Battle of Zepath
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The Battle of Zepath was a battle during the Horus Heresy.[1]
Overview
Waged during the closing stages of the Shadow Crusade in Ultramar, the Dark Angels under Lion El'Jonson had recently arrived in the region through the Ruinstorm and had become part of Roboute Guilliman's Imperium Secundus. However after Konrad Curze escaped from the Invincible Reason (which he had been imprisoned on since the Thramas Crusade), he wrought havoc on Macragge. The Lion obsessively hunted Curze in the aftermath, believing he had managed to escape from Macragge. He traced a lead to the Zepath System, which had since fallen to traitor Word Bearers and World Eaters forces. The Dreadwing under Farith Redloss was deployed to lead the operation.[1]
In the Zepath system, the Monarch's Glory along with three corvettes, tried to battle a World Eater's battle-barge and its four escorts, including one Word Bearers ship, but the ships fled. The Dark Angels went planetside and began to fight the forces of traitor legions that were left behind, but the Lion began to have his doubts that Curze was ever in the system. Before the Lion could consider leaving, his forces on the ground sent him an image of a massive tower made from skeletons, which prompted the Lion to go planet side. Once there, Redloss said that of the 5 million citizens of the city, Antilasta, not one was alive. The Lion was disgusted at the Word Bearers' ritual. Before the Lion could order a pursuit of the fled traitors, a message from the frigate Colgrevance to report an energy signature over the southern continent in a fortification that soon attacked a thunderhawk patrol.[1]
The Lion soon ordered an attack on the fortress, joining it by stormbird. The Dark Angels forced their way into the fortress's tunnelwork and began to fight the traitor legionaries still remaining on the planet. Tanks and Land Raiders began to fire on the secondary citadel of the fortress, hitting its energy shield and laying siege. Seeing that it would take too long to take the shields, Paladin Xavis ordered a Dreadwing assault. Redloss ordered the Intolerant for focused fire as he organized his men. Redloss joined his men on a Spartan assault carrier. During the assault on the enemy fortifications, roughly 1,500 members of the Dreadwing were deployed. Redloss had the Intolerant blast the energy shield with an Annihilator Cannon, a warp-blasting weapon, as the legionaries chanted "We have come. We are death." As the legionaries reached the fortress, four Caestus assault rams were launched and smashed into it, quickly laying waste to the Word Bearers' human serfs. The traitors resisted with two World Eaters dreadnoughts and 20 legionaries. As forces on both sides were cut down, Redloss charged into one Dreadnought and brought it down with his axe before he attacked two of the World Eaters.[1]
In the capital Numentis, no one was left alive, but the Lion made it the focus of his victory. Survivors arrived, thanking the Dark Angels for their salvation but they were still afraid of legionaries and their war. This caused Holguin to doubt the Imperium Secundus, The Lion met with the people's leaders as the Dark Angels were rebuilding the city. The Word Bearers' towers were destroyed and the remains buried en masse. The Lion appointed the delegates as rulers to the world, but they were concerned that the Dark Angels would leave and not be there to protect the people further. After being dismissed, the new rulers tried to challenge Holguin about being abandoned, and Holguin reminded them that the Ultramarines would send support and that the war was started by Horus.[1]
Sources
- 1: Angels of Caliban (Novel), Chapters 3–6