Core Worlds Campaign

Core Worlds campaign
Date	998.M30
Scale	Sector-wide
Theatre	Chelob Hold Sector
Status	Decisive Imperial Victory
Belligerents
Imperium of Mankind	Core Worlds Confederation
Commanders and Leaders
Gaspard Lumey and Uriel Starikov	various Core Lords
Strength
over 100,000 Space Marines, over 60 million frontline auxilia, plus occupation forces and significant Imperial Navy support	estimated between 4 and 12 billion ground forces, limited space presence
Losses
9,842 Space Marines (6,106 Winged Victory, 3,736 Children of Armok), roughly 2 million Imperial Army	tens of billions
Outcome

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

While the Emperor and Hektor confronted the Ork Empire of Ullanor, another potential thorn in the side of the Imperium was making its presence felt. The mighty Core Worlds Confederation, the largest and most advanced human realm outside of the Imperium, had long pursued a policy of peaceful co-existence. The Core Lords were perfectly happy to open their borders to Rogue Traders, shared civilian technologies with the Tech Priests of Mars, and occasionally permitted their vassals to participate in the Great Crusade as mercenaries. But they had refused to entertain the Emperor's demand for human unity across the galaxy. Worse yet, their independence was beginning to inspire worlds that lay outside the Imperium's grip to stand independent while some of those that had only recently been pacified began to lobby for a looser form of government and more regional authority. Gaspard Lumey and Uriel Starikov were dispatched to resolve the matter one way or another.

Initially, the Primarchs attempted a negotiation. However, they ran into two fundamental problems. Firstly, while the Core Lords appreciated the seriousness of the Emperor sending two of his sons to treat with them, they were still reluctant to give up their autonomy and demanded concessions and guarantees. Worse yet, the decentralised nature of the Confederation saw each world competing against its fellows to get the best deal from the Imperium. As negotiations began to see-saw between ever more demanding petitions from Karazak and Chelob Hold, the two strongest Core Worlds, Gaspard Lumey walked out of the negotiations to prepare his campaign. Uriel Starikov remained only long enough to conduct the formalities of ending the talks.

Lumey opened the attack at Karazak, the de facto capital world of the Confederation. Until the coming of the Imperial Legions, Karazak was said to rival Terra itself in its technology, industry and population. The greatest of the Core Worlds was dominated by immense underground cities and its citizens were confident that they had little to fear from a direct assault. They did not count on Lumey's resolve. The Primarch launched a horrifying fleet bombardment that fractured the crust of the planet and killed tens of billions. A petition for conditional surrender brought not relief, but the descent of the Fifth Legion. What resistance remained on Karazak was swept aside in three bloody days. On receiving news of Lumey's attack, several Core Worlds, including Karazak's old rival, Chelob Hold, immediately offered unconditional surrender to the Children of Armok. With their enemies reeling, the Primarchs pressed the initiative. The Void Angels split into three task forces, led by Gaspard Lumey and his trusted lieutenants Fabrice Diallo and Augustin Carron, while the Children of Armok, mainly committed elsewhere in the galaxy, dispatched small fleets to the weakest worlds.

Lumey's force hunted down the remains of the Core Worlds fleet. Due to the cunning of Kesh Kanak, Winged Victory cornered their quarry at the Wobegon system and moved to engage. However, the Core Lords fleet that had fled from Karazak had done so against the combined naval assets of the Fifth Legion. Lumey's task force, stripped of assets required by Diallo and Carron, was nominally outnumbered. To counter their numerical disadvantage, Kesh Kanak used the Legion's mighty flagship, the Resolve, as a spearhead, absorbing enemy fire upon its mighty hull. Kanak's audacity set the stage for the Fifth capturing two great factory ships with audacious boarding actions.

Diallo's men, supported by armour and sappers from the Markian Pact attacked the Mining World of Lzoro. Although the initial landings were opposed, Diallo's personal leadership ensured that the Fifth held their beach-heads until the first echelons of their auxilia could set down. A ferocious counter-attack, spearheaded by the immense war machines of the Core Worlds Confederation, was only held back by the heroic sacrifice of Captain Quintus Iuventus. Iuventus led his squad into the depths of the lead engine. Though the Astartes did not emerge, their detonations from within the metal leviathan crippled it and bought time for the guns of the fleet to be brought into play. With their breathing room established, a tide of Markian armour began to roll the Core Worlds forces back, relieving their Space Marine allies and pressing in on Lzoro's spaceport, the great portal between its interior and space. As the outskirts of the spaceport were obtained, Diallo's Astartes entered the battle once more, storming ahead with fresh energy and overwhelming the defenders. With the conquest of the planet barely twelve hours old, the Fifth Legion landed its siege equipment. Any hopes of the defenders standing firm in the choked tunnels of Lzoro's interior were dashed by the Mole Transports of the Markian soldiers, which time and again would dig around strongpoints and flank them. The cleansing of the planet's hives lasted just three more days.

Carron waged a lightning war down the Varrian Reach, seizing ten worlds in as many days. He was assisted in his rapid-fire conquest by the able Jeanne d'Orléans, just appointed the youngest Marshal in the history of the Markian subsector. If the two did not see eye to eye personally, they remained professional on campaign and co-ordinated their troops in a masterpiece of combined arms warfare.

Each victory brought new offers of surrender as the remaining Core Lords began to see the inevitability of their fate. Yet their hopes of leniency were dashed. Lumey insisted on the execution of the surrendering aristocrats and a heavy tithe upon the newly conquered worlds. It is thought that Starikov actually talked down his imperious brother from even harsher terms, though it is hard to imagine what further punishment could have been levelled on the defeated.