Al-Sherar Sector War

This article is about a battle in the /tg/ Heresy project, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40k universe.

In 857.M30, the Fifth Legion fought a sector-wide conflict against the Xenos Empire of the Amatteir. While Gaspard Lumey's Space Marines were sorely tested, they emerged victorious with the aid of allies old and new.

Background

Al-Sherar Sector War
Date	857.M30
Scale	sector
Theatre	Al-Sherar Sector
Status	Decisive Imperial Victory
Belligerents
Amatteir (Xenos)	Fifth Legion
Commanders and Leaders
The Council of Primates	Gaspard Lumey, assisted by Antoine Antonelle and Jean-Davide d'Orléans
Strength
multiple army groups, at least a dozen cruisers and scores of escorts	hundreds of Fifth Legion Astartes (including Neophytes), Legio Cataegis, 2 Markian Corps, one Army Ciban Chassuers, at least three Armies Ciban Fusiliers, unknown numbers of irregular and partisan formations
Losses
Outcome

Following the Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd, Gaspard Lumey returned to Ciban IV to resume his build-up in the Markian sector. If Lumey was still waiting impatiently for his first cadres of new Space Marines to complete their training, he had reason to smile on the efforts of his auxilia. The lessons learned in the recent campaign were to integrated into the nascent Ciban Chasseurs and the moral effect of the conflict was electrifying the Markian Pact.

Meanwhile, the Amatteir's lotus-eating rulers were drawing plans of their own. Although slow to respond to the loss of their colonies at Chwiorydd Hardd, the Xenos eventually concluded that they were the victims of an attack originating on Ciban IV. Much of the delay had been caused by the puzzle of how a people they'd encountered only two centuries prior had leapt from feudal idiocy to the kind of sophistication required for the Chwiorydd Hardd operation. Once the evidence become incontrovertible, the Council of Primates planned a strike to eliminate Ciban IV before it became a real threat. A dozen cruisers and scores of escort warships were gathered to support army-scale landings on the human world's most heavily-populated regions.

Invasion of Ciban IV

Only Ténacité, an old Lunar-class cruiser gifted to the Fifth Legion by the Steel Marshals, and her escorts were present to defy the Amatteir warships that warped into the Ciban system. A terse discussion between Joso Nikolić on the Ténacité and his genefather on Ciban IV's surface saw the Imperial fleet withdraw before making contact with the invaders. Nikolić travelled to Ghalhal to ensure that the Fifth Legion's allies would be aware of the budding calamity.

Unopposed in space, the invaders began their planetary assault. The attack focused on Arcadia, Ciban IV's more heavily-populated populated continent and the site of both its temporary government at Saint-Vercy and the foundations of the new planetary capital, Ciban City. Records indicate that the Xenos landed several army groups, with between two and four million soldiers committed to Arcadia and perhaps half as many to the smaller continent of Jolof. This division of forces pitting the Amatteir's main strength against the Ciban Chasseurs and second-line Ciban Fusiliers, while Gaspard Lumey's Space Marines would face a much weaker force across the waves.

Early Operations on Arcadia

An Amatteir airstrike killed Jean-Davide d'Orléans and much of his command staff on the first day of the invasion, leaving Marie Fayolle in command. Unable to resist the invaders' airpower, Fayolle immediately ordered his mobile forces - the Ciban Chasseurs - to only move by night. This may have saved the Chasseurs, but it exposed the second-line Ciban Fusiliers guarding Arcadia's strongpoints and cities.

Xenos landings over-ran the second-class spaceport outside Saint-Vercy, but the Amatteir were stalled when they attempted to move into the city itself. Commandant Drouet Sainte-Menehould's Fusiliers had been joined by an immense turnout of irregulars, many of them armed with the black powder arms that had overthrown the Gallian monarchy a generation ago. Although the invaders had superior firepower and command of the skies, the stubborn courage of the Cibanese denied them access to Saint-Vercy's narrow streets.

If the Ciban Fusiliers were not as successful across Arcadia, the general pattern held good. Contrary to the Amatteir's expectations, their human foes, including many civilians, were not intimidated. Most of the continent's great cities remained at least partly in Cibanese hands and the Xenos had paid dearly for their gains. Even in the few cities that were completely overrun, the militias quickly transformed themselves into partisan bands and set to harassing the invaders.

Jolof Campaign

The Fifth Legion was still a very small force by the standards of its star-going brethren. In a contrast to most of their campaigns, the Fifth's records of the fighting on Ciban IV are terribly incomplete, an indication of the bitter fighting that took place. However, it is known that Antoine Antonelle's cadre of a few hundred Astartes were joined in the field by their first class of recruits, bringing their numbers up to perhaps five thousand. Given the number deployed against them, Gaspard Lumey reverted to the guerilla tactics he had learnt in the Revolutionary Wars of Ciban IV. The Space Marines initially refused battle and went to ground, letting the Amatteir seize control of Jolof. In contrast to their Arcadian brethren, the ordinary citizens did not form up in militias - but partisans sprang up and started picking off sentries and sabotaging the occupiers' equipment.