Battle of Tarsis Ultra
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The Battle of Tarsis Ultra took place in 509997.M41 between the Imperium and a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan, on the Agri World of Tarsis Ultra. The battle resulted in a narrow Imperial victory, though the rest of the Hive Fleet continued its invasion of the Eastern Fringe unchecked[1].
Prelude
In 999.M41, Tarsis Ultra was faced with the threat of the Tyranids after it was discovered that a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan was bound for the planet. The Ultramarines were sworn to honour the ancient oath pledged by the Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, to defend the people of Tarsis Ultra; thus Captain Uriel Ventris through the orders of Marneus Calgar enlisted the aid of a Company from an Ultramarines Second Founding Chapter, the Mortifactors, led by Chaplain Astador. Supporting the Space Marines defending Tarsis Ultra were two Imperial Guard regiments, the 10th Logres led by Colonel Octavius Rabelaq and the 933rd Death Korps of Krieg led by Colonel Trymon Stagler, plus the PDF headed by Major Aries Satria. Inquisitor Kryptman was also present to impart his extensive knowledge of the Tyranids to help the war effort. Fabricator Marshal Sebastien Montante proved to be a valuable asset as an efficient organiser of resources and general supply management.[2]
The Battle
When the Tyranids arrived in the system and consumed the planet Barbarus Prime, the Imperials launched an attack in space. Despite an initial victory in destroying a Hiveship, Inquisitor Kryptman wished to invoke Exterminatus upon the world Chordelis, as it was the next planet in the path of the Tyranids; this was to prevent it from being devoured and swelling the Tyranids' numbers, as planetary evacuation was deemed to be too slow. Ventris was vehemently against this decision and supported an alternative solution proposed by Admiral Tiberius, who proposed to slow down the Tyranids by exploding a hydrogen-plasma refinery in space thereby destroying another Hiveship. However, Kryptman had lied to Ventris and with the assistance of the Mortifactors invoked Exterminatus in spite of the Ultramarines' plan succeeding. The Imperials attempted the same trick again with a second space refinery to destroy yet another Hiveship. However, the Tyranids adapted to this ploy and the plan backfired on the Imperials, crippling their fleet and forcing the survivors to flee; Tarsis Ultra was left unprotected from space, which allowed the Tyranids to launch their final planetary invasion.[Needs Citation]
During the Tyranid attacks on Tarsis Ultra, a Lictor was captured by Ventris and a Deathwatch team; this proved pivotal during the war, as Kryptman was able to concoct a venom from the Lictor's genetic structure that would send an early generation Tyranid into hyper-evolution, killing the creature. They then decided upon killing the Norn-Queen in order to win the war. Ventris joined the Deathwatch team in infiltrating the final remaining Hiveship to kill the last Norn-Queen controlling the Tyranids. Ventris managed to finally kill the last Norn-Queen with Kryptman's gene-poison. The remaining Space Marine contingent of both the Ultramarines and Mortifactors were down to sixteen men when the Tyranids started to attack each other, as the link with the Hive Mind was lost when the last Norn-Queen died. The psychic shockwave of the overmind's death affected the Tyranids into slaughtering each other senselessly, leaving the Imperials alone. The majority froze to death under the harsh conditions of Tarsis Ultra with a minority surviving and taking refuge in warmer surroundings. At the conclusion of the war, Ventris reaffirmed his faith as an Ultramarine to protect the Imperium from the enemies of Mankind.[2]
Aftermath
Although the sliver invading the Tarsis Ultra system was turned back, there was no appreciable check to Leviathan's overall invasion of the Eastern Fringe.[Needs Citation]
As a result of his questionable actions - abandoning their company to lead the Deathwatch team - Ventris and Lysane were both reported to their Chapter for breaking with the Codex Astartes, and exiled from the Ultramarines on a Death Oath. Learchus Abantes assumed leadership of the 4th Company as Acting-Captain, and supervised the grim task of reconstructing the company's losses.[Needs Citation]
The Imperial victory would prove to be short-lived. Shortly after Ventris and Lysane's narrow escape from the Iron Warriors' home planet Medrengard, Ventris's enemy, Warsmith Honsou, vengefully followed Ventris's path back to Tarsis Ultra, which he destroyed with a combination of orbital bombardment and bio-warfare. The planet was left as a lifeless, airless rock, and it is not known whether any of the survivors of the battle with the Tyranids escaped the planet's destruction.[Needs Citation]
Trivia
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Conflicting sources
In Warriors of Ultramar (Novel) by Graham McNeill, in Uriel Ventris leads the Fourth Company to Tarsis Ultra after succeeding Idaeus.
This conflicts with the timeline in Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition) (which released 5 years later) which states that the battle took place in 509997.M41, with the Fourth Company of the Ultramarines fighting on Tarsis Ultra alongside elements from the Mortifactors. However, according to this same timeline, the Captain of the Fourth, Idaeus, was killed in action later, in 999.M41, when Uriel Ventris succeeded him[1].
However Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition) (which released in 2017) reaffirms that Uriel Ventris led the defense of Tarsis Ultra, though it gives no official date for the battle.[5]
