The Second War for Armageddon was the second of three massive conflicts between the Imperium of Man and the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka that took place between 941.M41 through 943.M41. The war was fought on the Hive World of Armageddon in the Segmentum Solar, where Ghazghkull Thraka launched an Ork WAAAGH! consisting of five separate Ork tribes in an attempt to seize the planet for themselves.
Elements of three Space Marine Chapters were involved in the defence of Armageddon, including: the Blood Angels, Salamanders and the Ultramarines, along with dozens of regiments of the Astra Militarum, particularly the Armageddon Steel Legion native to the world, as well as a large contingent of Inquisition forces from the Ordo Xenos composed of Squat mercenaries. A notable effect of this invasion resulted in Ghazghkull earning the wrath of Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, who dedicated his efforts after the Second War to hunting down Ghazghkull, with little success.
The main conflict lasted for only two standard years, but continuous combat took place between the Imperial forces and the Orks remaining on the world for another twenty Terran years until 961.M41. This war represented a colossal effort between both species for the control of a single, highly strategic planet. However, it would pale in comparison to the second attempt by Ghazghkull to take the world several solar decades later, unleashing the Third War for Armageddon.
History
Prior to the Ork Landing
The war may be seem to have begun on Armageddon in 941.M41, but it really began some nine standard years earlier in 932.M41. At this time, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka was a lowly Ork Boy in the Greenskin armies present on the planet of Urk. A Space Marine force from an unknown Chapter raided the planet in the hopes of disrupting the Ork forces there. During the battle, a bolter shell ripped into Ghazghkull's skull, causing massive brain damage and blasting off a good chunk of his cranium.
He was luckily (or not) found by a Painboy known as Mad Dok Grotsnik who replaced that part of his cranium with a bionik device. Somehow this device may have enabled Ghazghkull's latent psychic powers, or he may just have been suffering from delusions. But whatever the cause, from then on he claimed to be in communion with the Ork gods, Gork and Mork. Within six Terran years he had risen to control his tribe as its warboss in 938.M41, and one standard year later in 939.M41 he got his opportunity to lead a great horde of conquest, for the star around which his planet orbited was dying.
There were severe solar flares causing many Ork deaths from the radiation, but fortunately a massive space hulk appeared in orbit around the planet. Whether this was dumb luck or a higher power believed Ghazghkull and his Orks worthy of survival, the warboss managed to convince the other four Ork tribes resident on Urk to follow him on his great WAAAGH! and unite under his rule as their warlord.
While en route through the Warp the power systems on the space hulk failed, causing its Gellar Field to collapse several times. As a result, the Orks had to fight off hundreds of Daemons, providing them with extensive battle experience. One solar month before landing on Armageddon, the space hulk, designated Alveus Alpha Alpha Sextus by Imperial Administratum adepts, destroyed the defences of the Armageddon System, including its obsolete orbital satellites and small attack craft.
Desperate astropathic messages were sent by the world of Armageddon's beleaguered defenders in the hope of acquiring aid against the huge Ork horde that was descending upon them. Three Space Marine Chapters began to organise themselves to go to Armageddon's defence but were not able to get to the strategically located Hive World before the Orks landed. A solar month later, the Orks disembarked as their space hulk slammed into the planet, initiating the primary campaign of the Second War for Armageddon on the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, 941.M41.
The War Begins
After the Orks landed, a massive Warp storm formed around the Armageddon System, preventing Imperial reinforcements from aiding the beleaguered Human forces on the planet. The Ork horde split off into their five separate tribes, and two of them were sent into the planet's northern reaches to take hold of the western half of the world's main sub-continent, a region called Armageddon Prime.
Herman von Strab, the Imperial planetary governor and Overlord of Armageddon, was ignorant of the threat posed by the Orks. There were several warnings of the encroaching danger, including readings of the Emperor's Tarot and Chartist Captains' warnings of disturbances in the Warp for several solar months before the space hulk's arrival in the Armageddon System, but von Strab ignored them all. Only after the Orks landed did any real astropathic distress signal leave the planet, and only due to the foresight of Commissar Sebastian Yarrick of the Officio Prefectus, who was seconded to the Astra Militarum regiments of the Armageddon Steel Legion.
Von Strab banished Yarrick to Armageddon's Hades Hive for countermanding his orders to not request aid from the Imperial authorities. Hades Hive was located on the sub-continent of Armageddon Secundus, the name of the eastern half of Armageddon's primary continent. Von Strab decided he could take on the Orks with his available forces from the world's Planetary Defence Forces (PDF).
