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This article, Kilandros Crusade, was written by Phoenix Arcanum. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
The Kilandros Crusade was a massive Imperial xenocidal castigation campaign undertaken by numerous Imperial forces taken from across the Galaxy against invading forces of the massive Ork WAAAGH! Primork.
Background[]
In the 2nd Century of the 41st Millennium, the Orks of Da Great Horde formed into WAAAGH! Golrag. In the early months of WAAAGH! Golrag an Ork of titanic size known only as the Primork supplanted Golrag as Warboss. The Primork rapidly expanded the WAAAGH! by uniting hundreds of Ork Klans and invading at least ten Sectors of Imperial space. WAAAGH! Primork soon grew to become the greatest Ork threat to the Empire since the War of the Beast.
By 271.M41, WAAGH! Primork had begun to spill into Segmentum Solar, capturing the strategic Fortress World of Kilandros on the edge of the Segmentum. The loss of Kilandros was too great for the Imperium to ignore, leading to a rapid and desperate mobilization. The Imperial Coalition consisted of countless Imperial Guard Regiments, numerous Battlefleets of the Imperial Navy, five Titan Legions, several Preceptories of the Sisters of Battle, and Astartes from twenty-one Chapters; the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, Space Wolves, Salamanders, Black Templars, Storm Wardens, Blood Ravens, Iron Spears, Angels Coruscant, Revenants, Angels of Salvation, Death Templars, Mordekaisers, Holy Hospitallers, Sons of Odin, Mortiferous Shades, Knights of Guilliman, Penitent Knights, Astral Paladins, Steel Crusaders, Storm Riders, and the Ashen Wraiths.
Imperial efforts to drive off the Ork threat became known as the Kilandros Crusade. It would take fifteen years for the forces of the Kilandros Crusade to liberate all ten Sectors plagued by WAAAGH! Primork, though the Orks still held the former Fortress World of Kilandros. Once the various Sectors were purged of Ork influence, the Imperial Coalition gathered in full for one last assault on Kilandros, where the Primork himself was making his own last stand.
When the Imperium launch their final assault on Kilandros, they discovered that the Orks were attempting to convert the planet's Armoyry Moon into a mobile fortress they dubbed the 'Deff Rok'. The Orks planed to use the 'Deff Rok' as the flagship that would lead the remnants of WAAAGH! Primork in an assault on Terra itself. With the ten years the Imperium had spent cleansing the various Sectors attacked by WAAAGH! Primork, the Horde had nearly completed their "battle station".
The Primork himself was present during the Battle of Kilandros, leading the Orks against the Imperium. Despite the efforts of the Imperium's greatest heroes, the Primork could not be slain. Though while Imperial forces failed in their initial plan to disable the thrust system using meltabombs, the Astartes of the Mortiferous Shades and the Ashen Wraiths managed to gain control of the area around the primary power generator and rigged it with manually activated incendiary devices. The Imperial forces were ordered to withdraw so that the power generator may be detonated. By then however, many Angel Coruscant and Revenants Marines had fallen victim to the Red Thirst, ignoring the order to withdraw and instead focused on personally slaughtering every Ork present, inspiring the Death Templars and Sons of Odin to do the same. It was left to the more "level-headed" Chapters such as the Angels of Salvation and Holy Hospitallers to successfully reign in the frenzied Iron Spears and forcibly remove them from the battlefield. It was through this that the Angels of Salvation earned the respect of the Iron Spears, something that could not be said for many sons of the Lion.
Chieftain Thoore of the Iron Spears, having had his honor stained in a previous engagement, elected to stay behind with the detonator alongside roughly half of the Iron Spears' 2nd Clan-Company while the other Imperial forces withdrew from the doomed planetoid. The destruction of the primary power generator not only successfully destroyed the "Deff Rok" itself, but the chunks of rubble rained down upon Kilandros, killing many Ork forces planet side. With a significant portion of the Orks' forces wiped out by the detonation of the Deff Rok, Imperial reinforcements translated in-system to administer clean-up operations on Kilandros, ensuring the extermination of any remaining Orks. Since the Primork was destroyed alongside the Deff Rok, remaining Orks on Kilandros were scattered, with the Imperium easily able to mop up their remnants.