War of the Ròj

The War of the Ròj was a conflict facing the Imperium of Man against the xenos species later identified as the Ròj. It was particularly notable in that portions of three Legions along with a number of other Imperial assets were deployed to handle the threat of the xenos race. The World Shakers, Claws of Xipac, and Watchers of Akhet would be sent one by one to drive the Ròj to extinction. The Ròj were a species of xenos that had learned to craft horrifying weapons of war that left unchecked, would have proved troublesome for the progression of the Great Crusade.

The War of the Ròj began with the World Shakers’ occupation of Condenar, a feudal world they had brought back into the fold of the Imperium during the course of the Great Crusade. Upon discovery, the World Shakers found the inhabitants had to complete a ritual to an entity known as the Ròj. The ritual involved placing raw materials such as wood and iron, along with sturdy workers, on an altar where they would disappear into the heavens. However, tales told that if the ritual was not properly enacted, a great storm would descend from the sky and decimate the surface of Condenar.

Many of the citizens of Condenar accepted the World Shakers, yet still a great many rioted and demanded that the Astartes let them complete the ritual. Daito would simply laugh and attempt to ensure a thorough and painless transition into the Imperium. For a few months it seemed as though such a thing was possible, until one day, the skies darkened as a great storm wrapped around Condenar.

The World Shakers in orbit panicking as they were separated from the Primarch, no word having come from the surface. The last bit of evidence on the surface was Daito being surrounded by a giant swarm of alien beasts before cutting out as he stood waist-deep in the monsters. No signs of life could be found from any scans the great ships of the Imperium conducted and it seemed that Daito had lost his life. One word crackled from the surface. A name said in utter horror whispered through their communication equipment, the Ròj. Moments later, communications would begin to fail as the storm shot out from the planet.

The World Shakers attempted to launch several missions to the ground, only for the ships they sent to be torn apart by the beings hiding in the maelstrom, the storm itself making reliable communication between ships next to impossible and so causing the World Shakers to become scattered. Knowing that the fight was impossible to win alone, Yoshitaka Taroemon, First Captain of the World Shakers, sent a distress hail out for any Legion to come to their aid.

After weeks of grueling fighting, the World Shakers had begun to lose hope. They prepared for one great assault into the storm in an attempt to face the enemy head on, but before they could, Imperial ships poured out into realspace flying the colors and heraldry of the Claws of Xipac. Leading the pack was Necalli’s flagship, Spirit of Duality, to signify that the Primarch himself had personally answered the legion’s distress signal.

Necalli was informed of his brother’s assumed demise and swore that the xenos would pay in blood for taking his life. However, sensing the reinforcements the xenos began to launch boarding attacks against the Claws of Xipac and World Shakers. Their numbers seemingly endless, as several of Necalli’s ships were overrun, and the Astartes onboard slaughtered to a man, despite the fierce fighting of the III Legion; the fighting growing desperate as the fevered pitch of the battle rose further and further with every fallen Imperial soldier.

Determined to break the xenos who had killed his brother at any cost, however, Necalli could not coordinate his fleet as communications between ships remained shoddy. Seeing no other way, Necalli began to slowly consider ordering his remaining forces and the survivors of the World Shakers to retreat. The Ròj continued to hammer at their forces as Necalli tried to rally his forces to no avail as thousands screamed out for assistance. It seemed that the Legions would break, but in a stroke of luck help arrived and from the warp emerged the armada of the I Legion.

The Watchers of Akhet had feared for their cousins’ safety when all communication had disappeared from the forces sent to this planet. Khnum gathered what he could of the Imperial Army, Titan Legios, and his own forces to make haste for the distress signal that had been raised by the World Shakers.

Bringing his forces to bear the brunt of the attacks, Khnum made contact with Necalli who informed them of their brother’s assumed death. Khnum told his brother that they would mourn their brother, but for now they had to deal with the creatures in the storm. The Ròj redoubled their efforts against the Imperium’s forces as Khnum tried to calculate the position of the enemy ships based on the angles the enemy’s fire was coming from within the storm. Still barely able to communicate with the gathered Imperial forces, Khnum and Necalli did their best to battle the threats that came forth from the storm that seemed to grow larger with every passing hour.

