Warzone: Kadath

[//Inheritors Fourth Company marines advance into Entham Square; eighty-fifth day of the action.+]
[/lars_j-d/@lars.j.dahl+]

Précis

[//Kadath stands on the extreme Rimwards reaches of Sector Morqub+]

A curt but important campaign in the broader war, this conflict saw both Partisans and Pentarchy attempting to sway the remote but key system of Kadath, and particularly the principal Forgeworld after which the system was named. The planet's curious combination of openness and political coyness saw it unwilling to declare either for or against the Returned Primarch; and a three-way war ensued, causing colossal collateral damage to the region.

While the campaign itself proved ultimately indecisive, the revelation that the entire Carcharodons Chapter had seemingly bypassed all pickets caused great dismay amongst the Partisan Command. They scrambled armies to redeploy to this new front of the war, starving the still-smouldering Delphurnean League worlds of much-needed support. 

Perhaps more critically, the Kadath Question caused the Partisan push on Heliopolis to falter, slowing the Primarch's advance and allowing the reeling Pentarchy to rearm and prepare.

***

Location: Kadath

[//Kadath_//Tithegrade=Exactis Median/+]

A world of vast basalt continents and acrid seas, Forgeworld Kadath lies on the edge of Sector Morqub, the principal planet of the last Great System before the yawning gulf of Venture's End. Beyond it is wilderness space – not empty, but reckoned and recorded by the Ordo Propter as 'beyond the Pale of Mankind's empires and ambitions'.

From space, Kadath appears cold and unforgiving; a bleak sentinel against a backdrop starved of stars. Thin clouds scud quickly across its upper atmosphere, a mark of how thin and clear its air remains. It is a key regional Forgeworld, whose forges themselves are orbit-visible: vast cyclopean edifices bedecked in neon-lit Mechanicus runes, and swathed in vapour that vanishes in the world's brief but scorching days. 

The denizens of the planet worship the Machine God in the form of Legatum Lator or the 'Lawmaker', a curious but conventionally minor variance on standard Cult Mechanicus teachings. The main forges are dedicated to the construction of highly specialised cogitators: the so-called 'Things' that run code to harden reality against outside intrusion. Its people and government are considered strange even by the standards of their Cult Mechanicus peers, but owing to their expertise in the esoteric areas outlined above, and their unusually open and liberal attitude to visitors, few are there who speak out openly against their more unusual doctrines.

A border system, Kadath was both relatively cosmopolitan in terms of its approach to the rest of the region and diverse in terms of its inhabitants. It bore a reputation as a space where differing Mechanicus philosophies could be discussed, and even challenged – within the limits allowed by the Lawmaker, of course. With a habitable surface area some four times that of Terra, Kadath hosted a huge range of cultures. Its population of denizens from across the region – and beyond – proved fertile territory for the questions that sprang to the lips of all who bore witness to the supposed Primarch – Who was he? Where had he come from? What was he going to do?

***

Belligerents

[//Princip. belligerents={Endemic}//] +Kadathian Skitarii Legions 01–1010/1100–10100+

[//Princip. belligerents={Pentarchy}//] +Carcharodons+ +Charnel Guard+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Firebreak+ +Inheritors+ +Wormwood Sons+

[//Carcharadon orbital supremacy was vital for the Pentarchy in maintaining a tenuous foothold on Kadath – but it brought its own high maintenance cost.+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

First cometh blood in the water. 

Then appeareth the Sharks. 

Then cometh pain.

[//Remembrancist of Idiolect; fragmentary+]

Initial forays

The war had an uneasy beginning, with the Carcharadon fleet translating in-system with power dark. It was a cautious approach, and one that saw Kadath come to uneasy attention. Although not directly belligerent, the size and silence of the Astartes fleet was implictly destabilising; a statement of intent. 

Open to visitors Kadath may have been, but this was predicated upon a population reassured by the puissance of its defences. The Forgeworld had suffered the predations of migratory fleets of xenos vessels from wilderness space on numerous occasions, and both its extensive ground military and its standing fleet was well-respected. The latter, however, had moved corewards in the early years of the war, bound by ancient summons to attend the Imperial Sector Fleet – however confused and contradictory its various parts' claims.

