Red Talons

"And this land shall be yours, that you shall be its masters and its peoples bow down to you."

- The Charter of Founding of the Red Talons, by the hand of High Lord Hanikhas

The Red Talons are a Loyalist Space Marines Chapter and a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Iron Hands. The Red Talons were founded in the wake of the tragic events that occurred during the lamentable Horus Heresy, having suffered the tragedy of the loss of their Primarch Ferrus Manus during the open days of the rebellion at the Drop Site Massacre on the world of Istvaan V at the hands of his one-time friend and brother, Fulgrim, Primarch of the traitorous Emperor's Children Legion. The Red Talons were Founded from a portion of the Iron Hands Legion's Morragul Clan, made up primarily of outcasts and the most unstable elements of the Xth Legion, who fought and died under the merciless command of their bloody-handed Clan commander, the Iron-Lord Autek Mor. The Red Talons' fortress-monastery is located on their homeworld of Raikan.

The Great Crusade
The Red Talons can trace their heritage back to the dark days of the galaxy-wide rebellion known as the Horus Heresy, which began in the waning days of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. This bloody-handed Chapter is descended from the ranks of the infamous Morragul Clan Company of the Iron Hands Legion, led by its unforgiving master, Autek Mor, who was both Iron-Lord of the Clan and an Iron Father of the Xth Legion. Mor held a sinister reputation within his Legion, and dark rumours accompanied him long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, including whispered accusations that the origins of his gene-seed or perhaps his bloodline were not as they should be. A Terran by birth, he was part of the Xth Legion's first intake and fought in the re-conquest of the Sol System. He held field command by the time of his Primarch's finding on the world of Medusa, having already developed a reputation both as a weaponsmith and malevolent soul. Mor was known to have killed several members of his own Legion in duels over "slights to his honour", and to rule his company with a cruel and unforgiving fist.

On the Xth Legion's new homeworld, Medusa, he took over the outlaw Ra'Guln Clan's leviathan crawler in a bloody night of violence and made himself its lord, imprinting on it his name and will. In the years that followed, his Morragul Clan became a sink for the outcasts and most unstable elements of the Iron Hands Legion, who fought and died under Mor's merciless command. No love was lost between Autek Mor and his Primarch.

The Horus Heresy
Despite the enmity between the Primarch and the Lord of the Morragul Clan, when his Grand Cruiser, the Red Talon, arrived at Istvaan V when the void battle was at its height, he bravely attempted to go to his Primarch's aid. During the infamous events which would become known in the annals of Imperial history as the Drop Site Massacre, three Loyalist Astartes Legions -- the Iron Hands, the Salamanders and the Raven Guard -- were betrayed by the four other Legions of the Loyalist second wave sent to defeat Horus' Traitors at Istvaan V -- the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Word Bearers -- who they had believed were loyal to the Emperor of Mankind. In fact, the Space Marine Legions of the second wave had already betrayed the Imperium and secretly turned to the service of the rebellious Warmaster Horus and Chaos.

The Red Talon, flagship of the Iron Hands' Morragul Clan, was one of the first Iron Hands vessels to arrive in the Istvaan System after the treachery of the Loyalist reserves had been revealed, breaching into realspace amid the titanic space battle that had erupted between the Loyalist and Traitor fleets. Autek Mor ordered his ship to attempt a breach through the firestorm to reach the surface of Istvaan V, and the infamously powerful grand cruiser succeeded in punching through the battle, but took such heavy damage it was forced to bypass Istvaan V and flee, managing to escape, unlike many of the Iron Hands ships that would later arrive.

Vengeance of the Red Talon
Of the Iron Hands Legion, it was known that many had been driven to stark madness by witnessing their father's end and thrown themselves wholesale into the crucible of war as if to absolve their loss in their own deaths. Yet, a substantial number of Iron Hands Legionaries had extricated themselves from the massacre, and while few had made it off the surface, many more had survived the calamitous void ambush of the Legion's fleet, breaking away and scattering across the stars. Some would form isolationist bands, fighting their own private wars against the Traitors, such as the infamous "Red Talons" of Autek Mor. One of this warband's more notable campaigns took place in the Coronid Deeps within the Gethsamaine System. The first great blow struck against Traitor control of the Coronid Deeps came from the outer darkness of the Grail Abyss. More than a year previously, in 005.M31, the Gethsamaine System had submitted to Horus without resistance and this obeisance had thus far spared them the worst of the war's deprivations. The system's only inhabited world, Gethsamaine Colonus, had been forced to suffer newly imposed overlords in the shape of Tithe Aquistors bearing the serpent's eye of Horus, where once they had the raptor-headed Seal of Terra. Under their directions, the industries of Gethsamaine now laboured, and the planet's vast rain forests were being clear-cut to provide fodder for off-world export, but other than the Aquistors' harsh quotas, little in truth had changed for the people of Gethsamaine. But just as the unexpected arrival of a lone survivor from the Istvaan system in 006.M31 had gone on to herald the dawning of the terrible war that was to follow, so now with fell irony was a second survivor of that great treachery to herald a new wave of conflict.

