Alpha Legion Seeker Squad taking out their intended targets.
A Legion Seeker Squad, made up of Space Marines called Seekers, was a specialised unit of the ancient Legiones Astartes in use during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.
These squads specialised in infiltration behind enemy lines and identifying an enemy's command structure and taking it out in order to cause anarchy within the enemy's ranks.
History[]
A Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Seeker in Mark IV Maximus Power Armour. Note that this iconography is a mixture of the Hydra design and the older "aleph-null" or "Æternem" emblem of earlier record; the helmet stripe may indicate veterancy or a special deployment.
Legion Seeker Squads were formed from those Legionaries who were chosen on pure merit as the best marksmen in their Legion.
Comprised of a specialised force of Space Marines, it was the job of a Seeker Squad strike force to identify and take out an enemy's command structure, its warlords, officers, priests, demagogues, whatever form their commanders took, and slay them with a well-placed bolt round while the chaos of battle raged around them.
The Alpha Legion are said to have first crystalised this tactic and squad configuration, with the Emperor's approval, which soon spread to the other Legions, although its use sat poorly within the combat doctrine and cultures of some.
The Seeker Squads employed by the many Space Marine Legions were common. These tactics were taken a stage further by the Alpha Legion in the creation of an elite unit geared specifically to rapidly inflicting targeted casualties behind enemy lines, known variously as the Headhunters or "Effrit" -- although this latter term may also have referred to the act of assassination, and the sowing of destruction and chaos behind the lines mid-battle, as well as a particular unit type.
Often, a Seeker strike force would be forced to rely on the briefest window of opportunity to take down their targets at close range, rather than have the luxury of distance and able sighting as a sniper in a Legion Reconnaissance Squad might have.
To aid them in the kill, Seeker Squads were usually equipped with special issue ammunition (Kraken, Scorpius and Tempest bolt shells) and Combi-weapons where applicable, to better deal with their chosen victims.
Unit Composition[]
- 1 Seeker Strike Leader (Sergeant)
- 4-9 Seeker Space Marines
Wargear[]
- Power Armour (Any Firstborn pattern)
- Bolter
- Bolt Pistol
- Frag Grenades
- Krak Grenades
Optional Wargear[]
- Combi-weapon
- 1 Seeker may take a Nuncio Vox
Optional Wargear (Seeker Squad Strike Leader Only)[]
Sources[]
- Horus Heresy: Collected Visions (Art Book), pg. 314
- The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 210
- The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 38, 88, 96, 259, 275