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Battle Cannon - Battle Cannon: The Battle Cannon is the standard ballistic weapon used as the primary turret armament of the Leman Russ Battle Tank and the Rogal Dorn Battle Tank. It is a formidable weapon whose shells can deal significant damage from a long distance against both vehicle and infantry targets.The Battle Cannon devastates an area and may be fired from behind cover though the weapon requires a line of sight. The sheer power of this weapon makes it an excellent addition to the Astra Militarum's arsenal.The Battle Cannon is a fairly conventional 120 millimetre smoothbore cannon. The standard munition is an Armour-Piercing High Explosive (APHE) round capable of penetrating all but the heaviest armour with ease but also containing a substantial impact-fused explosive charge with a large blast radius. This makes the Battle Cannon an effective dual-use armament capable of taking out light and medium vehicles as well as groups of heavy infantry.
Battle Cannon - Sources: Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 48Warhammer 40,000: Wargear (4th Edition), pg. 48Imperial Armour: Imperial Vehicles for Warhammer 40,000, pp. 6-16Warhammer Community - The Rogal Dorn Battle Tank Crushes Heretics With the Power of the PraetorianGames Workshop - Rogal Dorn Battle Tank
Battle Fly - Battle Fly: A Battle Fly is a large Daemonic Beast in the service of Nurgle, the Chaos God of disease and despair, which resembles a giant corpse fly.These creatures are created from favoured Beasts of Nurgle much like their counterparts the Rot Flies, which are used as aerial steeds by the Lesser Daemons of the Lord of Decay known as Plague Drones.Battle Flies were first encountered by the Loyalist Space Marine Legions of the Imperium of Man in the early years of the 31st Millennium during the dark days of the Horus Heresy.
Battle for Black Reach - Battle for Black Reach: The Battle for Black Reach was an Imperial military campaign undertaken in 855.M41 by the Ultramarines 2nd Company under the command of Captain Cato Sicarius against the WAAAGH! Zanzag unleashed by a horde of Goff Clan Orks under the control of the Greenskin Warboss Zanzag.This campaign was fought upon the Hive World of Black Reach located in the system of the same name in the Imperium's Ultima Segmentum. This campaign is considered a textbook example of how the Adeptus Astartes serve as a potent force multiplier whose planetary assault tactics and skill at mobile combat can turn the tide of battle against a much more numerous foe.
Battle for Black Reach - Opening of the Campaign: In 855.M41, the Hive World of Black Reach, and to a lesser extent, its neighbouring planets of Jede'ogh and Voldermach in the Black Reach System, were overcome by a surging Ork WAAAGH! primarily composed of the warriors of the Goff Clan under the control of the Greenskin Warlord Zanzag. Black Reach, though ostensibly valueless, was of great tactical import to the Ultramarines Chapter's Realm of Ultramar. The planet is surrounded by a series of asteroid belts so dense that should Black Reach and its vast array of orbital debris ever become infested by xenos, it would take centuries to exterminate them all.Furthermore, the magnetic elements of the Black Reach asteroid belt made it extremely difficult to contact Black Reach from out-system, let alone augur the whereabouts of individual armies and their war leaders within the system. An alien invasion of the Imperium could be mustered there, right under the nose of Ultramar, and remain undetected until it was time to strike against the Ultramarines' home region.All three planets in the Black Reach System were overcome by a surging Ork WAAAGH! which burst into realspace through Jorgund's Eye, a wormhole thought to be connected to the Aeldari Webway in the Vidar Sector. How the primitive Ork fleet pulled off such a feat of interstellar bravado is unknown, but the Greenskin forces descended upon the Black Reach System so quickly that such disturbing questions were put aside by the Ultramarines high command on Macragge in favour of readying for the coming battle.When the fleet's long-range Auspex arrays confirmed their Astropaths' claims that the system of Black Reach was under attack, the warriors of Ultramar were left with no choice. Without any real knowledge of the size or disposition of the enemy forces, the Adeptus Astartes would have to engage the invaders upon Black Reach itself and, bereft of any real support, destroy every last one of them before the system became choked with Greenskin spores. Due to multiple encroaching Tyranid Hive Fleets penetrating the eastern sector of the Ultramarran pocket empire, only the Ultramarines 2nd Company could be spared to stem the Ork menace.Captain Cato Sicarius, an inspiring leader and exceptional warrior whose star was in the ascendant in his Chapter, was tasked with taking a detachment of Ultramarines planetside, ascertaining the disposition of the Ork forces and reinforcing the embattled Imperial Guard garrison native to Black Reach. The Captain also had a mission of his own, to bring back the head of the Ork war leader behind the invading horde. Sicarius vowed that his men were equal to the task, provided they were afforded full planetstrike support from the Imperial Navy. Sicarius' plan was for the fleet to unleash a punishing orbital bombardment of Melta and Plasma warheads prior to the Ultramarines' main attack, whilst heading planetside within his personal Thunderhawk gunship, the Gladius.Sicarius would seek out the sections of the battezones where the Ork forces still maintained a disciplined formation even in the terrifying midst of the bombardment, reasoning that this would be the location of the Ork Warboss. He would then land and personally execute the Warboss at the heart of this new invasion. It was a plan so audacious that even Sicarius' sergeants had their doubts as to its feasability, but the Ultramarines were ever courageous, some might even say foolhardy, in the face of extreme danger. Battle-hymns were sung, weapons were primed, and before long the strike was launched.
Battle for Black Reach - Eye of the Storm: Upon the embattled world of Black Reach, a punishing orbital bombardment from the Strike Cruiser Valin's Revenge hammered into the ranks of the Greenskin invaders. Seeking to confirm the ever-resourceful Warboss Zanzag's death by killing him personally outside the walls of Ghospora Hive, Captain Sicarius lead a Thunderhawk assault upon the position of the Ork leader. Sicarius had under his command a a full Tactical Squad, the legendary Terminators of Squad Helios under the command of Brother Agnathio, a mighty force indeed.Sicarius prayed it would be force enough. The ochre sands outside Ghospora Hive were soon turned green with the sick, alien blood of the Ork. Explosive warheads detonated in the midst of the horde as the Orks ran for cover, but a tight group of Greenskins still advanced upon the Imperial Guard bastions as if the bombardment were nothing more than light rain. Sicarius' tactical acumen quickly located Warboss Zanzag and his retinue; and the captain issued orders to land the Thunderhawk and attack. As the surrounding areas was consumed by the wrath of the orbital bombardments, Sicarius and Zanzag met blade to blade in the eye of the storm.Forced to withdraw, Zanzag escaped the battle at the walls of Gospora Hive, and both factions recovered swiftly from their earlier encounter. With Sicarius and the bulk of his strike force elsewhere, the Orks renewed their attack on Ghospora Hive. However, Sicarius had foreseen this possibility and took the appropriate precautions, deploying several Thunderfire Cannons in defensive positions around the beleagured hive city. These formidable weapons mowed down the incoming Orks in droves.As Sicarius continued his search for the Ork war leader, he received a distress call from the desperate Black Reach Planetary Defence Forces (PDF) defending Sulphora Hive. Torn between his sworn oath to seek out and kill Zanzag and to defend the Imperial citizens of the hive city, Sicarius temporarily abandoned his hunt for Zanzag to help bolster the beleaguered PDF garrison. Unable to trace Zanzag's retreat, Sicarius instead tasked Scout Sergeant Torias Telion and two squads of Scout Marines with finding the Warboss' hidden lair.Telion did this by waiting patiently for Zanzag's Lootas to appear and, when they surfaced, placing a tracer beacon upon their ramshackle submersible before it returned to base. Armed with the coordinates of the Ork base, the Ultramarines readied their forces and prepared to mount a full-scale raid upon Zanzag's position. The first the Orks knew of the Space Marine attack was when the Thunderhawk Gladius burst through the waterfall at the mouth of Zanzag's lair, guns blazing. The havoc that ensued was utter chaos and it took a good while before Zanzag could restore order.
Battle for Black Reach - The Beast at Bay: Having inflicted terrible casualties upon Zanzag's forces, Captain Sicarius would settle for nothing less than killing Zanzag once and for all. As they fought their way clear of Zanzag's underground hideout, the Ultramarines found that Zanzag had fled through the tunnels at the rear of the cavern. They plunged into the tunnels in hot pursuit. Though they were initially separated, the Ultramarines commander and his squad caught up with the Terminators of Squad Helios, and Sicarius strode confidently forward into the vanguard of his force.As they exited the minehead, Sicarius saw Zanzag and his retinue loping towards his strike force's position. Just as the Warboss tasted the sweet air of freedom, the remaining Ultramarines emerged from the minehead and brought him to bay. There could only be one victor, as the maddened Orks prepared to sell their lives dearly. After hours of bloody fighting, Zanzag was finally killed. However, the cost had been high for the 2nd Company: a dozen Space Marines plus one Terminator were lost in the fighting.Following the defeat of the Ork Warboss, Sicarius led a series of lightning strike that broke the back of the Ork WAAAGH!, effectively eliminating the Greenskins' continued ability to wage war. Inevitably, there was much infighting amongst the Orks' ranks following Zanzag's death as other Nobz sought to assume control of the WAAAGH! but ultimately, order could not be maintained within the Orks' ranks following the death of such a powerful Warboss.The Orks were left effectively leaderless and highly disorganised. Having achieved their primary objective, Captain Sicarius and his Ultramarines departed Black Reach, leaving the local Imperial Guard and Planetary Defence Force to secure the planet and to hunt down and mop up any remaining pockets of Greenskins.
Battle for Grand Al'gul - Battle for Grand Al'gul: Battle for Grand Al'gulFire AngelsSpace MarineChapterChaos Space MarineThe SanctifiedCemetery WorldsInquisitionChaosDuring this campaign against the Chaos Space Marines and their daemonic minions, the Fire Angels blocked their efforts to desecrate the resting places of the honoured Imperial dead and work hideous Chaos rituals in the ruins. These were fraught and brutal combats where not only the lives but the souls of the Space Marines were at stake.The Fire Angels Astartes succeeded in forcing their enemies to fight them in a series of assaults and counter-assaults, with the Fire Angels maintaining disciplined order and using the cover provided by the marble forests of headstones and maze of burial vaults to their advantage. The Sanctified responded with all the foul sorceries at their command, liquefying stone with their dark magicks and summoning roiling, chattering swarms of mindless daemonic beasts to harrow those that would dare to oppose them.The Fire Angels paid a heavy price in the short but savage combat before victory was achieved, including the martyrdom of their Chapter Master Haran Stark in battle against a frost-rimed Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, known as a Lord of Change, while defending the sacred Narthex of Penitents, and the self-immolation of their Chief Librarian Mathias Dee in order to avoid Warp-possession.Eventually, their forces spent, The Sanctified were driven from the sacred sites and routed from the system; the planned apotheosis of The Sanctified's Arch-Sorcerer Ezrath Cull to daemonhood thwarted. Following the defeat of the corrupted Heretic Astartes, Cull, a once-favoured Champion of Chaos, was assassinated by his own apprentices in a brutal power struggle to control the shattered remains of his decimated warband as they fled Grand Al'gul.
Battle for the Abyss - Battle for the Abyss: Battle for the Abyss is the eighth volume in the Horus Heresy series of novels.
Battle for the Abyss - Synopsis: Now that news of Horus's treachery is in the open, a time of testing has come. Some Legions have already declared their allegiance to the Warmaster, while the loyalty of others lies firmly with the Emperor. As Horus deploys his forces, a small band of loyal Space Marines from disparate Legions learn that a massive enemy armada is heading to Ultramar, home of the Ultramarines, headed by the most destructive starship ever constructed. Unless they can intercept the fleet, and destroy the mighty battleship the Furious Abyss, the Ultramarines may suffer a blow from which they will never recover.
Battle of Biel-Tan - Battle of Biel-Tan: The Battle of Biel-Tan was a conflict fought between the Aeldari of Craftworld Biel-Tan, the Ynnari and the forces of Chaos in the closing days of the 41st Millennium.It resulted in the first major victory of the Ynnari faction and the birth of the Avatar of the Aeldari god of the dead Ynnead, known as the Yncarne.As the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler raged across the rest of the galaxy, a new sect of Aeldari known as the Ynnari emerged.Led by Yvraine, the Daughter of Shade and prophet of the Aeldari god Ynnead, they had first emerged in the Dark City of Commorragh during the event known as the Night of Revelations.The Ynnari sought to resurrect Ynnead without having to sacrifice the entirety of the Aeldari species as most legends had claimed would be required for the god of the dead's birth.The Ruinous Powers were alarmed by this development and sought to foil the rebirth of Ynnead at all costs. The key to the Ynnari's plans was the recovery of the mythic Aeldari artefacts called the Croneswords, several of which were located on Craftworld Biel-Tan. Thus both the Ynnari and Chaos forces sought entry into the craftworld to claim these relics.A Webway portal onto Biel-tan, known as the Obsidian Gate, was discovered by the forces of Chaos on the Maiden World of Ursulia, and it was from there that they made their move.A massive Warp Storm ravaged the Maiden World, decimating its population of Exodites and transforming it into a Daemon World before the Herald of Slaanesh called The Masque of Slaanesh and the Bloodthirster Skarbrand led an invasion of Slaaneshi and Khornate daemons.Skarbrand cared little for his Slaaneshi allies and initially tried to slay the Masque, but she was able to convince the Bloodthirster to agree to a temporary alliance.Biel-Tan, unaware of the larger machinations of the Chaos forces, nonetheless sent a sizable expedition to Ursulia in order to defend what they believed to be one of the precious Maiden Worlds of the Aeldari.The counterattack was led by Biel-Tan's Autarch Meliniel and a massive battle erupted on Ursulia's surface. At the battle's height, the Webway portal that led to Biel-Tan was smashed open by Skarbrand's axe, allowing the Masque to pass through to reach the world-ship beyond.Descending from the Webway portal at the stern of Biel-Tan to drift down like a pearl diver heading for the sea bed, the Masque made it to the surface of the craftworld.The quiet Chaos infiltration ended when Skarbrand and his Khornate legions smashed through Biel-Tan's Webway portal and a vicious combat erupted aboard the craftworld.The Avatar of Biel-Tan was awoken and clashed with Skarbrand personally while the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar and a force of Howling Banshees Aspect Warriors attempted to subdue the Masque before she could summon ever more daemons. Despite Jain-Zar besting the Masque in combat, the daemon proved able to enter Biel-Tan's Infinity Circuit in an attempt to destroy the craftworld's very soul.From there she polluted the craftworld's Infinity Circuit with Slaaneshi daemons in such number that the innate defences of that wraithbone megastructure were hard-pressed to cope. Slowly, the Biel-Tan Infinity Circuit became corrupted as it was possessed by the very daemonic forces it was devised to help the Asuryani within it escape.Even as the Biel-Tani fought with every ounce of their skill to quarantine and cleanse their home of the daemon infestation, the Ynnari passed through the Webway to join forces with them, led by Yvraine and Eldrad Ulthran.Consisting primarily of Harlequins and Drukhari who had accepted the worship of Ynnead, the Ynnari were able to turn the tide of the battle. Skarbrand and his hordes were ultimately destroyed or forced back into the Webway.Yvraine, under attack from a horde of Daemonettes, breathed out a cold grey mist that dissolved them amongst a horrible keening scream.The parlay between Ynnari and Biel-Tani was strained, due to the the hated Drukhari among them. The presence of Jain Zar, who spoke out on Yvraine's behalf, bought enough time for the high priestess of Ynnead to perform a ritual of her own.Yvraine plunged her hand into the psychoplastic wraithbone skeleton of the Biel-Tan world-ship as if it offered no more resistance than water. When she drew it back out, she held high the second of the Croneswords that had been buried in the craftworld's spine for many Terran millennia.The Biel-Tani Infinity Circuit, already wracked with pain, began to shatter, and the backlash of deathly psychic energies formed a vortex of terrifying power.From that vortex emerged the Yncarne, the Avatar of the Aeldari god of the dead. Its coalescence has a terrible price, however -- though Biel-Tan's Infinity Circuit was cleansed of daemons by Ynnead's power, the craftworld began to physically break apart.Worse still, roiling storms of psychic energy boiled through the void, joining with the empyrric dissonance of several other cataclysmic events such as the destruction of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade to form a large section of the Great Rift.Biel-Tan was saved though it would need solar decades to recover, but the galaxy itself had paid the price.The Seers of Craftworld Ulthwé then opened a portal from their Dome of Crystal Seers to its equivalent upon Biel-Tan, destroying the precious and irreplaceable souls of several deceased Farseers within the Ulthwé Infinity Circuit to do so.The sacrifice was deemed necessary to ensure the Ynnari were rescued from damaged Biel-Tan before the strife they had sown among its populace saw the craftworld consumed in the fires of civil war between those who accepted Ynnead's message and those enraged by the damage the Ynnari had done to their home.The Ynnari continued on to the next stage of their quest to recover the Croneswords and unite the Aeldari species against its Archenemy.
Battle of Biel-Tan - Prelude to Conflict: Solar months before Yvraine was chosen as the high priestess of Ynnead during the Night of Revelations in Commorragh, secreted in vaults of black wraithbone within Craftworld Ulthwé, Eldrad Ulthran had foreseen much of that which was coming to pass.Following the ripples in the fabric of the future that he himself had caused upon the crystal moon of Coheria during the Battle of Port Demesnus, he saw a new force rising, embodied in one called the Daughter of Shades. She alone held the key to Ynnead's ascension, and the cosmic upheaval Eldrad and Kysaduras the Anchorite had long predicted.Pursuing Yvraine's thread of fate in his meditations, Eldrad deemed that there was no haven more likely to take this living phenomenon into their heartlands than Biel-Tan. Even then, Eldrad had seen the Reborn gladiatrix and the ruling castes of the craftworld bound together on an altogether deeper and more spiritual level.Another nexus point of destiny approached, the skein of fate knotted and tense around it. As he refined his divinations, Eldrad had seen the rune of the Night Maiden circled by the Fall from Grace, both in turn orbiting the heraldic rune of Biel-Tan itself. Ominously, the stylised heart that sat within the craftworld's iconic rune had smouldered and turned black. Such was the price of progress.The High Farseer of Ulthwé had sent a psychic signal across the vastness of the Webway, in doing so despatching the only agents he could truly trust to work to a greater goal. So it was the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow had made haste through the Webway to Biel-Tan, their intent to pave the way for Yvraine's arrival.Ildraesci Dreamspear performed an elaborate bow, his arms wide. The Autarch Meliniel replied with a stylised salute. Both gestures were remarkably tense for warriors of such grace. With the Biel-Tani Autarch were Dire Avengers, their weapons held lightly at their sides. Alongside Dreamspear, a dozen Harlequins stood in exaggerated postures of relaxation."Unusual, to arrive unheralded in such a fashion," said Meliniel casually. "Though it is perhaps the way of the Midnight Sorrow to embody the void-zephyr, taking or leaving as they please.""Uncommon, for an armed escort to welcome ambassadors," said Dreamspear. "In these dark days, we all walk shadowed paths.""As you say," nodded the Autarch. "Let us ensure they do not lead us astray. An act of provocation, such as Cegorach's theft of fair Isha's jewels, could be considered an act of open contempt.""Provocation? Some say Cegorach's act was one of desperation, committed in pursuance of a greater victory," said Dreamspear."Of course. Though in times of war, lethal mistakes are made.""Let us hope they do not lead to unnecessary tragedy in the final act. Only a fool is deaf to the words of a prophet.""These words you speak of," said the Autarch, turning to pinch the stem of a crystal rose and move it to catch the light, "do they concern the God of the Dead, perchance? Lathriel believes so.""Indirectly, they do. They concern all of the Aeldari, past, present and future. But you, most of all," he said. "Your people, and you.""And so your troupe, known defilers of the Dome of Crystal Seers, choose to breach a latter-portal rather than obeying the unwritten codes." The Autarch shifted, his body language speaking volumes."We had little choice. Ichor still dries on our blades. The children of She Who Thirsts already know of the Daughter of Shades.""So you risk doom to force our hand," said the Autarch. "You endanger only yourselves. They cannot penetrate the wards.""No, no," laughed the Harlequin hollowly, his mask becoming the coal-eyed visage of Khaine's Avatar as he made the sign of the black key. "They seek not to attack Biel-Tan directly, but via a threshold world. From there, a new tapestry of fate will unfold.""And have your divinations told you which world the she-daemons intend to breach?" said the Autarch.By way of answer, the Harlequin reached out and opened the palm of his hand. The Autarch looked down at the rune held there for a long moment before gesturing to his Exarch. "Gather the Swordwind. Inform Lathriel. We strike at dawn." He turned on his heel and left the audience chamber without a sound.Though the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow had lately garnered a reputation as self-centred thieves and bearers of ill-tidings, the message they brought to Biel-Tan was of such dire import it could not be ignored.The Autarch Meliniel consulted with the craftworld's High Farseer and her sister, Lathriel, even as the craftworld's Aspect Warrior warhost -- known as the Swordwind -- was mobilised for war.Lathriel's own runic divinations, when carefully interpreted with the Harlequins' message in mind, spoke of a baleful truth. Much like Eldrad, she saw a fork in the destiny of her people, one route leading to blazing fire -- the sign of the Rhana Dandra, the End of Days -- whilst the other led to a darkened veil and the sound of a mourning bell. The implications were staggering.Perhaps the whispered notion of Ynnead's ascension could stave off the Eldar's destruction for a time, and maybe even calm the Warp Storms ravaging the galaxy. The newcomer the Harlequins spoke of was central to this concept, bound tightly to the runes of the Great Enemy and Biel-Tan itself. It was likely the agents of Slaanesh too were aware of the importance of the interloper, this Daughter of Shades, and intended to seize her themselves.Until now, the runes of warding that protected the craftworld had made the idea of a daemonic incursion the stuff of nightmares, not reality. With Empyrean tempests raging across the Segmentum, however, there was a chance of a Webway breach.Should a host of Warp-spawn set foot upon the craftworld, the sheer magnitude of the disaster that would follow did not bear thinking about. A full daemonic invasion could see the craftworld lying in ashes, never to recover.The Masque of Slaanesh was well aware of this opportunity. She had learned of a route of ingress to Biel-Tan -- a long-sealed Webway tunnel that led from an abandoned extremity of the craftworld to the gates of the Exodite Maiden World Ursulia.
Battle of Biel-Tan - Fall of Ursulia: Ursulia, named after a famously beautiful Eldar maiden of myth, was a small but verdant world, famous in Eldar society for its majestic thornwoods and towering arbor cities. It had been fashioned as a true paradise by the Aeldari, but it had now been twisted beyond recognition.To descend through the silver cloud banks of Ursulia's skies was to feel a great sadness of the soul. Roiling Warp Storms had lashed its surface in the last few Terran months, appearing from nowhere like a seismic eruption upon an unseen fault line. Ursulia's glorious waterfalls had been turned to swathes of crimson glass, and its rolling dales reduced to skull-strewn wastelands.Amongst the planet's valleys was a moss-strewn henge known as the Obsidian Gate. This former Webway route was permanently closed many thousands of Terran years ago as a precautionary measure against invasion, for it led straight to Biel-Tan.The decision to seal it had since been vindicated a dozen times over, for gentle Ursulia had known many wars over the millennia. Yet it was theoretically possible that the route could be re-opened by arcane force. It was a possibility the Biel-Tani would do anything to avoid.For the warriors of Biel-Tan, to make planetfall upon Ursulia was much like looking upon the face of a once-beautiful dilettante badly burned by some horrific twist of fate. The craftworlders did not take the loss well.Expressions had hardened to stony scowls under the hoods of those Rangers searching the twisted forests for Exodite survivors. They had found only death. In the space of time it had taken for Biel-Tan's outriders to arrive at Ursulia, the planet had already suffered beyond comprehension.Under detailed instructions from Autarch Meliniel, the warriors of the Swordwind were en route to aerial ambush points in their Falcon and Wave Serpent skimmers. Underneath their helms, the faces of the Aspect Warriors remained cold and impassive.They had donned their war masks before leaving the craftworld, embodying the aspects of the War God Khaine's inhumanly focussed killers. Only once the battle was over would they assume their fully emotive personas once more, allowing themselves to grieve.Rain hammered down as the Swordwind's transports shot through the skies. The convoy of vehicles was all but invisible in their cloudstrike formation; this was common practice amongst the Biel-Tani, for they believe the blade unseen strikes truest of all.Around the grav-tanks, a tempest was brewing, the disturbing keening of the wind hinting at some unnatural energy beneath it. The tang of ozone hung heavy in the air, a sense of doom gathering like the closeness before a thunderstorm.The Swordwind of Biel-Tan had sent a thousand fighters to Ursulia, yet in the heart of every Eldar warrior there was a sense they had already lost. They had watched over this hidden world for millennia, and in doing so had repelled Ork invasions, Hrud infestations, Imperial conquests and Drukhari raids.Against the raw power and sudden onset of a Chaos tempest, however, there was little they could do. Warp Storm Balamet had ﬂared into baleful existence so swiftly that even the Eldar could not counter it. What was intended as a mission of rescue had become one of vengeance -- and of preventing the same fate befalling Biel-Tan, should the unthinkable happen.The Masque of Slaanesh was poised to achieve just that. Though it had cost her much to attain it, she had masterminded a full-scale daemonic invasion of Ursulia. Her intent was not to conquer the planet, but to use it as a staging post. Should she muster force enough to break through the Obsidian Gate, she would reach Biel-Tan before Yvraine, not only claiming a rich bounty of Eldar souls but also capturing or devouring the single greatest threat to Slaanesh's continued existence.The daemon herald had taken great pains to arrange the conquest to come, and ensure that it had a semblance of focus -- no mean feat, considering the rival forces involved. The Masque had marshalled not only her own great promenade of excess -- a gathering of Daemonettes, Seekers, Seeker charioteers and half-mortal Hellﬂayers -- but also seduced a grand battalion of Khornate daemons into fighting for the same cause.The rivalries between the Chaos Gods had raged across reality and the Warp for time immemorial. Though the brothers in darkness were each locked in their Great Game, and though they sought the same destructive ends more often than not, they were such bitter rivals that they held an open contempt for each other.This ire often boiled over into outright war. Slaanesh, the Master of Excess, was considered a self-indulgent, preening impostor by the Blood God Khorne. Conversely, Slaanesh saw the Blood God as an unimaginative boor with all the grace of a starving hound. Their daemon minions harboured much the same attitudes, for in essence a daemon is but a fragment of its Chaos God patron's psyche made manifest.The Masque of Slaanesh was nothing if not persuasive, however, and her repertoire went far beyond the pleasures of the ﬂesh. She knew well how to exploit the compulsions of others, for she was obsession given form.The strongest souls were often the easiest to fool -- hubris and overconfidence was the downfall of champions and wise men alike. The daemon lords of Khorne were prideful indeed. It was that ﬂaw that the Masque sought to play upon, thereby binding them to her cause.With the powers of Chaos ascendant in the galaxy and Warp tempests raging across the breadth of Mankind's realm as the 13th Black Crusade began, daemons found moving from the Empyrean to the Warp Storm-wracked domains of realspace easier than ever -- especially for one as adroit as the Masque.Still, there was no way she had the strength to break open the psychic Runes of Warding that sealed the portal to Biel-Tan. She knew of but one daemon strong enough to break the arcane defences -- Skarbrand the Exiled One, the most terrible Bloodthirster of them all. Even then his power might not suffice.Skarbrand was a daemon whose arrogance was so immense that he sought to slay his own parent deity in single combat. He was hurled across reality as a result, broken in body and mind. All that was left of Skarbrand was rage, raw and all-consuming.Seeing in the infamous daemon an instrument of pure brute force, the Masque had sought the Bloodthirster out, dancing her way through the Realm of Chaos to speak to him face to disfigured face.At first, Skarbrand sought to cut the Masque to pieces with his twin axes, Slaughter and Carnage. However, the Daemonette swayed and dodged from the Bloodthirster's blows with such sublime passivity that Skarbrand stopped viewing her as a martial opponent and instead saw her as more of an inconvenience, just as a rampaging stallion might see a gadﬂy upon its ﬂank.When he had all but lost interest, the Masque told her foe of her own exile, for she had been banished by her god just as Skarbrand had been banished by his. This won the raging daemon's ear, for a time.She spoke to him of a great wager, a contest between the daemon hosts of Slaanesh and those of Khorne. The competition would be held upon the Maiden World of Ursulia -- whosoever claimed the most Eldar lives in the name of their patron before nightfall would be proved the most powerful in the service of their respective gods.The daemon herald's words were expertly delivered. Her beguilements were clever enough to stoke Skarbrand's eternal rage, but not to trigger a killing spree -- not yet, at least. The Greater Daemon spat, snarled and roared with contempt, for the disciples of Khorne do not idly ignore a challenge to their strength.With her greater plans set in motion, the Masque smiled from ear to ear, waltzing away to amass her followers even as the mighty Bloodthirster stomped off on his own warpath.Within a Terran week of that incongruous pact, the daemon hosts of the Masque and Skarbrand trod the peaty loam of Ursulia's twisted forests. Their Warp-born followers numbered in the hundreds of thousands, for word of the wager had brought a great many daemonic champions together, each determined to outclass their god's rivals with impressive acts of slaughter.As the daemons burst from within the eye of Ursulia's fiercest psychic storm, the invasion had begun in earnest. The Exodites defending their world had used every weapon, trick and trap at their disposal, unleashing hordes of roaring megasaurs and mounting mass cavalry charges that saw whole households of Dragon Knights charge into echelons of daemonic foot soldiers.Theirs was a noble act of defiance, but ultimately it was doomed. The invading daemonic host outnumbered them twice over, and with the Masque and Skarbrand at the fore, the Exodite defenders were overwhelmed in a matter of Terran days.When the Swordwind of Biel-Tan arrived, the Exodites had been all but eradicated. Daemons already cavorted and guzzled hot blood amongst the twisted ruins, many counting the dead or arguing amongst themselves as to which of their number was the deadliest.The Masque was still on the hunt, coordinating her plans with a choreographer's artistry. Her Seeker parties had located the Obsidian Gate on a ridge overlooking the Greenlush Valley not a moment too soon. She knew the Eldar well, and suspected that not only would the Exodites' craftworld cousins attack soon, but that in their haste to defend the portal, they would give her the chance she needed to break through it.It has long been said by the gossips of the Slaaneshi courts that Skarbrand's bitterness and frustration at his fall from grace lent him strength.When the Biel-Tani sought to bring him down, his mounting anger -- bolstered by the eldritch power of the Warp Storm that still lashed Ursulia -- should give him might enough to break through any barrier.This evil contest of daemons was about to escalate massively, for the slaughter was by no means at an end. By the time the storm abated, the death toll on both sides would have reached truly shocking heights."Why did you not foresee this sister?" hissed Meliniel, jabbing a slender finger at the ghostly apparition in his Wave Serpent. "Did the runes not show it?""They show a great many futures," replied the Seer, Lathriel, over the psychic link. "Sometimes the futures change so fast even we Farseers cannot read them all.""I know your fallibility well. In our youth, it never carried quite so high a cost.""None of us saw this, brother. A psychic event of galactic magnitude has taken place. It bears down on us even now. The skein of fate is unravelling and reknitting so fast that none of us can predict it, not even the High Farseer of Ulthwé.""You speak of the Whispering God, sister, as do our uninvited guests. Salvation perhaps, but it comes too late. Too late for the people of Ursulia, and too late for us.""Though it withers my heart to admit it, yes. Biel-Tan may yet pay in blood too."The Wave Serpent shot over a vast jade lake. On the far-gazing hologram at the front of the passenger bay, Meliniel saw that the edges of the lake were tinged with red. "Now," he said, his voice distant, "we will punish those who dare to risk our wrath."The Autarch's tone was as clipped as an Exarch's battle stanzas. "The time is here. Engines of Vaul to the northwest of the portal, eight leagues close. Windriders mirror northeast. Falcons form the tip of the pyramid. Aspect Warriors form the coils of the serpent. Enact.""We must turn Chaos upon itself, Meliniel," said Lathriel. "We cannot win this alone."
Battle of Biel-Tan - Daemonstorm: Howling, crying, and screaming they came, blades gripped tight and snarling smiles displaying pointed teeth. The daemon hordes of Slaanesh and Khorne scoured the twisted forests of Ursulia for more heads to claim.A cruel frenzy was upon them, their jibes and imprecations cast aside in their desperate need to prove their supremacy. With the psychic tempest raging all around, the daemons paid little heed to the craftworld forces descending through the clouds.Only the Masque watched the heavens from the corner of her coal-black eyes. She knew full well that Biel-Tan could not help but take the bait she had laid so carefully before them. They would attack with pitiless fury, as they always did -- and in doing so, would not drive off their foes, but trigger a devastating counterattack.Slaanesh revels in every kind of excess, especially that which involves the spilling of vital ﬂuids; Khorne, for his part, is empowered just as much by the slaughter of his own armies as he is those of his enemies. The same could be said of his minions. Blood was blood, no matter its provenance.The Eldar attack was sudden and devastatingly effective. At a single word from the Autarch Meliniel, the Swordwind dived from the skies, pulse lasers and plasma weapons ﬂickering in such profusion it seemed a hail of killing light slanted down from the heavens alongside the squalls of ectoplasmic liquid.Explosions blossomed through the canopies of the forest, blasting grotesque anatomies high into the air. Each fusillade was aimed not at the larger throngs of Warp creatures darting through the twisted foliage, but the largest and most elaborately ornamented of their number.The Swordwind had long practiced the strategy of assassination as a way to even the odds for their small but elite forces. Despite the ethereal nature of the daemon hosts, the same strategy worked on the immortal legions of the Great Enemy. Within Terran seconds, the Eldar had slain dozens of the heralds that had given a semblance of leadership to the daemon hordes.It was then that the Eldar launched a multi-faceted assault, devised by Autarch Meliniel in the space of a few intense minutes once he had ascertained the disposition of the daemonic hordes. Marshalling his troops into several warhosts, his layered attack saw the cloud-borne Eldar encircle the daemon war bands closest to the Obsidian Gate.First to press home the assault were the Edruth Enfaolchú, the Flight of Falcons. Tight squadrons of grav-tanks veered through the splashing rain to engage the Soul Grinders smashing aside corrupted foliage in their haste to close with their attackers.The Daemon Engines spat a hideous amount of firepower into the skies, their Harvester Cannons sending dirty chain explosions into the oncoming warhost's path, but their fire was largely ineffective. The sheer speed of the surprise attack had robbed their fire of any real accuracy.At the fore of the airborne assault came the Crimson Death. Two squadrons of Nightshade Interceptors shone like wedges of polished ruby in the sky, weaving to and fro with the grace of raptors on the hunt. One of the elegant aircraft was torn from the sky by a lucky shot, its wreckage spiralling knives of psychoplastic that stabbed into the jungle below. The others evaded the fusillades with barrel rolls and steep dives.At the last moment, the scarlet craft crisscrossed one another in a series of interlocking attack runs, their Bright Lances stabbing pinpoint death into the ranks of the enraged Soul Grinders. The attack was intended to blind the giant Daemon Engines, just as Khaine's hurled blades took the eyes from the White Wyrm, Oghanothir, in the cycles of Eldar myth.In practice, their laser beams were so vicious they took the heads from most of the iron-skinned monstrosities they struck. The clanking, piston-legged advance of the war engines slowly came to a halt as their daemonic animas were violently unbound from their ﬂeshmetal bodies and ripped away into the eldritch storm. The Crimson Death was already gone, the clouds spiralling in their wake.Seeing their anti-air firepower snatched away, the daemons of the greater host gave a roar of frustration so loud it caused the foliage all about to shake and shiver. Their bellows and shrieks were answered by the sizzling hisses of laser beams from the gravtanks that descended by the dozen in the Crimson Death's wake.With their holo-fields blending them into the cloud banks behind and a canopy of weird organic foliage covering much of the sky, Meliniel's Cloudstrike Squadrons were all but invisible. Only when the killing began did the daemons realise the doom that was upon them.Fire Prisms sent lancing beams of killing energy into daemonic riders that were crashing through the forest atop brass-bound Juggernauts. The laser shots, concentrated by exotic crystal focusing arrays, blasted great craters in the enemy host, their edges steaming with boiling daemonic remains.The brazen corpse-stuff left over from each strike bubbled away into little more than the stench of brimstone and hot brass.Roaring down from the skies came Skarbrand himself, plummeting from the Warp into reality in a trailing ball of ﬂame. The carnage had drawn him as surely as a sky-shark is drawn to magic in the air. With a thunderous boom he smashed through a squadron of grav-tanks, sending their mangled hulls spinning, and landed hard in the valley.Elder trees were blasted to splinters at the impact, and scarlet fires burned in his wake. Skarbrand stormed out of his impact crater, axes swinging to lay low the Lesser Daemons scrambling out of the way. The giant daemon made a choice target for the gunners of the Eldar grav-tanks. Many a blinding beam lanced into Skarbrand, but they just made him all the angrier.As the grav-tanks hit from above, the Windrider Jetbikes of the Biel-Tan host were riding into the wide mouth of the Greenlush Valley. Taking aim at the greater host, they levelled such a fierce hurricane of razor-edged shuriken that they sliced down plant and daemon both. The war for Ursulia was raging once more.
