ValinoreanDawn
Namarië
The following narrative has been derived by both after action and eye witness accounts of the Defence of Valtmar from Hive Fleet Leviathan, Ork Waaagh! Hive-Killa, and 88 Legions of Khorne led by Ka’Bandha.
The aggregate account given for dissemination among Imperial High Command has been sanctioned and approved by the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.
///0: INITIALIZING
.....<<DOWNLOADING COMMAND LINE:.....>>
///RETRIEVING FILES///
/APPROVAL REQUEST: GRANTED ORDO SUPREMIS/
......DISPLAYING
The destruction of Cadia and the smothering grasp of the Noctis Aeterna has plunged the Imperium into a near communication black out. Warp Travel is slow and hazardous even within the same Sector. While the enemies of Mankind circle and swarm the marooned worlds. Cut off from reinforcement and even plea for aid. Distress calls go unanswered across the Galaxy. The Sun Angels, fresh from the bloody wars on Armageddon and Cadia had returned to their homeworlds of the Valtmar Hegemony. A welcome respite except for the 3rd Company which remained on Armageddon to oversee successful follow-up operations. Save for the grave news which reached them in the waning weeks of the nine hundredth and ninety-ninth year of the forty-first millennium. Hive Fleet Leviathan had breached into the Galactic Disc from under its plane and was still making for Holy Terra. The only saving grace, ironically, was the conditions of the Noctis Aeterna slowing its tendrils grasp. Now, the Hive Fleet sought to follow a winding path and descend upon Terra via the north-eastern routes of the Segmentum Solar. Through the strategically important and stable region of space known as the Hegemonic Gate.
The Imperium was besieged, and Holy Terra was under Demonic assault. But even as these fragmented and weak astropathic communications came and went the threat loomed. As such it was through the wisdom of the Lord of Angels, Dante, that the Heavenly Host would marshal its strength in the Hegemony alongside all mustered and available Imperial assets. To blunt and if possible, defeat Hive Fleet Leviathan before it can gain access to the environs of the Sol System. The Imperium's presence in the region was great at least. The Hegemony was long a strong bastion of highly productive and populated worlds and more than one Forge World with numerous smaller Forge Fanes on lesser planets. While, reeling from the onset of the Noctis Aeterna significant Imperial assets had regrouped in rendezvous over the main worlds of Valtmar, Solaria, Hesperidium, and Belletyne. This would lead to the event known as the Devastation of Valtmar, or in Imperial Historical Accounts as the Battle of the Hegemony, as one of the largest Imperial campaigns waged in the closing days of the forty-first millennium. One that would involve millions of Imperial Guard soldiers, Aeronautica airmen, voidsmen of the Imperial Navy, and thousands of Astartes belonging to the Sun Angels and all their Successor Chapters.
Of the Imperial Navy and attendant Aeronautica Imperialis the mighty Battlefleet Valtmar was amassed under the command of newly minted Lord Admiral Sean van Zandt, an officer of Terran stock from the Merican Gulf Hive Cities. While the Imperial Guard was amassed and deployed under the overall command of Lord General Robiere d'King, also of Terran origin from the Northern Merican Baronial Hive Cities. While the Canonesses of the Shrines and Cathedrals on the worlds of the Hegemony were marshalled and composed of a priory from the Order of Our Martyred Lady, Sanguine Rose, and the entirety of the Order of Our Golden Queen. The Inquisition similarly mobilized the regional Deathwatch from their fortress in the Girdle at Ashfall alongside various Ordo Xenos inquisitors and their retinues to augment the tactical knowledge of other Imperial forces. While the Sun Angels accounted all their successors: Carmine Blades, Angels Excelsior, Angels Encarmine, Blood Knights, Blood Drinkers, Angels Sanguine, Angels Erythean, Angels Glorious, Angels Numinous, Angels of Light, Angels of the Grail, The Midnight Host, The Dark Knights, Angels of the Midnight Sun, Angels Penitent, Angels Vermillion, Golden Sons, Golden Palatines, Solar Templars, Solar Hounds, Sun Lords, and Blood Legion, Silent Wardens, Helican Brotherhood, Flesh Tearers, and Blood Dragons. Alongside, rather surprisingly, renegades in the form of the Night Lords, Angels Excruciators, and Crimson Host.
779.999.M41
The earliest indications of Hive Fleet Leviathan's approach were confirmed by listening station Rho-Hospex 14 in the Akkadian Shield asteroid belt in the Viltran System two point one light years away from Valtmar itself. The Viltran system with the worlds of Lys, Akoshara, and Galliena were part of a ring of systems known as the Angel's Halo. Just within the encircling nebula known as the Girdle of Myrromyne. The Angel's Halo being a ring of shield worlds and the outer most defenses of the Hegemony. It was here that the first battles of the war for Valtmar would be fought.
The very first contact was in orbit of the world of Akoshara. A dusty world but mineral rich and home to the large hive city of Akosha. Garrisoned by the 4447th Cadian Airborne. Dante, however, had not been complacent and had planned a rapid counterstrike once contact had been made. In coordination with an Imperial Fleet organized by Lord Admiral van Zandt and under the tactical command of Solar Admiral Vandred di Augusti the Imperials launched a massive naval sortie on the flank of the incoming tendril. However, the Hive Fleet upon passing through the Girdle and outer asteroid belts, primarily composed of ice, had adapted via secretions which hardened into thick diamond tough layers. The massed guns of the Imperial Fleet were less effective and gradually pushed aside by the sheer amount of Hive Ships arriving. Forcing an Imperial retreat once the fleet began to be overwhelmed.
The Battle of Akoshara began in earnest with Imperial Guard General Malor Ghresh sending frequent astropathic updates until the shadow in the warp obscured transmissions. The battle of Akoshara was lost in a matter of hours as the Guard and PDF forces of the Hive City fought a brave but ultimately futile defensive action that ended in a frantic withdrawal from the world.
(Troopers of the 4447th Cadian Airborne's 5th Company defend evacuation sites amid the ruins of Hive City Akarosh)
784.999M41
It had only been a couple of days when it became clear that the Hive Fleet had fanned out in its pursuit of targets and a multi-pronged invasion of the Hegemony was underway with fierce orbital duels between Imperial Navy taskforces and ground-based void capable attack craft of the Aeronautica Imperialis erupted over Lys and Galliena. But also, on the world of Volgirre in the neighboring Voltaris system. The 4447th Cadian Airborne was sent to reinforce the 6777th Cadian Airborne at Volgirre while Dante coordinated the defenses of the increasingly besieged Angel's Halo shieldworlds.
Lord General Robiere d'King bolstered the defenses and launched tenacious counterattacks in areas of mass Tyranid infestation on both Lys and Galliena in engagements involving hundreds of thousands of Guard soldiers and millions of PDF. Even personally taking command on Galliena when General Feldt's HQ was overrun during the climactic Battle of Aureolus Hive and in a spirited defense involving eight regiments of the Arcite Patricians Heavy Infantry Regiments re-equipped from Forge World Solaria a repeat of the chaotic retreat from Akarosha was avoided. Allowing untold numbers of Imperial civilians and the orderly withdrawal of Imperial Guard forces from the world when it became evident that the planet would fall to the Tyranid Hive.
For as valiant and masterful as the Imperial defenses were, as tenacious its commanders, the Tyranids kept coming in their billions.
While on Lys the world became besieged and bypassed by the larger Hive Fleet after a spirited two-week defense and a daring strike using nuclear weapons that destroyed numerous Bioships and hive infrastructure across the planet. At the cost of 604 of the 1,000 Marines of Solar Hounds.
786.999M41
Approximately, 15 hours after bolstering the garrison on Lys and realizing the Hive Fleet is bypassing the world to penetrate deeper into the Hegemony, Dante, withdraws the Astartes forces from Lys and engages the Leviathan vanguard bioships near the Red Scar Nebula that juts across the Terra-Ward region of the Hegemony and the central worlds. The Hive fleet seemingly spreading out among the Nebula and its errant planetoids and asteroids as if searching for something. The Sun Angels and their successors eventually determine the Hive is hunting for an Inquisitorial Citadel belonging to the Ordo Xenos on the rogue planet of Maloris. The Astartes fight a sharp search and retrieval operation before destroying the infested fortress with a cyclonic torpedo. The object pursued by the Hive being a Xenos artifact of some sort, supposedly a weapon according to the Ordo Xenos, a fact proven true later on.
793-850.999.M41
The Angel's Halo Enveloped...
