By the time of Horus Heresy the Great Crusade was already at its final legs, Horus was even preparing his sons for the life after the crusade. But Battle of Fang was 1 or 2 millenia after Horus heresy so the cure is way way in the future. When faced with getting annahilated like their 2 unmentioned brothers, I don't think Russ would simply lie down and die. Sanguinius was terrified when Horus found out about his legion's curse, because he was afraid if Emperor heard the mutation, he would kill them like other 2 legions.
It was in the book " Fear to Tread", in the first chapter (or the first flashback chapter) if I am not wrong. He mentions he doesn't want his legion to share the fate of his 2 brothers. It doesn't say if Emperor killed them because they had mutations, so my wording there might have been misleading.
Agreed, it is one of those things that makes sense to yourself until someone else points out it doesn't. Although in First Heretic some hints were thrown, that Emperor had a hand in the fate of the 2. But again with everything regarding the 2 legions no informaiton is definative.
For all we knew, the Emperor found out the 2 brothers were touching eachother in weird places , and just got rid of that
Oh good lord. Right, if you're basing the legion purely upon a Nick Kyme story I can understand why you'd have such a terrible impression of them. To be blunt, Kyme kind of has a reverse Matt Ward attitude when it comes to the Iron Hands. He'll go out of his way to write them into certain books and series, introduce them when they're not needed, but largely so he can character assassinate them or destroy their identity however he can. Honestly, every time they turn up in one of his Horus Heresy books with the Salamanders they're practically the black man in a horror film. You're just waiting until Kyme kills them off or wrecks them in some way. He's kind of infamous for basically spearheading the idea that everything the chapter does is a complete betrayal of their primarch, and that their very use of bionics is utterly wrong. To give a quick example of his other stories of this era, one re-wrote their entire "Flesh is Weak" battle cry to be a mistake, bending over backwards to make sure the Salamanders understood Ferrus better than his own legion ever could. In another, he depicted Guilliman and Dorn as heroes for withholding Ferrus' remains from his legion, then using it to blackmail them into following the Codex Astartes. No offense but you'd honestly do better to look at just about any other author when it comes to them for inspiration.
Just don't go looking in the Clan Raukaan supplement, that's also pretty bad. Fulgrim actually does a pretty good job of showing the Iron Hands. They ultimately lose at the Dropsite Massacre(Because they have to.) but they are a pretty functional and efficient unit with none of that stupidly leaving perfectly good people to die bullshit, with a even headed Primarch who doesn't make a severe mistake until he's betrayed by his brother(Even then it's arguable that's a mistake, he dies but his Legion comes out of the whole thing better then the Salamanders and Raven Guard who run face first into the four other traitor legions, the former even eating a tactical nuke as a result. where the Iron Hands push ahead to face the Emperors Children.) which is....kind of depressing to think about, when you consider that a book where they are the antagonists shows them in a better light then their own supplement.
don't forget this happened after HH. much of the technology in the time of the great crusade was lost because of it (including the ability to create geen seeds) and the greatest mind in the 31th millennium, the emperor himself was injured and was now in the golden throne. and the Space Wolves were altering their geen seed under those circumstances if the great crusade was successful the emperor would still be alive and the technology to create and alter the geen seeds right after the great crusade in little time would be more then possible
Novella "Feat of Iron" (Anthology "The Primarchs"): The Iron Hands drag the Imperial Army through a desert-war against the Eldar, not caring how many die from the heat and the dehydration. Instead of allowing them a rest, the Iron Hands push ever harder onwards to crush the Eldar.
