Warzone: Null – The Machinedeath

Machinedeath on Null

[//Inheritors counter-assault to support Argent Heralds troop deployments+]
[//lars.j_d/@lars.j.dahl+]

Précis

The Null Campaign saw the Legios Punica and Validus engaging in a war of mutual near-annihilation with the collected armour of the Partisans. It was as a direct result of this titanic battle that the remaining meaningful contributions made by such weaponry was limited to the closing stages and aftermath of the War of the False Primarch. 

The 'Machinedeath', as the conflict became popularly known, was a huge turning point in the overall war. Such was the colossal loss of men and materiel during the eerily-quiet conflict that its lingering effects coloured all the campaigns of the War thereafter. It bred numerous bitter rivalries and grudges that only fed the fervour with which each side fought.

Famed amongst Partisan space as the battle that saw the revelation of the Silver Stars in Legion strength, it was also recorded as the first major conflict in which the 'Primarch' took to the field and engaged the enemy directly. Victory was claimed by both sides, but given the questionable and pyrrhic nature of such 'victory', the actions of the False Primarch here came to confirm both the worst fears of the Orthodoxy, and the greatest hopes of the Partisan cause.

'There was once a time of awakening and reason. Now we wander in the ruins of our once great civilization. Forgotten Heroes of a Forgotten Age.'

[//Orgon Hon, quoted in an Antiecclesiarchy pamphlet+]

***

Astrography

[//Null {tithegrade= Solutio Particular}+]

Close to the expanse of Wilderness Space between Morqub and Heliopolis, the Null system was thinly populated. With no natural atmosphere, abortive colonisation efforts had seemingly been made by some unknown agent at some distant point in the past, leaving a skein of dull, dead air, unbreathable by unmodified humans. It held just two settlements of any size – the modern port hub of Enderghast, and Riamsport, formerly of some regional influence, but now in terminal decline. Both sat in a deep natural depression, into which the little air of the planet pooled. More than 98 per cent of the planet's small population lived and worked in these centres, with the remainder spread cobweb-thin, operating as listening post attendants, prospectors or far-flung miners. 

The earlier conflict across the Delphurnean League had seen the bulk of the Pentarchy of Blood forced into retreat to Sector Heliopolis, leaving the personnel in the region loyal to the High Lords with little Astartes support. Lacking any meaningful number of specialist troops or equipment able to operate in such locales (the Geno-Infantry of Roag Nort being a notable exception), the Orthodox simply lacked the ability to engage on Null. 

Conversely, it was ideal for the Silver Stars and their allies. With sufficient atmosphere to avoid hard-radiation damage to machinery and power armour, Null offered the Partisans a musterpoint close to Heliopolis, and naturally resistant to the nearby Orthodox forces. 

To the 'Primarch', this was an opportunity to gather those loyal to him and prepare a colossal strike against Heliopolis. It was through the efforts of Master Enoch and the further sacrifice of both the Pentarchy of Blood and their supporting Titan Legions that such a grand campaign was strangled in its infancy; and the Primarch was instead forced to adopt the more limited and infantry-focussed (though ultimately no less destructive) Operation Gauntlet for his assault on Heliopolis.

***

Chronology

Alas, the Ordo Redactus' Edict of Obliteration was thorough in its annihilation of this conflict, so much remains unclear, including anything approaching precise dating of the events. Much has to be pieced together from reclaimed material or assumptions, which has inevitably introduced a number of seeming contradictions in the reportage. 

It is, at least, a near-certainty that the Null Campaign was preceded by the so-called War of Broken Bones, which saw both the Star Wardens and Wormwood Sons suffer heavy casualties at the hands of the Red Talons and Flesh Eaters over the Forge World of Neo Jove – but in the course of the conflict, disabling a number of Titan War Engines.

[//The heavy casualties suffered by the Wormwood Sons on Neo Jove saw them undertaking a protracted recruitment drive during the events of the Machinedeath.+]
[//mikl h-w/@duckcalledsue+]

Why the Partisans struck Neo Jove at this point is unclear. Perhaps the Star Wardens simply wanted to demonstrate their zeal to the figure they saw as a returned father; or perhaps it was a strike of opportunity, with the Star Wardens having gained some form of time-critical intelligence. 

