Trilogy 4 (alpha) - Escalation

[Kelborn]

Though I'd love to discuss Star Wars (being a fan my entire life), I'd rather stay on topic.

 

That being sad, the last thing concerning the topic were Mikhals and my own concerns and a small response of blunt about the Lions.

 

If the Lions would do the most damage in an all out attack of the Imperium, it would make even more sense to bin their forces by unleashing the Eagle Warriors and Berserkers. If there is a possible battle, worth of note, it would be Cadia.

forget that

Edited August 29, 2016 by Kelborn

[simison]

Kel, to be blunt, I'm not actually sure what your criticism is. You're okay with Cadia being turned into a battlefield, but not the rest of Mycenae? Meanwhile you don't think the other Traitor Legions are doing anything? 

Edited August 29, 2016 by simison

[bluntblade]

For a standalone battle, Cadia wouldn't be plausible. It's a lot of territory to wade through, and doesn't provide that many recruits to the Legion as a whole.

[Kelborn]

Don't want to offend someone but am I the only one realizing that they don't have to wade through territory in order to attack something????

 

They can attack wherever they want. If Travier really wants to go to the Eye of Terror, no one can stop him from doing so. The only reason I'm mentioning Cadia is its position right next to the Eye. If Travier needs a bloodbath to let Raktra ascend, why not Cadia? It was just an example. An attempt to let something happen within Mycenae.

Insert another planets name if you want. It can happen everywhere.

 

Why spending precious resources to attack a well defended realm behind Terra? Why not spending these resources to wage war across the entire Imperium like I tried to picture it for you?

 

The Lions are not the Ultramarines. They don't get surprised by the attack of Icarions forces like Guiliman was above Calth. They prepared their realm for a possible invasion. I just don't see the reasoning to let the traitors run against a wall of prepared guns. (correct term?)

 

 

My criticism is that I don't see the sense in the whole Mycenae campaign at all. I'm not saying that the traitor Legions don't do anything. I'm just offering suggestions and thoughts to think about it.

 

We are not acting on a 2D battlefield, where we need to conquer territory in order to get somewhere. They (Horus) / We (Icarion) could theoretically charged directly at Terra.

 

And if it is all about providing recruits, there are plenty of other possible worlds to get recruits from instead of a realm like Mycenae.

[bluntblade]

They could attack Cadia, but then they're putting themselves in a position where the Dominion's entire defence forces can stomp them. Same reason Horus doesn't just Warp jump straight for Terra. Edited August 29, 2016 by bluntblade

[bluntblade]

The fighting across the border is ongoing, and has been for years at this stage. For the reasons I outlined above, this is Icarion's throw of the dice to alter the equation.

[MikhalLeNoir]

Okay. I think, I know the plan of Travier is to either let Hectarion and/or Raktra ascend. Best possible outcome is that hectarion is lured near the eye of terra and while fightimg raktra gives in to the rage and the blooddaemon shard is empowered and takes control. Boom daemon primarch And raktra too os empowered: two new bloodthirster primarchs. It could be then possible to turn the lions as a whole as they are loyal to hec. Win situation for Travier.

 

Or hec will give in to the rage and becomes daemon killing raktra. Win you habe 1 primarch and 2 legions. Nerserkers and lions.

 

Or raktra killa hec. Becomes daemon. One primarch down.

 

The plan is to lure hec into the eye as far as trsvier is concerned.

 

But you are right. They don't need cadia to enter the eye. It is just there to lure hec deeper into their trap.

 

 

But I second you into that it is in my view still not plaisoble for the lions to be there in close to full strength, because terra is closer to the stormrealms and no need for icarion to open an additional front with no real gain for his goal. The iron throne in terra.

But having them.muster there cuz maybe alex plans an maneuver to outmaneuver icarion but he is doublecrossed by the.stormlord would make.actually sense.It gives a plausible reason to have the lions gather there although this would not show alex as a bright tactician. Can you show it more that you plan to invade? Hello? But maybe it was thought as a diversion so that on another place small ambiahes en masse on from the loyalists can hurt the stormrealms. We will never know

Edited August 29, 2016 by MikhalLeNoir

[Kelborn]

The way Mikhal explained it, makes sense. That would allow us to improve or dive deeper into the dark ritual of Travier with either one Primarch dead or one / two ascending.

 

Show me something similar in another project or the canon timeline.

 

I'm not intending to skip the whole concept.

 

There is room for improvement. That's for sure.

 

We got so specific, unique Legions with individual abilities. Why not making use of them? Instead, we're working on a "normal" assault / siege kind of attack like everyone else.

 

Shouldn't we try to stand out of the mass?

Edited August 29, 2016 by Kelborn

[bluntblade]

Thing is, the Eagle Warriors (pre complete unveiling of their Chaotic my practices), Berserkers and Lions are about the most up-front Legions we have in terms of tactics. The more unusual stuff will really come into play with the Harbingers, Grave Stalkers, Dune Serpents and others.

[Sigismund229]

Warning: Triple post incoming as I have to adress this first before posting the rest of Gidion Rift(seeing as I'm on my phone I can't post more th 1,400 words at a time).

 

Mikhal&Kelborn: I see your concern. However, Icarion has a lot of reasons to attack Mycenae.

 

1. He tried to break through to Terra. It didn't work. The way there is just too well defended by Halycon Wardens, Fire Keepers and auxilia of various stripes. So trying there again is like hitting his head against a brick wall, there's no point to it and it will hurt him more than it will gain him.

 

2. He needs a victory to hold his empire together. Sure, some systems will stick with him no matter what but a lot will have joined him out of desire not to get destroyed. They will be wavering, wondering if they're on the right side. He needs to give them a substantial victory to keep them on his side and he's already presented the Bears as all but destroyed by the GS and Godslayer over Kataii.

 

3. Yes. The Dominion is well defended. But not as well defended as the route Terra and more important than the Imperial holdings on the Eastern Fringe. Taking out the Dominion is achievable(just about) and is impressive, whereas assaulting Terra would be massively costly and Icarion isn't as desperate as later in the Insurrection.

 

So it's three birds with one stone. Destroy the Crimson Lions, remove the threat of an assault from the Dominion and test Travier's promises about the gods. As to what the other legions are up to, this is just Icarion's biggest offensive. There are lots of subsidiary attacks going on by the other traitor legions.

The Lions Unleashed

Seeing this new fleet, the vast traitor armada, under the command of Alexos Travier, turned to face them and deny an orbital assault against the traitor elements already landed on Aran. However, the fleet that was heading their would be anything but easy to contain. While it was smaller than their own armada, it held within it 75,000 Crimson Lions, all eager for battle and hungry for vengeance against those who had slain their brothers and murdered their worlds. And it wasn't just the Crimson Lions fleet. There were also many vessels of the Leonic Auxilia carrying bionic enhanced armsmen cohorts.

 

When the two fleets came together, it was the beginning of the largest orbital engagement of the Insurrection so far. While the traitors opened fire at maximum range and were answered by the Leonic Auxilia vessels, the Crimson Lions held fire, instead diverting all power to their front void shields. This was maintained until they were in amongst the traitor fleet, when they opened up with a salvoe of boarding torpedoes and fire from their plasma batteries. Each of the boarding torpedoes slammed home into a traitor vessel and disgorged its payload of Crimson Lions who stormed onto the traitor vessels and began to fight their way towards the bridge or enginarium, bringing with them the vengeance of the Lions. In an arrowhead formation, the Crimson Lions ships carved a path into the traitor fleet, with those at the tip heading straight for the Godess of Tears and Red Comet, the twin flagships of the Eagle Warriors.

 

The first ship to reach the two Eagle Warriors flagships was the Crimson Lions flagship, the Lupa Sanguis. However, the boarding pods it loosed did not contain ordinary legionaries. They contained Hectarion Mycenor, primarch of the Crimson Lions, as well as the Improdoi terminators and elite legionaries of Clan Mycenor. Hand picked from the finest warriors of the Clans, the legionaries of Clan Mycenor were the most skilled fighters their legion had to offer while the Improdoi were terminator specialists, chosen for their skill at using terminator armour and led by Gathos, one of the most brutal warriors Mycenae had to give. The larger boarding party, that led by Hectarion in person, slammed into the Red Comet and immediately began hacking their way towards the bridge, while the force who had boarded the Godess of Tears began the long battle towards the enginarium.

