The Black Crusade of Jihar the Lacerator 599.M37

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SOME OF YOU WHO ARE ENTRUSTED WITH THE LIVES OF MEN MAY ONE DAY FIND THEIR VERY SOULS ENTRUSTED TO YOUR CARE TOO. THOUGH NONE MAY SPEAK OF SUCH THINGS OPENLY, YOU WILL BE NOW BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE FORCES AT LARGE IN THE UNIVERSE FAR MORE TERRIFYING THAN ANY XENOS, FAR MORE PERNICIOUS THAN ANY TRAITOR.

BUT, BEFORE YOU READ OF SUCH THINGS, YOU MUST TURN TO YOUR CONFESSOR FOR COUNSEL, AND CLEANSE YOUR HEART OF EVERY STAIN. FOR YOU MAY BE CALLED TO SERVE AGAINST THE MOST TERRIBLE FOE FACING MANKIND. YOU MAY BE REQUIRED TO FIGHT AN ENEMY AGAINST WHICH YOU WILL, WITH ALL CERTAINLY, FALL, EVEN SHOULD YOU BEAT HIM UPON THE FIELD OF BATTLE.

PROCEED THEN, WITH YOUR CONFESSOR’S BLESSING, AND READ OF BUT A SMALL PART OF THE THREAT PRESENTED BY MANKIND’S NEMESIS. LEARN FROM THE DEATHS OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE YOU, AND PRAY THAT YOU MAY SERVE THE EMPEROR AS WELL AS THEY. HEED UNTO THE LESSON OF THE 13™ MORDANT.





This account of the Black Crusade of Jihar the Lacerator was compiled by the celebrated Administratum Field Notary Corwen Quilp. Quilp travelled widely throughout the Sectors Occularis and visited a number of the localities mentioned in the original text, though precious little Physical evidence of the battles be described remained. Quilp was required 1o seek special dispensation to write on the subject, and bis original text was not published for many years after its writing, for the Ordo Hereticus required it (and indeed the author) be rigorously examined before they would allow it even the highly limited dissemination it received.



(Below, right.) Segmentum view of the Eye of Terror.



An unnamed lieutenant of the Lacerator, this individual haunted the nightmares of many of the 13th’s troopers. A number of battlefield myths surrounding her were born during the campaign, ranging from her prodigious ability with the blade to the tortures she might visit upon those her forces captured in battle. The 13th’s NCOs were hard-pressed to contain these tales, lest discipline break down entirely when fighting her warband.


Perhaps once or twice in a millennia, a truly great champion of the unnameable gods will arise in the Eye of Terror. Through the power : : of his implacable will and the favour of dark powers this cham- pion can weld together an unsteady alliance between the infernal regions of the Eye. How the champion brings the crusade together depends on his nature and his patron god. Some use manipulation, others extortion, others domination, others intimidation. Most simply use all of the considerable powers at their disposal.

Preparations for a Black Crusade can take years, or weeks depending on the whims of the gods. The forges of the hell worlds belch out armour and weapons for the chosen one’s followers, dark engines are aroused from their slumber with blood sacrifices, factions vie for com- mand of the massed ranks of crusaders or are crushed into obedience. When the Black Crusade is launched, the Eye of Terror vomits forth the diabol- ic hordes: armies of abominations, rank upon rank of huge, twisted monsters; numberless masses of cultists; wild tribes of mutants; ancient and terrifying traitor titans. Spearheading it all are the Traitor Legions, united in their lust for booty and their desire to bring destruction upon the hated Imperium.

The Imperium keeps strong forces sta- tioned around the Eye to fend off these invasions. Entire Titan Legions, Space Marine Chapters and massed regiments of Imperial Guard defend the most vital systems in close proximity to the Eye. But even powerful fighting formations like these cannot guarantee victory over the infernal throng. All too often, the black tide expands and recedes leaving entire systems ravaged and burned. Whole planetary populations are irrecoverably tainted, cities and industries are crushed by the thunderous pounding of diabolic engines of destruction, uncounted citizens are dragged away to serve as slaves and playthings to the damned souls and their daemonic masters at the edge of reality.