Suddenly, a large explosion ripped from the storm, causing it to disappear, and reveal the enemy’s positions along with clearing up communications across the assembled fleets. A message then crackled across the main channel of the Watcher’s communications. Saying, “catch me,” followed by a hearty and deep laugh. Scanners revealed a humanoid figure chained to twenty other smaller humanoid figures, hurling towards the Wisdom of Techu from the void of space.

Khnum ordered a Stormhawk to deploy from a hanger and head towards the figures. Upon approach the pilots confirmed that the people drifting through space were Daito and members of the World Shakers. They were brought back to the Wisdom of Techu where Khnum and Necalli stood in disbelief that their brother lived when every report they had been given suggested that he had been killed.Daito laughed off the accusations and told them that he and a handful of his World Shakers had been holding out on the surface against the tides of the Ròj. A mere thousand Astartes against tens of thousands of Ròj as they slowly dwindled in number against the onslaught.

Daito knew that he had to act quickly if he was going to save Condenar. In the sky he located the eye of the storm where the ship generating the great maelstrom dwelled, and an idea began to form, one that was suicidal, but just might work if the tides of luck were on his side.

Taking a stormbird and the bit from a broken termite drill, Daito welded together a ramshackled boarding pod, loading as many Astartes as he could into the machine before they took off towards the ship. Daito knew if he followed a set pattern, he would cut through the worst of the storm. The way was treacherous, but eventually the handful of World Shakers began final approach; the ship’s defenses were partially offline due to the power needed to keep the storm raging, allowing the last stretch of space to be easier than the journey had been at that point.

Latching onto the hull of the ship, the drill began to bore into its thick siding little by little, while Daito and the Astartes onboard began to prepare themselves for boarding actions. With a lurch the ship managed to make it through into the cramped space. However, the landing ramp would eject the boarders out into space forcing Daito to rip through the hull of the stormbird rendering it useless from that point onwards.

Moments after entering the Ròj’s ship the xenos began to swarm the Astartes, but the World Shakers’ locked shields and began to push forward through the crowd. Though they took losses as they went, having their Primarch at their side and the hopes of the people on the planet below resting on their shoulders, the VII began to push forward through their lines. It was slow going, but the Sixth punched through the waves of the Ròj swarm as they slowly reached the power core for the storm generator.

The storm generator was unlike anything Daito had ever seen; grey metal cracked with green energy that melted one of the World Shakers’ shields that ventured too close. The explosives and ordnance the Astartes had brought would not be able to destroy the generator from a safe distance. Daito told his World Shakers that someone would have to stay behind to destroy the machine. It was here that Kousuke, one of the few Toshokan-In that had survived both the battle on the surface and the flight through the storm, came forward to volunteer. His powers could overload the generator, but the explosion would rip the ship apart at the seams.

The ship they had flown in on was damaged beyond repair, forcing the group to fight to a nearby hanger only to find ships that would not fly. They were trapped within the ship as Kousuke brought forth his psyker abilities and began to destroy the storm generator. Having to think quickly, Daito found a heavy length of chain and wrapped it around him and the remaining World Shakers. He told the remaining Astartes present they would need to have faith in their fellow comrades in arms. With confusion among his ranks, Daito jumped into the vacuum of space while dragging his remaining forces with him, the explosion propelling them through the void as Daito pushed forward. As they spun through the void, Daito tried to raise whoever he could as called out for help, with aid eventually coming in the form of a stormbird belonging to the Watchers of Ahket. The people inside quickly gathered the World Shakers and brought them back to the Wisdom of Techu.

Having been brought to speed, the three Primarchs began to plan the next phase of how fighting the Ròj would take form. Using help from the other two legions and the Imperial forces they brought, the remaining World Shakers rallied their forces to reclaim the surface that was on the brink of breaking under the tide of the xenos threat. Imperial Knights, scores of Astartes, battalions of guardsmen, and Titan Legios screaming towards the surface in unison as they began to purge the xenos from the planet.

Khnum and Necalli however had the task of purging the great Ròj floating fortress that hovered above the planet, the ship’s shields deflecting all incoming fire from the Imperium’s ships. Taking the information that Daito had given them, Khnum concluded the only way to destroy the fortress was to do it from within. The Watchers of Ahket and Claws of Xipac would launch a series of boarding actions in an attempt to fight deeper into the fortress to deactivate the shields and allow Imperial lances to strike unhindered and destroy it.

