Utterly Mad

The Imperial Legion consists of six million Legionnaires serving the Empire of Caesar that was forged in the year 2,000,525 A.D. The Imperial Legion was formed five hundred years ago, the Legionnaires the sons and daughters of the planet Alistair, also known as the Orphan planet. It was named after the founder of the first settlement, Alistair Iscariot. It was called the Orphan planet after Iscariot formed a cult and years later the cultist murdered anyone at or over the age of eighteen. The adult population of an entire planet wiped out and those who committed the crime had disappeared before anyone could find them.
Grand General Brutus W. Mills ‘adopted’ the planet’s children and formed the Imperial Legion. He brought in men he had served beside to train the children, first in the basics of life such as cooking, cleaning, and hygiene. Then they were trained in the art of war.
The vast majority of Legionnaires had themselves implanted with chips that enhanced their physical and mental capabilities. They drafted their own war doctrine that they called The Pact. Within a hundred years of its conception the Imperial Legion proved to be the most capable military component of the Empire… and the most feared.
The Legionnaires pact
The Assault Legionnaire helps lead the attack and will draw enemy fire so that the Support Legionnaires may attack from a position of superiority.
The Demolitions Legionnaire destroys any structure standing in the way of the Legion and will rain hell fire down onto those who oppose the Legion.
The Support Legionnaire suppresses the enemy with heavy weaponry and carries supply crates for his fellow Legionnaires.
The Incendiary Legionnaire utilizes his weaponry to devastate enemy positions and wage psychological warfare on the enemy.
The Gladius Legionnaire bears his sword and shield and aids in forming the front line or dives forward with haste to draw the blood of their foes.
The Deep Strike Legionnaire is deployed behind the enemies’ front line and causes havoc in their rear echelons, enabling his fellows to move forward with greater speed by eliminating resistance in the enemies’ rear defense positions.
The Tank Legionnaire mans the Legions armor and utilizes his craft’s capabilities to aid his fellows, either by delivering crippling damage to the enemy or providing rapid transport for the infantry.
The Ranger Legionnaire utilizes either long range weaponry to deprive the enemy of leadership and heavy weapons crews or carry devastating short to mid-range weaponry to combat the enemy.
The Medical Legionnaire cares for his wounded comrades, mending their wounds and carrying crates of medical supplies to carry out their work.
The Immortal Legionnaire is a mixture of what was a Legionnaire and a metal construct controlled by the Legionnaire’s thoughts. An Immortal Legionnaire wades into combat raining death upon the enemy with weaponry attached to their mechanized body that allows them to continue in their previous role.
The Technician Legionnaire maintains the weaponry, equipment, vehicles, and Immortal Legionnaires of the Imperial Legion. They rarely see combat but are considered as equals to those who wade into battle.
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The Iscariot Uprising on planet Ignis
Year: 2,600,361
Peter let the magazine slide out of his Lance and slid a new one into the weapon. Bullets impacted his cover and the ground around it as he readied the weapon and leaned out of cover. He felt one of the low powered shells from an Iscariot Cultist’s pistol impact his helmet and bounce off as if he had just been shot with a marshmallow gun. He fired two shots and the back of the cultist’s chest exploded outward and sprayed his compatriots with blood and organs.
Another shot turned a second cultist’s head into biological shrapnel that tore into the head and throats of two more of his friends. Peter felt still more bullets hit his armor and bounce off and he began to wonder if they actually had anything capable of killing a Legionnaire. He knew the Iscariot worshippers had such weapons, this was a simple fact, yet he hadn’t seen any of his siblings fall with a wound, not even a dent in their armor.
He let a faint smile onto his face as a group of Gladius Legionnaires rushed past him and towards the group of cultists that had been feebly attempting to kill him. He heard the Support Legionnaires cease fire as the Gladius squad began tearing the cultists into chunks of dead meat and he lowered his own weapon. This wasn’t war, it was just a field exercise for his siblings and himself.
He stepped out of cover and began walking towards the Gladius squad that had just chopped off the head of the last cultist. He shook his head as one of them turned to him and motioned about them “I was told that I would be killing enemy soldiers, not men armed with toys.” The Legionnaire said, almost laughing at this pathetic display.
Peter smiled as he approached the Legionnaire and said “I know, I was told the same thing Solomon. I was expecting more from these Iscariot dogs than this.”
Solomon laughed and was about to reply when their conversation was cut short by command “Peter, Solomon, take your men and move to aid Isaac and his squad of Support Legionnaires.”
Peter and Solomon both spoke at the same time “Acknowledged.”
Peter and his Assault Legionnaires began the run towards Isaac’s squad with Solomon following shortly behind with his men. They rushed onto what had once been a corn field and saw Isaac’s men surrounded by Armored Cultists firing at them. Peter and his men moved into a barn that had been left mostly intact, a singular hole in the roof and the back of the barn where an artillery shell crashed into the building and exploded.