The populations of Armageddon Prime formed into defensive units and fortified a defensive line around their hive city homes but were pushed further and further back by the unstoppable Orks. Piecemeal attacks were ordered by von Strab which only led to the deaths of more Humans. Commissar Yarrick ordered shuttle runs to help arm the north, the Imperial pilots skipping out of the atmosphere and back in again before the Orks could intercept them. Many pilots died as their vessels were destroyed, the remains falling back to the planet in flaming chunks.
Von Strab hastily relocated his command centre to Hive Tartarus in Armageddon Secundus, knowing that the northern regions of his world would fall to the Orks no matter what he did. The location of three of the Ork tribes that had invaded the world were unaccounted for but von Strab believed they were being held in reserve by the Greenskin warlord.
Princeps Prime Kurtiz Mannheim, the commander of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Legio Metalica Titan Legion that was temporarily stationed on Armageddon, advised von Strab to prepare for an attack from these three tribes. Von Strab ignored him, believing they remained held in reserve, and that they would never be able to cross the equatorial jungle region of the world at the centre of the peninsula that separated Armageddon Prime from Armageddon Secundus. Von Strab then intended to launch a mighty counterattack, leading from the fore and reaping the glory.
The Real Fight Begins
Two solar days later, the Orks invaded Armageddon Secundus just as Princeps Prime Mannheim had predicted. It was the Season of Storms on the world and the many volcanoes of Armageddon erupted, sending black clouds high into the sky. Massive armoured columns of Orks charged through the thin Imperial lines, and two tribes moved east of the Palidus Mountains toward Hive Hades and one to the west of the mountains to Hive Helsreach.
Von Strab ordered his Titans, under Mannheim's command, to attack and wipe out the Orks. Mannheim protested that they should wait and fight a holding action, but von Strab screamed that he needed no help. Mannheim was under an oath to act as von Strab ordered him to, and as such he gathered his Titan Legion and said goodbye to his family.
The great Titans strode forth into the fray, and massacred thousands of Orks, but the huge number of Ork Gargants present at the heart of the WAAAGH! demolished even the powerful Imperial Titans quickly. Mannheim, realising his allies would soon be overrun, led the Legio Metalica and its Skitarii escort against a wave of Ork Titan-class threats and six million Ork infantry. After slaying an Ork Gargant in a grueling duel, Mannheim ordered his badly wounded Titan Steel Hammer to self-destruct, his sacrifice killing another two Gargants and burning out the heart out of the Ork offensive in the process. Mannheim was posthumously awarded the Emperor's Star for his valour.
Without the potent power of the Titan Legion to keep the Ork horde at bay, the remaining Imperial forces now fell back, establishing defensive lines along the many rivers of Armageddon Secundus, including the Stygies River in the west and Diabolus River in the east. When the storms abated the Orks drove south, crushing the defences and sweeping into Hive Infernus. Demoralised, the officer in charge of the defence of Hive Infernus shamefully surrendered it to the Greenskins without a fight. The refugee columns, hundreds of kilometers long, trekked across the deserts of Armageddon and were harried by Ork Speed Freek biker units, herding them back to Hive Infernus to work as slaves in the Ork warmachine.
Climax of the War
Soon, Hades Hive was under siege by the Orks, and the hardest fighting began. Commissar Sebastian Yarrick organised the defence of Hades Hive and he seemed to be everywhere at this time. He helped weld shut the great blast portals of the hive city while at the same time negotiating treaties with the many hive gangs of Hades' Underhive. Amazingly, Yarrick succeeded in putting together a rag-tag army to defend Hive Hades. Thousands of Orks waited for the call to attack while their Gargants pounded the hive city with their biggest guns. The people of Hades survived on rats and roaches and on reduced power. Few in the present speak of this time other than to praise Commissar Yarrick.
It was then that Overlord von Strab released his secret battery of ancient virus bombs. His family had had them stocked for a potentially desperate time since the first colonisation of Armageddon long millennia before after the War of the Beast. They were mounted on antiquated missile systems and hastily pressed into service.
Unfortunately, many malfunctioned due to their age, as the rockets would not fire, detonators would not arm and the Life-eater virus they contained had decreased in potency over time. The missiles wreaked havoc among the Orks but did not come even close to producing the casualties needed to stop the horde from overrunning the world. Overlord von Strab retired to his richly appointed bunker to sulk.
