/tg/ Heresy Timeline

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Pre-Heresy

mid-M30: The Unification Wars

Pacification of the Merican Hives

First deployment of the Space Marines. Hektor Cincinnatus leads the Sacred Band of three hundred Astartes, one squad from each of what would become the Legiones Astartes.

Sa'Afrik Liberation

The Sa'afrik Liberation saw the first combat deployment of the IVth Legion as a fighting force in its own right. The Legion was used as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting direct annihilation assaults on the enemy forces, both in open battle and against fortified positions, and able to carry the attack despite their then relatively small numbers by sheer courage and the fury of the violence they could unleash.

Pacification of the Boetian Lowlands

Boeotia was an area of Terra mentioned in ancient Imperial records as having held out against full Unification for a considerable time. While the government of Boeotia tacitly recognised the Emperor's dominance over the rest of Terra, the ruling monarchy of Boeotia used all manner of diplomacy in order to avoid losing power. In a show of great patience and benevolence, the Emperor allowed the ruling dynasty of Boeotia -- the Yeselti -- to carry on in a semi-autonomous state for over 150 standard years, with the intention that they would integrate themselves into the government of Imperial Terra at their own speed and with as much dignity as possible. Instead, House Yeselti clung to their independence until the Imperial Army was forced to invade the province and the nascent Iron Rangers Space Marine Legion was ordered to crush the rebellious state.

The campaign to seize the Boeotian citadel took around six weeks. In their final stages of resistance, the rebel defenders mined a massive refinery complex, the detonation of which by the Imperial invaders resulted in a blaze that put out enough carcinogenic smoke and soot that the entire area was covered in deadly murk. Unprotected humans had to wear full-body protection gear as a result. The fall of the citadel was said to resemble a city made into a bonfire, lighting a sky darker than Old Night itself.

After six weeks and the loss of the refinery fields - both seen as critical errors - the Imperial Army commander was removed from command and control of the campaign assigned to the Iron Rangers for a quick finish, which was accomplished on less then half a week by the Legion forces.

First Pacification of Luna

The First Pacification of Luna was the first operation mounted by elements of the Legiones Astanes beyond the skies of Terra. At the time the Wars of Unity were still raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. The forces of Cardinal Tang still held a number of fortress zones, the empire of Nathan Dume still held on, and several other uncompliant enclaves were yet to fall.

798.M30 to 005.M31: The Great Crusade

956.M30: The Gifting of Exirus

This article or section has been selected for Exterminatus by the Ordo Editant. The Emperor Corrects.

Coming after the mixed reception to the Core Worlds campaign, Uriel would find his crowning achievement as a Primarch in the annexation of the independent Exirus sector. A small Imperium unto itself, Starikov came across a scattering of planets with a core of still-operational Forge Worlds divided amongst a million feuding Prince-Foremen that would band together in the face of Xeno invasion. Despite their division, Uriel recognized that attempts to forcibly join the Exiran worlds with the Imperium would result in the same unacceptable loss of archeo-tech and industrial capital that tainted the Core-Worlds Campaign. Uriel begged with his brothers to give him time, three years to be precise to handle the Exirus sector on his own. The deadline was agreed upon, with Gaspard Lumey being his most staunch supporter. When he re-establishing contact towards the ending of his self-appointed deadline, he revealed his successful attempt at gaining control of these worlds. He had been elected Kaiser with near full support of the Exiran Princes. His first short dispatch after the silence was thus;

"To my father, The Emperor; I beg to present to you the gift of the Exirus Sector, with 150 worlds, plenty of fresh soldiers and 20,000 factorums. With love from your humble son and servant, Uriel."

The Emperor simply replied, "Many, many thanks for your gift." The true reward for Uriel Starikov was greater autonomy in his actions, and a greater degree of faith in him not only by the Emperor but all his brothers and citizens of the Imperium. The efforts of the Great Crusade were redoubled by the addition of countless new combat tank templates, including the legendary Gaudin Main Battle Tank, which pre-Heresy was affectionally known as the Starikov Pattern M-B-T.

964.M30: First encounter with the Harakien Empire

Imperial Army forces are soundly beaten by the armed might of the Harakien Eldar Empire and only the arrival of a force of Winged Victory Space Marines stems the rout. A series of raids and counter-raids ensues.

966.M30 to 968.M30: The Lenard Depths Campaign

The Primarch Tollund Ötztal leads a force of his Legion to assist the bulk of the Silver Cataphracts on their first major campaign in the Great Crusade. The intention was to foster good relations with the recently discovered Primarch Alexandri, bringing him closer to the Imperium and his fellow brother. Initially supported by the Sons of Fire, and quite successful, the Lenard Depths Campaign ends with both Legions being at odds for the entirety of the Great Crusade. The Cataphracts inherent apathy for life combined with the double crossing nature of the humans inhabiting the sector caused a great deal of friction between them and the Mastodontii.

973.M30 to 976.M30: Pacification of the Harakien Sector

The Fifth Legion launches a massive offensive against the Harakien Eldar Empire. Although the Eldar inflict significant casulaties on Gaspard Lumey's crusade forces, they are driven back into the Webway.

988.M30: The Censure of the Eternal Zealots

Once the truth was revealed, it was only a matter of time before the Emperor would be moved to censure the Eternal Zealots. The links of cause and effect are poorly recorded, but it seems that the Emperor waited for some time after the initial reports of Xenos Traffiking and support reached his court. That He sent missions to assay many more worlds conquered by the Zealots is known. We can only speculate as to why: perhaps He did not want to believe it of His son, perhaps He wanted to be sure, perhaps He was simply gathering information before acting.

994.M30 to 000.M31: The Ullanor War

Background: Khork, da MegaBoss of Ullanor

Khork. The name echoed through the halls of every ork across the galaxy and had since the appearance of his mighty empire. The stories told of him defied belief, from those roared by his followers in the murky light of dawn before battle to those whispered by mothers to frighten their young into timid obedience, but almost all tales have a basis in fact. He arose on Ullanor like every ork warboss does; with his fists. He killed every leader who stood in his way until the planet was under his control and ordering his meks to construct a vast fleet. All the boyz on the planet could feel the build up of the Waaagh! all around them and they gleefully anticipated the coming battles...

Khork’s Waaagh! exploded out of Ullanor and took the neighbouring sector by storm, hurtling across the surfaces of the planet with horrendous speed. The petty kingdoms and robber empires of the local pirate lords and ork bosses fell like grots before a hungry face eater squig. And so his Waaagh gained strength and momentum with every victory, stripping every piece of useable material from the planet’s surfaces to create more and more crafts. Khork slew the leaders of every force to face him personally, some after struggles worthy of legend and some with contemptuous ease.

As Waaagh! Khork spread through system after system, Khrok swelled with the accumulated Orkish energy. At first, he had been of the average size for a warboss (around two metres tall and almost as broad) but after a few victories his size began to make him stand head and shoulders above those warbosses who obeyed his orders and before long he towered over even the deff dreads that accompanied him to battle. His size won him many battles on its own, as few orks will willingly fight a boss so clearly blessed by Gork and Mork. One warboss that knew Waaagh! Khork was coming his way had his meks construct a suit of mega armour the size of a stompa to allow him to fight on equal terms. Khork ripped the arms off the suit and tore out the ork inside, calling him a coward before devouring him whole.

