Battle of Dante's Canyon
The Battle of Dante's Canyon took place in the opening days of the Third War for Armageddon between the Tulwar Brotherhood of the White Scars Space Marine Chapter and Orks of the White Lightning Speed Kult.
Contents
Overview
The Deadlands contain a number of water and oil drilling stations and processing plants, facilities vital to the survival of Armageddon's numerous Hive Cities. Built atop shifting ice packs, they transport their goods above ground through flexible, armoured pipes supported by well-protected pylons. The Orks, well-aware of their strategic importance, targeted these installations in their first assault on Armageddon in an effort to cripple the defenders' ability to resist.[1]
One of these facilities, an oil-drilling platform, was constructed within Dante's Canyon, located between the Lemaire Channel and the St. Capeline water-processing plant. The canyon itself was steep-sided and wide at the mouth, eventually narrowing to a point where the platform was built. Because the thin ice shelf was too weak to support it's weight, the platform was suspended by thick plasteel cables anchored into the canyon walls and ancient suspensor fields. The White Scars' Tulwar Brotherhood, commanded by Suboden Khan, was given the task of preventing the platform's destruction.[1]
The initial Orkish onslaught met with disaster; streaming out from their Rok-fortresses, the Orks' heavy war-machines simply crashed through the ice and drowned in the frigid waters of the Tempest Ocean. In response, the White Lightnings "kustomized" their Warbikes and Wartrakks with skies to improve their handling and prevent any further accidents, and subsequently engaged the White Scars. The battle became a swirling mounted melee as both sides wheeled and turned upon each other, explosions throwing machines into the air and creating deadly holes in the ice. Eventually, after many hours of fighting and the daylight faded into night, both sides were forced to withdraw as the terrain had become too treacherous to fight on in the dark.[1]
The next day, the Orks launched a three-prong assault, hoping to overwhelm the White Scars in one swift blow. As the main Speed Kult raced across the ice towards the Space Marines, their Warboss and a contingent of Orks attacked the cable supports, hoping to cut them and send the platform crashing down, while simultaneously Ork Stormboyz assaulted the platform from above. However, Suboden had prepared his defenses during the night, and while the Speed Kult raced forward the ice suddenly exploded as hidden charges were detonated, the whole force plunged into the frozen sea. The Stormboyz were met with accurate, punishing fire of the Brotherhood's Tactical Squads as Suboden personally led his Assault Squads to protect the cables. Suboden engaged the Warboss in single combat and, with a mighty blow, beheaded the Ork and hurled his lifeless body off the cliff. With their leader and most of their comrades dead, the Orkish attack was broken and the few survivors were forced to retreat.[1]
See also
- Dante's Canyon (Novella) - Novella set during the battle
Sources
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- 1: Force Dispositions of the Third Armageddon War - White Scars (archived from the original on 22 October 2003, last accessed 26 August 2024)
Uncited
- White Dwarf 300 (US), pg. 121
