Editing Argo Brigade (section)

==History and Homeworld==
{{Topquote|A land of stark beauty, Argo is split by a great salt water sea that acts more as a great lake, most of the world's water residing in great subterranean aquifers. The sands that cover the majority of the planet are split by the equator, the sands around the equatorial belt are a deep azure, known to the Argives as the Dune Sea, while they take on a more golden hue until one reaches the frigid poles, where the sands are almost a blood red where the snow doesn't obscure them. Those areas are known as the Sea of Fire in the South and the Bloodtide in the northern regions. The waters of Argo are a glistening green. Along the great Kratoan Delta stands the great Sentinel of Argo, argent and stoic atop the sapphire sands. At his sandaled feet lay a field of the red Argoan flower of many names. The greater Imperium knows them most commonly as Argoan Gorepoppies, a name earned not only through their red coloration but the mechanism of their bloom. Common on the coasts and deltas, the flower will grow upon any source of moisture, but will grow in a stunning red shade when slaked on blood.|Unknown Argos Poet}}

The metropolitan desert world of Argo VII, the beating mercantile heart of the the Illius X System, was a world rife with political subterfuge and underhanded maneuvering. So great were the sheer amount of political assassinations and proxy wars that the Administratum accidentally labeled the world as a Death World based on sheer regional death counts alone. Eventually, in an effort to appease the overly decadent upper class, the System Governor, Dantonius Validici LX, rallied the planetary governors under his banner and called to secede from the Imperium and to sell their Agri Worlds and Forge World to the highest bidder to purchase protection.

Before the mighty hammer of Imperial Wrath could be brought upon the system, the Steadfast arbiters of the Adeptus Arbites called into action the sole dissenting PDF, that of Argo VII itself. They did not need to appeal to any notion but their Emperor bound duty, and the Argoan PDF rallied to bring the planet to heel and the System Governor to his death. The PDF and the Arbites fought off nearly the entire planet and supplementary forces from across the system and even Dark Eldar and other Xenos mercenaries from across the subsector.

The Argoan PDF fought valiantly, but their losses were too great. Reduced to a single Brigade, the fighters were pressed into hiding were they formed a covert insurgency. Chemical Weapons and improvised explosives harried the planet for months to come, but their most potent weapon was their gruesome propaganda; the crucified bodies of opposition leaders and other fallen traitors. Nailed to single boarded crucifixes upside down, suspended by their feet, their hands bound below their heads or nailed at the base of the boards, these eerie monuments bathed the cities with carmine Argoan Gorepoppies, the red flower in stark contrast to the distended corpses of the fallen.

Eventually the will to fight the lone Brigade was broken, and the sparse loyalist civilian resistance left flocked to the Brigade, following the trail of crosses and tombstone-like displays. Bolstered by loyal servants of the Imperium, the Brigade felt no mercy, offered no respite, and left no survivors. Those that did not fight with them fought against them, and those that didn't fight bowed and cowed in fear of the Brigade. No traitors or those found in favor of the rebels were spared in the purging of the Hives, few were left alive in the great Phosphorous Flood of the Western Provinces, and all who surrendered in the Siege of the Validici Presidio were forced to crucify those that did not, the leaders and nobility stretched along the ferrocrete slabs torn from the System Governor's Palace and nailed to them, their bellies slashed and left to disgorge their contents. The endless waves of traitor guard were simply impaled in their formation ranks through their sides with great charnel pikes, then heaved into the air like victorious banners.

The surviving enemy were gathered into a long queue, stretching from the bloodied throne of Dantonius Validici LX and his chemically charred form (still alive to be saved for very last), to the pearlescent gates of the fabulous Presidio.  There they were received by the grim detainees that made the wise choice to surrender to the merciless Brigade. The Lord Commissar would then issue one of two commands, dictating the prisoner's grim fate;

"UPSIDE DOWN!"
"SIDEWAYS!"

The screams of the impalings and the wailing of those forced to commit them filled the air for three days, the Brigade working in shifts to oversee the workers who slaved tirelessly, the Lord Commissar himself only pausing his dirge of judgement for water and ration but never sleep.

On the dawning of the fourth day System Govenor Dantonius, dehydrated and dying but to his benefit still living, was dragged from his melting throne and brought before the remaining Lord Judge and was labeled Traitoris and sentenced to death. He was taken to the great balcony of his palace, and so all could see, nailed to the very walls of his monument to excess.

The other planets of Illius X were quelled, surrendering in their shock and horror in seeing what the Imperial force was willing to do to their own people, and perhaps lesser men would have accepted the victory. But the Argo Brigade are not lesser men. They took to the stars, and each Planetary Governor, every Hive lord, and every ranking Noble on the worlds that did not fight for their Emperor was set upon the slab, crucified before their people. Those that stood against them died in droves, their cities burned and their monuments destroyed.

Illius X was awash with blood and the choking fog of Argoan war. The victory of the lone brigade from the throne world Argo was complete and total. When the Inquisition responded a short few years later to the threats of confederacy they found the system marred by conquest. They questioned the loyal servants of the Imperium as to the status of the system, threats of Astartes response silently hung in the air.

To their shock, the fighters answered simply, "All is well. The Argo Brigade endures. For the Emperor." 

Now the system is rife with grim labor and merciless justice. Many Regiments have been formed to meet Imperial Tithe in recompense for their crimes, but none can match the tactical acumen and psychological might of that of the storied of Argo's fighters, simply Known as the Argo Brigade. Small and efficient, the Brigade still dons dusty blue helms of the original Argo PDF, their rank and unit crest a furious red in honor of the dunes of Argo, still red with the solemn Gorepoppy fields.