To the west of Armageddon Secundus in the port city of Hive Helsreach, the planet's population put up a fierce defence, inspired by the successful defence of Hive Hades. They were a highly-organised irregular force, with street gangs ambushing the Orks at every corner. Oil super tanks converted to serve as impromptu marine transports were used to evacuate the population to the ships waiting in the hive city's dock, known as Grendel's Lock, from where noncombatants could be taken to safety across the Tempest Ocean.
There was not enough room aboard the vessels, so lots were thrown for the places, and those who remained in the city knew they would not survive the next Greenskin attack. Using improvised weapons, Human suicide bombers got as deep into the Ork lines as they could and then detonated the explosives strapped to their chests.
The drivers of the great loading cranes at Hive Helsreach who normally moved cargo off and onto the ships that docked at Grendel's Lock welded themselves into their massive cargo shifting cranes and battled with the Gargants. The Human resistance was so stubborn that even the Ork commanders wondered if taking the hive city was worth it. The victory for the Orks finally came in the form of a massive psychic attack by their Weirdboyz, which destroyed the minds of all the Humans left in Hive Helsreach, leaving it open for Ork conquest.
Elsewhere, Warlord Ghazghkull himself arrived to coordinate the Orks' next attack on Hive Hades. He tried every strategy he could think of, and finally claimed that he was told what action to take by the whisperings of the Ork deities, Gork and Mork. He tried dropping elite Ork Kommandoz onto the spires of the hive, had great siege weapons built and even retrofitted Gargants with earth-moving devices, all to no avail.
For every strategy Ghazghkull tried, Commissar Yarrick found a defence. He had the Hades maintenance crews go into the hive city's ventilation shafts, armed with a bolt pistol and knife, and attack the Ork Kommandoz as they came down. Not one Kommando survived. The hive's transport infrastructure was used to counter feint attacks and Imperial suicide bombers slipped out to successfully destroy the huge Greenskin siege weaponry.
Imperial Reinforcements Arrive
Meanwhile, as the siege of Hades Hive continued, Ork columns surged south from Hive Helsreach and Hive Infernus, heading for Hive Acheron. Acheron seemed to be the last bastion of Human resistance on the planet, and the Acheronians steeled themselves for the onslaught to come.
As they looked out of their ocular monitors they could see the Orks slowly advancing on their position. The only support they had from Overlord von Strab were his happy thoughts and the twenty members of his personal guard whom he most disliked. The Orks stormed forward and quickly overran the outer hive, beginning the siege of the hive city's core. The hive governor refused to surrender and made a passionate speech to his people to increase their morale and fighting spirit, but it was all for naught. The Orks, confident of victory, charged headlong into the hive. Suddenly, out of nowhere, massive explosions rent holes in the Orks' advance columns. The ramshackle vehicles of the Orks were thrown into the air like so much chaff and the inhabitants of Hive Acheron looked on in amazement as what was an unexpected orbital bombardment continued.
Imperial aircraft filled the skies as Thunderhawk gunships dropped squads of the Adeptus Astartes off in the path of the Orks. The Emperor's Angels of Death had finally answered the stricken Hive World's call for aid. Surprised by this turn of events, the Orks reeled back while the Space Marines continued to deploy. The mortal defenders of the hive came out to aid the Space Marines. For the first time in the war, the Orks suffered a defeat on the battlefield.
The Space Marines quickly set up a base of operations. Overlord von Strab protested their arrival, saying he had everything under control, but the Force Commander of the Blood Angels Chapter's forces, Commander Luis Dante himself, announced he was taking control of all Imperial military forces remaining on the planet. He ordered that von Strab be put under house arrest while awaiting trial by the Adeptus Arbites for negligence, assassination and murder. Von Strab sought to escape his fate in a Land Speeder which was later found wrecked, but his body was never recovered.
Meanwhile, to the north, Warlord Ghazghkull was massing more and more Greenskin forces to assault Hive Hades. Due to the duration of the Orks' assault, food eventually ran out in the hive. Food parcels came from elsewhere on the world to the north to the south, reversing the previous flow of supplies from Hades to other regions under siege. Yet the people of Hive Hades suffered from a feeling of dread and impending doom. Not even Commissar Yarrick's herculaean efforts could raise their spirits.
Victory in Sight
Lord Commander Luis Dante tried a desperate gamble to capture Ghazghkull by dropping the Blood Angels in behind enemy lines and assaulting his headquarters; unfortunately, Ghazghkull was touring the front lines at the time. The Space Marines' assault, however, did manage to cause serious damage to the Ork spearhead.
