The 2nd Legion - a fan-made project by Ryse

throughout the 10'000 years of the Imperium, there have been many occasions where records have been lost or deliberately expunged, for reasons only known to those present at the time. This is a tale of one of those moments, untold in the Imperium are the exploits of the 2nd legion known to only those of the highest echelons of the Holy Ordos. This is the rise and fall of a Primarch and a civil war caused by bitterness and pride.

The Beginning

when the Gods of Chaos separated the Primarchs from their Father and spread them across the galaxy, all of them found themselves in radically differing situations and environments from Holy Terra the same was true for the Primarch of the 2nd Legion a being that one day would be known across the galaxy as the Matiel Astir - The Pirate King.

When the incubation pod of the 2nd primarch was spat out of the warp it did not land on a planet but instead found itself drifting in the void of space in a system known to its inhabitants as the Tortujea system. this was a system controlled by a corsair coalition made up of various races, that fought each other as often as they raided nearby systems for plunder and slaves, controlled by an Eldar Corsair by the name of Faerdun Feywild, this force was a menace to practically every world within 100 standard light years of it Base.

It was here that his incubation pod was finally found by one of the much smaller craft that patrolled the system, the pilots of the craft obviously thinking they had found some salvage must have been most surprised when they opened the pod to find an adolescent child asleep inside, almost immediately the child was brought before there corsair lord.

the Pirate coalition of Tortujea although made up of various races from Elder to Demiurge did not have humans as crew members or captains instead humans were used as slaves to help mine the planets in the Tortujea System, when the child was brought before the Corsair lord his seers warned against letting the child live, but in his arrogance he ignored their advice and sent the child to the many slave pens that doted the systems main planet Tortujea Prime.

When Matiel was left in one of the many prison camps that existed in the system he found himself one of only a small group of children, for although the large amounts of slaves produced many children they would be taken from them in order to be raised to be perfect servants for the Corsair elite, just one last spiteful act to lay on the many suffered, by the slaves of Tortujea.

He entered the chamber alone, his giant sword Freewill in his hand.

"you ate them" he stated his cold barely restrained fury making his entire body shiver,

the Corsair Lord smiled "they were of no use to us otherwise beast... and that is the use of cattle is it not?"

"you call me a beast yet tear away infants barely from their mother's breast?" he shook his head "to feed your insatiable lust, desires, and appetites? you will pay for this atrocity Eldar scum!"

the Corsair Lord smiled rising from the ornate chair he had been sitting and drew his sword.

"come beast... make me pay"

Matiel, The Pirate King roared as he charged towards the one who had enslaved him this creature was going to pay for his crimes and no force in this universe would stop him.

On Tortujea Prime, Matiel found himself surrounded by men and women that had been captured by the Corsairs to mine and process the raw minerals they needed to power their warships, they were a downtrodden and miserable people for whom random executions and tortures were a part of their everyday lives, however as the only child present in the camp the older and more hopeful slaves took him in and taught him all that they knew.

within the space of a few years, Matiel grew and learned, the men and women that taught him had come from all walks of life from engineering, law, crime and military careers, from them he learned the philosophies and ideas he would carry into his adult life.

By the time he reached the 10th anniversary of his arrival to Tortujea prime Matiel towered over the other slaves and had secretly become their leader, organizing food raids and sabotaging the corsairs supply lines from the planet to the large space station orbiting the planet called The Wild Star, however, all this achieved was fierce retribution on the slaves as the Corsair overlords were all too aware of the source of these attacks, from hidden spies and captured rebels, this is when Matiel came up with an ingenious plan one that would require a wealth of good luck to work and the Corsairs themselves to assist with.

Matiel gathered his followers and together overthrew the guards of their camp, killing all but a few of them before freeing the rest of the slaves and disappearing into the jungles that covered Tortujea Prime. Over the next few years they planted their own spies and operatives into the corsairs, planting false evidence and framing many of the lords for attacks committed on the corsairs and even framing them for assisting the burgeoning rebellion, of course not all of the attacks committed by the rebels were blamed on mostly innocent corsair lords so as to avoid suspicion being laid on the rebels, but these acts made the infighting that was already common in the Coalition even worse, with not even Lord Faerdun himself being able to control his lords and stop the fighting as it spiraled out of control, this enabled the rebels to increase their numbers, steal weaponry from the hated corsairs and even capture small craft to assist in their missions, and finally the greatest accomplishment yet the capture of a warship that sat in dry dock on The Wild Star awaiting scrapping, the Ship itself was a Battleship captured by the corsairs in one of their many raids on the nearby human controlled systems. the Ships original name is lost completely to the ages but when it was taken by Matiel he renamed it: Trailblazer.

