Blackshields

The term Blackshields refers to irregular Space Marine units during the Horus Heresy. Small in scale, few numbered more than a thousand or so warriors. Evoking martial tradition of ancient times, a Blackshield was a warrior who had entirely denounced his parent Legion, or in some extreme cases had never known from which Legion they originated. They often fought under a false banner or bore no banner at all. Groups of Blackshields fought against both sides in the Heresy, dating back to the Battle of the Coronid Deeps of 006-008.M31. There, a force of loyalist Astartes clad in black and wearing no iconography other than the Aquila formed to fight the traitors, but refused the order to withdraw and were presumed lost.