Battle of Biel-Tan - The Tempest of Blades: The Windrider host, well used to striking their enemies at speed, made ready to peel off and attack further down the line. Against a mortal enemy, they would no doubt have proven swift enough. The daemons of Slaanesh, however, were no normal foes.Out from the massed ranks of Daemonettes darted a ﬂock of Seekers, long-limbed, bipedal Steeds of Slaanesh with bejewelled Daemonette riders atop them. Shrilling and hooting, the beasts ran at impossible speed alongside the racing Jetbikes before they could pull away, lashing them with long, ropy tongues and pulling the Eldar from their saddles.Close behind were Seeker Chariots festooned with spinning, scything blades. Those Windriders still lying dazed on the forest ﬂoor were unceremoniously slashed to ribbons, their violated body parts strewn across the loam.Monitoring the counterattack from the passenger bay of his grav-craft, Autarch Meliniel ordered his elite troops into the fray. The warhost known as the Coiled Serpent, translated in the Eldar tongue as Thiellan Aq Saim, drove forward into the enemy ﬂank.Its massed Wave Serpents disgorged hundreds of Aspect Warriors. Every colour and shape of the god Khaine's war aspect was suddenly on the attack, their armour vibrant and strong amongst the sickly hues of Ursulia's corrupted forests.First came the Swooping Hawks, darting from blue-grey clouds so similar in hue to their armour the winged warriors seemed no more than ﬂickers at the limit of vision. From their thigh holsters they dispensed small but powerful grenades, falling like acorns from a gale-tossed oak. They landed within the mass of Khornate daemons at the edge of the cliff.Where they struck home, spheres of crackling white plasma appeared, each string of explosions hurling mutilated, red-skinned bodies into one another before they discorporated entirely. Lasblaster fire stabbed down to reap the tally anew. By the time the Khornate daemon cannons had ground their way up a nearby ridge to retaliate, the Swooping Hawks were gone.In their place came Warp Spiders, materialising behind the cannon batteries without a sound. They fired tangles of monofilament wire so sharp they cut through daemon ﬂesh and hell-forged brass alike. Then, in a crackle of unlight, the Warp Spiders too were gone.Down in the valley, the Slaaneshi counterattack was fierce. A crowd of lithe Daemonettes charged the Aspect Warrior host, hissing with glee at the prospect of a rich banquet of souls. The first wave pressed towards the rematerialised Warp Spiders that had taken such a toll on the Khornate daemons on the ridge, the Slaaneshi host screaming loudly to draw the focus of their enemies.The Aspect Warriors opened fire once more, a fusillade of monofilament wire engulfing the fiends to carve them to disturbingly bloodless chunks. But the distraction had played its part. A second war band of she-daemons, having slunk close and climbed into a copse of spiked trees, dropped shrieking on the Warp Spiders from above.Several of the fearless Eldar were ripped apart, their severed limbs cast with abandon into the air. The rest simply vanished, triggering their Warp jump generators to reappear with a ﬂicker of light some hundred Terran feet distant.The celebrating Daemonettes were left confused and wrong-footed. They hissed blame at one another as they cast about for more victims, only to be greeted by a devastating fusillade from the Dark Reapers stationed within the walkway of an arboreal palace.Reaper Missiles detonated in the daemons' midst, a chain of explosions so fierce it blew apart the iron-hard fungi of the valley even as it tore through dozens of the Daemonettes taking shelter amongst them. The thumping boom had barely faded from the valley walls before another Slaaneshi attack raced in -- a wave of daemonic cavalry with daemon chariots racing close behind.Another squadron of Wave Serpents closed in as Meliniel reacted to this new assault by directing the mounted counterattack known as Fedhein Saim Zarakhain. Whilst the daemon cavalry sprinted on, a shrine of Dire Avengers disembarked with smooth swiftness to unleash a storm of shuriken at the Seekers racing past.Monomolecular discs slashed out by the thousand, even as the enemy cavaliers rode the lithe Steeds of Slaanesh close. Not even the preternaturally nimble daemons of the Dark Prince of Chaos could avoid a salvo delivered with such expertise. The daemons were sliced to ribbons much as their charioteer sisters had cut apart the Windrider Guardians mere moments before, ﬂesh ﬂying from their bodies.Whilst the Dire Avengers were reloading, those Seekers that made it through the hurricane of firepower darted in to lash and slice, laying high-crested warriors low. The shrine's Exarch stepped in to duel the riders at close quarters, taking the snake-fast blows of their opponents with shimmering force shields before ending the threat with thrusts of their swords and Power Spears. The chariots in the Seekers' wakeburst through the ectoplasmic mist that was all that remained of their vanguard, blades whickering and riders hunkered down so as to avoid another shuriken assault.A trio of Wave Serpents glided smoothly from a natural boulevard, spinning to reveal their hull doors. The Fire Dragons inside stepped out and formed a line, forcing their zen-like focus into lethal accuracy as the daemon machines careened in close. Their Exarch spoke a single word. A moment later, chariots and riders were vaporised in hissing streams of ichor, molten metal spattering and hissing from the bright orange plates of the Fire Dragons.One lone Slaaneshi daemon made it past the newly formed battle line to engage the Dark Reapers in the arbor behind, leaping from the burning remains of her chariot to swing from a low bough and vault into the midst of the heavy weapon team. With their cumbersome missile launchers and reinforced armour, the Dark Reapers were easy prey for the slashing, spinning alluress. Claws darting, she claimed the lives of four Aspect Warriors before a heavy kick sent her tumbling into the fires below.At the Obsidian Gate on the shoulders of the valley, the daemons of Khorne had run down and decapitated every Eldar Ranger sent to keep them from the greater fight. First one, then three, then eight Bloodletter war bands charged down the forested slope towards the battle. It was an eventuality Autarch Meliniel had foreseen, and his warriors fell back with ﬂuid grace to the transports waiting nearby. Watching from the valley's edge, the Masque hissed in frustration. She shrieked a hunt-and-retrieve order to her chariots -- for her plan to work, the Eldar had to contest the henge itself.Nearby, Skarbrand was hacking his way through a war band of Daemonettes in a ball of ﬂame and white-hot anger. He loped past the Obsidian Gate to look with longing at the explosive carnage in the valley. The Masque had lured him there by insisting that the fighting would be fiercest outside the portal, and the brute had taken the bait. Now that ploy might come to naught, for the Eldar were falling back. Something had to be done, or the Bloodthirster was likely to dive into the fight half a Terran mile from the location where the Masque needed him most.In less than a solar minute, the Masque's chosen charioteers had returned, the mangled bodies of three fallen Warlocks laid across their yokes. The vehicles slewed to a halt as the Masque leapt nimbly atop the mossy capstone of the Obsidian Gate, and the riders tossed the psykers' corpses up to their mistress as if they were little more than straw-stuffed effgies. The Masque gave a piercing cry of delight, plucking the glowing Spirit Stones from the breastplate of each psyker's armour and sliding them down her throat one after another as a greedy human gourmet might guzzle a dish of oysters.The herald's grandstanding did not go unnoticed. Three squadrons of speeding grav-tanks changed direction, spearing in with their guns spitting death. The Masque danced and dodged, cackling with glee as the skimmers came in low.Skarbrand leapt high, his axes arcing in a tremendous overhead blow. They smashed into the first grav-tank so hard it came apart in a double fireball of burning wreckage that smashed into the cliff beyond. Aspect Warriors tumbled out, stunned and broken, to land on the alien foliage below. The daemons of Slaanesh and Khorne alike fell upon them, thrashing and slicing, desperate to claim their heads. Nearby, Jetbike-riding Shining Spears charged in, opened fire and withdrew, expertly drawing the daemons away with bait-and-switch manoeuvres.Autarch Meliniel had watched the violation of his kin's spirits upon the Obsidian Gate with utmost horror. With the thunder of Khaine's fury in his blood, he issued another series of curt orders to his Exarchs. His wise and careful plan to draw the daemons into his guns piecemeal was all but abandoned. Now his strategy became one of all-out assault.In his haste to make the Daemonette herald pay for her heinous acts, the Autarch ordered his own squadron to close upon the Obsidian Gate. The leaders of the enemy armies had gathered there; not only the Slaaneshi daemon, but a heavily scarred Bloodthirster that glowed with ruddy light every time the storm's screaming winds billowed past it. With enough concentration of force, Meliniel reasoned, the Swordwind could deal a death blow to the enemy's cohesionand take revenge for those souls torn away from the salvation of the Infinity Circuit. The daemon hordes would be far easier to stymie without direction -- and perhaps even turn upon themselves, as his sister Lathriel had intimated they would.The Autarch commanded his Sunstorm Squadrons to combine their fire, highlighting Skarbrand as their target whilst designating the Masque as the priority kill for his remaining Outcast snipers. Ranger fire spat from the high hills in response, each needle-thin burst of laser fire met with puffs of ichor from the dancing Daemonette's ﬂesh. Glutted with Eldar soulstuff after her dark feast, however, the Masque was proving resilient.The Fire Prisms coming around for another attack run along the valley glowed bright, the complex laser cannons of the rear grav-tanks channelling their fire into the giant crystals of the skimmers at the fore. Beams of coherent directed energy blasted out; each was so thick it could have punched through a craftworld's wraithbone superstructure, yet they were delivered with pinpoint precision. Three, four, five of the macro-beams burned into Skarbrand, their energies so bright they hurt to behold even from several Terran leagues distant.The Bloodthirster paused in his slaughter of the nearby Aspect Warriors, gritting his fang-like teeth as more and more energy poured into him. Glowing like a red sun, Skarbrand roared. His skin sizzled away as light poured out from his ﬂesh. Every nearby daemon save the Masque had been burned away by the terrible firestorm, Bloodletters and Daemonettes alike blasted into nothingness.Skarbrand staggered away, but the pitiless laser barrage followed his every step. The Greater Daemon's rage grew incandescent, stoked to the heights of apoplexy by the unwelcome thought that he might be slain so early on in the bloodshed, with a meagre skull-tally of less than a hundred to his name. Incensed, he cast his monstrous gaze around for something to kill. All he could see was the Masque, laughing cruelly at him from atop the lintel of the Obsidian Gate.Skarbrand lashed out with all his strength, the Daemon Axes Slaughter and Carnage arcing towards the Masque. At the last moment she leapt in a backwards somersault, evading the blow. The axes smashed through the lintel of the Obsidian Gate with force enough to shatter it, runes and all, to red-hot cinders.In an instant, the long-sealed Webway portal was ripped wide, a swirling tunnel of amber light stretching impossibly into the cliff face. Into the portal dived the Masque, her Daemonette hosts pouring through the gate behind her in a river of milk white ﬂesh.Autarch Meliniel felt panic rise in his throat. His impassioned insistence that the daemons would not breach that ancient Webway gate now seemed the folly of a proud youth. Even as he watched, the daemon infection of Chaos bled into the Webway, no doubt already making speed for the very heart of Biel-Tan. He felt the mind's eye of his sister Lathriel play across his thoughts -- seizing the opportunity, he sent a pulse of alarm through the aether towards her. Biel-Tan was in dire peril. Its protectors must be readied, for within a matter of Terran hours, the craftworld would be invaded by its worst nemeses.Though the Masque had accomplished her goal, the battle for Ursulia raged on. The Aspect Warriors, under orders from their Autarch, concentrated their efforts on the Obsidian Gate -- the ruses they had used to draw the daemons away from that critical location were now abandoned, and now all they could do was limit the number of daemons that broke through into the Webway beyond.Again and again they launched their assaults upon Skarbrand, but the monstrous Bloodthirster only grew more invigorated as the fires of his anger were stoked ever higher. He ripped through battle lines of Dire Avengers, burned through shimmering webs of monoflament coil, and smashed grav-tanks left and right whenever they passed within reach of his cruel axes.Before long, though, it was not the Eldar that Skarbrand sought to slay, but the daemons of Slaanesh. He now realised that he had been tricked into acting as the Masque's pawn, and that she had no intention of comparing kill-tallies at the end of the day's slaughter. He plunged through the Obsidian Gate into the Webway beyond, intent on revenge.The sheer unbridled mayhem that Skarbrand left in his wake drew hundreds, then thousands of daemons towards the circle of standing stones. A horde of Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers charged up towards the Webway portal from the ground below, a trio of Greater Daemons storming in their midst. The steep slope gave no pause to creatures that had no notion of tiredness or exhaustion, and even though opportunistic attacks from Windriders, Aspect Warriors and grav-tanks hurled Daemons back down the cliff by the dozen, the Eldar were soon outnumbered five to one.With a heavy heart, Autarch Meliniel realised the battle could not be won without blunting the Swordwind for Terran decades to come. The Obsidian Gate was still in the hands of their enemies, and more and more Slaaneshi daemons were using the cover of the fresh Khornate assault as a chance to slip into the Webway unhindered.Such a tremendous inﬂux of daemons could not be allowed to pass through the Obsidian Gate, or the Masque's incursion would turn from a few hundred daemons to a mass invasion. There was only one course of action left. With a curt order, the Autarch commanded his Sunstorm Squadrons to concentrate their fire upon the Obsidian Gate itself; with its protective runes shattered by Skarbrand's mighty blow, it was vulnerable to conventional attack.One after another the macro-beams shot out. Daemons died by the score as the backwash of tremendous energies rushed outwards, the psychoreactive runes that had previously sealed the portal aglow once more as the stone burned from within. Then, with a titanic boom, the Obsidian Gate exploded.The Eldar were already withdrawing, running hard to their grav-tanks and escaping away into the skies. Meliniel had ordered an immediate retreat -- though the Swordwind valued the Exodite Maiden Worlds highly, the craftworld itself was in dire peril. Biel-Tan was running out of time.
Battle of Biel-Tan - The Coming of Elder Souls: Upon Craftworld Biel-Tan, the air thrummed with aggression. Every soul upon the continent-sized starship had a rising need to kill. The craftworld's Avatar of Khaine was stirring, and the Biel-Tani felt his awakening within their veins. Meliniel's message, delivered via the psychic link he shared with his Farseer sister Lathriel, had put into motion a chain of events that had galvanised the entire craftworld.Somewhere in the Webway that led from the craftworld was a host of Slaaneshi daemons. Biel-Tan could be mere moments from invasion, not only from the Great Enemy, but also the Blood God Khorne's minions, a baying host of killers hungry for war.Though there was only one swift pathway to Ursulia, dozens of small offshoots led from the mazes of the Webway to portals upon Biel-Tan. Should any one of these gates be destroyed or corrupted, it could buckle the fabric of the world-ship itself, damning the entire structure to a slow metaphysical death. Though it seemed drastic beyond measure, and though many expressed concerns, Lathriel and the Biel-Tani Seer Council reacted to Meliniel's warning by runically sealing every Webway gate upon the craftworld, save the giant portal that glowed in the darkness of space at the craftworld's stern.That vast arterial gateway, the vector through which Biel-Tan launched its mightiest invasions, was left under heavy guard; a full third of the craftworld's armada stood ready to destroy the gate, along with any daemonic force that used it as a route of ingress. Better to cauterise a gangrenous limb, said the Seers, than risk losing the body entire.When the Masque's attack came, it was far more insidious than a straightforward invasion. A band of Rangers in a sleek outrigger ship, sent through the Webway by Autarch Meliniel with orders to monitor the daemonic incursion's progress at a distance, ﬂickered into being through the stern portal and drifted down to the craftworld's docks. It made port through the irising roof of the gateway dome below.Unbeknownst to the Eldar, the Masque herself clung to the underside -- daemons need no air to breathe, nor do they feel the cold of the interstellar void, and with the Empyrean raging strong with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade nigh, she could exist in realspace for some time before being called back into the Warp. Once past the port's armed cordon, the daemonic herald dropped from the underside of the message-ship and drifted gracefully down like a pearl diver in search of undersea treasure.Before long, the Masque had found her way inside the craftworld. Any who set eyes upon her found their darkest obsessions consuming them. Like some baleful hypnotist she bound one warrior after another into her wake. As her dance went on, the troubled expressions of those in her thrall began to twitch, then to turn to rictuses of horrid glee.The Masque caressed them with her claws, crooning an infernal ritualistic summons. One by one the captured Eldar were possessed by the Daemonettes that answered the Masque's call through the Immaterium, ﬂesh transmuting, painfully, ecstatically, to become that of the daemon queen's own handmaidens.On the eighth shattering impact, the Ursulian Runegate of Biel-Tan gave way in a roaring backdraught of psychic flame. The explosion was so loud it shook Farseer Lathriel to her core. With a tremendous crash, a heavily scarred Bloodthirster leapt from the billowing blue fires and stamped down onto the craftworld's mosaic ﬂoor. Psychoplastic shattered for half a mile in every direction. Skarbrand the Exiled One had broken through, a hundred red-skinned daemons at his heels.Farseer Lathriel felt her blood grow hot, but forced her anger to subside under her practiced calm. ++Now++, she sent telepathically, and at her psychic signal six shrines of Aspect Warriors darted from concealed positions amongst a forest of tall pillars. The leading edge of the daemon host discorporated explosively as lasers, shuriken volleys and Melta beams blasted into it. The raging daemonic giant was struck a dozen times, but the impacts only seemed to make it grow larger. It waded into the Striking Scorpions that spat death from their Mandiblasters, its axes hewing them as if they were kindling.Chiming impacts rang out from behind Lathriel like the clanging of a bell. Lathriel turned to see Biel-Tan's Avatar running towards the daemonic monstrosity, cinders trailing in its wake. It hurled its spear-like Suin Daellae -- the Wailing Doom -- with killing force. Simultaneously, Lathriel psychokinetically sent a bolt of mind-killing force at the daemon. Her attack did little more than distract the beast; the Bloodthirster turned and roared, the psychic force of its anger and contempt knocking the Farseer from her feet.At that same moment, it was hit full in the chest by the Wailing Doom. Daemon ﬂesh sizzled as the Eldar relic weapon's tip sank deep. Any creature of ﬂesh and blood, no matter how monstrous, would have been slain in an instant, but the Bloodthirster kept fighting, axes hacking down the Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions fighting the daemon horde. The Avatar of Khaine ran in close, palming aside an axe blow to deliver a thunderous uppercut from its blood-drizzling gauntlet. The living statue then moved in close, ducked a wild axe swing and, grasping the embedded spear, hefted the Bloodthirster bodily from the craftworld's ﬂoor.The Greater Daemon's own weight drove it down the Suin Daellae’s haft, impaling it through. Still the Bloodthirster fought on, hacking at the Avatar's metallic body with its ﬂaming axes. Each blow caused a grievous wound, but it did not fall. Flames of pure rage roared around the duelling giants. The conﬂagration grew so fierce it consumed them completely. The Lesser Daemons rallying for a last stand around their leader were burned away to nothing, and those Aspect Warriors that did not scramble clear were turned to ashen corpses.Lathriel ran, faster than she had ever run before, into the fight. Fighting against the heat, she hurled three psychic runes of warding at the shattered gate to the daemon-haunted Webway beyond. The protective psychic symbols were pulled into place as if by hidden magnets, sealing the tunnel from further invasion. Before beginning the arduous and soul-draining work of sealing the gate in earnest, Lathriel glanced back, hoping against hope to see the Avatar standing triumphant. She saw only ﬂames, and a pool of molten metal.Elsewhere, slowly, but unstoppably, the Masque's enrapturing dance took her to the very heart of the craftworld. None were able to resist her lure, for all Eldar have within them a seed of the obsessive spirit that led to Slaanesh's birth so long ago. Unhindered, she reached the iron chamber where the Avatar slumbered when the craftworld was not at war -- the throne at its heart was empty, for the titanic living statue was elsewhere, already locked in battle with Skarbrand. The Masque chuckled to herself, skipped over to the great iron throne, and sat, legsfolded like those of a prim maiden, to summon more of her kind.A shrine of Howling Banshees came upon the parasitic impostor at the heart of the craftworld. Led by the Farseer H'daei after her rune-casting revealed the gruesome truth, the Aspect Warriors charged screaming into the open throne room, blades raised. The first few Howling Banshees to charge the Masque and her daemon cohort made the mistake of meeting her gaze -- and fell to her hypnotic swaying dance immediately, stumbling to their knees in supplication. H'daei found her protective Ghosthelm burning so hot with clashing psychic energies she was forced to take it off -- one glance from the Masque, and she too fell under the daemon's spell.The Avatar's chamber was suddenly split by a deafening shriek. It was not the mocking cry of a daemon, but a clear and piercing scream that grew to mind-numbing volume. A towering warrior charged into the fray, long-hafted blade whipping left and right to decapitate a Daemonette with every stride. The Masque, finding her spell ineffectual on the newcomer, jumped high with claws outstretched. Up came the polearm of the newcomer, fast as thought, impaling the daemon against the iron ceiling of the throne room.The Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees, Jain Zar, sent to intercept the Masque by her Harlequin allies, had come at the last.Her intervention was too late. By digging her rune-inscribed claws into the wraithbone roots of the Avatar's throne room, the Masque had already psychically breached the sanctity of Biel-Tan's Infinity Circuit, infecting it from within. Her Daemonette handmaidens had followed suit, leaving their physical forms behind to pass their psychic essences into the Infinity Circuit in such numbers its innate defences could not repel them. Biel-Tan had been taken to the brink of disaster.
Battle of Biel-Tan - A World-Ship Fractured: The most integral part of any Asuryani craftworld is its Infinity Circuit -- that wraithbone core that runs like a skeleton throughout the immense structure, forming a limbo-like haven for the souls of the craftworld's dead. This is usually protected by the teleporting, psycho-crystalline creatures known as Warp Spiders from whom the Aspect Warriors took their own name, yet the daemon infestation spread by the Masque was so severe even they could not hold it at bay.The craftworld groaned like the living thing that it was, a terrible screaming haunting the cusp of hearing as the Daemonette host devoured the spirits of Biel-Tan's ancient dead from within.As battles broke out between daemon invaders and Asuryani defenders, rivers of hot blood ran between the spires and colonnades of the world-ship's many domes. With Meliniel's forewarning and the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar leading the counterattack, the Daemons of Khorne and Slaanesh had been efficiently quarantined, then banished to the Warp with ruthless efficiency. There was no celebration, no voices raised in jubilation as each new section of the craftworld was declared clear. The world-ship had been infested, and the most dire consequences would likely follow.It was into this unfolding tragedy that Yvraine and her companions arrived. Led by the Solitaire from the Webway gate that Farseer Lathriel had begun to seal once more, they were held at spearpoint by an Aspect Shrine of Shining Spears before being led to the craftworld's Seer Council. The newcomers were Eldar, that much was obvious, but they had with them those who wore the armour of Commorragh, seat of the Craftworld Eldar's ancient foes. In the wake of a daemonic invasion, the Biel-Tani were loath to welcome more potential enemies into their domain.Only when a knot of Daemonettes sprinted from the shadows of a ruined theatre did the fates show their true hand. Lathriel's warriors scythed down the first wave of daemon invaders, but the Slaaneshi creatures were fast, and hell-bent on reaching Yvraine.Many Biel-Tani fell to slashing talons and gouging blades before the Daughter of Shades stretched out her arms, her body glowing with the power of souls from beyond. She gave a great sigh, grey mist pouring from her mouth to wind around every fiend in the great chamber. There came a horrible keening, as if a thousand ghosts gave voice to their anguish at once -- and when the mist had cleared, thedaemons were gone.The resultant parley was strained, but welcome on both sides. Lathriel dimly remembered watching Yvraine dance during her childhood; she was taken aback to recognise her after the passing of so many cycles. And yet, she was unsettling now -- not only in the strange company she kept, but in her eyes and manner of speech. There was no time to investigate further, however, for the craftworld was upon the brink of calamity.Under Lathriel's stewardship, Yvraine and her vanguard were hurried to the Dome of Seeing. They were to take part in an emergency council.The debate was already raging. With the daemons defeated, the Spiritseers were doing everything in their power to siphon untainted souls from the catastrophically-damaged Infinity Circuit and install them into wraith-constructs by way of salvation. But they were few, and the daemon intruders many. Even as they worked, the wraithbone skeleton of the craftworld was crumbling and turning to grey ash. If this hideous metaphysical transformation continued, the craftworld itself would slowly fall apart. Something had to bedone -- something drastic.When Yvraine spoke up unheralded, there was a great clamour amongst the great and the good of the craftworld. Who was she to return to Biel-Tan unannounced after forsaking their ways? Why did she bring the murderous warriors of the Dark City to their door, claiming to know the truth of their mutual destiny? The Autarchs had little time for Yvraine, no matter her pedigree.When Lathriel spoke in her defence, however, all ears turned to listen. Perhaps, said the Farseer, the returned wanderer was more than she seemed. She had banished the daemons of Slaanesh with the same ease that another Eldar might exhale a weary sigh. Perhaps she was the Opener of the Seventh Way, as spoken of in prophecy by Kysaduras the Anchorite -- nemesis of She Who Thirsts, who weaves the skeins at the dawn of the Rhana Dandra.The hush that fell over the assembled masses at Lathriel's words was intense. The atmosphere held in equal parts hatred, fear, confusion and hope. Only a few of those present dared to believe that perhaps their dying craftworld could travel that thin strand of fate that led to the true rebirth of the Eldar race.Then came Jain Zar, her blade still dripping with daemonic ichor. Armoured boots clacking on wraithbone, she strode to the centre of the dome, and held court in a voice both clear and true."This one speaks with many voices. She is our salvation. Listen well."
Battle of Biel-Tan - The Yncarne: Flanked by statues of the Eldar's mythological heroes and with the Visarch standing silently beside her, Yvraine spoke long and well to the assembled masses. At first her voice seemed that of a wise mother giving stern guidance. As her speech continued and her passion came through, her tone changed to that of a youth caught up in the first ﬂush of strength and determination.When challenged by a disbelieving elder, her voice changed once more, to the acid tones of a crone who had no time to suffer fools. Her presence was strong -- not in the way that Jain Zar's stoic warrior soul lit a fire in the soul of every Eldar who saw her, but in the manner of storms to come; cold, close, and with the promise of destruction on the horizon.There was only one way for the Eldar of Biel-Tan to survive the daemonic curse that the Masque had brought upon them. Be they living or dead, the Biel-Tani risked oblivion anew with every Terran hour that slid past. She was the emissary of a deity that had never truly been born, yet whose power eclipsed the stars. She could guide them to a new future if they would allow it. All those present had heard the name that fell from her lips, yet when she spoke it, every Eldar there felt a grave-cold claw of trepidation settle upon the heart.Ynnead, the god of the dead, had finally awakened.The susurrus of voices that swelled in response to Yvraine's unexpected declaration swiftly ebbed away as Jain Zar stepped forward, her imperious gaze sweeping around the assembly. Yvraine waited until even her most strident detractors had grown silent, then continued. She spoke of the nascent god's power, and of revelations to come.The accepted wisdom was that for Ynnead to manifest fully and defeat Slaanesh forever, every Eldar in the galaxy had to die, giving the composite god-spirit strength enough to prevail in the Warp. Many nodded in agreement; that was the myth, often recounted.Yet to wait for that final fate meant for the fires of the Eldar species to gutter and die out altogether. That could not be allowed to happen. Yvraine proposed another way -- the Seventh Path, which wound between the darkness and the light.Yvraine relayed the vision she had witnessed in the Crucibael of Commorragh, and the secret knowledge that had come with it. Ynnead's sentience would be focussed upon five enchanted bones, cast across the sovereign domain of the Eldar. These took the form of swords entrusted to the agents of the Eldar gods in aeons past. Legend had it they were carved by the Smith God Vaul, each fashioned from a finger of the Crone Goddess Morai-Heg's severed hand.Together, these blades had the power to awaken a god; if wielded in the right hands, they had dominion over life as well as death. At this, Yvraine raised Kha-vir, the Sword of Sorrows, by way of demonstration. Power shone from its elegant edge, both dark and light at the same time.There were four more such blades, said Yvraine, two of which were lost amongst the ruins of the Crone Worlds of the lost Aeldari Empire. Should all five be drawn and blooded together, Ynnead should have a strong enough psychic focus in realspace to awaken fully and manifest his potential as the downfall of Slaanesh.One of these so-called Croneswords, Asu-var, the Sword of Silent Screams, lay within the heart of Craftworld Biel-Tan itself. It was that blade which Yvraine intended to claim -- and in doing so, put the ailing craftworld out of its misery.This time the uproar that greeted Yvraine's proclamation was so clamourous that no word could be made out against another. The Exarch Taralath Shadowheart darted forward, his biting blade revving, only to be knocked from his feet by the ﬂat of Jain Zar's polearm. Others started forward, their faces masks of aggression and despair. Yvraine kept calm, but the Visarch moved to guard her, powered sword held in wordless challenge.The time for words was over. The emissary of Ynnead closed her eyes, channelled her inner light into the blood red gauntlet that formed her left hand, and plunged a fist deep into the infected wraithbone core of the craftworld.A breathless moment passed, and there was a thunderous boom as Yvraine suddenly pulled Asu-var from the wraithbone spine of Craftworld Biel-Tan. She drew it forth as if the iron-hard ground was no more solid than a pool of water. Dripping psychic by-product, the greatblade burned with such fell light it seared the eye to witness it.Yvraine screamed in a mixture of triumph and pain as incredible psychic energies seared through her. She did not let the blade fall, for to do so was to damn her race to a slow extinction. This was a key as much as a sword -- one of five such keys that unlocked the last true hope of the Eldar, hidden long ago by the prescient goddess Morai-Heg in case the doorway to death itself needed to be ﬂung wide at the end of days.Underfoot, the craftworld shook as if in the throes of an earthquake. High pillars split, cracked along their length, and toppled to crash amidst billowing clouds of dust into the forests below. A million departed souls cried out, released from their bondage in the Infinity Circuit, where the ravenous daemons of Slaanesh roamed on their gluttonous hunt. The seismic shivers of the world-ship intensified, becoming an eruption."Arise!" cried Yvraine. "Arise and live!"Something terrible burst forth from the shattered wraithbone of the world-ship. Swathed in ectoplasm, it was a towering monstrosity of twisted bone and shimmering souls, both terrible and beautiful all at once. The gathered Biel-Tani clutched at their eyes, their hearts, their ears.They staggered and fell, clinging to the rubble of their beloved home even as it turned black and broke apart before their eyes. Amongst them stood Yvraine, glowing bright as she rose up into the air with a cry of fierce joy. The apparition before her spoke a word of deafening silence, and the void itself shook in response.The Yncarne, godly avatar of Ynnead, last hope of the Eldar, had risen.
Battle of Biel-Tan - Bridge to Ulthwé: The cataclysm that Yvraine had brought unto Biel-Tan was not a sudden shattering, like that of broken crystal, but rather an eruption followed by a rippling spread, like that of a boulder dropped in a lake. By harnessing the death of the craftworld's Infinity Circuit, the newcomers had brought into being the Yncarne, Avatar of Ynnead.In doing so, Yvraine had signalled the awakening of the Whispering God, and opened a new path for the entire Eldar race. With so many departed souls concentrated in one place in realspace, and his chosen followers gathered as one, Ynnead had many of the focal points he needed to manifest his power.Yvraine had brought to Biel-Tan the consciousness that Eldrad Ulthran had failed to summon upon Coheria -- though at a high cost. For light years in every direction from the dying craftworld the Warp seethed, buckled and raged, a hundred psychic vortexes whirling through the stars at once.The Yncarne's creation was a violent birth, and it had spread disaster near and far. The wraithbone skeleton of Biel-Tan was already rotting as a result of the daemonic invasion; rocked to its foundations by Yvraine's retrieval of the hidden Cronesword, it was shaken apart. Whole sections of the craftworld withered, split and fell away from the central mass like petals falling from a frozen ﬂower. The craftworld, originally built from ancient Eldar starships to be an ark of salvation, shed its constituent parts to reveal a living mega-structure shuddering in seismic upheaval.The slow but disastrous fragmentation was not confined to the physical realm. With the Infinity Circuit suddenly ﬂooded with the psychic energy of death, the daemons that had invaded it were banished utterly, repelled from its reaches by the sheer trauma of the Yncarne's manifestation. The ancestral Eldar souls who had once dwelt in that timeless limbo found themselves stranded on the brink of the abyss, with eternal darkness on one side and the seething soul-hunger of Slaanesh on the other.The upheaval was so profound that many Eldar cast about for revenge. The potent emotions of the warlike Biel-Tani had always run hot, and initial shock soon became open hostility. To some, the cause of the craftworld's demise was ascribed to a Commorrite invasion. To others, the spectre that had appeared in their midst was tainted by the energies of Chaos, perhaps even a daemon of Slaanesh in a cruel disguise.Were it not for the power and morbid beauty of the dread being that hovered above her, Yvraine would likely have been slain a dozen times over. Her Commorrite vanguard found itself fighting for its life more than once, but once Yvraine had entrusted the Visarch with the Sword of Silent Screams, none stood against them for long. Pockets of violence broke out wherever confusion outweighed solidarity.The spectre of kin-strife was kept from consuming the Biel-Tani only by urgent psychic messages from their Farseers. The Seers worked harder than ever to save their home, and the spirits of their ancestors that dwelt within it. All the while, the void above resounded to distant laughter. The craftworld was infected; now the Biel-Tani fought for survival.At Lathriel's command, every Eldar on the Path of the Seer took Waystones from the Spectral Gardens and pressed them to stretches of naked wraithbone, beckoning the lost spirits of the dead into the safety of the psychoactive gems. Once the transfer was complete, the Seers handed them reverently to Jetbike-mounted couriers that bore them swiftly to Biel-Tan's ghost halls.There, the Spiritseers incorporated them into Ghost Warrior constructs in order to save them, for the wraithbone shells of the unliving warriors were separate from the infected material of the Infinity Circuit. The Eldar of that proud world-ship viewed the creation of such wraith warriors as a kind of necromancy, but they had little choice if they wanted to preserve the legacy of their ancestors.The mass installation of stranded spirits into bipedal shells was an act of soulcraft on a grand scale. Even as the craftworld broke apart, the ghost halls were emptied until thousands of wraith constructs stood upon Biel-Tan's cracking landscapes.A strange phenomenon occurred wherever Yvraine and her allies passed through the wreckage and ruin. Following the lead of their mistress, Bloodbrides and Incubi darted, leapt and vaulted to those sections of the Infinity Circuit that could not be reached by the Seers. They pressed empty Waystones to those areas where the will o'the wisp revealed ancient souls clustered within broken wraithbone. Even though they had not the psychic mastery of the Spiritseer, the lambent lights of departed spirits seemed to ﬂow out of the Infinity Circuit and pass straight into those Waystones.Some of the Biel-Tani that witnessed this act saw it as soul-theft, and drew their weapons to lay low the Drukhari warriors they saw as parasites in their midst. In every instance, a Harlequin interposed his blade, shaking his head solemnly by way of warning. These were the Ynnari, they said, the Reborn faithful of Ynnead -- Eldar so in tune with death that long-dead ancestors would join them willingly.Through it all, the Bonesingers of Biel-Tan practiced their uncanny art. Some resculpted the wraithbone of the shrine-craft and dome-ships that had split away from the craftworld. Others raised healing chansons and plainsongs that saw the ash-black skeleton of Biel-Tan slowly reform, a cadaverous shadow of its former incarnation, but a mighty world-ship nonetheless.It would take Terran decades, if not centuries, for the world-ship to be rebuilt. The craftworld's solar sails were eaten away, and at its rear, the Webway gate ﬂickered and pulsed as if in pain. Warp Storms raged in a vast corona around the craftworld as the psychic shock wave of the Yncarne's birth bled out into the wider universe.Yvraine felt uncertainty settle upon her for the first time in solar months, her absolute faith wavering. With the fabric of the material realm torn to shreds around the Ynnari, there would be no escape from the ailing craftworld, be it through realspace or the Labyrinthine Dimension.It was no agent of Biel-Tan that saved them from the doldrums of stasis, nor even that of Ynnead -- but those of Ulthwé, Craftworld of the Damned.The ripples of Ynnead's awakening spread through the cosmos. For those with the gift of the psychic witch sight, it was a discolouration of the sky that was impossible to ignore. Even the humblest soothsayers saw deathly omens. Across the galaxy, scattered bones fell in the shape of Ynnead's crosspiece-and-crucible rune, eyes glowed with white fire in prophetic dreams, and jagged crone's claws shimmered in bloody scrying bowls.For the expert psykers of the Eldar race, the effect was far starker. Many were seized with waking nightmares, crying out in fear and clutching their hearts as visions of a deathly revenant burned in their mind's eye. The Infinity Circuit of every craftworld besides Biel-Tan glowed white hot with ﬂaring anticipation, each world-ship lit brightly and given a burst of acceleration by this spiritual renaissance.The Eldar people looked to their Seers for explanation. Those who had mastered the psychic wave of fear and hope led their people in meditation on the nature of this twist in the skein of fate.Everywhere the Seers cast their minds, the tapestries of fate were unravelling and taking new shape. Every strand of causality led ultimately to the darkness of the Rhana Dandra, just as they had since the birth of the Great Enemy. But that darkness, it seemed, was far more distant than before.The members of the Seer Council of Craftworld Ulthwé were the most skilled of all their kind. They saw clearly the revelation that Yvraine had engineered upon Biel-Tan. The most senior of their number, Eldrad Ulthran, demanded that Yvraine and her Reborn kin be brought to Ulthwé as swiftly as possible. In public, the rest of the Seer Council agreed his reasoning was sound. In private, when the High Farseer was deep in his meditations, they made subtle inferences that Eldrad had overstepped his bounds, and their agendas were no longer the same.The elders of Ulthwé conducted a great runic ritual at Eldrad's behest, using the spiritual link between the crystal Seers that populated the great dome and those of Biel-Tan's recently devastated equivalent. The ritual was a gamble, despite the fact the hyperspatial link through the Warp was strong between the two craftworlds.Though the Warp Storms that raged near Ulthwé and Biel-Tan could theoretically be psychically channelled into a tunnel leading through the Warp from one craftworld to the other, the process might well consume the souls of the travellers that walked it -- and those that had conducted the ritual too.To use the crystal Seers as conduits for psychic energy instead of revering them as honoured ancestors was a gross breach of craftworld culture. It was considered even worse than taking a spirit into a Waystone and transferring it to a wraith construct.The Farseers that had undergone their kind's peculiar transformation into psychocrystal, before later joining with their craftworld's Infinity Circuit, had earned their long rest a dozen times over.To break the departed Seers from that connection, and to use them as mere tools for sorcery, was a heinous crime indeed -- but one Eldrad Ulthran had already committed, through his Harlequin proxies, on every craftworld across the galaxy. Such was the urgency of the hour that the Farseer showed no compunction in doing so again.The Seers gambled much, if the ritual went awry -- in theory, a single lapse of concentration could see the portal open a tunnel into the Empyrean itself, allowing a daemonic incursion to spill into Ulthwé just as it had into Biel-Tan. If the Seers of Ulthwé had not been confdent in their psychic supremacy, and had the mental might to back that confidence up, they may well have capsized the entire world-ship into the Warp. As it was, their skills proved equal to the task.The Seer Council had gathered in Ulthwé's fabled dome, answering Eldrad's summons. Their rune-emblazoned robes waved gently in the same warm zephyrs that caressed the branches of wraithbone trees in the distance. One of the undisputed wonders of the craftworlds, the Dome of Crystal Seers was dotted with staircases of spiralling wraithbone that stretched up to nowhere.All bar the highest steps harboured the fossilised remnants of an ancient Seer. Atop these staircases stood the luminaries of the craftworld, their voices joined in the Song of Ulthanash.Abruptly, the song ended. "Here we stand," spoke Eldrad from his position atop the tallest staircase, "ready to usher in a new age for Ulthwé and the Aeldari race.""Aeldari?" said Yemshon Il'foire. "That name has no place this side of the Fall.""Until now," said Eldrad. "Our guests-to-be resurrect it with good reason." Several of the Seers raised eyebrows by a fraction of an inch, but did not speak out. "We summon the bridge of stars," continued Eldrad, his fabled staff describing the Rune of the Infinite Stride. "This night we have need of it, no matter the cost.""As you say," said Aralie Coppermane, a strange edge to her voice, "we have no choice."The Farseers and Warlocks assembled atop the dome's stairways chanted once more, casting runes of star-striding and storm-walking into the air. The psychic runes rose, glowing, to describe a wide circle in the casters' midst. Glittering motes of light span around the symbols, faster and faster, as the dome's gentle breeze became a gale, then a hurricane.The periphery of the Warp Storm raging outside the craftworld curdled into the funnel of a tornado in space-time, the tip both remaining still and stretching untold light years into the aether.By the time the ritual was complete, three of Ulthwé's finest Farseers had turned to psychoreactive crystal from head to toe. In their midst, a portal shone -- within it, destiny made ﬂesh.With Eldrad Ulthran leading the runic rite, an unstable Warp portal opened up under Ulthwé's Dome of Crystal Seers. Uncounted light years away, Yvraine walked as if in a daze to the shattered equivalent upon Biel-Tan.What she found in that dome was all but invisible to the naked eye, but the Yncarne was drawn towards it as driftwood is drawn to a whirlpool. The Reborn -- the Ynnari -- for that was the name Yvraine's followers had adopted for themselves, passed through the Warp portal and vanished from Biel-Tan altogether.The howling, screaming vortex through which the Reborn passed was the embodiment of utter Chaos. So fierce and baleful was this passageway it would have robbed the sanity of a lesser being in a matter of moments. Yet the Reborn found themselves ﬂoating through a tunnel cut in the Warp unhindered, as if borne by an underwater current.At their fore was the Yncarne, a revenant creature so inimical to Chaos that the psychic stuff of the Empyrean could not slow it. Even the Gods of Chaos did not look upon the creature directly; the incarnation of Ynnead's essence was so anathema to them they could not truly perceive it, even had they known where to look.The ripples of the Avatar's passage ﬂowed outward nonetheless. Causing a great ruction in the Warp, the bow wave of its translocation cast Imperial voidships aside hundreds of light years away, ripping open Gellar Fields and distorting the light of the Astronomican.Thousands of human lives were lost with every solar second of the Reborn's passage. It was a price the Eldar would gladly pay a million times over if it gave them even the slightest chance of turning the tables upon their nemesis, Slaanesh.With Yvraine came her Commorrite allies, but also a detachment of warriors from Biel-Tan. Even as the craftworld fell apart around her, there had been those that had believed her claims of rejuvenation and salvation. Across every stratum of Craftworld Aeldari society there were those who had thrown in their lot with Ynnead's disciples, declaring themselves Reborn.Foremost amongst those converted to Yvraine’s cause were Dire Avengers from the Silvered Blade, the Aspect Shrine in which the Visarch, in his former life, had taught Yvraine the Path of the Warrior. Near three-score of the tall-crested warriors had forsaken their traditional colours and, with a few simple minutes of concentration, altered the psychically-attuned metafabrics of their Aspect Armour until it bore the same colouration as Yvraine's regal panoply and the deep scarlet plate of the Visarch at her side.The Dire Avengers were far from alone. Biel-Tan was once a highly populated craftworld, and the appearance of the god of the dead's Avatar had been a compelling sign that Yvraine spoke the truth about a new order coming into existence for the Eldar. With the Dire Avengers came warriors from every Aspect, Guardian citizens in the garb of the craftworld's militia, whole squadrons of grav-tank pilots and rank upon rank of silent Ghost Warriors.These wraithlike converts had been given a chance to truly live again, for their transfer from Biel-Tan's shattered Infinity Circuit had been more complete than any Spiritseer or Waystone could ever achieve.Yvraine did not disappoint her new followers. All those who had joined the Ynnari cause had heard her speak about the hope she brought to their race, and many inﬂuential Biel-Tani were soon devoted to it, body and soul.For too long the Aeldari -- be they Asuryani, Exodite, Harlequin, Outcast or Commorrite -- had skulked in the darkness, afraid to burn too brightly lest they catch the attention of She Who Thirsts.To have a force amongst them that could take the fight back to Slaanesh, even one as disturbing as the Yncarne, was freeing, a call to action that no Aeldari had felt for ten thousand Terran years.The Reborn had come to Ulthwé, and they were ready to begin the next step in their quest to save the Aeldari people.
Battle of Calth - Battle of Calth: The Battle of Calth, also referred to as the Calth Atrocity, was the name given by later Imperial scholars to the treacherous campaign conducted during the early stages of the Horus Heresy in beginning in 007.M31 by the traitorous XVIIth Space Marine Legion, the Word Bearers, on behalf of the Warmaster Horus against their hated rivals, the XIIIth Space Marine Legion, better known as the Ultramarines.The campaign was launched by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar Aurelian with the goal of exterminating the XIIIth Space Marine Legion outright. The purpose of the Word Bearers' invasion of the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy was to tie down the XIIIth Legion and prevent them from reinforcing their fellow Loyalists as the Traitor Legions marched relentlessly on Terra itself.The crux of the campaign came on the Agri-world of Calth in the Ultramar Sector, where the Ultramarines successfully broke the Word Bearers' surprise assault after a viciously-fought siege action, though at the cost of terrible casualties and the complete destruction of Calth's atmosphere and once-verdant biosphere.As a result of the devastation wrought by the Word Bearers during the Calth Atrocity upon the Veridia System's sun, future generations of Calth's people were required to live deep underground in massive subterranean hive cities to escape their world's radiation-scorched, airless surface.While both the Ultramarines and their Primarch Roboute Guilliman survived the Word Bearers' assault, the campaign successfully prevented the Ultramarines from participating in the Siege of Terra just as Horus had planned.
Battle of Calth - Striking a Blow for Horus: During the opening days of the terrible conflict that would become known as the Horus Heresy in later years, the Warmaster Horus launched his treacherous attack on the world of Istvaan III against the Loyalist elements within four of the Space Marine Legions that turned to Chaos, including the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters and the Death Guard. It is believed by Imperial savants that the Loyalists made up approximately one-third of the combatants at Istvaan III. Having successfully purged the remaining Loyalists from the Traitor Legions, Horus plotted the next stages of his insurrection against his once-beloved father, the Emperor of Mankind. When word reached Terra of the Warmaster’s treachery at Istvaan III - a result of the flight of the frigate Eisenstein under the command of Captain Nathaniel Garro and a small group of Loyalist Space Marines from the Death Guard Legion - the Emperor ordered the deployment of seven Loyalist Astartes Legions to the Istvaan System to bring Horus to account for his actions.While Horus made his plans for what would become known as the infamous Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, the Warmaster sent word to the XVIIth Legion's Primarch Lorgar that the time had come for his Astartes, the Word Bearers, to strike against the Imperium. The Warmaster was keenly aware of the bitter hatred that Lorgar had for his Primarch brother Roboute Guilliman and his XIIIth Legion, the Ultramarines. The Emperor had grown impatient with the Word Bearers progress in the Great Crusade as they began to delay longer and longer at their conquests, building temples and fanes in His honour, many among the Officio Militaris and the Emperor's inner council began to question their priorities. In 963.M30 the Emperor sent Malcador the Sigillite, first among his councillors, and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines to correct Lorgar's ways. At His order, the Word Bearers were publicly censured and the city of Monarchia on the distant world of Khur, along with its false temples, was destroyed by the warriors of Ultramar as an object lesson in the folly of false religion. The entirety of the XVIIth Legion was then forced to kneel in the ashes of their devotion while the Ultramarines stood over them in judgement, that which they had seen as worthy devotion now labelled treasonous. The Ultramarines had taken no pleasure in this act, which was intended to teach Lorgar and his Astartes to adhere to the atheistic doctrines of the Imperial Truth rather than spread the false belief that the Emperor was divine to all the worlds that they conquered. Yet Lorgar and the Word Bearers had never forgiven the Ultramarines for this action and they longed for vengeance against the XIIIth Legion.It is unlikely that the true architect of the Calth atrocities will ever be known, but weighed against the innumerable sins committed by both Lorgar and Horus, the attribution of this one offence is inconsequential. What is known is that the earliest stages of the assault on Ultramar were laid down long before Horus arrived at the fateful worlds of Istvaan, in the year 005.M31, with a series of orders issued under the seal of the Warmaster dispatching a number of Legions to campaigns in the furthest reaches of the Imperium. Of these, the Blood Angels were sent forth in their entirety to Signus, the Dark Angels to Tsagualsa and Ultramarines would muster alongside the Word Bearers at Calth. Horus told Lorgar that he had fed Guilliman false intelligence in regard to a possible threat within the Veridian System in the Segmentum Tempestus, far to the galactic south of Terra. This supposed threat stemmed from the Orks of the Ghaslakh Empire. Horus had ordered the XIIIth and the XVIIth Legions to muster and meet at the world of Calth in the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, in order to conduct a massive joint campaign of extermination against the Ghaslakh xenohold, a common mission for the Astartes during the final days of the Great Crusade.Gathering at Saturn those of his Legion who had been embarked on crusades in distant parts of the galaxy, Roboute Guilliman would depart the Sol System mere months before news of Horus' rebellion reached the Emperor's ears. The turbulent state of the Empyrean in those years would see the Ultramarines' main strength journey to Calth by a winding and obtuse trail which would also cloak them from all attempts by Terra to recall them or forewarn them of Horus' actions. The Word Bearers, delayed by the slaughter at Istvaan, would not arrive at Calth until the majority of the XIIIth Legion had already gathered, travelling a path of blood and ashes of their creation.It would be at Calth that Lorgar would launch a surprise attack on the Ultramarines whilst they were gathered for the campaign against the Orks of Ghaslakh. The XIIIth Legion would be caught completely unaware while the Word Bearers would use the advantage of surprise to completely annihilate their hated rivals. The assault at Calth would also allow the Word Bearers to reveal that they, too, now served the Ruinous Powers. Calth was not chosen as the site of the confrontation between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines by chance, for the Word Bearers intended to destroy one of the jewels in the Ultramarines' realm of Ultramar (then known as the Ultramar Coalition), just as the XIIIth Legion had destroyed one of the Word Bearers' greatest achievements, the sacred city of Monarchia, four decades earlier.Horus ordered the majority of the XVIIth Legion to Ultramar, and the dark powers of the Warp gave them sure and swift passage across the increasingly restless Immaterium.As the Word Bearers entered Ultramar space, Lorgar prepared his Legion for the inevitable slaughter that would follow. Command of the main assault force was given to Kor Phaeron, the First Captain of the XVIIth Legion and one of Lorgar's most favoured champions. Calth was to be Kor Phaeron's operation to execute, far more than it was Lorgar's. Kor Phaeron had planned the assault of Calth for his Primarch meticulously, and executed it with the aid of the Dark Apostle Erebus. The punishment and annihilation of the XIIIth Legion was the campaign's principal aim; the humiliation and execution of Lorgar's hated rival Roboute Guilliman was a secondary objective. But for Lorgar, the assault would also mark his first opportunity to gain true favour in the eyes of the Dark Gods he now served; to prove to them that he had earned his place as their Chosen One.The first phase of the Word Bearers' attack plan involved the capture of a vessel of the Ultramarines' fleet. The act which heralded the Battle of Calth went unseen and undetected at the time, by human eyes at least, for it was performed in the silent outer reaches of the Veridian System. That act was the taking of an aged fleet auxiliary tender by the name of the Campanile, and no report was made of this event and none survived it. Whether she was captured by some warp-tainted psyker fated to die as an act of ritual sacrifice, or some warp entity breached her hull, slaughtered the entire crew and took total control of the vessel's systems matters not. The use to which she was employed betrays the genius of a Primarch allied in unspeakable compact with powers then only just stirring and known to few others than he. Soon after the Campanile fell silent, an event barely noted by the massively over-taxed Veridian System Control, the first of the Word Bearers fleet broke Warp to complete the conjunction of the two Legions. The Traitors intended to use the captured vessel to strike a crippling surprise blow against the Ultramarines' massed fleet that would mark the start of their vicious assault.
