Fist of Iron

The Fist of Iron was a battle barge that served as the flagship of Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands X Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. This flagship led the flotilla of the Iron Hands warships which comprised the X Legion's 52nd Expeditionary Fleet. The massive vessel drifting in the void like a slab of steel and bronze, an ugly beast, its hull was scarred and unpainted from the damage it sustained during the many campaigns of compliance. Like their Primarch, the Iron Hands cared little for ostentation or the embellishment of their vessels within their fleet.

One of the primary chambers of the Fist of Iron was the Anvilarium. This vast chamber resembled a mighty forge with huge, hissing pistons rising and falling at the edges of the audience chamber, and the distant clang of hammers echoed through the sheet metal of the floor. It was a cavernous space, with the pungent aromas of oil and hot metal heavy in the air, the space redolent of industry and machines. Within the Anvilarium, mighty deeds were planned and unbreakable bonds of brotherhood were forged. The elite honour guard of Morlocks Terminators stood sentinel around the edge of the chamber, the mightiest of them protecting the gates of the primarch’s inner sanctum, the Iron Forge. They were rendered ghostly by the hissing clouds of steam that billowed from the deck, the fearsome visage of the Morlocks making them look like the vengeful predators that howled across the frozen tundra of the Iron Hands' homeworld of Medusa for which they were named.

The Primarch's chambers aboard the Fist of Iron were constructed of stone and glass, as cold and austere as the frozen tundra of Medusa, its visitors could almost feel the chill of the Iron Hands' icy home world in the design. Blocks of shimmering obsidian carved from the sides of undersea volcanoes kept the chamber dark, and glass cabinets of war trophies and weapons stood as silent sentinels over the Primarch’s most private moments. The Iron Forge was were Ferrus Manus kept his most prized relics and personal creations within. Its gleaming walls were fashioned from smooth, glassy basalt and hung with all manner of wondrous weapons, armour and machinery crafted by the Primarch’s silver hands. A vast anvil of iron and gold sat in the centre of the forge, and Ferrus Manus had long ago declared that none save his brother Primarchs were permitted to enter this most private sanctum. Vulkan of the Salamanders XVIII Legion had once declared it a magical place, using the language of the ancients to describe the magnificence it contained. To honour Ferrus’s skill, Vulkan had presented him with a Firedrake banner, which hung next to a wondrously crafted gun with a top loading magazine and perforated barrel formed in the shape of a snarling dragon. Its brass and silver body comprised the finest workmanship ever seen, its lines and curves so beautiful that to simply label it a weapon was to deny that it was in fact a work of art.

During the opening days of the Horus Heresy, it was within the Iron Forge that Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children attempted to sway his brother to Warmaster Horus' cause of rebellion against the Emperor and his corrupt Imperium. Fulgrim had sent the bulk of his III Legion and the 28th Expeditionary Fleet on to meet Horus and the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet in the Istvaan System while he and a small force aided the Iron Hands' 52nd Expeditionary Fleet in retaking the world of Callinedes IV from the Orks. Great bonds of friendship and brotherhood had long existed between the two Legions, and Fulgrim felt that he could convince Ferrus of the righteousness of Horus' cause. Fulgrim's hope proved disastrously wrong and the meeting of the two Primarchs in Ferrus's private inner sanctum did not go well, as Ferrus was utterly outraged that his brothers would turn against their father the Emperor. The meeting ended in violence as The Gorgon made his difference of opinion over continued loyalty to the Emperor known to the Phoenician with his weapons, determined to stop Fulgrim's betrayal of the Imperium before it could begin. Ferrus attempted to use his silvery necrodermis hands to destroy Fulgrim's golden sword Fireblade, but the resulting explosion knocked him unconscious.

Fulgrim intended to kill his unconscious brother with the weapon he had forged for him, the warhammer ''Forgebreaker]], but proved unable to kill his oldest friend despite the promptings of the Slaaneshi daemon that now corrupted his soul. Instead he took the wonderous weapon that he had once crafted in brotherhood for Ferrus as a reminder of their former friendship, and left behind Fireblade, which Ferrus had forged for him. When Fulgrim emerged from Ferrus' inner sanctum, he gave a signal to his elite Phoenix Guard, who instantly beheaded all of the Iron Hands Morlock Terminators who served as Ferrus' own elite bodyguard with their Power Halberds. The Emperor's Children also nearly slew the Iron Hands' First Captain Gabriel Santor. Fulgrim successfully fled the Iron Hands' expeditionary fleet in his personal assault craft, the Firebird, as he ordered his warships, the Battle Barge Pride of the Emperor and its Escorts, to open fire upon the ships of the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet. Fulgrim called a halt to the attack before the destruction of the Fist of Iron was complet. Leaving the crippled X Legion's fleet becalmed, the ships of the Emperor's Children disengaged and made the translation into the Immmaterium to redezvous with the rest of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet and the forces of the Warmaster in the Istvaan System.