Editing Loxodontii (section)

===Iksuda, The Beastmaster===
The most notable Techmarine of the Loxodontii was Iksuda of the fifth chapter, a man whose inherent skill and empathy for the Machine Spirit allowed him to restore all but the most devastated of the legion’s mighty transports. Apart from his technical knowledge was he also a gifted battlefield commander, which became apparent in the many engagements where he’d accompanied mechanized platoons into combat where he could keep the men organised all the while keeping his own machine in tiptop shape. His favourite transport would be named “Iron Tooth” as he’d adorned it with magnificent artwork depicting one of Babylon V’s mighty beasts, giving the front an appearance similar to a grim war-elephant. The life he ascribed to the Machine Spirit was seen by many outside the legion as superstitious, frivolous, even insane, and yet it was this conviction that made Iksuda into the dedicated machinist that he was.

Iksuda would befall a twisted fate during the Brotherwar, as during an engagement he would be killed while inside “Iron Tooth” by a particularly brutal anti-armour shell which ripped through the machine’s hull. The Rhino transport itself seemed to roar in pain and grief, as if the Machine Spirit within had felt its beloved brother die, disregarding its own wounds. Grandfather Nurgle stirred in the warp, as Iksuda’s quickly fading soul cried out to his transport’s Machine Spirit, and moved by their bond decided to give them another life. “Iron Tooth”s hull would appear to melt as ceramite plates turned to muscle and rearrange to assume the shape of a huge warrior, before hardening to a pulsating carapace, again. Iksuda and “Iron Tooth” had become one, like a dreadnought and yet so much worse, and while their brutish hands would forever be unfit to maintain a machine, again, the “Beastmaster” could sprout countless mechandrites from the grotesque muscle from which it was made.