Battle of Calth - The Calth Conjunction: Calth was a verdant Agri-World in the Veridian System of Ultramar whose manufacturing output at the time of the Horus Heresy would have rivalled that of Macragge in only two to three more decades. There was even talk of constructing a superorbital ring like that which encircled Terra and was intended to get cargo to and from orbit as quickly and inexpensively as possible. The most important and heavily populated worlds of the Imperium had all constructed similar rings, which were marvels of human technology and engineering and symbols of the new Golden Age that the Emperor intended to create for Mankind. Calth intended to join Macragge, Saramanth, Konor, Occluda and Iax as the most important worlds of the Ultramar Sector, whose influence already extended across a vast swathe of the Imperium's Segmentum Ultima. Calth's people hoped that their world would become one of the anchor points of the glorious new Imperial civilisation that would come to full fruition after the end of the Great Crusade.Roboute Guilliman and a sizeable portion of the XIIIth Legion had been stationed near the moons of Saturn in the Sol System when they received their orders to mass at Calth from Horus. Some within the Primarch’s command questioned the need for the deployment of so large an Astartes force; the size of the combined Ultramarines/Word Bearer force would have been the largest since the Ullanor Crusade. The Ultramarines' officers had seen the tactical audits and knew that the Orks of Ghalaskh presented little real threat to the Imperium. But the wiser, more experienced Chapter Masters realised that the Ultramarines were to lend a little shine to the tarnished reputation of the Word Bearers by operating in concert with them, and the assault on Ghalaskh was intended to demonstrate the authority of the Warmaster over all of the Legiones Astartes.Regardless of the Ultramarines' trepidations or personal feelings, Roboute Guilliman acquiesced to Horus' rightful authority and moved his Legion to the world of Calth in order to rendezvous with other elements of the Ultramarines and take on supplies for the coming campaign. The Ultramarines would then join with the Word Bearers and combine their efforts to crush the Greenskins. In truth, Guilliman still had misgivings about the actions that the Ultramarines had been ordered to take by the Emperor against the XVIIth Legion during their chastisement at Khur. Guilliman felt that the Emperor had been wrong to use the Ultramarines as an instrument of humiliation against a brother Legion and as an example of Astartes perfection. Guilliman was correct in believing that relations between the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers had been poisoned by what had happened on Khur, but wrongly thought that Horus had ordered the two Legions to work jointly in the pacification of Ghalaskh in an attempt to close the rift that had opened between them.
Battle of Calth - Signs and Portents: There were many portents of the tragedy soon to unfold upon Calth. Given the extraordinary thoroughness with which the XIIIth Legion maintained its readiness, it might have been considered tragic, or incompetent, that so few were heeded. The first signs of the Word Bearers betrayal was the minor interruption in Vox traffic around Calth that was attributed to solar distortion -- the void was known to forever creak and whisper around the audible and electromagnetic ranges. Soon there were various reports of a voice chanting over Calthian Vox-links in Calth space. This eerie chanting soon interfered with the main orbital data-feed between the orbital installations and the surface of Calth for several seconds. An hour later, there were two more bursts of such interference, the source of which remained undetermined. Calth Communications Control reported an hour later that there were "a series of malfunction events" and warned that further communication disruptions might be expected during the day until the problem was identified. An hour after that, on the night side of Calth, the first of the bad dreams began.There were psychic portents as well. Hundreds of Ultramarines Battle-Brothers had been Librarians before the Emperor's decree at the Council of Nikaea banned the Space Marine Legions' use of psykers. Many Astartes Librarians of the Legions resented the Decrees of Nikaea, but honoured their oath to the Emperor and surrendered their Librarian panoply and wargear, returning to the lines as ordinary Battle-Brothers. Before the attack on Calth, those gifted with psychic abilities suffered severe headaches and pain behind the eyes. They ignored the pain, chalking it up to nothing more than fatigue after having gone without rest for several days during the preparation phase for the coming campaign against the Orks. It had not been possible to shut down higher mental functions and sleep, or at least remedially meditate. This mysterious pain was actually a warning sign broadcast through the Warp of the impending approach of the Forces of Chaos. The former Librarians all ignored the headaches. Few would survive the coming assault long enough to regret it.For days the Word Bearers' Chaos Cult echelons chanted monotonously into the ether as they conducted sacrificial rituals intended to bring forth the entities of the Warp to supplement the forces of the XVIIth Legion in the battle to come. Eight names were now repeatedly and constantly broadcast into the data flows of Calth's global Cogitator network. No data filter or noospheric barrier would block the repeating code or erase it, because it was only composed of regular characters. They were neither toxic code nor viral data, but once they were inside the system, and especially once they had been read and absorbed by the Mechanicus' noosphere, they began to grow in size. Soon these names became combinations of letters and then longer, deeper meanings essentially a form of runic Chaotic sorcery. These implanted meanings were caustic, infectious and indelible. There were eight of them, the sacred number of Chaos -- the Octed.At the orbital watchtower high above Calth, located at the Kalkas Fortalice, Uhl Kehal Hesst, a Mechanicus Server of Instrumentation, detected scrapcode within the global Cogitator system -- the dull amber threads of diseased information buried in the mass of healthy data. There was 2% more of it than any Analyticae projection had calculated for the Calth noosphere, the entirety of Cogitator data being used across Calth's global system, even under the irregular circumstances wrought by the conjunction of Imperial forces on the planet below. This was an unacceptable margin of error for the system, and the Mechanicus' senior Tech-priests reported the problem to Guilliman. They informed the Primarch that the scrapcode problem had been identified as a hindrance and that, though regrettable, these things did often happen within complex Cogitator systems and should not hamper his Legion's preparations for the coming campaign.
Battle of Calth - The Offering: Multiple Word Bearer vessels had already arrived in the Calth System, which included at least a half dozen or so crimson-coloured vessels, unusual for the Word Bearers, since the XVIIth Legion's colours were a flat steel grey. Counted amongst their number was the massive Infidus Imperator -- a Grand Cruiser and the flagship of the Word Bearers' First Captain Kor Phaeron, as well as Destiny's Hand, the Battle-Barge of the Dark Apostle Erebus. The Dark Apostle was tasked with a vital mission on behalf of the Warmaster. While the rest of the XVIIth Legion's vessels stationed themselves to the rear of the massive orbital flotilla gathering above the world, Erebus teleported down to Calth's surface, to the Satric Plateau, located 2,000 kilometres north of Numinous City. Covered in frost from the hard winter, this particular area was selected as the best potential site to conduct the blasphemous Chaotic ritual Erebus had been tasked to perform, for the Immaterium vectors aligned perfectly and the barrier between realspace and the Empyrean was particularly thin in that part of Calth.A Word Bearers strike team already on Calth awaited the Dark Apostle. Its leader was Essember Zote, one of the dreaded daemon-possessed Word Bearers known as the Gal Vorbak. He had with him a work party of the Tzenvar Kaul, “The Recursive Family”, one of the many Chaos Cults serving the XVIIth Legion. This was to be the point of the true conjunction on Calth. The men of the Kaul laid out a circle of polished black rocks upon the ground, each taken from the volcanic slopes of Istvaan V and marked with a blasphemous sigil. These were arranged in a perfect circle a kilometre in diameter. The rocks were summoning stones, whose latent Chaotic power could make one sick just by holding them.The men of the Tzenvar Kaul approached the summoning circle, each carrying other offerings from the Istvaan System. Marching in procession, they bore along portable stasis flasks, the fluid within murky with blood, as they contained Progenoid Glands and gene-seed harvested from all the Legions that had fought each other on Istvaan III and Istvaan V, Traitor and Loyalists alike. The Kaul carried the flasks into the circle and the moment that they crossed the mystical border created by the summoning stones, the bearers started to whimper and retch. Several passed out, or suffered strokes, and fell, smashing the flasks. As the moon rose into perfect alignment, Erebus took his Vox-link and sent a message to the Traitors in orbit. The time had come for the Word Bearers to have their revenge against the Ultramarines and their insufferable Primarch.
Battle of Calth - Betrayal: Aboard the docked Ultramarines vessel Samothrace in high orbit of Calth, Captain Sorot Tchure of the Word Bearers was enjoying a formal dinner arranged by his Ultramarines counterpart and friend, Honorius Luciel, the Captain of the 209th Company. Receiving his order to carry out his part of the plan, Tchure returned back to the dining table with his fellow Word Bearers. As the two Astartes officers struck up a conversation, the Ultramarines captain was aware that his counterpart seemed agitated.Tchure shared with Luciel that he had recently learned a bit of useful warcraft whilst fighting in the Istvaan System that he thought his Ultramarines counterpart would appreciate. Unaware of any recent Imperial campaigns within the Istvaan System, Luciel's interest was piqued. The Word Bearers officer spoke of the art of betrayal and its inherent power because the treachery ran so deep, especially if it was committed against a trusted ally or close friend. Asked to join the advance into the Ultramar System, he told Luciel that he had to prove his commitment. The Word Bearer subtly tried to warn Luciel that in order to show that he was loyal to the XVIIth Legion's new cause he must first betray his friend. Realising, too late, the meaning of Tchure's obscure warning, Luciel rose to his feet to defend himself, but was cut down with a well-placed plasma shot through his chest. Tchure and the rest of his Word Bearers then opened fire upon the other startled Ultramarines at the dinner, killing Luciel's entire entourage, the heart of the leadership of the 209th Company. They were then offered as a sacrifice to the Ruinous Powers -- the first casualties of the Battle of Calth.Aboard the bridge of the Samothrace, an alarm alerted the Officer of the Watch of a malfunction. Accessing his Cogitator for clarification, he was shocked when he saw the phrase: weapons discharge, company deck. Activating the vessel's internal Vox system and rousing deck protection, the Officer of the Watch began to cordon and secure the entire deck used to house the 209th Company. Suddenly, general quarters was sounded, as the bridge came alive with a cacophony of various alarms, klaxons and bells all screeching and booming; the proximity alarm, the collision warning alert, the course defect advisor as well as many others. Looking at the main screen for visual verification, the Officer of the Watch saw a starship heading at full collision speed for the heart of the Ultramarines fleet gathered above Calth.
Battle of Calth - Opening Gambit: The captured tender Campanile had crossed the inner defence ring of Calth, its codes accepted as authentic by the orbital defence grid. The mass of the Ultramarines' fleet lay in its path as well as Calth's massive orbital dock yard complex. As it passed within the orbit of Calth’s moon, it began an abrupt acceleration. The captured vessel screamed into Calth’s orbit like a streaking projectile fired from a bolter, heading directly for the Calth Fleet Yards and the fledgling infrastructure of the planet's first proper superorbital ring. It somehow managed to miss some of the larger vessels, grazing them with its Void Shields and skimming the surface of others. Smaller craft that lay in the Campanile 's path were utterly annihilated; cargo boats, lighters, ferries, maintenance riggers. The Ultramar Azimuth Graving Dock was vaporised by the runaway vessel. Several Ultramarines vessels suffered catastrophic hull damage and multiple orbital manufactory modules were destroyed, instantly killing thousands of Imperial Artificers and engineers. The Campanile lost none of its momentum and continued with its suicidal orbital plunge.Still moving, the captured vessel punched through a hollow construction spheroid that housed three separate vessels, obliterating them all. The assembly ruptured and the debris was propelled into the attached habitat modules, voiding them into space. The devastating trajectory of the Campanile caused the Calth Veridian Anchor to shudder under the onslaught. Internal explosions occurred throughout the structure as even more starships in various states of disrepair were destroyed or catastrophically damaged. Larger Battleships exploded as their power plants and vast ammunition stockpiles were critically compromised. Huge, burning sections of the orbital yards' superstructure as well as the debris of destroyed vessels rained down upon the surface of Calth. The Ultramar Zenith Graving Dock suffered integral gravimetric failure and dropping out of orbit, twisting and breaking as it plummeted to the planet below. The massive Grand Cruiser Antrodamicus, supported by the dock, ripped free of its moorings and slid backwards, caught in the gravity of Calth. With its drives off-line it had no power to stabilise itself or prevent its inevitable doom.The Campanile continued to plow through the orbital installations surrounding Calth, shooting forward like a solid projectile, a gargantuan mass of streaking death. It annihilated a pair of slipways and the ships within them, ramming through the vital data-engine hub and destroying multiple data-engines as well. As the automatics failed and the noosphere experienced a critical and fatal interrupt, the orbital fleet yard’s power core was obliterated, killing over 35,000 men and women. The Campanile finally broke up, still travelling at immensely high realspace velocities, and a large chunk of the disintegrating vessel spun out of control and destroyed another Ultramarines Battleship. The remaining pieces of the Campanile cleared the far side of the Calth Veridian Anchor and rained down, burning like meteorites, upon the surface of the planet.Aboard the Samothrace, Sorot Tchure and his Astartes killed most of the ship's crew. Advancing to the main bridge, burning through blast hatches that had been closed in desperation, Tchure confronted the ship's captain, who solemnly announced his disinclination to assist the traitorous Word Bearer. Ignoring the officer, Tchure brutally killed him, letting the body drop to the deck. The Word Bearers then proceeded to coldly murder the entire bridge crew. The Battle of Calth had begun in earnest, as the Word Bearers and their Chaos Cultists began forming up in their thousands for the brutal assault upon the surface.
Battle of Calth - Assault at High Anchor: The vast orbital shipyard that was the Calth Veridian Anchor was damaged beyond the possibility of salvation or stabilisation by the ruinous trajectory of the Campanile. With the destruction of Calth's main data-engine hub the Mechanicus' ability to communicate with all of its various installations across the world' orbital plane had been torn out, their systems compromised beyond repair. All the various orbital stations that rode at Calth's high anchor had been shattered beyond repair, consumed by firestorms from within when enough atmosphere remained to fuel the blazes. The Ultramarines fleet and Calth's orbital fleet yard infrastructure had suffered a grievous injury while the death toll amongst Imperial personnel and Calthian civilians in the orbital habitats was catastrophic. In the first few seconds after the initial impact of the Campanile, starships across the high anchorage attempted to desperately power up their drives and bring their weapon systems back online. Some attempted to generate enough power in the vain hope of raising their Void Shields or to slip from their moorings in order to reposition in case of an attack.Then the massive Grand Cruiser of the Word Bearers Legion known to the Ultramarines as the Raptorous Rex, but which the Word Bearers had renamed the Infidus Imperator ("False Emperor") to display their new allegiance opened fire. Kor Phaeron ordered the massive warship that was his flagship to discharge all of its primary Lance weapons at the Battle Barge Sons of Ultramar, obliterating it in one brutal salvo. In formation behind the massive Word Bearers flagship, other warships of the XVIIth Legion's fleet, including the Crown of Colchis, the Battleship Kamiel, the Flame of Purity, the Spear of Sedros and the Battle Barge Destiny's Hand, all opened fire upon the remains of the Ultramarines fleet riding at high anchor.Shipmaster Ouon Hommed, the captain of the Ultramarines' heavy destroyer Sanctity of Saramanth, saw the Infidus begin its merciless prowl along the anchorage's line of docked Loyalist vessels. He understood that the vessel was executing starships the way a man might execute a row of helpless prisoners. The Sanctity was sitting at anchor with its drives cold and it would take at least 50 minutes to rouse the ship to operational readiness, a reality for every starship in the fleet of the XIIIth Legion which had been sitting cold at high anchor for the conjunction with the incoming Word Bearers. All of their power plants were at lowest yield for the purposes of maintenance, loading and embarkation checks with their drives, weapons and shields off-line, leaving them all under the protective aegis of Calth's planetary defence grid. The Word Bearers continued their onslaught of the Loyalist fleet unabated, leaving Roboute Guilliman to witness the perfidy of his brother Lorgar first-hand.
Battle of Calth - Wolves Among the Flock: Upon witnessing the Word Bearers' attack, Roboute Guilliman and his officers concluded that the sons of Lorgar had made some tragic mistake. Some reached the conclusion that the Word Bearers had misconstrued the death of Calth Veridian Anchor as an enemy assault and were firing blindly, their systems or their wits so blasted by the calamity that they were unable to tell friend from foe. Others concluded that the Word Bearers feared that the Ultramarines had taken it upon themselves to censure them again in a repetition of Monarchia, that if the Word Bearers' worst unspoken fears had been confirmed, they saw no alternative but to fight for their very lives. The tortured vox channels were choked with attempts to contact the Word Bearers and restore sanity, but even those few vessels whose hailing systems were functioning were unsuccessful -- the Word Bearers would not, or could not, answer.From the first moment of disaster, the bridge crew of the Ultramarines flagship, Macragge's Honour, had fought valiantly to restore vox capability and establish contact with the Word Bearers. Now, contact was made, albeit limited to a grainy, flickering holo projection and sibilant audio transmission laced with static and feedback. Guilliman demanded his brother stand his fleet down, swearing to Lorgar that the Ultramarines had played no part in whatever disaster had visited Calth. Lorgar had no interest in conversing with his brother and instead spat a bitter curse before terminating the link. In that moment Guilliman saw that what was unfolding could be no accident. With his fleet burning and the Word Bearers crippling or destroying ever more of his vessels with each passing minute, the Primarch of the Ultramarines gave an order he had never imagined he would have cause to speak. With bitter resolve, Roboute Guilliman ordered his sons to defend themselves, authorising measures up to and including return of weapons fire.
Battle of Calth - From Bad to Worse: Shortly after the Campanile exploded in orbit, the datashock from the resulting scrapcode onslaught killed Mechanicus Server Uhl Kehal Hesst through a vicious neural biofeedback mechanism commonly known as datashock amongst Tech-adepts (more officially termed hypertraumatic inload syndrome). Weapons fire hit the orbital watchtower at Kalkas Fortalice a nanosecond after the shock wave of data was unleashed by the Word Bearers' coordinated assault. The data noosphere of Calth immediately collapsed. The tower's manifold field stuttered out. Hesst felt and absorbed the shared neural agony of several thousand deaths: his Mechanicus brethren aboard the primary shipyard, aboard the docked vessels, and in the tower around him as they died and their agony was transmitted from their dying neural cortexes through their augmetic systems into the noosphere they had been connected to at the time of their deaths. With the death of Hesst and his fellow Mechanicus personnel, all of the networked Cogitator systems of Calth went off-line. Calth’s planetary defence grid ceased to function, leaving the entire Ultramarines fleet completely unable to mount any defence against the Traitor warships' attack.Fortunately Hesst's second-in-command, Meer Edv Tawren, a Magos of Analyticae, was not killed by the infected scrapcode. It was basic Mechanicus data server protocol that saved her life, for it required a server's second-in-command to unplug his or her neural interface from the data noosphere when a significant scrapcode assault was under way so that there was no danger of the deputy also being compromised by the infected data. This operational safety measure saved Tawren from far more than just a scrapcode infection. When Hesst died in her arms, he charged his deputy to connect herself to a working server to attempt the reconstruction of the noosphere and bring the orbital defences back online. Magos Tawren would play a pivotal role in the coming conflict.Debris began to fall from the clouds, trailing fire like meteorites, raining across the fertile river valley of Kalkas Fortalice. Some of the heavier pieces of falling debris struck buildings, exploding them like artillery strikes. The hail of debris had only begun as larger objects begin to fall – parts of ships, orbitals and the docking yards. Magos Tawren saw the unfolding disaster before her sensors did. She saw the Grand Cruiser Antrodamicus falling backwards into the atmosphere, stern first, towards Kalkas Fortalice.Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Ultramarines, Kor Phaeron materialised aboard the Samothrace through arcane means. The Word Bearers used the Samothrace to slip past the Ultramarines into the gates of the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard. Behind it, Calth's main orbital shipyard continued to burn. No one challenged the Samothrace, since it was an Ultramarines vessel running for cover and Vox and noosphere communications amongst all of the orbital installations was completely dead. No one aboard the orbital habitats within the Zetsun Verid Yard questioned the fact that their yard's infrastructure had not been targetted by the Traitors even though all the fleet yards around it had been obliterated. The Samothrace pulled into the ship docks between two Escort vessels sheltered in the yard space. The Ultramarines put up intense resistance, but eventually the Zetsun Verid Yard also fell to the Word Bearers. The Traitors' only setback was that the destruction of Calth's planetary data noosphere was so complete, it took the Word Bearers' Dark Mechanicus allies longer than expected to reconstruct a workable planetary data network. The reason the Traitors had spared the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard was that it contained an advanced data-engine hub capable of substituting itself, in the event of an emergency, for the primary data hub of the Calthian noosphere located at the Calth Veridian Anchor.The Dark Mechanicum Tech-adepts brought the Zetsun Verid Yard systems online and its data-engine resumed normal operations. Sensing that the planetary weapons grid was inactive, and that the inactivity had been caused by the inexplicable loss of the data-engine hub located aboard the Calth Veridian Anchor, the Zetsun Verid data-engine automatically obeyed its standard protocols and assumed control over the planetary data network and the planetary defence system, bringing the Calthian weapons grid back online.The Word Bearers were now in control of the effective firepower of a major Imperial battlefleet. The firepower of this defence system was distributed across the surface of Calth and its orbit. Kor Phaeron had his Dark Mechanicus Magi bring online the 962 orbital defence platforms as well as several ground-based stations, including the weapon pits located at Calth's poles. The Calthian planetary weapons grid was capable of keeping at bay an entire expeditionary fleet or primary battlegroup and it soon began to fire on the orders of the Word Bearers, assaulting all of the neighbouring planets and spaceborne Imperial facilities in the Veridian System.The Ultramarines fleet had scattered, having been reduced to about a fifth of its original strength by the Word Bearers' surprise attack. Those vessels that remained either fled to the far side of the Veridian star to avoid an attack by the Word Bearers' fleet and the inexorable fire of Calth's defence grid or, like Primarch Guilliman’s flagship, the Macragge’s Honour, lay helpless and drifting in Calth's high orbital anchor zone. There were virtually no warships left for the Ultramarines to fight the Traitors in the void. It was simply a matter of time before the Word Bearers picked off the remaining warships of the XIIIth Legion's fleet. Next, the Calthian defence grid destroyed the local Forge World of Verida Forge, a small moon with offensive capabilities. It then assaulted a Star Fort near the Veridian System's Mandeville Point and several more Loyalist capital ships, vaporising them all.The Ultramarines' 1st Chapter Commander, Marius Gage, was the first amongst the Loyalists to recognise the attack pattern of the Word Bearers' fleet. Many of the surviving Ultramarines starships were the largest and most powerful capital ships in the XIIIth Legion's fleet. With the Traitors firmly in control of Calth's planetary weapons grid the Word Bearers could easily pick off the most serious threats at their leisure. Those ships that had been spared were all helpless and drifting, like the Macragge’s Honour. The moment they shook off the effects of the scrapcode assault, began to start up their drives, or raised their Void Shields, Calth's weapons grid would target and destroy them. The Word Bearers intended to take as many of the XIIIth Legion's capital ships intact as they could to bolster their own fleet and enhance their overall striking power in the longer conflict to come against the Loyalists.
Battle of Calth - Orbital Defence: As the southern island cities were being pounded to dust and vapour, the battle in the void was spilling ever further across Calth Near-Space. The world was ringed by over nine hundred orbital defence platforms, each bristling with lance turrets, weaponsbatteries and torpedo launch tubes, but each had been rendered as defenceless and impotent as an unarmed freighter by the usurpation of the defence grid's command systems. Many of these platforms, even the smallest of which were served by crews of hundreds, were engaged and crippled in scornfully opportunistic strikes by passing Word Bearers war ships, while others were simply ignored. A number, however, were singled out for destruction or boarding, again suggesting the existence of some underlying and esoteric pattern to the entire attack. In a phenomenon that would be repeated countless times, the Word Bearers sought out specific enemies to slay in specific ways, as if in doing so they would honour their Primarch, or some other still higher power.Across Calth Near-Space, boarding torpedoes and assault claws exploded from the launch bays of Word Bearers vessels to smash into the armoured flanks of scores of defence platforms. Even as the assault claws fusion-burned through metres-thick armour and torpedoes bored deep into their guts, the platforms' defenders mustered. All available hands were scrambled to oppose the Word Bearers boarding parties, but it was the Solar Auxilia stationed on each platform who would bear the brunt of the fighting. While not as strong or as heavily armed and armoured as the trans-human Legiones Astartes they would be fighting, these defenders were nonetheless the elite of Calth's human forces. Configured according to the long-approved and highly efficacious "Solar" pattern, these units were equipped with vacuum-warded void armour and so could fight even in areas depressurised by the breaching of a platform's outer skin. While not as potent as Legiones Astartes bolters, their weapons were still capable of inflicting significant damage when massed against targets that they could scarcely miss in the platforms' cramped interiors.The greatest advantage the Solar Auxilia defence units had over lesser troops and pressed station hands was their chain of command. Well organised and relentlessly drilled in every facet of "Zone Mortalis" warfare, they could be relied upon to stand resolute against any foe and, if necessary, to die in pursuit of their sacred duty. On a hundred orbital defence stations and more, Word Bearers boarding parties forced their way along passageways swept with torrential blizzards of laser, plasma and flame. The defenders were on home ground and had trained countless times to undertake such duties, and so made the boarders pay dearly for the first few gains they made. The Word Bearers weathered the storm, striding inexorably into the very jaws of death. Ceramite armour cracked and degraded layer by layer as round after round impacted, but few were the truly telling killing blows the defenders could land, and so with lethal inevitability, the Legiones Astartes closed on the defenders' positions. Even then the Solar Auxilia enacted tactical protocols born of generations of void warfare mastered by their Saturnine forebears before the Unification Wars. Lasrifle sections fell back along pre-ordained routes while Veletaris Storm Sections held the attackers at bay with fearsome volleys of volkite fire and searing blasts of flame. Others simply held their position, maintaining a steady rate of fire as death came for them, determined to the last to buy their comrades time to fall back to the next defensible position. But the Word Bearers had gained a foothold and, ultimately, the bold defenders were doomed.As the battle spilled ever deeper into the guts of the defence platforms, the passageways and chambers were transformed into charnel houses. In places, the defenders' resolve was sorely tested when confronted with the unfamiliar combat doctrines certain Word Bearers Legionaries employed. Some chanted mournful plainsong as they advanced, an atonal dirge filling the hearts of all who heard it with dread. Others halted after every kill, pausing to enact grisly mutilation upon the recently fallen. In still more cases, the Word Bearers refrained from slaying cornered or overrun foe, instead handing them off to following mortal units to clap in irons and drag off as prisoners. The fate of these unfortunates can only be guessed at, for the last that was seen of most does not bear recounting.On a scant handful of orbital defence platforms, the Solar Auxilia defenders were successful in repelling Word Bearers assaults, but not without paying a heavy price indeed. On Platform Principia-Veridia 27/ K, a sub-cohort of the 222nd Calth Solar Auxilia rad-purged an entire marshalling deck just as a Word Bearers void-breaching party forced its way on board. The resulting flood of neutron radiation was so intense that even the trans-human physiologies of the attacking Legiones Astartes could not fully protect them. The first of the attackers wavered and the auxiliaries of the 222nd fixed bayonets and charged, their Solar pattern void armour able to fend off the radiation only so long as it took the charge to strike home. Dozens of the stricken Legiones Astartes were overrun before they could react, and seconds later the auxiliaries themselves fell victim to the radiation. Not a single warrior of either side survived, the rad-flooded chamber forming a tomb for enemies locked in a mutual death-struggle for all time.The defence of Platform Elipsia-Veridia 09/Q was equally successful and equally lethal for both sides. In this instance, it is thought that a substantial force of Terminator armour-equipped Word Bearers utilised a rare teleportarium array to board the station and launch a brutal coups de main attack on the station's primary strategium. The station master had scant moments to react and so mounted a noble, if futile, defence of his bridge. The attack had bypassed the large sub-cohort of the 255th Calth Solar Auxilia stationed on Elipsia-Veridia 09/Q , the Word Bearers judging that the defence would collapse with the strategium captured. This did not occur however, for the 255th was commanded by the veteran Lord Marshall Turnus, a beloved leader of advanced years and with countless victories to his name. Determined to strike back at the Traitors even if they could not possibly be repulsed, Turnus ordered the station's Mechanicum magos prime to overload the platform's plasma reactor. The magos refused the Lord Marshall's instruction and so died at Turnus' hand, a bolt round detonating within his platinum-chased skull. His deputy, however, acceded when the Lord Marshall repeated the order, and within minutes the entire platform was consumed in atomic fire, briefly forming a new, deathly star in the tortured skies above Calth.Elsewhere however, even the elite of the Solar Auxilia could not stem the inexorable tide of assault nor blunt the zealous fury of the Legiones Astartes Word Bearers. Valiant troopers died by the thousand, and at last the Word Bearers' intent in boarding specific orbital defence platforms was revealed as the same scene was enacted upon the bridges of scores of defence platforms. Those commanders taken alive were forced to bear witness to the destruction heaped upon the world whose defence they were sworn to. Compelled to watch by the vice-like grip of a Word Bearers Dark Apostle or other senior officer, the last sight these men and women saw served as a vital component in the vast and terrible ritual unfolding on Calth. Much later, it was determined that the intent of this cruelty was to sear the sight of the dying world into each victim's consciousness as an act of witnessing, a scene the Word Bearers believed the dead would take with them to the afterlife as evidence to the powers that hold sway there of the Traitor Legion's deeds.
Battle of Calth - The Honour of Macragge: Two solar hours into the orbital battle, the Master of Vox of the Ultramarines flagship reported to Roboute Guilliman that the Word Bearers flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, had opened a lithocast-hailing channel. The Primarch of the Ultramarines stepped onto the holocaster platform at the centre of his bridge as the hooded figure of his brother Primarch Lorgar manifested before him in grainy hard-light. For perhaps the first time in his life, the famously measured Guilliman was lost to fury. He raged at his brother for his betrayal and swore to exact merciless vengeance. Guilliman denounced Lorgar's very sanity and swore that he and all his sons would be punished. But the Lorgar that listened to all of this with a smirk upon his lips and the remainder of his face hidden in shadow was not the being Guilliman had once known. No longer was Lorgar the cerebral seeker after truth who had debated the nature of the universe with his brother Magnus for days on end, nor was he the over-zealous son who had brought upon himself the censure of the father-Emperor he had decalred a god. Neither was Lorgar the chastened warrior who alone of all the Primarchs sought not conquest, but enlightenment. Here instead was a transcended being radiating a newfound self-assurance, as if he and he alone was party to knowledge still hidden from others, but which they would soon learn whether they willed it or not. No longer cowed or eclipsed before a more overtly purposeful or assured Primarch, Lorgar was the very essence of phlegmatic defiance.More shocking than Lorgar's manner, however, were the words he now spoke to Guilliman. With scornful derision, he informed the Lord of Ultramar that, contrary to Guilliman's assumptions, Lorgar's treachery was not vengeance for Monarchia and neither was it an isolated event. Rather, it was part of a long-planned scheme of impossible scope and ambition, and that no less than half of their brother Primarchs were complicit in it, including the greatest of their number, Horus. Three of their brother Primarchs, Lorgar claimed, were in fact already dead, a claim that history would reveal as erroneous, yet which he himself had every cause to make at that time. Guilliman was rendered speechless by the staggering hubris evident in Lorgar's words, yet he knew his brother spoke the truth, unpalatable as it may be. In that moment, he swore anew to end his brother's betrayal, even if it was the final act in his long and loyal service. Even if it was revealed as utterly contrary to sound tactics and sane strategy, Guilliman's sole intent at that moment was to hunt Lorgar down and slay his brother by his own hand.But it was not to be. Lorgar's hard-light avatar suddenly twisted, mutating into a monster torn from nightmare or the imagination of a madman. Guilliman ordered the hololith link terminated in disgust at what he dismissed as grotesque theatricality. Only then did it become evident that the hololithic signal lock had already been cut. The thing of eyes, teeth, tentacles, scales and unreal flesh standing in the centre of the bridge of the Macragge's Honour had transubstantiated from hololithic hard-light to corporeal flesh and the abomination was revealed to the horrified bridge crew and the enraged Primarch as all too real.An instant later, the entire bridge erupted in an explosion of phantasmagoric viscera, blowing out its armoured viewing dome and blasting its occupants into the void. At a stroke, the Ultramarines were bereft of their beloved Primarch and their beleaguered fleet had lost its flagship. What occurred next had no known precedent in the annals of the Great Crusade, for while the scions of the great Navigator Houses of Terra had some inkling of what lurked beyond, such knowledge was denied to all others, even the Legiones Astartes. The thing that had manifested on the bridge had exploded in a fountain of gore and the force of the detonation had breached the hull. The Primarch, who had been standing at the very eye of the storm, had been blown upwards and outwards through the breach in an instant, the writhing remains of the monster into which Lorgar's lithic avatar had transformed snaring his mighty form in a thrashing mass of spiralling pseudopods and motile shadow.The bridge crew were given no opportunity to save the Primarch, or even in most cases themselves. A dozen senior officers were swept up in the maelstrom of blood, debris and howling air, and blasted into the void in Guilliman's wake, vacuum snatching the screams from their throats. Shipmaster Zedoff, the veteran captain of the Macragge's Honour, was eviscerated by shards of armoured glass, his shredded body dragged from his command throne in a storm of ruined flesh. Even Space Marines had little chance of escaping the chaos, Chapter Master Vared casting away all void-breach protocol as he was witnessed attempting to aid his Primarch by launching himself upwards into the slipstream of blood and wreckage. He was never seen again. The First Chapter Master, Marius Gage, had been able to grasp hold of a railing at the moment of the breach and pulled himself along the tortured bridge towards the main portal, which was sealing off against the void even as he struggled towards it. Metres from the armoured hatch, Gage came across the grievously wounded Chapter Master Banzor and pulled his fellow Legion officer through the portal as the blast doors lowered. Banzor died soon after, but Gage had no chance to mourn him for the destruction on the bridge was but one torment being visited upon the Macragge's Honour. The entire conning tower was disintegrating around him and deafening howls of bestial insanity were flooding the corridors, accompanied by the screeching of tortured metal, the roar of escaping atmosphere and the wet screams of crew being slaughtered.Those few who survived the destruction on the bridge, almost exclusively Legiones Astartes, for mortal flesh was too fragile to withstand such hurts, were forced to flee downwards, pursued all the while by death as, deck by deck, the conning tower crumbled into the void. If any expected respite upon reaching the main body of the vessel, they were to be disappointed. The barrel-vaulted companionway which passed along the uppermost decks of the Macragge's Honour presented a scene ripped bloody and ragged from the worst excesses of Old Night. Crew hands were cut down, blood and severed limbs cast in all directions by things of warp-born shadow and searing empyreal fire. The more experienced warriors knew that catastrophic warp breach could bring on chronic hallucination and mass psychosis, while some were party to the theories that certain anti-life forms were able to exist in the shadowed depths of the Warp itself. But this was no warp breach, for the Macragge's Honour was in realspace.To the beleaguered defenders, it looked as if the entire ship had been boarded by creatures of no catalogued xeno-type at the very height of the battle the Word Bearers had initiated. Only the superior mental conditioning of the Legiones Astartes could bear such a weight of betrayal and horror, and many of the surviving officers reached the immediate conclusion that their traitorous brother Legion had unleashed some form of xenos-terror organism as yet another weapon in their perfidious arsenal. But the Ultramarines had no chance to mount a coordinated defence of the flagship, for the enemy's numbers were simply too great. Human crew were slaughtered, their minds overcome by primal terror at what they were witnessing. Lithe, horned creatures congealed of the roiling energies of warp space, whose skin glowed like lava and who carried wickedly barbed long swords, butchered those too stunned or too slow to flee. Other incarnated entities included bloated, plague-ridden corpse-things, one-eyed and drooling and using rusted cleavers to hew the helpless crew like meat on a butcher's block. Still others were deceptively mock-human, lithe and fleet of foot, possessed of viciously sharp claws that they used to sever and stab and gut foes who were stood helpless and enraptured at their approach. These and a thousand other insanities descended upon the flagship, until soon even the shattered chain of command that had survived the loss of the bridge was gone. It was as if a scene of ancient, apocalyptic mysticism was playing out, and the Space Marines of the XIIIth Legion were confronted with nightmarish foes against which the laws of reality themselves held no sway. Chaos, bloodshed and anarchy claimed the interior of the Macragge's Honour.The battle devolved into a bitter struggle for survival as individual warriors were cut off from their fellows and swept into the bowels of the vessel or else overwhelmed and slaughtered out of hand. First Chapter Master Gage and Antoli, so far as each knew the only Legion officers still alive, did what they could to restore sanity, ordering the crew to go to ground, to barricade themselves into whatever compartments they could while any and all Ultramarines, naval armsmen and soldiers of the Imperial Army were to rally together. Even this ostensibly straightforward order was almost impossible to enact. Wave after wave of horror flowed through the entire length of the Macragge's Honour, witnesses later describing how the angles of the bulkheads and the spaces between shadows were seen to wrinkle and fold in upon themselves before snapping taut once more to reveal savage wounds in the very skin of reality. It was through these wounds, which later would be described as "micro-rifts", that the creatures came.Across the ship, individual Legiones Astartes and naval officers fought bravely to repel the invaders. Falling back on long-established counter-incursion protocols, they ordered what responses they could. Entire sections were purged of breathable atmosphere or flooded with toxic gas, while others were plasma-scoured or subjected to worked. The creatures came on and ever on, impervious to effects that would have scoured the ship of any known life form. Such failures were compounded because the vessel's internal command and control systems had been crippled early in the betrayal, and with so many senior Ultramarines dead and lower-tier officers isolated from one another, the same mistakes were made over and over. The Ultramarines' famed ability to analyse any challenge and reason their way to victory broke down entirely, through no fault of their own.Worse still, the creatures were able to shrug off even the heaviest weight of fire from the Space Marines' bolters and other weapons. They swarmed unharmed through hails of fire to fall upon the defenders with otherworldly savagery. The creatures followed no perceivable strategy or logic, and it was apparent they had no objective but to shed blood. It would later be observed that they appeared more to be culling prey than fighting an opponent in any conventional sense, an observation many others would make before the end.
Battle of Calth - The Killers Close In: Unknown to the surviving Ultramarines Legion officers or any of the defenders desperately holding back the tide of horror spilling through the Macragge's Honour, a hunting pack of Word Bearers cruisers was closing in on the flagship through the burning void. Though the Ultramarines vessel was far larger than the enemy war ships, the Macragge's Honour was not only defenceless without its bridge, but its crew could scarcely defend their vessel from boarders whilst fighting a desperate battle for their very survival within. The cruisers took up position about the wounded flagship, matching her now drifting, directionless course before firing close range boarding grapnels across the void, tethering hunters and prey together so that the boarding assault could begin. Within minutes, dozens of Word Bearers assault groups were crossing the gulf between vessels. The Macragge's Honour was heavily armoured against external assault, however, and although her outer skin was studded with scores of air-gates of all sizes, the enemy would have to fusion-burn their way in before a full boarding action could get underway.
