Battle of Lathurn

Armorial of the Asturyan Wardens

The **Battle of Lathurn** was a massive joint-Imperial defensive campaign to defend the vitally important armoury world of Lathurn from the menace of the invading WAAAGH! Mahgnokk. This campaign was spearheaded by the Asturyan Wardens Space Marine Chapter, alongside Imperial Navy forces from various local battlefleets and an Astra Militarum regiment from the Death Korps of Krieg.

## Background

Lathurn was an armory world near the Mandragoran Stars, in the Segmentum Tempestus. A rocky world, Lathurn provided the Imperium a safe haven for depositing war material. Relatively peaceful, it had a small garrison for an armory world.

By 689.M41 everything changed. Suddenly a massive Ork WAAAGH! under the command of Warboss Mahgnokk assaulted the world, with the intention of arming the millions of orks with a vast array of sophisticated Imperial weapons. The objective was to use those weapons to bring war to the entire Segmentum Tempestus. The Imperium response was to deploy most of Battlefleet Reductus along portions of Battlefleet Tempestus and Battlefleet Forsarr. Under overall command of the entire operation was the young promissing Lord Warden Pharmenyon, commander of the 3rd Company, with the whole Asturyan Warden fleet with him. The mission was to defend the world with the help of the local garrison. The Imperial Guard regiments of Krieg were being called forth, however they would take some time before being combat available to the cause.

When the forces of the Imperium arrived, they were saddened to discover that the planet had already fallen, due to the incopetent leadership of the Planetary Governor, now dead. The situation wasn't any good for the Imperium, for the Ork WAAAGH! was already looting the weapons. Without a moment's notice, Pharmenyon launched various hit and run attacks with the Chapter's fleet on the larger Ork fleet, while the Imperial Navy was hidden behind the planet's dead moon. The Orks, finally having a serious foe, followed the Asturyan Warden's fleet with most of their own fleet, tactically blinded by their war lust.

Finally, when the Orks reached the dark side of the moon, the Imperial Navy ambushed the unprepared foe. The ambush had worked, and the larger enemy fleet was no match for the colossal battleships of both the Imperial Navy and the Adeptus Astartes. Soon enought most of the xenos fleet was all but wreckage and space debris. It was time to clear to remaining Ork ships in Lathurn. Despite their fierce nature, the remaining Ork ships were simply not enought to deal with the mighty Imperial fleet. However, even with the space battle won, the planet was still controled by millions of Ork, and Mahgnokk was still alive and in command. A standstill had begun.

The Imperial command was divided. Most Imperial Navy officers proposed the land assualt by the arriving Krieg regiments under the cover of their ships. The Adeptus Astartes were unconvinced. Pharmenyon knew that those many Orks with those many weapons would be a very costy mission for the Imperium, with no gains. The population was all dead, the world was simply isolated and with no natural resources of any importance. The future battle would simply bring thousands of good Imperial Guard soldiers to die for an unecessary world, with no current importance. He knew the weapons they were trying to rescue would be worn out and depleted by the time they would be taking the planet, and the already damaged infrastructure would be all but destroyed. The Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard officers were unable to think this far as Pharmenyon did.

News from the Segmentum Command arrived. The Chaos Space Marines of the World Eaters were wreacking havoc and destruction in the entire Segmentum Tempestus. The Battle for Lathurn needed to end quicky in order to face this new threat. Pharmenyon saw only one option. Exterminatus. With the Council of Lords approval, the exterminatus took place. Millions of Orks burned in the holy fire of the Imperial Navy and Adeptus Astartes. By the grace of the Emperor however, in the end it was found that one bunker arsenal hadn't been destroyed nor pillaged. Pharmenyon personally lead a strike team to the arsenal's front door. It was discovered that that ordnance depot belonged to the Adeptus Mechanicus, and that 30% of the planet's entire arsenal was being held there.

Finally, the Segmentum Command declared the Battle of Lathurn a decisive victory for the Imperium. Few ships were destroyed, a planet was decimated and now the Imperium had a dead rocky world on their hands. Regardless, there were very few Imperial casualties throughout the operation (considering the millions of enemy Orks), a potencial larger threat was ended infant, almost 1/3 rd of the weapons were recovered (which happened to be the most advanced of those stored on the planet), and the arrayed forces were immediately ready to be deployed to fight the new World Eaters threat.

Lord Warden Pharmenyon was declared a hero by the Asturyan Wardens. He was awarded the rank of Master of the Fleet by Grand Master Askhanyus, and was personally commended by the Lord High Admiral of the Segmentum Tempestus for his astonishing void combat skills, surpassing even Space Marine standards.