Its skies denuded, the planet still had the teeth of its orbital weapons arrays. As if in recognition of this, the arriving Carcharadon armada showed a peculiar grace in presenting their keels to the planet; an ancient but easily-understood show of peace. Relieved – for the Carcharadon fleet was truly immense – the Kadathi invited a delegation of the strange Astartes to make planetfall.

[//Tyrant Class Cruiser [posit: modif.] epithetval=The White Maw.+]
[/dennis_k/@the_iron_within]

After two days of pointed silence, the White Maw, a Tyrant-class Cruiser, broke away and began to move into the high orbit of Kadath Principal. Defences were dutifully raised – with appropriate ceremony to make it clear a show of strength, rather than aggression, was intended – and challenges issued. After ritual code exchange proved successful, Envoys were shuttled to the surface. 

Here ceremony and ritual broke, and relations became more brittle. On being presented to the Kadathi Magi, the skull-helmed Chaplain Tamatoa demanded that the Forgeworld declared for the High Lords immediately, ceasing trade and declaring hostile intentions on any that recognised the Partisan cause.

'From the darkness of the cold void we come for those who have faltered; or who might still falter. The Voidfather commands and we obey!'

'Mark loyalty above all; for we shall suffer not the traitor to live.'

[//Chaplain Tamatoa, Carcharadons Astra+]

An immediate riposte came from the Magi, indicating this violated the neutrality of their culture – at which point the Carcharadons bowed out, issuing a simple timed ultimatum. Unless their demands were met within a week, the Pentarchy would sanction the world.

***

Puru Mango and Ibli Xin

The Chapter Master of the Carcharadons, Shadelord Puru Mango, was a wily and ancient warrior. Of the opinion that anything other than immediate agreement would mean an extended campaign, he moved the Predation fleet into an openly aggressive span over the planet. Assuming the Space Marines meant to further posture and threaten, key Kadathi military personnel made the fateful error of gathering to discuss their next move, assuming they had a standard week in which to codify and present their own terms.

The attack came the following day. Engines silent and powered-down, more than forty Thunderhawk gunships had drifted towards the planet. Unannounced and unheralded, the Thunderhawks came to full power in low orbit and struck immediately. More than half of the planet's surface-to-orbit defence complexes were crippled in short order as squads of savage Carcharadons stormed the unprepared and unwarned bunkers.

[//Red Brethren+]
[/dennis_k/@the_iron_within]

Before the outrage could be properly communicated, Shadelord Puru Mango and his Red Brethren elite teleported into the unshielded Chamber of Governance – the so-called Memory-Cannot-Replace-Your Presence – where they performed an immediate decapitation strike on a number of key Kadathi rulers and Militaria, tearing the heart out of organised resistance.

Confusion reigned, and the Adeptus Mechanicus forces were divided on the correct response. After immediate counterstrikes were destroyed or ambushed by the Space Marines, a fateful fortnight passed during which the surviving Mechanicus martial command shunted to mainly defensive operations; broadcasting an incoherent and furious series of demands, pleas and threats on a broad extraplanetary spread. 

[//Magos Amarantha, Principal Subsidiary to Archmagos Veneratus Ibli Xin.
Pictured with Ecksotick Bodymen+]
[//juno/@warppainter+]

Three days after the Carcharadons had been able to identify and begin bracketing key defensive regions to degrade Mechanicus resistance, Archmagos Veneratus Ibli Xin was able – at last – to begin a more structured and formal resistance. Having patiently made contact with elements of six Skitarii Legions after four more nights, Xin was able to co-ordinate a successful strike on the Carcharadons' Second battle company in their temporary camp in the Idle Thoughts of What Might Have Been Forge. While casualties were heavy, Xin managed to spark active resistance across the central continent, and provide an elusive but powerful rallying point for the reeling Mechanicus.

Puru Mango was too experienced to allow resistance to spread. The war shifted in tempo as the Shadelord sought to crush resistance before it could fully form. He might have been successful, were it not for the arrival of a combined Chapter-strength force of Partisan chapters.

