Pacification of the Harakien Sector

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.

Pacification of the Harakien Sector
Date	973-976.M30
Scale	Sector-wide
Theatre	Harakien Sector
Status	Imperial victory
Belligerents
The Imperium of Mankind	The Harakien Eldar Empire
Commanders and Leaders
Gaspard Lumey	Ku'Motsk, the Void King
Strength
Substantial forces from the Fifth Legion supported by the Imperial Army
Losses
Outcome

Relations between the Imperium of Mankind and the Harakien Eldar Empire had sparked into violent conflict at their first meeting and with each year the fighting grew more intense. Lulled into complacency by their previous dealings with humans, the Harakiens completely underestimated the strength of the Imperium. Although the Eldar's early skirmishes with the Imperial Army were inconclusive, in the eighteenth decade of the Great Crusade, the Primarch Gaspard Lumey led his Winged Victory in a massive assault on the realm of Ku'Motsk, the Void King.

Background

The Harakiens' first encounter with the Imperium was on the Feral World of Destino in 964.M30. Winged Victory had just departed the newly-pacified world, leaving behind a garrison of Imperial Army troops. Much of the garrison was second- or third-line regiments, but among their number was the 38th Regiment of the Auron Infantries. Unbeknownst to the Imperium of man, the 6th Division of the Harakien Fleet drifted toward the planet. The expedition was headed by the sixth's inexperienced captain, Ju'Rhin, and was the first wave of a planned expansion of the Harakien Empire's sphere.

The information that the Harakiens had on Destino spoke of a lush and untamed world, but the Eldar were greeted by an unexpectedly organized force of soldiers bearing unknown markings. Ju'Rhin, eager to make a name for himself, sent the full force of his aerial division against the Imperial camps, devastating them with vicious bombardments. The swiftness of the assault was such that the Imperials had no time to respond, the surviving infantrymen were only mustering when the next phase of the Harakien attack began. The second wave was low assault craft and the Eldar swiftly put their enemies to flight, taking large numbers of captives. Word was sent to the Sovereign Fleet of the startling new discovery of an apparently organized space-faring human empire.

While the militia and PDF formations disintegrated, many of the Aurrie troops escaped capture and fled into the thick jungles of Destino. Within that forbidding growth, bands of the 38th regrouped and prepared guerilla raids on their enemies. Captain Ju'Rhin ordered the forests cleared away. He would rout their foe through any means, but the 6th Division were unprepared for the nigh insurmountable task before them. Although they suffered great deprivation and heavy casualties, the courageous Aurries held up the Harakiens until the arrival of Lieutenant Uli Dreier's Squadron of Winged Victory Space Marines and several Demi-brigades of Ciban Chasseurs. The assault was like nothing that the Harakiens had ever seen, the power-armored foes before them astounding to behold. They were human in shape only, they moved faster and endured far more. Even the ordinary soldiers accompanying them were more heavily-armed than expected, with powerful armoured vehicles, artillery, and aircraft. Out-numbered and out-gunned by the startling new Imperial reinforcements, the Eldar withdrew from Destino.

Dreier linked up with the surviving men of the 38th and debriefed them. His report back to the Fifth Legion was answered promptly with the dispatch of further reinforcements, including sappers recruited from the Markian Pact. These specialists were under instructions to fortify Destino. In the meantime, Dreier and his expanded command would probe the surrounding systems to assess the Xeno threat.

Early Exchanges

A series of raids and counter-raids ensued. Although both sides built up their forces in this period, the Space Marines were largely absent from the initial phases of battle. Uli Dreier's squadron of one hundred space marines remained based at Destino, taking on key missions, but the bulk of the fighting in this phase was done by newly arrived first-line Imperial Army formations. The most decisive clash was in 968.M30 on the Desert World of Suferenta, where a mixed corps of Ciban Chasseurs and Markian troopers clashed with the Harakien 6th Advance Detatchment of the 3rd Division.

