The First Imperial Crusade

## Battle Plans, Part 1

You have always known that there would come a time of reckoning, you could not hide forever from the seemingly omnipresent sight of the imperium of man. The crusade fleet draws near with each passing day and will arrive soon , within one standard year according to your diviners. And do you have gathered the military brass as well as most of the other leaders of Atlantis from your inner circle (Even Thot is present albeit disguised as a golden age ship captain ) .

You start by asking for a report on your combat ready naval assets . Thot gladly obliges.

Once that is done debate starts on what strategy to undertake . Since you have laid the void around the warp break points with mines and other explosive traps you can be reasonably certain the imperial fleet will at least suffer from some shock upon entry giving your forces an opening.

Many suggestions and plans have been put forward but ultimately the choice lies between three plans

## Battle Plans, Part 2

After much debate a plan was agreed upon for the naval war . The Atlantean fleet will make use of the shock the imperials will experience from the mines to inflict as much damage as possible before immediately withdrawing once the enemy regains its discipline. From then on your fleet can fight in a more advantageous location.

With that settled you turn to the possible ground conflict. Though ideally the imperials would be dealt with without them setting foot on Atlantis, you cannot rely on that possibility .

Unfortunately since you have no idea what the imperials ground forces are exactly like and what troops they might possess ,in short you are in a blind spot and your plans will have to be generalised enough to adapt to any surprises the enemy might have .

While you decide on that both Marwyn and Thot have approached you with ideas on how to whittle down the imperials. Marwyn and his strongest telepaths can use their talents to rouse those enslaved on the lower decks of the imperial ships into rebelling aganist their masters . Though the uprisings are unlikely to be successful they should disturb things enough to get your ships an edge. Alternatively they might instead focus their psychic attacks on those much higher in the ranks, influencing an admiral to make a tactical mistake or even inflaming tensions between the disparate crusade elements. He warns you that both processes will be difficult even for Atlantean psykers given the distance and the omnipresent threat of warp corruption so it would be only be prudent to use this once for now

Thot can also weaken the navy by attempting to hack some of the ships in the imperial force into non functionality though he does warn this might not be very effective as unlike the attendant fleet he came with he isn’t connected to the fleet network and there’s a very high possibility most of the ships in the fleet would be so badly maintained that there won’t be a network left to hack. It’s still worth a try in his opinion.

## A Rather Disappointing Anticlimax

You are the newly promoted admiral Shogra Assivx, commanding the Atlantean naval forces in the coming war against the Imperium of Man.
The Atlantean fleet lies in wait in the void surrounding the warp break points. The Azuls and most of the cruisers are on the forefront of the formation, as well as the Ark Mechanicus. These vessels were judged to be possessing adequate firepower for their role, but still retaining enough speed to retreat swiftly enough before the Imperials fire back.
The rest of the fleet is behind them, waiting to cover their retreat. The battleships and the grand cruisers are in the middle, with the frigates in the rear.

The Imperial fleet arrives as expected, though it appears much grander in size than the predictions stated, appearing to have added more ships to their armada. They are immediately beset by the minefields, where it appeared the Imperials hadn’t expected this at all and are caught by total surprise. Many smaller ships are outright destroyed, while their larger counterparts are crippled, even two of the Grand Cruisers . The only ship to avoid this is the Grey Knight vessel, which somehow masterfully dodges all traps laid in its path; oddly, however, the cruiser doesn’t move into formation with the rest of the fleet, instead hanging back.

Now that the Imperial fleet is disoriented, your own ships open fire, succeeding way beyond expected parameters. The attack cripples or outright destroys many of the enemy’s most critical vessels, including half the troop transports, most of the frigates, and many cruisers. Two of the Victory-class battleships were blown in half by a shot from one of Thot’s Ion cannons.
Despite their previous precognition, the Grey Knights weren’t able to dodge the shots this time. Oddly, the Grey Knights attempted to flee the battle, but the Ark Mechanicus shot some sort of chrono weapon that pulled the ship back in time to be hit.
Of course, you wouldn’t have been able to inflict that much damage on your own, had it not been for the fact that many Imperial vessels decided to open fire on their comrades. This surprisingly isn’t the result of any interference on part of your psykers; it seems the Imperium isn’t as coherent as it presents itself to be.

In the ensuing chaos, some of your captains take advantage of this and decide to attack, instead of retreating as ordered. Though some fail, their ships ending up destroyed, others are successful, inflicting even more damage.

Seeing this is turning into a rout, the remaining still-loyal Imperial vessels retreat, sacrificing even more of their numbers and abandoning them to your mercies. A few ships exploded from being unable to execute an emergency warp jump, but most of the survivors escaped for the most part.

Well that was anticlimactic and you cannot help but think it was a little disappointing and disheartening to see the Imperial navy be reduced to this rabble. No matter, lady Octavia will be immensely pleased by both the results and the plunder they are sure to gather from all those derelict ships.

## Aftermath

You are Octavia and you might just be the luckiest person in the last millennium if not the entirety of the imperium’s history.

You had expected and prepared for what might be a gruelling decades long war with the imperium and instead it’s a quick battle with light casualties on your side in return for effectively annihilating your enemy.

The crippled ships have been boarded with little issues, your elite Auxilia making short work of most imperial forces who -with the exception of Cadian regiments and storm troopers - ranged from non exceptional regiments or barley trained rabble. You have offered all a chance to join your side. Very few accepted, all the others chose to fight to the last, dying with the emperor’s name on their lips. You did capture some of them and you intend to parade them to your populace as a sign of power . Fortunately, two Cadian regiments defected to your side . Their experience should give your armies some much needed elite lethality.

