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"The sea raged and the wind howled like the voice of an angry god. It gave no quarter and spared neither them nor their pursuers. Both were hurled into the depths, like stones into raging waters."

-- Ancient text of Terra, c. M2 found by the archeocognizant expedition of Magos Historia Benedict Aphorasios, soon after the Imperial civil war, colloquially known as the Horus Heresy.

We are Iron. They are but stone. There is no escaping us. We have never forgotten the glories we deserved and they received: at Roma, Skrillex IV, Kaepernaum, and many more besides. Now is the time we take our vengeance. So hunt them. And break them. And in the name of Perturabo of Olympia, your primarch, your tyrant, cut them down.”

-- Dhur Gulak, the Iron Lash, Lord of the 41st Grand Battalion Shatter Company, IV Legion Astartes at the incept of the Vardan Prosecution.

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At the conclusion of the Battle of Phall, the Imperial Fists leapt into the Warp nearly blind. Within the first few seconds, thousands of Astartes lost their lives to the maddening terror of the Immaterium. Others still found themselves thrown across space and, in at least one documented case thus far, time itself. These displaced groups of Imperial Fists would all suffer unique fates. Some became Blackshields, such as the Lykos Brotherhood. Others rejoined Alexis Polux either during his time in Ultramar or in his drive back to Terra. Still others began persecuting their own small wars against the traitors, heedless or genuinely unaware of any calls to regroup with the main force of the Retribution Fleet. This account tells of one of those splinter forces and their conflict against the enemies of the Emperor in the shadow of Imperium Secoundus. But before we can do that, we must first turn our gaze to the Iron Warriors.

Like all of Horus' allies, the Iron Fourth presented a unified front of allegiance to the Warmaster. The truth, if such a thing even exists amidst a conflict as large as the Heresy, reveals a legion torn between loyalty to the ideals they spent two centuries sacrificing themselves for and the bonds of brotherhood that turned those sacrifices into costly victories. In light of the first half of the Battle of fall, some of these internal conflicts became more pronounced. But a single factor could still unite the entirety of the Fourth Legion: their hatred of their cousins, the Imperial Fists.

This same hatred led dozens of Iron Warrior vessels into the Warp in pursuit of the Polux's fleeing forces. Despite their loyalty to the Warmaster, the tides of the warp proved no kinder to these Iron Warriors vessels than they had to the Imperial Fists. When the pursuing Iron Warriors finally exited the Warp, they found themselves just as far-flung as their prey.

Be it pure chance or a sinister intelligence laying behind the veil, many Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists found themselves facing each other once again after their displacement from Warpspace. In almost all cases, the two sides simply resumed their conflict from Phall. This proved the case with the two primary subjects of this account: The Imperial Fists 247th Company and elements of the Iron Warriors 41st Grand Battalion, who would later become know as the "Shatter Company." Both of their vessels re-emerged above the planet of Vardan, an Imperial world of little note prior to this conflict, but one that would play host to a titanic battle between exemplars of two legions.

Second Captain Dhur Gulak of the Iron Warriors opened fire first, tearing open the Light of Sol which belonged to the aforementioned 247th Imperial Fists. Gulak possessed years of experience in both planetary and void combat. He expected that this brief exchange of close-range fire would soon end with his ship victorious and the Light of Sol a smoldering ruin on Vardan's surface. The Light of Sol, already badly damaged from both Phall and the Warp, stood no chance against the full might and tactical prowess of Gulak's ship, the Veritatis Gravitas.

As the Light of Sol died above Vardan, her commander, Captain Innis, ordered an evacuation to the drop pods still functioning on the ship. Dozens of pods fell from the burning wreck of the Light of Sol, with many of those meeting a fiery end in the thermonuclear detonation that sprang from within the great ship's engine. The handful that did survived found themselves strewn across half a continent.

Though the Iron Warriors had destroyed their enemy's ship, they strayed too close in doing so. The blast from Light of Sol played havoc with the systems of the Gravitas and would have destroyed her if not for the sound construction afforded to all vessels of the Fourth. Regardless, the 41st Grand Battalion's ship now lay almost dead in orbit above Vardan. Realizing that their only chance at leaving the system came from repairing their ship with materials for the planet below, the 41st Grand Battalion made planetfall.

