"Blood is the sole constant of war. The stage and props matter not; be it sharpened sticks or cannon that rend atoms asunder; be it on the soil of Terra or the verdant earth of far-flung worlds -- blood will flow in rivers. Voracious is the appetite of war and it must consume its fill before arms can be laid down."
- —Anonymous, ca. M24
Inductii Bek Soron of the Blood Angels Legion's 19th Independent Company wearing Mark VI Corvus Power Armour and armed with a boltgun during the Horus Heresy.
The Inductii, known formally in High Gothic as the Legiones Inductii, were rapidly-inducted and physiologically-accelerated Space Marine Legionaries utilised by both the Loyalist and Traitor forces during the Horus Heresy in order to replenish their diminishing forces due to the high attrition rates sustained during the conflict.
While the creation of the Inductii became necessary as the forces of the Emperor and the Warmaster Horus Lupercal tore the Imperium asunder, these Astartes were, by their very nature, incomplete. Records indicate that a variety of experimental or proscribed measures were employed to enhance rates of gene-seed maturation and implantation to boost the fighting numbers of the Legions, often with a significantly increased attrition rate among such aspirants.
While these recruits bore the same appearance and wargear of their brother Legionaries who had been inducted in the traditional way, they lacked their extensive training and prior combat experience, and were often less well versed in the culture and traditions of their Space Marine Legion. Nevertheless, the Inductii were to play a valuable and even necessary role in the conflict.
By the time the Warmaster Horus Lupercal's Traitors reached Terra in 014.M31, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Legionaries, both fresh recruits and veterans, had fallen across the galaxy. Those Astartes who had served within a Legion prior to the start of the Heresy were now actually a minority, veteran battle-brothers standing tall amid ranks who had known nothing but a Legion consumed by either desperation or heretical corruption.
History[]
Origins[]
An unknown Alpha Legion Inductii of the 45th Line Company. The Alpha Legion made use of Inductii companies to operate in plain sight, likely intended to further obscure the activities of their regular units. This Legionary is arrayed in Mark VI Corvus Power Armour -- in this case, as was common among Alpha Legion Inductii units, the armour has been given a crude set of false colours intended to confuse the enemy into believing this Astartes was a member of the Thousand Sons Legion.
For generations prior to the heady days of the Great Crusade, the Emperor and His gene-wrights laboured within the depths of the Imperial Palace to create exemplars of martial prowess, transhuman warriors that would lead Humanity to its rightful destiny across the stars. From such toils were born genetic masterpieces -- the Thunder Warriors, superhumans that would ultimately prove genetically unstable, fated to fall in battle atop Mount Ararat during the final days of the Unification Wars before the ravages of their own augmented bodies consumed them. Though the Thunder Warriors burnt bright in glory, from their legacy was born the twenty primarchs and the Space Marine Legions, warriors of unyielding strength and resolute spirits who would become the standard bearers of the Emperor's Great Crusade.
Each Legionary was fashioned from the base clay of mortal fragility into a genetically enhanced transhuman warrior of such majesty that few others could match. Threefold was the endeavour to transform an aspirant into a member of the Legiones Astartes, requiring a lengthy process of surgical augmentation, genetic manipulation and psycho-conditioning.
Inductii armorial of the 18th Cthonian Garrison Cohort of the Imperial Fists Legion -- the rook emblem on this armorial marks these Inductii as second-line training units entirely composed of Cthonian recruits taken during the Imperial Fists' occupation of Cthonia at the time of the Horus Heresy).
The development of such an intricate labour of Human augmentation required minds of peerless intellect, and by their expertise was fashioned a several standard-year-long process that balanced the risk of aspirant tissue degradation, gene-seed and Astartes organ rejection and candidate fatalities against the personnel demands of unceasing war. Combat training and gene-seed implantation were folded together, the mind and body of the aspirant transformed concurrently so that at the conclusion of the process a true Legionary had been forged, one ready and eager to conquer.
Never had the limits of this process been tested as it was during the Horus Heresy, for though gruelling conflicts had been fought across the galaxy for over two standard centuries by that time, rare was it during the Great Crusade that the operational capacity of a Space Marine Legion was threatened by casualties and rarer still were such losses recorded upon the field of battle.
Imperial Fists Inductii Sergeant Merik Vhirith of the 18th Cthonian Garrison Cohort, raised from Cthonian recruits taken during the Imperial Fists' occupation of the Sons of Horus' homeworld in the Horus Heresy. Sergeant Vhirith is arrayed in Mark VI Corvus Power Armour. Note the white stripes and armour panelling used by the Imperial Fists to indicate Inductii and other training units.
The most infamous of such conflicts, the Third Rangdan Xenocide, claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Legionaries and eradicated the original substantial numerical superiority of the Dark Angels Legion relative to other Legions, yet did little to hamper its ability to prosecute war. All were but trifles compared to the civil war unleashed by Warmaster Horus Lupercal, for in his hubristic quest to tear the Imperial crown from his gene-father's brow, Horus ignited a conflict unlike any the Imperium had faced. Brother fought brother, sister fought sister and every aspect of the Imperium was riven by mistrust and betrayal, with the Legiones Astartes at the forefront of the war.