The retrieval of the Xenos artifact seemed to galvanize the Tyranids and Hive Fleet Leviathan launched a full force, redoubled, assault on the Angel's Halo with fighting erupting all across the Hegemony from Saint Bellicosa Shrine World to the pearly blue skies of the Agri-world of Aera. On Saint Bellicosa the Order of Our Martyed Lady bolstered the morale of the Imperial 222nd Army under General Hektor Draviere and the Golden Sons 4th Company. While on Satyr among sprawling Industrial factories the Regiments of the Vostroyan Firstborns XXXth Army fought Tyranid Hormagaunts and Lictors alongside the Satine PDF. On Aera Valkyrie patrols and the bravery of the 44th Imperial Aeronautica Wing allowed the defenders time to secure themselves within fortified settlements. Through the vast hab-stacks of the great city of Phodia on Asphodex whose levels and avenues became choked with alien dead. While on Tartaros the Valhallans and Vostroyan Tank Regiments fought amid poisonous mists to protect the city-domes of the world. In each of these emerging battlefields it seemed the Imperium would prove victorious. But at the cost of countless Imperial lives.
///Accessing Audio-Video Log///
<Strategium Session 016/Arx Sol Angelicum>
The Fortress-Monastery of the Sun Angels on Valtmar was as much an imposing citadel as it was aesthetic beauty. Angelic statues, golden and silver crenelations and filigree in the stonework, stained glass windows, and marbled floors. The City of Valtmeris encircled the mountain-top fortress in wide semi-crescent. Home to millions. The City of Diamond Spires. It was truly a hallmark for when the Primarch, the Golden Queen, of the Sun Angels still walked amongst her sons.
Heavy boots fell on the marbled floor as the armored form of Dante entered the large strategium room held in the third sublevel of the Tower of the Sun. Lord Admiral Sean van Zandt stood off to the side with a dozen naval officers and aides while the rest of the room was filled with the rank and file of Lord General Robiere d'Kings command staff. A pair of Sanguinary Guards, the golden honor guard of the Sun Angels, flanked Dante as he arrived. The Lord of Angels presence eliciting a bow of all those present.
While scrutinizing a large holographic projection of the planet was the Imperial Govenor of the Hegemony, the Solar Regent, Penn Hyran. It had been tradition for millennia, since the Primarch herself, that the Regent be a mortal.
"Status Report," said Dante.
Van Zandt spoke first, "It is as expected. The Xenos continue their tactic of besieging and then bypassing the shieldworlds. The Angel's Halo shall be fully besieged in a matter of days."
"We must assume the Tyranids are already nearing the inner worlds."
Dante reached up and removed the beautiful, grim, battle mask that had the features of his Primarch. His face was chiseled and finely featured. High cheekbones and noble brow. Long black hair and bright eyes with a hint of red like all the Sons of the Golden Queen. His mouth's movement showed glimpsed of elongated canines. The retractable fangs another feature of the Chapter and their successors gene-seed.
"I concur with the Lord General. We must make final preparations."
"I shall assume field command aboard the Domina Solari." The Emperor-Class Battleship was one of the principal command ships of Battlefleet Valtmar and served as the flagship of Van Zandt.
Dante nodded. He had pulled back nearly all of his Astartes to the inner worlds in anticipation of this.
///Log End///
850.999.M41
The Waaagh! and Battle of Arcane-Vangelis...
Whether by coincidence or the Emperor's intervention, the Tyranid assault on the inner worlds did not come as expected. The reason for which becoming all too clear in the early days of the final year of the 41st Millennium for the Imperial defenders. Waaagh! Nid-Killa under Warboss Krull Ur Maulla, a protege of Ghazghkull, who favored the attritional combat of fighting the Tyranids above all, came crashing into the region. Assaulting the Hive Fleet from its Rimward flank in a bloody path across Galliena, Lys, and Saint Bellicosa. For the most part the Orks largely ignored the beleaguered Imperials and fought in massive engagements against the Tyranid swarms. While in the void thousands of Greenskin ships, a vast armada, rampaged through the Hive Fleet regardless of losses.
However, this only slowed down the Tyranid invasion of the inner worlds and the main tendril of the Hive entered the inner sphere of worlds bound for the twin worlds of Arcane and Vangelis....
The Battle of Arcane-Vangelis 878-899.999.M41
///<ENGAGING RECORD FILE>\\\
FILE BEGIN:
When the Nid's arrived in the vicinity of Arcane & Vangelis, twin worlds orbiting a common barycenter, they were met by a carefully orchestrated trap to lure the Tyranids into a costly assault, already fighting multiple fronts and now assaulted by the tireless Greenskins, it was hoped the xenos hive fleet would be blunted or at least parried here. Lord General Robiere had organized a fearsome terrestrial defense with no less than six million Guardsmen, hundreds of millions of planetary defense troops, and backed by the Skitarii and Battle Automata of the Vangelis Forge-Fane Magi. Further, the Astartes of the Angels of the Grail, Midnight Host, and Dark Knights had been deployed. Over 3,000 Marines. While I, Lord Admiral van Zandt, had organized a hammer and anvil of no less than thirty battleships, eight cruiser squadrons, and over one hundred screens.
-Combat Journal of Lord Admiral Sean Van Zandt, dated 875.999.M41
///<File Ends>\\\
(Imperial Titans of the Legio Solaris counter-attack Hive Spires alongside the Death Korps 62nd Army and Tanks of the Nemesis Brigades)
Hive Fleet Leviathan struck at Vangelis first and the skies of the world became alight with thousands of AA guns, missile batteries, and las-cannon emplacements. Ground based macro-cannon batteries fired their tank sized shells at descending bio-ships while flocks of Imperial Attack Craft engaged swarms of Tyranid fliers in the skies above the Forge-Fanes and urban conurbations. The Imperials were dug in and tight coordination between Guard and Mechanicus forces had been achieved via constant liaison attaches and noospheric links.
On Vangelis the Tyranids swarmed over the sweltering sandy planes and toxic waste-dunes in their millions before the trap laid by Lord General d'King was unleashed. At his signal aboard the mobile battlestation Archangel, the Fortress-Monastery of the Solar Templars that had been deployed in reserve at the last moment by Dante, once it became clear the full might of the Hive Fleet's main tendril was targeting the twin worlds. The Templars, a crusading chapter, had accordingly mustered some 4,000 Marines, in orbit.
At 1100 Hours new suns erupted on Vangelis as the Imperium and Mechanicus unleashed a barrage of 288 Deathstrike Missile Platforms, 426 Bombards, 1,104 Manticores, and 7,499 Basilisks. Billions of Tyranid Bio-Forms and dozens of emerging Hive Spires were destroyed in the apocalyptic atomic barrage and follow up counter-attack with the more conventional Guard artillery. While in orbit the hammer of the Imperial Navy engaged in conjunction with the anvil arriving on the flank of the Hive Fleet.
Thousands of Tyranid Bio-Ships were destroyed in the furious assault that also included the guns of the Archangel and Astartes fleets of the Solar Templars, Angels of the Grail, Midnight Host, and Dark Knights.
It seemed the Imperium would strike a grievous blow against Leviathan when the Hive fleet split and pushed forth with larger ships not yet seen before. Ships that lowered to orbit and out of vast sacs birthed creatures of monstrous proportions, rivaling Imperial Titans and Knights in size. Leviathan had deployed a force gestating all this time. Cohorts of Bio-Titans, dozens of Heirophants, Dactylis, and Harridans backed by pairs of Dominatrix synapse Titans deployed along a fresh wave of millions of lesser Tyranid bio-forms on not only Vangelis, but also striking at Arcane in a furious orbital assault in conjunction with an insidious Genestealer cult uprising in the bowels of Arcane's cities.
The Genestealer cult was however small and new in number. Likely seeded only weeks before and as such targeted only one specific objective. The city void shield arrays. The coordinated assault damaging the void shield generators sufficiently to cause their collapse and swarms of Tyranid monstrosities landed directly onto the city streets. Forcing the Imperials and Astartes of the Dark Nights to fight an abrupt urban fight across hundreds of levels and hundreds of square kilometers.
(Imperial Guardsmen and PDF Troopers battle Genestealers on Arcane)
All while this was occurring the Hive Mind introduced a startling new tactic not seen before in either the First or Second Tyrannic Wars. Leviathan launched coordinated boarding actions of Imperial warships. Swarms of Tyranid attack ship sized bio-craft engaged the point defense batteries of the Imperial Navy and even managed to board several vessels. Disgorging Genestealers and Tyranid Hormagaunts into the decks of Imperial vessels. Several ships were lost in this furious surprise boarding action, those lucky enough to overload their engines detonated with the force of a new star while the might Retribution Battleship Adrasti, overran with 90% crew dead, and genestealers about to breach the Enginarium overloaded its warp-drive while on collision course for the center of the Hive Fleet. Detonating in furious storm of vibrant magenta and orange the ship disintegrated and took thousands of Tyranid ships with it into the warp.
