Kilandros Crusade

Armorial of the Iron Spears Chapter.

The **Kilandros Crusade** was a massive Imperial xenocidal castigation campaign undertaken by numerous Imperial forces taken from across the Galaxy against invading forces of the massive Ork WAAAGH! Primork.

## Background

In the 2nd Century of the 41st Millennium, the Mad Skullz Orks of the planet Kilandros and surrounding systems formed into WAAAGH! Golrag. In the early months of WAAAGH! Golrag an Ork of titanic size known only as *the Primork* supplanted Golrag as Warboss. *The Primork* rapidly expanded the WAAAGH! by uniting hundreds of Ork Klans and invading at least ten Sectors of Imperial space. WAAAGH! Primork soon grew to become the greatest Ork threat to the Empire since the War of the Beast.

By 271.M41 the Imperium had finally mobilized to combat the threat. The Imperial Coalition consisted of countless Imperial Guard Regiments, numerous Battlefleets of the Imperial Navy, five Titan Legions, several Preceptories of the Sisters of Battle, and Astartes from twenty-one Chapters; the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, Space Wolves, Salamanders, Black Templars, Storm Wardens, Blood Ravens, Iron Spears, Charnel Brethren, Angels of Salvation, Death Templars, Mordekaisers, Holy Hospitallers, Sons of Odin, Mortiferous Shades, Knights of Guilliman, Penitent Knights, Astral Paladins, Steel Crusaders, Storm Riders, and the Corvus Legion.

Imperial efforts to drive off the Ork threat became known as the **Kilandros Crusade**. It would take fifteen years for the forces of the Kilandros Crusade to liberate all ten Sectors plagued by WAAAGH! Primork. It would take a half-a-decade for the Imperium to liberate all ten Sectors plagued by WAAAGH! Primork. When the Imperium finally launch an assault on WAAAGH! Primork's "capital world" of Kilandros, they discovered that the Orks were attempting to convert their homeworld's moon into a mobile fortress they dubbed 'Da Great Rok'. The Orks planed to use 'Da Great Rok' as the flagship that would lead WAAAGH! Primork in an assault on Terra itself. With the ten years the Imperium had spent cleansing world attacked by WAAAGH! Primork, the Mad Skullz had nearly completed their "battle station".

The Primork himself was present during the Battle of Kilandros, leading the Orks against the Imperium. Despite the efforts of the Imperium's greatest heroes, the Primork could not be slain. Though while Imperial forces failed in their initial plan to disable the thrust system using meltabombs, the Astartes of the Mortiferous Shades and the Corvus Legion managed to gain control of the area around the primary power generator and rigged it with manually activated incendiary devices. The Imperial forces were ordered to withdraw so that the power generator may be detonated. By then however, many Iron Spears and Charnel Brethren Marines had fallen victim to the Red Thirst, ignoring the order to withdraw and instead focused on personally slaughtering every Ork present, inspiring the Death Templars and Sons of Odin to do the same. It was left to the more "level-headed" Chapters such as the Angels of Salvation and Holy Hospitallers to successfully reign in the frenzied Iron Spears and forcibly remove them from the battlefield. It was through this that the Angels of Salvation earned the respect of the Iron Spears, something that could not be said for many sons of the Lion.

Chieftain Thoore of the Iron Spears, having had his honor stained in a previous engagement, elected to stay behind with the detonator alongside roughly half of the Iron Spears' 2nd Clan-Company while the other Imperial forces withdrew from the doomed planetoid. The destruction of the primary power generator not only successfully destroyed "Da Great Roks" machinery, but also created massive tectonic upheavals that killed all the Orks on the planetoid. Not only did the 2nd Clan-Company ensure the Moon was destroyed, they ensured that the Primork perished alongside his kindred.

Despite their victory, the Imperium was once again unable to eliminate the Ork presence on Kilandros and the surrounding systems. The Imperium once again turned to conducting periodic raids in order to limit the Ork population and prevent further Ork expansion.