Quoted By:
Corruption.
Corruption was a concept that had always plagued the civilizations of mankind. From the time mankind climbed out of their caves to the current era there have always been forms of corruption.
The benefits of corruption are quite obvious when it is the layman. Corruption for a profit was something that caused the rule of man to be corrupted by those that were underneath him. An inspector being paid off by a customer to file a false report in their name was but the smallest of risks. When committed hundreds and thousands of times though, by an entire community of people, that is when such corruption becomes something that tears apart Empires.
One would quickly question what does an Astartes gain from their corruption. They are not paid in any monetary sense so they could not bring things directly to themselves. But when one looks at another idea, the use of corruption to gain raw power, it becomes evident that this is where Astartes find themselves lacking.
In a culture of warriors it was the man who had the largest armament and who controlled the most warriors with his voice that such currency of power comes. They were going to be the ones who will be remembered for they were the ones who led the wars. When wars were waged none cared about the Privates or the Battle Brothers, instead the Generals and Captains were the ones who had their names carved into the minds of the conquered.
Corruption was something TalOS both used and tried to beat down. Corruption was used early in his career against the Hive Worlds, where the Presidents and Dukes all realized that TalOS held power over death itself. In the Mechanicum though Corruption was smashed down. When it reared its ugly head the Proelitor and Skitarii made sure the foolish adept lost their life.
So TalOS understood exactly what Perterabo wanted to accomplish. Information was leaked into his mind as he counted five hundred sixty three of his sons had lost their lives in service of the 4th Legion. This number did not include three Knights and thousands of Skitarii who acted as their Auxiliary.
How many of his sons were lost because of this corruption? How many of them willingly lost their lives thinking that what they were doing was of sound logic to the Fourth Legion’s Master and his Captains. Was it as low as ten lives? Or maybe it was four hundred.
Corruption. Corruption beyond anything else would lead an army to ruin. It did not matter the government which ruled over men or Astartes, if these people did not acknowledge the laws of the land they were no better than fools.
