 It gives one no small measure of satisfaction. To muse that it is after the fate of the accursed traitor, to be caught unawares by the circumstances of their vile acts. History has demonstrated time and again that the paths these wretched heathens tread can routinely lead to their employment as pawns at the hands of their conniving masters, but maneuvered into positions where they are sacrificed for some grander goal. These unexpected fires of their own ambitions do their turncoat tales burn, and even this end may be too good for them. But the subjects of this record, unquestioning loyalty to masters ill, would cost them beyond dearly. A destiny, I dare say, we can all agree, is a just and true one. Know then, that this is a record of the infernal god-machines of one of Mars' oldest legios, the titan engines of the fire masters, the legio suitorvora. Pedigree is not a thing many of the adeptus titanicus, and then the collegia titanicus are the lack. The legios suitorvora were no different, for they are one of the oldest god-machine formations in human record. They directly trace their lineage to the ancient era of pathogenesis, a hallowed era of history within the Mechanicum of Mars when the initial three legions, legios mortus, tempestus, and dignatum, had elements of their number broken off to form the core and templates of a newer generation of legios. The pugnacious ignitum, perhaps the most bellicose of all the original triad pheromorgulis, was to bear from within itself the seeds of the newborn fire masters. Suitorvora's purpose was clear, to be the bloody hand that rose to crush the last enemies of the Mechanicum. Issued its remit before Mars itself was even united under the cog symbol of the machine god. The Foundling legio was given as a base of operations, a desolate former forge-fane of one of the Psi Carnivora mech-rites that had resisted the Mechanicum so bloodily. Located in the bleak northern polar regions of Mars, Monsutura, south of the Sea of Iron Curses, was to give the legio its name, and serve them well in their lonely prosecution of the machine god's foes. This isolation would shape the legio in ways, many and profound. As the Mechanicum legios and Tagmata unified the red planet finally, Suitorvora had been there to do their part, and remained a bastion of Martian military strength in a region oft overlooked by those of the more populous and central forges. The Polar wastelands were a frozen and radiation-choked hellscape of slag drifts and Carnivora warrens, which though ostensibly liberated from the worst of the rampant machines in techno-barbarian tribes, would still continue to yield threats to the Mechanicum's primacy. Be they wandering nomad raiders, or ancient techno evils reawakened by magi who quested too far, too deep, and too greedily for the secrets of millennia past. No matter the foe, Suitorvora met them with fire and fury and resolve, but, owing to their new role and significant remoteness, were often completely passed over for either battle-honors or significant overhauls and resupply. They lacked a strong political wing in either the Martian Sinod or the halls of the Colesia Titanica, and because of this solely relied on the good graces of the fabricator general themselves, impossibly distant though such a figure must have undoubtedly seemed. This bred within Suitorvora, a culture that was almost unflinchingly reactionary and orthodox, adhering to traditional conventions, with a dedication that was, to be accurate, fanatical. The princeps of the Ligio's engines were militantly religious, maintaining a fierce piety in their icy northern vastness, and despite the size and repute of their own Ligio, were known to look down upon others with scorn, seeing them as overly ambitious or frivolous, concerned too deeply with personal honour than with the will of the machine god. With the signing of the Treaty of Olympus and the Union of Imperial Terror and the Mars of the Mechanicum, the Colesia Titanica had its services pledged to the great crusade of the Emperor of mankind, to better aid in the destruction of the Imperium's foes, and ensure the forging of the greatest human endeavour in history. It may be perhaps shocking for examiners of this record to learn that even in those heady days of utopian ideals, human politicking still persisted, polluting as oil in water. Many within the feudal Mechanicum jostled, and in some cases, rankled at the demands this Terran Emperor had placed upon them, especially when they felt their authorities were being devolved to petty elements of Imperial command. The Ligios attempted, where possible, to ensure degrees of autonomy, to serve rather than be subsumed, but it was a latter that would be the fate of Soutervora. Lacking, as mentioned before, a strong benefactor or political clout of their own, they were one of the Ligios of Mars to be wholly integrated into the crusade apparatus, forsaking their domains on the red planet and becoming a force of mendicant god-engines. This would be their fate in