I — Primus Lex III

Former Roles:
III — Tertius (Precision / Elimination)
II — Secundus (Continuity / Judgement)

Before the Mantle

Before carrying authority, the one who would become Lex was known for control.

As Tertius, he operated as a marksman of internal note — not for volume of kills, but for reliability under pressure. Shots were taken late, not early. Misses were rare and corrected immediately. When lanes needed to stay open, they stayed open.

His reputation was not built on flair, but on outcomes.

The Mission

During a sealed remediation action, Tertius and the acting Secundus were deployed to recover a priority asset from a collapsed zone.

The breach went black.

Collapse and fire severed command continuity. The Secundus was killed outright. Hostile presence consolidated around the objective. The asset remained unrecovered.

Tertius did not withdraw.

Adaptation

In the ruins nearby lay the carcass of an armoured hull, half-buried and gutted by earlier fighting. Its primary systems were gone, but emitter coils and capacitors remained intact beneath ash and debris.

Tertius stripped what could still speak.

Components were cut free, rewired, and hard-wired directly into exposed power conduits. The weapon was immobile, brutal, and unstable — a cannon anchored to the ruin itself. It could not advance, but it did not need to.

Resistance was broken in place.

The asset was recovered.
The zone was cleared.
Tertius returned alone.

Elevation to Secundus

The loss of Secundus created a vacuum.

Review of the action identified no deviation, no breach of doctrine, and no alternative candidate with equivalent authority earned under fire.

By election, Tertius was elevated to Secundus.

As part of investiture, the House issued a purpose-built lascannon, modularised and stabilised — a formalised answer to the weapon Tertius had improvised under collapse.

The judgement was implicit:
the concept was sound; the execution would now be perfected.

Investiture as Primus

Two cycles later, the Primus mantle was vacated.

By doctrine and consent, Secundus ascended. The previous identity was erased. Authority was consolidated.

The designation Primus Lex III was instantiated.

The lascannon remained assigned.

Method

Lex does not fire often.

When he does, the result is final.

He anchors the line by presence rather than motion, applying decisive force at the moment escalation becomes unavoidable. Orders are brief. Timing is exact. Variance is corrected by example.

For Lex, law is not procedure alone —
it is consequence.

Role Definition (Phalanx VI)

Authority / Command

Lex interprets mandate, sets tempo, and delivers final judgement when escalation is required. In Phalanx VI, command authority and decisive force are intentionally unified.

III — Tertius Exactus VI (Archeotek)

Lineage:
Sixth bearer of the Exactus mantle.

Function:
Fire control through perception advantage; short-range dominance in degraded visibility; technical adaptation under fire to enable Phalanx movement.

Loss of the Third Eye

The previous Exactus held the rear while the Phalanx extracted a priority relic for the clan. Volleys were counted. Range flags were placed. The route remained open long enough for the asset to clear.

When the count ended, Eye III was gone.

The position was logged vacant.
The operation continued.

Identification of a Successor

A candidate had already been marked — not just for accuracy, but for outcomes. As a gunfighter they were known internally for clean work: calm movement, ruthless economy, targets dropped without excess. Alongside it ran a second reputation: a talented tinkerer who could keep gear functioning long after it should have failed.

Then came the breach in discipline.

Without authorisation and against direct instruction, the candidate upgraded their own eyes. The work was precise, effective — and completely unsanctioned. The result was immediate reassignment away from core duties. Not erased, not praised: redirected. Temperament and skill were deemed better suited to in-field modification and problem-solving where deviation could be contained and usefulness extracted.

Before formal contact could be made, a multi-gang war ignited across the candidate’s sector: Orlocks pressing lanes, Cawdor burning entries, Delaque collapsing visibility. The candidate’s Van Saar cell was erased to the last.

The candidate endured, pinned in a ruin of ducts and glass.

