- War for Serpens Prime -

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Loading Chapter 3 of the [Primarch Arturius Imperia]

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"In bello, tuo honore nihil. Hostis erit, non honor est tibi sic facere, non honore eis"

(In war, your honor means nothing; your enemy shall not honor you so do not honor them.)

- Codex Consilia Belli, Auth. Arturius Imperia

For all the great miracles and harrowing tragedies that befell Serpens Prime, it is widely accepted that the destruction of 'Ortus Serpens' or the First Serpent, it being the state of Serpens Prime before its destruction, is considered to be the planet's most terrible event barring that of its disappearance.

The 'Great Tragedy' or 'The Ruination' is closely tied with a heretical prophecy called 'The Five Tragedies.' Created by a Chaos Cult in the 36th Millennium, the prophecy entailed that when five specific events would befall mankind, it would spell its doom. The first being the Cybernetic Revolt; second the Age of Strife; third the Horus Heresy; fourth the disappearance of the Imperius Provincia; and finally the most heretical of these 'Tragedies': the death of His Most Holy Majesty, the God-Emperor.

The Ruination is said to have played a part in the Horus Heresy as Chaos Sorcerers of the cult had leapt far into the past and saw the ripples of different timelines; one of those hundreds of timelines gave a time, an age of the Dragon. It is said that the sorcerers saw a time where the Ruination never happened with the complete control of the Necron Tomb of the planet under the Angelus' total control; this lead to the Legion researching and reverse-engineering Necron technology and creating a Legion spanning billions of Astartes with the strength of a Custodian.

Armor made of the Xenos' living metal as even that coursed through their veins to allow great durability and will for the Sons of the Dragon. Entire battlefleets made of the metal with weapons far from any mortal's imagination being on each one of them; from measly drop ships the size of a continent to great battleships the size of entire planets. The vision saw all of the Traitorous Nine Sons shackled as they were paraded before the people of Serpens Prime; then on sent to Holy Terra to receive divine judgement by the God-Emperor.

The sheer light and power coming from the vision had psychically scarred and marred all of the heretical sorcerers as three of their bodies were found as their heads, burnt to hell as Warp Fire burned their skin and bone to dust. The rest of the sorcerers had varying degrees of psychic scarring, some had their powers marred by a quarter while others had completely lost their connection to the Warp, becoming blanks.

Lord Inquisitor Ulmech Vonterkart, the Inquisitor who oversaw the operation in the destruction of the cult and the subsequent seizure and destruction of any documents or writings of the cult, had this to say about the situation.

"These documents are of the greatest heresy against the God-Emperor yet even I must say that the power of the Dragon knowns no limit. Merely piercing the veil of time and seeing the Dream-of-Man had burned the minds and souls of these heretics. From the day I was born I was taught that the Imperius Dragon was the God-Emperor's archangel; this only leads me to find greater truth to that."

It is not known, nor will it ever be, as to what the importance of Ortus Serpens had but it is greatly mourned for by those who know of its significance. Each year, the highest members of the Ministorum, Inquisition, and Mechanicum have met in an unknown location in the Sol System where they have various meetings where they ponder on such an event and vision with at the end of it all the phrase "Numquam oblivisci Angelus" (I have never forgotten the Angel) shouted three times.

Cultivating the Planet

Three years into the term of the Primarch did the Federation see itself control over half and more of Ortus Serpens. Through the usage of tactics beyond any normal mind and weapons forged from the thoughts of the Primarch; the Federation butchered and forced many monsters and 'demons' into their service.

Only the greatest of threats had not fallen; the Draco of the Land of Fire and Ice or it's less common name, the Domain between Life. And lastly, the Titanus Reptilius; massive reptilians over fifteen meters tall and averaging fifty thousand tons at weight.

The Draco and Titanus were the apex predators of the Ortus Serpens as far back as the God-Emperor knows, these two dangerous calamities were fighting for dominance of the planet. Ancient archives and documents stated that archeologists found massive sites where skulls going as large as several meters long and a dozen meters high with teeth capable of piercing auramite.

