Warzone: Hever
'War makes monsters of us all. For this reason, it is advantageous to ally oneself with monsters from the outset. That ensures one's plan is not impaired when, in the heat of battle, your 'principled' comrades prove themselves to be anything but.'
[//Dictat, Lord Commander Pacificus Incincerus, M32+]
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| [//Designation: [Hourglass]+] [//harry_k@the_cadaver_synod+] |
Preçis
Nominally a Civilised World, the azure-hued skies of Hever, principal planet in the system from which it took its name, had been famed as a leisure port some centuries earlier in Sector Heliopolis' history. While its reputation had faded somewhat as fashions amongst the well-heeled of Heliopolis changed, it retained a comfortable and prosperous position in the Abraxas Subsector owing to the stability of its warp-routes.
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| [//Subsector Abraxas lies spinwards of Sector Morqub. It provided an excellent gathering point for the initial invasion of Morqub – and thus made itself a prime target for the Partisan counterinvasion.+] |
Indeed, it was these same reliable warp routes that made it a key strategic target for the opposing sides in the War of the False Primarch, which led to its swift and terminal decline into a war-wracked fortress world that changed hands repeatedly during the War.
Following the cessation of hostilities, Hever became the principal landing for for the Eradication Order Executors; the Sisters of Silence-led Obliteration Executive.
***
Prelude to war
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| [//Hever {tithegrade=} Decuma Extremis+] |
'Enjoying a relaxing 0.95g standard, and balmy weather across much of it surface, Hever is your home from home. Come for a visit, stay for a lifetime.'
[//Pre-War pamphlet, preserved in the Inquisitiorial fortress on Strife. The phrase was used ironically, and gave the 3rd Hever Rifles Regiment their nickname of 'the Lifetimers'+]
During the course of the war, Hever was transformed from being a leisure planet, dotted with distinctive coralesque architecture that predated the Imperium itself, to a war-world covered with little more than bastions and rubble. It's famous macrobeaches became salt-drenched killing fields; and more than nineteen hundred Astartes are believed to have perished in the major conflicts here.
Hever was fatefully identified as an ingress point and potential fleet anchor for the Extinction Armada by Master Enoch during his war-planning, and it was tasked to Lord Admiral Ludovico Martegiani to make good on his plans. As part of the fifth wave of fleets, Martegiani's flagship Firebreath moved in to displace the advance elements and form a gathering point in preparation for deployment into Sector Morqub. The ruthless commander infamously banned his officers' shoreleave on Hever, in the belief that it would 'render them soft and incapable'.
Within two years, the world had acquired a small garrison of Flesh Eaters (half of the Second battle Company and two squads of the Seventh Tactical reserve), later swelled by a semi-permanent Charnel Guard fleet detachment. By dint of its status as a Pentarchy fleet anchor, the world was heavily garrisoned by Imperial Guard regiments from across Segmentum Solar, including the famed 555th Solar Auxilia. Towards the end of the War, these forces were relieved by a semi-permanent group of Vigilants – including the invidious Benedictors, then under Inquisitorial oversight.
The world fell under extended Partisan occupation on two occasions; the first nominally under the Red Fish, and subsequently by the Firebreak (in truth, the ragged remnants of the Chapter shored up by a motley mix of recuperating second-liner troops from the Argent Heralds, Silver Stars and Riven Lords) during the Partisans' retreat following the Fall.
***
First invasion: Mortifaction of the Red Fish
[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Flesh Eaters; 555th Solar Auxilia+]
[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Red Fish+]
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| [//The actions of the 555th – later to pledge for the Partisan cause – were instrumental in preventing the retreat on Hever from becoming a rout.+] [//nicholas_b/@nicholas.painting+] |
The Red Fish were so well-respected across Sector Morqub that their fame had spread to Hever. Indeed, the Guard Warzone Commander, Zwalt Leimos, a local to Hever, famously remarked that he was:
'Gladdened to hear that the enemy facing us are the Red Fish, for if we must face the Astartes, I am heartened to face a foe that understands the limits of inter-Imperial war.'