Both sides arrived at Suferenta without detecting the other, intending to scout the world and perhaps seize what opportunities they found. Only once the troops had debarked did the Harakien and Imperial naval forces engage briefly, then withdraw from the system thinking that the priority was to protect their transport vessels. On the ground, the opposing commanders quickly made contact near the world's main settlements. An early Harakien breakthrough resulted in the over-running of the Imperial Headquarters and the death of General Phillipe Anjours at the blade of the detachment commander, Zhir Nerantu. The Harakiens slaughtered the Imperial command company with swift and brutal efficiency. The detachment settled in to watch the results of their decapitation of the enemy.

To their shock, the human forces remained mobile and coordinated despite the loss of its headquarters. The breakthrough forces were quickly encircled and destroyed, before the Imperial army launched a rapid counter-attack, capitalising on their superior airpower. An airborne company of Ciban Chasseurs, led by the young Captain Jeanne d'Orléans, dropped in behind the Harakien lines and wreaked havoc in their rear area. As scores of tanks, skimmers, and flyers whipped sand into the atmosphere, visibility dropped to next to nothing. In the haze of this sentient-made sandstorm, the towering Captain d'Orléans and her elite drop-troopers took a bloody toll in hand-to-hand combat. The frenzied enemy commander, Nerantu led a desperate counterattack. Though he stood longer than the others, he was no match for the prowess of d'Orleans.

The Harakiens fought furiously, but their fate was sealed. If Jeanne d'Orléans claimed not to have made a count of the Eldar ended by her power sword, it was soon rumoured among the Imperial troops that the Captain had killed too many enemies to know their number. On the front at large, the terrible conditions were on the side of the army with the larger numbers and the greater armour. Despite the courage and skill of the Harakiens, they could not change the shape of the battlefield that had entrapped them. To their lasting credit, they fought to the last and no prisoners were taken.

Naval clashes

The naval fighting in this period was at first dominated by inconclusive skirmishes. Harakien forces were reluctant to closely engage the heavy ships of the Imperium, and their superior mobility made it difficult for Imperial captains to force the issue. A clash in the Malavaro system during 970.M30 saw the Winged Victory strike cruiser Persévérance heavily damaged by mines. In response to this incident, the Imperial Army dispatched Commander Isidora Lobo at the helm of the Grand Cruiser Repulse, leading a full cruiser squadron. Late in 971.M30, Lobo launched a long-distance probe deep into Harakien space.

4th Captain Sisyk Alovar met the Imperials at the Kurassan System in the north of the Harakien Sector. Alovar's fleet was the largest in the entire empire, besides that of the Void King himself, and the old captain was renowned throughout Harakien space for his skill in space combat. His battleship Talon led the strike, the entire fleet flying toward the cruiser squadron with unbelievable speed. The Imperials brought their weapons to bear, but the Eldar vessels seemed to vanish in a shimmer of light, leaving Lobo's ships to fire uselessly into empty space. A moment later, the Harakien fleet returned to reality directly above their foes. The Talon hung over the Repulse menacingly, then blasted it out of reality with a concentrated beam of darklight. The other ships in the Harakien fleet followed suit, cutting Lobo's squadron to pieces. Only the light cruiser Hunting Hawk, positioned to guard the underbelly of the Imperial fleet, limped away from the fight to report to Destino.

The Imperial Offensive

"The Geldens call them angels, and they are unlike any human I have seen, sovereign. As tall as one of our own, but thick and strong like a man. They come down from the void and bring only death and fire. They fight evenly against our own, I have never seen anything like it"

"It seems the rumors are true, then," Ku'Motsk said gravely, "If these void angels have come to our realm, then they must meet its king. Surely they did not think that these trespasses would be ignored. Prepare the men, we move for Gelden III"

(Excerpt from "The Glory of the Void King", traditional Harakien text)

In 970.M30, Marshal Louis-Davide de Lattre of the Markian Grand Corps had arrived on Destino and established an Army Group headquarters to coordinate the efforts of hundreds of Imperial regiments along the northern border of the Harakien sector. Along with his own staff, de Lattre was accompanied by Antoine Antonelle, the redoubtable second-in-command of Winged Victory. Although de Lattre's task of commanding the Imperial Army forces active against the Harakien was a real one, he was also under secret orders to cooperate with Antonelle in preparing for the arrival of a vast force of Space Marines and auxilia from the Fifth Legion.

