Ferric Praetorians

''"We live for the Emperor! We die for the Primarch!" ''- Battle Cry of the Ferric Praetorians

The Ferric Praetorians are a somewhat eccentric Successor Chapter of the Iron Hands Space Marine Legion. They are notable for their near heretical worship of their slain Primarch and their preference for ballistic calculations over close combat.

Drop Site Massacre and Formation
The whole of the Ferric Praetorians gene-seed comes from Marines of the Avernii Clan who served as their Primarch's Morlock bodyguards. It was their failing that allowed their beloved Primarch, Ferrus Manus, to be slain by the traitorous Fulgrim. The Morlocks suffered horrific casualties and were slain almost to a man. A handful were able to retreat towards friendly lines well an even smaller number were pulled from the blood soaked killing fields by desperate Thunder Hawk transports. The forbears of the Ferric Praetorians were among the latter.

With their Primarch dead and their Legion in ruin despair took hold of the surviving members of the Morlocks. Eventually a consensus was reached and it was decided that they would reequip themselves and attack the traitor forces until they all joined their Primarch in death.

With a single ship and fewer than fifty Marines they traveled towards the remains of the great battles their Legions had once fought. Everything from Terminator armor to bolters and tanks were taken from orbiting graveyards and dead cities alike. By the time they returned to Imperial space their numbers had been reduced to below thirty and the Battle of Terra was in full swing.

Before entering the battle the former Morlocks drank of Ferrus Manus' blood, the vita having been cloned from that which had been sprayed upon his sons' armor when he was slain. Emboldened and seeking an honorable death they emptied their strike cruiser's weapons into an Emperor's Children battleship Lord of Virtue before ramming it. They fought their way through the enemy vessel with brutal efficiency. Their once preferred art of melee combat had been completely replaced with cold and precise ranged fire. The lessons learned on Istvaan V completely reforged their way of waging war.

Against all odds not a single Marine was slain. Many were wounded, but they fought on until in the closing days of the Heresy. At it's climax they stormed the bridge and slew it's commanding Praetor. With the ship under their control they led a purge of it's surviving cultists and traitor crew.

They took their near impossible victory to be a sign from their Primarch and that through his blood he had empowered them to seek vengeance on behalf of their fallen brothers.

When they at last reunited with their brothers fighting nearly erupted between the two groups with the Morlocks insisting that the blood of Ferrus Manus was divine and the majority of the Iron Hands believing they had become insane cannibals.

After the Scouring ended and the Codex Astartes was brought into force it was agreed by both sides that it would be best for the former Morlocks to leave the Iron Hands and form their own chapter. As such the Lord of Virtue was stripped and recommissioned as Lance of Iron and the Ferric Praetorians Chapter brought into being.

Post Heresy
The Ferric Praetorians continued to receive further ire from their brother's for refusing to hand over any of the materials they had reclaimed during the Heresy. The Praetorians believed that every possible weapon was needed for their forthcoming crusade and found the new isolationist attitude of the Iron Hands to be in direct opposition to the will of their Primarch.

A dozen more ships of various sizes were retrieved from the battle grounds of the Heresy and in turn formed the basis for their new Crusader fleet. Rather than recruit from any one world the Praetorians took their initiates from the children of their educated and indoctrinated ships' crews.

They taught that because the warp and Daemons existed Ferrus' spirit must still be alive and watching over and protecting his sons. In the future, they said, their beloved Primarch would return and raise all those served him from the dead. As such the Lance of Iron has thousands of sealed stasis pods deep in it's hold containing the bodies of nearly every Praetorian that has fallen since the creation of their Chapter.

M31 - M40
The Praetorians spent several hundred years fighting minor skirmishs and building their numbers. Once they had nearly reached a full complement of one thousand Marines they began their Crusade. Despite orders to the contrary from Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman they dove head first into the Eye of Terror. For centuries there was no word from them and it was assumed they had been destroyed or corrupted. However exactly a thousand years after their Crusade began they returned. Although short a few ships their fleet was intact and their colors flew unfurled.

Several Inquisitorial forces and Space Marine chapters quickly moved to intercepted them as they passed through the Cadian gate. Although it almost came to violence when the Inquisition discovered their habit of drinking and coating their weapons and armor with their Primarch's blood the Chapter Master of the Blades Sanguine Blood Angels successor Chapter managed to convince the Inquisitor that such things should be over looked considering the success and clear loyalties of the Praetorians.

They would continue their Crusades for the next ten millennia and become renowned for their abilities in naval and ranged combat.

13th Black Crusade and Indomitus Crusade
The Ferric Praetorians were deployed in the Eastern Fringe during the beginning of the 13th Black Crusade and the fall of Cadia and as such could not offer support. By the time the returned Roboute Guilliman declared the Indomitus Crusade the Praetorians were in a position to aid and joined in the fighting.

Characteristics
The Ferric Praetorians are a zealous Chapter and see death as a boon to be earned. Where other chapters would make a courageous, but pointless last stand the Praetorians make a calculated retreat. It was, after all, their failure to tactically retreat that cost them the life of their Primarch.

The Praetorians disdain melee combat seeing it as a reckless and emotional affair, both attributes which cost them severely ten thousand years ago.

They share in the same obsession for cybernetics that their brothers do. Once inducted into the formal ranks of the Chapter a new Marine ritually places both of his hands over a large chalice of their Primarch's blood and has them removed with a power blade. They then drink the mixture of blood and have their hands replaced with grey augmentics having fully entered into communion with their Primarch.

Their personal power armor is generally of older marks and is maintained by the Chapter's numerous tech-Marines. The deep red of it's paint represents the blood of Ferrus Manus and the grey is a symbolic removal of the silver they used to wear.

Organization
The Praetorians have little regard for the Codex Astartes and have maintained their forces in a similar way to the Legions of old. They maintain a far above average number of relic weapons, tanks, aircraft, and Dreadnoughts. Assault companies do not exist and the only Marines regularly brought into melee are the relic Terminators who serve as an alpha strike force before retreating back into their own lines.

The Praetorians are suspected of have many more Marines than is allowed by the Codex Astartes, but as a fleet based Chapter it remains difficult for Imperial forces to prove. So long as they continue to tithe their gene-seed and fight for the Emperor they are left alone and considered little more then a group of insane, but loyal, fanatics.