Solomon and his squad rushed past, letting loose a war cry as they ran full speed at the enemies rear. Peter set the weapon to burst fire and increased the scope’s magnification level as he lifted it to his shoulder and fired as the first of the cultists turned to meet Solomon. The first shell left a dent in the chest plate, the second turned that dent into shrapnel that propelled itself into the Cultists organs.
Peter had already switched targets before the body collapsed to the ground. He saw eight more cultists drop as his men opened fire, and he fired again. The two bullets tore through the cultists visor and left his brain oozing out of the two holes.
Then Solomon’s Gladius squad crashed into the Cultists and began cleaving their arms and heads from their bodies. Peter turned his fire towards another group of Cultists and pulled the trigger.  Isaac’s Support Legionnaires spat death at the Cultists through the barrels of their Vortex tri-barreled, belt fed machine guns. Peter saw one of the cultists take six bullets to his chest, liquefying the muscle, fat, bone, and organs inside.
The Cultists started to retreat as they mowed down their men.  Solomon and his men moved up to Isaac’s Support squad and watched the enemy retreat, and Peter stepped out of the barn. “Any casualties?”
Isaac sighed as he let go of the trigger and said “Yes, one of my men is wounded. A bullet to the arm, through and through, another is stuck in his knee.”
Solomon bent down to pick up the injured Legionnaire and after a few seconds straightened up and looked at Isaac “How much equipment do you Support Legionnaires carry?”
Isaac chuckled as he bent down and hauled the injured Legionnaire over his shoulder. “Most of us weigh two-hundred-and-fifty pounds with an additional three to five-hundred pounds of weaponry, ammo, grenades, and other supplies. Sometimes more, sometimes less, and then we have our own ammo, armor, and weaponry.”
Solomon shook his head and said “Command, we need a Medical Legionnaire. One of Isaac’s men has been wounded. We are moving back behind our lines to drop him off.”
Command replied “Understood, a Medical Legionnaire will be waiting for you.”
The three squads moved together as they went back to the rear lines of the Legion.
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It was less than a half hour and Peter was back in combat firing his Lance at a rapid rate and chewing through his ammunition supplies as he dropped Cultists left and right. Two of his men had been killed with shots to the head or chest. He pulled a grenade from his belt and threw it into the midst of the Cultists that were firing on his position.
He detonated the grenade as he ducked into cover. Peter looked around and saw one of his men draw his pistol and start unloading the weapon into the Cultist position. Peter contacted the nearby Support squad and said “We’re running low on ammo over here, one of my Legionnaires is down to his pistol. Mind bringing a crate over here?”
“We will when we can, there’s too many cultists shooting at us for one of my Legionnaires to make it right now.” The Support Squad’s leader said as he fired on a group of Cultists rushing towards his men.
“Okay. We’ll make do with what we have.” Peter said.
Peter tossed a magazine to the Legionnaire and turned to fire his Lance through the window he was positioned at, turning a Cultist’s head into a spray of blood and bone. He took aim and pulled the trigger of his lance…and heard the click that told him his weapon was empty. He pulled out his pistol and fired a trio of rounds that flew through the air and tore into the chest of another Cultist.
That’s when he caught sight of it and said over the Legion’s comms channels “The Cultists got their hands on a tank! How in the name of Caesar did they get a tank?!”
Command said “According to reports…excuse me, the portions of a report that we were given, the 32nd Army of Mars lost a few transport ships to Cultist boarding parties. One of those transports must have been carrying type Fifty-Two Nero class tanks.”
Peter ducked into cover as the tank’s turret swiveled and began tearing into his cover. “That’s just great, absolutely perfect. Are there any Demolition Legionnaires close by?”
A third voice spoke up on the comms channel “A Nero? I have rockets, lots of rockets, but I don’t think any of them will puncture that armor. No, I’m going to have to use a charge on it.”
“You think you can get that charge on it if I distract the gunner?” Peter asked as he slid the magazine out of his pistol and reloaded.
“Yeah, probably…possibly. I don’t know for certain but it’s a shot, and the only one we’ve got at the moment.” The Demolitions Legionnaire said.
“Well then, good luck brother.” Peter said as he stepped out of cover and fired at the tank.
It had the desired effect as the turret swiveled toward him. Peter took cover a couple of seconds before the first shell went flying wide of the building. Peter leaned out and fired a burst off at the tank. He saw the charge arc through the air and land on the tank’s front armor.
The Demolitions Legionnaire dove to the ground away from the vehicle and hit the button. Peter saw the blast of fire erupt from the front of the tank and engulf where the Demolitions Legionnaire had jumped to the ground and then a second jet of fire erupt through the back of the tank. He shook his head as he saw the Demolitions Legionnaire jump into the air and shout “I got it, I got it! I fucking got the sons of bitches!”