***

Signals in the night

Thirty-four days after the Carcharadon invasion, the Firebreak translated en masse to the system, shields up and weapons out. A long-range exchange of fire immediately began between the Carcharadon and Firebreak fleets. Although the Pentarchy fleet outnumbered the Partisan force, the Firebreak had the advantage of surprise – and more than that, the potential to board and overwhelm the Carcharadons while the bulk of the Orthodox Astartes were planetside.

After fourteen hours, it became clear that the Firebreak were stubbornly remaining in place, trading largely ineffectual long-range firepower with the Sharks. With the bulk of the Chapter already deployed and little threat from surface-to-orbit attacks, Strike Commander Moro Oihi, Captain of the Third Company and ranking officer in the fleet, revised the Carcharadon's approach simply to slow the Firebreak deployment and prevent a full Planetstrike operation. Their fleet therefore broke into individual squadrons and sank into low orbit, protected here from all save close-range scans. Here they could offer orbital support to their Battle Brothers and interdict the Firebreak deployment.

The Mechanicus, for their part, did not welcome the Firebreak. To them, the new Chapter's aims were uncertain – the Firebreak had blocked and engaged Kadath's advances in the past, owing to the Chapter's long-standing relationship with the belligerent and rival Forgeworld Avarice. Coupled with this uneasy history, the arrival of another unannounced Chapter seemed to bode ill for them. 

[//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+]

Two days passed with little action in the long-range void; but the impasse was broken with the arrival of more forces. The distress signals had reached more Partisans – and others besides. The Inheritors Second and Eighth Companies arrived in-system. Hailing the Firebreak, a swift parley followed between the Partisan fleets, and the two swiftly decided that a counter-invasion was necessary. Whether they were welcomed or not by the Cult Mechanicus, Kadath was too important a system to allow the Pentarchy to claim it.

Thus began the three-way War for Kadath.

***

Colossal damage

Kadath had a gravitational mass index of 1.4, making operation difficult for unenhanced humans and detrimental to armour and air units. As a result, while Partisan and Pentarchy regiments were both deployed, these were mainly in second line and operational support roles in the cities, where the closely-built monolithic skyscrapers allowed for relatively normal operation. In the great plains, the vast distances, crushing gravity and dangerous weather systems meant that the bulk of the fighting over the ninety-day war fell to the Astartes – and the various enhanced forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

[//Skitarii heavy infantry were well-adapted to the peculiarities of the Forge World.+]
[//@actualecho+]

Resistance was fierce but disorganised; and the Carcharadon's high-impact marauding had seen them  quickly claim five of the principal hive clusters, including the central Days-Scented-with-Thoughts-of-Home; outlying Regret-is-The-End-of-All-Progress and the capital Mark-Not-The-Spear-But-The-Ploughshare. Mechanicus resistance under Ibli Xin was based in the more isolated Forges Idle-Thoughts-of-What-Might-Have-Been and Silence-Belies-The-Possibility-of-Harmony. 

[//Carcharadons storm through the Intimate Districts of Days-Scented-with-Thoughts-of-Home, a creeping orbital barrage proving vital in retaining the initiative over their inventive enemies.+
[/dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

Deployed in Company-strength groups in these strongholds, the Carcharadons were gradually rooting out organised Kadathi resistance by concentrating upon built-up areas and ignoring the plains, where their advantages were largely wasted. They relied heavily upon their fleet preventing Mechanicus movement across the plains – and their success was obvious. Desperate sallies in the second month of the war to relieve Mark-Not-The-Spear-But-The-Ploughshare had seen an entire Legion of Skitarii – not to mention a lance of House Dai-Viet's honour-posting of Knights – wiped out as they attempted to force march across the Monitor Flats.

The Firebreak fleet had driven the Sharks into orbit, but even with the addition of the Inheritors' craft, they felt a straight firefight would favour the lurking Carcharadons. Chapter Master Solarion of the Inheritors therefore counselled Seneschal Terez of the Firebreak to hold back, and commit to a ground campaign – reasoning that if they could link up with Mechanicus forces, they could not merely drive off the Carcharadons, but establish the first steps in winning Kadath to the Primarch's cause.

