Obsus Prima Uprising

Obsus Prima Uprising Date ???.M41 Location Obsus Prima Outcome Pyrrhic Imperial victory Combatants Imperium Chaos Commanders Commander Vassky Unknown Strength Vostroyan 39th Regiment Cultists Iron Warriors elements Knights of Blood Casualties Heavy Unknown

The Obsus Prima Uprising was a campaign waged by the Imperium on the Industrial World of Obsus Prima in M41.^[1]

Overview

Despite the usual signs, such as a proliferation of dark cults and growing acceptance of mutation, Obsus Prima was left to its own devices. Several Inquisitors visited the planet, but allowed their fears to be assuaged, which clearly suggests supernatural powers of persuasion were employed. Normally, when the whispers of sedition are heard, any suspected of being in the least bit corrupted are relentlessly rooted out. As a general rule, it is the Inquisitorial way to err on the side of horrific brutality. However, before these anomalies could be properly pieced together, the attentions of logistars, Inquisitors and the whole of the Adeptus Terra were focused elsewhere as the Eye of Terror once more threatened to burst forth with new horrors, and neighboring sectors were exposed to the plots and treacheries of their age-old foe. The uprising’s timing was well orchestrated, as the rebels waited until the disasters in surrounding sectors drew off reinforcements. Grand-Marshal Durov of Vostroya and his army group had left to answer distress calls from the Finial Sector, when, on Obsus Prima, Manufactorum workers rose up against their oppressive conditions. When the Planetary Defence Force was called upon to suppress the growing unrest, they themselves fractionalized. Within months there was open rebellion, and civil war followed. The population pulled itself apart and anarchy ruled. With its defence forces shattered, it was not long before every major spaceport, orbital station and comm-tower on Obsus Prima was held by the rebels. However, the primary plasma reactor – a vast walled complex that dominated the world’s largest island – was still in the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It had become the refuge of loyalists, yet their numbers were few and they could not hope to hold out for long, especially when more dangerous enemies than Cultists let themselves become known.^[1]

The only Imperial force that could reach Obsus Prima in any reasonable amount of time was the Vostroyan 39th armoured regiment — a regiment whose spine was much-stiffened by the attachment of the Baneblade Hammer of Vostroya. By a quirk of fate, a failure in their transport’s Warp-engine had forced their craft to make an early exit from the Immaterium. It was not easy getting past the cordon of orbital stations, or landing on the island’s makeshift air dock – but the loyalists welcomed them, cheered in particular by the sight of the immense super-heavy tank. The soldiers of the Vostroyan regiment divided, positioning their battle tanks as defensive bulwarks at each of the three main entrances: the Blacksea docks, the Northgate, and the Ascension Gate. Within days, attacks began against the complex. Vast barges used to haul industrial sludge now bore rebel artillery companies and bombardments rained down upon the island. Although a reactor and not a fortress, the Adeptus Mechanicus complex was ringed with defensive batteries and weapons emplacements. Soon enough, battles raged around the few major entrances into the complex: the fortified gates where the Vostroyan tanks awaited. There, rebels landed flotillas of craft filled with cultists and traitorous soldiers. By the thousands they advanced, seeking to blast their way in. As their foes bore few heavy weapons, Hammer of Vostroya reigned triumphant, each shot blowing bloody chunks out of the enemy attack waves while facing little threat to its own survival. So it went for days, with assault after assault being bloodily repulsed.^[1]

Terror struck the Imperial defenders when the Iron Warriors arrived, using Daemon Engines. Helbrutes, and Vindicators to batter the Hammer of Vostroya. At the Northgate, the slaughter of the cultists continued until red-armoured foes arrived. These were the Knights of Blood, merciless traitor Space Marines who were drawn to slaughter. In their midst roared a great tracked machine – an abominable mix of Daemon and engine of war. It spewed forth gouts of blood-ichor, a supernatural liquid with the power to melt even plasteel armour. After watching the beast absorb several direct hits from their battle cannons, Commander Vassky barked orders to his squadron of Leman Russ to reverse with all haste. The Daemon Engine’s roaring challenge echoed after the tanks as they manoeuvred into the labyrinthine web of access paths, roadways and under-tunnels that traversed the enormous complex. Thus began a long hunt, a cat and mouse game played out on a titanic scale. The Vostroyans were dangerous prey, setting ambushes and driving their tormentors back with sudden armoured charges. Yet by the time they reached the central core, the Lord of Skulls that pursued them had claimed two of their number – one with its thunderous firepower, and another shorn in half by the Daemon Engine’s roaring cleaver.^[1]

The surviving tanks of the Vostroyan 39th were reunited before the reactor’s citadel. They were battered and blasted, with only traces of peeled paint clinging to their blackened hulls. Yet there, in line abreast, they met the foe with Hammer of Vostroya in their midst. As the streams of the lost and damned filled the plaza before them, each commander gave the others a last salute before sealing their hatches. For a while, their firepower was a righteous thunder. The cultists turned to flee, rather than confront the fury raining down upon them, but they were to learn the fatal lesson that their new masters would just as willingly slaughter them. The tide of attackers pressed onwards, and one by one the Vostroyan tanks began to fall. Yet still Hammer of Vostroya fought on, her gun-barrels glowing with heat as the super-heavy tank fired again and again. From the midst of the traitor horde, the mighty Lord of Skulls rumbled forth, a horror of brass and blood that crushed all beneath its grinding tracks. The Vostroyan Baneblade’s first shot left a deep crater in the chest-plate of its daemonic foe. Its second smashed through one brass-armoured shoulder and sent its rotary cannon crashing into the cultists’ midst. Yet still the engine of Khorne’s wrath could not be stayed, and with a horrible finality its great cleaver descended. It hacked down into Hammer of Vostroya’s hull again and again, sparks raining outward in sheets from each dolorous blow. Finally, the cleaver’s churning blades sank deep into the Hammer’s power plant, triggering a blast of colossal proportions. The fireball of the exploding super-heavy wreaked terrible damage, cracking the nearby reactor and poisoning the air for thousands of miles. Long after the battle, amidst the massive craters, Tech-Priests retrieved as many fragments of the super-heavy tank as they could find, for both vehicle and crew deserved to be honoured as heroes of the Imperium.^[1]

Related Articles

• List of Anti-Imperial Rebellions

Sources

• 1: Escalation — Uprising on Obsus Prima