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The Legio Osedax ("The Cockatrices") is a Loyalist Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica, one of the military arms of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It hails from the Forge World of Phaeton, located in the Segmentum Solar.

This Titan Legion's complement only reached its final form some time during the Great Crusade following the transplant of several Phaetonite magi to the world of Atar-Median. When they departed their homeworld, these Phaetonites took with them a core of ancient Legio Osedax god-engines that had once defended Phaeton in the anarchy of Old Night.

These Titans -- approximately one-third of Phaeton's total -- went on to become the heart of the newly-founded Legio Atarus, while those Titans left behind on Phaeton remained the core of the Legio Osedax.

Legion History[]

Legio Osedax Warhound Class Titan

Legio Osedax colour scheme as displayed by the Warlord-class Titan Galeru.

Origins[]

The more common appellation of "Cockatrices" for the Legio Osedax is aptly chosen for, like the ancient cockatrice that once ravaged Old Earth, it is a beast twisted by a cold rage and utterly lacking in mercy, its very presence anathema to that which lives.

Where its god-engines tread they bring only death and ruin, leaving behind no refuge for the foe nor shelter for the enemies of the Imperium. Its princeps specialise in the brutal realm of close-quarters combat, and it is a rare sight when a Legio Osedax god-engine takes to the field unadorned by vast power claws or immense chainblades with which to rend and tear at the foe.

In battle, they are a fearsome force, unrelenting and heedless of their own safety, seeking only to close with and eradicate the foe. Yet, they are not mindless berserkers, instead applying their savage skills with a deliberate and calculated cruelty in battle and adopting a scrupulous sense of decorum when off the field of war.

The Legio Osedax was not always as such, the infamy of the Cockatrices born of something far more honourable and rooted in the origins of the Forge World that they called home, in the grim domain of Phaeton. Of all the Forge Worlds that managed to maintain the most tenuous of communications with Mars throughout Old Night and the Age of Strife, Phaeton was hardest-pressed by the tide of horrors that roamed the stars.

Against this unrelenting onslaught, the Legio Osedax stood alone, their numbers slowly dwindling with each battle. Their valour in that distant age is still recorded in some few archives and data-repositories, yet, despite their courage, the Legio Osedax was reduced to but a fraction of its original size as it fought to preserve Phaeton.

The last few maniples of the Legio Osedax enacted a desperate new strategy in order to preserve the Forge World that had sustained them. The first target of this strategy was the world of Koronal, once a thriving Hive World before the Age of Strife, but now a nest of raiders and pirates.

Here, the remaining might of the Legio Osedax went forth one last time. Yet, as they set foot upon Koronal, they flew no flags of honour nor issued any call to battle. Instead, they opened fire on the hive city itself, collapsing the ancient structure even as the raiders within sought to arm themselves and wake their machines of war. The few crude macro-stalkers and heavy tanks that managed to break free of the collapse were cut down without mercy.

Koronal was but the first world to feel the fury of the Legio Osedax and soon a swathe of burned and broken worlds surrounded Phaeton.

The princeps of the once-lauded Legio Osedax gained a new name for their red-handed slaughter -- they became the "Cockatrices" -- creatures whose slightest glance brought death and ruin. This was the price of Phaeton's salvation, the utter ruin of the Titan Legion's legacy.

Great Crusade[]

Legio Osedax Reaver-class Titan

Legio Osedax colour scheme as displayed by the Reaver-class Titan Enmity's Angel during the Horus Heresy.

With the arrival of the Emperor's forces in the years after Phaeton's salvation, this new and baleful reputation secured the Cockatrices a place in the vanguard of the Great Crusade, but as ill-omened destroyers rather than honourable warriors.

Over the long years of the Great Crusade the Cockatrices would render countless worlds into sterile wastelands as a warning to those who would deny the Emperor's rule, and with each victory the spoils of war swelled both the coffers of Phaeton and its pride. Phaeton began to resent the leash placed on them by distant Mars, whose power they had begun to rival, and this resentment would quickly sour, turning first to a subtle war of trade embargoes and bitter words, then to hidden skirmishes and battlefield "accidents."

