Come see number 27 on the list of Black Libary’s Top 30 Space Marines ever: Iron Father Anatolus Gdolkin of the Iron Hands chapter of Space Marines.
Via our friends at Lexicanum
Anatolus Gdolkin held the rank of Iron Father in the Chapter of the Iron Hands. He has been in service for two hundred years at the time of the Thirteenth Black Crusade. Born on Medusa and raised in a mining-clan, he had left his home to become an Iron Hand at the age of sixteen. Given a bolter to aid him in his journey, he traveled across the harsh terrain of Medusa. Thirteen youths had set off at the beginning, but at the end only Gdolkin survived the elements and predators of the land. At the final stage, he fought and bested a combat servitor despite losing his left hand to it. After collapsing from sheer exhaustion from his quest, he was found by members of the Iron Hand and was taken back to their base on Medusa. He was indoctrinated as an aspirant of the Iron Hands.
Gdolkin was sent to lead a force of Iron Hands to aid the Adeptus Mechanicus on Fornax Orbis Majoris. Gdolkin was unhappy with this because he wanted to assist in the defence of his homeworld in the Thirteenth Black Crusade, but the chapter was bound by ancient oaths with the Adeptus Mechanicus. After fighting with Chaos forces on the planets of Fornax Orbis Majoris and Herod, Gdolkin was unable to stop the Enemy from destroying mysterious artifacts from each of the planets. It transpired that the destruction of the artifacts as well another third one destroyed before led to the creation of the warp storm Araken. Gdolkin discovered there was a lost Adeptus Mechanicus outpost world hidden within the warp storm, the planet Crucible. Gdolkin believed that on this planet lied the Primarch Ferrus Manus in stasis sleep awaiting to be awaken by his sons to fight in the Thirteenth Black Crusade. This was due to old texts he had studied about the history of the Iron Hands and the references of Crucible housing the ‘Tomb of the Ironclad’.
Gdolkin arrived on Crucible only to discover that the Tomb of the Ironclad actually housed a mighty legion of Titans and not the Primarch. He realized Chaos forces wanted to acquire these Titans to tip the balance in the Thirteenth Black Crusade in favor to the Despoiler. The Adeptus Mechanicus contingent accompanying the Iron Hands later found out, after many years hidden in the Warp, the Titans were corrupted by Chaos. When the forces of Chaos arrived to claim the Titans, the Iron Hands fought desperately to stop them. The battle climaxed in Gdolkin slaying the Chaos champion and the Iron Hands setting off a chain reaction in the reactors of the Titans to destroy the whole legion. The Iron Hands managed to teleport themselves off the planet and escape the planet which was destroyed by the mass destruction of the Titans.
After the warp storm Araken incident, Venerable Dreadnought Talumech fell in the defense of Medusa and his dreadnought armor was gifted to Gdolkin after his victory against the Chaos enemy on Crucible. Gdolkin’s body was too broken to serve him after the Crucible mission and he has now fulfilled his dream and ambition to serve the Emperor in eternal service in the immortal body of a Dreadnought war machine. Like all Iron Hands, Gdolkin disdained all forms of weakness, particularly that of his own human flesh. Gdolkin gave more respect to servitor-drones than he did to failed aspirants such as the chapter thralls.
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