First Squat War

> "*Enemies of the Khazadi Empire, you have come to this world seeking death, and we shall be more than happy to provide it for you. We shall strike you down in the tunnels of our world, in the streets of our cities, in the air and smoke of our skies. Mareen in ours, and it shall remain ours until the last Khazadi falls or the stars burn out. Your Beast shall not save you this time. Fight, and we will kill you all. Flee, and we will only kill most of you.*"
> ― Warlord Durnan on the Surface of Mareen
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## The First Squat War

The Winged Hammer of the Khazadi Empire - This Sigil would eventually be combined with the Two Headed Eagle sigil of the Imperium.

### Attacking Commander

Shaaa Hydrades, Sanguinius, Uulious Kaezar, Varinius Rampt, Braden Jaxer

### Defending Commander

Miquielle Thorian (KIA), Durnan, Cecilia Marin (KIA)

### Scale

The Khazadi Empire, encompassing billions of souls over 76 planets and 594 mining outpost and research stations.

### Strength (Attackers)

The IVth and XIIIth Legion
Elements of the Vth, VIIIth, IXth, Xth Legions
Billions of Imperial Army, Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum warriors
Multiple Titan and Knight Households

### Strength (Defenders)

Billions of Squat Soldiers
The Thorian Clan
The Aki Clan
The Veltari Clan
The Marin Clan
Numerous Minor Clans
The Unaffiliated Guilds

### Casualties (Attackers)

Extremely heavy across all forces.
Star Guardians and Imperial Army forces have the highest percentage of losses

### Casualties (Defenders)

29 Planets Destroyed or Rendered Uninhabitable33 Invaded planets and 372 Outposts with Significant Infrastructure Damage
Tens of Billions of soldiers and civilians dead

### Outcome

The Khazadi Empire joins the Imperium of man as a third allied empire, renamed as the Astra Khazadi.
Durnan leaves the galactic stage and is not seen until the Antarus Apostasy
The Khazadi and the Astartes develop a permanent rivalry.
The IVth Legion develops a rivalry with the IXth Legion.

The **First Squat War**, also known as **The Squat Wars** and **The War of Lost Cousins**, was one of the largest conflicts in Imperial History in the days before the Almire Apostasy. Fought between the nascent Imperium and the Khazadi Empire, the First Squat War saw both Shaaa Hydrades's introduction to the Imperium, and the Squats prove their worth as both staunch soldiers and valuable members of the Imperium.

The war dragged on for many years, the death toll spiralling out of control, before the newly found Primarch, Sanguinius, arrived, bringing word of an Imperial offer of peace that the Khazadi readily accepted.

## ~ Dramatis Personae ~

### The Primarch’s

* Shaaa Hydrades - IVth Primarch, Lord of the Star Guardians Legion and Overall Commander of the Imperial War Effort during the First Squat War

* Sanguinius - Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion (Also known as the Eaters of the Dead)

### The Star Guardians Legion

* Lord Commander Varinius Rampt - Former Legion master of the IVth Legion

### The Sol Exemplar Legion

* First Captain Uulious Kaezar - Legion Master of the XIIIth Legion, Second in Command of the Imperial War Effort

### Non-Legion personnel

* Legatus Braden Jaxer - Commander of the 12th Solar Auxilia Cohort, General of the Mortal Forces of the 30th Expeditionary Fleet

### The Khazadi Empire

* Miquielle Thorian - High King of the Squat Empire
* Durnan - Warleader of the Squat Empire

## The First Squat War

In M30.850, Shaaa Hydrades, IVth son of the Emperor and Primarch of the as then named Dark Watchers Legion was discovered and reunited with his gene-sons. After a brief period of crusading alongside the Emperor himself, Shaaa and his renamed Star Guardians were unleashed, the 30th Expeditionary Crusade fleet formed around the legion in its entirety while more recruits were trained upon the Ring to bolster the small legion. Alongside the warriors of the IVth were millions of mortal soldiers from the Imperial Army and Mechanicum, and more importantly, a sizeable contingent of  warriors of the VIIIth Legion, the Dusk Wyrms. The 30th Expeditionary Fleet was a force to crack the heavens, and predictably the first four worlds that the fleet encountered fell in hours. The fifth world however would prove to be different, and change not only the IVth Legion for all time, but alter the very fabric of the Imperium itself.

