Jemeniaus Besieged

Armorial of the Dragons Amaranthine.

**Jemeniasus Besieged** was one of the most lamnetable campaigns that occurred in the annals of the Dragons Amaranthine Space Marine Chapter, when their Chapter home world of Jemeniaus was besieged by the ravaging hordes of Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Only at great cost to the Chapter, were they able to defend their Chapter's vaults, hidden deep beneath their fortress-monastery, to protect their legacy to pass onto the next generation of Dragons Amaranthine in the form of the newly revealed Primaris Space Marines.

## Background

As infamous Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler laid siege to the world of Cadia in his 13th attempt to break the Imperial defences and wreak devastation upon the Imperium, the Dragons Amaranthine were amongst those Chapters who saw to the myriad other threats facing the Imperium. In particular, the bestial machinations of the Tyranid Hive Fleets, which continued invading, unabated, into the Milky Way Galaxy, only being truly halted, for a time, in a few sparing campaigns. As Hive Fleet Leviathan began to further encroach from beneath the galactic plane, the area of space home to the Dragons became increasingly under threat, and the surrounding systems as well, brimming with human life, were as a beacon for the voracious xenos. As numerous worlds began experiencing Genestealer cult activity, and some worlds even full-blown Tyranid assaults, the Dragons were inevitably spread across a broad area, defending their home system and surrounding space. However, the Dragons, never ones for superior numbers, found themselves swiftly and sorely outnumbered and were forced to make a continuous running retreat from the swarm and their cult allies. Cities burned in the Dragons' passing, worlds put to death by cyclonic warheads rather than having to suffer and face the indignity of being consumed by the swarm. However, the Dragons were eventually, inevitably, pushed back to Jemeniaus, their ancestral home, and last bastion.

The Dragons made best their preparations, negotiations were had with the Tech-Priests of Jemeniaus Secundae, urging the Priests to relocate themselves and their forces to Jameniaus Primae, the Chapter's homeworld. The Marines argued that without the Mechanicus' presence, the industrial world would have little interest to the swarm, and they would leave it, and its mechanisms be. After much deliberation, and an uncomfortable amount of time, the tech-priests finally agreed to retreat their Skitarii forces to Jemeniaus Primae, and stand with the Dragons against the oncoming xenos horde. Though the Skitarii's forces were far less than what could have been hoped, they were welcomed into the Fortress-Monastery of Amethyst Peak, and made best their defenses. Those civilians unable to be housed and protected inside the Fortress-Monastery's walls, were granted the Emperor's mercy. Better to die with dignity than be torn to shreds by mindless beasts.

There they waited for the Hive to come. Waited for the swarm that would no doubt be the death of Jemeniaus, the Dragons Amaranthine and the people whom they protected. As the swarm descended, the defenders of Amethyst Peak raised their weapons and prepared to open fire.

When the tide came, it came like a tsunami.

The xenos surged up the mountain as an avalanche in reverse, an unending tide of monstrous beasts. The weapons of the Astartes, Skitarii and mortal defenders sang in an unending chorus of death, pouring forth blessed bolt round, radioactive slug and las bolt in a flood of devastation. The xenos were scoured from the slopes of the peak and sent back cartwheeling down the steep mountainside, and for a brief moment, there was a glimmer of hope from the entrenched defenders. A hope that was soon dashed. The swarm, finally falling upon something that showed resistance, poured all its might into breaking through the defender's lines. The second wave was not so easily pushed off, and it wasn't long till the xenos were at the very walls and gates of the fortress. With a primal roar, specialist marines were raised from their waiting positions, and armed with cleansing fire and melta, those aliens that had dared defile their sacred monastery were punished with the Emperor's burning wrath for their temerity.

For a time the fortress-monastery must have seemed itself alight with the burning flames, the caustic fire scouring once more the alien from their sacred Mountain, burning with the fierce determination of the Marines and men that guarded it. However, the hive mind knew such thoughts as awe or fear, it only knew that which consumes it wholly - hunger - and it was with the ravenousness of the starved that the Tyranids of Leviathan threw themselves against the defenses of the Dragons, a pile of bodies so deep upon the base of the mountain, they themselves became gentle slopes the xenos could simply climb to reach its summit. Soon, the bodies packed themselves around the fortress so deep, that the aliens could climb over their dead to reach the highest of the walls, and with such a possibility, the lines of the Dragons began to buckle. Retreats were ordered to prepared positions, and with an ever-diminishing glimmer of light, the Dragons and their allies retreated deeper and deeper into the fortress.

The unending hordes of enemies slowly, but surely, ground the Dragons back, corridor but corridor, room by room, the fortress slowly drowning in an unending tide of Xenos bodies. The Dragons continue a fighting retreat, making the Tyranids pay for every inch of ground they take, but the swarm is rich in bodies, and has the resources to spare. Soon, the Dragons Amaranthine are forced back to the last of their bastions, the final gate, the defences of the Reliquary and the Vaults of the Chapters Geneseed.

The chapter was a shadow of its already diminished strength. Only a dozen marines rallied to the Vaults defences, the last of the living members of the chapter, the first Smith Lord and a handful of marines. As the marines began to dig in and prepare their final stand, the vault doors began to grind open, and from within, walked the hallowed dead of the Chapter.

The Lord of the Foundry, Chapter master and venerable ancient, Delkor Va'Shan, in his embossed Dreadnought chassis, led over a hundred of the Dragons sleeping ancients out of the vault, High Bone Smith Ahzakha Eseron striding beside him. The last living members of the chapter were ordered inside the vaults mighty doors, the Lord of the Foundry, and the last of the Chapter ancients, would seal the vault with burning fire, and hold the Tyranids as long as they were able. It would fall to the surviving thirteen Marines of the Chapter, to rebuild what had been lost, with the precious histories, relics and geneseed that were stored within the vault.

All that could be hoped, was that the vault would either be undetected, or that its mighty walls would hold out, deep underground, till aid could arrive, and scour the planet clean.

It was a slim hope.

The First Forge Lord, High Bone Smith Eseron, and the last of the Chapters Marines, took up positions within the vault, bidding final farewells to the venerable veterans of the chapter, and accepting themselves, as the last of the Dragons Amaranthine.

The sounds of battle continued from without the Vaults sealed doors, the roar of gunfire and flame, the crunching and crashing of Dreadnought fists, and the crack and boom of explosions, all accompanied, by the endless screams of the Tyranids. After many hours of the sounds of fighting, slowly, the sounds of battle began to dwindle, and die. Till there was nought but empty, hollow silence.

The Final Thirteen members of the Dragons Amaranthine, were now the last remnants of Humanity, within the Jemeniaus System. All that could be done, was to wait.