The tech-adepts of Phaeton ignored few chances to shame their rival and overlord, and the Cockatrices endeavoured to exceed the glories of Mars' Titan Legions.

Only the creation of the Phaetonite thrall-forge of Atar-Median, a last insult to Mars veiled in submission, would avert open war between the two great Forges, but this had merely delayed the inevitable.

Kelbor-Hal, fabricator-general of Mars and now close confidant of the Warmaster Horus, quietly laid his own plans to humble proud Phaeton and cripple the powerful Legio Osedax.

Horus Heresy[]

Legio Osedax Warmaster Titan Battle

An unidentified Legio Osedax Warmaster-class Heavy Battle Titan, during the brutal fighting of the Horus Heresy.

Even as Horus began his rebellion on the black basalt plains of Isstvan V, Kelbor-Hal unleashed his own treachery upon Phaeton. Vast bulk haulers that had arrived at Phaeton Prime under the guise of collecting tribute for distant Mars would begin the assault, splitting apart in orbit to reveal cybertheurgic arrays designed to cripple Phaeton's delicate control systems.

Toxic machine code and malicious data-djinn from the orbiting craft quickly overwhelmed the unsuspecting forge-fanes of Phaeton, turning the complex systems of its Noospheric network against it. Manufactoria's production lines collapsed, their servitors turning to vandalism and destruction as a welter of chaotic instructions were fed to them, while entire battalions of combat-automata ran amok, allied units now set as hostile targets.

Following on the heels of this onslaught the orbiting bulk haulers suddenly dipped and fell into the atmosphere of Phaeton Prime, slamming into the surface like immense missiles. The impact alone destroyed entire precincts of Phaeton, but from the wreckage emerged a host of Martian Battle-Automata that tore into the stricken Titans of the Legio Osedax set as sentinels over their homeworld.

Their systems ravaged by the data-phages unleashed upon them many of the Cockatrices were dragged down by the sheer number of foes that set upon them, individual Titans torn apart by swarms of suicidal automata. Only the heroic sacrifice of the Titan Inmisercoris, which purposefully detonated its own atomantic core amid the horde, would see any of the Cockatrices survive the battle.

It was not only on Phaeton, but across the galaxy, that the revenge of Mars was played out, with detachments of the Legio Osedax operating as the spearhead of the Great Crusade suddenly abandoned by their Mechanicum allies in the midst of battle, or worse yet, caught in treacherous ambush by those they had once called friend.

Within the space of a few short solar days, the Legio Osedax would find its forces decimated in scattered war zones across the galaxy. The treachery of Mars would leave them with barely enough operational Titans to field even a demi-legio-scale force, though thanks to their defiant resistance enough of Phaeton's infrastructure had survived so that many crippled Titans would be swiftly repaired and returned to action.

Many among the ranks of the Traitors on Mars and further afield would celebrate this as a great victory, yet they had failed to kill the beast that was the Legio Osedax and had only succeeded in awakening it.

Across the galaxy, the Legio Osedax patched their rent armour and nurtured the hatred kindled by this betrayal, preparing themselves to return to the fray in earnest. The infamy they had claimed in the darkest years of their history had not been extinguished, and they stood ready to remind the magi of Mars what it meant to claim the Cockatrices as an enemy.

Notable Campaigns[]

