War of Limbs

The War of Limbs

Taking place in the first century of M39. the War of Limbs marked the breaking of the Butcher's Fief, a petty Ork empire carved out by the Butcherking.

After thirteen hard years of establishing his domain, the Warlord Gargog stood triumphant over three systems and half a dozen inhabited planets on the outskirts of the Scallop Stars. With his star ascendant, the so-called Butcherking launched the mixture of holy war and alehouse brawl known as to the greenskins as a Waa-ork. Heading corewards, the fleet would likely have skipped out of the sector entirely, had they not happened upon the remnants of a large Imperial civilian fleet in an old shipping lane.

It is believed that the fleet had been destroyed by Eldar pirates, and the drifting loot deliberately scattered along the shipping lane to lead the orks by the nose to the Spinther subsector. The Waa altered its course and began to bear down upon the Spinther sector. Long-range Imperial Navy patrols made full heading to Primaris, where they alerted sector command.

Fall of the Navigator's Gate

Tracing the shipping lane to Obsyl's Gate, the Subsector fleet met the ork ships as they emerged from deep space. Long-range bombardment stripped down the ork vanguard, but the Butcherking was no bereserker. Anticipating tough pickings, Gargog deployed an enfilading wave of ram ships from below the equatorial plane. These tore into the Imperial line and left it reeling.

Admiral Arbastein swiftly pulled the fleet back, abandoning the gate. This has gone down in history as Arbastein's Folly, and he is cursed as a coward throughout the common populace as it allowed the Waaagh to begin their predations upon the subsector. In fact, the Admiral's quick thinking was the only reason that enough of the fleet survived to eventually break the Butcherking's army.

First Battle of Miticas

Five years passed, with only minor skirmishes between system ships and the pirates, who spread out across Spinther space. The depredations of the Butcherking have passed into legend across the sector, and many worlds were brought to ruin while subsector command dithered. The Butcherking established his Fief, extorting the local system governors of their tithes. Late or non-payment led to full invasion of their worlds; a fate notably suffered by Primaris and Fullofaudes in the Gorgidas system. Only the actions of the Emperor's Hawks second and seventh companies helped Miticas avoid the same fate; the Astartes swooping in to smash the ground forces of Gargog's lieutenant, Gitsnik the Guteater; leaving the ork to trail back to the Butcherking with news of failure.

Arbastein was eventually executed as a traitor, his trial being widely publicised. Records from the Arbitrators indicate that while he had been privately exonerated of blame, political and public ill-will towards him forced the hands of the Judges. Arbastein will be remembered privately as a hero; but the Imperium knows him as a base coward.

With Arbastein's death, the subsector's political wills realigned themselves along a single path. Reinforcements were arriving from the Ornithius and Clausentum fleets, and a large enough fleet could be amassed to corral and challenge the Butcherking. Meanwhile, the defeat on Miticas had forced Gargog to gather his forces to fall on the world, which had become a popular symbol for resistance. Gargog could not therefore afford the planet to stand, and vowed to crush the Ecclesiarch's Palace forthwith.

Second Battle of Miticas

Spearheaded by the newly-refurbished flagship Honour Eternal, the gathered Imperial fleet moved into a battle line across the system. Mercenary ships circled above and below the line, guarding it from a repeat of the Butcherking's earlier victory. The two fleets clashed on M39.004438331, with the Imperium narrowly emerging the victor.

Invasion of Limbs and Massey's Stand

With a bloodied nose, but far from put down, Gargog fell back to the Limbs system, hoping to gather more of his disparate forces while the Imperial fleet was recovering from the hard fight. Dropping to the surface of Limbs, Gargog began a systematic purge of the hives and engaged his slavers to convert the factories to generating munitions for his army. General Massy of the Limbs 3rd Army, supported by Abbess Calotte and her Sisters of the Shrouded Sight, staged an heroic stand in the shadows of the Ferrumanian Hives, but his forces were swept aside.

It was at this point that reports of Astartes from the Carcharodons Chapter began to filter back to the Imperial command. Fleeting tales told of grey-armoured Space Marines engaging in a guerilla war on the surface of Limbs. This boosted resistance efforts and undoubtedly led to the slowing of the ork war machine.

Warpbane's Rampage

Despite Imperial efforts, Gargog was well-placed by this point in the war. His piratical raiders were infuriatingly difficult to bring to battle except on his terms, and were slowly bleeding the system white. While highly classified, the events of the tri-Millennial equinox across the sector undoubtedly helped to weaken the Butcherking. 

The suffering the warlord had inflicted on the suffering coincided with the Sectorial Equinox, which weakened the barriers between reality and the immaterium. The culling of rebellious labour camps on the planet Pluracy led to the deaths of thirteen million slaves, which drew the eye of the fell daemon Warpbane. The warpstorm Confluence of Regret began to weep immaterial energy into realspace, allowing the hordes of Khorne to fall upon Pluracy and drive off the orks in an orgy of blood. While the Inquisition later needed to corral the survivors on the penal worlds Thuggeneel and Ballacrus, this liberated Pluracy and allowed the Imperium a foothold in the Limbs system.

Battle of Limbs

With the Imperial fleet rallied and reinforced, Gargog was brought to battle on Limbs. Spearheaded by divisions of tanks from Marathon, El Migan Grenadiers and the full vengeful force of the Order of the Shrouded Sight, the Imperial war machine began to roll over the orks. The battle lasted fourteen months, until Gargog was killed during the fighting. His broken body was confirmed killed by privtrouper Uhamad Cromartes, an El Migan soldier of the line, who was later mentioned in dispatches for his command of the regiment in the Ballacrene Counter-insurgency. According to local legend, Cromartes saw the fallen ork surrounded by the bodies of thirteen Astartes of the Carcharodon chapter. The armour of these warriors was broken down by looters after the war, and parts still emerge as holy relics of the Indomitable Thirteen who, according to local folklore told to children, brought down the ogre-king single-handedly.  

The Brokfiefmas Massacre

Regardless of how events transpired, the Butcherking's hold on the sector was broken. Bereft of leadership with the death of Gargog and Gitsnik the Guteater, the orks began to flee towards Obsyl's Gate, only to be met by prowling warships of the Carcharodons and Emperor's Hammers Chapters, who had emerged from deep space. Caught between two fleets, the orks were crushed in a decisive victory celebrated across the subsector as the day of celebration Brokefiefmass.