Extraction and Offer

The Phalanx entered the sector as five, moving into the chaos without announcement. Vigil peeled back the darkness first, stripping false cover and exposing the dead angles that kept the candidate pinned. Rigor broke the nearest lane and held it long enough for Lex to set the tempo, advancing by count as resistance swelled and fell away.

Fire shaped the space between movements. Shots arrived where enemies meant to step, not where they stood, and the ruin grew quieter with every beat. The pressure never rushed, never stalled. Angles collapsed. Lanes narrowed. The noise thinned to echoes and dripping coolant.

When the opening finally came, it was no wider than a single body. The candidate was pulled through on the count, moving as if the timing had always been known.

At exfil, there were no speeches. The offer was delivered plainly: the old identity would be erased, and the mantle of Tertius Exactus would be assumed — with the candidate’s modifications retained under House control rather than punished in absence.

Acceptance came without hesitation.

Investiture

Authority was assigned. Equipment was issued to integrate with the ocular systems rather than overwrite them. The candidate’s habits were not corrected — they were bounded.

Tertius Exactus VI was instantiated.
All records of the candidate’s former cell were sealed under Phalanx doctrine.

II — Secundus Rigor VIII (Archeotek)

Lineage:
Eighth recorded bearer of the Rigor designation.

Former Roles:
V — Quintus (Acquisition / Sustainment)
— subsequently elevated to II — Secundus

Before the Mantle

Before assuming authority, Rigor functioned as a facilitator rather than a fighter.

As a senior archeotek, he specialised in procurement, adaptation, and continuity of supply. Where others maintained weapons, Rigor maintained relationships — with tech-merchants, guild factors, reclaimers, and those who knew how to acquire parts that did not officially exist.

This work required patience, credibility, and an ability to make disparate interests align. Rigor possessed all three.

Through these channels, the Phalanx remained equipped beyond projection. Replacement parts arrived early. Experimental systems appeared quietly. Shortfalls were addressed before they became liabilities.

Rigor’s own augmentations began during this period. Not as indulgence, but as iteration.

Physical Augmentation

Van Saar doctrine accepts physical weakness as a trade for cognitive supremacy.

Rigor did not.

Through incremental acquisition and off-ledger fabrication, he began reinforcing his own frame. Vascular regulators were installed and refined, allowing the body to absorb punishment without collapse. Torsonic actuators followed — initially for load-bearing and stability, later recalibrated for impact.

The spider rig was not a sudden escalation, but a logical extension: mobility, leverage, and survivability integrated into a single platform.

The result was not elegance.
It was persistence.

Elevation to Secundus

Rigor’s consistency made him unavoidable.

When vacancies arose, when losses mounted, when continuity frayed, Rigor’s assessments held. His projections proved accurate. His preparations absorbed shock.

Election to Secundus followed without contest.

The judgement was simple:
the Phalanx required someone who could hold it together — administratively, materially, and physically — when conditions deteriorated.

Role as Secundus

As Secundus, Rigor maintains doctrine not through rhetoric, but through enforcement of standard.

• Supply chains remain intact.

• Personnel remain viable.

• Enhancements are pursued deliberately, not impulsively.

When presence is required, Rigor intervenes directly — not with speed or finesse, but with inevitability. He advances. He absorbs. He does not stop.

Combat skill is not his strength.
Endurance is.

Method

Rigor prepares before the fight and endures during it.

Flesh is treated as another system to be reinforced. Damage is absorbed, corrected, and purged over time. Movement is deliberate. Pressure is applied until resistance fails.

Between operations, Rigor continues to cultivate off-ledger relationships. Credits are generated quietly. Components are sourced. The Phalanx’s physical limits are pushed incrementally outward.

Progress is measured in survivability, not spectacle.

Relationship to Primus

Lex decides when force is required.
Rigor ensures the Phalanx can withstand it.

Authority flows cleanly between them.

Where Lex delivers judgement,
Rigor ensures the structure survives its consequences.