Carbon dating stated that these remnants of a once monstrous leviathan goes back as several millions of years. Eventually, more and more sites were found, each one going as far as fifteen kilometers with the largest seeing an entire valley and mountain range. That site was called Site: Negative Zero; negative zero was a battlefield, entire skeletal structures were found with other unknown materials that the documents did not give information about.

These leviathans were given new names Ultra Reptilius and Imperator Draconus. Further information of these two species is unfortunately not attainable as the documents the Imperial Archives has on them are incomplete and outdated.

These new revelations did not put fear into the Primarch, however, no such thing existed in him though what did put caution and anxiety in the Dragon was the revelation that the stories of a temple or structure which housed dark sorceries and magics was unfortunately real. The Orpus Valekris was the ancient name of the temple; it stood for the Doom of Civilizations.

Finding the Doom

The Orpus Valekris was first sighted far before the Primarch landed upon Serpens Prime; it was first discovered by scientists and surveyors when they had found a massive structure underneath a range of valleys and hills. Eventually, the scientists would hire miners to dig deep into the crust of Serpens Prime to gain access to this structure.

Unfortunately, they were butchered and killed by a species of mammals that resembled bears which subsequently ended any future endeavors into the underground caverns created by those same miners.

Such documents would go unnoticed and unread for several decades as projects such as the colonization of the nearby planets of Horto Magni, a world which had a massive supercontinent. Magnus Ignis, a world that could have been classified as a regular continental world were it not for the massive supervolcano on one part of it. And lastly Horto Duo, another world like Horto Magni.

Stellar progress advanced to heights never thought of by the same peoples who now voyaged to find new life upon the planets that the federation deemed perfect for colonization. Eventually, the progress halted because of the recent rediscovery of the Valkris Documents.

Information of an underground structure the area of entire mountain ranges made the Primarch wary as this could be the fabled 'Lost City' of the Dwellers.

It was a children's story of how the Great Dwellers lost one of their own in a great spasm of the planet's core. The legend foretold of how five hundred were trapped in a cavern with only an STC and the tools they were given. With a mission and a mind for the job, the five hundred found ways to create food and discovered an underground lake.

Slowly, the once afraid group now became calm and relaxed as they now knew that their lives were not doomed. So in an attempt to return to the original group, they created relay beacons to acquire radio waves but they acquired none.

Through old geological technology, the group learned that they were a few hundred meters deeper than their counterparts. Losing all hope, chaos and madness spread throughout the group. Then the legend continues on how a single individual headed the group to prosperity as they carved their small yet growing domain.

Slowly, over the centuries, the group would become a society as a city would form. Eventually, the Lost City would become known as the Dwellers would receive strange data signatures on a large caved out area far beneath their own underground cities. Word would spread from the underground cities to the merchants who had the most luxurious of items for them, be traded for the most basic of things, for the Dwellers. And eventually it would lead to the Federation.

It is said that the Lost City holds riches and technologies beyond thinkable. And so, curiosity took the Primarch over as a small scientific team would go to arrive at the location with a regiment of soldiers.

Slowly, the team descended to the cavern as they were met by the same mammals that the documents stated. Though unlike before, the scientists were defended by soldiers ready to defend them. The mammals were forced away as laser fire and bullets made the mammals wary of going near the team.

Eventually, the team would find themselves at a city made of blackish material as the center of it all was a pyramid. The road they were led on directly ended at a stairway that led to the top of the same pyramid.

The city was empty yet glowed a tinge of green as it coursed all throughout but no soul could be seen or heard. The eerie silence made the team wary of the city yet their curiosities over took them and went up the stairway.

At the top of the pyramid was an altar, upon it an orb that was pitch black. Yet once a foot took a step upon the floor, the orb had a greenish flame inside of it then from the floor, a screeching scream hissed and a sarcophagus was raised up to the ground of the floor.