A score of sectors fell before Khork and his waagh showed no sign of slowing. In fact, it seemed that no force could slow the implacable advance. Different races and civilisations tried different tactics; orbital mines to obliterate fleets, planets stripped of minerals to deny the orks the chance to repair their ships and replenish their supplies, pre-emptive strikes against Khork’s high command to create chaos. Nothing worked, however, and soon over a hundred sectors had fallen and his Waaagh! could truly be called an empire. It was then that Khork showed himself to be a different kind of beast all together to his fellow warbosses. Instead of continuing in one direction and having every ork follow him, Khork turned his flagship around and headed back to Ullanor. When he arrived, he began to make plans. Most orks, upon seeing his size, assumed that Khork must be a member of the Goff clan. Few orks knew that he was in fact a Bloodaxe, one cunning (or kunnin’) enough to know that orks would not willingly follow his orders if they thought him a cowardly, ‘uman loving git.

Soon, his orders were relayed to the very fringes of his empire. The bosses on the edge were commanded to ground their roks and start to construct mighty bastions, fortresses that would allow them to hold these planets and sectors against invasion. Khork did not intend his Waaagh! to burn like a wildfire before being extinguished under its own weight. Instead, he planned to forge an empire that would last until the star grew cold. Once the edges of the current empire was secured, Khork co-ordinated a push of expansion. His empire, to be referred to henceforth as the Ullanor Empire, doubled in size over the next few years. There was another period of fortress building and implementing infrastructure. Huge ships trawled the many ork inhabited planets of the empire, picking up the yoofs that had spawned there and absorbing the petty tribes into Khork’s greater vision. Boot camps and training planets arose to force every ork that wanted to go to the front to train until they at least understood the principle of using a slugga as more than a tool to make noise, if not the practise.

The Imperium encountered Khork’s forces during one of their cycles of expansion and were most struck by the efficiency and speed with which the orks operated. Khork himself was on the other side of the Empire at that time, leading a crusade against some particularly resilient Eldar pirates but was soon made aware of the cessation of progress in the Imperium’s direction. Even as he travelled the warp to meet this problem head on, the champions of mankind were readying themselves to face him.

Imperial Planning

When the Eyes of the Emperor first reported that they had encountered unusually strong Ork resistance in the Ullates Sector, little was said of it in the busy planning rooms of the Great Crusade. However, follow-up reports explaining that the Eyes had been held up by the Orks for several months and that they had found Orks under the same banner in the neighbouring Endia and Bhusan sectors drew the attention of the Emperor himself. Reports from Rogue Traders and Explorators in neighbouring sectors were carefully scrutinised. As the Imperium became aware of the full scale of Khork's dominion, Octullus Tyrannis was summoned to the world of Komencante, to meet with the Emperor and the Primarchs Hektor and Kleisthenes. No reprimand of the Eyes of the Emperor was made. Instead the four settled down to plan a great campaign to destroy Ullanor.

998.M30: Core Worlds campaign

The largest human realm outside of the growing Imperium was based in mineral rich, high-gravity worlds close to the Galactic core. The Core Worlds Confederation was a great chain of highly-developed worlds, with large populations, advanced technology and powerful armies. To secure this prize, the Emperor dispatched two Legiones Astartes: the Children of Armok and Winged Victory. The Primarchs approached the Core Lords as friends, offering them a place in the Emperor's universal kingdom. However, they were quickly bogged down in demands for special privileges, each Core Lord attempting to secure a better place for himself and all asking for far too much. Uriel Starikov sought to mollify and reason with them with little success. As negotiations broke down Gaspard Lumey recounted the arrogance of these petty lordlings and promised a fitting punishment.

Despite their grandeur and wealth, the Core Worlds fell to the Children of Armok and Winged Victory in a shockingly brief campaign, capitalising on the Imperium's naval superiority and marked by a disregard for collateral damage. Although the campaign was a military success, the other Primarchs were reluctant to celebrate. Lumey was unpopular already, and many believed that his methods had cost the Imperium valuable archeotech and industrial capacity. Some even suggested that Starikov would have been able to talk the Core Lords into peaceful annexation had he been given enough time. Still, the Emperor sought no sanction and the matter would rest, however uneasily, for the next five years.

003.M31: Council of Nikaea

After Darius Cyaxares brought news to the Emperor of the Black Augurs apparently using of horrific sorcery, the legitimacy of the Librarium was called into question. Notables of the Imperium were gathered on the world of Nikaea to determine whether sorcery could be used at all without presenting a dire threat to mankind. The Council also served as a de facto trial of Darius and The Voidwatcher.

Many of the Primarchs spoke on the matter, but the final decision was the Emperor's. The Librariums were disbanded and their members sent into ordinary squads, under strict instructions not to make use of their powers. Malcador the Sigilite ordered that each Legion follow the example of Fifth Legion and establish an order of Iterators within their ranks, to police the Emperor's decision.

004.M31: Exile of the Fifth Legion

In the bitter atmosphere following the Council of Nikaea, Gaspard Lumey and his Fifth Legion are censured by the Military Council for "use of regrettable methods" and exiled to the Galactic Fringe. It in this period that the Fifth abandon their old moniker "Winged Victory" and begin to refer to themselves as the Void Angels.

005.M31 to 014.M31: The Hektor Heresy

001.M31: Cadia: The Fall of Hektor

The Heralds of Hektor were called to Cadia in the 203rd year of the Great Crusade by the Eternal Zealots. The planet had been made complaint by them, but the Imperial Commander that had left behind as the Planetary Governor had turned traitor. Enraged at what he saw as an affront to himself as Warmaster, Hektor Cincinnatus attacked Cadia himself with a spearhead of 4,000 Heralds of Hektor Astartes.

Hektor led an assault into the fortified governor’s lair, but when he and 200 of his Astartes were inside, the superstructure was deliberately collapsed, cutting Hektor off from the rest of his warriors.

Alone now, Hektor made his way through the bowels of the ruined fortress in search of the Governor. He found him in the throne room, defacing a statue of Hektor, with a defiled statue of the Emperor Himself beside it. Hektor killed the governor in single combat, but not before he was struck in the eye by a dark blade. The Anathame poisoned Hektor until he was unable to walk and close to death., and in desperation his men called upon Aubrey of the Eternal Zealots who was well known as a healer in his past, who promised he would heal the Warmaster of his wound and restore him.

Istvaan III

Istvaan III, a World only recently brought into Compliance, rebelled against Imperial law, and it's appointed governor ended up reneging on his oaths and joining the traitors. For Isstvan III and its tens of millions to have rebelled from compliance was a mar upon the Great Crusade that could not be tolerated, lest such sedition and malcontent spread, but that an anointed Imperial Commander who had received his office by the writ of the Emperor himself led the revolt was a crime that demanded the swiftest and most resolute punishment possible. It fell to Hektor, the Warmaster, to bring Isstvan III to judgement, and he publicly vowed to make a fearful, bloody example to all the worlds of the Imperium of the price of sedition. But what few knew or suspected at the time was that the Isstvan III rebellion had provided Hektor with the perfect opportunity to strike the first great blow of his own rebellion-a blow that would fall upon his own.

