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The Scourging of Kerrack was an Imperial campaign conducted on the Agri-world of Kerrack to rid it of the Chaos taint that had befallen it. What started as a mere workers' riot soon evolved into a planetary insurrection. Led by one of the dreaded Chaos Space Marines, Mahaur the Harvester, the Chaos Cultists of the Charnel Cult almost succeeded in vanquishing the Imperial defenders and seizing the weapons stockpile established by the Adeptus Administratum. Fortunately for the Imperium, the arrival of unexpected reinforcements in the form of the 5th Company of the Star Phantoms Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes helped to turn the tide and secure victory for the servants of the Emperor. In recent years, the Scourging of Kerrack has increasingly become required reading for Imperial tacticians and military officers because of the paramount importance air power played in the successful outcome of the conflict.
The Roots of Heresy
"The enemies of the Emperor will show us no mercy. We intend to extend to them the same courtesy!"
- — Group Captain Ardas Quinn, Kerrack Tactical Air Command
Kerrack is a peculiar world where life has always been harsh. The planet is dominated by a single large continent where the human population has naturally concentrated. This vast continent harbours Kerrack's single and most valuable resource: the great forests of mighty Cholam trees, some of them towering more than 200 Terran feet in height. Cholam roots only grow in humid environments, which means that beneath the canopy much of Kerrack's continent resembles a gigantic swamp. Although filtered through ancient technological artefacts that likely predate the birth of the Imperium, the water used to irrigate these forests is highly toxic. The Imperial presence on Kerrack is concentrated in a few factory-cities located on the shorelines. The harvested Cholam roots are processed there into a barely palatable but nutrient-rich grey gruel, before they are shipped to Kerrack's single spaceport at Ven Nys and then on to the overpopulated Hive Worlds across the Imperium and to support the Astra Militarum regiments engaged in the Karthago Crusade.
Since its establishment as an Imperial Agri-world, Kerrack's native population has deliberately been kept in a state of servitude and held to a lower technological standard than that of the wider Imperium. Organised in great family-groups, the men and women of the so-called Harvester Clans have toiled under the stern gaze of their Imperial overseers, hacking at the tough, fibrous roots of the Cholam trees. So thick were these forests that only travel on foot was possible, thus severely hindering quick transport of goods and personnel on Kerrack. Clansmen riots and insurrections were few and far between, though not unheard of. So in 926.M41, when the first clansmen rose against the Imperium, none could have foreseen the dramatic turn that events would take.
Upon learning of the first uprisings, Kerrack's Planetary Governor Vortgern Strick immediately ordered the Planetary Defence Forces to mobilise. His intent was to quickly smash the riots, but like a brush-fire, these revolts spread quickly, including amongst the PDF. All across the northern shore of the continent, from Algrist in the west to the Ven Nys spaceport in the east, all of the Imperial settlements came under attack, be it from the great mobs of Harvester Clans, now openly declaring themselves the "Charnel Cult" or insurrectionist elements of the Kerrack PDF. At the planetary capital of Calder's Ark, Governor Strick quickly found himself besieged in his own palace. Fortunately for the Governor, a sizable Astra Militarum garrison had been stationed at Calnix Island, to defend the Adeptus Administratum-controlled weapons and munition depot. There on "Fortress Calnix," Colonel Mortemar and his three thousand Cadian Shock Troops readied themselves for their decisive counterattack.
For the Imperial defenders, things looked grim. Colonel Mortemar knew that the enemy heavily outnumbered him. If he was caught in the open, his troops would be quickly annihilated. Secondly, the Cadians were only able to field about two hundred aircraft, not enough to deploy the Cadian forces as one, which would mean that his already meagre fighting force would need to be further divided to allow them to reach the designated battlefield. Furthermore, such large landings could only be conducted in the great factory-cities, most of which had already fallen to the enemy. A direct assault on Calder's Ark was deemed too risky, and so Colonel Mortemar settled for the capture of Algrist, the nearest settlement from which he could strike at the capital, break the siege of the Governor's palace and rally enough loyal troops to finally put down the rebellion.