The stage was set for one of the many small conflicts that would define the war for so many Imperial citizens. The 247th Company of the Imperial Fists found themselves forced into an engagement far beyond the purview of their original mission as part of the Retribution Fleet, and the 41st Grand Battalion realized that they could never count an Imperial Fist out of the fight unless they lay dead in the ground.

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Aboard the Veritatis Gravitas [Capital Ship//IV Legion], high orbit, above Vardan, c. 008.M31

The Veritatis Gravitas was dying: there was little doubt of that. The detonation of the enemy Light of Sol had crippled its propulsion systems and Warp drives, and reduced the Gellar field generators to a melted heap of fused circuits and mechanisms. To the sound of klaxons, beneath flashing red lights, crews of bonded slave-serfs rushed to put out minor shipboard fires in the lower decks, but those were minor concerns. The Gravitas was a IV Legion vessel: designed to withstand far more than the damage they had taken in the nuclear blast of the Imperial ship. Lower decks were reserved for non-essential personnel and systems, such as the muster chambers for the dedicated Thorakites milita stationed aboard the vessel and the mortal crew.

Far from the lower decks, in the command tower, there was an eerie calm among the IV Legionnaires despite the extensive damage their ship had taken. The Iron Warriors were not given to panic, and they and their ship were sturdy. Even if life support was lost, their armor would be able to sustain them for months: more than long enough for the Iron Warriors aboard to make their way to the salvation pods and smaller craft in the ships’ hangar bays and evacuate the vessel. Certainly, the mortals on the Gravitas would die, but that was irrelevant: they had given their lives to the IV Legion long ago. They were dead already. All that would remain after they fell would be a number, a mere statistic in the records of the Iron Fourth.

From his command throne, Second Captain Dhur Gulak of the Iron Warriors 41st Grand Battalion viewed those statistics scroll by on screen. 237 crewmen dead, 346 injured, 2 lance batteries disabled, 113 atmospheric breaches, 523 shipboard fires, 43 ordinance pieces damaged beyond repair. The numbers kept coming, men and women lumped in with accounts of lost munitions and the materiel of war. He narrowed his eyes. The loss of such a great amount of resources was a blow to his contingent of the Iron Warriors forces. He was expected to prosecute a war against the VII Legion and the Legions yet still loyal to the Emperor, and yet he had lost it before it had even truly begun. The elements of the Grand Battalion that had followed him could not sustain such a great portion of their arms and equipment being lost, nor did they have what they needed to repair the ship at hand.

Without a word, he rose from the throne, the movement throwing the hololithic displays about him into disarray, the servos of his massive suit of Cataphractii armor grinding as they moved a ton of heavy ceramite and gene-wrought flesh. It did not go unnoticed by the Iron Warrior officers aboard the bridge, who turned towards him, expectantly. Still, he said nothing. He was a statue for a moment, his only movement sunken eyes looking over his men. There was no emotion in those eyes. He knew, as did his men, that attachment was weakness. They were no more than tools to him, important tools, yes, but at the end of the day, merely tools. Just another scrolling statistic on the never ending list of numbers. With a single word they would serve him. They knew his will. They knew what he desired, and they would ensure that the men of the line would prosecute it.

A single word, then. Dhur Gulak, Second Captain of the 41st Grand Battalion, and acting Warsmith of this shattered company of Iron Warriors, spoke then. His voice was not loud, but the will and the intent behind it was undeniable in its strength.

“Planetfall.”

And so it began. Death had come to Vardan, clad in Iron. There would be no escape. The IV Legion was making planetfall, and nothing could save their enemies now. The Imperial Fists would pay a price for their transgressions, Gulak would make certain of it.



[narrative record ends]

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[pict-capture: Veterans Cyximan and Tenkatsa, part of 1st Sergeant Vintsk's patrol, the Vardan Prosecution, c. 008.M31]