For Hektor the reconquest of lsstvan III would serve both to amass those forces loyal to him without suspicion, and also rid his own Legion and those of his closest allies of those within their ranks whose loyalties he suspected. The Isstvan system's distant location and the warp storms that still blocked it from Terra made a perfect screen for the dark deeds that were to come, and orders were given for four Legions-the Lions Rampant, the Sons of Fire, the Life Bringers, and the Heralds of Hektor, to rendezvous at Isstvan, their approaches made to bypass the storms which raged to the south-west of the system.

A massive war fleet gathered at the edges of the lsstvan system as elements of four Space Marine Legions began to arrive, and the first actions of the campaign undertaken to destroy rebel outposts in the outer reaches of the system as the fleet coalesced. Hektor's war host consisted of the majority of his own Legion, plus significant portions of the Life Bringers and their Primarch Johannes Vrach, the Sons of Fire and their Primarch Inferox, and the Lions Rampant. Along with four Primarchs in attendance-itself a rare event, this constituted one of the largest concentrations of Imperial military force seen since Ullanor almost a decade previously, comprising well over 200,000 Space Marines, although exact figures cannot be corroborated, alongside Titan support from the Legio Mortis, Audax and Vulpa and a number of auxiliary units.

Isstvan III would prove no easy conquest, but for Hektor this proved an ideal opening for the use of a massive initial ground assault to retake the Choral City before a planet-wide defence could be organised. Those sections of the four Legions whose loyalty to Hektor could not be guaranteed were commanded to prepare for an assault on the planet beneath and would form its core. The Warmaster's plan called for a primary strike upon the Choral City conducted almost entirely by drop pod with limited gunship and teleporter support. So separated, and with no means of escape off the planet, those loyalists who did not die in the taking of Isstvan III would instead find that Hektor planned to make it their graveyard anyway.

The fighting seemed unusually harsh, however the plan seemed solid, and was playing out very much as was thought. But shortly after the battle bad turned in the Space Marine’s favour, all communications with the orbiting fleet had ceased and the TItans of the Legio Morris began a silent and implacable withdrawal beyond the city Walls into the empty plains beyond. With terrible slowness the great battleships and battle barges of the combined fleet descended into low orbit and began saturation bombardment of the planet.

Orbital bomb racks bloomed and tiered decks of macro-cannon batteries unleashed torrent after torrent of shells downward into lsstvan IIIs lower atmosphere. The deadly cargo was the life-eater virus, one of the most terrible Exteminatus-Class weapons in the Imperial arsenal, and a weapon whose use only the Warmaster and the Emperor could have commanded. Dispersed by concussive charge from a thousand exploding munitions, the life-eater virus began its work in moments, infecting and destroying, a rapidly-spreading necrophage which turned every living thing it came into contact with to sickening, liquid rot.

Hektor Cincinnatus the Warmaster had at last declared his hand and openly defied the Emperor, and so consigned the galaxy to civil war. He had also planned that the virus bombardment would destroy all the Space Marines he could not trust to fight for him in the coming struggle with the Emperor, but as was soon to become apparent his plan's perfection had failed.

Istvaan V

Drop Site Massacre
Date	ca. 566006.M31
Scale	Planetary Assault
Theatre	Istvaan V, Istvaan System, Segmentum Ultima
Status	Decisive Traitor Victory
Belligerents
The Traitor legions of Warmaster Hektor	The Loyal Legion Retribution Force
Commanders and Leaders
Warmaster Hektor	Bohemond of the Knights of Justice
Strength
Sons of Fire, Lions Rampant, Heralds of Hektor, Life Bringers, Black Augurs, Eternal Zealots, Gorgers, Eyes of the Emperor (Defected), Mastodontii, Horns of Ruin, Imperial Army, Dark Mechanicum elements, Legio Mortis, Legio Aperferrum	Knights of Justice, War Scribes, the Entombed, Stone Men, Imperial Army, Mechanicum elements, Legio Tonat, Knights of Accolon, Knights of Krast
Losses
In the tens of thousands, extensive losses amongst all Traitor assets	Hundreds of thousands of Loyalist dead
Outcome
four entire Loyalist Space Marine Legions nearly eliminated

The Dropsite Massacre

"War is the crucible in which we burn. In the fires of battle is the past consumed and the future born on tongues of flame. No greater fire has there been in our times than the three bloody hours of the Dropsite Massacre."

(attributed to Malcador the Sigillite, Regent of Terra.)

Once news of Hektor’s gross treachery reached Terra, by the express command of both the Emperor (who was busy with problems beneath the Imperial Palace) and Malcador as Regent vested command in Thomas Gaudin, Primarch of The Crusaders and now Emperor’s Praetorian. He wasted no time and immediately transmitted the order for 12 Legions, just over a full third of the Legiones Astartes - the Knights of Justice, the Entombed, the War Scribes, the Stone Men, the Eternal Zealots, the Horns of Ruin, the Gorgers, the Mastodontii, the Scale Bearers, The Iron Rangers, Eyes of the Emperor and the Black Augurs - to travel to the Isstvan system and destroy the traitor forces. They would attack in two waves and fall under the supreme command of the Knights of Justice Primarch Bohemond, who had already proven his loyalty when under his father’s command he had censured his wayward brother Aubrey the Grey a decade earlier.

After the conclusion of the Istvaan III campaign, Hektor moved his forces to Istvaan V, taking up position in the defensive work made by the Life Bringers and Heralds of Hektor. The Warmaster’s forces at this time included the majority of his own Heralds of Hektor legion sans a few detachments sent to seize vital objectives, as well as those of the Life Bringers, Sons of Fire and Lions Rampant legions. Alongside these Astartes units he also commanded millions of traitor Imperial Army forces and a large detachment of Titans of Legios Aperferrum and Mortis.

Through a masterful application of Astropathic co-ordination and favourable transit, the avenging forces of the Emperor made swift speed to their target, with the forerunners being the fleets of the Knights of Justice, the Entombed, the War Scribes and the Stone Men along with their attendant auxiliary forces, with the other Legions following close behind, though Warp vagaries meant the Scale Bearers would be delayed by several hours. In retrospect, these seemingly co-incidental facts -- the thwarting of the Scale Bearers fleet, the ease of passage for the others, which Legions should approach the Istvaan System first and in what order -- all took on a malign and sinister predestination in light of what is now known of the dark powers that were even then guiding Hektor’s hand.

As the Loyalists closed on the Istvaan System, information relayed by Astropathic transmissions from the Warp Runners secretly dispatched by the Children of Armok to reconnoitre the system in advance of the loyalist assault. The information was duly analysed by the convening four loyal Primarchs. Given the scale of the activity on Istvaan V which could not be concealed from the hidden eyes of the Children of Armok, it was clear that the enemy was rearing up a mighty fortress there, no doubt intended to be the headquarters of the Warmaster's rebellion and its principal mustering ground. The absence of the Traitors' fleet was of more concern, but one explained by a need for the traitors to secure resources and supply from distant systems in preparation for the conflict to come.