Battle of Calth - Order from Chaos: As the Word Bearers breacher squads were to begin their attack on the exterior of the flagship, the balance of the battle for the vessel's interior shifted. Pockets of organised and stoic resistance began to coalesce, individual warriors drawn towards leaders able to command the fight-back by their own heroic example.Chapter Master Klord Empion, commander of the 9th Chapter, was one such leader, a warrior who was attending to duties elsewhere on the flagship when the bridge was breached. Empion was fortunate to have with him at the time of the incursion a large number of warriors and sub-officers from his chapter's command cadre. He quickly built this into the core of a force with which to repel the attackers, and which was soon reinforced as it fought its way along Deck Thirty-five gathering dozens of Legiones Astartes, naval armsmen and Solar Auxilia troops. Empion had no explanation for thenature of the attack against the vessel, but he knew that only a steady and determined counter-advance towards the forward sections offered any hope of linking up with other forces and holding the ship.Meanwhile, Captain Heutonicus of the 161st Company had taken command of a small band of isolated Ultramarines initiates only recently ascended to the status of Legionary. The first battle these young warriors fought was against a foe none had any inkling how to counter and for many it would be their last. It fell to Captain Heutonicus not just to keep his charges alive but to lead them in battle, a task in which he excelled despite the odds against him. Barely a quarter of the initiates fighting under Captain Heutonicus survived that day, but those who did were blooded in extremis and many went on to become warriors of great renown. But that was far in the future and numerous indescribable horrors lay ahead as the captain led his force through the fiend-haunted chambers of Deck Twenty in an effort to link up with other survivor groups.Of all the tales of courage and honour told of the defence of the Macragge's Honour, one frequently recounted is that of Sergeant Aeonid Thiel of the 135th Company. At the moment of the breaching of the flagship's bridge, Thiel was under censure awaiting a hearing with the Primarch himself in an antechamber lined with dozens of Lord Guilliman's personal weapons. Confronted by the first of the attackers, Thiel had reached for the nearest weapons to hand -- an electromagnetic longsword and a Kehletai friction axe, both impossibly rare and incredibly potent examples of lost weaponsmiths' arts. Wielding the Primarch's exotic weaponry, Thiel fought his way through a horde of foes, quickly discovering that the creatures were significantly more vulnerable to the effects of his axe and sword than they were to those of his bolt pistol. Thiel was gifted with the rare ability to think outside of accepted dogma, indeed, it was this very characteristic that had earned him the mark of censure -- the red-painted battle helm which he wore still. Thiel named the invaders "Daemons", recognising that they were something other than aliens, psychic manifestation or even some unknown xenos strain somehow able to reside within the Warp. He saw that they were creatures from humanity's darkest nightmares in a very literal sense.As he fought, Thiel came upon other warriors fighting back to back against the waves of attackers. He was soon leading an ad hoc force of several dozen Legionaries, armsmen, Solar Auxilia and even abhuman stokers determined to fight for their flagship. He made brief contact with both Empion and Heutonicus, and between them the three were able to coordinate an advance across several decks that would see them converge in the proximity of the conning tower, or what remained of it. It was near this location that Thiel encountered the severely wounded First Chapter Master Gage, saving the senior Legion officer from certain death at the hands of a warp-born horror that had already severed his right arm.Still fighting off the blood-taint of a warp entity's venom, Gage saw straight away that Thiel's methods were working and should be disseminated throughout the whole force. The First Chapter Master agreed with Thiel's observation that the creatures were more susceptible to melee weaponry, though he reserved judgement on the sergeant's theory that this weakness was derived from arcane rituals used to summon them in the ancient myths of humanity. Nevertheless, Gage was an experienced officer and wise enough to know that in his wounded state he could not lead the force effectively. Tactical leadership was turned over to Thiel while an apothecary stabilised the First Chapter Master, and soon after, the forces under Thiel, Empion and Heutonicus were combined.
Battle of Calth - Master and Commander: With the immediate situation stabilising, Gage was able to gather information from scattered Ultramarines forces and formulate a plan to retake control of the Macragge's Honour. The fate of the Primarch remained unknown and few allowed themselves to dwell on it lest they be overcome with grief and lose what edge they might have retained. Rather, the First Chapter Master ordered the force to make for the flagship's auxiliary bridge, located several dozen levels directly below the destroyed conning tower. This plan was in itself insufficient to gain anything more than the most superficial control of the massive vessel; for that, the skills of an experienced shipmaster would be required, and the flagship's captain, Shipmaster Zedoff, had been slain along with the majority of the bridge cadre.Here, at last, the fates looked kindly upon the Ultramarines. Mere minutes before the loss of the bridge, the Macragge's Honour had recovered a number of salvation craft ejected by the Sanctity of Saramanth earlier in the battle, and amongst the survivors was her captain, Shipmaster Hammed. Gage had no way of knowing if Hammed lived or had been slaughtered along with so many others among the crew, but he knew that in the veteran shipmaster lay the best, perhaps the only hope of regaining control of the beleaguered flagship.It fell to Sergeant Aeonid Thiel to lead the search for the shipmaster, he and his force making for the primary starboard launch deck while Gage and Empion led the remainder of the force towards the auxiliary bridge. The distance was not great and overall the tide of invaders was mercifully receding. Yet many of the warp entities were the equal of a Space Marine and some were considerably stronger, so that even reaching the launch deck cost the Ultramarines irreplaceable losses. When Thiel reached his destination, he found the deck swarming with the same crimson-skinned, horned creatures that he and his warriors had faced in such large numbers at the beginning of the battle. The horde was converging on a single point, which Thiel realised with horror was that occupied by the survivors of the Sanctity of Saramanth. Shipmaster Hammed had survived the destruction of his vessel and the manifestation of an entire army of warp creatures, yet even as the tides of horror receded, the last of the invaders were descending upon him.In an instant, Sergeant Thiel saw his chance to rescue Shipmaster Hammed, but he had to act without even a second's delay. He led his force out onto the launch deck, ordering sustained and rapid fire even though he knew the bolts would do little more than distract the fiends. But distraction was exactly what the sergeant intended, for as the horde turned upon this new threat, the creatures' attentions torn from the cornered shipmaster to the attacking Ultramarines, Thiel ordered the loading deck platform upon which Hammed and the other survivors were standing to be lowered. The Ultramarines had to keep the warp entities engaged long enough for the platform to deliver the survivors to safety and so they poured a relentless rain of bolter fire into the horde, all the while taking measured steps backwards towards the deck entrance. At last the shrieking horde closed to within metres of the firing line, and Thiel judged that the shipmaster was safe. With a final step back, the Ultramarines crossed through the hatch and the blast door crashed down. The enraged howls of the warp creatures were as loud as the impacts of their weapons and claws pounding upon the other side of the portal. Shipmaster Hammed was safe.
Battle of Calth - Servants of the Machine: As Thiel's force extracted Shipmaster Hammed, First Chapter Master Gage, now largely recovered from his injuries thanks to the superhuman physiology of the Legiones Astartes, led his own force towards the auxiliary bridge. The route took the column through an area of the Macragge's Honour that was the exclusive domain of the vessel's Mechanicum contingent; one that had clearly seen heavy fighting already, for the deck was strewn with the severed limbs and cyber-organs of scores of tech-adepts, Skitarii, battle-automata and combat servitors. Gage ordered his squads to slow their advance and to remain vigilant for remnants of the wave of warp fiends that had inflicted the slaughter, as well as any survivors that might be there. It was not long before signs of both were detected.At the heart of the area was a sacred machine fane dedicated to the Omnissiah. The chamber was counted as the holy of holies by the Tech-Priests and the only outsiders normally permitted to enter were Techmarines, members of the Legiones Astartes who had been inducted into certain of the mysteries of the machine. The chamber was sealed by an armoured portal two dozen metres high and from beyond this came weapons fire intermingled with the now all too familiar sounds of attacking creatures from the Warp. Gage saw he had no choice but to violate the sanctity of the machine fane, and while he held to the secular Imperial Truth and had witnessed the worst excesses of heathen religiosity, he was wise enough to respect his allies' beliefs as mighty gears engaged and pistons spat great gouts of vented gas as the brass portal ground inwards to reveal a sight unlike any other the veteran Chapter Master had witnessed.The interior of the machine fane resembled the inner workings of a great engine, a towering altar dominating the central space. About this was gathered a group of Mechanicum Tech-Priests of various Orders, each unleashing a relentless stream of fire into a circle of lithe Daemons capering about them. The incense and smoke-filled air was ravaged by volkite rays and pulsing waves of focused radiation. The attacking creatures, however, were all but impervious to the effects of weapons that could melt the flesh from the bones of mortal men. They shrieked and cackled mockingly at their touch, darting back and forth to deliver graceful, yet utterly deadly caresses with long, razor-edged claws. When the Ultramarines crossed the threshold into the machine fane, the creatures immediately ceased their tormenting of the adepts and hissed in sibilant challenge to this newly appeared foe.Where Thiel had ordered his Legionaries to fire upon the entities to distract them, Gage's intent was quite different. With a bellowed order, he called for bolters to be stowed and hand-to-hand weapons to be drawn. Combat blades, chainswords and bayonets were all brought forth and the First Chapter Master brandished the Primarch's own friction axe, which Thiel had passed to him, so that all might see and follow his example. Shouting the war cries of Ultramar, the squads advanced in perfect formation to engage the warp things in the measured fury of hand-to-hand combat. Razor-sharp claws lashed from nowhere to lacerate power armour and rend Legiones Astartes flesh, and in a dozen seconds the same number of brave Space Marines fell. But more Legionaries stepped into their place in the line. Face to face, the creatures were revealed as nightmarish mockeries of the human form, their faces both alien and androgynous. They were surrounded by a musk of cloying scent which threatened to overwhelm those battle-brothers dispossessed of their helms with lethargy or delirium.Following the Ultramarines' example, the tech-adepts cornered at the machine altar cast aside their myriad exotic weapons and took up their ceremonial axes and staves. Blurting binaric war-cant across the chamber, the magos ordered the battle-automata and combat servitors to add their weight to the fight, and soon the tide was turned.The wicked glee vanished from the warp creatures' leering faces as the realisation of their impending defeat came too late. They were surrounded, the Ultramarines on one side and the Mechanicum on the other as the battle lines pressed ever inwards. A minute later the last of the vile warp-things dissipated to nothing as their phantasmagoric forms were hewn apart by chainswords and pounded into the deck by the massive fists of the Castellax-class Battle Automata.
Battle of Calth - Order Restored: Having secured the shipmaster and the senior Mechanicum magos, the Ultramarines Legion had won a very real hope of regaining control of the Macragge's Honour. It was not until both Gage's and Thiel's forces at last fought their way through what remained of the warp incursion and rendezvoused at the auxiliary bridge that either knew for certain that the other had succeeded in their mission. It was a tense wait for the first squads to arrive at the muster point, but it was soon apparent that both forces had achieved their equally vital objectives.Almost exactly ten hours after the main bridge of the Ultramarines flagship had been breached and their beloved Primarch lost, Shipmaster Hommed, with the aid of the two most senior magos rescued from the launch deck, gained control of the vessel. The auxiliary bridge was activated and control of the mighty war ship invested in Shipmaster Hommed. Within minutes, vox systems were re-awakening and contact was established with Ultramarines units on the surface of Calth for the first time since the destruction of Calth Veridian Anchor by the Campanile. These facts might have been cause for celebration in any other circumstance, but with the re-activation of the vessel's communications and augur systems came still more dire realisations. There was still no sign of the Primarch, Legion forces on the surface had been worse than decimated and of the fleet that had gathered in orbit, barely one fifth of the original number of vessels were battle-worthy. Furthermore, only now was the full extent of the boarding action against the Macragge's Honour realised.
Battle of Calth - Miracle of Miracles: It fell to Chapter Master Empion to formulate and oversee a daring counterboarding assault, drawing on every Ultramarines Legionary his staff could muster. Forty groups, each numbering up to thirty Space Marines, passed through the armoured air gates and advanced on their designated targets. Each was assigned a vital objective, from sabotaging the enemy's docking towers, detaching their void grapnels and fusion drill heads, to counterattacking Word Bearers moving across the outer hull. Using void harnesses to bolster the in-built capabilities of Legiones Astartes power armour, the squads moved rapidly towards their targets, each step a Legionary took under the low gravity conditions powering him forwards tens of metres, each parabolic burn of his harnesses' thrusters carrying him high over the deep valleys and towering hills of the ship's exterior architecture. The Legionaries were dwarfed by the sheer scale of the flagship's form, a city-scaled landscape of iron and ceramite, the wounded surface of Calth visible as it rose above the port side attitude thrusters in a spectacle that under more conventional circumstances would have taken the breath away. But on this day of betrayal, all that the counter-boarding squads cared for was the survival of their flagship.The Ultramarines soon encountered their hated foe, for there was little possibility of a stealthy approach to battle in such conditions. The cobalt-armoured Ulttamarines had been observed as they traversed the slate-grey hull and soon mass reactive bolts were scything through the void on bright contrails. The Space Marines had been created for this mode of warfare and were equipped to the very highest standards, and so the battle was relentless and bitter. Bolt rounds which penetrated battle plate caused partial armour decompression before automated inner seals contained pressure loss, and even with a limb exposed to the vacuum, they could fight on for extended periods so long as oxygen reserves were not compromised. Soundless battle erupted across the hull, each Legionary able to hear only his own thunderous breathing and the urgent orders barked across the vox-net. When combatants clashed in melee, impacts sent victims rumbling away through the debris-strewn void, often trailing a cometary tail of blood globules and vented gas. Yet Chapter Master Empion's primary objective was not the destruction of the enemy boarding squads, as desirable a secondary mission as that clearly was to the Ultramarines. Three Legionaries in each squad carried a melta charge to sabotage the Word Bearers' heavy breaching equipment, and as the battle-brothers of both sides fought and bled, many of these specialists set to destroying the great fusion heads and boarding gantries with well-placed charges, many giving their lives in the process.At one such objective, the tide of battle had turned inexorably against Squad Six, led by Sergeant Thiel. The Word Bearers had counter-attacked in far greater numbers than anticipated and the surviving Ultramarines were resigned to extracting what vengeance they could before being overwhelmed and slaughtered. But such a fate was not to be and instead something that many later named a miracle occurred. From the void came a demi-god clad in armour of cobalt and pearl, an inaudible roar distorting his usually calm visage. It was Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, and he was as a raw force of nature, his usual measured demeanour driven out by cold fury as he slew Word Bearers by the dozen. As incredible as the fact of the Primarch surviving the destruction of the bridge was, what would mystify future generations of gene-smiths was the fact that the Emperor's son wore no battle helm. He had fought for ten hours in a vacuum without any apparent oxygen supply, a feat that even the preternatural physiology of the Primarchs could not entirely account for. Many accept that the body of a Primarch could withstand the effects of ebullism, hypocapnia, pressure-driven body mass expansion and extremes of temperature for extended periods. That a Primarch's body could continue to function without oxygen, however, is beyond any known capability of even these most awe inspiring of trans-human super-beings.The Primarch's intervention saved the lives of dozens of his sons. It fell to them though to persuade their gene-father to cease his furious battle on the flagship's outer hull and to rejoin his warriors within. The Primarch had fought for ten hours without respite, his sons believing him lost. Now he was returned to them, and for the first time since the beginning of the Battle of Calth, defeat and extinction did not seem inevitable.
Battle of Calth - Calth Besieged: Few records can accurately define when the killing began on the surface of Calth. Most historians assume that the Word Bearers acted as one, on the signal of the Campanile's death throes in orbit, yet information gleaned from necro-cortical probes and the few survivors of the fighting indicate that it was not so. Whether driven by bloodlust, the burning desire for revenge or simple miscommunication, many of the Word Bearers units began the slaughter long before ships began to rain down from the skies of that world. The most remote of the muster camps, established in the few remaining wilds of Calth, played host to a series of coldly executed massacres as the small contingents of Ultramarines, intended to act as hosts and emissaries of goodwill, were put to the knife by their erstwhile brothers. All along the northern coast, at the edge of the Satric Wastes, the Word Bearers built grotesque monuments to their treachery from the bones of their unsuspecting allies. Such actions cannot be truly considered any form of sane warfare as these isolated camps served only as assembly points that would spare Calth's cities any disruption due to the large numbers of the Legiones Astartes drilling nearby, and were mainly reserved for the use of the Word Bearers' late-arriving formations and thus served little strategic purpose. Much debate has been made of the reasons for these attacks, some attributing them to simple bloodlust or madness, while others see a malign pattern to these actions, ascribing them to some unfathomable Colchisian dogmatic practise.In more populous areas, especially those nearest the great cities and space ports of Calth, such wholesale butchery was absent. Instead, the careful scholar will uncover a number of forgotten reports which indicate that certain XIIIth Legion commanders and their entourages were eliminated some hours prior to the beginning of open fighting on Calth, no doubt falling victim to Word Bearers assassination cadres which had infiltrated Ultramarines staging areas under the guise of friendship. Such cadres rarely survived their murderous attacks. Even confused and shocked, the Ultramarines responded to violent attack with immediate and deadly retribution, but by then the damage had already been done and the rigid chain of command that formed the backbone of the XIIIth Legion was shattered.The savagery and perfidy of the Word Bearers' initial orbital assault left the Ultramarines and their allies reeling in shock. Their fleet had been decimated and was scattered across the Veridian System. Entire worlds within the system had been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Chaos Cultists infiltrated onto Calth by the Word Bearers in the months before the battle began as part of the build-up for the assault on the Orks of Ghalaskh attacked their former Loyalist allies in the Imperial Army, attempting to destroy them in the name of the Chaos Gods. The forces of the Word Bearers involved in the invasion of Calth numbered over 100,000 Astartes and included the traitorous elements of the Dark Mechanicus and fearsome Traitor Titans. Across the planet a brutal ground war soon erupted. The savagery of the Word Bearers’ assault threatened to overwhelm the beleaguered defenders within only a matter of hours. However, Kor Phaeron had underestimated the tenacity and resolve of the Ultramarines.On the verdant fields of Komesh the Ultramarines 9th Chapter died, its half-assembled ranks overrun by a tide of scarlet warriors and armoured vehicles under the command of Foedral Fell. Small islands of cobalt blue shone sporadically across the plains as individual companies and small detachments made brave, but futile stands with whatever weapons and munitions that were at hand. The fighting at Komesh was to be some of the bloodiest of the entire engagement, with upwards of 15,000 Ultramarines slain; the survivors, barely 5,000 strong, would later fight their way free under the command of Tetrarch Tauro Nicodemus in a running battle that would last almost twenty long hours. Further north at the muster camps of Erud, within sight of Numinus City, engines of the Titan Legio Suturvora scattered and blasted elements of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Chapters of the Ultramarines Legion.In the face of these angry metal gods, even Space Marines were as helpless as children, and hundreds died to each salvo the Titans loosed. Only determined resistance from armoured companies of the 1st Chapter forestalled the Ultramarines' complete destruction; Shadowsword and Falchion super-heavy tanks ambushing Titans as they strode unopposed through the retreating warriors of the XIIIth Legion. Though several Titans were grievously wounded by these attacks, only two Shadowsword tanks and a single damaged Falchion escaped the chaos within the muster zone, part of a column under Captain Sydance which fought its way clear of the massacre.On the far side of Calth, where night currently reigned, in the sprawling munitions plants of Dainhold, the Word Bearers drove screaming swarms of ragged auxiliaries against the warriors of the XIIIth Legion that had barricaded themselves within the fortified manufactorum buildings. Only when the Ultramarines' guns had run dry and the corridors of the manufactoria were strewn with the blasted corpses of the fallen, did Nur Asoktan lead the Cataphractii-armoured elite of the Flayed Hand forwards to hunt down the surviving Ultramarines. Outmatched and cornered, the warriors of Ultramar fought on with combat blades and improvised explosive devices, severing power to several facilities so as to use the darkness to their advantage.All across Calth, from the Satric wilds to the cities of Ourosene, the same brutally one-sided battles played out, the Ultramarines assaulted and overwhelmed by those they had expected to stand alongside them, their blood spilt and bodies raised as grotesque trophies. The orbital defence systems of Calth, hundreds of space borne weapons stations bristling with cannon intended to cripple the void craft of any attacker, were turned upon the planet by the Word Bearers, searing terrible wounds into the world and utterly annihilating any force of Ultramarines that had gathered in the open and leaving entire cities ablaze, their inhabitants nothing more than charred husks. Yet not all of the battles fought in the first few hours of the fighting on Calth were to the Word Bearers' advantage: whether by luck or some quirk of organisation, a few Loyalist units were not caught unprepared by the Word Bearers' treachery.The Word Bearers' assault into the coastal bunker network of Sylator Province was halted by a cohort of battle-automata from Legio Cybernetica Magenim. Severed from the direct control of their Mechanicum overseer by the dumpshock that afflicted many magos in the wake of the orbital grid's destruction, the battle-automata of the cohort fell back on the core-logic of their cybernetica cortex and responded to any potential threat, no matter how inconceivable, with deadly force. In the wake of the battle-automata's rampage, a regiment of Solar Auxilia, the 14th Garnide Heavy Infantry, secured the bunker complex and dug in.In the far north, along the icy shores of Thrascias, close to the remote location chosen by Erebus for the locus of his Ruinstorm ritual, a large force of Gal Vorbak butchered their way through the isolated towns of the region. The fate of those Calth natives captured during these raids is uncertain, but may be linked to the bizarre rituals undertaken by Erebus and other members of the Word Bearers command echelons. This obsession amongst the XVIIth Legion for the pursuit of seemingly meaningless religious rites over more practical concerns led to a number of setbacks during the fighting on Calth.In the Thrascian wilderness, their obsession with rituals appears to have contributed to the Word Bearers' failure to engage the two thousand Destroyers of the Ultramarines 2nnd Chapter mustering in the bleak region, or perhaps they believed that such a small force was no threat to their operations. Unlike other Legiones Astartes units, many of whom reacted with shock and some dismay at the appearance of the Gal Vorbak, an effect these shock troops delighted in exploiting, the veterans of the 22nd Chapter were long inured to confronting the most hideous and malignant xenos encountered by the expanding Imperium. Log excerpts recovered from the battlefields of Calth long after the fighting indicate that the officer cadre of the 22nd Chapter contingent, having no ability to confer with their fellow Ultramarines, made the assumption that the Word Bearers, either in part or as a whole, had been overtaken by some form of xenos contamination. Facing a threat they assumed was capable of suborning the potent physical form of a Legiones Astartes, the warriors of the 22nd swiftly deployed the most potent weaponry at their disposal and the fighting in Thrascias swiftly became a hell of phosphex and rad storms as Destroyers and Gal Vorbak clashed in bitter, unremitting combat.At Barrtor, two Ultramarines captains of the 111th and 112th Companies decided to consolidate their commands with the forces of the Imperial Army and the Mechanicus in their region of the planet and pull back eastwards into the Sharud Province, since if they did nothing, they would be killed by the heavy debris falling from orbit following the Word Bearers' destruction of the orbital installations. Captain Phrastorex of the 112th decided that he would meet the Word Bearers' vanguard to determine what terrible accident had occurred in orbit while Captain Ekritus of the 111th would lead both Ultramarines companies into Sharud. Taking only a detachment of hisHonour Guard with him, Phastorex walked down the slope to the flood plain where the local forces of the XVIIth Legion had finally arrived on-planet. Phastorex observed to his surprise that the Traitors already had their tanks and their Astartes formed up as if to begin an assault. As Phrastorex raised his hand in greeting to his fellow Astartes, the Word Bearers opened fire. Phastorex and his men were massacred by the Word Bearers before they could even comprehend such an act of base treachery. Captain Ekritus witnessed the massacre, and was eager to visit his vengeance upon the Traitors, but was restrained from rushing to his doom by his Battle-Brothers. Then, again without warning, the Word Bearers' Traitor Titans began to open fire on their position.The shattered remnants of the 111th and 112th Companies retreated into the burning woods of the forest located east of the Boros to escape the Traitors' assault. The Word Bearers had coloured their Power Armour and their vehicles in the new crimson Legion colour scheme chosen in place of the XVIIth Legion's old steel-grey colours to herald their change of allegiance. It would not be long before the Ultramarines took to calling this new colour scheme "Traitor's Red," a moniker the Word Bearers relished. They had also adorned themselves with the abominable iconography of their new faith in Chaos, which their Loyalist counterparts saw as only further evidence of their corruption. The Word Bearers' Achilles and Proteus Pattern Land Raiders led their attack upon the Loyalist forces retreating before them. Captain Ekritus managed to find a position above the treeline from where he could see the vast hosts of the Word Bearers and their auxiliaries assaulting the Calthian towns along the river and the port of Boros. There were tens of thousands of Chaos Cultist soldiers, Battle Groups of Chaos Titans and endless phalanxes of crimson-armoured Chaos Space Marines. Ekritus watched in horror as the treacherous XVIIth Legion’s assault swept aside everything in its path.There were bodies everywhere as the Word Bearers advanced without remorse against their unsuspecting victims; civilians, troops of the Imperial Army, and far too many Ultramarines. Men lay dead with their weapons still sheathed or covered, cut down without the opportunity to face their deaths. Heaps of cobalt-blue Power Armour that contained limp Astartes corpses lined the roadways and arterials. Some had been stacked against fences and walls like firewood whilst others had been cut open and emptied. A few had been nailed to posts, or against the sides of buildings. Some appeared to have been butchered or even…eaten. This was not just war, but desecration. It defied and shamed the codes and precepts of all the Legiones Astartes, traditions that had been set down by the Emperor Himself. The Word Bearers had perverted not only the laws and traditions of the Imperium, but the basic moral code of Mankind.
Battle of Calth - A Nightmare made Flesh: Despite a few small victories, the onset of dusk over the capital city of Numinas appeared to herald the end of the Ultramarines Legion. In less than twelve hours, almost one hundred thousand Ultramarines had been slain and the Word Bearers controlled almost every major city and strategic target on Calth. With debris from the orbital massacre continuing to rain down on the besieged planet, orbital strikes obliterating vast swathes of the landscape and the catastrophic collateral damage caused by any battle between the Legiones Astartes, casualties amongst the civilian population were beyond nightmarish. Millions upon millions of Imperial citizens perished in fear and agony in the first few hours, and millions more continued to die as the fighting carried on. Indeed, the Word Bearers' intent seemed less to persecute the Ultramarines of the XIIIth Legion than it was to cause as much death and destruction as was possible.This design, for it was not simply bloodlust or madness on the part of Lorgar's sons, was intended to facilitate some malign psychic ritual on a grand scale. While the deeper religious connotations of these actions amongst the Word Bearers remain unknown to us, the immediate consequences are well documented by the few survivors of the Battle for Calth. Many accounts attest to bizarre aberrant weather patterns during the early stages of the conflict -- freak typhoons, unnatural aurora and cloud cover being the most prevalent. As the death toll mounted and the fighting spread, these phenomena became more pronounced and the first instances of manifesting warp entities were recorded. Such creatures were all but unknown to the Imperium at large, the subject of long discredited legend and the ramblings of delusional Astropaths and Navigators, and their appearance only inflamed the abject panic which gripped many areas, even affecting the ranks of the usually stoic Legiones Astartes. The emergence of these aberrant manifestations follows no sane strategic plan. Indeed, the Word Bearers seem to have treated their appearance as a vital goal in and of itself rather than in furtherance of their military campaign. Most such incursions are noted as occurring in areas where the fighting was particularly fierce or the death toll excessively high, where their rampages, whilst stunningly brutal, rarely impacted on the wider strategic situation.Not only were the surviving Loyalist elements tormented by the depredations of the Word Bearers' tenebrous allies, but also by the deterioration of the situation in the Veridia System. The Word Bearers had turned the full destructive capability of the Calth orbital defence platforms, as well as the formidable firepower of their own fleet, against the system's sun itself and the resulting flare in solar radiation was beginning to take its toll on the warriors on Calth's surface. Those not shielded from the sun's glare or protected by the augmented physiology of the Legiones Astartes, were soon blistered and burned, and most would later to succumb to extreme radiation poisoning. Only those scant enclaves that were within one of the few shielded structures still held by the Loyalists escaped this lingering death, though few who still lived could see this as anything but a temporary reprieve.
Battle of Calth - Desperate Hope: The Grand Cruiser Antrodamicus survived its unpowered fall through Calth's atmosphere from orbit largely intact, but its blazing bulk demolished a large swathe of the once teeming city of Kalkas Fortalice, clearing a patch two and a half kilometres wide. Meteoric debris continued to rain down from the sky all around it, bombarding the city and the surrounding landscape. Fortunately, Magos Tawren managed to flee the destruction of the Watchtower before the large vessel struck the planet's surface. Little information about what had occurred in orbit was available to the Loyalist survivors on the planet's surface.They knew that there had been some major incident in orbit that was raining destruction down on Calth, but whether it was an accident or an attack remained unclear. But with the orbital fleet yards gone and all Vox traffic scrambled, there was no way for the remaining Loyalist units on Calth's surface to communicate with one another or with Ultramarines command.Eventually, Magos Tawren and her Loyalist Skitarii forces managed to consolidate with the surviving Ultramarines of the 4th Company, including their commander, Captain Remus Ventanus. Assessing their desperate situation, Ventanus realised he had a vast horde of Chaos Cultists arrayed against his forces as well as hundreds of thousands of Traitor Astartes.The Traitors also possessed multiple battle groups of massive Traitor Titan war engines within their ranks. Magos Tawren suggested seeking refuge at Leptius Numinus, the old Imperial gubernatorial palace on the plains of Calth. Leptius Numinus possessed a non-active but functional data-engine as well as a high-cast Vox transceiver array.Though not currently operational, this equipment had been scrupulously maintained, and because the systems at the palace had been off-line when the Word Bearers began their assault, they might have been spared the scrapcode infection and electromagnetic pulse damage that had brought down networked communications all over the world. If the 4th Company and its allies could reactivate the data-engine at Leptius Numinus, they might be able to contact what remained of the XIIIth Legion's fleet in the Veridian System.This plan proved successful and the Loyalists reached the old palace. The commander of Tawren’s Skitarii suggested that they utilise their dedicated emergency manifold to power up the palace's data-engine and Vox assembly and contact other possible surviving Ultramarines, Imperial Army or Loyalist Mechanicus forces. Ventanus eventually established short-range communications with other besieged Ultramarines units. His situation was not unique. All of the Ultramarines on Calth's surface found themselves mired in the same predicament. None knew what had befallen their Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, or even whether he was still alive.Even as the 4th Company converged on Leptius Numinus, a large horde of Traitor forces commanded by the XVIIth Legion's Commander Morpal Cxir had already encircled the palace and launched an attack against its small group of valiant defenders. The Word Bearers used their vast hordes of Chaos Cultists as human fodder, driving them forward as they protected themselves from any significant counterattack.Terrible carnage was inflicted upon the Loyalist defenders by packs of horrific daemons summoned from the Empyrean as they punched through any breaks within the defensive line. As the assault grew more fierce, the defenders of Leptius Numinus prepared to sell their lives dearly, but they were spared from that dark fate by the timely arrival of the 4th Company and its heavy armour support.The reinforcements bolstered the defenders' resolve as they tore into the ranks of the Traitors and decimated their ranks. In the meantime, Tawren attempted to reactivate the data-engine and establish full communications with the remains of the Loyalists' fleet. Yet, Vetanus knew that although they were strong in spirit and well-armed, their forces could not hope to repel the Traitors' attacks indefinitely. It was only a matter of hours before the defenders' position would be overrun and everyone was slaughtered.Despite the brutality of the Word Bearers' assault, Tawren focused on her duties and managed to reactivate the dormant data-engine. With it, she was able to gather a clearer picture of the situation, especially the truly catastrophic scale of the losses: the enormous death toll, the systematic annihilation of the Ultramarines’ fleet, millions slain and entire cities aflame as burning debris plowed into the surface of Calth from orbit.Ventanus finally managed to contact Roboute Guilliman and provide him with a picture of what remained of the Loyalist ground forces on Calth. As many as 30,000 Ultramarines Battle-Brothers and 200,000 Imperial Army and Mechanicus warriors were still active in hundreds of scattered pockets of fierce resistance.Coordinated, they could achieve more than if they continued to fight alone and unsupported. In any other circumstances, Calth would have been declared lost to the Traitors, but the XIIIth Legion's fierce resolve prevented them from giving into despair. Roboute Guilliman believed that the situation could be salvaged and the Word Bearers made to pay a price that they had not expected.
Battle of Calth - Desperate Gambit: Fortunately, amidst all this negative information, somehow Magos Tawren managed to discover a killcode that her former mentor Hesst had hidden within a secure data-engine at the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard that had then been closed off from the rest of Calth's planetary network. This data-engine was the manifest Cogitator of the Cargo Handling Guild, which was located in a secured bunker in the industrial zone between Numinus Starport and the Lanshear landing grounds. It was responsible for running cargo operations for both Numinus and Lanshear, and thus was more than powerful enough to manage the data load of the planetary weapons grid.As a civilian Cogitator, it was not a primary military target during the Word Bearers' initial assault and Hesst had been able to take advantage of this before his death. Though he had suffered from the painful overload of the data-shock that was killing him, Hesst had managed to clean this data-engine with his killcode and then keep it severed from the broader planetary network. Contacting Guilliman aboard his flagship, the Macragge's Honour, Ventanus apprised his Primarch of the new developments.He informed him that the enemy was controlling Calth's planetary defence grid using a captured data-engine on one of the surviving orbital platforms at the Zetsun Verid Yard. Magos Tawren would be able to purge the system of the Word Bearers scrapcode using this Cogitator, but could not access the Cargo Handling Guild's data-engine while the Word Bearers remained in control of the platform. They would need assistance from the Ultramarines in orbit in order to gain control of the platform and perform the purge of the planetary weapons grid.Several plans were debated aboard the Macragge's Honour by the Ultramarines' commanders. Shipmaster Hommed recommended a ranged bombardment of the platform using the flagship's main weaponry. The Macragge’s Honour certainly possessed the needed firepower. Chapter Master Marius Gage seconded the suggestion. But if they did not make a direct kill of the Word Bearers holding the platform with the first salvo, there was a real danger that the enemy would retaliate using the planetary defence grid and finish off the Ultramarines' flagship. Chapter Master Klord Empion of the 9th Chapter opted instead for a close attack plan: bring the flagship back to full power, throw off the enemy Cruisers surrounding it and head straight for the orbital platform and eliminate it at close range, by ramming if necessary. Unfortunately, the moment the massive flagship began to move it would again become a target for a planetary weapons grid that could annihilate it all too easily. Finally, Chapter Master Gage’s alternative plan was considered: reroute all of the crippled warship's available power into its teleporter system and teleport a Kill-squad of Ultramarines, possibly two if the power lasted, directly to the Zesun Verid Yard to take control of the orbital platform from within.Led by Roboute Guilliman himself, the first Kill-squad of 50 Ultramarines assembled at the flagship’s teleportation terminal. The transverse assembly deck of the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard was their chosen teleport destination. It was the largest interior space on the orbital platform, and thus made it less likely that imprecision in the teleport would lead to a large number of deaths. Their assault target was the Zetsun Verid Yard’s master control room, two decks up from the transverse assembly deck. Given the risk factor and the atrocious error margins of teleporter arrays, the teleport was considered a success. 46 members of the Kill-squad appeared with Guilliman on the transverse assembly deck of Zetsun Verid Yard. Only 4 Battle-Brothers had been lost during the transition and failed to rematerialise.The Kill-squad immediately encountered heavy resistance from the Word Bearers, but with Roboute Guilliman at the fore, the enemy forces balked before the sheer killing power of an enraged son of the Emperor. With righteous fury the Primarch killed over a dozen Word Bearers single-handedly, including the daemon-possessed Astartes of the Word Bearers' vaunted Gal Vorbak. Though 8 Ultramarines were lost in the assault, the Kill-squad managed to break through into the master control room. A heavy barrage of Bolter fire greeted them as the real fight awaited. Within was the XVIIth Legion's First Captain Kor Phaeron, Black Cardinal and Master of the Faith, who ordered his men forward. Then he flew at Guilliman, summoning forth blasphemous energies from the Warp to assault the Primarch. Guilliman roared his challenge and charged.
Battle of Calth - Final Assault: Simultaneously on the beleaguered surface of Calth, the 4th Company struck along the Ketar Transit, a main access route that linked the container storage area to the northern facilities of the port at Lanshear. Their target was the data-engine of the Cargo Handling Guild located in the bunker system below the majestic edifice of the guildhall.Ventanus led the foot advance across the broken streets himself, behind a column of Land Raiders. Word Bearers Astartes rose up to block the Loyalists' advance. Instead of overwhelming the Loyalist forces with well-directed firepower which might have broken or turned Ventanus’s charge, the Word Bearers simply waited for the inevitable clash of close combat. They relished the prospect of testing their Chaos-corrupted blades against the vaunted Ultramarines in hand-to-hand combat.The Traitors wanted to prove themselves against the Astartes who had been held up to them so many times as the models of what it meant to be Space Marines. The charging cobalt-blue warriors of the Ultramarines met the solid crimson line of the Word Bearers with a crash. The fighting proved both brutal and unforgiving with neither side asking for, nor receiving, any kind of quarter.Reaching the guildhall, Ventanus leapt the barricades, leading the assault forward. He tore into the fleeing Chaos Cultists who shrieked in fear at the prospect of facing the fierce Astartes officer. As the Ultramarines moved forward into the building they continued to be pounded by the XVIIth Legion's artillery and heavy weapons. Reaching the Cogitator that was their goal, Magos Tawren attempted to connect into it and upload the kill code that would shut down the planetary defence grid.As the magos concentrated on gaining access to Calth's planetary defence system, the Loyalists' fate took a turn for the worst. The forces of the XVIIth Legion's Commander Hol Beloth descended upon the guildhall with a vengeance. He had come to punish the hated Ultramarines with a force of Traitor Titans, the Word Bearers' Terminator-armoured Cataphractii and the dreaded daemon-possessed Astartes of the Gal Vorbak.The situation became grim for the Loyalists. Traitor Titans continued to fire upon the guildhall until its very foundations began to shake from the constant pounding. Ventanus checked with Tawren for a status update, but progress was slow as the magos attempted to establish her cybernetic neural connection with the server.The situation outside was rapidly deteriorating as armoured columns in service to the Word Bearers moved into position and began firing at the Loyalists with a hail of shells and laser fire. Two Traitor Reaver-class Titans approached at full stride, intent on annihilating the servants of the Emperor. With the majority of his allied commanders already dead, Ventanus knew that his company line was all but broken.The Ultramarines of the 4th Company had done all that they could do, for they could not stand against the overwhelming strength of Hol Beloth’s offensive. The weapons fire intensified as the Titans continued to pound the guildhall. Tawren finally managed to upload the kill code into Calth's network so that she could prepare to purge the planetary data system and wrest control back of the defence grid. But until that control had been wrested away from the enemy, there was nothing that she could do to aid the shrinking force of Loyalists.As the Titans moved closer to the guildhall, the last Shadowsword accompanying the 4th Company fired and damaged one of the striding giants, but the pair of Titans returned fire in unison, destroying the super-heavy tank in a vast conflagration of Titan-grade weapons fire. Ventanus knew then that their attempt had all been for naught. The Traitors of the XVIIth Legion had seemingly won the Battle of Calth.
Battle of Calth - Back From the Brink: High above Calth, in the master control room of the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard, Roboute Guilliman confronted Kor Phaeron. Instead of fighting the Primarch in honourable combat, the Word Bearers' First Captain resorted to using the sorcerous abilities granted him by the Chaos Gods, slamming the Primarch of the XIIIth Legion against the chamber wall with a column of wretched, living darkness that burst forth from the palm of his right hand.Though shaken, the Primarch rose to his feet to face his attacker. Guilliman charged once more but was slammed back into a bulkhead by another powerful dark beam of eldritch power. Guilliman attempted to stand, staggered, then fell. The force of the Black Cardinal’s blow had been so vicious that the Ceramite of the Primarch’s breastplate was cracked. Guilliman coughed and blood dripped from his mouth. He attempted to stand once more.Kor Phaeron blasted him once more, this time with a strange negative electrical charge that caused Guilliman to seize as if he had been caught in a violent fit. The Primarch was left on his hands and knees, his whole form smouldering, his head bowed. The Word Bearers' Black Cardinal drew a Chaos dagger known as an Athame and stepped forward, the Primarch's fate in his hands. He had the opportunity to end the life of the great Primarch or, with his own hand, turn him to the Warmaster's cause.Just as the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus had turned the Warmaster to the service of the Dark Gods on Davin's moon, so too, would Kor Phaeron achieve the impossible and bring another Primarch over to the service of Chaos. One cut of the Chaos-corrupted blade would damage Guilliman's sanity whilst Kor Phaeron took advantage of his weakened state, and slowly sliced away the inhibitions that kept him loyal to the False Emperor. It would be a fitting revenge for the Ultramarines' actions on Khur, to return to the court of Lorgar and Horus with Roboute Guilliman as a willing and pliant ally in their Great Betrayal.The vile Word Bearer stepped forth beside the wounded Primarch and put the blade of the Athame to Guilliman’s throat. The Primarch grunted through clenched teeth as the foul blade bit. Kor Phaeron attempted to cajole Guilliman into giving up and joining the blessed cause of the Dark Gods against the False Emperor. Guilliman only muttered in reply.With every single word an effort, the Primarch explained to the Black Cardinal that he had made a grave error, for he had chosen to toy with a Primarch rather than kill him. The arrogant Word Bearer merely smiled, confident in his inevitable triumph. Guilliman made Kor Phaeron pay for his hubris. Though its energy field had long since shorted out and failed, Guilliman buried his armoured Power Fist in the Black Cardinal's chest and ripped out one of his black, beating hearts.As one of the Ultramarines sergeants rushed to the wounded Primarch's aid, Guilliman ordered the sergeant to forget about him for the moment and to kill the planetary data network. Unable to figure out how to shut down the data-engines, Guilliman ordered the sergeant to shoot it. But the sergeant was out of ammunition, and so he unleashed his Power Sword instead in a shower of sparks and electrical fire.On Calth's surface, the remnants of the 4th Company prepared to face their doom, defiant to the very end. The bunker 300 metres below the guildhall trembled as it was continuously struck by devastating salvos of enemy fire. Suddenly, Magos Tawren informed her Ultramarines allies that their circumstances had drastically changed – two Loyalist Titans had vectored into the fight. One of them had already made a kill against one of the Word Bearers Traitor Titans. Reinforcements had arrived to supplement the beleaguered 4th Company. The reinforcements exploded into the Lanshear Belt from the east, fast and mobile. One of the four governing Ultramarines Tetrarchs of Ultramar, Eikos Lamiad, the Primarch’s Champion, lead a ragged host of Imperial soldiery collected from the desert and the burning hills around the Holophusikon.The reinforcements included a column of Land Raiders and other armour supported by three Titans: two Reavers and a massive Warlord-class Titan. An infantry force followed, moving rapidly. This force included mostly Ultramarines and Mechanicus Skitarii elements from Barrtor and the Sharud muster, but there were 20,000 Imperial Army troops as well, bringing lighter armoured vehicles and support weapons to bear. The relief force formed two prongs of assault. One was a Legion force led by a sergeant of the 112th Company named Anchise, and a captain of the 19th Company called Aethon. The other was predominantly composed of Imperial Army troops commanded by a Colonel Bartol of the 41st Neride Regiment, but it was now under the direct command of Eikos Lamiad and a lumbering Ultramarines Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.Hol Beloth’s Traitor forces flinched at the unbridled force of Loyalists' coordinated assault. Beloth had not believed that the shattered survivors of the XIIIth Legion would be able to organise a concerted response with such precision and effect. The assembled survivors of the Calth Atrocity soon expressed their fury and their vengeance against the Traitors of the XVIIth Legion, inflicting massive damage upon the enemy. Despite their efforts, Tawren still lacked the necessary control over the planetary data network to unleash the kill code.Without warning, the planetary network was suddenly released from the Word Bearers' control by the events unfolding simultaneously in orbit and the swift strike of a Power Sword. The magos received the message: Control Suspended (engine failure). She did not hesitate to upload the kill code directly into the planetary data system which quickly burned through the corrupted numerics of the Octed scrapcode and allowed her to take full control of Calth's planetary defence grid.She then ordered the orbital defence platforms to launch a devastating weapon strike upon the Traitor forces at Lanshear. Server Tawren informed all the Loyalists surrounding the guildhall to brace for impact. A column of deadly vertical light then struck the city-zone around the guildhall in the northern depot area of Lanshear as the orbital platforms unleashed a tactical nuclear strike against the Traitors.It reduced Traitor Titans, armoured vehicles, Chaos Cult auxiliary and Word Bearers infantry formations to so much ash within only seconds. However, the weapon strike occurred less than half a kilometre from where the Loyalists had taken shelter from the coming impact.Yet, the Ultramarines and Imperial Army forces remained untouched, though some eardrums had burst and many Imperial Army troops suffered radiation burns to any exposed skin. Hot ash plastered the rain-soaked Power Armour of the Space Marines, spattering them with the remnants of their enemies. Ironically, the Ultramarines' ash-covered armour soon appeared a gun-metal grey, the old livery of the Loyalist XVIIth Legion.Magos Tawren next redeployed the defence grid elements available to her, hitting other surface targets. Simultaneously, she re-tasked the orbital platforms and began to systematically exact punishment upon the Word Bearers' fleet. It was now the crimson-hulled warships of the XVIIth Legion that were annihilated one by one. The dynamic of the entire battle had finally shifted in the Ultramarines' favour.