In disciplined ranks and files, the brave Cadians boarded what Valkyries were available. A first group would storm the city, dig in and hold out against the enemy until a second wave of Loyalist troops could be ferried from Calnix Island. To improve the chances of the first assault wave, it would be supported by what aircraft the base could muster to serve as both air defence fighters and tactical air support. While Mortemar's strategy was sound, on the ground and in the air, things looked far more complicated.
First was the nature of the terrain. Like many provincial cities within the Imperium, Algrist was no grand planetary capital with wide avenues, grand plazas and elegant official buildings: it was an industrial town at the heart of a dense forest. Algrist's streets were narrow and its skyline dominated by the great bulk of the processing factories and worker habs which would take many hours of fierce street-to-street fighting to seize. The height of the Cholam trees -- some of which can grow to a height of more than 200 Imperial feet -- also meant that any approaching aircraft could not use the natural terrain to hide from the city's air defences, which would presumably be well manned by the Charnel Cult. Capturing Algrist would make for a dire prospect indeed.
To make things worse, as soon as the Imperial counterattack was launched, it ran into the enemy. Before even reaching their designated target, the Lightning Strike Fighters of Leonid Squadron who served as the spear-tip of the Imperial attack encountered unexpected enemies: defiled Thunderbolts of the Charnel Cult, formerly belonging to Kerrack's Planetary Defence Forces. Heavily loaded with bombs, as their prime target had been Algrist's anti-air guns, the normally nimble Lightnings made for easy targets. Intercepted while still over the Calnix Channel, a fierce dogfight erupted from which the Imperial fighters ultimately emerged victorious, but several of their numbers had been damaged or been forced to drop their payload into the sea and thus needed to return to base. The depleted first wave continued their attack, approaching Algrist from the sea. The Lightning pilots valiantly dropped to a dangerously low altitude, using the city's drainage trenches and channels as approach vectors to find their target. This allowed the Imperial pilots to close with their target while limiting their exposure to enemy fire, but also required the pilots to level out at the last possible moment, only narrowly avoiding crashing into the city's towering nutrient processing facilities. One pilot miscalculated his approach, pulled up too late and crashed at full speed into the city's ferrocrete flood walls. Forewarned of their approach, the Lightnings were welcomed by Autocannon and Manticore-platforms that spit fire from the ground.
Having been delayed by their unexpected skirmish above the Calnix Channel, the Imperial aircraft were still dealing with Algrist's air defences while the first wave of Mortemar's troop were inbound, further crowding the airspace. The Thunderbolts that made up the first wave's fighter escort soon gained altitude to engage their Renegade counterparts, while the infantry-laden Valkyries sped on. The heavier Vulture gunships outpaced the vulnerable transports, attacking the buildings surrounding the landing zones to keep the enemy occupied or being occasionally called in to destroy an enemy position previously missed by the Lightnings of Leonid Squadron. With typical diligence and the routine born of many battles, the Cadians rappelled down their transports' lines and immediately rushed into buildings, clearing out the enemy to secure a proper beachhead. Fierce firefights and heavy fighting erupted in the city's eastern quarters.
As soon as they had off-loaded their human cargo under the watchful eyes of their escorts, the Valkyries turned and raced back to Calnix Island where the second wave of Imperial troops waited to be ferried to the mainland. The Lightnings and Vultures remained on station, the Cadians ordering precision strikes wherever the enemy resistance was too tough to break, but their fuel was limited. The enemy would counterattack once the Imperial air support was forced to quit the battlefield, so the Cadians did not heedlessly rush in, but instead fortified their landing zones, waiting for the arrival of their reinforcements to properly take control of the city. As predicted, the Charnel Cult launched themselves at the Imperial attackers with great savagery, but the Cadians held their positions until the arrival of the refuelled Valkyries and Thunderbolts heralded the cultists' defeat. By the end of the day, Algrist was once again in Imperial hands.