perpetuity, until the human endeavour had succeeded, and humanity had no longer a need for weapons such as Titans. It would never again see Mars, nor walk upon her soil. The orders were unassailable, and the Ligios Soutervora quit Mount Soutoura forever more, dusted off from the surface in a Titanic bark hauler to venture forth into the stars forever more. The effect this had on the crews and the Princeps of Soutervora is not well recorded, as their insularity made them ill-disposed to any communication with other imperial or mechanical bodies, let alone in expressing their feelings upon the matters at hand. But surviving logs from some of the senior Princeps indicate the Ligio as a whole took to their new assignment with a stoicism born of their religious convictions, seeing this as a chance to serve the machine god's will abroad amongst the stars and aid their deity in the quest for knowledge and the ruination of the Trinity Machina's enemies. As Mount Soutoura was shuttered, becoming a frozen monument to a lost host, Soutervora crusaded alongside the Astartes legions in the first extrasolar expeditionary fleets, rapidly attaining a renown unlike any they had ever achieved on Mars. During the Seti Lassaeil scourging, they provided engine-level support to the hosts of the first legion Dark Angels and the army of the Emperor himself, comporting themselves with such a diligence and honour that word of their deeds reached the office of the fabricator general himself. A grateful Kelbor Hal personally signed orders bequeathing the legion with fresh stocks of newly constructed titans that both replaced their losses and allowed them to field a vast array of new manifolds. As an entirely fleet-based Ligio, Soutervora was prone to subdivision amongst the various armies of the crusade and was rarely known to muster in strength of more than a half-dozen manifolds. This did, however, allowed them and their reputation to spread far and for their engines to walk upon more worlds and many of their fellows in other, more compact Ligios. They are known to have campaigned alongside over half the legion as Astartes, massing an honor roll impressive for a Secundus-grade Ligio. The mortals of the Imperial Auxilia, they were known as the Masters of Fire, both for the eternal flame sigil they had borne since inception and their somewhat exacting scorched earth tactics. The characters of Soutervora's engine crews, already toughened by their years in the polar wastes of the red planet, hardened yet further still. The fire of their heraldry became redolent of both their religious conviction and battle stratagems. More and more, Soutervora engines were outfitted with inferno cannons and more and more foes they faced were simply incinerated. Their cities and armies reduced to naught but ash, blowing through carnal pits. They fought with the fury of the zealot, precepts and moderati, channeling an ineffable conviction that their enemies' existences were divine affronts to the Trinity Machina and to the red planet. Though their presence on Mars was half remembered at best, it was to her that the loyalty of Soutervora would remain, and if anything, grow more intense. The fanatical devotion to the idea of Mars only increased with the time and distance the legion was removed from it. The fervent engine crews blurred the lines between Kalesia adherent and Mechanicum extremist, and they would come to regard anything that deviated from their ever more reactionary beliefs as corruption, both with the character of the individual and of the machine god's plan for humanity as a whole. In the material records, place Soutervora's martial strength at Secunda's grade in the latest available chronicles. Data looms note that at their height, they possessed around 170 engines, primarily of the warlord mainline and warhound scout classes, although already possessing more warbringer nemesis titans for long-range bombardment than most other Secunda's grade legions. They had little in the way of mid-range reaver classes, with their penchant for annihilation tactics, meaning they required the fire support the reaver offered less and less as the crusade progressed. While the legio's tally of victories remained consistent, during the crusade's final post-Ulanor years, voices within the Divisio militaris and even legion as a startes had begun to raise objections to Soutervora's methods. Akin to the wanton destruction, meted out by the most brutal of legios and legions, such as the mighty legio mortis, or on the Astartes side, 14th legion deathguard, Soutervora drew censure from the state in which their participation delivered newly compliant worlds. Involving the legio was an invitation for the resultant devastation to scour the theater, not only of enemy armed forces, but population, infrastructure, and ecosystem, as the weaponry and tactics of Soutervora made no distinction between any of the above. Where their engines walked, only destruction followed, and to many within Imperial command it was needlessly wasteful. While, yes, the