Noctus Cornix Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 I think the most interesting yet bitter sweet fluff of a battle the Death Guard and their cousin warbands have been in is the seige of Pluto (in the Siege of Vraks books) where the children of Nurgle are the first traitor Marines to ever dare attack the solar system and also the first to kill an adeptus custodes since the Horus Heresy. Battle of Pluto (Unknown Date.M41) - This event was recorded by the Chaos Lord Typhus, the former First Captain of the Death Guard Traitor Legion and the Herald of Nurgle, who was present aboard his flagship, the Chaos Battleship Terminus Est, which was overseeing the battle from orbit. Over Pluto, the Lords of Decay and several other fleets of allied Nurgleite Chaos Space Marines broke out of the Warp and quickly dispatched the nearby merchant ships. They quickly descended to the surface of Pluto where the Chaos Lord Festernius unleashed a plague of nitrogen-fixing bacteria that turned all of the nitrogen storage cisterns present on the planet for Imperial industrial use into toxic ammonia deposits. The Imperial Navy's entire Battlefleet Solar emerged from the Warp 6 hours later in response to the distress call from Pluto and engaged the Nurgleite fleet above that frozen planetoid. A strike force of Adeptus Custodes from Terra teleported down to the surface of Pluto and were supported by several units of Howling Griffons Space Marines who were in the vicinity of the Sol System at the time and Grey Knights from the nearby Ordo Malleus base on Titan. In single combat, Festernius challenged the sergeant leading the Custodes detachment to combat and reportedly slew him and his strike force of 6 Custodes to a man. Festernius was reported to have vomited on the Custodes' sergeant's breastplate, melting through the ceramite layers of his Power Armour and then, thrusting both his hands into the hole, tore the powerful Custodes warrior in two. Despite this brief victory, 4,000 Traitor Marines were slain to a man by the Howling Griffons and Grey Knight forces with Festernius eventually being defeated in single combat by the Captain of the Grey Knights. He was recorded to have burst apart Festernius' plague spewer with a shot from his Stormbolter before extinguishing the Chaos Lord's disease-ravaged mind with a psychic blast. Of the Chaos warfleet that assaulted the Sol System's outermost defences, 27 starships were destroyed by the wrath of Battlefleet Solar while only 3 Imperial vessels were lost. The downside is we somehow lost over 4000 Marines.... To less than 2000 Marines... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Visitor13 Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 The downside is we somehow lost over 4000 Marines.... To less than 2000 Marines... Heh, it's funny how nowadays I can simply say "This didn't happen" to things like this and carry on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctus Cornix Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Well I suppose this is the one time I will really say that it's within reason. I have no doubts that being so close to Terra, the Grey Knights would have mobilized their entire force to counter the Nurgle army. While I completely disregard all fluff from the terrible abomination that is the Matt Ward Grey Knight's Codex, the one thing that the grey knights are good at fighting are those tainted by chaos. No doubt going in unrestrained, the grey knights more than likely used their vast wealth of terminator armour to give them a massive advantage and let us of course not forget the millions of humans that were also probably sent into the meat grinder. Even such a force of chaos space Marines should know that to hurl themselves at the seat of the imperium was a suicide attack. But now the imperium is afraid. Now the seed of doubt and despair has been planted in the souls of those who sit comfortably on Terra.... We will come again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incinerator950 Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 What a waste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctus Cornix Posted August 31, 2012 Share Posted August 31, 2012 Perhaps but, as Whythre put it so well, what makes the Death Guard so interesting is that strength born from insane desperation. They are the desperate who do not care. They have nothing left to live for and only desire one last lash out against the empire that disowned them so long ago. I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rain Posted September 16, 2012 Share Posted September 16, 2012 In general Chaos isn't the faction that you play if you want to be the ones winning in the fluff all the time. We are the villains, and as such we tend to lose as a plot device. That said, we are still around, and we are the only ones that still have Heresy veterans kicking around, which, if you think about it, any Heresy veteran would have to have beaten dozens of loyalists into a pulp by now so it's not so grim, it's just that GW doesn't deign to tell the stories that involve Imperials getting their tails handed to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cptn. Palladorus Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 I think the most interesting yet bitter sweet fluff of a battle the Death Guard and their cousin warbands have been in is the seige of Pluto (in the Siege of Vraks books) where the children of Nurgle are the first traitor Marines to ever dare attack the solar system and also the first to kill an adeptus custodes since the Horus Heresy. Considering it was within the Terran system, I think what they achieved was pretty remarkable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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