Battle of Calth - Pyrrhic Victory: High above, in orbit above Calth, Roboute Guilliman and his Kill-squad attempted to extract themselves from the burning master control room of the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard. Flames and smoke rapidly filled the orbital habitats of the yard. The remainder of the Kill-squad retreated, packed tightly around their wounded, limping Primarch. As they awaited transport from the inbound Ultramarines flagship, the Primarch looked out one of the orbital platform's viewports and was stricken by what he observed. Their victory had come just in time for them to stare ultimate defeat in the face. He and his Astartes saw that while they had controlled the planetary defence grid, the Word Bearers had turned its potent weapons upon the Veridian System's sun, destabilising it. The stricken star cast a baleful shadow as it prepared to go supernova, unleashing a cataclysmic stellar explosion that would wipe out all life upon the surface of Calth.Suddenly the Primarch’s attention was diverted when he looked below their position and saw half a dozen surviving Word Bearers carrying the bloody carcass of Kor Phaeron. Somehow, the wretched First Captain of the XVIIth Legion remained alive despite the fact that Guilliman had torn out his primary heart. Drawing their Bolters, the Ultramarines fired upon the retreating Word Bearers, just as their forms shimmered and vanished in a cascade of teleporter energy.Guilliman contacted Chapter Master Gage aboard the Macragge’s Honour, and ordered him to hunt down the Infidus Imperator at all costs. He did not want Kor Phaeron to escape his ultimate fate to plague the Imperium once more. Though worried about his Primarch’s well-being, Guilliman informed Gage that they would secure one of the Ultramarines vessels docked at the Zetsun Verid Yard. The Word Bearers Grand Cruiser Infidus Imperator turned slowly in the debris-rich field of Calthian nearspace, as the wreckage of countless starships lay dying in flames behind it. It engaged its main drive and began a long, hard burn towards the outer reaches of the Veridian System. As it accelerated away, the Macragge’s Honour turned in pursuit, beginning one of the most infamous naval duels in Imperial history.
Battle of Calth - Recruitment of Rubio: While the remnants of the Ultramarines and the Imperial Army were making their exodus to the caverns beneath Calth to escape the irradiation of the world's surface, the Ultramarines' 21st Company, under the command of Captain Erikon Gaius, were dug in at one of the railway tunnels leading to Numinus City.In the midst of their defence from the attacking Word Bearers, Nathaniel Garro, the former Battle-Captain of the Death Guard, arrived on a secret mission given to him by Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, to recruit Tylos Rubio, a former Codicier of the XIIIth Legion.At first, Rubio refused to abandon his brothers, but was left with no choice when in the face of the Word Bearers' overwhelming assault, he unleashed his dormant psyker abilities, saving his company but making him an outcast for disobeying the dictates of the Council of Nikaea that had disbanded the Space Marine Legions' Librarius corps.Rubio, with little choice, then left Calth behind with Garro in his Stormbird. Rubio would become one of the Sigillites Knights-Errant and later one of seven Astartes drawn from both the Traitor and Loyalist Legions who would form the founding core of what became the secret Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines.
Battle of Calth - Furious Abyss: At the same time that Lorgar had concentrated his Legion's offensive on Calth, a separate assault by the XVIIth Legion on the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge had been prepared, using a massive prototype Battleship specially constructed by Horus' allies in the Mechanicum before the start of the Heresy known as the Furious Abyss.Had it succeeded in reaching Macragge, the Furious Abyss would likely have annihilated the planet, the remaining two Chapters of the Ultramarines Legion garrisoned there, and the stores of precious gene-seed in the XIIIth Legion's fortress-monastery, the Fortress of Hera.Fortunately, the Furious Abyss was intercepted in the void before it reached Macragge by an ad hoc force led by the Ultramarines Captain Lysimachus Cestus and was destroyed, though at the cost of every one of the Ultramarines' lives.
Battle of Calth - The Underworld War: The Word Bearers' use of Calth's orbital defence platforms against Calth's sun destabilised it, tore away the outer layers of its photosphere and threatened to cause it to explode as a supernova. The Veridian System's star, its colour changing from a bright yellow to an angry blue as its internal composition shifted, immediately suffered a flare trauma, and shortly after unleashed massive solar flares that irradiated Calth with lethal levels of radiation and stripped away its once dense oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.The surface of Calth was no longer a safe environment for human habitation or any form of organic life, nor was it possible to evacuate the planet's remaining population in time. Therefore, Captain Ventanus sent out a warning over the planetary Vox and data network to all citizens, soldiers of the Imperial Army, Astartes of the XIIIth Legion, and any other loyal servant of the Imperium, to move with all haste to the subterranean arcology or arcology system closest to them.The arcology systems offered sufficient protection for the remaining inhabitants of Calth and their defenders to survive the wave of solar death that was about to engulf their world. This message successfully reached many millions of people who successfully took shelter within Calth's underground warrens, which had originally been built to free up more land for agricultural cultivation.It would take several Terran years for the remnants of the Ultramarines fleet to return to the Veridian System after the Loyalist survivors rode out the storm. Unfortunately, the forces of Chaos left on the planet also fled underground as well. Vetanus vowed that the Ultramarines and their allied Loyalist forces would continue to fight until every last Traitor on Calth had been exterminated. Thus began the phase of the conflict that would be remembered as the "Underworld War."Yet, despite the Loyalists' last-minute victory and the survival of the Ultramarines Legion and its Primarch, the forces of Chaos could consider their assault on Calth a success. The XIIIth Legion had been badly crippled and no longer presented a viable threat to Horus' plan to drive on Terra.Erebus had managed to complete his blasphemous ritual on Calth's surface, which summoned a Ruinstorm to the galaxy's Eastern Fringe -- a monstrous Warp Storm larger and more destructive than anything space-faring humanity had witnessed since the days of the Age of Strife. It would split the void asunder, dividing the galaxy in two and rendering vast tracts of the Imperium impassable for centuries.The Ruinstorm would also isolate and trap those Loyalist forces caught behind it like the Ultramarines, preventing them from coordinating their efforts and supporting one another as the Traitor Legions moved towards Terra. It would even prevent them from warning each other, for a time, of the Warmaster's betrayal and the civil war that had begun to consume the Imperium. The Ruinstorm would leave Terra alone in the void, infinitely vulnerable to the approaching shadow of Horus.Some of the warships destroyed during the Calth Atrocity would continue to circle the tortured Veridian star for over 100,000 years as frozen wrecks. They served as silent tombs for the dead, eternal funerary monuments to the greatest betrayal in human history.The Ultramarines learned another hard lesson at Calth. The Calth Atrocity represented the Loyalist Astartes' first sustained experience with fighting the Warp entities later known as daemons in realspace. The Ultramarines realised that their decision to accept the anti-psyker dictates of the Council of Nikaea had led to their voluntary surrender of the one weapon that might have proved most potent against the horrors of the Warp.It was almost as if the Traitors had known what was coming, and had orchestrated events so that the Imperium would voluntarily cast aside the only practical weapon it possessed against the sorceries of the Empyrean just before it was needed most. After the Ultramarines' experience at Calth, Roboute Guilliman sought to petition the Emperor for the revocation of the Edicts of Nikaea and the reinstatement of the corps of Librarians within all of the Loyalist Space Marine Legions.When the Horus Heresy ended and Roboute Guilliman initiated the Second Founding and the Reformation of the Imperium as its first Lord Commander, he would get his wish, and the Imperium would once more make use of psychic powers against the forces of Chaos despite the inherent dangers.
Battle of Calth - Martyrs of Calth: In the aftermath of the fighting on Calth, it was all but impossible to form an accurate picture of the losses incurred on the combatants. With the surface of the planet rendered all but uninhabitable by the actions of Kor Phaeron, it has since proved impractical to recover many of the fallen or verify the deaths of those who came to Calth with treachery in their hearts.The Ultramarines recorded their casualties at the moment when Guilliman and the remains of the XIIIth Legion fleet departed Calth at 119,422 Legiones Astartes fallen in combat, with a further 28,392 rendered combat-incapable by battle injuries and trauma. Few of the chapters committed to Calth could muster even a quarter of their nominal strength, and some were so decimated that they faced being reorganised into other chapters and their old designations removed from the XIIIth Legion's order of battle.Most of the injured were evacuated to the surviving craft of the fleet and swiftly returned to combat duties in the crisis that was unfolding across Ultramar, a crisis that forced Guilliman to order the prioritisation of military assets over the stranded civilians in the brief evacuation effort. Almost 40,000 Ultramarines, both wounded and combat-ready, were forced to remain on Calth, some as volunteers, set to the protection of those civilians who could not be evacuated, and others due to the brutal dictates of circumstance.Of the forces of the Excertus Imperialis, details are more vague, but it seems likely that at least half a million troops-under-arms perished during the fighting, alongside the entire fighting complement of the Legio Praesagius.Of the Word Bearers who landed on the surface of Calth, almost none would ever leave. It is estimated that 50,000 or more of Lorgar's sons and an uncounted mass of Renegade Auxilia troops were sacrificed in the battle, although only 20,000 are thought to have died in the initial fighting, with the remainder prosecuting the Underworld War on Calth for over a solar decade after the initial battle.Just as bitter to the Ultramarines Legion was the damage inflicted on its fleet assets. Never renowned for the numbers of heavy combat voidcraft in its service, the losses suffered at Calth were crippling and hamstrung any effort to prosecute an interstellar war beyond the bounds of Ultramar.Such was the Ultramarines' desperation, missions to salvage the hulks drifting in orbit above Calth were quickly authorised despite the death toll such missions exacted in the deadly radiation of the destabilised Veridia star.
Battle of Calth - Legiones Astartes XIIIth ("Ultramarines") Personnel: Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the XIIIth LegionTauro Nicodemus, Tetrarch of Ultramar (Saramanth), Primarch's ChampionEikos Lamiad, Tetrarch of Ultramar (Konor), Primarch’s ChampionJustarius, Venerable DreadnoughtTelemechrus, Contemptor DreadnoughtMarius Gage, Chapter Master, 1st ChapterRemus Ventanus, Captain, 4th CompanyKiuz Selaton, Sergeant, 4th CompanyLyros Sydance, Captain, 4th CompanyArcho, Sergeant, 4th CompanyAnkrion, Sergeant, 4th CompanyBarkha, Sergeant, 4th CompanyNaron Vattian, Scout, 4th CompanySaur Damocles, Captain, 6th CompanyDomitian, Sergeant, 6th CompanyBraellen, 6th CompanyAndrom, 6th CompanyEvexian, Captain, 7th CompanyAmant, 7th CompanyLorchas, Captain, 9th CompanyAethon, Captain, 19th CompanyErikon Gaius, Captain, 21st CompanyTylos Rubio, 21st CompanyHonoria, Captain, 23rd CompanyTeus Sullus, Captain, 39th CompanyGreavus, Sergeant, 39th CompanyKaen Atreus, Chapter Master, 6th ChapterKlord Empion, Chapter Master, 9th ChapterVared, Chapter Master, 11th ChapterEkritus, Captain, 111th CompanyPhastorex, Captain, 112th CompanyAnchise, Sergeant, 112th CompanySharad Antoli, Chapter Master, 13th ChapterTaerone, Captain, 135th CompanyAeonid Thiel, Sergeant, 135th Company [marked] - Thiel's helmet was painted red to indicate that he was marked for censure for running theoretical scenarios for combating other Space Marines - at the time, this was to satisfy his own curiosity and a yearning to account for all possibilities. However, due to the substantial losses amongst the XIII command personnel, Thiel emerged as a proficient leader and resourceful fighter. When the time came to organise the shattered remnants of the XIII into fighting squads, the new leaders were marked with the red helmet. This pattern continues to the present day.Evido Banzor, Chapter Master, 16th ChapterHeutonicus, Captain, 161st CompanyJaer, Apothecary, 161st CompanyKerso, 161st CompanyBormarus, 161st CompanyZabo, 161st CompanyAnteros, 161st CompanyHonorius Luciel, Captain, 209th Company
Battle of Calth - Legiones Astartes XIIIth Legion "The Ultramarines": XIIIth Legion records of the Calth muster remain highly accurate with regards to their own numbers, and place the total amount of combat-ready Legiones Astartes deployed by the Ultramarines at 185,923 Space Marines.
Battle of Calth - Line Chapters: Full deployment at Calth, all at a nominal strength of 10,000 Legionaries. These Chapters were concentrated around Calth's primary spaceport at Numinus City in western Erud:1st Chapter2nd Chapter3rd Chapter5th Chapter6th Chapter9th Chapter11th Chapter12th Chapter13th Chapter16th ChapterDeployed to Calth after seeing heavy combat in the Eastern Fringe, all at a nominal strength of at least 6,000 Legionaries and slated for full resupply at the munitions plants of Dainhold before loading for transport outsystem:8th Chapter14th Chapter15th ChapterComprising those chapters whose order of battle included large numbers of armoured vehicles, especially the 4th, known as the "Aurorans". These chapters were assigned to muster in the largely uninhabited continent of Ithraca:17th Chapter18th Chapter23rd Chapter4th ChapterKnown informally within the Legion as "The Eagles" and "The Hawks", the 20th Chapter having trained extensively for void combat and the 21st being renowned for the skill of its pilots. These two chapters were assigned to security duties among the orbital platforms and docked warships in Calth's local orbit:20th Chapter21st ChapterComprising the majority of the XIIIth Legion's Destroyer assets, and the stores of volatile and hazardous weaponry that characterised their operations. The 22nd Chapter, known as the "Nemesis" Chapter, was often deployed in small formations alongside other chapter units. At Calth, 2,000 Nemesis Legionaries were mustered along the desolate Thrascias Highlands, furthest from the densely populated cities of Calth:22nd Chapter
Battle of Calth - Ultramarines Fleet: Aegis of Occluda (Severely Damaged)Antipathy – Cruiser (Destroyed)Antrodamicus – Grand Cruiser (Destroyed)Antropheles – Troop Transport (Destroyed)Burnabus – Escort (Catastrophic Damage)Campanile – Fleet Tender (Destroyed)CavascorConstellation of Tarmus – (Destroyed)CornucopiaCourage of Konor – Carrier (Destroyed)Deliverance of Terra (Destroyed)Gauntlet of Glory – Battle-BargeGauntlet of Victory – Battle-BargeGladius – Escort (Destroyed)High AssentHope of Narmenia – Battle-Barge (Destroyed)Janiverse – Frigate (Destroyed)Jeriko Rex – Fast Escort (Catastrophic Damage)Johanipus Artemisia – Carrier (Destroyed)LutineMacragge’s Honour – Flagship of Primarch Roboute GuillimanMenace of Fortis (Destroyed)MlatusMlekrus – Strike CraftRemonstrance of Narthan Dume – Battleship (Destroyed)SamothraceSanctity of Saramanth – Heavy Destroyer (Destroyed)Solonim WoeSons of Ultramar – Battle-Barge (Destroyed)Spirit of Konor – Battleship (Destroyed)Stations of Ultramar – Picket Cruiser (Destroyed)Steinhart – Carrier (Catastrophic Damage)Suspiria Majestrix – Grand CruiserTarmus Usurper (Catastrophic Damage)Testament of Andromeda – Carrier Ship (Moderate Damage)Triumph of Iax (Crippled)Ultimus Mundi – BattleshipValediction – Carrier (Destroyed)Vernax AbsolomVospherus – Carrier (Destroyed)
Battle of Calth - Adeptus Mechanicus Fleet: Phobos Encoder (Destroyed)
Battle of Calth - Titans Legions: Legio Praesagius - "The True Messengers" - Long allied to the warriors of Ultramar, the Legio Praesagius deployed to Calth at full Legio strength, with nearly 118 god-engines landed in the southern continent of Ithraca prior to embarkation.Legio Oberon - "The Death Bolts" - Wardens of the newly founded Forge World of Anvari, a thrall domain of mighty Accatran, the Legio Oberon had undertaken to provide a demi-Legio force for the Ghaslakh Crusade. However, only two maniples of god-engines were to make planetfall before the arrival of the Word Bearers forces, grounding in eastern Ourosene and northern Erud. The remainder of the Legio's forces would not arrive until after the fighting had concluded.
Battle of Calth - Questoris Familia: House Vornherr - One of the largest Knight Houses in the Segmentum, House Vornherr was oathed to fight alongside the Five Hundred Worlds unto death. Aside from a small honour guard of squires and barons left on their home world of Luhnborg-IX, the entire Household, consisting of around five hundred Knights, were mustered at the Platia island-city in Calth's southern oceans.
Battle of Calth - Non-Astartes: Ollanius "Oll" Persson – Perpetual
Battle of Calth - Excertus Imperialis Regiments: Over a million soldiers the Imperial Army were mustered for the planned Ghaslaskh Crusade, including several established army groups such as the Calaq War Host, and nearly a dozen newly raised regiments from the various cities and agricultural provinces of Calth. Also added to the muster was a number of Solar Auxilia pattern regiments in anticipation of void actions against Ork asteroid-craft at Ghaslakh, including the much renowned 41st Espandor High Guard. Other notable regiments include:2nd Erud Ultima6th Neride ‘Westerners’Neride Regulators 10th14th Garnide Heavy Infantry41st Espandor19th Numinus21st NuminusNuminus 61st, Regular Infantry
Battle of Calth - Excertus Imperialis Personnel: Colonel Sparzi, commander, Neride 10thBowe Hellock, Sergeant, Numinus 61stDogent Krank, Numinus 61stBale Rane, Numinus 61st
Battle of Calth - Adeptus Mechanicus Forces: Kalkas Cohort of Skitarii
Battle of Calth - Adeptus Mechanicus Personnel: Uhl Kehal Hesst, Server of InstrumentationMeer Edv Tawren, Tech-Magos of AnalyticaeUldort, Tech-MagosArook Serotid, Master of SkitariiCyramica, SkitariiShipmaster Sazar, Captain of Macragge's HonourBohan ZedoffPelot, Tech-MagosShipmaster Ouon, captain of Sanctity of SaramanthHommed, Representative of Macragge's Honour
Battle of Calth - Legiones Astartes XVIIth Legion ("Word Bearers") Personnel: Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the XVIIth LegionKor Phaeron, The Black CardinalErebus, Dark ApostleArgel Tal, Crimson Lord of the Gal VorbakEssember Zote, Battle-Brother, Gal VorbakFoedral Fell, CommanderMorpal Cxir, CommanderHol Beloth, CommanderMaloq Kartho, Apostle to Hol BelothSorot Tchure, CaptainUlmor Nu
Battle of Calth - Legiones Astartes XVIIth Legion "Word Bearers": Of those who arrived under the banner of the Word Bearers, exact information is more difficult to discern, as many units arrived under false colours and forged identification signals. Based on the pict-recordings of surviving Ultramarines units and other sources, the following Word Bearers chapters are known to have been presnet, at least in part, during the Calth atrocity:The Exalted Gate ChapterThe Unspeaking ChapterThe Twisting Rune ChapterThe Third Hand ChapterThe Black Comet ChapterThe Osseus Throne ChapterThe Graven Star ChapterThe Asps of the Sacred Sands ChapterThe Flayed Hand ChapterThe Inscribed ChapterThe Trifold Crown ChapterIn total, it is believed that the Word Bearers deployed no less than 50,000 Space Marines to the surface of Calth, few of which were evacuated. There appears no tactical basis for the chapters selected by Lorgar to participate in the Calth attack. Evidence acquired long after the events of the Battle of Calth suggests that these units were instead chosen for lack of devotion to Lorgar's new path or because of dangerous instability. In this, Calth served as the Word Bearers' crucible, burning away those elements of the Legion which had failed to prove themselves adequately to their fickle master.
Battle of Calth - Word Bearers Fleet: Crown of Colchis Destiny’s Hand – Battle-Barge, flagship of Dark Apostle ErebusFlame of PurityInfidus Imperator – Grand Cruiser, flagship of First Captain Kor PhaeronLiber ColchisSpear of Sedros
Battle of Calth - Traitor Titan Legions: Legio Suturvora (Infernus) - "The Fire Masters" - Secret agents of the Warmaster, the powerful Legio Suturvora was deployed at full strength to the Calth muster with the goal of destroying the Loyalist Titan force. The Legio, comprising at least 130 Titans, was further reinforced by a demi-Legio of the Legio Mortis.
Battle of Calth - Traitor Axuilia Units: In addition to Legiones Astartes assets, a great mass of cultic auxiliary units that accompanied the Word Bearers which may have numbered in excess of half a million men-under-arms, though the proficiency and sanity of most was questionable:The Ushmetar Kaul, "The Brotherhood of the Knife" - Largest and most effective of the warp cults deployed by the Word Bearers to Calth. The cult force was, it appears, organised into between 10-20 sub-sects, each at least 10,000 strong. Recorded as engaging in the most violent rites before, after and even during battle.The Tzenvar Kaul, "The Recursive Kin" - Observed to number many thousands of Abhumans and Mutants in their ranks, ranking them as third-line troops suitable only for hazardous environment labour, forlorn hope operations and Zone Mortalis "clearance" duties. Largely wiped out by counterattacks when the Ultramarines regained control of Calth's defence grid and initiated a heavy bombardment of Traitor units from orbit.The Jeharwanate, "The Ring" - Largely wiped out by counterattacks when the Ultramarines regained control of Calth's defence grid and initiated a heavy bombardment of Traitor units from orbit.The Kaul Mandari, "The Gene-kin" - Very little is known other than that this unusual cultic sect was bound by some aberrant combination of technology and genetics to the service of the Warp in such a way that they believed utterly they would be re-born immediately after their deaths into a new and glorious form. Accounts submitted by Ultramarines units following the Battle of Calth and the subsequent Underworld War describe incidents of spontaneous mutation as well as the bodily re-vivification of the dead. These baleful creatures were impervious to pain and trauma. Killing the returned Mandari took bravery, discipline and concentrated fire.
Battle of Calth - Traitor Auxilia Peronnel: Criol Fowst, Confided LieutenantVil Teth, Gene-named
Battle of Calth - Canon Conflict: According to the novel Know No Fear, the Battle of Calth concluded just short of twenty-four hours after the Word Bearers launched their assault, a moment the Ultramarines later called Mark Zero, while the ground forces were evacuating the surface to escape the poisoned sun's radiation; however, according to the audio book Garro: Oath of Moment, the Ultramarines' 21st Company has been dug in "for days" following the initial Word Bearers attack.
Battle of Carrion Deep - Battle of Carrion Deep: The Battle of Carrion Deep was a campaign fought by the Executioners Space Marine Chapter against the then-unidentified, ancient xenos menace known as the Necrons. Responding to a series of frantic distress calls from Imperial deep-range outposts, the forces of the Executioners' 2nd Company found themselves in desperate struggle against an awakened threat stirring in the Dead Worlds near the Veiled Region on the edge of the Segmentum Tempestus. Discovering nothing but a trail of shattered ruins and empty bastions where Imperial watchposts should be, the Executioners were ambushed in the wreckage of the Imperial frontier base on the Dead World of Carrion Deep. Their attackers were terrifying metallic spectres whose weapons made a mockery of the strongest armour and who re-assembled and reanimated themselves even when blown apart. Surrounded and outnumbered by foes that would not die, it was only through the dauntless leadership and wise cunning of the Executioners' Reclusiarch Thulsa Kane that they were able to survive.Drawing upon the ancient chronicles of the Chapter for guidance, Thulsa Kane led the trapped Executioners in a furious counter-assaultagainst a single point on the enemy line. The Executioners grappled at close quarters with their monstrous metal foes where the Space Marines' speed and ferocity could be brought into play. Thulsa Kane himself sought out and confronted the enemy leader, a towering personification of death clad in blighted gold and tattered cloth. After a titanic clash of arms which left Kane's Crozius Arcanum broken and his right eye withered in his skull, he managed to strike the monster down, enabling his brethren to escape, and as much as many wanted to fight on to the bitter end, Kane's will prevailed. Less than a third of the Astartes force succeeded in breaking out of the trap their undying foes had set for them and retreated off-planet. This victory alone is counted as nearly miraculous, and brought back to the Imperium one of the first confirmed and detailed battle reports by a surviving force against the awakening ancient menace later identified as the Necrons. Carrion Deep remains under quarantine by Imperial edict.
Battle of Diamat - Battle of Diamat: The Battle of Diamat was a minor engagement of the Horus Heresy fought in 005.M31, shortly after the events of the Istvaan III Atrocity where the Warmaster Horus revealed his perfidy and openly declared war against the Emperor of Mankind. To ensure that the Traitors would be denied vital war materiel, the Dark Angels Legion deployed a small strike force to the Mechanicum Forge World of Diamat.They were to secure heavy Ordinatii siege engines that were held by the Traitor forces. Though the Dark Angels would eventually emerge victorious and secure these powerful weapons of mass of destruction, they would unwittingly hand them over to a supposed "ally" -- the Iron Warriors of Perturabo, whose secret allegiance to the Warmaster was unknown at the time to the Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson.
Battle of Diamat - History: When word reached the Dark Angels of the Istvaan III Atrocity, Lion El'Jonson and the I Legion were bogged down fighting a campaign against the Gordian League. Therefore, the Lion led a small war fleet of 16 vessels against the Forge World of Diamat, in order to seize Ordinatii heavy siege engines present there and deny them to the Traitors. He encountered some resistance from vessels in orbit of the world led by several Grand Cruisers loyal to the Warmaster's cause. After a fierce naval battle, the outnumbered Dark Angels prevailed with minimal losses thanks to the tactical abilities of their Primarch.The Dark Angels then landed at Diamat's principle forge-city, sweeping aside what little resistance they encountered from Traitor Imperial Army forces and a Sons of Horus company stationed on the planet's surface. This battle was made more difficult by the betrayal of the Diamat's ruling Magos Archoi and his Skitarii Legions, who sided with the Traitors. In the wake of his victory, The Lion ordered the destruction of the planet's primary forges, which annihilated the remaining Traitor forces present on the world in a great conflagration and denied to Horus Diamat's manufacturing capabilities.In the battle's aftermath, El'Jonson encountered the Legion fleet of the Iron Warriors, led by the Primarch Perturabo, who were on their way to Istvaan V to "pacify" the treacherous Warmaster. Unaware of their secret loyalty to Horus and his ambitions, the Lion unwittingly handed over the captured Ordinatii engines to be used against Horus, as he believed they would be more useful on Istvaan V than with the Dark Angels. This proved prescient, but not in the way The Lion had intended.
Battle of Faith's Anchorage - Battle of Faith's Anchorage: The Battle of Faith's Anchorage was fought between the forces of Chaos and the Imperium in the Agripinaa System in the days immediately after the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia in ca. 999.M41.The Heretic Astartes of multiple warbands and Traitor Legions and their mortal allies sought to destroy the fleeing remnants of Cadia's defenders among Battlefleet Cadia and the regiments of the Cadian Shock Troops commanded by Admiral d'Armitage and General Maximus Octavian Grüber III, respectively, but were ultimately driven from the system in the wake of this pivotal battle by the combined forces of the Imperial Navy, the Cadian Shock Troops of the Astra Militarum and the Space Wolves Chapter.
Battle of Faith's Anchorage - History: The Battle of Faith's Anchorage began after a mishap in the Warp sent a portion of the remnants of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Cadia and Cadian Shock Troops forces fleeing Cadia's destruction under the command of Admiral d'Armitage and General Maximus Octavian Grüber III in the wake of the 13th Black Crusade into the Chaos-invaded Agripinaa System, where they were ambushed by the warships of a Sons of Malice warband commanded by Agitor Kanath. The Imperial Navy forces had no choice but to flee, as they consisted only of a few troop transports and the poorly armed Claymore-class Corvette Lord-Lieutenant Berwicke and the Venerable Warrior, both warships of Battlefleet Cadia. It was their identification as Cadian vessels, however, that had drawn the Sons of Malice to hunt them. It was a Cadian regiment that had purged the Sons of Malice's homeworld of Scelus and exterminated all of its people, and the Chaos Space Marines were determined to do the same to every surviving Cadian in the galaxy.The void battle soon went in the Sons of Malice's favour and the commander of the Cadian flotilla's surviving ground forces, General Grüber of the Astra Militarum, deployed his remaining Cadian Shock Troops on a water ice and promethium-mining moon of the world of Morton's Quay, itself a naval reserve outpost, called Faith's Anchorage, to make a last stand.Before fortifying an abandoned mining facility on the moon with Void Shield Generators to force an infantry engagement rather than face an orbital bombardment, Grüber had Captain Zabuzkho of the Lord-Lieutenant Berwicke try and draw away the Chaos fleet to give his troops time to complete the fortifications. Zabuzkho did so and also agreed to try and reach Terra if his ship survived to warn the Imperium that Cadia had finally fallen. Unfortunately, neither of the Imperial Navy vessels managed to escape the Agripinaa System, as the Venerable Warrior was hunted down and destroyed by a Sons of Malice warship and the Berwicke was so badly damaged that its Gellar Field failed when it attempted a Warp jump, destroying the vessel in a great explosion. There would be no one to take word of the Fall of Cadia to Terra.The Sons of Malice fleet next began an orbital bombardment of the Imperial-occupied mining facility on Faith's Anchorage in an attempt to overload its Void Shields even as a warband of Sons of Malice Chaos Space Marines, supported by swarms of Chaos Cultists and cybernetic Mechslaves, served as cannon fodder. Though the Cadians successfully eliminated wave after wave of the Chaos forces' mortal troops, there was little doubt that the Heretic Astartes would eventually overwhelm the remaining Cadian defenders under General Grüber's command. Unfortunately, the orbital bombardment eventually brought down the Cadians' Void Shields, which, combined with the direct assault of the Sons of Malice, eventually wiped out Grüber and the remaining Cadian Shock Troops.However, word of the Sons of Malice's assault against the survivors of Cadia had reached other Chaos forces in the region and soon Chaos Space Marine warbands of the Sons of Slaughter, the Crimson Slaughter, the Black Legion and five of the other Traitor Legions had arrived in the system, eager to gain their own share of glory in the extermination of the last Cadians. At the same time, another Imperial Navy fleet, under the command of Admiral d'Armitage, had also been fleeing the loss of Cadia and been caught in the same Warp mishap that had brought Grüber and his troops to the Agripinaa System.Though d'Armitage's fleet arrived above Faith's Anchorage too late to save the Cadian infantry forces engaged with the Sons of Malice on the moon below, it did launch an assault against the gathering of Chaos forces. The suddenness of the Imperial fleet's appearance caught the Chaos fleet off-guard, and they were forced to engage the Imperial warships before they could retrieve the Sons of Malice forces mopping up the last Cadian defenders on Faith's Anchorage. While the Imperial warships were able to fire off multiple surprise volleys at the Chaos fleet, the Heretic Astartes eventually recovered and focussed their fire on d'Armitage's flagship, the Grand Alliance. The flagship took heavy damage and began to drift further into the Chaos fleet, where it came under even heavier fire, and was unable to pull away.Yet the Grand Alliance's salvation suddenly appeared in the form of the Space Wolves strike cruiser Stiklestad which attacked the Chaos vessels and bought the Grand Alliance enough time to withdraw to safer space. Together the reinforced Imperial fleet eventually defeated the Chaos void forces, and few Chaos warships remained to disengage and flee into the void.Next, General Isaia Bendikt of the Astra Militarum deployed his Cadian Shock Troops from d'Armitage's fleet to Faith's Anchorage and over the next two solar weeks eliminated the Sons of Malice troops who had been stranded on the moon. The Battle of Faith's Anchorage ended with the death of the last Heretic, but this marked only the start of Admiral d'Armitage and General Bendikt's ultimately successful campaign to clear the Agripinaa System of all traces of the forces of Chaos.Afterwards, General Grüber was buried in a colossal marble mausoleum erected on Faith's Anchorage. It was constructed near a starlit graveyard that held the Cadian Guardsmen who had fought beside him to the last.Chaeros was an Industrial World of the Imperium that was invaded by Abaddon the Despoiler's forces during the 13th Black Crusade. Imperial military forces that escaped the Fall of Cadia would later arrive in the Agripinaa System and clear it of the Chaos forces following the Battle of Faith's Anchorage. Once the system was cleansed of the presence of the servants of the Ruinous Powers, General Bendikt declared Chaeros was to be renamed New Cadia and serve as the new home for all Cadian survivors. However, it is not known if the Imperium accepted his renaming of the world.
Battle of Fordris - Battle of Fordris: The Battle of Fordris was a military action fought between the Orks of a WAAAGH! led by the Warboss Skullkrak and the Necrons of the recently reawakened desert Tomb World of Fordris at some time in the late 41st Millennium. Skullkrak and his Orks were easily defeated by the Necron forces on the planet, who used the campaign as a test of their growing capabilities to combat and conquer the "lesser races" which inhabited the region of space around Fordris.
Battle of Fordris - History: The Ork Warboss Skullkrak had led his Boyz to the seeming ghost world of Fordris pursuing rumours rife throughout local space of ancient alien weaponry. He had been hoping such tools could tip the balance in his ongoing campaign against the Raven Guard Space Marines' 3rd Company. But after weeks of searching, all he had discovered was that Fordris' seas were highly acidic and that its omnipresent sand got everywhere.Yet, in truth, Fordris was neither lifeless nor uninhabited, as Skullkrak discovered when the first wave of Necron Warriors emerged from the planet's blood-red seas. Brackish water streaming from their living metal bodies, the soulless androids strode across the obsidian sands, each marching in perfect unison with every other, save for where circuitry misfires caused an involuntary twitch or stumble. Then, as Skullkrak bawled and bellowed at his lads to "get 'em, ya slugs" the Necron phalanx came to an abrupt halt, swung their Gauss Flayers to bear, and the killing began.The first volley of viridian energy cut deep into the disordered Orks. Skullkrak, being somewhat quicker-witted than his followers, survived by hoisting one of the "lads" off his feet to use as cover. As a second torrent of flensing energy crackled into the Greenskins, Skullkrak threw aside his erstwhile shield and roared at his Boyz once more. This time, the call of the WAAAGH! was taken up across the length and breadth of the shoreline. Choppas flailing, the Orks hurled themselves into the storm of emerald energies. Such a charge would have been sufficient to freeze the blood of any mortal foe, but the Necrons were not so easily shaken as creatures of flesh. Three more volleys did the mechanical warriors fire, pitching dozens of Greenskins into the black sand -- but then the Orks were upon them.Skullkrak hurled himself bodily into the Necron ranks, swinging his massive war axe in a succession of brutal alloy-crunching arcs that smashed undying heads from shoulders, crushed rib cages and shattered limbs. Within moments the Ork Warboss stood alone in a sea of twisted metal, roaring his dominance over the foe. Yet Skullkrak's claim to victory was premature. Even as the last Necron fell, the regeneration circuits of the first triggered, drawing upon hidden power reserves to reknit broken limbs, repath critical engrammatic circuits and return the warrior to full function. Thus, even before Skullkrak's jubilant shout had finshed echoing off the cliffs, the Ork Warboss found himself surrounded once again by the reanimated forms of those he had hacked apart only moments before.Such was the scene all across the shore. Again and again the Orks' ferocity bore Necron Warriors to the ground, but again and again the fallen dragged themselves back into the fight. Decapitated heads were reclaimed by grasping hands, and severed arms scrabbled across the sand in search of sundered necrodermis bodies. As the momentum of the Ork charge faded, the Necrons began to hold their own in the bitter battle. Still acting in unison, the Necron Warriors hacked at the Orks with heavy-bladed bayonets and, unlike their opponents, the Greenskins that were struck down did not rise again. Only near to Skullkrak was the fight still in the Orks' favour, for the Warboss had taken to smashing his opponents into as many, and as small, pieces as possible to delay their inevitable reassembly.So lost was he in the joy of battle that Skullkrak did not notice the swiftly rising tide until its ruddy waters were lapping at his feet. The dynamic of the battle changed as the sea rose up the beach to swallow the sands. For the first time since the fight had begun, downed Necrons were failing to regenerate, as vital components were swept out into the seething waters of the bay. Yet the rising tide also sucked at the Orks' feet, making their footing treacherous. Worse, those Necrons that managed to self-repair did so hidden beneath the waves and many an Ork was dragged beneath the surface by grasping mechanical hands. Bellowing at his lads to follow, the Warboss ran back up the beach as swiftly as the drag of water about his legs would allow.There, under the shadow of the cliff face, the Orks prepared to make their stand. The waters below were quieter now. Only a handful of Necrons were visible above the waves, and a handful of sustained volleys pitched them beneath the surface. The Greenskins let out a cheer, but the raucous noise swiftly died away as, out in the bay, the waters parted once more and a slab-sided Monolith heaved its way to the surface. Gunfire scattering off its armoured flanks, the inexorable war machine glided slowly towards Skullkrak and his remaining Boyz. There was an ear-splitting whine, the crystal atop the Monolith glowed a piercing white and then all that was left of the Orks was a smoldering pile of ash.Far beneath the surface of the bay, in a vaulted stone chamber, two enthroned Necron nobles watched a holographic recreation of Skullkrak's demise. Rising, one banished the hologram with a dissatisfied wave of his metallic hand. "Combat efficiency remains at seventy percent of acceptable parameters. Further data is necessary to complete the required optimisation.""Indeed," replied the other, also rising. "Recommend activation of Mindshackle Cluster XD11101 -- humans will provide a suitable comparator." The first Necron nodded to indicate his assent and issued the necessary interstitial command. "It is done. If the subject performs as expected, we have three solar months to prepare."Shortly thereafter, three sectors distant, Tech-priest Dreicon Brudac began preparations to investigate a reported cache of xenos technology, located on an out-of-the-way Desert World known as Fordris...
Battle of Gyros-Thravian - Battle of Gyros-Thravian: Battle of Gyros-ThravianGreat CrusadeOrkWarlordGharkul BlackfangSpace Marine LegionsLuna WolvesDeath GuardImperial FistsGreenskinImperialIt was then that the Emperor Himself, aboard His orbiting flagship Bucephelus, came to the aid of His Primarch sons and their Astartes. He personally led a force composed of 1,000 Legio Custodes into the heart of the mighty Ork horde. Blackfang was confronted by the Emperor and killed atop his Gargant while the Custodians proceeded to lay waste to the rest of the Greenskin horde.The Custodians accounted for the slaughter of the Orks, slaying over 100,000 of the savage xenos, with the loss of only three Custodians. Following their momentous victory, the Emperor commemorated their sacrifice by engraving the names of the three fallen Custodians into His personal Power Armour.
Battle of Helsreach - Battle of Helsreach: The Battle of Helsreach was an Imperial effort to defend the vital industrial port hive city of Helsreach on the Hive World of Armageddon from a massive Ork assault that was a part of the great Ork WAAAGH! of the Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka during the Third War for Armageddon in 999.M41.Hive Helsreach was one of the largest and most populous hive cities on the sub-continent of Armageddon Secundus and an important strategic and industrial asset to the forces of the Imperium of Man.Hive Helsreach was the only notable port facility and refinery complex on the shores of the Tempest Ocean. Helsreach specialised in processing raw materials and crude petroleum brought in by ship and pipeline from the drilling platforms located off the coast of the subcontinent of Armageddon Secundus and the frigid Deadlands in the south.Helsreach also produced promethium fuel for half of the hive cities on Armageddon Secundus -- without it, the planet's capacity to provide fuel for its own defence would be severely hindered.The Orks unleashed a great assault on Helsreach at the very beginning of the war. Although the Greenskins' attack left the hive city virtually demolished, they did not succeed in dislodging the Imperial defenders before the dawn of the planet's Season of Fire, which forced both sides to abandon combat operations.
