Desecration of Alesia Primus

The hateful mark of the Lord of Battle

The **Desecration of Alesia Primus** was one of the most devastating events to affect the Hallstat Sector, surpassing every event except the Hallstat Wars of Faith in the scope of its destruction and loss of life. The bloody conflict was started by an intruding remnant of Hive Fleet Behemoth.

## Background

Following the destruction of the main tendril of Hive Fleet Behemoth at Macragge in 745.M41, the Hive Mind scattered the remnants of that hive fleet throughout the Ultima Segmentum and Segmentum Tempestus. While some would eventually be hunted down by the vengeful Ultramarines, others would survive by consuming isolated or poorly defended worlds. One such tendril would eventually be discovered dangerously close to the vital mining world of Bakka. A vicious space battle erupted with Battlefleet Bakka emerging triumphant. The few remaining hive ships limped away and escaped into deep space.

## Behemoth's Return

Eventually the tyranids emerged in the south-western Hallstat Sector where they began to slowly rebuild their strength. Realising it had limited resources available, the Hive Mind was unusually coy with where it chose to strike; committing all its bioforms to a single system and opting for poorly-defended or low-tech worlds which could not destroy its hive ships. By the time it reached the sector capital of Alesia Primus, the splinter fleet had consumed a dozen planets in two systems and was almost a quarter the size of the tendril that had invaded Macragge. Even at this comparatively small size, there were simply too many bioships to shoot down and the invasion began much as it did on Tarsis Ultra. The tyranids began using spores to alter the atmosphere as initial waves were sent down to sample the environment. The planet's defenders, totalling over six million Guardsmen and supporting armour plus twice that number in PDF conscripts were entrenched around the largest hives. The first waves of 'gaunts were fended off with light casualties. The third wave was the first true test as a million bioforms surged forward led by synapse creatures such as Warriors. Through trial and error, the Imperials discovered that targeting these larger creatures temporarily disrupted the xenos in a given area.

As the Hive Mind continued to test their defences, the Guardsmen within were subject to fiery sermons from members of the Adeptus Ministorum to keep their morale up. They were urged to keep faith in the Emperor and to let His righteous hatred for the alien fill their hearts. The defenders were surprisingly holding their own even as the number of tyranids continued to increase with every passing day. But then disaster struck...

## Born of Murder

As a lone Guardsman stood his ground alone in a badly-mauled section of the trench, he quietly prayed to the God-Emperor. He asked to be granted a warrior's death against the hated foe. Unfortunately for him, the Emperor did not answer but Khorne did. He filled the sentry's mind with blinding rage. Unnoticed in the clamour of battle, the soldier took up his lasgun and with a frenzied roar, charged a psyker who was stood nearby. He shot down the psyker's guards before burying his bayonet in the mutant's chest. The pain of being stabbed and the shock of being betrayed, combined with the toll the Shadow in the Warp placed on his senses was too much and the psyker lost control. While this might not normally have been too disastrous, it was at this moment that far away Cadia was shattered by The Despoiler and the Warp boiled as it had not done for thousands of years. As the psyker breathed his last, a fell presence seized control of his flesh and began to reshape it. The same thing happened to his killer seconds later as a wave of warp energy burst from the former's changing corpse. The attacking xenos were thrown into confusion as the Hive Mind shrivelled and died before the fury of the immaterium. The surging malignant energies had a catastrophic effect on surrounding lifeforms. Many tyranids and humans were lost to rampant mutation as their bodies underwent an anarchy of change. In orbit, the tyranid bioships imploded, eviscerated, mutated or were otherwise scattered across the planet's orbit. In any event, they stopped forming new bioforms to reinforce those on the ground or in the sky.

