114th Grand Battalion
The 114th Grand Battalion was an Iron Warriors Grand Battalion known to have been active during the Horus Heresy.[1b]
Contents
History
The Grand Battalion took part in the Siege of Epsilon-Stranivar IX alongside Death Guard and Alpha Legion forces. Unlike the Loyalist who fought in an unified way, each of the three traitor forces waged a separate campaign, making little attempt to share resources or intelligence, and placing the blame for their failures on each other. In particular, the Iron Warriors contingent, the 114th Grand Battalion, was ill-used by its allies. Time and time again the Alpha Legion companies allowed them to attack unsupported into the guns of the dug-in Loyalists while using the confusion to mount their own spoiling attacks on high prioriry targets, claiming all the glory and ignoring the cost in lives paid by Perturabo's sons. During the climactic battle of the campaign, at the Siege of Vharna where the Traitor host broke on the Loyalists' lines, the 114th Grand Battalion was effectively abandoned by both the Alpha Legion and the Death Guard. Left to act as a sacrificial rearguard, of the 6,ooo Iron Warriors who took part in the battle, less than a third survived and the highest ranked officer who remained to them, Narik Dreygur of the Apolakron, swore that one day his fallen brothers would be avenged.[1a]
Later on, the Grand Battalion alongside the 78th Chapter of the Alpha Legion were mobelized in order to capture the Forge World of Mezoa. As the battle for Mezoa began, Dreygur's forces were dispatched by Autilon Skorr as the core of the second wave. The Iron Warriors managed to procure a landing zone, but the Grand Battalion and their auxiliaries met the onrushing Loyalist counter-attack, quickly converting their drop ships into makeshift bastions. The battlefield lit by erupting magma-geysers and blanketed by Mezoa's ever-present ash clouds, the Iron Warriors fought with a ferocity that equalled any of Angron's berserker Legionaries, demanding a steep price in lives for each of them who fell. In the climactic battle of the first day, Narik Dreygur fought and slew Valtus Moran, a champion of the Imperial Fists, who had reached Mezoa, the battle-automata under his command tearing apart his corpse as the Loyalist forces quit the field.[1b]
The remains of the Iron Warriors 114th Grand Battalion were committed en masse to a frontal assault on the defences of Tertial-05, one of the key defence bastions on the outskirts of the main forge spire. The attack went ahead despite the protests of Consul Dreygur of the Iron Warriors, who only agreed to lead his men at the assurance of Autilon Skorr that the Alpha Legion would support the assault. The Iron Warriors struck the defences of Tertial-05 like a hammer blow, waves of heavy infantry advancing under heavy fire unflinchingly despite the casualties inflicted upon them. The assault quickly drew in defending units from across the battlezone, as Loyalist commanders reinforced the weakening defences. As the fighting ground on, the Iron Warriors were eventually brought to a halt, bogged down amongst the outer defences of Tertial-05 and surrounded by Loyalist units in a murderous crossfire. Dreygur ordered his warriors to set up makeshift defences and dig in in the Loyalist positions they had captured, his automata cohorts moving to counter attack wherever the Loyalists threatened to overwhelm the thinning Iron Warriors lines. The Iron Warriors sent encoded vox-signals to the Alpha Legion, calling on them to begin the second wave of the assault, but no answer was ever received by the embattled Iron Warriors who could not survive without support.[1b]
After suffering grievous losses, the Iron Warriors were approached by the figure of none other than Cassian Dracos who instead of attacking their makeshift fortifications decided to parley with their commander, Nârik Dreygur. After a few moments passed between the two commanders, Nârik Dreygur proclaimed to his men that they would take revenge against the Alpha Legion for their treacherous actions. With the enemy forces concentrated at the centre of the Mezoan forge spires, the remains of the 114th Grand Battalion joined the loyalist forces in the final battle to oust the traitors from Mezoa. Nârik Dreygur, who initially fought for the traitors, became a close confidant of Dracos and served as his right hand throughout the wars of the Horus Heresy.[1b]
Known campaigns
- 006-008.M31 — Siege of Epsilon-Stranivar IX[1a]
- 008.M31 — Siege of Mezoa[1b]
Known elements
Known Formations
Known members
- Nârik Dreygur - Consul Praevian.[1b]
- Ancient Orgol — Deredeo Dreadnought.[1c]
- Ker Thelon - Legionary.[1d]