Battle of Helsreach - Prelude: Like many other cities on the sub-contients of Armageddon Prime and Secundus, Helsreach was not spared from the wrath of the Ork hordes during the Second War for Armageddon. At the time, the xenos were drawn to the hive city from the jungle where they had landed by its importance as an industrial port, as well as by the prospect of a good fight.Helsreach was devastated by the battle, but it was eventually rebuilt, and when the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka launched his second, far larger invasion of the world exactly fifty-seven standard years later, Helsreach once again came to the Orks' attention, thanks to these same qualities.Helsreach was a formidable fortress in itself, surrounded by vast walls as tall as a Titan, reinforced with artillery positions and dotted with anti-air battery emplacements that could strike all but the largest of targets from the sky. In addition to these fortifications, it also enjoyed the protection offered by the waters of the Tempest Ocean.One particularly notable feature of the city was Hel's Highway -- a colossal roadway linking the city to Hive Infernus, leading into Helsreach and splintering into lesser ways throughout the entire city.Whoever controlled the Highway could move armour and Titans twice as fast as if they had to stalk through the hive towers and city blocks. For all intents and purposes, Hel's Highway was Helsreach's chief artery, its lifeline. If it was lost, the city would be overrun.Imperial authorities were aware of the inevitable attack, and used what little time and resources they had to reinforce the city. Helsreach was garrisonned by the 121st Armageddon Steel Legion under the command of Colonel Insan. Sadly, however, the colonel died several solar weeks before the beginning of the war as a result of augmetic heart infusers failure, only six solar months after he had received them.His second in command requested to his superiors that Colonel Sarren of the 101st Armageddon Steel Legion take command of the hive city's defence. The 101st was stationed at Hades Hive, the place where Ghazghkull Thraka was stopped during his first attempt to conquer the world, the city being a shadow of its former self, still ruined after the last war.Commissar Yarrick believed that because Ghazghkull was defeated there, and since the hive city could not offer the Orks a good fight, the Ork Warlord would order the hive obliterated from orbit -- an assumption that later proved to be correct.Thus, Yarrick ordered the forces from Hades Hive to be relocated, and as such, General Vladimir Nikita Kurov, the overall commander of the Armageddon Steel Legion forces on the world, agreed to relocate Sarren and his forces to Helsreach.In addition to these and other Astra Militarum regiments, the city's defence force was bolstered with militia regiments formed from the hive's inhabitants, both volunteers and conscripts. The Imperial Navy contributed to the city's defence as well, sending several Aeronautica Imperialis squadrons under Commander Korten Barasath to battle Ork Fighta-bommerz in the skies over Helsreach.The city was further bolstered by the arrival of the Space Marines of the Black Templars Helsreach Crusade. The Black Templars came in great force to Armageddon, sending three crusades on the surface, and participating in the orbital naval battle, the purpose of which was to thin out Ork forces prior to their landing on the planet proper, totalling nine hundred Astartes.A hundred of those were sent to Helsreach under the command of Reclusiarch Grimaldus. The Space Marines, although expert warriors, proved to be problematic due to their outright contempt for lesser, "mortal" Humans, and due to their seeming inability to cooperate with other forces in the city to any reliable degree -- this largely due to their commanding Reclusiarch's humours.Grimaldus had been only recently promoted to the rank of Reclusiarch following his master's death, as the last will of his tutor was that Grimaldus take his mantle as Reclusiarch of the Eternal Crusade. The leaders of the Chapter parlayed on the matter and decided to comply. Grimaldus himself was beset by doubt as he thought of himself as unprepared to assume and perform his master's duties as a leader of the Chapter.As Reclusiarch he sought to emulate his predecessor, and lived in his former mentor's shadow. In addition to this, he was deeply dissatisfied with his crusade to Helsreach, which he perceived to be nothing more than exile.He believed that he would die fruitlessly on this world -- which was to be, in his opinion, the High Marshal's intention when he sent him there. All of this contributed to his disposition and influenced his conduct and the decisions he took during the Battle of Helsreach.The last of the Imperial forces to arrive in Helsreach was the Legio Invigilata. A third of the Titan Legion under the command of Princeps Majoris Zarha Mancion was stationed a short distance north from the hive city and was preparing to move out -- although the princeps had not yet decided whether the battlegroup would defend Helsreach, or if it would be joining its kin in the Hemlock region.When Grimaldus learned of this, he contacted Valian Carsomir, moderati primus of the Imperator-class Titan Stormherald and Zarha Mancion's representative to Helsreach, and demanded to speak with the princeps majoris. The xenos would inevitably bring their own Gargants into the fray, and without Mechanicus Titans Helsreach would be doomed.As such, when Grimaldus was refused, he decided to venture to the Legio Invigilata staging ground accompanied by several of his knights, and enforce an audience. When he arrived there, no-one sought to stop them until they reached the feet of the Stormherald, where a dozen Skitarii denied them entry.Grimaldus and his Astartes were furious at such treatment of the Emperor's finest, and were prepared to destroy the Tech-Guard, but in the last moment, the princeps majoris remotely ordered the Skitarii to stand down and grant the Reclusiarch entry.When Grimaldus arrived in Mancion's command chamber, she bade him plainly state his request. The Reclusiarch asked if she would fight for Helsreach and, for reasons known only to her, she agreed.Three solar days later the hive city shook with the steps of god-engines as the Titan battlegroup entered through the northern gates. The city was finally sealed and braced itself for the coming onslaught.And as night fell, the sky caught fire.
Battle of Helsreach - Purest Intent: As the preparations for the hive city's defence were carried out, the Ork fleet, the largest assembly of Greenskin warships to have ever beset the Imperium of Man, translated out of the Warp near Armageddon and engaged the combined forces of the Battlefleet Armageddon and the fleets of the Astartes Chapters engaged in the world's defence.The High Command's worst estimates expected that fleet would be able to deny the enemy landing for four solar days, with the best presuming nine. But as the space battle developed and the sheer size of the xenos forces was realised, this estimate was quickly abandoned.Despite the Imperial fleet's best efforts, thirty-seven Ork vessels breached the blockade, six of which made it through the orbital defence arrays and struck the surface. During the third night of the naval battle in orbit, one of these vessels crashed near Helsreach.The ship registered itself on Imperial auspex readers as The Purest Intent, a strike cruiser of the Shadow Wolves Chapter, created on the minor Forge World of Shevilar. It had been captured by the Ork raiders thirty-two standard years before the beginning of the Third War for Armageddon and appropriated by the xenos as their own vessel.Imperial Navy Lightnings under Korten Barasath intercepted the ship but it was apparent that their light armament was of no use against it. The strike cruiser burned through the skies over Helsreach and tore into the ground outside the city walls.Colonel Sarren proposed that the Orks that may have survived that landing be left alone, as in the end it mattered little if they were to add their strenght to the, infinitely larger, incoming onslaught. However, the city's attached commissar, Falkov, recommended that a Titan be sent to obliterate the wreck to give the troops a feeling of overwhelming victory even before battle was joined, in order to boost morale which he described as being "mediocre at best".The Shadow Wolves were known to Grimaldus, as he had fought alongside them eleven standard years prior against the Tyranid menace on their homeworld of Varadon. There, the Chapter was destroyed, as the last battle-brothers stood against the xenos onslaught.The Black Templars there were not able to break through the aliens to aid them, and Grimaldus could only watch as the last Shadow Wolf died, kneeling and holding his Chapter's banner high even as the xenos tore through him.Grimaldus had been greatly inspired by such a death that he could describe only as "beautiful," and it is perhaps for this reason that he offered himself and his knights -- all one hundred of them -- to cleanse the ship as a display of Imperial power.The Black Templars of the Helsreach Crusade were asked to stand at attention at the hive city's gates to allow for a live pict feed to be broadcast across the city. After this has been done, the Astartes sallied out of the city's walls -- the majority of them aboard their Rhinos and Land Raiders in order to hunt down any escaping xenos.Only fifteen Space Marines ventured into the wreck, led by the Reclusiarch. The Astartes did not consider the Orks to be of any significant threat and divided their forces to scour the ship in search and destroy pattern. One of the Black Templars, an individual considered vainglorious by his peers, strode ahead on his own and recklessly charged into a group of Greenskins -- unfortunately for him, however, one of the xenos possessed a weapon that could interact with an Astartes' power armour neural interface and overcharge it, causing the armour to power down and inflicting overwhelming suffering unto its user.The knight might have very well met his end at that moment, but for the Orks' inherent savagery and primitiveness. Once they brought the Space Marine down, they seemingly had no further idea as to what to do with the knight, and were instead searching his belongings for items fitting for a trophy, giving the Reclusiarch enough time to come to the warrior's aid -- rather fortunately, as the death of one of the vaunted Black Knights in this display of overwhelming Imperial power would have done little to invigorate the hive's defenders.Notwithstanding this occurence, the purging of the wreck was carried out with little trouble.As the Astartes emerged from the strike cruiser, Colonel Sarren voxed Grimaldus with newest tidings from the naval forces in orbit -- the Battlefleet Armageddon and the Astartes fleet were in full retreat, and the bulk of the Ork Roks were already breaking through the orbital defence arrays.This news forced the Astartes to hurry back into the hive city and take positions amongst other forces present in the hive.
Battle of Helsreach - Rokfall: Imperial forces were distributed across the hive city, and the Astartes took up positions amongst the soldiers of the Armageddon Steel Legion regiments and militia regiments. Colonel Sarren's own 101st did not take up posts on the walls, and instead garrisoned the central command spire and spread out in platoons to guard key areas.During the first phase of the siege the defenders would stand on the city walls and be ready to repel a disorganised attack. The Reclusiarch and fifteen of his knights found themselves on the northern walls, amidst the troops of the 273rd Armageddon Steel Legion, the "Desert Vultures."As the Ork planetfall began, hulks and troop landers streaked with fire from atmospheric entry came through the morning coulds and struck into the ground near Helsreach. Those that took a course too close to the city itself and in range of its guns were quickly obliterated by the hive's fury, raining down in flames into the city below.Commander Barasath's Aeronautica Imperialis fighters took to the skies, and although their armament could do little to harm the hulks, they were more than able to engage smaller alien craft that descended from their motherships. Several bold drop-ships sought to land inside the city itself. These were engaged and obliterated by the spiretop weapon platforms and gun emplacements.A few lucky Ork vessels that had realised their mistake managed to climb to a sufficient altitude to crash in the plains outside the city. Units of the Astra Militarum positioned throughout the city and selected for this very duty moved in on the downed hulks, slaughtering any xenos survivors that they found.Across the hive city, fire containment teams laboured to extinguish fires that spread from the crashed vessels. Some of the last pict scans sent from satellites prior their destruction showed that during the planetfall, a portion of the Ork forces landed in the Deadlands, the frozen south pole of Armageddon.This puzzled Imperial tacticians, as there was virtually nothing of value there and it was impossible to reach Helsreach with bombers. It was ultimately decided that the Orks must be wishing to create settlements there, and little further thought was given to their presence there.The grounded hulks disgorged hordes of Greenskin warriors who mustered in the wastelands outside of the city. Tens of thousands of xenos were arraying before the hive, while many more were still arriving in landing craft. Such was the number of Ork vessels that they darkened the sky.Grimaldus had correctly anticipated that after long voyage the Orks would be blood-crazed and would not even wait for their Gargants to make fall, and would instead attempt to scale the walls in other ways -- using Jetpacks and ladders to ascend the fortifications, utilising artillery to blow holes in the walls, or even climbing up by themselves.As the Orks began their mad charge, the Reclusiarch requested Barasath's planes to perform bombing runs on enemy heavy guns and turned to the soldiers around him. Even though they were veterans, a mere Human could not have stood unmoved in the face of such a tide of fury advancing upon them.Grimaldus delivered a firebrand speech to rouse the soldiers, calling them to stand against the contemptible xenos scum, and to cast away the wretches away from their city -- to great effect, as the Guardsmen were invigorated and ready to face the coming onslaught.As the Greenskins came into range, the city's powerful guns unleashed their fury, each of their strikes accurate, as with the sheer numbers of xenos in the field missing would be nigh on impossible. Thousands died in the barrage, and thousands more came on, ignoring the dead and trampling the wounded.The batteries reloaded and fired again and again, inflicting terrible devastation on the advancing army. Any other army would have been shattered by such casualties and fled the field, and it is perhaps a fitting example of the Orks' resolve -- and bloodlust -- that they continued their attack entirely unabated, and soon reached the city walls.The battle was joined as the Greenskins futilely attempted to scale the battlements, only to be cast down by deadly volleys of lasfire delivered in perfect unison by the Guardsmen above. All of this continued ceaselessly as the minutes became hours, and news came that the other sections of the city walls were now subjected to similar assaults.All throughout the battle, more and more bulk landers made planetfall in the wastelands, unloading masses of troops and legions of tanks. A portion of these fresh forces joined the attack already in progress, while many more remained away from the city, preparing camps, clearing landing zones and organising for a much more coordinated assault in the future.The xenos continued their attack until night threatened to fall, at which point they finally fled. Perhaps the great mounds of their corpses made them consider the futility of this attack, or perhaps some sudden realisation came over them that there will be greater battles to be joined later. Horns blared across the wastelands, signalling a retreat that, apart from this sole signal, was completely chaotic and akin more to a rout.They were pounded by artillery even as they fell back, but soon even the stragglers escaped the mighty ordnances' range, running back to their landing sites. Ork ships now covered the entire wastelands, some of them being as tall as the hive towers.The largest of these vessels disgorged the Gargants, the Ork scrap-Titans created in the visage of the xeno gods Gork and Mork. These would be the weapons that would bring down the walls, and these were the targets that the Titans of the Legio Invigilata had to engage.The hive city was safe for the time being, however, and Grimaldus turned to pursue a different agenda. During his briefings when he arrived in Helsreach, the Reclusiarch learned of a large number of garrisoned ammunition depots and stations out in the wilderness -- these were envisioned to be used when the hive cities fell and needed to be reclaimed.During his time amongst the Desert Vultures, however, he learned of a legend concerning the world's past. The Guardsmen told him of an ancient, powerful weapon buried beneath the sands.This news gave Grimaldus hope, for the first time since he arrived on Armageddon, and he decided to consult Master of the Forge Jurisian of the Helsreach Crusade on the matter.
Battle of Helsreach - Oberon: Grimaldus had learned that one of the stations manned by the Armageddon Steel Legion in the wastelands surrounding Helsreach was a sealed Adeptus Mechanicus facility. The Guardsmen were only positioned around the facility and had no access to its interior, as it was considered to be sovereign Mechanicus territory.Grimaldus was told that a deactivated relic from the First War for Armageddon was stored therein, but the exact nature of the device was kept secret by the tech-priests of Mars, and not even Armageddon's High Command had any knowledge of it.Grimaldus, like all of the Black Templars sent to Armageddon, had been schooled in the history of the world and its past battles, and possessed knowledge similar to the Armageddon Steel Legion officers.Unlike his Human allies, however, Grimaldus believed that the device impounded by the Adeptus Mechanicus was a powerful weapon, first constructed and deployed on Armageddon six standard centuries prior -- the Ordinatus Armageddon.Grimaldus had not cared for what caused the Adeptus Mechanicus to hibernate the weapon and, more importantly, to not deploy it to the world's defence. His only concern was winning the war and he believed that with this artefact Helsreach might stand a chance against the Greenskin onslaught.To this end, Grimaldus, alongside the Master of the Forge Jurisian and Adjutant Quintus Cyria Tyro -- Armageddon High Command liaison to Helsreach who was brought along to deal with the Astra Militarum personnel around the instalation -- boarded one of the Black Templar Thunderhawks and made their way to the station, leaving the knights of Dorn in Helsreach under the command of the Emperor's Champion, Bayard.The three of them descended into the vast subterranean complex which stretched several kilometres downwards and seemed to be completely vacant, with not a single guardian left to protect the facility. The Black Templars and the Human accompanying them went forward, stopping only at massive doorways blocking their path, and allowing Jurisian to work on opening them.Each of these gateways was four metres thick and it would be implausible to try to open them with force, especially since, as Jurisian noticed, such an action would be likely to activate the dungeon's manifold defensive mechanisms -- this being the reason why no biological or augmentic guards were required.The Master of the Forge succeeded in cracking the code safeguarding each consecutive barrier and forcing them to open, taking more and more time on each occassion as the code's sophistication grew progressively more complex the closer to the facility's heart they were placed.The penultimate barrier was opened a full nine solar hours after they had entered the facility, but then their efforts were rewarded. On the final doorway, inscribed in letters as high as a Black Templar was a single word -- Oberon -- the name of the hallowed Ordinatus Armageddon.This discovery, however, was of little immediate use, as the inner vault in which Oberon had lain slumbering was designed and built to withstand a direct orbital bombardment and to even endure the world being condemned to an Exterminatus, while the door was sealed with at least a billion individual codes.Jurisiad had declared that it would take him no less than nine solar days to overcome this safeguard, and requested for his servitors to be sent to him to assist in the task.Unable to help the Techmarine in any other way, Grimaldus and Tyro returned to the surface, and on their way back to the hive city they had received the news of Ghazghkull's most recent move -- true to Yarrick's predictions, the Ork had ordered Hades Hive to be obliterated from orbit.
Battle of Helsreach - True Storm: Zarha Mancion, the Crone of the Legio Invigilata, soon learned about the Reclusiarch's exploits and demanded his presence on the Stormherald. The Ordinatus Armageddon was a relic sacred to the Cult Mechanicus, and could only be awakened by the lord of the Centurio Ordinatus -- for its tomb to be infiltrated by outsiders, let alone for Oberon to be attempted to be reactivated without proper ministrations was grave blasphemy to all followers of the Machine God.Mancion had received orders from her superiors to either make the Reclusiarch abandon this course of action or to see him terminated. Despite her wrath, she attempted to convince Grimaldus to cease this quest, as it would tear Mechanicus forces on the world apart, but to no avail.When the final threat had to be spoken, the Chaplain instead retorted with his own -- he called four of his Thunderhawk gunships which he had ordered to prepare for this action beforehand to fly towards the Titan and acquire target locks on its bridge, allowing them to obliterate it long before Void Shields could be raised if such an order was given.In the end bloodshed was averted, as both sides reached a tense compromise, for the good of Helsreach -- the lord of the Centurio Ordinatus was en route to Armageddon, and were he to arrive in time the entire matter would be far less grave. In case he were not to, however, Jurisian would continue his labours unabated, even though he would likely be unable to activate the Ordinatus.Although fragile, such an agreement allowed both sides to participate in the battle as allies, especially so since Jurisian's intial estimates appeared to be too optimistic, for the code protecting the artefact changed and evolved like a living being, and the Master of the Forge deemed it might take him solar months or even standard years.Soon afterwards, the Orks, with their newest reinforcements arrayed and their massive Gargants readied, were prepared to bring down the city's walls. Guardsmen vacated the battlements before the inevitable shelling and took up positions in the streets and buildings. Soon, the walls fell under the fury of the Gargants, and the first xenos Titans walked into the city only to be blasted by Imperial god-engines.The first charge of the Greenskins was broken by the Black Templars under their Reclusiarch's command, but eventually the Astartes had to return behind Astra Militarum lines and let the true war of attrition begin.Every road was barricaded and manned by Armageddon Steel Legion troopers. Snipers would provide deadly support from rooftops. Battle tanks of every type drove through the streets, gunning down the xenos as they poured into the hive city.During the preparations for the battle the populace was removed from the outlying sectors of the city to allow the soldiers the room to manouvre and withdraw. In the beginning of the siege proper, the Guardsmen were to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible, before withdrawing to the next position, letting the xenos purchase these worthless outskirts with their blood.During this time Commander Barasath carried out his proposed plan to strike against the Orks' aerial capabilities. Earlier, he attempted to convince Colonel Sarren to allow him to execute what was in essence a suicidal attack -- he planned to engage in dogfights above the bulk of Ork forces and allow bombers to break through and perform bombing runs on enemy airstrips.Not only would this deprive the Greenskins of any meaningful air power in the beginning stages of the battle, but also any aircraft to be shot down -- likely all committed to the action -- would fall down upon enemy forces and contribute to increasing their casualties rather than allied if they were to fight over the city.Sarren was initially reluctant to agree, however, upon hearing Barasath's (false) assurance that Grimaldus had endorsed this manouvre, he allowed for this action to take place.Soon after, Barasath's wings were flying over the plains before Helsreach and although his forces succeeded in their endeavour, they were predictably overcome.At this point, one thing should be noted of Princeps Majoris Zarha Mancion -- the Stormherald 's Machine Spirit was resentful at being bound to its princeps, and for the long years of their enforced cooperation it had patiently weakened Mancion's mental resolve, seeking to finally drown her in its mindscape -- an effort only made easier as she aged.The Titan's efforts caused Mancion to lack complete control of her thoughts, the flood of the Titan's mental gestalt making her undertake brazen actions. The first such occurrence took place when one of the Legio Invigilata 's god-engines fell. The Reaver-class Titan Draconian fell to a crude Ork trap which brought the great war engine down and allowed the Greenskins to butcher its crew.The Titan's death cry rang through the MIU Manifold and, through the medium that was the Stormherald 's Machine Spirit, cast Mancion into a vengeful sorrow. While still partly under the control of the Titan's Machine Spirit, Mancion's war engine strode ahead of her screening force and Skitarii escort in an attempt to avenge the Draconian and its crew -- only to fall to a similar Ork trap moments later.The damage inflicted by the Greenskins and the shame of defeat caused her to loosen her grip on the recalcitrant Titan's Machine Spirit -- and be very nearly overwhelmed by it. The Titan and its princeps would have been lost had it not been for the intervention of a Black Templars strike force under the command of Reclusiarch Grimaldus.The Astartes cleansed the god-engine of xenos taint and their Chaplain helped Zarha Mancion emerge from the psychic maelstrom that is a Titan's mental landscape. The princeps, however, was by no means unscathed by the experience.The city's defence carried on, and throughout the following days Imperial forces retreated steadily according to plan, whittling down the advancing tide of Greenskins, setting up ambushes, performing pincer manouvres against salients, encircling those Ork elements that proved too brazen and destroying them -- but retreated nonetheless.The city stood against impossible odds, and having it endure siege warfare for as long as it did was no small feat in itself.Colonel Sarren had all the right to colour his bitterness with a sense of pride when, on the eighteenth solar day of the battle, he voxed the last command to be issued from the central command spire before it was abandoned: All units in Omega Sector, Subsector Nine, the location where the line was breached for the first time, were to abandon fallback orders and retreat to contingency positions.The enemy had reached Hel's Highway.
Battle of Helsreach - Unexpected Blow: Such a development was grave news for the Imperial forces. The Orks possessed a great advantage in numbers, and with the access to Hel's Highway, they were able to bring this might to bear much more quickly and efficiently than they otherwise would be.To this, sadly, the defenders had no answer, and were only capable of delaying the advancing Greenskin forces, holding a junction or a chokepoint for several solar days before it was finally lost and the forces had to retreat, falling back all the quicker than ever before.As the original plans predicted, once Hel's Highway was lost, it was only a matter of time before the hive fell. In just over two solar weeks after the highway was reached for the first time by the Greenskins, the city and its defenders were devastated.The Orks had ravaged full half of the hive city's territory, the Astra Militarum and militia regiments were reduced to a fraction of their original sizes, and of the hundred Black Templars that comprised the Helsreach Crusade twenty-five lay dead -- and of this number, gene-seed from only thirteen was able to be recovered. Even the mighty god-engines of the Legio Invigilata suffered losses of their own.On the thirty-sixth solar day of the battle the situation the city found itself in proved to be far worse than expected. All of a sudden, contact with the Valdez Oil Platforms became erratic, as if there was a storm raging over the Tempest Ocean -- but there was none.Initially, the Imperial authorities in Helsreach believed that vox transmissions were being jammed, but they did not know by what -- according to their expectations, the Orks should be unable to reach the Valdez Oil Platforms even with their air forces. Communications were only made worse by the fact that the stations were understaffed.Platforms Jahannam and Sheol collapsed into the dark waters, their crews never realising what truly caused their demise. The third, largest and fully staffed platform, Lucifius, was able to identify the threat and relay the information to Helsreach, but could do little to save itself.The new force bearing down on the hive turned out to be a fleet of at least three hundred Ork Submersibles, carrying tens of thousands of new Ork warriors, due to arrive in two solar hours' time.This was the exact reason why the Greenskins had touched down in the Deadlands of Armageddon in the first place. They spent over a solar month tearing down their landing craft and constructing a mighty fleet to deal an entirely unexpected blow against the coastal hive cities.Helsreach was not their only target, for a detachment of nearly the same size as the one despatched there was sent to Hive Tempestus. Tempestus was a hive city half the size of Helsreach, with only half of its defensive capabilities, and this news spelt its inevitable doom.Helsreach itself was not in a much better position. Areas under Imperial control were centred around the very middle of the city and the docks, the latter being a vital part of infrastructure still in Imperial hands, and an important command centre after the abandonment of the headquarters spire.More than that, Helsreach docks housed the majority of the hive city's civilian shelters, located within the quarter or underneath it. These shelters housed a total 60% of the hive city's population during wartime, and losing them to the xenos savages would result in a staggering loss of life and manpower.A successful Ork seaborne strike against the docks would break the back of Imperial resistance and cause the hive city to fall within solar hours.Imperial commanders were desperate to not let that happen, and quickly considered their options -- the docks were crowded with menials and cramped with supplies, as such it would be impossible to transfer troops in time. The workers would also obstruct the Guardsmen in their actions in any way, and there was no possibility to evacuate the menials, let alone the population housed in the shelters.It was proposed to use the main highway route to send the troops into the central docks, and evacuate the workers through secondary veins, but even this would be folly, as moving any forces from the battered front immediately would see the hive city fall either way. At that point, the Helsreach dockmaster, Tomaz Maghernus, requested that he and his workers -- nearly forty thousand labourers in total -- be armed using the city's excessive small arms stockpile, and that they be used to buy the time necessary to reorganise defensive lines across the city.The Astra Militarum officers were reluctant to allow it, as the menials would likely be butchered within minutes, and if the hive city were to ever survive the war it would need a qualified workforce to continue to exist. Seeing no other way, however, Colonel Sarren agreed for this plan to commence.The newly-formed dockmen militia was organised into fifty-trooper platoons, each commanded by an Armageddon Steel Legion veteran Storm Trooper who was airdropped onto the docks, thereby ensuring that the untrained civilians performed to the best of their ability.To provide some degree of support for the militia, Sentinels and Hellhounds were moved to the docks. In addition, a force of Black Templars under their Reclusiarch's command was transferred via Thunderhawks to the docks in order to reinforce the front in critical points, and to inspire the militiamen in the face of the coming onslaught with the presence of the Emperor's Angels of Death.Soon enough, the first Ork Submersibles crashed into the docks and the Greenskins they disgorged advanced, only to be met by las-fire from the hastily-occupied Imperial defensive positions. After this initial surprise, however, the Orks assaulted with full force, and the Imperial defenders, even with the Astartes' support, had no choice but to engage in the same fighting retreat as the one occurring throughout the city.Although Imperial defenders were on the brink, the point of the entire action stood -- on the thirty-seventh solar day of the siege, the sun rose over a still unconquered city.In the meantime, Master of the Forge Jurisian succeeded in breaking the code defences of Oberon 's inner sanctum and gained entry into the tomb. Therein, he was met by a being akin in appearance to an Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-guardian, albeit an ancient one, who denied Jurisian access to the relic stored within. The Techmarine was not about to ignore his previous orders, and opted to destroy the guardian, trusting in his martial skills as an Astartes -- in an almost fatal misjudgement.The guardian was a perfectly crafted and augmented Mechanicus sentinel, being a match for any intruder, Human or otherwise. However, due to being enclosed within the vault for many centuries, and starved for the supplies needed to fully maintain its biological and augmetic components, the sentinel was a mere shadow of what it used to be.Jurisian was able to overcome the guardian, even though a different outcome was not too unlikely. Had the Master of the Forge faced a fully operational sentinel, the fight might have gone another way. Yet Jurisian finally broke all the remaining defences and stood before the relic he sought -- the holy lance of the Machine God.An Ordinatus, however, is a very sophisticated machine, requiring the staffing of dozens of Skitarii and Tech-priests specially raised for this task since birth.Jurisian, as he was alone, was only able to restore basic and slow locomotion of the relic weapon's gravitational suspensor generators, and was only able to make the great cannon fire once every twenty minutes.All of the other systems, including the machine's Void Shield generators, were inactive. Nevertheless, Jurisian proceeded to move the Ordinatus towards Helsreach.
Battle of Helsreach - Arrival of the Fireborn: While the war raged on the surface of Armageddon, the war in orbit never truly ceased. Although the space battle was lost in the first days of the invasion and the combined Imperial Navy and Adeptus Astartes fleet elements were forced to retreat, they did not abandon the world.Every few solar days, the fleet under either Admiral Parol's or High Marshal Helbrecht's command would translate out of the Warp in close vicinity to the besieged planet, strike at the weakest point of the xenos armada and bleed the Greenskins however possible before escaping once again.Imperial naval assets could not face the Ork fleet in outright battle or send reinforcements to the world with any certainty that they would reach the ground, and instead had to resort to such attritional warfare.However, Chapter Master Tu'Shan of the Salamanders Chapter, whilst battling along the River Hemlock on the planet, heard of Helsreach's plight and of the Black Templars' valour in defending the populace of the city.He demanded that the risk be taken and that reinforcements be sent down into the hive city, and his Astartes carried out his will. During one of the aforementioned naval attacks, a single strike cruiser of the Chapter requested from Helsreach command the cessation of anti-air fire in the docks district and ran the gauntlet of enemy fire to release Drop Pods and Thunderhawk gunships from a safe distance.The Salamanders under the command of Sergeant V'reth arrived in Helsreach, seventy in number, to aid the defenders. However, the majority of their Chapter fought in the Hemlock region alongside the Legio Ignatum and Legio Invigilata. The Salamanders fight was there, and they would not stay in the city indefinitely. They were called down only to help secure the docks quarter and protect the civilian populace.Although their stay was temporary, the Salamanders' aid proved to be vital. Over the following days Imperial forces battled against the seaborne invaders, and with the help of nearly an entire company of Astartes, they succeeded in breaking the assault and in dispersing the xenos.Without the Salamanders' valour, many more lives would have been lost and perhaps even the city would have fallen, however, although the docks were not lost, for all intents and purposes they were gone.In addition to losing fourty thousand soldiers in four solar days, almost all of the city's industry was ground into the bedrock. And once the fighting for the docks finished, the Salamanders left the city and returned to the Hemlock region, as per their master's request.Although the hive city had survived the seaborne assault and the battle up to this point, the high command simply did not possess enough forces to hold large swathes of territory and maintain a broad front.In accordance with Commissar Yarrick's orders, units in Helsreach were to follow the same pattern used in other hive cities. Whatever forces remained were to converge on the main population centres and strategically important locations such as the Azal Spaceport or the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant, defending them until the end finally came to tie up as much of the Orks' strength as possible.The hive city was declared lost, and the only thing left to protect was its population.
Battle of Helsreach - Fall of Titans: During the final days of the battle, the bulk of the Legio Invigilata battlegroup present in Helsreach was fighting alongside Armageddon Steel Legion elements in the burning Rostorik Ironworks district. The Titans were embattled in the area for four solar days, having lost seven war engines over the course of a solar week.The Titan crews and the god-engines themselves were exhausted from fighting and required rearming and retrofitting. This took its toll on the war engines' performance, particularly the Stormherald 's, which was already acting unreliably under the shaky guidance of its princeps. The Titans sought to retreat to their bulk landers for maintenance, but Princeps Majoris Mancion agreed to only do so after identifying an unusually large heat signature appearing in the inferno consuming the city.She sent forward two of her Warhound-class Titans to investigate it. When the princeps of these war machines closed in on the target, the first of them was obliterated without even realising what caused its demise.The same fate befell its colleague soon after, but the latter caught a glimpse of the monstrosity -- an enormous Mega-Gargant known as the Godbreaker, a giant machine easily dwarfing the Stormherald.The Godbreaker had been initially constructed on the surface of Armageddon, to the north of Helsreach near the smaller industrial hive city of Stygia. Stygia possessed only its own Armageddon Steel Legion and militia forces, with no Mechanicus or Astartes support.Despite this, Stygia held out for over a solar month against the Ork force besieging it -- until the Godbreaker 's construction finished, and the metal beast was unleashed upon the defenders.From its birth, it took only five and a half solar hours to flatten the hive city and to decimate all Imperial forces within. From there, the Godbreaker strode towards the nearest centre of Imperial control -- Hive Helsreach.The Stormherald soon faced the mechanical monstrosity, as the Gargant's crew wished nothing else but to challenge the greatest opponent in their path. It destroyed the smaller god-engines comprising the Stormherald 's screen with ease, and was advancing upon the weakened Imperator-class Titan to end its existence with melee weapons.Mancion, because of the damage inflicted upon her Titan and the resulting psychosomatic pain and wounds she suffered in the MIU, was nearly completely useless, and the war engine was operated by its moderati, Lonn and Valian Carsomir. Their only chance was to finish the Mega-Gargant with a single, final shot of the Imperator Titan's Plasma Annihilator.Carsomir decided to fire the Plasma Annihilator as soon as it recharged against Moderatus Lonn's advice, without waiting for the Titan's Tech-adepts to bring the weapon's stabilisers back on line.Because of this, the barrel trailed off-target under the force of its shot, and the searing projectile it spewed out missed the giant xenos walker -- thus sealing the Stormherald 's fate.Princeps Maximus Mancion's resolve was the only factor that had pledged the Legio Invigilata battlegroup to Helsreach's defence, and when she was destroyed along with her Imperator Titan, the new acting commander of the Legio's forces on Armageddon -- Princeps Amasat -- had ordered the god-engines to withdraw from the hive city and rejoin the bulk of the Legio along the River Hemlock.
Battle of Helsreach - Temple of the Emperor Ascendant: The remnants of the Black Templars Helsreach Crusade -- thirty-five Astartes in total -- chose the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant in the Ecclesiarchy district of Hive Helsreach as their final stand.The temple was the first place of worship erected by the original colonists in Helsreach, and housed a number of sacred relics, including the colonists' charter.The Space Marines met with the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Argent Shroud whose priory was located in the temple, and with surviving Armageddon Steel Legion units that retreated to the location.In addition, using the temple's short-range vox systems, Grimaldus ordered any Helsreach forces receiving the message to fall back to the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant to make their final stand against the Orks.Ork forces massed and assaulted the temple not long after, carefully approaching the walls that surrounded the cathedral and the massive graveyards surrounding it, only to discover that the bulk of Imperial defenders took up positions throughout the cemetery. As they had for over a solar month, Guardsmen began mowing down the advancing horde with las-fire, the Astartes fighting amongst them engaged in vicious melee.The Human defenders had little chances against the numerically superior Greenskins, and as solar minutes passed they fell back closer to the temple. The Sororitas did not participate in the battle taking place in the graveyards, their task was to guard the cathedral and delay the xenos when they finally reached the doorway.During the fight, however, the Black Templars' Emperor's Champion fell, leaving his sacred wargear in the hands of the Orks. Such sacrilege could not be stomached by the Space Marines, and they fought ever more fiercely to recover it -- with Grimaldus appointing another of his knights as the new Champion.During this time, the Mega-Gargant Godbreaker, which after felling the Stormherald had roamed the city and lent its might in obliterating any remnants of Imperial forces, took course for the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant. Such firepower would obliterate the Imperial defenders in solar minutes as they had no answer to defend against an Ork construct of that size.The only weapon capable of countering the Mega-Gargant was the Ordinatus Armageddon, piloted by Jurisian. The Techmarine was encountered by the Legio Invigilata Titans commanded by Princeps Amasat as they retreated from Helsreach.The Titan crews were shocked by the blasphemy against the Machine God that had been perpetrated by the Astartes, but faced with the choice of either dislodging the offender and risking that the sacred relic be damaged in the process, or escorting him to the hive city, they chose the latter.As mentioned before, the Ordinatus had been awakened improperly by the Space Marine, and because of this most of its systems were inactive, and the Nova Cannon that constituted its main armament could only be made to fire once every twenty solar minutes. Grimaldus ordered Jurisian to not endanger the Ordinatus, and bade him take only one shot with its great weapon once he reached Helsreach, to be aimed at the Godbreaker.Amasat took his god-engine and two 'Warhound-class Titans to protect the blessed weapon, and set forth for Helsreach once more. When they arrived, Amasat decided that the best way to protect the Ordinatus was to offer it a clear shot at the Ork Mega-Gargant.To this end, Amasat ordered the two smaller Titans to protect the weapon and moved to lure the lumbering xenos war machine out. Amasat succeeded in drawing the colossal Mega-Gargant to him, although he died in the process.His sacrifice, however, allowed the Ordinatus Armageddon to fire and obliterate the Godbreaker. Their task complete, the Ordinatus and the Titans finally retreated from Helsreach.This however was merely a boon, not a deliverance, and before long the Black Templars and their Astra Militarum allies found themselves pressed against the gates of the temple, and the Sororitas joined them in the struggle.What remained of the little force defending the holy place was butchered as it was pushed inside the temple. One by one, the Guardsmen, the Sororitas and the Astartes were hacked down by the Orks.Grimaldus was the last surviving Black Templar, and shortly before his final demise, he witnessed the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant collapsing under the stress it had been subjected to during the fighting, thus crushing all the xenos who dared defile its holy ground.
Battle of Helsreach - End Game: Although the Orks made enormous progress against the Imperial defenders at Hive Helsreach and had the city at their mercy, ultimately they did not succeed in conquering it. Two solar months after the battle had begun, the fighting was interrupted by the dawning of Armageddon's Season of Fire -- a climactic phenomenon during which the planet witnesses the fury of its many volcanoes and the surface is showered with noxious ash.These conditions made virtually all combat operations impossible to carry out, and forced both sides to seek shelter.The Orks remained in portions of the hive city, but the rest retreated to their footholds or scurried away into underground openings. This allowed the Imperium to regain control around the vital areas of the hive city that they held.Several people survived the collapse of the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant, notably amongst them Reclusiarch Grimaldus -- the only surviving Black Templar -- who thanks to his power armour, and apparently sheer willpower, raised himself from the rubble carrying the Imperial relics housed within the destroyed temple.He was taken aboard the Eternal Crusader, the Black Templars flagship, to be examined by the Chapter's Apothecaries, and gifted with the relics he recovered to carry Helsreach's memory and honour in the Eternal Crusade.Shortly thereafter, Grimaldus came back to the hive city and returned the relics to its surviving citizens. For his service to the people of the city, he was declared the "Hero of Helsreach."
Battle of Helsreach - Aftermath: Imperial commanders hailed the Battle of Helsreach as a victory, but in point of fact it was far from it. Although the Imperium retains control of the hive city for the time being, large areas of the city still bear the stain of Ork presence.Armour units have been despatched to destroy Ork Roks to the northeast of the city, but the Orks within the hive remain a constant threat, in particular those who have scurried into the "Maze" -- a system of tunnels and pipelines located underneath Hel's Highway.Entrances to the Maze were opened by the falling xenos spacecraft in the beginning of the war, and the Orks took advantage of these rents in the ground to find shelter for the season. The majority of the Maze's workforce is dead, and Imperial authorities do not know if the xenos are capable of using the underground tunnels to relocate throughout the city.In order to diminish the threat of Ork attacks, the Imperium has begun utilising a new chemical agent, a neurotoxin crafted to be used as a weapon against the Greenskins -- to some effect. Entire groups of Orks have been found dead after the release of this weapon.How stable the compound is has yet to ascertained. Tests on the recovered Ork carcasses reveal a 7% range of genetic mutation in the DNA structure of afflicted Greenskin cells -- which translates into an acceptable 1% chance of the toxin mutating to Human-lethal levels.In addition to its still-contested status, the hive city took staggering damage. As it is now, its population, in particular qualified worker cadres, is decimated, its industry is essentially non-existent -- currently Hive Helsreach possesses an estimated 5% of its original industrial capacity -- and with both the docks and Hel's Highway inoperable, the only reliable connection the hive city has with the rest of the world is through air transport.Helsreach was an important hive city of Armageddon, due its production of promethium fuel and due to it being the only major port on the coast of the Tempest Ocean. As an industrial production centre it is now utterly worthless.Cirmustances are similar in the other hive cities of the planet, which is a bad omen for the world. Armageddon is regarded as one of the most important worlds of the Imperium, due to its large industrial production and vast manpower to feed the Armageddon Steel Legion regiments.Armageddon gives much to the Imperium, and as such enjoys a privileged position. If it can no longer offer much, the Imperium may turn away, and the planet will remain a blasted ruin fought over by the remaining Imperial and Ork forces.
Battle of Iyanden - Battle of Iyanden: The Battle of Iyanden occurred in 999.M41 when the forces of Chaos launched a massive invasion of the Aeldari Craftworld of Iyanden.In the wake of the Battle of Biel-Tan and the birth of the Yncarne, the Avatar of Ynnead, the Seers of Ulthwé opened a portal from their Dome of Crystal Seers to its equivalent upon Biel-Tan, destroying the precious and irreplaceable souls of several deceased Farseers within the Ulthwé Infinity Circuit to do so.The sacrifice was deemed necessary to ensure the Ynnari were rescued from becalmed Biel-Tan before the strife they had sown saw the craftworld consumed in the fires of civil war between those who accepted Ynnead's message and those enraged by the damage the Ynnari had done to their home by calling forth the Yncarne.The Ynnari were called to account by Ulthwé's Seer Council, as was Eldrad Ulthran, for his arrogance in co-opting the psyches of generations of dead Aeldari was beyond countenance. Emissaries from Craftworld Altansar spoke in the Ynnari's defence, revealing that Ynnead's nascent consciousness had a hand in allowing them to survive their craftworld's millennia-long ordeal in the Eye of Terror.The trial became ever more heated as courtly negotiations turned to veiled threats, then to open hostility and even psychic attack. Only the intervention of no less a Seer than Kysaduras the Anchorite, unseen for generations, prevented the council from kinstrife of the worst kind.The Ynnari and their new Ulthwéan allies, accompanied by the Altansari, were allowed to leave on the proviso that they ventured into the Eye of Terror, never to return.Following a rumour regarding the location of the last Croneswords needed to complete the Seventh Path ritual that will fully awaken Ynnead to consciousness in the Warp, the Ynnari took their crusade through the perils of the Eye of Terror to the Crone World of Belial IV.Its once-luxurious Aeldari cities had long been toppled by the powers of Chaos, for the world was at the heart of the Aeldari Empire at the time of the Fall of the Aeldari. To venture there was to risk the worst doom of all under the claws of Slaanesh, but Yvraine believed it was worth the potential cost -- legend stated that should all five Croneswords be united, Ynnead's power would be bolstered beyond measure and the destruction of She Who Thirsts might be at hand.Though many of Yvraine's Reborn were slain en route to the world through the Webway, and then, after planetfall, still more at the hands of the daemons that prowled that ruined hellscape, it was the Drukhari covenite forces of the Haemonculi that saw her quest grind to a halt.Sent by Asdrubael Vect and his allies in Commorragh to eke out a terrible revenge upon Yvraine for the daemonic dysjunction that befell the Dark City after the Night of Revelations, they used all manner of vile technologies to attack the Ynnari.The carnage drew a Slaaneshi Soul Hunt to their location. A three-way battle broke out in which Yvraine and her faithful throng were trapped and suffering -- but the key to their victory was close at hand, for one of the fabled Croneswords was indeed buried nearby.When the Yncarne manifested from the deathly energies of the battle, it rose from the tortured ground holding that deadly blade, Vilith-zhar, the Sword of Souls, and turned the tide against the daemons and the Drukhari alike.However, unknown to the Ynnari the fifth and final Cronesword was no longer on Belial IV. Slaanesh freed its Keeper of Secrets Shalaxi Hellbane from the Palace of Punishments in the Realm of Chaos and ordered it to prevent the awakening of Ynnead and foil the plans of the Ynnari. The daemon travelled to Belial IV and stole the fifth Cronesword before the Ynnari could claim it, placing it far from the reach of the servants of Ynnead in the Palace of Slaanesh.A Wraithknight-led delegation from Craftworld Iyanden reinforced the Ynnari before the Slaaneshi horde could once more close the noose on the Ynnari. The Iyanden had read the runes of fate, divining that a critical moment of galactic history would occur upon Belial IV.Well-versed in the hidden ways of the Crone Worlds from their Spirit Stone harvests within the Eye of Terror, the Iyanden force led the Ynnari through a hidden Webway portal to the battle-scarred world-ship of Iyanden.At the same the Ynnari had arrived at the craftworld, the forces of Chaos attacked from the newborn Great Rift all across the galaxy, and Craftworld Iyanden was no exception to their assault. Even as Yvraine was held as an "honoured guest" -- in effect a prisoner -- by the rightfully cautious leaders of Iyanden, the craftworld was assailed by a Nurglite Plague Fleet.From her sumptuous cell, Yvraine sent a psychic summons to a nearby Aeldari Corsair fleet that she had once commanded, and within a matter of solar days it joined the battle. Together with the Royal Armada of Iyanden and the Eldritch Raiders Corsairs under the command of Prince Yriel, the fleet prevented the Nurglite ships from reaching the craftworld.The famous Corsair-turned-Autarch led a boarding action into the depths of the Nurglite flagship, a Daemon Engine of colossal size known to the Aeldari as the Spawn of Oghanothir. He plunged the Spear of Twilight into the heart of that rotting hulk, killing the daemonic creature within it that empowered the horrid vessel, but paid for it with his life, smashed to ruin by a blow from the Daemon Prince Gara'gugul'gor.Prince Yriel's body was recovered and brought back to Iyanden, there to be lain in state. However, the corpse was infested with a virulent daemonic disease that could potentially lie low the entire population of the craftworld.Fortunately, the Spiritseer Iyanna Arienal allowed Yvraine into Yriel's mausoleum. There, she burned out the arcane plague with the psychic energies of death before claiming Yriel's Spear of Twilight -- in actuality the fourth of the Croneswords she sought -- and resurrecting the prince with the power of Ynnead's rebirth.Iyanden's course through history was altered forever by this fell time. In the wake of the craftworld's salvation, its Farseers cast their runes, but now the dwindling threads of potential that had seemed to throttle their future unravelled into a dozen different futures and more.A council of Aeldari elders gathered in the aftermath of Yriel's resurrection. Together they discussed the new doom that faced the galaxy.After long debate they came to the conclusion that only by giving the teeming masses of Humanity a fighting chance to hurl back the forces of the ascendant Ruinous Powers could they avert a doom that would see the Aeldari species suffer and die.The Ynnari, now bolstered by a large contingent from Iyanden, braved the shattered spars of the Webway once more, and prepared to face the next trial in their great quest.
