Hektor Heresy

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.

This page covers the war launched by the Warmaster Hektor Cincinnatus against the government of the Imperium. If you're looking for the main project page, go to the /tg/ Heresy

The Hektor Heresy was a galaxy-spanning conflict between the Imperial forces loyal to the Emperor (referred to as the Loyalists) and those who sided with Hektor Cincinnatus (the Traitors), including his Chaos allies. It brought the Great Crusade to an end and ravaged the Imperium. The results were several Primarchs being dead, including Hektor himself, along with Terra reduced to an unlivable state. It gave rise to the new decentralized governmental body of the Highlord Council, taking direct control after the Emperor was entombed upon the Golden Throne to keep him from dying completely.

The Revolt

Diamat

The Scale Bearers and the Iron Rangers were assigned to secure the Forgeworld of Diamat, which had sided with Aubrey. However as the two Legions approached Diamat, 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 fulfill 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 The 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

Zhuko V's massive manufactorium's and stockpiles of armoured vehicles made it a critical target during the Heresy. The Mastodontii were assigned to secure the world for Hektor.

Sol Campaign

The Elume Elish

The Battle for the Elume Elish

012-014.M31

The Campaign against the vital sector known as the Elume Elish (in the Local Vernacular, roughly translated as ‘flood of balance’, or the ‘Noah Sector’ in low gothic, named after the capital world of Noah) in the Sol Segmentum was an operation carried out under the direct command of the Warmaster Himself in the year just prior to the final assault upon sacred Terra itself. The campaign was a textbook example not only of the depths to which the Warmaster’s forces had sunk by that late stage of the Heresy, but also the desperate actions of the defenders, who knew that the final stages were upon them and that any and all sacrifices were necessary in order to keep the Traitors away from Terra for as long as possible.

Three full Legions, with Warmaster Hektor himself personally overseeing the operation stormed the Elume Elish, which was defended by numerous Imperial Army forces, several scattered bands of Storm Bringers and other Legions that had been all but destroyed in the early years of the Heresy and now thrown by the storm and fate into the path of the Traitor onslaught.

The Battle of Noah was the climax of a long series of void battles, planetary assaults, sieges and raids that took place across the Elume Elish. That region of space was located close to the Sol System itself within the Sol Segmentum and was an old, highly developed region with vast resources of both manpower and industrial might available. The Shipyards of the twin Forgeworlds of the Chakaris System produced hundreds of ships for Battlefleet Sol and before the Heresy the Legion Battlefleets, fed by the vast mineral resources of the surrounding systems. The Capital World of Noah was highly developed and not blighted by massive Hives or vast slums like so many other worlds due to a policy of sustainable growth and economic management enacted in the ancient past before the fall of Old Night to prevent overcrowding and stratification, leaving the planet resembling Terra before the overcrowding and pollution had turned it into a dead world. The core worlds of Rhegatis, Yskander, Ingernye and Aterox were each as highly developed as any Civilized World in the Imperium, while the outer worlds produced resources of fuel, timber and foodstuffs for the rest of the Sector and beyond. Additionally the sector lay directly on the pathway to Terra, forming a natural speed bump and obstacle for the Warmaster’s assault. If the Warmaster wished to take Terra, he would have to take or neutralize the sector. All of these factors made the Elume Elish a maximum priority target for the Warmaster’s forces as they tightened the noose on Terra in the last stages of the Heresy. This was compounded by events far from the Elume Elish. The failed assaults upon Rosskar, Zhuko V and the Atalantos worlds had bled the Warmaster’s armies and emboldened his foes, and one of his most powerful enemies, the Steel Marshalls Legion was already trying to fight its way to Terra past the blockading forces of the Lions Rampant and Iron Rangers. Hektor had to take the Elume Elish and quickly so his final apocalyptic assault on Terra could commence before his foes could reach him.

The region was far from unprepared for the oncoming storm. From the moment that the dire news of the massacres in the northern regions reached the Elume Elish, a major program of fortification had been enacted by the military commanders of that region. The shipyards of Chakaris had worked overtime to produce warships for Battlefleet Sol, hundreds of them reinforcing the defences of the Segmentum every year while others swelled the ranks of the Elish Defence Fleet, the local naval detachment responsible for sector defence to the point where it could boast a fleet strength of many hundreds of ships. Imperial Army regiments from far and wide had been mustered, many of those crack veterans of the Great Crusade including a number of elite Solar Auxilia cohorts that had long been a part of the Elume Elish, along with Regiments from as far afield as the Markian Pact, Rosskar and even Ciban. Adding to that the local militia forces had been reformed and drilled into effective fighting forces and armed with the very best fighting equipment available. Finally the human defenders were bolstered by several scattered Astartes formations from the shattered Legions that had emerged from the storm, adding a much needed boost to the defences.

By the time the Warmaster’s shadow finally fell upon the Elume Elish in late 013.M31, the sector was a bristling network of interlocked defences ready for anything that would come upon it. The sector was close enough to Terra that despite the Warp Storms, communication was still possible with the throneworld and the order came through from the Emperor’s Praetorian himself, Lord Thomas Gaudin of the Crusaders Legion that the Elume Elish was to hold at all costs. Any sacrifice was worth it if it would slow the traitor’s progress by but a day. Time was needed for the Marshalls to break through, for news to finally reach the Void Angels and for the Cataphracts to emerge from the long dark. Plans for a layered set of defences had been laid out long before, with the sector formed into several zones, with each acting as a shield that the Warmaster would have to pierce before he could assault the next one. So as the Warmaster drove deeper into the sector, his forces would be bled white. Thousands would die, millions, billions. But lives didn’t matter, all that mattered was to slow the foe’s progress. Unlike in the Warmaster’s earlier campaigns, none of these worlds would capitulate without a fight. Dark Compliance would be refused out of hand. There would be no easy victories for the Warmaster here. So it was that the warriors of the Elume Elish steeled themselves and waited for the devil to come from the darkness.

The First Act: The Assault upon Lhaetis

In the north eastern reach of the Elume Elish was the border world of Lhaetis. Highly developed like all the worlds of the Sector, it could boast two major habitable worlds, Lhaetis II and Lhaetis VI. The main export of the System was gasses harvested from the rocky worlds of Lhaetis III through V, which were refined for fuel, weaponry and other purposes across the sector and beyond. It was expected that the more strategically positioned planets of Amaetus or Raugharr would be the first to come under assault due to their position on Warp Routes straight into the heart of the sector, and the bulk of the defences in the outermost fortified zone were sited there. Lhaetis was far from defenceless though, with a fleet of sixty vessels waiting in orbit and several Solar Auxilia Cohorts among the Imperial defenders on Lhaetis II, along with Ogryn Charonites recruited from among the mine workers of the system and augmented into deadly shock troops. On 997013.M31, unknown objects were detected in the outer reaches of both Amaetus, Raugharr and Lhaetus heading inworld. Urgent messages were dispatched to Chakaris and Noah as the enemy fleets closed in, the defending fleets sallied out to meet them and the defences were readied.

At Amaetus and Raugharr the enemy fleets were much smaller than expected, and comprised of Armada Imperialis ships, not the immense interstellar fortresses of the Legiones Astartes. The battles were swift and bloody, and the Traitor forces did not linger but rather briefly clashed before withdrawing, suffering heavy losses in the process. It was believed on those worlds that the probes had been repelled, and quiet celebrations were held. In the Lhaetus system however the enemy ships were different. Immense slablike vessels in plasma etched blue-grey, bearing the mark of the ancient Macedonyan Star of old Terra. The Heralds of Hektor, the Traitor’s own Legion had come to Lhaetis. The defending fleet was outnumbered by three to one, and most of their ships were light cruisers, destroyers and frigates, hopelessly outclassed by the behemoths of the Heralds fleet. Still they fought to the last, until the loyalist flagship, the Avenger class Battlecruiser ‘Sceptre of Enlightenment’ was destroyed by the Herald Legatus Class Battlebarge ‘Blood Dawn’ and the last few ships fled before the traitor onslaught. They had bled the enemy fleet of dozens of ships which would have an effect deeper within the sector as the Heralds hit even stronger fleets, but that fact would have been of little comfort to the now isolated defenders of Lhaetus. With the defending fleet destroyed, Lhaetus VI lay bare before the oncoming storm. The static orbital defences were silenced one by one and the enemy fleet assembled just out of range of the planetary defences. On the planet’s surface the Imperial Army forces made ready, every man knowing that within hours they would be facing the Legiones Astartes in battle.

The enemy fleet thundered into high orbit over Lhaetis VI, pummelling the ground based defences to oblivion and then pouring out vast numbers of landing craft, escorted by squadrons of fighters. The remaining air defences were swamped, and the defending fighters were caught up in massed dogfights in high orbit, unable to reach the swarms of Stormbirds, Thunderhawks and Argo Dropships carrying the Heralds to the planet’s surface. The Heralds landed, unloaded and formed up into their battlefield formations just out of artillery reach of the three main processing cities on Lhaetis VI, close enough for the defenders to see them, to see their doom approaching. To the defenders looking out it was a fearsome sight, the serried ranks of the Heralds, standards decorated with the skulls of their former brothers and marked with fell icons from the powers they now served. Those who had once fought alongside them knew what was coming next. The relentless steamroller of the Herald advance, as inexorable as death itself. The Herald Phalanx deployed in all its power. But that steamroller was about to hit the cunningly designed defences of the Lhaetis processing cities. Every City was defended by Void Shields umbrellas, turret guns and bunker networks located within the city perimeter. Thousands of veteran Imperial Army troopers were deployed to those defences, and they would not fall without a fight. And fight they did. Artillery blew holes in the wall of ceramite. Massed lasguns brought down scattered Space Marines with sheer weight of firepower. The few tanks available stood as strongpoints of defence in the Army Lines, pummelling the foe with all weapons. But nothing could stop the enemy. Storms of Bolterfire turned flesh to mist, the forest of spearpoints from the Hypaspezetae Squads kept even the Ogryn Charonites from ravaging the Marine lines and Assault Squads brought death from above. And every time a Marine force hit an Imperial line, they left nothing but death in their wake. The battle still took over three days before resistance finally collapsed, but the Slaughter lasted longer as the Heralds exterminated all in their path, turning the cities into charnel houses dedicated to their dread gods, venting their wrath at the delay in victory.

