Iron Without: The Combat Path and Doctrine of the Fourth Part I

The hearts of the Iron Warriors are cold and their souls are hard. War for them is like the sound of dominoes on an abacus; all the blood spilled, all the lives lost, all the collapsed walls and defeated enemies - for them these are just coins that fall into the dead man's chest. The profits and losses of battle replace bread for them, and the arithmetic of destruction replaces wine: with them they feast, but the dishes from the dust are tasteless. Many, turning to the Emperor's legions, see in the descendants of Mortarion the embodiment of the ancient specter of death; but those who are wiser will not agree with them, seeing with what calculated efficiency the faceless sons of Perturabo turn entire worlds into graveyards.

-Lord Militant Pietra Weiz Gustavus

The beginning of the battle path

The Fourth Legion was founded during the final stages of the Unification Wars. His first recruits were recruited from the ruins of fortified cities on the Auro plateau in Sek Amrak. In this region, enclaves of techno-barbarians were originally found, leading wild, unbridled tribes of strong and resilient warriors. The enclaves of Sek-Amrak resisted the Imperium for a long time, they had to be conquered again and again, but they always rebelled. Everything changed when young men began to be taken for genetic ascension. The Enclaves realized that their blood was the future of the Imperium, and became some of the most loyal peoples under the hand of the Emperor of Mankind.

One curious fact remains in the archives about the early years of the Fourth. There were virtually no reported implant failures among recruits. This was rare in the final years of the Terran Unification. For most legions, implantation began to occur stably only after the capture of Selenar's laboratories on the Moon. Only a few Legions - the Fourth and Eighth among them - exhibited an anomalous level of genetic stability from the outset compared to their cousins.

The fourth, for unknown reasons, showed a high rate of augmetics rejection, but this was not a critical problem. It was the stability of the gene seed that largely determined the future of the Fourth, which was able to field several full battalions in a short time, while most other legions barely numbered a centuria. At the forefront of expansion in the Solar System, and then beyond its borders, the First, Fourth and Fifth Legions initially fought. Like the most numerous.

It is believed that each of the Legion Astartes had a prototype among the Thunder Legions. There is no direct evidence of this. However, we do know that the Fourth Thunder Legion was called the "Iron Lords", they were brutal, uncompromising fighters, masters of sieges and war of attrition. The Primarch of the Fourth Thunder Legion was the legendary Ushotan. The same warrior who led the surviving proto-legionnaires in the battle at the unfinished walls of the Imperial Palace when Yuvoma Kandavir attempted a coup d'etat. Ushotan went to battle against Constantine Valdor and was defeated by him.

The Fourth Legion actively participated in the final phase of the Unification of Terra and the conquest of the Solar System. The most famous campaigns of the future Iron Warriors are the battle for the Kido-Tir orbital platform, the battle on the star archipelago of Zidek, the capture of the Echo ice station and the breakthrough on Mehr-yasht. The Battle of Mehr Yasht has long been listed in imperial chronicles as one of the most strategically intelligent battles of that era. Mehr-yashte is the name of the region on Venus where the base of the Battle Witches was located, who created indestructible lithogolems from the poisoned flesh of the planet.

Mortal troops were unable to break through the Battle Witches' defenses. Then the Emperor personally led the Fourth Legion and launched it into the attack. The archival records show how the future Iron Warriors fearlessly go against the stone titans who seemed impossible to defeat. However, "impossible" is a word that applies to many battles other than those involving the Fourth Legion. The archives speak of the "close ranks and proud steel banners of the Fourth" who, within a few days, exterminated all the lithogolems and the War Witches who commanded them.

Once the Treaty of Mars was signed, the forges of the Red Planet began supplying the Emperor's fleets and armies with advanced technology and weapons. It is known that for its military merits the Fourth Legion was given the honor of being the first to test many samples. But another fact is much more important. By this point, it had become apparent that the Third Legion's gene-seed was not only unstable, it was dangerous to its recruits. In addition, there was sabotage that almost destroyed ALL of the Third Primarch's genetic heritage.

While the Emperor's gene engineers were trying to solve the problem with the Third, most of the recruits who were planned to be transplanted with progenoids created based on Fulgrim's genes were redirected to the Fourth. This allowed the future Iron Warriors to more than compensate for the losses they suffered during the conquest of the solar system. It was probably the largest legion at that time. Where other legions were divided into three to five expeditionary fleets, the Fourth was divided into several dozen.

There is no record in the archives of what the Iron Warriors were originally called before they reunited with their primarch. But just because they didn't have an official name, that doesn't mean they didn't have a certain amount of fame among the mortal armies. Later I will explain that this fame was mostly sad, although no one would dare to hint that the Fourth was ineffective. However, their methods were very... pragmatic. For this reason, mortal soldiers nicknamed the legionnaires in silver-steel armor with gold edging Corpse Choppers. The nickname was later banned under penalty of court tribunal, with reports defining it as "destroying the morals of the crusade."

Corpse Choppers were sent to many expeditionary fleets, the most notable of which was undoubtedly the 8th. During the first half century of the Great Crusade, the 8th Fleet was considered one of the most effective. Over 11 years of incessant fighting, they managed to conquer twenty-nine star clusters and completely exterminate just under a dozen xenos races. This protracted campaign gave humanity a dominant position in the Segmentum Solar and opened the way to the center of the galaxy. The fourth received the personal praise of the Emperor.

It was the 8th Expeditionary Fleet that gave the Fourth Legion its first heraldic emblem, the winged lightning bolt. This symbol adorned the first banners of the legion, which was just beginning its military journey outside its native system, but had already won glory, which like a thunderclap reached the farthest corners of space known to mankind.

Another interesting fact is connected with the Corpse Choppers . As the Fourth moved further into the Great Crusade, it had no problem recruiting suitable legionnaires from all the conquered worlds. Very soon this led to the fact that the Terran core of the legion was greatly diluted with fresh blood. But not with fresh traditions. The combat doctrine, implicated in impeccable discipline and a mathematical approach to war, remained unchanged. The Legion did not accept new traditions, rituals and cultural characteristics. But he didn’t develop his own either. In mentality they remained the same Terrans recruited from the barbarian enclaves of Sek-Amrak.