Golgothan Slaughter
The Golgothan Slaughter was a battle during the Great Crusade by the World Eaters Legion.[1]
Overview
Waged in the early days of the legion under the command of Angron, the Golgothan Sector was one of the first targets of the Red Angel's wrath. Due to its close proximity to the Maelstrom, most Imperial Explorator Fleets and Navigators avoided the sector. However, the World Eaters held no such fear, and Angron directed his 13th Expeditionary Fleet into the sector. The campaign that was to follow would last eleven years and saw no fewer than forty-eight worlds ravaged and destroyed by the World Eaters. Seven Xenos species were rendered extinct as the World Eaters fleet cut a swathe of destruction through the wastes of Golgotha. But despite these many victories, it was the first major engagement of the campaign, the Siege of Sarum, that entered into World Eaters' legend.[1]
An Adeptus Mechanicus station, Sarum was on the edge of the Maelstrom. Isolated and embattled for centuries, the Techpriests of the world had become warlike and isolationist under the leadership of Redjak. These crimson priests of the Machine God paid only lip service to Mars but now found themselves under siege by an Abhuman empire known as the Brotherhood of Ruin which commanded not only legions of malformed cyborg abhumans but also Ork mercenaries. The Brotherhood and Ork forces landed on Sarum's surface in boring machines, burning and blasting their way to the subterranean facilities beneath the planets crust while their fleet ensured no escape was possible. It was then that the World Eaters under Angron arrived, launching a single massive assault wave with his fleet to scatter and destroy the foe in orbit.[1]
The first outer guard ships of the Brotherhood forces were caught unprepared and outnumbered by this swift but massive strike. Swiftly recovering from the shock of the attack, the Brotherhood responded and sent a wave of Ork Terror Ships and gunboats which were shot to pieces by the two-hundred strong World Eaters fleet of Battle Barges and Grand Cruisers. Nonetheless, the Brotherhood fleet numbered thousands of smaller vessels and Angron's fleet was forced to draw into a close formation and smash straight through the near cloud-like armada of enemy vessels. In a fiery and savage close-quarters void war, the World Eaters fleet broke the Brotherhood blockade and 15,000 World Eaters prepared to drop onto Sarum's surface directly.[1]
Faced with an enormous and concentrated Drop Pod assault, the Brotherhood cyborg and Ork forces died in their thousands on the planets surface. The mutants and cyborgs were unable to coordinate effectively with their Ork mercenaries, leading to widespread disorganization. The World Eaters met the enemy in their preferred fashion of vicious close range combat, ripping their foes to pieces. However this method of combat suited the Orks just well, who started to inflict casualties on the World Eaters while the Brotherhood forces withdrew to armored bastions. The battles waged on both the surface and orbit of Sarum raged on for hours. The World Eaters had taken unexpectedly horrific casualties but fought on with a vicious determination. The warlords of the Brotherhood of Ruin, thinking victory was soon theirs, called in reinforcements from across the planets surface for one final massive offensive. Faced with a legion of enemy Orks, hulking robotic artillery pieces, and crawler tanks, the World Eaters drop zone seemed likely to be overrun when Cyclonic Torpedos from orbit smashed into Sarum's surface. In their wake came a ragged fleet of hundreds of gunships and rams, the World Eaters second wage had arrived, victorious from the battle in orbit. More still, it was led by Angron himself.[1]
The World Eaters and their Legio Audax allies landed on the surface, driving a bloody swathe through the Ork and Brotherhood forces. The insane Orks began to turn on each other while their abhuman allies attempted to flee but were cut down by an attack led by Angron while the colossal cannon-robots of the Brotherhood were blasted to pieces by the Titans of the Legio Audax. The embattled Mechanicum defenders of Sarum finally emerged, leading their own spider-like robots into battle against the fleeing foe. The killing went on and on until nothing was left.[1]
In the months that followed the World Eaters made Sarum their forward operations base. Meanwhile the Priests of Sarum became the next to feel the wrath of the World Eaters, Angron putting their empire to the sword over the next eleven years of fighting.[1]
See also
Sources
- 1: The Horus Heresy Book One - Betrayal, pgs. 99-101
