The first recorded event in the history of the Legion, and in fact the whole system, is the creation of the Teeth, sometimes recorded as the Great Opening, and sometimes also the Great Check-Up. Some time during the Horus Heresy, a vast quantity of virus, plasma and vortex weaponry was stolen from the stockyards on Vasilus III.
A month later, the chaos-infected planet of Sardkaon Two was ripped apart in a titanic explosion. The screams of the dying cultists sent a wave through the warp, and by the time the psychic dust had cleared, where the Sardkaon system had been, a shifting, mutable patch of warp/realilty overlap was all that remained. Imperial survey ships in the area, who were almost completely untouched by the wracking wars of the Heresy, reported only that something titanic had occured before a chaos armada of some thousand ships swept through the local vicinity and vanished into the Teeth.
(Rumours that the Great Opening was accompanied by a sound something like ‘Say AAAAA’ have been denied.)
Over the next century, two planets and an Eldar craftworld from nearby systems vanished completely, and the Imperium never heard from the Sardkaon system again.
Legion records show that the chaos armada settled the planets under the instruction of a power known as Dungard, and that this creature founded the Chapter by using a form of pirated gene-seed to alter the first few pure cultists. The system developed culturally, and quickly different races settled different planets. The taint of chaos seemed to disappear from most of the worlds, and the people settled down for a fairly normal life.
The fortress-monastery of the Saurus Legion was set up on Karos, the Chapter quickly developed the unusual trait of training and utilising the dinosaurs that roamed the adjacent plains. Humans built hive cities, but the ecology of the world remained somehow unharmed by the great changes the new civilisations brought.
The first Master of the Chapter was Egrek Wai, and he defined a great many of the Chapter’s rites and ways of life. He was reputed to be an absolutely bitchin’ tiddly-winks player, and would mercilessly thrash anyone who cared to face him at a game.
For two thousand years the Chapter evolved, fighting constant skirmishes and the occasional major war against the neighbouring races. Then came the False Affair of the Affair of the False Commander’s Affair. The story, as told today, goes something like this:
‘Commander Hiro was a good Commander. He was usurped by Commander Gere, who was not a good Commander. Commander Gere got a lot of good Marines killed performing trivial duties like apple farming and cockroach rearing due to bad planning. People labelled him the False Commander. Then one of the Lieutenant Commanders found out that Gere had been carrying on in a most inappropriate fashion with Nell Gwun, a simple Raptor egg collector. Gere was toppled from office, and Lieutenant Commander Yare took over. It later transpired that Yare had made the whole thing up anyway, and Gere was reinstated. And that’s why the story is called what it is.’
Truth told, it’s a bit boring really, but it is a popular story told amongst Scouts who have nothing better to do with their time.
About four thousand years after the False Affair of the Affair of the False Commander’s Affair, a Lieutenant Commander called Raersch went on a massive quest, hacking his way with a gigantic power sword through over a million enemies. How he managed this is anyone’s guess, but the Lord Dungard rewarded this mighty warrior with the gift of daemonhood.
After this, several more Marines went on destructive killing sprees and half the planet descended into violent bloodshed. Dungard finally put a stop to this by declaring a total ban on the gift of daemonhood, and as such Raersch is the only Legion Marine ever to have been deified before his death.
About five hundred years ago Takant became the latest Dominus Magister Draco. He had a special mount bred for him by the Beastmasters, and Maerkanon is one of the mightiest of all the Chapter’s dinosaurs. Not long afterwards, Matthawa became the Chapter’s Chief Librarian, and took to performing experiments, often assisted by his long-time friend Raersch, know known to all and sundry as Incarna.
It was during one of these experiments that one of the most unusual members of the Chapter joined the ranks. Matthawa and Incarna had one of those ideas which, in retrospect, you look back on and say ‘well, it seemed good at the time’. They thought they would have a go at creating female Space Marines.
They 'obtained' a large quantity of gene-seed, fiddled about with it a lot, and implanted it into fifty volunteers from the local populace. Each of them was given the codename Valerie. The results were, suffice to say, unsatisfactory. The resulting creatures mutated swiftly in a variety of horrible ways, and the monsters swept through the citadel causing destruction and bloodshed. Only the rapid deployment (they had to skip morning tea and biscuits) of the 7th Company prevented the problem from getting completely out of hand.
In the wreckage of machinery and heaving piles of twisted, dying flesh that was all that was left of the laboratory, a single figure stirred. Valerie 23, a fourteen year old girl, had somehow managed to master the effects of the implants and stabilise her condition. She matured rapidly, and by her twentieth year she had become a fully implanted and trained member of the Chapter, and its only Battle Sister. Takant has since banned Matthawa and Incarna from trying any further experiments.