  • War in the Shedim Drifts (ca. 800s.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action carried out against the Craftworld Aeldari upon the arid world of Anark Zeta between the forces of Craftworld Mór-ríoh'i and the forces of the Great Crusade, which included detachments from no fewer than four Titan Legions: the Legio Mortis, Legio Fureans, the Legio Atarus and the Legio Osedax. Overall command fell to Horus Lupercal, most-favoured son of the Emperor and primarch of the Luna Wolves Legion. During the apocalyptic battle, the Legio Atarus , also called the "Firebrands," was cruelly used, and without their foreknowledge, they were sent to probe the lines of the Asuryani, and were subsequently destroyed. Heavily engaged and outnumbered by the xenos machines, the promised support to the Legio Atarus by the Legio Mortis did not arrive while the Titans of the Legio Fureans, holding the Firebrands' flank, crumbled. A full demi-legion of the Firebrands was encircled and all but destroyed, with only a single Warhound Scout Titan surviving the engagement. In the aftermath it was revealed that the attack had been a ruse, a distraction planned by Horus to divert the enemy away from the direct defence of their craftworld. The plan worked, and the Luna Wolves destroyed Mór-ríoh'i in a surprise assault. The grievous losses suffered by the Firebrands due to the Legio Mortis and the Legio Fureans' refusal to fight effectively alongside them due to internal Mechanicum politics, was a grievous injury not soon forgotten.
  • Balthor Sigma Intervention (012.M31) - A blood-maddened pursuit force of Traitor World Eaters engaged in hunter-killer operations against defeated Loyalist forces was counterattacked by a Legio Osedax demi-legion at Balthor Sigma. The World Eaters were supported by numerous super-heavy tanks and therefore able to hold the Cockitrices' Titans at bay until, in quick succession, the tanks were engaged from an unexpected quarter and destroyed in short order. Entirely unheralded, a force of xenos Titan analogues, later determined to belong to the Aeldari Fir Iolarion clan of Craftworld Lugganath, intervened to devastating effect. It is only when Traitor-aligned Titans of the Legio Fureans fought their way through to reinforce the Traitors' lines that total defeat was averted. At the conclusion of the battle, the xenos Titans disengaged and vanished into the ash-shrouded depths of Balthor Sigma's equatorial magma wastes.
  • Defence of Ryza (012.M31) - During the Horus Heresy, a great battle took place on the Legio Crucius' home Forge World known as the Defence of Ryza. Forces of the Dark Mechanicum, led by the Traitor Titan Legions and their Chaos Knight allies fought against the Loyalist servants of the Omnissiah. The Legio Osedax were one of several Loyalsit Titan Legions that responded to their request for aid. Countless Titans and Knights fell on both sides. Eventually, the Loyalists were able to drive back the Traitors, only to be bombarded by a Chaos Warfleet from orbit. There was little to celebrate, as the guardians of Ryza tasted pyrrhic victory, and the world never recovered the prominence it had known as a true rival to Mars before the Heresy.
  • Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon (012-013.M31) - For reasons only understood later in the war, the Ruinstorm that had been invoked by Lorgar, primarch of the Word Bearers, several standard years earlier during the Battle of Calth, began to abate across vast swathes of the galaxy. Loyalist high commanders were able to utilise the potent astropathic relay at Beta-Garmon to contact and recall formerly lost or stranded forces from across the war-torn reaches of the northern Imperium. The Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon rapidly escalated into the largest gathering of Loyalist might since the early years of the war, a concentration of forces so mighty that the Traitors had to respond in kind. The resulting clash of arms would become known as the Great Slaughter, a theatre of war of such scale that it would encompass the "Titandeath" and the Sea of Fire campaigns, each major campaigns in their own right. By its end, both sides were so badly bled that their only remaining option for ultimate victory was to force a final, decisive confrontation. As history related, the final battle would be fought at Terra, but only after the weighty butcher's bill of the Great Slaughter was paid in full.
  • Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - The Legio Osedax took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. Even before the greater armies of the Warmaster Horus reached the star cluster, the battle lines had long since been drawn, and fighting had been going on for many Terran years. It was a cauldron of battle that would consume millions of lives before its end and see the demise of entire Titan Legions, earning this campaign the dire moniker of the "Titandeath." The Beta-Garmon Cluster, also known as the gateway to the Throneworld of Terra, was the last hurdle that the Warmaster Horus' forces had to overcome before they reached the Imperium's capital world. Heavily fortified by the Loyalists, Beta-Garmon would become one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the Horus Heresy, as well as one of the longest-lasting.
    • The Titandeath (356.013.M31) - More than twenty Titan Legions (including the Legio Osedax) and hundreds of Titans converge on Beta-Garmon II as the Loyalists seeks to strike a decisive blow to reclaim Nycron City and clear the system of Traitors. Shoulder to shoulder, the Loyalists meet their enemies in battle like infantry formations facing off, only on a much grander scale, Knight banners racing around their feet like hunting hounds. Many Titan Legions are extinguished forever in the day of battle that follows, and even legendary formations such as the Legio Astorum and the Legio Fureans are reduced to a fraction of their initial size. By the time the Loyalists reach the shattered walls of Nycron, both sides are staggering over fields of fallen god-machines, while the light from Beta-Garmon II's burning hive cities is visible in space.
  • Dark Marches Crusade (610.M36) - A demi-legion of the Cockatrices contributed to the Dark Marches Crusade, launched in the wake of the Age of Apostasy, to retake the region of the Segmentum Tempestus then called the Dark Marches. With the blessing of Terra, Segmentum authorities launched a number of Crusades and campaigns to destroy the lingering threats within their domain, and push back and fortify the borders of the Imperium itself. The most successful of these was the Dark Marches Crusade, commanded by Lord Tempestus Hal Orpheus, lineal descendant of the Rogue Trader House that had first explored the region's sinister reaches millennia previously. Over 600 worlds were claimed in the name of the Emperor and many new Imperial sectors were established, perhaps most famously the Orpheus Sector.
  • Battle of Herald's Fall (Unknown Date.M41) - During the Battle of Herald's Fall, four household detachments of House Krast's Imperial Knights fought the invading Ork forces of WAAAGH! Spleenrippa alongside the Legio Osedax. Though they lost fully half of their number over the course of the fighting, the three surviving Knights earned what passes for acclaim from the fabricator-general of Mars himself after bringing down Spleenrippa's Great Gargant in a combined assault before it could smash apart the irreplaceable war machine called the Ordinatus Mars. In the wake of the battle, Headtaker Forillus, the Knight who destroyed the head of the Warlord's Gargant with his Thermal Cannon, killing Spleenrippa, was seconded to the Cockatrices.