This was at best, optimistic – for Astartes warfare, whatever the Chapter, is terrifying – but Leimos was known for his irreverent sense of humour. Nevertheless, his remarks might have been granted to have a grain of truth in it, as the Red Fish were known to be honourable warriors who fought limited war: brooking both the possibility of surrender and giving quarter when requested. Since Leimos knew that he had the backing of the fell Flesh Eaters, plus orbital supremacy, history might have forgiven his bluster and confidence, had his remarks not been heavily redacted along with all else on the war.
In any case, it was to prove ill-founded: the Chapter that descended on Hever, however, was to demonstrate little of the reserve and control for which they were famed.
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| [//Chodan Wei-Rashid+] [//@eatdrinkdeath+] |
***
Deployment in detail
Four hundred Red Fish Astartes were deployed in total, led by their Third Company Captain, Gahl al-Hadassas. Following the events of the First Siege of Ishim, this represented slightly more than half of the surviving Red Fish. While the subsequent assault itself proved unexpectedly savage, its inception was not notably so. Indeed, it showed a huge amount of preparation and organisation; and was notable for its guile. Al-Hadassas' forces were deployed in a great crescent arc via drop pod and Thunderhawk; the former being fired – highly unusually – from system-edge. This meant that the Red Fish fleet, moving in from the galactic north, were thought to be staying out of range of the defending fleet, perhaps awaiting reinforcement, when in fact they were completely bypassing the orbital defences.
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| [//Red Fish sergeant bearing a Caputmori backbanner device+] [//@genericbuzzard+] |
Hourglass. Last seen by Pentarchy forces moments before the mass assault on Logan's Bluff by Partisan Guard Regiments. Contact lost with Flesh Eater response team sent to intercept, current location unknown.Precipitated collapse of frontline designate Rho, reduction of 0.7% power production capabilties across Pentarchy assets.'Blessed is the one who turns to the Emperor's light in their time of need, for they are truly enlightened.'
[//incept after-action report+]
The drop pods were highly vulnerable while in transit, but since the defenders assumed the Red Fish were awaiting reinforcements before advancing, they remained on standby rather than at alert, having themselves requested additional fleet assistance. For three days the drop pods barrelled towards the planet, systems dark, before entering the atmosphere in a beautifully-orchestrated deployment.
The drop pods made landfall across a broad swathe of the planet's equatorial hub, landing in the shallow seas and disappearing. The scant reports of drop pod assault that did reach the Orthodox Command were largely written off as green troops proving jittery, or simply examples of the common meteor showers for which the Nolan region of the leisure world was famed.
The Red Fish deployment gathered their forces while hidden beneath the sea, before executing an amphibious assault against three of the major coastal settlements Zelag, Clayton City and Agutter's Shore. All were sprawling and languid cities, a mix of Commercia and Hab-districts looming behind luxurious and opulent beach-side hostelries. In the twilight, roughly Codex Company-strength forces of Red Fish made a synchronised attack on each locale.
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| [//@genericbuzzard+] |
One disadvantage of the Red Fish's unorthodox deployment method was that their forces were scattered across a wide region – some four hundred kilometres from one extreme to another. It therefore took quite some time for the warriors to liaise and coalesce beneath the waves. One report suggests that Gahl al-Hadassas attempted to make a virtue of this by encouraging isolated or cut-off Red Fish details to advance and prepare the broader assault, but this cannot be verified – nor was evidence of this strategy borne out in the subsequent hours and days. Fortunately, as so often happens in war, fortune favoured the bold – and the element of surprise was retained by the invading Partisan forces.
***
Assault
'Vengeance for the Blue world! No quarter!'
[//Gahl al-Hadassas+]
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| [//Kill Team: Shell Weavers – pictured in the Clayton City Industria-bloc shipping yards +] [//@genericbuzzard+] |
By the time Leimos was roused from his bunk to direct the regional defence, the Red Fish were already deep within the built-up area, and had executed dozens of small strikes against the ill-prepared defences. Initial reports struggled to find a pattern. The Red Fish seeming to be targeting nothing in particular; and their strategy was taken to be general marauding and terror action – quite at odds with what Leimos and his men had expected. Two tense hours passed as reports crackled in from listening posts, revealing nothing save an amorphous mass of attackers seemingly striking at random. No communication was received from the attackers.