Peter looked over when he heard a thud and spotted a Support Legionnaire dropping off a crate off ammo for the Assault Squad. He walked over and picked up a magazine for his Lance and slid it into his empty weapon. His men were already slipping magazines into their bandoliers and weapons and Peter said “The Cultists are retreating now that their tank has been destroyed.”
They all heard a distant crack and for a second Peter thought it might have been one of their Ranger Legionnaires firing at a retreating Cultist. He felt the bullet tear through his chest plate and felt himself hit the ground before it fully registered what had happened. He heard his men shouting to take cover and felt one of them grab his chest plate and drag him into cover.
Peter attempted to stand but felt his knees buckle and saw the world turn black as he fell unconscious.
The Iscariot cult worships the Great One, a being of unknown power and ambitious goals. Soon after the Cults founding they were required to show a display of loyalty, slaughter any adult non believer and leave the planet. The leaders of the cult began to show mystical powers after their departure from what had once been their homes and they began to pale to a sickly grey.
All of the Cultist’s skin began to turn grey, and some woke, mysteriously with tattoos they had no recollection getting. Those marked with these tattoos became the Chosen, both captains in the Cultist army and exceedingly gifted in combat. These men were bathed in the strongest armor that the Cult could build and given their most powerful weapons.
Of course they did have one enemy that they came to fear only a handful of decades after they started. The Imperial Legion still hated the Iscariot Cult even after nearly seven hundred years, and the Legion had been allowed to actively pursue and put down the Iscariot’s for the last three hundred years.
That is not to say that the Iscariot’s were idle during those intervening years, no they had recruited vast numbers of Cultists who were willing to throw themselves into the meat grinder for glory and the service of the Great One. They raided military depots to secure weapons, vehicles, and space ships. They also began producing their own armored vehicles and ships, though they were of an inferior quality to the Grand Army of The Empire’s products. Their war doctrine however is rather inconsistent and is often compiled on the fly by whoever is in charge of the battle at hand.
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The Iscariot Defense of the biological research station of Planet Ignis
Johnathan pushed the bolt of his rifle up and out and watched the shell eject from the rifle. At the same time he saw the body of the scientist he had just shot fall to the floor and roll a few feet down the hall before resting on the floor. He swung the barrel around and pointed it at the other scientist as he slammed the bolt back into firing position.
The three of them that were left raised their hands and backed up against the wall, begging him not to kill them. He almost shot them anyway but he knew they were needed alive, at least for a while longer. “Back down the hallway, any of you try for the exit and I’ll shoot you dead before you make it five feet!”
They all told him they would follow his orders and do whatever he wanted and so he lead them down the hall and into the lab proper. Two more cultists followed him into the room and took positions near the door. John said “Okay, what I want is all of the research you’ve done since two years ago and any specimens you have.”
Of course they agreed and began to go about the task. He knew it would take a while to get that much data on the hard drive he had provided for them so he turned and ordered his men to kill the scientists if they attempted to leave and then headed out to help his men.
As he walked out the doors he heard one of his men over the radio “I shot one of their squad leaders in the chest, so the bastard has gotta be dead!”
John tapped his ear piece and said “Not likely soldier, it takes a bit more than a bullet to the chest to kill a Legionnaire.”
“Looked like it pierced his fucking armor sir, but you’re more experienced than me.” The man said.
John didn’t reply as he jumped across the trench his men had hastily constructed to help them defend against the Legionnaires. He knew the trench would do nothing, but he was not the commander for this battle. As he walked one of the men moved into step beside him and offered him one of the assault rifles they had taken from the Grand Army.
He waved the weapon away and stopped to take aim at a target in the distance. He pulled the trigger and saw the man fall to the ground on the distant hill. The two men continued moving forward towards the frontline and John said “They’ve deployed Deep Strikes? Odd to see them this late in the battle only just being deployed.”
It took the two of them forty-six minutes and twelve seconds by John’s count and he knew their objective would be done sometime in the next five to ten minutes. John fired on the enemy as they came into view, moving forward until he was in cover beside a group of his men. Leaning out from cover he fired his rifle twice and ducked back to reload.
As he finished reloading he spotted a lone Gladius rushing towards one of the men with him, having not noticed John. With a quick shot John blew one of the Legionnaire’s legs off and then took the three steps between the two and drove a knife into the Legionnaire’s throat. “I swear the Legionnaires used to be smarter than this.” John said as he pulled the knife out and let the dead body fall to the floor.
Which was when he heard over his ear piece “We have the information-“ He heard a trio of gun shots “-and any backups they have will be destroyed before anyone will have the time to access them, and the scientists are dealt with. Time to go.”
