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Siege of Castellax

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the battle; for the novel, see The Siege of Castellax (Novel).
Siege of Castellax
CastellaxWar.jpg
Iron Warriors battle Orks on Castellax
Date 905.M41
Location Castellax
Outcome Ork victory
Combatants
Ironwarlogo.gif Iron Warriors Third Grand Company Orks.png Rusbustas
Commanders
Warsmith Andraaz (KIA)
Arch-Commander Vortsk (KIA)
Over-Captain Vallax (KIA)
Slave-Lord Algol (KIA)
Captain Rhodaan
Skylord Morax (KIA)
Captain Gamgin (KIA)
Admiral Nostraz (KIA)
Warlord Biglug
Kaptin Grimruk
Strength
64 Iron Warriors
Slave soldiers
Millions
Casualties
Nearly all killed Heavy

The Siege of Castellax was an invasion of the Iron Warriors Fortress World of Castellax by Waaagh! Biglug in 905.M41.[2][3]

Overview

Unknown to the Iron Warriors or their Warsmith Andraaz, the enslaved Dark Mechanicus Techpriest Oriax, bitter that his technology (such as the Daemonculum) was being taken from him and used by the Chaos Space Marines, sent out deep space probes that made contact with the Ork Warboss Biglug. Bring the world to the Greenskins attention and promising him aid, the Orks invasion fleet made course for the planet and Oriax's plan for freedom began.[1a] The Orks quickly overran the Castellax space defense fleet and orbital defense platforms[1b], landing on the Castellax close to the Fortress-City of Dirgas. It was here that the Greenskins faced their first serious resistance from the Iron Warriors slave-soldiers known as Janissary's and Mameluke's. A battle also soon erupted in the air as Ork Fightas, Bommers, and Fighta-Bommers battled against the Iron Warriors Air Cohort. However despite exacting bloody tolls on the Orks over the next fifty days, the Greenskins continually managed to advance due to superior numbers, the small number of actual Iron Warriors, and the timid nature of the Chaos Marines own slave soldiers.[1c]

The Greenskins experienced their first serious setback when their initial waves annihilated by the massive Iron Warriors defensive line known as the Witch Wall. However after weeks of fighting not even the imposing defenses of the Witch Wall proved enough to stop the Greenskin advance, which managed to penetrate a section in an assault led by demolition sappers and heavy vehicles such as Battlefortresses. With the Witch Wall overrun, ninety days after the Ork invasion the siege of the vital Factory-City of Vorago began.[1d]

The Iron Warriors, growing increasingly desperate, began to take drastic measures such as freeing the notorious Obliterator Merihem and conducting a near suicidal Raptor assault led by Captain Rhodaan on an Ork Battlefortress to assassinate an Ork Warlord.[1e] However the Orks were not the only things the Iron Warriors had to deal with. After discovering they were being fed the remains of their own dead, the slave Yuxiang led a revolt while Techpriest Oriax manipulated other more loyal Techpriests into conspiring against their Space Marine masters. While the slave rebellion was decisively defeated by the Iron Warriors slave master Algol, Oriax's own machinations would prove disastrous as the final defenses of Vorago were overrun by the Greenskins.[1f]

After the fall of Vorago, it became clear to all, even Warsmith Andraaz, that Castellax was now inevitably lost. One hundred and twenty days into the Ork invasion the Iron Bastion, the primary Fortress of the Iron Warriors on Castellax, was coming under greenskin assault.[1f] However not wanting to appear weak or dishonorable to the eyes of his brethren on Medrengard, Andraaz ordered Oriax to teleport him and his elite retinue of Terminators, the Rending Guard, to the recently discovered location of the Ork Warboss Biglug. However Andraaz was entirely unaware of Oriax's own treachery, and in the ensuing teleportation process the entire Rending Guard was lost in an "accident", leaving Andraaz to face Biglug alone. Undeterred, Andraaz charged the Warboss alone, only to finally become aware of Oriax's treachery when his own Terminator Armor shut down, the result of a binary pulse emitted from a piece of equipment Oriax had given to Biglug. Now essentially paralyzed, Andraaz was slowly but comprehensively dismembered by the massive Warboss.[1g]

As the Iron Bastion was being overrun, it fell to Captain Rhodaan (who had discovered Oriax's treachery), to lead retribution against the treacherous Techpriest. However Oriax revealed that he had since become infected with the Obliterator Virus and became a daunting foe that even the seasoned Iron Warrior had difficulty defeating. With the help of his remaining squadmates, as well as Merihem, Oriax was eventually killed. However it was at this point that Merihem decided to exact vengeance against the Iron Warriors who had imprisoned him, forcing an exhausted Rhodaan and his remaining men to put down the mad Obliterator. Rhodaan and the scant surviving Iron Warriors finally managed to evacuate the planet as the Iron Bastion fell.[1g]

After the battle, the remnants of Andraaz's once proud Third Grand Company, now led by Rhodaan, decided to send beacons to the nearby Imperial world of Obestrus, hoping that it would draw the Greenskins off Castellax in search of a new fight. In spite of their crushing defeat and meager remaining numbers and resources, Rhodaan swore that the Third Grand Company would one day reclaim their Fortress World.[1h]

Sources