36
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→History: Fixed typos
The Imperial Hunters, along with the demi-[[Legio Pallidus Mor]], fought on the [[Hive World]] [[Khania]] to defend their capitol city [[Hive Gelon]] against [[Tyranid]]s. Arriving upon the planet first, and possessing the larger number of titans, the Imperial Hunters (lead by Marshal Adrel Syagrius) took command of the joint battlegroup. Ordering an all speed march, the combined Legios made for Hive Gelon and reinforced the Kataran 66th (who had been deployed upon the planet as well). The Imperial Hunters pushed through the bulk of the enemy forces, despite warnings from the Pallidus Mor of the risk that the Legios would become separated. Due to this, ''Augustus Secutor'' (piloted by Syagrius) was isolated and out maneuvered by an enemy hierophant. Syagrius was rescued by the Pallidus Mor's ''Gloria Vastator'' (piloted by Princeps Captain [[Ferantha Krezoc]]) who pulled the Tyranid's attention away to her. While the hierophant began to overpower the Pallidus Mor Warlord, the ''Augustus Secutor'' charged and fired its [[Plasma Annihiliator]], finally killing the beast. The Legios managed to reach Hive Gelon and repel in xenos forces, but soon a second and far larger wave of Tyranids arrived.{{Fn|2}}
During the fight against this second wave, the Pallidus Mor was tasked with defending Gelon, while the Imperial Hunters left to hunt down enemy bio-titans. The Imperial Hunters were tracking large bio-forms, suspected to be enemy bio-titans, planning to engage and destroy them before they reached Gelon. While the stated intention was to make the Pallidus Mor's defense easier, in truth it was Marshall Marshal Syagrius acting from wounded pride and wanting to destroy the bio-titans for personal glory. They tracked the bio-forms far away from Hive Gelon, though as they approached the biomass started to shrink on their auspex. They were faced with only a minor force of Tyranids, far fewer than what they had detected earlier. After easily eradicating the xenos, they moved to where they first detected the large bio-forms and discovered that the Tyranids had tunneled through the walls of a great crater, attempting a subterranean assault upon their target. Realizing they had been fooled into leaving the Hive vulnerable, the Imperial Hunters returned to the hive at all speed. While their return to the hive assured victory, all forces suffered losses, including the commander of the Pallidus Mor: Marshal Eras Balzhan. Despite these losses, the xenos were again repelled. This, along with the destruction of the Tyranid's orbital fleet, secured a total victory against the assaulting Tyranids.{{Fn|3}}
====The [[Doom of Katara]]====
While the Pallidus Mor managed to destroy the bridge, presumably trapping the treasonous members on the island of Creontiades, a section of the heretical cult had been in hiding in Deicoon and rose up when the Titans were docked for repairs. The members of the Imperial Hunters and Pallidus Mor were captured. The cultists took them to a defiled chapel in the city, with the intent to corrupt them and their Titans. Soon afterwards a civilian militia, called the "Company of the Bridge" lead by Ecclesiarchy Confessor Lehrn Ornastas, assaulted the chapel and freed the Titan crews. Upon being freed, crews and their Secutarii rearmed themselves and fought their way back to their Titans. There were few traitor titans remaining at Deicoon, the cultists having expected to corrupt the loyalists, and they were swiftly defeated by a surprise counter attack.{{Fn|3}}
The bulk of the Iron Skulls had marched upon Therimachus. The Imperial Hunters, not expecting to actually engage this soon, were overwhelmed by the enemy forces. Marshall Marshal Syagrius was killed when an enemy Banelord ripped the head off of ''Augustus Secutor''. This, along with the destruction of ''Primum Victor'', left command to Princeps Spinther of ''Magnificum Virum''. Spinther called for aid from the Pallidus Mor, though he let it be known that there was little chance of any of the Imperial Hunters at Therimachus surviving until they arrived. This held true as when the Pallidus Mor and remaining Imperial Hunters arrived, the force at Therimachus had been eradicated by the Iron Skulls, though they had sacrificed themselves to assure the destruction of as many traitorous engines as they could. The Pallidus Mor and Imperial Hunters engaged the enemy Titans. Realizing that the city was about to be used for another Chaos ritual, the force opened fire upon the city, leveling it and turning the very ground beneath it into a sea of magma. Suffering more losses in the battle, including the destruction of ''Gloria Vastator'' the leading Warlord of the Pallidus Mor, the Pallidus Mor redeployed the still damaged (but functional) ''Ferrum Salvator'' in order to engage the final enemy Titan. Princeps Carrinas of the Reaver ''Nobilis Arma'', and the highest ranked Imperial Hunter remaining, engaged the much larger Titan to slow it down and buy time for the surviving crew of ''Gloria Vastator'' to reactivate ''Ferrum Salvator''. The enemy Banelord smashed through the Reaver, critically damaging its right arm, but this bought the time needed for ''Ferrum Salvator'' to be reactivated and destroy the enemy Titan.{{Fn|3}}
The victory was a Pyrrhic one. Almost all of the Titans sent by the Imperial Hunters, save a Reaver and a Warhound, were destroyed (as well as a majority of the Pallidus Mor), two of the planet's three Hive cities were destroyed (Creontiades was leveled to the ground upon the arrival of Imperial Guard reinforcements), the forgeworld was reclassified as a Penal World (on the verge of being chosen for Exterminatus), and the planet's surviving loyalist population was interred and formed into a Penal Legion. The few surviving Imperial Hunters, now lead by Carrinas, returned to ''Currus Venatores'', formally ending the combined battlegroup of the Imperial Hunters and Pallidus Mor.{{Fn|3}}