***

The planetfall was considered and slow; and met with resistance from the Carcharadon fleet. Casualties were nevertheless light, as a result of the Moro Oihi's strike-and-fade strategy, and the two Partisan Chapter Masters marched in lockstep to confront the Carcharadons in Regret-Is-The-End-Of-All-Progress. The battle here commenced on the forty-seventh day of the war. More than six hundred Partisans advanced on the city block, held by a reinforced Carcharadon garrison. Fighting erupted swiftly, and casualties were high on both sides as the crucial Practical Gate changed hands repeatedly.

It was at this inauspicious moment that a garbled message reached the Partisans that the Fifth Ostire of the Charnel Guard, led by the famed Nero, had arrived in-system, and were harrying the Inheritors' fleet. Solarion rightly supposed that the rigorous Blood Angels successors had pursued the Partisans as they disengaged from the Delphurnean War – though how Nero had managed this was unclear. 

A master strategist of great renown, Nero claimed overall theatre command, citing both his pedigree within the Pentarchy structure and seniority over Moro Oihi. For his part the Carcharadon took this in stride; willing to allow the Charnel Guard command until the return of the Shadelord from the surface. 

[//Nero of the Charnel Guard. The Pentarchy's established lines of command and control made them a far more immediately reactive and responsive force than the Partisans; whose super-Chapter control was still in its infancy. The Silver Stars had thus far proved unable or unwilling to utilise anything other than rigid Legion-style command; inflexible and poorly-suited to the smaller Chapter formations.+]
[/dennis_k/@the_iron_within]

Aware that his Chapter had suffered grievous and ongoing losses in attempting to hold back the Pentarchy in the ongoing Delphurnean League campaigns, Solarion was unwilling to commit the Inheritors to a grinding bloodbath. Terez of the Firebreak, however, was guided by his vows to the Partisan cause, and took a more narrow-minded view. In the resulting assault, one hundred and seventeen Firebreak were killed; though every Carcharadon was wiped out.

[//Mechanicus agitprop capture; used to garner support for Xin's leadership+]
[/dennis_k/@the_iron_within]

If the Partisans hoped that this would prove to the Mechanicus that they wished for alliance with Kadath, they had sorely misjudged the mood of the war. While the Carcharadons' vengeful orbital strikes and Thunderhawk attacks on the Forge prevented the Firebreak and Inheritors from consolidating their hold, Skitarii forces made the most of the distraction, sending their reserves and robot forces towards the Forge.

Refusing to stop as they were hailed by the Partisan forces, Solarion reluctantly ordered his forces to return fire. Making a fighting fall-back through the rubble-strewn outlying districts of Regret-Is-The-End-Of-All-Progress, the Partisans were pursued by furious Skitarii forces that moved to occupy their sovereign territory from what they saw as largely-undifferentiated invaders.

+He has brought nothing but instability and war to four score worlds of the Mechanicus. Curses to the God-Son and High Lords alike; for they bring woe to four-score-and-one with Kadath. +

[//Magos Amarantha+]

Terez sent a series of explanatory missives to Ibli Xin, now established as the de facto ruler of Kadath, but all were rebuffed. With little hope of a ceasefire from the Mechanicus, and sensing that the Carcharadons would soon capitalise on the struggle, the Inheritors and Firebreak elected to cede the Forge to the Mechanicus. 

Solarion elected to make a breakout strike through the Endjinn District, a principal Manufactory. Terez demanded an explanation for the Inheritor's proposed route, which posed a lengthy and eccentric detour through thus-far undamaged buildings. Solarion reluctantly revealed that his arrival was not in direct response to the Kadathi's messages, but on the orders of Volnoscere himself. The Endjinn District  contained the planetary's largest Navigatorial Enclave – a safehouse for these vital mutants – and Solarion had orders to 'evacuate', by fair means or foul, as many Navigators as possible from the Rimwards reaches. Terez eventually acceded to the approach, and the combined force made a drive through the Forge, gathering the Navigators before making for the dubious safety of the Plains.

