Cryptosi Purgation

The Cryptosi Purgation was a compliance campaign during the Great Crusade fought by the Red Eyes. Occurring far into the Great Crusade, the Cryptosi Purgation was the pinnacle of the efficient brutality of the Red Eyes, not as mindless butchers but as necessary purges. The Kanzuz System is located on the northern edge of Segmentum Obscurus, home of a far away human colony that had become isolated early in the Dark Age of Technology. As the first Imperial contact with that region of space and with little reconnaissance available, the Red Eyes gathered considerable strength for a long campaign north. Not only did they bring several Chapters and their closest Imperial Army regiments the Aumet Revolutionary Army, they also arranged for Knight and Titan support to accompany them, from Legio Defensor and House Caraxes.

## **The Campaign**

The first worlds they came across, labelled Kanzuz I, was a desolate world, with signs of the human civilisation having been destroyed. The following worlds were equally bleak, with more signs of a cataclysm having occurred. However, on the world of Kanzuz IX, a barren rocky world, the Red Eyes found the remains of the empire of Kanzuz. The human population were living in the ruins of their largest hive city, the outskirts abandoned and crumbled due to neglect. Early signs showed that the humans had little in terms of weaponry or defences, with the essential life support systems barely being operational.

The Red Eyes did not receive a warm welcome, with the populace of Kanzuz IX being skittish and fearful of the Astartes, but the Red Eyes were used to this reaction. The humans had no army to speak of, and so there seemed that this would prove to be a peaceful compliance. The one puzzling thing was how the humans were keeping the life support systems going after all this time, when everything else on the world seemed to have collapsed.

However, the Red Eyes’ scouts alerted Theoderaf to a deep series of tunnels beneath the cities, not revealed by the local governors to the Red eyes in their discussions. Theoderaf sent the Decapitation Squads to infiltrate the tunnels with teleport homers and find out their secrets. They discovered mysterious green clouds of gas, but when they were spotted the humans turned extremely violent, clawing at the Astartes with their bare hands. The Decapitation Squads tried to escape to the surface, but the humans flooded into the tunnels and blocked their escape with sheer weight of numbers. The remainder of the squads managed to teleport out, though several Astartes died through teleporting into the rocks.

Theoderaf tolerated no defiance, and the accounts of the surviving Decapitation Squads indicated xenos involvement. The Red Eyes teleported straight into the government buildings of the capital city, slaughtering all there as the humans infected by the gas poured towards the centre in an attempt to block the Red Eyes. Theoderaf led the assault in person, with House Caraxes taking part as the rearguard whilst the Red Eyes stormed the tunnels. In the close quarters of the tunnels, the humans’ numbers meant nothing as the Red Eyes tore their way through any who stood in their way. The march was a gruesome and bloody sight, severed body parts trampled underfoot and blood covering the walls and flowing down the tunnels in rivers. The Red Eyes eventually reached the bottom, using their flamers and grenades to destroy the caverns, and then retreated and used heavy ordnance to utterly destroy the tunnel. The Red Eyes rounded up the surviving humans, those who had not participated in the assault on the Red Eyes and the survivors of the massacres who had now returned to normal, and resettled them to Kanzuz VII after intensive interrogations and testings.

## **Aftermath**

The Kanzuz System was rendered compliant, the Red Eyes moved onward to the next system, and the mysterious xenos had disappeared. Whilst some of the more peaceful Primarchs were disgusted by the slaughter, all accepted that the purge of the xenos was necessary and effective.