 

All around them, a similar scene was repeated as boarding parties of Crimson Lions charged into traitor vessels even as their own ships opened up with volley after volley from their plasma batteries. Once on board, the Crimson Lions hacked their way through any resistance they found, letting their swords and axes taste the blood of traitors as they broke bones by punching their shields into the enemy. As his sons wreaked their vengeance on the traitor fleet, Hectarion and his chosen warriors, the Myramodons, had reached the bridge of the Red Comet, to find Alexos Travier in prayer. When Hectarion made to execute his wayward brother however, his axe Godstooth met Travier's spear. As the battle of Gidion Rift raged all around them, Hectarion and Alexos duelled, Eagle Warrior and Crimson Lion alike making way for these two gods of battle as they fought across the bridge.

 

Travier's spear and Hectarion's chainaxe clashed with great showers of sparks and the two primarchs battled in soul as well as reality, as Alexos fought to bring Hectarion's shame, the bloodthirster shard that had resided in him since his battle with Ma'annan so many years ago, to the fore and Hectarion fought with every ounce of his will to keep it chained up inside him. Fighting with the hate only brothers can muster, Travier and Hectarion hammered at each others defences and inflicted dozens of wounds on each other, Hectarion with great sweeps of his axe and Travier with pyschic powers and quick stabs from his spear. However, it was clear that Hectarion was the more martially skilled of the two brothers and he soon dealt Travier a grevious injury, his axe tearing through the flesh of Travier's face. However, far from showing any signs of surprise or shock, Travier disengaged from his brother even as his own life blood leaked from his face onto the deck of the bridge and laughed. So it was that Travier's gambit was revealed.

The Lions Unleashed

Seeing this new fleet, the vast traitor armada, under the command of Alexos Travier, turned to face them and deny an orbital assault against the traitor elements already landed on Aran. However, the fleet that was heading their would be anything but easy to contain. While it was smaller than their own armada, it held within it 75,000 Crimson Lions, all eager for battle and hungry for vengeance against those who had slain their brothers and murdered their worlds. And it wasn't just the Crimson Lions fleet. There were also many vessels of the Leonic Auxilia carrying bionic enhanced armsmen cohorts.

 

When the two fleets came together, it was the beginning of the largest orbital engagement of the Insurrection so far. While the traitors opened fire at maximum range and were answered by the Leonic Auxilia vessels, the Crimson Lions held fire, instead diverting all power to their front void shields. This was maintained until they were in amongst the traitor fleet, when they opened up with a salvoe of boarding torpedoes and fire from their plasma batteries. Each of the boarding torpedoes slammed home into a traitor vessel and disgorged its payload of Crimson Lions who stormed onto the traitor vessels and began to fight their way towards the bridge or enginarium, bringing with them the vengeance of the Lions. In an arrowhead formation, the Crimson Lions ships carved a path into the traitor fleet, with those at the tip heading straight for the Godess of Tears and Red Comet, the twin flagships of the Eagle Warriors.

 

The first ship to reach the two Eagle Warriors flagships was the Crimson Lions flagship, the Lupa Sanguis. However, the boarding pods it loosed did not contain ordinary legionaries. They contained Hectarion Mycenor, primarch of the Crimson Lions, as well as the Improdoi terminators and elite legionaries of Clan Mycenor. Hand picked from the finest warriors of the Clans, the legionaries of Clan Mycenor were the most skilled fighters their legion had to offer while the Improdoi were terminator specialists, chosen for their skill at using terminator armour and led by Gathos, one of the most brutal warriors Mycenae had to give. The larger boarding party, that led by Hectarion in person, slammed into the Red Comet and immediately began hacking their way towards the bridge, while the force who had boarded the Godess of Tears began the long battle towards the enginarium.

 

All around them, a similar scene was repeated as boarding parties of Crimson Lions charged into traitor vessels even as their own ships opened up with volley after volley from their plasma batteries. Once on board, the Crimson Lions hacked their way through any resistance they found, letting their swords and axes taste the blood of traitors as they broke bones by punching their shields into the enemy. As his sons wreaked their vengeance on the traitor fleet, Hectarion and his chosen warriors, the Myramodons, had reached the bridge of the Red Comet, to find Alexos Travier in prayer. When Hectarion made to execute his wayward brother however, his axe Godstooth met Travier's spear. As the battle of Gidion Rift raged all around them, Hectarion and Alexos duelled, Eagle Warrior and Crimson Lion alike making way for these two gods of battle as they fought across the bridge.

 

Travier's spear and Hectarion's chainaxe clashed with great showers of sparks and the two primarchs battled in soul as well as reality, as Alexos fought to bring Hectarion's shame, the bloodthirster shard that had resided in him since his battle with Ma'annan so many years ago, to the fore and Hectarion fought with every ounce of his will to keep it chained up inside him. Fighting with the hate only brothers can muster, Travier and Hectarion hammered at each others defences and inflicted dozens of wounds on each other, Hectarion with great sweeps of his axe and Travier with pyschic powers and quick stabs from his spear. However, it was clear that Hectarion was the more martially skilled of the two brothers and he soon dealt Travier a grevious injury, his axe tearing through the flesh of Travier's face. However, far from showing any signs of surprise or shock, Travier disengaged from his brother even as his own life blood leaked from his face onto the deck of the bridge and laughed. So it was that Travier's gambit was revealed.

Travier's Gambit

As Travier laughed, the void of the Gidion Rift exploded with traitor vessels, as small traitor ships burst out from their positions at the flanks of the armada and tore into the Crimson Lion and Leonic Auxilia ships. Travier had exploited the Crimson Lion's desire for vengeance and drawn them into the centre of his armada where he had placed all of his large vessels. Seeing this as the heart of the enemy fleet, the Crimson Lions had charged into it as was their wont, launching themselves into the fiercest fighting. However, in doing so they had allowed themselves to become strung out, the need for vengeance that burned in their hearts overshadowing their strategic sense. Now, the traitors light ships were able to attack single vessels rather than a united fleet and so the Crimson Lions ships began to die, bleeding to death from a thousand cuts and those who didn't found themselves fighting for their lives.

 

Seeing that he and his sons had been led into a trap, Hectarion was forced to growl an order to retreat to all forces, leaving Alexos Travier bleeding and laughing on the bridge. The Crimson Lions across the fleet began to fight their way off of the ships they had boarded, fuelled by a bitter anger at how Travier had tricked them where before they had been driven by a desire for revenge. Those who were too deep into enemy ships to fight their way off locked shields and prepared to sell their lives dearly or continued fighting their way towards the enginarium of the vessels they were on, wishing to inflict as much pain upon the traitors with their dying breath as they could.

 

With the traitors holding the upper hand, they now went on the offensive and many Eagle Warriors and Berserkers of Uran boarded vessels of the Crimson Lions. This led to many acts of heroism and madness such as Alauros Fereis of the Leighai on board the Void Queen. Rallying a force of wounded Crimson Lions from the apothacerion and unleashing those of the Cursed who remained onboard the Void Queen in stassis, he launched a desperate counter offensive against the Eagle Warriors who had boarded his ship and he and his ad hoc assault force fought long and fiercely enough to annihilate the boarding party, even at the cost of their own lives.

 

In another instance, when traitors boarded the Lupa Sanguis, the defences were led by Ancient Ærrion and the other dreadnoughts on board the vessel. Ærrion himself led a unit of Leonic Auxilia armsmen and they protected his flanks as he tore through traitors and they would eventually drive all the traitors off of their flagship, but not before four of the ersa laoch had fallen.

 

Regrouping and fighting with bitter anger, the Crimson Lions began to retreat, the Lupa Sanguis and the flagships of Clan Darran and Garda providing the rearguard as the Crimson Lions began to fight their way free of the trap. Even as their brothers retreated, many units of Crimson Lions reached the enginariums of traitor vessels and set melta bombs in key points on the engines meaning that when the melta bombs exploded, they took the ship with them. Such was the fate of the Godess of Tears, one of Travier's favoured vessels to direct orbital wars from. However, such victories could not change the overall outcome of the battle. When the last of the Crimson Lion vessels translated into the warp, they left behind them the shattered husks of many of their ships.