When the ill-starred warp route from the haunted Grail Abyss tore open once more, the vessel that cut into realspace with dreadful purpose was no derelict caparisoned in Emperor's Children amaranth as that first survivor-ship had been, but a jagged and scar-hulled killer in black iron and blood crimson. It was the Red Talon, the ship of the Iron Hands Clan Morragul, and their master, Autek Mor. Gethsamaine had been stripped of much of its void defences in the Traitors' passing and now it stood all but naked before this spectre of the Imperium's grim retribution. The few remaining gun platforms which protected Gethsamaine Colon us were quickly swept away by the attacking grand cruiser, and a ruthless bombardment of the planet from low orbit immediately commenced preparatory to a ground assault. Then came the grim sons of Medusa to enact judgement.

Any resistance to the Iron Hands was swiftly obliterated, and an entire cohort of planetary militia and their Horusite overseers crushed beneath the treads of Clan Morragul's armour in less than an hour settled the matter into a general rout for the defenders. Wasting no time, seats of government were blasted to rubble, and those in positions of power that had aided the Traitors or sided with their cause were methodically hunted down and executed, save for a select number of prisoners deemed to have potentially useful information, who were dragged screaming back to the Red Talon's gunships. As the Iron Hands Thunderhawks blasted off from the surface, the bulk of the civilian population, which had fled into hiding during the sudden assault, nervously rejoiced and came forth, little knowing what would come next. In each of the five major cities of Gethsamaine, the Iron Hands had left behind an improvised atomantic device fashioned by the bloody hand of their Iron-Father, each bomb clad in layer upon layer of radioactive material designed to enrich and multiply the fallout generated by its detonation a hundred fold. The Red Talon broke orbit just as the cities bloomed into fire; sentence had been passed on both the Traitors and those who had knelt before them, and notice served that there could be no bystanders in this terrible war, no civilians to be given quarter, only Loyalist and Traitor to the death.

The Second Founding
In the wake of the calamity that was the Horus Heresy and the entombment of the mortally-wounded Emperor within the Golden Throne, the foundations of the Imperium of Man were reformed. The first High Lords of Terra established the structure by which the Adeptus Terra operated, and described the feudal responsibilities and duties of the planetary lords. One of the most important accomplishments was the reorganisation of the Imperium's fighting forces. This was undertaken almost single-handedly by the Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, Roboute Guilliman. Of all of his works, the most influential is the Codex Astartes, the great prescriptive tome that lays down the basic organisational and tactical rules for the Space Marine Chapters. The Horus Heresy had revealed previously unknown genetic weakness in the gene-seed of the Primarchs and Space Marines among the original 20 First Founding Space Marine Legions, weaknesses that left the Legions in question greatly exposed to corruption by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. This risk was exacerbated by the rapid and atypical nature of Space Marine recruitment during the centuries between the start of the Great Crusade in ca. 800.M30 and the outbreak of the Horus Heresy itself at the dawn of the 31st Millennium.

The Codex decreed that the nine remaining Loyalist Legions would be divided into 1,000-man Chapters, the Chapter Masters of which would be directly beholden to the Emperor Himself and no other, not even the Primarchs of their original Founding Legions (save in the case of the single Chapter that would remain under each Primarch's control and retain its Legion's original name). No one man in the Imperium would ever again control the superhuman might of an entire Legion of 100,000 or more Space Marines.

In 021.M31, the Second Founding of the first Successor Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes under this new system commenced. The Red Talons were one such Successor Chapter, formed from those Battle-Brothers of the Iron Hands Legion who were the most volatile and bloody-handed of the Sons of the Gorgon, and were disposed towards aggressive and bold styles of warfare. Furthermore, the events of the Horus Heresy had imprinted upon this Chapter an unstoppable drive to continue to avenge the treacheries committed by the Traitor Legions. The sinister Iron-Lord Autek Mor was given command of the newly created Chapter, becoming its first Chapter Master.