In just a few years the Warmaster and his treacherous servants achieved what two standard centuries of unceasing war against the xenos and malcontent Humanity had failed to do -- shattered the Imperium and brutalised its Legions. The carnage at Isstvan III and Isstvan V during the Istvaan Atrocity and the Drop Site Massacre, where three entire Legions were pushed unto the precipice of extinction and the Traitors' ranks were purged of any believed to harbour the faintest sentiment of loyalty to the Emperor, was but a prelude of the slaughter to come.
Astartes fell in droves yet the Warmaster brooked no delay in his march on Terra, leading casualties to outstrip new recruits. In the face of such destruction and the sheer tempo of combat operations against forces of equal strength and skill, each Legion was confronted with a dilemma -- remain dedicated to the existing standards of induction of new recruits and risk sacrifice upon the altar of war, or turn to newer methods to replenish numbers, no matter the cost.
The Shunned[]
"Ignorance of the exact location of the enemy is no justification for the cessation of fire. A shot fired in speculation oft acts in the stead of reconnaissance, revealing the foe's position and, if the fickle tides of war lend their favour, disables their capacity to retaliate."
- —Centurion Sharl Gendor, Inductii-orientis of the Iron Warriors
Inductii armorial of the 19th Independent Company of the Blood Angels Legion
The term "Inductii" is a broad High Gothic appellation used within present-day records to refer to any Astartes recruited into the Legiones Astartes following the events of Isstvan V through to the Warmaster's fall at the Siege of Terra in 014.M31 at the conclusion of the Horus Heresy. Its etymological origin lies within records taken from the world of Bodt, one of a number of fief planets sworn to the World Eaters Legion during the Great Crusade that churned out blood-crazed monsters clad in the flesh of a Space Marine, each one a nightmarish mockery of the ideals of the Legiones Astartes.
These creatures were labelled "Inductii" by their creators, a term that later disseminated amongst all the Traitor Legions who supported Horus's cause to refer to all new Legionaries recruited into a Legion, often as a byword for shame, spoken with disdain for those they believed were inferior stock. Traitor Inductii were often distinguishable by other signs too -- amongst the Emperor's Children, Inductii were forbidden to wear the Palatine Aquila like the rest of their brethren, while amongst the Sons of Horus, a handful of veterans decried the usage of Cthonian symbols by those not originally from the Legion's homeworld of Cthonia an offence worthy of harsh punishment.
Conversely, the term Inductii is largely absent from the records of the Loyalist Legions, yet many feature specific nomenclature that served to isolate, intentionally or otherwise, newly recruited Legionaries from their more veteran brothers. The terms used were myriad and personal to the Legions in question, often differing between elements of a Legion across the galaxy.
Blood Angels Inductii Legionary Bek Soron of the 19th Independent Company, arrayed in Mark VI Corvus Power Armour. Note that extensive damage to their power armour was a common feature of Blood Angels Inductii units, which placed little emphasis on rest and repair cycles.
Imperial Fists based upon Terra are noted as referring to new recruits as "Sentries" or "Neophytes", while amongst their ranks garrisoned on Inwit or present in other strike forces, "Recruits" or "Initiates" were the more common parlance. Other Legions are noted for expressing more outward disdain of their Inductii. One stark example is the recorded words of Leman Russ, with the Wolf King known to have stated to an assembly of his Wolf Lords, "Trust not the pups whose claws have yet to be bloodied, bearing claws that have never rent flesh, and teeth not yet sharpened upon the hide of a foe."
Discerning the catalyst of such sentiments towards Inductii proves difficult. Of the tens of thousands of Inductii analysed by Adeptus Mechanicus genetors post-conflict, most possessed little noticeable physiological differences to their traditionally-inducted brothers. Therefore, analysis must turn towards the cultural issues that arose with the influx of new recruits, many harvested from worlds distant to the Legions' traditional recruitment grounds.
During the Great Crusade clashes in Legion tradition were not unheard of, with many instances of disputes between Terran-born Legionaries that had fought before the rediscovery of their primarch and those warriors recruited post-discovery, usually from that primarch's homeworld. With many Legions stranded on the galactic frontiers during the Horus Heresy, access to existing recruitment grounds, which consisted of planets bearing a similar cultural identity to a Legion's homeworld, proved limited for most.
As a consequence, Legions sought new planets from which fresh generations of Legionaries could be gathered. The pace of war often prevented the establishment of ties with such worlds nor did it allow lengthy assessment of planetary cultures. In many instances Legion strike forces would descend upon the planet in a manner akin to an orbital invasion, enforcing rapid genetic screening of potential candidates then departing with those of suitably genetic viability.
Where some Legions expended a modicum of effort to marry the cultures of aspirants with the mein of the Legion -- as seen in the scouring of penal colonies by warbands of the Night Lords Legions, or the Dark Angels' tithes of aspirants extracted from planets with honour-bound feudal and martial cultures -- success was varied, a balm incapable of soothing all divisions.
