Mark of Calth: 25 (The Horus Heresy)

Product Information

The Battle of Calth, also referred to as the Calth Atrocity, was the name given by later Imperial scholars to the treacherous campaign conducted during the early stages of the Horus Heresy in beginning in 007.M31 by the traitorous XVII th Space Marine Legion, the Word Bearers, on behalf of the Warmaster Horus against their hated rivals, the XIII th Space Marine Legion, better known as the Ultramarines. Not only were the surviving Loyalist elements tormented by the depredations of the Word Bearers' tenebrous allies, but also by the deterioration of the situation in the Veridia System. The Word Bearers had turned the full destructive capability of the Calth orbital defence platforms, as well as the formidable firepower of their own fleet, against the system's sun itself and the resulting flare in solar radiation was beginning to take its toll on the warriors on Calth's surface. Those not shielded from the sun's glare or protected by the augmented physiology of the Legiones Astartes, were soon blistered and burned, and most would later to succumb to extreme radiation poisoning. Only those scant enclaves that were within one of the few shielded structures still held by the Loyalists escaped this lingering death, though few who still lived could see this as anything but a temporary reprieve. Fortunately, the Furious Abyss was intercepted in the void before it reached Macragge by an ad hoc force led by the Ultramarines Captain Lysimachus Cestus and was destroyed, though at the cost of every one of the Ultramarines' lives. It was originally a technologically advanced world but it regressed to a feudal state, prior to the arrival of Lorgar. Ancient ruins dotted the landscape and derelict starships littered its orbit. [2] At the time of Lorgar's arrival the planet was dominated by the Covenant of Colchis. After being raised by Kor Phaeron, Lorgar was able to lead a rebellion that overthrow the Covenant and conquered the planet.

The Ruinstorm would also isolate and trap those Loyalist forces caught behind it like the Ultramarines, preventing them from coordinating their efforts and supporting one another as the Traitor Legions moved towards Terra. It would even prevent them from warning each other, for a time, of the Warmaster's betrayal and the civil war that had begun to consume the Imperium. The Ruinstorm would leave Terra alone in the void, infinitely vulnerable to the approaching shadow of Horus. Comprising the majority of the XIII th Legion's Destroyer assets, and the stores of volatile and hazardous weaponry that characterised their operations. The 22 nd Chapter, known as the " Nemesis" Chapter, was often deployed in small formations alongside other chapter units. At Calth, 2,000 Nemesis Legionaries were mustered along the desolate Thrascias Highlands, furthest from the densely populated cities of Calth: On the far side of Calth, where night currently reigned, in the sprawling munitions plants of Dainhold, the Word Bearers drove screaming swarms of ragged auxiliaries against the warriors of the XIII th Legion that had barricaded themselves within the fortified manufactorum buildings. Only when the Ultramarines' guns had run dry and the corridors of the manufactoria were strewn with the blasted corpses of the fallen, did Nur Asoktan lead the Cataphractii-armoured elite of the Flayed Hand forwards to hunt down the surviving Ultramarines. Outmatched and cornered, the warriors of Ultramar fought on with combat blades and improvised explosive devices, severing power to several facilities so as to use the darkness to their advantage.

Contents

Twenty minutes before Mark Zero, the Campanile, which had bypassed Calth's outer defence grid, accelerated to full sub-light velocity. At the same time, Sorot Tchure, a Captain of the Word Bearers who had boarded the Ultramarines' cruiser Samothrace, opened fire on Captain Honorius Luciel and his entourage, killing them outright. [2f] Luciel and his seventeen men were regarded by many as the first "official" casualties of the Battle of Calth. [2a]

Every post will be filled with Spoilers from the novel so if you haven't read this week's book then proceed with caution. Horus Heresy Saga: Mark of Calth hours before Mark Zero, the Imperial tender Campanile is boarded in space, and its crew is never seen again.

Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines Legion, prior to the teleportation assault on the Zetsun Verid Fleet Yard Rubio, with little choice, then left Calth behind with Garro in his Stormbird. Rubio would become one of the Sigillites Knights-Errant and later one of seven Astartes drawn from both the Traitor and Loyalist Legions who would form the founding core of what became the secret Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines. As the Titans moved closer to the guildhall, the last Shadowsword accompanying the 4th Company fired and damaged one of the striding giants, but the pair of Titans returned fire in unison, destroying the super-heavy tank in a vast conflagration of Titan-grade weapons fire. Ventanus knew then that their attempt had all been for naught. The Traitors of the XVII th Legion had seemingly won the Battle of Calth.

United States? claimed Horus. We are however the devices of his will definitely to obtain prestige of the galaxy before his climbing. When the fights more than, we will definitely be discarded, for we are flawed manufacturings, made from the huge womb of uncreated night. Also before our births, the Emperor cast us apart when he may have conserved us. You bear in mind the problem of Chemos, the marsh it was when you was up to its exploded hinterlands? The pain you experienced there, the discomfort most of us sustained in the worlds where we expanded to participant? All of that might have been stopped. He can have quit all of it, nonetheless he cared so little for us that he just relent. I saw it happen, my brother, I saw it all. Unusually, the book is written almost entirely in the present tense, purporting to be the official Imperial action report on the events of the battle, interlineated with the personal notes of Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Though Calth itself was irreparably irradiated by the savagery of the Word Bearers and their daemonic allies, the forces of Chaos were eventually driven off. The arcology systems offered sufficient protection for the remaining inhabitants of Calth and their defenders to survive the wave of solar death that was about to engulf their world. This message successfully reached many millions of people who successfully took shelter within Calth's underground warrens, which had originally been built to free up more land for agricultural cultivation.

Legio Oberon - "The Death Bolts" - Wardens of the newly founded Forge World of Anvari, a thrall domain of mighty Accatran, the Legio Oberon had undertaken to provide a demi-Legio force for the Ghaslakh Crusade. However, only two maniples of god-engines were to make planetfall before the arrival of the Word Bearers forces, grounding in eastern Ourosene and northern Erud. The remainder of the Legio's forces would not arrive until after the fighting had concluded. Here, at last, the fates looked kindly upon the Ultramarines. Mere minutes before the loss of the bridge, the Macragge's Honour had recovered a number of salvation craft ejected by the Sanctity of Saramanth earlier in the battle, and amongst the survivors was her captain, Shipmaster Hammed. Gage had no way of knowing if Hammed lived or had been slaughtered along with so many others among the crew, but he knew that in the veteran shipmaster lay the best, perhaps the only hope of regaining control of the beleaguered flagship.