In the battle to retake Hive Tartarus, the titanic forces of Orks and Imperial troops clashed in hand-to-hand combat in what would be some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Space Marine strike forces constantly harried the Orks inside the hive. Time after time, the Orks attempted a breakout, but were pushed back by the narrowest of margins.
In the end, the Orks ran out of food and ammunition and resorted to fight or die tactics, each of them using knives and rocks to attack the Imperial forces. Eventually the Orks were wiped out to the last Greenskin. It is said that Ghazghkull himself fell, taking a bolter shell to the bionik portion of his brain, but if so, his body was never found. In truth, as would become all too appreant later, the warlord had survived the fall of Hive Tartarus to trouble the Imperium yet again.
For all intents and purposes, the Second War for Armageddon was over with the fall of Tartarus and the loss of the WAAAGH!'s leader. The Ork invaders were forced back after having their leader apprarently slain in combat and half their army wiped out. The surviving Orks were pushed back into the Equatorial Jungles between Armageddon Prime and Armageddon Secundus, where they slowly devolved into a feral state as their reserves of advanced technology collapsed. From the moment Tartarus was retaken by Imperial forces, victory for the Imperium in the conflict was at last assured and Armageddon would remain a Human-controlled world.
The War in the North
While the war was reaching its conclusion in the south with the Imperial attack on Hive Tartarus, the fighting on Armageddon Prime intensified after the landing of the Space Marines in Armageddon Secundus. When the Warp storm surrounding the Armageddon System had finally lifted, a vast contingent of mercenary Squats landed to the north under the command of Inquisitor Horst of the Ordo Xenos. He had been fighting on the Mining World of Golgotha, a planet controlled by the Leagues of Votann, where he had earned the service of the Squats for his aid, and when they arrived at Armageddon, they were directed to the north to aid the Imperial defences there.
After the defeat of the Orks at Hive Tartarus, Horst led the Squats, known among themselves as "Kin," in a massive offensive push that forced the defeated Orks back to the Equatorial Jungles between the two primary settled regions of Armageddon's main continent. The Squats made full use of their famed Land Fortresses against their most hated foe, lumbering across the planet blasting their huge cannons at the Orks fleeing ahead of them.
Imperial Victory
An Imperial relief force was finally sent north to Hive Hades including forces from all three of the Space Marine Chapters -- Blood Angels, Ultramarines and Salamanders -- that had ultimately sent contingents to Armageddon aid the Imperial defenders once the Warp storm abated. Unfortunately, just before they arrived, the hive was finally overrun by the Orks. Only a few of the Humans within Hive Hades survived, including the battered Commissar Yarrick, discovered by their Astartes rescuers surrounded by dozens of Ork corpses.
In the west, a wave of Ork reinforcements arrived, hoping to push back to Hive Tartarus and break the back of the renewed Imperial resistance. The Imperial forces defending the western regions had been stripped for the attack on Hive Hades and were easily overrun. Ghazghkull, evidently having returned from the dead, led this last ditch attempt by the Orks to conquer the planet.
The Greenskin offensive succeeded in pushing through the Imperial defensive cordon that had been established at the Skeletus River. For a while it looked like the Orks might succeed, but they were eventually pushed back to Armageddon Prime through a concentrated effort by the forces of the Space Marines. Sporadic fighting continued off and on for another dozen Terran years, but the Orks eventually took such losses that they were forced to retreat back to their newly constructed voidships and eventually escape the system in 961.M41.
Aftermath
The Second War for Armageddon was over and the Emperor's forces had prevailed despite the savage and bloody fighting, yet the warlord Ghazghkull harboured nothing else in his heart but a desire for a rematch -- a rematch that would come fifty-seven standard years to the day after the start of the Second War.
Nomenclature
Due to the fact that the history of the First War for Armageddon against the great Chaos incursion led by the World Eaters Daemon Primarch Angron was entirely suppressed by the actions of the Inquisition, most of the Imperium, and the citizens of Armageddon itself, considered the Second War for Armageddon to actually be the First War for Armageddon, rather than the second.
Sources
- Battle for Armageddon (Board Game)
- Codex: Armageddon (3rd Edition), pp. 24-25
- Codex Adeptus Mechanicus - Skitarii (7th Edition), pg. 25
- Third War for Armageddon - World Wide Campaign
- Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Ch. 7]