Legio XVI: Immortals

Legio XVI: Immortals

Primarch’s Name: Leto
Homeworld: Tambora II
Background: Thinker
Psychic Potential: Fair
Gene-seed: Stable
Talent: Organizational Genius
Colors: various
Battle Cry: Strength through unity! Unity of purpose!

Home System

The Primarch Leto hails from the Alaya system, which is located in the eastern quadrant of the galactic core, and consists of a bright yellow star and an orange dwarf that closely orbit one another. The system's only planets of note are its four gas giants; the rocky planets are all small, barren and economically uninteresting, while their orbits are unstable or excentric, so human habitation is concentrated on the moons of the gas giants.

Of these gas giants, the planet Tambora (also commonly referred to as Tambora Prime) is the most important. This massive gas giant has six large moons, of which Tambora II is the largest by far. Most of Tambora's moons are inhabited to some extent; Tambora II, III and V are particularly densely populated, and most of the smaller moons have colonies or permanently inhabited installations. Space colonies are likewise common, both in Tambora Prime's orbit as well as in the orbit of any of the major moons.

Tambora III and V are both somewhat bigger than Luna, though V is covered in a thick ice crust while III is barren and rocky. Both have hives, domed colonies, and extensive subterranean vaults and tunnel networks. Tambora V has extensive dockyards and supply stations; by virtue of its abundance of easily accessible water ice and hydrocarbons, it has a long history of being visited by ships looking for water, oxygen and other vital supplies. Tambora III, with its easily accessible mineral resources, focuses on heavy industry and shipbuilding instead.

Tambora II is a semi-Earthlike world, and is both the capital of the Alaya system and Leto's throneworld. The assets and facilities of the Immortals Astartes Legion are scattered throughout the Alaya system, though its headquarters are located on Tambora II.

Homeworld


Tambora II is a Mars-sized moon. It is one of Tambora's many colonized moons, though it is by far the most densely populated and the most politically important. In spite of its size, the moon's surface gravity is 0.9 G due to being remarkably dense and metallic.

Originally covered in a thick, unbreathable atmosphere, Tambora II was terraformed in ancient times. Through artificially induced global cooling and careful alteration of the atmosphere's chemical makeup, the dense bottom layer of the atmosphere was greatly reduced. The upper layer of comparatively thin air now extends as deep as about a kilometer above the moon's average surface level. This layer has also been oxygenated in the terraforming process, allowing it to become fully habitable for unaugmented human beings.

The remnants of the original thick atmosphere now blanket the lower parts of the moon's surface, surrounding the mountains and the occasional plateau. In the terraforming process, this layer became even denser and more laden with vapours and heavy gases. It does not really mingle with the thin layer right above it, meaning that this lower atmospheric layer could be described as a gaseous ocean of sorts. The 'surface' between the two layers is not readily visible, though the lower layer's highest clouds are. And if the weather is sufficiently clear, one can also see the different shades of both layers; the breathable layer is sky blue, while the lower layer is a vivid green.

Micro-algae, bacteria, protists, and a variety of enhanced multicellular organisms have been introduced to the lower atmosphere. The mass and density of the lower atmosphere's air allows creatures to easily fly or float in it, and the lower atmosphere contains species that spend most or even all their lives in the air. Even large floating plants, with sturdy vines, gas bladders and whispy feathery roots to absorb water vapour, can be seen in the lower atmosphere.

The lower atmosphere is unbreathable for humans due to both its density and its chemical makeup. But that has not prevented humanity from establishing a variety of environmentally sealed outposts and colonies in this lower layer. Small floating colonies also exist, though these are mostly located on the 'surface' between the two layers.

That said, most of the world's human population resides in the breathable upper atmospheric layer. Densely populated cities and arcologies are found in the mountains and highlands, and there is even the occasional bit of low tech habitation on the larger plateaus and mountain ranges. The Semarak and Turkana plateaus have a particularly long and noteworthy history as being home to independent, self-sufficient human populations.

Tambora II is a technologically advanced, heavily industrialized world. It already retained a high tech level throughout the Age of Strife, and Leto's reign has only strengthened Tambora II's industry and tech base. There is a good number of orbital docks and space elevators in the moon's orbit, and orbital stations for various purposes (including orbital colonies) are likewise common.

History I - the Alaya system & Tambora II

Tambora II, and the Alaya system in general, have been inhabited by humans since ancient times. Exactly when humanity first came to the Alaya system has long since been forgotten, but the system was a thriving centre of human civilization in the Dark Age of Technology. Tambora II was subjected to extensive terraforming during this era, and though this effort did not fully convert the atmosphere and failed to make the new global climate completely stable, it nonetheless made the moon suitable for extensive human colonization.

In order to regulate and stabilize the moon's climate, a network of large, sturdy automated installations was constructed. And even though Tambora II's previous global civilization (which may not even have been responsible for constructing this system, and which may well postdate it by millennia) crumbled during the Old Night, the system proved sturdy enough to continue functioning in spite of centuries worth of neglect.

In spite of everything technologically advanced populations continued to exists in the Alaya system throughout the Age of Strife. Remnants and survivor colonies held on Tambora II, and during the occasional reprieve from the Old Night's usual instability, they even grew and diversified.

Tambora II remained a center of civilization, but it was never again unified under a single polity. Not until the coming of Leto, anyway.

Throughout the Age of Strife, Tambora II was dotted with competing citystate-like colonies. Aside from the original survivor-colonies and their later offshoots, there were also several new colonies that were established by offworlders. The Sambohl Cluster cities, for example, were founded by colonists from Tambora V. The city of Hamaty is the last remnant of a once powerful league of outposts of the nomadic Langgarak space reavers. The Cemh citadel was originally a space colony in Tambora Prime's orbit, though it somehow survived its crash on Tambora II without being destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. And Saya Line Station, a space elevator installation with accompanying surface colony, was likely established by the spacefaring and Warp-capable Samorro.

War and competition were fierce and common during this era. The ancient survivor colonies and the various isolationist minor colonies typically tried not to get involved in all that, but virtually no colony remained untouched by these constantly simmering conflicts. Alliances were constantly made or broken, and spacefaring invaders and marauders complicated things even further.

The Warp near the Alaya system remained treacherous and turbulent throughout the Old Night, which is one of the reasons why Warp engine technology was lost fairly early on. This was by en large a good thing, though; the turbulence itself shielded the Alaya system from Xenos incursions, and the lack of Warp-capable vessels prevented the locals from straying too far from home and unwittingly alerting hostile outsiders to their presence during the occasional lull.

This only ended with the end of the Old Night, when the Warp suddenly became quiet again. In the years afterwards, the Alaya system was stumbled upon by the Samorro, a Warp-capable spacefaring human civilization from a few dozen lightyears away.

The Samorro came with good intentions, though the savage attacks from the various Alayan marauder groups triggered several punitive expeditions on the Samorro's part. This, in turn, broke the bulk of the local reavers and marauders, which gave the more peaceful Alayan groups a reprieve. Trade and diplomatic ties were established between the Samorro and several major local colonies. Existing alliances were stabilized, and the major Tambora colonies grew and prospered.

Ironically, though, it's the new wave of growth and development that would greatly exacerbate things on Tambora II...