At the conclave, the decision was made to strike now, before the enemy fleets returned, and crush the rebellion outright with a single concerted attack. Hektor’s dispositions were only half-done, his defences incomplete. The enemy was vulnerable and the battle would be bloody but short and ultimately victorious, or so the Loyalists thought.

The battle opened with a thunderous bombardment as for a quarter of an hour, the forces of the Emperor that had just moved into orbit over Istvaan V pounded the Urgall Plateau, a firestorm of unimaginable ferocity hammering the surface of Istvaan V with everything short of an exterminatus strike. Lance Strikes and Cluster Warheads vented their fury against the Void Shields that shielded the Warmaster’s fortress. The Fortress survived the bombardment largely intact, though many sub-fortresses marked for death by the watching eyes of the Children of Armok were overwhelmed and reduced to rubble and mobile anti-starship defence launchers were destroyed with swift fury. Eventually, the horrific bombardment ceased and the drifting echoes of its power faded, along with the acrid smoke of explosions, but the Heralds and Life Bearers had worked a miracle in creating a network of defences from which to face their former brothers, and the forces of the Warmaster had been well-protected. Minutes later the skies darkened again, but this time the darkness was thousands upon thousands of Drop Pods, Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and other drop craft streaking through the atmosphere towards the planet’s surface as the initial Loyalist assault came down like a rain of steel. Hundreds of loyalist drop craft were destroyed by the surviving anti-air weapons of the traitors, but thousands more landed successfully and disgorged their cargo into the heart of the foe.

The traitors were ready for them, even as the loyalist forces began to land the traitors were upon them, and hundreds died in the opening minutes of the battle, smashed apart by point blank bolter fire, or hacked by combat knives and chainswords in a battle as savage and pitiless as any of the Great Crusade. The shock of the initial assault counted for little, and the battle swiftly descended into chaos as the loyalist forces carved out a foothold.

The Vanguard Assault held the traitors back, and allowed the loyalists to begin unloading more heavy equipment, including the bulk of their Legions, their armour and heavy artillery. Soon loyalist guns began to pound the great fortress, being answered by the fire of the traitor’s own heavy artillery as the loyalist lines pushed forward to relieve the battered vanguard and carry the fight to the traitors.

Within an hour, the plateau was running red with blood. Treacherous warriors twisted by hatred fought their former brothers-in-arms in a conflict unparalleled in its bitterness. The mighty Titan war engines of the Machine God walked the planet’s surface and death followed in their wake. All across the Urgall Depression, thousands were dying every minute, the slaughter terrible to behold as enough martial power to conquer an entire sector was unleashed in a line less than twenty kilometres wide.

As the slaughter at the fortress-line continued unabated, at the rearmost part of the Urgall Depression a vast crimson bulk slowly descended upon columns of fire as anti-aircraft fire stitched blackened scorches across its armoured flanks. It was a mighty Titanicus Ark, carrying a full battle-maniple of the Legio Tonat, the Roaring Thunder Titan Legion along with Knights of the houses Accolon and Krast, and their arrival had been warranted by the heart bloom-signatures of others of their kind advancing through the billowing dust storm from the desert plains. The Legios Mortis and Aperferrum was on the march also, at their feet scores of Predator tanks and Outrider and Jetbike squadrons drawn from the Heralds of Hektor and Lions Rampant Legions followed.

The auguries showed the Legio Tonat Engines was outnumbered and outclassed in every respect, but for the Legio Tonat, the chance to attack their erstwhile brethren of the was not merely the desire of those who had stayed loyal to punish the Traitor, but a sign of their utmost dedication to the Emperor whom they saw as the Omnissiah they worshipped. So the Titans of the Legio Tonat sounded their great thunderous warhorns and charged into battle against their foe, and in doing so became the first Loyalist Titan Legion to fire their guns in the Hektor Heresy. The battle that followed was brief but brutal. At the cost of their own complete destruction, Roaring Thunder effectively neutralised the secondary Legio Mortis contingent. The delayed and badly mauled Traitor Legion flanking force was then systematically destroyed by the Stone Men second wave forces and the Knights of Krast, while the Knights of Accolon sped forth to support the main drive on the Warmaster’s great fortress.

Seeing their weakness as enemy reinforcements joined the advance, the traitor primarchs counter-attacked. On the left flank the Sons of Fire, who had been steadily shielding their retreat with a curtain of fire now advanced though it and began to bombard the loyalists with the dreaded Phosphex, described as ‘without a doubt singularly the most deplorable man-manufactured weapon that humanity has ever, to its shame, unleashed upon a living world’. Hundreds of the Stone Men and Knights of Justice were consumed by the weapon nicknamed the 'living fire', 'crawling death' and 'ice-fire', and the advance was halted. In the centre the Warmaster’s own bodyguard, the Heliotaroi spearheaded a series of shock counter-assaults, though Hektor Himself was nowhere to be seen, while on the right the Life Bringers unleashed their own weapons, clouds of toxic fog that would dissolve flesh through the slightest breach in power armour, condemning many of the Entombed to a horrific death.

The Loyalist forces launched desperate counter-attacks. Gunships, no longer required to carry shipments of marines and war machines to the surface, now launched suicidal attacks to provide the loyalists with air support, though many paid the price for this and were shot out of the sky. Imperial Army Heavy Tanks and Artillery now joined the fray, adding their weight of fire to the scene. The Traitor Titans were driven off by the storm of shot and shell, and the battle lines shifted constantly, with neither side quite sure who was winning or losing. Supplies began to run low, and both sides fought over the armaments of the dead and dying in order to sustain the fight, or fought each other with broken chainblades, bolters cracked from the strain of firing and now fit only as mere clubs and sometimes even bare gauntlets.

By the third hour of the battle, weariness and attrition had all but forced both sides apart. By best estimate the casualties on both sides were at 40% or more, and the loyalist artillery train was now subjecting the Warmaster’s fortress to a grim and steady bombardment. The weakened loyalist forces needed to rest, re-arm and recover under the shield of their heavy guns or all their gains would be for naught. The enemy Fortress-line still held, the fortress guns still fired and the enemy was still far from defeated.

And then came the second wave…

For the third time the sky was darkened as hundreds of orbital landers and drop pods crashed to earth. The armada bore the sigils of the Eternal Zealots, the Horns of Ruin, the Gorgers, the Mastodontii, the Eyes of the Emperor and the Black Augurs. The power of these six legions, who had already enscribed their mighty deeds into the stars themselves, would prove the doom of one faction and the salvation of the other, and the bitter cruelty of that truth would in mere minutes be proven. With exceptional speed, the newly landed Legions set up their own drop zones south of the initial dropsite. Hundreds of fur and ivory adorned tanks of the Mastodontii formed up into great armoured echelons ready to advance, while the Eternal Zealots deployed just behind the landing zone of the Knights of Justice. A small detachment of Black Augurs led by their first captain, the Primarch being busy elsewhere took up position in the dead centre of the newly arrived forces lines, while the Gorgers formed up, eager to be on the hunt.

