Editing Legio Fortuna (section)

===Many Engines, One Mind===
The Legio Fortuna was one of the many Legions released to the Great Crusade at the order of the Fabricator General, though Isidore was able to keep several Maniples on Mars to safeguard her Forge. The Legion’s maniples were split among a dozen different Expeditionary Fleets, with one seeing service alongside the Helois Angels duing their campaign into the Parthorum Stream.

The neural network system’s proven effectiveness saw a call for the structure to be expanded so in larger battlegroups of multiple maniples the Maniples would be connected together the same way the Titans within the maniple were. Isidore was concerned that while enhancements could allow someone to manage the inload of several Titans, for a Battlegroup Leader to manage the inload of anywhere up to fifty Titans at once was beyond the capacity of any human, no matter how enhanced. As luck would have it several new discoveries, including amniotic tanks and the amniotic interface system as well as LCL data-fluid and more powerful cortex implants made the ability to command dozens of Titans at once a plausibility. Working in secret, several volunteer test subjects were ‘enhanced’ and deployed to lead massive battlegroups in action. The results were beyond even the expectations of the Legion. Massive, highly complex battlefield strategies that even the most skilled Titan Legion would struggle to pull off were achieved with an ease that even outsiders noted. Whenever complex tactics and highly detailed battle plans were called for, the Legio Fortuna was the Titan Legion called upon to execute them.

The Neural Network system did have a major flaw though. If the Titan commanding a Maniple was damaged or destroyed, the other Titans would suffer from a major loss of command and communication, leading to the Maniple being unfit for further combat operations. Even worse would happen if a Battlegroup Commander was incapacitated. Whole Maniples could be rendered ineffective in this matter, though it was a rare occurrence that such an event would take place. A new project was begun to de-structure the command hierarchy so any one Titan could take over command if the commander’s engine was lost. This however necessitated that every Titan Princeps be subjected to amniotic interment so they could manage the inload. This sacrifice was yet another the Legion was willing to make, once more isolating it from other, more conservative Titan Legios that saw amniotic tanks as a radical and dangerous thing.

No matter the number of modifications and enhancements there was one thing which remained beyond the ability of the Legion. And that was commanding the entire Legion as one single entity. Though every Manos of the Legion went through the most stringent enhancement procedures, commanding a hundred or more Titans at once was a risky business, and no Manos lasted more than a few years. The single worst disaster to befall the Legion during the Crusade was during the last bitter battles of the forth and final Ruavu Grun Xenocide. A hundred and forty Titans of the Legio Fortuna were deployed alongside three Legions, three Primarchs and one Billion Imperial Army against the Xenos stronghold of Piathea. The Legion served impeccably against the Titan-grade constructs of the Ruavu Grun, however on the eight day of the battle the Manos of the Legion suffered a catastrophic neural meltdown. The entire Titan legion ground to a halt, and the Ruavu Grun counterattacked. A dozen Titans were lost, and the First engine of the Legio itself, the Imperator Class Titan ‘Dies Fortuna’ would have been captured if Primarch had not led a personal intervention to defend the Titan until help could arrive.

In the wake of this disaster Investigations began to get underway to find out why the Legion had failed at such a critical moment. Though thanks to their Master Isidore’s patron the Legion managed to conceal the depth and breadth of their heresy, all knew it was now only a matter of time before what they had been doing was brought to light. But the neural network system was now gospel to the Legion, who had come to believe that their legion was not a collection of separate Engines but a singular entity, all the princeps being merely neurons that together made up the mother brain of the Legion. They would achieve union and turn the Legion into one mind, one unit, one conscience.