Reaching forth from behind the veil, a Bloodletter forced its way violently through the psychic conduit and fell upon the nearest infantry squad. As the warp rift continued to grow, the daemon was soon followed by others of its kind who fed the hole in reality with slaughter. The defenders were too caught up in gunning down the confused aliens to realise they were being attacked from behind but they paused when the planet shook. By the time they turned and noticed the neverborn scything through their ranks, it was too late. Rear echelon units who had the daemons of Khorne in their sights soon found themselves being ridden down by waves of Bloodcrusher cavalry. As the butchery grew, the daemonic general Slaugh'arax manifested on Alesia Primus. By this time, hundreds of thousands of daemons had manifested with more appearing as the kill count continued to climb. The warp rift by now encompassed the entire planet and was still growing. By the time the Hive Mind recovered, it had lost all contact with the Behemoth splinter.

## Blood and Ichor

With roars of purest rage, the massive daemonic army charged straight at the millions of disoriented tyranids which resorted to their baser instincts. Chitin met warp-fused blades, claws and fangs in a thunderclap. As the Bloodletter charge hit home the first ranks of xenos went down as if scythed. The attack seemed to shake off the swarm's fugue state and it united. Daemons were banished in frenzies of hormagaunt talons or cut asunder by the bone swords of tyranid warriors. Fleshbore rounds struck daemonic flesh and perished as the daemons' molten blood consumed them - or passed harmlessly through. Hive Tyrants proved a vexing foe but where Slaugh'arax was not present, eventually these suffered the ironic fate of being dragged down and hacked to death by swarming lesser daemons. As fast as the Bloodletters were felled, the immaterial energies were so potent that daemons were now manifesting at will - replenishing the losses as fast as the tyranids could unmake them.

The hellish rounds of Skull Cannon artillery fell, bursting open hordes of gaunts in a welter of viscera and bone, adding to the bloodshed. Flying tyranids such as gargoyles, not endangered unless they swooped low, were dashed from the skies by gory vortices or slain by warp-infused lightning bolts. Slaugh'arax, not content with cutting down mere warriors and hive tyrants, sought out the largest alien bioforms present. Carnifexes, Biovores, Zoanthropes; all fell before him. The last tyranid alive was a cornered Hierophant bio-titan. As the daemon hordes closed in, Slaugh'arax roared a challenge and his minions backed away to let him fight the monster alone. The following battle saw blows exchanged that could fell Titans and crack open battle-barges but Slaugh'arax eventually emerged victorious, beaten and bloodied, to claim the creature's skull.

## A World for Khorne

Following his victory, Slaugh'arax led his army back to the now-defenceless hives where they gathered the skulls of every dead tyranid and human on the planet. Gathering them into a monument of colossal scale, the daemons constructed a massive sigil of Khorne which spanned half a continent. Upon placing the hierophant skull at the pinnacle of the monument, Slaugh'arax launched himself from the summit and struck the ground with his axe. With this act, the earth heaved and buckled. Mighty volcanoes were thrown up; huge chasms opened and filled with magma and earthquakes toppled much of the Imperial hives, killing any surviving mortals or xenos which had hidden.

In a roar of triumph, Slaugh'arax proclaimed himself 'Alesia's Bane' and claimed the planet for the Blood God. The name 'Ichoris' echoed out across the immaterium, resounding in the Realm of Chaos itself as the new Daemon World was born. Skull Altars burst from the ground and the Bloodthirster swelled with power as Khorne favoured him.

With Alesia Primus' loss, much of the surrounding subsector fell into the Warp, forming a new rift known as Hell's Grin.

## Aftermath

The few tyranids in the Alesia System which were not overcome by rampant mutation or killed by their environment were eventually destroyed by daemons of one Chaos God or another, bringing the tyranid presence in the area to an end. Hell's Grin became a gateway through which the Forces of Chaos would come to pose an ever-present threat to the Hallstat Sector and the rest of the Imperium Sanctus.

Under the Blood God's dominion, Ichoris has become a world of perpetual war. Numerous other planets within Hell's Grin have become battlefields in the Great Game.