The Legio Cybernetica, being given artificial life and the gift of independent thought inevitably lead to the Age of Strife. Lets take a look!
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
The Legio Cybernetica can trace its origins to when early technosavants experimented with artificial life. Ever curious, those early pioneers not only constructed vast hosts of automatons but also gave their creations the gift of independent thought. That decision was to cost them dearly, and the rest of Humanity with it.
In the aftermath of the destruction, the infant Adeptus Mechanicus subsequently followed a sacred charge known as the Crimson Accords of Mars, the cornerstone of doctrinal law created during the foundation of the Mechanicum during the Age of Strife. The Accords forever forbade the creation of the abominable and soulless intelligences known as the Silica Animus and pronounced a death sentence on any Silica Animus who remained and any in the Mechanicum who tried to create them. These accords however allowed the survival and creation of ‘lesser and righteous works’ of synthetic life deemed sacred. The Battle Automata of the Legio Cybernetica were among these chosen.
The Legio Cybernetica was assimilated into the armed forces of the Imperium in the aftermath of the Treaty of Olympus which bound together the domain of the Emperor and Mars. A great many Cohorts were transferred from duties defending Forge Worlds to serve in the frontlines of the Great Crusade. During the Crusade, members of this division served the Emperor, with the likes of Gergerra Rei leading two full cohorts of combat mechanoids fighting many battles alongside Warmaster Horus and his Luna Wolves. Members of the Legion became corrupted by Horus after he fell to Chaos and many of their units supported his ideal of an Imperium of Chaos. Some of the Magos who sided with Horus hoped to abandon the Crimson Accords and saw the Warmaster as a chance to pursue long forbidden A.I. development. Following the outbreak of the Horus Heresy on Isstvan V, the bases of the corrupt Legio Cybernetica on Mars were immediately assaulted by loyalists.
Perhaps one of the most famous robot-vs-robot actions during the Heresy took place in the Eastern Industrial Sector of Myrdinn City during the Scouring of Entessian, when a small but well-programmed force of Traitor robots held off a small force of Firebrand Titans supported by dreadnoughts and robots for almost an hour, causing considerable disruption to the planned flanking sweep.
Following the defeat of the Heresy and the banishment of the Traitor Legions, the dishonored Legio cohorts also fled into the Eye of Terror, where they remain to this day. Since the defeat of Horus, the Legio Cybernetica has pledged itself anew to the Imperium. Its members now take binding oaths of loyalty more terrible than any Marine Chapter oaths.
As a way to avoid further rebellions, since the Heresy the Legio Cybernetica’s robots have been controlled completely by their masters – not by the bio-plastic cerebra and nerve-like tendril webs of Mechanicum constructs, but by sanctified doctrina wafers. No bigger than the cards of the Emperor’s Tarot, these slivers of wetware are entrusted to the Cybernetica Datasmiths that accompany the robot maniples to war. Inserted into the dataslot hidden behind each robot’s chestplate, the wafer’s command protocol will dictate every iota of the host’s behaviour.
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About the Author: Zeb Barrett
