Battle of Akamakar
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The Battle of Akamakar occurred roughly a century after 999.M41[1a] as part of a larger civil war on Kouris where traitorous forces on the world sought to join a Chaos warhost known as the Exilarchy.[1e] The Emperor's Spears Chapter planned the seizure of the planetary capital of Akamakar to quickly and decisively end the war, as well as to reduce mortal Adeptus Vaelarii casualties.[1c]
Overview
Prelude
The planetary civil war preceding the Battle of Akamakar was, in the eyes of the traitorous Lord-Governor of Kouris, the result of the Adeptus Vaelarii's inability to defend the world from the forces of the Exilarchy. The Chaos warband had raided their shipping lanes and seeded their cities with cults while the weakened Celestial Lions were unable to defend this planet on the edge of their protectorate.[1c] Unlike many forces of Chaos, the Exilarchy were conquerors rather than raiders - they did not only want blood and souls as sacrifices to the Dark Gods, they wanted territory and the entirety of Elara's Veil.[1b] Under the pressure they were facing, the planet's leaders eventually moved to join their invaders. While the Exilarchy warned them that they were not yet ready, Kouris' traitorous forces staged a rebellion against the Adeptus Vaelarii and Imperium.[1e] At least half of the armed forces, including elements of the local Imperial Guard, noble house militia, and Planetary Defence Forces rose up in support of the traitors before a shot had been fired.[1c]
The conflict raged on for two years until loyalist forces were finally massing for an offensive that would take both continents back from the Archenemy, albeit at a high cost in Imperial lives. Such losses were unacceptable to Brêac, Lord of the Emperor's Spears' Third Warhost. The estimated millions of soldiers that would be lost over five more months of fighting were needed elsewhere; the Spears intended to win the conflict in a week. On the first day of the Battle of Akamakar, Imperial Guard commanders were gathered aboard the Spears' strike cruiser Hex to assess the situation on the ground. When a full picture of the conflict was gathered by the Space Marines, the Warhost’s Lord made his decision: Brêac’s force of eighty-five Spears would begin their assault that night with a first wave of drop pods and gunships. The attached Lieutenant Commander Amadeus Kaias Incarius of the Mentors Chapter also resolved to participate in the battle. Amadeus’ expertise laid with aiding mortal forces and so he elected to be deployed alongside the Guard were possible. For five days Amadeus fought alongside regiments of the Novaskyr Adamants, Kouris’ planetary defence force, and the hosts of the Bellonan Skitarii Legion. He had yet to fight alongside the Spears, but that changed on the sixth day with the Battle of Akamakar.[1c]
Battle
The planetary capital of Akamakar remained as one of the remaining principal bastions of Exilarchy strength on the world; taking it would break the traitors’ hold on Kouris. The capital was protected by a decaying but still active void shield that prevented either an orbital bombardment or direct Astartes deployment from the Hex, forcing the Spears and Amadeus to advance alongside the mortal soldiers. Brêac ordered that the regency palace - the stronghold of the planetary leaders of the rebellion - be taken by sunset of the sixth day. With the traitorous regent and his supporters in the aristocracy defeated, the Exilarchy’s hold on Kouris would bleed out.[1c]
Blinded from orbit with the city-battlefield obscured by the dust of collapsed buildings, Amadeus’ three helots crewed the Astartes’ modified Damocles Command Rhino to gather scanning data of enemy positions and the state of the ruined battleground to aid Amadeus and Guard forces. They advanced with the 89th Novaskyr Adamants regiment; the Rhino and other tanks pushed forward alongside armoured personnel carriers filled with mechanised infantry and gunships carrying Guard soldiers to link up with loyalist forces already in the city. This column was one of several but it braced for the sternest of resistance. Loyalist units were required to move through the ruined city, reach projected markers and hold ground until support could reach them. Most of the urban fighting was to be fought by the Novaskyr Adamants and skitarii of Bellona. The Spears held back to break unexpected bastions of enemy strength or reinforce broken elements of advancing forces.[1c]
After pushing deep into the heart of the city, the 89th drove the Exilarchy’s militia back but was eventually broken when the enemy received reinforcements including gunships that strafed the roadways and pinned down the Novaskyr’s forward platoons. At the processional avenues leading to the palace, tanks fought, fire-teams exchanged shots, and the soldiers of the 89th realized that most of their officers were dead. Leadership was almost reduced to a squad-level. Amadeus had been fighting on the ground, having saved broken units from annihilation when they had been almost overrun and allowed them to advance when they had lost momentum. Helot Tyberia Volos informed her master of the condition of the 89th and Amadeus soon arrived in an Overlord gunship alongside twenty Emperor’s Spears commanded by Brêac himself, including a squad known as the Immortals, before a second Overlord deployed two Repulsor tanks. Seeing what had appeared to them as victory quickly turning to defeat, the Exilarchy deployed more soldiers and tanks to combat the Astartes that were attempting to give the 89th time to regroup.[1c]
While Amadeus suggested falling back and provided coordinates for a tactical regrouping - a Codex-approved manoeuvre given the situation - the Warhost Lord, knowing that falling back might lead to being overrun before they could regroup, instead signalled a charge to his Spears brethren. With a growl from twenty Astartes Warriors that mimicked the thunder of Nemeton and a chant in Nemetese of “skovakarah uhl zarûn” - redden the earth - the Spears pushed forward. While Amadeus stayed back with a platoon of the 89th, the Immortals and the three other Spears squads supporting them advanced up Emykarus Avenue. Mirroring Brêac and his battleguards Morcant and Faelan, sub-officers had two brothers fighting at their sides at the vanguard of each squad as they met and cut down heretic forces.[1c]
In less than two hours the Emperor’s Spears had taken the regent’s palace. The reigning traitor Lord-Governor of Kouris, a grave and serious man clad in custom armour imitating auramite, armed with his ancient power sword of office and already wounded from defending the palace, demanded trial by single combat from a representative of the Adeptus Vaelarii. He claimed that the God-Emperor was dead, accused the Vaelarii of failing to aid Kouris when the Exilarchy raided their shipping lanes and seeded cults on the planet, and cursed the absent Celestial Lions for failing their oath to defend their protectorate against the advances of that same Exilarchy. The Astartes reminded the regent that the Vaelarii were stretched across the Veil and that all of its planets require their aid, refusing the traitor his wish for an honourable death. With a gesture from Brêac, Battleguard Morcant bisected the man with a single shot from his weapon before crushing his skull with a power-armored boot.[1c]
Aftermath
Four Spears and millions of mortals laid dead from the war on Kouris in the wake of the Battle of Akamakar. Druid Chaplain Tolmach was assigned to install a new planetary governor from the Novaskyr officers, assign several regiments to garrison the planet, and return the rest to the Exodus Armada for resupplying and reassignment. Battleguards Morcant and Faelan were to oversee the withdrawal of Astartes forces back to the Hex and the departure of deployed Bellonan legionaries.[1c]
Some time later and before their plans could be completed, the infamous Exilarchy strike cruiser Venatrix Candidus appeared at the Mandeville point on the edge of the system, forcing an immediate withdrawal of the Spears on-planet to chase the vessel. Kouris was left to fend without the Emperor's Spears in the wake of the shattered rebellion.[1d]