On Lhaetis II the 1800th, 707th and 1508th Solar Auxilia Cohorts were among the hundreds of thousands of Army Troopers deployed around the planetary capital Vandefler, waiting for their own turn to face the enemy. There was far more armour and weapons on Lhaetis II and even stronger entrenched defences, more than enough to prolong the battle for several weeks or more. But what came from the Sky was not just the Heralds. Two dozen massive landers followed in their wake, and unleased a full cohort of the Legio Magna, the Flaming Skulls Titan Legion, the engines wrought into new and fearsome shapes and bearing the mark of the Lord of Battles and Skulls, Khorne. The defenders of Lhaetis II did not last much longer than their comrades on Lhaetis VI. The Titans swept all before them despite desperate counterattacks by Imperial Tanks and the few superheavies deployed onworld, and the serried ranks of Heralds marching at their feet crushed all before them though some strongpoints resisted for many hours before falling. The Imperial forces refused to give in and fought literally to the last round. But it could not halt the tide, and seventy-two hours after the first ship had entered the system Lhaetis fell to the traitors. The Gas Mining worlds of Lhaetis III, IV and V were left untouched by the Traitors, but that was not out of mercy. The Mining Stations, Vapour Mills and Enclosed Domes on those worlds required regular imports of food and fuel to sustain them, and now the poor souls trapped on those worlds were doomed to starve or suffocate. The fall of Lhaetis opened the first chink in the armour of the Elume Elish. Now the enemy had a toehold in the sector, and the highly developed core worlds of Rhegatus and Yskander were now directly in the path of the traitors. First blood had gone to the traitors. Much more blood would be spilled over the next year as the full force of the Warmaster was unleashed on the sector.

The Shadow Rises

Within hours the news of the fall of Lhaetis had reached Noah at the heart of the sector and confusion reigned. The enemy had finally come and in strength, but it was not clear where the main axis of attack would come from. Would they push from Lhaetis towards Rhegatis and the core of the sector? Or would they take the outer systems one by one and try to choke off the sector before delivering the killing blow? In the Planetary Capital of Tokajheylia on Noah, debate raged over what step to take next. The powerful Elish Defence Fleet was fully mobilized and waiting for orders, and there was calls for it to assault Lhaetis, and drive out the Herald Battlefleet before it could be reinforced. No sign of the dread master of the Heralds and his flagship the Bucephalus had been reported, and the fleet was reported at less than a hundred ships, outnumbered over six to one by the ships of both the EDF and the Chakaran Mechanicum Fleet. But many feared that was what the Heralds wanted, and that they would strike at the undefended planets the moment the ships departed. Fears of spies and a fifth column were everywhere, and brutal security crackdowns took place across the sector. Communiques were sent to Terra informing them of the developments and requesting support, and Terra promised what troops they could to slow the tide, though they needed to ensure that their own defences were looked too before they could spare aid for anyone else. Ultimately, additional Cruiser squadrons were dispatched to Amaetus, Rhegatus and Yskander, the most likely targets for the next stage of the Warmaster’s assaults, while fresh movements of troops within the sector using the highly valuable interior lines were made to ensure that wherever the Warmaster’s forces would strike, they would meet the maximum resistance. Orders were given for most of the troops in the systems bordering Lhaetis to prepare for imminent assault. But when the Warmaster’s hounds came, it would be an unexpected foe, striking in an unexpected place.

Born of Blood

Raugharr had once been the home of an advancing xenos race, who had only just developed space travel when the human colonists arrived and ended their dreams beyond the stars. A colony was established in the ruins of the xenos civilisation, which exported the highly valuable timber from Raugharr across the sector. It was a minor world, and only sparsely defended by the local Militia and several regiments of Imperial Army troops. However after the fall of Lhaetis, the defenders were reinforced by a single company of the shattered Storm Bringers legion, the 113th who had survived the destruction of their legion and the death of their Primarch and now wanted revenge. They had been fighting the traitors wherever they could across the Imperium, and now were ready to stand and die in the face of the coming onslaught. In space several cruiser squadrons supported a pair of Goliath Class battleships, giving the fleet more than enough ships to hold out against anything short of a massive assault. Unfortunately, that was just what was coming for them.

The storm broke in 206013.M31. Recovered datacores taken from the ruins tell that in a nearly suicidal move, ships emerged from the Warp well into the system, bypassing the main warp transit nexus. Somehow the fleet wasn’t torn apart by the discharge of Warp energies, and before they had a chance to turn about and react, the enemy fleet was upon them. These ships were not the in the steel blue-grey of the Heralds, but rather pale red-white trimmed with wood brown and green, and bearing a masklike skull with a drop of blood in the centre. The Crimson Teeth, the genocidal legion of Camaxtli and one of the most feared of Hektor’s allies. Surprise, always the greatest forte of the Legion was total and the loyalist fleet was torn apart by savage close ranged attacks and vicious boarding actions. The mighty Gloriana Class Flagship of the Legion destroyed the Goliath Battleship ‘Mangusta’ with punishing broadsides, and within hours the space above Raugharr belonged to the Crimson Teeth. Drop Pods and Assault Claws tore through the skies like a swarm of meteors, dropping directly onto the main populated areas. Though many were destroyed by anti-air fire, the vast majority touched down and discharged their bloodthirsty cargo.

The legion rampaged through the streets, butchering all in their path but the number of foes was found to be far less than anticipated. Soon it was realized that the troops in the cities were just decoys. The bulk of the population had abandoned the cities and fled to the forests. The Crimson Teeth forces poured into the woods, where they found the Imperial Army forces waiting for them. Ambushes and Ambuscades sprang up all across the planet as isolated forces on both sides clashed. The Imperial Army soldiers including veteran jungle fighter troops from numerous worlds used traps and mines to bleed their attackers, Logging machines used as improvised engines of war that could tear even Astartes apart with their hydraulic claws, hitting the marines before fading into the undergrowth. However the Crimson Teeth were themselves experts in forest warfare and kept the pressure on the Imperial forces. The Imperial Army casualties rose by the hour, but the Crimson Teeth could not trap and destroy all their foes and the battle began to stretch out.

With bitter anger and bloody vengeance in their hearts, the Storm Bringers struck the Crimson Teeth time after time, each time withdrawing in their Thunderhawks before the enemy could catch up to them. Their hit and run attacks were aimed at enemy fuel and munitions depots, landing zones and other vital targets, disrupting the enemy’s pursuit through the forests of Raugharr. After three days of constant attacks that had slowed their drive across the planet, the Crimson Teeth tried a new tactic, creating a major landing zone deep within the forest isolated from neighbouring forces. The Storm bringers, blinded by vengeance struck there, only to find that it had been set up to catch them.

With a flash of teleportation energies Camaxtli Himself took to the field alongside a squad of Terminators, and against him the Storm Bringers could not stand. They fought like men possessed, but the bloodthirsty primarch tore them apart, mounting their heads on his armour. Their sacrifice had brought more time for the defenders to scatter, and in the end it took two months of constant hunting by the Crimson Teeth before Raugharr was finally pacified. The entire planetary population, over a billion people were dead, slaughtered whenever they were found by the Crimson Teeth forces. Carpets of bones now lay beneath the boughs of the trees. Another legion had now entered the fray, and what had happened to Raugharr would soon be repeated across the sector as the true depths to which the Warmaster’s forces had sunk were revealed.

A Pride comes to Amaetus

At the same time as Raugharr was drowned in blood by the warriors of Camaxtli, another foe struck at the Amaetus system. Amataeus was a border world, a shield for the core worlds of the Elume Elish. It was well defended with a star fort and a fleet in excess of a hundred ships, in addition to a series of fortified complexes established on the planet to defend vital strategic locations and over ten million crack Imperial Army troops supporting nearly half a billion local militia forces. It had been expected that the traitors would strike there first as Amaetus was in a direct line between the traitors and the main worlds of Rhegatus and Noah. When the initial attacks had instead come upon Lhaetis and Raugharr, ships were diverted from Amaetus to reinforce the core defences. It was expected that Amaetus would now be bypassed by the traitors as they pushed further into the sector, and plans were drawn to have troops from Amaetus moved to the core worlds. Only two Regiments had been withdrawn with the rest waiting for shipping when in the late evening of 242013.M31 multiple contacts emerged from the Warp Transit points of the system. Unlike the Crimson Teeth’s surprise assault, these foes did not hastily press their way into the system, but rather waited over an hour for all their ships to arrive, formed up and then proceeded insystem. They wanted to be seen, wanted the enemy to know they were coming.

Long Ranged Augurs on system picket ships showed that the ships were emblazoned with a rearing lion, daemonic in appearance and bearing a curious rune upon it. This news was concerning, for it showed yet another Legion whose presence was unexpected: The Lions Rampant, a Legion that had achieved a fell reputation reaving worlds all across the southern Ultima Segmentum. Though quixotic and highly unpredictable, the Lions Rampant were firmly committed to the Warmaster’s cause, though by this stage questions were being raised about how much they served their Patron god over the Warmaster. It is now believed that their presence in the Elume Elish was a way for the Warmaster to ensure his continued authority over the Legion and ascertain whether in the new order he was creating they would be a liability or an asset. Furthermore, the Warmaster needed Amaetus to be taken quickly, as his displeasure at the Crimson Teeth’s continued war on Raugharr made itself felt.

The Two fleets met in the Mid Amaetus System near the orbit of Amaetus IV. The Lions Rampant Fleet was no stringer in ships then the defending fleet, but they cleverly used feints, counter-strikes and diversion to divide the Amaetus Fleet, splitting them apart and then destroying them piecemeal. The main Lions Rampant Battleship, the Manticore was at the heart of the fleet and destroyed over a dozen smaller warships alone. Within four hours, the fleet was destroyed or scattered and the Lions Rampant began the task of reducing the orbital defences.