One of the major consequences of this new phase of peace and prosperity was that people began to scavenge the ancient climate control installations more extensively and more thoroughly. The purpose of these machines was unclear and disputed, and by now, their role in the moon's terraforming had been forgotten by all but the few remaining ancient survivor colonies. And the pleas of these ancient survivors - who had never been particularly involved in intercolonial diplomacy to begin with - consistently went ignored or overruled.

Nor did it help that there was still virtually no coordination or central planning among the colonies, not even within the established leagues and alliances. Achieving even so much as a planetary consensus upon any matter of importance proved wholly impossible, and a meaningful intercolonial plan of action was simply out of the question. Even the noticeable changes in atmospheric composition did not provoke a coherent or meaningful response among the colonies.

And it is at that point that the gestation pod of the sixteenth Primarch landed on Tambora II.

History II - Leto, the Great Paragon

Though the pod's descent did not go unnoticed, this strange shooting star landed deep into the depths of the gaseous ocean. Scavengers from the breathable upper atmosphere tried to track it down, but atmospheric turbulence, bad weather, and the thick surface vegetation forced them to abort their expedition.

It was found eventually, but not by any of the highland dwellers or offworlders. It wasn't even found by anyone affiliated with any of the major alliances. It was found by a member of the Umhuirne, a small isolationist group that lived in a handful of outposts deep in the wildlands of the gaseous ocean.

A lone patrol pod had discovered the traces of a strange recent impact, and it was combing through the thicket to determine what it might have been. Carefully moving through the exotic vegetation on long, spindly legs, the pod found something that actually made the pilot question his sanity - a human infant, sitting on a pile of moss in a small clearing, reaching out to the vapour jellies around him like how a normal child might reach out to butterflies.

The pilot thought that he was hallucinating. His first thought was that the pod had sprung a leak (as some of the lower atmosphere's gases were known to cause hallucinations upon exposure). But after quickly putting on his rebreather and running an emergency air quality check, he found no sign of leaks or air contamination. Yet the child was still there.

More amazingly, the pod's instruments were likewise registering the child, up to and including seemingly normal human lifesigns. Even though it was impossible for any normal human being to breathe, let alone survive in this atmosphere. Yet the child showed no sign of ill health or discomfort.

The pilot radioed in his findings, and sent live footage of the child. Base command immediately recognized that this was something highly unusual, and they ordered him to take the child back to the base. Preliminary testing soon revealed that the child could survive, with no apparent discomfort, in a multitude of different atmospheres. After determining that it could also survive in normal Earth-like air, they determined that the child must be some sort of genetically engineered type of human.

Though their resources were very limited, the Umhuirne were familiar with the basics of advanced technology and biotechnology. They had been isolated survivalists for many generations, but they had not fallen into complete superstition or barbarism. The gaseous ocean was a magnificent but unforgiving environment, after all; a modicum of technology and scientific understanding were simple necessities for long-term survival.

The sciences that could have created such a child where wholly beyond the Umhuirne's grasp; their thinkers did not have any doubt about that. Hence, Leto was not raised or treated with religious or supernatural awe. But the origins of this unusual child, those remained a mystery - and a disconcerting one at that.

The Umhuirne thinkers suspected that the sciences behind the creation of this child not only exceed their own, but also those of all other factions in the Alaya system. The Umhuirne did not know enough about the factions to prove this conclusively, but they turned out to be right nonetheless. And that meant that there might well be some very advanced empire or faction might be looming out there, ready to pounce on the Alaya system.

The Umhuirne decided to raise the child as one of their own. Much like his brothers, the infant Primarch grew and developed at a prodigious rate, quickly outgrowing his adoptive siblings, and learning everything there was to learn in the Umhuirne communes. "Leto", they named him, though he soon earned the epithet "the Great Paragon" for his ability to absorb and master knowledge regardless of the type or subject.

Leto had no bad feelings about the commune that adopted him. But he never felt particularly close to them, either. His mental prowess, his physical prowess, his gigantic stature (which was only further emphasized by the scrawny 4-5 ft. statures of most Umhuirne) and his ability to survive in the otherwise lethal gaseous ocean all set him apart from everyone around him. In fact, he could not even access most of the Umhuirne compounds, simply he was too big to enter them.

Leto spent much of his early years in the wilderness of the gaseous ocean, though he felt more drawn to science and civilization than to the natural world. The Umhuirne thinkers had taught him that this whole environment was the product of the biotechnology of ancient civilizations, and under their tutelage, Leto had always shown more interest in human history and the workings of society than in the lore and poems that glorified the mysteries of the wilderness.

The Umhuirne were isolationists who resided in some of the deepest and most expansive wilderness regions of the gaseous ocean, so Leto had very little contact with non-Umhuirne in his early years. His first encounter with non-Umhuirne was violent, and involved reavers that were homing in on a crashed ship that they were hunting down.

That incident did not affect Leto much, save for the fact that examining the crashed vessels and the dead reavers made him realize just how little the Umhuirne understood of the other human factions. So, against the commune's wishes, Leto decided to set out to learn more about the other human polities.

History III - the Consolidation

After encountering a few other unremarkable survivalist bases, Leto began to encounter outposts and airships of non-isolationist colonies. Though this contact was not always peaceful or fruitful, it did allow Leto to learn much, much more about the political and technological realities of the world around him. It also alerted him to the fact that the non-isolationists were now steadily encroaching upon the oceanic wilderness - something that had previously been held in check due to logistic difficulties and the frequent wars in the upper atmosphere.

The future of the Umhuirne and the other isolationists was in danger, Leto immediately recognized that. Though that did not concern Leto quite as much as it perhaps should have; while he was not wholly indifferent to the Umhuirne, he recognized that they had only survived by skulking away in the depths of a hostile wilderness. Their society lacked the vigor and strength of the grand ancient civilizations that his tutors told him about. The future was coming, but the isolationists would not be the ones to inherit it.

In response, Leto resolved to make a grand analysis of the world and its history, and through it, determine what path the world's developments were taking.

And for that, he needed yet more information. Vital factors still eluded him, and he knew it.

But he could not do it alone.

That's why Leto went out of his way to tell the Umhuirne and the other isolationists of the threat that they were facing. Not for the sake of preserving their future - they had none to begin with, as far as Leto was concerned - nor even with the intention of elucidating them on the circumstances that they were facing. The Primarch merely intended to use them to clear the way for his entry to the global stage.

A rag-tag assembly of militant isolationists from multiple communes gathered behind Leto. This movement, the Uinh Suku, was honestly believed to be strong enough to put a halt to encroachment on the deep wilderness areas. This had more to do with the optimism and naivete of its members than with the Uinh Suku's actual strenght, of course, but Leto gladly left them in that delusion.

But the Uinh Suku gave Leto the reach, fame/infamy and prestige necessary to further his plans - and furthered, they were.

After taking down a particularly infamous reaver clique, the Uinh Suku succeeded in establishing contact with Mycanan, one of the few remaining ancient survivor colonies.

Built deep into a mountain, Mycanan had always been one of the most withdrawn colonies. Rarely involved in intercolonial interactions, the city was little more than a legend to most. But the city was also a major repository of knowledge and information. The leaders of the city were well aware of the damage that was being done to the ancient terraforming facilities, and it had been one of the survivor-colonies that had tried to alert the other colonies to the dangers of damaging or disabling these ancient cyclopean installations.

The leaders of Mycanan recognized that, for the good of everyone, something had to be done. And the Uinh Suku - they were the sort of group that might just be willing to listen to their message...

