Campaña de Zeist

Traduce. ò_ó

(O quizás sea mejor poner Cruzada).

Información directamente desde la Warhammer Wiki inglesa.

The Zeist Campaign was a military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire, in the Zeist Sector of the Ultima Segmentum. Taking place in 999.M41, during the Tau Empire's Third Sphere Expansion, it ran concurrently with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade and the assault on Imperial space by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. As the Imperium's military was heavily involved with preventing the breakout of theForces of Chaos from the Cadian Gate on the other side of Imperial space, the Tau took advantage of this distraction to rapidly expand their territory. With the victory of the Imperium, the Zeist Campaign marked the end of the Third Sphere Expansion, the Tau Empire having grown to 133% of its prior size.

History

By the year 996.M41, Tau expansionist activities encroached upon Imperial worlds with the initiation of their Third Sphere Expansion. This Expansion was notable in that the Tau Empire resorted on occasion to annexing Imperial planets by military force, rather than the seemingly more common approach of cultural subversion. By 999.M41, Imperial planetary governors in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy were calling for massive reinforcements to push back the Tau forces, but with the constant attacks on Imperial space by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan and an increase in attacks by the Chaos renegades from the Maelstrom Warp rift, few Imperial defence forces were able to respond to the call. One Imperial defender who could, however, was the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar and his Space Marines. He dispatched the Ultramarines' famous2nd Company to the Zeist Sector to draw a defensive line through which the Tau would not be able to pass. Calgar also sent requests to other nearby Space Marine Chapters for further assistance.

When the Ultramarines arrived in the Zeist Sector, they found numerous Imperial worlds abandoned to the Tau and others heavily fortified to defend against the Tau's lightning raids. Captain Cato Sicarius, commander of theUltramarines' 2nd Company, attacked the Forge World Praetonis V to break the ongoing Tau assault on that planet and used this momentum to begin pushing the Tau offensive back. Captain Sicarius used the same tactics as the Tau, which were ideal for a relatively small force of Space Marines, including rapid lightning strikes on weak positions to destabilize more heavily defended ones. Due to the Ultramarines's efforts, the Tau expansion slowed and then stopped under the Imperial assaults. Eventually, only the world of Augura, in the Zeist Sector, remained in Tau hands, as their only remaining logistical and repair source in the area.

By this time, the Ultramarines were no longer the only Space Marine forces involved in the assault. Warriors from the Night Watch, Halo Dragons, Silver Skulls, Sable Swords, Crimson Fists, Iron Lords, Aurora Chapter, Eagle Warriors and the Knights of the Raven, as well as many others, had all joined the Ultramarines in the attack on Augura. Despite their advanced technology, battlesuits and plasma weaponry, the Tau had no hope for defeating such a large combined force of Space Marines. Augura's fortresses, shipyards and weapons factories were either badly damaged or destroyed by the Space Marines's offensive. With the loss of their last forward logistical base in the sector, the Tau fell back to protect more secure territory within their borders, bringing their Third Sphere Expansion to a close.

Unfortunately, though the Space Marines had won the war and stopped the Tau's seizure of human territory, it was not possible to sanction a retaliatory thrust into Tau-held space as the individual Space Marine forces were required elsewhere in the galaxy to hold the line against the Forces of Chaos during the height of the 13th Black Crusade. Reluctantly, Captain Sicarius returned control of the defence of the Zeist Sector back to its planetary governors.

Space Marine Forces Involved

• Tactical Squads - Ultramarines, Night Watch, Halo Dragons, Silver Skulls, Sable Swords, Crimson Fists
• Devastator Squads - Iron Lords
• Predator Spearhead - Aurora Chapter
• Terminator Squad - Eagle Warriors
• 3 companies of Knights of the Raven

Sources

• 'Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), p. 48