Before the great Argoan Purge, Argo was a land as beautiful as it lavish, great palaces to the nobility embraced by shimmering golden dunes, crystalline river deltas feeding into cities grand and imperial, mighty highways that girdled the magnificent world.

To adamantium mined elsewhere in the system to vast array of trade contracts with several Rogue Trader Dynasties, the world of Argo was awash with wealth and luxury, which only enabled the nobilities games of court and courtship. Beyond the decadent palaces and sprawling cities of gold and silver, the armies of Argo where as much a status symbols as the famed Sentinel of Argo, a great statue of adamantium in the form of a mighty Terran hero, spear rested against a thick arm, hand sat upon a great circular Shield.

Though there was a well drilled PDF, the throne world had tithed a few dozen Armored Regiments, although they were simply as lip service to the greater Imperium.

The Argoan Armoured Regiments bore marvelous and esoteric armaments, from mighty Baneblades to steadfast Malcadors to the noble Macharius, which in those storied times was the most pedestrian vehicle amongst those honoured ranks.

Mere centuries after the brutality of the Heresy, the Magos of Vulcus Omega, the lavish forgeworld of the Illius X system, Kalimar Khan conspired to corrupt the System Govenor to leave the sundered Imperium. To his jubilation Dantonius Validici LX had already set in place his own seditious machinations.

What neither traitor had accounted for was the loyalists that would not accept such blind betrayal. While all have heard the tale of the ardent Brigade and their struggle against heresy, few outside of the Illius system acknowledge the loyalist warriors of the Vulcus Skitarii or the 7th Argoan Armoured Regiment, without both of which the Brigade would not have succeeded in their honourable campaign.

When the Argoan Purge began in earnest the Skitarii revolted against the Magos and the 7th Armoured, that most auspicious brotherhood, joined cannon and tread with the noble PDF. It was the Baneblades that watered the azure sands of the Erimos Desert with blood enough to grow a sea of Argoan Gorelilies. It was the Vanquishers that broke the supply lines of the Noble forces and drove back the traitor Armoured Regiments. 

But the lone regiment could not hope to withstand the full weight of the rest of the armoured regiments, and so their numbers fell direly. Those that remained until the twilight of the Purge became some of the most skilled and relentless tank crews in the history of the Sub-sector, renowned tank duelists and masters of armoured warfare.

Almost all the Baneblades fell victim to the overwhelming force applied against them, although they did not go quietly. The lone surviving Baneblade is a storied and legendary vehicle, seen rarely in military parades and even more rarely during times of dire need. When the Purge finally ended in the favor of the loyalists, the few remaining tanks were inducted into the Brigade as the 701st Armoured Regiment.

Now the regiment consists of mainly of Leman Russ Vanquishers, fit to slay other tanks, however there are a few honoured survivors of the Argoan Purge; a Companies worth of Macharius Vanquishers, a platoon of Leman Russ Destroyers, five Malcador Annihilators, and a singluar Malcador Infernus. These wizened veterans of the Argoan Purge rarely see combat, but when they are called upon there is little in the known galaxy that can survive their combined might.

As Argo was rebuilt under a totalitarian regime of fanatical belief in the Imperial Cult and near complete intolerance of any deviation from the Lex Imperialis, more regiments continued to be raised in both standard infantry, armor, siege etc. and unique Peacekeeper variants, the latter taking the best of the best volunteers. Argo now prides itself on always overpaying its tithe as soon as possible and the Imperial governments in nearby sectors in turn considers its unique Peacekeeper regiments excellent tools of restoring the Emperor's light. The planet has since become home to many underground manufactora and is capable of fully equipping its regiments with gear beyond the standard Imperial supply, and its huge [[Planetary Defense Force|PDF]] is among the better equipped and better drilled in the nearby sectors, frequently volunteering for nearby duties to both gain experience and to free full Imperial Guard units for more important tasks, while the 
planetary enforcers are temporarily brought in to fill for the PDF to gain experience in mass combat drills and training in addition to their law enforcement duties. The [[Adeptus Arbites]] maintain many Precinct Fortresses on the world while its [[Schola Progenium]] is favored in the sector for its terrifyingly effective Arbitrators, frequently receiving temporary exchange progena for cross-training from across the sector and from neighboring sectors. The current Lord Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites in the sector, Lucrezia Belladona, the Red Hand of Justice, is Argoan by birth and is feared even by her fellow Lords Marshal of neighbor sectors. She holds no mercy in heart for those who shirk their duties to the Emperor and mankind, applying cruel punishments so that the scum may do their penance in this life for their souls may be saved. Such is her faith in the Master of Mankind it is joked, never in her presence, that the [[Adepta Sororitas]] missed one.

Forgeworld Vulcus Omega has also thrown off the shackles of Kalimar Khan's revolt, the traitor having been painfully executed for his crimes against Mankind and the [[Omnissiah]]. The Forge has become an icon of ruthless, brutal efficiency as the menial convicts sent from Argo's prisons and the cloned servitors manning the manufactora lines now produces advanced weapons, granting Argo's new armored regiments the might of the super heavy tanks available to the Imperium and allowing the veteran engines of the Argoan Purge to rest as treasured artifacts, regularly and exactly maintained. The Forgeworld has since also raised Titan legions and colonized the previously uninhabited system of Lasbos, a single short warp jump away, with it's twinned Gas Giant pair housing a newly built orbital dockyard serving the Sector battlefleet.