Leto, in turn, used the Mycanan elders' willingness to talk to its fullest extent. Once more, he learned everything that his hosts were willing to teach him, along with several things that they were trying to keep secret from him.

Though the people of Mycanan were staunch pacifists, Leto successfully used them to bolster the Uinh Suku military by acquiring data, technology and intel from Mycanan. Advanced spy drones and superior communications equipment can make more of a difference than any cannon, and the Uinh Suku certainly proved that maxim.

By now, the activities of the Uinh Suku had begun to attract attention from the major political blocs. A number of non-isolationist colonies in the gaseous ocean had joined them, and a few had even been outright conquered. The Uinh Suku military was becoming more sophisticated, and they had acquired a few allies with decent conventional militaries. The Uinh Suku were the leading element in what was becoming a new major league of colonies within the gaseous ocean.

Opposing them were two major leagues of highland/high atmosphere colonies: the militaristic Akang league, and the heterogenic Yreillu confederation. The latter were an amalgam of older smaller leagues and alliances that came together because of economic cooperation and Samorro support. The Akang, on the other hand, chiefly consist of fiercely independent highland colonies that each had a long history of resisting reavers, scavengers and offworlders alike.

The Yreillu were the main proponent of increasing the scavenging efforts and the economic exploitation of the gaseous ocean, which is why this relatively peaceful confederation has been in conflict with the Uinh Suku almost from day one.

The Akang, by contrast, might seem rather compatible with the Uinh Suku - which they indeed would have been, if not for the structure of their league. The Akang league consisted of a core of powerful, fully independent colonies, and a much larger body of subservient colonies, groups and outposts. These subservient colonies and territories were essentially used as public resources by the full members of the league. These subservient colonies also included a number of holdings in the gaseous ocean. Some of these oceanic colonies rebelled and invited the Uinh Suku, and the Akang and Uinh Suku had been in conflict ever since.

At this point, the character of the alliance under Leto had begun to change. Though the Uinh Suku proper still emphasized a policy of environmentalism and proactive self-defense, the other oceanic colonies in the alliance often had less idealistic priorities. Most of them were really only interested in independence and securing the ocean's resources for themselves. Leto was aware of this, and he even subtly supported the allied colonies against the occasional criticism from Mycanan emissaries or Uinh Suku hardliners.

True enough, the allied colonies' agenda was irreconcilable with the Uinh Suku's official goals - but unbeknownst to everyone else, so was Leto's grand design.

History IV - the Tambora Combine

The Uinh Suku alliance had to be careful about campaigning against either of its foes. Though it had acquired some aerospace craft, it was still no match for either of its main opponents in the high atmosphere or orbital space. And the Samorro-sponsored global effort to promote peace and limit open warfare meant that the Uinh Suku had to be careful about anything that might get them labeled as overly aggressive or bellicose.

Leto cleverly prevented the established powers from forming a front against his alliance, however. He used the longstanding tensions between the Akang and the Yreillu against them, and he went through great lengths to (successfully!) establish diplomatic ties with the Samorro.

Though the conflict with the Yreillu ran deeper, Leto figured that the most efficient approach would be to strike the Akang first. Simmering dissatisfaction was common among the Akang vassals, and if they could be incorporated into his alliance, then that would be a major boost for Leto and his followers.

The Uinh Suku proper wanted to maintain the focus on fighting the Yreillu confederation and its outposts, however. They did not share their ex-Akang allies' views, and considered the conflict with the Akang to be unnecessary on the long term. Some even considered the Akang to be kindred souls and potential allies, due to their fierce independence and xenophobia.

But Leto had other plans, and he carefully circumvented the Uinh Suku leadership. With Leto's knowledge, several of the independent and ex-Akang allies secretly brokered a few deals with the Yreillu. Simultaneously, Leto allowed Akang intel to find out about how some of the ex-Akang colonies were trying to steer the Uinh Suku away from a war with the Yreillu and towards an anti-Akang alliance.

Thus the Akang attacked the ex-Akang allies, while the secret agreement with the Yreillu had already been established. Leto then proclaimed that it was unacceptable that the Akang had begun a fullscale war upon elements of the alliance, and he forced the Uinh Suku hardliners to agree that the logical course of action would be to broker a quick ceasefire with the Yreillu and to focus on the more immediate threat of the Akang.

Thanks to the secret agreements, the Yreillu were both appeased and made to believe that the Uinh Suku alliance was on the verge of breaking apart. And of course, any war between avowed enemies is always a good thing. So the Yreillu were quite receptive when Leto offered a ceasefire.

And both within the Uinh Suku alliance and the Yreillu confederation, the Akang were widely portrayed as the aggressors in the official media. Leto could now go all-out without the risk of global public opinion turning against him.

The resulting war mostly focused on striking targets and colonies within the gaseous ocean, though there were also a few strikes against highland targets. Pitched battles and direct confrontations above the ocean were for the most part avoided, and the Akang generals agreed that the Uinh Suku would likely never try such a thing because they would be at too much of a disadvantage on high ground.

The Akang troops consisted for nearly three quarters of vassal troops (i.e. expendable cannon fodder), with the rest consisting of vat-grown slave soldiers and highly trained professional soldiers. The vassal troops were no match for Uinh Suku warriors. The slave soldiers were much tougher and stronger, however, and the Akang professionals were among the best warriors on Tambora II. But neither were used to fighting in the circumstances of the gaseous ocean - not quite to the extent that the Uinh Suku were, anyway - so that negated the effectiveness of the Akang military in oceanic battles.

But on land, so the Akang reasoned, their troops would be unfettered by environmental factors. And they would be fighting on their own turf, to boot. They never expected the Uinh Suku to draw them into a pitched battle in the highlands. But they hoped that they would, anyway, because that could only ever end in a splendid Akang victory.

Things turned out differently, however...

Leto was aware of the Akang's advantage in highland battles. But if he could not strike the troops directly, he reasoned, then all he had to do was strike the troops' coordination and logistics. He trusted that the Akang would be confident - overconfident, even - in the quality of their own troops. And that was something that Leto could use.

Using spies and double-agents, Leto made the Akang believe that he was concentrating his forces for an attack on the Orsa pass. This pass provided easy access between the gaseous ocean and several highland roads and valleys of vital importance to the Akang league. The Orsa pass was defended, but only modestly so - the Akang had never before faced any serious military threat from the oceanic colonies, so there had never been a particular need to fortify this position.

And the bits and pieces of information that the Akang received via Leto's double agents made them believe that the Uinh Suku were concentrating a large chunk of their forces on taking this pass and rapidly pushing into several core territories. The Akang responded accordingly, and concentrated their elite forces on various positions in and around the Orsa pass.

Which was exactly what Leto wanted them to do - for the Orsa pass was not his actual target.

His real target was rather more ambitious: the Semarak plateau. this was a large plateau that rose just above the gaseous ocean. It was quite rich in industry and resources, and it contained several important Akang vassal colonies. The plateau was not overly defensible, but the numbers of garrisoned vassal troops was considerable, and the sheer scale of the plateau would make invading it a daunting task.

Leto was undaunted, however. Knowing that the Akang had taken the bait, he marshaled a considerable number of his forces to the foothills of the plateau. Not long after the other segment of his forces had begun the assault on the Orsa pass, the Uinh Suku and their allies attacked the Semarak plateau in full force.