///Ship Log Uploading....
They've breached the outer blast doors!
The voice of the ships officer of the watch, a redheaded woman by the name of Sabine, shouted as she drew her las-pistol. Lord Admiral van Zandt clasped his hands behind his back as he continued to issue fleet orders. The kill ratio in the void was impressive, 57 to 1 in attack craft and 93 to 1 in ships but they were losing, slowly. The Hive just had more and more to throw at them. Fresh waves of hundreds of bio-ships arriving on sensor read outs and auspex array projections by the minute. Thousands of attack craft and over one hundred and thirty-four imperial navy ships had been lost in the course of the engagement. They just kept coming. The mass of a moon was descending on Arcane and Vangelis each.
They're at the antechamber annex! Lost contact with Deck 37 through 42! Enginseer Norstrum is readying emergency overload protocols on your mark Lord Admiral. Lord Admiral?!
Van Zandt due his twin side arms, a laspistol and a bolt pistol, turning towards the blast doors as they began to dent and heat with whatever sick bio-acid was being belched upon them.
Ready Reactor Overload on my Command.
///Ship Log Ends\\\
The Domina Solari had been boarded by dozens of clawed Tyranid bio-breachers disgorging thousands of creatures and genestealers onto the decks of the mighty Emperor-Class Warship. But still its guns fired and the armsmen sacrificed themselves in a merciless hall by hall, compartment by compartment, siege and counter-assault action. But the Imperium in space was being overwhelmed and the wrecks of both bio-ships and starship hulls began to rain down upon the twin worlds like the fury of a vengeful god.
<<CAUTION: INQUISITORIAL FILE REDACTED BEING ACCESSED>>
INPUT AEGIS ULTRA AUTHORIZATION GENE-CODE
INPUT ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE CIPHER CODE
OCULI SENSOR READING PROCESSING
WARNING FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH ALL INQUISITORIAL VERIFICATION METHODS IS GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE BIO-TERMINATION
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED?...[YES] NO
ACCESSING FILE/INQUISITION NOTIFIED.
You're certain Inquisitor?-Dante
Yes, Lord of Angels I am certain. This is the Magnitovitrium as described by compiled research among the Conclave.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
May we use this weapon? What is its tactical usage to us. As abominable as that may seem.-Dante
Truly abominable but the theoretical is no less than the temporary creation of a gravitational implosion anomaly roughly 26 million kilometers in diameter.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
Has this been?-Dante
Tested. No. But observed. The Grul-Stran Incident a century ago in the Ghoul Stars matches this very artifact. Further, interrogation of Xenos captured from Necrontyr tomb worlds corroborates this finding.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
But you would advise against this, no?-Dante
I would advise against the use of any Xenos weapon, officially. But these are desperate times. The Halo is breached and communication with the wider Imperium is cut off while the Shadow in the Warp smothers the region.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
Unofficially, I would demand this device be remit to my keeping.-Dante
Very well. May the Golden Throne protect our souls.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
<<FILE ACCESS TERMINATED>>
As the Imperial Fleet began to be forced into gradual disarray and individual captains began to retreat as their hails to the Domina Solari went unanswered. The Imperial forces on Arcane and Vangelis began to feel the full un-mitigated might of the Hive Fleet as billions of Myocetic spores rained down upon them. On Arcane the Dark Knights stood shoulder to shoulder with the forces of the Guard and local PDF as they were forced back into the upper hive citadels and barracks-fortresses. Millions of Imperial citizens, like those on Akarosha, slaughtered by the Tyranids and fed to the gestation pools being formed across the planet.
While on Vangelis Imperial Titans dueled Tyranid Bio-Titans with Princeps Gallaceni valiantly sacrificing herself and her Warlord engine to buy time for Imperial forces to fall back to inner Forge-Fane defenses bound by rivers of magma mined from the planets mantle. The situation was growing increasingly dire by the hour as the Tyranids through themselves at the bridges across the magma rivers. Bridges that were blown by the defenders when they became precarious amid spiraling casualties, and while millions of civilians had managed to cross millions more remained trapped on the other side. Whether to spare them or not a second barrage of atomic weapons was unleashed upon the Tyranids in the outer forge fane districts and beyond. The Guard and PDF closing themselves in rad-shielded bunkers or donning anti-radiation equipment. The Death Korps volunteering to hold the river perimeter while the defense reorganized. Fighting a hit and run war in the inner defensive works and walls against infiltrating Lictors alongside the marines of the Midnight Host and Angels of the Grail.
It was now when Dante struck with the Sun Angels, Knights of Blood, and Angels Excelsior. The Knights of Blood combat dropped onto Arcane while the Angels Excelsiors 1st Company conducted a rapid breach boarding action and placement of the Magnitovitrium in the core of a massive Bio-Ship believed to be coordinating various Hive elements. However, the Hive Mind caught onto the threat and the 1st Company could not exfiltrate and stoically activated the weapon while sending a singular transmission: For the Emperor.
The detonation of the Magnitovitrium manifested in a rapidly expanding gravitational vortex. An artificial black hole and warp-null zone that winked out of existence a planets worth of Tyranid bio-ships in a matter of seconds. The Sun Angels combat dropped onto Vangelis as the Hive Fleet went into disarray and the voice of Van Zandt came over the vox detailing the repelling of boarders and rapid fleet counter-offensive was underway.
The Sun Angels at Chapter strength landed and drove the disorganized Tyranid ground forces before them like fire in a wheat field.
(Sun Angels Terminators engage Tyranids on Vangelis)
The Siege of the Inner Worlds
///Log Access Granted\\\
We'd repelled the Tyranid's from Arcane and Vangelis but at what cost? Estimates could only be guessed but at least 66% of the civilian population both planets were dead or consumed by the Hive Fleet. Imperial Guard casualties exceeded 72% with most Regiments below combat effective strength ratios. The Mechanicus fares little better with a sardonic report that at least 64% of all combat assets were lost or 'inoperable'. The Legio Solara reported the loss of 11 Engines and critical damage to 9 others. The Sororitas remarked a reported loss of 3,300 Battle-Sisters while the Astartes have been tight lipped, but eye-witness testimonies seem to corroborate a guess of around 820 fallen members of the Adeptus Astartes.
A victory but a hollow one.
-Lord General Robiere d'King, Campaign Journal Entry 22
///Log Ends\\
The use of the Magnitovitrium may have salvaged and dealt a bloody blow to the Hive Fleet. Buying precious days as the xenos were observed chaotically attacking Imperial and even Ork forces with little benefit. Seemingly, struggling to reorganize and re-orient its predatory path through the region. Solar Regent Penn Hyran had however been vigorous in the war effort and as much as the casualty lists spiraled so to do the conscriptions. Twenty-two million souls were enrolled into the Imperial Guard and PDF across the Hegemony and a hundred million more pressed into levee labor services to fortify the inner worlds. Reinforcements were sent to the beleaguered shieldworlds to keep them in the fight and a monumental logistical task of supplying their besieged populations was carried out around the clock under the supervision of the Solar Regent. Truly, the fact the Shieldworlds were holding as best they could and remaining in the struggle was testament to her administrative and economic acumen.
But the tactical and strategic front had remained grim. The Orks had gradually began to diversify their targets and now Imperial bastions were coming under Ork assault as well as Tyranid. While the Astropathic Choir had confirmed that the main mass of the Hive Fleet had crossed into the region. Much to their strain and madness, a struggle that saw the deaths of no less than a dozen Astropaths, but to their credit the psykers of the Astropathica kept to their stations and did their duties. Monitoring for communications.
922.999.M41
A Cautious Hive Mind....
The Tyranids had pulled more than one surprise and that had given both the agents of the Inquisition and the officers of the Imperial forces in the region pause. The Astartes Chapter Masters rightfully assumed the Hive Fleet was evolving and learning at the tactical level and not just blindly funneling in resources like previous Hive Fleets were expected to do. A fact most apparent when the Hive Fleet struck at the Saint Sabine Naval Port in the outskirts of the Inner Worlds. A large naval bastion as the furthest orbit from the triple sun system that the inner worlds sat within. Admiral Cubrick had been in command and the swiftness of the attack was unprecedented from the Tyranids. Complete with genestealer subterfuge that distracted the station and a massive assault by both long range attack-fliers and fast assault bio-ships the Tyranids scored a rapid victory. Destroying the port and reducing both a cruiser and escort squadron to drifting debris.
