Iron Hands - Legion Organisation: As is perhaps unsurprising from so calculating and methodical a master as Ferrus Manus, the Iron Hands Legion was a highly structured military force, with numerous tactical and strategic divisions of power and organisations within its ranks. However, on close inspection, the precise nature of this structure is a very particular one, instituting a system of "organised compartmentalisation" within the Legion. This stands in contrast to other highly-structured Space Marine Legions such as the single overarching hierarchy of many fine gradations as was found in the Emperor's Children or the Imperial Fists. Nor did the Iron Hands subscribe to the utterly rationalised clarity and dogmatic adherence to order and stricture espoused by the Ultramarines.The Iron Hands Legion was instead deliberately composed from a series of interlocking components, each with its own specialistation, duties and chain of command, beholden only to itself and its immediate superiors. Each of these components; be they Legionary squad, armoured vehicle squadron, support elements, etc., came together first as companies in the broad standard model. But beyond this, each company was a part of a larger grouping with its own independent command, support and logistical network, armoury and voidships created for a particular campaign or battle. These formations were referred to as Orders and were superficially equivalent to a specialised battalion in general Legiones Astartes terms, but far more concrete in makeup and isolated in operation.Inside an Order, the component companies were configured in such a way that all the units' functions combined together to form a gestalt whole whose tactical and strategic capabilities, like the components of a machine working together in unison, were capable of actions outweighed by the sum of their parts. In battle each Order was given a specific task which it was expected to fulfil without needing assistance, and succeed it would at any cost, for pride, honour and sheer belligerence would allow no other outcome. Orders were often formed form a larger single Clan grouping, and sometimes units from different Clans fought together within them, often as rivals for glory and achievement.Clans were notionally the Iron Hands' equivalent of the Chapter formation of other Legions but again, on close inspection, were in practice possessed of a distinct character, being patterned to a larger extent on the Medusan feudal system and were linked to the planet's nomadic barbarian populations as recruiting bases. These Iron Hands Clans were in fact "pocket Legions", fully self-sufficient and self-supplied, and each had a single officer with the title of "Chieftain" or "Iron Lord" to rule them by Primarch-given right. Each Clan had a very real and distinct identity and each vied against each other for glory, attainment and for resources, as well as for the favour of their Primarch.The level of integration and strength the Iron Hands Legion's system manifested was extraordinary if somewhat inflexible. Whether deployed as a single company or a full Legion in scale, it was a crushing leviathan when in action; extraordinarily difficult to stop, but also at times brutally intractable and slow to change course through its single-minded pursuit of its starting objectives. This was Ferrus Manus' deliberate intention, and as part of that design he invested authority and initiative with the few, not the many. Accordingly he created several distinct tiers of organisational structure where field commanders wielded absolute power and authority, and were to be obeyed without question by those beneath them, ensuring any responsibility for failure would be identified and taken care of with merciless efficiency.Within the Iron Hands Legion, command carried with it the power of both life and death; each Shield-Centurion who commanded a company was empowered to enact at will both reward and punishment on any Astartes under his command. This included the right of immediate punishement -- including execution -- over any Legionary beneath them, without recourse, hearing or trial. Likewise, at the higher echelons of the Legion, an Iron Captain had the same rights over their War Leaders and other subordinate officers within their Order, and the ranks beneath them. An Iron Lord held the same rights over the Iron Captains in their Clan, and so on. Overarching this structure, Ferrus Manus was the single judge, ruler and master over all in his Legion without contest or gainsay.The Iron Hands were a Legion whose numbers remained relatively constant throughout the latter phases of the Great Crusade, balancing their intake of new recruits largely with losses in the field. This was achieved despite the fact that many failed the Legion's rigorous and unforgivingly harsh training and assessment methods on Medusa. They were, however, known to maintain a particularly extensive and sophisticated arsenal of war engines -- particularly tanks, armoured vehicles and Dreadnought walkers -- the equal of any Legion save perhaps for Perturabo's IVth Legion. Thanks to long-standing ties to elements of the Mechanicum and the technological aptitude displayed by many in their number, the Iron Hands possessed access to numerous cybernetic implant systems seldom seen outside the Machine Cult, and they were also able to widely reproduce and maintain large stockpiles of Grav-weapons, Conversion Beamer and Laser Destroyer systems, and other arcane and esoteric machineries of death.This range of materiel extended both to extensive numbers of Servitors (often created from failed Legion Aspirants and, it has long been rumoured, prisoners taken in battle), and advanced super-heavy tanks such as the Fellblade. In addition, Battle-Automata and troops from the Mechanicum were preferred by the Iron Hands Legion for strategic support when available as the Legion was largely dismissive of most Imperial Army units as unfit for frontline work.It is also worthy of note that the Iron Hands Legion, and its master Ferrus Manus, were at the forefront of the introduction of a number of weapons systems and armour patterns over the course of the Great Crusade. The fruits of some, such as their contribution of the prototype Indomitus Pattern to the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project and the powerful Stormbreaker Pattern Thunder Hammer, would later be widely disseminated to the rest of the Space Marine Legions. Yet, the Iron Hands were not wholly selfless in their technological developments; the secrets of certain other weapons and metallurgic and cybernetic crafts they kept to themselves and their most trusted confidantes within the Mechanicum.The strength of the Iron Hands' pseudo-feudal system of Legion organisation created a highly disciplined and motivated force which both despised and punished failure and weakness, and rewarded and glorified strength, accomplishment and success. This created an environment in which the most competent and strongest-willed rose quickly within their ranks, and those who did not make the measure were quickly weeded out. It also provided a set of boundaries and strictures which channelled the raw aggression and adversarial tendencies of the Iron Hands themselves, many of whom shared their Primarch's volatile temperament, kept in check through a mixture of coldly-imposed Legion discipline and with Medusan cultural values of bloody-minded pragmatism which were taken as the Legion's creed.It also had the effect of creating not inconsiderable friction and indeed direct competition between the Legion's Clans, both to attain glory and praise in their Primarch's eyes and to outdo each other in battle. This competition had a very practical consideration also as the most successful Clans were favoured by their Primarch with a greater proportion of recruits and additional resources -- a matter not of favoritism but logic in their master's eyes -- a distribution weighed to prefer the Clan which had proven itself most able to utilise what it was given in the Legion's service.For the rest the message was equally clear: it was a matter of the survival of the fittest; adapt, grow strong, overcome -- or fail and wither to destruction. It has been argued by some that the embodiment of this philosophy, particularly in the person of its Primarch Ferrus Manus, contributed greatly to the crisis, mental shock and sheer psychological trauma endured by the Iron Hands Legion after the dire events of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.