Iron Shrikes

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*Dusk OST- Still Alive/Intermission*

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## Iron Shrikes(94th Grand Battalion)

Iron Shrikes warband iconography. Said to originate from an ancient mercenary group of Olympia's past.

(To be added)

## Chaos Warband

### **Colours**

Traditional pre-heresy colors. Trim can be anything from brass to copper, daemon engines and tanks entirely of bronzes and coppers have been seen as well as similarly plated power armor.

## Pre-Heresy

### **Colours**

Gunmetal Grey & Brass

The 94th Grand Batallion, or as they have dubbed themselves in the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre, the **Iron Shrikes**, are a large warband of the IVth Legion (Iron Warriors). They have an economy dependent upon refinement of warp-corrupted Prometheum and consist of members from multiple fragmented grand companies, battalions, and even the airwing repertoire of the dissolved 47th Grand Flight. Their Warsmith since the days of the heresy is Ashurbanipal, an ancient Lyssatra smith whose genius as a munitions creator has leveraged some grace from other Warsmiths, especially partial to cooperating with the Stor-Bezashk whose need for his engineering waxes and wanes with the waging of wars.

## Warband History

After the detonation of the nuclear surplus of Olympia, the 94th Grand Battalion and 47th Grand Flights of the Iron Warriors departed to the Eye of Terror with thousands of captive Olympians in their fleet. They saw service early in the 2nd and 3rd Black Crusades, uniting with other traitor legion warbands to quickly learn of the extent that chaos had ravaged their brothers in culture, mentality and infrastructure. By now their gregarious nature had earned them a reputation as an infallible supplier of Warped Prometheum, a fuel concoction designed to leave polluting fumes of psychic runoff all throughout realspace, creating fumes interfering with dreams and causing mechanical failure in places where dense pockets of byproduct coalesce invisibly with the dust of approaching combatants.

The Dispute of Iron, the civil war which was rumored to have been dictated by Perturabo himself to weed out the weak, saw them gorging on the plunder of several smaller warbands and assimilating the survivors. A full force of 2200 Iron Shrikes were witnessed ravaging systems at the peak of the Age of Apostasy's violence, though its possible these were other warbands uniting under the Shrike's banner for the purpose of marauding the Imperium in its weakened state. Rivalries dating back to the destruction of Olympia have deeply entrenched the Warsmith in waging a war of economy and logistics within the eye of terror. Oftentimes more than half of the warband is sent out on destructive paths carved through realspace, usually alongside warbands of all colors. Their logistics trains buffer the forces of Chaos who incur into realspace.

Many of these combatants were even recruited from scratch through rigorous gene-seed implementation within Medrengard's darkest complexes. Fresh-faced but still corrupted by darkened rites of passage within unspeakable training camps, these diabolical wards of IVth Legion gene seed implementation have made it into the latest days of the current era 42nd Millenium in droves, maintaining the swollen ranks of the Shrikes along with their ancient and mad forefathers.

Picking apart the remains of what resulted from one of Vandire's genocidal tantrums, they gleefully unleashed new daemonic technology and understanding of warp mechanics to terrified and already demoralized Imperial forces, many of whom were ready to join the throngs of chaos in the wake of the massacre perpetrated by their own rulers. They have attended each Black Crusade in turn, though marshal coercion from the Black Legion has left the Iron Shrikes on sour terms as leaders disagreed about where to take their campaigns. After many confrontations ending in bloodshed, the Iron Shrikes made it clear that while they were invested in the long war against their common foe their would be no blackening of the Shrike's armor to mark them as lapdogs to Abaddon.

## Warband Territory

The Coil, as its aptly called, is an ascending mountain steppe whose boundless metal scrap wastes weave around broken rocky crags that jut like needles to pierce a yawning sky of ash white, and whose dungeons descend to unknown depths where dimlit corridors fumigated with sweat, blood, misery and damnation facilitate the work of untold laborers, slaves and Dark Mechanicum adepts. Harvesting and refinement machinery punctuate the space between tenebrous forests of sentient barbed wire, writhing and seeking after prey. Often broad as the walls of citadels, those areas not in immediate clearings such as the work camps and refineries are exceedingly dangerous for mortal travelers. The realm within the barbed wire is home to an Obliterator cult known simply as the "The Ruined", a tribe of bleeding behemoths often put to use by the 94th's skilled warp channelers.

