the machine for less than an hour. Rook had done many good things for a lot of people and as always his smile captured the minds of the people he dealt with, thus he could easily call for favors of this magnitude especially when combined with his natural Primarch charisma. As the hour passed, Rook accomplished what generations before him failed to do. Rook discovered one of the secrets of the machine!

After examination of the machine, Rook understood the importance of the Promethium in it. The Promethium of Taros had properties that were theoretically not expected to be there, Rook managed to extract those properties by examining the machine's use of it.

Rook established a pattern out of this discovery. It contained the tech for the creation of plasma containers that would never overheat or go unstable thank to the use of the special properties of that special type of promethium. The scope of such a discovery was immense, with it a more widespread use of plasma technology was possible!

And thus Rook came back to his peers with his discovery!

The Stolen Light

The only thing that allowed the Primarch to avoid the punishment of death was the astonishment he provoked in the most seniors members of the Lighthouse. It had been decades since a pattern had been extracted from the machine, and each time it happened great changes swept through the world of Taros. The elites were not too sure how to deal with this new dependence they had on this youngster who managed to do the impossible and was eager to do more!

Still they agreed to a ruling. The pattern discovered by Rook would be kept by the Institute, Rook would have to keep working on the recovery of more patterns but would be forgiven from ever talking about it and his discoveries.

The ruling drove the Primarch to the brink of anger. It had revealed a truth that Rook never realized or even imagined possible, that the Lighthouse court was not one working for the common man, for the sharing of knowledge, for the betterment of science. If anything, the Primarch saw in their demeanor that personal gains and fear motivated them. The Primarch could not abide with that ruling.

And thus for the first time in ages the Lighthouse court was defied. Rook shared the discovery of the new pattern with the planet at large, despite the Court orders. Of course everyone on the planet now considered Rook as a hero, but because the Primarch decided not to reveal the treachery of the court, the people were oblivious to the deception their elite were ready to pull on them.

Rook believed that by seeing what the world could do of this discovery the Court would see the errors of its way. Unfortunately they did far from that.

The Treason

While Rook joined his people in celebration of this new tech, becoming more and more the prized celebrity of Taros both in hearts and minds, the court invited his brother, Naok, for a meeting.

The court planned to have his brother turn on the Primarch, and judging from the interaction they had witnessed between the two the plan was certain to work. Naok had nourished a deep jealousy for his brother, a jealousy for his work, for his mind, but more importantly for his ability to get people behind him. The drive for power of Naok had not only isolated him, but made many enemies for him, and he could not understand how his brother with all his smiles could surpass him to such a degree.

Naok accepted to work with the council to undermine and ultimately vanquish his brother Rook.

The Diffamation Campaign

And thus their plan began. Naok was sent to every major family on the planet to speak of the recent actions of Rook. Most of those elite families had felt insulted by the opening to commoners Rook allowed on what was considered the chasse-garde of the best of the best. Naok used that feeling and one after one, turned each of those families against the Primarch. Rook was a danger to the statu-quo of Taros, one that would see the crumbling of the power structure they worked so hard to establish.

Each of those families then started sullying the name of Rook, Naok at the tip of spear. Naok revealed details about the deviant ways of his brother, his troubled origins, the possibility he might be an alien or worse coming from the stars, about the numerous breach of ethics he had allowed in his scientific work, all forged by the Court and their allies. Despite the obvious falsehood of those claims, the damage was done. Rook's credibility and popularity plummeted. Soon he was to be considered a pariah.

Rook accepted the decision to have him expelled from the Lighthouse, what he did not accept was his sister Tami to be also brought down in this mess. The girl would also be expelled, while his treacherous brother Naok would now inherit from his seat near the Court.

Rook learned well from this lesson, his natural optimism was not shattered, but he understood that not all people could be trusted to do good. Some people were rotten to the core and such could only be cast away as the light cast away the shadows.

The Primarch returned to the familial house, wounded in his pride but not defeated. If the Lighthouse was under the control of such shadows then he would have to be the light that would free this world from their influence.

A New Creation

With the help of Tami, Rook went back to work. The DAoC relic pattern for the plasma container was still fresh in his mind, and he could use the discovery to improve and build new tech based on it. The Primarch worked hard, building his first containers from scraps. His sister Tami revealed her talent during those times, helping him in ways he would never have expected. The girl had not an ounce of ambition, but she was extremely smart, and through that gift she pointed to points in Rook's designs that could be improved upon and allowed for the last ounce of efficiency Rook needed to make his creations work.

