Vervunhive - Battle of Vervunhive: Verghast was a major producer of materiel for the Imperial Crusade underway in the Sabbat Worlds Sector, and it was drawn into that Crusade directly when it was attacked during an attempt to conquer the world by the Forces of Chaos in the sector. At first, the people of Vervunhive thought they were under assault by the rival hive of Ferrozoica in a replay of the "Trade War" that had scarred relations between the two Verghastian hive cities 90 standard years earlier. However, when Commissar Kowle led a Vervunhive armoured division out to meet the forces of "Zoica" it became clear that this was no conventional assault; the Zoican army massed in the millions, as its entire population had been corrupted by Chaos and transformed into fanatical Chaos Cultists. In comparison, Vervunhive could muster about 500,000 Planetary Defence Force troopers out of a population of over 40,000,000 people. What made the force imbalance even more frightening was that the hive city Ferrozoica was approximately only two-thirds the size of Vervunhive. The Ruinous Powers had sunk their fangs deep into every man, woman and child in Ferrozoica.After receiving Vervunhive's request for assistance in facing the Zoican assault, the Imperial Crusade in the Sabbat Worlds Sector dispatched the Tanith First and Only Regiment of the Imperial Guard to aid the hive city's defense, as it was not known at the time that the Zoican forces were servants of the Ruinous Powers. The Tanith First and Only took up defensive positions on the southern side of the hive, manning the walls alongside the Vervunhive Scratch Companies and paying particular attention to the city's main access points, including the Verveyr Rail Gate and a heavily-polluted area outside the city's defensive walls called the Spoil. Early in the deployment, the Tanith Regiment witnessed the massive explosive flashes of the thermonuclear detonations that the Zoicans unleashed against Vannick Hive, which reduced the massive Hive City to a radioactive scrap pile. Vervunhive was protected from artillery bombardment by a powerful Void Shield that was projected over the top of the hive from a pylon in the dead center of its spired structure, but the garrison was under constant assault by Zoican soldiers in heavy infantry armour and a powerful force of Zoican main battle tanks.However, the corrupted High Master Salvadore Sondar of Vervunhive, following orders from the Chaos Warlord, the Heritor Asphodel, who was the commander of the Zoican forces, deliberately lowered the Void Shield at a crucial moment to allow the Zoicans to unleash a full bombardment. Much of the hive city was destroyed in the devastating barrage until a desperate strike force led by Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the commander of the Tanith First and Only, managed to infiltrate the High Master's quarters and bring the void shield back online. Gaunt then led another strike force composed of the Vervunhive irregular Scratch Companies, the Tanith First and Only and troops of the Volpone Bluebloods into the massive armoured assault crawler that served as the Heritor Asphodel's mobile headquarters and destroyed it, after Colonel-Commissar Gaunt engaged and killed the Chaos Warlord in single combat. With their leader dead, the Zoican forces soon became disoriented and their assault was turned back.Shortly after this victory, Warmaster Macaroth, the Lord Commander leading the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, ordered massive reinforcements to be sent to the planet once the Imperial Guard forces there reported the sheer strength of the Forces of Chaos present there. The new forces sent to Verghast included 6,000,000 Imperial Guardsmen, 500,000 main battle tanks, 3 companies from both the Iron Snakes and Imperial Fists Space Marine Chapters and 2 Titan Legions. This overwhelming show of Imperial force proved adequate to exterminating every last remaining Zoican cultist on the planet and Verghast was declared free of Chaotic taint. The Warmaster next issued an edict known as the Act of Consolation which provided Imperial support for the construction of new hive cities to replace Vannick Hive and the ruins of Vervunhive which also allowed the civilians of Verghast to join Imperial Guard Regiments without going through the standard tithing process if they desired. Many of the survivors of Vervunhive who had served in the Scratch Companies alongside the Tanith First and Only willingly joined that regiment.