Imperium had many, many foes, it was also dearly in need of productive worlds. Never mind the Crusades' aims in reuniting the last colonies of humanity. The cause for censure grew in volume, and, unprotected by the same clout and political connections that mortis possessed, it is possible the legio Soutervora may have indeed drawn some genuine consequences from their penchant for wanton ruin. Were it not for their deployment to the muster at Calth in 007 M31, the agents of the Warmaster found fertile ground within Soutervora. Indeed, so fertile was the ground that they had barely even to make overtures. Representatives of Kelbor Hall, the fabricator general of the Mechanicum and traitor in kind to Horus Lupacal, had only to ask the legio to serve Mars in the machine god, and Soutervora fell in line. Eagerly. To the religious conviction of the legio, Hall was the earthly representative of the voice of their deity, the ruler of Mars and all she lay claim to, and through him, the will of the Trinity Machina be done. If he rebuked the Emperor of Mankind as the Omnissiah, then he was no Omnissiah, but merely a petty Terran usurper of the true destiny of the Red Planet. While other legios had taken deft political maneuvering, extortion, blackmail, or even assassination to bring to the traitor's cause, Soutervora pledged instantly and wholly to the Warmaster. Calth was to be their bludding, and indeed their undoing. A full record of the conflict will be forthcoming, but know that as the 17th Legion word-bearers launched their devastating surprise attack against the 13th Legion Ultramarines and their Auxilia and Mechanicum allies, the legio, Soutervora, launched attacks from their master-sight on the city of Ithrica, on Calth, with the aim of annihilating their former Calesio-Titanica comrades of the legio or true messengers. Prasagius was Soutervora's mirror in all aspects, renowned paragons of the Great Crusade and lauded for their unshakable devotion to both the manifest destiny of humanity and to the Imperial Truth. Honourable to a fault, Prasagius was caught completely unawares by the treachery of Soutervora's engines, which now bellowed their newer, altogether more sinister Cognomen, the legio in furnace. These newly cast Fire Masters laid into the Imperial Titans with the fury of the zealot unleashed. Prasagius's engines were, in their majority, embarked on a massive orbital Titan transporter, the Aratran, which was caught by some of Inferness's first volleys. Crashing to the surface, it did, however, fail to explode, allowing what Titans of the true messengers that remained undamaged to emerge from the holds and engage the traitors. The savagery of the conflict between these two legios was unlike anything the Imperium had seen yet during the heresy, and would only be made worse by the advent of localised warp disturbances that would rip through Ithrica as the battle reached ever more destructive heights. Prasagius' records and gun camera footage shows the engines of Inferness descending into Berserk Furies, wantonly turning their weaponry upon fleeing civilian populations, even when true messenger Titans were in range. The warp appeared to affect the Inferness Titans to a level later recognised as near-possession, and the legio paid a heavy price for this. While Ithrica was the doom of the legio Prasagius, as far as their ability to participate in the heresy was concerned, Inferness paid a price unspeakable, emerging from the traitor retreat from Calt with barely half of its 170 strong engine complement remaining. The Princeps of the legio woke from the bloodlust of their battle like drunkards coming out of a stupor, and were reportedly completely enraged by what they saw as the deception on behalf of the word-bearers, whose diabolical sorcery they blamed for their losses of control at Ithrica. Their protests, however, fell upon deaf ears. Seventeenth legion elements, who moved on to the atrocities of the Shadow Crusade, cared little for the mulings of a wounded Titan legion. Inferness, as they insisted upon being called now, had served their purpose in the path of Calth, removing a massive loyalist threat from the board, and helping to fuel the deliverance of the ruined storm that now annihilated warp travel across half the galaxy. Inferness found themselves with no choice but to serve their new masters. As for all their immediate loyalty, they found the fabricator general now cared little for their concerns, his mind focused on bigger and more important matters than the wounded pride of a politically weak legion. Inferness would serve the remainder of the heresy in that fashion. A bitter and furious collection of princeps and their engines, taking whatever scraps of support the traitors would deign to provide them with, and following orders with little choice. It is, if anything, a rather apt reminder of the fate of the traitor, and of the price of ambition. Until the next record. Ave Imperator. Gloria in Excelsis Terra. will be in the description and on the channel page.