The Fall of Calder's Ark
The reconquest of Algrist marked the first Imperial victory in the Scourging of Kerrack campaign. The Cadians had secured a valuable foothold on the mainland, yet unknown to Colonel Mortemar and his command staff, events were in motion that would strip this victory of its meaning. Unknown to the seasoned colonel, a voidship was approaching Kerrack, a vessel carrying none other than the Chaos Lord Mahaur the Harvester and his warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Slaughterkin. Only a few solar hours after the fighting had ebbed in Algrist, Mahaur's vessel reached orbit and stationed itself above the planetary capital of Calder's Ark. Rather than bombard the capital from orbit, Mahaur unleashed the Slaughterkin's own aerial might, as scores of Hell Talons and Hell Blades descended like vultures upon a carcass. Heedless of the losses they might inflict on their allies in the Charnel Cult, the Slaugherkin ravaged Calder's Ark, carpet-bombing all its districts save for the Governor's Palace -- for Mahaur intended to seize it to use as his own base of operations. The Slaughterkin rejoiced in the carnage they wrought as entire units of Loyalist PDF were annihilated from the air. The survivors of these bombardments were often in such poor shape that they preferred to go into hiding or to desert rather than face their true enemy.
When all but the Governor's Palace lay in ruins, the Slaughterkin landed their own troops on Kerrack, their Chaos Space Marine general at their head. Such was the frenzy Mahaur instilled in his troops that in less than a solar hour of fighting the Slaughterkin took the Governor's Palace, slaughtering what remained of the governor's loyal bodyguard before leading their lord to the palace's throne room, where the Chaos Cultists had cornered the rightful ruler of Kerrack, Imperial Governor Vortigern Strick. To his credit, the captured Imperial Governor did not cower or plead for his life as Mahaur the Harvester strangled him with his elaborate gold chain of office. Vortigern Strick's death marked the end of Imperial resistance within the planetary capital and its surroundings. Henceforth the Cadians would need to fight without the assistance of Kerrack's militia.
While the Harvester now ruled in Calder's Ark, the Charnel Cult gradually took control of Kerrack's other cities, the Imperial defenders disheartened by the quick fall of the capital and their commander's subsequent death. Under Mahaur's direction, the arcane technologies regulating and purging the waters of Kerrack's swamps and seas were tampered with. The great filtration towers began to increase the water's toxicity levels rather than diminishing it. This perversion poisoned the surrounding land as huge regions of forest began to wither and die. Even the sturdy Cholam trees were overcome by the toxic sludge that bathed their roots, heralding the food shortages to come for many other nearby worlds of the Imperium and regiments of the Astra Militarum engaged in the Karthago Crusade should Kerrack fall. Knowing he had only a short respite, Colonel Mortemar carefully reconsidered his position. While Algrist had been captured, the death of Vortigern Strick and the remaining Loyalist PDF meant that his prime objective had been denied. The enemy had been reinforced and by taking Algrist, the remaining Imperials were much closer to the enemy's main force than before. Only the township of Rorth stood between Mortemar and the Harvester, and that town would also soon fall.
In truth, only two options remained: reinforce Algrist and try to hold out against the crushing numbers of the Charnel Cults and the Slaughterkin, or fall back to Calnix Island where the terrain heavily favoured the defenders. With a heavy heart, Colonel Mortemar ordered his troops to evacuate Algrist. The unending air-ballet began anew as disciplined files of Cadian Shock Troops boarded their Valkyries to abandon the city they had fought so hard to conquer. The Cadians' continued lack of transport would hinder them greatly: the enemy was already on its way, force-marching through the swamps and forests, closing on Algrist. The evacuation had barely begun when the first enemy units were spotted by the perimeter guards.