It is possible that the attack was intended as a demonstration of the Partisans' – and hence Volnoscere's  –capabilities. Rumours of the Primarch had by now spread all through both Morqub and Heliopolis, but even the longer the Orthodoxy could pin Volnoscere and his supporters in Morqub, the greater the damage to his reputation – after all, what sort of Primarch would be stymied by mere mortals? Hesitation only weakened Volnoscere's claims to rulership, and strengthened that of the High Lords.

Striking at Neo Jove – a world fortified by the Orthodox Mechanicus and Red Talons alike, and deep in Heliopolis – thus demonstrated the 'Primarch's' reach. More than this, it served the critical role of hobbling Master Enoch's ace-in-the-hole: his Titan Legions. In turn, this would flip the conflict on its head and put the Partisans firmly on the front foot.

The conflict would be recorded by the Anti-Ecclesiarch Morgetheon and his followers as a colossal step forward for the Partisan cause; for while the results were cataclysmic for both sides, the tide of public opinion was heavily swayed towards the man who laid low Titans...

***

Enginewar

Prior to this point in the War, the various Astartes forces had been dispersed across too broad a front to make deployment of Titans meaningful – their sole effective mass landing seems to have been during Warzone Ishim. While Validus and Punica deployed maniples in a number of conflicts, the lack of Engine-class opponents meant that the more nimble Astartes simply withdrew from conflict. While effective in detail, their use was heavy-handed, and likely resulted in in increase in support for the False Primarch.

The Null system lay close to the border of Heliopolis. Such was the increase in fleet traffic in such a short time, it became obvious that something was afoot – something that Enoch and the Pentarchy could not resist. In hindsight, it seems likely that the Orthodox High Command had substantial intelligence on even the detail of the muster. While no direct evidence exists for this, the Vigilants were highly active across the region, and doubtless had double-agents within the gathering Partisans.

[//Punica Engines stalk the streets of Enderghast, beneath the statio-dome, supported by Charnel Guard recon units. +]
[//toby_h+]

The stage was set. Knowing that the Titans harboured on Neo Jove would eventually be used to strike at some Partisan gathering, it became unavoidable that the Titans would need to be confronted. Thus the formidable minds of Volnosere and his Kapihe turned to the strategies necessary to choose the field and manner of that conflict – following the strike on Neo Jove to delay and provoke their deployment, the muster on Null was announced.

***

Belligerents

[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Legio Punica+ +Legio Validus+

[//Addit. belligerents={Pentarchy}//] +Red Talons+ +Carcharodons+ +Charnel Guard+ +Flesh Eaters+ +Death Eagles (II)+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Silver Stars+ +Inheritors+ +Riven Lords+ +Argent Heralds+ +Firebreak+ +Red Fish+ +Marines Saturnine+

[//Frater Maui; Brother Maui – honoured for his actions on Null+]
[//andre_j_f/@andre.jazze+]

***

Whatever the chronology, the bulk of the fighting on Null was broken into two phases – a planetstrike by the mortal forces of Legio Validus and Punica, followed by the deployment of the Titans themselves, accompanied by substantial Astartes armour provided by the Pentarchy of Blood.

The Partisan forces – made up of the bulk of the above-listed Chapters – had assembled in the open plains between the principal spaceports within Enderghast and Riamsport, when reports began to filter through of an invasion force entering the Null system. 

[//Silver Stars sweep the low streets in the aftermath of the Null conflict+]
[//christoph t farnessbeta+]

After a short delay, the Partisan fleet – composed mainly of second-line fleet tenders and transports, and apparently under the command of Vox Volnoscere – began to fall back as the colossal scale of the Extinction Fleet became apparent. Assuming the Partisan fleet was falling back to friendly space in the Delphurnean League, the Orthodox battlegroup made no attempt to intercept them at the Mandeville point, instead moving at full pace to the planet itself. The Partisans planetside, meanwhile, moved to form strongpoints.