The Tyranids progressed much slower now. Taking a circuitous route and utilizing comparatively minuscule tendril fleets to probe Imperial defenses grouped in a series of spheres around the inner worlds. The Astartes Fleets and Imperial Navy fighting a series of intercept, rearguard, and delaying actions across the system. It was clear that the Hive Mind was trying to force the Imperials into a decisive void engagement in which to be overwhelmed and destroyed. A dour reminder of the pernicious tenacity of the malicious intelligence behind the Tyranid swarm.
Meanwhile Dante had pulled all Astartes forces back to the inner worlds in exchange for two million Guardsmen being deployed to Arcane, Vangelis, and the Shieldworlds. The inevitable was coming...
955.999.M41
On the Feast of the Sanguine Ascension the skies of Valtmar lit up as the Imperial Fleet and Astartes ships in orbit opened up their batteries on the incoming Tyranid Bio ships. Hundreds of Imperial vessels dueled a seemingly endless stream of Xenos bio-ships in the space around Valtmar. Lance batteries tracing the night sky in fine beams of light. Macro-batteries forming millions of tiny starlight pinpricks. While swarms of Imperial attack craft juked and dived amid vast hosts of smaller Tyranid bio-craft.
The Astartes Fleet arranged in four battlegroups under the command of Master of the Fleet Bellerophon accounted for 31 Battle Barges and 104 Strike Cruisers with hundreds of smaller ships arranged themselves over Valtmar and Hesperidium while the Imperial Navy supported the protection of the inner worlds alongside a Mechanicus Fleet from the Forge World of Solaria. The latter accounting for over a thousand ships including forty-five operational battleships. But the Tyranids had thrown over fifty-thousand bioships to each world with more in reserve.
The sky above Valtmar erupted in a firestorm as the vessels of the Space Marines slammed their way into the midst of the approaching Tyranids, launching storms of nuclear-tipped warheads. The Tyranid fleet took grievous losses amounting to over 300 Hive Ships and an untold number of lesser vessels. As impressive as this naval action was, it was hopeless. One by one, Space Marine Battle Barges and Cruisers were isolated and overwhelmed, battered by organic missiles and enveloped by swarms of smaller bio-ships. The entire Angels Excelsior Chapter was wiped out defending the orbital dockyards and grav-elevators of Hesperidium, and a second Tyranid fleet of tens of thousands of more bio-ships revealed itself from behind the moon Ballastine. The remnant of the Astartes fleet was helpless as this force began landings on Baal and its two moons.
The Imperials constructed a 4-layer defensive line consisting of not only Space Marines and heavy cannon batteries but also a moat of Thirst Water and large amounts of Conscripts and Regiments of Imperial Guard brutally held in place by Chaplains and Commissars. The first twenty waves, each larger than the last, were driven off at great loss by the Imperial forces. However, the Imperials held firm, in large part because of the Valtmeris Void Shield array which protected them from heavy artillery and flyer organisms. The Tyranids countered the Thirst Water moat by filling it with their own bodies, allowing for larger Tyranid Warriors, Carnifex's, and Exocrines to cross. This allowed the first line to fall, and the Space Marines covered the retreat of the mortal conscripts back to the walls. However, the Tyranids were still unable to penetrate the Void Shield, and the Hive Mind quickly adapted. A Lictor behind Imperial lines identified a derelict tunnel deep beneath the Fortress-Monastery which Trygons tore open. The Lictor along with a large amount of Genestealers infiltrated the depths of the Fortress, with the latter launching themselves at the hall containing the sarcophagi of Neophytes undergoing Insanguination. This enraged the Space Marines, and Dante himself led the counterattack to save their next-generation of warriors. However the Hive Mind had counted on this diversion, and in the meantime the Lictor disabled the Void Shield generator. The Imperial position reversed dramatically as the Tyranids began overrunning the Fortress-City. Five Chapter Masters died in the desperate battle, including three in the Dome of Angels alone.
(Sun Angels battle the Tyranids amid the Fortress-City of Angels, Valtmeris)
Gabriel Seth and his Flesh Tearers initially held the Sun Angels Aspirant training facilities while the Carmine Blades held the Astropathic Station. The Space Marines initially held their own thanks to formidable, recommissioned Horus Heresy-era fortifications and weaponry, but the presence of the Swarmlord himself turned the tide in favor of the Xenos. Dante managed to slay the Swarmlord, but was badly wounded in the process. It was upon this that the Xenos readied a massive assault using what appeared to be all reserves. Throwing a quarter of a million Bioships into the battles on Valtmar, Hesperidium, and Solaria.
A trillion myocetic spores fell upon the inner worlds as untold billions of Tyranid bioforms emerged. The grievously wounded Dante carried on the command of the defense of the City of Angels even as the inner sanctums were breached after a month of constant battle.
~980-999.999.M41
The Last Stand of Angels...
As the Tyranids breached into the inner sanctums of the Sun Angels Fortress-Monastery and the Forges of Solaria were being overrun while Hesperidium's cities lay in ruin and alight with the fires of chaotic warfare. Lord Admiral van Zandt carried out a desperate struggle in space even as half of the Imperial Fleet in the region was destroyed or crippled and forced to retreat. Even as his own flagship the Domina Solari suffered heavy damage and trailed debris and smoke trails. While on the ground Lord General Robiere d'King, most of his command staff dead in the fighting as thrice his command post was breached by Tyranid bioforms, had taken up position in the confines of the Tower of Sun with himself personally plugged into the data-stream watching overwatch and signal transmissions across the battlespace.
The Sun Angels were down to a couple hundred Marines, also the Flesh Tearers who had suffered similar casualties on Hesperidium. The Angels Excelsior, Angels Excruciators, and Crimson Host had been all wiped out. The Solar Hounds, 400 survivors from their battles in the Angel's Halo gave their lives in a heroic last stand defending the evacuation of civilians at the Angel's Gate Spaceport. The Angels Penitent was down to seventy marines fighting with the one hundred and thirty-four survivors of the Dark Knights defending the Reliquary Halls of Ancients. While the remnants of the Solar Lords, Midnight Host, and Angels Numinous defended the Dome of Angels. While the Tower of Angels perimeter was being held by the Solar Templars and Angels Sanguine. The Angels Glorious had made a self-sacrifice to destroy a major Hive Synapse complex and allowed several other chapters and dozens of Guard regiments and PDF brigades to retreat to the inner sanctums and bunkers. The Chapter serfs stood armed beside their Astartes masters with remnants of Guard regiments grouped around Astartes positions. The Sororitas of the Order of Our Golden Lady and the Golden Palatines still held the inner basilica of the Cathedral of Our Blessed Queen which also possessed bunkers holding a hundred thousand civilians.
(Flesh Tearers Battle Tyranids on Hesperidium)
This was it; Leviathan had gambled it all and had overwhelmed the Imperial defenses, all other strongholds across the region besieged or otherwise cut off. Then the skies rent asunder as the Cicatrix split the Galaxy, Warp Storms erupting, and the Astronomican while flickering in the final days of M41 went dark. Emerging from the Warp Storms came a bellowing roar as Ka'Bandha, Arch-Nemesis of the Sun Angels descended onto Valtmeris with eighty-eight legions of Khornate demons. Swearing that it would be it that would destroy the sons of the Golden Queen once and for all. The Demons of Khorne drove into the untold numbers of Tyranids and all hell broke loose across Valtmar as the skies rained blood and the plains and fair valleys of the world became slick with xenos blood and demonic ichor.
The rich fields of Valtmar burned, the forests and snow capped mountains ran red, and the skies darkened crimson-black.
The arrival of the Great Rift and Daemons prevented additional Tyranids from arriving but killed every defender upon Hesperidium. With the Hegemony itself cut off from the greater Imperium, Chapter Masters ordered a desperate call back to all defenders across the Inner Worlds to consolidate on Valtmar or Solaria. Only the sacrifice of the Knights of Blood, an excommunicated Successor Chapter who had nonetheless been accepted as allies by Chapter Master Dante, allowed the survivors to board their vessels and escape, as Hesperidium was overwhelmed by warp-spawned monstrosities. As Seth’s forces retreated, they caught one last glimpse of the Knights of Blood, hurling themselves into the thick of close combat with mindless ferocity, fully enveloped by the madness of the Black Rage.
It all seemed lost until the flickering signal appeared at the edge of the Valtmar system. Signals bearing codes from Holy Terra itself.
<<This is Titus Ironborn, Valtmar Control Respond, we are attacking the rear of the Tyranid Hive Fleet and inbound to make planetfall in four hours>>.
The Hive Fleet was broken as the incoming Indomitus Crusade reached the Hegemony and the forces of Khorne were expelled in a furious campaign led by a returned Primarch of the God-Emperor of Mankind. A swift rebuilding scheme enacted to restore the Sun Angels numbers and those of their successors. While Primaris Marines were also used to refound destroyed and wholly new chapters.
