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The Berserkers of Uran - a thread from the past

Raktra

By Raktra
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  • 1 month later...
bluntblade Venerable Brother

bluntblade

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The Vilja Cleansing

When an expeditionary fleet of the Steel Legion discovered a Hrud infestation in the Vilja Strait, they concluded that nothing less than extermination was in order and petitioned the Berserkers of Uran for aid. Once their request was acknowledged they garrisoned nearby Imperial worlds, knowing that the VIIth Legion had no inclination to set up defences of their own. For two months they led the Imperial response, containing the xenos, but at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Imperial lives as Army troopers aged to death in the presence of the Hrud. Then the Berserkers arrived, some 40,000 Astartes led by their Primarch.

Raktra Akarro elected for a strategy which was simple and brutal, but highly effective. First, he deployed penal regiments to several densely populated Hrud worlds, which the Imperium would want to conquer relatively intact. Set down with little in the way of artillery or vehicular support, the mortal troops were used to draw the xenos out into the open, where a combination of orbital bombardment and drop-strikes by the Berserkers devastated their ramshackle armies.

The White Devil was well aware of the danger the entropic fields of the Hrud posed, and was pursuing a strategy that would incur minimal losses to his Legion. Apart from potential casualties, temporal distortion threatened to cause severe losses to the Legion's wargear, to say nothing of gene-seed rotted and dessicated past usefulness. Mortal losses he would accept without a second thought, but he guarded his Legion's power jealously. Thus, as the strategy took shape, he orchestrated a grand trap for the aliens.

On planets deemed unviable for human colonisation, he unleashed the Blood Boilers with sanction to use every weapon in their terrible arsenal. The results were horrifying, even to Imperial commanders who had spent decades waging war against the alien. Led by Riktus Innorvak, the Blood Boilers unleashed alchemical and nuclear scourges on the Hrud, inflicting damage vastly disproportionate to their numbers. The Legio Yharma walked with them, their weapons modified to wield the same alchem-weapons. The Hrud, lacking anything like the Eldar Wraithkind or Ork Gargants, had no answer for such monstrous power.

The Hrud fled across several systems with the Berserkers in pursuit. This was the most dangerous part of the operation, and several vessels were lost to the ravages of the entropic fields during void engagements, their hulls corroding and collapsing even as they fought. However, led by the flagship Hooded Guillotine, the VIIth successfully hounded the vast majority of the Hrud into a single system, the Steel Legion and Army vessels helping to herd them where the Primarch demanded.

With the prey run to ground, Raktra ordered the largest planet to be destroyed completely. Hardly bothering to engage the enemy fleet, the Berserkers' vessels bombarded the planet with murderous precision, boring straight to the core. The world simply collapsed under the onslaught, the cataclysm swallowing up most of the Hrud fleet as the rest scattered. After two years of bloodshed, it only took a month to eradicate the survivors.

The Legion won a rare degree of acclaim for the campaign, for Raktra had completed it with remarkably little loss of materiel and even life. Even those who detested the White Devil were forced to admit that it was an astoundingly thorough victory, if not one that anyone would call “clean”.

Edited by bluntblade
bluntblade Venerable Brother

bluntblade

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The Hermeka Compliance

The conquest of Hermeka has gone down in the annals of the Great Crusade as one that illustrated both the unique talents of the VIIth and the drawbacks of their savage nature. It began as a joint expedition by the Berserkers and the Godslayers, which scoured several worlds of their xenos occupiers until it came across a human civilisation. At this point, the differing ethos of the two Legions surfaced.

The Hermeka System lay under the aegis of the Knight House Achaea, which had gradually come to govern the entire system after losing touch with the tech-priests of Mars. They agreed to hold talks on the system’s fourth planet, but balked at Raktra's blunt demands for submission. Koschei Kharkovic attempted to salvage the situation, but the situation degenerated too quickly and within minutes war was declared.

The Godslayers’ primarch lamented this turn of events and prepared to return to orbit, but Raktra ordered him to wait. Seconds later, several squads of Milewalkers and Blood Boilers teleported into the courtrooms where negotiations had taken place. Raktra had made contingency plans for the failure of diplomacy in his inimitable way, knowing that the majority of the system's political and military leaders would be gathered in one place. Having been instructed beforehand, they slaughtered every man and woman present. Koschei was appalled, but the momentum and initiative clearly lay with Raktra and the Godslayers were dragged along in his wake as the Imperial forces seized the capital.

The fighting was brutal, as Achaea, led by the High King's son Aeneas, quickly rallied their forces in the city, but the Berserkers landed troops both within and outside the walls. Caught off guard and outnumbered, the defenders were massacred. Raktra led the battle against their Knight Walkers, personally destroying the Swift Arrow and killing Baron Aeneas. The Godslayers participated, recognising an irretrievable situation, but were largely sidelined amid the carnage.

Raktra's next move was to position ships above every other major city, damping communications in the capital. After leaving the populace to stew in their confusion and fear for a day, Godslayer and Berserker forces deployed to each settlement, demanding they surrender. Those that resisted were crushed underfoot by the invaders, the Godslayers reluctantly going along with Raktra's scheme while the Hermekan fleet was scattered by Army warships.

Koschei set off for the remaining worlds. Finding that their leaders would not negotiate with him, he broadcast images of the carnage to them. Some historians draw parallels with Pionus' actions on Punicia, but unlike his brother, Koschei was unable to set aside his emotions, pleading with the Hermekans to surrender and avoid adding to the carnage that had befallen their capital. To his relief, they did so, shaken by the distress of this mighty warrior. However, his elation was dashed when Raktra congratulated him for his “help.” Koschei realised that he had been manipulated every step of the way, Raktra using him to ensure clean compliances across the rest of the system. No record exists of Koschei's response, but rumours suggest that he actually struck Raktra in his fury.

Whatever the truth, the Berserkers departed soon after. The Godslayers did the best they could to ease the Hermekan people into the Imperium, but it was decades until the planet would know true compliance. Moreover, relations between the two Legions were in ruins, and it would take a very dark turn in the Godslayers’ path to set them beside the Berserkers again.

Edited by bluntblade
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
Kelborn Venerable Brother

Kelborn

Posted
Posted

Ok guys,

 

now I got some spare time.

 

The very first impression I had in mind while reading blunts post on discord were Knights equipped with hooks/ hook cannons to pull their enemies into melee range.

One minute later, this came into my mind:

Or how about something like the Dinobots?
Painted carapace, flamers
Brutal, yet simple minded
A Knight House which is ruled by Tech magi / Sacristans, who are unable to use the Knights due to their improvements, etc. While they were able to hold up some kind of civilization in isolation, did the rest of the people descent into barbarism.
Thus they make use of a primitive barbarians. By indoctrinating them, they obey their orders. In order to do this, do the Sacristans use something like the Butcher's Nails pluged into their heads as a receptor for orders.. Instead of overriding their ability to feel pain, those Nails override their self-awareness.
In the end, you got obedient savages in control of giant Knights.
The Knight suits have become wild beasts, retaining the brutality of their Scions.
Equipped with different kinds of cc weapons and flamers.
 

a09648629eeb69f3c088e4b25222b82d.jpg

 

If it's nothing of use for you, then I'm considering them as potential allies of the Predators.

 

Like I said, just an idea. :)

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