Battle of Iyanden - Arrival on Ulthwé: The members of the Seer Council of Craftworld Ulthwé were the most skilled of all their kind. In the wake of the Battle of Biel-Tan, they saw clearly the revelation that Yvraine had engineered upon that craftworld.The most senior of their number, Eldrad Ulthran, demanded that Yvraine and her Reborn kin be brought to Ulthwé as swiftly as possible. In public, the rest of the Seer Council agreed his reasoning was sound. In private, when the High Farseer was deep in his meditations, they made subtle inferences that Eldrad had overstepped his bounds, and their agendas were no longer the same.The elders of Ulthwé conducted a great runic ritual at Eldrad's behest, using the spiritual link between the crystal Seers that populated the great Dome of Crystal Seers and those of Biel-Tan's recently devastated equivalent. The ritual was a gamble, despite the fact the hyperspatial link through the Warp was strong between the two craftworlds.Though the Warp Storms that raged near Ulthwé and Biel-Tan could theoretically be psychically channelled into a tunnel leading through the Warp from one craftworld to the other, the process might well consume the souls of the travellers that walked it -- and those that had conducted the ritual too.To use the crystal Seers as conduits for psychic energy instead of revering them as honoured ancestors was a gross breach of craftworld culture. It was considered even worse than taking a spirit into a Waystone and transferring it to a wraith construct.The Farseers that had undergone their kind's peculiar transformation into psychocrystal, before later joining with their craftworld's Infinity Circuit, had earned their long rest a dozen times over.To break the departed Seers from that connection, and to use them as mere tools for sorcery, was a heinous crime indeed -- but one Eldrad Ulthran had already committed, through his Harlequin proxies, on every craftworld across the galaxy during the Battle of Port Demesnus. Such was the urgency of the hour that the Farseer showed no compunction in doing so again.The Seers gambled much, if the ritual went awry -- in theory, a single lapse of concentration could see the portal open a tunnel into the Empyrean itself, allowing a daemonic incursion to spill into Ulthwé just as it had into Biel-Tan.If the Seers of Ulthwé had not been confident in their psychic supremacy, and had the mental might to back that confidence up, they may well have capsized the entire world-ship into the Warp. As it was, their skills proved equal to the task.The Seer Council had gathered in Ulthwé's fabled dome, answering Eldrad's summons. Their rune-emblazoned robes waved gently in the same warm zephyrs that caressed the branches of wraithbone trees in the distance.One of the undisputed wonders of the craftworlds, the Dome of Crystal Seers was dotted with staircases of spiralling wraithbone that stretched up to nowhere.All bar the highest steps harboured the fossilised remnants of an ancient Seer. Atop these staircases stood the luminaries of the craftworld, their voices joined in the Song of Ulthanash.Abruptly, the song ended. "Here we stand," spoke Eldrad from his position atop the tallest staircase, "ready to usher in a new age for Ulthwé and the Aeldari race.""Aeldari?" said Yemshon Il'foire. "That name has no place this side of the Fall.""Until now," said Eldrad. "Our guests-to-be resurrect it with good reason." Several of the Seers raised eyebrows by a fraction of an inch, but did not speak out. "We summon the bridge of stars," continued Eldrad, his fabled staff describing the Rune of the Infinite Stride. "This night we have need of it, no matter the cost.""As you say," said Aralie Coppermane, a strange edge to her voice, "we have no choice."The Farseers and Warlocks assembled atop the dome's stairways chanted once more, casting runes of star-striding and storm-walking into the air. The psychic runes rose, glowing, to describe a wide circle in the casters' midst. Glittering motes of light span around the symbols, faster and faster, as the dome's gentle breeze became a gale, then a hurricane.The periphery of the Warp Storm raging outside the craftworld curdled into the funnel of a tornado in space-time, the tip both remaining still and stretching untold light years into the aether.By the time the ritual was complete, three of Ulthwé's finest Farseers had turned to psychoreactive crystal from head to toe. In their midst, a portal shone -- within it, destiny made ﬂesh.With Eldrad Ulthran leading the runic rite, an unstable Warp portal opened up under Ulthwé's Dome of Crystal Seers. Uncounted light years away, Yvraine walked as if in a daze to the shattered equivalent upon Biel-Tan.What she found in that dome was all but invisible to the naked eye, but the Yncarne was drawn towards it as driftwood is drawn to a whirlpool. The Reborn -- the Ynnari -- for that was the name Yvraine's followers had adopted for themselves, passed through the Warp portal and vanished from Biel-Tan altogether.The howling, screaming vortex through which the Reborn passed was the embodiment of utter Chaos. So fierce and baleful was this passageway it would have robbed the sanity of a lesser being in a matter of moments. Yet the Reborn found themselves ﬂoating through a tunnel cut in the Warp unhindered, as if borne by an underwater current.At their fore was the Yncarne, a revenant creature so inimical to Chaos that the psychic stuff of the Empyrean could not slow it. Even the Gods of Chaos did not look upon the creature directly; the incarnation of Ynnead's essence was so anathema to them they could not truly perceive it, even had they known where to look.The ripples of the Avatar's passage ﬂowed outward nonetheless. Causing a great ruction in the Warp, the bow wave of its translocation cast Imperial voidships aside hundreds of light years away, ripping open Gellar Fields and distorting the light of the Astronomican.Thousands of human lives were lost with every solar second of the Reborn's passage. It was a price the Eldar would gladly pay a million times over if it gave them even the slightest chance of turning the tables upon their nemesis, Slaanesh.The tunnel through reality known as the Bridge of Stars yawned, spasmed and pulsed. Through that secret aperture came the Ynnari, the favoured of Ynnead, drawn from Biel-Tan across light years of space and time to Craftworld Ulthwé.The combination of the Seer Council of Ulthwé's runic powers and the powerful psyche of the Yncarne had brought the Reborn safely to the crystal havens of Ulthwé, one step closer to securing the two lost Croneswords that Yvraine sought from the husk of the lost Aeldari Empire.Though the manner of their coming had cost the lives of several Farseers and driven some of the Ynnari half-mad with fear, the stillness that descended upon Ulthwé's Dome of Crystal Seers after their safe passage was a balm to the soul.First to emerge was the Yncarne, hissing and whispering in the voices of the dead. The Ulthwéan Council felt the cold mantle of terror upon them at the sight. The creature came forward like a ghost, slow and ethereal, the energies of the otherworld swirling around it.It was slender and androgynous, yet far larger and more fearsome than any Asuryani warrior save perhaps the Avatar of the Bloody-Handed God. But where the living statue of Khaela Mensha Khaine was a creature of fire, iron and blood, the Yncarne manifested a shuddering chill that was both invigorating and shocking, like a deluge of ice water.In the revenant's wake came Yvraine and the Visarch, leading the Reborn to gather beneath crystal stairways. The crested helms of the Ulthwé Seers turned to look down at the newcomers with the unwavering gaze of raptors.There was an electrifying tension, a sense of history in the making. To the relief of all those nearby, the Yncarne drifted from the dome's heart and circulated around the periphery, staring at each of the crystal Seers in turn as if hunting for something.It was Yvraine who spoke first, formally thanking the Seers of Craftworld Ulthwé for their aid. To cross the galaxy in a matter of solar hours was a feat worthy of the Aeldari at the apex of their power. It was a status they could achieve once more, now that Ynnead had shown them the Seventh Way, the path between darkness and light.First, though, they had to ensure the physical conduits of the god of the dead were brought together. The Croneswords, when united, could act as a focal point for Ynnead's ascension, thereby restoring the broken cycle of life and death.The Visarch claimed that two of these blades were buried in the heart of the Aeldari's former empire. They were somewhere upon the Crone World known as Belial IV, caught between realspace and the Warp in the Eye of Terror. With Ulthwé having kept vigil over that vast tempest for so long, they were the logical choice of allies.Eldrad Ulthran nodded quietly in satisfaction as the Openers of the Seventh Way made their case."You ask the impossible," sneered Yemshon Il'foire of the Seer Council, shaking his head before putting on his Ghosthelm. "Pray be still, Daughter of Shades, and keep your people in silence. Your presence is desired, of course, but we have matters of the past to attend to before we consider the future.""There is no matter of more import than this," said Eldrad Ulthran, his tone grave. "I have foreseen it.""You have foreseen much," answered one of his peers, Aralie Coppermane, donning her own helm with ceremonial formality. "And yet ultimately, it seems you are blind.""I see further than all others, and act accordingly," said Eldrad indignantly, "which is why our kindred now stand here, on the threshold of a lasting victory over She Who Thirsts.""An impressive claim," said Yemshon, inclining his helmed head. "But a victory at what cost? The destruction of Craftworld Biel-Tan? The loss of thousands of Eldar ancestors? The dissolution of harmony itself?""There will always be those whose vision is clouded by fear," said Eldrad. "Now we proceed. Muster the Black Guardians.""No," said Aralie. The word resounded through the Dome of Crystal Seers like a dropped tombstone."Eldrad Ulthran," said Hijeroc the Blind from the crystal stairs opposite, "We, the Seer Council of Ulthanesh Shelwé, accuse you of misappropriation of our mutual destiny. In conjunction with the Midnight Sorrow, who exist outside our cultural jurisdiction, you engaged in the theft of the crystal seers."At this, Hijeroc motioned towards a stairway step where the lack of a fossilised Farseer was like a missing tile in a sacred mosaic. "After taking the remains of these long-serving heroes, you formed a hyperspatial link with the crystal sands of Coheria, thereby endangering every departed Eldar soul in every Craftworld.""The death blow to Slaanesh was levelled, and near dealt," protested Eldrad. "Were it not for the intervention of the crass warriors of Humanity...""And yet they did intervene, and your ritual fell apart like Khaine's castle of bone," said Yemshon, "risking billions of souls, and all but handing She Who Thirsts the chance to consume every Craftworlder who has died since the Fall.""In seeking to keep the Rhana Dandra at bay," said Hijeroc the Blind, "you may well have hastened its onset.""Your behaviour is intolerable," said Aralie. "It is not for you to decide the fate of our race by yourself, nor to dabble in the affairs of gods. You are no god, Eldrad Ulthran. You are barely even an Eldar, for you should have joined the ranks of your crystal brethren long ago. Your time is long past. It is the will of the Seer Council that you be exiled to the void."At this, Eldrad stumbled as if he had been struck."Act once more on the behalf of the Eldar race," said Yemshon, "and you will be put to death."The judgement of the Seer Council saw Eldrad slump to the ﬂoor, his grandeur evaporated in the heat of their ire. Every one of his ten thousand Terran years and more weighed heavy upon him, and his bones -- already half-crystal -- felt like jagged knives within his sparse frame.To have his inﬂuence over the fate of his people eradicated was worse than death to the ancient Farseer, for he had striven for nothing else since the Fall.Yvraine spoke eloquently in Eldrad's defence, only to find herself verbally attacked in turn. Who was she to demand the Seer Council lend her aid, and to request they follow her lead into the stronghold of the Great Enemy? By her direct action, Ulthwé's martial ally, the ancient and proud Craftworld Biel-Tan, had been reduced to a skeletal shadow upon the brink of extinction.What was to prevent the same fate from happening to Ulthwé? Was it not enough that they stood sentinel over the Eye of Terror, thwarting the Chaos-tainted armies that emerged from within it and sending their citizen soldiers against the worst terrors in the universe?Many of Yvraine's Biel-Tani followers reacted strongly to the hostility of Ulthwé's seers. They held forth with great passion, saying that though their Craftworld had indeed suffered after the apotheosis of Yncarne -- and though they could never truly forgive her -- they truly believed the damage could be healed. More importantly, there was a greater battle being fought, worth more than life itself.With a way to escape Slaanesh's curse, there was a slim chance that Biel-Tan might succeed in its quest to restore the former glory of the Aeldari. It was a crusade once seen as futile by many of the Biel-Tani present, but admitted to by none amongst them, for to do so was unthinkable stigma within their militant culture.Now there was a real hope of success. Their argument was persuasive, but many elder Seers remained unconvinced. When asked by the Ulthwé Farseers if they spoke on behalf of their Craftworld, or as a rogue splinter faction, the Biel-Tani Reborn had no answer. That in itself was telling enough.On and on the debate raged, the usual allusions to well-trodden Eldar myths and social mores giving way to veiled insults and outright displays of anger. The Ulthwé Seer Council believed that Eldrad, Yvraine and their fellow revolutionaries represented the worst of all disruptive inﬂuences.Though they had reknitted the skein of possible futures, they had done so at so great a cost, and in so reckless a manner, they could not be trusted.It was during this scathing assessment that Yemshon Il'foire suddenly paused mid-rhetoric, the heat of his anger still radiating as he glanced sharply at his fellow elders. A psychic impulse passed through the ranks of the Seer Council in that moment, the urgency of the missive bringing the debate to a pause.Word had arrived of yet more visitors to Ulthwé; via the great Webway gate at the world-ship's rear, a delegation from another craftworld had arrived. A diplomatic corps was already inbound, making for the Dome of Crystal Seers with all haste.When the tall-helmed warriors made their way into the dome and approached the impromptu war council that raged there, a smile came once more to Eldrad Ulthran's features. These mysterious warriors were clad in the colours of the fabled Craftworld Altansar.Within craftworld society, the Eldar of Altansar have long dwelt in the twilight of mistrust. Much speculation surrounds them. They speak only in whispers, and never remove their helmets, no matter the situation.During the calamitous times of the Fall, Altansar was on the periphery of the Eye of Terror, the cosmic wound resulting from Slaanesh's birth. At first, the populace believed themselves safe, but the gravitic pull of that immense Warp Storm gradually drew the craftworld and its attendant voidships into its reaches over the course of five hundred Terran years.The only Eldar to escape Altansar's doom was the Phoenix Lord Maugan Ra, first of the Dark Reapers. Towards the end of the 41st Millennium of the Imperial Calendar, that legendary warrior sought his Craftworld in the depths of the Eye.After a gruelling series of trials he managed to locate Altansar and guide it through the insanity of that aetheric tempest. It re-emerged through the Cadian Gate, bringing the Altansari into the material dimension once more after their impossibly long incarceration.Since that day, the Altansar Eldar have used the symbol of the Broken Chain to represent their craftworld. Set free from their eternal bondage, they have fought tirelessly against the forces of She Who Thirsts.Yet despite their proven loyalty to the Eldar cause, the matter of how the Altansari survived their millennial imprisonment in the dark heart of Chaos has proved persistent.The Altansari are unwelcome on many craftworlds, even forbidden, amid fears they are not as closely aligned to Asuryani culture as they claim and secretly serve Slaanesh, despite the evidence to the contrary.The question is asked time and again -- have they not been tainted by their ordeal, changed by the Ruinous Powers that roam the Eye at will?Usually such questions are put aside, but with the appearance of an Altansar delegation at this critical time upon Ulthwé, they arose in greater measure than ever before.A furor broke out almost immediately. To add fuel to the fires of controversy, the Altansari were moving to side with Yvraine.It was the Warlock Guentilian Onyxblade who stepped forward to represent Altansar. Her low whisper was unheard at first amongst the raised voices of the Ulthwé Seers, but when she reached up and unclasped her helm with a dual puff of escaping air, the dome's interior fell silent once more.Only the Yncarne could be heard, its unnerving hiss turning from the sibilance of a questing serpent to something like a sigh of relief.Tall even for an Eldar, Guentilian was a striking sight. Her skin was so pale and waxen it was as if she had died long ago. Many of those gathered could not shake the notion they were looking upon a well-preserved corpse.The Warlock held her long black Witchblade as if it were a rod of office, proof that though she was one of a forgotten kindred, she still walked the Asuryani Path. At her side was one of the rare feline creatures known as gyrinxes, those psychic familiars that bolstered the mental and spiritual power of those they took as masters.The dome's atmosphere grew thick as the Warlock climbed atop a nearby spiral of crystal stairs to speak."Autarch Orensae extended you welcome after all, then," said Yemshon, nodding in greeting. "The gates of Asuryan's halls open, and cleanse those who enter.""There are those who call Ulthwé damned," interjected Zuar'lias the Wise, addressing his fellow council member, "purely for our proximity to the Eye. We would be the worst kinds of hypocrites if we were to refuse those of Altansar for the same reasons.""And we thank you for it," said Guentilian. Disturbingly, her soft whisper was echoed by every one of her kindred."You came to speak in defence of Eldrad Ulthran and the Ynnari," said Yemshon. "Have you a vested interest in this matter?""We must return to the Eye," said the Altansar Warlock, her gyrinx prowling around her legs. "The blade that the Daughter of Shades speaks of must be reclaimed from our enemies, if our race is to transcend. I know in which city it lies. We failed once, and only escaped She Who Thirsts thanks to the shroud Ynnead cast over us. We cannot fail again." At her words, many of the Altansari shifted uncomfortably, looking through the translucent dome walls to the Eye of Terror's purple bruise amongst the stars."I cannot ask my people to return to the Eye," said Guentilian, "but neither can I stand idle. So I give my soul to Yvraine, and to Ynnead himself." Raising her sword, she slashed her own throat wide open. Black blood spurted outward as she gasped her last.Yvraine darted forward, grabbing Guentilian's body. The Ynnari priestess seemed to inhale deeply even as the Warlock's body slumped, lifeless and pale. A moment later the gyrinx, purring in recognition, rubbed itself against Yvraine's legs."And so we must act," said Yvraine, staring unfocussed into the middle distance. "We must leave now to retrieve the Croneswords of Belial IV, lest the handmaidens of Slaanesh reach it first.""Surely the risk of snuffing out this ﬂicker of hope is too great," replied Yemshon. He twitched a finger, and a trio of Ulthwé Warlocks drew their own Witchblades. "We cannot allow you to take the fate of so many into your hands. The wise do not pin their hopes upon a life unborn. Would this journey not be better made by the warriors of Craftworld Il-Kaithe? They profess to know the Crone Worlds better than any other.""None know the Eye as well as the Altansari," said Yvraine. "They have navigated its tides for thousands of cycles, avoiding the claws of the daemon with each new day. Guentilian's sacrifice will not be in vain." There were whispers of assent from the Altansari behind her, building to a hissing chorus."No," said Yemshon. He raised his arms, and ethereal winds raced around the dome, knocking several of the Altansari Eldar from their feet. "You and your followers will stay until the Seer Councils decide your fate." The psychic hurricane blew harder still, and the craftworld erupted into utter bedlam.Courtly negotiations turned to veiled threats, then to open hostility as the Ulthwé psykers threw up barriers of psychic force and sent strength-sapping curses into the ranks of the Ynnari.The Visarch fought through the psychic tempest, his blade raised as he made for Yemshon. The Yncarne loomed from the shadows, a storm of glittering spirits whirling around it as it bore down on the chanting Seers.Then a clarion shout rang out. The Harlequins of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow stepped out one by one from behind the darkest of the crystal statues, each striking a pose as if parrying a blow.With them was an elderly Farseer clad in a simple black robe. The Seer Council looked on in wonder; the newcomer was Kysaduras the Anchorite, wisest of all Ulthwé's visionaries. He had emerged from his self-imposed imprisonment to speak to his people.The psychic hurricane that raged around the dome ebbed away, becalmed in an instant as Kysaduras raised his staff above his head. He spoke in a croaking baritone, a voice that had clearly not been used for solar decades, but yet carried immense weight.They stood at the crux point of fate, he said. Whether the Seers wished it so or not, the Ynnari had to leave -- or else another craftworld would die, never to be reborn.As one, the Seer Council turned away. The Ynnari -- their ranks now bolstered not only by the Biel-Tani, but also by a few bold Altansari, the Harlequins of the Midnight Sorrow, and a swathe of Ulthwé sympathisers -- made for the dome's primary gates.With them went the Yncarne, the ground crackling with hoarfrost at its passage. Eldrad Ulthran followed the creature, bent under the weight of his peers' censure. Kysaduras, using his staff as a support, went with him.Before the Craftworld's diurnal cycle ended, the Ynnari had left for the Eye of Terror. They embarked upon a journey of supreme peril, for their journey was to Slaanesh's own birthplace. Not one of them looked back.
Battle of Iyanden - Into the Eye of Terror: The journey into the depths of the Eye of Terror was fraught. The purplish swirl of that vast Warp Storm had the presence of a living, predatory thing. The weight and saturation of its evil pulled at the soul as a black hole devours light.Without the thought of Ynnead's ascension to inspire an icy determination in the Ulthwé pilots carrying the Ynnari into the Eye, those at the helm would likely have turned back a dozen times over. On they went, each soul resolved to live as boldly and fully as the ancient Aeldari rather than to look away or hide in the manner of their present-day kin.The graceful starships moved under the cover of gigantic Holo-Fields, bypassing the embattled Imperial war zones of the Cadian Gate and venturing into the unstable overlap between realspace and the Warp. The Eldar expedition evaded fang-toothed space-time tornadoes, ﬂed from hungry ghost suns, rode out hailstorms of bloody skulls and negotiated crashing tsunamis of raw Warp energy. They did not falter.Whenever the resolve of the Ynnari began to waver in the face of these trials, Yvraine was there to inspire them and lead them on. It was this bravery that came to typify the Ynnari over the Terran months to come, securing their reputation as a force for change from one side of the galaxy to the other.Already the shock waves the Ynnari had sent throughout the Aeldari civilisations were causing ripples of causality in their turn. The transformation of Yvraine in the Crucibael had triggered the invasion and Dysjunction of Commorragh, and Asdrubael Vect himself had abandoned the Dark City as a result.Though the damage to his reign had been cataclysmic, the Supreme Overlord had already set in motion hundreds of plots and schemes that would reaffirm his stranglehold upon Drukhari society. It was the metaphysical danger of the Ynnari's rise that concerned Vect most of all.The harrowing odyssey of Yvraine and the Reborn had been the subject of much interest in the Kabal of the Black Heart. The Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect now had far more pressing matters to attend to, for Commorragh was wracked by the most severe of Dysjunctions and his aeons-old power base was literally falling apart.Yet he could not shake the desire for vengeance upon the upstart gladiatrix that had triggered this turbulent uprising that night in the Crucibael arena, and causing division amongst the Commorrites -- a sentiment shared by a great many of the Haemonculi who had long considered themselves the true masters of Drukhari society.The Dysjunction of Commorragh was an eventuality Vect had long planned for. He was a past master at ensuring that when misfortune befell the Drukhari, his rivals suffered the worst; often it transpired that it was Vect's hidden hand behind the disaster in the first place.Though he implied to his servants that he had deliberately triggered the cataclysm to relieve his immortal ennui, Vect was secretly livid that his personal fiefdom had been defiled, and his contingency plans forced into sudden reality.Whilst his rivals scrambled to salvage the remnants of their once-glorious holdings amidst the spreading Warp quake, Vect was already well-established elsewhere, populating the ruins of ancient port cities and turning them into sprawling fortresses.He offered safe haven to those who sought his protection -- at a price, of course -- and prepared for his long campaign of counterattack.Meanwhile, the cataclysm of the Dark City occurred in a series of chain reactions. The underground River Khaïdes burst its banks as a slough of Nurgle daemons ﬂopped into its acrid reaches, surging into the streets above to trigger waves of necrotising plague.With the midspires largely unguarded, Tzeentchian sky-sharks and the fiery chariots of daemon sorcerers roared into the skies, ﬂame spiralling as they clashed with the murder-packs that populate Commorragh's starscrapers.When the daemons of Khorne poured through empty streets to invade the sprawl of Sec Maegra, the most nefarious, hardened mercenaries and pirates of the galaxy united as a single army in the face of swarming Bloodletters and rampaging Greater Daemons. The hordes of Slaanesh, beside themselves with ecstasy, sated themselves with orgies of violence unbound as they massacred Commorrite Kabals spire by spire.That immense and complex Drukhari metropolis had power enough to swallow even a major daemon incursion and cauterise the areas deemed irretrievable, but it was far too fractious a domain for a unified defence.Many of the Dark City's Archons tried to slay their rivals under the pretence of fighting back the daemon hordes, their actions adding to the mayhem. Skirmishes and gang wars broke out in the streets in escalating measure, for this time there was no Kabal of the Black Heart to bring the hyperdimensional city to bloody order.Like a palace made of dominoes given a single push, Commorragh suffered a chain reaction of disasters. Around the Crucibael, the escaped Tyranids that would once have been put down with relative ease carved a red path through the domains of the Wych Cults.Archon Sythrac, counterattacked after a vicious but costly coup staged against the Lords of the Iron Thorn, was beheaded by Kheradruakh the Decapitator, one of the living shadows known as Mandrakes.With this singular and grisly kill, the Decapitator finally claimed the last "perfect" skull he needed for his dark work. Flaying it and licking his trophy clean, he used it to complete the underground ritual he had been obsessively fashioning from the stolen heads of his prey over the last eight Terran millennia.The gaze of a thousand perfect skulls met in the middle of his lair and bored a hole in the wall between worlds, opening a gateway to the midnight dimension of the Mandrakes. A morass of shadowy assassins and tenebrous monsters spilled like an inky ﬂood through the streets, and slew every soul within a dozen Terran miles.In the space of a single night, that region of Commorragh became the shadow kingdom of the Decapitator, long-lost monarch of the Mandrakes. His was a new reign of terror, his throne set within a sea of living shadow that consumed even the daemon invaders that strayed within its grasp.On the third night that shadow army combined its strength with the ﬂeshy hordes of the Haemonculi Covens. Endless menageries of twisted ﬂesh-things and shadow daemons surged up from the Dark City's underworld, and the mayhem of the daemon incursion begin to lose momentum.The Kabals and Wych Cults regrouped somewhat, using their knowledge of the Dark City to fight back against the Warp-born invaders. As the stolen dark suns burned overhead, Commorragh's fate hung in the balance.In Vect's presence, the topic of the Dysjunction's cause was already taboo. The Supreme Overlord had already claimed he had Yvraine in his power, and that he and his Haemonculus allies were painstakingly extracting every ounce of the power she had shown in the Crucibael. Though there had been no proof of it, none were foolish enough to call him a liar to his face.Vect had publicly tortured the steersmen and Corsair warriors Yvraine had abandoned in her ﬂight from the city during the Night of Revelations, but of the gladiatrix herself, there was no sign.Rumours were circulating that Vect's claim was hollow, and his rivals -- his former paramour, Lady Malys of the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue, foremost amongst them -- were doing everything in their power to ensure that Vect's authority and dominance was undermined.In secret, Vect was sparing no expense in the search for Yvraine, and the Haemonculi Ancient Urien Rakarth's Prophets of Flesh Coven were pulling every string they could in order to track down the Ynnari. Without the aid of their Harlequin allies, the Ynnari would likely already be captured, but for now they had slipped the net.To Rakarth, the rumours of soul magic were both intoxicating and horrifying. They hinted at a prize worth any cost to the nigh-immortal Coven-lords, whilst also representing a manner of death that even a Haemonculus Ancient would not be able to escape.Almost as soon as Yvraine had escaped the Dark City, wheels had been put in motion that had seen a host of Vect's Haemonculi allies depart for the most dangerous reaches of the Webway -- and from there to the same daemon-haunted planet sought by the Reborn. In many ways it was a dark homecoming. Amongst the Haemonculi Covens' founders were the self-same Aeldari whose wanton indulgence had led to the Fall.Elsewhere, after a series of maddening and surreal trials, the Ynnari expedition reached its destination with most of their number still alive. There were those that maintained it was the spirit of the Altansari Warlock Guentilian guiding the Ynnari through the Eye of Terror's hellish reaches that allowed them to reach their destination all but intact.Others said it was the presence of the Yncarne. It may even have been Ynnead himself that held back the infernal tides; certainly that was what Yvraine had claimed since they had passed the Cadian Gate.Though many of the Reborn were slain during daemonic attacks or driven irrevocably insane en route, the core of the Ynnari's expedition was still intact when the convoy of Eldar starships came into orbit around the giant, milk-white orb of Belial IV.When an Ulthwé warhost's grav-tanks bore the Ynnari low into the Crone World's atmosphere, and from there to the surface of the planet, there was not a soul to be seen. Dunes of off-white dust had accumulated everywhere, the residue of a once-mighty civilisation mingled with the remains of its people.The planet's ruin-dotted surface had the stale and unwelcoming atmosphere of a place that had not felt the footfall of a living creature for hundreds of Terran years. Just occasionally, however, the Ynnari saw ﬂickers of movement in their peripheral vision, as if something half-real was watching.As the Ulthwéan contingent split off in a spiralling search pattern, the Harlequins of the Midnight Sorrow too fanned out, making exaggerated gestures of stealth. So swift was their progress than many Ynnari asked themselves if they had visited these ill-fated lands before.It was their Shadowseer that brought their suspicions to Yvraine first, drawing a thin and shimmering veil of darkness behind her as she came. They were not alone amongst the ruins. The creatures that pursued them were not ghosts, nor daemons, but creatures that were very much ﬂesh and blood.No sooner had the Shadowseer confided in Yvraine than a howling menagerie of abhorrent terrors charged headlong from the ruins ahead. They were coming straight for the Ynnari, hungry and focussed on their prey despite the Harlequin psyker's illusory veils. At their fore were eyeless Ur-Ghuls, multiple nostrils twitching as they bounded on all fours towards their prey.Behind the creatures came all manner of twisted anatomies, from musclebound hulks whose spines bristled with steroid injectors to whip-limbed hunchbacks who scuttled on bare feet with the speed of hunting spiders. Floating amongst them were the Haemonculi sent on a mission of murder by the ﬂeshmaster Urien Rakarth, most feared of the Dark City's Haemonucli.Eyes wide, the Haemonculi grinned like ﬂayed skulls as they came, many licking their lips in anticipation of the gruesome experiments they would enact upon the Ynnari. It was as if the vilest elements of the ancient Aeldari society had been resurrected amongst their shattered holdings, and given forms that better mirrored their inner personas -- not those of elegant and athletic paragons, but of ravening monsters, whose surpassing ugliness revealed the parasitic souls beneath.The Ynnari were under attack from the hidden architects of the Fall, an echo of the torrid past come to rip away the brightest hope for the future.As a silver moon glimmered upon the parched surface of Belial IV, the echoes of Aeldari long dead ﬂitted and moaned amongst the ruins, crying out as the darkest incarnation of their ancient society fell upon their would-be saviours.Even the Bloodbrides and Incubi amongst the Ynnari ranks were under no illusions as to what their Commorrite brethren intended for them, and so dived into the fray alongside the Black Guardians of Ulthwé and the Harlequins of the Midnight Sorrow.The razored blades of mercenary and gladiatrix cut away heavily thewed limbs, bisected leaping Ur-Ghuls and decapitated masked monstrosities wherever they came forward. Incredibly, many of the Haemonculi's minions kept fghting even after sustaining grievous wounds, limb-stumps spraying nameless ﬂuids as they thrashed and ﬂailed. Their violence was indiscriminate, but the unnatural strength behind it made it dangerous. Many an Ynnari was hurled broken across the wasteland to skid like a rag doll into the drifts of bluish-white dust.In the centre of it all, a clutch of Talos Pain Engines drifted towards Yvraine, claws and tentacles twitching. The Shuriken Catapults of the Biel-Tani Dire Avengers slashed a hundred wounds in the ﬂeshy war machines, black liquid ﬂying from their ironhard carapaces. The pulsing energies of nearby Cronos Parasite Engines spurred them on regardless.A double rank of Wraithblades loped through the dust to intercept them before they reached Yvraine, elegant Ghostswords gleaming as they sliced and cut.The spirit constructs fought with courage and strength, but the Pain Engines were true masterpieces of the ﬂeshcrafter's art -- one by one the Wraithblades were caught by clacking claws and wrenched apart.Suddenly the Visarch was there, stepping nimbly around the Pain Engines as he ducked, slashed and moved away once more, avoiding whirring chain-ﬂails and jabbing ichor injectors with impressive grace. Soon, all that was left were hovering carapaces that drizzled foul blood.The eldest of the Haemonculi, his mouth twisted in a moue of irritation at the sight of his pets being dismembered, brought forth a rune-engraved box from his robes and opened it. Sickly light ﬂooded out as captive djinn-spirits shrieked towards the Visarch.His long blade whirled and slashed, but no physical foes were these, and they could not be cut. They lifted him bodily into the air and stretched his limbs taut; grinding and snapping sounds were clearly audible as the Ynnari warrior was slowly stretched to breaking point.A moment before the Visarch came apart, the Yncarne burst from the morass of dead Pain Engines with a deafening roar of triumph. With nothing more than its bare hands, the Avatar ripped the djinn-spirits to dissipating wisps of ectoplasm.It ﬂexed a slender claw, and the djinn's Haemonculus master withered away to a puff of dust. In far Commorragh, those samples of the Coven-lord's anatomy that were kept for regrowth turned to dust at the same instant. There could be no proof nor safeguard against the death brought by the Yncarne, for it was the god of the dead given physical form.Seeing their comrade's demise, and fearing that he had died a true death at the hands of a daemon, the rest of the Haemonculi withdrew.No prize was valuable enough to risk their carefully maintained and treasured immortality. Within solar minutes they were gone entirely, their fleshwarped servants vanishing with them.The Ynnari had barely regrouped amongst the ruins when a ululating shriek pierced the air.
Battle of Iyanden - The Soul Hunt of Belial IV: The screams in the middle distance were painful to hear. These were not shrieks of agony, but of savage joy, the cries of lunatic killers on the hunt. They were not of mortals, nor even the playthings of the Haemonculi, but of entities borne from the Warp and attracted to the psychic spoor of carnage.Every one of the Ynnari that heard them felt trepidation; these were the daemons of Slaanesh, birthed from the catastrophe that had laid this wretched place low.To fall into their clutches here was to know an eternity of torment, and to be consumed utterly by She Who Thirsts. They told themselves that their souls would be saved from that direst of fates by Yvraine and their fellow Ynnari, but ancestral fear still clutched at their hearts.Darting up to elevated positions, Yvraine's Bloodbride handmaidens peered into the gloom. Through the ivory mists came whole armies of blade-wheeled chariots, striking sparks from the tumbled ruins as they came. In their wake was a tide of sprinting Daemonettes.Realisation broke across the Aeldari like a cold wind -- this was a hunt, and they were the quarry. Yvraine cursed loud and long. The souls she kept safe within her had aided her in finding signs of the ancient Croneswords she sought; one of the artefacts was near, but not likely near enough.Shortly before the Haemonculus ambush was sprung, Yvraine had found a trail of dead Waystones -- the psychocrystal gems known as Isha's Tears. Highly prized as havens from Slaanesh's unquenchable thirst for Aeldari souls, they were formed by the shearing of realspace and the Warp during the Fall.The particular Waystones Yvraine had found did not glitter with psychic potential, like those typically sought out by the Rangers and Wraithknights of the Craftworlds. Instead they exuded a leaden absence of life.Yvraine had followed the trail of dead stones to find it converging with another, then another. It was a sign, a hint that one of the morbid artefacts she sought was close -- though with the daemons of Slaanesh hunting her, there was no time to investigate.It occurred to her that might be precisely why the daemons had chosen this time to strike, though it was just as likely they had waited for the Haemonculi and the Ynnari to bleed each other white before attacking the survivors.With her inherited gyrinx growling at her heels, Yvraine took up her own Cronesword once more and made for the charging daemon host. She was unsurprised to see the Visarch leading the Ynnari from the front, darting through the densest ruins so the chariots of the Slaaneshi could not attack him without dashing themselves to pieces.Their Ulthwé allies were no more than a few Terran kilometres distant -- though they had split off from Yvraine's vanguard in a search pattern in order to find the Cronesword they sought, Eldrad Ulthran had insisted there be a strike force close to the Ynnari at all times in case of ambush.As she saw the daemonic chariots racing pellmell around their ﬂanks, Yvraine's hope that they could reach their Ulthwé allies ebbed away. The Slaaneshi were moving along what had once been the widest boulevards of the Crone World's capital city, bouncing and skidding at breakneck pace as they encircled their prey entirely.With them came Daemonettes riding long-necked, bipedal Steeds of Slaanesh, and freakish, scorpion-tailed Fiends of Slaanesh whose pincers clacked a percussive accompaniment to the chorus of delighted screams.Within solar minutes, the Ynnari were trapped. They had been expertly driven into a dead end, a sinkhole pit before them and Slaaneshi daemons on all sides. Yvraine and her vanguard exchanged doleful glances, preparing for a last stand. As they drew close, they saw the sinkhole before them was no natural well at all, but a vast gullet that pulsed and growled in hunger.The hordes of Daemonettes came within range of the Ynnari's Shuriken Weapons, and a blizzard of razored discs hurtled out. Their slicing kiss only served to drive the Slaaneshi hunters further into an ecstatic frenzy. On the lithe daemons came, hissing and hungry. Bounding lightly through the ruins came the Harlequins of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow, diving and somersaulting to intercept.They joined in battle with the daemons with such grace and speed the skirmish seemed as if it were choreographed -- the clash between daemon and Harlequin had long been a subject of their dances.Where the Eldar fell in greatest number, there was Yvraine, drawing the souls of the lost into herself even as their bodies died. The ghosts were made visible by the eerie halfreality of the Eye of Terror; to those around her it seemed that Yvraine was physically breathing them in.With each release of deathly energies, the Ynnari around her found themselves inexplicably invigorated. They pressed the attack with such quicksilver speed even the Daemonettes looked sluggish by comparison.As the battle reached a crescendo, a moan of longing came from the throat of every Daemonette, Steed and Fiend of Slaanesh. From the gullet-pit blocking the Eldar's path emerged a vast claw-tipped tongue as large as a human hive city transmotive. Many Ynnari screamed at the sight, fearing She Who Thirsts herself was emerging to gorge upon them, and perhaps they were right.Riding upon this grotesque appendage, their claws hooked into cairn-sized taste buds, were three Greater Daemons of Slaanesh. The largest of them, the incarnation of dark bliss known as the Queen of Suffering, howled with ecstasy as the titanic tongue slashed down, crushing hundreds of Aeldari to death.Flanked by two of its disturbingly alluring kin, the Keeper of Secrets swept a jewel-studded claw through the air, backhanding two leaping Harlequins into the scissoring pincers of its fellows. Their end was swift, at least. Blood glittered like ruby rain as they came bodily apart.From nowhere the Yncarne loomed upward through the mist, its hissing whisper growing to a waterfall's roar. It darted towards the Greater Daemons with blurring swiftness, and grabbed the Queen of Suffering by the throat. The she-Daemon gave a strangled cry of surprise as the Yncarne ripped open her neck in a welter of blood.But in coming within arm's reach, the Avatar of Ynnead had risked much. A jagged pincer caught the Yncarne by the ankle -- then another, and another as the Queen's courtiers closed in. The Yncarne was yanked down and dashed to the ﬂoor. A moment later it was stamped into the saliva-sodden earth by a ﬂurry of cloven hooves.Yvraine gave a cry of anguish. She summoned the energies of her god, a storm of whispers hissing out to consume the Daemonettes around her. They turned to cold grey statues, then fell apart, but there were more to take their place. Nearby, Eldrad Ulthran and Kysaduras were striking at the ﬂanks of one of the Keepers of Secrets, their Witch Weapons ﬂaring as they tore it one grievous wound after another.Harlequins vaulted around them, ﬂip belts keeping them one step ahead. The spectacle was so rich in splendour, so steeped in ancestral hatred, it was all the Harlequins could do not to fall into their ritual roles and reenact their famed performance of the Fall of the Aeldari in reality.Even as she fought for her life, Yvraine had a strong feeling that she had seen this all before. At first, she could not place where; the rescued souls within her did not number any Harlequins, for the Laughing God took them unto himself instead. Then it came to her -- this dance of Harlequin and Slaaneshi daemon was an echo of the Final Act, as portrayed by the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow in the theatres of Commorragh.Inspiration struck Yvraine. She knew this performance well, as she had danced a similar waltz in her youth. She dived, rolled and span, for by recalling the dance forms that had fascinated her as a child, she found she could predict the Harlequin's battle dance all but perfectly -- and therefore that of the Daemonettes that faced them.On she danced, vaulting and somersaulting, following the scatterings of dead Waystones to a nexus of the crystal ovals only a few dozen feet from the Greater Daemons of Slaanesh rampaging through the Ynnari lines.Underfoot, she could feel the pulsing energy of one of the Croneswords they had come to claim, a reservoir of deathly psychic power so strong it had stolen even the potential life from the Waystones nearby. Smiling grimly, she placed both hands upon the ground and cried out.A heartbeat later the Yncarne burst like a phoenix from the ground beneath the Queen of Suffering, reborn in a fountain of ice-blue energies. It held a long and shining Cronesword in both hands, and as it soared into the sky, it cut the daemon queen in half from groin to neck. The deathly energies around it lent it speed; in a blur of purple-white motion, it hacked and slashed at the Greater Daemons until they had discorporated altogether.The weapon wielded by the Avatar of Ynnead was Vilith-zhar, the Sword of Souls, largest and most powerful of the Croneswords. After millennia of slumber, its edge was hungry for the blood of the Aeldari's persecutors. Like a bladed whirlwind, the Yncarne plunged into the Slaaneshi horde. Its every breath was a killing mist, its every thrust the final death of a shrieking daemon.The Yncarne slashed at the giant claw-tongue grasping for it, and the hideous appendage withdrew back into its sinkhole lair as if stung by the great Murekh Wasp itself.Inspired by the Final Act made real, the Harlequins renewed their attack, and within solar minutes, the encircling daemonic horde was in utter disarray. Better still, through the ruins could be seen the colours of Ulthwé. With the trap broken, salvation was at hand.
