Legio Scylla

Name: Legio Scylla
Founding: Age of Strife, Pre Imperium, Kharybdis Mechanicum
Homeworld: Kharybdis Alpha, Kharibdis System (Previously Glaucus System)
Alliance: Chaos (Traitoris Perdita)

History

Old Night

Legio Scylla claims to originate from the very earliest days of the Martian cults' rise, founded by one of the first Ark Mechanicums that undertook the long march, establishing the first distant Martian Colonies. The expedition that founded the great twin forge worlds of Kharibdis was headed by the enigmatic Magos Verne Nemocognita, a visionary and one of the most vocal Magi involved in the decision to send the great Arks into the unknown. In order to gain approval for his project, Nemocognita volunteered to lead the first expedition himself, as a sign of confidence in the project's future. Eventually, the Ark found its way to its great and distant destination:the darkened Glaucus system.

Acting on telemetry data and light captured from stars millenia old, one unfortunate truth of space travel had occurred - Change. While the Ark had adjusted for stellar drift, the Martians could not have known how old and warped their data on the system was. The sun was dead, and had collapsed into a black hole. Unable to journey further, with systems already on the brink of collapse, Nemocognita would not be proven wrong. His now ancient frame still alive due to the incredible rejuvat treatments and cybernetic enhancements his station afforded, the Magos set his intellect upon making the best of this new situation. He cannibalized his great Ark upon the one of the two worlds that now maintained a stable orbit and still maintained a serviceable atmosphere. With light, heat and energy being the enemy of his mission, the Magos created great fusion plants and geothermal rams, reigniting the spark of fire upon the world he had chosen centuries ago. 

The following is a work of Fan Fiction - This is unofficial homebrew lore for the universes of Warhammer, a Games Workshop IP. 

LEGIO SCYLLA

The Legio Scylla is a Traitor Titan Legion that fell to Chaos during the events of the scouring. It has a storied history surrounded in myth and speculation dating back to Old Night. Legio Scylla have long fought closely with the XXth legion, after being rediscovered during the late great crusade. Even during the closing days of the crusade, the Legio had a reputation for surprise and terror tactics, favoring the speed and agility of packs of lighter class war engines such as the Warhound. 

Renaming the system and its black star Kharibdis, for an ancient Eurocontinent myth, Nemocognita eventually spread his efforts to Kharibdis Beta, and from there the twin forge worlds of Kharibdis were born.

From there, to defend against prowling foes, he rose up and founded the Legio Scylla upon Kharibdis Alpha, and the Legio Circe upon Kharibdis Beta. Over the centuries, Scylla would grow in legend in the region. Kharibdis was a hungry system, a dead black blot in space that would occasionally trap alien vessels in its gravity well. With no accretion disk, only the gravitational anomaly of the black hole could be seen in this dark patch of space. These ships were consumed and repurposed, torn apart and stripped down and used as more fuel for Kharibdis’ growth. Eventually the hunger of the twin forges grew larger, and the Legio Scylla began being dispatched as the colossal vanguard of terrifying raids of all nearby systems. The black ships of Kharibdis would descend, blotting the sky and disgorging huge bulk lifters, as the prowling titans of Scylla earnt their reputation as nightmarish titans from the black abyss. None could fight back against such might, and worlds watched as whole countries worth of resources were stripmined and raided. In this way, the power, reach and reputation of Scylla became legend. 

Great Crusade:

Perhaps due to their distance and difficulty in being detected, official records show the Kharibdis system as being brought into compliance only a solar decade before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. If it wasn’t for the XXth Alpha Legions knack for hiding and moving in darkened secret places, it is possible Kharibdis would never have been discovered. Despite imperial records, trace evidence can be found to suggest the XXth legion had been dealing with the forge world for some time prior to the official records of compliance, although this cannot be verified.
Once joined with the Imperium again, Kharibdis maintained a distant and barely cordial relationship with the Mechanicum cult, having built an identity on their hard work and survival against all odds, the idea of ceding their newfound independence and authority to the very bureaucratic Magi that had been too conservative to dare to chart unknown realms irked the council of Magi that now ruled the system. Nevertheless, they maintained the minimum in cordial relations to ensure no threat of reprisal, frequently reinforced by assigning the Legio Scylla to serve alongside the Alpha Legion. 

Their tactics paired naturally with their new allies in the XXth, with a preference for intelligent tactical operations, suprise, and the strategic application of terror and overwhelming firepower, a bond of trust formed between Scylla and the Alpha Legion that outstripped any bonds to the Imperium at large. 

