Fall of Aidac Prime

Armorial of the Argent Eagles.

The **Fall of Aidac Prime** was an Imperial castigation campaign conducted by the Argent Eagles Space Marine Chapter as a part of the much larger Imperial Crusade known as the Crusade of the Claws.

## Background

It was at this point that the Unnamed began to withdraw their forces from most of the system's planets, leaving some almost entirely without defense and completely abandoning others. The strategy of the Unnamed continued to puzzle the Crusade's leadership and led to wild speculations as to what their goals could be. They should have anticipated that the Argent Eagles would retaliate and bring imperial forces to retake the lost system, they should have known to prepare for the war they had provoked. And yet at no point had there been an attempt to turn the tide, to enact a counterattack or to bring the fight to the Eagles. Defense and retreat were all they seemed capable of. As more and more of the worlds were left behind by the traitor forces the Crusade began to split up into smaller strikeforces to gradually secure and liberate them. However once more the highest echelons of the imperial command, especially those of the Chapter's Argent Priesthood and Dawnsayer Librarius, found themselves wondering the true nature of their foe. Nowhere on any of the worlds on which the imperial forces set foot did they encounter chaotic corruption or other indications of daemonic energies. There was no doubt that the Unnamed served the ruinous powers, the few markings they bore on their armor were unmistakably of dark origin and their thaumaturgic rituals and sorceries could only be attributed to the works of the archenemy. Even so, the liberated worlds seemed free of the Warp's taint.

Eventually all of the remaining traitor forces had gathered on the last two remaining worlds that still suffered under the yoke of the Unnamed and their machinations. The Hive-World of Aidac Prime and the capital fortress world of Surtar. When the main strikeforce consisting of 612 Astartes and an estimated six Million Guardsmen reached the planet of Aidac Prime they were met by a terrible trap laid by the Unnamed. The captured Commanders of the Chaos Space Marines who were spread out across the fleet, held in highly secure confinement chambers, suddenly burst open with warp energies which pulled the imperial void vessels towards the planet's surface until they had entered into its lower orbit. The strange rituals performed at Colvrin had the purpose of ensuring that the Eagles would capture future Marine Commanders of the Unnamed instead of killing them outright. Now their carefully laid trap had sprung. Alarmed, the fleet attempted to put distance between themselves and Aidac Prime but were met with a sudden barrier that had encompassed the planet like a bubble made up of sheer warp energy, similar to the phenomenon of a warp storm. The Strikeforce found itself trapped. It was then that Chapter Master Urikles made the decision to descend onto the planet and destroy the barrier at its vile source, so that the remaining fleet elements of the Crusade who were still en-route from other worlds in the system could reinforce them.

Fears of orbital Defence Lasers attacking the fleet were seemingly unfounded, though the landing of the imperial forces was met with fierce resistance as the Crusade's troop transports carrying their ground forces were relentlessly bombarded and fired upon during their efforts to establish a base of operations in the rocky hillsides near the Hive-City of Medrun. This location was the only trace of civilization still standing as all other cities and industrial complexes had been reduced to rubble by its malevolent occupiers for unknown reasons. Wherever the sorcerers who had created the warp barrier where hiding, it was certain to be somewhere in Medrun Hive. But now the Unnamed were the ones taking the initiative as a great army of turncoat soldiers, cultists and mutated beasts led by Heretic Astartes was advancing on the rudimentary defensive perimeter established by the beleaguered Crusade force.

What followed was a horrendous battle fought in narrow valleys, upon rocky cliffs and in burning skies. Guard and Astartes warmachines and aerial attack crafts faced off against the chaotic armies in apocalyptic engagements as firefights and melee brawls broke out on a battlefield of herculean scale. At the same time fleet elements of the Unnamed who had not been present at Colvrin emerged to assail the trapped Crusade ships in orbit which were still supplying their allies struggling on the ground.

It was during these bloody days that the Argent Eagles learned the might and perseverance of the Astra Millitarum and the Imperial Navy first-hand. Without these brave men and women the Astartes of the silver city would have surely met their end in fire. Standing on the titanic shoulders of their mortal comrades the Argent Eagles once more carried out their precise decapitation tactics to weaken the enemy by collapsing their command structure and led valiant counterattacks deep into the formations of their foe, dividing them and defeating each separated force in detail. In the Void similar courses of action brought about Victory by the narrowest of margins, the marvelous swordskills and close quarters mastery of the Chapter's warriors brushing off any attempt by the enemy to board their vessels. After one week of horrid battle Medrun Hive was finally breached and the foul sorcerers sitting at its heart were found. When confronted by Dawnlord Miseus Ahro Dyfeion and his Dawnsayers a brief duel of the minds occurred that shook the vast ritual hall in which they stood with psykic power.

In the end the dark sorcerers managed to flee using their warpcraft, though Dawnlord Miseus could divine that they had escaped to Surtar, where the Unnamed would present their last stand. The battle of Aidac Prime had cost the Crusade's army dearly. Of the initial 6 million Guardsmen, 4 million lay dead. The Imperial Navy had lost almost half of their void vessels and of the 612 Astartes that had fought in both the planet's mud and the coldness of space, 300 had met their duty's end. Fortunately the Chapter Fleet still retained five mighty Battle Barges in servicable condition, albeit much of the human crew had been killed. Roughly 792 Space Marines had left Auroria seeking Justice. Only 392 remained. When including the Battle-Brothers who stayed protecting the Fortress Monastery the Chapter now numbered only around 500 Space Marines. Over half of their brethren had been consumed by this cursed conflict. Even so, they would see it to the end.

With the chaotic barrier lifted, the Crusade forces reunited and the planet of Aidac Prime in utter ruin, it was time to end the war for the worlds of Surtar once and for all.