Whereas the Crimson Teeth had stormed into the heart of what they had supposed as the enemy defences, and the Heralds had landed just out of range to show the enemy that their doom was approaching, the Lions Rampant selected several deployment zones across the planet away from the reach of the Imperial forces as staging areas, and no sooner had the separate taskforces of the 2d Division of the Lions Rampant landed then they preceded towards their targets, the capital city of Saresk, the principal population centres and main planetary fortifications.

Imperial Army armoured forces raced to meet and destroy the Lions out in the open where the massed Imperial Armour would demolish them. The main strike towards Saresk was the prime target, with five full armoured Regiments riding towards a full mechanized battalion of the Lions Rampant under the command of Veteran Commander Basil Heart, including a detachment of the elite armoured core of the Legion, the Lionhearts. The two forces collided in a Tank Battle which in its fury equalled the monstrous armoured clashes that had taken place on Rosskar and Zhuko V elsewhere in the Imperium. Javelin Attack Speeder squadrons equipped with lascannons struck at the flanks time and time again, every time leaving dozens of tanks burning hulks. Lions Rampant "Lancer" formations clashed with Gaudin Strike Squadrons and Malacador Companies in running battles in which the Lions were always trying to outmaneuvour the slower Army machines. Eventually the Imperial forces, weakened by constant attacks from all sides and harrying by anti-tank equipped Seeker Squads seeded by air before the battle began and Speeder Squadrons, began to fall back, a retreat which swiftly turned into a rout as the Lions tore apart the desperately fleeing Imperial Forces. None of the troops who went out after the Lions returned to the safety of Saresk.

At the same time other Lions forces reached the first of the fortified planetary complexes, the one designated Beta-Sigma 116. Major Lockhardt of the Seventh Battalion, Lions Rampant first demanded a surrender of the fortress, which was rejected by the defenders. Swiftly surrounding it, they began to probe at the defences, sending assault squads to strike at weak points and mark targets for destruction while air strikes and long ranged artillery fire supressed the strong points. In the western quadrant, the Lions strike forces forced a breach, which they swiftly filled with their own troops. The desperate Imperial Commander counterattacked, only for his counterattacking forces to be cut to shreds by the Lions. That cycle of strike, hold, counterattack was repeated time and time again, and the Imperial forces, always kept off balance and unable to properly respond, became more and more desperate to eject the Lion forces, taking bigger and bigger risks. Finally the Lions unleashed their Breachers, which stormed the central complex and tore apart the final defenders. What happened at Beta-Sigma 116 would be repeated all across the planet as one by one the fortifications were enveloped and taken in a constant fluid battle that could be seen as more akin to a dance. Several Bastions did take the chance to surrender, but those weak willed fools soon paid the price, as many were crucified to the hulls of Lion Tanks to further weaken the morale of the defenders, while others were used for all manner of foul rituals.

Finally it was the turn of the urban centres to face the wrath of the Lions Rampant. Most of the Imperial Army troops had fallen in the defence of the fortifications, and only the planetary militia were left to face the Astartes. Though they fought bravely, and even brought down some of the enemy, the sheer brute force and speed of the Astartes left the end result in little doubt. With the collapse of resistance came an orgy of bloodletting as the Lions gave thanks to their patron deity by shedding blood in its name. Countless thousands were slaughtered in obscene rituals as a full seventh of the planetary population were decimated, the sacred number of the new overlord of the Legion. Individual units competed over who could slay the most and in the most imaginative ways, shedding their discipline and showing their hidden other side, now magnified by the excesses of the lord of Pleasure.

After barely two days of conflict, Amaetus had fallen to the Lions.

Move and Counter Move

The arrival of two additional Legions to the Elume Elish sent shockwaves throughout the High Command on Noah. The Assault was coming in much greater strength then had been previously believed, and it was unsure whether the vast networks of defences established in the core worlds could survive three legions assaulting it at once. The outermost defensive sector was now thoroughly breached, and the defenders of the inner worlds of Rhegatus and Yskander were now put on maximum alert. They would be next to face the Warmaster’s onslaught. Not all the news was bad for the defenders though. Scattered reinforcements had come in following the news of the initial assaults, including the powerful fleet of the noted Rogue Trader Aleksander Kimball-Karlyn which gave a much needed boost to the fleet strength of the sector. That would be needed, as both sides began to jostle for power and position for the next round.

With the outer cordon breached, the Xeratas system, the last of the outermost systems of the sector was now isolated and dangerously exposed to the Warmaster’s forces. An evacuation order was given for the Imperial Army forces onworld to relocate to the Aterox system, but barely a dozen regiments were shifted before advance ships of the Lions Rampant entered the system, fresh from their victory in Amaetus and hungry for more conquest and carnage. The defending fleet fought ferociously, not to stop the traitors, but to hold them off long enough for as many troops as possible to be lifted out. The defenders held the Lions at bay for nearly six hours, long enough for a further dozen regiments to be loaded. Then what was left of the fleet fled the system, leaving those behind to face the Lions. The remaining defenders fought bravely, but were firmly outclassed and resistance ended after less than four hours, faster than the fleet had held out in orbit. The sacrifices on Xeratas had ensured an additional 75,000 defenders for Aterox, numbers which would tell as the traitors began to move into the core worlds of the sector.

At almost the exact same time a raiding fleet of the Crimson Teeth entered the Equitus system, a vassal Knight World to Chakaris well behind loyalist lines. The Knights of Equitus had all been called to defend Noah and Chakaris and given how far behind friendly lines Equitus was it was not expected that it would be under any threat. However the Crimson Teeth had already demonstrated their willingness to chance the perils of the Warp in the assault upon Raugharr, and now a raiding fleet of over a dozen vessels led by the Eclipse Class Battlecruiser Pākurūtara swept from the stars and set upon the nearly undefended world. Barely a dozen Knights remained on Equitus, and though they and the household guard troops reaped a great toll of Astartes, they were too few to prevent the inevitable and the Crimson Teeth sacked and burned the mighty Knight Stronghold. The Crimson Teeth did not linger after the fall of the Household Fortress, swiftly departing the system for other targets. This was a bitter blow to the Knights, who had lost their homeworld, heritage and honour in the burning ruins of Equitus. This was only the beginning, as only a few days later contact was lost with the frontier outpost of Skeratas, and when a ship was dispatched to investigate pict capts of another raiding fleet bearing the Lion Rampant was recovered from the ruins. Now the Loyalist forces had the unpleasant news that there were several raiding forces loose behind their lines, ready to sack the less defended worlds of the Terran fringe of the Sector. This meant that several squadrons of warships had to be diverted from defensive duties to track down the marauders. This of course played right into the Warmaster’s hands, as the Crimson Teeth and Lions Raiding groups struck isolated outposts across the sector, leading the Imperial Warships in a bloody game of cat and mouse across the outer edges of the sector.

Events only became worse when one of the pursuing fleets leaving the sacked fringe colony of Tertius, found the Warp Route before them collapsed, a screaming morass of turbulent Warp-Energy that would bar no passage. As the Astropaths and Navigators examined it, they discovered a new and devastating weapon in the Traitor’s arsenals. Massive Psionic mines, each one containing a coterie of screaming psykers driven insane by a daemonic vapour that had been pumped into their chamber and then hermetically sealed. Their combined death cry and the unleashing of the daemonic entities within sent psionic ripples through the empyrean that would collapse a Warp Route, leaving it impassable for an unknown length of time. This meant the vital interior lines the loyalists required to move their troops around were cut, one by one and movement within the sector began to be restricted, cutting worlds off from each other. The destruction of these raiding fleets became a maximum priority, and over a hundred ships were tasked to destroying the marauders before the entire sector was cut to pieces. This meant that the fleet guarding the inner worlds was weakened, playing right into Hektor’s hands. Alongside these was a rash of sabotage attempts, civil unrest and unexplained accidents that were attributed to a fifth column readying the worlds for the Warmaster’s assault. Repeated crackdowns and security sweeps were unable to stop the tide, and paranoia at the foe both within and without grew as a rising tide of chaos within the Sector was only held back by extreme and ruthless order on the part of the leadership on Noah.

