++ March of the Legions: IV Legion ++

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Month 16: The IV Legion

If you missed last month's competition, and/or would like to learn the rules for this competition, please read the first post here: http://www.bolterand...gion/?p=3850046

If you dare to accept this challenge, please recite the following oath:

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I, Brother Chaplain Kage, accept my role in this.

I promise to lead the Iron Warriors into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.

I will do so no matter the ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.

I pledge my strength and honor to the IV Legion.

On this matter, and by the Hammer of Olympia, I swear.

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It's going up a day early 'cause I have to work on my day off tomorrow and wanted to make sure it went up. GLORY TO THE IV!

[lionofjudah]

Imma lead a squad of terminators into the fray under the watch of Pertabo

[apologist]

I, Apologist, accept my role in this.
I promise to lead the Iron Warriors into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.
I will do so no matter the ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.
I pledge my strength and honor to the IV Legion.
On this matter, and by the Hammer of Olympia, I swear.

 

Looking forward to this one – a  perfect reboot of the Officia Monstrosa; and a kick up the backside to get some breachers painted.

[Dagoth Ur]

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From iron cometh strength!

From strength cometh will!

From will cometh faith!

From faith cometh honour!

From honour cometh iron!

 

I, The Observer, accept my role in this.

I promise to lead the Iron Warriors into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.

I will do so no matter the ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.

I pledge my strength and honor to the IV Legion.

On this matter, and by the Hammer of Olympia, I swear. 

 

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Just the perfect chance to make my Master of Signals :)

[Ryltar Thamior]

I, Brother Ryltar Thamior, accept my role in this.

I promise to lead the Iron Warriors into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.

I will do so no matter the ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.

I pledge my brush and blade to the Master of Mankind; even though those around me may falter.

On this matter, and by the Steel-Forged Chains of Loyalty, I swear. 
As Honour cometh from Iron:
And so it shall ever be. 

 

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Have been looking forward to this one for awhle :D I'd initially hoped that my latest order of material for my Loyalist Iron Warriors was going to be on-hand in time for this round of March of the Legions ... but it looks like the vagaries of shipping to the Antipodes mean that's a rather remote chance :/ Fortunately, we've got quite the level of bitz kicking around from the previous few procurement runs, so even if that's what the creation must be forged from, there'll certainly be something from my quarter. 

*Somebody's* got to wave the flag for the Loyalist IVth in amongst all this, after all :P ; oh, and can I just say that the list of pledged Frater so far includes some of my straight-up favourite hobbyists so far! 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Preview image of my WIP entry ;) 

[Shrieker]

I, Shrieker, accept my role in this.
I promise to fulfill the Oath made to the Emperor and lead the IVth into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.
I will do so no matter the allegiance, ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.
I will uphold the honor to the IV Legion.
On this matter, and by Emperor of Terra, I swear.

[Soldier of Dorn]

Actually forgot to make a vow this month, but still... here's an Iron Warrior - 1st Sergeant Yderveny Vintsk of Shatter Company. The model I would have done for the challenge if I hadn't forgotten.

I think the influence of Hyaenidae might be a bit painfully obvious in places, but I did very much enjoy painting him up. Went pretty quickly too: only a couple hours of actual sitting down and painting. Very happy with how he turned out.

I'll make a proper vow in a couple of days too, as I'd like to paint up a few more of the IV Legion (seeing as they're pretty quick and pretty fun.) Just wanted to drop him here and share with you guys.

Edited May 11, 2017 by The Psycho

[Ryltar Thamior]

Looks pretty excellent! What're those spiked legs, out of interest? 

[Soldier of Dorn]

Looks pretty excellent! What're those spiked legs, out of interest? 

 

Thankee. The body and legs is from the Limited Edition Ultramarines Standard Bearer available a few months back - a model in which i had absolutely no issue in cutting up, since the original really doesn't win any pageant crowns.

Edited May 11, 2017 by The Psycho

[StruManChu]

I, StruManChu, accept my role in this.
I promise to lead the Iron Warriors into the zone of war and conduct them to battle.
I will do so no matter the ferocity or ingenuity of the foe.
I pledge my strength and honor to the IV Legion.
On this matter, and by the Hammer of Olympia, I swear.