 

Floating through the void above the Gidion Rift were the rapidly freezing bodies of 32,000 Crimson Lions, nearly half the entire force present at the Gidion Rift and the hulks of as much as 46% of the fleet that was present. However, while a great victory for the traitors, it was not costless. Alongside the Lions drifted 29,000 Eagle Warriors and Berserkers of Uran and more had died in the fires of their ships engines exploding, bringing total traitor losses to 34,000 astartes and countless millions of Cultists and Penal troopers.

[simison]

Strategically-speaking, yes, the invasion of Mycenae is a bad idea. While a concentrated force could break through the initial defenses, any invading force would be whittled down as the Lions are able to pull together elements and chip away at the attackers. 

 

But, that would be ignoring Chaos. What Travier has offered is a means to empower, not just the Berserkers, but the entire Traitor military through daemonic blessings. To prove this is possible, the Berserkers are being used as the willing test subjects. So, the invasion is accomplishing two strategic objectives. One, it is doing plenty of damage to the Lions and to the Dominion. Two, whatever casualties that would be lost in this invasion would be replaced by the multiplying strength of Chaos investments. Additionally, Travier has dangled a bonus objective of corrupting Hectarion, which would completely undo the Imperium's northern flank. The potential payoff far outstrips the potential loss if things go according to plan.

 

That is why Icarion is enacting this attack. And, we know from canon, that to turn any Primarch into a Daemon Primarch requires a tremendous toll of blood and life, which is where the Blood Crusade comes in. Merely going above the galactic plane and coming back down onto Cadia isn't enough to fuel the ritual. Travier needs Raktra to rampage through the Dominion to have the necessary amount of death for the ascension.

 

Make no mistake, this is not the only campaign going on. There are a half-dozen diversionary campaigns going on between Icarion and Alex that allows the Blood Crusade to be feasible. I don't understand the complaint that we're not seeing enough of the other Legions because that's not the point of this book, much in the same way Tempest didn't talk much about the Sons of Horus or the Blood Angels. It's about the Ultramarines against the Word Bearers. Here, it's about the Berserkers against the Lions. 

 

Now, if your complaint is that there's not enough variation in the campaign descriptions, I think there's a valid point here. FW is renowned for offering a ton of detail and to paint their battles. I'm not sure we're seeing the proper level of description here. I think Conquest would offer a good template for Escalation.

[Sigismund229]

sim, about the detail. Now that I'm at home and have my computer again, I can put all the stuff I have so far into a word document and start going back in and adding on detail(as well as editing. It's going to be a long afternoon)

[MikhalLeNoir]

the long battle towards the enginarium.

 

All around them, a similar scene was repeated as boarding parties of Crimson Lions charged into traitor vessels even as their own ships opened up with volley after volley from their plasma batteries. Once on board, the Crimson Lions hacked their way through any resistance they found, letting their swords and axes taste the blood of traitors as they broke bones by punching their shields into the enemy. As his sons wreaked their vengeance on the traitor fleet, Hectarion and his chosen warriors, the Myramodons, had reached the bridge of the Red Comet, to find Alexos Travier in prayer. When Hectarion made to execute his wayward brother however, his axe Godstooth met Travier's spear. As the battle of Gidion Rift raged all around them, Hectarion and Alexos duelled, Eagle Warrior and Crimson Lion alike making way for these two gods of battle as they fought across the bridge.

 

Travier's spear and Hectarion's chainaxe clashed with great showers of sparks and the two primarchs battled in soul as well as reality, as Alexos fought to bring Hectarion's shame, the bloodthirster shard that had resided in him since his battle with Ma'annan so many years ago, to the fore and Hectarion fought with every ounce of his will to keep it chained up inside him. Fighting with the hate only brothers can muster, Travier and Hectarion hammered at each others defences and inflicted dozens of wounds on each other, Hectarion with great sweeps of his axe and Travier with pyschic powers and quick stabs from his spear. However, it was clear that Hectarion was the more martially skilled of the two brothers and he soon dealt Travier a grevious injury, his axe tearing through the flesh of Travier's face. However, far from showing any signs of surprise or shock, Travier disengaged from his brother even as his own life blood leaked from his face onto the deck of the bridge and laughed. So it was that Travier's gambit was revealed.

 

You sure travier would risk this? I like the trick he used. But I don't think thst he will be near enough to hectarion for him to attack. Luring someone into a trap is something different than laying his head on a plate. He is always 2 minutes before hec. He controls the whole Situation and wouldnt risk his life for a good laugh. He is not the joker. AO108 agrees in that and is not happy about this. Fitting would be ( and yes, i love the boarding action, very sell executed) if hec enters the flagship and no alexos there. Just a countdown and a message. "Up" and hec realites in terror that he was tricked. Actions like that would built rage in a character even more. Losing a few of his myrmidons by the action.

Edited August 29, 2016 by MikhalLeNoir

[AlphariusOmegon108]

I do not meam to insult anyone, but here is my unsalted opinion on the fiighting scene from our brother sigi.

 

Do you take Alexos as some kind of fool? I am sorry but get out of your mary-sue zone right. Now.

 

Alexos is a psyker, a deamon inhabited one to boot. He would have known that Hec was coming 5 minutes beforehand at minimum. He wouldn't just face Hec one on one like that, he KNOWS he is the lesser fighter, he is the way more smarter one of the pair as well. Alexos already masters his liquidization technique by then as described in his end fight with gwal, he is like smoke to a direct cut, melting away before that. If Hec uses a special technique, then maybe yes, he can get a few cuts at Alexos. But you make Alexos look very unprepared in your stories, alexos is the attacking force here, it's his way of working. He would dissapear right after he starts bleeding heavily.

 

Your fighting scene is also VERY close to the fight of Alpharius and Dorn. Look out for that.

 

EDIT: I see Mikhail ninjad me. And he is on point. Alexos thinks ahead, but loves an ironic joke that builts the rage in hectarion. This way Alexos hopes to make hectarion come even closer to deamonofication

Edited August 29, 2016 by AlphariusOmegon108

[simison]

sim, about the detail. Now that I'm at home and have my computer again, I can put all the stuff I have so far into a word document and start going back in and adding on detail(as well as editing. It's going to be a long afternoon)

 

That's fine. Remember, take it at a breathable pace. You're making good time as it is. 

[Sigismund229]

AO&Mikhal: I thought that Travier would want something to draw Hectarion in so that he and his legion fleet would be strung out when he sprung his trap and I got an image in my mind as I was writing of Travier and Hec fighting on the bridge of the Red Comet and sparks flying off their weapons as they fought with the two fleets blasting away at each other in the background. I may have gotten a tad carried away :P

 

 

So, as I read through the fluff of Horus Heresy books 3 and 4, I've started re writing my early drafts of fluff, including the summary of events up until the Blood Crusade. Here's what I've got so far. 

 

The Time of War

The Day of Revelation

In the year 044.M31, the Imperium was sent reeling from an enormous blow to the power of the legions. Seven of the legions had suffered casualties on a scale that none had imagined possible and the unimaginable had come to pass. A primarch had been felled, killed by an enemy’s blade. This blow was made all the harder by which primarch had been felled: Daer’dd Niimkiikaa. For much of the Great Crusade, the Bear had been a uniting force, his jovial manner winning over all but a few of his brothers. Now his sons are scattered, their strength divided by their withdrawal from the massacre that had threatened to consume them all.

 

However, it was no xenos foe that had wrought such destruction on the Emperor’s legions. It was their brother legions, who shook off their oaths of loyalty to the Imperium and slaughtered their former brothers in an orgy of bloodletting unmatched by even the most vicious battles of the Great Crusade and they were led by the Emperor’s favoured son: Icarion Anasem, the Stormborn. Raising his flag in rebellion against Terra, Icarion had rallied nine of his brother primarchs and their legions to his cause and unleashed them against those of his brothers who he had foreseen remaining loyal to Terra. However, the newly proclaimed Stormlord knew that this victory, great though it was, would not assure his victory. The only way to do that was through conquering Terra and displacing the Emperor.

 

The march to Terra would be long and bloody, for the Day of Revelation had not annihilated the loyalists, who stood bloodied but unbowed. Worlds would burn and the galaxy would be drenched in the blood of the legions before the Stormlord sat on the throne of Terra. Brother who had put countless xenos races to the sword and countless worlds into compliance now turned their weapons on each other. The Imperium burned with the fires of a war fought with the brutality of betrayed brothers. What the legions had once inflicted upon the xenos and rebels, they now inflicted upon each other.

