Assault on the Qui-Tan Domain

### Defending Commander(s)

The Jade General, Lord Chancellor Zhukelion, First Captains Xian Yun and Xian Dong

### Strength (Attackers)

 Crimson Lions
  Dune Serpents
 House Brutii, House Ursus, House Sarmatis

### Strength (Defenders)

 Warriors of Peace
 House Kaigan, House Tyrinth, Taghmata of Forge World Xei'An

### Outcome

Terran control of Obscurus secured, Han destroyed, the remnants of the Warriors of Peace flee to the Separatists

The **Assault on the Qui-Tan Domain** refers to a series of battles fought in Segmentum Obscurus during the Fifth Ruin, the closing stages of the Five Ruins. The assault saw the Loyalist forces of the Crimson Lions and the chapters of the Dune Serpents depose the Jade General as governor of the Segmentum due to suspicions of his ties to the Separatists.

## **Prelude**

In order to rebuild Terra, Mars and the many defences destroyed by the Traitors following the Siege of Terra, the newly empowered Council of Terra demanded a “one-time increase” in the Imperial Tithe.

The Jade General argued against the increased burden on Obscurus, stating that the need to fortify against the Separatists was draining all available surplus and that Obscurus had its own amount of destruction that needed the resources.

The Jade General received increasing demands from Terra to allow Terran-appointed bureaucrats to enter the Qui-Tan Domain and conduct a review of production so as to judge the available income, which the Jade General refused as a violation of his authority as governor. A delegation of Astartes from the Warriors of Peace, human bureaucrats and Mechanicum ambassadors from the Qui-Tan Domain was dispatched to Terra to negotiate with the Council.

With relations cooling, but no official decision having been reached, the nascent Inquisition made its own decision to secretly send agents to the world of Alcuescar, where they were discovered and apprehended by the Jade General’s secret police. The local police commissar, believing them to be insurgent spies, had them executed. Captain Liu Gutir, who had been slowly isolated within the Legion and from the Jade General, received word of the incident and made sure the news was sent back to Terra. The Inquisition informed the Council, who ordered the Dune Serpents to move to threaten armed intervention.

The Jade General, at the time in the north of Obscurus still co-ordinating the cleansing the Rangdan, issued a statement to his Legion and the Segmentum that Terra was conducting reconnaissance in order to attempt to remove him by force, and that he had done nothing that was outside of his authority as governor. He began the process of sending troops back to their garrisons from the frontiers and planning for the activation for his defence plans.

## **The Campaign**

### **The Hammer Falls**

Hectarion Mycenor, receiving word of these developments, decided that the Jade General cannot be allowed the time to redeploy his troops, and so gathered the Crimson Lions and struck north. Stopping briefly at Draconith to establish the world as loyal, the fleet was detected by Listening Station Ei. The worlds of Medusa and Iriadiv enacted martial law and prepared for an invasion and requests for aid were sent.

Deeming Medusa the easier of the two worlds to take, Hectarion began a planetary assault, the reduced forces of the world unable to resist the overwhelming forces of the Crimson Lions, fighting merely to delay the fleet. Captain Juan Zu, reluctant to fight his brothers who he knew to be loyal, held out as long as he could, but withdrew with as much of the Legion garrison as he could.

With Medusa taken, Hectarion sent a small portion of his fleet to take the nearby Agri-World of Khai-Zahn while the rest of the fleet moved to assault Iriadiv from behind. The news that the Crimson Lions had begun their assault spread across Obscurus, shocking many of the populace who had no idea of the underlying tension. In a speech by the Jade General transmitted across the worlds of the Qui-Tan Domain, he announced that Terra had betrayed the Emperor’s dream of the Imperium and sought to enslave the worlds under his protection. As such, martial law was declared across all worlds and every man, woman and child was to be mobilised in the defence.

The main thrust of the Lions’ fleet continued towards the first true challenge: the newly constructed naval station of Jufang. Serving as the base for the southern fleets of the Qui-Tan Domain, the station had been designed to be tough to assault from any direction and had been well-stocked with loyal void armsmen and Imperial Army troops in various stages of travel. Though no Astartes remained on the station, Hectarion did not wish to delay and allow the General further time to move his forces. Taking a gambit, Hectarion divided his fleet once more and gave Clan Ikenos the honour of destroying Jufang and capturing or destroying any Imperial ships stationed there.

### The Assault on Jufang

Myrvallen Bannock Meig and Clan Ikenos reckoned that the enemy forces numbered up to a quarter of a million mortals, though the vessels present were those that had been left behind when ships had been sent north. This advantage was balanced out by the station’s orbital defence system that would threaten any approaching fleet. The fleet of the Crimson Lions could simply rush the station but Meig knew that Hectarion would need every Lion and vessel to take the true objectives of the campaign, and so the losses would be too high. And so guile would be just as required as fury.

