Black Widows

The Black Widows are a 1st Founding Legion created from the lineage of the mysterious and enigmatic Omegon, one of the twin-Primarchs of the secretive Alpha Legion. The formation and purpose of this 'Shadow Legion' was purposely shrouded in mystery and bellicose concealment from the rest of the Nova Terra Regency, and though this Legion is not officially recognised as one of the Ur-Legions, they fulfill a vital and important role as stalwart defenders of the Segmentum Pacificus.

Legion History
The pall of mystery surrounding the so-called 'Black Widows' Legion can be traced back to their creation during the lamentable and devastating conflict known as the Horus Heresy. If a Legion's Primarch shaped his warriors with their will and intellect, so too did the tragedy of the devastating internecine conflict leave its indelible mark on the warriors that survived the black sands of Isstvan V. These scars came to shape this Legion's culture, values and methods of war in ways as subtle and deep as the mysteries woven into their flesh and souls. To understand how this Legion came to be as they are, one must first understand the conflict and the Primarch that shaped them.

The Astartes of this Legion were originally members of the mysterious Alpha Legion, the gene-sons of the enigmatic twin-Primarchs - Alpharius and Omegon. The pall of mystery surrounding the XX Legion can be traced back to their creation during the latter years of the Terran Unification Wars. They were the last known of the First Founding Legiones Astartes, whose factors relating to their specific ends and purposes were kept beyond the usual secrecy and security the Emperor normally employed. It is believed by many Nova Terran scholars that the secrecy surrounding this mysterious 'outsider' Legion and its designed purpose served to conceal the dark transformation at its heart which was long in its gestation.

The Ghost Legion
Of the early decades of the XX Legion on Terra and during the re-conquest of the Sol System almost nothing can be said with any accuracy whatsoever, and even the cluster of myths and rumours that would later grow to surround the Legion's activities is absent. What remains instead are a few sparse but suggestive fragments, anomalous records of unknown Legiones Astartes units carrying out targeted strikes, abductions and assassinations, both on Terra and beyond, and reports of Space Marine units answering to no known masters or Legion allegiance passing through war zones on high priority missions and under the writ of unassailable clearance codes which broached no question.

The Alpha & Omega
When the XX Legion reunited with their Primarch Alpharius (who unknown to outsiders, at the time, was a twin-Primarch of his brother, Omegon) it was eager, zealous and completely committed to embracing the Primarchs' command and combat philosophy. Alpharius led his Legion, created in his images, to the outer reaches of the Imperium, eager to join battle and emulate the glories of the older Legions. Their capacity for combined arms warfare, speed and surety of attack, were matched only by a mastery of the darker arts of war - of sabotage and ambush, stealth tactics and assassination. Quickly, the Alpha Legion developed an unmatched reputation among the Legiones Astartes - save perhaps by the Raven Guard - for the use of espionage, infiltration and sabotage in its strategic planning. But where the Raven Guard sought to use such tactics to achieve victory without unnecessary attrition, or spare a human population it sought to liberate, the Alpha Legion had other, darker, purposes in mind. To them, such covert tactics seemed almost a deadly game of prelude.

The Hydra Strikes
The XX Legion's zealousness to prove themselves as part of the Great Crusade at any cost, and the often over-elaborate and needlessly complex and malign way in which the Alpha Legion chose to wage war, saw them quickly gain infamy more than fame. This, coupled with growing distrust due to their insular and deceptive nature, brought rivalry and acrimony between the Alpha Legion and much of the rest of the Legiones Astartes. As time passed, the relationship between the Alpha Legion and its peers soured further. The nature of the Alpha Legion's way of war and their lack of alliance to the commands of other Legions placed over them in the field brought Alpharius into conflict several of his Primarch brothers on multiple occasions. If the Alpha Legion could be said to have had an ally or friend among the Primarchs, it was Horus himself, and a potent ally he would prove. Horus saw the XX Legion as a unique weapon in the Imperium's arsenal, its ambition laudable and its tactics not so very far removed from those favoured by his own XVI Legion (Sons of Horus).

After his ascension to the rank of Imperial Warmaster, where he gained control over the outward campaigns of the Great Crusade, Horus increasingly gave free reign to the Alpha Legion to operate independently of other Legiones Astartes forces. Secret reports prepared for both the Warmaster and the Imperial Court on Terra during this period show a growing unease about the Alpha Legion, some implying that it was increasingly beyond the Imperium's ability to measure or to control. As the time of the Horus Heresy drew closer, the Alpha Legion, as if in response to the growing cloud of suspicion and distrust of them in some quarters, drew further into the outer darkness at the fringes of known space, or at least appeared to. Their deceptions multiplied, as too, it appears, did the names that the XX Legion and its agents were known under, particularly in the dark stars beyond the Imperium's borders, where many of those it came into contact with had no idea of their destroyer's true nature or allegiance until it was too late.