[//Inheritors capture one of the increasingly scanty regional Navigators; carrying the wretch off-world for delivery to Volnoscere.+]
[///lars_j-d/@lars.j.dahl+]]

***

Escalation

The Carcharadons returned to find Regret-Is-The-End-Of-All-Progress in the hands of the Skitarii. Reluctantly leaving their dead to burn, the Carcharadons' air forces pursued the retreating Inheritors and depleted Firebreak, inflicting further casualties. The Partisans had lost more than two hundred of their initial number, and had been forced to abandon many in the extended retreat. That their enemy were also haemorrhaging troops was scant comfort; as the retreating Partisans were aware that while the Carcharadons maintained fleet superiority, evacuation would be costly – either in landers and gunships, or in fleet assets as friendly craft launched diversionary attacks on the predatory Carcharadon vessels.

A rolling battle of some five hundred kilometres unfolded over the next seven days as the Firebreak and Inheritors repeatedly drove off increasing numbers of circling Sharks; before arriving at the outlying township of With-Hindsight-Floral. This had been fortified by the Seventh Company of the Carcharadons and the bulk of the out-of-sector Cambrian 4th Infantry Regiment, a tough and experienced urban warfare unit. Nevertheless, it offered the only void-shielded location for the Firebreak and Inheritor evacuating transports to utilise – and thus it had to be captured. 

On day fifty-eight of the war, the Carcharadons' Seventh Company were thus confronted by a dawn assault by an overwhelming force of battered and vengeful warriors, led by two Partisan Chapter Masters. The Battle of With-Hindsight-Floral was a brutal infantry slog, but one that could only end one way. Resistance was broken within fourteen hours, but it took the Partisans a further eight days to make the region safe from lone Carcharadons making suicidal attacks of opportunity.

[//Roving Carcharadons proved difficult to hunt down+]
[//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+]

The wait for evacuation was tense, as both Terez and Solarion expected an attack at any moment from either the local Skitarii forces or the Carcharadons. Instead, on the ninth day, they received a communiqué from an unexpected ally. The Wormwood Sons – that isolationist and outré Chapter of the region – had arrived. Four Companies had marched on Kadath after hearing of the Carcharadon invasion, and had made planetfall in support of the Partisans.

[//Alareiks Iovanus, hailed from the forest-seas of Harringal, and wields one of the region's iconic axe-maces. He had suffered severe promethium burns fewer than four months previously during an altercation with Orthodox Frateris Militia undertaking an unsanctioned abhuman purge in the Sons' sovereign territory+]
[//nick_t/@k0rdhal+]

The Wormwood Sons' attack gave the Firebreak and Inheritors the potential to evacuate while the Carcharadons' superior fleet was distracted – though such a plan met with reservations. While the Wormwood Sons' motivations were unclear, it fell ill with both Firebreak and Inheritors to abandon the region without them. 

It was a difficult choice – evacuate and minimise casualties, or fight on and attempt to link up with a potential ally? 

***

A Bitter End

There is nothing like fighting in the aftermath of an atomic. The sharp taste of isotopes in the air scratching at the tongue, towering buildings reduced to ash-shrouded skeletons and the shadowy ghosts of the enemy caught in Atom's fury.

[...]They are the distillation of mankind's fury, caged furies of light and heat, a weapon that has been with us for millennia.'

[//A Bitter River, penned M33.456+]

The Sons had long been regarded as an ill-omened Chapter, owing to their dour disposition and frequent use of atomics. Their arrival created unease in the Firebreak ranks, who had long-viewed their tactics at best 'excessive' and at worst 'horrifying'. 

Led by Gergorii Varn, the Wormwood Sons had announced their arrival by advancing on the surface and teleporting atomics into the centre of Mark-Not-The-Spear-But-The-Ploughshare; wiping out a substantial proportion of both the Pentarchy stationed there and the bulk of the Skitarii Legion that had been engaged with them – along with a huge amount of irreplaceable archaeotech. 