Exiting the warp in this new system, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet was hailed by a small fleet orbiting the systems primary world. Identifying themselves as traders of the Khazadi Empire, they seemed to wish only to talk, but their abhuman, or worse, mutant, nature enraged Shaaa beyond words. As his demands for their complete and utter surrender were ignored, all communications were cut, the fleets moving to a war footing. A nameless scribe recorded the seemingly insignificant event, the date recorded as 4-776.858.M30. The First Squat War had begun.

The Khazadi made range first, firing at the oncoming Imperial vessels with an unknown ion weapon. As shots hammered home, Void Shields flared and dropped with minimal resistance, further shots slamming into the hulls of the vessels, creating an electric charge that drained all power from the ship, leaving all but the mightiest of vessels helpless in the void. Three heavy cruisers suffered this fate as Shaaa pushed his fleet into engagement range, the Khazadi lacking any other weapons to finish the helpless vessels. As the Imperials made range however, it became clear that they did not subscribe to such non-violent methods of removing a foe from their path, macro-shells and lance beams filling the void, Nova Cannon explosions reducing entire ships to little more than expanding balls of plasma. In short order, the Squat fleet was decimated, only a pair of ships escaping, burning their engines at dangerous levels to outrun their aggressors. The way now clear, the Imperial fleet took up positions above the world, preparing for a full scale invasion.

The first to make planetfall were the Dusk Wyrms, warriors of the VIIIth Legion, the first of the Khazadi falling to their bolters as they advanced into the network of subterranean tunnels that served to protect those who lived on the world from the inhospitable surface conditions. Soon they were joined by the Star Guardians, Shaaa personally leading his sons, driving the enemy, now known deeper into their holes, all but immune to even the greatest of the Squats weapons. The death toll rose rapidly on both sides, those human forces left on the surface struggling with the harsh environment, while beneath their feet Astartes fought and died in near total darkness.

Weeks ground into months as the Squats numbers started to take their toll on the Imperium. A devastating counter attack across the surface forced the mortal forces stationed to hold the taken ground to withdraw, dying in droves as they did so, leaving the Primarch and both Legions cut off, the Squats sealing the entrances to the tunnels. An armada, equal in might to the Imperial fleet, appeared soon after, forcing Shaaa’s forces to withdraw, their compliments of marines now planetside making boarding a deadly concept. The 30th knew only defeat in those bitter weeks, a stain on their pride that was never to be expunged.

Now cut off, the Squats set about dividing the Astartes forces left on the world, succeeding in breaking their ranks, but not their resolve. As the Imperials broke through into a transit tunnel leading directly to the capital city of the world, butchering thousands of soldiers destined for the front line, the Squats enacted their final sanction, flooding the tunnels with magma in an attempt to destroy the invaders. Thousands of Astartes perished in the sudden attack, Shaaa himself being engulfed by the molten stream, believed by some to be dead.

And then the Imperium responded in kind. Uulious Kaezar, first Captain of the XIIIth Legion, the Sol Exemplar, arrived in system with a mighty fleet, the 30th Expeditionary Fleet combined with his own forces. On board was the entirety of the Sol Exemplar Legion, elements of the Sable Choir and Eaters of the Dead, and millions more mortal soldiers. Enough warriors to crack a system descended upon 30-5 to reinforce the initial assault. Little resistance was met from the Squats this time, those survivors who had been cut off from the main assault force passing stories of the devastation and the fall of Shaaa. These rumours were put to rest when Uulious broke the last defenders of the Squat city, finding Shaaa deep within the throne room, the world's leader dead in his feet. The Primarch of the IVth was wounded, his armour and weapons close to useless, but he was very much alive, and 30-5 was his. Those who survived the world spread word of his deeds, the Squats coming to hate him above all others, referring to him only as ‘The Beast’.

The battle won, the two forces withdrew to orbit once more, destroying the last vestiges of the squats as they left, but the true extent of the Squat Empire quickly became apparent, recovered details speaking of an empire of dozens upon dozens of worlds, billions of soldiers, all mobilising against the fledgling Imperium. The war of 30-5 may have been the opening salvo in the war, but in truth, it was in the wake of that worlds fall that the war truly began, known to the Khazadi as the War of Lost Cousins.

In the wake of their victory, the Imperium struck again, determined to keep their momentum and overrun their foes. Worlds were soon left lifeless before the Squats managed to muster another true defence, mustering the vast majority of their navy above the lynchpin world of Mareen. Mustering their own fleet, Shaaa Hydrades and Uulious, the designated second in command of the Imperial forces, struck at the world, the largest and most decisive naval battle of the war erupting.

