Compliance of Indra-sul
The Compliance of Indra-sul was a campaign fought by the Raven Guard during the Great Crusade.[1]
Overview
The last years of the Great Crusade saw the majority of the Raven Guard assigned to Expeditionary Fleets in the far galactic north, pressing the Great Crusade's expansion past the reaches of the Segmentum Obscurus and into the dim stars of the galaxy's northern fringe. It was here that the Raven Guard discovered Indra-sul. Once the planet must have served as a mighty Explorator port for the fleets of the Dark Age of Technology, but now it was reduced to a wasteland, with the exception of a vast glittering spire of silver many kilometres thick that reached from the ground to the void above, terminating in a series of branch-like docking tendrils that blanketed the sky of one hemisphere. Within this great structure the Raven Guard found the last survivors of Indra-sul, and the creatures who now ruled them. In the dark years of the Age of Strife the xenos known as the Khrave had systematically harvested the population of Indra-sul over the course of many centuries.[1]
Despite suggestions from some Terran-born Captains to release nerve-phage gas into the facility that would effectively kill both xenos masters and human slaves as the most effective solution, the Primarch laid plans for the salvation of Indra-sul. Refusing to commit either his own Legionaries or the soldiers of the Therion Cohort to the war of attrition intended to take the spire level by level, the Raven Lord personally led a force of less than 2,000 Legionaries, selected from the ranks of the Raven Guard's reconnaissance and infiltration companies, into the structure. Infiltrating the massive spire at its midpoint by insertion from specially modified Shadowhawks and Darkwing gunships, the Space Marines were confronted with a vision of the past. The survivors of the human population of Indra-sul were wretched and malformed, packed into chambers like cattle. Some detachments also encountered the Khrave, towering monstrosities gorged on centuries of captive bounty, impossibly strong and wielding foul Warp-glamours.[1]
Only with much slaughter were they able to slay such creatures. The Raven Guard both of Terra and Deliverance instinctively fell into the doctrines of guerrilla warfare, leaving their foes dazed and confused until they were finally slain. Discovering the hibernation chambers of the slumbering Khrave, soon the foul xenos began to stir form their slumber. The Raven Guard made a tactical withdrawal, while the Raven Lord and a demi-company of those who had fought at his side on Deliverance took the near-suicidal duty of providing a rearguard whilst the remaining Raven Guard accompanying him raced to deploy their teleport beacon array. Despite the slaughter that ensued, the Raven Guard held their ground, fighting to their last breath with only the desire to slay their foes until death claimed them. Finally, after an hour of non-stop combat, a flash of light announced the arrival of the Deliverers, a company of Terran-born Raven Guard clad in Terminator Armour, grim in aspect and wielding an array of fearsome weapons not usually favoured by the subtle tactics of the XIX Legion.[1]
The Deliverers' massed firepower pushed the Khrave back and the Terran Legionaries advanced, the ferocity of the Terran Raven Guard finishing what the stoic determination of their brethren from Deliverance had begun. Within hours the Raven Guard had cleansed the spire of the xenos' foul presence. Now secured as a base for the Great Crusade's push into the Ghoul Stars, Indra-sûl was given into the custody of the Mechanicum, and the Raven Guard made preparations for their next conquest. Unknown to the Raven Guard, the Iterators and other Imperial servants following on the heels of the XIX Legion's advance would later condemn the survivors to a living death as Servitor labourers, seeing them as corrupted in both mind and body.[1]
See also
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination, pgs. 151–152