Since that dark day, there have been claim and counter-claim about which traitor struck first, which Legion first showed their true colours. Some claim it was the Gorgers, others the Eternal Zealots, but all concur about the end result. One and all, the newly arrived legions swore their allegiance to the Warmaster and cast down their oaths to the Emperor and Terra, declaring their treachery with the voice of the barrels of a thousand guns. as the second wave of Astartes revealed where their true loyalties now lay. The carnage was total, as hundreds of the surviving War Scribes, Stone Men and Iron Knights were cut down in the fury of the first few moments, hundreds more in the seconds following, and then thousands more in the minutes afterwards as volley after volley of Bolter fire and missiles scythed through their unsuspecting ranks. Even as terrifying carnage was being wreaked upon the Loyalists below, the retreating forces of the Warmaster turned and brought their weapons to bear on the enemy warriors within their midst.

It was now that the Life Bringers unleashed their secret weapon upon the Entombed. A modified strain of the Cullgene Gas, custom wrought to the Entombed’s gene-seed. It seeped through the rebreather systems of the surprised Entombed, swiftly killing eight entire companies, without offering a single target to return fire upon as the Entombed fled from the carnage unleashed upon them by their supposed allies.

A hail of fire from advancing armoured squadrons of the Eternal Zealots decimated the drop ships of the Knights of Justice, as the Zealots took their revenge for the humiliating censure they had suffered at the Knight’s hands years previously. With their Primarch, Aubrey the Grey, the chosen of the Gods at their head, they crashed through the burning dropships and overran the Knights of Justice Dropzone like a tidal wave.

Amidst the carnage and the slaughter, the anger of a demigod was released -- beyond anger, beyond rage. It went beyond both, for it was wrath, in physical form, as Bohemond carved his way through the Zealots, desperate to confront and slay his brother, Aubrey. The two met, but it was Aubrey who was successful, decapitating Bohemond with a single blow.

Lesser troops would have given up and accepted their fate in the face of such overwhelming opposition, but the warriors of the War Scribes, Stone Men, Entombed and Knights of Justice were Astartes. So they fought like never before, knowing their doom was at hand, and desiring to make the Traitors pay in blood for every one of their number that fell. It was the Stone Men who took the brunt, as Onyx the Indestructible ordered his brothers to flee, while he and his sons would stand, fight and die to hold the enemy off for as long as possible.

Caught between two armies, the first wave of the Loyalist forces was systematically massacred. The Traitor tanks of the Mastodontii roared from the Urgall Hills, weapons blazing and crushing the wounded beneath their tracks, while warp-craft from the Black Augurs tore thousands more apart as blasphemous majiks were unleashed for the first, but not the last time. The Gorgers tore their foes apart and devoured their flesh, while the Sons of Fire burned everything, friend or foe that crossed their path.

It was now that the traitors suffered their own set-back, as the Eyes of the Emperor abruptly began to withdraw, fleeing the battle. At first little attention was given, but as the move became apparent, Hektor’s rage was stoked, and he ordered his forces to fire upon the craven, fleeing Eyes. Hundreds of their drop ships were shot down, but the Legion managed to withdraw in good order, fleeing the wrath of the allies they never wanted.

It is known that were it not for the self-sacrifice of the Stone Men and the retreat of the Eyes of the Emperor, none of the Loyal Forces would have escaped. Thousands managed to flee in gunships, running back to their ships and escaping the system, and this would greatly aid the Loyalists in the years to come. However the cost was high. Over 400,000 Astartes were lost, a Primarch was dead, a second so badly wounded he had to be interred into a Dreadnought to sustain him and two more missing. With them died the Emperor’s dream, of human dominance of the stars.

As crushing as the Traitor victory at the Drop Site Massacre had been, it soon became apparent that it was not as total as the Warmaster had wanted. Numbers of Loyalist survivors had managed to break out of the encircling trap as soon as it became clear that all was lost, either managing to escape via gunship in the chaos or slip away into the crags and shifting volcanic sands and dust storms of the desert plains; an escape aided in part by the bloodlust of some of the Traitors, and the eagerness to pick over the spoils of battle by others, and the sheer contempt some of the Warmaster’s Legions seemed to hold for each other, even then. None of the four initial Legions had been completely destroyed, indeed none had lost greater then three quarters of their total strength, leaving them still strong enough to be a thorn in the Warmaster’s side.

In the skies above Istvaan V, the war fleets of the Loyalist Legions was also betrayed and assaulted though although over-matched, the battle had not been such a one-sided affair as the Traitors would have liked. The Loyalist vessels had been fully Void Shielded and on battle alert as befitted them in a war zone, and were quick to respond in kind once the initial assault had been weathered, with many of their number damaged, but far from destroyed by the sudden attack of their supposed allies. The resulting void battle had lasted for many more hours than the carnage on the ground, and some Loyalist warships had fought on stubbornly, refusing to abandon their Legion forces planet-side to whatever dark fate had befallen them even as they paid the ultimate price for their loyalty. Others, badly damaged, were either driven off, or realizing the futility of the overwhelming odds they faced fled.

The Battle of Istvaan V was over, the treacherous Warmaster Hektor was its victor. The whirlwind of galactic civil war had been sown, and the Dark Gods would reap the years of terror and bloodshed that would follow.

The Third Battle of the Isstvan System

The Scale Bearers were one of the Loyal Legions assigned to the Isstvan Assault, but Warp Turbulence delayed their arrival until after the Massacre was done. When their fleet emerged from the Warp near the Gas Giant Isstvan VI, they fell straight into the trap. The Warmaster had left fleet elements of several of his newly turned Legions, along with the bulk of the Iron Rangers Legion waiting for their arrival, having been warned by the Voidwatcher and the powers of the Warp. The Iron Rangers ships approached close under the guise of friendship, only to suddenly open fire once they had compromised the Scale Bearers formations. Within seconds the enemy vessels brought their weapons to bear, firing as one upon the Scale Bearers Battlecruiser Thagomizer. The doomed vessel exploded spectacularly as the enemy salvo set off a chain reaction in the ship’s plasma engines. Within seconds of its destruction 12 more ships suffered the same fate, consumed by nova-shell explosions and torpedo spreads. Fortunately the Scale Bearer vessels had been fully armed and ready for anything, and were quick to respond in kind once the initial assault had been weathered despite nearly a sixth of their fleet damaged or destroyed in the opening moments. The resulting void battle had lasted for several hours as the Scale Bearers fought off their foes, at first trying to push their way towards Isstvan to find out what had happened to their allies, but finally realizing the futility of the overwhelming odds they faced as the fleets of the first Traitor Legions re-appeared, Tiran Osoros ordered the retreat and was successful in escaping the system, the hounds of the enemy snapping at their heels and bitter vengeance in their hearts. The Scale Bearers would get their revenge for Isstvan.

Ultima Segmentum

After the success of Isstvan V Hektor had now crippled a few of the loyalist legions, but not all. Thanks to the intervention of the Stonemen the loyalists were able to quit the field and make a hasty retreat back into Imperial space. Hektor would not be able to rely on the same tricks the next time. The majority of Hektor's traitor legions were now gathered around him and many had taken substantial losses while there were still many loyalist legions at full strength for him to contend with.

