Curis-4 Compliance

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

Curis-4 Compliance
Date	868.M30
Scale	planetary
Theatre	Curis-4
Status	Decisive Imperial Victory
Belligerents
25th Expedition Fleet Compliance Group V-22 Compliance Group V-63	Armies of the Fanz, Huks, and Wari nations
Commanders and Leaders
Gaspard Lumey	Local leaders
Strength
2 Corps Fifth Legion Astartes 2 Army Groups Imperial Army irregular forces	estimated between twelve and fifteen Army Groups
Losses
Many Astartes injured but only 38 deaths Imperial Army suffered much heavier losses, especially among the Kondrus Aeroguard	Catastrophic. Huks military took devastating casualties during the first Imperial offensive
Outcome
Curis-4 brought into compliance with the Imperial Truth.

The Curis-4 Compliance was a military campaign of the Emperor's Great Crusade. The 25th Expedition Fleet, under the command of the Primarch Gaspard Lumey, subdued an advanced, warlike culture through a combination of superior military tactics and political terror.

Situation Report

My dealings with the Orvar were highly profitable, but I believe that they were only the beginning of something much greater.

- Visant Le Gall, report to Fifth Legion

Late in 867.M30, the Rogue Trader Visant Le Gall contacted his handlers in the Victualary of the Fifth Legion. Le Gall was scheduled for a routine report, but Sergeant Mai Dac Kien noted that the Trader seemed particularly smug. The data retrieved showed that Le Gall was not merely happy to have made a fat profit - though clearly he had enriched himself in his journeys. Mai's keen eyes were quickly drawn to information regarding Curis-4, a technologically advanced but socially peculiar world in the newly-mapped Propice Sector. By careful analysis of Le Gall's reports, together with supporting information from other Rogue Traders, Mai was able to draw up a substantial picture of Curis-4 and pass it up to his superiors.

Curis-4 possessed a substantial industrial base and significant manpower. Population estimates varied between eight and ten billion. Technology was unevenly preserved, but military hardware was a particular strongpoint. Soldiers on Curis-4 went to war in sophisticated vehicles, wearing excellent armour and wielding deadly las weapons. And they went to war often. The planet was divided between four hostile "nations": the Fanz, Huks, Orvar, and Wari. Le Gall's contact had been exclusively with the Orvar, who had paid him handsomely for medical supplies. The Rogue Trader had observed a sharp caste divide between the "citz" who earned political rights by military service and "pacs" who lived as civilians but were barely regarded as people by their social superiors. According to Le Gall, there was little social mobility among the Orvar, with the military recruiting almost exclusively from the children of the citz. Antoine d'Orléans' unsuccessful trading mission had involved brief talks with all four nations of Curis-4 and his brief contacts suggested that the Fanz, Huks, and Wari had similar social systems. Particularly notable was that representatives of the four nations spoke of endlessly warring with their neighbours.

Mai's report quickly became the basis for operational planning. Antoine Antonelle's signature went below the initial assessment that the still-small Fifth Legion could fairly quickly subdue a world like Curis-4 if either Ghalhal or Al-Sherar would lend the support of their Titans. In discussion aboard the newly-commissioned Resolve, Gaspard Lumey and Fabrice Diallo differed. The Primarch and his operational commander believed that the political situation was so favourable that going to the Forge Worlds was unnecessary. Rani Stolarz of the Ciban Chasseurs, despite her reputation for aggressiveness, was inclined to support the conservative course. As a compromise, the Fifth Legion's commanders decided to press ahead with the forces of the Twenty-Fifth Expeditionary Fleet supplemented by Imperial Army formations from nearby Compliance Groups, and to request that the Markian Pact raise a new Grand Corps and dispatch these troops to Curis-4. If Lumey and Diallo were correct, the Markian Corpsmen, organised as Compliance Group V-63, would garrison the new-won planet. Otherwise, the Legion would at least have fresh troops if a negative situation developed.

Lumey's conception of the battle for Curis-4 centered on breaking the citz class. Rather than approach the campaign in conventional military terms and focus on material objectives, the Primarch laid out a military-political operation intended to give the defending soldiers every reason to stop resisting and disassociate themselves from their leaders. To open the campaign, he turned to Visant Le Gall.