The battle was short but bloody, ships on both sides dying in a matter of moments, the death toll spiralling on each side into the thousands, then tens of thousands, then higher than the casualty estimation servitors on the Imperial ships could recalculate. Spearheading the Imperial boarding actions, Shaaa and his sons took dozens of vessels, the Primarch striking down the admiral himself, before being forced to return to his own flagship to see off an enemy boarding action.

A survivor from 30-5 had launched the audacious attack, identified as Durnan, and demanding blood for the butchering of his world, swearing vengeance against the Beast himself. Onboard the flagship of the IVth, the two crossed hammers, Durnan barely surviving the conflict, escaping with his life to the surface of Mareen as the remnants of the Squat fleet tried desperately to break the Imperials power, throwing their own boarded ships into the warp at random, scattering thousands of Astartes across their empire. It was a valiant effort, but it did not change the fact that the Imperium was victorious in the Battle of Mareen, granting them near total and unrestricted access to the void for the remainder of the conflict.

Uulious was chosen to lead the invasion of Mareen, Shaaa placing a sizable force at his disposal, comprising the vast majority of all present legion forces, save his own sons, as well as a mortal force numbering in the tens of millions. Shaaa himself would lead the effort to further strangle this defencive bastion of the Squat Empire, all evidence pointing to one undeniable fact. While Mareen stood, the Squat Empire would stand, if the world fell, they would not last against the might of the Imperium.

With this in mind, Uulious unleashed his force against Mareen, the Squats responding in kind with everything they could muster. Here the Squats unleashed a new horror of the war; psi-stone weaponry, channelling the power of the warp against their foes in a far more stable way than the battle psykers of the Astartes or Imperial Army. Only the nulls of the Xth could stand before them, heedless of the weapons power that could not find purchase in their soulless bodies. Even here however, the heretech innovation of the Squats found a solution, creating mines that preyed on the psychic null zone their kind emitted. Soon, as on 30-5, the Imperium found themselves bogged down in brutal, close quarters fighting. Again, the hasty modifications to power armour that Shaaa had developed on 30-5 were pressed into use, the Mechanicum no longer able to ignore the development, and drawing up plans that would one day lead to the standardisation of such armours into the Iron Pattern, the third distinct mark of power armour to make its way through the legions.

While Uulious and his warriors fought to break the seemingly unbreakable Squats, Shaaa oversaw the wider war, taking the remaining Imperial force to recover the lost warriors from the Battle of Mareen, and to lay waste to worlds that had bled their own defences dry to bolster the army at Mareen. Worlds burnt with seeming impunity under the gaze of the breacher Lord, Shaaa demonstrating time and time again that he would willingly destroy even non-military targets in the name of victory.

As Agri-Worlds began to fall, the Squat Empire began to contend with a new enemy, one they thought vanquished generations earlier; hunger. Starvation began to spread through the Squat’s empire, millions dying without ever seeing an Astartes or the kiss of war, sending the death toll from the millions of military personnel into the billions, military and non-military alike. Desperate, the Squats began to develop a weapon of terrible power, one they believed would end the war once and for all. Though Uulious led the war on Mareen against Durnan, the Squat never forgot the Beast who had destroyed his world, believing that to kill him would win the war. Using his position as war leader of the Khazadi he poured every available resource into the creation of three battle suits. Known as the Retributor suits, they were designed to destroy the Beast and bring about victory, but their construction was slow, plagued with difficulties and dwindling resources. What was envisioned as a quick solution spilled into years, and other avenues were subtly explored behind Durnan’s back.

A delegation from the Khazadi stole from their empire, travelling into the unknown in search of allies. No Squat vessel had travelled so far beyond the edge of their empire before, but desperate times pushed aside the superstitious warnings in favour of action. Through luck or chance, the delegation was spat from the warp near the recently rediscovered world of Baal, home of Sanguinius, Primarch of the renamed Blood Angels. Though much of his legion was now by his side, rejoicing in their reunification, many also fought beside Uulious as the Sanguinius, unaware of their lords rediscovery.

At first the delegation made to run, or to sell their lives dearly as they quickly recognised the Imperial ships, but as it became clear they would not be fired upon unless they fired first, the Squats relented, gaining an audience with the Imperial Angel himself. There they poured the story of the war as they saw it onto Sanguinius, the Primarch listening in sympathetic silence. He knew of the war, having been preparing to lead his legion to support his brother when the Squat delegation had arrived, but now, as he saw the truth in the words of the delegate, he prepared to set sail for a different purpose. Securing consent for his plan from the Emperor of Mankind himself, Sanguinius and his Blood Angels entered the warp towards the Squat Empire, members of the Crimson Swords and their Rogue Trader allies joining this new and final wave of Imperial Reinforcements.

