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Stygian Crusade

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The Stygian Crusade is an Imperial Crusade, that was launched into the Stygian Sector.[1]

History

Its was led by two Commanders, from the Dark Angels and Space Wolves Chapters, who held strategic oversight of the Stygian Sector. They were almost made to see eye to eye on more than one occasion in condemning the unnecessary brutality and intransigence of the Iron Hands, which had no fewer than eight of its Clans taking part in the Crusade. One thing they did agree on, was that reclaiming Aura Novis and its shipyards from the Thousand Sons would be too costly for the Stygian Crusade's forces. The Industrial World had fallen to the Traitor Legion and its millions-strong Cultist armies, several years prior and the Thousand Sons had used that time to dig in and churn out weapons with Novis' formidable industrial capacity.[1]

The Iron Hands' Iron Council disagreed, however, and claimed Aura Novis' reclamation was not only achievable, but essential if the Crusade's previous victories were not to suffer any reversals. It would also secure the Chapter's own Medusan Reach, which led the Iron Hands to abandon the Stygian Crusade proper in favor of launching their own to reclaim the world. When they did, the Chapter took with them not only their own forces, but those they had commanded in the Crusade as well. This included task groups from the Imperial Navy Battlefleets of Stygias, Gehenna and Agripinaa, along with several Iron Hands Successor Chapters, which included the Red Talons and Iron Fists. The Adeptus Mechanicus' Skitarii and Collegia Titanica forces were included as well, as were the Adeptus Sororitas and the Imperial Knights of House Callivant. Countless Astra Militarum Regiments made up the biggest component of the Chapter's forces and the Iron Hands had only chosen those they deemed were the most stalwart and dependable.[1]

When the attack on Aura Novis began, the Iron Hands sacrificed numerous Imperial Navy task groups to combat the world's orbital fortresses and void batteries. This tied them up long enough for the Chapter's allied combined forces to land on Aura Novis, while the Iron Hands fleet fired their drop-pods directly at the Thousand Sons' primary command centres. The Chapter and its allies were ultimately victorious and the Industrial World was the Imperium's once more. Its shipyards meanwhile, would find themselves placed under the Iron Hands' direct control. The price of victory was substantial, however and many Imperial Navy warships, along with half a billion Guardsmen, eight Skitarii macroclades, twenty-one of House Callivant's Imperial Knights, six Imperial Titans and the entirety of the Adepta Sororitas' Order of the Iron Rose, were lost in the battle. Aura Novis also suffered severely and nine-tenths of the world's habitual surface was left destroyed.[1]

Sources