Three days passed, during which intercepted vox-traffic made it apparent that the False Primarch himself was planetside. Scrambled requests for Exteminatus orders on Null were made by Dwimmerlock of the Death Eagles, but were fatefully delayed – events partially expounded upon elsewhere in this archive, but usually attributed to counter-intelligence work on the part of the Firebreak and Marines Mendicant. 

As a result, as the third day dawned, the Orthodox fleet had achieved orbital supremacy, and the first shots were exchanged between the planetary defence lasers (augmented and crewed by the dozens of Techmarines present on the surface) and the orbiting fleet.

Fleetmaster B'raqu, under the auspices of Inquisitor Clouseau, ordered the mass deployment of the Skitarii Legions under his command. Scores of craft were blasted from the sky as they descended, but the vast bulk were spared by the defence lasers, occupied as they were by far more pressing threat of the battleships and twin Arks Mechanicus of the Titan Legions.

[//Skitarii of the Amber Kings. Thousands of such Shieldguard were lost in attempting to establish a beachhead on Null in the face of Partisan Resistance+]
[//juno/@warppainter+]

***

Beachhead

The Skitarii deployed into the teeth of the Silver Stars pseudolegion, along with nearly five thousand ferocious Astartes of various Partisan Chapters. Given the lack of preparation time and the nature of the defences they fought, the Skitarii acquitted themselves well. The nature of that opposition must, of course, be taken into account. Of the two dozen Demi-legions that managed to reach the surface, none emerged with fewer than seventy per cent casualties, a horrifying statistic that partially obscures the fact that of those twenty-four, more than half were entirely wiped out.

[//The Inheritors, under the direct command of Chapter Master Solarion, throw back a Legio Punica landing point. Note the preponderance of armour at this early stage – heavy vehicles would become rarer in the later stages of the war as a direct consequence of the losses on Null+]
[//lars_j-d/@lars.j.dahl+]

The early part of the battle clearly favoured the defenders. Some analysis suggests that the Muster took place on Null because it had long been used as a regional resupply point for the Imperial Navy. Well-stocked and fortified, its defences had been substantially augmented by the Astartes. This made the landing utterly murderous – but nevertheless the sheer scale of the assault allowed the Orthodoxy to capture a pair of desolate regions – one to the north of Enderghast, the other some few hours from Riamsport. 

***

Enginewar

Scant hours into the invasion, the first coffin-ships of the Titan Legions made planetfall – only to run into the advancing Silver Stars. Whatever intelligence the Pentarchy had gathered had made little mention of the scale of their opposition. Spoor of more than three hundred super-heavy class vehicles, including anti-Engine Glaives and Fellblades, were identified during the course of the fortnight-long conflict, spearheading a wave of smaller armour. It gives a sense of the brutality of the scale of the conflict that only two were sighted in the later years of the war.

Against them were ranged more than two dozen famed Titans, ably piloted by experienced veterans. Later in the conflict, as casualties mounted, they were joined by the superheavy and air assets of the Pentarchy – nearly a score of superheavy vehicles of various vintages, plus the armour pools of the Death Eagles and Red Talons. 

***

The detail of the conflict is minimal, available second-hand from heavily-enforced lobo-locks in the shattered vaults of Legio Validus, themselves later sanctioned for preservation of verboten knowledge. 

The broad strokes are clear. Punica was deployed to the north of the Eon basin, where a ridge of high ground provided protection from direct strike by ground-based fleet defences. Striking north towards Enderghast, they were tasked with razing the city; and then to move westwards to what was deemed the location of Volnoscere and the bulk of the Silver Stars.

Meanwhile, the smaller Validus detachment landed further west, with its maniples tasked with taking out the mountain fastnesses to the east of Riamsport, the world's principal population centre. On their destruction, they would move to liaise with Punica and besiege the Citadel of Riam, nestled to the north of Riamsport.

[//Principal populated region of Null. Planetstrike drop-phase. Only major deployments shown: Caputmori indicating Partisan forces; Aquila Orthodox forces..+]

***

Battle of Enderghast

[//Riverhead of the Silver Stars+]
[//edward_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Legio Punica+ 

[//Addit. belligerents={Pentarchy}//] +Charnel Guard+ +Flesh Eaters+ +Death Eagles (I)+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Silver Stars+ +Riven Lords+ +Firebreak+ +Marines Saturnine+

Some sixty per cent of the Punica Engines were unexpectedly lost in the battle for Enderghast, where Riverhead of the Silver Stars masterminded the defences. Seemingly determining attack to be the best form of defence, the Partisans sallied out and engaged the Titans in the mountain passes on the approach. The Punica Titans stoically weathered the storm, pushing forward and inflicting heavy casualties on the SIlver Stars armour.

