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Battle of Sixty-Three Nineteen

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The Battle of Sixty-Three Nineteen
63-19.jpg
The Luna Wolves assault the "Imperial Palace."
Conflict The Great Crusade
Date 001.M31
Location "Terra" (63-19)
Outcome Imperial victory
Combatants
Imperial Eagle.jpgImperial 63rd Expedition "The Empire of Man"
Commanders
Horus Lupercal
First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon
Captain Tarik Torgaddon
Captain Horus Aximand
Captain Garviel Loken
"The Emperor of Mankind" (d)
Strength
63rd Expeditionary Fleet
Four Luna Wolves Companies
Six Legio Mortis Titans
600 warships
Infantry, tanks, ordnance, robotic gun-platforms
The Invisibles
Casualties
Unknown; presumably moderate The Emperor of Mankind slain by Horus
Presumably severe other casualties
rumors of surviving Invisibles

I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.

The Battle of Sixty-Three Nineteen was a compliance action that took place in the 203rd year of the Great Crusade. It saw the world codified as Sixty-Three Nineteen (63-19) brought into the bosom of the Imperium and is chiefly known for its ironic juxtaposition to the last battle of the Horus Heresy.

Prelude

The 63rd Expeditionary Fleet entered the system of 63-19 by accident, forced to reroute by a warp-storm into a system of nine planets orbiting a yellow sun. A human civilisation on the third planet contact the fleet in the name of "the Emperor of Mankind," the predestined ruler of all scattered humanity. He invited the members of the 63rd Expedition Fleet to treat and pay fealty to him.[1a]

Accordingly, the Warmaster Horus, commander of the 63rd Fleet, sent his favoured subordinate Captain Hastur Sejanus and a glory squad to entreat with the supposed Emperor of Mankind. Negotiations proceeded until Sejanus suggested that there might be another Emperor. The Emperor's elite guard, the Invisibles, promptly attacked and killed them all.[1a]

Despite his intense grief at Sejanus's death, Horus authorised a second attempted negotiation under his equerry Maloghurst and a speartip to present a message: open hand and clenched fist. 63-19's defenders shot down Maloghurst's ship and sent up a fleet of six hundred warships. Ezekyle Abaddon broke obscurement to make a final plea to the Emperor; a salvo was his reply. Horus gave the order to begin the battle.[1a]

Battle

The 63rd Fleet engaged that of 63-19 and ultimately prevailed. Intense weapons fire and exploding starships occurred with frequency above the ground battle.[1a]

As was customary for the Luna Wolves, the companies drew lots to decide which would participate in the ground battle. The four chosen were the I, II, V and X companies, under the commands of Captains Abaddon, Torgaddon, Aximand, and Loken, respectively, with First Captain Abaddon in overall command.[1a] Coincidentally, this roster mirrored that of the future Mournival Council, reconstituted by Loken's initiation after the battle.[1d]

A half-dozen Titans provided ground support, engaging the defensive batteries of 63-19's capital, while assault craft provided close-air support. This combination of firepower allowed the waves of Luna Wolves to close and penetrate the capital's defences. Abaddon tasked 5th Company to take the Regency and 2nd the lower town while 1st and 10th Companies assaulted the Imperial Palace. 10th Company was the first company to breach the Palace, Captain Loken's 1st Squad under Sergeant Jubal gaining a gated stairway. Loken supervised the entry of his leading company elements before pushing inwards himself. Having gained entry to the Palace before his First Captain, Abaddon challenged Loken to reach the false Emperor before him as well.[1a]

Loken soon caught up with his 2nd squad under Sergeant Nero Vipus. An automated sentry had the squad pinned at an intersection and had inflicted some casualties. Loken distracted it with a flare and disabled it before leading the squad onwards and straight into an Invisibles ambush.[1a]

The stealth-armoured elite warriors of the false Emperor inflicted several casualties on 2nd squad and wounded Sergeant Vipus before the endurance and heavier firepower of the Astartes prevailed. After pushing onwards some distance ahead of his men, Loken - apparently only by good fortune - found himself reaching the personage of the false Emperor before his First Captain, although only shortly ahead of Captain Kalus Ekaddon's Catulan Reaver Squad. The false Emperor then offered to surrender, but only to the overall commander of the Imperial forces, not to either of the subordinate Captains. Ekaddon had this request transmitted to the fleet and the inhabitants of the throne room settled into an uneasy watchfulness.[1b]

Loken realised that the situation was a trap for the Warmaster. Ekaddon killed the impersonator Emperor with a single bolt when he tried to impede Loken's movement toward the throne. The true Emperor, hidden beneath a field like those of the Invisibles, activated a gravitic weapon that blew out the contents of the throne room, including the Catulan Reavers. Ekaddon and Loken managed to find handholds to save themselves. Horus teleported into the chamber, assessed the situation, and fired a single shot from his storm bolter into the throne, killing the Emperor instantly and ending the weapon's effect.[1b]

Aftermath

Main resistance to the Imperial attackers collapsed almost overnight after the death of the false Emperor, although some elements of his military continued to fight, waging guerrilla war from several areas of 63-19 and on three other worlds in the system. These were expunged by the Byzant Janizars Imperial Army regiment over some months, with the Luna Wolves 10th Company eliminating the last holdouts in the Whisperhead Mountains. Governorship of the world was given to General Rakris of the Byzant Janizars.[1d] Adapting the cities and infrastructure of the world to Imperial standards was given over to Peeter Egon Momus.[1e] Three months after the battle for the High City, the remembrancers joined the fleet directly from Terra. Rogal Dorn and two companies of Imperial Fists that had been travelling with 63rd Fleet but did not participate in the annexation attended the Emperor's state funeral.[1c] The inhabitants of 63-19 resisted assimilation for some time after their subjugation.[1e]

No record of 63-19 exists after this date, and it is unknown whether it exists as a world of the Imperium in M41.

Consequences

  • Hastur Sejanus's death created a vacancy in the Mournival, filled by Garviel Loken.[1c]
  • Sejanus's death created an emotional chink in Horus's armour, exploited later by First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion on Davin. [2a]
  • Maloghurst was discovered alive, rescued by a farming family outside the city of Kaentz[1d]. While he was eventually able to return to his duties, his severe wounds had gone untreated for so long that they left permanent scars and distortion of his limbs and body, making his epithet "the Twisted" darkly suitable.[1f]

See also

Sources