Iron Gaze

Iron Gaze
Battle Cry	"The Emperor Watches!"
Founding	26st Founding
Successors of	Iron Hands
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Hannibal Kinthir
Primarch	Ferrus Manus
Homeworld	Dead World Nazareth
Strength	300 Marines
Specialty	Shock & Awe in combination with Heavy Armor support
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Silver, Dark Grey

The Iron Gaze are a successor of Iron Hands notable for their cybernetic augments, Shock & Awe tactics, and the peculiar Sin-Eaters that replaced their Librarium. The Chapter specializes in fighting Orks and more recently enemy Psykers, and are known for deploying en mass in full company or even multiple companies strength.

TL;DR - cybernetically-augmented, barbaric cannibals

Fluffy bits

Origins

The War on Nazareth

Nazareth was a thriving Forge World located in Anatolex sector in galactic southeast, on the borders of Segmentum Ultima, colonized by humans during the final days of the Great Crusade, before the Horus Heresy. During the Heresy, the planet managed to avoid majority of conflict by virtue of being somewhat distant from main Imperial population hubs, such as kingdom of Ultramar. Because of this, the facilities on Nazareth were among first ones to continue producing their technological marvels at full capacity after the Heresy, which they continued for next several millennia.

During the Nova Terra Interregnum in M34 and M35, Nazareth became a sort of safe haven for more liberal-minded tech-priests of Adeptus Mechanicus. This led to a particularly high concentration of high-ranking officers of Mechanicus, and an uncommonly high level of tolerance when it came to experimenting with xenotech. While Mechanicus wasn’t satisfied with such borderline heretical tendencies, Nazareth remained an industrial powerhouse of the region. and its officers commanded enough of political power to prevent any open hostilities. Nonetheless, the experiments were conducted as discreetly as possible, and allegiance of local human population was unquestionably in favor of Imperium and the Emperor, so the practices were allowed to continue, and even trade with nearby Tau colony.

During the year 866 M39, a sudden Warp Storm shrouded entire sector, cutting off all travel and communications. Not allowing for this nuisance to get in the way of industrial output, Archmagos Intendant Amenhal, highest ranked Mechanicus present and one of co-rulers of Nazareth, immediately put millenias of xenotech experiments to use. The focus was on establishing a transport line to the nearest Agriworld, Galil, which they managed with a Warp-resistant ships outfitted with Tau technology.

With the steady stream of basic life necessities, tech-priests of Nazareth went back to their experiments. As centuries went by, the abundant resources of Nazareth started to run out, forcing the workers to dig deeper and deeper into the planets crust. Somewhere around the year 139 M40, the workers broke into vast underground cavern complex filled with pyramidal structures and highly advanced technology. It didn’t take long for tech-priests to identify this as Necron technology, and realizing that Nazareth was a Tomb World all along, although Necrons complexes were somewhat deeper than usual. Before a proper response could be formulated by the planetary government, the complex started to come to life and a small number of Necrons attacked the explorers.

Thankfully for Imperials, Warpstorm surrounding the sector somehow interfered with the awakening protocol of the necrons, slowing it immensely. This allowed the defenders to stand firmly against the small Necron vanguard and heavily fortify path to surface before the Necrons could reach it and lay devastation to civilian population.

The standoff continued for months, with Necrons slowly awakening, but being kept at bay by advanced hybrid technology of the defenders. Furthermore, tech-priests jumped at the chance to examine the reality-bending technology of Necrons, and even starting to reverse-engineer it, bit by bit. At one point, the Necron Lord of Nazareth himself awoke, and immediately put their secret weapon to use: the very same pyramidal structures first expedition found months earlier. Apparently, the structures were a previously unseen Necron weapons, a mobile fortresses designed to drill deep into the crust of planet, easily turning the planet into Tomb World in no time. Unfortunately for the human defenders, just as they were able to drill down, the pyramids were able to drill up. Massive earthquakes started to shake the very foundations of industrial cities of Nazareth, and within hours, the first of hundreds of pyramids started to break through to surface, bypassing Imperial fortifications and instantly destroying their entire surrounding and letting hundreds of Necrons out.

Tens of millions of humans died within days, even with valiant defense raised by Planetary Defense Force and Mechanicus priests. The battle continued to rage for years, with majority of population pulling to orbital stations and leaving the surface to Necron forces. Soon, Nazareths tectonic plates, already heavily damaged by the unburrowing of Necron pyramids and further destabilized by constant orbital bombardments by the defenders, started to break, creating vast chasms the size of oceans with dozens of levels of cavern complexes. During the conflict, neither sides managed to keep any kind of territory for long. Neither Imperials were able to push back Necrons due to their slowly awakening but constantly streaming in reinforcements, neither Necrons were able to break past the orbital line of the defense the humans quickly set up.