During the events of the conflict known in the records of the IV and VII Legions as the Vardan Prosecution, the commander of the Iron Warriors, Second Captain Dhur Gulak, divided his forces into several 'kill-teams' or 'patrols' to better search for the precious resources needed to repair their ship in a practical timeframe. Patrol Vintsk, under the command of 1st Sergeant Yderveny Vintsk, is exemplary of such forces, incorporating members of a number of different units under a single officer. The two members of the patrol shown here, Tohr Cyximan and Veteran Tenkatsa, serve to display that diversity. Both are outfitted in suits of MKIII 'Iron'-pattern armor as was favored by the Legion, albeit with several modifications on Tenkatsa's part, but while Tenkatsa is a member of Sergeant Vintsk's original unit, the Terran veteran Cyximan (shown here with the heavy flamer he primarily used at Vardan) is drawn from the heavy weapons specialists of the 42nd Grand Battalion's support squads. Such mixing of units was hardly unsurprising under the circumstances, when it was necessary for the relatively small number of Astartes from the Veritatis Gravitas to spread and search, both to track resources and useful materials and hunt down the surviving Imperial Fists of the 247th Company.

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[pict-capture: 1st Sergeant Yderveny Vintsk, Iron Warriors 42nd Grand Battalion, the Vardan Prosecution, c. 008.M31]

One of the first influx of Olympians recruited into the IV Legion after the primarch Perturabo was found, 1st Sergeant Vintsk is in every way the epitome of what it means to be an Iron Warrior. He commanded his squad with an iron fist, never hesitating to punish any insubordination with immediate and brutal retribution, however slight. This pleased his superiors, and by the time of the Heresy, he had risen to become XO of his company. A massive man, even for an Astartes, he went to war clad in a brutal yet practical suit of ad-hoc modifications to suit his frame (later codified as Mark V armor) armed only with boltgun and chainsword, believing that anything more complex was needlessly impractical.

[end record]

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Vardan surface, local time 01:34, c. 008.M31

As he strode from the wreckage of his crashed drop pod, Sergeant Yestaad could not wipe away the blood pooling at the edges of his eyes. His helmet, still cracked and damaged from the fighting at Phall, had fused itself with the soft armor at his neck in the heat of his burning drop pod. His sight beyond the lenses of his helmet came in fitful bursts. The data readings that usually played out across his eyes in perfect harmony with his armor now dissolved in to useless static.

Ironically, his comms functioned perfectly. But Yestaad only heard the oaths of the dying playing across his ears. Imperial Fists from across the 247th lay dead on this cursed world, either from a fatal dose of radiation from the detonation of the Light of Sol or because of the horrible shock impact of their disrupted planetfall. The sound of their cries echoed inside his helmet and forced their way into his mind. He could not understand this new galaxy, one where brother slaughtered brother and daemons walked between the stars.

Yestaad shut it all out. The legion would endure this, as it had all things before. His brothers would meet their end as sons of Dorn and their memory would live on in the legion. Yestaad remembered the pain glove and the memory of its embrace gave him a measure of serenity. He could hear the words of Captain Innis in his mind, louder than the cries of pain in his ears.

"You will receive all manner of information when you command men into battle. But perhaps the most important ability any commander can possess is the ability to discern which information is relevant... and what is not."

With that thought, Yestaad felt his purpose return. He tore his ruined helmet free from his fused neck seal and tossed it into the burnt earth. In a second swift motion, he drew his power sword and thrummed its activation rune. The darkness of the night fled before him and his yellow armor now bathed itself in the blue glow of his weapon.

"All squads, this is Sergeant Yestaad. If you receive this, meet at the rendezvous point previously dedicated. Those too wounded to walk should remain at their drop points and harass the enemy."

A cold order. One that would have galled Yestaad at another time or in another place. But here and now, it became necessity.

"The enemy has taken our ship and our captain, and they would now make this world their own. It falls to us to defend it."

Yestaad looked up at the night sky. He could the trails of Iron Warriors' aircraft breaking through the atmosphere and beginning search patterns. Somewhere off in the distance, an owl hooted through the midnight blackness.

"For Dorn and Terra. Yestaad out."

[Narrative record ends]

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[pict-capture: 1st Sergeant Varnail Yestaad, Imperial Fists 247th Company, the Vardan Prosecution, c. 008.M31]

A native of Terra, Yestaad served with distinction under Captain Innis. Marked out for leadership of the 247th should Innis ever leave command, the sergeant took up this responsibility at the start of the Vardan Prosecution. A leader known more for his strategy than inspiring presence, Yestaad led the few survivors of the 247th and fought back against the invading Iron Warriors with every tool at his disposal. Under his command, Vardan citizens formed an ad-hoc resistance and helped the Imperial Fists harass the Iron Warriors patrols.

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