 

The board is set. The pieces are moving.

 

The galaxy burns.

 

The Stormlord’s Armies

The names of those who turned their backs upon the Imperium on the Day of Revelation were many. Foremost among them were the legions of the Adeptus Astartes who had sworn their allegiance to the Stormlord: Harbingers, Berserkers of Uran, Godslayers, Warbringers, Eagle Warriors, Grave Stalkers, Drowned, Warriors of Peace, Stygian Jackals. The names of these nine legions would echo across eternity in infamy, for off all those who joined the Stormlord, their betrayal was the greatest. Once the defenders of humanity and prosecutors of the Great Crusade, they would now be the Stormlord’s shock troops in his insurrection.

 

However, it was not just the legions who had joined the Stormlord. Perhaps half of the Titan Legions and regiments of the Imperial Army joined him, placing themselves at his command. Some were deceived, others followed him because of ancient oaths of honour, others still followed out of loyalty to the legion to which they were attached. Their reasons for joining themselves to his cause do not matter. All that matters is that they followed him in his treachery, giving him countless millions of troops to call on and even the god machines of the Mechanicus. Both would serve their role in his war. Yet for all the vast numbers of the Imperial Army and the enormous power of the titans, neither was capable of seizing Terra. A thousand ships and ten million men could assault that world’s mighty defences and a thousand ships and ten million men would be killed or thrown back by the defenders of the Imperial Palace, the Adeptus Custodes and the Warmaster’s V^th legion.

 

The war would be decided by the legions and so it is that the Stormlord’s strength could be accurately represented by the number of legionaries he commanded. Thanks to the success of the Stormlord’s forces upon the Day of Revelation, many of his legions had yet to suffer serious losses and they had inflicted terrible losses upon those who held fast to their allegiance to the Emperor. The only exception to this were the Grave Stalkers. Despite the element of surprise, they had been hit hard by the wrath of the Iron Bears once the Grave Stalkers and Godslayer’s treachery was apparent. While they had inflicted grievous wounds on the Iron Bears, they had been badly mauled in return and their primarch, K’awil Pakal, had suffered horrendous injuries while fighting his vengeful brother, Daer’dd. 

 

Yet the Grave Stalkers aside, the Stormlord’s superiority in legionaries was easily evident. While it is difficult to obtain verifiable figures, most estimates place the number of astartes under arms in his cause at around 1,000,000 or higher. In addition to their numerical superiority, many of these would be veterans of the Great Crusade, experienced in war and tested in battle against other legions by the Day of Revelation.

 

Despite this clear superiority in legion numbers and experience, to risk an immediate push on Terra would be foolhardy in the extreme. If he did so, the Stormlord risked dashing his strength against the defences of the Sol system, squandering the advantages he had gained through the Day of Revelation. Instead, the Stormlord unleashed his legions but not at Terra, not yet. Instead, their objective was the consolidation of the Stormlord’s hold on the Maelstrom zone and surrounding systems in order to equip him with the necessary tools to fight a protracted civil war against the forces loyal to Terra. Only once his position in the Maelstrom zone could the Stormlord turn his formidable strategic mind to the task of taking Terra. 

 

 

 

I'm hoping I got the bit about the Grave Stalkers right

Edited August 29, 2016 by Sigismund229

[Sigismund229]

After scanning/reading through the fluff for the campaign in HH book 4-Conquest, here's my revised idea for how Escalation's fluff should be structured in order to go into as much detail as possible(and I know feel I have a better idea of the level of detail).

 

Part 1: Times of War

Covers the summary of the Insurrection so far, the fluff of Icarion's plans for the Blood Crusade, the Dominion of Mycenae and the like.

 

Part 2: Title needed

- A section covering the traitor build up, the subsidiary offensives launched by the traitors against loyalist positions, the forces the traitors would committ to the Blood Crusade.

 

Part 3: The Fall of the Eastern March

- The Blood Crusade begins proper. Starts with a map of the Eastern March of Mycenae that shows the early traitor attacks and movements and other important info for this phase. This is the phase when the traitors are attacking the "outer wall" of the Dominion and when the loyalists are still just realising this is where the main traitor push is coming. Culminates with the battle of Gidion Rift.

 

Part 4:

- This section covers the "height" of the Blood Crusade. The traitors are beginning to spread out across the Dominion, attacking vulnerable worlds and major ports. The main battle of this section is the invasion of the Blood Stars by the Eagle Warriors and Cognis culminating in the battle of Askusia Tertius.

 

Part 5: name needed

- Focuses on the traitors invasion of the Dominion's core systems. Crimson Lions rally and defeat them barely.

 

Part 6: name needed

- Focuses on the arrival of the Void Eagles and the loyalists beginning to drive the traitors out of the Dominion and the traitors retreat/thingy towards the Eye of Terror.

 

Part 7: name needed

- Focuses on the build up to Cadia and the battle itself then ultimitely the aftermath of the Blood Crusade.

 

Part 8: Worlds of the Dominion

Clue's in the tital.

 

Part 9: Forces of the Blood Crusade

Onc again, clue is in the name. If we're following Conquest as a guideline, I reckon we could also fit fluff for guys like House Harkon in here.

[bluntblade]

Draft two:

 

+++++

 

As Alexos and Raktra neared the Eye of Terror, they set in motion a grand diversion upon the surface of Cadia itself. Under the command of Dominator Innorvak and Tlacaelel of the Eagle Warriors, the bulk of the two Legions descended on Cadia, surrounding Camulonum and laying siege to the great fortress. This would serve two purposes, rousing Hectarion to a fury that could expose him to corruption by the daemon shard within him, and tying up the bulk of his forces so they could not interfere.

 

Cadia was the fief world and stronghold of Clan Askar, whose forces were bolstered by the fearsome Clan Karakal and four companies of the Halcyon Wardens, as well as some 20 million tribal militia (an adjective that rather belies the modern society established on Cadia, in contrast with many of the feudal and feral worlds in the Dominion) and a million Leonic Auxilia. 5000 Codicii also pledged to defend the planet. It was an impressive force, but Hothor faced a serious challenge in getting these disparate forces to fight effectively together.

 

Once the defence fleet was swept aside, the traitor fleet took up positions above Camulonum. While the fortress's shielding was enough to resist the bombardment, anything outside the walls for 50 kilometres in every direction was pulverised, giving the defenders little chance of preventing the attackers from making planetfall. At the same time the fearsome guns with which Clan Garda had armed Camulonum prevented any landings close within that circumference.

 

The result was a series of running tank battles in which the Halcyon Wardens’ mechanised units proved their worth against the Eagle Warriors, with the mortal troops laying minefields for the invaders. Two thirds of the militia had been stationed away from Camulonum and rushed to engage the invaders. For two days they successfully stalled them in this no man's land, though the cost was hideous. Hothor convinced Karakal to keep his men behind the walls, but the Codicii were not so easily restrained and charged out to meet the Berserkers and Eagle Warriors head-on.

 

On the third, however, the the mightiest of the traitors’ Titans approached the fortress. Against two Warlords and an Imperator an open assault would be suicidal, and Myrvallen Hothor refused to engage them in open battle. Reluctantly, Karakal deferred to his knowledge of the battlefield, and the Lions and Auxilia withdrew. The Militia did their best to follow, but only three million made it to the city, the rest falling beneath the blades, guns and tracks of the invaders. Many divisions were simply wiped out by aerial bombardments and scattered to flee into the wilderness, hunted by jetbike squads. Meanwhile several companies of Codicii were too enraged to contemplate surrender, and remained to fight and die. Only barely a thousand remained to aid in the defence.

 

-----

 

The walls held for roughly a day, a tremendous feat considering the weapons with which the hereteks of Cognis had armed the invaders. Now the fighting shifted to a brutal close-quarters affair, street-by-street as on Mortax. However, the artful work of Garda went beyond the outer defences; within, the architecture was designed to hinder any attacker, full of choke-points and vantage points from which the defenders could rain down gunfire upon their enemies.