The Rising Tide

In this climate of growing anxiety and stress, the Warmaster unleashed his hand. In a feat of coordination that out to have been impossible given the nature of Warp travel, three full Legion Warfleets bore down for a simultaneous assault of the vital inner worlds of Rhegatus, Yskander and Aterox, thus preventing the enemy from concentrating his forces for the defence of any single one of them while maximising the force of their assaults to maximum effect. At the same time Chapter sized forces assaulted the fringe worlds of Obaneris and Merteris, ensuring that reinforcements would have to fight their way to the embattled worlds. The Heralds themselves attacked the most important of the three, Rhegatus. Rhegatus was the secondary capital after Noah and a highly developed hub in its own right, with an economic output that rivalled entire distant sub-sectors. Its defences were mighty indeed, hundreds of crack regiments of the Imperial Army including a dozen of the Ardito Highwatch, a hundred first rank warships with perhaps twice that number of ships of lesser degree in orbit and the fortified bunker complexes and city walls of the great cities there. On Rhegatus the sirens sounded across the planet when the first ships were detected at the Warp Transit point and troops scrambled into position. Over three hundred million crack troops defended the planet’s complex grid of interconnected cities, every man and woman ready to lay down their lives to slow or stop the inexorable traitor advance. The Traitor Fleet was huge, over five hundred vessels, with perhaps a quarter of those mighty ships of the Heralds of Hektor. The two fleets grappled together as they pulled towards Rhegatus, locked in a web of broadsides and attack runs. It took thirty hours before the Traitor Fleet was able to force the defending ships away from the planet long enough to begin a general bombardment, though several ships were caught by the ground based planetary defences and destroyed, their corpses orbiting the planet in mute witness to the carnage being unleashed. The Herald Fleet formed up over the planet in three separate spearhead formations, each presenting as little for the ground based defences as possible while allowing the traitor forces to unload as swiftly as possible. Swarms of Fighter Aircraft were first, Deathbirds, Ravens and Hawkwings that swiftly engaged the ground fighters. In their wake came hundreds of Drop Pods and Assault Claws filled with shock troops that would carve out landing zones for their fellows. Imperial Forces in the areas selected by the Heralds for their Drop Zones found themselves in the middle of an inferno as the Heralds of Hektor landed among them, tearing their forces apart with unmeasured fury. Over a dozen Regiments were lost within an hour to the first wave, but worse was to come as the second wave of heavy landers followed to the newly cleared out landing zones. No sooner had they offloaded their troops then they set off to attack the Imperial forces that were rushing to contain the Landing zones, subjecting them to a storm of fire from above while dodging the return fire of enemy anti-air batteries. Imperial forces that survived the relentless aerial attacks were met by Assault Squads and Despoiler Squads that tore the all too human warriors to ribbons, or storms of bolterfire that made flesh into mist. It was now a race, if the Imperial forces could seal off the dropzones they could pound them with artillery and stem the flow of troops from above long enough for the defending fleet to regain control of the skies. The Herald forces remained on the offensive as the Imperial Army Regiments arrived to box them in, but they could not advance far until transports were offloaded, and the battle for control of the skies was still far from decided. Imperial Armoured Regiments and Artillery Regiments now began to arrive in force, and not even Ceramite could withstand the pounding of their heavy guns. Raw numbers and raw firepower would make up for the lack of skill and power that the human defenders had at their disposal. Twenty-four hours into the battle despite the Heralds unloaded thousands of Marines, tens of thousands of their own traitor Army personnel and hundreds of tanks the battle rested on a knife edge. The Heralds kept up the pressure, knowing that they would outlast the all too human frailties of the defenders and break them when exhaustion set in. And so as army unit after army unit tried to rotate out of the line to rest, the Heralds set upon them, tearing them to shreds. The grip of fatigue became a constant and one which invited the Astartes attentions. Finally the Imperial lines began to falter and the Imperial commanders ordered their men to withdraw to the nearby cities to defend them. The Retreat only held together thanks to the self-sacrifice of several Regiments including the 7th Ardito Highwatch, which stood alone for four hours against an entire chapter of Heralds and refused to budge before finally being overrun. But the sacrifices of them and several others allowed the bulk of Imperial Forces to disengage and retreat to the cover of the walls, shields and guns of the nearby cities. The Heralds immediately threw themselves into the task of reducing the largest cities on the planet including the capital city of Lathall which was the top priority, supported by newly landed heavy Ordinatus Siege Engines of the Dark Mechanicum which began to pound the city walls to rubble. However once the Walls were breached, the Heralds found themselves storming into a storm of fire. Dozens were killed or wounded, and several assaults were beaten back. It was now that the Heralds unleashed their secret weapon: a full ninety Knights of House Drăcul, a powerful though shunned household who under their Voivode (Duke/Warleader) had sworn fealty to the Warmaster and joined him in his cause. The Knights of Drăcul were known for their cruelty both on and off the battlefield, including their habit of impaling enemies and displaying their bodies around their holdfasts and in some cases even on the hulls of their Knights. The Knights charged in arrowhead formations of nine Knights each through the wall breaches, smashing into the Imperial formations in a storm of shot, shell and blades before withdrawing under the covering fire of allied artillery protected by their ion shields. Their assaults were both swift and deadly, and in charge after charge they broke holes in the Imperial Lines, which Herald formations following in their wake were swift to capitalize on. Soon the Imperial lines were reeling and the Heralds were pushing deep into the city when the Imperial Commander dispatched his reserves. Several Superheavy Companies, hundreds of Baneblades, Stormblades and other Superheavies were released, and they crashed into the traitor tide like a battering ram. It was now that the traitor’s final reserve, the immense Titans of the Flaming Skulls were sent into the fray. Their firepower broke the back of the Imperial assault. The mighty Titans now strode through the ash-choked wreckage of the city destroying anything they came across, Knight Packs leading the way flushing out ‘game’ for their masters. After less than a week Lathall, capital of Rhegatus had fallen to the traitors. As this was happening a relief fleet of over 50 vessels from Noah was trying to break through the blockade established by the traitors to bring additional troops to the planet. Rhegatus had to be held as long as possible, and any effort had to be made to resupply it. For three solid days the two fleets grappled with each other, the fighting progressively moving in-system before additional traitor reinforcements finally forced the relief fleet to withdraw. A further attempt was made a week later, but even less progress was made against the beefed up defending warships and soon the cost of trying to resupply Rhegatus was deemed too high and all further plans were cancelled. Rhegatus was now in its own. It took a further three weeks before the last of the great cities of Rhegatus finally fell to the Heralds. The Imperial defenders fought to the very last, but nothing could halt the tide. An estimated five thousand Heralds were killed or wounded, a sharp toll, but one which thanks to the accelerated Legion recruitment and creation process inaugurated even before the outbreak of the Heresy one which could be made good within a few months. The population of Rhegatus suffered heavily, millions killed and the rest now enslaved, working those great industrial plants still standing to fuel the Warmaster’s forces with arms and equipment for the final push across the Sector.

Two dozen light years away and at almost the same time the Crimson Teeth were unleashed on Yskander, a garrison world where tens of thousands of demobilised Imperial Army troops had been settled in the wake of the conquest of the Sol Segmentum. This made it both a major seat of Imperial Power within the Segmentum, but also a place where Imperial Army forces could be raised, trained and equipped for service at the frontiers with a veteran core cadre who could form the backbone of new Regiments and who could train the troops prior to their departure. Over a dozen Solar Auxilia Cohorts had been raised from Yskander, as well as nearly a hundred Regiments of the Yskander Speraza, the local Imperial Army formation. Additionally regiments from dozens of other worlds passed through the training camps of Yskander to improve their skills. Over three quarters of the planetary population took up arms to fight the invaders from the stars. The Crimson Teeth descended into a brutal slugging match with the Imperial forces on the planet, with immense casualties taken on both sides. But the Crimson Teeth had the priceless asset of their Primarch. Time and again Camaxtli spearheaded assaults and counterattacks, destroying all who stood before him. He tore apart a Baneblade that dared to wound him with its cannons, slaughtered one of the seniormost Imperial Generals and his Ogryn bodyguards singlehandedly and slew countless scores of regular human soldiers unfortunate enough to be before him. Eventually almost 90% of the planetary population had to be killed before the fighting finally ceased, but the Crimson Teeth suffered for it. 6,000 Astartes were dead, a massive toll for the Legion which would take over a year to make good.

The third of the Warmaster’s targets, Aterox was close to the Forgeworld of Chakaris and oathbonded to supply it with minerals and foodstuffs, and in return was part of mutual defence pacts with the Forgeworld which meant that an entire Taghmata battle group including several battle maniples of Cybernetica Robots was stationed on the planet. The Lions Rampant, fresh from the despoiling of Skeratas were now ready once again to carve a bloody furrow through the defenders of the Imperium and set to the task of reducing Aterox with considerable relish. The Mechanicum forces on the planet accurately predicted two of the main Lions Drop Zones, and made plans to surprise the Lions as they made planetfall. As the Lions forces forced their bridgeheads they came under heavy artillery fire, dozens of Landers destroyed as they sat helplessly offloading their cargoes. In the largest of their drop zones designated Drop Zone Alpha, they were immediately engaged by several Battle Maniples of Cybernetica Robots and regiments of the Imperial Army trying to smash the Lions before they could offload their tanks. The battle raged for hours as mighty Cybernetica robots shrugged off storms of bolter fire and torrents of Lasgun fire answered in return, their sound intermingled with the throaty thunder of Castellax Bolt Cannon fire and the zip-crack of Thallax Lightning Guns. Eventually the killing power of the Lions Rampant told, as Argo Dropships and Stormbird Landers braved the storm of fire to unload more troops into the heart of the fighting. Eventually the Imperial forces withdrew and the victorious Lions Rampant began to pursue them. The second Drop zone, DZ Beta however was not to be so lucky. A reflector shield close to the drop zone dropped to reveal three immense Reaver class Titans of the Legio Unceliga, the ‘Giants of the Deep’ Titan Legion of Chakaris. The mighty engines turned their massive guns upon the crowded landing zones and began systematically destroying the Lions Rampant forces as they struggled to respond. No Anti-Titan weaponry had been landed in the first wave and the scattered lascannons were insufficient to harm the massive engines. After half an hour of carnage the order was given to abandon the Drop Zone, and the Lions Rampant forces scattered to fight their way to their brothers elsewhere on the planet. Many of these ad-hoc bands were caught and destroyed, but most eventually linked with the main Lions forces. Several landers were hastily called down in orbit, clad not in the deep red of the Lions Rampant but in pale rose red and black. They landed and unleashed a company of mighty engines, Hellknights of House Borgius. House Borgius had been brought into the Imperium by the Lions Rampant during the Crusade and had Oathbonded themselves to the Legion, willingly following them into damnation. In addition another lander, an ornate Stormbird came to the surface. This one carried the most important one of all, the Primarch of the Lions Rampant, Cromwald Waldgrun. After the decimation at Drop Zone Beta, he had decided to take command personally. The Knights swiftly rode into action, striking at the retreating Imperial forces with savage relish. Unusually all the Knights supporting the Lions were of the Cerastus pattern, fast moving Knights easily able to keep up with the fast moving and fluid Lions forces. Knight Acherons burned out opposition with their massive flamestorm cannons, while Castigators tore apart imperial army lines with storms of Bolt Cannon fire and sweeps of their Tempest Blades and Lancers hunted down the remaining Titans of Unceliga that still remained on the planet. And riding in his command Spartan, Cromwald oversaw the operations personally, occasionally disembarking to lead assaults against stubborn dug-in defenders who folded at the sight of the Primarch bearing down upon them. Once more the fluid tactics of mobile Warfare the Lions Rampant had made their own were proven against the Imperial forces, who were surrounded and destroyed time and time again until Resistance crumbled after four weeks, but that was two weeks longer than the Warmaster had allowed. Waldgrun was highly displeased. He took his anger out upon the civilian population, leaving such desecrations that when the Void Angels reclaimed Aterox during the Scouring they were visibly sickened. Gaspard Lumey wrote, ‘The ruins of Aterox stand as a testament to what the warping powers of Chaos have done to a Legion once proud.’

