Marr Crusade

Armorial of the Gray Hussars Chapter.

The **Marr Crusade** was a joint Imperial xenocidal crusade against ravaging Orks upon the world of Marr, spearheaded by the Gray Hussars Space Marine Chapter.

## Background

The planet of Marr was a marshal civilized world home to a hearty loyal civilization of humans located in the center of the Saras sector. Compared to the most famous worlds that produce the finest Guard Regiments like Cadia, Krieg, Armeggedon, etc. this world is a blimp and insignificant. To the Saras sector, it was an invaluable source of capable Guardsman to fight off the threats to the sector. Their regiments garrison a hundred worlds across the sector. The world was guarded by an Imperial Navy Squadron based from a defense platform, Noctic Eternus, along with hundreds of millions of Planetary Defense Force Soldiers, well equipped by the local forge worlds on top of local production of arms and equipment. For this, they became the destination of a mass fleet of Ork attack rocks. Coming into the system, the rocks looked like ghosts to the Imperial Navy, running silent, only moving by their momentum to drift towards the planet. When it was too late for any response the Orks with surprising coordination sparked their engines towards the planet's surface. The Imperial Navy tried to react, but as Ork rocks smashed into the orbiting space station the platform's orbit was destabilized to be pulled into the planet's gravity with the Orks. The surface forces were alarmed by the sudden assault.

The forces of Marr mobilized to quarter strength in only an hour when the Space state, Noctic Eternus, and hundreds of Ork Rocks smashed into the planet. Noctic Eternus crashed into the southern Continent, Nervia, causing a massive earthquake breaking cities and scarring the lands in and around the crash sight. The Ork Rocks crashed across all continents by the dozens. The orbital defense guns fired to no avail to break them as they descended. The Marrians quickly went to total moblization as millions of Orks sprang from the rocks and started their rampage. The Marr Regiments and PDF forces managed to contain many of the Ork rocks, some even being slaughtered upon crashing. Many rocks were completely destroyed by mass artillery bombardment that would last for months at a time. It would only be after the first year when the planet failed to send its tithe that the sector command would take notice, that guard regiments weren't being sent out from Marr. Inquisitor Quintarous of the Ordo Xenos would take on the personal task of investigating after the Ork pest would become less frequent across the entire sector he had a feeling something went wrong besides missing a quota. Translating into the system Inquisitor Quintarous would quickly discover the invasion that had turned into a massive war of attrition on Marr. By that time the Orks had already taken the continent Nervia and eleven million combatants were slaughtered, and untold millions of civilians dead.

The Inquisitor would report this at a council called at Port Vistus in the Saras Sector. Attending this meeting would be Grand Master Halious von Sturmwalden who proposed a Crusade to retake Marr from the Orks. Inquisitor Quintarous would call on some favors in the Deathwatch, Imperial Guard and Mechanicus to muster a massive force. The Gray Hussars brought House Otartus, a Knight House in alliance with the Gray Hussars, along with the Entirety of the Shield-Order and 3rd Division to the campaign. Battlefleet Saras would secure the void around Marr, only mopping up a few Ork craft coming to join the massive WAAAGH on the planet's surface. The Grand Master Sturmwalden would study the becoming demoralized command staff and the average Soldier was at the end of their will to fight on. The Grand Master would strike first blood in the Marr Crusade. Using his 8th Brigade to drop pod assault onto the surface in an overrun spaceport on the Western Coast of Nervia. Quickly securing the Space Force with minimal casualties of Knights allowed for the safe landing of Imperial Forces at the heart of the Ork Forces on the surface. The Marr forces heard whispers of Astartes reinforcements riding across the continent of Nervia slaughtering the Ork menace. The propaganda used to its maximum reinvigorated the spirits of the defenders back to their original cultural standing.

The 558th Armageddon Steel Legion would land alongside Deathwatch, Knights, and even a portion of a Mechanicus Titan legion landing in force. The Crusade would have many successes as they pushed into the continent while the Marrians would commence unsustainable assaults. Each battle made the Crusading forces more complacent, wondering how easy it was. That would be until they came upon the center of the Continent highway network at the city of Kelm. The Ork warboss the Imperial never knew the location or even name of would encounter his organizational skills on the battlefield, that the Imperials wouldn't expect. The Gray Hussars rode to the gates of the dead city, turned to rubble by months of war beforehand.