Legion Combat Doctrine[]

In preparation for the inevitable close-quarters battles in industrial sprawls or hive cities, many Legio Osedax Reaver-class Titans are armed in a manner best suited for close-ranged warfare against opposing Titans.

To maximise the destruction each Reaver could cause, the outskirts of many forge-fanes were decommissioned, the manufactoria and warehouses hollowed and adapted to create ideal hiding places for Reaver Titans.

Hidden from enemy sensors thanks to carefully placed electronic disrupters, the Reaver Titans will then burst from hiding once the frontline of the enemy's advance has passed their position, tearing through their surprised foe with powerful sweeps of their chainfists.

The brutality of such ambushes often forces the foe from the confines of the industrial sprawls or hive cities and directly into the firing range of the Reavers' more powerful, long-ranged guns.

Legion Traits[]

The Legio Osedax were nearly broken in the fires of treachery during the first days of the Horus Heresy and, though it threatened to consume them, they refused to yield. The princeps of the Legio Osedax strove to repay their losses in kind, throwing themselves into battle without hesitation.

Their numbers vastly reduced during the opening salvos of the Horus Heresy, the Cockatrices answered each new loss with righteous vengeance.

Of note, newly promoted princeps raised up to replace a fallen leader often displayed an inherent and natural talent for battle, despite their relative inexperience. They would place their trust in carefully-laid strategies, devising all manner of counter-ploys for potential threats. Many of these battle-hardened princeps were known for practicing swift attacks, bearing down upon their foe with deadly intent.

Legion Specific Wargear[]

  • Plasma Channels - The Forge World of Phaeton was a significant power within the Segmentum Solar and capable of equipping the Titans of the Legio Osedax with numerous innovations, including these more advanced plasma conduits which could increase the efficiency of a Titan's power output.

Notable Titans[]

Legio Osedax Warlord Titans were often bequeathed the names of mythical beasts drawn from the annals of Ancient Terran history, paying homage both to the Low Gothic moniker of the Legio and the fearsome nature of the Warlord-class Titan itself. As is oft the case with many antiquated tales, the true details were lost to time, leaving many of the names devoid of context.

