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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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The Alpha Legion does not fight like any other [[Traitor Legion|Chaos Space Marine Legion]] or warband. They prefer to avoid direct combat, using subterfuge, infiltration, sabotage, brainwashing and meticulous multi-year plans to destroy their enemies as opposed to a simple attack. The very identities of Alpha Legion Marines are the subject of mystery. Their supposed identities are frequently aliases which are shared by cell members, meaning the name and identity of one Alpha Legion Marine could actually refer to many. Genetic face-changing technology is utilised to change the appearance of Legionnaires to confound Imperial authorities as to their real identity. Due to this habit of shared aliases, members of the Alpha Legion often refer to themselves as part of a greater collective identity. When they do show themselves, Alpha Legion Marines prefer to let their cultists and underlings do most of the combat while they themselves wait for the decisive moment to strike or make their escape.{{Fn|15}}
Perhaps the most infamous stratagem used by the Alpha Legion is ''"The Harrowing"'', by which the user wields a devastating mixture of subtlety and overwhelming force, reveling in both meticulous planning and imaginative cruelty. While such assaults begin with various operative or [[Cultist]]{{Fn|17}} uprisings and sabotage, the Alpha Legion then infiltrates a world to spread further confusion and panic while bleeding the enemy of its main strategic assets and command. This continues until it is time for the final kill, The Harrowing itself, which is a final overwhelming push from a hundred different directions. These final overwhelming devastating attacks are often led by elite [[Terminator]]s and heavy armor.{{Fn|88}} While the Alpha Legion developed The Harrowing during the [[Great Crusade]] under Alpharius, the warbands of today continue to still revere its use.{{Fn|76b}}
Unlike most of the other [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legions, the Alpha Legion rarely operates within the Eye of Terror itself. As a result, they have not been subjected to the time distortion that the [[Warp]] has affected other Traitor Marines with, leading many in the [[Inquisition]] to debate how the Legion, now ten thousand years after the [[Horus Heresy]], can still be active. According to Inquisitor [[Kravin]], the Alpha Legion acquires new recruits, genetically modifies them and then trains them for missions all within Imperial territory itself.{{Fn|14}}