 

 

I have no idea why I haven't signed up to this one yet. 15 down, 3 to go!

[StruManChu]

And, after a quick bit of insensitive chopping...

A WIP of a post-Schadenhold Idriss Krendl.

[Shrieker]

'before' pic of Surin Tropos, formerly Veteran Sergeant Tropos XIX Grand Battalion, II Cohort, IV Company, Keepmaster of Abraxxas IV;

Now Legionary Tropos, 'The Shadowed', 3rd Squad, 2nd Company, The Talons.

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0103_zpscgsbnqtw.jpg

[STC Logisengine]

*Facepalms* Sheesh I missed this, I who have already painted half a tactical squad and a rhino, and is halfway through the other 5 marines, a centurion, a raider and a couple of contemptors... I suck.

[Dagoth Ur]

And here is my Consul-Opsequiari/ Disciplinary Officer (Stand-in for a chaplain) before I slap some paint on him, still got a few days on this one left :)

 

http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp194/hodoalmir/_20170524_225353_zpso0bqs7gq.jpg

[Shrieker]

+++++++

 

'Rank is irrelevant. The hierarchies of old, the titles of centurion and warsmith, adjutatorius and lieutenant-armourer are meaningless. For all of you, structure is a thing of memory, and tables of organisation a topic of nostalgia. The Raven Guard know this as well as you, though you are sundered from your primarchs and the upper echelons of the Legions whose liveries you bear.

Many of you lead squads, and some less than that. For years now you have fought simply to survive. Some of you have tried to reach Terra or sought to reunite with your Legions but for most of us that is not an option.'

 

Corvus Corax, Scarato Muster.

+++++++

 

'And there are those of you that know you can never return to your Legions even when we are victorious. You have, I think, suffered the greatest betrayal of all, and I have nothing but admiration for your courage, loyalty and determination despite the direst circumstances into which you have been plunged.'

 

Corvus Corax, to Legion IV Warsmith Annovuldi, Scarato Muster.

 

+++++++

 

The parting had been short, terse, almost a mere battle briefing.

 

'Our ranks are no more', the Warsmith had begun. 'Lord Corax's orders. I have here your new assigments.'

 

Annovuldi had enumerated each legionary's new squad affectation, under the silent but attentive watch of a Raven Guard Llieutenant. Then, in turn looking into each of the Iron Warriors' eyes directly, the Warsmith had slowly taken off his Chains of Command and handed them unceremoniously to the lieutenant. Nonetheless aware of the symbolic importance of the gesture, the Raven Guard had accepted them with respect, and both officers had met in a resounding salute.

 

Annovuldi had then turned to the IV Legion legionaries again. All had stood at attention still, their cold, dour faces showing no sign of surprise or disquiet at the news.

 

'Your Battle Honours are yours to keep. Lord Corax asked for no Oath of Loyalty to him, or the XIX Legion. You will however abide your new squad's tactical marking regulations.'

 

Surin had looked at his fellow Iron Warriors, most of whom he had led in battle. In these dark days of betrayal, he had valued greatly the brotherhood they had shared, and trusted them above all others. The XIX Legion was taking no chances however - and after Istvaan V, who could blame them - and so it was that he had been split from his last remaining brothers.

 

Annovuldi might have sensed this. His last words were as a rock upon which the IV's could always stand, however alone and cut off

 

'Iron within!' He had bellowed.

'Iron without! They had replied.

 

 

+++++++

 

Surin Tropos, ready to honour his Oath to the Emperor and take his place amongst the Talons

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0108_zpsalrbc5xr.jpg

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0107_zps4qwhhjfl.jpg

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0105_zpsaloarp5k.jpg

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0109_zpsx7scowbe.jpg

 

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww227/MinkGoblin/IMG_0110_zps4z8tuqln.jpg

Edited May 27, 2017 by Shrieker

[StruManChu]

Mars.

In his most private moments, he could someday perhaps have been honest enough with himself that he didn’t think he would have made it this far. The forces under Horus would certainly have reached Sol and then Terra, but the voices of doubt he had struggled to repress since his failure at Lesser Damantyne had promised a different fate for him.

