Although Operation Decapitation was intended as a series of brief raids designed to assassinate the ork leadership, the greenskin response to the Imperial’s arrival was more brutal than the average Imperial citizen could possibly imagine. Click on picture for larger image.
“We live in a galaxy of terror and violence. There is only war. Wars to conquer. Wars to survive. Wars to exterminate. Take your pick. They are all one and the same. They are all futile. For we will all die. Empires will fall. Suns with fade to nothing. In the end, the universe will laugh at our sorrow.“—Pavel Herst, self-proclaimed prophet, executed for heresy, M.39
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Battle of Krun
The most important of these decapitation strikes occurred on the world of Krun—the capital of Maxilla’s empire. Imperium forces had but one goal: kill Maxilla. He was the glue that bound the greenskin empire into a cohesive military force. Nearly a third of Crusade forces were committed to this effort.
The Imperial attack was as simple as it was brutal. On 6 518, 398.M41, Space Marine drop pods were launched as soon as Imperial ships reached orbit above Krun and, without waiting for the Astartes to consolidate a landing zone, Imperial Guard transports followed the drop pods to the ground in a bid to overwhelm the ork capital city as quickly as possible.
Casualties were heavy, especially among the following Imperial Guard transports. The landing sites, deliberately chosen within a few kilometers of Maxilla’s palace were well defended by ork anti-air weapons, and at least a dozen Tetrach and Devourer transports were lost with more than 7,000 embarked troops.
Confusion was rampant in the early fighting, but the Imperial generalship had anticipated heavy losses and an intense ork counterattack. Enough troops landed safely in their designated landing zones, and a strong if immensely challenged defensive line was formed.
All of this was intended to draw Maxilla out into the open. It worked. The audacity of the Imperial attack, coupled with the orks’ inherent love for battle, enraged the greenskins. They launched the most violent counterattack that many Imperial officers had ever experienced, and the bloodshed drew Maxilla and his personal bodyguard into the fray.
The attack on Maxilla’s capital city admittedly was a confused affair, with Imperial forces advancing on the city from every direction. Still, Imperial strategists hoped this unorthodox tactic would increase the likelihood of drawing out the ork warlord. Click on map for larger image.
Maxilla’s Fall
The ork warlord entered battle at the vanguard of hundreds of larger-than-normal ork bodyguards and advanced on the 3rd Company of the Ultramarines, whereupon Maxilla was loudly challenged by Veteran Sergeant Drusus Valerius—whose vox had been specifically augmented to be heard over the din of battle.
Such a blatant challenge was irresistible to Maxilla, who began to force his way through the Ultramarine perimeter. The three-meter-tall green beast managed to down half a dozen Space Marines before Valerius closed into melee.
Pict recordings from various Ultramarine helms allowed military intelligence to follow the subsequent duel in detail: It began when Valerius charged at Maxilla, and the ork met the attack with a roar of defiance.
As the two closed, Valerius ducked below Maxilla’s swing of his weapon, and the Astartes captain used his power sword to slice at the warlord’s leg, opening a severe gash that forced the greenskin to limp for the rest of the duel.
The clash of weapons continued for approximately five minutes, as the two powerful and experienced warriors slashed, stabbed, and parried.
Around the two, Space Marines and ork bodyguards attempted to join the fight but found themselves in their own battles of survival.
In the end, Valerius was victorious. Pretending to stumble, the Astartes captain tricked Maxilla into a hasty thrust, the ork overextending himself and leaving his chest exposed. Valerius plunged his power sword deep into the ork’s chest, finally bringing an end to the greenskin’s decades-old campaign of terror.
To ensure the greenskin’s death, Valerius decapitated the warlord head and fired three bolt shells into the skull before smashing it into bloody mash with his boot.
Veteran Sergeant Drusus Valerius and Maxilla fight their epic duel in the ruins of the ork capital city. Valerius would prove the victor, and the mighty ork warlord fell. Click on picture for larger image.
Empire’s collapse
The death of Maxilla did not immediately end the fighting, but a series of carefully targeted lance strikes devastated several highly concentrated ork columns that sought to join the fight and gave Imperial forces an opportunity to hastily evacuate the planet. Still, at least 20,000 Imperial Guard soldiers died on the surface, with 4,000 abandoned to their fate as the Imperial defensive line collapsed and the evacuation was halted.
Once troops were back on their void transports, the Imperial battlegroup withdrew. Even with their hasty departure, Imperial Navy ships were hotly pursued by a host of ork warships and barely managed to reach the system’s Mandeville point and escape into the Immaterium.
Several stealth ships of the Ordo Zenos remained hidden in the Gelduin System. They later reported that, upon learning of Maxilla’s death, various surviving ork warlords began fighting among themselves for dominance over the planet’s war host.
Over time, the infighting spread across the former ork empire. Other elements of Operation Decapitation also had been successful in killing influential ork leaders and, as lower-ranked but ambitious warlords sought to seize dominance, the entire empire soon was torn itself apart in civil war.
This interplanetary infighting would continue for the next 350 years—and reduce the ork threat to occasional raids and small-scale invasions that were easily rebuffed.
The Ordo Xenos reports that a Tyranid fleet currently orbits the ork-held world of Krun, and a massive war of attrition is under way. Click picture for larger image.
A new threat
The past year has brought news of a new threat within the former ork empire—with unclear but potentially ominous implications for the Corvus Cluster. It appears that an unknown but sizable xeno fleet is attacking the ork-held worlds—and the greenskins appear to be losing the fight.
The Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman has named this xeno species “Tyranids” in remembrance of the planet Tyranid, the first Imperial world discovered to have been attacked by this xeno species.
According to Imperial strategists, it’s now recognized that the Tyranids have stripped the entire biomass from several planets to the galactic east of Ultramar, and the xenos current are heading toward Macragge, a planet within Ultramar itself.
It is believed that the Tyranids in the Maxilla Empire region are a splinter fleet of this larger invasion.
Given that the “Tyranids” are gaining ascendancy over an ork population estimated at 40 billion, this suggests the Tyranids have a military capability that—should they successfully overcome the greenskins—will pose a existential threat to many Imperial worlds.
The High Command on Beliose III is hard at work sending out reconnaissance missions to monitor the Tyranid fleet and its military progress and, hopefully, offer Imperial strategists some sense of the time remaining for Imperial forces to prepare for battle.
At the same time, High Command already is planning a massive mobilization effort—one that could threaten annual planetary tithes as resources are devoted to defense—and this reality is causing consternation with the Adeptus Administratum.
Time will tell what the future holds.
TheGM: Although a history of the Maxilla Empire, I thought this article necessary as a preface of the threat the approaching Tyranids will bring to the Corvus Cluster.
I honestly don’t know how destabilizing this threat will prove. At present, I’m busy painting up a Tyranid army, and I see no reason to plan too far ahead. Best to fight a few tabletop battles and see how the orks fare. Then, perhaps, we’ll see if the space bugs move deeper in the Cluster.
After 12 years, I’ve learned that this narrative campaign sometimes writes itself. We will find out what happens when it happens.
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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.
Categories: History