This had been followed-up by a full-scale planetstrike that split the Wormwood Sons' forces between Days-Scented-with-Thoughts-of-Home and Idle-Thoughts-of-What-Might-Have-Been. Caught unaware, Captain Moro Oihi scrambled the Carcharadon fleet and engaged the Wormwood Sons' voidcraft, driving them back towards the system's Mandeville point.

[//Brother Serrin Koorie, tactical marine sixth squad, second company+]
[//nick_t/@k0rdhal+]

***

On both land and in the void, the Wormwood Sons' Shipbreaker squads proved well-suited to the urban warfare; though the Charnel Guard and Carcharadons gave as good as they got. Far from reeling at the sudden attack, the Pentarchy proved well-prepared. 

Nero's multi-layered and adaptive approach had melded well with Puru Mango's more fluid and instinctual style, allowing the two Pentarchy Chapters to operate well together. Rather than disrupt the chain of command, Mango had allowed Nero to oversee operations even once the Charnel Guard Captain had come planetside. 

With the fleet engaged, the Pentarchy officers looked to their forces. More than a third of the Carcharadon's initial force had been lost as casualties, and the entrance of the Wormwood Sons to the broader War needed to be communicated to Commander Velghor and the Orthodox High Command post-haste. 

[//As many Carchadon casualties were reclaimed as possible, but all in the blasted Capital Forge proved spoiled beyond reclamation.+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

Foreseeing the war descending into a needless meatgrinder, Nero suggested that Days-Scented-With-Thoughts-of-Home was fortified and defended while the rest of the planet was abandoned – while their orbital supremacy was in place, Nero adjudged it better to persecute the grounded Partisans. Besides, they reasoned, the Kadathi defence fleet would doubtless return soon. While the Pentarchy were confident that they could evacuate and hold off the assembled Partisans, the introduction of a complicating additional fleet imbalanced the calculations. To that end, they ordered the Partisans to spend two weeks asset-stripping as much materiel and as many Orthodox-leaning officials as possible, before withdrawing.

***

Keen to determine the cadence of the Wormwood Sons' loyalties, Solarion sent his Second Captain to meet with Varn. Cautious but optimistic, the Inheritor arrived flanked by an honour guard of both his own Chapter and those of the Firebreak. In turn, Varn made it clear that their presence was unnecessary but welcome. The Wormwood Sons had responded to the requests for aid and found an unlooked-for conflict. 

The three Chapters fought alongside each other in a number of skirmishes as the Pentarchy forces withdrew to their stronghold in Days-Scented-With-Thoughts-of-Home; all the while holding off or avoiding roving the increasingly numerous, aggressive and coherently-led Mechanicus kill-teams and skitarii Enhanced Centuries. The longer the war progressed, the more Ibli Xin and the rest of the Mechanicus forces could be brought on line, making the Astartes' presence there increasingly fraught.

[//Gergorii Varn of the Wormwood Sons+]
[//mikkel_h_w/@duckcalledsue+]

As casualties mounted, the Wormwood Sons sued for peace with the Kadathis eighty-two days after the war had begun. Varn declared that stability had been restored to the planet and that honour had been satisfied. Even given the relatively light warfare of this later stage, sixty-eight of his comrades lay dead, along with colossal numbers of indignant Skitarii. With much of their infrastructure – and world – ruined, Ibli Xin bitterly refused. Spitefully she reminded the Wormwood Son that their presence was as unwelcome as their Pentarchy foes; and that mutual destruction was her preferred end.

Curtly, Varn cut the communiqué, and declared that the Wormwood Sons would withdraw to Chernobog once he had had a chance to communicate with the Pentarchy. The Inheritors Captain counselled vigorously against this, fearing treachery and ambush. Varn made it clear he would brook no argument , and the Captain reluctantly accompanied the Wormwood Sons in their cautious advance upon Days-Scented-With-Thoughts-of-Home. 

