The Gyre Deeps

### Outcome

Hrud Xenos threat completely exterminated, despite heavy casualties sustained by the Watchers of Akhet

Also known as the War Against the Hrud, the Gyre Deeps was a stretch of space long since held by the Hrud, an alien species of terrible power over time itself, using the Deeps as a pathway for their many migrations across the stars. By M30.961, this threat could no longer be avoided, and the Ist Legion, the Watchers of Akhet were called upon to pacify the region and to wipe the Hrud from the face of the galaxy. Khnum rallied 40,000 of his best soldiers to fly to the Deeps and pacify the Hrud. Picking the core homeworld where the central Hrud warrens were located as the place where he would strike first to break the Hrud.

## History

Upon arriving in the Deeps, the Watchers were plagued with issues from the start. The core of the Deeps was a nightmare stretch of maze-like caves and tunnels where the Hrud reigned unopposed. Watchers would be overrun by Hrud as they emerged randomly from the walls, the ground or anywhere the Watchers least expected them. Khnum had known of the Hrud's time dilation power, but going into the fight with the Hrud he had no idea just how devastating their entropy fields were until he saw entire squads of his sons forcibly aged into dust right in front of him within seconds while their bolts aged thousands of years in the time it took a round to land. The Watchers' initial advance was broken as Khnum lost 10,000 of his soldiers within the first week of fighting along with most of his upper command structure as they were quickly overrun and killed.

The Watchers unable to adapt or pin down a strategy to fight the Hrud reliably Khnum ordered all personnel to evacuate from the Deeps before bombarding it from orbit for a week straight. The guns on the many ships of the Watchers' fleet never resting until a new landing zone had been carved out. He sent his best builders to establish a fortress that would be able to weather the Hrud storm while he came up with a new plan for purging his enemy.

Despite the heavy shelling, the Watchers still fought tooth and claw to clear the new beachhead as one of the major warrens located nearby began to empty out onto the Watchers making landfall. The Hrud overwhelming the Watchers before Khnum took to the field. Rallying his sons as they hastily reformed their broken lines to fight back the xenos threat that was on the verge of snapping their line of advance once again. Eventually, the Watchers forced the Hrud back underground as their forward outpost was finished.

Having lost 25,000 Astartes in the opening weeks of the Gyre Deeps Khnum knew that he was in over his head. He called for aid from any of his brothers despite having been chosen to wage this war alone. For a time no one answered his cries for help. Several months passed as Khnum tried strategy after strategy that ended in failure and with scores of his sons dying to the onslaught of the Hrud. Their screams echoing through his mind as the weight of his sons' death began to weigh further and further on him as the kills continued to mount higher and higher in the wake of this never-ending threat.

Until, one day, a fleet of ships belong to the Breecher Lord himself entered the space around the Gyre Deeps. Eventually, Shaaa and his sons made planetfall to meet with Khnum and the Watchers unannounced. At first, Khnum was pleased as he saw his brother as the person who would help Khnum win the war against the Hrud. Shaaa gave the Watchers weapons designed for combat in subterranean confines, Sub-Surface Torpedo Launchers seen only within the armories of the IVth. Khnum pushed his brother for further action and assistance, but Shaaa refused, stating that he and his sons would provide no further support than what they had already given. Khnum was instructed by his older brother that he and his sons would have to win this war on their own.

Infuriated by his brother's choice, but unwilling to beg further, Khnum took the weapons and made a plan to destroy the central Hrud warrens once and for all. The bombs were fitted with beacons that would scan and map out the Hrud warrens so the Wathcers could see if there was a central weakness. Eventually, they found the central warren that linked all the other Hrud warrens on the planet. It had been built next to the ocean and a small amount of rock was all that separated the warren from certain doom.

Khnum drew up maps and plans for the Watchers to drill down and get to dig sites were they would launch torpedos this time jam-packed with explosives that would hit certain parts of the warren to weaken the wall and flood the hrud with a force that even their time fields couldn't stop. This plan was not without loss as thousands of Astartes were killed as they fought through the Hrud waves to detonate the bombs. The most devastating to Khnum was First Captain Pihorna who in order to make sure his bomb detonated correctly stayed even as Khnum ordered them to evacuate. Watching in horror as one of his favored sons turned to dust mere meters from him.

Despite the heavy losses, Khnum and his sons emerged from the tunnels successful as the waters of the ocean drowned the majority of the Hrud. Khnum ordered his remaining sons to purge any remaining Hrud. He would not join them however, he had a score to settle with his brother. The remaining Ammuten Guard present and Equerry Petamn flew back to the fortress that Shaaa and the Star Guardians had set up in to have words with his brother. Eventually finding him in the command tower preparing to leave the Gyre Deeps.

In a rage, Khnum demanded to know what madness had seized the Breacher Lord, accusing him of base cowardice of the worst kind. Shaaa remained impassive as Khnum tried to gain a rise from him, before returning with a bard of his own, laying the deaths of his sons solely at Khnum’s feet. This was too much for the Sunstone King, and with a roar he unleashed his swords, power packs flaring into life. Shaaa was a slow fighter, but he had far more experience than Khnum did, and fought with a level head, while Khnum’s superior skill was hampered by his desire to see the Breacher Lord humbled before him. It was this that was his undoing at the apex of the duel, Khnum opening a real advantage he could use to turn the flow of the fight in his favour. Instead however, he moved to hamstring his brother, not to defeat him more surdly, Shaaa having no such qualms. With a single swing of his hammer, Shaaa landed his first, and last blow of the duel, lifting Khnum from his feet and sending him flying through the air to crash into the tunnel wall, armour cracked and ribs broken. Before he could rise again, Shaaa was upon him, placing a foot Khnum’s chest, forcing him to stay down. It was here Shaaa revealed his own goals in remaining from the field, not cowardice as Khnum had accused, but a lesson, only teachable in one way. The Watchers had never known true loss, their compliances numerous but small in the casualties caused. The IVth knew all too well the realities of war however, and Shaaa had sought to teach this to his brother, allowing him to shoulder the burden alone, forced to rely on himself first and foremost, as all the Primarch’s had to learn. Allowing Khnum to rise, Shaaa pointed to the preparations his own sons had been working upon, bombs eclipsing the ones prepped by the Ist, ready to be deployed to finish Khnum’s plan if it had failed. The victory had never been a sacrifice Shaaa was willing to make, but the lesson had to be taught, no matter the cost, and Shaaa stood by that wholeheartedly. With few words in reply, Khnum turned and left, his sons leaving the graveyard far faster than the IVth did.

Only two thousands Astartes of the original force had emerged from the Deeps alive. With most of the Terran born Watchers now dead along with the majority of their upper command structure. For a time, Khnum harbored a small amount of hatred towards Shaaa even after his explanation, but eventually, Khnum slowly began to understand his brother and his motivations more, coming to realize that while brutish, Shaaa had brought forth a valid point, one no other could have taught him so fully, and could have been imparted in no other way. Realizing, that while it was one thing to cherish one's sons, they were soldiers, and soldiers had to learn to rely on themselves first and foremost. The experience humbling and maturing Khnum as he rallied the remnants of his tattered survivors from the Deeps to rejoin the rest of the Watcher Fleet.

## Notable Participants

**Khnum-Anhuret, Primarch of the Watchers of Akhet**

**Shaaa Hydrades, Primarch of the Star Guardians**