Unaware of this new force preparing to enter the war, Shaaa and his reformed fleet finally re-appeared above Mareen, gauging that the devastation they had already wrought on the infrastructure of the Empire to be sufficient, and now preparing to aid in the final hammer blow. As landing forces began to make their way from the fleet to the surface, alarms sounded throughout the Star Guardians flagship as a ship docked on the main hangar bay. Using a stolen Stormbird gunship, Durnan and two of his best Hearthguard stepped on to the Luna’s Fall, the Retributor battle suits finally completed and now thrumming with barely contained power. Those Astartes that rushed to meet them stood little chance, crushed beneath the blades of the trio. Even Lord Commander Varinius Rampt, the former Lord of the IVth legion, fell before them, his injuries so great he would later be interred within the shell of a Dreadnought, though he did not fall alone, one of the Retributor suits falling silent thanks to his efforts.

Then Shaaa entered the hangar, Durnan finally getting his wish to face the Beast on equal footing. Hammer crossed with axe, the mechanical might of the two remaining suits against his gene wrought strength. The sides were evenly matched, and though Shaaa felled one of Durnan’s comrades, he could not stop the Squat leader. The fight seemed to last for hours, none able to interfere without being torn apart, both combatants were soon bloodied and all but spent, refusing to give in while their hated rival still drew breath.

And then the hangar was bathed in glorious golden light. Shaaa and Durnan shielded their eyes from the sudden glare, knocked apart as Sanguinius teleported into the hangar, Blood Angels bearing the new Crimson of their legion and Squats flanking him. He brought word of the peace he had been ordered to seek, but neither Shaaa nor Durnan wished to broach that idea. With a roar the pair charged each other once more, but they would never meet in combat again.

Stepping forward, a pair of the Squats raised an ion cannon, a single shot enough to overload the already struggling Retributor suit, sealing Durnan inside the lifeless machine much to the rage of its pilot. For Shaaa however, a more personal touch was required, and one that would shape relations between the IVth and IXth for the rest of time. Sanguinius stepped in front of the charging pair, faster than Shaaa could ever hope to match, delivering a single blow through the Breacher Lords helmet. Shaaa collapsing without a sound as his helmet shattering, damaged beyond repair, rendering the Breacher Lord unconscious. Sanguinius was not proud that his first interaction with his brother had been a violent one, but he stood by his actions.

With Shaaa and Durnan taken away by their warriors for medical treatment, Sanguinius began to arduous task of carrying out the Emperor's orders for peace. While the Squats now desired little else other than an end to the bloodshed that threatened their entire species, many of the Astartes who had fought and bled for victory, their Legions spent close to breaking point, resisted the idea of peace, wishing to finish what they had started and take these worlds for the Imperium of Man as it was, not bend to the whims of a nearly defeated foe. Nevertheless, Sanguinius persevered, laying the groundwork for the treaty to follow, groundwork that would be finalised with the coming of the Emperor of Mankind himself, sealing the pact between the Imperium and the Khazadi.

In recognition of the strength the Khazadi has displayed, their Empire was not merely absorbed into the Imperium as any other would be. Instead an offer was extended to their kind that had only been extended to one other, the red priests of Mars. Signed upon the war wracked surface of the Squats capital world, the Treaty of Mareen recognised a third empire within the Imperium. When he regained consciousness, this new development was presented to the war leader of the Khazadi, many calling for Durnan to now go beyond a mere war leader and ascend to become the new High King. Instead, Durnan spat on the treaty, and those who had signed it, vowing that peace with the Imperium would never be something he counternanced. Within hours, Durnan had disappeared from the Squat Empire, not to be seen again until the dark days of the Almire Apostasy.

When he finally awoke more than a week after the peace had been signed, Shaaa’s vengeful roar reportedly echoed throughout the ship for days, resonating with his sons for the rest of time. The IVth would never truly forgive the Squats, seeing them as a stain on their honour for as long as they lived, but it was the Blood Angels who held the greatest enmity for the Star Guardians, their lord held in the highest levels of contempt above any other.

And so, the First Squat War or the War of Lost Cousins came to an end, the newly renamed Astra Khazadi standing beside their long lost brethren throughout the Great Crusade, and into the dark times beyond.