It is now 131.M42 and the Imperium's survival is still precarious.
The aggregate account given for dissemination among Imperial High Command has been sanctioned and approved by the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.
The Devastation of Valtmar
///0: INITIALIZING.....<<DOWNLOADING COMMAND LINE:.....>>
///RETRIEVING FILES///
/APPROVAL REQUEST: GRANTED ORDO SUPREMIS/
......DISPLAYING
The destruction of Cadia and the smothering grasp of the Noctis Aeterna has plunged the Imperium into a near communication black out. Warp Travel is slow and hazardous even within the same Sector. While the enemies of Mankind circle and swarm the marooned worlds. Cut off from reinforcement and even plea for aid. Distress calls go unanswered across the Galaxy. The Sun Angels, fresh from the bloody wars on Armageddon and Cadia had returned to their homeworlds of the Valtmar Hegemony. A welcome respite except for the 3rd Company which remained on Armageddon to oversee successful follow-up operations. Save for the grave news which reached them in the waning weeks of the nine hundredth and ninety-ninth year of the forty-first millennium. Hive Fleet Leviathan had breached into the Galactic Disc from under its plane and was still making for Holy Terra. The only saving grace, ironically, was the conditions of the Noctis Aeterna slowing its tendrils grasp. Now, the Hive Fleet sought to follow a winding path and descend upon Terra via the north-eastern routes of the Segmentum Solar. Through the strategically important and stable region of space known as the Hegemonic Gate.
The Imperium was besieged, and Holy Terra was under Demonic assault. But even as these fragmented and weak astropathic communications came and went the threat loomed. As such it was through the wisdom of the Lord of Angels, Dante, that the Heavenly Host would marshal its strength in the Hegemony alongside all mustered and available Imperial assets. To blunt and if possible, defeat Hive Fleet Leviathan before it can gain access to the environs of the Sol System. The Imperium's presence in the region was great at least. The Hegemony was long a strong bastion of highly productive and populated worlds and more than one Forge World with numerous smaller Forge Fanes on lesser planets. While, reeling from the onset of the Noctis Aeterna significant Imperial assets had regrouped in rendezvous over the main worlds of Valtmar, Solaria, Hesperidium, and Belletyne. This would lead to the event known as the Devastation of Valtmar, or in Imperial Historical Accounts as the Battle of the Hegemony, as one of the largest Imperial campaigns waged in the closing days of the forty-first millennium. One that would involve millions of Imperial Guard soldiers, Aeronautica airmen, voidsmen of the Imperial Navy, and thousands of Astartes belonging to the Sun Angels and all their Successor Chapters.
Of the Imperial Navy and attendant Aeronautica Imperialis the mighty Battlefleet Valtmar was amassed under the command of newly minted Lord Admiral Sean van Zandt, an officer of Terran stock from the Merican Gulf Hive Cities. While the Imperial Guard was amassed and deployed under the overall command of Lord General Robiere d'King, also of Terran origin from the Northern Merican Baronial Hive Cities. While the Canonesses of the Shrines and Cathedrals on the worlds of the Hegemony were marshalled and composed of a priory from the Order of Our Martyred Lady, Sanguine Rose, and the entirety of the Order of Our Golden Queen. The Inquisition similarly mobilized the regional Deathwatch from their fortress in the Girdle at Ashfall alongside various Ordo Xenos inquisitors and their retinues to augment the tactical knowledge of other Imperial forces. While the Sun Angels accounted all their successors: Carmine Blades, Angels Excelsior, Angels Encarmine, Blood Knights, Blood Drinkers, Angels Sanguine, Angels Erythean, Angels Glorious, Angels Numinous, Angels of Light, Angels of the Grail, The Midnight Host, The Dark Knights, Angels of the Midnight Sun, Angels Penitent, Angels Vermillion, Golden Sons, Golden Palatines, Solar Templars, Solar Hounds, Sun Lords, and Blood Legion, Silent Wardens, Helican Brotherhood, Flesh Tearers, and Blood Dragons. Alongside, rather surprisingly, renegades in the form of the Night Lords, Angels Excruciators, and Crimson Host.
779.999.M41
The earliest indications of Hive Fleet Leviathan's approach were confirmed by listening station Rho-Hospex 14 in the Akkadian Shield asteroid belt in the Viltran System two point one light years away from Valtmar itself. The Viltran system with the worlds of Lys, Akoshara, and Galliena were part of a ring of systems known as the Angel's Halo. Just within the encircling nebula known as the Girdle of Myrromyne. The Angel's Halo being a ring of shield worlds and the outer most defenses of the Hegemony. It was here that the first battles of the war for Valtmar would be fought.
The very first contact was in orbit of the world of Akoshara. A dusty world but mineral rich and home to the large hive city of Akosha. Garrisoned by the 4447th Cadian Airborne. Dante, however, had not been complacent and had planned a rapid counterstrike once contact had been made. In coordination with an Imperial Fleet organized by Lord Admiral van Zandt and under the tactical command of Solar Admiral Vandred di Augusti the Imperials launched a massive naval sortie on the flank of the incoming tendril. However, the Hive Fleet upon passing through the Girdle and outer asteroid belts, primarily composed of ice, had adapted via secretions which hardened into thick diamond tough layers. The massed guns of the Imperial Fleet were less effective and gradually pushed aside by the sheer amount of Hive Ships arriving. Forcing an Imperial retreat once the fleet began to be overwhelmed.
The Battle of Akoshara began in earnest with Imperial Guard General Malor Ghresh sending frequent astropathic updates until the shadow in the warp obscured transmissions. The battle of Akoshara was lost in a matter of hours as the Guard and PDF forces of the Hive City fought a brave but ultimately futile defensive action that ended in a frantic withdrawal from the world.
(Troopers of the 4447th Cadian Airborne's 5th Company defend evacuation sites amid the ruins of Hive City Akarosh)
784.999M41
It had only been a couple of days when it became clear that the Hive Fleet had fanned out in its pursuit of targets and a multi-pronged invasion of the Hegemony was underway with fierce orbital duels between Imperial Navy taskforces and ground-based void capable attack craft of the Aeronautica Imperialis erupted over Lys and Galliena. But also, on the world of Volgirre in the neighboring Voltaris system. The 4447th Cadian Airborne was sent to reinforce the 6777th Cadian Airborne at Volgirre while Dante coordinated the defenses of the increasingly besieged Angel's Halo shieldworlds.
Lord General Robiere d'King bolstered the defenses and launched tenacious counterattacks in areas of mass Tyranid infestation on both Lys and Galliena in engagements involving hundreds of thousands of Guard soldiers and millions of PDF. Even personally taking command on Galliena when General Feldt's HQ was overrun during the climactic Battle of Aureolus Hive and in a spirited defense involving eight regiments of the Arcite Patricians Heavy Infantry Regiments re-equipped from Forge World Solaria a repeat of the chaotic retreat from Akarosha was avoided. Allowing untold numbers of Imperial civilians and the orderly withdrawal of Imperial Guard forces from the world when it became evident that the planet would fall to the Tyranid Hive.
For as valiant and masterful as the Imperial defenses were, as tenacious its commanders, the Tyranids kept coming in their billions.
While on Lys the world became besieged and bypassed by the larger Hive Fleet after a spirited two-week defense and a daring strike using nuclear weapons that destroyed numerous Bioships and hive infrastructure across the planet. At the cost of 604 of the 1,000 Marines of Solar Hounds.
786.999M41
Approximately, 15 hours after bolstering the garrison on Lys and realizing the Hive Fleet is bypassing the world to penetrate deeper into the Hegemony, Dante, withdraws the Astartes forces from Lys and engages the Leviathan vanguard bioships near the Red Scar Nebula that juts across the Terra-Ward region of the Hegemony and the central worlds. The Hive fleet seemingly spreading out among the Nebula and its errant planetoids and asteroids as if searching for something. The Sun Angels and their successors eventually determine the Hive is hunting for an Inquisitorial Citadel belonging to the Ordo Xenos on the rogue planet of Maloris. The Astartes fight a sharp search and retrieval operation before destroying the infested fortress with a cyclonic torpedo. The object pursued by the Hive being a Xenos artifact of some sort, supposedly a weapon according to the Ordo Xenos, a fact proven true later on.
793-850.999.M41
The Angel's Halo Enveloped...