With multiple examples of the XX Legion's growing psychosis and excesses existing in the Imperial records, it is perhaps easy to see why the Alpha Legion sided with Horus when the Warmaster made his pact with Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor; their martial pride and Alpharius' avoidance of all his Primarch brothers apart from Horus seemingly the catalysts for their downfall. When Alpharius ultimately chose to follow Horus in his belief that the ultimate destruction of Chaos was the choice the Emperor Himself would have made, unbeknownst to the Primarch, his twin brother did not feel the same. Though they both had sworn their undying loyalty to the Warmaster's cause, Omegon's loyalties still remained with the Emperor, a decision he chose to keep to himself - a testament to his devotion that he endeavoured to stay true to the Emperor's cause for so long.

Horus Heresy
When the Horus Heresy erupted and the atrocity at Isstvan III occurred, a large Alpha Legion strike force, comprising some 50,000 Legionaries under the direct command of their Primarch were conveniently situated to respond to Rogal Dorn's order to attack the Traitors at Isstvan V. The Alpha Legion and their Primarch had then been supposedly all but out of contact with the rest of the Great Crusade for several standard years, and by this fact was Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, likely assured of their loyalty and lack of involvement with whatever treacherous madness had befallen Horus and his immediate coterie. This could not however have been further from the truth as their involvement in the Dropsite Massacre was to prove - and there have even been unsubstantiated claims since that Alpharius had a hand in the planning of the subsequent Traitor atrocity that would occur on the black sands of Isstvan V.

Dropsite Massacre
"And the voice of his brother's blood shall cry unto him from the ground and demand vengeance..."

- Auto-lingua transcription, Astropathic Conduit Trans-Epsilon Thule, Sol-Lorian Relay

After the virus-bombing of Isstvan III which wiped out the Loyalist elements of the Traitor Legions under the Warmaster's command, the presumed Loyalist Alpha Legion was one of the Space Marine Legions sent by the Emperor to destroy Horus and the Traitor Legions at their base on Isstvan V. The Alpha Legion (alongside the Night Lords, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers) would be one of several so-called 'Loyalist' Legions of the second waves that would turn upon the Loyalist first wave comprised of the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard Legions.

Even before the Traitors' treacherous blow was stuck, Horus' grand plan had, unknown to him, begun to unravel before the second wave of secretly-aligned Traitor Legions turned upon the Loyalists. The impending massacre had been discovered by several Legionaries amongst those Legions under the Warmaster's command, that remained loyal to their Emperor and those that still followed Him. Chief among these were the Primarchs Omegon of the Alpha Legion, twin-brother of Primarch Alpharius, and Konrad Curze of the Night Lords.

Sadly, the two Primarchs were unaware of each others' sympathies towards the doomed Loyalist Legions that had been sent to bring the Warmaster to heel. Omegon had long harboured deep suspicions about his Legion's growing secrecy and unorthodox actions, even for a Legion steeped in intrigue and subterfuge, and had uncovered the truth of the coming betrayal that was to be enacted against the Legions of the Loyalist first wave. Omegon acted swiftly, rallying Loyalists to him and working out the means to contact the Primarchs of the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders and warn them of the Warmaster's treachery on the planet's surface.

To help bring warning to his fellow Loyalists, Omegon decided to utilise his warriors of the elite Effrit Stealth Squads, the specialised infiltration unit that was formed from those Legionaries that were masters of infiltration, stealth, sabotage and assassination. Chosen for their adaptive thinking as well as their ability to improvise, these Alpha Legion infiltrators were known for their innate abilities to blend-in with any environment. To accomplish their mission objective, they acquired several sets of battle-plate from the three Loyalist Legions when they gathered during the initial planning stages of the Isstvan campaign. They then had their minds reprogrammed psychically by the Legion's Librarians still loyal to Omegon, shielding the infiltrators' minds from casual inspection by psychic or technological means. Once completed, they infiltrated one of the three Loyalist Legions assigned to the first wave. Unfortunately, time and fate intervened, seemingly conspiring against Omegon's efforts to warn his Loyalist brethren of the Warmaster's diabolical plot.

The exact events leading up to the inevitable disaster that followed are cloaked in mystery, supposition, lies and simple ignorance. Much of the bloodshed that would occur on the black sands of Isstvan V even as it occurred, would cast a veil over much that would never be lifted. Though much is known of the roll of the Arch-Traitor Horus and his cohorts in the subsequent Dropsite Massacre, the roll of those within the Traitor Legions that remained loyal to the Emperor and their attempts to halt the slaughter is largely unknown. The full truth is far more complex and far more mysterious than will ever likely be known. Suffice to say, without the intervention of Omegon and his Effrit operatives, the ensuing tragedy that occurred would have been completely catastrophic.

Following the initial sub-orbital assault of the Loyalist first wave, the Traitors' instigated a feint in order to draw in the Loyalist Legions deep into the plateau, known as the Urgall Depression, and surround them. Despite the urge to carry out righteous retribution against their Traitorous kin, with every fibre of their beings, they remained disciplined enough to heed the warning of Omegon's operatives. Thanks to efforts of Omegon to warn his three Loyalist brother-Primarchs of the encroaching trap, the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders initiated a fighting withdrawal straight through the ring of Traitors that attempted to surround, and close in, on their position at the mouth of the Urgall Depression.