The 9th Brigade would lead the infiltration of the city. The Marshall-Knight August von Hiltous would lead his assault Marines too deep into the city, falling into a laid trap by the Warboss Drekan Gushka his Orks would surround the Assault Marines with twelve thousand Orks focused purely on the annihilation of the 9th Brigade. The Gray Hussars fought with the fury of their Primarch, but many would fall before the Knights and Guard Forces would catch up to their Astartes allies. In a vain attempt to rescue the 9th Brigade from total slaughter the Steel Legion and Knights would charge into the city, meeting the Orks placed between them the Gray Hussars their pace was nearly halted, slowing to crawl of a pace. Until city blocks were levelled by mass bombardment, often killing their own men as much as the Orks did the first Knight charge into the Orks enveloping the forty remaining Astartes of the ninety-seven that entered the city. Marshall-Knight August von Hiltous was slain in combat with a massive Ork suspected to be the Warboss himself.

The Gray Hussars received word of the trap the 9th Brigade had fallen into over the Vox communications from their Steel Legion allies. Grand Master Sturmwalden ordered the 8th Brigade in orbit to drop pod assault into the city to relieve their brothers. The Knights of House Otartus would encounter Ork Titans they dueled between the wrecked streets, while Guardsman was crushed under the weight of the massive war engines. The 8th Brigade smashed into battle in full force, as more Orks would crawl out of the sewers and under levels of the city itself. Knights began to fall and the Steel Legion was unable to keep their holdings in the city proper. The 8th Brigade did temporarily manage to break the assault upon the 9th Brigade, managing to retrieve their gene-seed and armor and evacuate on Thunderhawks.

The Emperor's Champion commanding the 8th Brigade would reluctantly order the retreat from Kelm in a fighting withdrawal until they were completely pushed from the city limits. The Orks pressed their advantage, commencing in mass charges, breaking upon the wall of fire from the Steel Legion. Grand Master Sturmwalden would order his fleet in orbit, including the Emperor's Saber, Battle-Barge fortress monastery to bombard the city until it was nothing but ash. It was the first major humiliating defeat in the Marr Crusade. After analyzing the casualties of the 9th Brigade and 3rd Division as a whole with a single order Grand Master Sturmwalden would order the retreat to rebuild and return when his chapter was ready again. Inquisitor Quintarous would berate the chapter as cowards as he was left without the support of an Astartes Chapter and worse, House Otartus left with the Gray Hussars. The Marrians were brought completely under the indirect rule of Inquisitor Quintarous commanding the forces as the situation deteriorated. More lands would fall to the Orks, slowly as years drew on until forty-three percent of the planet would fall and his requests for reinforcements would be met with silence.

The Orks were repopulating and the human defenders were barely able to mobilize more than seven million soldiers as the Mechanicus reduced their equipment supply to the planetary defenders due to many of their ships being shot down when landing. It would be 847.M41 when the Orks would commence a massive coordinated onslaught, hitting every segment of the Imperial lines, breaking them and rushing towards the cities behind the lines. It would be at this time that a fleet bearing familiar markings would be led by the Astartes Battle-Barge, the Emperor's Saber. The Gray Hussars 1st, 2nd, 3rd Divisions and the Shield-Order would return to this world to reclaim the honor of the Chapter. Only the 4th Division didn't participate so as not to reveal them being oversized Chapter of Astartes defying the Codex Astartes edicts. The chapter would strike hard when the guard was about to be overrun, at a Mountain pass is the only one leading to the capital of the world Ingarn, the Lushen Pass. The Ork tribe would be cut down by a mass Drop Pod Assault of the 2nd, 5th and 8th Brigades.