After almost a century of fighting, constant advances in hybrid technology and cybernetic augments the humans managed to produce started to thin out Necron forces. Slowly but surely, humans pushed the robotic menace back. But Necrons were never the ones to lay down in defeat. It is said that as the defenders pushed against them, led by Archmagos Intendant Amenhal himself, the Necrons pulled together their last forces and energies in Central Pyramid, with Necron Lord himself becoming a conduit for their last resort weapon: an incredibly powerful fiery pulse that propagated itself across the whole planet, breaching into orbit and burning majority of atmosphere and destroying both Necrons and humans alike.

Two groups of humans survived: the civilians aboard ships that were mobile enough to escape the blast, and several detachments of surface-bound defenders that were armored and/or augmented enough to survive the pulse long enough to find shelter in the underground caverns.

The Reclamation of Nazareth

In year 712 M41, the Warp Storm that surrounded Anatolex sector for almost two thousand years finally dissipated. The news of re-established communications with once prosperous sector spread quickly. Extensive scanning performed by tech-priests of Adeptus Mechanicus and Navigators of Navis Nobilite that the Warp storm changed Warp currents, rendering their old charts obsolete.

Furthermore, the scanning showed a new, stable path straight into (and out of) the powerful Orcish kingdom of Charadon, a previously unassailable fortress packed with orcs of Snagrod the Arch-Arsonists Waaagh! Unfortunately, the Orcs caught the smell of fresh territories ripe for plunder, and were already starting with their raids.

High Lords of Terra jumped at chance to finally strike at the Orcs before they launch another invasion. For this purpose, a decision was made to send forth a Space Marine chapter to bring the fight to the pesky greenskins. The decision fell to Clan Vurgaan of the Iron Hands chapter.

Iron Hands made their preparations with utmost haste, and within a year they were already fighting the Orcs in the Anatolex sector.

During the year 721 M41, a Clan Company led by the Iron Father Hannibal Kinthir, an accomplished veteran of the First War for Armageddon, arrived in orbit of Nazareth. What they found was the most peculiar planet they ever saw: sporadic continents separated by vast chasms, dotted with dozens and hundreds of pyramidal structures and covered with shifting spots of atmosphere. Scans indicated that native human population was in conflict with a group of Orcs who were also performing extensive salvaging on planet and wreckages of massive orbital stations.

Iron Hands didn’t waste any time and they immediately made planetfall on Nazareth. While not numerically strong, the Orcs proved to be solid foes, fighting with uncommon zeal and employing some unusual weaponry. But Orcs fought on more than one front: they were dealt heavy losses by what seemed as cybernetically augmented, but incredibly feral humans, the native descendants of Nazareth colonists. Kinthir decided that Orcs needed to be dealt as soon as possible in order to protect already sparse native population from extinction. The infestation was soon wiped, and victors soon turned to searching for the source of the strange weaponry Orcs used, as well as establishing contact with techno-barbaric tribes of Nazarethians.

The source of the weapons turned out to be the strange pyramids that dotted the landscape. A decision was made to salvage as much of technology as possible for research and data gathering, and defer any further decision-making on future of natives and painfully obvious xenotech being used.

But before the plan could be accomplished, a massive battlegroup of Orcs arrived in the orbit of Nazareth, finished with plundering the nearby Agriworld, Galil. The group was led by the Arch-Arsonist himself, summoned by the now-dead Orcs to Nazareth for its strange technology.

Kinthir refused to leave Nazarethians to their fate and to let the technology fall in powerful Warbosses hands. A fierce battle ensued, lasting for days, with Iron Hands fighting stubbornly and relentlessly. It is said that after a week of fighting, Iron Father Kinthir engaged Arch-Arsonist in a duel that lasted whole night and out of which they both came heavily wounded. Before the duel could conclude, Iron Hands reinforcements arrived, forcing the massive Orc to flee. However, Kinthir was heavily wounded. As he layed there with Apothecaries swarming over him to save their courages Iron Father, a vision of a single glaring eye floating over a golden throne came upon him. What Kinthir heard in vision, no one knows. But after the ordeal, he was known to often say his famous phrase: “The Emperor Watches”.

By the time Kinthir recuperated from his wounds, a decision was made by High Lords of Terra that a new crusading chapter of Space Marines will be created to protect the Anatolex sector, coinciding with 26th Founding. For his valor, Kinthir was named a Chapter Master of the new chapter, the Iron Gaze. He requested for Nazareth to be awarded to them as their Homeworld, much to the confusion of High Lords and Iron Hands why anyone would want a planet in such a sorry state.

But Kinthir had a quest.

He forgo his old name, taking upon himself the title and name of Son of Nazareth, and led his chapter to their new home.

Over the course of years, Nazareth went through major rebuilding. Orbital stations and sensor arrays were repaired, the damaged tectonic plates were stabilized with use of custom-ordered terraforming machinery and a massive fortress was built to serve as Fortress-Monastery for the Iron Gaze chapter.