When the Traitors were forced to reveal their treachery sooner than expected, due to the Loyalists unexpected withdrawal, Omegon led those gene-sons still loyal to him against his traitorous brethren, attacking their flanks and cutting them down with the roar of thousands of bolters. Caught in a pincer movement between the withdrawing Loyalists and their own brothers, the Alpha Legion's traitorous brethren were now forced to fight on two fronts. Once the traitor Alpha Legionnaires recovered from their initial shock, they managed to fight their former brethren to a standstill. Finding their forces too evenly matched, Omegon ordered his forces to flee alongside the Raven Guard. During the withdrawal, the Sons of Corax were the closest to the ranks of the traitorous second wave, and therefore, sustained the heaviest casualties during the withdrawal. Both Omegon's loyalist sons and the Raven Guard would go on to fight a guerrilla war against the remaining Traitor forces that hunted them over the next three months, before they finally received salvation in the form of reinforcements from additional Raven Guard forces.

Thanks to Omegon and his efforts, the tragedy of the Dropsite Massacre would have been a total catastrophe for the Loyalist Legions. As it stood, the Loyalists still suffered horrific casualties, but the Warmaster's attempt to wipe them out wholesale inevitably failed to achieve the desired result. Both the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords had broken down into internecine fighting amongst themselves, with those loyal to the Emperor or the Warmaster, fighting one another in brutal, all-out slaughter. Vulkan and Ferrus Manus managed to pull back their Legions and crash into the ranks of the Traitor line, avoiding the deadly artillery barrage planned by the Iron Warriors, as Perturabo seethed with rage at having his meticulous stratagems thwarted. With the help of their extensive armour and aerial support elements, these two Loyalist Legions miraculously managed to evacuate a good portion of their Legions from the surface and flee into orbit.

Many vessels were lost in the horrific sub-orbital barrage of the Traitor vessels in orbit. Those that managed to fly their way through the deadly barrage, limped back to their awaiting vessels and fled from the deadly conflict in order to lick their wounds, regroup and re-arm themselves. Eventually they would take the fight back to their treacherous former brother-Legions, as the conflict rapidly spread throughout the width and breadth of the galaxy. Those few Night Lords still loyal to their Primarch also managed to fight their way of the blood-drenched surface of Isstvan V and fled for parts unknown. Following the disappearance of Konrad Curze and his loyalist sons, there would be only scant reports of various guerrilla actions being carried out by Legionaries wearing sombre midnight clad battle-plate, that occurred intermittently, during the rest of the conflict.

The exact details as to what occurred on the ground was only partly reconstructed from various eye-witness accounts as well as partial-cortical captures of slain Legionaries on both sides and the few stratagem-logs taken from captured enemy vessels and interrogation logs of later provenance. The black sands of Isstvan V drunk deep of the blood of loyalist and traitor alike, and more than likely the full extent of the glory and perfidy that was unleashed would never be known.

Notable Black Widows

 * Omegon - One of the twin-Primarchs of the Alpha Legion, he was one of the Primarchs of the original Space Marine Legions created in the earliest days of the Imperium of Man, during the Terran Wars of Unification. He also served as the commander of the XX Legion's elite Effrit Stealth Squads during the Great Crusade and subsequent Horus Heresy. Following the tragedy of the Dropsite Massacre of Istvaan V and the subsequent inter-legionary war fought between the loyalist and traitor factions of the Alpha Legion, Omegon leds those still loyal to the Emperor in a daring escape, to continue waging war against the those loyal to the Arch-Traitor Horus.
 * (Ma)Thias Herzog - Former Second Captain of the Alpha Legion, he followed Primarch Omegon's lead and willingly turned against his traitorous former brethren during the campaign on Isstvan V. He would continue to follow his Primarch during the Age of Darkness and beyond, serving him loyally as his Equerry for centuries.
 * Sheed Ranko - Sheed Ranko was the former master of the Alpha Legion's elite Lernaean Terminator Squads during the Great Crusade. He was an especially larger-than-normal Astartes, who could double quite well for both Omegon and Lord Alpharius in diplomatic circumstances. He was a loyal Legionary who was known to accept any mission with the utmost secrecy. During the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, he followed Primarch Omegon during the inter-legionary fighting on Isstvan V.

By the Black Widows
"Everything that the spider needs to make a spider-web is not found in the housefly it's right there in the spider! Whatever you need to make a viable impact is in you! Once you discover this undeniable truth about yourselves, you will be able to achieve whatever objectives you set your mind to."

- (Add name) to Black Widow Aspirants

"Spiders are notoriously anti-social but they keep pests under control, and mostly mind their own business. Yet somehow, they manage to summon a primal fear in humans who are far more dangerous, deceitful and have hurt more people. Of the two I'm more suspicious about the latter."

- (Add name) explaining the nature of their Legion

"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion."

- Unknown. Ancient Old Earth proverb.

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