The invasion

The ruling council of the Orvar were surprised and excited by the reappearance of Le Gall's cruiser, The Weatherman above Curis-4 in early 868.M30. Though the man from the stars had asked a high price for his goods, the medical equipment he had provided on his last visit promised to extend the lives of the Orvar citz by many years, if not decades. However, Le Gall's message dampened the ruling council's mood. He explained that he had not come to trade again, but to offer his services as an intermediary with the coming Imperial Expedition Fleet, claiming that if the Orvar did not employ him as an agent they would be ruthlessly subjugated. As proof of the level of threat, the Rogue Trader produced grainy vid footage of the Fifth Legion in action against the Amatteir during the Al-Sherar Sector War. Le Gall had a way of persuading people into even the worst deals, and he convinced the council of the Orvar to pay him a nation's ransom in return for his advocacy. The Rogue Trader then reported back to Fifth Legion that he had successfully secured a foothold for their invasion, resulting in another big payday.

"Break the yoke"

You might wonder why there is no trial. There is no trial because we did not come to bring these people justice. We came to take the yoke from your backs and break it. You will never be slaves again.

Firing squad, take aim - fire!

- Gaspard Lumey, excerpt from the propaganda-vid "Break the Yoke"

Huks infantrymen

The Orvar had reason to think that their riches were well-spent when the Twenty-Fifth Expedition Fleet began operations. While Rani Stolarz's Auxilia forces debarked in Orvar territory, Gaspard Lumey personally led Jalal Samaha's 2nd Corps of Astartes in a combat drop on the Huks capital. With complete surprise on their side, the Space Marines slaughtered the disorganised defenders and captured almost the entire Huks Committee for Military Affairs (HCfMA) - the de facto national government. Transitioning from military leader to politician, Lumey made a speech to vid in which he explained his purposes on Curis-4 to its people. The rule of the citz was almost at an end and that the pacs of Curis-4 would soon live as free Imperial citizens. Lumey promised to give restitution to any pacs that his forces encountered, while pledging that the Fifth Legion would liquidate any petty tyrants that they found. To prove his sincerity, the Primarch concluded his propaganda piece with the execution of the Huks government.

Those few representatives of the HCfMA that had escaped, along with local leaders, quickly organised a counter-stroke aimed at the 2nd Corps. The vaunted combat skills of the Adeptus Astartes, supported by pinpoint naval bombardment from the Fifth Legion's warships in orbit, were sufficient to beat back the initial, feeble efforts, but Lumey's men began to be stretched as the Huks forces besieging their own capital grew to Army strength. The Primarch counseled calm in the face of the odds, for he knew that the 25th Expedition Fleet's Auxilia were about to commence their own offensive in conjunction with Fabrice Diallo's 1st Corps.

Diallo's offensive targeted the armies positioned on the Huks-Orvar border. The three airmobile armies of Marshal Joseph Kolesnikov's 8th Expeditionary Front dropped into the operational depth of the defenders while the 5th and 9th Armies of Ciban, commanded by Rani Stolarz and Ignace Blanchard, surged across the border. Diallo's Space Marines deployed in company strength as a second wave, dropping in to attack hard-points identified by the Kondrus Aeroguard. Already off-balance due to Lumey's audacious stroke at their capital and totally unused to the intensity of warfare that the Imperial forces had brought to their planet, the Huks armies on the Orvar border simply disintegrated. News of the rout, along with Fifth Legion's propaganda broadcasts, devastated morale through the rest of the nation. A handful of the troops besieging 2nd Corps threw off their uniforms and attempted to pass themselves off as pacs to the Space Marines. Although the lie was not believed, Lumey had instructed his men to turn a blind eye to such deceptions and accept anyone presenting as a pac without question. Once it became clear to the Huks soldiers that they faced a choice between being hunted down by the space-farers and being rewarded for deserting the colours, the handful became a multitude.

In just a few short weeks, the Twenty-Fifth Expedition Fleet completely conquered the Huks nation. But they were still far from completing their objectives.

The Fanz and Wari Battles

The disintegration of the Huks nation sent military and citz refugees spilling across their borders into the lands of the Fanz and Wari, bearing news of the vicious Imperial assault. Broadcasts and airdrops of Imperial propaganda backed up or even exaggerated the stories of the Huks refugees. However, the Fanz and Wari nations had long military traditions and were unwilling to surrender without a fight. Reconciling their differences for the time being, the Fanz and Wari sent expeditionary forces into occupied Huks and deployed recently-mobilised troops to their Orvar borders.