Antoine Antonelle was justly renowned as a patient man. He spent eighteen solar months preparing for the arrival of his master and battle brothers. Great stockpiles of ammunition were built up in secret, hidden in the shipments of construction materials for Destino's increasingly daunting fortifications. Phoney rotations were staged to conceal a build-up of Imperial Army forces.

Finally, in 972.M30, Gaspard Lumey's Expeditionary Fleet warped into the Destino system. The Primarch made a point of commending the heroic individuals and units of the Imperial Army's long struggle against the Eldar. Regiments such as the 38th Auron Infantry were awarded new banners as part of the moral preparation for an intensification of the war effort.

Spearhead and Sledgehammer

While Lumey rallied the troops, two of his most aggressive commanders swept past the frontier and launched a bold attack deep into Harakien territory. The Fifth's enfant terrible, Augustin Carron, headed a force of thirty thousand Astartes, while sly Kesh Kanak commanded the naval operation. Evading contact with Eldar naval patrols, Winged Victory descended on the manufacturing world Gelden III. In addition to Carron's landing forces, Kanak had been tasked to deliver the Oriflamme, a "Ramilles"-class fortress to the Gelden system. This mighty weapon was intended to anchor the Imperial supply lines into Harakien space. Although its presence could not be concealed, the sheer strength of its escort deterred any intervention by scratch forces.

Taken aback by the audacity of the attack, Ku'Motsk still hastened to respond. Sisyk Alovar was called on once again to scour Harakien space of the human invaders. The Void King himself would see to the fools who dared bring war to a world in his dominion. For all their courage, had the Eldar known the scale of the offensive being launched against them, they might well have fled rather than face the crusade forces of the Imperium.

As Ku'Motsk rallied his host, the Imperial Army carried out simultaneous offensives all along the border. Harakien listening posts were assaulted by elite commando units. Advance bases were overwhelmed by army-strength formations. The frontier colonies of Al Na'ir, Estrudar, and Halwyn faced army groups. The 8th Expeditionary Front of the Kondrus Aeroguard at Estrudar faced the toughest opposition. Harakien fighters destroyed almost a full corps of Aeroguard during the initial landings, and kept the Kondrans grounded during the first three days of the campaign. However, as on other other worlds, the Eldar found themselves in an impossible position. Even after losing over a hundred thousand men, the Aeroguard outnumbered their opponents by twenty to one. Realising too late the scale of the disaster, the sentinels of the Harakien frontier were wiped out by the Imperium's elephantine offensive.

The Gelden System battles

The majority of Ku'Motsk's warriors travelled the labyrinth of the Webway to Gelden III. Their initial engagement with Winged Victory was in space, where Sisyk Alovar sought to take advantage of the withdrawal of the main Imperial fleet with a swift attack on the space station Oriflamme. The assault was carried out so swiftly that Kesh Kanak, who had lurked outside the Gelden system in anticipation of such a manoeuvre, still could not intervene in time to prevent Oriflamme from being crippled. As repair crews fought to save the giant station from complete destruction, the ships of Winged Victory appeared in the rear of the Eldar fleet, chasing after a deadly spread of torpedoes. But Sisyk Alovar was old and cunning, and deftly stepped the main body of his squadrons out of Realspace, losing only a pair of unfortunate escorts.

With the Harakiens seemingly vanished, those few aboard the Oriflamme with the luxury of observing the space battle were perplexed to see the Imperial warships begin to roll. A few moments later, the purpose of this strange behaviour became clear. Sisyk Alovar's squadron popped back into existence, the Talon itself having moved to rake the belly of the mighty Resolve. As he looked up to see the Imperial flagship's broadside trained against his position, Alovar reacted instantly to order his crew back to the Webway. Only this split-second decision saved the Talon, though the first salvoes from the Resolve still killed a quarter of the ship's company and many more perished in the desperate repair effort that followed the battle. The rest of the Harakien fleet was far less fortunate. Though their manoeuvre was swift and their weapons were deadly, like their landlubber brethren they faced a foe with seemingly limitless resources. As an Eldar fleet painfully salvaged from the fall of their race was torn to pieces, Magos Algaurizin of Ghalhal idly calculated that the Fifth's battle losses would be replaced by 17044 minutes labour from all of the Imperium's Forge Worlds.