Editing Calth (section)

==Overview and History: AKA How Things Went To Shit==
The [[Battle of Calth]] began with the Word Bearers ramming an [[Ultramarines]] fleet tender through the planet's largest orbital dockyard, triggering a series of catastrophic explosions that rained wreckage and crippled ships down on Calth's surface. The grand cruiser ''Antrodamicus'' crashed into the city of Kalkas Fortalice, erasing it completely, Numinus City was smashed by orbital debris, and the southern hemisphere was devastated by the impact of the carrier ''Courage of Konor'' in the polar ocean. Simultaneously, the Word Bearers' fleet began bombarding the planet, annihilating cities, shattering tectonic plates, vaporizing oceans, and triggering cataclysmic tsunamis, earthquakes, and firestorms. Millions of civilians were slaughtered in moments, with millions more butchered as the Word Bearers and their allies on the ground started attacking cities and spaceports. This alone would have left Calth scarred forevermore, but [[Lorgar]]'s boys had bigger plans. Under the direction of [[Kor Phaeron]], the hijacked Calth defense grid began firing into its star, lacing it with antimatter, toxic heavy metals, and colossal amounts of energy. The bombardment and the destabilizing star combined to strip away Calth's atmosphere and batter its surface with lethal levels of radiation, forcing the surviving Ultramarines and civilians on the planet to retreat into the underground arcologies to survive. This began what was known as the [[Underworld War]], since the Word Bearers still on the surface had had the same idea. Entire arcologies were devastated by nuclear and chemical munitions, along with summoned daemons and good old-fashioned ground assaults from the traitor forces. The Ultramarines, under the command of Captain [[Remus Ventanus]] and Aeonid Thiel, eventually won the conflict, purging the last of the Word Bearers from Calth's underground. The Ultramarines are still so pissed off about the whole thing that the operational clock for the battle has been left running until they kill every last Word Bearer in the galaxy.

Over the generations, Calth slowly recovered from the deathblow the Word Bearers had delivered. The arcologies were expanded to such a scale that they came to rival the grandest cities of [[Macragge]], while the planet's shipyards were rebuilt and now turn out highly sought-after ships for the Imperial Navy, the Ultramarines' fleet, and Rogue Traders, among others. It also became a recruiting ground for the Ultramarines, producing many excellent aspirants, including Captain [[Uriel Ventris]] In the 41st Millennium, the planet has been part of several notable conflicts. [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] invaded the planet during the First Tyrannic War and was driven back, though the [[Carnifex]] that would come to be known as Old One-Eye was left frozen in the planet's polar region and would once again bedevil Calth decades later until apparently being killed again. The planet was also attacked by [[Hive Fleet Kraken]], though the fleet found little to devour on the airless surface. It was also the site of a showdown between Uriel Ventris and Warsmith [[Honsou]], as the two of them battled over the tomb of Remus Ventanus and a ritual dagger known as the Shard of Erebus that had been buried with the legendary captain. Ventris and his Ultramarines defeated Honsou's forces with the aid of the [[Legion of the Damned]] and Ventanus himself, reborn as a burning spectre who still bore the sigils of the XIII Legion on his blackened battleplate. This battle was instrumental in the death of the daemon prince M'kar, as Ventanus presented Ventris with the Shard and M'kar's true name, giving his successor the means to inflict True Death upon the daemon.

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[[Category:Imperial]]