By now all would have heard of his treachery and would no doubt be racing to defend their false emperor. As great a general as he was, even Hektor doubted he would be able to defeat the Emperor if he was able to unite the remaining loyalists into a single fleet. No, if he wanted to fulfil his destiny as the savior of mankind he would have to learn some new tricks. He did not need to defeat every loyalist legion, merely delay them from helping their emperor.

At least 4 loyalists still remained in the Ultima Segmentum on the other side of the Maelstrom. With only two paths around the Maelstrom if the traitors were able to block off both ways then the loyalists would never be able to reach Holy Terra. Speaking with his brothers, Hektor dispatched Voidwatcher and his Black Augurs to the south of the Maelstrom, where they would conjure a second warp storm using their sorcery that would block any from trying to pass.

The Burning Crusade

The Eternal Zealots and Sons of Fire attacked the border of the Atalantos Worlds, drawing the remnants of the War Scribes into a terrible battle. Only the arrival of the Scions of Europa saved Arelex Orannis' Legion from total annihilation.

Segmentum Tempestus

The Storm of Steel: The Battle of Zhuko V

'Only in retrospect do events seem driven by choice and judgement. Those who fight rarely know why they are, and those that lead rarely see clearly enough to make any real choice besides saying "we will fight them here because this is where we are".'

– Rytrion, Grand Khedive of the Outremars, speaking in council with the Emperor of Mankind.

---

Few are interested in the history of the world that Zhuko V was before the devastating war which had nearly consumed it. It was an inglorious planet, inhabitants both humble and industrious, contented with simply serving the interests of the Emperor's Imperium through working the many manufactorums upon their surface to supply the needs of the Great Crusade. Before the arrival of the Expedition Fleets, the Zhukons had not the resources or technological capability of sustaining their population, and pressure was quickly growing in the crowded factory-cities. Quick action by Arch-Magos Telesnius, the Mechanicum representative to the forty-seventh Expeditionary Fleet that found Zhuko, allowed for machinery to produce foodstuffs from simple materials stabilising the populations of the bloated Hives until further steps could be taken. Telesnius was happy to explain where this aid came from, declaring it was from the Omnissiah whom he served. Images of the Emperor were shown, with Telesnius explaining that this was the Omnissiah made flesh. In this one act, the entirety of Zhuko V swore allegiance to the Emperor for all eternity, and also binding itself to the Mechanicum who were only too happy to make this world their satrapy.

This is why Zhuko would never bend to the Warmaster, which set up the events which would later see it choked in metal.

Before we devolve into the savagery of that most dark of times, let us first explain some facts which gave Zhuko V its strategic importance. Firstly was its manufactorums. Several Hives had been founded next to huge industrial structures built during the Dark Age of Technology. Within were assembly lines stretching out for miles, with manipulator units able to lift a section of a Baneblade's chassis with ease. It is precisely for this reason why the Mechanicum had such a strong interest in Zhuko V.

Shifts were long, and tiring, but the Zhukon spirit kept them going. Their belief was that if the Emperor was the Omnissiah, then all the machines they produced were part of his grand plan for unification and the Imperial Truth. This semi-religious thought was encouraged by the Mechanicum overseers, who handily held the Iterators off, allowing Zhuko V to rise to prominence in the Segmentum Solar through its combination of hardy spirits and advanced production capabilities.

As the years of the Great Crusade carried on, Zhuko began to stockpile the tanks which were not being shipped out. Expedition Fleets had pushed out further away from the world, causing for less frequent trips to its surface. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of vehicles were stored in great underground mega-warehouses, placed directly next to theirTsiolkovsky Towers to allow for the rapid movement of cargo to orbit.

All this made Zhuko V a strategic locale that the Warmaster could not ignore, much like Paramar on the other side of Segmentum Solar. The Warmaster doubtless wished to repeat what had happened to Paramar with this campaign. So he dispatched the Mastodontii, one of his most loyal Legions, to secure Zhuko for his cause.

The Mastodontii force sent to Zhuko V consisted of ten Mingghans (Chapters), and a single war maniple of the Legio Olitau, the Fell Bats. In addition were several battalions of the Jäakäri, the Legion's own auxilia. Ice Shaman Issitoq, Chief Librarian of the Legion was tasked by his Primarch into bringing the world under his fold. The massive amount of surplus armour, munitions and fuel held in its northern polar bunkers would be a boon to the Warmaster's efforts, and if possible securing the rare and irreplicable manufactorums.

The standing forces upon Zhuko were few, as no one expected an attack. They were so far beyond the range of any attackers, safe within the heart of the Imperium. The Mechanicum had gifted them a comprehensive network of fortifications. Yet, it could do little to stem the assault to come. Word had not yet reached Zhuko of the Warmaster's betrayal, and the Mastodontii arrived welcomed as friends and comrades.

Issitoq organized the fleet into position while giving pleasantries to Chief Manager of Manufactorums. Even as they spoke, his fleet began the bombardment with the Chief none the wiser until the first salvos struck. The Battle for Zhuko V began in silence, no one suspecting the attack. The northern polar orbital defence station vanished in a blaze of harsh blue light. Curtains of an aurora danced across the south polar defense grid as the graviton detonation warred with Zhoko’s magnetic fields.

The global defense network began to wake. Auspex scans cut into space, looking for targets. They did not have to look hard. Hundreds of ships enclosed Zhuko V in a shrinking sphere. It was a surprise to see that these ships were coloured in a cold blue of polar ice, trimmed with ivory. They had known that Legion in better times, had supplied them with war materials for the Emperor’s crusade. But they were no longer the Emperor’s warriors. They had come on some unknown mission of malice, driven by the greed, the lust of Zhuko's stocks of tanks.

The planet's defenses began to respond in kind. Torpedoes slid from launch tubes. Turbo-lasers fired, running their capacitors dry as they drew networks of light across the darkness. But they were too late. Two more nova shells fired from the Mastodontii fleet, destroying utterly the equatorial stations. Squadrons of destroyers slipped into high orbit and launched spreads of torpedoes at the remaining weapon platforms. New constellations blinked into existence in the skies over Zhuko V as they died, one by one. The only batteries left for protecting the planet lay on its surface, all those in the heavens blasted apart.

Within the Hives the Zhukons had no way of knowing what was bearing down on them. The bombardment had stripped them of nearly everything. All they were able to understand was the enemy was here to take the world. That had to be the only reason all of Zhuko V wasn't reduced to ashes by the superior force invading them. Magos Telesnius II, chosen ward of the Arch-Magos and given the responsibility of watching the promising planet, moved into action.

A full scale mobilization was ordered, tens of thousands were mustered to hold the walls and crew the tanks. Rows and rows of the indomitable machines lined up in columns, Gaudins and Malcadors, Baneblades and Shadowswords. All were hastily crewed and sent out to fight, some without even paint upon their armoured hides. It was in this frenzied air of desperation that the Mastodontii attacked.

Mastodontii formations landed and formed up, moving with terrible speed across Zhuko V. Armoured Cohorts and Line Companies supported by Land Raiders proceeded forth, crushing the few entrenchments arrayed to stall them. This was a mere fraction of their strength, enough men to break down the cities, secure the manufactorums and stockpiles, and then move on to the Tsiolkovsky Towers to swiftly take the collected material off-world. There was no expectation of needing any more numbers than this. They were not here to burn the world or siege it. This was a snatch and grab, but on a vast scale.