Each city ruined, every planet burned brings the Imperium a little closer to dissolution. In an Imperium of a million worlds how much can a single world matter? Enough to have to defend each one “against the infernal host, enough to bring ‘the curse of Exterminatus upon those that bend the knee and bow down to the dark ones. A Black Crusade may come crashing forth from the Eye only once in a thousand years but the damage it inflicts can never be undone.



Jihar the Lacerator

Few beings brought such grief upon the Domains of Man in the mid centuries of the thirty-eighth millennium as did the abomination known as Jihar the Lacerator. It is believed that Jihar served as an officer in the ranks of the traitorous Emperor’s Children, a former Astartes Legion that fell from the Emperor’s Grace at the very dawn of the Age of the Imperium. Jihar the Lacerator is known to follow those powers that may not be named, and in particular, that power known to revel in excess in all things. His service of these powers bas seen him slaughter countless millions of the Emperor’s servants, and raze entire worlds to ashes.

By the end of the sixth century of the thirty- eighth millennium, Jihar’s power was approaching its zenith. Feted by powers beyond the ken of mortal man, be preached bis message far and wide, drawing ever more followers to him until bis armies numbered untold millions. Jihar the Lacerator led not only bis followers drawn from the so-called Emperor’s Children legion, but a vast multitude of the most base scum cast out by Humanity. Those reviled for bearing the mark of the mutant, those who would cavort with fell powers, and those who simply refused to call the Emperor master, flocked to bis banner, until the ether, it was said, wailed at the prospect of bis coming.

Jihar was reputed to be possessed of the most terrible of gifts, granted unto him by bis fell master. So dark was Jihar’s soul, so utterly twisted was be that the souls of the warp wail in anguish at bis passing. Wherever be treads, be is accompanied by a woeful cacophony. The dead, who should by rights fear naught, fear above all what evils be might visit upon them, and scream out for deliverance so keenly that their voices bleed into the world of men. So terrible is this sound that it is said that to bear it is to have one’s sanity shattered completely, and irrecoverably, and thereby to enter the service of Jihar and bis patron, for all time.

 

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Ogryns and ratlings are abhumans tolerated and employed by the Imperial Guard


Jihar the Lacerator was known to covet a cluster of worlds to the galactic south-west of the Cadian Gate. This region, known as Adriada’s Gloom, was sparsely populated, unlike many other areas surrounding the Cadian Gate, and was, for this hellish region at least, relatively untouched by war in the previous decades.

The Gloom was, as its name suggests, a veiled region, local space thick with particles that gave its stars a pallid, sickly aspect. Superstition told that the region was so benighted because the Emperor refused to shine his light upon it, as punishment for some terrible deed committed there many millennia before. The truth was perhaps worse, for the void-borne matter that obscured the region was believed to have been created at the very instant the Eye of Terror was created, and as such, was believed to be saturated with contaminants both psychical and spiritual.

Certainly, the their- ty or so populated worlds of the Gloom sported an unusually high number of abhumans. Abhumans are human descended creatures such as ratlings and ogryns, whose physical appearance and mental capabilities are quite different from those of their human ancestors. They represent the descendents of the first wave of exploration into the galaxy. Over tens of thousands of years of isolation they have evolved into creatures capable of living in high-gravity worlds, in deep space and in all kinds of polluted or dangerous environments.

It is generally accepted that abhumans are a part of the human race and not aliens. Many thousands of years ago the Inquisition led wars of destruction against human-descended creatures, which its masters deemed unworthy of full human status. When human settled worlds were discovered the Inquisition would conduct a lengthy process of DNA analysis to determine if the population was still fully human by the Inquisition’s standards. As a result the population of many planets were eradicated and their worlds resettled.

In time the Imperium developed a much broader definition of humanity. Ogryns, ratlings and other strains came to be regarded as human. Other individual abhuman mutations were treated with comparative toleration. However, even today the Inquisition is distrustful of the newly evolved races and of those in the Adeptus Terra who advocate the integration of newly dis- covered abhuman races into the Imperium of Man.