Soon enough, Rook managed to convince an entrepreneur to create those reactors en-masse, where the rest of Taros was still trying to integrate the DAoC relic discovery into their existing tech.

The success was immediate, the reactors became the biggest thing to hit Taros since the last meteor. Rook through this managed to bring his reputation back up from its ashes. People once again remembered the genius and charisma of the prodigious researcher he was.

But this also brought back the attention of the Lighthouse Court, and of his brother.

The Tragedy

Once again, his brother met with the court and once again they were in agreement, Rook could not be allowed to regain status in Taros. But since he was a widely known public figure and his influence was booming through the business his tech was creating all around the planet, they could not just eliminate him. They had to destroy his business and get him to understand his place.

The following nights, men with lasguns went to the North's house and the plasma reactors factory.

Rook North thanks to his enhanced senses, saw the attack coming. He was unarmed but he would not stand by and wait to be murdered. The Primarch went ahead and greeted the first brigands with close combat strikes. But soon many of them swarmed the house, went to the rooms and started the killing.

North was bloodied by many shots, but managed to still hold his ground, dashing through enemies after enemies, picking their weapons and returning fire. The henchmen never expected such a resistance from a single man, and many died that night with no idea of what happened. Eventually the Primarch killed all the henchmen in the house. But unfortunately, they managed to do what they came for.

Lying there in their rooms was the bloody corpse of his old parents, and of his sister Tami.

The Primarch was shocked. His enemies had gone too far, this was now a declaration of war. As the Primarch was being rescued by the local security forces and recollected on the recent events, another news came to him. His factory had been burned to the ground by mysterious bandits.

For the first time in his life, the Primarch did not smile.

The Coming Revolution

Rook had to once again start from nothing. And everything pointed to the Court coming for his life the next time he would rise up again.

But still he will rise again, but this time he will do things differently, he told himself. This time he will make weapons.

Once again, the Primarch started working. The plasma reactors were no longer but the patterns were still fresh in his mind. With vengeance boiling his blood, accelerating the blood flow to his brain, the Primarch worked without rest. In the course of a month, he finalized the design of what would be his masterpiece, gathered the resources to build his first, the MK Alpha "Supernova".

The weapon was ready, he would convince people still loyal to him to mass produce them, but now what he needed was an army.

The Revolution

The Announcement

The Primarch regained his natural smile. The war he would embark on with the Lighthouse was about to start.

He garnered supporters in underground places, preparing for an announcement that would change the history of Taros forever. Favors were exchanged and promised, and once again the Primarch had put his extraordinary charisma to use. The preparation were en-lieu to be ready.

And then one day, Taros woke up to the vibrant and passionate revelation of Rook. His face was on every screen possible on the planet. His supporters assaulted the biggest media company and put his speech on every devices the company was linked to.

In that day, Rook revealed the treachery the court of Taros asked of him years ago. He revealed the intention of the people who were ruling the Lighthouse, to keep them in the dark and keep all technological advancements to them and the powerful families that supported them. He told the people everything they had never known about the center of their world and the people living in it. He told them the truth.

Now that they knew, Rook asked only one thing of them, Forgiveness. While they were seeing this, him and his forces would be assaulting the Lighthouse, proud of their new weapons, but breaking the overall peace that had prevailed for centuries on Taros. He asked them for forgiveness for the blood he was about to spill and the plague of war he would be the first in ages to unleash on his world.

The announcement ended.

The Assault on the Lighthouse

The words of Rook did more than convince the populace of Taros, it ignited a fire in their hearths. The Lighthouse which had denied them entries for decades, which always looked down on them, that institution was corruption incarnate. The people of Taros would not suffer it to go unpunished.

The forces of Rook assaulted the Lighthouse in the early morning. The Lighthouse was well guarded, with security forces that were well trained and knew their job. But they struggled against the advanced plasma weaponry that made a mockery of any cover they could seek.

However they had one advantage, numbers. Despite their losses, more soldiers came to counter the assault. Eventually the number of las-shots wore down Rook and his forces. The Primarch was on the way to be defeated and could be forced into a tactical retreat.