Harsh training programmes, supplemented by intensive bouts of hypno-indoctrination, were implemented by many Legions in an attempt to subvert lingering cultural ties among their Inductii. Where hypno-indoctrination was employed, it was common for old ideals to clash with new ones in the aspirant's mind, leading many Inductii to become little more than crude parodies of their veteran brothers as they aped traditions they lacked sentiments for.
Other Inductii proved resistant to culture shifts, blending the traditions of their homeworld with that of the Legion, leading to the formation of dozens of sub-cultures across Legion elements. Inductii companies became common within some Legions, and all attempts at cultural integration abandoned within them.
By the time the Warmaster and his allies reached Terra in 014.M31, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Legionaries, both fresh recruits and veterans, had fallen across the galaxy. Those Astartes who had served within a Legion prior to Horus' betrayal were now the minority, aged brothers standing tall amid ranks who knew nothing but a Legion consumed by desperation or corruption. Gone was the unity of a single Legion, for their numbers were scattered across the galaxy with varying adherence to Legion cultures and tactical disposition and specialties, each a pale imitation of an age now rendered extinct.
A Generation of Astartes Apart[]
"Necessity is the matriarch of innovation."
- —Ancient Terran proverb
Inductii armorial of the 63rd Provisional Company of the Emperor's Children Legion
Time was not a luxury afforded to those who lived during the Age of Darkness. Legions loyal to the Emperor had suffered greatly at the hands of the Warmaster Horus' machinations, their strength battered and depleted, while those that marched beneath Horus' banner were hard-pressed to sunder the Imperium's defences and tear down its throne before their foe could regroup.
Solar months gave way to standard years and the civil war, originally intended to be swift, degenerated into a morass of conflict that ground ever on. Each new delay in the Warmaster's advance on Terra was another the defenders of the Imperium could use to reinforce their defences, to regroup and rearm, to encircle Horus and his fleet and crush them with overwhelming might.
There was no singular moment or unifying command that dictated the launch of the Inductii programmes within each Space Marine Legion and its fragments. Instead, the realities of the civil war forced many to face harsh truths, the ideals of yesteryear clashing with the realities of all-out war, until practicalities overcame good intentions, causing safety and tradition to be pushed to the wayside.
Methods varied greatly across the Legions, dependent on the availability of supplies and adequate facilities, dictated by a commander's morality or lack thereof and limited only by the depraved visions of those who believed themselves greater in erudition than the Emperor. Never shall every deviation be known, for much has been lost to time and what remains is fragmented, drawn from the extracted testimonies of hated Traitors and Heretics, incomplete data retrieved from decaying medicae facilities across the galaxy and self-written records of loyal Legions, likely purified of any sins even they committed in a time of desperation.
Emperor's Children Inductii Sergeant Irem Symaion of the 63rd Provisional Company; the Emperor's Children preferred to organise mixed companies of both Inductii and regular troops. Sergeant Symaion is arrayed in Mark VI Corvus Power Armour -- unlike many Legions, the Emperor's Children outfitted their Inductii units with the finest wargear available.
Broadly, the efforts of the various Legions' induction processes can be categorised into two practices: the abridgement of standard durations of combat training and the modification of gene-seed and Astartes organ implantation methods. Of the two, it was the former that proved easiest yet also recouped the least time. Training amongst earlier Inductii in most instances appeared similar in nature to that employed prior to the Warmaster's betrayal, consisting of live-fire exercises in concert with tactical theory and aspirant trials.
Many of the early actions of the Horus Heresy became ideal proving grounds for new Legionaries, for they were brutal affairs which forged survivors of great mettle. Nevertheless, safe training facilities were difficult to acquire as the civil war escalated, save perhaps within more stable regions such as the Realm of Ultramar or the Warmaster's Dark Empire, and so more rapid methods were developed.
Chief amongst these was the employment of hypno-indoctrination, utilised in varying amounts by nearly every Legion during the Horus Heresy, a psycho-encode process involving the rapid injection of knowledge within the psyche of the subject. Weapon training, impartation of tactics and, in many instances, subliminal obedience messages were combined with memetic packages, which were loaded into the brains of aspirants in an attempt to rapidly mould Legionaries' minds to possess the resilience and knowledge of a veteran Astartes.
The extent of hypno-indoctrination varied greatly, as did the level of training it granted, differentiated by the needs of individual strike forces. Inductii of the Imperial Fists on Terra were imparted with defensive siege tactics, vital for their role in the defence of the Imperial Palace during the final days of the conflict, while VIIth Legion Inductii raised on Cthonia bore the hallmarks of greater reliance on obedience packages, no doubt intended to curtail any lingering loyalties to the Sons of Horus.
Conversely, hypno-indoctrination packages retrieved from Raven Guard facilities in the Segmentum Obscurus leaned heavily on the transfer of knowledge of infiltration tactics, so that all Inductii were capable of persecuting the guerilla war the XIXth Legion had committed itself to.