The abhumans that lived upon the Gloom Worlds, as the region’s planets were called, constituted a relatively stable strain. Despite this, they were shunned by the great mass of Humanity, for they were afflicted with a range of mutations that set them apart from normal men and women. Not least amongst these were their disturbing facial features, for some sported tiny, sucking, leech-like mouths, others had small, slit-like and entirely black eyes, while some were missing their nose, with just a pair of hissing nostrils visible. Though not all mutants of the Gloom Worlds suffered from every one of these mutations, all were pallid of colour, their sickly skin ranging from ai pinkish-grey to a translucent albino white, their veins visible just beneath the skin.

 

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The Imperium's response to the impending Black Crusade of Jihar the Lacerator was swift and efficient, for a great many proto- cols and contingencies had long been in place to react to any invasion originating from the Eye of Terror.

Ordinarily, any Black Crusade would need to engage the Fortress Worlds of the Cadian System if it were to engulf the sectors surrounding the Eye of Terror. On this occasion however, the element of the crusade originating from beyond the Cadian Gate was relatively small, and quite capable of avoiding any counter-attacks committed against it. The Imperium’s High Commanders saw that Jihar was not seeking to commit massed forces against the Fortress Worlds, as had many warlords before him, but was instead seeking to raise the bulk of his armies from the mutant po ulations of the Gloom Worlds. Jihar’s own forces traversed the Cadian Gate without opposition, the Imperium having decided to allow him to reach the Gloom Worlds unmolested. His small fleet, bearing a company of the dreaded Emperor’s Children Traitor Legion, was briefly detected by an Imperial Navy deep space picket squadron before it vanished on a heading, as predicted, for the Gloom Worlds. Meanwhile, the Imperium’s response was mustered. Forty-three regiments, a tiny fraction of the total long held at the ready for just such an event, were dis- patched for the Gloom Worlds with all haste, and arrived in the region to reports of widespread mutant uprisings. They were deployed with all haste, the High Command keen to ensure they engaged to mutant forces before Jihar could make his move.

 

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One amongst the forty three regiments of the first phase was the 13th Mordant, The so called 'Lucky 13s'. This regiment had been raised three years earlier, as part of a larger muster brought about by a particularly portentous reading of the Emperor’s Tarot. This reading, carried out by a senior psyker attached to the staff of the Cadian High Command, spoke of the coming of one ‘whom the dead fear above all else’. So it was that the 13's had trained intensely for the day they would be dispatched to fight one of Humanity’s most deadly foes. Of course, none amongst the 13™ ‘Mordant, or the other regiments of the first phase assault, had any clue what they might be facing. The truth of what lurks beyond the Cadian Gate is simply t00 awful to contemplate for the average man, only the very highest-ranking members of the Inquisition having any real inkling into the threat posed. Despite this, the 13" were well versed in the ways of the mutant, and had participated in a number of purges verging the Sentinel Worlds, gaining invaluable combat experience in the process.

The 13" were shipped from their garrison on Messina in the Thracian Primaris sector, sharing their transport vessel with a number of specialised units attached to them for the duration of the action. These included a tank company of the 9* Messina Armoured Regiment, a Self-propelled Artillery Company of the Angelisar Militia, and a light infantry detachment raised from the primitive, but highly proficient scouts of Beyan 9. The 13" were trained and equipped as assault pioneers, proficient in the use of such engineering stores as breaching charges, stummers, flame throwers and the like, and the battlegroup was therefore put together in order to compliment this utility.

The voyage from the Scarus Sector to the Gloom Worlds was a comparatively short one, but the proximity of the Eye of Terror to the galactic east made traversing the Warp even more perilous than normal. It was only through the skill of the very best Navigators the Navis Nobilite could provide that allowed the 13* to reach the Gloom Worlds ahead of Jihar’s Black Crusade. The 13™s destination was Hyrik V, a world from which reports of mutant uprising had already begun to flow. The native Planetary Defence Forces were ill prepared to deal with the uprisings. Although they had fought against mutant Ioutlaws on countless occasions, they had never before faced the mutants as a cohesive force. United, the mutants had swiftly overcome the Hyrik V PDE, and had reportedly committed numerous acts of revenge against their erstwhile oppressors. The wastelands of Hyrik V were quite literally swarming with armed mutants, and the settlements within which the stable humans lived were in danger of being entirely overrun.