The first targets of the Legion were the cities of Izotovberg and Smetanin. Both held manufactorums, both were lightly defended compared to the other, larger cities. The assault began with a thunder of fire from orbit. No indiscriminate bombardment, this was carefully selected and targeted to knock out as may defensive systems as possible before the ground assault. The Hives held most of the fire back, but enough damage was done for the Legion’s purposes. It was then that the formations of armour moved into view. As expected, there was not enough ground defences, with one Anti-Armour emplacement for every ten tanks, making it impossible to effectively stop them.

The defenders of the walls now faced the storm of armour alone. But as the Mastodontii were about the breach down the main entrance, a deluge of firepower poured out to greet them. Battalions of Gaudins stumbled forth, bellowing out a defiant cry before being crushed by the combined might of the Mastodontii's superheavies. Behind them were Baneblades and Shadowswords joining the fray, choking the front gates of Izotovberg and Smetanin with shredded hulls and torn treads. It took the Legion hours before finally breaking through.

It was here though, that the true strength of the defenders weighed. In the twisted cityscape, the defending armour held the advantage. By using ambush and hit-and-run attacks, the defenders began to bleed the attacking armour for every corner they turned on. Tanks were not at their most effective in urban combat, the attackers had hoped to shock the foe into submission and thus avoid a costly confrontation. But now they were finding for themselves that the defenders were not about to give them their war materials without a fight.

To the eastern edge of the main continent the wealthy mines had created an erratic and twisting structure of streets, winding this way and that. It made armoured assault a nightmare for the Legionnaires, having to deal with infantry tank-hunter teams and dug in Vanquishers and Destroyers. The mastery of armoured warfare that was the hallmark of the Mastodontii counted for naught in the narrow streets of Izotovberg, and the sheer number of vehicles and bodies the defenders had swung the balance. As the frustration grew, the attackers began to indiscriminately level buildings and fire upon anything that crossed their path. This further delayed their advance, and after six hours, they were still not any closer to controlling the factories they had come for. It was thought it would only take three hours at the most to secure them to begin with.

In Smetanin, every street was a battlefield. The bodies piled high in the streets as people used their own factory tools to dismantle the treads of light vehicles moving across the street, usually suffering horrible fates as the enraged Mastodontii would dismount to butcher them. While doing so, tanks would roll out, hitting them while disembarked. Unlike Izotovberg, the Mastodontii decided to lure out the Zhukon tanks, led by an Overseer named Klara Eissner. The woman desperately tried to call her overconfident troops in, but it was too late. Outside of the city, they were easily dealt with. The blow was enough to hammer in the last nail for the city, but Klara decided to put her full might behind an assault outside the city. While doing so the people evacuated towards Vinograd to the north, but it was barely a tenth of the Hive's population.

Among the bones of long dead xenos-beasts, the cracked and blackened hulls of well over a thousand tanks smoldered. The battle was at first thought decided, but soon it devolved into a massive struggle between the two forces. Eventually though Klara's tank was spotted, overtaken as all the nearby Mastodontii focused on the command vehicle. Reinforcements from Legio Olitau made quick work of any remaining defenders, allowing the Traitors to finally achieve the victory they had demanded.

But what they did not realize was the fates of these Hives mattered little to the Zhukons. Their sacrifice had bought the others time. Telesnius II was able to rally the workers into an organized fighting force, not the confused and terrified militia rallied to face the Legion's wrath like before. The coming battles would not be stalling tactics or last stands, it would be the Zhukons best attempt to bleed the Traitor's dry. To the last drop of oil.

The Mastodontii had thought the battle would be over that that point. After the massive bombardment they expected little resistance in appropriating the war machines for the Warmaster’s armies. Their first battle losses corrected that understanding. Their response was to pour more forces onto the planet's surface. Ice-coloured macro-landers sank into Zhuko V atmosphere to dump armoured vehicles onto the varied plains that made up the planet’s surface.

Typhon siege tanks, Sabre hunters, Land Raiders, Predators, and Fellblades rolled from the landing grounds in neat formations. These were the vehicles of the Legiones Astartes, crewed by the Mastodontii, foremost in their use in battle. Beside them came detachments of Mechanicum war engines, Legio Cybernetica maniples, and the war machines of half a dozen human cohorts bonded to the XXIV Legion. Tens of thousands of vehicles spread out from a dozen dropsites across Zhuko V’s two main continents.

Mastodontii signals ran across the surface, scratching on the dead wind, blowing and clicking across bombed out factory cities. The signals rose from the block-sided landing craft of the invaders, and scattered to the sky and the ships that waited above. Buried in their shelters and cities the survivors listened. Arrays trawled the air, catching rattling snatches of code, and taking them beneath the earth to where men and women sat hunched in the half-darkness, listening to the signals scratch and whine. They did not know what the Mastodontii were saying, but they knew that it meant that the enemy had come in strength.

The defenders' own signals, carried on buried cables beneath the cities and under mountains, went unheard by the invaders. A few amongst the leaders of the scattered shelters spoke of waiting, of surviving beneath the earth in silence. The survivors were alone, they argued. They had no way of calling for help, even if there was help that could come to them. But more were the voices that said that the invaders must bleed no matter the cost.

Sol Campaign

The Jovian & Saturnian Theatre

Terra and Mars were not the only theatres of significance in the Sol system, with the Jovian and Saturnian moons also important strategic objectives for other sides. Europa, Titan, Enceladus, Ganymede, and a handful other moons were fairly well populated, and also host to plethora industries or mining ventures that would be extremely useful for the maintenance of the war effort in the system. The massive gas mining stations which orbited Saturn since the Dark Age of Technology were especially valued, and much of the fuel for the Emperor’s vessels originated from these massive archaeotech refineries.

It was thus unsurprising that the Voidwatcher moved to secure these facilities promptly after his arrival in the system. Riding a high from their victory in the Isstvan system, they swept aside the various local forces present, established a security cordon around Saturn and its moons, and secured the majority of the facilities. With full control of the spacelanes not yet entirely established, the Black Augurs were forced to pull away the majority of their space-based forces to deal with emergent threats on the outer end of the star system, where loyalist forces were still a nuisance.

It was during this critical moment when the Thunder Kings arrived, running the blockade around Charon and forcing a sizable contingent of Black Augurs into pursuit. Four tribes, totalling some seventy-thousand marines between them, preceded their Primarch in breaking into Sol; making for Terra on a very direct axis of approach. Unfortunately for the Loyalists, the disposition of Traitorous forces was such that it proved impossible to approach Terra so readily, and so the majority of Thunder King forces would be forced to remain in the outer star system for the majority of the Battle of Terra.

