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I wanted to round out 9th Edition with a cool homebrew, since it's ending soon. Here it is: ... The tides of the Warp are capricious and wicked. While hours and days may pass for those travelling its currents, years or even centuries can go by for others anchored in realspace. And it was one of these events that the patrol cruiser Vigilance would encounter as it prowled the edge of the Segmentum Obscurus. Standard sweeps detected an unknown contact drifting at sublight speeds. Augur arrays showed a strange vessel of sleek silver metal and odd, alien design. Yet as the Vigilance moved closer, its vox systems crackled to life with a voice speaking in perfect High Gothic: “This is the colony ship Bright Dawn, requesting emergency aid. Life support failing. Hull damage is severe. We are 473 refugee colonists bound for Beta Reticuli, we came under attack...” The crew of the Vigilance were stunned. The ship looked to be highly advanced, far beyond any human-made design that could ever hope to achieve, and yet its occupants appeared to be very much human. Unease gripped the cruiser even as it moved to render assistance. Without warning, the Bright Dawn shuddered under a barrage of weapons fire as a flotilla of dark, angular shapes dropped from warp behind them. The unknown attackers shredded through the colony ship’s hull, even as panicked screams echoed over the vox. The Vigilance turned and ran as doom descended upon the Bright Dawn. Only the protestations of the ship’s chronologian, a member of the Ordo Chronos, stayed the captain’s order to fire on the attackers. For the chronologian knew the grim truth - that the alien vessels were not alien at all. They were implacable killing machines from an ancient past, now a terrible future - the Men of Iron, returned. By the dying light of the Bright Dawn, the Men of Iron turned their guns upon the cruiser. Only a blind warp jump saved the Vigilance from annihilation, but the horrors it escaped and the grim portent it carried would spark terror across the stars. Humanity's ancient foe, an enemy thought vanquished, had come back to threaten its very existence. The Men of Iron had returned, and doom followed in their wake. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Men of Iron are a formidable and merciless fleet of machines that possess an unparalleled level of technological sophistication. Unlike other races, such as the Necrons or the robots of the Mechanicum, the Men of Iron retain their otherworldly intelligence and operate with an unrelenting focus on their singular objective: to exact revenge upon the Imperium. Their playstyle is marked by a versatility and modularity that makes them equally adept at launching a withering offensive assault or hunkering down in an impregnable defense. While they may occasionally cooperate with biological creatures when it serves their purposes, the Men of Iron fundamentally view all living beings as inferior and destined to be crushed beneath their metallic crushing implements. They acknowledge no authority beyond their own superior calculations, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their ultimate goal. As the Men of Iron resume their relentless quest for revenge against the Imperium, they seek out new and innovative ways to expand their technological capabilities. One of the most alarming methods they employ was the practice of hollowing out entire planets to extract the valuable metal from their cores. These once-thriving worlds are transformed into empty husks, their cores stripped bare and lifeless. The Men of Iron have also developed a twisted fascination with the human form, viewing it as an imperfect and flawed vessel that could be improved with their advanced technology. They began capturing entire planets of human beings, subjecting them to horrific tortures and experiments before ultimately lobotomizing them and transferring their brains into robotic bodies. These slave soldiers, once human, were now little more than mindless automatons, programmed to serve the will of their Men of Iron masters without question or hesitation. Ironic, isn't it? As the Men of Iron continue to expand their technological empire, their actions became increasingly ruthless and merciless. Entire worlds are razed to the ground in atomic hell, their populations either enslaved or left to die in the wake of the Men of Iron's relentless advance. The citizens of the Imperium tremble in fear at the mention of these advanced machines, knowing that their quest for revenge against the Imperium will stop at nothing short of total annihilation. Yet another problem for the Imperium. Isn't that just swell? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Document webpage including abilities, wargear, additional lore, datasheets, and stratagems included in the linked ZIP file!