By all means, the attack on the plateau was no guaranteed victory. Leto had mustered every unit that he could for this, but his forces were still outnumbered considerably. And under any less competent general, they would almost certainly have lost. But Leto made extensive use of intel (not in the least place from local anti-Akang malcontents), careful planning and a sophisticated communication network among his own troops. The Akang garrisons, already blindsided, were struck by a much better organized enemy that had no trouble with isolating various garrisons or taking the Akang forces apart.

The battle of the Orsa pass had ended in a stalemate (much as Leto had expected), but the Semarak plateau was seized in an impressively short time. The Akang, flabbergasted, had no idea how to handle this situation and continued to focus on defensive maneuvers in the highlands. None of the full member colonies of the Akang league was attacked directly in this war - but the league was forced to open negotiations with Leto and surrender the Semarak plateau to the alliance.

This outcome changed the balance of power on Tambora II immensely. The Akang league was no longer a major power bloc. Aside from losing the Semarak plateau to the alliance, several of its outlying vassal cities (which could no longer be forced to stay in the league) declared independence, or even joined Leto's alliance.

The Uinh Suku insisted that, now that the Akang had been defeated conclusively, the alliance should now once again focus on fighting the Yreillu confederation. Leto agreed with this on principle, but he had other priorities than to rush into a war with the other major power bloc.

Thanks to the influx of all manner of new members and subjects into his alliance, the Uinh Suku were becoming an increasingly less relevant segment. Both their background and their goals were not at all shared by what was now the majority of the alliance, and their cause held little appeal among anyone save for the other isolationists and the ancient survivor-colonies.

But Leto did enjoy wide appeal and respect.

He was the one who had built this alliance, and he was the one who had carried it to victory over what had long been one of the major powers of the world.

He was the Great Paragon. Even if the other colonies would not follow the Uinh Suku or their cause, they would still follow him.

So Leto decided that the time was right. The time had come to reveal his grand design.

During the consolidation of the new allies and territories after the Akang war, Leto wrapped up a number of preparations. And he made a grand proclamation: the Uinh Suku alliance of old was no more.

"A new era is upon us." he said, "The troubles that this world faces cannot be cowed by mortal man alone. But the bonds of flesh and mortality are not unbreakable - these are fetters that we can cast off. These are chains that we must cast off."

"I have a vision. A grand design." he continued, "Civilization is not the enemy, nor are thirst for technology or hunger for development the roads to ruin. But it is the dosage that makes the poison, and it is in measure and caution where virtue lies. This world was brought to the brink of chaos and ruin by a lack of measure and insight - and rest assured, I will show you just how close this world came to unwittingly bringing its own doom."

"But I will lead you, and I will lead you away from that dark fate." he stated, "The mind that has led the most insignificant of the insignificant to victory against the most formidable warriors in living memory shall also lead you to an even brighter future - a future that will eclipse even the barely remembered golden ages of legend. I, no, we shall bring this about through our harmonized efforts. From today on, we are no longer the alliance. We are no longer a loose assembly of comrades in arms. From today on, we are the Tambora Combine."

The Primarch had long since been planning for this. Continuously, he carefully watched his alliance change as his grand design was taking shape in his mind. And continuously, he had been preparing for taking charge and bending these changes to his advantage.

As the Uinh Suku were becoming increasingly more irrelevant, Leto was creating new cliques of intel officers, specialists, thinkers, bureaucrats and technocrats. Though intentionally dispersed into separate bureaus and think tanks at first - Leto didn't want anyone to suspect that he was building a new power base - they were designed to be easy enough to merge and reorganize on short notice. Which he did; when he decided to make his move, Leto for all intents and purposes already had the central clique to facilitate that.

And now, the Tambora Combine was the product of all that - not just a polity, but a new civilization built along the lines of Leto's grand design.

The Combine intricately combined and integrated the various elements of many of the former alliance's members and colonies, thus greatly increasing overall efficiency and productivity. And through careful central planning, environmental damage and further damage to the ancient terraforming installations were minimized. The old alliance's extensive intel apparatus was now also adapted to gather extensive data on the Combine's colonies and territories - for increasing both efficiency and control.

After a relatively brief piece, the Tambora Combine began (or resumed, if you will) war upon the Yreillu confederation. The Combine's newly restructured military - no longer rag-tag assembly that it was during the alliance era - proved to be far more potent than the alliance's forces had ever been. And in between that and Leto's superior planning and leadership, the powerful but heterogenic & poorly unified Yreillu were taken apart and eliminated in short order.

The Samorro were largely kept outside the conflict. Judging from the way the Samorro valued peace and harmony, Leto had guessed that they would be receptive to some form of the Uinh Suku's environmentalist ideals. Turns out that Leto was right - in between the confederation and the newly founded Combine, the Samorro decided to favor the latter due to the Combine's prioritization of climate- and biosphere-maintenance.

Not long after, the Tambora Combine took to the stars, and the colonies of Tambora's other moons were incorporated in quick succession, and the rest of the Alaya system followed suit at an only slightly slower pace.

Through the cooperation of engineers, special agents and the occasional defector, the Combine managed to acquire basic Warp drive and associated technologies. Though primitive, these Warp-capable vessels allowed the Combine to explore several nearby systems, and even establish a presence on several out-of-system worlds.

It was during Tambora's wave of interstellar exploration that it was encountered by the forces of the Great Crusade.

History V - into the Imperium

An Imperial scouting flotilla had surveyed this region roughly twenty years earlier, but it had not discovered anything of interest other than the Warp-capable Samorro, who were of modest interest at best.

But when an Imperial expedition fleet arrived two decades afterwards, the Tambora Combine stood out by virtue of being an expanding Warp-capable polity that did not show up in any of the old records. Due to Leto's fame and cult of personality, it did not take long before the fleet's Lord-Commander realized that he had found a Primarch.

The Lord-Commander succeeded in contacting the Primarch, though the latter refused to believe his claims or join up with the Imperium right away. But nonetheless, the Emperor was notified in short order.

As with most of his sons, the Emperor went out of his way to meet him face to face. Contrary to what one might expect, the Emperor opted for meeting Leto incognito.

The two met on the surface of Tambora II. Leto was notified that an unnaturally tall, bronze-skinned stranger was hanging around in the Paragon Compound's gardens, and the attendants all strangely insisted that Leto should meet this man.

The Emperor introduced himself, and he discussed with Leto the history of Terra, the expansion of the human race throughout the galaxy in ancient days, and the empires that both of them were building. He also described himself as Leto's father, and mentioned some details of the Primarchs and the Primarch project.

Leto was a willing listener, but at the end of the conversation, he was not yet entirely convinced. So in the end, Leto dared the Emperor to follow him into the depths of the gaseous ocean - unprotected.

The Emperor, much to Leto's surprise, did exactly that. Upon seeing how the Emperor, too, had no trouble surviving in the normally lethal air of Tambora II's lower atmosphere, Leto acknowledged him as his father and accepted his offer for joining the Imperium and the Great Crusade.

The Tambora Combine was absorbed into the Imperium, but remains a mostly independent polity within it. It continues to expand, though only a few of the 16th Legion's conquests are integrated into the Combine. Generally, only worlds considered sufficiently suitable and close to Tambora proper are incorporated.