The 13™ and attached units deployed from orbit, an operation that went smoothly and took three days to complete. Three other regiments had arrived by the end of the week, and the combined force, codified Brigade Zero, readied itself for offensive actions against the mutants hordes running wild throughout the wastes. Meanwhile, and only known to the High Command, Jihar the Lacerator was out there, somewhere in the void, inbound for one planet amongst the Gloom Worlds. Which one he would choose was yet to be revealed.

Jihar bad in bis service many practitioners of the dark arts. Some were no doubt members of the Traitor Legions, e while others were suspected rogue psykers — humans born into prodigious: psychic potential and never caught by the Black Ships of Terra.

 

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A highly experienced officer called Colonel Bane commanded the 13th Mordant. Bane had served in the Mordant PDF for many years, and was proficient in small unit actions against the private armies maintained by the smugglers and criminal syndicates of his world. Furthermore, while detached from the 13th he had served in an assault group that put down a mutant uprising in the Scarus Sub-sector, leading the attack on the mutant over-lord’s hive-lair and ending the uprising. Bane was therefore judged the ideal commander to lead an assault against the mutants of the Gloom Worlds, and his superiors briefed him to seek out and engage the enemy ship leadership as his highest priority.


MORDANT
Mordant Prime is a world situated to the galactic north of the Eye of Terror, and is known for the mining of bioluminescent bacteria from which a unique, highly corrosive acid is extracted.

Mordant is classed by the Adeptus Terra as a wasteland, totally unfit for human habitation. The only reason Humanity exists at all on the world is to mine the strains of bioluminescent bacteria grown beneath the surface. These strains live off of the phosphorite content in the rock, secreting a corrosive acid that breaks down the rock into a digestible form. Over the millennia, this process has formed a vast chain of caverns and tunnels that connect across the entire world. Within these tunnels mining clans extract the bacteria, culturing it in vast cavern-vats, to bleed off the most corrosive acids known to the Imperium. These extracts are shipped to Forge Worlds dacross the sector; where they find use in all manner of esoleric processes.

The peoples of Mordant can be split into two broad categories: the acid miners, and everyone else. The minors are organised into an ancient clan structure, and have total control over their business. They exploit cheap local labour; paying the workers barely enough to survive in the run down shanty- caverns they call bome. Many of the disenfranchised citizens of Mordant turn to a life of organised crime, and gang violence is the only authority acknowledged amongst many of the deeper settlements.

The Imperial Guard regiments drawn from Mordant are raised from amongst those citizens disaffected with life on their world. They cannot live on the pittance paid by the nining clans, and they will not sink so low as ta, leech off their own people as the gangs do. Mordant regiments are often fielded on night ‘worlds, and are known to make excellent tunnel fighters when the need arises.

 

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The 13th's first engagement against the Black Crusade of Jihar the Lacerator came only nine days after 3 their arrival upon Hyrik V. The regiment and attached units were stationed five kilome- tres south of the mutant settlement of Gravesville, a stinking, ramshackle city of around 300,000 situated at the very edges of the wastes in which the mutant armies were believed to be operating.

Colonel Bane was briefed on an army- wide advance to be made across the wastes, in which five entire regiments would seek to encircle the mutant horde and bring it to battle. The 13th were to advance through Gravesville, neutralising any mutant forces they might find there in order to safeguard the rear areas and line of communication of the advancing army.

The Regiment was transported to the outskirts of Gravesville by a Departmento Munitorum mass-con- veyance squadron, the infantry embarked on huge flat bed crawlers, each able to carry an entire company and its equip- ment. The regiment’s Sentinels scouted ahead of the column, whilst the attached tanks and assault guns of the Messina and Angelisar armoured units followed. Under cover of an artillery barrage laid down by the Angelissar units, the 13th advanced into the mutant settlement. They initially met with little opposition, only the occasional sniper engaging the infantry from the taller structures.