Varying Warlords operate under the regime of the Warsmith Ashurbanipal, who seems to have consigned the might of his genius to logistics within the eye while lesser warlords carry out campaigns, raids and coordinate with a carefully woven tapestry of other warbands and factions, most often those with a history of working with the Black Legion. Still, the Warsmith will occasionally emerge from the Eye of Terror to witness the efficiency and iron of his troops with his own eyes. At this time as Perturabo's legion lays sieges across the Imperium the Iron Shrikes have dedicated resources to the widespread wake of destruction on the nightmare borders of unreality where endless warp storms have broken into Imperial holds across realspace.

## Warband Organisation

### General Hierarchy

The Iron Shrikes number around 1200 traitor marines on average and under a four, five or sixfold division with other ruling warlords depending on the need. Due to his leverage with many Stor Bezashk in the upper echelons of Legion hierarchy throughout Medrengard, Ashur has carved out a formidable and maintained empire, successfully thwarting enemies since the early years of the great crusade and having established rapport with many warlords high on the legion's ladder. While he himself maintains a distant demeanor, his warriors carry out his tasks dutifully knowing full well the wrath of their Warsmith is an ancient and hungry thing.

### Specialist Units & Formations

Rusted Company- A grand company of Iron Warrior Plague Marines cursed into their decaying state and service to the plague god. Originally a biochemical warfare company referred to as the 3rd Fumigation Company of the Iron Warriors who were known for fighting underground and bunkered enemies as well as systematic genocide. They were lured into a trap by the Death Guard after the scouring, and a warp-modified version of their viral weaponry was unleashed upon them, forcing them to succumb to nurgle's rot after a series of psyche destroying poxes. Their disposition in the 94th is silent and brooding, and some believe a vector is established between them and a warband of the death guard, while others suggest an ongoing skirmish between them and the death guard over technological assets.

Razorwire Reavers: Berserkers often drawn from those chosen for punishment. Those fallen from the grace of the warsmith, or have failed or trespassed. They form a disheveled but prideful rabble.

## Combat Doctrine

The way of the Iron Shrikes is similar to that of the rest of the IVth legion. Failure and mutiny results in consignment to the Razorwire Reavers. They are cautious in the expenditure of fleet and ground resources and have been known to raid gene seed repositories to keep their numbers high. In theory there are several warlords in charge of divisions of the Grand Battallion at any time. Times of campaigning outside the eye will see numbers of attrition consuming up to 35% of the warbands traitor marine warriors, before their ranks suddenly swell again, often beyond the numbers encountered in their previous offenses.

## Warband Recruitment

The Iron Shrikes have been known to induct all and sundry who are willing to fight on their behalf, and don the stripes of the IVth Legion. They've garnered more than some hatred from their brethren on Medrengard for their ranks containing the likes of Noise Marines contracted in from the 3rd Legion. They have had long periods focused on recruitment drives, a tendency thats kept their numbers marginally high. The affect Warp has on time has also had an overall favorable influence on the relative speed at which they've been able to send large incursions into realspace, Black Crusade or not. Its Believed that some unholy favor gives the Shrikes ages of time dilation to recuperate losses and recruit from the masses of slaves at their disposal.

## Warband Members and Important Ranks

Warsmith Ashurbanipal, a member of the Lyssatra, the cultic "Brethren of Thunder".

Master of Arms (lord): Shar-Ur

Master of the Soulforge :

Watcher - (sorceror)

Grand Engineer -(warpsmith)

Those who augment with the Iron Shrikes own spin of the Butcher's Nails call themselves the Razorwire Reavers. Their armor trim is often Red.

## Warband Relics

Iron Teeth: The Iron Shrike's Spin on the butcher's nails.

### Warband Badge

The Iron Shrikes insignia is adopted from the iconography of an ancient mercenary organization on Olympia, its heritage long lost to the gulfs of time and oblivion.

## Relations

### Enemies

Tyranids: The Tyranids are an object of research for the Iron Shrikes, whose secret end goal is to use them to flood the galaxy in a tide of Obliterator viruses infected monstrosities by infecting the hive fleets.

## Notable Quotes

### About the Iron Shrikes

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

[Source]