Unable to make good progress in the unfavourable terrain, the Titans of the 'Twice bound' Legion sent forward a flanking force of their lighter forces – a recon battalion composed of their Forgeknights and Astartes allies. Scrambling up into the passes, the force was engaged by the Silver Stars' allies, under the ominous command of Master Dou of the Firebreak. Dou himself was slain in personal combat with Chapter Master Gorn of the Charnel Guard – but his vengeful allies ensured that his body was recovered. During the counter-attack, Xiel Cordaris of the 7th Ostire (later succeeded by Leistryg Diantos) also fell here at the hands of Commander Iakovos of the Riven Lords. 

[//toby_h+]

With casualties mounting, the Silver Stars eventually elected to fall back. As twilight fell, the sinister glitter of Punica Engines resuming their advance was spotted emerging from the mountain passes. Running conflicts and strikes from speedy Silver Stars vehicles slowed the advance, but could not stop it. Within the hour, the Twiceborn were within five kilometres of the city's edge. All-but-silently – as the airless world ensured – the Titans began bombarding the city, their fire directed by Astartes' recon elements. The Charnel Guard had been badly mauled, with one Captain slain and their Chapter Master badly injured. Command was devolved to the ranking officer – in this case, an unnamed Death Eagles' Captain.

It was here that the Silver Stars' unusual tactics were first recorded – with armoured sallies pushing forward  behind superheavy armour to deploy close-in infantry waves. While the Punica Engines were no stranger to combined arms assaults, it was the repetitive and relentless nature of the wave attacks that proved difficult to combat. 

[+Silver Stars squads deployed in Enderghast+]
[/edward_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

As the first Silver Stars' superheavies were bracketed and destroyed by heavy Titan armament, their Rhinos pushed past and got within their shields. As allied Astartes and Techguard moved to counter, the Titans found themselves unable to manouevre as the second wave of Engine-killer vehicles advanced, and long-range artillery homed in on their position. 

Nor was this a simple battle of attrition for the Silver Stars, for as each enemy Engine was felled, so too did Punica's ability to retaliate. Thus the repeated waves built and threatened to overwhelm the Legio.

With fourteen Engines destroyed for tactical trades adjudged insufficient, the Lord-Legate fatefully opted to drive on aggressively; using the indomitable Praelectus Patrem to push eastwards towards the city. This seemed a confusing decision, as the urban region would only favour the lighter Partisan forces – and furthermore left their Death Eagles and Flesh Eater allies to their fate...

[//Warmaster-class Praelectus Patrem+]
[//toby_h+]

While the move did earn the Legio the ire of their Pentarchy Allies, it was successful in getting the War Engines off the main road and into ground which hampered tracked vehicles. Seemingly aware of this, Riverhead ordered his reserves – a combined Company of Firebreak and Marines Saturnine – to pull back to preserve the artillery.

As Punica drove a fateful wedge into the city, with nearly half its Engines now combat incapable, they achieved the seeming impossible – turning back the tide of Silver Stars. For all their advantages, the Silver Stars armoured strength was now unable to prevent the fall of Enderghast.

Alas for the Pentarchy, however, the resourcefulness of the Stars' allies was undaunted – and the brevet-Master Johus of the Firebreak orchestrated a masterstroke. Allowing Punica to make their way towards the colossal resupply buildings of Enderghast Principal, Johus grimly ordered his sheltering forces to retreat. Having spent days fortifying and establishing the skyscrapers, the Astartes of four separate provenances reluctantly moved out. 

'I confess I had little faith then in the Firebreak – but Johus' ruthlessness and resourcefulness was precisely what we needed. Had I known his intent, I imagine we would have abandoned our posts rather more swiftly.'

