User:Montonius/Sandbox - Collapse of Vigilus Command: The first Space Marines to make planetfall on Vigilus were the Iron Hands and their Successor Chapter,the Brazen Claws. Their intent was to drive back the Orks assaulting the hivesprawls, but they soon foundthemselves fighting for their lives against an unexpected foe.The Iron Hands and their allies in Battlegroup Gauntlet translated into the Vigilus System without interception. They had calculated their approach through the beleaguered star systems of the Imperium Nihilus with great care; it is a testament to their metamathic skill and attention to detail that they arrived on target despite the massive disruption the Great Rift had caused to the star systems nearby.The vast mechanical cathedrums of the Iron Hands fleet burst into realspace in an eddying cloud of stardust. Within solar minutes of translation from the Empyrean, they had targeting solutions for each of the Ork vessels that still hung in orbit between them and the planet.Those were few and far between, for the vast majority of xenos had made haste planetside, leaving little behind to guard their rear. The Orks had, in all likelihood, assumed their conquest would be over quickly, but the Bastion-class force fields had frustrated them. Now, they were over-committed and their prey had been able to summon reinforcements. It was an elementary mistake, and one for which the leader of the Iron Council and de facto Chapter Master of the Iron Hands, the Iron Father Kardan Stronos, resolved to make the Orks pay dearly.The Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers of the Space Marine fleet quickly made orbit above each of the major hivesprawls, the Adeptus Astartes within filling the Drop Pod launch bays before hurtling through the atmosphere towards the battles below.Many more were to descend to the planet via Thunderhawk or bulk lander. They made for the most war-torn areas, usually around the fringes of each metropolitan zone, where the Orks were attacking in force. But in many of these areas they encountered no Ork presence whatsoever. In the Megaborealis hivesprawl, they found themselves beset by a different breed of xenos altogether.Since the uprising of the Pauper Princes, the planet's defenders had found themselves actually fighting two wars. The Aquilarian Council had despatched what resources it could spare from Hyperia, hoping to swiftly restore order within Megaborealis -- where a hive spire had been toppled by long-range fire and fallen across the force field border, making a bridge into the hive's interior for opportunist Ork attacks.Meanwhile, Adeptus Arbites and Adepta Sororitas patrols that ventured into territory claimed by the Genestealer Cult were swiftly ambushed. Those in transports were stranded amongst a maze of tank traps and barbed wire choked with the corpses of those who had gone before.On three separate occasions Astra Militarum armoured columns, bullying their way through the rubble of the streets with Dozer Blades and spadeshovels, took alternative routes when the going got too tough. They toppled into sink-holes and hidden subterranean chasms as the ground gave way beneath their cumulative weight. Those that managed to survive the fall were hunted by the horrible, half-glimpsed mutants that haunted the lower levels.Refugee convoys made for zones as yet untouched by the Ork assault, thinking themselves safe. Much of Vigilus' air support was focused on the movements of the Greenskin tribes, and confining them where necessary with punitive strafing runs. The Ork Speed Freek formations were easily discerned, for they left long trails of dust in thewastelands -- many were heading straight for the landing sites of the incoming Space Marine drop forces, where the fighting was fiercest.By avoiding these tell-tale trails, Imperial strike forces were able to evacuate high-level personnel from those areas of the hive city where law and order still reigned. However, the Genestealer presence was much harder to identify, and attempting to perform relief and evacuation operations in regions infested by the xenos insurgents was akin to diving head first into a nest of vipers.In the space of only a few solar days, the dual threat of Ork and Genestealer Cult had torn apart the Vigilus command structure.By this time, a taskforce of Space Wolves under the command of the Wolf Guard Haldor Icepelt had arrived on Vigilus several solar months after the Iron Hands and set about cleansing Oteck Hivesprawl of xenos infestation. The Space Wolves rarely communicated with the Iron Hands, and like the rest of the Space Marines did not even bother to send representatives to speak with Vigilus' increasingly ineffective ruling council.