The Iron Blood was the Gloriana-class flagship of Perturabo, Lord of Iron, and it bore all the austere, unglamorous strength that defined its master and his Legion. There was little ornament upon its hull, only layer upon layer of armour, redundant systems, and the calculated efficiency of a mind that thought in terms of siege-lines and attrition. It was the flagship of the Iron Warriors, and it was built to endure.
Perturabo was the Imperium's supreme master of the siege, and his ship was a fortress that happened to fly. Where the flagships of his brothers gleamed with pride, the Iron Blood was clad in grim iron, its defences arranged with the same ruthless logic Perturabo brought to the breaching of any wall. To assault it was to assault a citadel that fought back.
When the Iron Warriors turned against the Emperor, the Iron Blood led them through the campaigns of the Heresy with the same bitter thoroughness they brought to every battle. It hung in orbit above besieged worlds while its master ground their defences to dust, patient and unyielding.
The Iron Blood was the throne from which Perturabo waged his cold war of grudges and calculation, an armoured heart for a Legion that trusted nothing but stone, steel, and the certainty of their own resentment.
The fleet continues