The Crimson Lions fleet moved to the maximum range of the orbital defence weapons, a few stray lance shots firing and glancing off the ships of the vessels. From the vessels emerged hordes of pioneers and assault marines to descend on the outlying satellites that acted as the station’s eyes in the void. The few voidsmen and guards were torn apart quickly by the ferocity of the Lions and in short order the satellites had fallen, reducing the Warriors’ sight to the immediate surroundings of Jufang. The Warriors would not let the satellites fall without taking their toll on the invaders, and so the satellites were targeted by Jufang’s own guns or ordering the few where fighting still raged to self-destruct. The Lions scrambled to evacuate, mostly escaping unharmed though a few were lost in the resulting explosions.

With the station blinded, some within the Clan pushed for a frontal assault, but Myrvallen Bannock Meig silenced the calls and presented his plan. Though some of the younger members of the Clan baulked at the decision, Meig brokered no disagreement in the face of the enemy. The majority of the fleet began to disengage and retreat, pulling back to beyond the range of Jufang’s sensors. The commanders of Jufang celebrated the small victory of rebuffing the Lions’ assault.

Several days passed as the few remaining Lion ships engaged the station at range, when the largest vessel stationed at Jufang, a repaired Dominus-class Battleship under the command of a Warrior of Peace Commandant called Pao Fai, marshalled the ships to challenge the Lions. His flagship, the Stormlight, was fast and agile yet lacked armour and so the Warriors roared through the void and began to attempt to flank the Lions’ formation. The Lions fought back savagely, many boarding parties of Cocidii and the fiery young Astartes of the IInd swarming the XVIIth and engaging in close quarter combat. The Warriors of Peace showed their expertise in boarding repulsion, their ships designed to be complex and the Astartes’ detached logic predicting where the assaults would fall.

As the two fleets clashed and became locked together, the Lions’ true design revealed itself. The ships that had disappeared previously emerged from the void from all angles, ignoring the ships of the station and carving through the gap to descend upon the denuded station. The orbital weapons blared and inflicted some casualties on the Lions, but the shields of the fleet and their armoured prows weathered the storm with little issue. Jufang’s fleet attempted to react to the sudden appearance but could do little as it was trapped between the two fleets.

Jufang’s commander and voidsmen held their station as best as they could, but the rending strikes of the IInd’s assaults cut deep into the station’s defences. Hordes of breachers poured through the openings and cut down the defenders with their unleashed fury. The roars of the loosed Lions echoed through the station and by the end of the day the station was in the Loyalists’ hands.

### **The Counter-Attack**

This would prove even more of a gambit than Hectarion had anticipated, as the Warriors of Peace counter-attack had begun. While the westernmost splinter of the Crimson Lions assault moved to take the Ixaniad Sector, the Knights of House Kaigan would honour their oaths to the Jade General and made a surprisingly rapid advance to reinforce the many agri-worlds. Alongside them came a small number of troops sent by the governor of the Finial Sector at the insistence of his Astartes commissar. The relief force caught the Lions as they ground down resistance on the frontier world of Castellan and forced them to fall back. The campaign within the Ixaniad Sector would rage for months as the Lions reconsolidated and struck back and the rebels fortified their worlds and attempted to drive them out of the Sector, eventually turning against the rebels as the Lions’ own Knight Household arrived to tip the balance.

As the General received reports from his flagship *Qiang Shui*, he was caught between the immediate threat of the Crimson Lions and the impending threat of the Dune Serpents. Knowing that he would have to face his brother Hectarion in combat, he placed his hopes on delaying the Dune Serpents through diplomacy. In light of this, Lord Chancellor Zhukelion was dispatched to convince the Serpents that the Lions were the aggressors and to play up the history between the two Legions. Alongside the Lord Chancellor, Captain Liu Gutir was directed to accompany him, both to use Liu's diplomatic skill and jovial nature and to have Zhukelion keep an eye on him. The majority of the Warriors of Peace and their allied forces were ordered to fortify their worlds and move to defend the Inner Defence Ring.

