Battle for the Endeavour of Will
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The Battle for the Endeavour of Will was a battle between the Iron Warriors Warband of Warsmith Shon'tu and the Imperial Fists Starforts of Endeavour of Will and Bastion Inviolate in 998.M41.[1]
Overview
The attack by Shon'tu was led by his personal Grand Cruiser, the Ferrous Malice. The Warsmiths first maneuver was to infect the Bastion Inviolate with a data-daemon, a Warp-spawned computer virus which infected the Machine Spirit of the Starfort and overrode much of its support systems, disrupting weapons and sending many of its crew through airlocks. The virus itself was the product of the Daemon Velthinar Silverspine, a creature who Shon'tu had bound to his service. As the Machine spirit of the Bastion Inviolate was consumed by Velthinar, Shon'tu attempted to repeat the process on the Endeavor of Will. However with the help of Imperial Fists Techmarine Hestion, the Starforts Machine Spirit managed to defeat the Daemon-virus.
Meanwhile, Captain Darnath Lysander answered the two Starforts distress calls from his Strike Cruiser Siege of Malebruk. Lysander arrived aboard the Endeavour of Will to lead the defense. The Siege of Malebruk and Ferrous Malice engaged in a vicious duel, with the Siege of Malebruk outgunned but nonetheless gaining the advantage of the Ferrous Malice. However the Daemon-corrupted Grand Cruiser spat out giant tendrils, pulling the Imperial Fist Strike Cruiser closer and consuming it with a gigantic Daemonic maw which grew from its bow while some of the crew managed to flee the ship in escape pods.[1] Shon'tu by this point had boarded the Endeavour of Will in a Dreadclaw assault, leading his best host of Iron Warriors, Possessed Chaos Space Marines, and Obliterators personally. Brutal, bloody close quarters-combat erupted all aboard the station as the Imperial Fists attempted to hold back the Traitor forces. Lysander plunged into the fray directly, fighting through Possessed Marines and Obliterators and engaging Shon'tu in personal combat. However faced with overwhelming Iron Warrior assault, Lysander led a general retreat then releasing Virus Bombs into the corridors filled with traitor forces, killing most of the Warsmiths best troops. Shon'tu survived the assault, his advanced half-daemon, half-machine body quickly adapting to fight the Virus. However the trick by Lysander delayed the Iron Warriors advance and Shon'tu had lost most of his warhost.[1]
Shon'tu next unleashed a horde of Tzeentch Daemons known as The Dancers in an attempt to assassinate Lysander. The creatures rampaged throughout the station, hunting Lysander who attempted to draw them away from the crew. Techmarine Hestion was mortally wounded attempted to defend Lysander from The Dancers, but through a ritual he had learned on Malodrax, the Imperial Fists Captain managed to bind the daemons to the dying body of Hestion. Lysander smashed the body of Hestion, killing both the Techmarine and The Dancers.[1]
Shon'tu took the chaos caused by The Dancers to organize his final assault on the Endeavour of Will, launching his fifty remaining Iron Warriors and 4 Squads of Obliterators into the Starfort by Dreadclaws. Despite their losses, the Imperial Fists were outnumbered three-to-one. Shon'tu's Obliterators managed to enter the Starforts datamedium, infecting it with their accursed Obliterator Virus, corrupting and disabling most of its weapons systems and allowing Shon'tu's second wave of Dreadclaws to enter the primary Bastion of the Endeavour of Will with minimal retaliatory fire. With a massive blast from one of the forts corrupted Defence Lasers, an opening for the Iron Warriors to assault this central bastion was opened up. Shon'tu's horde stormed across the central command bridge of the Starfort, once more clashing with Lysander and his remaining Imperial Fists. Lysander and his surviving Battle-Brothers slowly withdrew to the datemedium to make their final stand, fighting off the Obliterators who had since arrived to infect it. A vicious close-quarters firefight erupted when the Iron Warriors began their storming of the datamedium, and Shon'tu called off his Obliterators in an effort to personally battle and slay Lysander for the honor of his Legion. Gaining a temporary advantage in the fight, Lysander accessed the datamedium's Machine Spirit and instructed it to send out a torrent of electro-magnetic information which overloaded all the Bionics in the area. This effected the Iron Warriors far more severely than the Imperial Fists, who unlike their traitor brethren rarely augmented themselves.[1]
The crippling of his Warbands bionics had grave effects on the Iron Warriors, and soon Shon'tu lost nearly half his warband to an Imperial Fists counterattack. Cornered by Terminators of the Imperial Fists, Shon'tu released the Daemon Velthinar from his prison aboard the Ferrous Malice in a desperate bid to gain victory. Velthinar steered the Ferrous Malice into the Endeavour of Will as Shon'tu fled in one of his Dreadclaws. However before the Ferrous Malice could plunge into and destroy the Endeavour of Will, the corrupted machine spirit of the Bastion Inviolate managed to regain control of itself and block the Grand Cruisers path. The corrupted Starfort grabbed hold of the Ferrous Malice and activated its Warp Drives, plunging the two ships into the Warp. But while the battle on the Endeavour of Will was won, the Warsmith Shon'tu managed to escape.[1]