Using their own flyers to converge quickly on Algrist, the Slaughterkin led a sizeable contingent of Renegade PDF to attack the retreating Imperial Guardsmen. With the same savagery as at Calder's Ark, the Slaughterkin broke through the exterior positions, but the discipline and tenacity of the Cadians slowed their progress towards the heart of the city. Colonel Mortemar soon realized that he would not be able to secure safe transport for all his troops; even now, Thunderbolts were struggling to keep the Valkyries safe from squadrons of marauding Hell Blades. Reluctantly, Colonel Mortemar designated those companies and platoons that would act as a rear-guard for their comrades before boarding a transport himself. He had effectively condemned hundreds of his men to die, but such were the hard realities of war. Despite knowing they were doomed, the Cadian rearguard acquitted themselves well, buying enough time so that all the Imperial transports -- some overladen with troops and wounded -- could take off. For an entire afternoon, the Imperial rearguard slowed the hordes of the Slaughterkin and the Charnel Cult that had begun to swarm the city. The situation changed around nightfall, as the defenders were quickly overwhelmed. Those lucky enough to die in the fighting were spared the bloody rituals and sacrifices to the Blood God the Charnel Cults conducted around the great bonfires they had lit.
Attack on Fortress Calnix
Colonel Mortemar's decision to fall back from Algrist was a sound one, for Calnix Island -- or "Fortress Calnix" as it was known by the locals -- offered many advantages. First, since it was an island, the enemy would have to conduct either an airborne or an amphibious assault, both requiring a great deal of planning and logistical support. Furthermore, for generations Calnix Island had been the main military base of the Imperium on Kerrack, which meant that it had been well fortified. These fortifications included hard-built artillery redoubts with pre-sighted guns in perfect working condition that carried such impressive names as "The Grey Wall", "Abis Sheddin" and "Sobal Beach". Rigorous fire drills had transformed the eastern part of the island into a landscape of craters and loose rubble, one that would heavily favour the defenders. Calnix Island also harboured the principal airfields of the Kerrack Air Command and the twenty full-strength squadrons under its orders. These squadrons ranged from light Lightnings to the far heavier Marauder Destroyers and would enable Mortemar to coordinate both air support and air cover. Lastly, the island also harboured Administratum-led munition plants and weapons reserves, the proverbial armoury which would ensure that the Cadians would go down guns blazing. These impressive defences would have deterred most conventional attackers, but the deluded and fanatical worshippers of Chaos sought to capitalise on their advantage and almost immediately attacked the last Imperial stronghold on Kerrack.
For the massed ranks of the Charnel Cult, the frothing and steaming chem-seas around Calnix Island formed an impenetrable barrier, and so the first attackers of Forteress Calnix came from the Harvester's own warband, the Slaughterkin. Powered by their screaming, daemonically-infused engines, the bat-like silhouettes of Hell Talons -- fighter craft forged by the Dark Mechanicus within the Maelstrom -- flew over the Calnix Channel, intent on wreaking havoc on the last Imperials on Kerrack. They were resolutely met by the Thunderbolts and Lightnings of the Kerrack Air Command. These first overzealous incursions were rapidly shot down, but the situation in the air soon changed. Loathe to waste their own strength, the Slaughterkin gathered what Renegade fighters they could and threw them into the fight. Thanks to these Renegade pilots and their Imperial-issued materiel, the attackers had the advantage of numbers and hoped to wear down the Imperial squadrons. Soon, the unmistakable drone of Thunderbolt flights launching could be heard from both ends of the Calnix Channel, the Imperial aircraft rushing to meet the defiled fighters whose Imperial sigils and defence force markings had crudely been defiled or obscured by blood-painted sigils in the dark language of Chaos. As corrupted Imperial fighter-pilots fought those they had called brothers mere solar days before, the Slaughterkin's Hell Talons and Hell Blades held back, revelling at the fratricidal carnage that unfolded beneath them before picking off the wounded, for the Blood God cared little whose blood flowed as long as the bloodshed continued.