The Chapter Master made decision that they will recruit candidates from the barbaric tribes of Nazareth. Cybernetic barbarians proved to be quite fitting for the chapter, taking the usual Iron Hands devotion for cybernetic augmentation even further. It turned out that while Nazarethians degraded both socially and technologically over the course of centuries, the knowledge of implementing cybernetic augmentation was kept safe and passed over the generations by tribal Tech-shamans. Because they lacked the knowledge to create new pieces of the technology, such items were deemed sacred, and often passed from father to son within family, or simply extracted from their fallen foes, which was also the most common cause of inter-tribal wars.

And just as Nazareth grew, so did the chapters knowledge and understanding of past events on the peculiar planet. Many dataslates were found throughout devastated cities and stations from various civilians, soldiers and tech-priests, telling their experiences of life and war on Nazareth. But no technological trove, no data slate was more valuable than the one found on one of the orbital stations, the one belonging to Archmagos Intendant Amenhal himself. Within it, the Iron Gaze found detailed events that transpired over centuries, the info and schematics of wide variety of experimental hybrid xenotech and even personal notes and musings of the eccentric Archmagos.

With borderline heretical zeal, the Iron Gaze started reproducing these experiments, adding layer upon layer of cybernetic augments to themselves. Some tech-priests in their retinue were fascinated with findings, while some were outraged with heretical tech and reported these events to Mechanicus, which responded with demand that entire Nazareth be subjected to exterminatus.

After Iron Gaze refused the demand, Mechanicus, not having enough evidence to proclaim the marines traitors, simply pulled their support from the chapter. Nonetheless, plenty of Marines and tech-priests remained, allowing them to rebuild ancient factories on Nazareth and allowing them to simply provide for themselves.

The technology that was produced in decades that followed was simply amazing. Iron Gaze swept away the Orc threat with ease during the time, further cementing their position and protecting them against Mechanicus queries about their so-called heretical practices.

Organization

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The Sin-eaters of Iron Gaze

In decades following their founding and settling the planet of Nazareth, Iron Gaze continued their research of the trove of data slates they found.

Around year 750 M41, a data slate containing research of a certain Magos Biologis was found. The research was focused on gene-manipulation in order to give humans natural anti-Warp, and therefore anti-corruption, resistance.

Intrigued by the research, Iron Gaze sought to alter their own geneseed with what they found. It seemed like they succeeded, giving their new recruits a low-level anti-Warp resistance, but at cost of suppressing psyker abilities completely and deteriorated control of Omophagea, making them somewhat more bloodthirsty. At first, at least.

As they soon found out, recruits that carry the Blank gene, even if its recessive, started exhibiting some very strange abilities. First of all, after implantation of the geneseed, their Blank gene became active, making them incredibly powerful Blanks, able to control their auras. Furthermore, their Omophagea became even more stimulated, making them feel bloodthirst and desire for enemy flesh more keenly than their brothers. A positive side of this mutation that they are able to consume enemy brain and gain extremely detailed knowledge about their victims life.

While Blanks are extremely rare, people carrying the gene recessively turned out to be a little less so. In fact, Iron Gaze very soon had several dozen such individuals within their chapter. This prompted creation of a special rank that replaced now extinct Librarians: the Sin-eaters. Due to their importance, Sin-eaters are the only members of the chapter that get to wear otherwise rare Terminator armors.

Tactical Doctrine

Iron Gaze are firm believers in effects of fear, making terror the focus of their tactics. Furthermore, they jealously guard their gear and technology, including the augments of their fallen, so they aim to prevent any death or loss whenever possible. This led to them sticking to old Imperial saying “no kill like overkill”, so they tend to attack in full chapter force, and rarely pull back their punches by deploying the entirety of their vast armory.

Usual offensive effort of Iron Gaze starts with a squad led by Sin-eater and accompanied by several Iron Gaze members of varying ranks infiltrating deep within enemy lines. Their job is to scout enemy positions, figure out how they are organized and identify key targets. When what they deem is the most knowledgeable officer as far as enemy organization goes is found, they proceed with a precision strike so Sin-eater can consume the target and instantly acquire intimate details about enemy forces. The half-eaten target is then left where it can instil as much fear as possible. The squad then pulls out from the zone, delivering the information to Commander at hand.

When the actual attack starts, the first ones to strike are their spacecrafts with relentless orbital bombardment to soften up the enemy lines. What follows are deep-striking custom-made Hades Breaching Drills, breaking enemy formations and allowing Iron Gaze Astartes to strike quickly. Finally, in comes the main force, led by the Iron Gaze Centurion Warsuits, of which the chapter possesses enormous amounts.

While the battle rages, Sin-eater squads re-infiltrate behind enemy lines, searching for enemy commanders to “extract” information from and preventing enemy to reorganize after the initial shock of such attack.

After the battle ends, the survivors, if there are any, are usually left heavily traumatized by the terrifying Iron Gaze.

Beliefs

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