A few captains of questionable loyalty switched sides but their ships are mostly obsolete. They seem to be pirates who joined the crusade fleet as a way to earn exoneration (not to mention plenty of loot). You should ill them but they might have some use so you will keep them alive for now (albeit detained )

On a less grim note , many of the crippled ships had their slaves freed from their horrid fates . Almost all gladly joined your cause without issues and as a bonus many happened to be Iblisans who were reunited with their kin here.

The numbers are astonishing and the amount of salvage not to mention ship designs you can gain from these wreckages is enough to make you feel what passes for excitement in your cybernetic brain. Most of these ships will be taken to your shipyards where you will determine whether or not will they be repaired or simply disassembled for raw materials. Perhaps you should set up a colony on one of the moons for this .

The only two blemishes in all this is the causality list which could have been avoided if your captains had obeyed their orders, you must find a way to instill better discipline in your naval command.

The other caveat is the issue of the Grey Knights’ vessel which has been drifting ominously in the void . All communication has been answered with curses in the name of the god emperor : when they were answered at all. Your psykers sense something odd about this vessel but cannot pinpoint exactly what it is . You are currently faced with two choices.

The safest option would be to just destroy the ship from afar , avoiding what would certainly be a difficult and costly boarding mission and avoiding any surprises the 666th chapter might have in store. Then again blow

ing the ship up might be exactly what they want.

On the other hand , this presents a near impossible opportunity to get your hand on valuable information from THE most secretive chapter in the entirety of the imperium. From their psychic protection techniques to their psytech and biology and the knowledge you can extract from their minds : the possibilities are endless. Though difficult your null forces should more than enough to subdue the Astartes.

You pause in your thoughts as you take a moment what your victory means . Doubtless you will have this be made a national holiday and even now celebrations are afoot throughout the entire system . You have done what seemed impossible less than a hundred years ago and though as surprisingly easy as it was , you still feel genuine pride.

## Grey Knight Boarding Action

You have sent an extensive force of the most elite of the Thelal Guard to board and hopefully subdue the Grey Knights and theirs serf forces along with extensive skitarii and Auxilia support . The ship’s weapons had been disabled so your boarding parties have been able to approach without issue.

The battle to take the ship had been a close one : though the Grey Knights were incredibly weakened from the Thelal’s presscence , they were still Adeptus Astartes and inflicted heavy casualties. It didn’t help that the chapter serfs were far less affected by the pariahs and fought back with fanatic vigour uncaring for their own lives.

Still your forces had the benefit of outnumbering them by a significant margin and eventually prevailed ; even taking some of the Grey Knights prisoners (though at a heavy cost ) including an apothecary and a techmarine. The knowledge extracted from them will surely be invaluable.

They will be taken to a facility specifically built for them on the desolate moon of Karemnos where there’s no atmosphere and very little gravity, making their escape more difficult especially after being stripped of their armour (you are also considering cutting off their limbs just to be safe ) and kept mostly drugged by a powerful cocktail of toxins helpfully provided by Talios.

The treasure trove of knowledge you uncovered from the ship is astonishing, you now possess some of the best and most esoteric technologies ever produced by the Imperium of Man. Though the cost was high it was definitely worth it.

That isn’t to count the immense amount of lore and knowledge of warp protection you will surely gleam from studying the ship, itself a prize all on its own .
However your troops have reported that the serfs were using what appear to be heavily modified Uberguns, meaning that the weapons you gave to Mars so long ago are finding their way into the hands of the imperium’s elite forces which could be a problem in the future.
The Grey Knights’ leader eluded your forces and after extensive searching found him in a small almost inaccessible room hidden deep in the ship's vaults . What happened next is disconcerting.

#####

You are captain Evarius of the Thelal Guard and after hours of search you and your fellow soldiers have finally cornered the leader of the Grey Astartes. You expected a fight ; some kind of last stand from the boxed in marine but what happened is something you couldn’t imagine.

The room was small and cramped with all manner of tomes , the walls covered with mad scribbles drawn -with what you can only assume is blood-in a language you cannot understand.

The Marine stands in the center his helmet off and his back turned to you, not even acknowledging your presence, until your order the troops to fire. The las-shots just bounce harmlessly off him as if you were attacking with a toy water gun.

However it makes him turn around and face you. On his heavily scarred visage is a smile , the kind of twisted smile a madman would give. You jerk back as he starts stumbling your way .

“At long last I hear his voice and see his image unobstructed. He was…. He is SO NEAR. HE IS EVERYWHERE! AND HE WILL COME FOR YOU S̸̞̼̯̳O̷̵̮̩̠͙̥͚̞ͅÒ̜̰͙̘̦ͅṊ̴̦̖̯̫͡.̴̢̗̠̘̫ ̡̞̮W̡̙̻̞̝͈͚͙ͅͅE̷͚̦͖̪̙͇ ̧̱̤͚͎̝̰͈́͜A̸̭̬̮̕R̞͙̯̹̪̳͝Ę̣̯͉̬̤̻̠ͅ ̧̫̹̥͇̪̗̫I͏̴̣͍̠̱̺͎̪͖N̡̢̜̱͇͖͖̺͇È̢̝̟̥̀V̶̡͉̭̺̻̗̘͇̙͇I̸͈̬̺̯͍ͅT̤̥̲̯͉A̻̖B̨͏̝͉̻̠̘̣̠̦L̰͍̼̜͙̤͔̺E̷̻͍͉͚̝͖̩̻͠“ ̛̮̲̤͕͓̲͢ ”

With that cryptic phrase the marine is engulfed in golden flames , laughing all the while and leaving only a pile of ashes in his wake . This is troubling to say the least.