Traitor Titan Legions

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The Traitor Titan Legions are those of the Collegia Titanica that had repudiated their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind and willingly embraced the fickle blessing of the Chaos Gods. Driven by hatred towards the False Emperor and the Adeptus Mechanicus, these towering, warped monstrosities are an horror to behold, possessing an immense firepower that can only be matched by their loyalist counterparts, and an insanity that allows them to happily partake in undiscriminating slaughter. They are a part of the Dark Mechanicus, the Hereteks maintain these terror-inspiring war machines and grant their help to various Chaos Lords, Sorcerers and Daemon Princes in exchange for slaves, souls, raw materiel and other services.

The Traitor Titans are often warped and mutated beyond recognition, the once-noble, resplendent figures, revered for their connection to the Machine God's divinity, turned into a cruel, menacing mockery of their former selves. Now they are entirely corrupted, their forms twisted by the powers of the Warp, their Machine Spirits replaced by possessing daemons and their crews' minds driven to madness by endless torment -- traits that only serve to mold them into even more fearsome adversaries.

The Adeptus Mechanicus harbour a deep-seated hatred of the Traitor Titans, particularly of their crews, as their actions have damned the once-divine machines, something that the Tech-priests hold as a great sacrilege. This enmity is entirely mutual, as the loathing the Traitor Titans have for the Mechanicus of Mars and the Collegia Titanica may very well exceed the rancour felt towards the Emperor.

History
Most of these Legions' betrayals happened during the Horus Heresy, when Titan elements attached to the expeditionary fleets of the Space Marine Legions decided to support the Warmaster's cause by virtue of their devotion to Horus and their commanding Primarchs, and because of their fading loyalty towards the distant Emperor. Other Legions supported the Heresy on Mars due to their affiliation with the subversise schemes of Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal and the Dark Mechanicus, who were increasingly reluctantly tolerating the Imperium and the unfulfilled provisions of the Treaty of Mars. Not all these seditions, however, occured as a direct effect of the Warmaster's ferment, as Titan Legions are known to have decided to cast their fate into the whims of Chaos long after the Horus Heresy.

Regardless of the reasons for betrayal, each and every time a Titan Legion, or indeed even a single of these towering war machines, has been lost to the Ruinous Powers, it represented a distinct threat to the Imperium, as well as a stain on the Collegia Titanica's honour -- one that can only be hoped to be washed away with the blood of Traitors.

Horus Heresy
When the Great Crusade reached its peak, Warmaster Horus had long since been under the sway of the Ruinous Powers and was already planning his betrayal. When the first fratricidal shots were fired, those member of the Collegia Titanica that would become known as the Traitor Titan Legions had already chosen their sides and eagerly engaged in the internecine conflict that would change the galaxy and the Imperium for millenia to come.

The Traitor Titans aided Horus' forces from the beginning of the revolt, most notably the infamous Legio Mortis who had battled the Loyalists on the of Istvaan III following the virus-bombing of the planet that sparked the war, and took part in the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V. Other Titan Legions that had been attached to expeditionary fleets also have sided with the Traitors, amongst them the Legio Argentum (who were part of Primarch Perturabo's forces, and the Legios Vulcanum, to name but a few.

Schism of Mars
The climate on Mars was full of discontent during this tumultuous time in the days just before Horus openly declared his rebelltion against the Emperor. There were tense relations between the various Mechanicus Magi who governed Mars with sporadic outbreaks of espionage and violence being committed against the various forges that represented the primary sociopolitical units of Mars. There were even unconfirmed suspicions thath the various Titan Legions of the Collegia Titanica, the most potent military forces available to the Tech-priests, had already secretly chose sides in case of a potential conflict within the Mechanicus.

At the outset of the Heresy, Horus sent Regulus, an Adeptus Mechanicus representative who had already thrown in his low with the Warmaster, to Mars to secure tentative support of the Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Kelbor-Hal. Regulus convinced the Fabricator-General of the Warmaster's resolve to support increased autonomy for the Mechanicus against the autocratic rule of the Emperor. As a show of his appreciation for the Fabricator-General's support, Horus provided information to Kelbor-Hal that allowed the Tech Priest to open a repository of forbidden knowledge known as the Vaults of Moravec, which the Emperor had ordered sealed two centuries earlier -- for they contained innumerable artefacts of technology that had been fashioned or corrupted by the malign power of Chaos. But their dark bargain was struck, and the Fabricator-General accepted Horus' proposal and joined forces with the Warmaster, assisting the Traitors with all of the technology of Mankind at his disposal.

