Octarius Xenocide

The Octarius Xenocide was an Imperial campaign conducted by the Heb 113th Zellous Light Foot Regiment, "The Dawn Breakers" Astra Militarum Regiment in the defence of the Octarius Sector from invading Orks.

Background
Following a daemonic incursion upon their previous battlefield, Inquisitor Alice Dodgson of the Ordo Malleus offered places in her Retinue to Colonel Gregory Benhia and a number of picked guardsmen of his Regiment. It was explained to Benhia that the rest of the 113th would have to be purged in order to maintain the secrecy of the existence of daemons.

Colonel Benhia rejected the Inquisitor's offer, and asked to be allowed to lead the 113th on a suicide mission so that they might die performing one last service to the God Emperor. The Inquisitor granted his request, and the Regiment was transferred under guard to an Ordo Xenos expeditionary force tasked with distracting the Overfiend of Octarius.

The Heb 113th Zellous Light Foot Regiment was to make an orbital insertion due west of the main Ork settlement on an unnamed planet in the Octarius Sector. The landing came at dawn, and was met with immediate and enthusiastic resistance from the local greenskins, who had not expected a fight to come to them. The Heb were, as expected, overwhelmed and butchered to a man. However, the Ork forces were so exuberant in their counterattack as to be drawn entirely out of position. This allowed the main force of the Imperials to land to the east of the Ork settlement and establish a base with minimal resistance.

While all Imperial forces on the planet were eventually wiped out, the Ordo Xenos considered the expedition a success, as it diverted forces which the Overfiend had been gathering for an assault on Imperial space and kicked off a round of infighting among the victorious greenskins. Commissariat propaganda sent back to Heb during the campaign referred to how the 113th had, "...broken the dawn of a new Imperial day..." upon the world. In recognition of this, the name "Dawn Breakers" was added to the 113th's Regimental honors.