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[[Category:Battles (Ultramarines)]]
 
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[[Category:Battles (Daemons)]]

Revision as of 12:11, 19 December 2018

The Battle of the Macragge's Honour
InfidiusImperator.jpg
Centurion Aerion Mersaror battles the Word Bearers while the Macragge's Honour and the Infidus Imperator duel in the background.
Conflict Horus Heresy
Date 007.M31
Location Calth, Veridian System, Ultramar; the Warp
Outcome Loyalist victory
Combatants
Wordbearerslogo.gif Word Bearers Ultramarines Symbol.png Ultramarines
Commanders
First Captain Kor Phaeron
Shipmaster Antonus Antwark (d)
First Master Marius Gage
Acting Shipmaster Ouon Hommed
Strength
Battle barge Infidus Imperator; 3 escort cruisers; Word Bearers Legion; multiple Daemons; numerous Cultist auxiliaries; Battle barge Macragge's Honour; multiple companies of the Ultramarines); Crew of the Imperial Army
Casualties
Infidus Imperator destroyed with all hands lost except Kor Phaeron, his retinue, and a small escort of Word Bearer Marines. Macragge's Honour heavily damaged; 88% Ultramarines killed or wounded; numerous crew members killed.

The Battle of the Macragge's Honour occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Calth, during the Horus Heresy. After the failure of the Word Bearers' attack on the Ultramarines legion at Calth, their commander, Kor Phaeron, attempted to escape the system in his flagship, the battle barge Infidus Imperator. Roboute Guilliman, still recuperating from his duel with Phaeron aboard Calth's orbital defense platform, furiously ordered Chapter Master Marius Gage to pursue in the Ultramarines' flagship, the Macragge's Honour.[1]

It remains one of the most infamous naval battles in the Imperium's history.[1]

Battle

The initial clash between the Macragge's Honour and the Infidus Imperator was conventional, and the Ultramarines appeared to hold the clear advantage. Three escort cruisers peeled away from the Imperator and tried to delay the Honour, which simply plowed through them, annihilating them with its firepower and closing the gap with the Imperator.[2]

Marius Gage, still being fitted with an augmetic hand after losing the original to a daemon earlier in the day, directed the battle from the bridge of the Honour, chiefly aided by Acting Shipmaster Ouon Hommed. Kor Phaeron directed the battle from a makeshift medicae station on the bridge of the Imperator, still recovering from having his primary heart torn out by Guilliman. His chief aide was Shipmaster Antonus Antwark.[2]

After an exchange of fire at middle range, the two ships drew alongside each other, exchanging murderous barrages at point-blank range, even as Ultramarine boarding parties launched themselves into the Imperator through boarding torpedoes, assault rams and docking tubes. Unknown to Gage, this was what Kor Phaeron had been waiting for. On his order, a group of cultists completed a summoning ritual that unleashed thousands of minor warp anomalies across the hull and interior of the Honour, killing hundreds of crew and Space Marines and causing massive damage throughout the ship. The same ritual also transported hundreds of Word Bearers marines and daemons inside the Honour. Gage personally led the combat parties to scour the ship clean (ruefully noting that it was the second time that day he had to do so). While the Ultramarines were thus occupied, the Imperator broke free of the docking tubes and sped away.[2]

The Honour resumed the pursuit, Gage still hopeful that they could overtake before the Word Bearers reached the necessary translation point for entry into the warp. However, Kor Phaeron surprised him again, slitting a hole in the materium with his athame that swallowed the Imperator. Gage, undaunted, ordered the Honour to follow.[2]

Both ships were inside the warp, but in a manner unlike any Empyrean journey the Honour had ever made before. Even the limited instrumentation and navigational aides used for warp travel were blind, meaning the Honour had no means of orienting itself other than to keep visual contact with the Imperator.[2]

Kor Phaeron's crew noted the strain on the Ultramarines' engines and guessed that the Imperator could lose them without much risk to itself. Kor Phaeron was not satisfied with this, deciding that, if he could not vent his hatred of the Ultramarines on Guilliman himself, then he would at least make certain to destroy the primarch's flagship. He ordered the Imperator to accelerate and evade only as much as necessary to break visual contact with the Honour, then turn about and destroy the ship.[2]

The Honour pursued doggedly, but was attacked by an influx of warp entities that breached the ship's shields and Geller field alike, and nearly overran the ship. Again, the Ultramarines fought back the tide and cleared the ship, but at the cost of losing 88% of their fighting forces, ending Gage's hopes of another boarding action. The attack also caused the Honour to lose sight of the Imperator, meaning the ship was lost in the warp without any means of returning home, and also unable to track the Imperator.[2]

With the Ultramarines blinded, Kor Phaeron ordered the Imperator, guided by the Octed, to strafe the Honour. It did so twice, causing catastrophic damage to the whole ship. A third run would destroy the Ultramarines ship utterly.[2]

Acting Shipmaster Ouon Hommed advocated firing a spread of their available weapons in all directions. He acknowledged that their chances of scoring a hit, much less inflicting any damage on the Imperator, were virtually nil, yet he preferred to try rather than simply wait to die.[2]

Gage approved, but before they could fire, they picked up the signal from an Ultramarines homing beacon. Gage had been informed that all of their boarding parties had been wiped out, but there was one lone survivor, Centurion Aerion Mersaror, still fighting desperately against a horde of Word Bearers. Mersaror voxed the Honour, urging Gage to lock onto his signal and open fire before the Word Bearers silenced him. Gage waited until the signal was close enough, then gave the order.[2]

Kor Phaeron, completely wrong-footed by the overwhelming volley from the Honour, desperately ordered the Imperator to divert course and reinforce its shields, but it was too late. The volley devastated the Imperator, and Kor Phaeron, realizing he had lost, hastily cut another hole in the air with his athame and escaped with his retinue and a small escort of Word Bearer Marines, minutes before the Ultramarines' second volley arrived, vaporizing the Imperator.[2]

Aftermath

Gage commended the crew of the Honour and ordered them to rest and begin repairs to the ship. Hommed reminded Gage that they were lost inside the warp, but Gage vowed that, though it might take years, or even lifetimes, they would eventually find a way home.[2] Since the Honour was part of the Ultramarines fleet as of M41, it may be assumed that they succeeded.[3]

Kor Phaeron and his followers would eventually arrive on Sicarus, the daemon world inside the Eye of Terror that would become the Word Bearers' new homeworld after the Horus Heresy.[2]

See also

Sources