The following boarding actions and fight through the great Fortress Ship of the Ròj was brutal. Astartes were swarmed by thousands upon thousands of workers while having to dodge weapon fire from specialized weapons that rivaled the Imperium's in destructive power. Guardsmen fell in the dozens for every foot they fought through as Astartes were overwhelmed trying to cut through the seemingly endless hordes.

After forty-eight hours of grueling boarding actions, the Astartes of three Legions punched through and disabled the shields protecting the ship. The survivors evacuated while concentrated fire from Imperial ships tore the station apart. The ragged survivors returning to their legions to tend to their wounds and bury their dead. With this action, the first battle of the war was won.

It did not come without cost, the Sixth Legion’s present forces had been nearly annihilated in the time they spent holding out against the Ròj. Their casualties so numerous that Daito was forced to stay behind while Necalli and Khnum continued the campaign without him or the Sixth. Despite this small setback, Khnum, Necalli, and their assembled Imperial forces began their extermination against the Ròj.

As the First and Third were preparing to leave Khnum paid special honor to the World Shakers who had held the line against the Ròj’s initial strike for months. In particular, he honored Sofu, a company captain charged with the defense of the Glacial Peaks, a town providing the only access through the mountains surrounding the capital city of the planet. Sofu slowed the advance of the Ròj by luring thousands upon thousands of them into the city’s heart before flooding it with promethium and explosives to detonate it.

Despite Khnum’s praise, Daito was furious as the Astartes. In his choice he had disobeyed a direct order from Daito to defend the Glacial Peaks as well as causing ten thousand civilians traveling through the mountains to be slaughtered by the Ròj. Sofu defended his actions as needed or else the World Shakers would have fallen due to the lack of time to fully dig in against the onslaught they had been ill prepared to hold. Daito cared little for the Captain’s reasonings and had him stripped of his title and armor. Sofu had already felt resentment towards the Primarch. As Daito had all but ensured the destruction of Sofu and other Terran born Astartes’ culture.

Forced into exile, Sofu along with hundreds of other Terran born World Shakers begged the Watchers of Akhet for asylum. Khnum, astonished at the story, sent Hori-Re, Mekhit, and Iyp with a small detachment of Watchers to collect Sofu and the exiled World Shakers. During this, Daito heard of what Iyp and several others were doing and gathered his honor guard along with a company of World Shakers to stop the evacuation. Believing that Iyp had gone against his father to evacuate his cousins as he had been seen heavily interacting with them.

Once he caught up with the Watchers and World Shakers Daito refused them to leave. He instructed the Watchers to leave poisonous and cancerous things out of their legion. In particular, chastising Iyp for doing something so reckless that would shame Khnum. The First was surrounded and beset with the protection of hundreds of unarmored and unarmed Astartes. Iyp commanded the small gathering of Watchers to provide as much cover between them and Daito’s forces.

Just when tension was about to boil over, from the sky dozens of stormbirds landed all around the gathered Astartes. The vehicles formed a defensive line around the exiled World Shakers and Watchers. From the first wave, theAmmuten Guard led by Wodjen and Anukeps as the Mysesa with Imothes in tow emerged along the flanks to defend their brothers and cousins. In the center, Khnum’s personal Thunderhawk landed to separate the two forces from engaging each other. The ramp lowered and the Sunstone King emerged wearing neither armor nor wielding weapons. He had even left behind his Phaerem hood on the ship as he came to address his brother.

At first, Daito was delighted to see Khnum as he surveyed the situation with a disapproving glance. He believed his brother was here to correct the sins of his sons. However, the Laughing Mountain quickly noticed that Khnum’s disapproving demeanor was directed at him rather than his children.

Khnum’s first order was to load the exiled members of the Sixth Legion into the stormhawks. Daito’s fury spewed forth and he began to call his younger brother foolish for bringing toxins into his Legion. The Sunstone King approached his brother and began to softly tell Daito he was the fool to forsake such loyal warriors for a small hangup. Daito disregarded Khnum’s points and began to berate him for his view that their Astartes could ever truly be their sons and that Sofu had committed the biggest sin of the Sixth by disobeying Daito’s order. The points raged back and forth as the Astartes of the Watchers and the World Shakers kept their weapons trained on each other. Both sides ready to fight their cousins if anything should erupt.