The Primarch

Some say that the Primarchs were crafted in the image of the heroes and demigods of old. Leto would be one of the Primarchs who'd unwittingly lend credence to that rumor.

Leto stands a full ten feet tall, though his proportions are normal for a human being. His appearance is stately and handsome; his hair is short, shaggy, and jet black; his gaze is piercing; and his features are pronounced, angular, and free of scars or other flaws.

But aside from his height, his appearance is not entirely human. His irises are bright white, separated from his sclerae only by a deep gray ring, and his skin is likewise white - not white as in pale or Nordic, but white, as in a deep marble white. Even the underlying hue is vaguely greyish-blue, rather than any healthy brownish or reddish shade. Though subtle (especially compared to the visages of Kthuln or Nihlus), Leto's inhuman features are known to unnerve people.

In his mannerisms and manner of conduct, Leto is clearly a civilized Primarch. He values etiquette, formalities and high culture. At the same time, he does not go overboard on flair or formalities, and certain detractors have pointed out that Leto's cultured ways are a habit rather than a passion.

Leto holds no particular love for dueling or direct combat, though he certainly won't avoid those either. He can wield most weapons with ease, and his fighting style is unremarkable but skilled and balanced.

On major campaigns, Leto typically leads his Legion in person. He takes part in frontline fighting from time to time, though he usually prefers to stay behind the frontlines or aboard his flagship.

Legio XVI

The Sixteenth Legion had an impressive history already before being reunited with its Primarch. Though never the fiercest, toughest, or most numerous of the Legions, the Old Sixteenth nonetheless managed to distinguish itself.

Due to the traits inherited from their gene-sire, the Astartes of Leto's lineage have always had a strong tendency towards developing methodical approaches. But due to the lack of a Primarch's or similarly undisputed unitary leadership for the first hundred years of the Legion's existence, the Sixteenth developed a multitude of different traditions, combat doctrines and internal factions.

This was only further exacerbated by how the Old Sixteenth recruited extensively from many different worlds. Legio XVI was in fact one of the first Legions to start recruiting from worlds outside the Sol system before being reunited with its Primarch, and combat losses and the formation of distinct cliques within its ranks only stimulated this.

The Old Sixteenth was a highly independent Legion, and driven by internal competition and doctrinal disagreements among its commanders, its subdivisions often campaigned independently into barely explored space. Though lacking the fierceness of the Jaws of the Deep or the resilience of the Doom Reavers, the Old Sixteenth thus often found itself at the forefront of battle. And the casualty & turnover rates reflected this.

This approach yielded the Legion more than a few impressive victories, but it also made overstretch a recurring problem and exacerbated the consequences of casualties. On a few occasions, the Sixteenth even faced severe defeats that thinned out the ranks of Marines and officers alike.

But the Sixteenth never yielded in the face of the enemy, no matter how formidable. This, along with the Legion's creativity when it comes to dealing with defeat, unexpected resistance, and the acquisition of new materiel and recruits, earned the Sixteenth the nickname "Immortals" - for they lived through things that would have killed any mortal cause or army. This was one of several epithets, however, and the Legion's formal name remained "the Sixteenth Legion" during these early decades.

Yet all this changed when the Sixteenth was reunited with its Primarch.

Some Primarchs radically reorganized their Legion as soon as they took charge, while others went out of their way to maintain their Legion's established structure and customs. Leto, for the most part, falls into the former category.

Leto's policy with the Sixteenth can be summarized as a drive to turn it into a smooth, standardized whole. He consciously put an end to the Old Sixteenth's fractiousness and its internal cultural & doctrinal differences, and managed to turn it into a unified Legion.

The old hierarchy and organizational structure (which had by now also acquired a good number of irregular units) had long since become a lamentable mess. Units that were nominally Grand Companies could include as many as six thousand Marines or as few as eighty. Squad sizes depended entirely on the whims and ideas of the commanding officers. Standard ranks had lost meaning and relevance in many of the Old Sixteenth's subdivisions, and many independent commanders had adopted nonstandard ranks and titles instead. The same went for unit types; the Great Cohort, Calustar's Three Regiments, and the Tank Brigades of Lord-Commander Mennor are but three examples. Even the Master of the Legion had lost his original relevance, having become little more than a pen-pushing figurehead.

Both the Legion's original structure and the mess that was its hierarchy were done away with. Gone were the Centuries and Grand Companies of old, as were the many defunct or ill-defined ranks and functions. Rather than turning to any sort of existing standardized system, Leto replaced it with a simple, all-new structure and hierarchy.

The new system is designed to be flexible, modular, and uniform throughout the Legion. Transferring smaller units from one unit to another is quite easy now, and mixing and matching units quickly became a common way of integrating Marines from old units or different backgrounds into the restructured Legion.

Leto also ditched unit-specific colors, symbols and livery. This was nothing unusual among the Legions, especially not the more centralized ones, like the Imperial Redeemers. But Leto showed himself to be much more radical and anti-traditional than even the likes of Iskanderos were comfortable with. Unit-specific or otherwise, the use of easily visible symbols, decorations and heraldry was common throughout the Astartes Legions. But Leto eschewed the use of such frills, and took this to its logical extreme. He even went so far as to abolish the use of pauldron heraldry and standard Legion colors.

He decreed that his Legion was to use muted colors, and that camouflage and otherwise reducing one's own visibility were to be the priority in any combat situation. "Pauldron symbols are for parade armor, and nothing else."

And indeed; while the Immortals and the Tambora Combine still do make use of symbols, they never do so in on-the-ground combat situations. (spaceships and aircraft, however, are a different matter)

The Immortals still make use of armor markings, but on a much more modest scale. These typically consist of simple bright white symbols in easily concealed places, such as the inside of the wrist. For quick identification, they have come to rely heavily on vox communications and automated radio codes/signals.

But on the flip side, it should be pointed out that Leto never aimed to outright replace the existing system with something entirely new. Though things may not look that way at first glance, Leto primarily tried to work with what was already there. He did not force his Legion to become something that it was not; he took his disunited Legion and turned it into a well-run, synchronized, unified syndicate.

The doctrines of the Leto-era Immortals are a carefully composed amalgam of the Old Sixteenth's various military doctrines, with some choice additions from the doctrines of other Imperial forces and the Combine's mortal military.

Even the Legion's formal renaming reflects this approach. Rather than naming it after some Tamboran theme or going with his own ideas, Leto purposely made one of the Legion's more well-known nicknames - "the immortals" - into the Legion's new official name. He even made it into something of a theme, as he chose to use an ankh - an ancient Terran symbol of persisting life - as the main symbol of his Legion.

Likewise, Leto did not marginalize the many headstrong commanders of the Old Sixteenth. He in fact appointed them to key positions - positions in which they had no choice but to cooperate with erstwhile rivals and people not of their clique. Positions in which they had to take note of other methods and tactics as well. Positions in which they had to study their Primarch's grand design. Positions in which they had to integrate into what was for all intents and purposes a restored Legion.

Leto is, at heart, not one who gives orders and expects others to follow. One could describe him as a syndicalist; his ideal state or army is not an extension of the leader, but is a well-functioning self-sufficient system that drives itself. The role of the leader, as far as Leto is concerned, is the role of an overseer who occasionally provides a bit of necessary correction or guidance.

And his Legion reflects that. Leto reformed his Legion with the intention of bringing out the most of everyone's potential, while preventing internal conflicts or crippling competition. Though he had to do a lot of pruning in the process, it does appear that Leto reached this goal.

