18,817
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
m
clean up, replaced: armor → armour
Hold up in strongholds deep in hollowed out mountains and shielded by [[Power field]] generators, the attempt by Imperial forces to take the Ethnarchy's strongholds earlier in the war had met with disaster. 10,000 Thunder Warriors and more than a million other troops were lost. Now in his hour of vengeance the Emperor deployed forces from six proto-[[Space Marine Legion]]s for the operation along with the [[Custodian Guard]] (led by the Emperor himself), and other tributary armies. Of all of these, the Emperor trusted the 20,000-strong XVIIIth Legion with the most important duty, leading the assault on the Ethnarchy's power generators in [[Termite]] burrowing vehicles. Known as the Tempest Galleries, these generators were located deep underground.{{Fn|1}}
Almost four-fifth of the taskforce managed to survive the dangerous underground journey to their objective, but there were confronted by ancient automated sentry guards dating back to the Dark Age of Technology. Incredibly strong and built to withstand volcanic firestorms, thousands of these automatons deployed against the XVIIIth. Worse still, their armor armour could not be penetrated by [[Bolter]]s, [[Meltagun]]s, or [[Plasma gun]]s. Only massive kinetic force applied at close range against their joints caused any damage. Against these terrifying foes the XVIIIth held out with a mixture of stoic resistance and suicidal fury.{{Fn|1}}
The XVIIIth survived by fighting from gallery to gallery, collapsing tunnels as they went. The Legionaries were able to gather weapons and spare parts from downed enemy robots and soon learned where to rip out these sentries command systems. Soon a stalemate had been achieved, but less than a third of the XVIIIth original number remained, but the sentries were still reproducing via automated factories. Realizing they needed a quick solution, the remainder of the Legion made one final desperate attack to cripple the central power transmission nod.{{Fn|1}}