However, the talks remained passionate and furious during this event, that would later be named the Synod of the Grasses, no violence was had. The end of the meeting involved Daito telling Khnum if he was going to bring the exiled World Shakers into his Legion then he would no longer view him as a brother. With sorrow in his voice Khnum told Daito that was a price he was willing to pay if it meant he would save the fate of hundreds of loyal troops. As one last parting gift, Daito threw a tantō blade to Khnum’s feet and told him only in death would Daito honor Khnum again. Khnum took the blade and left with his Legion.

Khnum assimilated the exiled World Shakers into one giant company except for Sofu. Sofu was given the honor of serving in the exalted Ninth Company Terminators under Taheli Rai. The company of World Shakers were taken by two reserve companies to meet with Artellion who was the nearest Primarch to the other half of World Shakers who were being exiled and following in Sofu’s footsteps. Artellion along with the Watchers and World Shakers would gather the wayward sons for assimilation into the Fifteenth Legion. With this taken care of, Khnum could focus once more on the War of the Ròj.

As the two legions mobilized for war Necalli went to Khnum to discuss the argument his little brother had been wrapped up in with Daito. Necalli urged Khnum to make peace with the Laughing Mountain. He stated that he was his brother, and even brothers make foolish choices. However, they were still a family that worked better when they were unified instead of divided. Khnum gently told Necalli he spoke words of wisdom, but that until Daito apologized to Khnum for threatening his sons, wasting his own sons’ lives, and withdrew his wish to see him dead in a barbaric ritual then there would be no peace between the two, as regrettable as Khnum stated it would be. Defeated, Necalli mobilized his legion for war and then began the long trek to victory.

For months, the I and III fought encounter after encounter, the Ròj’s quick birth rates and talent for weapon crafting slowing the assault down to a grinding halt. The Watchers becoming worn down as they hurled themselves into the fire time and time again. This led to several conflicts with the Claws as the Astartes of the Third began to grow weary and irritable with the length of the war. The two struggling to keep tensions under control as they push forward through the hordes of enemies.

Millions of lives were lost in the slow advance of the Imperium in the Ròj’s territory. Khnum was given control all of the forces present as his mind was pushed to the edge as his first large scale command threatened to break against the near overwhelming xeno forces. Whereas Necalli led the forces of the Imperium on the field of battle to inspire the attackers to greater feats of glory.

The Ròj unleashed such vile weapons that the Imperium’s advance nearly crumbled several times under the weight of such machines. Titan Legios and Knight Houses were reduced to ruin, thousands upon thousands of Astartes fell and millions of Imperial Army personnel were slaughtered in the wake of this terrible foe. Necalli’s combat expertise and Khnum’s tactical brilliance doing little to change the momentum of the war.

Eventually, the Imperium and the Ròj were locked in a stalemate over the world of Night’s Row. An abandoned hive world cast in total darkness where the Ròj had turned factories and buildings into armories for forging new weapons. Thousands upon thousands of hatcheries were created to keep the swarm of Ròj steadily trickling into the war. The Imperium was forced to burn out each individual building one by one in each Hive City; marines, terminators, psykers, and every other possible weapon of war they could field was put to use, yet nothing broke the stalemate as the Imperium continued to use anything that they could to gain an advantage as the Ròj rebuilt quicker than they could destroy them.

After months of conflict, the Imperium grew no nearer to breaking Night’s End. Morale was nearly broken as the Imperial Army watched as hundreds of guardsmen died in the smallest firefights. They fought an enemy that brought Astartes to their doom by the dozens.The forces of the Imperium were at their breaking point. Khnum and Necalli’s current forces nearly broken from the casualties taken while the rest of their legions were months away in the most favorable of warp tides. Arguments and conflicts broke out between the First and Third as the fighting brought each side to their breaking points. Supply lines were nearly exhausted under the insane demands needed to purge a single hive city worth of Ròj.