As the Master of the Ironfire and keeper of the Ordinatii recovered from Diamat, Idriss Krendl had been tasked with reinforcing those Mechanicum forces loyal to Horus in the hopes of acquiring further siege engines for the assault on Terra. The full strength of the 14^th Grand Company was laid out for this task, acting as a vanguard for the legion as it mustered in the Sol’s asteroid belt. He stood a full five kilometres from a massive force of Skitarii and the Legio Cybernetica preparing to assault one of Kelbor-Hal’s strongholds.

It was a bittersweet assignment. Krendl had felt honoured upon receiving it, but the realisation that these orders would put his Grand Company into reserve for the final assault on Terra had done little to assuage his fears that he yet remained in the outer circles of the Legion’s elite.

He knew the path back to glory would likely be laden with such tasks, but to potentially be on the sidelines of the greatest battle the galaxy would ever see rankled at his mind. The one thing he could not allow was for his 14^th to be dragged into a protracted engagement.

And so he would not allow that. Signalling to the crews of the monstrous Ordinatii warmachines that he commanded, he raised what was left of his voice to shout a single word.

“Fire!”

[Ryltar Thamior]

so just checking something - we post our completed IVth entries here rather than awaiting the Completion thread that's capped off previous months? [had been holding off for the latter, but don't want to inadvertently 'fail' the challenge by not posting in what turns out to have been the rihgt thread all along, if you get what i mean] 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Ribhus-Sainak Vaja

 

+ + + [Puranic Record Retrieval: AyasaBhutaGana] + + +
+ + + [subject: Ribhus-Legionary Vaja] + + +



The Ribhus represented one of the more obscure warrior-brotherhoods of the IVth, being only seriously attested at the time of the Heresy amidst the numbers of the loyalist Terran veterans of the exiled 'Ayasa BhutaGana' formation ['Battalion of Steel Ghosts' in the ancient Terran language in-use at the region of their original recruitment].

 

It is speculated that they represent some of the last holdovers of the earliest groups of IVth Legion Astartes to be initiated into the mysteries of the technoyagnic cults who created and maintained much of the advanced equipment used to power the later Armies of Unification and early Great Crusade; and who would form the template for the later spread of the 'Techmarine' and 'Forgelord' ranks throughout the Legions.

The Brotherhood of the Ribhus was never particularly large, even at its height in the eighth and ninth centuries of the thirtieth millennium; and it is therefore of little surprise that by the time of the Crusade's zenith some two hundred years later, the IVth Legion's habitual strenuous way of war had worn down their numbers to only a literal handful. This was a situation exacerbated by the rise to prominence of other, less anciently-rooted technologic and artificer societies within the IVth such as the Apolakron and Lyssatra - which lead to significant competition for what had once been the Ribhus' primary recruiting pool, and consequent further diminishment due to a lack of new initiates.

It is therefore a matter of some conjecture amongst specialist-analysts of the subject as to whether the comparatively limited evidence for there being any more than three Ribhus-Sainaks in service by the outbreak of hostilities in Ultramar is a function of the generally shoddy Imperial records of the time, or the above aforementioned factors.

In any case, the multiple pict-captures of Ribhus Vaja in action [as well as the extensive first-hand accounts still preserved of the mortal Remembrancer cadre which accompanied the BhutaGana throughout the later Crusade and Heresy] serve to admirably confirm his existence, at least.



And it is to the Legionary in question we now turn.

The name 'Vaja' suggests an Indic origin for the recruit, in common with many other of the Terran legionaries of his attached formation; and also with several other Astartes forces raised in the dying days of the Wars of Unification, before the Crusade had truly begun in earnest [cross-ref: 'Pishachas' VIIIth Legion detachment]. However, given the etymological analysis of the term suggests a meaning-field concerned largely with both 'war' and 'energy', it is entirely possible that this is a cognomen adopted at some later date [for instance, upon his successful induction into the Ribhus brotherhood], rather than any reliable indicator of his ethnic origins.

From what we know as the result of the accounts of those who served with him, Ribhus-Sainaka Vaja appears to have been something of an optimistic and 'up-beat' character; a situation arguably at compete odds with both the customary dour and fatalistic temperament of the stereotypical member of the IVth, as well as the more 'emotionless' presentation of many Techmarines and other Machine-Cult allied specialists.

