Janus Clique

"The future of the Imperium is an endless desert, where a hundred billion souls are feasted upon a pantheon of vestigial Gods. Empty Cathedrals that pierce the skies are surrounded by coral reefs of bones, while the only sound will be the quiet dirge of the last man trying to crawl back from this future he has made for himself. We are here to prevent this."

Operating from out of the hidden reaches of the Eressa Sector, the Janus Clique are an Alpha Legion cell but with one goal: insurrection. Made up of perhaps only ten Astartes, the Janus Clique works against the Imperial presence in the sector via infiltration of its governance and military leadership. Few are aware of their existence, and fewer still are even aware of their true purpose in the Sector, or their real leader.

Before the Imperium (Pre-339.M41)
At the end of the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion did not retreat into the Eye of Terror with many of the other Traitor Legions but instead broke up into a mass of cells and warbands that spread across and beyond Imperial or Heretic controlled space. The Janus Clique were amongst these cells and sought to find pockets of human kind cut off from the Imperium and prepare them for the Long War against the Emperor. What sparse Ordo Hereticus records that exist regarding the Clique cite their presence in other a dozen sectors before any sign of activity in the Eressa sector.

While the Imperium only established a presence in the Eressa Sector in 339.M41, it is believed by several Inquisitors that the Janus Clique was operating within the sector for several decades beforehand amongst the already existing human settlements. They recruited locals within the civil service and military – via bribery or blackmail – and managed to create a vast network of human operatives. Many of these men and women knew little about who was giving them commands or what they were part of – the higher they were in command chains the less they would be permitted to know. With these operatives, the Janus Clique were sowed chaos throughout the sector; Industrial accidents, ‘natural’ disasters and military set backs were set up and executed by the Clique on a regular basis. But the goal of the Janus Clique was never to wipe out the human population, nor was it to aide any sort of Chaos uprising or insurrection, but rather the Clique sought to prepare the sector for when the Imperium arrived. The weakest would be culled by the horrors inflicted upon them, while what remained would be strengthened by their experiences. But the Janus Clique did not stop there. Via psycho-surgery, long-term genetic geas programmes and other forms of genetic engineering, the Clique created future agents within the offspring of what they believed would become future nobles, governors, military leaders – who could be activated whenever needed by the Clique

The Imperium Arrives (339.M41)
The Janus Clique were aware of the encroaching Imperial Crusade several years before it arrived, and so stepped up their operations to destabilise the sector wherever they could in hopes of making the transition into Imperial control as simple as possible. New batches of sleeper agents were created and programmed, a host of plagues, disasters and conflicts were wrought across the sector in the Clique’s attempts to weaken any possible defence against the Imperial invasion. But the presence of Xenos complicated their plans, and in many cases the Clique intervened to help ensure the aliens would not prevent the return of the population to the control of the Imperium.

Ideology
"We can exterminate trillions of human lives and make no impact upon the future health of the Imperium. We could exterminate hundreds of trillions, and even more than that, and it would simply not matter as there would be another trillion waiting to replace them. If saving humanity from itself requires the deaths of hundreds of trillions, then is murdering them not the most noble of goals and simple of sacrifices?"

At the end of the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion was wracked by ideological schisms. While some Warbands and Cells embraced Chaos as master or servant, others held firm to the belief that victory for Chaos over the Imperium of Man would ultimately ensure the destruction of the Chaos Gods. For the Janus Clique, their beliefs lie somewhere in the middle. The Janus Clique considers the current Imperium to be riddled with weakness and decadence, and thus a perfect host for the parasitic corruption of Chaos. Despite this, they consider the Imperium not to be beyond saving – though salvation can only come through struggle and hardship. Once the weak and decadent are culled, the body of humanity and its collective ego will be freed from the parasite of the warp and able to master it with ease, as well as the rest of the galaxy. Their belief system is not far from that of Inquisitorial Recongregationism – a factor that has worried the small number of Ordo Hereticus agents aware of the Clique’s existence.

Organisation
Only smattering of Inquisitorial agents are aware of the existence of the Janus Clique, and fewer still are aware of its organisation. What scattered records and accounts exist claim they number only ten Astartes, a small and fanatic fraternity dedicated to their heretical blend of nihlophilosophy and Recongregationism. Each member (known only by the title of ‘Agent’) is trained to operate autonomously. Every Agent possesses many proxies and contacts, and each works in tandem with one another to ensure their separate chains of command do not overlap or fall into conflict with one another. All of them however fall under the command of their leader, Agent 1; Mithras ‘the master of spies’ – an Alpha Legion officer said to have been part of their Legion since the Horus Heresy.

Members
Mithras, Agent 1 Known by his title and little else, Mithras is whispered to have been a figure high in the officer corps of the Alpha Legion. Mithras is clad in a set of ornate artificer armour, with overlapping plates marked by scales, hydra-symbolism and serpent motifs. He is often accompanied by a Grynix with obsidian fur.

Appearance
Scattered documentation records the Janus Clique as lacking a uniform armour scheme. Its Astartes members are said to wear power armour scavenged from any sources they can find, with some members still clad in plate used during the Heresy, and others in the most modern armour the Imperium can produce. Many wear the colours of loyalist chapters, or even disguise themselves as other, better known cells of Alpha Legionaries. What is known is that every member is marked by a distinct, obsidian ring, highlighted by a small silver engraving of a hydra