Each time they were shot at, the infanti would call down well-aimed artillery from the Angelissar basilisks, silencing the sniper and devastating entire buildings. After three hours, the infantry reached the centre of the shanty city, and linked up with the attached scouts from Beyan 9. The tribesmen-come-Imperial Guard infil- trators were spooked, but they had trouble communicating to the Mordant’s officers exactly what had rattled them, as the two groups spoke very different dialects of Low Gothic and experienced great difficulty in communicating any more than basic messages. Eventually, the decision was made to press on, though those troopers of the 13th in contact with the Beyan Scouts were greeted by an omi- nous feeling of impending threat. Advancing beyond the city centre, the lead platoon came upon the first real sign of the enemy. A large thoroughfare that lead northwards out of the city lay before them, and along its length, suspended from rusty iron poles, were strung up the bodies of several hundred troopers of the Hyrik PDE ‘The lead squads went to cut down the closest of the bodies, deter- mined that such blasphemy should not go unchallenged, when the Beyan scouts cried out, waving their hands frantically and attempting to stop the Mordant from doing so. Too late, the Mordant troopers saw why. The bodies had been mutilated, but not in such a way as might be consid- ered ‘normal’ in such a conflict. Instead, the body of each PDF trooper had had an intricate web of cuts inflicted upon it, and = the Mordant troopers recoiled in horror as they saw that the cuts formed symbols, runes so foul to look upon that men vom- ited or collapsed to their knees upon reading them.

 

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Preachers were to ‘accompany all of the Mordant platoons.

With word that the region-wide mutant uprising was running rife, Colonel Bane made plans to keep up the momentum of his attack. He i, knew that the mutants must surely have some centre of power out there in the wastes, and so dispatched the Beyan scouts to locate it. His sentinel scout units leading the way, his regiment and attached units began the long march into the unknown of the wastelands.

The landscape north of Gravesville was a polluted expanse, littered with industrial waste and used as the dumping ground of an entire world for millennia. In places the ground was so thick with garbage that progress was slowed to a crawl, but the Beyan scouts were able to pick a clear path through it, eventually allowing the infantry to make some progress.

The armoured vehicles of the attached Angelissar and Medina units were able to plough through the worst of the terrain, but soon discovered a further hazard. The ground in many places was dangerously unstable, prone to collapse. Three tanks and a self-propelled artillery piece were immobilised, trapped in the col- lapsing ground, and had to be crippled with breaching charges lest they be claimed and put to use by the enemy. The trek into the wastes went on for a further three days before the Beyan scouts brought back news of a large concentration of enemy up ahead. Colonel Bane went forward with the scouts, and soon saw for him- self what his regiment was up against.

The scouts had led the Mordant to a major enemy base of operations, and Colonel Bane resolved to assault it while he had the chance. The mutant position was set into the side of a mountain of industrial waste and consisted of large, crudely fortified command bunker surrounded by tiers of sm fortifications and firepoints. For several hundred metres around this were laid belts of razorwire as well as areas Bane suspected to be minefields. But most disturbing of all was a mighty structure perched atop the waste moun- tain. A wide, flat area had been cleared, and around it were all manner of twisted forms, fashioned from rusted ironworks. These forms echoed the sigils etched in the skin of the mutilated PDF troopers Bane’s men had encountered at Gravesville, and the very sight of them filled the Colonel with dread. He knew that he would be exposing his troops to a weapon they had never before encountered and had few ways of combating. He passed back the order that the gaggle of priests attached to his headquarters should be put to work. A preacher would accompany each platoon, and guard the souls of his men as they assaulted the mutant stronghold.

Bane finalised his plans for the assault that evening, and briefed his company commanders at midnight. The assault was one for which his regiment had trained repeatedly, and he believed that the tactical advantage was his. His officers briefed and the orders passed on, Colonel Bane settled down for a few hours of nightmare-haunted sleep before the dawn came, and with it, the battle.

 

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The Mordant units moved out just before the wan sun rose, infiltrating deep into the enemy’s outer defences before the first shots were fired. Moving quickly, the lead companies used their assault pioneer training to the full, using their stummers to detect and neutralise enemy mines, and breaching charges to assault fortified positions. Soon, the battle was joined in earnest, the attached armoured units adding the weight of ‘their firepower to the assault.

Initially, the attack went entirely as ‘planned, but the 13" soon found them- selves bogged down as they reached the base of the waste mountain atop which the enemy command bunker was positioned. The lead company, for this phase ‘€’ Company, was mauled by a furious mutant counter attack, and the front quickly degenerated into a sprawling mass of close quarters battle. At one point in the mid morning it looked like ‘C’ Company might be pushed back entirely, and so Colonel Bane personally led a counter push at the head of ‘E’, ‘F’ ‘and ‘G’ Companies, successfully stabilising the situation. By noon, six companies were pushing deep into enemy positions, assaulting bunker after bunker and slowly, a metre at a time, taking the mountain.

