Sky Serpents

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The Sky Serpents
Number	XIII
Successor Chapters	Many
Primarch	Xun Tohilcoatl
Homeworld	Tepectitlan
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours

Summary of Legion XII

Numeration: The XIIth Legion

Primogenator: Xun Tohilcoatl

Cognomen (Prior): The Swordwind, The Hydra, Storm Wolves, ... 963 other Cognomens recorded in Primaris Level Archives

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Focus on Operations Level Actions, Infiltration and Encirclement

Noteworthy Domains: Jade Empire

Alliegence: Fidelitas Constantus

Homeworld

When Xun Tohilcoatl landed on Tepectitlan, it was inhabited by roving bands of hunter-gatherers and a few settled Bronze Age societies struggling through an ice age. Had Xun landed with the hunter-gatherers, history might have gone quite differently, but he was brought to the court of Xia Huangdi, lord of the perhaps poorly named Tianxia Empire. There he was tutored in the arts of the ruler. He became fascinated by the calendrical system and its relationship to the agricultural cycle. His investigations led him to develop a theory of momentum, and through subsequent refinements, of gravitation. This realization that as above, so below, led to the construction of ever more impressive infrastructure projects. When Xia Huangdi died, Xun was designated his successor. However, not all of the Imperial Clan supported this and rebelled against him. In the subsequent civil war, Xun annexed several nearby states that had supported rival claimants and integrated them into his own growing empire. Following the rebellion, Xun dismantled the old Clan system and instituted a Civil Service exam, to choose administrators based on merit.

When the Imperium found him, early in the crusade's 8th decade, they found Xun presiding over an orderly and more or less unified world, now advanced to an early pre-industrial stage. Following integration into the Imperium, Tepectitlan was brought into the Imperial administratum. For the comfort of his people, Xun requested that the changes were introduced gradually, and while the city of Tianxia was prepared as a legion command center, legion command and control operations were distributed across the nearby stars, with the Legion negotiating with Tindalos for their forge capabilities for supply.

Legion Tactics

The legion specializes in hit and run tactics and mobile warfare at the operations level. Legion strategy places a great deal of importance on information, so as to know how best to draw out and achieve local numerical superiority to crush and disorder the enemy. Once a breach in the lines is achieved, Xun Tohilcoatl prefers an aggressive stance, so as to prevent the opponent from regrouping. The legion is noted for its cohesion and ability to coordinate effectively with human auxiliae, as well as a high degree of technological proficiency, following its primarch's intense interest in technology, and as such, much archaeotech and armor is employed.

Legion History

Great Crusade

The legion was as comfortable with conquest as it was with infrastructure and so tended to leave behind personnel to rebuild even before being reunited with the Primarch shortly before the end of the Crusade's first century. After being reunited, the legion began to build on larger scales, developing essentially a pocket domain of model worlds.

Vaal Cluster Compliance

Shortly after being reunited with his legion, Tohilcoatl led his men against the Witch-Kings of the Vaal Cluster. These foul warp-sorcerors ruled over an empire of enthralled gene-warriors, each nearly the equal of a Space Marine, but far less stable. After a few probing void engagements, Tohilcoatl found that the Witch-King's military forces were dependent upon witch-generals to maintain control of the gene-thralls. If the command structure could be disrupted, then the foe's defenses would crumble. However, the Witch-Kings were not unaware of this weakness and designed their forces to compensate. Without a witch to maintain order in a geno-thrall force, they would go berserk and the resulting psychic turmoil would make long distance communication near impossible. Thus, even if a force was broken, the opponent would find it difficult to communicate and exploit the breach. To combat this, Tohilcoatl and his War-Council developed a daring strategy.

Similar to the legendary Pacification of Luna, ships would be sent into Vaal space, powered down to avoid detection. These ships would stake out the Mandeville points in systems to be contested and hide in asteroid fields. Similarly, kill teams were infiltrated across the worlds of Vaal. Knowing that communication by Astropath would be nigh impossible, Tohilcoatl revived an archaic means of communication from before the dark age of technology, the radio. While it would be limited to light-speed, signals could still be passed in system without too much trouble.

With this limited means of communication in hand, the timetable of the operation was carefully projected and each level of the command hierarchy given general directives to allow them to press any advantage they found. They were, in effect, to operate as independent cells all working towards the same goal, all dynamically implementing a broadly agreed upon timetable.

Furthermore, it was realized that while Imperial communications would cease to function, those of the Witch Kings would continue without any problem. Infiltrated forces, then, simply had to monitor communication traffic and activity from the Witch-Kings.