Inductii armorial of the Sons of Horus Legion
The practice of hypno-indoctrination was not novel -- pre-Unification civilisations on Terra are recorded to have utilised the technique in the creation of vassal legions, and limited uses of the process were found within the ranks of the Imperial Administration and Remembrancer Order. Testing amongst the ranks of the Legiones Astartes was conducted during conquest of the Sol System at the start of the Great Crusade, yet proved inferior to hands-on training, with aspirants exposed to the process showing stunted tactical acumen and combat readiness compared to other Legionaries.
Yet expediency often outweighed efficacy during the Horus Heresy, leading many Inductii programmes to become increasingly reliant upon the process as the war drew closer to its horrific conclusion. Necro-cortical analysis of Legionaries who fell during the Siege of Terra reveal many Space Marines, Loyalist and Traitor both, bore tell-tale signs of minor to severe neural degradation, a recurrent side-effect of hypno-indoctrination exposure.
Other side-effects, such as persona dissociation, scarring of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -- resulting in decreased inhibition and increased aggression -- and loss of pre-enhancement memories, often substituted with further indoctrination programmes that filled cognitive gaps with agreeable traits, are noted amongst even Loyalist forces that reported high usage of hypno-indoctrination in Inductii creation.
Sons of Horus Inductii Sergeant Devak Imron of the 68th Company, an Inductii company, where both officers and warriors were Inductii. Sergeant Imron is arrayed in Mark VI Corvus Power Armour and displays both the symbol of the faction of the Sons of Horus known as the Cthonian True Sons who worshipped their primarch Horus Lupercal as a god and the crossed axes emblem of the 68th Company's chieftain (captain).
Conversely, some Legion elements forwent dedicated training entirely, choosing instead to utilise poorly-equipped and ill-trained Inductii as chaff to shield veteran brothers. Those that survived were afforded greater respect and rights of salvage from fallen Legionaries; those that fell were deemed too weak to survive in a galaxy ravaged by conflict.
This practice was common amongst the ranks of the World Eaters as well as several Blood Angels strike forces upon the galactic fringes and elements of the Emperor's Children terrorising the northern reaches of the galaxy. Casualties amongst such forces exceeded nearly all other recorded losses for individual strike forces, yet many stand prominent in records of infamy, for those warriors that survived were transformed into slaughterers with few equals.
Where alterations in training methods proved unable to sustain the cost of war, Legions turned instead to dismantling safeguards traditionally employed in the implantation of aspirants. Tradition dictated that an aspirant's elevation to a full Astartes was conducted in phases, a necessary process that ensured each implanted gene-seed organ was given adequate maturation time and decreased risk of tissue rejection. Furthermore, in instances where the subject lacked the necessary constitutional strength to withstand the rigours of implantation, the use of phases offered the greatest chance of mature organs being viable for extraction and preservation for use in another aspirant. As casualties mounted, such delays proved impossible to countenance.
The extent of deviation from traditional methods of Astartes augmentation varied widely between Legions; causality can be drawn between the measure of losses suffered by a force and greater instances of bypassed safeguards and rapid gene-seed implantation methods. Legions established in more stable regions of the galaxy, such as those garrisoned upon Terra, Ultramar or within subjugated regions of the Warmaster's Dark Empire in the northern galactic reaches, serve as an ideal baseline for implantation deviations; ready access to matériel and recruitment pools facilitated only minor alterations to established process.
Records provided by the Legion Apothecaries of the Ultramarines describe a programme of accelerated recruitment and induction, involving the implementation of mass recruitment and genetic screening across the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar on the orders of Roboute Guilliman.
Imperial Administration records note the establishment of martial law over planets within Ultramar, each overseen by several Ultramarines Legion warriors designated as Consul Lanist, or "Overseer of the Enlisted," whose responsibility lay with the conscriptions of militia regiments for the Imperialis Auxilia from the population. In concert, Legion Apothecaries were tasked with genetic screening programmes upon both the conscripted and their families, to identify those with viable genetic markers for induction as Astartes; those discovered were dispatched to Legion training facilities within more stable regions of Ultramar.
This process provided the Ultramarines with a steady, stable flow of aspirants, with conservative estimates stating the XIIIth Legion likely experienced a net gain of Legionaries over the course of the Horus Heresy despite the numerous fronts on which its forces fought, estimates reinforced by the strength and size of the XIIIth Legion at conflict's end. Higher quantities of physically-adept recruits enabled the Ultramarines to rely solely on hypno-indoctrination as a means to shorten Legionary production, with no recorded deviations to gene-seed implantation techniques.
Greater divergence can be observed within the practices of the Imperial Fists based upon Terra, who laboured to swell their numbers in preparation for the defence of the Throneworld. An individual of little compromise, Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra and primarch of the VIIth Legion, sought not to eradicate standard centuries of good practice but hone it instead, co-opting the skills of ancient Mechanicum genetors extracted from the beleaguered sands of the Red Planet following the Schism of Mars.