It was during this phase of the battle that the Mordant experienced the true hatred that the mutants felt towards the greater mass of Humanity. After action reports tell that the mutants were utterly fearless, refusing to take a single step backwards even in the face of over- whelming odds. Instead, they would rise from their positions and charge for- wards, their lamprey mouths voicing an eerie cry of hatred and loathing. Because of the mutants’ utter refusal to accept that they were beaten, the bat- tle wore on late into the day. It was only when ‘I’ Company gained a foothold on the enemy command bunker that the defence began to truly collapse. As the sun set on the long day, Colonel Bane led an assault on the inner sanctum of the enemy command bunker, the priest that accompanied his command section beheading the enemy leader with his huge eviscerator chainsword. Bane had won, but he soon saw that the stubborn defence the mutants had put up had taken a fearsome toll on his regiment. ‘C’ Company had all but ceased to exist, and every other unit had taken substantial casualties. Furthermore, many of the platoon leaders were reporting extreme combat stress reactions amongst their men, particularly those who had fought closest to the top of the mountain, in close proximity to the twisted metal forms at its peak.

With a heavy heart, Colonel Bane ordered his regiment to pull back from the captured position, rigging it with explosives and blowing it apart completely. As the Mordant 13" began the long trek south, black smoke filled the northern skies — the funeral pyre of several hundred brave Guardsmen, and several thousand twisted mutants.



The ash wastes of Gravesville.

 

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Troopers of the 13" Mordant

These three troopers of the 13" Mordant are amongst the survivors of the Regiment’s C Company. Each is typical of the state of the Regiment around the time of its period of rebuilding after the assault on the mutant stronghold. Each trooper wears a flak vest manufactured to the Cadian pattern, as Mordant is itself near to the Fortress World of Cadia and therefore receives many of the same patterns of equipment issued to Cadian units. These particular troopers have foregone the standard guards armour issued with the chest plate, and this makes visible the extensive tattooing favoured by all the inhabitants of Mordant.

The helmets worn by the 13" and all other Mordant units are a variant of that worn by the Cadians, although the difference is purely cosmetic and it provides the same level of protection. Mounted upon each helmet is an extensive suite of vision enhancing gear. As Mordant is a heighted world, its occupants are known to have eyesight sensitive to bright conditions, and so it is not unusual fer units to he issued with multi-spectral eye protection when such is available. The lasgun carried by these troopers is a long- barrelled model of the Kantreal-manufactured sidearm issued to almost all units raised within the sector Occularis.

The troopers’ fatigues are a green/grey standard colour issued to all Mordant units upon their raising. These troopers dis- play a trait common of many of their kin - the carrying of additional equipment into the warzone. Mordant units are notorious scroungers, and often they scourge off Munitorum sup- ply units, who dread requisitions from their quarter masters. Mordant troopers routinely search out and utilise any additional wargear they can carry, and as such are masters in the use of all manner of equipment rarely used by other troops. Most notable about these particular individuals however is that their scrounging of wargear appears to have carried over, or mutated into, the taking of trophies from the enemy. This is a trait only rarely practised amongst Mordant units, and is likely caused by the excessive and attenuated combat stress under which these troopers have been operating. Also likely is that the trophy taking is the result of some deeper, spiritual malaise brought on by extended contact with enemy forces tainted by the dark powers.

 

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Amongst Jihar’s followers were a number of warbands identified as former members of the Traitor Legion the Emperor’s Children. These so-called ‘Noise Marines’ carried sonic weaponry capable of incapacitating its victims even as they were driven beyond sanity by the atonal cacophony.


The 13th spent the next three weeks recovering from their battles in the wastes, the time spent reorganising its units to cover the loss of ‘C’ Company and to account for the numerous losses suffered by the other units. Of greater concern to Colonel Bane and his advisors however was a far subtler problem. The men and women of the 13* continued to exhibit combat stress reactions even some time after their return to base. These reactions were said to range from insubordination to outright mutiny, from surliness amongst the ranks to frequent brawling. Even more disturbingly, many troopers had taken to the wearing of trophies; body parts ripped from the enemy dead during the latter phases of their last battle. Such a practice was not unusual on many worlds of the Imperium, but was almost unheard of amongst units raised on Mordant.