 

Yet the tenacity of their enemies was seemingly unending, as were the ranks of their mortal slaves. On two occasions barricades were overwhelmed by the sheer weight of the cultists’ numbers as the fanatics, products of a thousand penal colonies and preached to endlessly by the Eagle Warriors, surged forward to die for their masters. On others the tanks brought into the city simply levelled blocks, allowing the Traitors to engage their enemies en masse. The violence of the Berserkers was greater than ever, though they refrained from using the Destroyer weapons at their disposal. The battle within the fortress raged for four days, without pause. All the defenders could do was endure, hoping that their gene-sire would arrive before their strength gave out.

 

-----

 

Reinforcements were close, but they were not Crimson Lions. Unlooked for, a fleet of the Iron Bears tore their way into realspace and descended upon the traitors. They were a force cobbled together from the First and Fourth Great Wartribes, led by Lord Chiefs Redd, Cass and Nibaasiniiwi. How they masked their approach and travelled so quickly is unknown, but theories include a member of the Nightguard, covert agents operating at Malcador the Sigillite’s behest, the guidance of the Emperor Himself or even the renegade Turrus.

 

Whatever the means, they struck with a ferocity that left the traitor fleet reeling and in disarray, securing positions from which to deploy their troops against the besiegers. Warchiefs Redd and Nibaasiniiwi led the fastest armoured units against them. Yoxer Bellows ran ahead with the jetbikes, racing into the mass of traitors to drop beacons at the feet of the Titans. This daring strategy enabled the Bears to unleash a pinpoint bombardment from orbit, bringing down the Titans and wreaking bloody havoc among the Traitor lines.

 

The tanks and mashkode followed, aiming to splinter the rear lines of the enemy and rob their advance of its momentum. The Eagle Warriors quickly responded with their own cavalry, and thousands of vehicles clashed on the scorched plains. As this battle raged Redd and Nibaasiniiwi dismounted with thousands of their warriors, using the craters left by the destruction of the Titans to avoid being caught up in the cavalry battle.

 

The defenders in Camulonum were quick to respond as the enemy faltered, and began to drive them back. Beyond the walls the plains ran with blood as the Bears grappled with the Eagle Warriors and the mortal zealots who served as their soldiers. The defenders’ morale soared as another force drew near; Hectarion himself this time. However, the Primarch would not intervene personally once he learned that his erstwhile brothers were elsewhere. Instead he sent the bulk of his forces to help break the siege, while he went in pursuit of Raktra and Travier.

 

As the famed cavalry of the Bears’ Second Great Wartribe struck their already beleaguered tanks, the defenders’ victory was ensured. The Insurrectionists were quick to realise their situation, and swiftly fell into a fighting retreat. In a bitter blow, Innorvak challenged and slew Myrvallen Karakal as the Berserkers withdrew from the city. But the traitors' most depraved act of savagery was directed at the Bears, as a hundred Blood Boilers launched a suicide attack with phosphex bombs.

 

The Bears reeled, as their brothers suffered agonising deaths from the Blood Boilers’ chem-weapon onslaught. But worse was to come, as the Eagle Warriors unveiled a maniple of the Corpora Ferro. These cyborgs, formed from dead Astartes and animated by baleful Warp energies, were also prone to the ruinous effects of the phosphex, but felt none of the agony that the Bears did, and would kill as long as their bodies were intact. Nibaasiniiwi's force was driven into a scrambling retreat, as to engage the monstrous creations in hand-to-hand was to be consumed down by the phosphex. Redd's endured by dint of their slower advance, which had allowed the Knights of House Harkon to keep pace with them.

 

Total disaster for Nibaasiniiwi and his comrades was averted by the arrival of the second wave under Cass. Under their guns the Corpora Ferro were swiftly obliterated, but the abominations had served their purpose, and the bulk of the surviving traitor Astartes escaped to orbit. From here, they disengaged and set off in pursuit of their masters, leaving the Loyalists to salvage what they could from the devastation of their world.

[Sigismund229]

So first thing is I like it as a general outline of what's going on on Cadia. However, there's still not really enough detail for the template we're working on. If you want to see the kind of detail we're aiming at, then I suggest reading HH book 4 Conquest. So, with that said, this is all really good work and I'd hate to see it go to waste. So perhaps each of these sections could provide the base for a chapter that's part of Part 7?

 

As a guideline of length and detail, in HH book 4 conquest chapters seem to be around 1000 words long(what is it with GW and chapters being 1000 of something?) and there are around 6 chapters in each part, so around 6000 words total. There are some that are much longer but that seems to be the minimum. So we're going to be aiming at 6000 words per Part. Of course, you can go under that if you just end up repeating the same thing over and over again, but 6000 words should give us enough space to detail the event really in depth.

 

You could divide it something like this:

Chapter 1: Cover the importance of Cadia, its defences, commander etc. Generally just an analysis of the loyalist forces that are going to be fighting on Cadia

 

Chapter 2: Cover the traitors going through Cadia's orbital defences. For this I imagine Cadia would have several star forts and orbital mine fields in addition to the fleet of Clan Askar and a good part of that of Clan Karakal and a significant Leonic Auxilia fleet. 

 

Chapter 3: Cover the traitors planetfall on Cadia, where they found resistance initially, any particularly hard fought landings. Perhaps the Lions and Wardens identified likely landing spots before the invasion and fortified them in advance meaning that the traitors needed to fight their way through that first? Maybe they laid minefields on those landing spots they couldn't defend properly? Maybe in one sector the traitors landed to find the defenders utterly annihilated by the orbital bombardment.

 

Chapter 4: The war in no man's land. 

 

Chapter 5: The siege. Cover the walls falling, the kind of firepower the Cognis unleashed, the fighting through the streets. 

 

Chapter 6: Cover the relief force arriving. How did they fight their way through the traitor fleet in orbit? Where did they land? Which traitors units did they fall on first? And also cover the traitors starting to retreat because they could see that it wasn't just the Bears and that a larger force was coming. 

[bluntblade]

That all seems sensible to me. I really should've asked for parameters beforehand. Word count and all the rest

[Sigismund229]

While I'm taking a quick breather from writing fluff, I thought I could use the time to sketch a framework I could work off of for The Fall of East March. Let your suggestions or nitpicks or complaints be heard now or forever hold your peace.

 

Chapter 1: (name needed)

Covers a few opening skirmishes and small scale attacks by traitors on Mining Colonies and the like on the outskirts of the Eastern March of the Doninion of Mycenae. While these are the opening attacks of the Blood Crusade as the traitor vanguard is starting the attack ahead of the main armada, it's dismissed as just the usual raiding that happens on the borders of the Imperium&Stormlord's empire.

 

Chapter 2: (name needed)

The traitor armada arrive and attack the first world: Mortax. Pretty normal chapter.

 

Chapter 3: (name needed)

The traitors keep moving through the Eastern March and attack Port Sarens, the main stellar dock of the Eastern March. It's the first very heavily defended world they come against, garrissoned as it is by Crimson Lions and elements of the Tewtonik Order.

 

Chapter 4: (name needed)

As the traitors move through the Eastern March. In all honesty I wasn't entirely sure what to do with this chapter. I thought perhaps an assault by the 'Serkers on a vox relay station that's defended by Leonic Auxilia Armsmen.

 

Chapter 5: (name needed)

Covers the traitor assault on Aran near the Gidion Rift.

 

Chapter 6: On Bloody Tides(?)

Covers the battle of the Gidion Rift

Edited August 30, 2016 by Sigismund229

[Sigismund229]

A section to go between Conquest and the next part of the Insurrection summary. It's basically a slightly changed version of the Scions of War section in HH book 4.

The Strain of War
Within the opening years of the Insurrection, it rapidly became apparent that the Insurrection would test the legions in fields other than the battlefield. Faced with the unforeseen foe of other legions, attrition rates among the Adeptus Astartes were high and with the destiny of the Imperium and by extension the galaxy and all mankind at stake, neither side could allow their foes to gain a numerical or equipment advantage on them.

Far from simply allowing themselves to be steadily worn down by attrition, all legions began to launch major recruitment drives, Loyalists and Insurrectionists alike. Tithes of manpower were demanded from hundreds of suitable worlds and the nets of each legion's recruiters were cast far wider in an attempt to find as many suitable recruits as possible. Often one of the first actions of a legion upon subduing or recapturing a world was to assess the local population for potential recruits, such was the desperate need for recruits to replace losses on both sides.