In this darkest hour, an answer finally arrived that would lead to the turning point of the war. From the warp appeared an Imperial armada; the XVII lead by [REDACTED] arrived with fresh troops, supplies, and a fervor to support their cousin Legions. [REDACTED] greeted his brothers warmly as his sons joined the meat grinder the war had devolved into. As the Imperium took to the field [REDACTED] took to his podium and transmitted a battle speech to every Imperial soldier. This speech was so rousing, so inspiring that the exhausted forces who had been fighting for over a year straight took their weapons up and began to fight with the fervor of the Kraken Lords or the War Bears.

In the face of new and revived forced the battle slowly began to turn in favor of the Imperium. The Ròj’s attacks grew more reckless and futile as they were slaughtered in droves against the Imperial war machine while three Primarchs and their Legions took to the field. The sight of the three Demi-gods sending any nearby imperials into a frenzy. They brutally burnt out the factories and breeding grounds that the enemy had expended so many resources in building. With this victory, after long last, the Imperium had the xenos on the run.

With the Ròj’s loss at Night’s End their attacks had lost any momentum they had gained. So many of their resources had been put into the defense of the planet that every attack had the Ròj come undermanned and undersupplied. Once deadly and terrifying, the Ròj folded like the other thousands of xeno races the Imperium has purged before them. Battles no longer were giant wars of attrition, but were easily won with minimal casualties. By the time their forces reached the legendary Medusa after fighting for two years, where the Ròj had taken to make their homeworld, they were a sad collection of various battered armies desperately trying to hold against an unbeatable foe.

Necalli engaged the tattered Ròj fleet, his Legion brutally cleansing the pilots and crew in close combat boarding actions, the III ripping through them like a predator finishing off its tired prey. Their ships breaking apart and falling to the surface in a horde of screaming metal echoing that of their damned crews. Where the Claws of Xipac fought they left little more than piles of broken and dead xenos as the I and XVII Legions moved to make planetfall.

The Roj’s central city was a moving fortress built to better acclimate their need for resources and survive against the constant landscape shifting. It was difficult at first for Lorgar and Khnum’s forces to set up a traditional siege of the city due to the fact that it could move quickly out of the way of any siege weaponry set up to assail it. This forced Khnum to develop a strategy to corner the city in the mountain ranges where it would be stuck in the uneven terrain.

Using a calculated advancing wall to seal off potential escape routes. The two legions slowly pushed the capital city into the mountains where it eventually was stuck in the ice and snow. Now, the Astartes could finally dig in and launch their assault on the city. The sight of the Imperial forces a stark difference from that of the war’s beginning. Khnum and Lorgar delivered one final great speech to their forces before the siege of the Castle of the Ròj began.

The city held for a month as stormhawks dropped wave after wave of Astartes past their defenses, artillery shellings from whirlwinds devastated the defenders’ dug in fortifications, and careful orbital shelling created holes for armored support to move through the openings. Khnum and [REDACTED] led the advances personally and eventually came across the Queen of the Ròj; weakened from the slaughter of her people, they killed her as easily as one of her billions of grunts they had killed to get to her. With her dead, the Ròj fled into the stars, and the war was ended. The once great race broken beyond any hope of recovery to their former station.

Necalli left soon after the battle ended, though not before Khnum, [REDACTED], and he could enjoy a quiet night as brothers, talking until the early hours of the morning. The three talking about the Imperium, theology, artwork, their brothers, and their sons in good-spirited debate. The weight of the war disappearing off of Necalli’s shoulders as he enjoyed his time with his brothers.

During the cleanup, [REDACTED] and his sons helped finish scouring the Ròj from the surface of the planet before departing towards their prized city of Monarchia for a meeting with the Emperor. This left Khnum with rebuilding Medusa for the inhabitants who had been enslaved under the Ròj. A task that would not be an easy one considering the way the enslaved population had been treated under the xeno’s cruel reign.

As Khnum rebuilt the broken populace, he noticed there were pieces of old technological wonders to be studied and so he sent a message to the Star Guardians, asking them to come to Medusa. A month later, Shaaa and a small detachment of Star Guardians arrived to answer the Watchers of Akhet’s call. Khnum showed Shaaa what he had found and told him that he was turning Medusa over to him, as only he could appreciate and temper the raw potential of the planet and its mysteries. Shaaa accepted this gift with fervor as he began to explore the technology long thought to have been lost to the Imperium.