This, once again, speaks to his early origins on Terra - before the later psycho-characteristics of the Legions and their ways of war had truly become set in stone, and quite possibly before the Adepts of Mars had been incorporated into the nascent Imperium and its war effort proper. Indeed, it has been remarked that quite a number of legionaries drawn from the Airyavarta recruitment-grounds of Northern Ind appeared similarly positive in their dispositions; although whether this was the result of a genetic or cultural influence from the origin-population in question, or merely a natural outcome of serving in the more hopeful times of Man's early re-ascent to the Stars is a question lost to the ages.



However it arose, Vaja's optimistic nature may possibly have induced his decision to carry to war with him a notoriously unreliable plasma-blaster weapon - with the ongoing results of its temperamental nature being plainly visible in the scorch-marks and plasma-burn corrosion covering much of its outer casing.

In the hands of other legionaries, the choice to continue to employ such an obviously temperamental device might have been regarded as either a penchant towards noble self-effacing sacrifice, or alternatively sheer bloody-mindedness. But with Vaja, it appears that he viewed the somewhat problematic service-history of his mainline weapon as being something of a challenge - acting under the (hopeful) belief that each new set of post-engagement tinkering would finally deliver a reliable and non-self-hazardous weapon.



The rest of his Panoply of War might also be read as connotating certain aggressive tendencies, with the combination of a Breacher Marine's boarding shield and 'Thunder Edge' chainsword suggesting a strong desire to engage the foe in close quarters - rather than the proclivity towards ranged support and behind-the-lines battlefield repairs more common for Techmarines of all Legions, and particularly the IVth.

However, in light of Vaja's attested expertise with shipbourne systems, it is quite likely that he had instead found himself attached to the BhutaGana's breacher squads due to his demonstrable utility at swiftly crippling an enemy starship from the inside instead of any overweaning bloodlust. The fitting of a custom-wrought duelist's hilt to his chainblade further suggests a Marine who let precision and skill guide his actions, rather than mere visceral aggression.

A final note of importance concerns Vaja's armour - a somewhat modified suit of Mk.VI.

This is, obviously, a pattern of war-plate entirely uncommon within the ranks of the IVth, both due to their innate preference for heavier suits such as the Mk.III as a function of the nature of their approach to warfare, and because the production-sets of Mk.VI had not yet been made available to many of the Legions by the time the Heresy's outbreak almost completely disrupted Galactic supply lines.

However, for reasons that are still not entirely clear, the BhutaGana appear to have been almost entirely equipped with the pattern. The main hypothesis at this time suggests this came about as the result of the same set of circumstances which saw them cast out in exile from their Legion by Perturabo. This appears to have occurred at a point roughly coterminous with the IVth Legion's field-testing of a relatively limited-number of prototyped Mk.VI suits [then referred to as Mk.V]; and given the demonstrable disfavour with which the Lord of Iron appears to have held both the armour itself and the BhutaGana, it appears likely that orders were made to pass off any remaining warplate of this pattern to them when they were sent away - on the understanding that it was a fitting punishment and visual signifer of those 'unworthy' of the Legion, and more likely to lead to their 'redemption' via death in combat.

Vaja's armour has been altered largely via the addition of improved plating about the legs, a larger and heavier pauldron on his left shoulder [presumably with the intent of absorbing the weight of fire likely to be coming towards him from that direction, given customary Astartes firing stance], improved power-transmission and plating about the chest [notoriously one of the production Mk.VI's weakspots], a ballistic-apron between his legs [a reasonable common feature amongst assault-oriented IVth Legion Astartes, with the presumption that the large plating would better absorb shrapnel from ordnance detonating near the bearer, and thus help minimize risk to his squadmates even in the event of his own expiry], and enhanced servos about the knees and thighs to better bear the additional weighting-load of all of the above.



[Pict of Vaja, accompanied by three of the Remembrancers attached to the Ayasa BhutaGana, and without whose works he would almost assuredly have remained entirely unknown to the annals of Imperial history] 


 

[apologist]

Phalangite-extraordinary Panormus