However, while such wide recruitment helped to keep legion numbers at acceptable levels, it was not on its own sufficient to replace the enormous losses being suffered by legions in the field. In order to do this, both the Loyalists and Insurrectionists turned to documents long locked away by the Baal decree, many penned by Kozja Darzalas and the Jade General, two Insurrectionist primarchs. Using these treatises, all legions began to cut down on the time it took to turn a recruit into a fully formed legionnairy, in some cases reducing it to little as two years. While the extra strain this inflicted on recruits bodies killed many, the need for legionaries on the frontline outweighed the cost in number of recruits these new techniques caused.

Among those legions with well developed apothacerions and stable gene-seed capable of mass implantation, it was not uncommon to see large spikes in their numbers during times of relative inaction as enormous numbers of recruits were taken in and turned into legionaries. Formed into squads alongside smaller numbers of veterans of the Great Crusade or early Insurrection, these mass produced legionaries would be cast into the fires of war without the years of training that had been given to the legionaries who fought the Great Crusade. For them, their first engagement would be a trial by fire in which they learned their craft quickly or died.

In order to heighten chances of survival among these new recruits, many legions began to recruit enormous numbers of individuals who were revealed by psycho analysis to be dangerously mentally unstable, pyscopaths in many cases. While in ordinary life their brutality would have been likely to see them executed, as mass produced legionaries it was a boon as their brutality and calousness heightened chances of survival. Numbers varied but in some legions as much as 90% of their recruits were such mentally unstable individuals who made up less than 1% of the ordinary population.

While this rapid recruitment and induction kept the number of astartes a legion could field at acceptable levels, it also led to other problems, notably serious problems with supplies of things such as armour and weaponry, let alone ships and tanks. While all the legion had started the Insurrection with large stock piles of armour and weapons, with the high rates of attrition on the front they soon stripped through their available supplies and fresh armour and weaponry was slow in the coming from forge worlds and often in insufficient quantities.

Such equipment shortages meant that more often than not legions were reduced to scavenging any equipment they could off of battlefields. Tech marimes from all legions cobbled together functional suits from scavenged plates or forged new ones from the melted down ceramite of plates so badly damaged they were unsalvageable. Yet these suits of armour were little more than a stop-gap measure and their shortcomings were all too evident. Often the synthetic muscle contained within the suit would sieze up in combat or the helm's filters stopped working properly.

The shortage of equipment on all sides and the deficiencies of the stop-gap armours meant that forge worlds rapidly became among the most hotly contested objectives in the entire Imperium. Entire campaigns were fought to control them and often their manufactories would be destroyed rather than left to fall into enemy hands, further worsening the crisis of equipment that both Loyalists and Insurrectionists suffered from. It also soon became practice for legions who were going on the offensive and leaving behind steady supply lines to send out raiders to attack enemy or, if the situation was severe enough, allied supply convoys bound for other legions, seizing the supplies they contained for their own use. In some theatres of war, notably the Eastern Fringe, this would become the normal manner through which legion forces kept themselves supplied with even basic necessities such as ammunition.

 

 

Posting this here until I can edit it so that it doesn't get lost in the General Discussion

 

The Darkest Dawn

With his empire’s expansion, the Stormlord judged that he now had sufficient resources to begin his offensive against Terra. The loyalist defences were spread thin across the Imperium and several legions had been forced to start operating all but independently from Terra, notably the Dune Serpents who continued to be a thorn in the Stormlord’s side with their resistance of his forces on the Eastern Fringe and their raids on his empire’s borders. While this independence meant that they were better able to prosecute the war against the Stormlord’s forces on a local level, it meant that they would be slow to react to an offensive being launched half a galaxy away.

 

In order to keep the Dune Serpents unaware of or unable to react to events, the Stormlord sent the Stygian Jackals to harass and harry them, engaging them in a mobile war upon the Eastern Fringe, keeping the Dune Serpents pinned in place and on the defensive. To the north, the Stormlord sent the Berserkers of Uran who would fight both the Sheperds of Eden and Iron Bears as they rampaged across the north eastern Imperium and to expand his domains in the north eastern Imperium, the Stormlord sent the Grave Stalkers who would launch a campaign of terror that would bring many worlds into the fold. However, all this was subsidiary to the main assault.

 

When Icarion finally unleashed the mailed fist he had held in reserve, it struck with enormous force. At the tip of the spear he now aimed at the heart of the Imperium were his own Harbingers, their strength still mostly intact, the Drowned and the Warbringers. With Icarion himself at its head, this hammer blow broke through the loyalist defences on the border with the Maelstrom. While they fought and died hard, for all their efforts those loyal to the Emperor were unable to halt the offensive and were forced to fall back, in many cases abandoning entire systems without a fight. As the Stormlord’s armies ground inexorably forward and his vanguard closed in on the borders of the Segmentum Solar many expected the Emperor to step down from the Golden Throne with his sword in hand to lead the defences in person. However, he did not, merely stating that the Warmaster had his full support.

 

In desperation, as the Stormlord’s forces began to hammer at the gates of the Segmentum Solar, the Warmaster issued the Edict of Emancipation, allowing xenos to serve in the Imperial Army and declaring that xenos were not to be engaged unless they were clearly hostile. So it was that battalions of Kroot, Kinebrach and even enigmatic Eldar took to the field alongside the soldiers of the Solar Auxilia and warriors of the Legions Astartes. While this outraged many who believed it to be against the ideals of the Great Crusade, a view expressed by many of the Warmaster’s brothers, the fresh tide of troops blunted the Insurrectionist advance.

 

All along the borders of the Segmentum Solar, battles raged as the warriors sworn to the Stormlord sought to break through the reformed Imperial defences rallied by the Warmaster and continue their advance. All the while, the Warmaster and the Stormlord maneuvred their forces in ever more elaborate strategies to try and outwit the other. Every battalion of human's or xenos, ever company of legionaries and every fleet was like a piece on a regicide board and every world or star was like a square with the Warmaster and the Stormborn being the players. However, try as they might they could not outwit each other. They were evenly matched in wits and resources.

Edited August 30, 2016 by Sigismund229

[Sigismund229]

First chapter of part 1 is ready for editing 

 

The Fall of the Eastern March

060.M31

The first area of the Dominion of Mycenae to feel the wrath of the Blood Crusade was its Eastern March. At the time, the area was famed for the numerous moons it contained that held, within their crusts, valuable metals. Because of this and its proximity to the Maelstrom relative to the rest of Mycenae, a steady stream of both immigrants from the Dominion’s core systems and refugees from the tides of the Insurrection seeking new lives in the Eastern Marche’s numerous mining colonies or on the nascent manufactory worlds established within the Eastern March to make use of the Eastern Marche’s natural resources. However, as the Stormlord’s domains expanded and his borders crept forwards and ever closer to those of the Dominion of Mycenae, these natural resources meant that the region was one that suffered frequent raids by the Stormlord’s forces in search of resources to fuel their ever growing war machine and such raids had gradually become a regular part of life within the Eastern March.

The Harbingers of War

The first clues as to the storm that was waiting to engulf the Eastern March was the gradual increase in raiding activity along its borders. At first, much of this raiding appeared to be the same as those that had plagued the Eastern March for the past half a decade. The targets were still ships carrying metals from the outlying mining colonies of the Eastern March to the developing manufactory worlds at its heart or to the forges of the Blood Stars. Yet the speed and ferocity of the raids increased and while the metals were still looted, they were no longer turned into war materials to be sent to the war zones at the gates of the Segmentum Solar or the galactic east. Instead, they were transformed into ammunition, spare armour plates or weaponry that was then stockpiled on worlds close the Dominion of Mycenae’s borders or loaded onto the vessels of the vast armada massing to lay waste to the Dominion.

 

The first outward sign that anything was out of the ordinary was the destruction of patrol 567-xb3. Ever since the beginning of the raids into the Dominion, it had become normal for smaller vessels of the Leonic Auxilia fleet that had several hundred Leonic Auxilia armsmen on board to patrol the outskirts of the Dominion of Mycenae, especially the Eastern March. All of the armsmen on these patrol were heavily armed and their task was to protect both refugee ships and the more important supply ships coming out the mining colonies or from the forge worlds of the western Imperium. However, many of these patrols avoided combat. While they would be no match for the Legions in standard combat, combat was not the aim of many of the raids and as such few had more than a token force of legionaries on board and their main complement were auxiliary troops who were no match for the bionically enhanced, well trained and well equipped armsmen of the Leonic Auxilia and so many withdrew rather than risk battle.

