Fall of the Black Judges
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The Fall of the Black Judges was a campaign waged by the Iron Warriors during the Great Crusade. It was the first major battle the Legion fought under the command of their Primarch Perturabo.[1c]
Overview
The campaign sought to bring the Meratara Cluster into Imperial compliance. Perturabo had personal reasons for crushing the cluster, according to legend the Black Judges who ruled there had once visited his homeworld of Olympia, slaughtering or enslaving tens of thousands. It was to be the battle in which the old Legion, still reeling from the Edict of Decimation, and new recruits[2] had the chance to prove themselves to their primarch.[1c]
The Rock of Judgement
Perturabo moved his Expeditionary Fleet into the Cluster and targeted the Black Judges base, a hollowed-out moon known as the Rock of Judgement,[1c] driving straight for it in a lightning campaign.[2]
Well defended by laser batteries and drone fighters as well as a fleet of Battleships, the attack on the Rock of Judgement was a brutal affair. Heedless of the losses they incurred, the Iron Warriors fleet smashed through the blockade despite a dozen Battle Barges and twenty Strike Cruisers being lost. The Iron Warriors used their strongest ships as a shield to protect Siege Frigates that moved closer to the moon as landing parties inserted themselves across the Rock of Judgement.[1c]
The Black Judges were few in number and could not effectively contest the landings, relying primarily on automated sentry guns and tens of thousands of Accusators and gene-bred functionaries. The Iron Warriors used spearheads of Land Raiders and Shadowsword to breach the sentry lines. Behind them came waves of mobile artillery to smash the mountain fortresses of the Black Judges. In the heart of the obsidian citadels of the Black Judges known as the Nights Court, the Iron Warriors were assailed by Accusators armed with powered Chain Hammers that could split even Power Armour, even as they were swept by batteries of neutron rays. After battling through these suicidal forces, the Iron Warriors faced the Black Judges themselves.[1c]
The Black Judges wore heavy armoured suits impervious to bolter fire, and each had the firepower equal to a Dreadnought. The Iron Warriors fell in drove but stubbornly continued the attack and used point-blank melta blasts and Krak grenades to bring down the Judges. For every Black Judge that fell, a dozen or more Iron Warriors died with him. It was then that Perturabo struck.[1c]
Having observed the battle, his superhuman intellect had discerned patterns and vulnerability in the Black Judges. He leaped into the fray with elite Devastator units designated 'Havocs' and blind sided the Black Judges, predicting their movements and attacking weak points he had observed in their armour. The plan worked perfectly, and the Black Judges were mercilessly slaughtered.[1c]
Aftermath
In the aftermath of the battle, the Black Judges domain was dismantled. The Meratara Cluster became a domain of the Iron Warriors Legion,[1a] and technological secrets were bartered with the Mechanicum in exchange for aid in the wars to come. The orbital docks of the Rock of Judgement were moved into orbit over Olympia to produce warships for the Legion.[1c] These dockyards would go on to be known as the Black Citadel, the base of operations of the Kheledakos, the 'Brethren of Cold', whose origins stem from this and other early campaigns.[1b] Among the technology recovered was the Blind Helm, which became a relic of the Legion.[3]
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination
- 2: Index Astartes Bitter and Twisted: The Iron Warriors Space Marine Legion
- 3: The Horus Heresy Book Four - Conquest, pg. 225