***

Who fired the first shot in the fleet battle is unknown. Whether a warlike Wormwood Son first ordered a strike against the Carcharadons, or the Charnel Guard launched a barrage of torpedoes against the Inheritors is unrecorded; but the result was the same – warnings of further treachery communicated to the surface, and what might have become a parley became a bloodbath.

While the fleet battle raged overhead, the Wormwood Sons altered their approach and launched estoeric mass-driver and conversion beamer strikes on the Forge's defences. In a blistering mirror of the earlier battle between Carcharadons and invading Partisans over Regret-Is-The-End-Of-All-Progress, the forge Days-Scented-With-Thoughts-of-Home became a battleground. 

Startled by the ease with which the outer defences had crumbled, the Wormwood Sons and their Partisan allies began to move into a curiously lightly-held region known as Entham Square. Puru Mango had learned from the hard-won lessons of the Practical Gate, and set up an ambush. As the Wormwood Sons advanced, hidden charges were detonated, splitting the invaders' column in two and burying large numbers  under tonnes of rubble.

[//Blademaster Tor Dagon confronts a Charnel Guard marine+]
[//matt_t/@spacedhulk+]

There followed three days of the fiercest close-in fighting the planet had seen, as the competing forces turned the already damaged Forge into a charnel house. The two forces battered each other insensible as an encroaching and overwhelming Mechanicus forces arrived. 

Increasingly divided and spread out across the maze of vertical streets that made up the giant towers, the clashes were intermittent, vicious and small scale. Handfuls of marines from five Chapters tore into each other. It was at this point that Var Terez met Puru Mango in a duel that saw the Shadelord lose an eye and Terez an arm; setting up a rivalry for a future date.

Over the following day the battle became increasingly desperate as the competing Astartes moved up level by level to the tops of the cyclopean towers that made up the forge. Seeing only annihilation at the hands  of the Mechanicus, evacuation had been called in by both sides – but escape meant finding complex routes upwards towards the few landing platforms available. Pursued and embattled the entire way, the evacuation of Days-Scented-With-Thoughts-of-Home saw colossal casualties. 

The retreat was humiliating for all concerned; with hundreds of Astartes and thousands of Guard lost for little more than spiting the other side. Evacuating their own forces from a hostile region during a fierce battle was difficult enough for the Thunderhawk pilots on all sides – that they also had to fight their way through a fleet engagement to deposit their passengers made it astonishing that so many were able to get clear.

***

Aftermath

The Battle for Kadath would be remembered – albeit briefly – as a costly and largely fruitless conflict, winnowing the ranks of both sides and reducing a loyal Imperial world to a bitter shell of its former self.

The Partisans retreated in good order, with the Firebreak having lost substantial portions of the Chapters. The Inheritors had fared little better, fewer than half of their force fit for active duty. They had, however, forged alliances – and the potential for more. Once sufficient distance had been placed between Kadath and the allied fleet, they divided. After promising aid and support to the Firebreak, the Inheritors set course to the inner worlds of Sector Morqub, leading an emissary for the Wormwood Sons. 

The bulk of the Wormwood Sons' fleet slunk back towards Chernobog, bearing with them the Second Company Captain of the Inheritors. With him were an honour guard bearing the silver Caputmori-topped Vexilla that the Chapter had been granted during the Conclave on Jiam Tertiary, marking them as members of the Primarch's Quadrargenta. Solarion's order to the Captain was to bring back the loyalty of the Wormwood Sons – their presence was unexpected but deeply necessary.

For the Pentarchy, the war had proven costly. Besides the urgency of alerting their allies to the presence of a new hostile Chapter Astartes, the Carcharadons had been sorely depleted, and urgently in need of a fresh intake of troops. Quite besides their individual tragedies, it had become clear to the Pentarchy Commanders that Kadath had become a worthless prize. With its capital and four of its principal forges in ruins and its military much depleted, what little could be mustered was as likely to be bitterly turned against the Partisans as the Orthodoxy. Thus Mango and Nero decided that while they had failed to claim the world, they had successfully poisoned the well; starving the Partisans of succour in the region.

Mark well Kadath. Besides the corpses, besides the ruins, there lies a lesson.

[//Orion+]