Through experimentation and sacrifice, the minds gathered beneath Dorn's aegis devised new orders of augmentation that delayed the implantation of both the Betcher's Gland and Sus-an Membrane, organs responsible for an Astartes' ability to expel acidic substances from their mouth and enter a state of suspended animation in response to trauma, respectively, until after the fateful events at Terra.
Extant records show Dorn viewed these two gene-seed organs as vestigial given the threats faced, for when the Warmaster reached Terra, no prisoners would be taken and few would be granted the reprieve of extended recovery. By the latter years of the Horus Heresy, Apothecarion records note a 32% decrease in implantation time through the combination of such methods with intense hypno-indoctrination; the same records note an average increase of fatalities by 114% due to increased tissue rejection and immuno-collapse among aspirants. Later data also suggests the misordered implantation of both organs may have resulted in permanent degradation of the genetic code necessary to utilise them, which may explain why both organs rarely function among the Imperial Fists of the 41st Millennium.
Similar alterations were common amongst Inductii from numerous Legions and were observed from strike forces based within the Segmentum Solar to those active on the fringes of the galaxy. The combination of gene-seed implantation phases -- Magos Biologis records place the number at 13 total under normal conditions -- proved the most common practice for Inductii creation. Word Bearers Inductii deployed to the Segmentum Tempestus are recorded as lacking their Black Carapace for several deployments, afforded the right to adorn themselves in power armour only after they had proved themselves in battle.
Some Death Guard Inductii present in warbands fleeing Barbarus during the late-Heresy period are noted as lacking Multi-lungs, running counter to the Legion's legendary resistance; Imperial scholars theorise this drove many to accept the Warp-based powers of supernatural resilience afforded to those Death Guard gathered around Mortarion.
Iron Hands Inductii raised on Medusa and within the Shattered Legions almost universally bore some artificial substitutes to Legiones Astartes organs. Each was a mechanical augmetic less refined than the organics they replaced but comparatively simpler to manufacture, a practice motivated by a shortage of Progenoid Glands following the Xth Legion's horrific losses of most of its veterans at Isstvan V.
Flash-indoctrination[]
The practice of hypno-indoctrination was swiftly accepted by the Traitor and Loyalist Space Marine Legions under duress to make up their losses during the Horus Heresy and though numerous surviving records indicate the lack of respect Veteran warriors held towards those Legionaries who underwent the process, it was accepted as a relatively benign method of expediting recruitment and augmentation.
A derivation of this process was "flash-indoctrination", a knowledge assimilation process that relied upon the direct, digital duplication and neurochemical impartation of memories harvested from the brains of the recently deceased. To many, flash-indoctrination was akin to desecration, the theft of the dead's thoughts to mould the minds of the living. Individuals were transformed into simulacrums of the dead, straying close to the fables of Nekromantiae, or "The Divination of Death." Utilisation of the process proved heavily restricted during the Great Crusade, granted only by the Emperor's edict, a blessing records note was gifted solely to the Officio Assassinorum temples.
Such praxis did not survive the madness of the Horus Heresy and only a handful of instances of its usage have been confirmed. Most infamous is the employment of flash-indoctrination by the World Eaters; exploration of XIIth Legion training facilities after the Heresy bore witness to blood-soaked gladiatorial pits within which murderers both mortal and transhuman duelled, the memories of the fallen harvested from the cerebral cores, collated, digitised and forced upon the Inductii of many of the World Eaters Legion's fief worlds.
Thousands of memories of savagery and death was the pedagogy of such aspirants, rational thought supplanted by unquenchable rage, their Humanity extinguished and bloodthirst ignited. The World Eaters were not the sole purveyors of such necromantic technology, with lesser known examples including the frenzied zealotry of some Word Bearers Inductii or attempts to engineer unthinking obedience in newly-raised Iron Warriors garrisons.
A handful of records also suggest the process was not confined solely to the ranks of the Traitors, with Dark Angels Inductii whose lineage suggests recruitment on Caliban bearing hallmarks of the minor employment of flash-indoctrination; for what purpose remains unclear.
Ultimately, flash-indoctrination proved a highly effective tool yet limited in scope, more likely to forge a warrior of narrow mindset and unstable temperament than a Legionary of great calibre; to those who saw Inductii as little more than disposable tools to start with, such drawbacks were considered negligible.
Forsaken Knowledge[]
So much as has been recounted in this record speaks only of Inductii forged from the mould of those Legionaries that had come before, marred only by blemishes of mind or form. To the undiscerning, these warriors were Legiones Astartes in all respects, warriors that, in a better age, would have carried the Emperor's light to the furthest corners of the galaxy.
Come the Horus Heresy, there were those who turned to darker powers in their quest for dominance, walking upon forsaken paths open to those possessed of unfettered ambition. Be it motivated by desperation or hubris, driven by loyalty to the Imperium or a desire to conquer all before them, there were those that toiled, by willful intent or otherwise, to create Inductii bearing only the slimmest resemblance to the Emperor's creations.
