Iron Hearts Legion

Iron Hearts
Battle Cry	"Life Eternal! Death Eternal!"
Number	XVII
Primarch	Rubinek
Homeworld	Rust
Specialty	Resilient Infantry, Farseeing, Survival
Allegiance	Dark Imperium
Colours	Iron and Bronze, corroded and tarnished.

The Iron Hearts are the seventeenth legion in the /tg/ alternate history 40k timeline Imperium Asunder. Before even the onset of the Heresy, the Iron Hearts experienced the full scope of death and destruction between astartes fighting astartes. Upon his introduction into the Imperium Rubinek swore to his father that he would forsake any old ways and spread the Imperial Truth.

Ultimately however, to lead his marines safely through the ravages of the frontlines of the Great Crusade, Rubinek made use of every tool available to him -- Including the power that provided him with his Iron Heart. This haunted obelisk had provided the mechanical heart that saved Rubinek's life, and in turn the Primarch passed this blessing onto his children as the Crusade battered them with relentless casualties.

The use of this ancient and forbidden technology was expressly disallowed by the Emperor. In the latter half of the Crusade the Iron Hearts had steadily gained more and more for the Imperium, but all the while they had been kept whole and fighting by blasphemous artifice. When the Emperor learned of this, he cast Rubinek out, and unleashed on his legion the Bloodhounds.

Summary of Legion VII

Homeworld

The Iron Hearts were primarily based in a small cluster of all-but-abandoned worlds, including their homeworld Rust, which contained many unexplored lairs of Dark-Age technology. After their near-total destruction by the Bloodhounds, the Iron Hearts became a fleet-based chapter, their home worlds having been leveled at the Emperor's merciless command.

Legion History

Rubinek's Discovery

Primarch Rubinek was found by nomads on a world of caustic wastelands and rusted mechanical predators. When grown he became the leader of his tribe and guided them through the wastes. They prospered, thanks to prophetic dreams that time and time again led him true.

One year he dreamt a hellish metal fortress, lair of the world's beasts, and beyond that, a valley paradise. He led his nomads against the horrors and reached their leader, a massive beast of bloodslick gears and rusted blades. While the tribe's survivors fled to salvation Rubinek fought the colossus blade to claw, knowing how his fight would end: buried with his enemy, speared through the heart. So he had dreamt, so it was. The tribe settled in the valley and mourned.

After a time of only darkness Rubinek realized he yet lived. Weak, he disentombed himself from a mountain of metal and found his people. A priestess tended to his ruined chest a day and a night, and in the end he was made whole thanks to a miraculous mechanical heart. She explained only that a great obelisk whispered to her the secrets of life, and gave this heart.