[//Brother Igrimm of the Riven Lords+]

Punica advanced, scanty resistance fire slackening off, warily scanning the streets for hull-down Fellblades and similar primary-level threats. They should, perhaps, have watched the skies, for it was at this point that Johus' artillery began to pound the Riamspire – the space elevator that was Punica's principal target. 

Unable to retreat owing to the column of Titans behind it, the Praelectus Patrem grimly opted for full stride forward, crushing allied and enemy infantry alike beneath its colossal feet. The lower portions of the Riamspire collapsed catastrophically, smashing the Warlord Ardent Defen from its feet. Worse than the collapse of the relatively thin and fragile tower, however, was the resulting eruption of the grav-plate foundations that kept the elevator operational. More than a third of the city – including all of the Silver Stars' artillery detachment in the region – were lost; but in return, Punica was all but wiped-out.

The eventual effects of such a catastrophe on the world were impossible to predict.

***

First Battle of Riamsport

[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Legio Validus+

[//Addit. belligerents={Pentarchy}//] +Red Talons+ +Carcharodons+ +Death Eagles (I)+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Inheritors+ +Red Fish+ +Argent Heralds+ 

[+A hull-down Fellglaive super-heavy tank forms an anchorpoint to defences outside Riamsport+]
[//james_t/@tangential_contrivances+]

Less well-documented than the Enderghast conflict – perhaps owing to Validus' reportage on their own actions being more obvious and thus more thoroughly redacted by the later Edict of Obliteration – this battle saw Titans bestriding the ridge leading down to Riamsport proper. 

While his counterpart in Punica had chosen to spend its Astartes' support in a recon-led advance, it seems Micare opted for a more direct approach.

A sprawling low-level city, with few structures more than three storeys tall, Riamsport was low and level; prime hunting ground for Titans. The approach, however, was treacherous. In an attempt to minimise casualties, Grandmaster Micare of the Legio Validus appeared to have opted to lead the assault himself, driving in a forced march while bombarding the city from the vantage point of the ridge. 

[+Grandmaster Micare of the Legio Validus+]
[//juno/@warppainter+]

Speed initially favoured the Orthodoxy. The ridgeline was dotted with fortifications by the Partisans; nests of embedded armour providing a daunting sight to the Orthodoxy – but also meaning the mobile Titans could concentrate on each strongpoint in turn. 

Bunker after bunker was methodically destroyed – but as the advance continued, the Partisan's strategy became apparent. Mastery of the region had been given to Decurion Kamakanei, who had entrusted Solarion of the Inheritors with the fortification. This idealistic Chapter was known to have revelled in its unofficial sobriquet of 'First Amongst the Followers', and to have gone to extremes to exceed the Primarch's expectations.

[+valident{untrue} – Legio Validus Hun-class Titan+]
[//edd_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

Post-battle excavations reveal that the line of fortifications were connected far deeper than might have been expected – a long tunnel below the range of the Skitarii sensorsnoops being employed. Had the advance been slower, it may have been discovered, but it was not until the Validus Engines were fully committed that Solarion put his plan into action. 

With the Maniples of the Titan Legion strung out in file order, hundreds of Partisan Space Marines emerged unscathed from the bunker complexes behind the Titans, while the remaining Red Fish and Inheritors Armour in front of the advance began to gather for a counter-attack.

[//juno/@warppainter+]

A picket line of surviving Techguard had been force-marched in front of the plodding Titans, while the Astartes, a seven-hundred strong force of combined Carcharadons and Red Talons, were moving more cautiously. Penned in on both sides by the ridgeline, the heights of which allowed Titans only to advance in single file, the defending Orthodox forces sold their lives dearly.

[//The Machinedeath spared not the 'armoured immortals' of the Astartes, with more than seventeen Dreadnoughts supposedly lost.+]
[//dennis_k/@the_iron_within+]

The resulting conflict was confused; but more than a thousand Space Marines lost their lives in the battle – more than a hundred in a single moment as the Validus Engine Woebegone was catastrophically destroyed. Seven Astartes Captains lost their lives during the conflict  – two at the feet of the Dreadnought-armoured Solarion. Alas for the Partisans, for even as victory seemed assured, Chapter Master Solarion was reportedly lost. Details are frustratingly vague, for the otherwise reliable record of Handsman Horron implies that it was Master Gorn of the Charnel Guard that dealt the fatal blow to Solarion – but he was more than two hundred kilometres away in the north, and badly injured himself. With little other evidence, we can surmise that Solarion attempted to prevent a breakout attempt, and was confronted by Shadelord Puru Moango of the Carcharadons and Autek Mor of the Red Talons. Neither, tellingly, ever made the claim to the scalp.

