Editing Thomas Gaudin (section)

===The Great Crusade===
With their father now restored to them, a new name granted and the Legion united and complete, it was immediately dispatched to the very forefront of the Great Crusade, where Gaudin immediately set out to put his oaths into action in the name of his father and his cause. In warzone after warzone, bloody battle after storming campaign the Crusaders lived up to their name and the legacy that name gave them, as the foremost instrument of the Emperor’s Great Crusade.

The Crusaders became famed for their swift conquests, though these conquests were never as neat as those of Winged Victory, or as complete as those of other Legions. But the zeal that filled the Crusaders was one even the Eternal Zealots had to admire. They were true believers in the Crusade and prosecuted it with all their might.

It was described that at no point was Gaudin happier than during this time. He threw himself entirely into the prosecution of the Crusade, every waking hour dedicated to pushing the boundaries of humanity further and further. Some of his brothers openly questioned whether he would cope with the Crusade ending, or whether he would fall apart without the endless drive of warfare to sustain him.

As the Crusade reached its terminal stages, the star of the Crusaders shone all the brighter, though never enough to eclipse that other Legions like the Scions or the Wolves of Dawn. Time and again the Emperor used them as one of his personal instruments, to reinforce, support and prosecute campaigns that He Himself saw as important to the overall progress of the Great Crusade.

High in favour and honour though they were, the Crusaders’ status did not sit well with some of their brother-Legions. The [[Mastodontii]], the only Legion to exceed the Crusaders in the number of vehicles and in the skills of armoured warfare were known to both respect and dislike them for their ‘abuse’ of their vehicles' Machine Spirits and their cavalier attitude to collateral damage, as well as their relentless drive and love of warfare. 

At the same time that Hektor was appointed Warmaster, Gaudin was himself granted the tile of the Praetorian of Terra. As Hektor would take over push the Great Crusade on to final victory, the Crusaders would withdraw with the Emperor to Terra to establish a guard around Him there alongside the Silver Cataphracts, though for what reasons was not revealed to Gaudin. Gaudin took up his new position, though privately he was dismayed that he would miss out on the many campaigns that still had to be fought.

This masked the deeper fear that Gaudin felt. He was a man of action and war, and he feared that should the Crusade ever be won, he would have nothing left to fight for. For the first time he had to confront the fear that he would be useless, with no purpose in the new order. He supposed that was one reason his Legion was being withdrawn by the Emperor, to try and show him that there was more to the Imperium then the Great Crusade. If the Emperor had intended to teach him that, Hektor's betrayal would ensure that Gaudin would never lack for purpose even as it destroyed everything he had fought so hard to build.