Iron Within (Warhammer+ series)
Iron Within is another fan-animation that was bought by Games Workshop at least two years ago (probably somewhere in 2021), it was originally named Codex and was finally released on their polarizing Warhammer+ but as expected of greedy GeeDubs, they couldn't help but somehow botch it. The visuals are pretty good (as expected of fan animations) but the editing and sound design are all over the place, pretty much what would you expect when Games Workshop decides to get their grubby mitts on something that was supposed to be Awesome. You can check out the trailer here, showing a 1 minute clip of a Reaver Jetbike putting it's bladevanes to use.
Overview[edit]
It's a 27-minute one-shot animation that focuses on an beleaguered Imperial Guard planet that's being raided by a sadistic Dark Eldar raiding party. Whisking away it's citizens to Commorragh and reaping a large death toll on the planet's defenders. Behind the barricades, the Imperial Guard are pushed to the point that they turn to an ancestral lifeline (aka an old ass emergency beacon) to call upon the Emperor's Angels of Death, but if you actually bothered to read the title of this animation then you have a very good idea on who answers this call instead...
Imperial Guard not recognizing Chaos Space Marines?[edit]
It's more likely than you think.
When the planet's Imperial Guard regiment (or more likely their local PDF) end up being saved by the Iron Warriors, they don't seem incredibly alarmed and in fact confuse them for your usual Loyalist Astartes. This might seem dumb at first but there's a very good reason for this. Remember that the scale of the 40k universe is fucking HUGE, and while Adeptus Astartes are the poster boys of the Warhamer 400000, they aren't exactly everywhere in the galaxy. Normal people in the 40k universe are more likely to see the Astra Militarum in action rather than one of the Emperor's Angels of Death, even if they happen to live in Ultramar. Not to mention that the Imperium at large goes out of its way to misinform or keep any kind of information about Choas a secret from most of the masses, be it the average imperial citizen to conscripts and even the standard guardsman ( with very good reason).
More importantly, almost the exact same thing has already happened in older lore from the hallowed age of 40k's Third Edition. The short story Liberation Day (by Matthew Farrer and Edward Rusk) from the Crucible of War anthology shows escaped human slaves on an Ork-controlled Space Hulk calling for help... and again being landed with the Sons of Perturabo which they, at first, confuse with the Emperor's Chosen. Only in this case, having butchered the greenskins, the Iron Warriors then proceed to turn most of the escaped humans into Chaos Spawn for lulz, leaving a few to be enslaved - which one Iron Warrior thinks of as such generosity on his part that he waxes all sentimental on how he looooooves "Liberation Day". Iron Within, by comparison, is almost family-friendly.
For more evidence that the average Imperial citizen has no idea what a space marine actually looks like:
The early human settlers on the planet of Serenade confused a bunch of Necrons (led by Trazyn and Orikan of all folk) that protected their planet (which was secretly a Tomb World) from an Ork invasion for Space Marines and actually erected statues in their honor across the planet.
Regardless of all that, this clever use of a little known lore tidbit gives us a darkly hilarious scene of a Guardsman doing the sign of the aquila right in front of an Iron Warrior, whose response is to just smack him on the face and walk away (and we do mean smack, not a punch but an actual humiliating back-handed slap). This humorous display of petty dickery really makes you wonder if the Marines Malevolent are actually Traitor Legion Loyalists of the Iron Warriors.
