Editing Sky Serpents (section)

====The Harrowing of Tepectitlan====

>The Defense of the Jade Empire and the Jade Regent
I. Oathsworn Censure Campaign
II. Hunting in the Dark
III. The People's War

> Zhuge Songkulkan, The Jade Regent
A native of Tepectitlan, Zhuge Songkulkan rose to prominence in the campaigns under the direct command of his Primarch. It seemed inevitable that he would follow in the footsteps of such reknowned figures as Baqar Hadbaal, when his career nearly ended at the tip of a xenos blade. He survived the battle, but such was the extent of the injury that he required substantial cybernetic augmentation. The process would require several years, and so in the interim, Songkulkan was given the prestigious desk job of logistical coordination on Tepectitlan.
Thus it was that when the Heresy broke out, it was Songkulkan who was responsible for the defense of the domain.

>Oathsworn Censure Campaign 
As the orders for the Censure of the Oathsworn were recieved and verified, the Jade Empire was already at a state of alert. Unknown raiders were striking at the edges of the Imperium, raiding supply depots and mechanicum stations. The evidence suggested it was some sort of human threat. The 52nd Fleet had just put in for resupply on Tepectitlan, following the purging of the remaining Orkholdz in the Chondax cluster. Songkulkan ordered that all embedded Oathsworn detained and questioned even as the 52nd was dispatched with Guang-Ue in command to deliver the doom of the Oathsworn holds in the sector.
The decision to keep Guang-Ue in overall command was an interesting one, given his long association with Oathsworn. None the less, despite attempts to negotiate a surrender, several Oathsworn Watch-Fortresses had to be destroyed before the rest surrendered. Even as Guang-Ue prepared the Oathsworn for transit back to Tepectitlan, his orders were superseded by a more urgent command.

Something in the Oathsworn Censure hadn't sat right with Songkulkan despite rumors of Astartes raids. For one thing, they did not match the tactical patterns of the Oathsworn. For another, they did not match Oathsworn deployment patters. Further, they continued and even intensified after the campaign had begun. Thus it was that Songkulkan began to pull assets from the purgation campaign and redirect them towards combating the mysterious raiders.

His gamble paid off, when the cruiser Night Jaguar interrupted a raid in progress. To their horror, the ident runes proclaimed that the ship was the Iron Resolve of the Iron Hearts Legion, long thought purged. The 52nd redeployed to protect the realm.

As soon as the Iron Hearts realize that they have been identified, they immediately strike with full strength across the worlds of the Jade Empire.
In particular, they lay siege to the Forgeworld Tindalos and the Hiveworld of Procryon Gamma. There are major battles on a dozen worlds, but for the most part, the Iron Hearts withdraw rather than fight a major engagement, as if waiting for something.

This came in the form of a call for reinforcement from the warp-soaked world of Prospero on the Terra-ward of the galactic core.

>The People's War
Xun's message from Prospero placed Songkulkan in a bind. All hands were required to defend the realm, but the Primarch's call for aid in attempting to save the Emperor could hardly be ignored. In the end, Songkulkan decided that the needs of the Imperium as a whole outweighed the fate of a single province. 
None the less, he had sworn an oath to defend the Legion's assets and the people of the Jade Empire. Thus it was that Songkulkan dispatched every available Sky Serpent for Prospero, save himself and a dedicated core of advisers. Songkulkan's Sky Serpents assets in-sector were limited to himself, his advisers, a handful of specialists, such as Techmarines, Librarians, and Siege Masters, and a force of approximately one Tzolkin's worth of Astartes unable to make the Prospero Fleet due to injury or being engaged with Iron Hearts forces at the time. This is to say that Songkulkan found himself with less than 5,200 Astartes ranged against the might of a Legion. That evening, Songkulkan gave what would become known as the 'People's War' Speech, broadcast across the sector, in which he declared that "the Astartes were made to inspire the people", they were "partners in the Imperium". They would all have to "stand together, stand strong for the Imperium."
All army personnel were called up, veterans too old to serve were recruited to train new soldiers. The Oathsworn imprisioned on Tepectitlan were offered a simple choice, to fight for the Imperium or to die in their cells when the enemy came to their door. This would later become the basis of the Argon Apemen Oath. Some 50,000 Oathsworn chose to stand with the Sky Serpents. 

Meanwhile, all suitable voidcraft were requisitioned and outfitted for combat duty. The Mechanicum coalition, lead by Forgeworld Tindalos proved instrumental in this, recalling their Explorator fleets to serve as transports for the Armies of the Empire. As a further show of good faith (and in return for concessions.), the mechanicum mobilized their Cybernetica Chapters under Legion command and pledged the support of their Taghmata, Titan Legios, and Knight Houses not already pledged to the Legions. In otherwords, the Mechanicum of the Jade Empire pledged their remaining forces to Songkulkan's war.

The Sky Serpents had always fought closely with their human auxiliae, but Songkulkan took it to a new extreme, breaking up the available Sky Serpents to serve as commanders, specialists, and shock troops in the army formations, as part of a single, unified command structure.

With these forces in hand, Songkulkan turned the Jade Empire's considerable economic potential to defense, in particular, providing enough combat capable voidcraft to transport and deploy the People's Defense Army. The shipyards over Tindalos, like so many others, ran non-stop up-armoring and up-arming local flotillas of 'little ships'.

