With origins heavily based in Senti culture and history, and created by an unknown individual, or maybe even individuals. They range in several types, and show no regard at first for what may seem like the life of their pilot. The central leadership is composed of mechanized units of humanoid shape, and made entirely of Senti burial steel, forged from the fallen warriors of ancient Senti history. They are driven by an age old hate, and aggressive drive to fight. In the building of their forces and weapons, many species fall prey, and can be consumed and folded into the conglomerate minds of the higher echelon units, or purpose built necromancy powered drones with no mind of their own. In the classical sense, they are a form of undead, regarded as a mythical boogeyman of interstellar space, though all too real for those unfortunate enough to find them, or worse to be found by them.
These are typically produced by use of burial steel nanomachines and various necromorphic life forms to merge death and machinery into hyper lethal combat units capable of destroying and assimilating to build armies at an absurd rate. With ancient Skydasi knowledge and skills, they are capable of mining, construction, manufacture, and economic feats impossible outside a malignant hive mind. Senti call them Scourge Echoes, describing them as the distilled evil burned from them in times immemorial, combined with the decision of corrupted steel to have no need for living senti.
Due to the senti lack of an afterlife and their proclivity to stay in the steel, burial steel tends to take on shape in the forging process that may or may not be the desired component. Destroying an individual senti is only possible by destroying their bodies in its entirety before it can become the steel, or to destroy every piece of the steel made from that individual. This can cause problems with corrupted steel, wherein several drones can and will communicate nearly instantly by communicating across the steel shared in their construction. This can lead to feats of organization and tactics, tactics and operations that would normally require communications equipment, though due to the nature of the material, none is needed, and it is not jammable.
Signs and symptoms of an infestation can be noted as a steep decline in slaver and pirate activity as their ships go missing, followed by more brazen actions as the mass of souls and material grows.
The horde is stratified by the types of abominations that make up the legion’s forces, starting from Officers which lead the masses of mechanized undead. As well as handling conversion of the dead collected to raise more troops.
14 meters in height, and magically capable.
These are the units made entirely of Skydasi war era burial steel, with no core needed, as this machination is controlled by the collective of souls within its steel, of fallen Senti warriors. They are fast, strong, and not held back by life, or the limitations of an organic body in the pilot seat if there was one. These have full capability to use the more dangerous and combative sides of Senti magics, able to twist and bend reality to their whim in destructive gravitational, magnetic, electrical, and atmospheric anomalies, though other feats have been observed.
The mainline troops of the horde, capable of executed complex tactical maneuvers These are pre-built mechanized frames, which have a Senti steel core within a magic housing, installed into the cockpit cavity. Their performance is not as great as the Officers which lead them, only controlled by one corrupted soul, but lacking the same limitations of having a living body in the pilot’s seat. They do not have the power to twist the reality around them to such a degree as the officers, however, are capable of sustaining themselves indefinitely, and perform basic feats such as movement and handling of weapons. Generally ranging from 10-9 meters, and organized into companies.
The savage fodder, and expendable for the goals of the Officers Much like the footmen units, but without the Senti steel core, as these are composed of artificial cores. These cores are made from the collected dead of other races, as well as the body being built from repurposed mecha hulks found left over at various battlefields. The necromancy fuelling these mecha typically limits their intelligence and focus to a rage fuelled echo of the former mind. Their Officer masters point them towards their next victims and let them off the leash, generally for the purpose of overwhelming while Footmen perform organized attacks in the chaos.
These places are often mobile, repurposed warships or massive colonial ships that have been hollowed out and are generally controlled by a handful of Officers, Here, captured, living victims are often tortured to insanity and twisted in life before being executed and placed into the hull of a war machine, surrounded by various bacterial and nanotechnological slurries to rebuild the corpse into a core vessel for the corresponding resurrected soul. By various methods depending on species, the soul is brought back into this vessel and subjected to the will and control of the Officers they will be leashed to. As most Senti, they tend to be nomadic, preferring deep space, graveyards, battlefields, and places too dangerous for most sapient life to search. They are also believed to be findable on planetary bodies, often war-torn or otherwise devoid of life by cataclysm, whether war or disease.
The legion mainly uses repurposed shipwrecks to cross between systems, using what systems of FTL that they can salvage. The ones they take in ambushes, are on tendency, usually more intact. That being said, the Officers which direct the hordes, have the knowledge to repair, and even in some cases, improve such vessels. Even smart enough to use the FTL entry and exit methods of other races, against them after careful observation. Most vessels however, will be a mix match of components, and whatever else has been collected.
A ship under the control of an officer, will be more complete and organized, generally even having seen a thorough redesign. These will tend to be full of footmen, with fewer thralls, compared to the others found in a legion fleet. One ship will enter a system that is intended as a long term target, and find a secluded place to set up an initial nest. From here, their fleet and horde is grown as local as possible. Once both the horde, and fleet have reached optimal build up, the assault will begin. Outer colonies, and smaller outlying settlements will be priority and prime targets for the legion forces to assimilate before moving on to core worlds.
This content adheres to Project Multiverse's submission and usage rules.