The Hour of Reckoning

But then came the saving grace, the people of Askelis came en-masse to support the assault Rook was unleashing on the Lighthouse. They were wielding primitive weapons, such as slingshots or at the very best slug weapons, but now the number advantage was on Rook’s side. The plasma wielders were now free to pour a rain of fire on the defending forces, and soon enough those were subdued. The battle for the Lighthouse had been won. From the heights of their seats, far above the clouds, the Court knew their time had come to an end.

The Two Brothers

Rook took control of the Lighthouse, and, after deposing its leaders, prevented them from doing the unforgivable, destroying the DAoC relic. Soon enough the Primarch came to his treacherous brother, but with no vengeance in his eyes. The killing had to be stopped and Rook was not going to add one more corpse to his tally.

But his brother would not have it, as Rook spoke words of forgiveness, his brother’s pride could not let him have it, he would not stand there and suffer his brother’s “compassion”. In a foolish effort of resistance, the brother hurled himself toward the Primarch, blade in hand. The Primarch disarmed him as easily has one could remove a knife from a child’s hands. But his brother had another blade, this one though would not be used to kill his brother.

In a last ditch of spite, Naok took his own life, hurling insults at his brother as life faded away from him. The Primarch once again was confronted with the harsh realization he always had trouble to accept, some people were shadows, they could not be saved and could only be shone upon to oblivion.

The Spoils

Rook became the Hero of the people of Taros. The remaining support the Court had were quickly overwhelmed by the furious populace now equipped with the fearsome “Supernovas” of Rook. In the course of a couple years, the powerful elitist families of Taros and their forces were all defeated.

Rook was to be crowned as the new ruler of Taros, and rightful master of the Lighthouse, but in a heart-felt and inspiring speech refused the honor, and instead asked for the creation of a society where power would be put in the people’s hands, where knowledge would once again be shared among the masses, and where each individual would be empowered with the means to oppose the status-quo and initiate change.

The speech moved the people of Taros, and drove them into a restructuring frenzy that saw the birth of a new political model, one where everyone would be able to directly vote on the matters of the cities, and where no representatives could come and steal the voice of others.

Rook was still named Head of the Lighthouse, and despite his reluctance toward it, his words were still perceived as words of law.

Under his leadership, the Lighthouse was opened to anyone who showed talents in matters of technology, and soon enough a few patterns were recovered from the DAoC relic over the course of the next decade, leading to the creation of Rook’s crowning achievement, the Lamp, a massive ball of plasma energies serving as a reactor at the top of the Lighthouse. It shone a vibrant light over the city of Askelis, and assured the growing energy needs of the entirety of the planet.

Soon enough the people of Taros colonized their solar system. But as Rook was now looking further into the stars, came gigantic spaceships from the void of space.

The Coming of The Emperor

The Emperor's fleet was at first seen as an impending danger by the people of Taros. The world had not regained the technological level of a space-faring civilization, but they had weapons that could be used for their protection. As the fleet started to stabilize their orbits around the planet, the people of Taros had to take the collective decision of either doing a preemptive attack or giving a chance for those visitors to reveal their intentions.

For the time in his life, Rook went against the will of the people. For him, the visitors deserved at least to be given one chance. The people valued the advices of Rook and despite his status as just Head of the Lighthouse, he was considered by many as the most important person on Taros. Many considered this advice as something foolish that could endanger all of them, they had a window of opportunity and if they did not act on it, they would all pay for it.

Still Rook would stand by his principle. Not only his moral code told him to act so, but he had an intuition about those visitors, if their intentions had been really hostile they would have acted upon them a while ago.

And thus the people of Taros voted to give the visitors a chance.

The visitors eventually sent a message, one directed at Rook North. The Emperor introduced himself and the Imperium of Man, Rook was one of his lost sons and he was here to invite him to his effort to unite Mankind.

Rook lost no time arranging a meeting between him and the Emperor. More than the prospect of meeting the being that was the cause for his talents, he was enthusiastic to discover an initiative that fought for the unity and prosperity of Mankind on such a grand scale.

The Emperor was pleased to see his son in such a prestigious station in his homeworld. The two discussed matters of the Great Crusade, sharing ideals for the future of Mankind. By the end of the meeting Rook pledged allegiance to the Emperor and promised to further his cause of uniting the Galaxy. The Emperor gave control of his very own legion to his long lost son.