The seal released a gas as it opened to reveal an abomination; a Necron Phaeron. A xeno of immense power and technology beyond anything thinkable. The team immediately ran as the Necron Phaeron stood up from its sarcophagus. When the team got to the ground, they heard the scream of the Phaeron as it pierced their ear drums.

Then slowly, hundreds of Necrons rose from underground chambers that which housed them for God-Emperor knows how long. The team scrambled to reach the surface yet one of the scientists knew her impending doom and saw it better to use her life not to run and try to save herself but to sacrifice her life to warn her people of the coming horrors.

Necronic Crisis

As the xenos of the Necrons awakened from slumber, on the surface, the Federation scrambled to coordinate their forces. The Federal Army and Aerial Forces convened in Castel Magna Spes; Battle Plan Waking Death called for a perimeter to be created around the same entrance that the team of scientists and guards used to enter the cavern.

There, armored units would hold off as long as possible while artillery batteries and aerial battalions would rain fire upon the incoming legions of metal reapers. The plan was approved by the Dragon as time was of the essence; a plan needed to be completed as fast as possible for an enemy never seen before.

Fortifications once silent and tranquil were now buzzing with noise and chaos. Soldiers manned the walls of the Federation's cities with the women, children, and elderly sent to the closest bunkers and safe zones.

Back down in the underground, the foul Necron Phaeron coordinated its own forces and started amassing legions upon legions of soldiers capable of incinerating anything. The Federation had no way of knowing the horrible danger coming to the surface.

Carnage at the Entrance

Battle Plan Waking Death had been implemented as several armored divisions surrounded the entrance while the artillery batteries continued to go to their positions with the aerial battalions were prepared to take off and aid the army.

Hours later, all preparations were complete, the men were waiting as they anticipated the Necrons. Documents detailing the carnage are few yet the documents still intact say that the valley where the entrance was located had sunk down into the underground as if an earthquake destroyed the foundations of the surface.

The Federation soldiers were caught off guard as their equipment and themselves fell into the sunken valley. All soldiers outside of the tanks and vehicles were instantly killed from the impact of falling near two thousand feet.

The vehicles were rendered useless while their occupants were alive but heavily injured or even close to death. As the soldiers got out of their vehicles, that was when the vile Necrons stroke. From the dust and debris did the soldiers hear the footsteps of the soldiers.

Their distinct green eyes and the gauss energies from the xeno-technology: gauss flayers. Then only a moment later did gauss beams met flak armour until it disintegrated and met soft human skin.

The screams of soldiers and their pleas of mercy were loud yet silent to those above ground. To the Primarch and his military aides and generals, an earthquake had made their plans fail yet the truth of the matter was far horrifying than perceived.

It would only be at the last second did the Federation learn of what had happened; as the Federal Army scrambled to reorganize their forces and create some form of organization, the Necron Tomb surfaced itself to show the Tomb City living right under the noses of all living beings on Serpens Prime.

Millions upon millions of blood-stained Necron soldiers were visible upon the roads and pavements of the city. Immediately, artillery batteries sang their chorus of gunpowder and steel as if a scene directly from the ancient ages of Holy Terra.

After several seconds of firing a hundred tons of munitions upon the Necron Tomb, the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder with smoke making an artificial fog upon the area where the Tomb was located.

Unfortunately, as the artificial fog dissipated, the Tomb and even the Necron soldiers were unscathed as if nothing hit them, the only difference before the artillery batteries fired their volleys were that now the former piles of blood-stained soldiers were now dirty with soot and ash.

This was the end of the Carnage at the Entrance but the beginning to the War for Serpens Prime. The War between Life and Death.

Siege of Serpentia

All settlements, towns, and cities outside of the Federal mega-cities were called to evacuate their people into the mega-cities. Many were doubtful and stubborn but when news that several battalions of tanks and soldiers were killed in an instant, the civilians instantly went back to their homes.

This was a double-edged sword as for an entire week, the gates of the mega-cities were forced to stay open to allow the remaining civilians into the cities where they would be sent into the bunkers and safe zones.

Finally, a month after the gates were fully closed and locked, the Legion of Necrons came upon the walls of the Federation. At the head of them all was the Necron Phaeron fitted with regal armouring and insignia.