the Trailblazer was a relic of the dark age of technology its once powerful engines and weapons barely working, it had been used by the humans that owned it before as merely a morale booster as it was in no fighting shape and couldn't even achieve warp flight, as repairs on the ancient engines required knowledge that had long been lost in old night by the ships previous owners, for Matiel however this was merely a challenge to overcome and gathering all his rebel force on the captured ship they hid in the asteroid belt of the system, an ancient collection of old ships and rocks long since mined for their worth. Here Matiel started repairs, cannibalizing the many wrecks in the belt to repair systems and relying on his engineers and his own mechanical genius to fix the many broken systems. After 6 months he took the Trailblazer for her first engagement attacking a small squadron of corsair destroyers and wiping them all out, this was only the first move as his attacks escalated into bolder and more devastating strikes.

Matiel smiled as watched the guns of the Trailblazer hammer the transport.

"Captain!" said one of the many officers "we have Corsair ships inbound!"

Matiel turned and looked at the hololithic display, they were closing fast and the window of opportunity was closing to him.

"prepare boarding parties!" he announced, "time to claim our prize!"

over a campaign lasting 3 years Matiel managed to clobber together a small force of nearly 30 vessels with his ship the Trailblazer being by far the largest and acting as a flagship for his burgeoning fleet, however he was still a small threat to the large Corsair fleet that dominated the system and they were getting closer and closer to discovering the last hiding places he had left for his fleet, he had little choice anymore if he wanted this to end it would have to be done with speed and precision he had to separate the head from the body of the Coalition and take out Faerdun if he wanted to save his people, this would be no easy task however the Wild Star was a fortress station built by the previous human inhabitants of the system millennia ago and would need an armada almost 30 times the force he had to take alone, nevermind the hundreds of Corsair ships that surrounded the station nearly all the time. Caution and wisdom had stayed his hand so far as to commit to such an attack (if it even succeeded) would cost him almost his entire force and that was a price he was not willing to pay as he refused to sacrifice potentially all the men under his command in such a risky plan, the lessons he had learned and the philosophy he followed forbid such a reckless waste of life. Early on in his beginnings as leader of the rebellion, Matiel wrote a series of rules that eventually became known as the Code of the Pirate King.

The code when originally devised had only 10 rules but more were added over time and some were even removed but these are the original rules as decreed by Matiel Astir:

1. No Man or Woman may steal from another crew member, if any crew member is discovered to have stolen from a fellow crew member the sentence is 50 licks of the cats'tail, if they have stolen from the crew of another ship they are to reimburse that crew member an amount equal to the stolen good(s).

2. no person to play dice or cards for money/ plunder

3. all crew are to receive a share of plunder to be divided by the quartermaster of the ship in relation to injuries, deeds performed in acquiring said plunder.

4. if any man or woman betrays/ deserts his or her crew the punishment is death by Cats'tail

5. any acts of violence or rape committed on civilian persons shall be met by death through expulsion (air lock).

6. no fighting is to occur onboard ship, any duels may only take place side at completion of the mission.

7. any ship taken by a man or woman shall be given to them to command if they wish if not they will be reimbursed for the cost of said ship.

8. any man or woman that spots an enemy ship first shall be granted the finest weapon on board said ship when captured.

9. no man or woman will take leave until his/her ship is shipshape and ready for departure.

10. all captains a responsible for the care and wellbeing of their crew at all times and must make sure all needs for the crew are provided for, however, any man that disobeys an order from the captain shall suffer the Cats'tail.

these rules are what guided the rebellion in its early days and even the 2nd legion when he took command however these were modified over time as Matiel Learnt from mistakes he made in the code and omitted or changed entries.

in the final months of his campaign Matiel suffered a string of defeats to the Corsairs, time was running out but he dared not strike against the Wild Star for he knew the fight could cost too much for his forces however this all changed when one of his top agents delivered intel that would change everything.

the silence filled the war room of the Trailblazer as the men and woman under Matiel's command glanced at each other too shocked to speak.

"repeat that Koren" muttered Matiel his voice barely a whisper yet audible to all present.

"I found out what happened to the Crew of the Iscariot," the agent known as Koren said her pale face awash with grief "they have been using them as... as..sustenance."

