Orask is an Imperial sentinel world that sits at the very edge of the Iquathan Deeps in the northern Segmentum Ultima, near the border of the Ghoul Stars. Orask is garrisoned not only by its own feudal, warlike people, a stoic breed who much like the peoples of Cadia or Mordian have long become accustomed to war, but also by many Astra Militarum regiments, and even special detachments of the Adeptus Astartes and Titan Legions rotated through deployment there on a rolling basis.
Such a powerful garrison is needed to man its planet-wide network of defences, and along with forces from the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Ultima, sally forth into the surrounding star systems should the need arise, for Orask is a world where conflict is never far away.
Situated at the nexus of one of the few viable Warp-routes through the Iquathan Deeps, Orask has for millennia been a battlefront and bastion that has guarded the Imperium from the terrors beyond. In the 41st Millennium alone, the defenders of Orask have held out against the savage attacks of Ork marauders, Chaos Space Marine warbands, the assault of a previously unknown xenos species and the forces of the Arch-Heretek Explorator-Magos Cykior Marlowe.
The most terrible assault on Orask in recent times occurred in 977.M41, when a splinter of the eastern hive fleets of the Tyranid menace appeared, disoriented and twisted by its passage through the Ghoul Stars, and fell on the Orask System like a ravenous beast.
A great battle ensued, which proved brief but bloody. The stoic defenders of Orask were backed by a full company of the Red Talons Space Marine Chapter and a Titan maniple from the Legio Magna. Despite horrific casualties that reached into the tens of thousands sustained within a mere matter of solar days, the valiant defenders were able to push back their monstrous attackers. Eventually they contained the threat and purged the vile xenos from Orask's blasted surface. However, evidence persists that some harbinger organisms escaped to the outer systems.
Canon Conflict[]
The Legio Magna listed as responsible for Orask's defence from the Tyranids has been a Traitor Titan Legion since the time of the Horus Heresy, not a Loyalist one.
It is unknown if part of this Legio remained loyal during the Horus Heresy and has survived into the 41st Millenium maintaining its old name, or whether this simply is a mistake on the part of Games Workshop.
Sources[]
- Imperial Armour: Apocalypse II, pg. 79