The retrieval of the Xenos artifact seemed to galvanize the Tyranids and Hive Fleet Leviathan launched a full force, redoubled, assault on the Angel's Halo with fighting erupting all across the Hegemony from Saint Bellicosa Shrine World to the pearly blue skies of the Agri-world of Aera. On Saint Bellicosa the Order of Our Martyed Lady bolstered the morale of the Imperial 222nd Army under General Hektor Draviere and the Golden Sons 4th Company. While on Satyr among sprawling Industrial factories the Regiments of the Vostroyan Firstborns XXXth Army fought Tyranid Hormagaunts and Lictors alongside the Satine PDF. On Aera Valkyrie patrols and the bravery of the 44th Imperial Aeronautica Wing allowed the defenders time to secure themselves within fortified settlements. Through the vast hab-stacks of the great city of Phodia on Asphodex whose levels and avenues became choked with alien dead. While on Tartaros the Valhallans and Vostroyan Tank Regiments fought amid poisonous mists to protect the city-domes of the world. In each of these emerging battlefields it seemed the Imperium would prove victorious. But at the cost of countless Imperial lives.
///Accessing Audio-Video Log///
<Strategium Session 016/Arx Sol Angelicum>
The Fortress-Monastery of the Sun Angels on Valtmar was as much an imposing citadel as it was aesthetic beauty. Angelic statues, golden and silver crenelations and filigree in the stonework, stained glass windows, and marbled floors. The City of Valtmeris encircled the mountain-top fortress in wide semi-crescent. Home to millions. The City of Diamond Spires. It was truly a hallmark for when the Primarch, the Golden Queen, of the Sun Angels still walked amongst her sons.
Heavy boots fell on the marbled floor as the armored form of Dante entered the large strategium room held in the third sublevel of the Tower of the Sun. Lord Admiral Sean van Zandt stood off to the side with a dozen naval officers and aides while the rest of the room was filled with the rank and file of Lord General Robiere d'Kings command staff. A pair of Sanguinary Guards, the golden honor guard of the Sun Angels, flanked Dante as he arrived. The Lord of Angels presence eliciting a bow of all those present.
While scrutinizing a large holographic projection of the planet was the Imperial Govenor of the Hegemony, the Solar Regent, Penn Hyran. It had been tradition for millennia, since the Primarch herself, that the Regent be a mortal.
"Status Report," said Dante.
Van Zandt spoke first, "It is as expected. The Xenos continue their tactic of besieging and then bypassing the shieldworlds. The Angel's Halo shall be fully besieged in a matter of days."
"We must assume the Tyranids are already nearing the inner worlds."
Dante reached up and removed the beautiful, grim, battle mask that had the features of his Primarch. His face was chiseled and finely featured. High cheekbones and noble brow. Long black hair and bright eyes with a hint of red like all the Sons of the Golden Queen. His mouth's movement showed glimpsed of elongated canines. The retractable fangs another feature of the Chapter and their successors gene-seed.
"I concur with the Lord General. We must make final preparations."
"I shall assume field command aboard the Domina Solari." The Emperor-Class Battleship was one of the principal command ships of Battlefleet Valtmar and served as the flagship of Van Zandt.
Dante nodded. He had pulled back nearly all of his Astartes to the inner worlds in anticipation of this.
///Log End///
850.999.M41
The Waaagh! and Battle of Arcane-Vangelis...
Whether by coincidence or the Emperor's intervention, the Tyranid assault on the inner worlds did not come as expected. The reason for which becoming all too clear in the early days of the final year of the 41st Millennium for the Imperial defenders. Waaagh! Nid-Killa under Warboss Krull Ur Maulla, a protege of Ghazghkull, who favored the attritional combat of fighting the Tyranids above all, came crashing into the region. Assaulting the Hive Fleet from its Rimward flank in a bloody path across Galliena, Lys, and Saint Bellicosa. For the most part the Orks largely ignored the beleaguered Imperials and fought in massive engagements against the Tyranid swarms. While in the void thousands of Greenskin ships, a vast armada, rampaged through the Hive Fleet regardless of losses.
However, this only slowed down the Tyranid invasion of the inner worlds and the main tendril of the Hive entered the inner sphere of worlds bound for the twin worlds of Arcane and Vangelis....
The Battle of Arcane-Vangelis 878-899.999.M41
///<ENGAGING RECORD FILE>\\\
FILE BEGIN:
When the Nid's arrived in the vicinity of Arcane & Vangelis, twin worlds orbiting a common barycenter, they were met by a carefully orchestrated trap to lure the Tyranids into a costly assault, already fighting multiple fronts and now assaulted by the tireless Greenskins, it was hoped the xenos hive fleet would be blunted or at least parried here. Lord General Robiere had organized a fearsome terrestrial defense with no less than six million Guardsmen, hundreds of millions of planetary defense troops, and backed by the Skitarii and Battle Automata of the Vangelis Forge-Fane Magi. Further, the Astartes of the Angels of the Grail, Midnight Host, and Dark Knights had been deployed. Over 3,000 Marines. While I, Lord Admiral van Zandt, had organized a hammer and anvil of no less than thirty battleships, eight cruiser squadrons, and over one hundred screens.
-Combat Journal of Lord Admiral Sean Van Zandt, dated 875.999.M41
///<File Ends>\\\
(Imperial Titans of the Legio Solaris counter-attack Hive Spires alongside the Death Korps 62nd Army and Tanks of the Nemesis Brigades)
Hive Fleet Leviathan struck at Vangelis first and the skies of the world became alight with thousands of AA guns, missile batteries, and las-cannon emplacements. Ground based macro-cannon batteries fired their tank sized shells at descending bio-ships while flocks of Imperial Attack Craft engaged swarms of Tyranid fliers in the skies above the Forge-Fanes and urban conurbations. The Imperials were dug in and tight coordination between Guard and Mechanicus forces had been achieved via constant liaison attaches and noospheric links.
On Vangelis the Tyranids swarmed over the sweltering sandy planes and toxic waste-dunes in their millions before the trap laid by Lord General d'King was unleashed. At his signal aboard the mobile battlestation Archangel, the Fortress-Monastery of the Solar Templars that had been deployed in reserve at the last moment by Dante, once it became clear the full might of the Hive Fleet's main tendril was targeting the twin worlds. The Templars, a crusading chapter, had accordingly mustered some 4,000 Marines, in orbit.
At 1100 Hours new suns erupted on Vangelis as the Imperium and Mechanicus unleashed a barrage of 288 Deathstrike Missile Platforms, 426 Bombards, 1,104 Manticores, and 7,499 Basilisks. Billions of Tyranid Bio-Forms and dozens of emerging Hive Spires were destroyed in the apocalyptic atomic barrage and follow up counter-attack with the more conventional Guard artillery. While in orbit the hammer of the Imperial Navy engaged in conjunction with the anvil arriving on the flank of the Hive Fleet.
Thousands of Tyranid Bio-Ships were destroyed in the furious assault that also included the guns of the Archangel and Astartes fleets of the Solar Templars, Angels of the Grail, Midnight Host, and Dark Knights.
It seemed the Imperium would strike a grievous blow against Leviathan when the Hive fleet split and pushed forth with larger ships not yet seen before. Ships that lowered to orbit and out of vast sacs birthed creatures of monstrous proportions, rivaling Imperial Titans and Knights in size. Leviathan had deployed a force gestating all this time. Cohorts of Bio-Titans, dozens of Heirophants, Dactylis, and Harridans backed by pairs of Dominatrix synapse Titans deployed along a fresh wave of millions of lesser Tyranid bio-forms on not only Vangelis, but also striking at Arcane in a furious orbital assault in conjunction with an insidious Genestealer cult uprising in the bowels of Arcane's cities.
The Genestealer cult was however small and new in number. Likely seeded only weeks before and as such targeted only one specific objective. The city void shield arrays. The coordinated assault damaging the void shield generators sufficiently to cause their collapse and swarms of Tyranid monstrosities landed directly onto the city streets. Forcing the Imperials and Astartes of the Dark Nights to fight an abrupt urban fight across hundreds of levels and hundreds of square kilometers.
(Imperial Guardsmen and PDF Troopers battle Genestealers on Arcane)
All while this was occurring the Hive Mind introduced a startling new tactic not seen before in either the First or Second Tyrannic Wars. Leviathan launched coordinated boarding actions of Imperial warships. Swarms of Tyranid attack ship sized bio-craft engaged the point defense batteries of the Imperial Navy and even managed to board several vessels. Disgorging Genestealers and Tyranid Hormagaunts into the decks of Imperial vessels. Several ships were lost in this furious surprise boarding action, those lucky enough to overload their engines detonated with the force of a new star while the might Retribution Battleship Adrasti, overran with 90% crew dead, and genestealers about to breach the Enginarium overloaded its warp-drive while on collision course for the center of the Hive Fleet. Detonating in furious storm of vibrant magenta and orange the ship disintegrated and took thousands of Tyranid ships with it into the warp.
///Ship Log Uploading....