 

However, one day at orbital station B-13, the Furious Fiancée, one of the vessels on patrol 567-xb3, drifted into orbit. It soon became clear that something was wrong as the Furious Fiancée was drifting through space emitting no energy signals and when hails were sent over the vox, the only static answered. So it was that an investigation party of armsmen was sent out in void sealed armour from the orbital station. As they drew closer to the ship it rapidly became apparent that it had been boarded by a legion force, as evidenced by the pockmark craters made when boarding torpedoes had slammed into the ship’s iron hide.

 

When the armsmen boarded the Furious Fiancée, they found a grim scene. The corridors of the vessel were choked with the bodies of dead armsmen, frozen by exposure to the void and torn open by bolter rounds and chain weapons. Some even showed signs of being beaten to death by a legionaries armoured fists and in the case of these poor men and women, their features were all but unrecognizable they were so disfigured. Blood spattered the bare adamantium walls of the ship and as the investigation party moved closer to the bridge, the number of bodies increased until they reached the charnel house of the bridge. Here, bodies were piled on top of each and many had had limbs ripped off that were found separate of the actual bodies. The ship’s logs had been destroyed by some blunt force but when the captain’s vox log was found and analysed, a single message from that patrol was deciphered: Help.

 

Over the next weeks, more of patrol 567-xb3 was found and on each of the ships was found a similarly grim scene. Their armsmen complements slaughtered and the ships themselves ripped open by both boarding torpedoes and lance weaponry. Only one of the ships had its ships logs intact but what it revealed was telling. The patrol had been standard until the ships had encountered the VII^th legion vessel Devil’s Debt. Believing it to be a raider, the patrol had moved to engage. However, the ship hadn’t turned to flee. Instead it moved towards the patrol, opening fire as it did. The rest of what happened could be deciphered from the remains of the ships crews and armsmen cadres.

 

Over the course of two months, three more patrols that had been destroyed in a similar fashion were found. In all cases the armsmen appeared to have died fighting but only six legionaries were found dead in total. The fights had clearly been incredibly one sided and just served to further hammer home how ill-suited auxiliary troops were to fighting legion targets even when they were as well equipped as the armsmen had been.

 

The build up to the Blood Crusade soon intensified. A month later, orbital station B-60 fell silent. When a ship was sent to investigate, they found it ripped open, gutted and lifeless in the void. Once again, it’s complement of 600 armsmen had been slaughtered to a man but in this case most were found without their weapons, indicating that the attack had been one executed with the element of surprise on the side of the attackers. Only one legionary was found dead, wearing the livery of the Eagle Warriors.

 

This rise in the number and ferocity of raids should have warned the Crimson Lions of the storm that was being prepared by Icarion. However, raids were such a common occurrence by this stage of the conflict that these ferocious attacks were instead reported to the Warmaster as a possible sign of traitor preparations for a fresh assault against the Segmentum Solar. None supposed that the Stormlord would risk the losses he was certain to incur in an invasion of the Dominion for any objective lesser than the seizure of Terra.

 

These assumptions were to be proved tragically wrong. 

[Sigismund229]

This was only meant to be the introduction to the death of Mortax but it ended up being much too long for that so I'm making it its own chapter

 

The Storm Unleashed

When the vanguard of the Blood Crusade in the Dominion of Mycenae, it was not major worlds that they first attacked. Instead, they launched numerous attacks against orbital stations and mining colonies. Against these early targets, the vanguard struck so hard and so quickly that the people of the mining colonies and the garrisons of the orbital stations had no time to send vox messages to the rest of the Dominion either asking for help or warning them of the invasion. A typical case was that of Lansaria Primus.

 

Lansaria Primus was a mining colony that had been founded in 931.M30. The world upon which it had been founded was not in fact a world, it was a moon orbiting gas giant 611, known to the inhabitants of Lansaria Primus as “the rust world”. The colony was mainly founded by young gangers from the overcrowded manufactory hives of Mortax and had been established in order to take advantage of the ceramite that lay in the rock of Lansaria Primus and of which the Adeptus Mechanicus estimated the world possessed several hundred tonnes of. By 060.M31, the colony had a population of just under 1.2 million and its mines were producing a total of 88 tonnes of ceramite each year. Its garrison of Leonic Auxilia had also grown to just under 1000.

 

However, like many of the colonies in the Eastern March, Lansaria Primus was located far away from the core of the Eastern March, on the border with the Domains of the Stormlord. Because of this it was among the first worlds to fall before the vanguard of the Blood Crusade.

 

The fall of Lansaris Prime began when two VII^th legion vessels dragged themselves out of the warp on the borders of the gravitational orbit of the rust world. They were two Gladius class light cruisers who would later be identified as the Ashen Son and Devil’s Malice, carrying between them a complement of approximately 100 Berserkers of Uran. Within the space of two hours they had established themselves in orbit over Lansaris Prime and were firing drop pods filled with legionaries down onto the moon’s surface.

 

Slamming down onto the rock in the midst of the colony, the Berserkers began to slaughter their way through the settlement, butchering its inhabitants with bolter and chainblade or their bare fists in some cases. The only evidence that remains for the events that transpired on the surface of Lansaris Primus is the footage from the helm of a Leonic Auxilia officer whose ident tags would identify him as Major Garren von Helborg of Alpha Company, 508^th cohort. While grainy and in some cases incomplete due to his armour’s system failures, the footage nonetheless tells a grim tale. It shows that the Leonic Auxilia garrison had managed to form a firing line across the main alley way down which the Berserkers of Uran were charging. However, the firing line shattered in the face of the Berserkers of Uran and many of the Leonic Auxilia seemingly began to fall back against orders and the footage keeps recording after Major Garren is assumed to have been killed, showing the ceramite boots of the Berserkers of Uran running past his body after the retreating soldiers.

 

The final resistance would be cornered and destroyed it is thought in the mine shafts, where there was found heavy evidence of incendiary weaponry. It is thought that the Berserkers of Uran set every mine shaft ablaze and then simply sealed off the entrance, making it impossible for any of those burning within to escape from the mines.

 

There were dozens of worlds such as Lansaris Primus that fell to the Blood Crusade’s vanguard with little effective resistance. Indeed, as the astartes complements of the Ashen Son and Devil’s Malice were laying waste to Lansaris Primus, the remainder of the traitor vanguard was assaulting the other worlds of the Lansaris system, mostly mining and agri worlds. Of the once 101 million strong population of the Lansaris system, those who weren’t killed would be enslaved as deck menials or to fight in the auxiliary troops of the Eagle Warriors, leaving their homes reduced to ashes.

 

Within the space of just one week, 9 worlds had gone silent as they were destroyed by the Blood Crusade’s vanguard which pushed quickly on from the outer systems of the Eastern March towards its inner worlds. While these worlds knew that there was an invasion force tearing through the outer systems of the Dominion, none had any true idea of the sheer scale of the invasion that was about engulf them. Death would come to them in quantities none had ever experienced before and many of them would burn. The first to burn would be Mortax. 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Sigismund229

[Sigismund229]

So, here's my second fluff piece for today, the death of Mortax. I feel like myself and blunt are making good time with this and I hope to have Part 3 of Escalation finished by the end of the week and my highest goal is to have gotten a good way into part 4 too. Let's just hope I manage it. 

 

The death of Mortax

The first major world of the Dominion of Mycenae to fall to the traitors would be the highly industrialised hive world of Mortax. Brought into compliance by Clan Karakal in 973.M30, the world of Mortax had been inhabited by humans since the Golden Age of Technology and over that time had seen the enormous hive cities rise up from out of its earth and churn out great clouds of industrial ash and smoke that corrupted its atmosphere. In addition to this, the waste from Mortax’s manufactories had formed the “scrap plains” that lay in between the hive cities, with piles of scrap materials forming hills and the thick layers of ash and shards of metal forming grass. This was how the world of Mortax was when it was brought into compliance, an industrial powerhouse with a population of some 79 billion that was entirely dependent on other worlds for its food and the resources to fuel its industry. However, having seen the brutal conditions of the hives when bringing it into compliance, Myrvallen Cruach Karakal of Clan Karakal decided that he would adopt Mortax as a recruitment world for his Clan in addition to Mycenae, meaning that Mortax’s principal function ceased to be industry and instead became to supply Clan Karakal with recruits.

