Editing Eternal Zealots (section)

==The Rise of the XVIth Legion==

<span style="font-size:110%">'''The Sixteenth Squad of the Sacred Band'''</span>

Under the command of [[Hektor Cincinnatus]], the Sixteen Squad of the [[Sacred Band]] took part in the [[Unification_Wars_(Hektor_Heresy)#Pacification_of_the_Merican_Hives|Pacification of the Merican Hives]], leading the assault on Hive Flariad. Hive Flariad owed much of its defensibility to the surrounding wetlands, an artificial swamp that would deter any attempts to set up a protracted siege or mechanised assault. Aerial attacks were also ruled out due to the fearsome anti-aircraft defence matrix employed by the forces of Hive Flariad, resulting in the destruction of any aircraft within range. Imperial tacticians dubbed the swamp as the “Doomglade”, as any offensive that passed through the location was doomed to failure.

The warriors of the Sixteenth Squad pressed on despite the misgivings of their allies. They modified their armour, adding primitive jump packs that would allow them to dive and assault the hive from beyond the range of its anti-aircraft systems. Led by Varus Tithonus, these brave warriors plunged headfirst into battle, trusting in their manoeuvrability to dodge the flak that filled the skies. Upon breaching the outer levels of the hive, the warriors shredded the defences with astonishing ferocity, fuelled by excessive adrenaline that sent them into a state of battle-rage.

While the skies filled with Imperial aircraft that would form the brunt of the assault, the marines of the Sixteenth would continue to battle their way through the hive with reckless abandon. Carefully planned tactics and strategies were discarded in the heat of battle and soon the Sixteenth found themselves caught in ambushes and corralled into death zones. Casualties began to mount and soon the last five members of the Sixteenth Squad found themselves facing what was almost the entirety of the hive’s remaining defence forces, deep within the depths of the hive and separated from their Imperial allies.

It was Galle Nacht who first noticed the corrupted lightning bolt borne by the defenders of Hive Flariad. Hateful of the Emperor and fearful of his wrath, they had adopted twisted versions of his own icons as mockery, including a massive mural depicting the Emperor hanging from a noose. Enraged by the debasement of the enemy they faced, the Sixteenth Squad fought with unparalleled viciousness and frenzy. By the time Imperial forces reached the scene of the battle, it was thought that there were no survivors, such was the destruction wrought by the Sixteenth.

Five corpses were retrieved from the charnel house that was once Subsection 4A of Hive Flariad, space marines in shattered armour, their flesh almost turned to pulp from the sheer extent of injuries suffered. While preparations were being made to inform Hektor Cincinnatus of the total loss of the Sixteenth Squad, one of the “corpses” twitched. Slowly, double hearts began to beat and lungs took in fresh air. Against all the odds, the Sixteenth Squad was healing from the brink of death. Of the five who fell in Subsection 4A, Varus Tithonus, Galle Nacht and Fenrich Veiss were successfully resuscitated and another member of the Sixteenth, Ernst Gerd was later found to have also survived his injuries though left for dead in a prior ambush. 

<span style="font-size:110%">'''The Emerald Doom'''</span>

The Sixteenth Legion had a task set unto it by the Emperor himself: to destroy all idols and houses of false faith, to be the sharp edge that would wipe out all opposition to the Imperial Truth. Through their zeal the Sixteenth would eliminate all superstition and ignorance, bringing about rationality and enlightenment instead. They took to this task with a zealousness that unnerved their friends and terrified their foes, being called barbarians and madmen. Driven ever further by their flawed gene-seed, the Astartes of the Sixteenth plunged deep into the enemy, neutralising heavy defences and enemy leadership in spite of the heavy casualties they suffered.

Time and again they struck like a furious wind, seeking out the people, places and items which spoke of the power of sorcery, false gods and the irrational and destroying them. While the other squads of the Scared Bands fought their fights to defeat foes and take ground, the Sixteenth Squad fought to destroy false belief and usher in the light of the Emperor’s truth, the only truth. It was they who demolished the mighty heads of the ancient God-Kings of Merica from the Black Mountains of Merica, they who destroyed the House of the Wind Talkers and who burned the fanes of the Emperyite, every time showing the inhabitants what it meant to oppose the new truth the Emperor was determined to bring forth.

It was during the earliest conquests beyond Sol in those stars whose light could be clearly seen from the skies of Terra that the Legion earned its first name. The Sixteenth, at the time barely three thousand Astartes strong, was unleashed upon the Theocrats of Campeche. The Astartes lacked the numbers to make a full-scale assault upon all the temple-cities, and so they painted their armour green to better blend into the dense jungles, and struck at temple after temple, burning each to ashes and slaughtering the guards before fading back into the foliage. The terrified locals began to refer to them as ‘the Emerald Doom’, after an ancient myth of their world, and the Legion soon took to referring themselves as such during their increasingly bloody assaults as they slowly tightened the noose. After six months, the largest Temple City was stormed and sacked and the planet was finally pacified, The Legion departed, but kept the name they had earned on that world, and from then on they were known as the '''Emerald Doom'''. The Legion was granted a right of tithe for Campeche and many thousands of Campechians would end up serving within the Legion in the years to come.

The Legion moved from conquest to conquest, primarily engaged in the destruction of religiously motivated human empires, though countless Xenos races were also ground under by their fury. Though they were never close to their brother legions or highly respected by them, their task was a vital one and they gained numerous battle honours the equal of any other front-line Legion. The Emperor Himself commanded them on several occasions against foes that He decreed were deserving of destruction, and they were closely aligned with the Emperor and his own views on the future of the Imperium.

As brother Legion after brother Legion were reunited with their [[Primarchs_(Hektor_Heresy)|Primarchs]], some wondered if the Primarch of the Emerald Doom had been lost, for they remained fatherless long after almost all their fellows had found their gene-sires. The Legion did not seem to take notice. They had a task appointed unto them by the hand of the Emperor, and Primarch or not they would fulfill it. Equally of concern to the Legion was the degradation of their genetic legacy. The enhanced healing factors of the Sixteenth allowed them to survive their suicidal assaults, but brought unintentional side-effects. Battle-brothers who relied heavily on their healing abilities found themselves afflicted with crippling tumours, a cancer within that was impossible to remove. Within the Progenoid Glands of the Sixteenth, over half were riddled with cysts and growths, crippling the legion’s ability to replace their heavy losses. Even the famed commanders of the Sixteenth, surviving members of the Sacred Band were forced to withdraw from active duty, their malignant cancers forcing them into stasis until a cure could be found. 

The Legion’s aggressive drive against the foes of the Emperor was dooming them, and fears were voiced that the Legion would meet its end. Even the efforts of the famed [[Pallas Eugenesis]] amounted to little in the efforts to repair the geneseed of the Sixteenth. However, as the Legions reached the most distant shores of the Galaxy, on a lone world near the very edge of known space, a discovery was made that would change everything. It would save the Legion but ultimately spell the doom of the Emperor’s dream, the dream the Emerald Doom had fought so long for.

Their doctor had been found.

===Notable Campaigns===

*'''Battle of the Black Mountains'''. The Sixteenth spearheaded the assault against the religious fanatics who worshipped the ancient God-Kings of Merica.  
*'''The Submission of Agqumare'''. The Emerald Doom are severely tested in the unfamiliar waters of Agqumare. The unfamiliar conditions claim the lives of many legionaries of the Sixteenth before Agqumare is finally brought into Imperial compliance.