Leimos fatefully hesitated in reporting the attack to Voivode Scaraban of the Flesh Eaters, the senior Astartes officer deployed some miles away, in a rearline bunker. Instead, he relied on his own troops – perhaps underestimating the size of the Red Fish assault, perhaps simply nervous at requesting help from his ill-omened allies.
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| [//Resistance from the Guard stationed on Hever was spotty and ill-supported; though a number of isolated outposts reported successfully holding or driving back individual Red Fish Marines. +] [//nicholas_b/@nicholas.painting+] |
Not expecting the assault, many junior officers had proven lax, allowing their soldiers out of barracks and failing to properly coordinate sentries and patrols. The battle was being fought between knots of lone marines and isolated squads of Guardsmen. As the battle stretched, the bleary-eyed Orthodox command watched with increasing nervousness as reports of attacks continued to spread inexorably through the three cities. Defensive emplacements that had been planned and established under the Flesh Eaters techmarines' direction might have held against standard Codex assaults, but the Red Fish had adopted a much more diffuse strategy of destruction in detail. They were moving seemingly as individuals, roaming and destroying any Orthodox forces they could find.
***
Jaxon Fifth Square
Towards the early hours, it was fast becoming clear that the assault was not a minor feint, but a full-scale assault. As the night wore on, the Commander of Clayton City managed to withdraw his surviving troops to from a second line in the industrial districts. Here, the inexperience of the defenders was stiffened by the 555th Solar Auxilia, who were providing a stanchion and anchor to the frightened regulars.
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| [//nicholas_b/@nicholas.painting+ |
It is almost entirely down to the courage and determination of the 555th that the Red Fish assault was stemmed at all – though even this small victory was scant condolence to the five hundred or so auxiliaries who perished in the first day of fighting; mostly in the defence of Jaxon Fifth Square, where they had made a temporary base.
In the face of their more determined and organised defence, the Red Fish's attack became more concentrated, more visible – and more vicious. The Flesh Eaters' Voivode of the Second Company, Scaraban, later recalled:
'In darkness is the promise of light. It is a central tenet of our beliefs; that the Great Angel's nature in battle merely temporarily shrouded his true inner self. The converse is, of course, also true. In the seeming fair is oft hidden the most dreadful savagery. Those who are not truly tested often fail to foresee this; and therein their fate is sealed as the darkness reaches out to grasp them.'
Gahl al-Hadassas led the assault on the 555th, waiting to gather ninety Red Fish before running the gauntlet into the Solar Auxilia line. The Solar Auxilia were well dug-in and supported by more than seventy Hevan regulars who had fallen back towards their base. In the conflict, the 555th responded professionally; felling a substantial number of the Red Fish before contact was made. Later reports noted that the Red Fish matched the feared Flesh Eaters in their initial fury, and despite the quality of the defenders, swept over the prepared Guard-held positions in a matter of minutes; though they lost a not-insignificant number of their own in turn.
***
Across the region
This broad story was repeated across the conflict zone, with the Red Fish in the bordering cities of Zelag and Agutter's Shore assaulting with a quite unexpected ferocity. While it was undoubtedly effective in overrunning the defenders in short order, it was a high-casualty gambit. It was also highly disruptive to the infrastructure of the cities, another note that seemed at odds with the Red Fish's observed strategic preferences.Whatever was happening, it was clear that the Red Fish were over-stretching themselves in their eagerness to reach the enemy – and it was in Penstemon Square of Agutter's Shore that this was to prove disastrous. Scaraban and his Flesh Eaters had at last been alerted, and had made the unusual choice of an armoured assault into the city. Perhaps this was merely to expedite their deployment, but it prove highly effective in allowing the few Flesh Eaters to concentrate their small number of squads to maximum effect.
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| [//Second Company command+] [//francois_v/@withteatea+] |
Able to rapidly deploy and redeploy with virtual impunity through the broad, open streets, the Flesh Eaters Predators and Rhino transports proved difficult in the extreme for the unsupported Red Fish infantry to respond to. Relying on squad-based heavy weaponry, Red Fish were repeatedly forced back into poor cover by small arms as Predator support landed the killing blow.