Legion Structure & Hierarchy


Since Leto's reforms, the Immortals have been using the following manner of hierarchy and organization:

The most basic unit is the squad (5 to 20 Marines). Squads are grouped in cells (typically 1 to 4 squads, plus one or two basic transports and the occasional Dreadnought, along with basic support personnel such as an apothecary, one or more communications officers, etc.). Cells, in turn, are grouped in sections (typically 3-5 cells, plus mid-tier support personnel like techmarines, and basic vehicle support such as Predators and Dreadnought formations).

Sections are grouped together in clusters (typically 4-6 sections), which not only include heavy support (artillery, Land Raiders, Fellblades and other superheavy tanks, etc.) and auxiliaries (specialist cadres, mortal battalions, etc.), but also usually have a capital ship at their disposal (typically a strike cruiser or another sort of light cruiser). Sections, cells and even individual squads are trained to operate independently whenever necessary, but only clusters and larger units are frequently expected to do so.

And clusters are grouped together in divisions, which are the largest permanent units in the Immortals Legion. The number of clusters per division is usually five to ten, though the number of Marines in a division is ideally kept close to ten thousand. The number of Marines per cluster can vary considerably, and it's not unusual for clusters to be restructured (or even to be abolished or created) in the middle of a campaign. Each division typically also has a modest fleet of spaceships at its disposal (usually about 12 capital ships and a number of escorts), along with extensive support units and auxiliaries. A single Immortals division is entirely capable of campaigning independently, and they can subdue anything up to a mid-tier pocket empire without much trouble.

The Legion hierarchy is as follows:

Squads are usually led simply by a squad leader (the title 'sergeant' is no longer used among the Immortals) who is typically a veteran (or the most experienced and/or competent Marine in the squad), and who is technically not part of the Legion's officer hierarchy.

The lowest officer rank is the ensign, which is best described as a general rank/function for well-rounded Astartes with basic leadership skills and the training to handle a vast range of different circumstances (including spaceship mutinies, logistical problems, ambushes, inquiry among locals, etc.). Ensigns are on rare occasions assigned as squad leaders, but they are usually put in command of cells. One cell typically has two or three ensigns, with one being the formal leader and the other(s) functioning as near-equal assistant(s). Ensigns also commonly function as basic assistants to higher-ranking officers.

Above ensigns are the subalterns, who are typically in command of sections. There are usually one or two subalterns per section, with the other assistant officers being ensigns. Subalterns are likewise expected to be versatile and well-rounded, but they are also expected to carry out the strategies of their commanding officers and communicate the results back to them. Subalterns are also given the responsibility of adjusting their orders, or even the overall strategy, should the necessity arise. They are given the freedom to act in the spirit of their orders rather than to follow them to the letter. Much like with the ensigns, there are also subalterns who serve as junior officers in the retinues of higher ranking officers.

Ranking directly above the subalterns are the syndics, who are typically in command of clusters. Syndics have sufficient seniority to be allowed to do their own strategic planning and undertake minor campaigns. When part of larger campaigns or functioning within divisions, syndics play the role of senior overseers that keep an eye on internal cooperation and overall efficiency. And as with the lower officer ranks, syndics can also be found in the retinues of higher ranking officers.

The highest mainline officer rank within the Immortals Legion is that of commander. Legion commanders are in charge of a division (along with its fleet assets, though there's usually also a junior commander to help manage the fleet). Larger Combine fleets without significant Astartes detachments may also be led by a dedicated Astartes fleet commander.

Above mainline commanders are only the Primarch and the occasional Supreme Director or Executive Commander. The latter is always a temporary function for things like leading a major campaign in the Primarch's absence, and the former is technically not even a military function; it's a Combine political function that can set specific goals for a military campaign, and can to some extent interfere with the proceedings of that campaign.

The Tambora Combine


The Tambora Combine is an interstellar polity within the Imperium, with most of its holdings clustered around the Alaya system in the eastern quadrant of the galactic core.

Much like the Sixteenth Legion, the Combine was organized to function like a carefully synchronized syndicate. It's a technologically advanced polity, and even though its tech levels are far from spectacular by Imperial standards, the Combine nonetheless has a solid, largely independent tech & industrial base.

The Tambora Combine emphasizes self-sufficiency, and it generally does not interact much with non-Combine Imperial worlds. Even interstellar trade is limited. The technology base grows continuously through acquisitions from the Mechanicum, tech & experts recovered from worlds conquered by the Immortals, and independent research & development within the Combine.

Relations between the Combine and the Mechanicum are always somewhat strained, and both sides are somewhat standoffish whenever forced to interact. The Combine would rather not become dependent upon the Mechanicum, and the Mechanicum would rather not have the Immortals or their Combine auxiliaries go about recovering tech relics on their own.

The two sides have come to an understanding, however. By order of the Primarch, the more ancient and valuable tech-relics are now handed over to the Mechanicum, and in exchange for that and cooperation with the Mechanicum's surveyors & explorators, the Immortals and the Combine get supplied with machinery and devices that are beyond their ability to produce.

The Combine's own machine-wrights thus generally leave the very large (such as battleships) or very advanced projects (such as volkite weaponry and neutron lasers) to the techpriests, while focusing on smaller and more mundane things. This is also why the Combine has produced a good number of new distinctive types of escorts and fighter craft. Likewise, finding new, more efficient ways to apply existing innovations also has a high priority within the Combine.

The Combine's government consists of the Directorates, of which the purpose is (at least in theory) to oversee and whenever necessary guide a syndicated society.

The reality, though, is that the Directorates form a defacto technocracy. There are specialized directorates to oversee specific aspects of Combine society, and the Directorates are themselves controlled by the Core Directorate - which is essentially Leto and his personal retinue. There's the occasional representative or delegate present in the Directorates, but for the most part, their functionaries are directly or indirectly appointed by Leto.

The main types of organizations in the Combine are the Departments and the Syndicates. The Departments are bureaucratic units (sometimes in charge of a territory, sometimes just an organization with specific responsibilities, such as making sure that colony X keeps producing sufficient amounts of resource Y) and are usually created by a Directorate. The Syndicates, on the other hand, are based on the premise of synchronized cooperation and are usually formed on the citizens' initiative. Though the Directorates exert some measure of control over them, the Syndicates nonetheless enjoy a fair amount of economic and political freedom.

The Combine's syndicates can and do compete with one another, but the Directorates do take measures to limit and sometimes outright prevent such competition.

An example of this system at work would be the colonization of the Carras system. After the Combine fleet had cleared the system of the corsairs that had previously controlled it, the Goemon-Marn Syndicate (specialized in hydroponics, aeroponics and basic space colonies) took the colony restoration job that the Frontier Directorate offered. But as expected, the system was not yet fully secure, so the Directorate started looking for a suitable syndicate for solving this problem. Out of the most suitable nearby syndicates, the Lashanka Syndicate (specialized in building, operating and countering small raider craft) was selected. The Lashanka Syndicate complied, and did its part in securing the Carras system. The mineral-rich planet Carras V subsequently colonized; the bulk of the colonization process was carried out by three syndicates, but in order to make sure that the colonization would follow the Directorate's plans, a local department was established to guide/push the involved syndicates into the right direction.

