Sons of Medusa

Sons of Medusa
Battle Cry	Purge the weak!
Founding	N/A; chapter ratified by edict.
Successors of	Iron Hands
Homeworld	Asteroid network, Taelus system
Strength	1000 Marines
Specialty	Bionics and mechanized warfare, "acquiring" loot
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Lime Green, White and Black

The Sons of Medusa are a Successor Chapter of the Iron Hands.

History

The Sons of Medusa, although born out of strife and discontent, share much in common with their parent Chapter in terms of organisation and philosophy. They too abhor mortal weakness and place an unusual reliance on technology and equipment.

Founding

Forge-Wright of the Sons of Medusa

The Founding of the Sons of Medusa is highly unusual in that, technically, they were never actually founded at all. Their origins lie within an Imperial civil conflict known as the Moirae Schism, which itself occurred during the Nova Terra Interregnum. During this schism, which affected all branches of the Adeptus Mechanicus and those Imperial factions closely tied to it, the Iron Hands chapter stood on the brink of destroying itself in an internal chapter war. However, the ruling council of the Iron Hands, the Great Clan Council, was able to settle the matter by getting all concerned to agree to a simple solution; the Moirae dissidents were to be exiled from the chapter, with all parties swearing never to take up arms against each other. In the wake of this ruling, almost a full third of the chapter split away to become a fleet-based divergent branch of the Iron Hands. Over time, they increased their numbers (by accepting Moirae dissidents from other Iron Hands successor chapters as well as traditional recruiting) and by the time the Moirae Schism was over, the Moirae Iron Hands were reckoned to stand at chapter-strength. As stated, the Sons of Medusa took Moirae Schismatics from other Iron Hands successors, but the Red Talons killed all of their Schismatics.

With the restoration of the High Lords of Terra just before the beginning of the Age of Redemption in the Thorian Reformation in the last years of the Age of Apostasy, the Moirae Iron Hands were carefully judged and scrutinised by the resurgent Imperium for their actions during the Schism, the Interregnum and the Apostasy, and were found pure and loyal to the greater Imperium. As a result, the High Lords of Terra issued a special edict that would ratify the Moirae Iron Hands' right to exist as a Space Marine chapter in their own right. They were renamed the Sons of Medusa and gained new heraldry, as well as the distrust and wary observation of some in the Adeptus Mechanicus and other Space Marine chapters unhappy with this development.

As if to test their loyalty, the first campaign officially issued to the Sons of Medusa was that of the Great Cull; the eradication of those elements of the Imperium found wanting in the aftermath of the Nova Terra Interregnum, the Moirae Schism and the greater part of the Age of Apostasy. They are noted to have performed above and beyond expectations in this campaign, outshining their parent chapter as well as other Imperial forces with their zeal to destroy Imperial traitors, as well as other foes of humanity.

While their beliefs from the original creed of Moirae have diverged over the years, their adherence to its prophecies filtered through cold mechanical logic has given them a reputation for knowing exactly when to intervene. More recent rumors suggest that their Primaris battle-brothers may have true prophetic abilities, but nobody has been able to prove it yet.

Recent Years

The Sons of Medusa most recently appear in Imperial records as one of the chapters who took part in the Badab War on the side of the loyalists. They entered the war after the initial period of conflict as reinforcements called in to deal with the secessionists after they had officially been deemed heretical. The chapter deployed significant forces to the war and performed admirably throughout. They spent the first few years of their involvement purging enemy outlying strongholds, during which they are only noted to have suffered one serious setback; the destruction of the Strike Cruiser Warspite, lost with all hands. The Warspite was destroyed by the secessionist Executioners chapter; when the Executioners surrendered not too long after, the Sons of Medusa advocated bloody retribution. They were denied this by the actions of the Salamanders forces present in the warzone, who stepped in to prevent unnecessary deaths. This incident is noted to have seriously soured relations between the loyalist chapters.

The Sons of Medusa were in at the kill of the Fall of Badab and Lugft Huron's secessionist forces, being primarily responsible for the capture of one of the star fortresses which protected Badab Primaris from attack. The capture of this particular fortress was the last act needed to shatter the Tyrant of Badab's "Ring of Steel" and open Badab Primaris to planetary assault. Most of their Atropos War Clan now replaced with Primaris Marines. They took part in the defense against the Invasion of the Stygius Sector.

Organisation

Whilst the Sons of Medusa are unusually structured - being split into three separate and effectively autonomous War Clans (Lachesis, Mageara and Atropos, two of which are interestingly named after Mechanicum Knight patterns, Lachesis and Atropos are Muses, the third muse is Cloto, but gw is dumb…) - their overall organisation is reasonably close to that laid forth in the Codex Astartes. This is achieved due to the makeup of the individual War Clans: One Battle Company, one Tactical Company, one Support Company (composed of Devastator, Assault and Veteran Squads) and one auxilliary Scout force each. When the makeup of these companies is totalled, the Sons of Medusa "notionally" end up with about the same amount of marines assigned to the various roles as a more straightforward Codex Chapter.

However, the Sons of Medusa have a particularly exacting recruitment and indoctrination process, which can result in a lower-than-average number of initiates at any one time. On the plus side of this equation, the high wash-out rate does ensure the chapter has a large number of servitors.

Each War Clan is commanded by an Iron Thane - these three being the ruling council of the chapter - and each company by a Captain. Besides the official command chain, there sit the unofficial links of respect and tradition; the wisdom of the chapter's Venerable Dreadnoughts and their Techmarines, who group themselves together as the "Chamber Ferrum." The Chamber Ferrum not only advises the War Clan leaders, it keeps direct control over essential chapter resources such as the forges and apothecarion. This ensures chapter unity in focus, philosophy and materiel.

Their vehicles are painted black.

Indeed, the Sons of Medusa are noted to be a very unified chapter despite their clan organisation, with their chapter philosophies of logic and the abhorrence of the weak always being forefront in the mind of each Astartes. The chapter possesses extensive forge resources, allowing them to field an impressive amount of Space Marine equipment, in both number and variety. There is almost no pattern of vehicle or armour they do not possess, either through direct forging or battlefield acquisitions. The Sons of Medusa unfortunately have a reputation for being scavengers or carrion crows and their detractors accuse them of only participating in campaigns in order to accumulate more wargear. This isn't helped by their historical preference for "aggressively" seeking to add to their stockpiles by taking wargear from renegade chapters.

Timeline

• M35 - Moirae Schism; Moirae Iron Hands (+ non Red Talons Iron Hands successors) exiled and become independent.
• 011.M37 - Moirae Iron Hands ratified as a Space Marine chapter; re-codifed as the Sons of Medusa. Took part in the Great Cull.
• 182.M38 - The Bellrath Crusade; liberation of the Laanah Rifts from xenos, heretics and scum.
• 453.M38 - The Bellrath Crusade ends.
• M39 - Sons of Medusa establish permanent fortress-monastery complex in the Taelus system.
• 322.M39 - Participated in the Angevin Crusade.
• 907.M41 - Entered the Badab War.
• 912.M41 - The Badab War ends.

Notable Members

• Vaylund Cal - Iron Thane of Atropos War Clan, High Artificer of the Sons of Medusa, Scion of the Moirae and a FUCKING BADASS character on the tabletop, combining the functionality of a Chapter Master with a techmarine as well as having been the only special character that someone who uses the Chapter Tactic (Iron Hands) could have taken, since GW were reluctant to release any unique models or kits for the Iron Hands before recent codex supplements gave the Iron Hands their first named character model Malkaan Feirros.