Battlefleet Calixis
Battlefleet Calixis is the Imperial Navy Battlefleet of the Calixis Sector, headquartered out of Port Wrath.
Contents
History
Battlefleet Calixis officially came into being in 384.M39, a result of the Calyx Expanse being declared conquered by General Drusus during the Angevin Crusade. A half-dozen ships of the line and a few escort squadrons left over from the Crusade stayed behind and consolidated Imperial holdings in the area. The Battlefleet was formed from survivors of the conflict against the Yu'vath, a powerful and dangerous Chaos-corrupted Xenos race, and their traitorous human allies. Though they had taken heavy losses, with the help of the Iron Hands Space Marine Chapter, the Battlefleet emerged victorious over their foes and set to work to create a loyal and profitable subsector, protecting innumerable convoys of migrants from pirates over several centuries.[1a]
In 467.M39, the planet Valon Urr in the Golgenna Reach subsector was attacked by a coalition of ork freebooterz. Four ships of the Battlefleet, led by Admiral Lightman-Kapes commanding the Fire of Heaven, responded to the astropathic distress call and barely managed to defeat the orks, however, orbital debris and ork troops on the ground caused such devastation to the planet that the formerly advanced and civilised world only lasted another 134 years before it was declared a shrine world. This event caused the Battlefleet to change tack, and it became more aggressive in its patrols of the sector, pulling ships away from convoy protection.[1a]
In 589.M39, a space hulk dubbed the Cauldron of Savagery came out of the Warp storms at the rimward edge of the Drusus Marches and razed several undefended Imperial colonies. As it was right on the edge of the sector, only a few small scout ships managed to reach it before it re-entered the storms. Some escort ships were assigned to follow the hulk's route through the storms, but none ever returned and were considered lost with all hands. Deep void patrols were assigned to watch that part of space from then on for over a century, but all they ever encountered were pirate wolfpacks and the occasional reaver.[1b]
In 123.M40, the Fire of Heaven and two Chalice Class Battlecruisers were lost while on patrol in the Hazeroth Abyss, as well as a pair of watch stations later in the year. Although the Hazeroth Sub-Sector was heavily fortified and kept reinforced as a result, there have not been any subsequent Imperial forays into the Abyss since and the perpetrators of the destruction have never been identified. This tragedy also resulted in the complete rescindment of the aggressive patrol policy, instituted following the invasion of Valon Urr, 656 years previous.[1a]
For fourteen years, between 556 and 570.M40, the Periphery subsector was suffering under terrible and frequent raids by Drukhari pirates, known as the Cabal of the White Sorrow, resulting in the enslavement of around two million Imperial citizens. The Battlefleet consistently failed to bring these raiders out into open conflict, and badly lost several skirmishes. Eventually, in 570.M40, the Battlefleet lent three ships, a battlecruiser and two light cruisers, to a flotilla of Mechanicus explorator ships and Rogue Trader vessels led by the famed Rogue Trader Kobras Aquairre, who managed to trap and subsequently crush the pirate fleet.[1a]
In 673.M40, the Cauldron of Savagery returned to terrorize the Drusus Marches. One of the battlefleet's deep void patrols was in the vicinity of the Pellucidan system, which the hulk was headed towards. They engaged the Cauldron at long range while a Rogue Trader privateer fleet hid itself in the glare of the system's sun, hitting the Cauldron in the rear with a devastating barrage of close range fire once the hulk had committed to the attack. Both forces took heavy losses, but the Cauldron was destroyed before it could do any serious harm.[1b]
War of Brass
Already a region struggling with sedition, in 738.M40, the militarised hive worlds of the Gelmiro Cluster rebelled against the Imperium, inspiring a dozen other worlds and two of the Battlefleet's newest ships of the line to join them. It took Vice-Admiral Dayes weeks to get the Battlefleet ready to respond as the sector had been enjoying two centuries of relative peace and the Battlefleet had placed many of their more powerful ships into storage at Port Wrath. This meant that the Gelmiro Cluster had the time to fortify itself against Imperial retribution, and even with the aid of space marines, and a legio of titans, it took three years and much planetary devastation to put the rebels down.[1a]