While this was going on, the Imperials were laying plans of their own, scraping together a fleet of their own and over a hundred Imperial Army Regiments for a daring plan which would if successful tip the scales firmly in their favour. Behind the lines, Lhaetis, the first world to fall to the Warmaster’s forces was now a supply depot for the Traitor Forces as they pushed deeper into the sector. The Human population that hadn’t been sacrificed was enslaved and worked the massive logistics machines that kept the supply lines flowing and the Warmaster’s drive across the sector moving forward. However their plight had not been unnoticed, and secret plans were being laid. Over three dozen Imperial Warships including the Emperor class Battleship ‘Edelfelt’ translated into the system. They were carrying over two dozen Imperial Army Regiments and sizeable Armoured and Mechanicum detachments. Their plan was nothing short of a full scale counter-invasion of Lhaetis, which if successful would cut the Traitor supply lines and turn the tables upon them. This force was commanded by Lord Marshall Claire Raindall, a highly experienced commander who had launched many planetary assaults in her career. She had volunteered for what was most likely a suicide run. Even if they took the planet, soon a counter invasion would be launched by crack Legiones Astartes forces and they would all be slaughtered. But even a few weeks delay in supplies to the enemy could have a telling effect. The fleet ignored the charnel house of Lhaetis VI, but paused to investigate the vapour mills of the other inner planets, finding them mortuary pits full of the dead. Filled with rage, the fleet pressed onwards to the innermost planet. Lhaetis II was defended by several dozen brigades of traitor Imperial Army and a single regiment of elite Solar Auxilia, which were scattered across the planet ensuring the population didn’t rebel, with another dozen on Lhaetis VI. Most of the planetary defences were still in ruins, and thus the landings were almost entirely without casualties, as the few interceptors deployed on world were swamped by escort fighters. Heavy landers disgorged columns of Gaudin and Malcador Battle Tanks, supported by several scattered super heavy tanks, with foot troops marching out in their wake. By the time the Traitor Army had mustered to meet this threat, they were both outnumbered and outgunned. After several hours of battle, the Loyalists had smashed the traitor forces and out them to flight. They immediately pressed onwards, aiming for the ruined capital city, which fell two days later. With the traitor forces broken and scattered, it seemed victory was in their grasp. But as so often in those times, the tide turned. Once more the Warp tore open, and another fleet emerged and sped towards Lhaetis. These ships however were traitor, and mighty. Five capital Class Warships, two immense Infernus Class Battleships and two Battles Barges, each alone more powerful than any of the ships in the Imperial contingent. But they surrounded one ship that dwarfed even them. It was the Bucephalus, the monstrous flagship of the Heralds of Hektor, the Chariot of the Archtraitor Himself. The defending fleet was destroyed within the space of an hour, those ships that didn’t immediately succumb to the thunderous pounding of the mighty batteries of the warships were hacked apart by lance batteries or torpedo strikes. The ‘Edelfelt’ was the last to fall, the enemy deliberately not destroying her outright, but rather slowly cutting her to pieces in a display of sadistic pleasure until she finally expired in a detonation of her plasma drives. In one of the largest single teleportation assaults of the Heresy over five hundred Terminators were dropped into the midst of the Imperial Formations on the planet as they occupied the planet. At the command Headquarters of Lord Marshall Raindall an entire company of the Heliotaroi, the elite of the Heralds legion dropped into the heart of the fray. And in the centre of their formation was a mighty figure in black and bronze. The Warmaster Himself. Hektor was as a force of nature, nothing could stand before him. He swept through the defenders and destroyed Raindall as casually as swatting a fly. With her death the Imperial forces cohesion collapsed, and they were swept up and destroyed by the storm of Herald forces that came down from orbit. Not one of the men and women who landed on Lhaetis survived. Only several concealed dataslates survived, being discovered by Loyalist forces when the great Scouring swept through the Elume Elish. The Counter Invasion of Lhaetis had lasted barely seven days, and had failed in its intent to slow the traitor drive. War now raged across the inner planets, and the core of the Sector was open to attack as the bloodiest phase of the war dawned.

The Clash of Flesh and Iron

In the name of the Sacred Machine! Stop those Boarding Pods! There are Astartes on board!

- Final Transmission of the Chakaran Mechanicum Siege Frigate ‘Mechanicax’

With the inner worlds now embroiled in war, the two keys to the Sector were now in the firing line. Noah and Chakaris, the heart and the brain of the sector. Of the two, Chakaris was the more pressing target. The orbital shipyards of Chakaris II were relics of the Dark Age of Technology and could produce ships of the line in a fraction of the time even the shipyards of Mars and Jupiter took. This was in addition to the mighty forges of Chakaris IV, which produced hardened armour plate for everything from Battle Tanks to Warships. Thousands of square metres of metal were cast every day, which were shipped across the sector to the industrial worlds like Rhegatus and Salamis. Even before the ashes had settled across the ruins of Rhegatus, Yskander, Aterox and a dozen other worlds, traitor ships began to muster for a strike upon Chakaris. The output of the Forgeworld could well help turn the tide on Terra, less than three hundred Light Years distant. If the shipyards could be secured intact, then the traitors would be guaranteed additional vessels to use in breaching the Sol System. The defending fleet benefitted from the shipyards and was vast, numbering over three hundred line vessels, including the mighty Ark Mechanicum ‘Technologic’, a ship which rivalled the Gloriana Flagships of the Legions for size and power and had the manufacturing output of an entire forgefane. It had been part of the fleet since the very founding of Chakaris during the Age of Strife and its many guns had battled pirates and raiders in the past. Now it was to face the mightiest warships the Imperium had to offer. The traitor fleet that emerged in the outer reaches of the Chakaris System was massive, over five hundred ships. Most of those ships were of the Imperial Army and Dark Mechanicum, but over a forth of them were in the red and purple of the Lions Rampant and the grey of the Heralds of Hektor as two Legions combined to bring destruction to Chakaris. The space around Chakaris III was filled with ships as the two fleets clashed. Mighty Mechanicum War Arks exchanged volleys of missiles, while cruisers and battleships exchanged fire and frigate squadrons weaved amidst the duelling leviathans. The ‘Technologic’ was in the heart of the fighting, laying waste to any ship that dared cross its path. The Heralds of Hektor Battle Barge ‘Dirge of Luna’ was pounded to ruin by the massed guns of the Ark Mechanicum and dozens of other, minor ships too met death at its hands. If the traitors were to break the foe, they had to neutralize the Technologic. Two massive ships that had been holding back now moved into view. Though both were of the same breed, time and culture had wrought great changes in both. They were Gloriana Class, the ‘Bucephalus’ and the ‘Indomitable Sovereign’. The Two ships, side by side smashed right through the loyalist fleet line, turning dozens of ships both human and Mechanicum into scrap, before bearing down on the ‘Technologic’. The Ark Mechanicum was more than capable of matching both, but the two Primarchs were not about to get sucked into a fleet duel. The two ships suddenly spun on their axis and in a manoeuvre that should have been fatal for a ship of any size, the two drew up alongside the ‘Technologic’, one on each side. From both ships hundreds of Dreadclaws, Caestus and Kharabydis were launched as a full scale boarding assault was launched upon the Ark Mechanicum. Thousands of crack Astartes including the elite Breachers of the Hypaspezetae poured into the ship, meeting files of Skitarri, Thallaxi and maniples of the Legio Cybernetica. The corridors of the ship filled with the roar of bolters and the shriek of plasma. At this moment, with the bulk of the Mechanicum defenders now engaged, multiple teleport signatures were detechted as elite Terminator squads jumped in behind the Mechanicum defenders. And with them came two Primarchs. Hektor and Waldgrun, each on one side of the ship, both moving towards the bridge. Nothing could stand before them and their chosen bodyguards. They both converged on the mighty bridge of the Ark Mechanicum, at once a command centre and a sacred fane to the Machine God. The last known pic capt from the ‘Technologic’ is of the two primarchs coming together in a clatter of plate, embracing in victory. The loss of the Technologic signalled the end of the void war. What was left of the loyalist fleet withdrew as best it could, while the traitor fleet split into two. The Lions headed for the open lains and mighty forges of Chakaris IV, while the Heralds sped towards the shipyards of Chakaris II.

The Battle for Chakaris II was not going to be easy. Most of the planet was ocean, with a few Forge-Islands dotted on continental fragments on the planet’s surface. Above it lay the chain of Shipyards that Hektor needed secured. The conflict turned into a full week of assaults, jumping from one section of the Orbital Ring to the next, taking each in a bloody storming action before moving on to the next. The captured ‘Technologic’ was used both as a shield to absorb ground fire and to break the Mechanicum defence cyphers, allowing the Heralds to advance through the enemy positions along routes that would otherwise be closed to them. The Mechanicum defenders were loathe to fire upon their lost treasure, and Hektor exploited that to the full. Heralds and traitor Solar Auxilia forces spearheaded the advance, supported by other Imperial Army forces who held the captured shipyards and prepared them to re-ender service for the Warmaster. He needed those shipyards intact so that he could rebuild his fleet before the final battle for Terra, and this limited what his forces could do. The Mechanicum fought hard, Vorax Automata tearing into Herald boarding parties and lines of Cybernetica standing firm against all comers. The Heralds could not use heavy weapons or tanks, and had to rely on manpower and Dreadnoughts to force the issue. But they had done this sort of fighting a hundred times before, they had pioneered it on Luna and taken ideas from other Legions like the Entombed on board as well. The genius of Hektor and the cold fury of his sons carried the day, as one by one the separate shipyards fell. With the shipyards under his control, Hektor brought one of them down upon the largest forge on the planet, in an impact akin to the strike of an asteroid six miles wide, creating a massive tidal wave that drowned a large part of the planet. In the aftermath of that the remaining forges felt they could no longer struggle and they surrendered. The damage on the ground was more than the Heralds had hoped for, but most of the Forges were still intact and could begin manufacturing ships for Hektor within a few months.

