Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd

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

The Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd was the first campaign of the Great Crusade led by the Primarch Gaspard Lumey. His nascent Fifth Legion, accompanied by auxiliary troops from their new homeworld, Ciban IV, confronted an alien race of slavers.

Preparations

Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd
Date	853.M30
Scale	system-wide
Theatre	Chwiorydd Hardd System
Status	Decisive Imperial Victory
Belligerents
Fifth Legion	Amatteir (Xenos)
Commanders and Leaders
Gaspard Lumey Fabrice Diallo Jean-Davide d'Orléans	Prelate Laamis
Strength
150 Astartes 36,000 Auxilia	estimated at 60,000 to 100,000 troops, concentrated on CH-3
Losses
3 Astartes injured 178 Auxilia KIA 921 Auxilia WIA	wiped out
Outcome
slaves on CH-3 and CH-4 repatriated to Ciban IV

Today we embark on our first effort in the Emperor's Great Crusade. Our intelligence indicates that the forces you will engage are members of a species that has raided and enslaved human worlds throughout the sector for centuries. Historical literature suggests that even Ciban IV was not exempt from their depravations. Harden your hearts against this alien menace. They are enemies of civilization and parasites on the human body.

- Excerpt from Gaspard Lumey's address to his troops

After two years spent assembling their forces, and training and re-equipping auxilia, the Fifth Legion were champing at the bit. However, they faced serious material deficiencies. The need for experienced warriors to train the new recruits had required demobilising all but one reinforced squadron, now led by Fabrice Diallo as Gaspard Lumey's field commander. Furthermore, the Fifth's Auxilia were far from perfect. If the proud people of Ciban IV were flocking to the colours, they came from a black-powder culture and struggled with technical tasks. Men and women of the Markian Pact were more advanced - but also more complacent. A relative handful of volunteers from these peaceful worlds had enlisted, really too few to meet their tithe obligations. Rather than risk an incident by attempting to discipline his new vassals - or complain to his new country, depending on your perspective - Lumey chose to created mixed formations largely staffed by Cibanese but augmented by Markian drivers, gunners, mechanics, and tank commanders. It was far from perfect, but the Primarch felt ready to begin his conquest of new worlds with the forces in hand.

Though the Al-Sherar Sector had many primitive and feudal human worlds that might have been pacified with ease, the officers of the Fifth first set their sights on a significant threat. Rogue traders had identified the twin worlds of the Chwiorydd Hardd system as an outpost of the Amatteir. These foul xenos slavers raided nearby systems for booty and captives and would greatly complicate the stabilisation of the sector. Negotiation was not even considered.

The attack

The Strike Cruisers Détermination, Endurance, and Ténacité warped into the system with their escorts. The few slave-ships they found in system would have been no match for even one of the cruisers, and were swiftly disabled and boarded. No prisoners were taken from the Xenos crews, but the liberated human captives were taken aboard the Fifth's medical vessels for genetic screening and rehabilitation. Gaspard Lumey and Fabrice Diallo led drop pod assaults against their designated landing sites on CH-3 and CH-4, quickly securing their objectives. Meanwhile, the transports bearing the nascent Ciban Chasseurs entered the Chwiorydd Hardd system. The efficiency of Lumey's Space Marines meant that the auxilia had an easy way down, and the Marshal d'Orléans' charges were soon disembarking on the surface of the planets CH-3 and CH-4, ready to begin the ground campaign.

On CH-4, Diallo's forces found minimal resistance and swiftly liquidated the Amatteir found there. The planet had been arranged as a pleasure park and the slaves, if mistreated, had been kept in fairly sanitary conditions. CH-3 was a work camp and Lumey's group faced much stiffer resistance, led by a skilled commander. However, the Amatteir garrison lacked heavy weaponry and their determination was no match for the Fifth's firepower and the Power Armour of the Adeptus Astartes. Gaspard Lumey's men overwhelmed their foes and put the Xenos to the sword.

With the whole Amatteir garrison eliminated, the Fifth Legion declared victory. Casualties had been light and the slaver plague that infested the Al-Sherar sector had been weakened.

Aftermath

It was not their physical deprivations that struck me so. I have seen men and women lost in the wilds of my homeworld and returned to civilisation sick and starved before. It was their eyes. Our poor kinsmen, brutalised and degraded, looked at me with the mute ignorance of beasts. Foul aliens have taken human beings and made into them animals! How many more worlds is this happening on?

- Excerpt from Boucher, Verrell (854.M30) Humanity in agony: the slave pens of Chwiorydd Hardd. St. Mina, Karmia: Government Print.

Many of the Auxilia who served in the Pacification of the Chwiorydd Hardd would resign from service due to the unexpected trauma. Despite the warnings of the Fifth Legion command staff, the state of the human inhabitants of the system came as a terrible shock to Markian recruits who cherished the dignity of the mankind. However, the circulation of reports such as Boucher's would help to steel the Markians against such future shocks. Indeed, the accounts stirred the fighting spirit of the subsector. New volunteers flocked to the colours of the Ciban Chasseurs and the Markian Corps, determined to end the suffering of Old Night.

The Fifth Legion resettled the slaves of Chwiorydd Hardd on Ciban IV. CH-3 and CH-4 would lie fallow for the next decade, before being colonised by settlers from across the Markian subsector. A handful of the freed slaves became aspirant Space Marines. Among these hopefuls was Jeffrey Dinola, the future Chief Librarian of the Legion.

Although the Amatteir in the Chwiorydd Hardd system were wiped out, other members of their species would gradually piece together what had happened. Their response would severely test Gaspard Lumey's new Legion in the Al-Sherar Sector War.