As a Legio, they distinguished themselves well on many battlefields, gaining a service record that has been questioned by many logisians throughout history. Their deployments spanned almost any operating theatre the Alpha Legion deployed to, and it is unknown and occasionally questioned how they managed to deploy so many engines across such a vast distance in a comparatively short time.

Horus Heresy:

At the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, warp storms severed easy lines of communication and travel between distant Terra and Kharybdis, and rather than capitalizing on this with treachery, the Forge played a hand of deceit and apathy, avoiding direct conflict as much as possible. Their impassive stance was maintained in service of being a principal supplier of weapons to the Traitor Legions via the XXth Legion, and with the Primarch of the XXth assuring Horus of their loyalty but obfuscating their assistance from the Imperium by fencing their goods, the forge managed to escape reprisal or suspicion for the length of the heresy.

As for the Legio Scylla, they dispatched on multiple occasions, fighting in theatres as a hidden blade utilized by the XXth legion. They hit hard where such force was unexpected, and in battlefields where evidence of their involvement would have the greatest chance of being burnt clean from the world. On occasions where their forces were recorded as being deployed, erroneously or not by survivor reports, it was never clear if they had declared for either side.

As many reports of Scylla engines aiding the defenders of the imperium emerged as those suggesting their involvement in lightning strikes against imperial holdings, and in the turmoil of the heresy, no conclusion was ultimately drawn. 

The Scouring:

When Horus fell and the forces of the Imperium chased the traitors to the edge of the Eye of Terror, finally the loyalty of Legio Scylla became known. Pulled into the light by requisition orders and fleet demands to frequent to ignore, the Legio declared for the Imperium, and joined a portion of its strength to those hunting fleets chasing traitor warbands across the galaxy. However this declaration would not be so simple, as eye witness reports and growing accounts began to put black marks against the Legios name. Princeps of the Legio developed a reputation as being cruel, like leviathans in the sea, pulling down an entire ship to take only the captain. Their records for civilian casualties peaked, and their tactics were repeatedly called into question. While no quarter was given to traitors, instances of friendly fire and ‘acceptable casualties’ from the Legio Scylla became difficult to ignore. Not only this, but several notable Magi of the Mechanicum noted ‘deviations’ in standard pattern equipment, armor and decorations upon the Scylla titans that ‘raised questions’. Eventually, questions became scrutiny, and through unknown means, the Imperium discovered enough evidence to finally decide to act against the Legio.

Redeploying the scattered Scylla engines into a single campaign, the Imperium made the difficult decision to act on information, and ambush and betray the Legio Scylla in one clean swoop. On this fated day, with the assembled engines gathered and the Imperium ready to deliver the hammer blow, that the unexpected occurred. Through operative tip offs and sabotage, likely attributed to their long time allies in the XXth legion, Scylla knew of the impending reprisal, and chose to act. True to their legend and their long legacy of war, the surprise ambush was ambushed. The ring of Imperial forces set around the powered down engines of Scylla in order to destroy them was themselves suddenly surrounded, with dozens of fresh war machines, comprising the rest of Scyllas strength that had been assumed a garrison force on Kharybdis, the dreaded Legio turned the tables, slaughtering the loyalists who had sought to do the same to them that very day.

From there, the Legio scattered, disappearing into the night. Seeking reprisal, scouring crusade forces demanded the location of Scyllas homeworld and home forge - But found it corrupted. Data purged and burnt from all records due to scrapcode virus. Some posit that this information was destroyed early in the heresy, and administratum records on “Kharybdis” and their deployed “Legio Scylla” were acted upon in good faith, separate from the telemetry and location of the forge itself, others insist the XXth legion never correctly logged the information to begin with. Either way, the Dark Forge of Kharybdis, orbiting its black hole, remains a terrifying myth into the 41st Millenium. 

Legion Strength

Pre Heresy: 

Due to its early founding and development, and its relatively uninterrupted or stalled rise into power, Legio Scylla boasted impressively high numbers of engines. Reports delivered by the XXth legion to the imperium put the number of engines at around 50, but the ultimate betrayal during the Scouring proved the Legio could field just over 100 Titans in battle. Numerically, this makes Legio Scylla one of the largest Titan Legions during the Horus Heresy, although it should be noted that the bulk of their number comprise of smaller scout titans, and they had relatively few battle class titans (Due largely to their role as fast assault raiders)

It is unclear however, if any of these numbers or reports hold any veracity. What is known, however, is that the Legio was deployed on numerous occasions and often with maniples on multiple worlds, in vastly different regions of space at the same time, so higher estimates seem likely.

“To change humanity is to dream, to dream is to wander… Where we wander, our foes tremble” - Archmagos Verne Nemocognita - Founder