The Battle of Faith's Anchorage was fought between the forces of Chaos and the Imperium in the Agripinaa System in the days immediately after the 13th Black Crusade and the Fall of Cadia in ca. 999.M41.
The Heretic Astartes of multiple warbands and Traitor Legions and their mortal allies sought to destroy the fleeing remnants of Cadia's defenders among Battlefleet Cadia and the regiments of the Cadian Shock Troops commanded by Admiral d'Armitage and General Maximus Octavian Grüber III, respectively, but were ultimately driven from the system in the wake of this pivotal battle by the combined forces of the Imperial Navy, the Cadian Shock Troops of the Astra Militarum and the Space Wolves Chapter.
History[]
The Battle of Faith's Anchorage began after a mishap in the Warp sent a portion of the remnants of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Cadia and Cadian Shock Troops forces fleeing Cadia's destruction under the command of Admiral d'Armitage and General Maximus Octavian Grüber III in the wake of the 13th Black Crusade into the Chaos-invaded Agripinaa System, where they were ambushed by the warships of a Sons of Malice warband commanded by Agitor Kanath. The Imperial Navy forces had no choice but to flee, as they consisted only of a few troop transports and the poorly armed Claymore-class Corvette Lord-Lieutenant Berwicke and the Venerable Warrior, both warships of Battlefleet Cadia. It was their identification as Cadian vessels, however, that had drawn the Sons of Malice to hunt them. It was a Cadian regiment that had purged the Sons of Malice's homeworld of Scelus and exterminated all of its people, and the Chaos Space Marines were determined to do the same to every surviving Cadian in the galaxy.
The void battle soon went in the Sons of Malice's favour and the commander of the Cadian flotilla's surviving ground forces, General Grüber of the Astra Militarum, deployed his remaining Cadian Shock Troops on a water ice and promethium-mining moon of the world of Morton's Quay, itself a naval reserve outpost, called Faith's Anchorage, to make a last stand.
Before fortifying an abandoned mining facility on the moon with Void Shield Generators to force an infantry engagement rather than face an orbital bombardment, Grüber had Captain Zabuzkho of the Lord-Lieutenant Berwicke try and draw away the Chaos fleet to give his troops time to complete the fortifications. Zabuzkho did so and also agreed to try and reach Terra if his ship survived to warn the Imperium that Cadia had finally fallen. Unfortunately, neither of the Imperial Navy vessels managed to escape the Agripinaa System, as the Venerable Warrior was hunted down and destroyed by a Sons of Malice warship and the Berwicke was so badly damaged that its Gellar Field failed when it attempted a Warp jump, destroying the vessel in a great explosion. There would be no one to take word of the Fall of Cadia to Terra.
The Sons of Malice fleet next began an orbital bombardment of the Imperial-occupied mining facility on Faith's Anchorage in an attempt to overload its Void Shields even as a warband of Sons of Malice Chaos Space Marines, supported by swarms of Chaos Cultists and cybernetic Mechslaves, served as cannon fodder. Though the Cadians successfully eliminated wave after wave of the Chaos forces' mortal troops, there was little doubt that the Heretic Astartes would eventually overwhelm the remaining Cadian defenders under General Grüber's command. Unfortunately, the orbital bombardment eventually brought down the Cadians' Void Shields, which, combined with the direct assault of the Sons of Malice, eventually wiped out Grüber and the remaining Cadian Shock Troops.
However, word of the Sons of Malice's assault against the survivors of Cadia had reached other Chaos forces in the region and soon Chaos Space Marine warbands of the Sons of Slaughter, the Crimson Slaughter, the Black Legion and five of the other Traitor Legions had arrived in the system, eager to gain their own share of glory in the extermination of the last Cadians. At the same time, another Imperial Navy fleet, under the command of Admiral d'Armitage, had also been fleeing the loss of Cadia and been caught in the same Warp mishap that had brought Grüber and his troops to the Agripinaa System.
Though d'Armitage's fleet arrived above Faith's Anchorage too late to save the Cadian infantry forces engaged with the Sons of Malice on the moon below, it did launch an assault against the gathering of Chaos forces. The suddenness of the Imperial fleet's appearance caught the Chaos fleet off-guard, and they were forced to engage the Imperial warships before they could retrieve the Sons of Malice forces mopping up the last Cadian defenders on Faith's Anchorage. While the Imperial warships were able to fire off multiple surprise volleys at the Chaos fleet, the Heretic Astartes eventually recovered and focussed their fire on d'Armitage's flagship, the Grand Alliance. The flagship took heavy damage and began to drift further into the Chaos fleet, where it came under even heavier fire, and was unable to pull away.
Yet the Grand Alliance's salvation suddenly appeared in the form of the Space Wolves strike cruiser Stiklestad which attacked the Chaos vessels and bought the Grand Alliance enough time to withdraw to safer space. Together the reinforced Imperial fleet eventually defeated the Chaos void forces, and few Chaos warships remained to disengage and flee into the void.
Next, General Isaia Bendikt of the Astra Militarum deployed his Cadian Shock Troops from d'Armitage's fleet to Faith's Anchorage and over the next two solar weeks eliminated the Sons of Malice troops who had been stranded on the moon. The Battle of Faith's Anchorage ended with the death of the last Heretic, but this marked only the start of Admiral d'Armitage and General Bendikt's ultimately successful campaign to clear the Agripinaa System of all traces of the forces of Chaos.
Afterwards, General Grüber was buried in a colossal marble mausoleum erected on Faith's Anchorage. It was constructed near a starlit graveyard that held the Cadian Guardsmen who had fought beside him to the last.
Chaeros was an Industrial World of the Imperium that was invaded by Abaddon the Despoiler's forces during the 13th Black Crusade. Imperial military forces that escaped the Fall of Cadia would later arrive in the Agripinaa System and clear it of the Chaos forces following the Battle of Faith's Anchorage. Once the system was cleansed of the presence of the servants of the Ruinous Powers, General Bendikt declared Chaeros was to be renamed New Cadia and serve as the new home for all Cadian survivors. However, it is not known if the Imperium accepted his renaming of the world.
Sources[]
- Cadia Stands (Novel) by Justin D. Hill, Part 4, Chs. 2-8