Taken by surprise, twenty thousand Orks were slaughtered in a matter of hours, while the wrathful Gray Hussars suffered less than three deaths. The Shield-Order would land and take the place of the PDF forces defending the pass. Grand Master Sturmwalden would stand with his elite Honor Guard over the pass while the Divisions would scatter in three main Armies around each Division themselves. The Gray Hussars would choose a strategy of indirect assaults, choosing to annihilate individual Ork warbands, tribes and clans with overwhelming force, cutting down the numbers of the masses of Green skins. The Astartes fleet wouldn't hold back in orbital bombardments of the planet's surface, targeting larger Ork gathering, but would seem to be to no avail as the numbers of Green Skins were far too many to save the world through conventional means.

Grand Master Sturmwalden would plead to Inquisitor Quintarous to begin evacuation which the aging Inquisitor would refuse, believing in ultimate victory, even threatening to reveal the Gray Hussars being heretics who betrayed the Codex Astartes and the Imperium by retreating. The Deathwatch team that had been fighting for years on end agreed with the Chapter Master, convincing the Grand Master to prepare his fleet for exterminatus. The Grand Master would commit his forces to the evacuation process. Convincing Rogue Traders, the Merchant Fleets and Imperial Navy assets to evacuate the civilian populous to Gray Hussar recruitment worlds across the Saras Sector, escorted by a single Vanguard Light-Cruiser or Strike Cruiser from the chapter.

Before the last transport had left at the cusp of 848.M41 the Orks would attempt another Assault upon the Lushen Pass defended by the Shield-Order they stood silent as snow began to fall, camouflaging them to the terrain in their Gray painted war-plate. With the Orks approaching with the war cries common to the Green skins. The silent statue of the Veteran Astartes forced the Green skins to halt, trying to goad the Shield-Order into a fight. They would not move. The Green Skin's warboss, Drekan Gushka would come to the front and instigate the charge, him towering over all the other Orks. The Veteran-Knights of the Shield-Order raised their shields budded in a phalanx of overlapping shields and drew their Powerswords. The Orks would break upon the Astartes shields like a tidal wave, the Veterans not breaking would stun the Orks and begin cutting them down as they dare came within the swiping range of the Powerswords. The Ork Warboss Drekan Gushka would engage Grand Master Sturmwalden on a ridge overlooking the pass.

The massive Ork attempted to swipe with his massive axe. The Grand Master would vaporize the knee of massive Ork with a shot of his plasma pistol and bring it down to be decapitated with one swipe from his Powersword. The battle would last for many more hours, in that time not one Veteran would fall while the Orks lost untold thousands. Without the warboss, the Orks were disorganized but more dangerous than ever as they turned feral and tribalism again. Orks began random assaults across the now skeletal defense of the planet. Sixty Percent of the populous and ninety percent of the human defenders had evacuated, while the Gray Hussars distract the Orks with their rapid raids all across the continents. At this point, Grand Master Sturmwalden ordered the final evacuation of his brothers and anyone else that can be taken off-world. Their own vessels are the only ships in systems to take more refugees.

The Deathwatch would say their farewell to their Inquisitor leaving him to his demented ramblings as madness took him in the towers of Ingarn when the Orks would reach the gates of the city, only the most stubborn of defenders remained when Grand Master Sturmwalden would reluctantly order the exterminatus of Marr. The shell of a Cyclonic Torpedo would fall to the surface, igniting the atmosphere and destroying the Imperial World. Billions of Orks would be disintegrated and the eighty-three million humans left on the surface would perish. Marr was now no more than a lifeless husk. The order would haunt the mind of the first Grand Master of the Gray Hussars, believing they might have been able to possibly save the world if only they brought more allies and fought harder. He would never know if they could have won the war for Marr. Inquisitor Lycander of the Ordo Hereticus would investigate the Chapter but abruptly halt with the testimony of alone Deathwatch Captain who wouldn't be named in official records.

Inquisitor Quintarous would be labelled missing as his ship would be sent into the warp, never to be seen again. The refugees of Marr would settle on civilized and Agri-Worlds across the Saras Sector on the direction of Grand Master Sturmwalden. Many tens of thousands of former Marr citizens would be made into Chapter Serfs of the Gray Hussars. Living comfortable lives and many even becoming battle-brothers of the chapter in the decades and centuries to come.