 

Because of this and its status as capital of Myrvallen Karakal’s Tiarniaid, Mortax was the first heavily defended world that the insurrectionists would come across as they butchered their way through the fringes of the Eastern March. Its defenders numbered 4000 Crimson Lions of Clan Karakal and nearly 12 million Leonic Auxilia. In orbit, Mortax was protected by 6 star forts and a small fleet. In addition to this, ever since the outlying worlds and colonies had been silenced, Curadhos Nechtan, leader of the defences on Mortax, had ordered the mobilization and arming of Mortax’s gangs as an impromptu milita. Yet despite all of this, Mortax was ill prepared and ill defended to withstand the sledgehammer of the Blood Crusade.

 

As ever, it was the vanguard of the Blood Crusade that was seen first, an assortment of light vessels tearing their way into the space near Mortax from out of the warp. However, this was just the beginning. These light ships were soon followed by legion battle ships of all sizes and descriptions until finally the two gloriana class flagships of Berserkers of Uran and Eagle Warriors, the Hooded Guillotine and Red Comet hauled themselves from the warp. An enormous armada was descending upon Mortax, led by two gloriana class flagships. All told, it was one of the largest concentrations of legion might yet seen by the Insurrection.

 

Seeing that the Mortax defence fleet was hopelessly outgunned by the insurrectionist armada, Curadhos Nechtan gave them one last order. The larger ships were to stand and fight alongside the star forts and delay the armada for as long as possible, while the smaller and faster ships were to make for the edges of Mortax’s gravitational field and then take word of the sheer size of the invasion fleet to Kanossia and Port Sarens. Hectarion Mycenor needed to know that the attacks he was mustering the Crimson Lions to come to the Warmaster’s aid against were nothing more than feints and that the true war would be fought in the Dominion of Mycenae itself. With his orders given, Curadhos Nechtan cut the vox link to the fleet and began to prepare the ground defences.

 

The defence fleet, thirty ships in total, was destroyed by the Berserkers of Uran and Eagle Warriors armada within minutes and the star forts were in traitor hands within half an hour as boarding parties of legionaries stormed their way through them, slaughtering the armsmen who garrisoned them. Of the lighter ships that had attempted to escape, only four managed to do so and three of these had sustained such enormous damage that it was deemed likely they would be destroyed during their journey through the warp.

 

With their control of the void above Mortax complete, the insurrectionist assault upon the world could begin. And so it did. Drop pods of the first wave of brutal Berserkers of Uran slammed down in their hundreds into the scrap plains outside the hives of Mortax, carrying a force of some 20,000 Berserkers of Uran to the surface. The first to charge out of their drop pods were Raktra Akarro and his Milewalker bodyguard, leaping out into the scrap plains using their impact thrusters. The first unit to contact them was the 61^st Cohort of the Leonic Auxilia.

 

Like all units stationed on Mortax, the 61^st Cohort had been digging in and fortifying its position since the outlying systems had gone silent. They were now positioned in a 3-kilometre-long and 4-kilometre-deep section of trenches and bunkers in which there were multiple strong points and each regiment’s field of fire overlapped with that of the next regiment. Against a normal assault, their position would have been capable of repulsing a force three times their own number. However, against an assault by legionaries led by their primarch, their defences proved woefully inadequate and Raktra and his sons tore through them in one bloody hour, leaving the trench system clogged with bodies and severed limbs and gradually congealing blood up to a normal man’s ankles. To their credit, the 61^st fought to the death and even after the initial Berserker assault had swept through their defences, isolated pockets of resistance or ad hoc squads fought on, inflicting heavy losses on the slave troops of the Eagle Warriors who were sent to clear them out of their defences once and for all.

 

The tale of the 61^st Cohort was the tale of many of the Leonic Auxilia Cohorts that had been stationed in trench systems outside the hive cities. Against space marines armoured in power armour, the las weaponry with which most of the troopers of Leonic Auxilia were issued was little use unless used in coordinated volleys and the Leonic Auxilia normally only had time for a few volleys before the legionaries were among them. Once the legionaries got into melee, what had been a one-sided fight became butchery as the superior strength and weaponry of the legionaries made them ideally suited to close combat in confined quarters such as those of the trenches and because of this, they slaughtered the Leonic Auxilia. However, one area where the Leonic Auxilia lines held was the Voltain ridge.

 

Formed from millennia of industrial waste accumulating outside Hive Gretos, the Voltain ridge was defended by the 73^rd and 134^th Cohorts who were supported by 100 or so Crimson Lions. The insurrectionists who were pitted against them were some 2000 Berserkers of Uran alongside several regiments of penal troopers. However, due to the geography of the terrain around the Voltain ridge, the insurrectionist assault was scattered as they landed and when each of the individual units attempted to assault the defences atop the ridge, they were thrown back by the concentrated weight of fire the Leonic Auxilia was able to bring to bear against them. Three times the insurrectionists tried to break through and they were thrown back three times until finally the defences of the Voltain ridge were broken by an assault by Eagle Warrior mastodon tanks and the defenders either slaughtered or forced to fall back to Hive Gretos.

 

With the insurrectionist landing zones secured by the vanguard and most if not all of the Leonic Auxilia and Crimson Lion defences in the scrap plains either destroyed or captured, the insurrectionists began to land more troops in preparation for their assaults on the hives of Mortax. Each hive was surrounded by a minefield and both the Crimson Lions and insurrectionists saw that in the twisting corridors of the hives, the insurrectionists numbers would matter little and while their victory was inevitable, they may well incur heavy losses while storming the hives first. So, in preparation for their assaults, Raktra Akarro and Alexos Travier ordered that their armada in orbit conduct an orbital bombardment on each hive first.

 

While the Leonic Auxilia and Crimson Lions had expected an orbital bombardment prior to an assault, that expectation did nothing to prepare them for the reality of bombardment by such a large armada. For the length of the bombardment, their worlds were swallowed by a murderous barrage of plasma and missiles that landed all around them and tore the men next to them to pieces. The hives in which they had taken cover were reduced to wrecks, their upper spires toppling down under their own weight and the life support systems of the lower levels being destroyed. Among the Crimson Lions, perhaps 1,800 died in the bombardment. However, they only had to worry about physical casualties, hardened as their superhuman bodies were to the trials of war and protected as they were by their armour. The Leonic Auxilia and militia were merely men, lacking the training, equipment and conditioning of the space marines. Many of them were killed by the concussive effects of the barrage and more were driven mad or reduced to weeping, muttering wrecks who could do nothing but rock themselves back and forth on their knees shielding their ears and sobbing as they muttered under their breath and bled from their eyes and ears. While the casualties among them from the bombardment were horrendous, some estimates putting them as high as 89%, what is more surprising is that hundreds of thousands survived and retained enough of their sanity to crawl out of the dust and rubble and stand ready to fight once more.

 

When the insurrectionists finally launched their assault, it was not the legionaries that led the way. Instead, it was the slave auxiliaries of the Eagle Warriors and the penal troops of the Berserkers of Uran. Forced forwards by their master, these troops job was simple: to clear a path through the minefields surrounding the hives with their own bodies. Tens of thousands died accomplishing this brutal task, their bodies blown apart in a shower of gore by a mine, but for each who fell two more were sent forward.

 

When the insurrectionists reached the hive cities themselves, the fighting devolved into a brutal battle for every tunnel, hand to hand with the last desperate remnants of the Crimson Lions and Leonic Auxilia. With nothing left to lose, the Crimson Lions and Leonic Auxilia fought tooth and nail, never giving an inch and inflicting heavy losses on the penal troops and slave auxiliaries until eventually being overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.

 

The last dregs of the defenders of Mortax ended up cornered near the top of Hive Merin. Consisting of 4 heavily injured Crimson Lions, one of whom had suffered so many injuries he could barely stand, and 113 troopers of the Leonic Auxilia led by Curadhos Nechtan this last small pocket of resistance was annihilated by the Berserkers of Uran Blood Boilers, Riktus Innorvak at their head. Mortax had fallen, its defenders and its once enormous cities reduced to little more than ash on the wind, the clash of weapons between its last defenders and the Blood Boilers sounding the death knell of an entire planet. 

Edited September 1, 2016 by Sigismund229