"but.. why?" gasped Lance looking from Koren to Matiel "why do this? of all things."

"because they are Xenos scum Lance, they don't need a reason" growled Matiel his anger rising "and we will wipe them from the face of this galaxy" he turned to his captains "prepare your ships for the final battle my brothers and sisters" he smiled but there was no humor in it "tonight we show them the true meaning of retribution!"

but the truth was more horrifying than any of them could have possibly imagined, this revelation almost broke Matiel as the realization of how he could have ended this cabal of evil sooner ate away at him, and with no hesitation he prepared his fleet for war, they would rush the Fortress and board it as near to the command centre as possible, once onboard they would head straight to the command center and take control of the station so they could secure all exits in and out and take control of the stations many weapon systems, whilst Matiel with a small force of his most elites warriors would go after Faerdun and kill him and any that tried to stop them.

the attack began with explosions on multiple corsair ships, which unbeknownst to the Xenos crews had human agents among there slaves that had under Matiel's orders planted explosives on many of the ships, and at a signal from the Trailblazer had detonated them simultaneously. with so many ships taken out of the fight at once the remaining corsair ships confused and stunned, panicked and attacked each other as old feuds and paranoia erupted into a full-scale battle between the numerous factions that made up the Coalition, with the enemy suitably confused the Rebel fleet stormed in with all the righteous fury that they had, unleashed into the mass of Coalition ships. thousands of Xenos died with the insurgent bombs and even more died as the coalition tore itself apart, but those losses paled in comparison to the casualties created by the rebels under Matiel, his tactical genius fully unleashed his small force of only 30 ships decimated any ships they passed leaving them naught but husks of broken metal and wraithbone, as soon as they were close enough Matiel gave the order to board and 10'000 warriors of the Rebellion launched from boarding pods and strike craft into the heart of the Wild Star.

the battle for the command center lasted a mere hour before it fell and the rebel forces took control of the station's weapon systems raining fire on what remained of the shattered Coalition fleet, whilst Matiel, finding the evil Elder lord dueled to free his people in one final battle.

what happened between the Primarch and Elder lord is lost to history but what is known is that when the battle was done Matiel Astir, King of Pirates emerged, bloodied but triumphant his enormous Bastard Sword Freewill covered in the elder's blood, the war was over, the Xenos were running from Tortujea and although many men had died trying to take the command center the losses were far lower than had been projected, but before they could celebrate their victory against their hated foes one of the officers sitting at the consoles cried out. Another fleet had just dropped into the system that dwarfed the enemy forces they had already defeated and was approaching the station, fearing that Coalition reinforcements had arrived, Matiel ordered the station self destruct protocols to be activated, thinking that if their base of power in the system was denied they could still keep the fight up using the guerilla tactics that had worked so well for them so far, before he could enact this final solution however he was hailed by the lead ship of the fleet.

Matiel grimaced slightly at the announcement from the comms officer

"answer it" he growled "maybe it can buy us some time"

the officer nodded and pressing some buttons brought up an image on the Oculus, the static buzzed on the screen for a second before it cleared to reveal a golden giant in armor sitting in the ships command throne. the man looked both old and young, kind yet stern a face of a thousand emotions and experiences looked at Matiel as if seeing into his very soul.

"hello there Matiel," said the golden giant, a smile on his face "I'm the emperor of mankind... and I have been looking for you"

the first meeting with the emperor of mankind was a tense one, as although they had just defeated one enemy this new one seemed even more threatening, Matiel met his Father on board the emperors flagship the Bucephelus, there father and son discussed in length the Imperium of Mankind and the goals of the great crusade, they discussed the creation of the primarchs and how although scattered they were slowly being discovered like him, all over the galaxy.

Matiel gathered his most loyal warriors to him and gave them one command, rebuild a home for all humans of Tortujea to finally be free, and with this command he took a handful of his commanders and after the emperors own tech-priest had repaired the ancient and damaged warp drives on the Trailblazer headed towards the Throneworld, Terra.

hey guys,

I hope you enjoyed my tiny background for my own 'lost' legion the Star Renegades, this I merely an experiment in writing for me and although I enjoyed writing it immensely I'm fully aware it's far from perfect so constructive criticism is very much wanted so I can improve my writing.

if you want to know more about the Star Guardians please let me know and I will make sure to post it as soon as it is finished.

thanks, guys

Ryse the Inquisitor