Editing The Markian Pact (section)

==The Great Crusade==
Throughout the Great Crusade the grand corps of Markia were attached to the Winged Victory as Imperial Army auxiliaries, often alongside or mistaken for their cousins in the [[Ciban Chasseurs]]. In the [[Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd]], the Markians, who have not known war for centuries, had their first taste of conflict since the war with old Ghalhal, facing the race of slavers known as the Amatteir. It was not battle itself that unsettled the Markian soldiers, however as they were still professional soldiers; it was the condition of slaves upon the world Chwiorydd Hardd 3 after contrasting with those on CH-4 that greatly disturbed many soldiers. As photo-journalist Verrell Boucher, a Karmian native, said:

''"It was not their physical deprivations that struck me so. I had seen men and women lost in the wilds of my homeworld and returned to civilisation starved and sick before. It was their eyes. Our poor kinsmen, brutalised and degraded, looked at me with the mute ignorance of beasts. Foul aliens have taken human beings and made into them animals! How many more worlds is this happening on?"''

Upon return to the Pact worlds for various military and civic reasons, veterans much like Boucher brought word of the atrocities committed by the xenos. Tales of the sheer harm and humiliation suffered by their fellow men galvanized the Markians, and aligned them sternly against the enemies of the Imperium. After further encounters with only more brutal aliens such as the full Amatteir's empire, the Dark Eldar of the Harakien star-empire, and the barbaric orks, the Markians' hatred for xenos was further validated, and to this day the Markians do not believe the only kind of xeno friend is one used as a sandbag to protect humans.

During the first part of the Great Crusade the Markian Corps served admirably alongside the Fifth Legion, especially their sapper regiments who proved vital in the Core Worlds and Harakien Sector campaigns. However, it was only after the Winged Victory's exile to the galactic fringe that the Markian Corps showed its greatness. As their masters departed to the fringe, many Markian regiments stayed behind to carry on with their crusade. It is during this time that names such as Grand Marshal Caieton and Marshal Judas Ranc became known to the larger Imperium, their campaigns leading to the pacification of over a hundred more worlds before the Great Crusade's end.