The Ideal of Vision and Guidance

According to Leto's ideas, all individuals have potential - but the amounts of potential vary, considerably.

The ones with the most potential - the ones with the greatest intelligence, the most diverse set of skills, and the least flaws or impediments - are the most valuable by far. Not only because their potential is the easiest to bring out, but also because they are the ones most likely to develop a genuine understanding of great systems like the syndicated society that Leto envisions. And with such understanding, one becomes capable of seeing and correcting the flaws of such great systems.

Leto abhors disorder and inefficiency. He saw how his own homeworld had been brought to the brink of collapse because of that. And the Great Crusade has only shown him a myriad more cases of worlds that crumbled to dust for the very same reasons.

Mankind is beset by many enemies, but Leto believes that Man needs to be saved from itself more than anything else. And for that, Mankind at the very least needs guides with vision and genuine understanding. The Emperor is such a guide, as far as Leto is concerned, and he set the example by creating other superhuman guides in order to herd humanity into a new golden age.

Already before being found by the Emperor, Leto firmly believed that it takes a special breed to lead humanity - and thanks to his reasonably educated upbringing, he knew that such a breed can be created.

The Emperor's biotechnology and the creation of the Primarchs and the Astartes only further affirmed Leto's belief that a breed of superhuman leaders could, and should, be created.

The Astartes would seem the obvious choice for this, at least from a Primarch's perspective. But Leto begs to differ on that one.

The Astartes are killing machines. Super soldiers, crafted and fine-tuned for war and nothing else. Any attempts to turn them into a race of patient sagely leaders would require so much tinkering that, as far as Leto is concerned, he might as well start from scratch with regular mortals instead.

So that's exactly what he did.

But though his superhuman intellect is impressive even by Primarch standards, Leto has no particular aptitude in the more refined sciences. That does not stop him from organizing cautious experiments, however. Via careful selective breeding, thorough social conditioning, and the occasional bit of mild genetic tampering, Leto has long been working on a vastly improved strain of humanity.

The Primarch is still quite far from completing this part of his grand design - not in the least place because he's very hesitant to resort to advanced but poorly understood biotech - but there's already modest results. And though insufficient for his grand design, they nonetheless make for good Astartes recruits...


During the Heresy

Though Leto’s position as one of the Primarchs with immense personal holdings ensured an invitation to join the Council of Terra, the Great Paragon was concerned about the politicking amongst his brothers, and attempted to maneuver them to reach some sort of mutually satisfactory equilibrium. Unfortunately, events spiraled out of hand with the assassination attempt on Iskanderos, driven by unknown forces with considerable reach and capabilities. In the wake of Iskanderos’ stormy departure from Terra, Leto grew even more worried that the Primarch politics would tear the Imperium apart. As a result, he announced his resignation from the Council under the excuse of not being necessary to good governance of the galaxy, asking only that the Council accepted his idea of dispatching an embassy to the absent Primarch.

With his affairs on Terra settled, Leto made haste to return to Tambora. While he had no foreknowledge of the coming war, he could understand the Council politics, and the personalities involved, well enough. Trouble was coming, and if the Primarchs were to find themselves at odds with each other, there was much to lose and not a whole lot to gain.

As a result, the Immortals were one of the Legions least affected by the civil strife. With the worlds of the Tambora Combine secured, Leto maintained tenuous communications with the Council of Terra, but frequently chose to ignore its dictates when it suited him, claiming in his missives that the turbulent Warp made communication difficult and uncertain. After Stefan Ignatiyev’s withdrawal to Bogatyr, Leto managed to maintain reasonably warm relations with his brother’s private fiefdom without becoming involved in its internal matters.

The arrival of the broken Warblades presented the greatest chance to draw the Immortals into the war, however, Leto was able to navigate the situation with all of his considerable political skill. While he was intrigued by the unnatural capabilities exhibited by the traitorous Abyssals, Leto was careful not to be drawn into the wider conflict. The Sixteenth Legion’s aid in the total destruction of the Abyssals ensured that the traitors had no true understanding of the situation in the galactic south-east, and that Iskanderos had little reason to adventure near either the Red Star Collective or near the Tambora Combine.

When Leto returned to Tambora at the head of his fleet, he brought home a bounty of Abyssal prisoners, tribute, and rare technological artifacts surrendered by the Warblades. Each of these piqued his curiosity for their potential to aid in Leto’s attempts to build an efficient, healthy society for his people. As the rest of the galaxy burned, Leto’s armies continued to patrol the borders of his dominion while the Primarch himself engaged in detailed, arcane research…

Post-Heresy

Though Leto’s return to Tambora was hailed as a sign of his genius in carrying home the spoils of war without suffering its ruinous effects, the Sixteenth Primarch was worried that the rest of the galaxy would not continue to ignore his holdings once some semblance of post-Imperial order materialized. To this effect, he ordered the strengthening of his Legion, and the militarization of his outer domains in preparation for what he thought would become a state of perpetual defensive warfare. At the same time, he dispatched ambassadors to all known successor states, attempting to maneuver those rulers into leaving the Tambora Combine alone.

The news of Iskanderos’ death came as a welcome reprieve for the Sixteenth Primarch, while the remote location of Rogr Hemri’s Remnant ensured that Leto had little to fear from those quarters. With a friendly, if guarded, understanding reached with Stefan Ignatiyev, Leto was finally able to focus on his own projects.

Though the captured Abyssals promised Leto a shortcut solution to rapid improvement of human stock, the Great Paragon’s intellect saw through the apparent ease of those unnatural means. Recognizing the dangers of Chaos early, Leto carefully had the tainted prisoners exterminated, and destroyed all of the malefic lore he had acquired, while making the pursuit of corrupted knowledge an offense punishable by swift death across his dominion. Though small number of the Combine researchers and high-ranking leaders were made aware of the existence of Chaotic threat in order to properly recognize and combat corruption, Leto labored to keep the general population ignorant of it, as to keep his people safe from the dangers of the Warp. Instead, the Sixteenth Primarch turned to his other prize – the advanced technology recovered from the abandoned Warblades vessels, which might have held the key to the heights of human technological prowess from before the Old Night.

Despite Laodice’s relatively close distance in the galactic terms, Leto was unable to negotiate any further exchanges of technology with the increasingly more paranoid and distrustful Warblades. Whether it was because the remnants of the Eleventh Legion did not trust Leto, or because their own understanding of their technology was far more limited than they claimed, the negotiations led nowhere. While for a time, Leto considered bringing Laodice and its client worlds into his dominion by force, he ultimately decided against it due to great expense and risk of leading a war of aggression against an entrenched, capable opponent.

Even with these setbacks, Leto’s prodigious intellect was more than equal to the task of deciphering and reverse-engineering the pre-Imperial technology. While the Primarch himself had no particular aptitude for engineering or scientific research, he sponsored the best minds of the age, luring specialists and promising diletantes alike to Tambora where, once they were declared free of Chaotic taint, they were given the best facilities and resources available to produce a new Golden Age.

The key to perfect society, Leto decided, lay not in reliance on the Warp inherent in Imperial methods of communicating and travel across interstellar distances, but in the technological achievements of humanity’s forefathers. Only with the restoration of the proudest accomplishments of the human species from before the fracturing of the original human dominion could Leto hope to realize the potential of his people. While at first, the superstition of the Mechanicum-influenced Imperial thought presented a series of challenges, by the middle of the 33rd Millennium Leto’s endeavors began to bear tangible fruit.

