Battle of Kalleth
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The Battle of Kalleth was a battle in the Horus Heresy between the Night Lords and Ashen Claws.[1a] Although the Night Lords were victorious, Captain Ophion's death caused the Nostramo Sector to fall into strife in the following years.[1b]
Overview
In the aftermath of the Thramas Crusade, Ophion returned to the Nostramo Sector with a force of nine thousand Night Lords[1b] seeking to gather reinforcements for the Warmaster's cause. Above the isolated world of Kalleth, an advance squadron of his fleet was suddenly attacked by a dozen cruisers emerging from the warp. Communications intercepted from the rogue fleet identified them as the Ashen Claws.[1a]
With little room to manoeuvre in the planet's gravity well, Ophion ordered the Shroud of Eventide to act as a shield for the smaller craft and transport barged - ignoring his captains' suggestions to retreat and abandon the slower ships. The majority of the fleet's complement of Legionaries were deployed to the surface and ordered to fortify the refuelling stations, supposedly for their own safety, but in fact to prevent rebellion.[1a]
The Night Lords were victorious in the void, crippling two of the enemies' cruisers before the Ashen Claws were forced to retreat. They had, however, managed to land troops on the surface and inflict heavy damage to the thruster array on the Shroud of Eventide. Unable to maintain orbit, the ship crashed on an icy plain.[1a]
Little is known of the remainder of the battle of the surface. Six years later, during the Scouring of the Nostramo Sector, the world was found lifeless but for a signs that a handful of individuals might have managed to survive in the canyons and ice caves. The wreck of the Shroud of Eventide was found with fewer than a hundred dead crew aboard, none of them Legionaries, with a nearby mass grave containing four hundred corpses of both humans and Legionaries.[1a] With Ophion presumed dead, the Nostramo Sector began to fall back into strife.[1b]
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