Amongst the Legio Osedax this was seen as a good omen, for only the future deeds of the Titan and its princeps would be reserved in the annals of Mankind, tainted not by superstitious fears conjured during the more primitive ages.

  • Terra's Calling (Imperator-class Titan) - The Terra's Calling was an Imperator-class Titan of the Legio Osedax that fought in the Third Battle of Nyrcon during the Beta-Garmon campaign, better known as the "Titandeath."
  • Galeru (Warlord-class Titan) - The Galeru, depicted above, was a Warlord-class Titan that took part in the campaigns of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
  • Enmity's Angel (Reaver-class Titan) - The Enmity's Angel, depicted above, was a Reaver-class Titan that took part in the campaigns of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It commonly took part in the ambush tactics pioneered by the Legio Osedax for Reaver Titans during the battles of the Heresy, as recounted above.

Notable Personnel[]

  • Traves - Traves was the grand master of the Legio Osedax during the Balthor Sigma Intervention in the Horus Heresy.

Legion Allies[]

Knight Houses[]

Legion Strength[]

Forged by the once-boundless industrial might of Phaeton, the Legio Osedax was a Titan Legion of the first order, designated a Primus (Minoris)-grade Legio. Preserved against the ravages of Old Night and enriched by the spoils of the Great Crusade, Phaeton was prolific in its creation of machines of war.

By the middle years of the Great Crusade, the Legio Osedax rivalled the Legio Mortis for the sheer number of Battle Titans in its ranks. However, this time of plenty would be cut short by the bitter enmity kindled between Phaeton and Mars, leading to a full third of the Legio's Titans being tithed to the newly-birthed realm of Atar-Median.

Furthermore, the treachery suffered by Phaeton at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy would further deplete the ranks of the Legio Osedax. By the year 010.M31, at the heart of the civil war, the Cockatrices could field little more than 75 Battle Titans, mostly ancient Reaver-class Titans.

Those Titans in service with the Cockatrices during the Horus Heresy, though few in number, were some of the best-equipped god-engines to be found in the Imperium. Phaeton recognised the sacrifices made by the Legio Osedax by providing it with the most valuable technological relics in its armouries, from advanced plasma channels to multi-phase cyclic Void Shield Generators.

By long preference, its princeps went to war equipped for close-quarters battle, and its ranks bristled with Titan-grade chainfists, multi-barrelled Vulcan Mega Bolters and short-ranged Melta Cannons.

In addition to these forces the Legio Osedax also always maintained a well-equipped force of siege Titans, their princeps uniquely skilled in the reduction of enemy fortifications and often considered excessive in their zeal for the task.

Legion Appearance[]

Legion Colours[]

The Legion colours of the Cockatrices are a quartered colour scheme of aquamarine blue and white with brass trim and red often painted on the Titan's head.

The Legion's alternate scheme is sometimes displayed as white with blue checkers.

Legion Badge[]

The Legion badge of the Cockatrices is a cockatrice, a mythical beast from Old Earth's mythology; essentially a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head. This creature faces forward towards the foe, its wings outstretched, imposed over an orange circlet, outlined in black.

Sources[]

  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Rulebook (Specialty Game), "Selected Notable Engine-Wars of the Age of Darkness," pg. 17
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: The Defence of Ryza (Specialty Game), pp. 32-35
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Loyalist Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 138-143
  • Imperial Armour Volume One - Second Edition: Imperial Guard, "Principal Forge Worlds of the Imperium," pg. 10
  • Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 18
  • The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 157
  • The Imperial Knights Companion (6th Edition), pg. 95
  • White Dwarf (Oct 2017), "Contact," pg. 35
  • White Dwarf 108 (UK), "'Eavy Metal: Adeptus Titanicus Titans & Banners," pg. 76
  • White Dwarf 110 (UK), "Adeptus Titanicus: Eldar," by Jervis Johnson & Graeme Davis, pg. 67
  • Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus (PC Game)
  • Titandeath (Novel) by Guy Haley
  • Warhammer Community - The Titan Legions of Ryza (20 July 2020)
  • Warhammer Community - The Defence of Ryza: Your First Look (31 Mar 2020)
  • Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus (Video Game)

Gallery[]

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