On the ground, Colonel Mortemar knew that the raging air battle offered only a short respite before the inevitable ground assault by the Harvester's forces. The Imperial defenders had expanded and strengthened the already impressive fortification network on Calnix Island. This did not escape the watchful eyes of the Slaughterkin-pilots, who sought to disturb the Cadians' efforts. Brightly-coloured Slaughterkin Hell Talons launched several bombing runs, targeting bunkers, gun emplacements and newly-dug trenches. Fortunately for the defenders, the Slaughterkin's bloodlust was up and when presented with a far more tempting target than mere earthworks, they could seldom resist. Kerrack Air Command soon learned how to use isolated Lightning fighters as bait, the Hell Talons breaking off their bombing run to engage the Loyalist fighter, screaming incoherent insults and challenges over open Vox channels while racing toward their new target. Using his fighter's greater speed, the Lightning pilot would then lead his pursuer right into the concentrated fire of a Hydra Flak Tank or into the path of hidden Imperial fighters attacking from above. If these attacks failed to disrupt the Cadians' effort, they nevertheless succeeded in inflicting some damage, especially at Sobal Beach, the portion of the Imperial defence line facing Ven Nys Spaceport.
Day after day, fierce aerial battles and air raids raged above the Calnix Channel, Mahaur the Harvester intending to wear the defenders down and then break their defences open. Only the continued efforts and the often valiant sacrifices of the pilots of Kerrack Air Command kept the attackers at bay. Growing increasingly frustrated, Mahaur changed tactics. In order to reduce the island's fortifications to rubble, Mahaur ordered the vast majority of the Chaos bombers under his command to conduct a single, focused attack on the western end of the defences at Sobal Beach. From Rorth and Calder's Ark, Ven Deth and Ven Nys Spaceport, the mighty Khornate air armada took flight.
The first Imperial formation to encounter this mass raid was a routine air patrol that mostly consisted of the lighter Lightning-fighters. Fortunately for the defenders, the patrol also encompassed the Imperial ace Ulrik Bex and his personal wing of Avenger fighter-bomber. Immediately assessing the situation, Bex warned Kerrack Air Command of their impending doom before ordering his patrol to attack. If the defenses of Sotha Beach were to hold, they would need time to prepare - Kerrack Air Command also needed time to mobilize what operational aircrafts remained and coordinate a counter-attack. Regardless of his own chances of survival, Ulrik Bek ordered the pilots under his command to form up on him and attack the enemy. His plan was to lure the most aggressive-minded Slaughterkin pilots into a pursuit, thus depriving the massed bombing waves of their fighter escorts. Luckily for Bex, he and his wingmen had the advantage of altitude and the sun in their back - a textbook attack position. Summoning all their courage, the Imperial pilots picked their target and plunged into the massed ranks of Chaos bombers. With Kerrack's sun blinding them, the Slaughterkin virtually only located the attacking craft when they opened fire. Hitting a few targets on their first pass, the Imperial fighter-pilots narrowly avoided collision, traversing the enemy's tightly packed formation before seeking shelter within the clouds. As intended, the Slaughterkin-fighters gave chase, led by a triumvirate of jet-black Hell Blade fighters. As his plan had succeeded, Ulrik Bex ordered his wingmen to break from the fighting while Bex himself turned his Avenger around and charged the enemy anew, determined to buy his friends some more time to make good their escape. Eye-witness accounts of the few survivors from Bex's squadron reported that Bex's Avenger was literally torn apart by the infamous three black Hell Blades which outdanced every attempt from Bex to bring them down.
