- RECORDING: 021.M31 / Recordings of Warsmith Solonius Dimalekis -
Iron Within, Iron Without. How fitting. I take in bitter pride that we stayed Loyal to Emperor in the fires of the Rebellion, unlike most of our Legion. Our pride is made bitter, in that we are loyal sons of a disloyal father, even as we held Perturabo and his forces off near the Gates of Varl. We fought on and on and on, even when a human tactician would have surrendered. We fought on even when most of my Grand Company fell to these oathbreakers. We did not break when they unleashed their new daemon-engines on us from these hell-forges of the Eye. I fought my gene-father himself, with the entire First Company throwing themselves into our duels with all the fury of the penitent men. I cannot say what madness overcame our former unworthy liege but he is no longer our lord. He lost that right to command my Grand Company.
I fought Perturabo, expecting to die, waiting as our fleets hatefully gunned at each other. I fought through the fires and in the rain of the broken pieces of the duelling ships and among the ruins of broken Titans and burning buildings. And now look at us. Alive still. They should not have teleported me, for I am an expendable piece. A number in this ugly war. I appointed more gifted Warsmith than I, yet he tore me away at his expense, dying at the hammerblow of our disloyal father just as it was about to kill me, and I witnessed Perturabo fighting the last of my brothers throwing themselves fanatically. These warriors are the last of those who fought with me since the days of Great Crusade, while my ships launched exterminatus-grade weapons at this world even in their void-duels.
The only reason these traitors have fled was because our disloyal father was banished by the fires of exterminatus. We know he still lives, in the Eye, slaving away to the abominations that dare to call themselves gods, while I? I am the last loyal Warsmith of the Fourth Legion who ever fought in the Great Crusade as far as I know. And I am the last one of my Grand Company who hails from Olympia. The only living Iron Warriors hail from the Varlian regions have never even fought in the ending days of Great Crusade before the Rebellion broke out. But still, my warriors all.
This is the tale of 147th Grand Company. The remaining sons of Olympia who remained loyal to Throneworld. We who threw off the oathbreakers off our walls, pushed back the tides of Xenos and caged the horrors to the Varlian regions. The last Throne-loyal remnant of Iron Warriors, with the contingent of Word Bearer fanatical worshippers of Emperor, beloved by all.
We held the traitors and xenos off both even as we fought to contain the abominations of Varl from spreading to the galaxy. Even now, I can see the armies of Imperium of Man that gather and unknowingly guard the Gates of Varl, yet even they would not be able to contain these horrors, and so we must. We must hold to the duty last given to us by our once-sire Perturabo, when he was loyal to the Throne, and given with the blessings of the Emperor. That was only order we held fast to. The only thing I have left. They should have left me die, and be the ones to teach them. But I remain and so I must.
And the sons of Lorgar? We sheltered these distraught fanatics after determining their loyalty to Emperor, beloved by all and found it true. They were the ones who kept our morale up, even mine. Together, we banished that cursed traitor Lorgar and threw his oathbreakers off our worlds, as we prevented our once-lords from unleashing the horrors onto the galaxy. To this day, they call him the Arch-Heretic of the Disloyal. For these, these fanatical penitent sons devoted themselves to my command.
Despite all this, we still clung to our true duty: Guarding the Gates of Varl, holding the line here, before the folly of our fathers unleashes these things on the galaxy The nightmares here must not be allowed even a chink lest they ravage the galaxy. Only Emperor, beloved by all, can relieve us of this duty.
If you have seen what I have seen in the Varlian regions, you would understand why we decided to guard the Gates of Varl, even when the armies of Imperium of Man now begin to cluster just at the edges of the Gates, while we held the Deep Regions. You would know why we decided to hold on, even during the Scouring, and even when our Legion at the galaxy is considered heretics and traitors to the Throne.
These Iron Warriors newly recruited within Varlian regions will be taught our old ways, but be also taught the lessons we learned, and another way as this war against the Varlian horrors reminded me the humanity that I had forgotten when Perturabo forced us to decimate one of our own. All must be learnt and improved. We must adapt with the will of the Iron Warriors forcing the horrors brack, because if we stick to old ways of decimation, then we lose Varl to the C'tan nightmares. We literally cannot afford to do this now. Not when the disloyal brothers lay siege to our walls, and the xenos leap into our battlefields, while we defend the large energy fields that hold these nightmares in check.
Of course, in the years to come, they will suspect our presence, and the rumours of an independent Iron Empire within Varl… If needed, we may need to hold even Imperium of Man at bay as well, since even now, I hear they lost knowledge of what's within the Varlian region, and our reports have gone unanswered, considered to be the "lies of the heretics and traitors". We will have no choice… but to hold it, even down to the last loyal Iron Warrior or Word Bearer, for we must.