Ichar IV is an extremely densely-populated Imperial Hive World located in the Ultima Segmentum, to the galactic north of the Realm of Ultramar.
It is a vital industrial centre for its sector of 500 billion people, producing supplies used by many regiments of the Astra Militarum and Planetary Defence Forces across the segmentum. Ichar IV's major exports include strategic ores and fungal mycoproteins used as the nutritional basis of many processed Imperial foodstuffs.
Ichar IV was the site of the climactic battle between the forces of the Imperium and the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken in 992.M41.
History
At the beginning of the Second Tyrannic War, Ichar IV was infested with Genestealers. A Genestealer Cult, operating under the name of "The Brotherhood," instigated a rebellion on the planet that caught the attention of Inquisitor Agmar.
The Brotherhood had control of the planet by the time Agmar arrived in the star system. The Inquisitor petitioned the Ultramarines Chapter to help put down the rebellion. Marneus Calgar, the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, arrived 39 solar days later aboard the battle barge Octavius with a force of his Astartes.
Eventually, using tactics Marneus Calgar had developed in the First Tyrannic War at the Battle of Macragge, the Ultramarines rallied the defenders of the planet -- including Ichar IV's Planetary Defence Forces, the Astra Militarum, and the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition and after a ferocious struggle the Tyranids were cast from the world. In the wake of the battle the Inquisition cleansed the planet of all remaining Genestealers.
One of the Astra Militarum units involved in the fighting on Ichar IV was the 13th Penal Legion, the so-called "Last Chancers." The 13th Penal Legion fought the Tyranids on Ichar IV and the bitter fighting resulted in terrible casualties for the Legion.
Sources
- Codex: Tyranids (2nd Edition), pp. 11–15
- Codex: Tyranids (3rd Edition), pg. 48, inside back cover
- Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), pg. 12
- Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pg. 23
- 13th Legion (Novel) by Gav Thorpe
- Kill Team (Novel) by Gav Thorpe
- Annihilation Squad (Novel) by Gav Thorpe