Bex's sacrifice had however not been in vain, as on Sobal Beach the disciplined Cadians now manned their defences, every anti-air or pintle-mounted weapon tracking the sky and ready to unleash hell at the closing aircrafts. As the first Hell Talons came into sight, Group Captain Quinn's hastily assembled squadrons of Imperial fighters raced over the Cadians' head. Quinn was determined to stop the enemy from reaching Calnix's shores and so both waves of aircraft clashed a few kilometres out at sea, the defenders of Sotha Beach mesmerized by the ferocious dogfight they were witnessing. Soon the battle degenerating into a swirling maelstrom where every fighter had to look after himself. The Imperial Thunderbolt-pilots put their machine's almost legendary resilience to the test, diving right into the heart of enemy formations, guns ablaze, intent on causing as much damage as they could while simultaneously drawing the attention of the enemy fighter-escort so that the light and more fragile Lightnings could close in with their targets. As the battle reached the shores, Sotha Beach's air-defences kicked in, their gun-batteries firing into the melee, careful not to hit any Imperial fightercraft. Soon after the first Hell Talons reached their targets and began dropping their payloads on the beach and its fortifications. Explosions created huge geysers of sand and earth, drawing the defender's attention away from the raging inferno above their heads, just in time to see the first grotesque Daemon Engines thresing through the acidic surf of Kerrack's chem-seas and setting foot on the ground. Behind them, row upon row of landing barges transported the ragged hordes of the Charnel Cult. Mahaur the Harvester had used the air assault to hide his main invasion force into plain sight. With the certainty that this was Mahaur's endgame, the defenders of Sobal Beach shifted their focus on these new targets and opened fire.
While Mahaur himself was one of the terrifying Chaos Space Marines and his warband counted quite a few of these ultimate warriors of evil, the massed ranks of the Harvester's armies now closing on Sotha Beach were mere humans: those deluded Kerrackii-natives that had joined the Charnel Cult, renegade members of the Planetary Defence Forces and those murders and psychopaths that served as the Slaughterkin's rank and file. The defences of Sotha Beach - improved over generations - had been specially designed to repel such an assault. Being well-versed with fighting the horrors drawn from the Warp, the Cadians concentrated their heaviest weapons on the Daemon Engines, confident that their discipline and military training would bring them victory over other unaugmented humans. The garrison's efforts indeed halted the enemy advance, pinning them onto the beach itself where the Cadians' heavy guns would slowly destroy them. Soon the ground war reached a stalemate, with Mahaur's army unable to break through the Imperial defenceline while at the same time stubbornly refusing to retreat. The fate of this battle would be determined in the skies where the air-battle still raged on.
As casualties on both side steadily rose and the fate of the entire battle hung in balance, the Imperium landed a decisive blow. Focussing on the most dangerous elements amongst the Slaugherkin's air armada, Commander Karl Neider of the Imperial Navy launched a furious assault on one of the daemonicaly enfused black Hell Blades. Locking onto his target, Neider unleashed his last missiles which promptly caused the profane craft to explode and tumble to the ground in a trail of fire and black smoke. The impromptu death of one of their tribunes unexpectedly caused the Slaughterkin to scatter. Most of the Hell Talons immediatey broke off their attack, abandoning their allies both in the air and on the ground. A small number of Slaughterkin pilots entered a berserker fury and launched themselves in wild abandon onto the Imperial forces, fighting until their weapons ran out of ammunition or their fighters plummeted from the sky because of empty fuel tanks. Despite their victory, the butcher's bill had been tremendously high, both on the ground and in the air. Sotha Beach had held, but barely. The vast majority of its fortifications now laid in ruins and the Cadian Shocktroops' death toll was likewisely high. The Imperial Navy and Kerrack PDF squadrons had fared little better, for whereas most of the downed fighters could be repaired or stripped for parts, neary none of the pilots forced to eject had been saved. One can only imagine what gruesome fate was theirs when they were seized by the insane followers of the Charnel Cult. While the enemy had not seized Calnix Island, every man and woman knew in his heart that they were now trapped on the island. The bloody mathematics of war all pointed to the same solution: another such costy 'victory' would be their death. Cold realisation settled in, choking every simmer of hope or joy: they had merely postponed the inevitable.
Aid Unlooked For
The Harvester's Doom
Sources
- Imperial Armour Aeronautica, pp. 76-84
- Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost and the Damned, pg. 25