The Necrons stood at the gates of the Federation for a few moments as all anticipated for their attack until finally the Phaeron shouted a war cry in its foul xeno language. Then did the Necrons commenced their attack.

For several weeks did the walls stay strong as hundreds of tons of munitions were fired upon the Necron forces while bombs and aerial fire rained down upon them from the skies, courtesy of the aerial battalions still remaining.

It looked as if the Necrons were faltering but unfortunately not so. From the hills that overlooked the mega-cities did the Necrons' weapon to break the walls of the cities arrive. A massive gauss cannon known as a Doomsday Cannon overlooked the city as it prepared to fire upon the walls.

The walls were evacuated as soldiers were retreated to perimeter one, a few dozen meters away from the city center. The firing of the gauss cannon screeched throughout the air as it pierced even the ground through the soil and through the metals of the bunkers where the civilians stayed.

The gigantic gauss beam destroyed the gate and walls as it pierced through all matter, the sheer length of the attack nearly destroyed perimeter one.

The cannon was seen to be relocated to another overlook while the Necron soldiers marched into the city. Fights and skirmishes were fought, won, and lost in the homes and buildings of the cities as soldiers fought tooth and nail to protect the land they knew as home and be the shield to those behind him.

It was at this point when Primarch Arturius wept for his people and declared that any man, if capable, were to be conscripted into the military and fight at the frontlines. When the declaration said All Men, it meant ALL MEN; both conscripts, professional soldiers, and officers.

Through sheer will and strength, the Federal Army held off the Necrons to create enough time for a contingent of fifty men to be equipped with special stealth armour. Code Named: The Silent Chameleons; these fifty men were given the order to go past enemy lines and destroy the gauss cannon of the Necrons.

At the fifth day of the third month of the War; Operation Regaining Hope was initiated.

Operation Regaining Hope

At the earliest of standard hours, in the darkness of the early mornings did the noise of lasgun fire and gauss flayers filled the air with bombs deployed upon the Necrons done every hour. In the darkest region of the city were the Silent Chameleons deployed.

Using their invisibility technology to go past the Necrons. Every hour were they so close to failing their mission but they kept regaining their footing and going past their enemies.

Until finally, their eyes laid upon the gauss cannon. The massive weapon was not defended by any soldiers, this surprised the Chameleons but their captain reminded them to be cautious of the enemy that laid them low.

And so they slowly placed the explosives they were given around the important regions of the gauss cannon. Until finally, they were met by Necron Destroyers, massive Necrons with either a crab-like lower half or a floating platform while having a heavily armored upper half with its arms being massive cleavers known as hyperphase swords or even devastating gauss cannons.

The explosives were all ready but the Chameleons were incapable of leaving as if they did so then the Destroyers would disarm the bombs, in the end the Chameleons were forced to stay. They fought to the very last as even after being cut in half did they crawl to the destroyers and used their arms to keep them in place.

Their stubbornness and will to accomplish their goal had done the dead as the explosives went off and destroyed the cannon in a scene of fire and explosions. The Destroyers were either completely killed or heavily damaged but unfortunately the Chameleons were put to the sword. None survived but their actions would not be in vain.

With the sound of victory, the once hiding and scared soldiers of the Federation rallied and pushed forward with Arturius at the head of it all. With the sheer will and wrath of the mortal soldiers, the immortal metal men were pushed back

Turning the Tide

Arturius was now taking a direct physical presence in the war as he no longer sat behind a desk and spoke with his generals on what the common soldier was to do. No longer was he going to sit idly by and wait for his soldiers to be butchered. No, no more.

He took up a sword he personally commissioned when he was a child, took up armour his father commissioned, and went out against the calls and pleas of his advisors and friends. This would turn the tables as now the Federation would see the totality of the Angelus' prowess and skill with a blade.