Battle of Iyanden - Iyanden Rescue: With the Ynnari and their Ulthwé allies fighting together as one, the Aeldari tore apart the tightening noose the Slaaneshi daemons had cast around them. Their strike forces ﬂowed like fast-running streams through the ruins and dust dunes of the shattered Aeldari city, capitalising on their gains before the daemonic hosts could cut them off.Yvraine led the charge, her regalia billowing behind her in the ethereal winds as she sprinted through shattered arches and under statues of fallen heroes. Towards the giant Memorial Hall of Atransis she ran, a vast museum-like structure where the works of the pre-Fall Aeldari were once displayed as the foremost treasures of the universe.With Ulthwé's close assault specialists forming a wall of blades on either ﬂank, the Ynnari vanguard plunged inside the enormous hall, seeking a defensible position from which they could repel the Slaaneshi soul hunt from a narrow frontage. Within those walls, they were to find far more than simple tactical advantage.As the Reborn took up positions on the sweeping ramps and daises of the hall's interior, the building was gradually ﬂooded with golden yellow light. Two immense structures at the back of the hallway shook dust from their slab-like facias as they opened, unfurling jerkily like the wings of a butterﬂy fresh from its chrysalis.A glowing yellow rune-portal was revealed within, immense yet visible only to the dead -- or those that bore their blessing. Massive as the secret portal was, the figure that emerged from within was so tall it still had to stoop to fit through.A rune-emblazoned Wraithknight in proud yellow and blue heraldry glided out from the ancient portal, two more of the immense Ghost Warriors in its wake. Long-barrelled Suncannons thrummed loudly in the stillness. A shout of triumph rose up from the Ynnari as the giants opened fre, blast after blast of intense plasma energy shooting from the entranceway of the hall.Wherever they struck, the daemons tumbling through the hall's entrance to capture the escaping Eldar were annihilated. Everywhere a new hunting pack of Slaaneshi creatures appeared, a killing volley of energy scoured them from existence. When a knot of Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh careened through the ranks of the Ulthwé Eldar, blood ﬂying from bladed wheels, one of the Wraithknights stepped forward and smashed them to scattering shrapnel with a sweeping blow from its massive blade.Yvraine was the first to notice the smaller figures at the giants' feet. The fabled constructs of Craftworld Iyanden had arrived, already spreading out to form a protective wall around the Ynnari. Amongst them was none other than Iyanna Arienal, the Angel of Iyanden.At the Spiritseer's instruction, the Ghost Warriors formed a loose circle that spread out through their living comrades, then locked in tight. The wraithbone bulwark allowed every living Eldar through without resistance, yet hurled back their daemon pursuers with volleys of firepower and methodical bladework.Many of the faceless warriors gave their lives to ensure their living kin could escape. Iyanna beckoned the Ynnari into the golden portal. Realising that to stay was to die, Yvraine ordered the retreat. Group by group the Reborn dashed into the secret spar of the Webway beyond.Perilous indeed were the hidden paths that the Iyandeni used to reach the Crone Worlds and gather their Waystone bounty. The Ynnari were led by not only the most gifted Spiritseer of her generation, however, but also the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow.Though it took long solar weeks of arduous travel, they found the second of the golden portals without serious incident -- a gateway that led them to a hidden Webway portal of Craftworld Iyanden within its Vaidh Wayport.Iyanna Arienal presented the Bonesinger's seal of her dynasty to a dozen runic locks, sang in a lilting soprano the lineage of Eldanesh, and projected her psyche into the spirit reservoirs beyond each gate until they opened soundlessly one by one.The expedition passed through into the chilly, mist-wreathed catacombs of the Craftworld's Ghost Halls. Each alcove, once occupied by the inert shell of an inactive Ghost Warrior, was empty. There were sounds of distant thunder high above -- the Visarch cocked his head, and loosened his great blade in its knotted scabbard. These were not the sounds of a tempest, but the din of ongoing battle.Yvraine felt hope and despair in equal measure. They had found safety, just as it looked like they would be overwhelmed completely, and better yet, their rescuers were numbered amongst those Craftworlders they sought to bring to Ynnead's cause. In dying and being Reborn within the domain of the ancient Aeldari, the Yncarne had claimed the shape-changing Sword of Souls from within the soil of Belial IV.Yet the Ynnari had found only one of the two blades of power they sought from Belial IV before they had been forced to ﬂee. Without all five of the Croneswords, Ynnead's power would be significantly lessened. Worse still, the fifth and final sword Yvraine had expected to find upon Iyanden was missing, its psychic spoor nowhere to be found.This was because, unknown to the Ynnari, the last Cronesword was no longer on Belial IV. Slaanesh had freed its Keeper of Secrets Shalaxi Hellbane from the Palace of Punishments in the Realm of Chaos and ordered it to prevent the awakening of Ynnead and foil the plans of the Ynnari.The daemon travelled to Belial IV and stole the fifth Cronesword before the Ynnari could claim it, placing it far from the reach of the servants of Ynnead in the Palace of Slaanesh. Unknown to Ynnead's high priestess, the Seventh Way already seemed an impossible quest to complete.The Angel of Iyanden, the Spiritseer Iyanna, had a series of impassioned exchanges with Yvraine as they gained the winding steps to the Craftworld's well-lit interior. The world-ship was under siege once more. As it had passed through the Endregan Sector, a Warp Storm that had seemed distant one night was alarmingly close the next.From within that empyric tempest had come a pair of vast rotten Space Hulks, each a cadaverous mass of metal and rock so pitted with age it had not a single straight line nor smooth contour upon it. The runic divinations of the Farseers had shown the immense composite ships to be infested with daemonic life-forms, just as a bloated corpse is infested with maggots.Vast swarms of Rot Flies, each led by a pinioned Daemon Prince, had ﬂown from the repulsive space detritus towards Iyanden upon membranous wings. With the Warp Storm propelling them, and with no need to breathe, they had descended upon Iyanden in their thousands.Yvraine had a hollow feeling it was no accident that Iyanden was assailed by daemon invaders just as she and her Ynnari had sought safe haven there, but she kept her peace on the matter.To a craftworld that counted the dead as the most numerous of its defenders, the message of Ynnead's awakening was a delicate enough matter already."Our fate is that of Omethrian, it seems," said Iyanna Arienal, as she and Yvaine strode across the Bridge of Endless Night. "To be torn apart anew by carrion crows each time our wounds begin to heal." Overhead, just visible through the thin crystal of the Aldanari Dome, the explosions of fleet warfare lit the void."Did Omethrian not wish to die under the Red Moon," said Yvraine, "thereby ending his torment, and being reborn anew?""If you seek to extinguish what is left of Iyanden's ﬂame, you will find your welcome short indeed," said Iyanna. "I have sung the songs of Ynnead myself, for many long years. Truly I believe all our destinies are held within his net. But first we will take a grievous toll upon those who wish to hound us to our deaths. That does not involve succumbing to some horrid infestation, nor wasting away in apathy and despair.""Well said," murmured the Visarch as he walked behind them. Yvraine started in surprise at her companion breaking his silence, but said nothing. As the Eldar reached the end of the bridge and made for the war council beyond, a dozen Wraithguard blocked their path, a robed Farseer in their midst."Dhentiln Firesight," Iyanna whispered. "He will not risk the Ghost Halls coming to our side, not now." She turned to Yvraine, eyes alight. "Whatever happens, we shall make Ynnead proud to call us his daughters." Yvraine nodded, emotions thick in her throat."I bid you welcome," called out Dhentiln, "but sadly your timing is more that of crippled Vaul than deft Asuryan. With the armada fully engaged, Iyanden cannot afford distraction, lest we inadvertently open our gates to the enemy once more. You and your followers have travelled far -- even Faolchú the Messenger folded its wings at day's end. You must rest."At this he gestured at a distant quarter of the great dome, ill-lit and still. "We will escort you and your fellow Commorrites to a guarded haven, to ensure minimum disruption. Those of your host that wear craftworld colours, or the motley of Cegorach, will be dispersed to fight upon the front line. We dearly need their blades.""That measure is not necessary,’ said Yvraine, her tone ice cold. "My people will stay and fight as one.""But I insist," said the Farseer. Behind him, the Wraithguard lifted their weapons. In the middle distance, bipedal war walkers emerged from behind the curving architecture of the War Council's chambers, their guns reinforcing the deadly message."Very well," said Yvraine. "We will not raise our blades against you on this dark day. If you wish to snuff out the ﬂame your people once held so dear, we shall be there to light it once more."The Wraithguard closed around the Ynnari commanders, and led them away into the gloom. High above, the thunder of war rumbled ever louder like the laughter of distant gods.Within solar minutes of leaving the Bridge of Endless Night, Yvraine, the Visarch, the core of the Ynnari, and Iyanna Arienal were involuntary guests in Iyanden's most sumptuous halls. Their every need was catered for, white-robed Eldar adolescents on the Path of the Servant offering refreshment and even cleaning their war gear of the Crone World's dust.Still the truth was obvious to all. The Reborn, those who believed Ynnead to be the saviour the Aeldari so desperately needed, had been incarcerated against their will. Battle in the stars high above still raged between Iyanden's armada and the daemon-infested Space Hulks that drifted, slow but unstoppable, towards them.Yvraine felt a slow-burning rage build within her breast, but she tamped it down. The way of Khaine would not release her from this; neither the Ynnari nor the Iyandeni could afford a civil war.Instead, she had to reach inside herself, deeper than ever before, and let the conduit between all living things channel her soul. Outward she cast her essence, ever outward, her mind's eye reaching towards one star after another.That which she sought was not there.On the outer surface of Iyanden, elephantine Rot Flies buzzed and swarmed, their pot-bellied plague riders smearing filth upon crystal domes that had felt only the kiss of solar winds. A trio of Nurgle Daemon Princes alighted nearby, talons screeching gouges in the transparent domes. With rusted maces and wrought-iron blades they hammered the crystal over and over until they had forced open an entrance.The thin bubbles of atmosphere that surrounded the dome-like nodes, fashioned to prevent the insides of the world-ships being sucked out into space in the event of a meteor swarm or other cosmic accident, gave the daemons the shelter they needed to wriggle and crawl within.Through these apertures the winged Plague Drones of Nurgle gained entry into the craftworld, descending upon the elegant forests and sculpture gardens in a hideous greenish-brown cloud. They were swiftly intercepted by several shrines of Swooping Hawks that ﬂitted, lasers blasting, just out of reach. The winged Aspect Warriors were swiftly joined by squadrons of Crimson Hunters, streaks of deep red scarring the air as they hunted the fat-bellied Daemon Princes that befouled their home.The Bright Lances of their Nightwing Interceptors struck over and over, each unerringly accurate shot blasting streams of viscera from the chests and abdomens of the ﬂeshy intruders. Garulgor the Virulent plummeted lifeless from the skies, but both Duke Oglorr and Maleathrus of the Foetid Claw descended towards the Eldar homelands below as if unconcerned by their injuries, chortling with glee as their innards drizzled filth across the lands below.The Crimson Hunters performed tight loop the loops and came in again, this time aiming for the heads of their prey. With the Swooping Hawks thickening their fire, even the daemon lords could not shrug off the intensity of their punishment. Oglorr and Maleathrus fell like stones to explode in showers of filth upon the alabaster ﬂagstones below.The daemon riders assailing Iyanden's forests did not get far, for they were contained and quarantined by unliving hosts of Ghost Warriors. Yet the invasion was really only just beginning. In the firmament high above, the twin space hulks that had emerged from the Warp Storm drifted ever closer.Though the daemons embattled upon Iyanden's surface were outmatched ten times over, the same could be said of Iyanden's armada. Each of the space hulks that faced them was truly immense, a composite monstrosity formed of abandoned spaceships, space debris and asteroids the size of small moons.Many of the voidcraft that jutted from the space hulks' ﬂanks had active gun batteries that sent punishing broadsides towards the Eldar craft that harassed them from afar. The spacecraft of the armada were nimble enough to simply evade any solid munitions, but not every weapon used by the hulks was so conventional.When thousands of winged drones ﬂew silently across the dark reaches of space to latch on to the solar sails of the Eldar ships, gnawing away at them like moths devouring silken finery, the Eldar vessels found themselves slowing to a crawl.Again the hulks opened fire, this time to full effect. So widespread and devastating were their volleys that they caught several Iyanden voidcraft amidships and destroyed them completely.Sequestered in her guest quarters, Yvraine reached out once more with her psychic powers. She could feel the deathly energies of the Iyanden armada's demise even in her confinement. This time she was rewarded.Beyond it was a thin ﬂare of intent, a soul-sign coming from the allies she had sent ahead when Ynnead frst arose. It was the psyspoor of Thraelle Longblade, Captain of the Mansbane. She peered through the crystal skylights of her quarters, hoping to see a glint in the stars, and gave the psychic signal.The Eldar Corsairs who knew Yvraine as Amharoc in Commorragh emerged from a field of stellar debris, their ships hidden from plain sight by Holo-Fields and Mimic Engines.Pulsar Lance batteries, Keel Torpedoes, Phantom Lances and Leech Engines took their toll on the nearby hulk. Under sustained barrage, the engine bay Plasma Reactors at the hulk's rear detonated with spectacular force. As a new star burned in the firmament, Yvraine allowed herself a tight smile.
Battle of Iyanden - The Fated Prince: As Yvraine's old comrades took their toll, Iyanden's own Corsair allies joined the fight. With the smaller of the two Nurgle-infested space hulks destroyed by Amharoc's Corsairs, both the armada of Iyanden and the warships of the Eldritch Raiders concentrated their firepower upon the larger vessel -- codified by Prince Yriel himself as the Spawn of Oghanothir.Like nimble star-sharks tearing chunks from a void whale, the Corsair ships closed in, levelled their devastating attacks, and slipped away. The crater-pitted behemoth's main defence was not guns, however, but its sheer bulk. It could be hammered by the guns of the Eldar for solar days and still have enough mass to destroy Iyanden should it collide.The hulk had drifted long in the haunted tides of the Warp, even passing through the sickly green-grey skies of Nurgle's Garden in the Realm of Chaos for a time. The daemon infestation that had claimed it riddled its labyrinthine innards right to the core, and thousands of winged daemons wound from every new crater like ribbons of smoke.The truth was becoming clear. If the hulk's exterior was inviolable, it would have to be destroyed from the inside out by a strike force of Eldar -- who would be risking the most hideous deaths imaginable.Prince Yriel, as ever, was quick to answer the call to action. In collusion with his fellow Corsair princes in Yvraine's ﬂeet, he organised a three-stage assault on the Spawn of Oghanothir. The plan was ambitious in the extreme, but necessarily so, for to approach the hulk in a boarding craft would be to become swamped by daemonic Rot Flies before ever reaching its sides.The gamble was so daring that it appealed to Yriel's fellow captains' sense of pride and bravado, and within a matter of solar hours, it was well underway.Virtually unnoticed by the combatants at large, Yriel and his captains left their starships aboard sleek Attack Craft and made for the Webway portal at the rear of Craftworld Iyanden. En route, Yriel used his rank as the Craftworld's High Admiral to convince the world-ship's steersmen to adopt a specific course.Slowly, the beleaguered Craftworld came about upon the designated coordinates. Prince Yriel's insertion craft were nimble and swift enough to bypass the daemon invaders that harassed Iyanden's exterior, and they passed through the stern Webway portal with acceptable losses.Using Yriel's uncanny hunter's instincts in conjunction with ancient Ulthanashi maps of the nearspace Webway labyrinth, they located the spar of that insane dimension that corresponded to the Spawn of Oghanothir’s course. It was a heading Yriel had all but dictated by offering Iyanden as the bait.As the Spawn drifted through space towards the Craftworld, intent on ramming its prey, Yriel and his captains activated their personal Webway portal devices and walked through the shimmering discs, crossing from the labyrinthine dimension into the foetid heart of the enemy space hulk.The Eldar strike force stepped cautiously from the emerald portals they had opened into the cavernous interior of the infested enemy ﬂagship. It was near pitch black inside, and a drizzle of foul ﬂuids spotted down from a vaulted ceiling high above.The Corsairs, anxious to avoid the patter of stinking liquids, darted to the cover of the nearest corridors and gingerly made their way further in. The faint sound of engines, pulsing regular as a heartbeat, could be heard in the distance.Having come this far, the Corsairs were not keen to turn back without completing their mission, even if the slime-slicked innards they were forced to navigate were more like the winding insides of a diseased sea monster than the ordered corridors of a spacecraft.Yriel and his fellow captains took comfort from the fact they wore sophisticated air reservoirs and hermetically sealed armour, the finest that Terran centuries of reaving could afford.It was well they did. Puffy balls of fungus, each formerly the head of an earlier trespasser, wheezed spores in billowing streams. For the intruders to breathe even a single lungful of that blighted air would have resulted in a truly disgusting death.Though the Corsair princes had to cut their way through thickets of grasping, tentacle-like cilia and leap over bubbling pools of acidic slime, they proved dextrous enough to penetrate to the thrumming heart of the foul ship's enginarium.Thus far they had encountered little fiercer a foe than the giggling daemon mites known as Nurglings, for their vector of attack had bypassed the daemon hordes on the warpath at the outer edge of the hulk.When they reached the engines, however, they found a more daunting sight -- the slime-slicked cocoons of sulking Beasts of Nurgle that had sought a warm place in which to make their vile metamorphoses.Perhaps the Corsairs would have swiftly disabled the hulk's mighty plasma engines and escaped without hindrance had the swamp-like inner chamber not also been home to a squatting, sedentary terror. Gurgling at the chamber's heart was the vastly obese Daemon Prince Gara'gugul'gor, whose name can only be pronounced correctly with a throat full of phlegm.Though the monstrosity's tentacle-like arms were whip-thin and dextrous, his abdomen was so engorged that it was impossible for him to move further than a few Terran feet. Still, he laughed with good reason -- for this day the prey had come to him.Whipping tendrils lashed out as Yriel jumped nimbly from one island of solid ground to another, the fabled Spear of Twilight blazing in his hand. One of them brushed the impeccably dressed Corsair Prince Lumino on the heel and immediately hauled him screaming into the air, dangling him within biting range.A gristly snap, and the Eldar pirate was halved at the waist; his severed legs kicked spasmodically as Gara'gugul'gor finished his snack. Yriel grimaced as he leapt closer still, polearm blade slashing at the tentacles whipping towards him to force them back.The damage was already done. Lumino's death scream had disturbed the pupae all around the room, and now many were beginning to shiver and shake, glistening wings and questing proboscises pushing from the foetid sacs.One by one, a swarm of ﬂuid-drizzling Rot Flies emerged prematurely from their transformations, hissing and half-formed as they stirred from their slumber to malevolent wakefulness.Another Corsair prince cried out as something grabbed his ankle. Spurred into action, the Rot Flies took wing as best they could, buzzing angrily as they lurched through the air towards the intruders.The horrifed Eldar abandoned all attempts at stealth, opening fire in all directions. With that, the vaulted space hulk engine room erupted into violence from end to end.The battle that followed saw some of the most inspired displays of swordsmanship, agile footwork and acrobatic poise outside of the troupes of Cegorach's favoured Harlequins. The Corsair princes unleashed every weapon they could bring to bear.Jokaero Digital Weapons, Aeldari Soulknives, Commorrite Slasherprisms and contraband elixirs that tripled the imbiber's physical reaction speed were all employed to ensure the daemonic denizens could not lay a single talon upon the intruders. And for a while, they were enough.At the heart of the battle Yriel fought hardest of all, his spear glittering with killing energies as it slashed, whirled and stabbed at anything foolish enough to come within reach. Running up the wall opposite Gara'gugul'gor, Yriel pushed backwards and away over a grasping tentacle, backﬂipping to spring once more off a gantry with High Admiral's greatcoat billowing.His spear was raised for a killing thrust. Gara'gugul'gor heaved a spray of stringy vomit from the gills in his wattled throat, and though Yriel twisted and arched his spine to avoid it, he turned his back on the black pseudopods that reached out to pluck him from the air.In an instant, Yriel was caught like a ﬂy in a spider's web, sticky tentacles wrapping around him to bind his arms to his sides. The Daemon Prince brought Yriel close, his jaws yawning wide.Suddenly the chamber was lit by a stark white brilliance. Yriel's ocular implant, the Eye of Twilight, ﬂared bright as it released a storm of killing electricity. The energies were so fierce they burned away the daemon's tentacles -- the Corsair prince was free once more.Down came the deadly Spear of Twilight that had claimed so much of Yriel's life, its blade gouging deep -- not into the Daemon Prince, but into the beating heart of the enginarium itself.A hideous shriek was wrenched from the daemon overlord's throat as the unearthly energies of that baleful artefact went to work. Black veins spread out across the hulk's core machinery, necrotising once-living metal into shuddering black rust wherever they spread.Though it had taken every iota of his skill and ingenuity, Yriel had achieved his goal. He smiled momentarily as the spear's deathly energies slew its true target -- the heart of the spacefaring juggernaut itself.A whipping tentacle came around, a broken girder in its grip. Yriel was too exhausted to dodge. The heavy iron bar smashed the life from the Eldar prince with a single blow.Gara'gugul'gor, once he had finished killing the last of the interlopers in as gruesome a fashion as he could devise, slurped and shufﬂed his way to Prince Yriel's cooling corpse. Before his death, the Autarch of Iyanden had effectively becalmed the hulk's only intact enginarium with a single stabbing blow of his eldritch weapon.Without the ability to correct the behemoth's course, the space hulk was reliant on momentum alone, and could likely be avoided by the Eldar craftworld. How could a mere mortal defy the will of Nurgle?Gara'gugul'gor was still high in the favour of Grandfather Nurgle, for he had diligently spread disease for countless standard centuries, and his particularly inventive brand of gallows humour was most amusing to the Plague God.But with his plan to break the necromantic Eldar of Iyanden in tatters, the Daemon Prince would have to find another way to rise in his patron's estimation.Stirring a pool of blood-laced slime with one of his tentacles and reciting the Seven Sickening Psalms, the daemon lord reached out with his psychic abilities into the depths of the Warp. There he had an epiphany.If his theory held true, and this warrior's blade was that which it appeared to be, there was still a chance to help Nurgle's power wax high -- not of its own slow but steady accord, but because one of his chief rivals in the Great Game of Chaos would suddenly find his own star waning fast.At the very least, Gara'gugul'gor could deliver a little gift to the Eldar world-ship, one that would reduce it to ruin as surely as a direct collision from a space hulk.The Daemon Prince frowned once more at Prince Yriel's spear, clutched in its owner's death grip and still glowing gently with baleful energies. Then, as shuddering waves of mirth wobbled Gara'gugul'gor's seven great chins, his consternation turned into a belly laugh that shook rust from the rafters high above.It was not long after Iyanden had left the grotesque space hulk behind that Prince Yriel's body, frozen in a strange milky resin with the Spear of Twilight laid across his chest, was found ﬂoating in space.The entombed corpse was recovered by a team of Hemlock Wraithfighters that had sensed its presence in the stars; by using a remote wraith-construct Familiar on a silver tether, they were able to retrieve the corpse and take it back in safety to the craftworld itself.A great sadness rippled throughout the world-ship at the news, for Yriel was their brightest star, a once-wayward genius who had proven to be Iyanden's saviour more than once.His loss was so profound that many Eldar were seen weeping openly in the Craftworld's streets. What must Iyanden do, they wailed, to escape the cursed fate that haunted its every turn?
Battle of Iyanden - Resurrection: Yvraine had called upon old debts from her former life as the Corsair Amharoc, and in doing so aided Iyanden. With that, the Reborn were vindicated in the eyes of the Craftworld's Seers, and were allowed to fight as one against the creatures invading the world-ship.The Ynnari banished not only swathes of plague daemons, but also the infections they spread. All forms of life are hastened to their end when Ynnead's ire is raised -- even microbes.Prince Yriel's body was quarantined after its recovery -- after the grisly fate of the Seers of Craftworld Lugganath, who unwisely projected their souls into Nurgle's Garden, all Eldar have feared the Plague God's gifts.The resinous shell that contained Yriel was broken open by wraith constructs in the Barren Chamber, a sealed oval room isolated from the wider Infinity Circuit by the Spiritseer's art.That caution was well exercised. The prince's corpse yielded a cloud of plague spores that would have turned living, breathing Eldar to walking hotbeds of contagion.News of the corpse's infection was psychically conveyed to a Spiritseer, and from there to Iyanna Arienal. Yvraine was soon escorted to the antechamber outside Yriel's resting place. She called out to the Ghost Warriors inside, bidding them retreat into the airlock-style vestibule on the far side of the chamber, and then drew her blade.Holding it aloft, she summoned forth the spirit magic in her soul and, by moulding the necromantic energies with her psyche, sent waves of lethal energy into the chamber beyond. Though they had no effect on Yriel -- by this point he was beyond harm -- they killed every single spore and microorganism that Gara'gugul'gor's filthy curse had unleashed upon the craftworld.It was then that a true miracle took place. Yvraine ran three fingers down the length of the Barren Chamber's doors, and they opened soundlessly before her.Two of her Iyanden Wraithblade escort crossed their curving blades to bar her passage to the sacred space, but Iyanna Arienal waved them aside.Yvraine sketched a curtsey to her ally before striding inside with a contented smile on her features. She took up the Spear of Twilight, reversed it in her grip, and plunged it into Yriel's chest.With a great heaving exhalation, the Corsair Prince of Iyanden suddenly sat bolt upright. His pallid ﬂesh was restored to a vigour it had not seen since before he took up his fabled spear. The blade, having returned the stolen life force it had siphoned from its wielder over the cycles, turned to quicksilver in Yvraine's grip.It took a new shape, revealing its true form as one of the Croneswords. She passed it back to Yriel, and in his grip, it became a spear once more.The pirate prince stood unsteadily, then straightened to his full height, a new power glowing from his eyes. Prince Yriel of Iyanden had become one of the Reborn. Soon, he would be far from alone.The Hall of Truths was so massive that mist gathered under its vast dome. The voices of Iyanden's greatest heroes, living and dead, echoed from the frozen waterfalls of wraithbone that stretched from ﬂoor to ceiling.Some of those present were still mortals, their lifespan measured in mere Terran centuries. Others had served the Craftworld for standard millennia, their statuesque war-forms towering over the Eldar that gave them a reason to fight on beyond the gates of mortality."Take heed, children of Asuryan," said Farseer Dhentiln, "for this is a day of fates." There was a murmur amongst the assemblage. With the initiation phrase spoken, the audience would have to begin, despite Yvraine and Iyanna still absent."We must act," said Eldrad Ulthran. "We must find a way to change the fate of the galaxy." Silence stretched out until Dhentiln gestured to continue. "The red moon rises, for the Great Enemy is ascendant," continued Eldrad. "The veil is torn in a thousand new places each night. We cannot prevail alone.""Then who would you use as sword and shield alike?" said Sylandri Veilwalker, one of the high-ranking Harlequins in attendance. "The T'au are still too young, the Orks too unpredictable and the Tyranids out of the question. Humans are too easily corrupted, this we know. They walk the same path we once followed, blindly walking into the abyss.""Not with faith," said Dhentiln, nodding. "With faith, they still have power.""And who can give that to them?" asked the looming presence of the Wraithknight Soulseeker, piloted by Aethon Sunstrider. "Not their corpse-god. His time is over."There was a slamming impact as the doors at the end of the hall were ﬂung open. "No," said Yvraine as she strode in, Iyanna Arienal at her side and a shadowed figure in their wake. "They must have a new leader. Only then will they serve our interests.""Impossible," said the Corsair Lord Aracleo. "They are entrenched.""They worship their past," said Iyanna. "If we raise a hero that reminds them of it, they will follow him. Do we not also cling to our myths, finding comfort in the glories of yesteryear?""She is right," said Eldrad, "and I have already found a way through the skein to that end, and a leader the humans will follow like sheep. The fulcrum of destiny is the moon of Klaisus, that we once called Ulthanash's Rest.""You do not steer our course, Ulthwéan," said Dhentiln. "We need not the guidance of the Damned, but the counsel of our own kin." The uncomfortable silence was broken by Prince Yriel, stepping from the shadows to the incredulity of all present. As one, the wraith constructs knelt, the ground shivering beneath."We shall give the Humans a demigod," said Yriel, his tone as chill as if coming from the other side of the grave. "A king reborn, with a deathly blade. And the hosts of Iyanden shall go with us."But deep within the Webway, at the heart of the Dark City of Commorragh, word had already reached the master ﬂeshcrafters of the Avatar of Ynnead that had fought the coven sent to Belial IV.Upon their return to Commorragh, the Haemonculi had ascertained that their worst fears were true; their slain fellows had been entirely reduced to dust by the powerful revenant magic of the Yncarne.Every vat-clone, phylactery-hidden remnant and secret skin sample of the lost Haemonculi in the Dark City had been desiccated to nothingness. Somewhere out there was the power to wield both inescapable death, and life eternal.And they wanted to claim it like nothing before.
Battle of Macragge - Battle of Macragge: The Battle of Macragge was the greatest test ever faced by the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines when they confronted and defeated the first invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth in 745.M41, bringing an end to the First Tyrannic War.The victory would lead to several changes in the Chapter's tactical organisation and doctrine to fight this new threat, including the introduction of the Tyrannic War Veterans.
Battle of Macragge - A New Threat: Over the 10 millennia that passed after the mortal wounding of their Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Ultramarines defended the Realm of Ultramar against all manner of invaders -- some so strange as to defy the comprehension of the common man.The Ultramarines have tested their might against Ork WAAAGH!s and Renegade uprisings, T'au incursions and Necron raids, but the measure of their heroism is shown truest in battles where they have defended all life in the galaxy itself in the face of threats from beyond known space.So did the Sons of Ultramar prove in the 35th Millennium in battle against the Star-Striders of Crioth, and in retaliation for the Heavenfall Massacres. But of all these terrible wars and heroic struggles, there is one conflict that stands above all others -- the onslaught of Hive Fleet Behemoth against the Chapter's homeworld of Macragge.Thanks to Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Kryptman's discoveries at Tyran Primus, the defenders of Macragge had been forewarned of the horror headed towards them. Upon learning of the threat posed to Ultramar by Hive Fleet Behemoth, Marneus Calgar at once drew up his plans. Deeming Macragge to be the star system most immediately threatened, Calgar ordered its already formidable defences to be further improved. A dozen warships already hung in orbit, and each day more arrived from the Warp. Massive Strike Cruisers cast shadows over civilian vessels and Imperial Navy Destroyers, and were themselves dwarfed by the brooding presence of the Ultramarines' Battle Barges. Between this mighty fleet of warships and the planet's no less formidable orbital defence stations, Macragge was anything but defenceless.Scant solar weeks later, the outrider vessels of the Tyranid fleet attacked Macragge. The alien bio-vessels swept aside attacks by Ultramarines Strike Cruisers and swarmed over the planet below. Soon many thousands of Mycetic Spore-birthed beasts scurried and rampaged across Macragge. Deeming that the Tyranid threat was too massive to be opposed piecemeal, Calgar combined his ground forces into three mighty armies. The primary and secondary taskforces, composed largely of 1st Company Veterans and the regiments of the Ultramaran Planetary Defence Forces, bolstered Macragge's polar fortresses against the Tyranid onslaught. Meanwhile, Calgar's taskforce, the largest of the three, performed a series of rearguard actions, attempting to slow the Tyranid advance and eliminate Hive Mind synapse-control organisms. Calgar achieved great success in the early days of the campaign, buying time with blood for his Battle-Brothers to the north and south. However, the Tyranids kept coming.In a final climactic battle on Cold Steel Ridge, the Ultramarines rearguard was brutalised by the Tyranid horde and Calgar himself was gravely wounded. Knowing that to remain planetside was to doom his followers to wasteful death, Calgar withdrew to the orbiting Battle Barge Octavius. Refusing all but the most vital medical attention, the Master of Macragge took command of the fleet, and sought a way to save his world from certain destruction. Hours later, the main Tyranid fleet arrived at Macragge. With no sign of reinforcements, Calgar led his fleet in a series of daring attacks, striking at isolated vessels as they spread out to invade Macragge in force. Caught between the blistering firepower of Macragge's polar fortresses and the vengeful hammer blows of Calgar's fleet, Tyranid vessels were destroyed by the score, but many more yet remained.As battle raged, the Tyranids unleashed thousands of Mycetic Spores above the vital polar fortresses -- and if the fortresses were taken, Macragge's guns would be silenced, and the world left defenceless. So it was that the Tyranids landed in even greater numbers than before, and the fortresses soon found themselves sorely beset. Their gruesome cargo delivered, the battered Hive Ships retreated from orbit. Trusting to his Ultramarines to keep the fortresses secure, Calgar relentlessly pursued the Tyranid fleet, determined that it would not bring ruin to other worlds. Never before or since has the valour of the Ultramarines been tested as it was in the defence of the polar fortresses. The Veteran Space Marines of the 1st Company led the lightly-armed Auxilia in a tenacious defence of the fortresses, holding every wall and trench until the last possible moment before it was overrun by the Tyranid swarm. Slowly the troops withdrew ever deeper into the fortress, while making the Tyranids pay for every single yard of ground they advanced.The Titans of Legio Praetor stalked the ice fields and drove smoking furrows through the onrushing Tyranid hordes with shells and plasma. The ferocity of the swarms was unbelievable. At the northern fortress they overran the walls by using the steaming piles of their own dead for cover. Imperial Battle Titans were dragged down and ripped apart by sheer weight of numbers. The defenders' gun barrels glowed red hot and jammed in spite of the arctic cold, ammunition began to run low even though the fortress had contained stockpiles intended to last for months of siege.Yet still the defenders fought on. Lumbering scythe-armed Carnifexes tore into the defenders' bastions like living battering rams, smashing their way through metal and rockcrete walls with equal fury. The Ultramarines had to rely on heavy short-range firepower to bring down the foe, but for each Tyranid that fell, another three sprang forward to continue the fight. Lesser men were paralysed with terror as the Tyranids broke through the perimeter again and again, but the Ultramarines never despaired and never gave thought to defeat.
Battle of Macragge - The Siege of Macragge: The survivors of the Ultramarines 1st Company were still believed to be fighting amongst the defence laser silos of the northern citadel, but all contact with them had been lost after the Tyranids overran the surface outposts. Of the southern garrison, nothing was known. Calgar, feeling that the situation was becoming critical, sent the 3rd and 7th Ultramarines Companies ahead in their fast Strike Cruisers while his remaining damaged ships limped back to Macragge. The Space Marines of the 3rd and 7th Companies deployed onto the poles by Drop Pod, their supporting units following up in Thunderhawk gunships. Scenes of unbelievable carnage awaited them below.Piles of mangled Tyranid corpses and shattered wargear lay strewn across the ice. Vast, steaming craters pocked the snows where Titan plasma reactors had gone critical. The stench of death lay everywhere. The 7th Company landed unopposed at the southern fortress and quickly linked up with the survivors of the garrison above ground. Together they pushed on to clear the subterranean passages that the Tyranids had overrun.In the north of Macragge, the 3rd Company came under attack as soon as it landed. Hundreds of creatures emerged from dark tunnel mouths and shattered Imperial bunkers to assail the Space Marines. Only staunch fire laid down by the company's Devastator Squads kept the alien swarm at bay until Thunderhawk gunships arrived to blast the Tyranids back into the darkness. Captain Fabian of the 3rd Company prudently awaited the arrival of the company's 3 Dreadnoughts before proceeding into the fortress itself to search for survivors.The dark, dank corridors beneath the northern fortress were already altered by the alien presence. Mucous dripped from the walls and ceilings and a pervasive musky stench filled the air. Alien screams and roars echoed and reverberated along the tunnels. The Space Marines pushed onward into corridors littered with Tyranid and Ultramarines dead, the darkness reluctantly receding before their suit lights. Chameleoid Lictors lay in ambush amongst the corpses, slashing into the advance squads in an orgy of destruction. Eventually the forward squads used flamers to burn their way along the passages and flush out their enemy. Even as fire consumed them, the creatures still leapt forward with claws outstretched to rend and slay.
Battle of Macragge - Cold Steel Ridge: For a time, Calgar's forces successfully slowed the initial land invasion of the Tyranids, trading territory for time as they whittled down the oncoming swarm. Yet even under Marneus Calgar's legendary leadership, such delaying measures would only delay the inevitable. Withdrawing further north, Genestealers burst from the sewers beneath the Sirocco Starport, slaughtering Macragge's defenders and pilots before they were brought down by vengeful Bolter fire. Much of Calgar's shuttle fleet had been taken out in one fell swoop. Though the Master of Macragge still had access to sufficient Thunderhawk gunships to supply and manoeuvre his Ultramarines, he did not possess the Auxilia forces that made up the bulk of his defence forces. With options running out, Calgar made a fateful decision to make his stand at Cold Steel Ridge.Having clashed with Calgar's army numerous times, the Hive Mind had learnt much from Calgar and the tactics that he employed. Having identified the Chapter Master as the main threat to the Tyranid advance, the Hive Mind created and despatched the deadly Tyranid bioform later classified in Imperial records as the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord was the monster who led the final assaults on Tyran and Thandros, honing strategies of encirclement and misdirection against their human opponents.Those same strategies were employed against Calgar's position on Cold Steel Ridge. Up to this point in the siege, the defenders had become accustomed to the near-mindless tactics of the rampaging swarm, but under the influence of the Swarmlord, the Tyranids' primal fury was coupled with keen strategy. The Swarmlord's ploy resulted in the deaths of dozens of Battle-Brothers. On the eastern flank, Calgar watched grimly as the Swarmlord's plans unfolded. As he led the counter assault against a Carnifex brood, Calgar recognised the malevolent intelligence within the creature, quickly realising that his enemy was not the mindless swarm it had first seemed to be.With the foe reeling, the Swarmlord extended its will and ten thousand alien minds answered. Raveners and Trygons burst from the chill ground in the midst of manned trenches, separating the beleaguered defenders from Calgar's main force. By the time the Ultramarines cut through the subterranean swarms, the trench network was a charnel of gore overrun with Tyranids. The Ultramarines purged them with fire, but in so doing left the Swarmlord's true target -- the mighty Baneblade Pride of Hera -- without infantry support. A wave of Carnifexes tore the super-heavy tank apart. With its destruction, the Imperials' western flank was lost.Over the next few solar hours, the full depth of the monster's battleplan became apparent as hundreds of Auxilia troops were killed in the most gruesome ways imaginable, as the Swarmlord employed wave after wave of the various Tyranid bioforms at its disposal. Calgar and his Ultramarines fought tirelessly, in an attempt to bolster the weakened sections of their battle line as only an Astartes could, reacting to each new threat with valour. But they were outnumbered and outmatched. Under the direction of the nefarious Swarmlord, the swarm was able to adapt to defeat Calgar's tactics as quickly as the Chapter Master developed them. Then suddenly, the Swarmlord bellowed a challenge to the human commander. Leading a bodyguard of Tyrant Guard and Tyranid Warriors, the monstrous Hive Tyrant plunged into the fray.Seeing their Chapter Master beset, the Ultramarines hastened to their lord's aid, but soon found themselves assailed from an unexpected quarter. Not all of the Hormagaunts on their left flank were lifeless corpses, for some of the creatures had been lying dormant amongst the corpses of their kin, their ravenous instincts suppressed by the Swarmlord's will. As the Swarmlord charged the Master of Macragge, the Hormagaunts were released from their slumber to fall upon the Ultramarines with fury. Though their number was not great enough to do more than delay the Ultramarines, that delay could prove costly. Calgar was laid low, his body rent and torn. Fortunately, his Honour Guard fought before their wounded Chapter Master, their Axes of Ultramar driving the Swarmlord back from the body of their fallen lord.Too late, the Thunderhawk gunships arrived from the orbiting Battle Barge Octavius, their first pass blasting the swarm back from the ridge to allow three of their number to land amongst the packed bodies of the dead and retrieve survivors. The Honour Guard was only able to get Calgar to safety due to the valiant sacrifice of Brother Aloysius, Commander of the Guard, who held his ground alone against the Swarmlord and his Tyrant Guard. Yet, as Aloysius fell, the Thunderhawks were able to lift off, carrying the few dozen survivors to safety. Because of the Ultramarines' noble sacrifice, Marneus Calgar would live to fight again, but the army of Utramar was no more. The polar fortresses were now on their own.
Battle of Macragge - The War in Space: The battle on the ground had fared poorly, but the war in space was nothing less than disastrous. The first assault wave of the Tyranid fleet had claimed the mighty Battle Barge Caesar. The third wave saw the destruction of the better part of Ultramar's merchant fleet as a swarm of Void Fiends slipped through the perimeter breach caused by the Caesar's destruction. By the ninth wave, Macragge's Starnova stations had become bloody charnel houses, rendered into mere hunks of debris left spinning in the cold void of space. When the twelfth assault wave occurred, the orbital defences of Macragge were all but obliterated. Macragge now lay undefended, and the Tyranid invasion intensified.The Hive Ships capitalised on their victory, releasing thousands upon thousands of Mycetic Spores directly onto Macragge's polar fortresses. However, the war in space was not yet concluded. Refusing all but the most vital medical aid, Calgar took command of the surviving vessels and began to harry the Hive Fleet as it spread out to surround Macragge. Its forces deployed on the planet's surface, the Hive Mind chose to withdraw its bio-ships from Macragge in order to lure the defending ships away and thus preventing them from coming to the polar fortresses' aid. Calgar took the Tyranids' bait, and pursued the Tyranid fleet toward the ringed world of Circe at the edge of the Macragge System, but not without a plan of his own.The timely arrival of the Imperial Navy's entire Battlefleet Tempestus from Bakka finally sealed the Tyranids' fate by catching them in a vice between the two fleets. Even now, the Imperial fleet was overmatched, for the Tyranids were too many. However, the Hive Mind's victory was short-lived. The battle would have been lost save for the heroic sacrifice of the great Battleship Dominus Astra.Charging into the heart of the Hive Fleet, the huge Emperor-class Battleship detonated its Warp-Drives, creating a Warp vortex that dragged both it and the entire Tyranid fleet to oblivion. Caught between the guns of two Imperial fleets, nearly all of Hive Fleet Behemoth’s bio-ships were destroyed. A scant few, scarred and battered, slipped away into the depths of space. Though it had suffered a grievous defeat, the galaxy had not heard the last of Behemoth. With the Hive Fleet destroyed, Calgar's surviving starships came about and roared back to Macragge to try to save the beleaguered polar garrisons.
Battle of Macragge - Last Stand of the 1st Company: In truth, the war was won at Circe. The only question that remained was whether Macragge would be lost in the process. Whilst battle raged in space, the valour of the Ultramarines was being tested as never before on the surface. Through darkness and terrors unimaginable, the 3rd Company finally reached the lower Penitorium where the Astartes defenders had made their last stand. Tyranid bodies were piled six deep around the doors, and within the room a circle of Terminators lay where they had fought back to back. Each had given his life for his brothers. The Ultramarines' 1st Company had been wiped out to the last man.The Battle of Macragge remains a great source of both sorrow and pride for the Ultramarines. The names of its fallen are commemorated each year at the Feast of Days, their sacrifice remembered throughout Ultramar with honour and gratitude. But the cost had been great. The Ultramarines 1st Company was gone and the 3rd and 7th sorely diminished. It would be many long years before the Chapter could properly replace its losses, but replace them it would. The Ultramarines would endure.

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