Secrecy was the veil under which such works were completed and thus no complete record exists that details the totality of horrors paraded as supposed Astartes that were unleashed upon the galaxy. Much of what is held within this record stands as more half-truth and allegory than objective fact. Such tales speak not of the berserkers forged by the World Eaters upon Bodt and other worlds nor the factories of the Iron Warriors into which billions were walked like chattel, most not aspirants but transformed into sentient flesh vats in which an archive of Space Marine gene-seed organs were matured, but of even darker things more reminiscent of the terrors of Old Night.
Of what is known beyond doubt is those Inductii born of a fusion between Legionary and a Warp entity, forged from the dark pacts with Chaos made by the Warmaster Horus and his allies. Though records exist detailing the activities of such abominations amongst the ranks of the Word Bearers from as early as the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, such Inductii grew in number as the war progressed and Chaos corruption wormed deeper into the hearts of the Traitors.
What little study of such creatures that is held within Imperial archives speaks of stunted augmentation catalysed by ætheric power, the malformed remains of poorly-crafted Astartes transformed into unique monstrosities, shaped and moulded by the Warp entity bound to an aspirant's soul. Names such as Lupercali and Gal Mordek -- a title similar in bearing to Gal Vorbak, yet borne by Inductii viewed as lesser creatures -- rang strong across the battlefields of Terra, ordained by many Traitors as blessed sacrifices with which the Emperor would finally be toppled.
To those who faced them, and to some of those who marched beside them, such abominations were forever damned; logs extracted from the Night Lords vessel Sins in Penumbra name such Inductii Skia'darr or "Devoured by Shadow" in the Nostraman tongue, for they were not true battle-brothers but malformed tools of fear to be unleashed then discarded.
Common too is the knowledge that the IIIrd Legion indulged heavily in the surgical modification of their forms in misguided attempts to achieve a notion of perfection. Extant records frequently refer to "Fabius," who logs from the 28th Expeditionary Fleet list as Chief Apothecary of the Emperor's Children Legion, as architect of the IIIrd Legion's transformation.
The works of Fabius and his disciples, a cadre of Apothecary recruits from across the Traitor Legions, are myriad and include the implantation of xenos-organs to enhance Legionaries' abilities and the creation of the Kakophoni, the first of the Noise Marines.
Upon Inductii, Fabius' work was starker; to him, Legiones Astartes flesh was a canvas upon which he projected his most twisted dreams. Named the Terata in some records, the attributes of these Inductii varied greatly, with confirmed accounts of Legionaries bearing chem-implants that swelled their form and strength to grotesque proportions, warriors with limbs replaced with sinuous appendages or monstrous chela, or the transplantation of a chitinous carapace in place of skin.
The Emperor's Children were not alone in their twisting of form. On Tallarn, reports speak of Iron Warriors Inductii wired into the workings of vehicles, living entities slaved to the mechanisms of machines, while records from the period of the Great Scouring after the Heresy report Iron Warriors Legion garrisons possessing only base sentience, impelled only to stand guard and lay waste to invaders.
Within the Segmentum Obscurus, Mawdrym Llansahai plied his trade upon friend and foe alike; post-action records of the Massacre at Sed IV provide scattered images of chimeric Legiones Astartes, akin in appearance to the Grotesques of ancient Terran myth. Elements of the Word Bearers absent from the Siege of Terra are reported to have marched to battle with Inductii whose lungs and vocal cords were replaced with vox equipment, devoid of any voice save broadcasts of the word of Lorgar. Similar examples, many unverified save for singular accounts, present dozens of modifications, the Inductii subjected to the whims of their commander as the Traitor Legions fragmented and their corruption by Chaos increased.
Those Legions that remained true to the Emperor are not spared from indictment by such tales. Desperation ran rife amongst many during the early years of the Horus Heresy, for the galaxy was plunged under the veil of the great Warp storm called the Ruinstorm and those denied the Warmaster's succour were subjected to the storm's wrath, cast adrift and bereft of aid. Those Loyalist Legions that had fought at Isstvan V were broken and little but the promise of vengeance sustained them. Wounded and battered, but not destroyed, they sought alternative means to replenish their strength and to raise a generation of Legionaries possessed of such might that they might have their revenge upon the Warmaster.
Tales of aspirants of the Iron Hands' Inductii bound to autonoma-exoskeletons are common amongst the few survivors of Colchis, warriors gifted the strength and resilience of a Space Marine yet doomed to wither by the radiation such artifice's power sources pumped through their system.
Other stories tell of abominations marching in step with the Raven Guard and Space Wolves on far-flung battlefields, Legionaries bearing mutations in the colours of the XIXth Legion at Yarant and beyond, and of Legionaries of the VIth Legion with the visage of wolves, wielding claws and fangs that rent armour and flesh asunder with equal ease.
Whether such tales are the product of Inductii practices that strayed close to heretical darkness or simply tales drawn from fevered minds may never be known. If such creatures did indeed live, they were likely purged before light could be shined upon them, confined to ignominy once their purpose had been fulfilled.
Inductii Formations[]
For some of the Legiones Astartes, a steep price in manpower was paid in the opening gambits of the Horus Heresy, while for others the need to reinforce their number with additional troops mounted as attrition took hold over the course of the arduous campaigns of the galactic civil war. The solution in almost every case was a scheme of forced induction to bolster the ranks based on the adoption of imperfect or barely understood techniques that reduced the amount of time and resources it took to create new Space Marines.