Later histories would record that the first blow of the Martian civil war was struck Magos Mattias Kefra, whose forge in the Sinus Sabaeus region was housed within the Madler crater, Titans of the Legio Magna marched from the souther Noachis region and within minutes had smashed down the gates of Kefra's forge. Howling engines daubed in red, orange, yellow and black, decorated with flaming horned skull devices, ran amok within the high walls of the crater, crushing everything living beneath them and destroying thousands of years of accumulated wisdom in a fury of fire. Vast libraries burned and weapon shops that served the Solar Guard were reduced to molten slag as the indiscriminate slaughter continued long into the night, the Legio Magna's trumpeting warhorns sounding like the atavistic screams of primitive savages.

Amid the Athabasca Valles, the war machines of the Legio Ignatium and the Burning Stars Legion fought in bloody close quarters through the teardrop landforms caused by catastrophic flooding in an earlier, ancient age of the Red Planet. Neither force could gain the advantage, nor could either claim victory, so after a night’s undignified scrapping, both withdrew to lick their wounds.

Along the borders of the Lunae Palus and Arcadia regions, what previously been simply heated debate between the partisans of the Emperor and the Warmaster erupted into outright warfare as Princeps Ulriche of the Death Stalkers unleashed his engines upon the fortress of Maxen Vledig’s Legio Honorum.Caught by surprise, the Legio Honorum lost nineteen Titans in the first hour of battle, before withdrawing into the frozen wastes of the Mare Boreum and seeking refuge in the dune fields of Olympia Undae. Their calls for reinforcement went unanswered, for all of Mars was tearing itself apart as the plague of war spread across the planet in a raging firestorm.

The Fabricator-General's betrayal had only begun to unfold, and would soon see the Dark Mechanicus and the Traitor Titans of Mars joining Horus in open war against the Emperor on Terra itself.

Battle of Terra
The siege of Terra by the Traitor forces of Horus began with an orbital bombardment by the Warmaster's fleet as the prelude to invasion. After days of shelling, the Chaos Space Marines landed on the surface of Terra in Drop Pods and advanced on the two spaceports nearest the location of the Imperial Palace to secure them in preparation for the main landings of the Traitor forces. Elements from five of the Traitor Legions participated in the battle, aided by Traitor forces already on the surface. Despite the brave efforts of the Loyalists, the Eternity Wall and the Lion's Gate Spaceports fell within hours to the Forces of Chaos. With them secured, Horus' remaining troops of the Traitor Legions and their Traitor Imperial Army and Dark Mechanicus support forces landed en masse, and the hulking transports carried thousands of troops each as well as bringing to the battlefield the terrible Traitor Titans that served the Warmaster's cause and had been infected with the daemonic forces of Chaos. The transports' immense size made them prime targets for Terra's defence lasers. Although many of the Traitor landing craft were destroyed in-atmosphere, notably the transport vessel of the Legio Damnatus, the Legion's name thusly passing into history, many more made it to the surface, disgorging yet more soldiers, main battle tanks and Traitor Titans to add to the besieger's strenght. They met stiff resistance from the Loyalists as the Imperial defenders knew that the survival of their homeworld, their Emperor, and the entirety of the human race rested on their shoulders.

The siege of the Imperial Palace then began in earnest. Three times the Forces of Chaos scaled the walls, and three were hurled back by the defenders. Frustrated at this lack of progress, Horus granted the Legio Mortis the singular honour of breaching the walls of the Imperial Palace. Using the many powerful weapons at their disposal, they eagerly set about the task. By virtue of their insane fury they accomplished this near-suicidal endeavour, despite suffering the loss of over thirty Titans in one evening of fierce fighting. The Chaos Warlord-class Titans broke the outer walls and let inwards a flood of Traitors.

It was also during the Battle of Terra that the Traitor Warhound-class Titans, acting on the Warmaster's orders, roamed the planet in packs and terrorised the civilian population. The massacres perpetrated by these murderous behemoths caused the High Lords of Terra, during the later reformation of the Imperium, to order the Collegia Titanica to never again allow Warhound-class Titans to operate in squads larger than two, so that such horrors may never again be visited upon Mankind. Obviously, the Chaos Titans do not feel bound by this rule.

Regardless of their efforts, Horus was ultimately laid low by the Emperor, and the Traitor forces, facing defeat, hastily retreated from Terra and sought refuge in the Eye of Terror