### **Cold Fury**

The two worlds where the Lions’ fury would inevitably fall next were the fortress world of Hellion and the industrial world of Cahonides. Though Hellion’s construction had been in response to the growing Chaos and Separatist threat, now as the Lions planned their next moves its true purpose had been revealed: it was perfectly placed to block thrusts aimed at Han from the galactic core and it had been designed with that in mind. Beyond Han itself, it was the most heavily fortified world within the Qui-Tan Domain and had the largest Astartes garrison of any world so far. On top of this, it was commanded by the young yet brilliant Shao Cao, one of the rising stars of the Warriors of Peace despite his hot-headedness as his worst excesses were tempered by the advice of his friend and fellow captain, the strategist Zou Yuhan. Cahonides was an equally imposing prospect, a barren industrial world that had been constructed with the aid of elements of the Mechanicum in the service of the Jade General. As such, what it lacked in Astartes it made up for in Automata, boasting its own garrison of automata and defence lines built to thwart any assault. These worlds had been bolstered by a surprise source, as the penal colony of Laogai was emptied and swelled the ranks of the defenders. Magos Dominus Dun-Xho embodied the Mechanicum’s cold brutality, fanatically loyal to the Jade General and having been chosen for his analytical skills just as much as his loyalty, and would not make taking Cahonides easy.

An assault on both worlds would fail and so Hectarion and his war council poured over their intelligence to determine which world would need to be taken. Decisive action was the only route to victory and so the target was selected. Hellion would feel the wrath of the Lions to both send a message and to punish the traitorous Astartes regardless of the difficulty. Hectarion would lead the assault in person, deploying a rearguard to hold any reinforcements from Cahonides. Tens of thousands of Lions amassed against merely thousands of Warriors of Peace but millions of mortals. The Warriors of Peace were not idle to the impending threat, Shao Cao and his command having prepared the defences since the first warning messages arrived and running through battle plans for the defence. The uncertainty as to which of the two worlds the Lions would strike had kept either world from entirely committing itself to either sallying out or entrenching, but under the guidance of Zou Yuhan, Shao had predicted that the Lions would strike at him.

### **Broken Bonds**

As the Crimson Lions struck deeper into the Qui-Tan Domain, the Dune Serpents had gathered their own strength. Chapter Master Farhada and the entire chapter of Winged Serpents had arrived on the world of Morox as the forward position of the Serpents, where they were met by the envoys of the Warriors of Peace. The atmosphere was tense as the Warriors of Peace bowed to the Winged Serpents and recounted the shared bonds of kinship between the two Legions. Some present in the delegation were those who had helped create and train Farhada and the other Winged Serpents, and Lord Chancellor Zhukelion presented evidence of the crimes of the Crimson Lions against the people of the Qui-Tan Domain. The Serpents for their part, made uncertain of who to trust, allowed the Warriors to remain and discuss the issues further. The talks stretched out for days and then weeks as the Serpents refused to commit to supporting the Warriors but were torn about assaulting a loyal Legion that was close to them, with the different chapter masters disagreeing on the correct course of action. Operatives were secretly dispatched by the Chapter Master of the Whisper Wraiths Nashatmali Zali’Qatal to observe the Warriors of Peace to determine their true nature. Lord Chancellor Zhukelion decided that the Serpents were either stalling for time to gather strength or were too weak to strike at the Warriors, and so he put the back up plans into motion. Zhukelion had brought one of the Warrior of Peace’s last virus bombs with him in secret, and with the Serpents uncommitted Zhukelion began preparing to detonate the bomb aboard the flagship the *Blade of Bahmut*. The Warriors of Peace on board were secretly informed to position themselves in areas of the vessel that could be sealed and secured, in preparation to storm the vessel once the virus had done its damage and capture or kill the surviving Serpents.

Unfortunately for the Lord Chancellor’s plan, Captain Liu Gutir could not allow such a war crime to murder their brothers under a banner of peace. Liu entrusted the task of carrying the news to his sworn brother Ziang Dei while he kept Zhukelion distracted, calling a meeting with Zhukelion to discuss potential plans of the upcoming campaign. As Ziang Dei attempted to make his way to the Dune Serpents’ quarters without being detected, he ran into a squad of Warriors who had been stationed by Zhukelion to prevent the Serpents escaping. Ziang was forced to engage the group to silence them about his visit, slaying the squad to a man and meeting with the Serpents. The Serpents were shocked by the revelations and Ziang’s actions, but they could not ignore such a warning and escaped into the bowels of the ship. Once news reached Zhukelion, he had no choice but to launch his assault. The Winged Serpents received just enough warning from their operatives to isolate the virus bomb and limit the casualties, losing only a handful of Serpents alongside the Warriors who had transported the bomb. The operatives that had infiltrated the Warrior of Peace vessels were activated and began attempting to cripple the vessels for the Serpent fleet to capture them, but the enforcers of Zhukelion scourged the ships and drove the Serpents into the open. In a brutal last stand, the Serpent agents were corralled into the loading bay and jettisoned into the void before the Warriors escaped into the void. The Warriors responded simultaneously, their own operatives enacting sabotage that forced the Serpents to dedicate time to rooting them out. The Warriors escaped into the Warp with a final message proclaiming the Serpents’ perfidy and the crimes of the Imperium.