[//Inheritors launch their counter-offensive on Legio Validus – Solarion is pictured on the right of the image, preceded by his veteran warriors and trusted Armour. +]
[//lars_j_d/@lars.j.dahl+]

By his sacrifice, Solarion had led his forces in the destruction of more than a dozen Titans, and at a stroke wiped out huge numbers of Pentarchy warriors – experienced veterans that the still-reeling Pentarchy could ill-afford to lose. No records exist of the remainder of this conflict, but besides a possible lone mention of a 'Taloned Crimson bike' in a secondary source, the Carcharadons and Red Talons took no further part in the war on Null. Puru Moango appeared to have survived – for he met his death later in the conflict.

From reports of the second battle – that of Riamsport proper, we can assume that the Validus forces were degraded by something on the scale of sixty per cent – but that Partisan armour casualties were eye-watering. The Red Fish reported 'catastrophic irrecoverable casualties' to the grim-faced Kamakanei and not a single Silver Star or Inheritor superheavy emerged from the later conflict in the valleys.

[//lars_j_d/@lars.j.dahl+]

"Command, this is Sergeant Tiguaak. Come in; over."

"Tiguaak, Captain Hanta receiving. Status?'

"Pentarchy human forces routed, Astartes contingent decimated...but Sir..their very existence puzzles me"

"Clarity, Havildar. What do you mean?"

"They claim to be our progenitors, calling themselves the Death Eagles... but these are not the Death Eagles we know"

+++

Second Battle of Riamsport

[//The False Primarch himself – pictured in the aftermath of the conflict+]
[//edward_r/@death_of_a_Rubricist+]

[//Princip. belligerents={Orthodox alliance}//] +Legio Punica+ +Legio Validus+

[//Addit. belligerents={Pentarchy}//] +Flesh Eaters+ +Death Eagles (I)+ +Death Eagles (II)+

[//Princip. belligerents={Partisan}//] +Silver Stars+ +Riven Lords+ +Argent Heralds+ +Firebreak+ +Red Fish+ 

***

Command of the third and greatest part of the Partisan host was taken by the 'Primarch' himself. Records disagree on whether the Null Warzone was a victory for the Partisans or Orthodoxy, but it throws some light on the personal nature of the being claiming to be a Primarch. 

While the horrors of Astartes-on-Astartes conflict are obvious, and the toll paid horrific, the results were clear. Volnoscere had traded the greater part of his – and his allies – armour, in order to all but wipe out the key threats of the Orthodoxy: their Titan Legions and the Pentarchy. 

[//Armed and armoured against the thin atmosphere, numerous members of various Ordos are believed to have been present during the fighting on Null, amongst them Inquisitor-Provost Brejak-Cassels, pictured here+]
[//edward_r/@death_of_a_rubricist+]

Few commanders would be willing to make the sacrifice of such venerated and venerable engines of war – but set against the scale of sector-level warfare, one perhaps come to understand the advantages of so doing. In Volnoscere's eyes, almost any sacrifice was worthwhile in bringing down the opposition. To have done it in such a way that he was left with around than two-thirds of his forces intact is perhaps the measure of his mastery of war – and perhaps his callousness and lack of common humanity. 

While the Silver Stars had clearly been heavily bled, the pseduolegion's size meant that it was not a fatal blow. While true that they had taken a greater absolute number of casualties than all their allies, the pseduolegion was proportionally much larger, and better placed to recover its losses in the wake of Warzone Null. 