They've breached the outer blast doors!
The voice of the ships officer of the watch, a redheaded woman by the name of Sabine, shouted as she drew her las-pistol. Lord Admiral van Zandt clasped his hands behind his back as he continued to issue fleet orders. The kill ratio in the void was impressive, 57 to 1 in attack craft and 93 to 1 in ships but they were losing, slowly. The Hive just had more and more to throw at them. Fresh waves of hundreds of bio-ships arriving on sensor read outs and auspex array projections by the minute. Thousands of attack craft and over one hundred and thirty-four imperial navy ships had been lost in the course of the engagement. They just kept coming. The mass of a moon was descending on Arcane and Vangelis each.
They're at the antechamber annex! Lost contact with Deck 37 through 42! Enginseer Norstrum is readying emergency overload protocols on your mark Lord Admiral. Lord Admiral?!
Van Zandt due his twin side arms, a laspistol and a bolt pistol, turning towards the blast doors as they began to dent and heat with whatever sick bio-acid was being belched upon them.
Ready Reactor Overload on my Command.
///Ship Log Ends\\\
The Domina Solari had been boarded by dozens of clawed Tyranid bio-breachers disgorging thousands of creatures and genestealers onto the decks of the mighty Emperor-Class Warship. But still its guns fired and the armsmen sacrificed themselves in a merciless hall by hall, compartment by compartment, siege and counter-assault action. But the Imperium in space was being overwhelmed and the wrecks of both bio-ships and starship hulls began to rain down upon the twin worlds like the fury of a vengeful god.
<<CAUTION: INQUISITORIAL FILE REDACTED BEING ACCESSED>>
INPUT AEGIS ULTRA AUTHORIZATION GENE-CODE
INPUT ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE CIPHER CODE
OCULI SENSOR READING PROCESSING
WARNING FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH ALL INQUISITORIAL VERIFICATION METHODS IS GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE BIO-TERMINATION
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED?...[YES] NO
ACCESSING FILE/INQUISITION NOTIFIED.
You're certain Inquisitor?-Dante
Yes, Lord of Angels I am certain. This is the Magnitovitrium as described by compiled research among the Conclave.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
May we use this weapon? What is its tactical usage to us. As abominable as that may seem.-Dante
Truly abominable but the theoretical is no less than the temporary creation of a gravitational implosion anomaly roughly 26 million kilometers in diameter.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
Has this been?-Dante
Tested. No. But observed. The Grul-Stran Incident a century ago in the Ghoul Stars matches this very artifact. Further, interrogation of Xenos captured from Necrontyr tomb worlds corroborates this finding.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
But you would advise against this, no?-Dante
I would advise against the use of any Xenos weapon, officially. But these are desperate times. The Halo is breached and communication with the wider Imperium is cut off while the Shadow in the Warp smothers the region.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
Unofficially, I would demand this device be remit to my keeping.-Dante
Very well. May the Golden Throne protect our souls.-Lord Inquisitor Harken Valquameda
<<FILE ACCESS TERMINATED>>
As the Imperial Fleet began to be forced into gradual disarray and individual captains began to retreat as their hails to the Domina Solari went unanswered. The Imperial forces on Arcane and Vangelis began to feel the full un-mitigated might of the Hive Fleet as billions of Myocetic spores rained down upon them. On Arcane the Dark Knights stood shoulder to shoulder with the forces of the Guard and local PDF as they were forced back into the upper hive citadels and barracks-fortresses. Millions of Imperial citizens, like those on Akarosha, slaughtered by the Tyranids and fed to the gestation pools being formed across the planet.
While on Vangelis Imperial Titans dueled Tyranid Bio-Titans with Princeps Gallaceni valiantly sacrificing herself and her Warlord engine to buy time for Imperial forces to fall back to inner Forge-Fane defenses bound by rivers of magma mined from the planets mantle. The situation was growing increasingly dire by the hour as the Tyranids through themselves at the bridges across the magma rivers. Bridges that were blown by the defenders when they became precarious amid spiraling casualties, and while millions of civilians had managed to cross millions more remained trapped on the other side. Whether to spare them or not a second barrage of atomic weapons was unleashed upon the Tyranids in the outer forge fane districts and beyond. The Guard and PDF closing themselves in rad-shielded bunkers or donning anti-radiation equipment. The Death Korps volunteering to hold the river perimeter while the defense reorganized. Fighting a hit and run war in the inner defensive works and walls against infiltrating Lictors alongside the marines of the Midnight Host and Angels of the Grail.
It was now when Dante struck with the Sun Angels, Knights of Blood, and Angels Excelsior. The Knights of Blood combat dropped onto Arcane while the Angels Excelsiors 1st Company conducted a rapid breach boarding action and placement of the Magnitovitrium in the core of a massive Bio-Ship believed to be coordinating various Hive elements. However, the Hive Mind caught onto the threat and the 1st Company could not exfiltrate and stoically activated the weapon while sending a singular transmission: For the Emperor.
The detonation of the Magnitovitrium manifested in a rapidly expanding gravitational vortex. An artificial black hole and warp-null zone that winked out of existence a planets worth of Tyranid bio-ships in a matter of seconds. The Sun Angels combat dropped onto Vangelis as the Hive Fleet went into disarray and the voice of Van Zandt came over the vox detailing the repelling of boarders and rapid fleet counter-offensive was underway.
The Sun Angels at Chapter strength landed and drove the disorganized Tyranid ground forces before them like fire in a wheat field.
(Sun Angels Terminators engage Tyranids on Vangelis)
The Siege of the Inner Worlds
///Log Access Granted\\\
We'd repelled the Tyranid's from Arcane and Vangelis but at what cost? Estimates could only be guessed but at least 66% of the civilian population both planets were dead or consumed by the Hive Fleet. Imperial Guard casualties exceeded 72% with most Regiments below combat effective strength ratios. The Mechanicus fares little better with a sardonic report that at least 64% of all combat assets were lost or 'inoperable'. The Legio Solara reported the loss of 11 Engines and critical damage to 9 others. The Sororitas remarked a reported loss of 3,300 Battle-Sisters while the Astartes have been tight lipped, but eye-witness testimonies seem to corroborate a guess of around 820 fallen members of the Adeptus Astartes.
A victory but a hollow one.
-Lord General Robiere d'King, Campaign Journal Entry 22
///Log Ends\\
The use of the Magnitovitrium may have salvaged and dealt a bloody blow to the Hive Fleet. Buying precious days as the xenos were observed chaotically attacking Imperial and even Ork forces with little benefit. Seemingly, struggling to reorganize and re-orient its predatory path through the region. Solar Regent Penn Hyran had however been vigorous in the war effort and as much as the casualty lists spiraled so to do the conscriptions. Twenty-two million souls were enrolled into the Imperial Guard and PDF across the Hegemony and a hundred million more pressed into levee labor services to fortify the inner worlds. Reinforcements were sent to the beleaguered shieldworlds to keep them in the fight and a monumental logistical task of supplying their besieged populations was carried out around the clock under the supervision of the Solar Regent. Truly, the fact the Shieldworlds were holding as best they could and remaining in the struggle was testament to her administrative and economic acumen.
But the tactical and strategic front had remained grim. The Orks had gradually began to diversify their targets and now Imperial bastions were coming under Ork assault as well as Tyranid. While the Astropathic Choir had confirmed that the main mass of the Hive Fleet had crossed into the region. Much to their strain and madness, a struggle that saw the deaths of no less than a dozen Astropaths, but to their credit the psykers of the Astropathica kept to their stations and did their duties. Monitoring for communications.
922.999.M41
A Cautious Hive Mind....
The Tyranids had pulled more than one surprise and that had given both the agents of the Inquisition and the officers of the Imperial forces in the region pause. The Astartes Chapter Masters rightfully assumed the Hive Fleet was evolving and learning at the tactical level and not just blindly funneling in resources like previous Hive Fleets were expected to do. A fact most apparent when the Hive Fleet struck at the Saint Sabine Naval Port in the outskirts of the Inner Worlds. A large naval bastion as the furthest orbit from the triple sun system that the inner worlds sat within. Admiral Cubrick had been in command and the swiftness of the attack was unprecedented from the Tyranids. Complete with genestealer subterfuge that distracted the station and a massive assault by both long range attack-fliers and fast assault bio-ships the Tyranids scored a rapid victory. Destroying the port and reducing both a cruiser and escort squadron to drifting debris.
The Tyranids progressed much slower now. Taking a circuitous route and utilizing comparatively minuscule tendril fleets to probe Imperial defenses grouped in a series of spheres around the inner worlds. The Astartes Fleets and Imperial Navy fighting a series of intercept, rearguard, and delaying actions across the system. It was clear that the Hive Mind was trying to force the Imperials into a decisive void engagement in which to be overwhelmed and destroyed. A dour reminder of the pernicious tenacity of the malicious intelligence behind the Tyranid swarm.