The results were often inconsistent but provided fresh ranks of hypno-indoctrinated troops to take the place of the fallen on the front lines. This approach in itself represented a deviation from the ideals that each Legion previously adhered to when selecting candidates for Legionary induction. Yet such was the desperation of both sides during the later days of the Age of Darkness that the sight of Inductii formations across almost all fronts became commonplace.
Loyalist Legions[]
- Dark Angels - Recruited in the wake of the Crusade of Vengeance in 013.M31, and equipped with deadly weaponry from the darkest vaults of the I Legion, the Inductii of the Dark Angels were Lion El'Jonson's weapon against the Traitors. Though not party to the secrets of the Hexagrammaton, these rapidly-raised recruits nevertheless provided the Dark Angels with the manpower resources to prosecute their crusade across a wide front.
- White Scars - Recruited during the years of galactic civil war, many Inductii of the White Scars were noticeably more pragmatic than their veteran brethren. Often receiving training from the Imperial Fists and Blood Angels alongside the recruitment masters of their own Legion, these warriors were utilised as Scout Marines by the contingents they fought alongside, before joining their Legion proper. The Inductii of the White Scars often sought to prove their worth to their Legion through feats of arms, testing their skill against their foes' elite warriors in order to win the approval of their more experienced brethren.
- Space Wolves - The Inductii of the Space Wolves retained many of their Fenrisian tribal traditions, each seeking to prove their skill with blade and shield. With little time for training or indoctrination, these warriors were physically augmented, and then thrust into the crucible of battle, there to be forged into true Legionaries. The Inductii of the Space Wolves were prone to bravado, each warrior trying to outpace their fellows to cross blades with their enemy. While effective as shock tactics, such charges lacked the cohesive impact that more disciplined units were able to bring to bear.
- Imperial Fists - As Mankind's civil war ground on, it became increasingly clear that the conflict would ultimately be decided upon Terra. With this in mind, Rogal Dorn turned his Legion's training towards a defensive focus. Each new warrior was to be another brick in the defensive bastion of Terra, holding their designated position until slain. Such warriors were effective, if lacking in initiative, a necessary evil during those dark days. The Imperial Fists' creed of resilience permeated the mindset of their Inductii. Such warriors refused to give up even the most insignificant position in the face of their foe, pinning their enemy in place, allowing their supporting artillery to obliterate them at a distance.
- Blood Angels - Many Inductii of the Blood Angels saw none of the beauty in battle that their Legion brothers spoke of, knowing only the horror of the galactic civil war. Shorn of the intensive hypno-indoctrination that curbed the more animalistic aspects imbued by their flawed gene-seed, these warriors were often the dark mirror to their angelic brethren. The Inductii of the IXth Legion embodied the darker side of their Legion's psyche, often stopping mid-battle to tear slain foes apart and consume their flesh as they were consumed by the Red Thirst.
- Iron Hands - The use of cybernetic enhancements by the Iron Hands ensured that the flow of new recruits was kept high even when biological resources were running short or when implantation of other gene-seed organs failed. Following the death of Ferrus Manus at Isstvan V, and the steep losses of the Drop Site Massacre, these warriors would also come to see the forbidden technologies employed by their Legion as commonplace, their desire to punish the Traitors overriding any concerns about their provenance. Many Inductii units were issued with augmentations derived from heretical technologies of the Age of Strife originally sealed away by Ferrus Manus. While undoubtedly effective, they were also somewhat erratic, to the point of being dangerous, though to the nihilistic Iron Hands in the wake of their beloved primarch's death these risks were considered acceptable.
- Ultramarines - Throughout the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman made numerous tactical adjustments to his Legion, adapting it subtly for more effective prosecution of that conflict. Newly inducted warriors would be trained to fight in more flexible formations, suited to the engagements they would typically be engaged in, their belief in their cause unshakeable. In many ways, the Inductii of the Ultramarines were the most well-trained and well-adjusted of their ilk.
- Salamanders - Following the events of Isstvan V, the scattered remnants of the Salamanders took to recruiting from worlds liberated from Traitor oppression. These Inductii were often granted wargear taken from slain warriors of the Legion, accepting both the honour this bestowed, and the expectation it brought. Banded together under XVIIIth Legion veterans, these new units fought even harder to earn their place. Following the loss of most of the Legion's materiel at Isstvan V, the Salamanders took to equipping their Inductii with master-crafted weapons handed down from the slain. Thus was the trust and future of the Legion placed in the hands of each new recruit.
- Raven Guard - The history of the Raven Guard's recruitment in the wake of the loss of much of the Legion at Isstvan V is shrouded in mystery, but it is clear that the Legion recruited from many of the worlds left in the wake of Lion El'Jonson's Crusade of Vengeance. Taking the downtrodden and offering them a chance to strike back at their previous oppressors, the Raven Guard moulded a new generation of Astartes warriors in the image of those they had lost. The Inductii of the Raven Guard perpetuated the Legion's credo of never remaining stationary, extricating themselves from danger to strike anew from a different angle.