At the same time as Hektor struck Chakaris II the Lions set down upon Chakaris IV. Chakaris IV was mostly rocky plains dotted with scrub, and mighty Forge-Complexes that made the armour plating for the Warships built over Chakaris II. It was a priority one target, and Cromwald had been ordered to secure it intact, though the population were another matter. Still smarting over the setbacks on Aterox, Cromwald did not hold back and in a brutally fast campaign that in a previous era would have been lauded as an example of manuevour warfare at its finest, subjugated the planet in only six days, one day less than it took the Warmaster to complete his conquest of Chakaris II. Fast moving formations of Armour supported by Knights broke the Taghmata formations one by one as the Legion smashed the military might of the Planet. Sorcerers bound to the Legion summoned allies from beyond the Warp, one of the first times such actions were recorded, actions which would be repeated against the Steel Marshalls in later battles. The servants of the Prince of Pleasure gleefully set upon the steel hosts of the Mechancum, cavorting beasts tore asunder Cybernetica Robots and Tech-Thrall lines alike. The remaining Titans of Unceliga were the biggest challenge, and dozens of Knights and tanks fell before their guns as they brought them down one by one. But the Armies of Chakaris were outgunned and outmaneuvoured, and eventually they capitulated when they had no more troops left to oppose the inevitable. Waldgrun’s message announcing his victory is known to have caused the Warmaster no end of vexation, and it is believed that the cracks between the two Primarchs were widened by the events on Chakaris.

The Storm Breaks

You wish to know what it was like? To face the storm as a mere mortal man? I could tell you what I saw, what I heard, what I felt. But I cannot tell you of the other experiences, the ones which are the most fresh, the most raw. I cannot describe the feeling when you face down a raiding party of the Crimson Teeth. I cannot describe the chill upon sighting a strike force of the Lions Rampant. I cannot even begin to describe the dread when a Heralds of Hektor Phalanx rolls over everything in its path, an unstoppable tidal wave of ceramite and bolters. I cannot describe what it is to see a sea of daemons engulfing all before them as a city burns.

I will tell my tale once again, as you so desire. But it will by necessity be an incomplete record, for there is too much that happened that cannot be described in mere words.

- Excerpt from the sworn testimony of Legate Commander Shaojie Zhang, Last Commander of the 244th Solar Auxilia Cohort, survivor of the Battle of Noah.

As news of the disaster at Chakaris came through, it was now known that Noah would be the target. If it fell, then nothing would stand between the Warmaster and Terra. The final stages of the emergency plans were set in motion, the vast chains of orbital mines that had been laid over many years were activated and the planet braced for the storm. Over a thousand warships of various sizes surrounded the planet. Most were mighty ships of the Imperial army with a few scattered Mechanicum ships, and a trio of Strike Cruisers from the Thunder Kings, that had been operating separate from their parent Legion and now were cast into the path of the storm, ready to fight and die for the Emperor.

On the ground over a hundred million elite troops of the Imperial Army, including Geno and Uralian Regiments from Terra with just over a million and a half Solar Auxilia from several dozen separate cohorts. Tens of thousands of tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, elements of four Knight Households including Terryn, Krast, Lymann and Accolon stood ready, along with two dozen Titans of the Legio Unceliga, the last of their Legion ready to die to avenge their brothers on Chakaris, led by the mighty Nemesis Titan ‘Serenity’s Hand’.

Against this the Warmaster had drawn together a mighty host. Over a hundred and fifty thousand Marines of His Legion stood ready, supported by a further fifty thousand of the Crimson Teeth. The Lions Rampant had already withdrawn, the Primarch off to join his sons in slowing the advance of the Steel Marshalls to prevent them reaching Terra. Several hundred Million Imperial Army and Dark Mechanicum forces further bolstered the Warmaster’s host. And other, darker foes lay concealed, waiting for the call from beyond the veil to make their presence felt.

When the Warmaster’s fleet moved into the system, they were met almost from the warp transit points by loyalist ships. The Traitors had to push forward slowly against constant opposition. For over a week the two fleets clashed again and again, every time drawing ever closer to Noah. The Warmaster had thousands of ships to spend, and spend them he did. Suicide attacks, rammings the traitor fleet threw itself upon the guns of the Loyalists time and again, and when the Loyal Ships were weakened and their crews exhausted, the mighty ships of the Legiones Astartes entered the fray to deliver the killing blow. After seven days the combined traitor fleet reached Noah, where they now had to contend not only with the loyalist warships but also the orbital and planetary defences of Noah itself. The Bucephalus now joined the Traitor fleet and spearheaded the final assault. For eight hours the two fleets clashed, and hundreds of ships were destroyed, their hulks spiralling out into space or slipping into orbit around Noah. At the height of this action a trio of Dark Mechanicum War Arks fired off a cloud of Torpedoes which almost immediately vanished from sensors. It was assumed that they either failed to arm or were duds, and little attention was given to them when the more pressing matter of the battle raging around them was at hand. Several minutes later one of the Space stations suddenly exploded from the inside out, and then another and another. Suddenly it was realised that the War Arks had unleashed a new and devastating weapon upon the Loyalists. Those ‘Cataclysm’ Torpedoes were built on the technologies that made Titan Warp Missiles, only wedded to much darker forms of power, and not only skipped through the shields and hulls of the warships, but also space itself. The Ramilies Class Station ‘Bastion of Fealty’ detonated when a dozen Cataclysm Torpedoes materialized within its reactor core, setting of an explosion that destroyed three defence stations and over two dozen friendly warships. Debris from the Explosion caused no less than three planetary impacts on Noah, one of which was akin to an extinction event meteor strike. That would be only the beginning of the planet’s pain. With the destruction of the defence stations the Loyalist fleet found itself hard pressed and was slowly forced to give ground. The Thunder King Strike Cruisers sacrificed themselves to try and slow the ‘Bucephalus’, select parties of Marines even launching teleport assaults upon the ship, but even they could not halt the tide. A gap in the defences covering Noah was opening, and the traitors flooded into the gap. A wave of thousands of fighters and bombers struck at defences on the planet, and behind them the Primarch and over eighty thousand Heralds flew through the storm of fire, striking at Noah’s capital, Tokajheylia. If it fell, then the rest of the planet would surely follow. The Heralds made planetfall, and the killing almost immediately began. Scattered Imperial Army and planetary militia forces were cut to shreds. But as the Heralds pressed onwards, they hit dense defensive lines manned by elite troops of the Imperial Army. The casualties for the Heralds slowly started to mount, as even Ceramite cracked under the fire of hundreds of Lasguns and heavier weapons. Both sides threw more and more men and equipment into the fray. Armour, Knights, Titans, all were fed into the meatgrinder that developed on the planet’s surface, while above the Void Battle continued unabated. Several major planetary impacts disrupted but did not stop the battle which was spilling out across the surface of the world. This was war on a colossal scale, the type of war the Heralds had mastered. Crimson Teeth forces had already joined the fray, spearheading multiple massive assaults that had dented the enemy lines. Imperial Counter attacks were smothered by weight of numbers and firepower. The battle dragged on for hour after hour, and the all-too-human defenders began to tire. And as they tired, they made mistakes the Astartes capitalised on. Whole regiments were torn apart as they tried to rotate out to rest, and soon the Imperial line began to fragment. The Imperials sent their Knights and Titans to cover the withdrawal, to which they were met by the traitor’s own mighty engines of war. This continued for several days in a never ending tide of war that consumed everything and left nothing but ruin. Scattered band of loyal Astartes from the Scale Bearers and Thunder Kings threw themselves into the fray, blunting several Herald assaults. But they were too few in number and could not halt the tide on their own. The arithmetic of war favoured the traitors, and those odds grew with every passing minute. As the butcher’s bill grew, the astropaths and sanctioned psykers began to feel the walls of reality thinning, and something pushing in from beyond, trying to get in. And they were helped along by twisted men sworn to darker powers, who sacrificed captives and offered chants to dark entities. In a split second, hundreds of tears were made in the fabric of reality and a tide of unspeakable horrors swept into the rear of the shocked defenders, who had never faced such a foe before. The slow retreat turned into a rout. The ‘Serenity’s Hand’ finally fell to the guns of the immense Imperator Class Titan ‘Blood Spite’, but not before vaporizing thousands of daemons with its plasma destructors. Its fall signalled the beginning of the end for the defenders of Tokajheylia. The Warmaster Himself now joined his sons to spearhead the final assault on the Imperial Castrum-Fortress in the heart of the city against what little remained of the defenders, and he was unstoppable. The fall of the Capital did not mean the end of resistance, but a long, grim mopping up operation as the Heralds hunted down all that were left. Eleven days after the first boots had touched the soil of Noah, the capital fell. The city was a ruin, cocked by ash and littered with corpses both flesh and metal, with unholy beings cavorting in the despoiled streets. Vid footage of the Daemonic assault was broadcast across the planet, and one by one the other cities bent the knee rather than face similar. Many of them however were not spared, as the Daemons fanned across the planet destroying everything before them. By this point the Astartes had already left the planet, regrouping in orbit. Twenty Thousand Marines from both Legions had been felled, but their gene-seed had been mostly recovered and those numbers would be replaced before the final strike on Terra.

The fall of Noah did not signal the end of the War, but the rest was just mopping up. Most of the remaining worlds simply surrendered rather than face destruction. What remained of the sector defenders fleet left the sector as fast as they could, braving the rising Warp Tides to spread the work and join up with other Imperial forces in Alpha Centauri or Terra itself. The Sector had held out for ten months, ten months that Terra had been granted to further its defences. Defences that would now be needed like never before.

The Battle for Mars

The Dark Mechanicum, under the Leadership of Koriel Zeth, rise up against the Fabricator General. Years of Bloody Battle commence.

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 aforementioned 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

On the thirteenth of Secundus, the bombardment began. From orbit, the Warmaster's ships laid down an unrelenting barrage of missiles and deadly energy beams. The aim was to cripple the defences around the Emperor's Palace and make possible a massive invasion of Terra. Striking from Mars, their bastion in the system, the traitors had destroyed or silenced the lunar bases and crippled or scattered the defending Fleets.