Even so, there was only so much that could be done. Warpstorms frequent throughout the early years of M31 intensified hampering deployment even as the Iron Hearts seemed to sail through unperturbed. Equally importantly, the forces of the Jade Empire were outnumbered (in terms of Astartes) and outgunned.
None the less, the policy was remarkably successful and the Jade Empire as a whole was able to hold out until Xun's return, some 5? years later.

Significant battles of this period include battles at Tindalos, Baal, Argon, Thule, and Tepectitlan, including the Great Siege.
>The Great Siege of Tepectitlan
The Iron Hearts relentlessly made for Tepectitlan, with the intent to level it and leave only ruins. Despite the Army's best efforts to delay them, mere days cost thousands of lives.
Songkulkan gave the order to evacuate the world, starting with the civilian population. He would remain, to atone for his failure. The Army refused his order. They would stand with him. Much of the civilian population was evacuated, but Rubinek's fleet broke from the Warp before it could be completed.
So it was that every remaining civilian on Tepectitlan was handed a weapon and sheltered in the Legion's own fortress monastery.
Tepectitlan was as good a world as any to make a final stand on. It's orbital defense grid ranked among the finest in the galaxy, the terrain was mountainous and forested and the Legion command made use of the terrain to the fullest. Tepectitlan had been designated a Bastion world, a safe haven even in the face of catastrophe, and yet, Songkulkan was correct that it could not be held against Rubinek and his legion.

Rubinek's fleet took heavy losses entering planetary space, and while potent anti-void weaponry prevented direct bombardment of the capital, Rubinek's forces made planetfall with the thunder of thousands of drop pods. Even as voidcraft fell from the skies, the Iron Hearts smashed their ways through prepared kill-zones and presighted artillery fire. It took a mere two weeks for Rubinek's forces to make their way across the world to the outer city walls. It seemed that their doom was only a matter of time, but the defenders in the citadel did not know that at that very moment, Xun Tohilcoatl, Primarch of the XIIIth Legion, and Master of Tepectitlan was making full speed through the void for Tepectitlan.

Songkulkan personally lead the defense from the walls, even as Medusa shells screamed overhead and turbo-laser bombardment collapsed voidshields. Days of continuous fighting took their toll and ammunition supplies began to run dangerously low, however, in that darkest moment, Xun's fleet tore into realspace. Rubinek now found that he had hours in which to accomplish his goal. In a massive gamble, Rubinek prepared a massive teleportarium strike into the heart of the fortress monastery. It is unclear what his goal was, since post-battle analysis would indicate that Rubinek sought out the reliquary vaults beneath before he went to sabotage the reactor, but in any event, Rubinek's time was cut short by Xun's early arrival. In essence, Xun performed a long distance teleportation using his own psyker potential and the librarians on Tepectitlan as a locus.
(Is that too much? Should it just be that cybernetica maniples slow Rubinek down and Xun makes for Tepectitlan at full burn?)
Xun and a strike force of elite Jaguar Warrior Terminators materialized in the sight of the Emperor Statue in the central hall and immediately began scouring the citadel for Rubinek.
The details are not in the historical record, but what is known is that Xun found Rubinek atop the central pyramid and there, in full sight of the People's Army, fought Rubinek. The fight itself has been the subject of so many representations in Jade Empire culture, that it will not be described here, except that it ended with Xun, tearing out Rubinek's still beating iron heart and hurling the corpse down the stairway into the central plaza below. Holding the heart aloft, Xun called out "For the Emperor!", a cry echoed throughout the citadel even as the rest of the legion arrived to purge the remaining Iron Hearts on Tepectitlan.


Addenda:
Of course, this was not the end of the Iron Hearts legion. Some of their fleet managed to escape the Tepectitlan system, but more numerically significant were those that were prosecuting campaigns elsewhere in the Jade Empire during the Siege. These forces managed to escape, where they continue to periodically raid the Eastern Imperium to this day.
>Siege of Tepectitlan
Yeah, I know what you mean. Thing is though that I didn't want a primarch and his legion to be held up too long on a world held by marines outnumbered 20 to 1 and a bunch of humans, after all, the Siege of Terra was what, 55 days?
(Which bothers me. Ancient sieges took years.)
I think I may stretch it out to something closer to a few months, make Rubinek fight his way across the planet, then take the capital city before launching his assault on the citadel, which he has to hurry up because of a very angry Xun incoming. Rubinek miscalculates how long he has and Xun catches him for their duel.

>before the heresy breaks put, odd raids begin on the legion's worlds
>scenarios for Astartes on Astartes are revised
>Terra-Luna Conflict begins
>Tornament
>Perpetrators of raids on Jade Empire are identified as rogue astartes.
>Rubinek strikes at various facilities, forgeworlds, cutting a path towards Tepectitlan
>Siege of Tindalos, the forgeworld holds off the legion, Rubinek doesn't have the time to crack their defenses and so has to withdraw after two months.
>Burning of Anshul's home world
>Raids occur across the sector, intensifying even as astartes are sent to reinforce Xun's break for Terra.
>additional Auxiliae are called up and sanctions on the Legio Cybernetica are lifted. Astartes command these units, but the defense of the Jade Empire is fundamentally thanks to the determination of its citizens, both human and mechanicum.
>Shadow Crusade in the Jade Empire
>When word reaches Rubinek of the loyalist withdrawal and Xun's impending return, Rubinek mounts a desperate assault on Tepectitlan. Xun returns and fights him in the capital city, in the Imperial Administratum. Xun tears out Rubinek's heart atop the pyramid and hurls it down the massive stairway before offering the heart to the Emperor Ascended.