Traitor Legions[]
- Emperor's Children - As the fruits of Chief Apothecary Fabius' work spread throughout the IIIrd Legion, more and more recruits were subjected to experimentation by the Legion's Apothecarion. Empowered by a potent cocktail of experimental combat stimulants and physical modifications, their tortured minds strove even more self-destructively towards a desire for perfection. The Inductii of the Emperor's Children fought in a state of bliss that saw them fight on despite heavy casualties. Only when they failed to completely annihilate their enemies was their resolve seen to waver, however briefly.
- Iron Warriors - Utterly indoctrinated into their unyielding master Perturabo's methods of waging war, the Inductii of the Iron Warriors were likened to the automata of the Legio Cybernetica cohorts. Many observers compared them to statues, lurching into life to destroy their foe with roaring bolters before returning to unmoving silence. The Inductii of the Iron Warriors were conditioned to place no value on their own lives, marching stoically forwards, devastating each wave of foes in turn with bolter and blade.
- Night Lords - The scattered war bands of the Night Lords reaved throughout the Imperium, each warlord recruiting the most vicious killers they could find and demanding their obedience. Such Inductii were undoubtedly skilled killers, though their psychological makeup would have horrified the recruitment masters of more disciplined Space Marine Legions. The Inductii of the Night Lords employed every underhanded trick imaginable to kill their foes, feigning honourable intent to distract a powerful foe before ensuring they were laid low with a murderer's blade in their back.
- World Eaters - The Inductii of the World Eaters lived short and typically brutal lives, thrown into battles with little regard for preservation of forces or minimising attrition. Implanted with the Butcher's Nails neural implants at a young age, their tortured minds inhabited vat-grown bodies, resulting in even more unstable, but undoubtedly ferocious, killers than standard Inductii, devoid of any sense of pain, fear or defeat.
- Death Guard - The Inductii of the Death Guard spent much of their training separated from the bulk of their Legion. Sent forth from smaller holdings and from Barbarus itself to fortify, endure and if possible, expand their numbers, these warriors spread through the galaxy like a pestilence. Many foes were destroyed upon stumbling across these hidden garrisons, unaware of the threat before it consumed them. The Inductii of the Death Guard were indoctrinated and trained to be resilient in the face of anything the enemy could throw at them. The more of their brethren that were laid low, the more determined the survivors were to outlast their foes.
- Thousand Sons - In the aftermath of the destruction of their homeworld of Prospero, the Thousand Sons were forced to be less discerning in their recruitment. Experimenting with forbidden bio-alchemy and psychic indoctrination techniques in an attempt to rapidly rebuild their scattered Legion, the resulting Inductii were undoubtedly potent warriors and sorcerers, but exhibited a greater susceptibility to the feared genetic curse of the Flesh Change. The prosecution of the Horus Heresy left little time for extensive instruction in any but the most basic arcana of the Legion cults.
- Sons of Horus - The Sons of Horus were reasonably indiscriminate in their recruiting practices, operating as they did at the forefront of the civil war. Their most successful Inductii, however, were taken from worlds whose gang traditions mirrored those of Cthonia, ensuring the new Legionaries already understood the culture of strength and the requirement to prove their worth in the eyes of their superiors. Inducted into the Warmaster Horus' own Legion, the Inductii of the Sons of Horus sought ever to prove their worth to their superiors in a Legion which increasingly placed value only on brutality and resilience.
- Word Bearers - As the galactic civil war progressed, the Word Bearers' mastery of profane Chaos lore became a core part of their strategies, unleashing the powers of the Empyrean upon their unsuspecting foes. Marked with diabolic runes and brands, their Inductii were routinely exposed to the energies of the Warp, hardening their souls, and preparing their bodies for the eventual binding of malevolent Warp entities so that they might join the ranks of the "blessed" Possessed. The Inductii of the Word Bearers strove to attract the eye of their newfound Dark Gods through their actions, their ritually marked bodies a beacon to the Daemonic denizens of the Warp.
- Alpha Legion - A thorough examination of XXth Legion activity throughout the Horus Heresy has led some to speculate that the Alpha Legion had been performing mass induction of recruits since their very inception, using what other Legions would call Inductii as the mainstay bulk of their Legion. Utilised in holding positions while their more experienced brethren encircled the enemy, these warriors were employed in less clandestine roles than was typical of the XXth Legion's operations. Though relatively inexperienced, the Inductii of the Alpha Legion were still adept at mimicking the signals of their foes, luring them in close before opening fire.
See Also[]
Sources[]
- The Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Campaign: Siege of Cthonia (Specialist Game), pp. 30-32, 45-46, 48, 53, 60, 62, 65, 68-69, 71-72, 74, 79-80, 83, 88-90, 99-102, 108, 120-131, 146, 179, 224-234
- The Horus Heresy Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Supplement) by Alan Bligh, pp. 21, 112, 115, 249