Hektor's attack was the final act in the bloody civil war which had consumed the stellar realm of man. On countless worlds, blood-mad warriors clashed. Those who had pledged loyalty to the Emperor fought those who had sworn fealty to Warmaster Hektor the fallen light and, through him, to the dark powers of Chaos. The Emperor's realm was in turmoil and some of the greatest battles in human history were being fought. On the hive-world of Thranx over a billion warriors died in a single day on the killing fields of Perdagor. On the vast plains of Zhuko V, at the Ka'an Salient, a hundred thousand tanks clashed in the greatest armoured action of all time. On Rosskar, countless millions died in the bloody snows as a Legion Homeworld burned. The Atalantos Worlds felt the kiss of Phosphex as two Legions bled them dry. During the space drop on Vanaheim, three hive-cities were depopulated by the Warmaster’s forces as a warning against resistance, yet still the defenders fought to the last man.

Like a cancer, the Heresy infected the entire structure of the Imperium. Everywhere brave men gave up their lives to try to excise that cancer.

It was on Terra, at the very heart of the Emperor's realm and the cradle of Humanity, that the fate of the galaxy was to be decided. In those last days, the sky was black with dust clouds and the earth split by gigantic fissures. Tectonic plates shifted under the stress of the bombardment. Mountain chains shivered and the last few seas evaporated and became barren deserts. Rains of blood and ash dripped from the dark sky. Astropathic choirs sang of evil portents and men went mad with fear. Hideously twisted ships full of the lost and the damned hung in orbit over the ravaged world. Shielded from the devastation by the cunningly wrought defences of the Mechanicum, a pitiful few stood ready to repel the invaders.

The embattled remnants of the Emperor's army were desperately trying to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Though the Emperor was consumed with the war beneath, within the Imperial palace itself the Emperor's personal bodyguard, the Custodians, stood ready to fight. At their side was the Emperor’s Praetorian, Thomas Gaudin and his Crusaders Legion. In the palace grounds stood the stalwart Adeptus Arbites and the honourable Knights of Accolon, along with their King, the honoured Arturia Eld.

The palace was not the only bastion of resistance; there were others, each an awesome fortified city filled with dauntless soldiers. Beneath the ruins of the Imperial Basilica, grim visaged Kleisthenes led the Scions of Europa in their preparations. Within the armoured factory complexes of the loyal Mechanicum, tech-priests put aside their tools and girded themselves with the fearsome weapons of their order. In the dense fortifications built by him personally, Roman Albrecht and the Steel Marshalls prepared to hold back the tide. Three full Titan legions and billions of Imperial Army troopers stood ready to defend their Emperor.

As the earth shuddered under the bombardment, tank divisions roared across the tortured landscape to take up their position against the coming invasion. Brave men checked their weapons and some offered up last prayers. Defence lasers swivelled to face the turbulent threatening sky. Suddenly, the night was streaked by the plasma contrails of drop-pods.

The pods touched the ground and from them erupted a mass of traitor Space Marines who charged at the Imperial defenders, guns ablaze with fire, roaring the name of Hektor and the Dark Gods. These were no longer the fine human warriors of legend who had forged the Imperium, but twisted creatures, bodies warped by the energies of Chaos, minds twisted by their devotion to the dark powers. If what had happened to the Space Marines was bad then what had happened to their Primarchs was worse. They had been created higher in the Emperor's esteem and had fallen further. None of their former comrades would have recognised them - they had been transformed into creatures both daemonic and exultant.

Inferox "The Burned King" strode forwards, a trail of flames left in his wake. Around him his Sons of Fire burned all before them, roaring the name of the god of Blood and Fire, Khorne. The wave of red slowly advanced towards the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport, ready to spill blood and spread fire for the Blood God.

At the rasping command of Johannes Vrach, the Life Bringers emerged silently from the festering cocoons of their drop-pods and advanced on their terror-stricken foes. Once the bringers of life, now they spread death, disease and despair as they advanced on the loyalists.

Aubrey The Grey, first among traitors spearheaded the advance of his Eternal Zealots, cutting down all before him, looking for the perfect challenge, the perfect foe to show his skills against and to send their soul to the Gods he had sworn himself to.

A hail of deadly bolter shells cut down dozens of the Lions Rampant. Undeterred, the wounded howled with pleasure at the experience and chanted the praises of their Primarch, Cromwald Walgrun. The Sons of the Pleasure God surged forward to carve a path through their foes.

Perhaps some defenders went mad with fear. Perhaps the corruption of Chaos ran deeper than anyone suspected. Perhaps some were even foolish enough to think that they could negotiate with the ultimate enemy. Whatever the reason, one last vile treachery was to take place. Many units of the Imperial army that had pledged loyalty to the Emperor turned blasphemer even as the Traitor Legions made their drop. It was almost as if it were a pre-arranged signal. In one of the basest acts of betrayal in Humanity's history, they turned their weapons on their brother warriors and cut them down like dogs. Thus did the Lions Gate Spaceport fall to the rebels. As the heretics chanted and howled their mad prayers and the skies were torn with drop pods, the air shimmered and slavering daemons emerged from the warp to spread terror and dismay.

If there was ever doubt as to which masters Hektor served then the appearance of the daemonic horde dispelled them. Then indeed did it seem to the defenders that they were living in the last days of Mankind, the end of the Emperor’s dream.

Huge bat-winged Bloodthirsters swept triumphantly across the weeping skies. Clawed Keepers of Secrets danced lasciviously on piles of corpses. Great Unclean Ones chuckled as they lumbered through the ruined streets spreading trails of filth and slime and disease. Enigmatic Lords of Change perched atop the towers and statues and supervised the coming of Chaos to the heart of the world.

Now with all the pieces in place The Warmaster ordered the rest of his army to the battle and at his signal troop transports of his fleet began to make planetfall. A veritable host of Ships drifted down through the atmosphere of Earth escorted by thousands of fighters, hoping to over the defenders by sheer weight of numbers. Unlike the drop-pods, these presented fine targets for the weapons of the defenders. And thus did the battle for Terra begin in earnest.

Defence lasers and marauding packs of loyal fighter craft blasted many renegade ships from the sky, sending thousands of tons of fused metal death raining down onto the ground below. One giant raft span out of control and crashed into a hab-unit, killing a billion people in seconds. Another was welded to the ground, disgorging its passengers into a lake of bubbling tar and plas-crete. The Titan Ark of the Legio Damnatus, the Warped Dogs was vaporised and that Titan Legion's name passed into history. As quickly as they disembarked, the traitors surged forth from the spaceports to besiege the bastions of the defenders. Their first objective was to silence the defence lasers inflicting such casualties on their comrades and destroy the airfields to the fighters could no longer fly. The rebels were met by a wave of Imperial defenders, desperate men and women who knew that they were giving their lives for their home world and their Emperor.

In the tightly packed streets around the spaceports, the fighting was close and deadly. Bolters chattered, lasrifles hissed and missile launchers delivered cargoes of death from building to nearby building. Traitor tanks rumbled through the avenues, turrets swivelling to bring weapons to bear on the hastily improvised barricades of their former comrades.

Soon the defenders of Eternity Wall Spaceport had been swept aside by the merciless assault and the hordes of the Warmaster were in total possession of the space field. More and more intricately wrought drop-ships descended from orbit. They towered over the landing ground like nightmare skyscrapers, the dark runes on their sides glowing evilly in the gloom.

Hundred-metre high doors opened in their kilometre-long sides. From their red depths, Titans emerged. They were warped giants; the armour of their carapace fused and moulded into new shapes by the power of Chaos. Within them were men melded to their machines. Some of the hideous Titans had strange and potent weapons, others were a bizarre hybrid of the organic and the machine. Metal tentacles lashed, spiked tails whipped back and forth. Engines roared like the voices of angry beasts. Banners fluttering, the Titans of the Storm Lords, the Fire Masters, the Flaming Skulls and the Deaths Heads legions marched forth. At Lions Gate Spaceport, the traitors welcomed the towering black war engines of the Khornate host. Monsters, mutants and cultists seethed like angry ants around their bases.

Reinforced by this fresh wave of troops, the hordes swept on, driving through the exhausted and demoralised Imperial troops to the very walls of the Emperor's palace. Khornate warriors howling their bestial war cries raced towards the marble and steel outer ring, burning all before them. Hordes of unstoppable Eternal Zealots marched relentlessly forward, bolter fire raking the defenders. Slaanesh’s Lions swept aside the Imperial infantry and reached the Saturnine Gate. Round the walls bitter fighting ensued as the Imperial soldiers and Space Marines sallied forth, trying to drive the attackers back before the main body of the assaulting troops arrived. Men died in their Millions. From pillbox emplacements in the palace walls Imperial gun crews rained death down on the relentless attackers. Again and again the streets outside the palace were swept clear of heretics. Again and again new foes stepped forward to take their place.

Now indeed it seemed that the tide of battle had turned against the Emperor. The spaceports were firmly in the grasp of the minions of the Warmaster. Billions of troops poured down from orbit. Gibbering mutants and hideous amorphous Chaos Spawn surged out of the dread ships. Under the banner of the dread star, the sign of Hektor, the lackeys of the four great powers of Chaos marched united. Mounted in Rhinos, Chimeras and Testudos, lurking within mighty behemoths and clinging to the sides of gigantic war-engines, they made their way en masse to the Emperor's palace for the final confrontation. Thunderhawks, Stormbirds and Fire Raptors flew overhead and the massed tank brigades that drove on towards the Palace threw up great clouds of dust.

Looking down on the seething sea of foulness, the defenders' hearts went cold. Mingling with the daemons and the mad-eyed cultists and the mutants, they could see heretical Space Marines and traitor Guardsmen. These were people they might have once fought alongside, who had once been as loyal to the Emperor as themselves. They looked upon a dark mirror of their souls. Down there they could see martial honour become berserk madness, human cleverness become sly treachery, hope become foulness and love become abominable lust. The brave men on the walls knew that there was no way out. Here they must stand and fight and die. There would be no mercy from those below.

