Difference between revisions of "L-IV-2139"

Revision as of 14:03, 22 August 2015

L-IV-2139
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Legio	Legio IV
Legio Name:	The Iron Warriors Legion
Designation:	L-IV-2139
Cognomen:	"The Iron Perimeter"
Allegiance:	Loyalist
Owner:	User:Tpurves

History

The 103rd Grand Battalion of the IVth legion.

Leading up to the dark events of the Horus Heresy, the 103rd grand battalion had an overall strength of some 1100 Astartes and about half as many human auxilia, tech priests, and void crews. Its core was formed by the second grand company (some 600 infantry), which represented its main fighting strength of seasoned space marines. The 103rd also contained 2 full armor centuries, and a specially devised "Interdiction" company (mostly jetbikes, recon teams and a wide variety of dedicated materiel and vehicles for space-to-planet insertion), and an assortment of specialist Astartes devoted to fleet operations and void based warfare.

[1]

vidcapture of members of the 14th Breacher company disembarking from their land raider during a reconaissance check

Like many battalions and companies of the IVth, the 103rd had accepted a long-term garrisoning and interdiction , in this case the assignment took them to the far edge of the Halo Stars, in a cluster of systems located relatively near to both the Glimmerveil worlds and the Manichean Commonwealth. These systems, while relatively barren in terms of life or resources, were bitterly contested by the Mitu Conglomerate, and, as such, were deemed by Rogal Dorn to perhaps bear either xenotech holdings or some other resource that was difficult detect, but of potential use to the Empire. Preferring to keep other legions at the tip of the crusade, Dorn, with the backing of the Emperor, assigned the uncomplaining IVth to the task of maintaining a strict cordon around these systems, with orders to hold them inviolate at all costs until such time that a skilled exploratory mission could be assembled to understand what the Mitu considered so valuable about them.

The 103rd has been under the command of Warsmith Loge Marnasaad for decades, and the Warsmith himself was of Terran origin , and a long term veteran of the legion. He accepted the garrisoning and interdiction assignment with an Iron Warrior's usual non-grudging assent, and ran a tight cordon around the cluster, which soon came to bear the designation "The Geode Cluster" (so named for the ancient terran stone formations that appeared to be simple balls of mud, but upon cracking are discovered to have stupendous crystals). Over time, Marnassad devised and built a series of high orbital platforms that served as watch-stations over the barren worlds, as well as barrack spaces, docking and repair ports for their significant naval assets. The efficiency of his cordon was of such reliability that the Empire elected to place several astropathic relay stations within the area, adding to the communication grid, and allowing more fluid contact with the farther reaches of the Halo stars. The maintenance and protection of these stations was added to the responsibility of the 103rd and formed a regular part of their patrol patterns. Dorn, himself, was said to have named the 103rd an "iron perimeter", and the appellation stuck as the unofficial name for the battalion for years afterwards.

At the time of the Heresy, the 103rd had been basically forgotten by the rest of its legion, and it is doubtful that either the whisperings of Horus or the escalating madness of Perturabo made their way to such a remote posting. Throughout the early parts of the unfolding civil war, the 103rd maintained its strict cordon of the cluster and continued to bar access to any who might try to come too close, though they shunned anything beyond routine contact with outside legions or agents of the imperium. While it is true that the Astropathic relays continued to operate through the cluster, the actual allegiance of the 103rd remains unknown.

Combat Reports for L-IV-2139

Campaigns

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Battles

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