John relayed the orders to the nearby men and they all made their retreat. They had what they needed so there was no point fighting any longer. The Iscariots would rule but it would take time. John knew that, and this was one of the necessary steps they needed to take.
He couldn’t help but smile as the lab exploded in the distance as his transport took him up and to the ship he called home.
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The Grand Army was formed after the rise of the Empire. It is commanded by the Emperor himself and his orders are carried out by the Generals of the army, which consists of numerous different divisions from all over the empire. From the Ignisian Solar Marines to the 54th Vortex Army.
The Grand Army and the Imperial Legion are two different entities operating for the same government but with differing concerns. The Grand Army in recent years has increasingly turned into a police force tasked with putting down rebellions and any organizations opposing the Emperor while the Imperial Legion deals with the Iscariots and any outside forces attacking the Empire.
The Grand Army’s primary concern as of late has been an anarchist organization called the Vortex Freedom Force, though they’ve recently begun calling themselves the Black Skulls. The group had been concerned with freeing the planet Vortex from the Empire and forming their own government but a shift in leadership changed their goals to making the entirety of the Empire into an anarchist state. They use any and all means to accomplish this goal and the Grand Army has been adapting to handle the various situations they’ve been put in.
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Jackson and Moriarty were walking down the street of Blackthorne city on Terra. Jackson lifted his lighter to the end of the cigarette hanging out of his mouth and flicked the lighter on. Moriarty shook his head and said “Those things will kill you someday.”
Jackson put his lighter up as he used his other hand to make a dismissive motion towards Moriarty before saying “I’m in the Grand Army, I’ll die long before these things catch up to me.”
Moriarty shook his head again and looked through the window of a store they were walking past and whistled. Jackson looked over at the lingerie store and then punched Moriarty in the shoulder. “Like you’ve got anyone to buy that stuff for.” Jackson said as he looked around at the crowded streets.
Moriarty gave him a grin and said “Come on, I can dream. Not like you never wished for some…’companionship’ once in a while.”
Jackson rolled his eyes and breathed out smoke before saying “Sure, but I don’t stare at the window of a lingerie shop in the middle of a crowded street.”
Moriarty shrugged as they continued to walk down the street. The two of them continued their walk in silence, looking through the windows of the various shops as they walked by. Jackson finished his cigarette and took a few paces away from his companion to stop and stamp the butt out and then toss it into the nearby trashcan.
Moriarty stopped in front of a games store for a second before heading inside with Jackson in tow. The two of them started looking through the shelves of games, showing each other a few different things they found interesting. Moriarty and Jackson walked to the counter with three different boxes and set them down while they waited for the apparently absent clerks to show up.
“Funny, they always seem to have at least one guy in these stores.” Moriarty said as he leaned against the counter and pulled out a stick of gum.
Jackson shrugged at the comment since he didn’t go to this kind of store all that often. He preferred movies most of the time though Moriarty was starting to get him into this whole ‘videogame’ thing. He looked at his watch and said “It is kind of late, maybe they’re in the back cleaning up.”
Moriarty was about to respond when a man in a black hoodie and jeans walked in through the back door and walked over to the counter. “How are you two doing tonight? Pretty busy out on the street tonight.”
Jackson nodded and said “Yeah, it’s busy. But then it is the summer festival tonight for this planet so it’s going to be busier than other nights.”
The man nodded as he scanned the boxes and rattled off the price to Moriarty. Jackson saw the pistol in the man’s belt as he went to grab a bag to put the games in. Without really thinking Jackson jumped over the counter and kicked the man square in the chest.
The man went for the gun but Jackson already had his pistol out and shot him in the head. Two more men wearing Black Skull masks rushed out of the back and fired at the two Grand Army officers. Moriarty ducked behind the counter as Jackson fired at the pair.
Two bullets took one of them in the chest and sprayed the door behind him with blood and guts while the third smacked into the wall. Moriarty shot the other man in the stomach three times. The dead body hit the floor as the two of them rushed into the back.
They found two men hogtied next to each other and a large gas canister sitting in the middle of the room. Moriarty grabbed his radio and called it in as Jackson untied the civilians and told them to get out of the building. Moriarty looked at Jackson and said “Okay, Grand Army personnel are coming to search the area and deal with the problem. We need to get out of here for now.”
Jackson nodded and the two walked into the main room. Jackson tossed the money for the games on the counter as Moriarty grabbed them. The two of them rushed out of the building from there and started back for base. No one was going to have leave for the next couple of weeks. Jackson lit another cigarette “This is going to be a long fucking week Moriarty.”
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So this is what I've been working on for a while. If you can't tell the whole idea started out with the Imperial Legion and expanded, so that's most of why their the largest written part so far. Any thoughts on it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: fixed a lore mistake...Five thousand years....big lore mistake there. Also edited where it should be easier to tell gaps in time, but I'm not sure if how I edited that will help.