With a roar the horde advanced towards the walls. Great Lords of Battle lurched forward on iron wheels, crushing anything in their way, unloading racks of missiles and turning the area on the top of the walls into blazing storms of death. Doom Burners sent tongues of superheated metal licking out at the emplacements. Molten brass filtered through the windows and scalded those inside. Multi-tracked Cauldrons of Blood squirted jets of obscene daemonic ichor onto the defenders. Enormous Flesh Hounds of Khorne loped forward in their wake. Titans armed with specially constructed siege weapons lumbered into position. Battle cruisers dropped megatons of explosive death onto the defenders.

Every loyal warrior knew that he was already dead, that there was no way he could survive the coming of the daemonic army. The soldiers fought with the desperate ferocity of hopeless men, firing until their weapons were empty, snatching up the bolters of the fallen, and facing monsters with the butts of their guns when all ammunition was exhausted. Three times the horde managed to scale the walls, and three times it was driven off by the valiant efforts of Gaudin and his Crusaders, supported by the Knights of Accolon, who time and again sallied forth into the horde to destroy the siege engines, ramps and towers that were used to scale the walls. Wearily the Primarch marshalled the defenders, rallying the broken, speaking words of comfort to the mortally wounded, fighting with cold, implacable fury when he was called upon to do so. Slowly though, despite his efforts, the Chaos forces managed to erode the defence. They seemed numberless as the grains of sand on a sea shore and Hektor spent their lives carelessly.

Meanwhile in the depths of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor sat on the Golden Throne, now his prison and brooded on the events occurring far above him. His psychic might was needed to keep the warp-portal tightly shut against the eternal hordes of Chaos that pounded at the doorway from within the webway beyond. If He relented and let slip His focus then the daemonic forces of Chaos would be able to pile through the gateway and into His Palace and that would be the end. But the Emperor knew he must soon relinquish his hold on the Throne and confront his traitor son in person. The Warmaster could only win the victory he sought by vanquishing the Emperor - everything he had done and was doing was intended to bring about that goal. The battle above was merely a deliberate act of provocation whereby Hektor was attempting to goad the Emperor into dropping his guard and facing him. The Emperor was patient. He would meet Hektor soon enough. For now He waited and bided His time. Hektor would become impatient and act rashly and then, and only then, would the Emperor face him.

Outside the walls, scattered Imperial forces frantically raced from their bastions to try to relieve the palace. Titan legions boldly cut their way towards the centre of the rebel army. Space Marine forces harried their flanks. No attempt to break the rebel line succeeded. Breaking through that blood-mad horde was a near impossible task. All of the Traitor Primarchs inspired their followers to feats of fiendish bravery. For every Chaos warrior who died it seemed that ten more stood ready to take their places.

In orbit, the Warmaster watched approvingly. If the palace fell and the Emperor died, loyalist legions across the galaxy would lose heart and the war would be over. Without the psychic shield of the Emperor's power, Humanity would swiftly fall prey to Chaos. Hektor would stand triumphant amid the rubble of Humanity's greatest empire. He would become a new and angry god, the true master of Chaos. If he did not win soon, reinforcements would filter in from the corners of the Imperium, and his attack would falter. For the Warmaster this was the desperate, ultimate gamble. Everything was staked on this attack. It had to succeed, and at that moment it looked as if it might.

Day by day the siege wore on, casualties rose from the millions to billions and even trillions. Bodies had to be bulldozed from the access ways to the Saturnine Gate by war machines. Chaos Titans blazed at the walls, specially constructed missiles ripping great chunks from the masonry. The Titans of the Fire Wasps answered their fire with volcano cannons. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the corpses of the dead were incinerated in funeral pyres a hundred foot high. Obscene ash parched the throats of the defenders. The Sons of Fire built a pyramid of scorched skulls thousands of feet high in Temple Square that grew day by day. By night the chants of degenerate cultists echoed through the streets and daemons flitted among the ruins of Terra.

The daemon that was Cromwald was bored by the static nature of the Siege. He was the chosen of Slaanesh. He craved action, he yearned for something to happen so he could indulge himself and his master. Yet still the defenders of the Palace repulsed their attacks again and again. The daemon decided he could bear it no longer and that there must be easier prey on the planet so satisfy his hunger. With this, Cromwald gathered his legion about him and set off on an orgy of destruction across the planet. With so much of the loyal efforts towards defending the Emperor from the traitor Legions, the rest of Terra was left largely unprotected and weak. Billions of Terrans were used as human guinea pigs or raw materials for depraved rites, as daemonic hosts to bring Slaaneshi Daemonic Legions to the fight from the Warp, as tools of pleasure or were simply slain outright to allow a Traitor Marine the fleeting enjoyment brought on by the sensation of brutal murder. This act would leave a permanent scar, and conclude the damnation of the Legion.

Slowly, foot by torturous foot, the defenders were forced back. The great walls of the palace were riddled with hundreds of kilometres of bulkheads and corridor. Within this maze, bitter hand-to-hand fighting ensued until entire sections of passage were filled with bloated corpses. Feeling that progress was too slow, Hektor ordered the Titans of the Death's Head Legion to demolish entire sections of the wall. Despite taking tremendous casualties, with dozens of titans destroyed in as many minutes, the great Warlord Titans finally broke through, and the forces of the Warmaster flooded into the palace grounds.

The battle raged across the grounds of the Inner Gardens. What had once been a vast parkland was swiftly turned into a killing ground. Men used statues for cover and monuments for bunkers. Blood swirled in the waters of the ornamental lakes. Groves of ancient redwoods transplanted by the Emperor burned. The smell of the burning mingled with the acrid odours of weapons and engines and death. Red-eyed, snatching sleep when they could, both sides fought a total war. Trenches were hurriedly excavated in the meadows. Snipers killed men as they tried to sip brackish water from the ruined fountains.

Gaudin led the defence personally, leading charge after charge from the cupola of his command tank. But finally as the tide turned he was confronted by the mightiest of Slaanesh’s servants, Zarakynel the Souleater. Though he fought bravely, the Daemon of Slaanesh laid him low, Burt before the killing blow was delivered, the King of Cattegirn interposed her steed between the Primarch and the Daemon, and the two clashed. Both sides halted for a moment to watch the titanic struggle. It was a conflict such as has been rarely seen; two beings of awesome power wrestling before them. Eventually the Knight struck Zarakynel’s head off and escorted the Primarch to safety as the Battle raged anew around them.

Both sides fought with unimaginable naked ferocity. Both sides sensed that the end was near.

Eventually Gaudin was forced to retreat to within the palace itself, personally holding the Ultimate Gate against the oncoming horde while the last of his wounded men was carried through. Just as the giant ceramite gate was about to close, Arturia Eld, her knight scored with wounds, elected to remain behind and hold off the traitors for as long as possible to allow the defenders more time. Alone she stood before the entire Traitor force as the Ultimate Gate shut. None know her final fate, but at that moment she entered the halls of legend.

Now the final siege began. Through great breaches in the outer walls more and more armaments and reinforcements were brought to bear. The Warmaster himself prepared to teleport down to the surface and supervise the destruction of his former lord. Then a daemon from the Warp whispered to him the words that he had dreaded. The Void Angels had entered the System and were even now clashing with the Black Augurs in the outer Solar System. What was worse was that a loyalist fleet under Arelex bearing a fresh army of War Scribes was only hours away. It would take days to break Humanity's last citadel, even with Hektor leading his troops. It seemed that time had run out for the Warmaster, that his gamble had failed.

Hektor, upon hearing this news resolved to try one final desperate gambit. He could still kill the Emperor. He ordered all comm-net communications blocked so that the defenders would get no word from their rescuers and then he used his psychic powers to the full to prevent the Emperor becoming aware of this. Finally he dropped the shields of his command ship. It was an invitation and a personal challenge that he knew the Emperor could not resist. He was being offered a chance finally to smite the foe who had harried him for so long.

The Emperor rose to the challenge, and he and his surviving Primarchs teleported aboard the Warmaster's battle barge. However the malign influence of the Gods separated the Emperor from his loyal followers. The loyalists were transported to different spots within the hideously altered Bucephalus. It was Kleisthenes who first came upon the Warmaster’s throneroom and encountered his fallen brother. In his evil cunning the Warmaster offered the Scion a chance to switch sides, using old bonds of brotherhood and loyalty.

But Kleisthenes refused, and Hektor grew wrathful and attacked him. At the peak of his powers the Blood Angel would have been no match for the now possessed Warmaster and now, sorely wounded and weary, he had no chance at all. Hektor gutted him, mutilated him, tore off all his limbs and left his mangled body to slowly die on the deck, but not before Kleisthenes made a tiny chink in the Warmaster’s armour.

The Emperor found his fallen son shortly after this and what happened next is the subject of legend. The two mightiest beings in the history of Mankind clashed. They met blade to blade, power to power, mind to mind and tested sinew and psychic ability to the ultimate. Behind Hektor was the massed power of the Chaos gods. The Emperor stood alone and still he triumphed, though he was terribly wounded in the process.

The psychic shock wave of the Warmaster's passing rippled outward through the warp. On Earth, daemons screamed and vanished, and the rebel Primarchs stood dumbfounded. It was their leader, not their enemy's, who was dead and they knew it. With the one who had raised the banner of rebellion dead, there was nothing to hold the rebels together. They were demoralised and dismayed. When word of the oncoming Imperial fleets reached them they knew that they must flee.

The Traitor Primarchs led their men to their ships and departed, leaving the deluded, traitorous followers of Chaos to their fate. As he stepped aboard his ship, Inferox turned and shook his fist at the glittering dome of the Imperial palace that had proved just out of his taloned reach.

Then he shrugged; he and his fellow rebels had all eternity to seek revenge. The Battle for Terra was now over. The Hektor Heresy was ended. Gaudin found the Emperor's broken body in the ruins of the Warmaster's throne room. Through mangled lips, the Emperor whispered instructions for the creation of his golden throne. And with that the Heresy came to an end, and the age of the Emperor passed.