In 917.M40, the Battlefleet established Port Wander in the Rubycon II system of the Drusus Marches. Heavily armed, the station was to be the new staging ground for the deep void patrols that watched for threats coming out of the warp storms of the region. The Battlefleet couldn't afford to keep it properly staffed as other conflicts drew its attention away, and the patrols stopped too, effectively abandoning the station to the local shipmasters, but the discovery of the Koronus Passage in 997.M40 saw the patrols restart at least.[1b]
Meritech Wars
A coalition of voider families seceded from the Imperium in 211.M41. These so-called Meratech Clans began raiding the Merates Cluster - a group of worlds with many seditious and criminal groups. This caused utmost anarchy and threatened a war with the neighbouring Ixaniad Sector as the raids began to cross sector boundaries. Thankfully for the Imperium, Calixis Sector Governor Myram Harvala had been heavily investing in Battlefleet Calixis during his rise to power, patronising scores of new ships to be built, which allowed the Battlefleet to completely eradicate every single member of the Meratech clans over the course of but fifteen years.[1a]
Vaxanide Besieged
The Vaxanide System was attacked by orks in 410.M41. This system was a vitally important part of the Malfian Sub-sector's trade network, but the Battlefleet was delayed in responding due to heavy warp storm activity. The first two ships to arrive had taken almost a year to get there after the initial ork attack and they decided to enter by themselves rather than wait for the rest of the fleet. The cruiser Pride of Scintilla was newly constructed, with an inexperienced crew, though the grand cruiser Chariot of Wrath was well over two millennia old and commanded by an experienced Commodore named Brokk. The orks were surprised and their eighty ships were slowed by holds full of plunder. Nonetheless, the Pride was badly damaged and decided to ram an ork ship as its final act, taking them both down in a blaze of glory to the surface of the planet Vaxanide, leaving the Chariot to fight on alone until seven more ships of the fleet arrived to save them and defeat the ork fleet.[1a]
More troubles with orks occurred in a different part of the sector in 422.M41 when Waaagh! Gulgrog laid siege to Port Wander. The heavily armed station held out for two years without support until the Battlefleet could send a fleet, supported by Mechanicus ships from the Lathe Worlds to liberate the station. The Battlefleet decided to re-fortify the station and split off a few of the Battlefleet's ships to establish Battlefleet Koronus.[1b]
The Battlefleet built long range augury stations on the edge of the Vaxanide system to forewarn them of future attacks. Nearly a century after the first siege, these stations picked up another fleet of ork ships in 507.M41. A combined fleet of ships from the Battlefleet, the Mechanicus, as well as some rogue traders, was quickly assembled and sent to Vaxanide under the command of Lord-Admiral Vargaz. The combined Imperial fleet managed to catch the orks while they were still in the outer part of the system, and although a couple of small ships managed to break through the defensive line, the majority of the ork fleet was swiftly destroyed, allowing for those relatively few orks who managed to land on the planet Vaxanide to be more easily eradicated.[1a]
Recent events
Several of the Battlefleet's capital ships and many of its escort ships were seconded to the Margin Crusade in 784.M41, greatly weakening the Battlefleet. Sector authorities have been forced to encourage the construction of new ships to make up the shortfall as none of the ships taken by the Synod Obscurus have yet returned, and news about the Crusade's progress has been practically non-existent.[1a]
Known ships
- Bellicose — Battlecruiser, one of the original six ships.[1a]
- Chariot of Wrath — Battlecruiser, one of the original six ships. Whereabouts currently unknown.[1a]
- Fire of Heaven (destroyed)[3] — Grand cruiser, one of the original six ships.[1a]
- Fist of Adamant — Retribution Class Battleship. Flagship of the Battlefleet, one of the original six ships.[1a]
- Hawk — Defiance-class light cruiser[1c]
- Hel's Promise (destroyed) — Chalice Class Battlecruiser, crew turned traitor[1a]
- Hosiana's Hand — Chalice Class Battlecruiser, crew turned traitor[1a]
- Intemperate — light cruiser[1a]
- Intractable — light cruiser[1a]
- Loci Veritas Lumen — Exorcist Grand Cruiser, one of the original six ships.[1a]
- Loci Veritas Lux — Exorcist Grand Cruiser, one of the original six ships.[1a]
- Magnus Ecthelion — Dominator Class Cruiser.[2]
- Pride of Scintilla (destroyed) — Lunar-class Cruiser[1a]
- Triumph of Saint Drusus — Chalice Class Battlecruiser.[1a]
See also
Sources
- 1: Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus:
- 2: Dark Heresy: Purge the Unclean, pg. 56
- 3: Dark Heresy Timeline, pg. 4
