First Aephidic War

### Attacker

Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans Chapters, Imperial Guard, Collegia Titanica and the Navis Imperialis

### Defender

League of Aephidic Free Worlds, UrHypek Mercantile Conglomerate

### Segmentum

Segmentum Pacificus

The **First Aephidic War**, also referred to as the **Aephidic War** or the **Aephidic Crusade**, was a vast military campaign conducted by the Imperium of Man against the combined forces of the secessionist League of Apehidic Free Worlds and the UrHypek Mercantile Conglomerate, that eventually lead to the involve multiple arms of the Imperial Armed Forces, as well as no less than two Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes; the Lightning Sons and the Royal Herculeans.

A resource rich region lying rimward of the Uridian Isola, the Greater Aephidian Belt represented one of the few territories within the western Imperium placed so deep into the miasma of the Veiled Region. As a result, it was often placed at the mercy of piratical xenos and renegades. Unable to truly defend its own territories, and ignored by an Imperium that sought only the raw resources they held, the Aephidian ruling council turned to their Abhuman neighbours for support; the Votannite UrHypek Mercantile Conglomerate. Under the new name of the League of Aephidic Free Worlds, the secessionist of the Greater Aephidian Belt, backed by their Votannite allies, successfully wrestled control the Administratum Tithe-Fortress of Laeran from Imperial hands, securing the only stable warp-corridor in and out of the sector.

Though long a troubled region, Imperial officials could not let such a mineral rich sector slip from their control. An Imperial response was mustered. Despite meticulous planning, the campaign did not begin well, as substantial losses were inflicted upon Imperial forces. Bottlenecked at Laeran, the General Staff of the Imperial reprisal campaign petitioned the Adeptus Astartes for aid, to which the Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans responded.

## History

Rediscovered by the Lord-Chartist Aephidus Vandermor in the 36th Millennium, the Greater Aephidian Belt had long been a problematic region. Accepted as a recognised Sector Imperialis following its rediscovery by Lord-Chartist Vandermor, the decision neglected the military and logistical exigencies of the region, a decision no doubt made via the use of political influence and promise of payment. Nonetheless, the Greater Aephidian Belt was now another realm of the Imperium, far removed from its neighbours and isolated upon the shores of rimward Pacificus.

Following the death of Lord-Chartist Vandermor in 996.M36 and the end of the Age of Apostasy, Imperial interest in the Sector, beyond the harvest of its natural resources, began to wane. Astra Militarum regiments and corporate troops drawn from out-sector, were redeployed to key worlds necessary for the Sector to meet its tithe, and keep the far off and distant crusades of the Imperium's Age of Redemption moving. For all intents and purposes, the Greater Aephidian Belt had largely been abandoned; its defenses left to wither, or redeployed by Segmentum Command to regions of a higher priority.

Desperate, those planetary lords and governors whose worlds were no longer considered a priority to the Imperial officials on far away Pontus Nad sought to find security elsewhere, their confidence in the proffered 'Pax Imperialis' promised by Terra steadily eroded, one xenos raid or piratical incursion after another.

Long a presence within the Greater Aephidian Belt, the Votaanite Urhypek Mercantile Conglomerate saw a perfect opportunity to finally undermine Imperial control over the resource rich worlds of Greater Aephidia. Entreated in secret, the disenfranchised nobility of Greater Aephidia were given their opportunity to wrestled back control of their worlds and region, with the aid of Urhypek. Armed and equipped by their new Votannite allies, the newly established 'League of Aephidic Free Worlds' launched a number of secret, punitive campaigns against piratical strongholds and xenos holdfasts, scoring a string of major victories.

Flush of their victories, the forces of the League of Aephidic Free Worlds, in tandem with the UrHypek Mercantile Conglomerate, launched a devastating offensive campaign against the Imperial manufacturing centres and mining worlds within the Greater Aephidian Belt. Largely equipped to deal with low-level xenos raids, or penal uprisings, the corporate troops and Astra Militarum were ill-prepared to counter an organised offensive. Imperial control folded quickly. As payment for the equipment and training given them by UrHypek, the industrial centres of the Greater Aephidic Belt were largely given over to their charge.

Though it took a full four standard years before a true response could be mustered, Imperial retribution finally came in 961.M37, when the Imperial retribution fleet under the command of Lord General Militant Wythek exited the Warp at the edge of the Laeran System. Expecting minimal resistance from a interior foe, the tactical information provided to Lord Militant Wythek prior to the warfleet's departure proved inaccurate. In the four years since the Imperium's expulsion from Laeran, the Aephidic secessionists had not only repaired the damages wrought to the systems defensive infrastructure, but added to it, establishing minefields and orbital killzones.

The fighting within the Laeran System was intense, with Imperial forces unable to establish a secure beach-head. Faced with the possibility of defeat, the General Staff of the Uridian Sectoral Command petitioned the Adeptus Astartes for aid, to which the Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans responded.

Spearheading a second assault upon the Laeran Tithe-fortress, the Lightning Sons conducted a concentrated orbital assaults' via Drop Pod, and supported by Thunderhawks and Stormeagle Gunships. Making landfall, the Lightning Sons forged a beachhead upon the heavily defended world. Outnumbered, and dogged by their enemy, the Chapter held their landing zones for twenty seven straight hours, until Imperial forces were able to break through the secessionists orbital defences, and seize the breach created by the Chapter's assault, collapsing the secessionist hold over the world, taken it in under a week, and opening the way for an uncontested Imperial advance straight into the Greater Aephidian Belt itself.

The conflict finally came to an end in 995.M37, following the bloody and brutal Excoriation Campaign upon the UrHypek Hold World of Marzur. Holding Imperial forces at bay for almost two years, the siege of Marzur finally necessitated the deployment of warhosts Astartes support elements. Deploying at full strength, both the Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans took to the battlefields of Marzur, its surface a barren irradiated wasteland following a sustained planetary bombardment campaign conducted by the Navis Imperialis.

Breaching the halls of Marzur's central holdfast, both the Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans pressed forward into the breach, fighting in some of the most intense Zone Mortalis theatres seen thus far, fighting bloody, prolonged subterranean street-by-street actions against UrHypek warrior-kin and battle constructs.

A dire question emerged, following the total annihilation of UrHypek; the fate of its ancestor core. Lying at the heart of their central hold, remnants of the Votannite Kin's Ancestor Core survived its ultimate self-detonation, causing division among the ranks of the Imperial forces. The Adeptus Mechanicus adepts of Carthagus Minoris attached to the Imperial warhost sought to scavenge and take back any remaining fragments they could salvage, and pluck from them any worth pieces of information, whilst on the opposing side sat the Imperial General Staff, who with a Ministorum bent, sought the eradication of the artefact.

A new conflict threatened to erupt in the rad-wastes of UrHypek's surface, as both sides stood off against one another. In a tense twelve hour conclave, representatives from both the Lightning Sons and Royal Herculeans sought to bring the tensions to heel, gathering both parties in the ruins of UrHypek's principle holdfast. There it was decreed, much to the chagrin of the Adeptus Mechanicus magi, that the fragments of the Ancestor Core were to be obliterated in totality.