Editing The Great Sowing (section)

===The Myrmidons vs Tin Fists===
Unlike the Ghastly Talons, the Myrmidons had no problems with drawing enemy attention away from the Green Men - after all, this was what they were paid to do. Another reason for their apparent recklessness was that their warband was essentially comprised of less than twenty members, all of whom were Techmarines and Apothecaries and hardly ever personally took to the battlefield. Instead, they used throngs of lobotomised Space Marines controlled via brain implants as their cannon fodder. They were always eager to test their mettle against fellow superhumans, for every battle brought them reinforcements instead of losses. Instead of killing their foes, they preferred to incapacitate them via sleeping gas and infrasound emitters in order to capture them and perform brain surgery on them later.

As soon as the Tin Fists arrived in Durnovarian Subsector, the Myrmidons greedily set their eyes on them. Indeed, their formidable stature made them a  coveted bounty for the Cerebriurges of this insidious warband. Hailing from the misty Island World of Cornubia, the Tin Fists were colloquially known as the Giants due to a favourable mutation of their geneseed that made them grow well beyond the usual Space Marine size. Their Chapter Master, Cunedagius Tremayne, even rivalled the mighty Custodes with the breadth of his build. Although their giant size was in many ways a blessing, especially for the close combat specialists, it was also a curse, as it meant that almost all of their standard issue equipment had to be altered by their Techmarines before they could use it. By Adeptus Terra's permission, they fielded not one, but three full Companies of Terminators, armed almost exclusively with Thunder Hammers. All of these factors ensured that the Tin Fists would not be an easy prey for the scalpels of the Cerebriurges.

The two forces met on the great plains of Kuzbass, a typical Durnovarian Forge World with the sky choking with exhaust fumes and shallow creeks gagging with dross. Wishing to test the enemy's weak points, the Cerebriurges unleashed ranks upon ranks of their drooling automatons against them. Pelted by swarms of bolts, Tin Fists found it difficult to advance, especially since the open nature of the battlefield provided them with little to no cover. Eventually, the Chapter's numerous Terminators got close enough to the enemy positions to teleport right into their midst, mercilessly slaughtering the foe. It was then that the Cerebriurges activated their most diabolical inventions, the hypnoprojectors. Powerful infrasonic emitters tuned to resonate with the neurons of human brain, they jumbled the thoughts of their victims, caused intensive hallucinations and splitting headache. Devoid of real intelligence, the Myrmidons were completely impervious to these effects, and, although they still felt the excruciating migraine caused by the infrasound, they could not respond to it since they had no control over their bodies. The Terminators, however, felt the full brunt of its powers. Slowly losing their wits and dragged into a world of nightmarish hallucinations, the mighty warriors were easily overpowered by the Myrmidons and dragged to the laboratories of their sadistic masters.

Although the losses sustained by the Myrmidons were significant, the Cerebriurges still considered them acceptable as long as they could trade their broken war toys for the mighty giants of Cornubia. The Tin Fists, on the contrary, were devastated by the loss of several Terminator squads in the very first battle. After a meticulous study of the battle report, Cunedagius Tremayne came to the conclusion that further combat operations were pointless until they found a way to neutralise the hypnoprojectors. Unfortunately, the Techmarines of his Chapter made it clear that they could not possibly develop a countermeasure until they had a full understanding of how the diabolical machine works. To these ends, they needed a working hypnoprojector, which brought Tremayne back to where he started. After a long meditation, the Chapter Master finally found a solution, crude though it was. Before putting on his power armour, he stuck a knife into his hip, so that he could concentrate on the constant pain caused by it to fight the effects of the hypnoprojectors. The battle brothers who went with him followed his example.

The ensuing battle proved Tremayne's calculations correct. Although many Tin Fists succumbed to the mind-flaying broadcasts anyway, most Space Marines could keep their thoughts clear by focusing on the pain, although their fighting capabilities were vastly diminished nonetheless. Suffering heavy losses, they engaged the enemy in close combat, all the while searching for the infrasonic emitters. Eventually, Tremayne's command squad managed to cut their way to one of the enemy Rhinos on which the hypnoprojectors were mounted, capture it and drive it all the way back to their encampment, dodging fierce enemy fire on the way. But relentless enemy assaults were hardly their principle problem, as they were forced to endure the baneful transmissions of the infrasonic emitter for the whole duration of their ride back. Some of them had their brains squashed to a pulp and squeezed from their eyes and ears like minced meat from a grinder. Some succumbed to murderous madness and attacked their comrades, mistaking them for nightmarish monsters. When the Rhino arrived at the Tin Fists' encampment, only Tremayne emerged from it, and even he collapsed from exhaustion after making just a few steps.

The Cerebriurges were furious. They could never allow the hounds of the Corpse Emperor to lay their dirty hands on their marvels of engineering, for that would inevitably mean eventual development of countermeasures. And so, amassing all of the forces at their disposal, they undertook a full-scale assault on the enemy positions. Tremayne understood that victory was not necessarily his goal: his forces just needed to buy the Techmarines enough time to reverse-engineer the hypnoprojector and find a way to neutralise its transmissions. Under his supervision, the Tin Fists fortified their camp with numerous trenches and redoubts, getting ready for a siege. They managed to successfully repel the first few waves of Myrmidons the Cerebriurges sent against them, and their Techmarines got within reach of cracking the enigma of hypnoprojectors. But the tables turned quickly when the Cerebriurges decided to change tactics and send their own brainwashed battle brothers against the Tin Fists. The sight of their close friends and comrades marching against them with glassy, lifeless eyes, gaping mouths and slobber dripping from their tongues had a devastating effect on the Giants of Cornubia. Seizing this advantage, the Myrmidons managed to breach the enemy fortifications. The Tin Fists' Techmarines were already finishing the device that would neutralise the infrasound transmissions when they were approached from behind and mercilessly slaughtered by the Myrmidons. 

Seeing the battle as hopelessly lost, Tremayne ordered a hasty evacuation from the planet. And although their retreat was fairly successful, the Tin Fists never managed to recover from the crippling losses they sustained on Kuzbass. It wasn't long before their Chapter was disbanded altogether by the Imperial authorities.