Commander Anibalos took the Bleeding Crowns and the Grinning Ghosts tribes, totalling some forty-thousand marines, and deposited them along the moons of Saturn while Commander Cnaios took the Mountain Breakers and the Star-Eaters, totalling another thirty-five thousand, to Jupiter’s moons. Despite the advantage in numbers traitorous forces enjoyed in space, their need to maintain ships at the system’s peripheries to intercept Loyalist reinforcements as well as to blockade the various worlds they were besieging, allowed the Thunder Kings fleet to remain relatively intact. It was never able to establish even local space superiority, on account of the sizable Black Augurs fleet presence, but the clever use of both Saturn’s and Jupiter’s depleted rings in hiding the Thunder Kings fleet would allow for its intermittent use in operational offensives throughout the duration of the conflict.

Of all the other moons, Titan and Ganymede would prove to be the most contested. As important transit points for much of the material the gas refining stations put out, as well as possessing many such refining facilities themselves, they were highly sought after by both sides. The initial Thunder Kings landings managed to overwhelm the standing Black Augurs garrisons in much the same manner as they themselves had overwhelmed the mortal defenders, and so resecured the planets mostly intact.

However, they soon faced a concerted counter-attack and invasion by the Black Augurs. It was to turn into a moon-hopping campaign, with both sides jumping from moon to moon in an attempt to take strategic points before their enemy--or to seize them when an opportunity presented itself from their enemy. No better example exists than Silacos’ gambit, when the Commander of the Star-Eaters tribe opportunistically left a skeleton garrison on Europa, gathered the majority of the Thunder Kings fleet, and scattered his forces across the outer Jovian moons while the Mountain Breakers were defending Ganymede. For a brief while, at least, the control of the defense batteries on those outer moons provided the Thunder Kings space superiority in that front of the theatre.

One of the more decisive battles of the Saturnian campaign was the Battle of Huygen’s Gap, which took place in the forementioned zone of Saturn’s rings. The Eternal Zealots, alongside remaining Black Augurs space forces in the area, made comprehensive sweeps of Saturn’s ice rings once they arrived. In a series of small skirmishes, the Thunder Kings fleet was forced out into the Gap, where the traitor’s forces were able to finally meet them in an actual battle. Brennus and Aubrey briefly dueled, and would continue to directly oppose one another via a series of battles waged across the fleets via teleportation and boarding actions. Ultimately, with both sides sustaining heavy casualties, Aubrey teleported away and the Eternal Zealots withdrew from Huygen’s Gap.Their failure to mention their retreat to their Black Augur allies resulted in the destruction of much of the Black Augur fleet in orbit, eventually culminating in the spiteful destruction by the Black Augur commander of the ancient Vinyaya refining station.

The Siege of Terra

The Zealots are the first openly traitor legion, playing the role the word bearers did, while the Children of Armok were the original traitors, and play the role Erebus does in the books and being the one to corrupt notLorgar.

The Zealots were acting unwittingly as agents for the Children of Armok, and through them Hektor And this shit starts from there.

Is there going to be a Calth/Shadow Crusade analogue? What Legion has its own stellar empire for the Sons of Fire to burn to the ground?

And our AU's alternative to the Iron Cage is the Crucible - a challenge by the more renegade than outright traitor Bulwark, vs the Steelmarshalls and the Silver Cataphracts

At the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, a precise estimate of the Sons of Fire’s fighting strength and disposition was difficult to make. The Sons often fought as a small number of large scale deployments, with the bulk under the Burned King formed into the 13th Expeditionary fleet, and the Sigillite’s Agents were disliked and kept at arms length. Best estimates of their observed strength were around 150,000 Space Marines, placing the Sons of Fire in the middle to high levels of comparative strength amongst its contemporary fellow Space Marine Legions. They were also well-supplied and supported by the Legio Ignis (Fire Kings) Titan Legion and a fleet of at least sixty capital class vessels. It is commonly estimated that of all the Traitor Legions that had fought at Istvaan III in the purge of the Loyalist faction within their ranks, it had been the Sons who had suffered the greatest casualties, with well over 35,000 Legionaries believed to have met their deaths on both sides. Aside from the many wounded, it is recorded that a number had succumbed entirely during the protracted fighting to an insane pyromania and had to be forcibly restrained and removed back to the the fleet for containment, lest they burn even their allies to ash.

Okay, so we need to work out who’s going to be on Terra The Entombed took too many casualties to be present on Terra Scions were present on Terra, fighting their most hated rivals, the Silver Spear.

The eyes of the Emperor mainly attended to Mars during the siege of Terra, trying to protect the foundries and factories. It is during this time where they display their braveness, using ancient DaoT weaponry to literally snipe and assassinate the commanders of Traitor Titnas, and plunging in close to the front line with storm bolter armed assault marines . They kind of fill out the void of the Dark Angels role of being the indecisive chapter and the Iron Hands as being the chapter to loose their primarch totally.

Crusaders were also present on Terra, as were the Marshalls, Cataphracts, and parts of the War Scribes (I envision the Scribes as being spread out everywhere a lot, always recovering their information and recording knowledge) (Yeah, the Scribes are a Legion only in name, in practice they’d have been fairly spread out during the Crusade, with a central force of maybe 30-50k marines, and lots of squads all over the place.)

The Thunder Kings arrived both in support of and in opposition to Imperial forces, with Brennus arriving with several thousand less than his traitorous captain Selioax managed to muster. It’s possible he was aboard when the Emperor and co. confronted Hektor, though he need not necessarily take the place of Dorn or whatever Not!Dorn we choose for putting the Emperor into his throne. Selioax survived, but both Thunder Kings factions sustained enormous casualties throughout the Siege of Terra.

The final confrontation against Hektor aboard his flagship, the Sun Chariot, involved the Emperor and the Primarchs Kleisthenes and Gaudin. When Kleisthenes and hektor fought, Kelisthenes was mortally wounded by Hektor (and later placed in stasis), but not before placing the apocryphal flaw in Hektor's armor. The Emperor then fought Hektor personally. When Hektor's victory seemed apparent, a lone Guardsmen by the name of Ollanius Pius appeared to hold the line against Hektor. Pius was killed almost instantly by Hektor, but this galvanized the Emperor to rise up and slay Hektor completely, body and soul. Gaudin was the one to recover the bodies of the Emperor and Kleisthenes, spurring him on to help the War Scribes write the Codex Astartes to help prevent the travesties of the Hektor Heresy from ever happening again.

Post-Heresy

The Great Scourging

The Void Angels, Crusaders, Silver Cataphracts, and Steel Marshals are the big players in the Imperium's counter-offensive. Three of the Traitor Legions go down hard in big battles. The Gorgers are left behind as a rear-guard and face the full fury of the counter-attacking Loyalists, while the Lifebringers fight the Entombed, bolstered by Void Angels, at The Battle of Rai. The Bulwark face the Steel Marshals and Silver Cataphracts in a brutal battle known as The Crucible. Others flee and leave their homeworlds to get razed. The Mastodontii abandon Tisenjoch to the mercy of the Silver Cataphracts and Void Angels.

Imperial Reformation

Arelex Orannis reorganises the administration of the Imperium. Meanwhile, Darius Cyaxares persuades the Primarchs to break up the Legions Astartes into the Space Marine Chapters. The rules governing the Chapters are known at the Institutorum Astartes and are written by Thomas Gaudin (ethics), Gaspard Lumey (military organisation), and Darius Cyaxares (the Librarium).