The kill ratio later reported by Scaraban was 3:1, and though this partially reflected the small number of Orthodox Astartes casualties overall – just 16 Flesh Eaters were lost from his company, and two were later returned to the ranks – it was also notable in being proportionally high for Astartes-on-Astartes combat, even taking into account the disposition of pre-prepared defenders.
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| [//tentontoes+] |
The after-action reports were clear – that – in allowing their forces loose, Gahl al-Hadassas had deprived them of one of the Red Fish's traditional strengths: unity of purpose and command. Vengeful the Red Fish might have been, but this was proving detrimental to their duty precisely where the well-directed and focussed fury of the Flesh Eaters was proving so successful in countering them.
Despite his early success, the result of the invasion was never truly in doubt. With resistance failing across the line, Scaraban and his forces elected to retreat after receiving notice that the Red Fish fleet was moving up in support.
The battle ended in victory for the Partisans and humiliating surrender for the Orthodox forces. While the Red Fish had won a swift and cunning victory, they had received more than a simple bloody nose – and their casualties could be ill-afforded in the wake of the invasion of Ishim. The Red Fish's fury at the invasion of their homeworld and the destruction of their protectorate had clearly snapped something deep within the Chapter – whether this was to prove fatal would be decided over the coming years.
***
Second invasion: Return of the Pentarchy
[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Charnel Guard+]
[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Firebreak, Riven Lords+]
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| [//Second Enclave force move in support of the Riven Lords on Hever, Sector Heliopolis+] [//cameron_m/@dizzyeye.01+] |
[//ALL RECORDS REDACTED+]
[//counterspool ingress device despatched+]
[//bypasslink{potentialval=}TRUE+]
[+pending+]
[+patchval{pict-capt only+]
[+pending+]
[+exloadingSPOOLSPOOLSPOOL+]
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| [//matt_t/@spacedhulk+] |
***
The hunter knelt in the shadows of the ruined chapel, his obsidian plate merging perfectly with the darkness. Above him, the night sky was visible through the building’s bombed out roof, a kaleidoscope of flickering lights playing against the blue-black canvas, each one a telltale sign of the ongoing void battle. The majority of his brothers were still in orbit, as the Charnel Guard engaged the remnants of the Partisan fleet.
His task was different, but no less important. He, and a few dozen like him, had been deployed to the planet’s surface as a prelude to the forthcoming invasion. Their mission was simple – to undermine the Partisan’s defences and morale in any way possible.
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| [//matt_t/@spacedhulk+] |
As he knelt, he cradled the Disintegration rifle to his chest. It was a strangely elegant weapon, so dissimilar to his usual boltgun, but there was no disputing it’s effectiveness. It had punched right through enemy power armour with ease. His own prototype suit, a gift to the Pentarchy from the Martian Phobos Forges, was also unusual but highly efficient. Resembling a stripped back version of standard Mark 6 plate, it not only provided far greater mobility with an equal level of protection, but was almost completely silent. The perfect combination for a predator such as he.
On a whim, he turned back to look at the figure he had crucified. The enemy Space Marine had been decapitated and stripped of his armour, then nailed to a statue of the Abomination that still stood in the chapel’s vestry. It was not a subtle message, he chuckled to himself, but this was not a subtle War. He had made a point of carefully laying out the Firebreak warrior’s armour in front of the statue, so that whoever discovered the corpse would be in no doubt as to his identity.
Drawing his combat knife, he paused for moment before attaching it to the rifle’s bayonet port. The iron rich smell of Astartes blood still lingered on the blade, intoxicating in it’s sweetness, and he breathed it in deeply through his Corvus helm’s respirator. As the Thirst began to rise within him once more, he rose to his feet and clicked the blade into place. The night wasn’t over yet, he thought, as he set out into the darkness.
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| [//matt_t/@spacedhulk+] |
***
'Pluck out his eyes, that he might see more clearly. Pluck out his tongue, that he might speak more truthfully. Excise his ears, that he might hear no more lies.'
[//Canto for the captured Heretic, intoned during ritual mutilation+]