Auxilia Myrmidon

"…++CORPUS FINIS+MACHINA MAGNUS+ SANCTUS METALLUM+POTESTAS OMNISSIAH, OMNISSIAH VULT+DEATH TO THE ENEMIES OF THE MACHINE GOD++CORPUS FIN…"

- Repeating transmission, overwhelming all signal channels. The annihilation of House Caloclast, Hive Tarsus

The Auxilia Myrmidon is a seeming sub-organistion of the Skitarii Legions, composed of elite Tech-Priests known commonly as Siege Engineers or the War Savants. Within the Calixis Sector, the undisputed centre of the Auxilia Myrmidon’s power is the Lathe System and its vast forge network, and in particular their heavy fortified arsenal and base on the city-sized panopticon orbital station. From this mustering ground, the relatively few Myrmidons are dispatched in small bands to oversee the defences of the Mechanicus’s domains, seek out and destroy their enemies. The Myrmidons, although largely independent, are closely linked to the Archmagos of the Lathes, who is one of their guarantors of their dominance. This Mechanicus sect exists to study the art of destruction with the ardent fervour that their fellows mighty apply to the creation of machinery or the recovering of lost archeotech. Legend has it they came to the sector during the earliest days of the Angevin Crusade (322-384.M39) for reasons of their own, and have since remained to defend the Cult Mechanicus’ possessions there. Myrmidons are expert killers, weapon masters and destroyers. At the behest of the ruling Archmagos of the Forge Worlds, they are sent to accompany Explorators in investigating finds in the most dangerous sectors of space and retrieve the most hazardous xenos-specimens, whilst others are tasked to hunt down Mechanicus Renegades accused of the foulest techno-heresies and terminate them with extreme prejudice.

Tech-priests who devote themselves to battle are often inducted into one of the militant sects as their knowledge and prowess increases over time, either through their own application or the will of their distant Archmagos masters. A Secutor is the first rank in the Auxilia Myrmidon presumably as the standard trooper, and is also the first Adepts Minoris rank in the Divisio Mandati. The ancient designation of Secutor is believed to date back, like much of the Auxilia's organistation and sects, to the armed forces of the Mechanicum of Mars in distant pre-Imperial antiquity. It is a fact that only adds to their mystery and makes them a subject for some concern to those in the Adepta whose arcane knowledge stretches to understand what this implies. Certainly this conclusion is backed-up by the ancient and terrifying weapons, relics of that distant past which they are known to sometimes employ. Other members of the sect operate their vehicles as drivers, known as Myrmidons, who also serve in the Ordo Reductor. A platoon leader of a unit of Secutors or Myrmidons is known as a Centurius. A Tribune (commonly known as a lieutenant in the stand Imperial armed forces) commands a century; a Magnus (also known as a captain, and perhaps an Adept Majoris) commands a cohort, with a Colonel-priest having control of a battalion and a Magos Commander in charge of an entire Legion of the Auxilia Myrmidon.