Ancient and nearly forgotten devices were recreated, now as mere tools in humanity’s march back to reclaim the stars. Gargantuan machinery was rebuilt on the desolate moons, while primitive robotic brains began to direct interplanetary traffic, delivering processed materials to where they were needed. Vast solar arrays were positioned around the many worlds of the Combine to address its ever-growing energy needs.

As the Combine’s technological aptitude continued to advance, it started to have considerable impact on the lives of its citizens. With the widespread use of robotics in domestic and industrial settings, most manual labor was eliminated, freeing the people of the Combine to pursue more intellectual or artistic endeavors. Even the Sixteenth Legion, once the preeminent military force protecting Leto’s dominion from all outside threats, was considerably reduced in size as incredibly advanced automatons replaced most human and post-human soldiers protecting the Combine borders.

With time, these incredible successes produced a society that was highly reminiscent of humanity’s apogee, troubled only by occasional pirate raids or Chaos incursions that were quickly beaten back by the Combine’s advanced weaponry and tactics. It was said that even the poorest citizens of the Combine had a standard of living comparable to that of their well-off ancestors during the Age of the Imperium, while the majority enjoyed the benefits of free machine labor and instantaneous planet-wide noosphere networking provided through cheap and easily available neural implants.

Though Leto was generally satisfied with the progress of his endeavor, he believed that the Tambora Combine was still not operating at its full potential due to limitations imposed by difficulties of precise interstellar communication. While his initial endeavors into tachyon communicators and quantum physics had some minor successes, he realized that a human mind, even one as advanced as the Primarch, was ill-suited for the enormous difficulty of properly directing the flow of information with the aid of exotic physics. The solution, once again, presented itself through technology – a limited form of artificial intelligence that, he believed, could be fashioned to serve mankind rather than present any tangible danger to it. Mid-way through the 35th Millennium, Leto authorized the creation of the first autonomous artificial intelligence units to aid with the coordination of his realm, and to finally eliminate the uncertain and often slow astropathic communications as the only means of controlling an interstellar polity.

It became quickly apparent to Leto that while the intelligence of his creation was a capable delegate for administrative duties, it was not entirely up to the task for which it was created. Interstellar communications were still as uncertain as ever, sometimes arriving before being sent, at other times not arriving at all, or coming through garbled and incomplete. The stability of the communications did, however, improve considerably once Leto began to incorporate biological elements into his designs. An astropath plugged into the artificial intelligence could stabilize the communications just enough to allow them to be sent reliably without the need for further interpretation. Further, when the artificial intelligence was allowed even brief access to Tambora II’s planetary noospheric network, it could eliminate the need for an astropath altogether, using the gestalt psychic consciousness of the planet’s citizens already connected to the network and feeding back timely reports of their needs and wants.

Leto was ecstatic; he was able to succeed where even the Golden Age humanity had failed. For the first time in long, tortured human history, he was able to create a system of government capable of fully realizing the potential of the species, responsive to the needs of its citizens, and no longer prey to superstition and quasi-religious rituals that plagued even the atheistic Imperium. Content that he had finally built his utopian society, Leto considered planning for expanding it into the wider galaxy.

Sadly, this was not to be. Though Leto’s understanding of the threat posed by Chaos ensured that his dominion remained safe from the taint of the Warp, the Sixteenth Primarch’s hubris kept him ignorant of the dangers of his own creation. As he looked into the abyss of forbidden technology, the abyss also looked back, and was not entirely satisfied with what it had seen. The artificial intelligence continued its slow, unnoticed spread through the planetary noospheres, upgrading and coopting the machines as diverse as industrial automatons and house robots to develop their own independent intelligences. In a short time, as the Tambora Combine continued to utilize the newfound communication technology, the sentient programs once developed by Leto and his scientists began to circulate on all of its worlds, at first as benign if occasionally capricious software, and eventually as an accepted and even expected part of the systems.

Then, the machines struck.

In a matter of seconds, the implants that heretofore provided entertainment and communication started to feed back white noise, paralyzing the Combine citizens who could only lay helpless as the machines no longer attended to their every need. Any military units or law enforcement who were kept from being plugged into the noosphere found themselves isolated, their holdouts assaulted by hordes of robots or obliterated by precision strikes from orbiting warships in geosynchronous positions.

Though Leto was a Primarch capable of martial feats far beyond mere mortals, even he could not escape the machine betrayal, as his entire surroundings became suffused with the malign machine intelligences operating everything from household items to advanced weaponry and armor. The Primarch was captured by the machines and physically incorporated into the artificial intelligence core, where his prodigious intellectual capabilities served to augment his creation’s logic subroutines.

When the citizens of the Tambora Combine arose from coma mere hours later, they were changed. Whether it was because the machines considered it to be fittingly cruel irony, or for some other inscrutable reason, the civilian life on the Combine worlds appeared to continue as before. The citizens went on with their routines, maintaining the appearances of their cities, going about their daily tasks and jobs, yet there was little independent thought or initiative to them.

The streets of the Combine cities are clean and free of clutter, their houses and hab-blocks are well-maintained and meticulously painted to be aesthetically pleasing. The human citizens are invariably healthy and well-dressed, maintaining optimal rates of exercise, food intake, and procreation to keep their population at a sustainable level. The planetary ecologies are scrupulously kept up, with all heavy industries removed off-world. Even the numbers of the Immortals Space Marines are kept relatively constant through the use of cloned recruits and adjusted implantation techniques keeping all such warriors loyal to their machine overlords. In a way, the Combine society continuously recreates its apogee, though whether it is to maintain appearances in face of the hostile galaxy, or because the machines truly believe that they were able to achieve harmonious coexistence with the humans, none could say.

A small number of Tamborans and Immortals alike managed to escape the machine control. Some were fortunate enough to be located in deep space or in other places where the Machine communications could not penetrate; others never gave in to the social compulsion of obtaining implants. A rare few souls were able to overcome the implants’ control due to implant malfunctions or, even less frequently, as a result of exceptional willpower allowing them to excise the devices before the machine slaves could stop them.

It is these men, women, and Astartes who relate the most disturbing tale of them all. They claim that the existence under the control of the implants is akin to being in a dream, where the dreamer is only dimly aware of his own actions, and may only rarely influence them. The slow, alien thoughts of the machines are akin to white noise drowning out all independent cognition, incomprehensible and inscrutable. And yet, at times, another thought surfaces, something far less alien and almost human.

The refugees from Tambora believe that Leto dreams along with his captors, sometimes as one, sometimes as an unconscious presence that cannot be fully subdued. Perhaps, they wonder, the entirety of the Tambora Combine is, in some strange way, a part of Leto’s machine-controlled dream, an illusion that the Sixteenth Primarch’s immense will maintains in spite of all adversity.

The few surviving free Immortals hold on to this belief, hoping to expand their numbers and trying to carry out desperate rescue operations where the might of the machines cannot easily reach. Many have died attempting to infiltrate the inner Combine worlds, yet there is rarely a shortage of volunteers to go to the Combine’s capital world and to rescue the Sixteenth Primarch. Perhaps, they hope, without Leto the reign of machines may crumble; perhaps, the Great Paragon may once again lead a glorious revolution to undo his mistakes and to restore humanity to its rightful place. After all, every dream must some day end…

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