Siege of Wazari II

The Siege of Wazari II was an Imperial castigation campaign carried out by the Silverbacks Space Marine to purge the isolated world of Wazari II, located in the Segmentum Obscurus, from an invasion by the Forces of Chaos. This is one of the first recorded battle honour of the Silverbacks Chapter.

Background
Following their inception, the newly created Silverbacks Space Marine Chapter were stationed along the northern border of the Segmentum Pacificus and the Segmentum Obscurus, a volatile and dangerous region, that often saw incursions by the Forces of Chaos. The followers of the Ruinous Powers observed the internecine fighting between the various factions within the fractured Imperium, and saw division and strife. Like carrion to a bloated corpse, the Forces of Chaos took advantage of this division to launch lightning raids on several Imperial worlds. One of these systems that fell to the ravenous marauders was the Jabari System - a backwater region comprised of several feral and death worlds, including the jungle world of Wazari II.

The Forces of Chaos sought slaughter and a bounty of slaves to take for their dark and bloody sacrificial rituals to their foul Dark Gods. But the minions of Chaos would not succeed in enacting their diabolical plans, for they were soon set upon by an unknown warfleet. The Chaos fleet was surround by a large Imperial fleet comprised of dozens of ebon-coloured warships, and a thousand heavily-armed, transhuman killers awaited them in a battle in the most deadly environments possible - the open void of space. This unknown Space Marine Chapter launched a massive assault wave to scatter and destroy the foe. Their vessels tore into the enemy with the fury of an unleashed hurricane, bearing down upon their foes in a deadly fusillade which saw much of the Chaos outrider vessels reduced to cinders in the wake of their brutal assault. Once the blockade had been breached, the unknown Chapter unleashed swarms of drop pods and gunships upon the planet's surface.

When they touched down upon the surface of the verdant planet, six-hundred Space Marines, their ebon-coloured armour gleaming in the bright light of Wazari's sun, erupted from their drop pods, and fell upon the besiegers. As they charged their foes, the Loyalist Space Marines unleashed a terrifying animalistic roar, amplified by their power armour's vox systems. This primal roar caused many of the mortal Chaos cultists to be stunned into submission. Soon, the real slaughter began as the drop pods' and gunships' deadly cargo was unleashed. Scores upon scores of Chaos cultists were cut down from behind while fleeing in blind panic, their weapons abandoned. Meanwhile, their Chapter fleet in orbit, launched boarding torpedoes and assault rams at the remaining Chaos vessels. As they slammed into the hulls of the twisted vessels, they disgorged the Space Marines in their unstoppable, inhuman rage, turning enemy ships into charnel houses of hacked and broken bodies.

On the surface of Wazari II below, the Forces of Chaos were caught in the onslaught from above, and soon they died in their thousands, unable to coordinate a defence from this unforeseen direction of attack. But once the initial attack had taken hold, the Traitor Astartes began to fight back and fight back hard. Though they outnumbered the Loyalist Space Marines many times over, for every score that perished, a Space Marine was brought down in turn. These were no ordinary Space Marines however, for they seemed to be much hardier and robust than the average Astartes. The Traitor Astartes found it quite difficult to kill them, as they were night unstoppable once they came to grips at close-quarters. Arrayed with a pair of deadly power fists, individual cultists and even Traitor Astartes were, often times, quickly overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of their attacks as the giant Astartes pounded their doomed victims into a bloody pulp. It was also noted that these formidable warriors would also fight on despite suffering horrific wounds that would normally fell even an Astartes, intent on wreaking as much slaughter upon their foes before they were finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers or a high concentration of small arms fire.

The battle continued to rage for many hours as the skies above Wazari II were riven with fire and lightning as the Chaos warships in orbit died and broke up above, hurtling down blazing debris in a shower of blazing meteors upon the surface of the jungle death world. The Space Marines were able to carry the attack despite their numbers by sheer courage and the ferocity they could unleash, regardless of their own losses and heedless of risk. Sensing that the battle was slowly turning in their favour, the Chaos warlords called in reinforcements from across the planet's surface to aid them and drive off the invaders. Hosts of Chaos cultists and lesser daemons converged upon the Loyalist Space Marines' drop zones intent on crushing the servants of the 'Corpse Emperor' in a final crushing counter-assault.

Seconds later a volley of highly accurate lance strikes smashed into the surface all around the Loyalist's positions, as they Space Marines continued to fight on, heedless of the destruction being wrought around them. In their wake came the Space Marines second assault wave. The battle in space had been won and the initial drop assault had served its purpose; it had stirred up the Chaos forces, like kicking an insect nest, and drawn out the enemy, lining them up for the kill.

As the second wave of drop pods and gunships landed upon the blasted surface of the verdant jungle world, they disgorged hundreds of more black-armoured giants, blood-drenched from their battles above and now rearmed for this new fight. They strode forth, weapons blazing. What followed was vicious and bloody slaughter, as the Space Marines soon overran the enemy positions. The killing went on and on until there was nothing left to kill. Of those few that escaped the wrath of the enraged Space Marines, none survived the nests of giant silverback mountain gorillas or the deadly flora and fauna of Wazari II. Not one minion of Chaos left the surface of the deadly jungle world alive.

After the battle was over, the grateful Wazarian inhabitants fearfully approached the ebon-clad giants. An ancient and elderly Laibon ('medicine man'), using his gnarled Kerrie walking stick, hobbled over to one of these mysterious warriors from the stars and performed a ritual prayer of protection over the massive warrior. The Space Marine took a knee and removed his helm, revealing human features that were eerily similar to those of the tribal inhabitants of this world, with the exception of a pair of startling golden-coloured, luminescent eyes and large sharpened incisors. With a gentleness that belied his gigantic physique, he placed one of his massive armoured gauntlets gently upon one of the fragile shoulders of the frail Laibon and replied in perfect Wazarian, 'The Ọlọrun protects'.