Notable Campaigns

 * The Pentarchy of Blood (860-940.M33) - During the War of the False Primarch, a dark and bloody episode in the Imperium's history now largely lost to myth and purged from Imperial records which plunged the Segmentum Pacificus into anarchy, the Pentarchy of Blood was convened by the High Lords of Terra to enact their judgement. Five Chapters -- the Red Talons, Carcharodons, Charnel Guard, Death Eagles, and the Flesh Eaters -- were used to systematically destroy eleven Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes judged Traitoris Perdita and lay waste to their homeworlds, finally drawing the eight-decade-long conflict to a close.
 * First Scouring of Coriolanthe (948.M38) - Night Lords Chaos Space Marines supported by an unidentified Traitor Titan Legion lay waste to the once gleaming marble cities of the world of Coriolanthe. The Grey Knights and forces of the Inquisitor Lord Naburus Baum and the Red Talons Space Marines attempt to halt the servants of the Ruinous Powers, but the Inquisitor and most of the Grey Knights are overwhelmed when assaulted by a counterattack of Traitor Titans.
 * The Defence of Orask (940-997.M41) - At the very edge of the Iquathan Deeps in the northern Segmentum Ultima, near the border of the Ghoul Stars, sits the sentinel Feudal World of Orask. This vital bastion world has long defended the Iquathan Deeps against the fell horrors of the Ghoul Stars. In recent times, a most terrible assault occurred in 940.M41, when a splinter Hive Fleet Pythos of the Tyranid menace appeared, disoriented and twisted by its passage through the Ghoul Stars, and fell on the Orask System like a ravenous beast. The great battle that ensued proved brief but bloody. The stoic defenders of Orask were backed by a full company of the Red Talons Chapter and a Titan maniple from the Legio Magna. Despite horrific casualties that reached into the tens of thousands sustained within a mere matter of solar days, the valiant defenders were able to push back their monstrous attackers. Eventually they contained the threat and purged the vile xenos from Orask's blasted surface. In recognition of their hard-fought victory, the Senatorium Ultima of Ultramar honour the Chapter with the gift of the famed relic known as the Bloody Crown of Hycani. However, evidence persists that some harbinger organisms escaped to the outer systems, and Orask may not have heard the last of the Great Devourer.

Notable Red Talons

 * Autek Mor - Known as "The Maimed" and the "Blood-Wrought", Autek Mor was both Iron Lord and Iron Father to the Iron Hands Legion's Morragul Clan Company during the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium. Autek Mor held a sinister reputation within his Legion, and dark rumours accompanied him long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, including whispered accusations that the origins of his gene-seed or perhaps his bloodline were not as they should be. A Terran by birth, he was a part of the Xth Legion's first intake and fought in the re-conquest of the Sol System. He held field command by the time of his Primarch Ferrus Manus' discovery, having already developed a reputation both as a weaponsmith and a malevolent soul, having killed several Astartes of his own Legion in duels over "slights of honour." He ruled his company with a cruel and unforgiving fist. His Morragul Clan became a sink for the outcasts and most unstable elements of the Iron Hands Legion, who fought and died under Mor's merciless command. No love was lost between Autek and his Primarch, but despite this, when his Grand Cruiser, the Red Talon, arrived at Istvaan V during the Drop Site Massacre when the void battle was at its height, he attacked in an attempt to reach the surface and was only driven off after sustaining massive damage, fleeing the Istvaan System dogged by murderous pursuit. He would eventually become the patriarch and first Chapter Master of the Second Founding Red Talons Chapter.
 * Ancient Skara Brae - The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought within which Ancient Brae is interred is thought to date back to the earliest days of the Red Talons. Aside from the Orask Wars, this Contemptor is known to have participated in battles against such reviled xenos foes as the Galthites of the Oenorian Inner Systems, the Draxian Hegemony and the dread Paramours of the Orpheus Rift. It participated in the purging of the Argent Hammers and the Fists of Olchis, proving instrumental in the near complete destruction of both outcast Astartes Chapters. The earliest date to which this Contemptor Dreadnought's history can be traced for certain is the middle of the 31st Millennium, linking it to the age of woe that followed the Horus Heresy known as the Great Scouring. Still, one earlier temporal imprint has been extracted from its sensorium core; 566.006.M31, a date known all too well to the Iron Hands, the Salamanders, the Raven Guard and their Successor Chapters: the day of the Drop Site Massacre.

Chapter Fleet
The Red Talons are known to possess at least 2 Strike Cruisers, including:
 * Claw of Justice (Strike Cruiser)
 * Holy Execution (Strike Cruiser)

Chapter Colours
The Red Talons primarily wear arterial red coloured Power Armour. The Aquila or Imperialis is silver in colour. The black coloured squad specialty symbol -- Tactical, Devastator, Assault and Veteran -- is located on the right shoulder pad. A white coloured Roman numeral is stenciled in the centre of the squad specialty symbol, indicating squad number. The colour of the shoulder pad trim indicates company number in accordance with the Codex Astartes -- White (1st Company), Yellow (2nd Company), Red (3rd Company), Green (4th Company), ect..

Chapter Badge
The Chapter's badge is a crimson-coloured talon, centred on a black roundel. This symbol is reminiscent of the distinctive crimson heraldry of the Iron-Lord Autek Mor's personal guard, the Blood Wrought, as well as the Clan Company icon of the Morragul Clan of the Iron Hands Legion of old.

Gallery
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