The Lamenters’ Lost Fleet and the Joran Retaliation: A Warhammer 40,000 Tale
In the grim darkness of the far future, the Lamenters, a heroic but star-crossed chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, vanished mysteriously in a warp storm. A standard century later, they re-emerged at the edge of the Segmentum Solar, battered and weary from their epic voyage back from the outer void. This dramatic reappearance occurred just as they were en route to partake in the Gothic War.
Simultaneously, a shocking act of betrayal was unfolding. The 15th Heracleon Ironclads, an Imperial Guard battle group, turned their back on their comrades and embraced the path of the traitor. Their treachery was traced back to the corrupting influence of the Dauri, who had ensnared General Jorun and his command structure. Now under the traitor General Jorun, the renegade force, aided by the former Navis Imperialis battle fleet, turned their weapons upon the very planets they once swore to protect, enslaving populations for their xenos masters.
To counteract this grave new threat, the Howling Griffins Chapter, bolstered by the Ultramarines and Sons of Aura, launched a campaign known as the Joran Retaliation. The traitorous Ironclads were intercepted during a landing on the feral world of Asuria, caught off-guard by the ferocity of the Astartes’ counter-assault. Over 5,000 traitor guardsmen met their end in the first hour of combat, torn apart at their landing zones before they could deploy their heavy armor.
The traitor General Jorun faced a bitter end at the hands of the Howling Griffins’ Chaplain Armon Titus. With their leader dead and their alien allies deserting, the traitors’ morale collapsed. The remaining Heracleon forces were ruthlessly hunted down and eliminated within six solar hours of the battle’s start.
As the smoke of battle cleared from the Joran Retaliation, a new threat emerged on the horizon. The Tyranids, an insatiable alien menace, entered the galaxy, marking the beginning of the Tyrannic Wars. Hive Fleet Behemoth spearheaded a massive Tyranid invasion into Imperial space, advancing swiftly towards the realm of Ultramar.
Chapter Master Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines, upon learning of this threat, devised a plan to halt the Hive Fleet at Mcra. He declared Mcra, the star system most immediately threatened, the frontline of this escalating conflict. Weeks later, the vanguard vessels of the Tyranid fleet attacked Mcra. Despite the valiant sacrifice of an Imperial battleship that created a warp vortex, annihilating most of the Hive Fleet, the Tyranids still managed to descend upon Mcra.
Calgar sent the third and seventh Ultramarines companies ahead on fast strike cruisers, while his damaged ships limped back. Despite heavy losses inflicted on the Tyranid fleet by orbital and polar defense grids, many Tyranid organisms made it to the planet’s surface. The swarm swept across Mcra, with the fiercest fighting at the northern polar defense installations. Calgar led the third company against the Tyranid hordes, but the entire Elite first company was wiped out protecting the northern pole’s defense grid.
The Ultramarines would eventually rebuild after the Battle of Mcra, but the chapter was severely diminished. The battle marked a significant moment in the Tyrannic Wars and underscored the relentless, consuming threat posed by the Tyranids.
But the story doesn’t end there, and in the next installment, we’ll delve into the aftermath of the Battle of Mcra, the Strife in the Darkness, the Forgo Campaign, the Luxa Uprising, the Iron Blood Campaign, and the Battle for Black Reach. Stay tuned, warriors of the Imperium, as we continue to chronicle these epic tales from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
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