Meanwhile Dante had pulled all Astartes forces back to the inner worlds in exchange for two million Guardsmen being deployed to Arcane, Vangelis, and the Shieldworlds. The inevitable was coming...
955.999.M41
On the Feast of the Sanguine Ascension the skies of Valtmar lit up as the Imperial Fleet and Astartes ships in orbit opened up their batteries on the incoming Tyranid Bio ships. Hundreds of Imperial vessels dueled a seemingly endless stream of Xenos bio-ships in the space around Valtmar. Lance batteries tracing the night sky in fine beams of light. Macro-batteries forming millions of tiny starlight pinpricks. While swarms of Imperial attack craft juked and dived amid vast hosts of smaller Tyranid bio-craft.
The Astartes Fleet arranged in four battlegroups under the command of Master of the Fleet Bellerophon accounted for 31 Battle Barges and 104 Strike Cruisers with hundreds of smaller ships arranged themselves over Valtmar and Hesperidium while the Imperial Navy supported the protection of the inner worlds alongside a Mechanicus Fleet from the Forge World of Solaria. The latter accounting for over a thousand ships including forty-five operational battleships. But the Tyranids had thrown over fifty-thousand bioships to each world with more in reserve.
The sky above Valtmar erupted in a firestorm as the vessels of the Space Marines slammed their way into the midst of the approaching Tyranids, launching storms of nuclear-tipped warheads. The Tyranid fleet took grievous losses amounting to over 300 Hive Ships and an untold number of lesser vessels. As impressive as this naval action was, it was hopeless. One by one, Space Marine Battle Barges and Cruisers were isolated and overwhelmed, battered by organic missiles and enveloped by swarms of smaller bio-ships. The entire Angels Excelsior Chapter was wiped out defending the orbital dockyards and grav-elevators of Hesperidium, and a second Tyranid fleet of tens of thousands of more bio-ships revealed itself from behind the moon Ballastine. The remnant of the Astartes fleet was helpless as this force began landings on Baal and its two moons.
The Imperials constructed a 4-layer defensive line consisting of not only Space Marines and heavy cannon batteries but also a moat of Thirst Water and large amounts of Conscripts and Regiments of Imperial Guard brutally held in place by Chaplains and Commissars. The first twenty waves, each larger than the last, were driven off at great loss by the Imperial forces. However, the Imperials held firm, in large part because of the Valtmeris Void Shield array which protected them from heavy artillery and flyer organisms. The Tyranids countered the Thirst Water moat by filling it with their own bodies, allowing for larger Tyranid Warriors, Carnifex's, and Exocrines to cross. This allowed the first line to fall, and the Space Marines covered the retreat of the mortal conscripts back to the walls. However, the Tyranids were still unable to penetrate the Void Shield, and the Hive Mind quickly adapted. A Lictor behind Imperial lines identified a derelict tunnel deep beneath the Fortress-Monastery which Trygons tore open. The Lictor along with a large amount of Genestealers infiltrated the depths of the Fortress, with the latter launching themselves at the hall containing the sarcophagi of Neophytes undergoing Insanguination. This enraged the Space Marines, and Dante himself led the counterattack to save their next-generation of warriors. However the Hive Mind had counted on this diversion, and in the meantime the Lictor disabled the Void Shield generator. The Imperial position reversed dramatically as the Tyranids began overrunning the Fortress-City. Five Chapter Masters died in the desperate battle, including three in the Dome of Angels alone.
(Sun Angels battle the Tyranids amid the Fortress-City of Angels, Valtmeris)
Gabriel Seth and his Flesh Tearers initially held the Sun Angels Aspirant training facilities while the Carmine Blades held the Astropathic Station. The Space Marines initially held their own thanks to formidable, recommissioned Horus Heresy-era fortifications and weaponry, but the presence of the Swarmlord himself turned the tide in favor of the Xenos. Dante managed to slay the Swarmlord, but was badly wounded in the process. It was upon this that the Xenos readied a massive assault using what appeared to be all reserves. Throwing a quarter of a million Bioships into the battles on Valtmar, Hesperidium, and Solaria.
A trillion myocetic spores fell upon the inner worlds as untold billions of Tyranid bioforms emerged. The grievously wounded Dante carried on the command of the defense of the City of Angels even as the inner sanctums were breached after a month of constant battle.
~980-999.999.M41
The Last Stand of Angels...
As the Tyranids breached into the inner sanctums of the Sun Angels Fortress-Monastery and the Forges of Solaria were being overrun while Hesperidium's cities lay in ruin and alight with the fires of chaotic warfare. Lord Admiral van Zandt carried out a desperate struggle in space even as half of the Imperial Fleet in the region was destroyed or crippled and forced to retreat. Even as his own flagship the Domina Solari suffered heavy damage and trailed debris and smoke trails. While on the ground Lord General Robiere d'King, most of his command staff dead in the fighting as thrice his command post was breached by Tyranid bioforms, had taken up position in the confines of the Tower of Sun with himself personally plugged into the data-stream watching overwatch and signal transmissions across the battlespace.
The Sun Angels were down to a couple hundred Marines, also the Flesh Tearers who had suffered similar casualties on Hesperidium. The Angels Excelsior, Angels Excruciators, and Crimson Host had been all wiped out. The Solar Hounds, 400 survivors from their battles in the Angel's Halo gave their lives in a heroic last stand defending the evacuation of civilians at the Angel's Gate Spaceport. The Angels Penitent was down to seventy marines fighting with the one hundred and thirty-four survivors of the Dark Knights defending the Reliquary Halls of Ancients. While the remnants of the Solar Lords, Midnight Host, and Angels Numinous defended the Dome of Angels. While the Tower of Angels perimeter was being held by the Solar Templars and Angels Sanguine. The Angels Glorious had made a self-sacrifice to destroy a major Hive Synapse complex and allowed several other chapters and dozens of Guard regiments and PDF brigades to retreat to the inner sanctums and bunkers. The Chapter serfs stood armed beside their Astartes masters with remnants of Guard regiments grouped around Astartes positions. The Sororitas of the Order of Our Golden Lady and the Golden Palatines still held the inner basilica of the Cathedral of Our Blessed Queen which also possessed bunkers holding a hundred thousand civilians.
(Flesh Tearers Battle Tyranids on Hesperidium)
This was it; Leviathan had gambled it all and had overwhelmed the Imperial defenses, all other strongholds across the region besieged or otherwise cut off. Then the skies rent asunder as the Cicatrix split the Galaxy, Warp Storms erupting, and the Astronomican while flickering in the final days of M41 went dark. Emerging from the Warp Storms came a bellowing roar as Ka'Bandha, Arch-Nemesis of the Sun Angels descended onto Valtmeris with eighty-eight legions of Khornate demons. Swearing that it would be it that would destroy the sons of the Golden Queen once and for all. The Demons of Khorne drove into the untold numbers of Tyranids and all hell broke loose across Valtmar as the skies rained blood and the plains and fair valleys of the world became slick with xenos blood and demonic ichor.
The rich fields of Valtmar burned, the forests and snow capped mountains ran red, and the skies darkened crimson-black.
The arrival of the Great Rift and Daemons prevented additional Tyranids from arriving but killed every defender upon Hesperidium. With the Hegemony itself cut off from the greater Imperium, Chapter Masters ordered a desperate call back to all defenders across the Inner Worlds to consolidate on Valtmar or Solaria. Only the sacrifice of the Knights of Blood, an excommunicated Successor Chapter who had nonetheless been accepted as allies by Chapter Master Dante, allowed the survivors to board their vessels and escape, as Hesperidium was overwhelmed by warp-spawned monstrosities. As Seth’s forces retreated, they caught one last glimpse of the Knights of Blood, hurling themselves into the thick of close combat with mindless ferocity, fully enveloped by the madness of the Black Rage.
It all seemed lost until the flickering signal appeared at the edge of the Valtmar system. Signals bearing codes from Holy Terra itself.
<<This is Titus Ironborn, Valtmar Control Respond, we are attacking the rear of the Tyranid Hive Fleet and inbound to make planetfall in four hours>>.
The Hive Fleet was broken as the incoming Indomitus Crusade reached the Hegemony and the forces of Khorne were expelled in a furious campaign led by a returned Primarch of the God-Emperor of Mankind. A swift rebuilding scheme enacted to restore the Sun Angels numbers and those of their successors. While Primaris Marines were also used to refound destroyed and wholly new chapters.
It is now 131.M42 and the Imperium's survival is still precarious.