From the first skirmish did Arturius kill and destroy dozens of Necron soldiers to the next killing more and then more, and more. Arturius would become a metaphorical Necron 'woodchipper' as he would start killing these xeno-scum in the thousands. When his blade became dull, he took up the blades of a Necron Destroyer and became so swift in battle that the frontlines advanced too quick for his own armies to follow.

It would be at this point when the true colors of the Necrons shine. The greatest of the Necron Dynasties have elite assassins known as Deathmarks. The Necron Dynasty present upon Ortus Prime was the Necron Dynasty of Settra, Imperial Documents states that the Settra Dynasty held a small amount of Tombworlds yet were one of the wealthiest and most advanced among the Dynasties.

The battle or skirmish that would occur three months after the sacrifice of the Silent Chameleons would be the skirmish between five Deathmarks against Arturius Imperia. The battle is not documented in any *official documents but it is theorized that the battle would look something akin to the hypothetical battle coined by Tech-Priest Honorus Ghim.

The Angelus would find themselves in either one of the many plains or forests of Ortus Prime and would be ambushed by the Deathmarks as they would ripple in and out of reality and time itself as the Lord-Primarch would try and both fail and succeed in blocking their attacks. He would eventually be met with the distorted visage of the Deathmarks as they would each fire concentrated plasma beams upon the armour of the Angelus and would succeed in disintegrating it to near nothingness but would not fear and falter under such power.

The Angelus would rather be filled with anger and rage as his speed and strength would rise above what even the Primarch Vulkan is known for, in such a fit of rage and anger, the Angelus would push through the beams and would smash the distorted bodies of the Deathmarks as their 'fickle' bodies would be smashed to bits and pieces by the Primarch in mere moments.

More and more of these skirmishes would occur as stated in one ancient Federal Report: "... the Grand Chancellor has been hit by another skirmish with these invisible assassins. Generals Soth and Halier are concerned for the health of the Chancellor as their letters of plea for the Chancellor to return to the desk in safety but are continuously met by the Chancellor's stubborn will to fight."

By the information on the report, these skirmishes were not rare, some theorize that the Necrons sent hundreds of Deathmarks on the Angelus with each squadron being beaten and destroyed.

It would be in the final year of the war for Serpens Prime did the desperate Settra Dynasty call upon the greatest and most powerful as legions upon legions of Immortals, the elite of the Necron's armies, would meet the mortal soldiers of the Federation.

Yet the battles and events of this year is nonexistent as the records were located on Serpens Prime, the only confirmed documents and scrolls in the Imperial Records are that of the creation of the Draco Domini, the transition into a monarchy, and that of the final battle of the Orpus Valekris.

The End to an Age

Under the Royal Pyramid, upon the streets of the xeno city did the legions of immortals battle against the armies of the Federation. Atop the Royal Pyramid did the Phaeron now known as Arkhash. It is unknown of what the two powerful beings spoke of.

The duel commenced as the Hyperphase blades that Arturius had acquired years before sang as the psychic might of the Lord-Primarch enveloped the blades with a purple-blue glow and enhanced their capabilities to new heights not even the Necron's thought possible.

Yet Phaeron Arkhash drew his Warscythe, it singed with the greenish color of the gauss energies that went through the blades of the scythe.

Unfortunately, the events that are upon the scrolls and documents of the Imperial Records detail what occurred after the battle of Orpus Valekris, it is even a blessing from the God-Emperor that Imperial Records still has a record, though how little it entails, upon the battle and victory of the War.

What is known is that once Phaeron Arkhash had been slain, the Necron Tomb City had been made offline and, by definition, worthless and dead. The legions of Immortals that flooded through the doorways into the streets of the city were now falling unto the ground.

The once green glow of the city was now exchanged for a nothingness. The Draco Domini, who were fending off the Lychguard of the Phaeron, were now standing on the steps to the top of the Pyramid as they saw the Lychguard fall to the ground themselves.

This was the end of an period of war and death, a period of extinction and genocide, one horrific event for not just the ancient peoples of Serpens Prime but one for all of humanity. They say war never changes but the War for Serpens Prime was a war that would have changed the direction of humanity completely and utterly.