Clan Raukaan - 3rd Company of the Iron Hands

Jacob Slebodnik (0:00)

On Medusa, the faces of ten ancient clan lords look out from the Felgarthi Mountains. Their likenesses were carved on a monumental scale near the planet's equator, where storms and the movement of the world itself would ordinarily have worn them away.

Vast stasis generators constructed during the Dark Age of Technology preserve the statues against those forces. Beneath their gaze, the Iron Hands test prospective recruits during the yearly eclipse known as the Iron Moon.

The names of those recruits will eventually bear reach back into the same distant past. Medusa has supported a bewildering number of clans, yet ten were traditionally regarded as the oldest and greatest. According to the beliefs of its people, these were the ancestors from whom the others descended. Whether that ancestry could ever be established mattered less than the place it held in Medusa's life. The great clans gave the inhabitants of a harsh world a connection to those who had endured it before them. Raukaan was one of those names. Long before it belonged to a company of space marines, it belonged to a warlike Medusan clan, whose violent raids had earned widespread notoriety.

That reputation would survive through successive generations of warriors, becoming part of the identity of the Iron Hands 3rd Company. Its battle brothers would inherit formidable machines and a tradition of aggressive warfare, along with a persistent difficulty in reconciling their own temperament with the demands of their chapter.

To understand that difficulty, it is necessary to return to the warrior who bound the clans of Medusa to the Iron Hands. Ferris Manus was one of the Primarchs, the extraordinary sons created by the Emperor to command the Space Marine Legions.

Scattered from their creator before they could take their intended places beside him, the Primarchs grew to maturity on distant worlds. Ferris was discovered amid the post-industrial ruins of Medusa where he had established himself as an uncompromising ruler over its clans. The people called him the Gorgon, taking the name from a terrifying creature of local folklore. When reunited with his Legion, Ferris brought its warriors into a close relationship with the unadopted world. The Iron Hands absorbed Medusa in customs, and their companies took the names of its clans. These names served a purpose beyond distinguishing one formation from another. Ferris intended them to remind his sons of their connection to the mortal people they had once been, restraining the aloofness that could accompany their transformation into the Emperor's warriors.

A space marine possessed abilities that placed him far beyond an ordinary human. Extensive biological alteration gave him the strength and endurance to survive conditions that would kill the soldiers fighting beside him. His training prepared him for a lifetime of war, while his weapons and armor allowed him to confront some of the greatest threats humanity faced.

Such advantages could also encourage contempt for those who lacked them. The Clan traditions provided a continuing bond with the human society, from which the Legion drew its recruits. Ferris imposed discipline upon warriors already known for their aggression. Under his command, their wrath was subjected to calculation, and the Legion became a relentless instrument of conquest. Its campaigns relied upon direct force applied with sufficient strength to break resistance completely. The Iron Hands accepted grinding warfare and severe losses, when these served the destruction of an enemy.

Mercy held little place in that method, and the burden of their victories often fell upon the human armies accompanying them.

Their approach had roots even in the Legion's earliest history. During the war against the Orcs of the Crooked Claw, Imperial Army regiments were used to draw the enemy into a vast engagement. Once the Orcs had committed themselves, the Legion struck with its full strength. The resulting battle continued for days, consuming those caught within it. This willingness to make other Imperial forces part of a calculated sacrifice would remain a troubling feature of Iron Hands warfare. Under Faris, the Legion gained a reputation for efficiency and uncompromising strength. Its warriors also began replacing portions of their bodies with mechanical augmentations. To those who accepted these procedures, the body was something that could be improved. Its limitations were reduced through the substitution of steel and machinery.

Faris was set to find the practice disquieting, though he permitted it to continue. His own teachings required his sons to govern their impulses, and he understood the force of the anger they carried. Before the Garveian Crusade, he warned the Legion that the fires burning within their hearts could become a deadly weapon if mastered. If allowed to govern their actions, those same fires could destroy them. For much of the Great Crusade, the discipline he demanded appeared to hold. Across the galaxy, the Emperor's forces reunited scattered human populations beneath Imperial rule. The Primarchs led their legions through wars that expanded the Imperium, bringing its authority to worlds separated from one another during the long darkness of Old Night. Among Ferris' closest allies was Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's children. Their legions fought together, and the two commanders became sworn brothers. When Ultramarine's forces encountered fierce resistance in the Gardinal system, Ferris and Fulgrim brought their strength to the campaign. The war that followed was devastating, ending with the destruction of the rulers who had resisted them. The bonds between the Primarchs would make Fulgrim's betrayal particularly destructive. Horus, the Emperor's favorite son and the war master entrusted with command of the Great Crusade turned against his father. His rebellion spread among the Primarchs and their legions, dividing the military strength that had built the Imperium. Former allies became enemies, and forces accustomed to trusting one another now had to determine which of their brothers remained loyal. When Ferris learned of the rebellion, his fury overwhelmed the restraint he had demanded from his sons. Much of the Iron Hand's strength was committed elsewhere, with the bulk of the Legion forming the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet, and smaller forces scattered across the galaxy.