The Radiant Uprising

**The Radiant Uprising** was a compliance action during the Halcyon Age by the Godslayers legion. The world of Nealiv was a world brought into compliance by the Star Lords during the middle of the Great Crusade, located in the centre of Segmentum Ultima. Over the decades of the Great Crusade, an underground cult named the Church of Radiance began to grow as the previously forbidden religions of Nealiv were reinterpreted as to be barely compliant with the Imperial Truth. In reality, the traditions at the core of the Church remained the same, only disguised as a secular charity. With the Vanishing and the withdrawal of Imperial forces, the Church began recruiting more widely, incorporating both poor workers and inhabitants of the underhive and the upper classes of the world. The Church was eventually numerous enough to gain control of the world and its PDF. They cut off communications with the Imperium, no longer sending calls for aid.

## **History**

Receiving a request for support from the Forge World of Ryza, Koschei Kharkovic gathered a force of Godslayers and headed to bring the world back into compliance. Ryza was particularly interested in regaining the world as it housed a larger than average number of plasma weaponry - plasma guns and the rarer plasma grenades. Koschei’s attempts to negotiate when he arrived were shut down, as the Church of Radiance had thrown off the trappings of secularism and embraced the old mysticism of the pre-Imperial Nealiv.

As the Godslayers and their attached Mechanicum taghmata forces landed, several buildings were detonated and collapsed on top of the landing zones. From inside of buildings as the Imperial forces moved out to capture the central PDF headquarters, grenades rained down and hidden plasma gun emplacements opened up, spraying plasma wildy across the streets and slaying several Astartes and automata. Unwilling to risk losing the plasma weaponry, the Mechanicum advised withdrawing, but Koschei instead deployed his heavy tanks to draw the enemies’ fire and his reconnaissance squads to pick off the weapons teams. With the Spartans and Land Raiders breaking out of the landing zones in armoured columns, the rebels rushed to slow them down. As they repositioned, the snipers of the recon squads took out several rebels and the breacher squads moved in. The weapons team crews did not abandon their weapons without a fight though, as they suicidally threw themselves at the breachers, strapped in plasma grenades. Several marines were lost to these suicidal efforts, but the rebels were driven off and several plasma weapons were recovered by the Mechanicum.

Koschei decided on attacking the central PDF headquarters in order to claim their armoury and use it as his headquarters for the rest of the campaign. The roads leading towards the armoury had been blocked or broken up by the rebels, and so the mass of the infantry had to advance through side streets and hab-blocks, with the Mechanicum focused on clearing the roads for the heavier support. The rebels showed little subtlety in their attacks, with suicidal bombers and small bands of fanatics harassing the Godslayers as they passed through. These slowed, but could not stop, the advance, and by the end of the week the Godslayer forces had reached the armoury. The Dreadnoughts of the Godslayers and Mechanicum automata were able to traverse the road, and together the Imperial forces pushed into the armoury. The fighting was intense, with increasing casualties as the fanatics threw themselves at the invaders whilst the Imperial forces used flamers and volkites to cut through the enemies and leaving the headquarters covered in blood. However, it was secured and the back of the resistance was broken. With the plasma weapons recovered, the Mechanicum deemed it now acceptable to use larger, more destructive weapons to finish the compliance, and the Godslayers super-heavy tanks spearheaded the assault on the main temple of the Church of Radiance, called the Temple of All Consuming Light.

Koschei surrounded the temple, making sure none could escape. Against the advice of the Mechanicum, he called out to the church, telling them that they would destroy the church, but that any who wished to leave would be allowed to. A single young girl came out of the church and approached the Imperial forces. A plasma shot rang out and the girl’s head melted, the flash of a plasma pistol disappearing from a church window. Typhons and Fellblades unleashed on the building, reducing it to rubble and crushing all inside, Koschei walking away crest-fallen.

The Church of Radiance gave very little resistance after that. The local PDF was re-established and took care of any remaining fanatics under the direction of the Godslayers. The plasma weaponry was handed over to the Mechanicum, who happily accepted it and gifted the Godslayers in return a shipment of Mark IV armour sent to Zbruch.