Keylekid

The Keylekid were a hostile, reptilian alien xenos that were ultimately wiped out during the early years of the Great Crusade by the Luna Wolves Space Marine Legion.

History
Early in the Great Crusade the Luna Wolves encountered the hostile alien reptilian race known as the Keylekid on the world of Keylek. They keylekid were a grotesque alien kind, of a manner described as reptilian. They were greatly skilled in the arts of combat, and rose against the XVI Legion angrily the moment the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet made contact. Their world was a harsh place of crimson rock and indigo water. Horus, then known as "The Commander" long before he was made Warmaster, expected a prolonged and brutal struggle, for the keylekid were large and strong creatures. Even the least of their warriors took three or four bolt rounds to bring down. The Luna Wolves drew forth upon their world to make war, but the keylekid would not fight them. The Luna Wolves did not comprehend the rules that they fought by.

The Luna Wolves learned later, the keylekid considered war to be the most abhorrent activity a sentient race could indulge in, so they set upon it tight controls and restrictions. There were large structures upon the surface of their world, rectangular fields many kilometres in dimension, covered with high, flat roofs and open at the sides. The Luna Wolves named these structures "slaughterhouses," and there was one every few hundred kilometres. The keylekid would only fight at these prescribed places. The sites were reserved for combat. War was forbidden on any other part of their world’s surface. They waited for the Astartes to meet them at a slaughterhouse and decide the matter. But the Luna Wolves destroyed them outright.

There had been suggestions to meet them and fight them by the terms of their rules. There may have even been some honour in that, but it was reasoned that the Legiones Astartes had their own rules which the enemy chose not to recognise. Besides, the keylekid were formidable, and had the Luna Wolves not acted decisively, these xenos would have remained a threat. It was also reasoned that it might have taken them a long time to learn new rules or abandon old ones. A preserved cadaver on one of these warriors was displayed in the Vengeful Spirit's Museum of Conquest.