Operations began with multiple, simultaneous planetary invasions, with the priority placed upon elimination of the commanding psykers. Once eliminated, the berserker horde could easily be lead into pre-planned ambushes. Similarly, comm-traffic and energy signatures would be faked on one front prior to a rapid redeployment of assets to another sector, so as to focus the entire military might on a single point. Once behind their lines, infrastructure targets were eliminated, forcing the Geno-Thralls to come to the Sky Serpents. Hampering legion communications did the Witch-Kings little good when they had to come to the prepared Sky Serpents.

Even as distress calls went out from the besieged worlds and reinforcements were dispatched, the second part of the Sky Serpent's plan kicked into action. As laden troop ships, confident of orbital control in-system, dropped out of warp, the concealed Legion ships struck, destroying some outright, capturing the command decks of others and venting geno-thralls to the cold void. The victorious Legion fleet then joined with the invasion fleet to eliminate remaining Thrall-ships before redeploying for the next target. With the planetary communication networks down and the geno-thralls dead, the legions pushed on rapidly, striking at those systems from which the reinforcements had been moved.

Even as distress calls went out from the besieged worlds and reinforcements were dispatched, the second part of the Sky Serpent's plan kicked into action. As laden troop ships, confident of orbital control in-system, dropped out of warp, the concealed Legion ships struck, destroying some outright, capturing the command decks of others and venting geno-thralls to the cold void. The victorious Legion fleet then joined with the invasion fleet to eliminate remaining Thrall-ships before redeploying for the next target. With the planetary communication networks down and the geno-thralls dead, the legions pushed on rapidly, striking at those systems from which the reinforcements had been moved.

This pattern of sudden, overwhelming attack, followed by the spreading of diffuse threats kept the Witch-Kings from regrouping effectively, the timing obscuring the method of operations for the Legion. Refugee and evacuation ships with valuable reinforcements were held up as they were searched for saboteurs, saboteurs who had spent weeks in position, waiting for the panic to spread before carrying out their missions. Though the initial cost in infrastructure was high, the stalling of the Vaal's war plans pre-empted battles planetside, and within two months of the opening actions, the Vaal Cluster had been successfully captured, with some worlds entirely spared lengthy campaigns, their fortresses emptied by the Witch-King's frantic redeployments.

Krag'thalax

These sorts of tactics were not always successful, but the Storm Serpents were nothing if not adaptable. One notable example was against the Krag'athalax, a foul xenos species, which spawned bio-soldiers in unending hordes. Assaults were initially stymied against the numberless forces of the enemy. It hardly mattered where you struck when the foe swarmed from every building, every corner of the globe.

Several assaults were thrown back before a different tact was taken. Volkite and incendiaries were brought forth from legion vaults and the attendant forge ships worked double-time to produce additional weapons and spare parts to maintain thousands of volkite weapons. Similarly, Tohilcoatl negotiated with several Reductor Covenants for Holy Ordinatus Ullator Engines. Various toxins and weapons such as phospex were considered, but it was decided that damage to the ecosystem would be excessive. It was decided, however, that rad weapons would be sanctioned, their cores changed out for elements with shorter half-lives. (Despite this precaution, areas of former Krag'athalax would remain uninhabitable for decades after the campaign's end).

With this technological superiority in hand and the legion's armor gathered, the legion deployed. The resulting campaign was grueling, and even with the mass effect of volkites, including no few Fellglaives, as well as other, stranger devices which reaped a heavy toll on the chittering hordes, as often as not it came down to bloody melee, particularly as the slow firing Ullator Engines recycled for their next shot. After each wave, the Storm Serpents would regroup and reinforce their defenses, designing kill channels, and meter by meter, they took each world, but each battle became easier as they developed better means to poison their foe.

Of the campaign, Tohilcoatl said little, though it is said that Sheridan found respect for his brother in that campaign, attested to by the fact the the Lord of Iron sent several members of the Stor Bezask equivalent unbidden to advise in the campaign.

Nikea

Tohilcoatl was a firm supporter of and helped in establishing Librarius Project. At Nikea, confident that the librarius was safe, he spoke against some his brothers and earstwhile collaborator's reckless experimentation (particularly that of the Warp Raiders), in hopes of cautioning them and showing to the Librarius' detractors that allowing psykers in the legions was not at odds with the Imperial Truth. He maintained that a careful and controlled study of the warp was instrumental to the future of the Imperium.