Censure of the Iron Hearts

In Universe Analysis

"The Anandine Campaign is considered by many scholars to be among the first great embarrassments suffered by the Imperium of Old, and a pivotal moment in its conflict-stricken history - even if, at the time, it seemed more a footnote than anything more. Home to the Iron Hearts' father-world of Rust, the Anandine System became a battleground in late 000.M31, when the censuring of the Legion was ordered by our Emperor Most High. Assigned to the task the Primarch Balthasar, fresh from his victories in the rimward Segmentum Obscurus, and confident beyond reason of a certain victory against Rubinek's sons. Though the details of the conflict's formative days are sparse and difficult to discern, due to the secrecy initially maintained between Master of Mankind and his son Balthasar, it would seem that the Primarch's initial understanding of the campaign was fundamentally flawed.

Balthasar had known his brother Rubinek as a child failure - lord over a Legion of genetic offscourings and abominations, each one a singular eyesore before the radiance of the Emperor Most High. Rubinek's Legion was notoriously under-strength due to the genetic instability of the Primarch's gene-seed, and its Astartes often failed to reach their full potential as scions of the Immortal Emperor. Our understanding of the situation seems to imply that Balthasar had to be convinced by his High Father to assemble even a moderate muster of his Legion for the task ahead - best estimates putting the Bloodhounds task force at roughly three times the size, man for man, as the total Iron Hearts Legion at that time. Had it not been for the Emperor Most High's recommendations, Balthasar would likely have taken to the field of battle with a smaller force, perhaps even allowing himself to be outnumbered, and history may have taken a very different turn."

"The Legion of cripples Balthasar expected to tear asunder was nowhere to be found when his fleet transitioned out of the Warp on the fringes of the Anandine System. Rubinek, though spiteful and cruel, possessed the worthy virtue of caution, and, as the events to come would soon reveal, had never put a great deal of stock in the Emperor Most High's promise to leave his Legion untouched despite their genetic instability. The outer worlds of the Anandine System were a palisade formation of well-supplied, well-defended fortress worlds, their surfaces dominated by sweeping castles and outer crusts strewn with reinforced adamantium vaults. Even had the Iron Hearts been as Balthasar expected them, the planetary auxilla would have slowed his Legion greatly, the handiwork of Rubinek's sons forming a maze of confounding defense emplacements that would have allowed a far lesser force to last many months, or even years, against a far superior enemy. Used to chasing down panicked xeno armies, the Bloodhounds were ill-prepared to face a Legion of Astartes in such conditions.

In the early days of the war, few Iron Hearts were seen - a fact which infuriated many of Balthasar's lieutenants. The Bloodhounds fought an unsatisfying campaign of constant bombardment against the planetary defenses of the outer worlds, gaining little ground and, to Balthasar's great dismay, little glory. Soon the Primarch reached wits' end, and withdrew his forces from many of the outer worlds, to make a total assault upon the linchpin planet of Pelagos, reasoning that though human auxilla would be free to reinforce the world from unoccupied territories, their interference would be of little consequence if they could not hide behind the walls of their homeworlds. In this assumption, he had made a grave tactical error."

"The full muster of the Iron Hearts Legion met with Balthasar's armies on Pelagos. Though the traitors' abominable durability is widely known today, it was not so to Balthasar, and his forces were taken entirely by surprise by the sheer tenacity of Rubinek's sons. Their gene-seed corrupted by the foul technology of Rust's catacombs, the Iron Hearts possessed strength and endurance well beyond that of the standard Astartes, and the Bloodhounds were simply not prepared to face such a foe on even standing. The battle, by all indications, was a rout. The Bloodhounds crashed against their foes in a tide of bloody-minded steel, but their tried-and-tested tactics were of little avail against the veritable wall of suppressing fire put down by their adversaries.

There is faint evidence that Balthasar, enraged and shamed, challenged his brother to a duel, bellowing to him to stand and fight as a true son of Our Emperor Most High should, with honour and noble bearing. Details on the specifics of Rubinek's reply are sparing at best, and every indication seems to suggest that if they did engage in combat, it did not end well for Bornhold, who clearly did not strike down Rubinek and left the Anandine System thoroughly defeated."

"Balthasar and his forces were forced by sheer weight of casualties to retreat to the outer reaches of the Anandine System and signal for reinforcements, not only bringing great shame to the Bloodhounds, but revealing the censuring of the Iron Hearts to the Imperium at large. By the time reinforcements arrived in the form of the second and third Chapters of the Bloodhounds and the sixth Chapter of the Angels of Light, Rubinek's sons had stripped Rust's surface of its valuables and fled into the void. They would not be seen again by the majority of loyalist forces until the dark days of the Heresy.

Many consider this bloody affair to the first seedling of Heresy, leaving both Balthasar and Rubinek intensely bitter of the outcome, and engendering a gnawing sense of distrust amidst the ranks of Our Emperor's sons. Balthasar, known for his swift and total annihilation of all dissidents to Our Emperor's cause, clearly considered his honour tarnished, and was quick to respond when the time would come to correct his mistakes through the Edict of Nikaea. This second failure would only feed the Primarch's anger, riling the beast that hid in the darkest corners Balthasar's soul. Rubinek left the Imperium with revenge in his heart, any hope of reconciliation between brothers dashed, his Legion declared outcast and his abominable deeds known to all the Imperium. His brothers looked on and knew for the first time an inkling of dread, and in this dread lay the bare bones of betrayal.

Now, on the minutiae of the campaign..."

>Khadagh Tsogt, 8th Master of Ceremonies of the Blood Drinkers, Tzolkin Succesor to the Sky Serpents Legion, 'The Long Road to Heresy, Volume I'