Element 12: Selected Battle Honours

[Brother Tyler]

I received two submissions after the one week extension, so we'll vote on them. In no particular order, here they are:

 

The Garthid Campaign M41

 

The Obsidian Hunters have won countless victories on countless battlefields. Although with each of these victories the historians scribe another page into the glorious history of the Imperium, a few campaigns stand out even amongst the vast successes of the Chapter.

 

One such notable victory that veterans of the Obsidian Hunters recall with particular fondness is the Garthid Campaign, fought in the early years of M41.

 

When the Lord Governor of the Garthid system turned his back on the Imperium, claiming the system for his own, the Imperium's response was brutal and swift. Imperial forces arrived swiftly, from many sides, flooding into the system. The rebellious naval forces were destroyed in the first weeks of the campaign, and from there the Imperium's ground forces moved in. Whilst the main forces on either side were comprised of Imperial Guard, the Imperium had brought a company of Astartes from the Brazen Lords chapter to tip the scales heavily in their favour.

 

The campaign went smoothly, up until the Brazen Lords launched an assault on the Lord Governor's headquarters on Garthid Prime. As the Lords gained entry into his vast fortress-compound, they found themselves facing not only renegade guardsmen, but a force of traitor Astartes. The traitors had planned their moves well - immediately the revelation was made, another, larger force of traitors concealed outside the compound moved in, ambushing the Brazen Lords and preventing Imperial reinforcements from lending any aid to the trapped Astartes.

 

General Atmus of the Corlic 7th division was the leader of the campaign, and he reluctantly put out a call for aid. The Obsidian Hunters would be first to respond, sending two companies into the fray.

 

On their arrival at Garthid Prime, the Obsidian Hunters 7th Company landed en masse on the far side of the Lord Governor's compound, using the Company's Dreadnoughts to breach the walls and create a diversion. As the renegade forces moved to respond, the 3rd Company landed near the beleagured Brazen Lords, ambushing the traitor forces that penned the Lords in and crushing them utterly. From that point, the flow of the battle favoured the Imperium heavily, and even the Lord Governor's final fortified bunker presented barely any challenge to the Space Marines. The Brazen Lords lost half of their company in the campaign, with many others suffering debilitating wounds, preventing them from taking part in the final stages of the battle.

 

From there, the Imperium's re-conquering of the Garthid system went smoothly. Without a leader, the rebellious worlds were in many cases eager to rejoin the Imperium, and the few that resisted were taken back by crushing force. Indeed, with the Obsidian Hunters advising General Atmus on his plans of campaign, many battles were won with minimal Imperial casualties.

 

Captain Navus of the Brazen Lords later thanked the Obsidian Hunters for their assistance in the campaign. Although even the watching guardsmen could see it was an insincere, half-hearted display, any subsequent reports that mentioned it simply dismissed it as injured pride on the part of Navus.

 

The Victorious Dead of Cadsei-Svon M41

 

In 214.M41, an Imperial shuttle staggered its way into the Illustrin system, badly damaged and broadcasting distress signals on all frequencies. The Obsidian Hunters recovered the vessel and found two survivors, both gravely wounded and delirious. The Hunters questioned the survivors extensively, and were eventually able to cobble together an account of a demon infestation that had taken hold on the nearby world of Cadsei-Svon, home to a minor manufactorium important to the Astartes’ war efforts. The survivors were members of a mining expedition that had been attacked by cultists and nameless horrors as soon as they returned home. Of the 35 member team, only the two remained.

 

Knowing that every second was vital in the effort to stemming the corruption, the Hunters dispatched the 2nd Company and the combined might of Epistolary A’vin and two of the Chapter’s other mightiest Librarians. Upon their arrival at Cadsei-Svon, the Hunters were prepared for any of the horrors the Warp could spew at them. All that greeted them was silence. Signs of intense fighting marred the planet’s surface, but no trace of the Imperial Guard regiments could be found, and cursory sweeps of the major cities showed no signs of life. The Librarians could detect traces of daemonic presence, but whether it was a residue of a large host or the sign of something more sinister, none could say. Undaunted by the hollow cities, the Hunters immediately set about securing the manufactorium – they could debate mysteries after their duty was done.

 

The trap sprang without warning; a massive warp rift opened where the manufactorium had stood just an instant before, the surrounding building consumed by warp-fire and lesser demons pouring from the rift. Only the heightened warp-senses of the Librarians saved the Company from total annihilation, and the Hunters fell back in to the city, desperate to reach higher ground. Once they had regrouped, the Hunters secured their defenses, holding out for days until they methodically forced the daemon-spawn back towards the rift. The fighting was intense, but the daemons were too few in number to have overrun all of Cadsei-Svon. Clearly, the trap was a rearguard, designed to destroy anyone foolish enough to examine the world’s fate. The Librarians combined their wills in an effort to seal the weakening rift, and the surrounding space began to return to normal. It didn’t last.

 

Space was torn asunder once more, a mighty Daemon Prince emerging from the rift, surrounded by the traitor Marines of the Twilight Host. The fighting quickly escalated, and though weary from nearly a week of constant fighting, the Hunters proved more than a match for the traitors. The Daemon Prince, however, was another matter. Even with the united psychic might of the three Librarians, the Prince was still scything through the Hunters. Librarian Ko’dra faltered and fell to a grievous head wound. Librarian Ci’ar’s mind buckled under the weight of the Daemon’s psychic assault. Wounded and despairing, Epistolary A’vin stood alone before the Prince. Gathering more power than he had ever dared before, he charged the Daemon, driving it back towards the rift. The Daemon lashed out at the Epistolary time and again, but its weapons couldn’t penetrate the shield of A’vin’s psychic fury. Knowing that his brother Librarians might not ever rise again, A’vin made his most desperate gamble – latching on to the Prince, he leapt for the rift, and in a final surge of energy, detonated himself, the Prince and the rift.

 

The fighting quickly subsided, and the Hunters, though battered and broken, emerged victorious. They wasted no time in discovering the fate of the civilian population of Cadsei-Svon: Chaos slavers from the Twilight Host had abducted what they could and let their daemon allies do as they pleased with the remnant. Following the Twilight Host’s back-trail was a simple matter for the Hunters; the Host was in disarray after the destruction of their Prince, and in their panic they became careless. The Hunters tracked them to a nearby system and, after being joined by reinforcements, wiped out the slavers to the man. The civilians that remained untainted were returned to Cadsei-Svon, and a monument was erected at the site of the former manufactorium to honor the sacrifice of the Chapter’s fallen, the victorious dead.

 

Voting

The poll will remain open until I log in on Sunday morning, after which time we'll announce the winner.