[//Battlegroup Veloch – consisting elements of of Huiana II and III; forming a combined superheavy and support group, pictured during the initial muster.+]
[//robert_h/@inquisitor_pariah+]

It is illuminating to read in the remaining pages of the Liber Mendicante that it was only afterwards that the Kapihe seemed to come to the conclusion that both the Inheritors and Firebreak were all but spent forces, unable to operate independently for fear of becoming strategically ineffective – or extinct. While substantial numbers of both remained, lack of available recruitment from their homeworlds meant that Riverhead made the fateful decision to have essentially folded the Chapters into the pseudolegion from this point forward. Neither Chapter would operate alone in any but the most strained circumstances, and were always accompanied by Silver Stars 'til the very end of the war.

As for the Riven Lords, Argent Heralds and Red Fish, all three Chapters had been decimated. None of the three had deployed their full strength to the conflict, but all had lost more than two hundred Astartes. Less than fifteen per cent of their armour was recovered from the surface by the end of the War of the False Primarch, and of that, virtually no superheavies were ever to be fielded by the Chapters again.

It is a measure of Volnoscere's inhuman charisma – or perhaps excellent counter-propaganda – that there were seemingly no voiced concerns from the surviving Partisans.

***

Of the second battle of Raimsport itself, it was coloured by the effects of the conflict in Enderghast. While the atmosphere of the planet was thin, and the winds thus weak, the lack of precipitation also meant that world-ending quantities of dust had been brought up by the grav-detonation. The dustcloud had taken six hours to drift to the immediate east of Raimsport Centralis, where the full might of the remaining Partisans had marched out to engage the Orthodoxy, stealing the initiative from the reeling Titan Legios, and allowing them no succour.

[//Silver Stars Glaive+]
[//james_t/@tangential_contrivances+]

Hidden from view as much by by the sprawling low-level buildings as the sensor-clogging fog, estimates put the attendant Silver Stars at numbering more than twenty thousand, with the Argent Heralds flanking force to the north at a further five hundred. In a huge rumbling advance, the host moved to engage the remaining War Engines of Validus and Punica on two fronts, preventing them from combining their firepower. The only substantial Pentarchy force remaining were the Death Eagles – and Tywin Dwimmerlock assumed local command of all Orthodox Astartes forces within range. 

The battle itself was more extended than the earlier conflicts. Despite the open field conditions that should have favoured the Titans, the clogging dust and obscuration meant that the Silver Stars' strategy of percussive, relentless and overlapping attacks was inordinately effective.

[//Silver Stars liaise with Inheritors as they move in-theatre; putting them in direct contact with Volnsocere's unfolding plan.+]
[//lars_j_d/@lars.j.dahl+]

This is not to imply that the battle was one-sided. Even reeling from shock defeats, the Titans and Death Eagles sold themselves dearly – but after five hours of unrelenting assaults, and no apparent diminishment of their enemy, Dwimmerlock ordered a fighting retreat to the landing zones, in an attempt to extricate as many Titans as was possible. It was at this critical stage that Volnoscere threw forward his fresh reserves – the mounted might of the Argent Heralds spearheading a fresh angle of attack into the flank of the Orthodox forces. More than this, the Heralds were – supposedly – led by the False Primarch himself.

This particular detail is drawn from a second-hand source, the events of which suggests at least a measure of exaggeration, as it details Volnoscere deploying from an unknown flight conveyor – possibly a modified Stormbird – at the head of more than five hundred Terminator-armoured warriors. This force was said to have engaged and brought down thirteen Punica engines in short order. While this is not beyond the realms of possibility, it is the statement that:

'Monstrance, that maul of human authority and wellspring of Lethe was brought down upon the Engine, and carved it thus in two[...]'

... that seems most unlikely – but if it is the case that the being known as Volnoscere was a Primarch, perhaps such an act is possible. 

The facts are slim and surrounded by skeins of lies, misdirection and confusion. 'The truth', as the imperial proverb has it, 'is an ever-malleable thing.'

[//Archaic Breacher squads clash with Charnel Guard and their allies+]
[//toby_h+]

***

'If such a battle can be called a victory, it was principally a victory for the enemies of mankind. It is a demonstration that Will – that of the Last True Son – is steel-clad; for he shirks not from personal danger in seeking to grant humanity its revelation. Cast off the chains of the High Lords, and join us – join the Partisan cause!'