Ironwing - History: The Ironwing Protocol was developed before the Great Crusade was fully born, when the first Space Marines were used by the Emperor to exterminate threats to Mankind too dire to be allowed to endanger the glorious future.He had designed later variants of this protocol, which sought to wed the superhuman power of the Legiones Astartes and amplify that killing strength with newly-designed, bespoke armoured units -- such as the Land Raider -- as well as mighty Dreadnoughts in close support, for the Ironwing's mission required the shock application of brute force.Those were entered into the Principia Belicosa for use and development by the Legions that would follow, notably the Xth and IVth Legions, but the Dark Angels would continue to develop the tactical pattern to serve their own ends.The Ironwing of the Dark Angels was dedicated to the use of overwhelming firepower on the field of battle, to confound the foe by means of barrage and conflagration, to defy their riposte with inviolate armour and carry the day by means of brute force alone. The Ironwing was not a subtle wing of the Hexagrammaton, comprised as it was of the majority of the Legion's armoured vehicles, heavy Dreadnoughts of all patterns and field artillery batteries, a force ill-equipped for operations reliant on stealth or subterfuge.Yet they excelled at the breaking of fortresses by superior firepower and the rapid onslaught of massed war engines to overrun and annihilate an unprepared foe in the open field. Its marshals were experts on the engagement and destruction of enemy war machines and heavy guns, often called upon to see the destruction of those apocalyptic engines of destruction encountered by the Legion in its lonely crusade. Though this deployment of massed war engines was by far the most renowned aspect of the Ironwing, it was not the only facet to their doctrine of overwhelming strength.As a merging of the Legion's old Hosts of Iron and Stone, the Ironwing also included a substantial number of initiates from the infantry arms of the Legion, mostly those attached to heavy weapon support units, Breacher cadres and Terminator squadrons. Indeed, during the last years of the Great Crusade, the Ironwing fielded the largest concentration of Terminators not only in the Dark Angels but in any of the Space Marine Legions, including a number of experimental patterns of armour unknown in the panoply of other forces.Often employed en masse to storm fortresses or repel the onslaught of the enemy, these warriors earned a fearsome reputation within the Legion, many retaining the old emblem of the Host of Stone and assuming the title of "Stoneborn." The brutal attrition of the early years of the Horus Heresy would decimate the ranks of these valiant warriors, ever first in attack or defence of the Legion, and by the end of the rebellion they were but a shadow of their former strength.Given the wealth of technology fielded by the Ironwing, its inner circle was dominated by the forge lords of the Legion, but of all the wings only the Dreadwing was more despised by the ancient Mechanicum, for the Ironwing and its masters paid little heed to the creed of Mars and employed much technology that was forbidden to the adepts of the Mechanicum.