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THE IRON TENTH The Iron Tenth is a Third Founding chapter created from Iron Hands stock, whose original high command was all ancient veterans from before the fall of the Emperor with three of them (including the Chapter-Master Xenofon DuPree) being part of the Legion from even before the finding of Ferrus Manus. Realising that the newly Chapter needed to differ themselves from their predecessor and make its own identity DuPree decided to forsake the Clan-Company structure of the Iron Hands and instead embrace the organization of the Codex Astartes, it was also decided that the newly created Chapter should take up some of the traditions of the Tenth Legion that had been laid by the side during Manus leadership. Gifted the Feral World of Megaera Secundus as a home and recruitment world the newly christened Iron Tenth Chapter begun to carve its own path. Eight millennial later and the Iron Tenth have truly carved their own path, even if their gene-ancestry is obvious for all to see with their tendency to quickly replace flesh for cybernetics and distain for weakness. Compared to their precursor so are they less remorseless in their interaction their allies and more mindful of their cost, even if they are just as harsh in punishment as the Iron Hands if their allies show themselves not doing their duties, including following orders. Colours Their Chapter symbol diagonally divided from upper left to lower right, with the right side blue and the left side white, with an iron symbol in white on the blue side and an Attic 10 (a triangle) in black on the white side. The upper torso armour, shoulder pads, arms and left gauntlet of their armour are black, the rest of their armour is dark iron-grey, beside Company markings. They follow the codex standard with their Company, rank and role markings, with the Company colours being shown on the left knee and on the pauldron trim. The unique role of Presveftis (see ‘Organization and tactics’) is marked by a blue helmets and a blue, vertical line on their backpack. Organization and tactics The Iron Tenth is a Codex chapter in organization and overall tactics, even if they have a larger motor pool than most other Chapter and the high amount of techmarines needed to service it. While fully trained in all the ways of war that you can find in the Codex are their most favoured tactic is ‘the Hammer and the Storm’ that their precursor Legion developed during the Great Crusade. The tactic involves forcefully taking an area in enemy territory, and then go into defensive position around the area so the enemy has to come to them and when a large enough enemy force have gathered to retake the area the rest of the Chapter present swop in from the side or the sky with fast attacks and heavy artillery – more than ones have heavy artillery been placed in the defended area, called an ‘iron triangle’ by the Chapter, but not used in the defence until the enemy are in high enough numbers. The Iron Tenth have used this tactic both with their own forces as the bait but also other Imperial forces have had the honour to be trusted with this role. Mostly Astra Militarum Regiments, but only members from Regiments known for the iron discipline needed for it. It’s possible that this use of allied forces and the need to interact with them in ways that the sons of Manus find hard that has made the Chapter create the non-codex role of Presveftis: a battle-brother who is trained in interacting and understanding humans not gifted with the Emperor’s gene-seed, and whose implants are of a less obvious, or at least more pleasing, appearance. The Chapter have been noted to have a focus with the number ten. They often do things in groups of ten, and seldom send squads with less than ten battle-brothers on missions if they can. Enemies and allies There is a light mistrust against the Chapter from the Mechanicus, which seem strange since the Iron Tenth is just as mechanized and following in the orthodoxies of the Mechanicum as their fellow sons of Manus. It is believed that this distrust comes from that the Chapter has many times worked together with the Ordo Machinum of the Inquisition in rooting out and fighting heretical behaviour in the Mechanicus and Magi that greedy keep useful designs and technology for themselves instead of giving it to the rest of the Imperium. They have even helped apprehend a fabricator-general. While this distrust from Mars would make many Chapters lose the inflow of technology and wargear from the Forge Worlds that supply them as a thinly veiled punishment so have this not happened to the Iron Tenth, likely because the Chapter is nearly self-sufficient when it comes to manufacturing Astarte pattern wargear and standard STC:s. It’s also possible that something more heretical is happening with the nearby Mechanicus stations (most notable the station that hangs in the upper layers of the gas giant Megaera Quartus mining and refining the planets gases) being more loyal to the Chapter than to Mars. This distrust from the Mechanicus may be the reason why the Chapter seemingly have problem repairing their now ramshackle fleet. * They have a history of working well with Imperial Forces that share their iron discipline – like the Mordian Iron Guard, the Death Korps of Krieg, the Teutons Regiment, and the Crimson Guard Venatorii of Lathe. * Will not work with the Storm Wardens Chapter since the Tenth have found the Wardens willfulness and unwillingness to stay put when a challenge appeared made them unable to work together. * They have a seemingly a preference to not work with Chapters that don’t have ten Companies - like the Space Wolves, Sons of Medusa, Salamanders, and Iron Snakes – if possible. But this idiosyncrasy don’t seems to prevent them from actually work with those Chapter if needed. originally posted here: Gaming - In a grim dark far future there is only war - A thread for Warhammer 40k | Page 9 | Jedi Council Forums (theforce.net)