These actions were not entirely the result of stubbornness. While Fifth Legion's casualties had been surprisingly light, Gaspard Lumey's auxilia had exhausted their supply depots. Fuel was being used up as fast as it was shuttled in, even with munitions resupply cut to the minimum. Only food, purchased from Orvar or requisitioned within occupied Huks, was abundant. Moreover, the only civil authority in the Huks territory were Fifth Legionnaires, diverting manpower from military operations to the tasks of police and civil relief. The only ground forces free to counter the Fanz and Wari attacks were two corps of Space Marines.

As he had done in the Jolof Campaign, Lumey directed his Marines to fight an irregular campaign. However, the material situation was more favourable than on Ciban IV. The Fifth Legion's warships dominated the Curis System; Siege Frigates orbited Curis-4 to provide heavy firepower, while Legion attack craft made more precise strikes. Moreover, even if Legion auxilia could not fight mobile campaigns, they held key static positions and Kouralian airmobile regiments from the 3rd and 7th Markian Grand Corps still had the fuel to carry out a rapid redeployment. This last stock was spent on twin airdrops against large Wari supply depots. The veteran paratroopers of the Kouralian 7th Regiment quickly secured their objective and their brother regiments of the 3rd Grand Corps were soon refueling their tanks and personnel carriers. The 84th Kouralian, part of the newly-raised 7the Grand Corps, were less successful. Although their brushed aside the depot garrison, Wari saboteurs set fire to the fuel tanks. The reinforcing regiments of 7th Grand Corps fought a bitter, static battle against Wari counter-attackers for three days and nights before Fabrice Diallo and two companies of Space Marines arrived to relieve them. These mixed successes were enough to recapture the initiative. The Space Marines had exhausted and demoralized the Franz and Wari attackers. When Etienne Latourelle's 3rd Grand Corps resumed high-intensity operations the opposing formations shattered.

Aftermatch

The destruction of the Franz and Wari field armies in former Huks territory triggered coups by junior officers keen to escape summary execution at the hands of the Imperials. Gaspard Lumey treated with these rebels coolly, sparing their lives but sentencing them to serve as ordinary troopers and labourers aboard Rogue Trader vessels for the rest of their days. (As one might expect, Visant Le Gall had his pick of the recruits.) The citz caste of Orvar were rewarded for their cooperation. These proud elites still suffered exile from their homeworld but no demotion in rank. Their leaders were granted refurbished cruisers from the Fifth Legion's supply and issued with Warrants of Trade, free to seek out their fortunes at the frontier of the Great Crusade as Rogue Traders. The 25th Expedition Fleet soon moved on from Curis-4, leaving behind Millard Gamelin as a provisional Governor.

Imperial Order of Battle

• 25th Expedition Fleet - Primarch Gaspard Lumey
  • Naval Task Force - Senator Kesh Kanak
  • 1st Corps Fifth Legion - Force Commander Fabrice Diallo
  • 2nd Corps Fifth Legion - Force Commander Jalal Samaha
  • 5th Army of Ciban - Force Commander Rani Stolarz
  • 9th Army of Ciban - Force Commander Ignace Blanchard
  • 3rd Markian Grand Corps - Marshal Etienne Latourelle
  • 1st Auxilia Army - Force Commander Jérôme Coudert
• Compliance Group V-22 (8th Expeditionary Front of the Kondrus Aeroguard) - Marshal Joseph Kolesnikov
  • 13th Shock Army - General Emil Efremov
  • 4th Guards Army - General Yaroslav Kruglov
  • 33rd Army - General Egor Tretyakov
  • 38th Army - General I.T. Volsky
  • 57th Army - General Makar Andreev
  • 8th Guards Tank Army - General Klim Grishin
• Compliance Group V-63 (7th Markian Grand Corps) - Marshal Millard Gamelin

Note: 1st Auxilia was a mixed force, made up of Regiments drawn primarily from the Ciban Chassuers, Fischetti Numeri, Kerstes Dragoons, and the Morlachs of Sinji.