In consultation with the regiment’s attached commissars, Bane ordered his troops to attend mass twice per day and ensured that there were plenty o preachers on hand to lift the warriors spirits. However, it appeared that the malaise was too deep rooted and Bane began to fear that the Commissariat would soon deem it necessary to carry out summary executions as an example to the rest of the regiment. On top of all this, Bane received word that the war was going poorly as a whole, and that the Imperium had been pushed back across a dozen worlds. Jihar the Lacerator had yet to reveal his hand, and thus far no Imperial unit had succeeded in drawing him to battle. It almost appeared to Colonel Bane that the Black Crusade was achieving its ends perfectly successfully with only the mutants contributing towards its efforts, and he feared what devastation might be unleashed if, or rather when, the Lacerator did commit his efforts to the war.

Bane need not have worried however, for, the very next day, Jihar the Lacerator made his attack. Hyrik V was his target. The 13" Mordant received precious little in the way of warning of the Lacerator’s attack. The first many heard of it was when the sirens began to wail and the gloomy skies became criss-crossed with the fiery contrails of the enemy’s drop pods.

As the regiment hurriedly mustered, sergeants and provosts bellowing at the troopers to gather their weapons and prepare for battle, the drop pods hammered to earth a hundred kilometres or so north-west of the regiment’s position. Bane knew that another regiment, the 17* Cadian, was encamped in almost the very spot the drop pods were impacting. He ordered his staff to contact the 17th, but all he heard over the vox-horns was panicked pleas for aid, followed by pitiful begging for mercy. At the last, an artillery spotter attached to the 17th transmitted a desperate request for an artillery barrage to be targeted in his exact position, and Bane immediately routed this to the self-propelled artillery units attached to his regiment. Even as the spotter’s transmission degenerated into incoherent screaming, Bane heard the rush of incoming ordnance over the vox-channel, and said a silent prayer when it was | abruptly cut off as mushroom clouds blossomed on the distant, northern horizon.

As the colonel gathered his company commanders, he was interrupted by an incoming communication from High Command He was to break camp and move out with immediate effect. His orders were simple. Jihar the Lacerator had come come to Hyrik V, and the Mordant 13th were to make every effort possible to slow his advance whilst a defence was mustered.

The battle that ensued was one written in no official history of the Imperium, for it was fought against powers that may not be named, or even described. All that is known is that the so-called Lucky 13’s advanced directly towards a foe that had reduced entire planetary populations to gibbering laves. It is said that the very air screamed with the plaintive wailing of the dead as the regiment advanced, voices from beyond entreating the 13th to turn back lest they too be enslaved for all eternity.

But the 13" did not turn back. They marched on, into the mutant-infested wastelands, into the wailing cyclone thrown up by the unquiet dead. What horrors were called forth from the realms beyond the physical few may ever know, what terrors and temptations the servants of the Unnamed Ones visited upon the 13th perhaps best not imagined.

What is known is that somehow the Lucky 13’s stood in the face of those terrors and temptations. They marched on, laying down such a torrent of fire that the beasts of the warp were cast back. At the last, the regiment, Colonel Bane at its head, descended upon Jihar the Lacerator as a vengeful force of destruction. None who witnessed the battle committed its details to record, and only accounts of witnesses many kilometres distant may be read. The dark skies, it is said, were torn asunder by fire and lightning, the heavy weapons of the 13" contesting with the sorcerous blasts unleashed by the Lacerator against them. At the height of the battle, onlookers ten kilometres dis- tant were forced to turn away lest the conflagration blind them, so intense was the fury unleashed. And somehow, throughout all this, the 13" were victorious. As dawn rose, a column of scorched and blasted men and women staggered from the smoke engulfing the entire northern horizon. Jihar the Lacerator was dead, his Black Crusade halted.

HOW MIGHT THE INSTRUCTOR OR THE STUDENT LEARN FROM THE FINAL ACT OF THE LUCKY 13™2 WHAT LESSONS MIGHT HE DRAW? WHAT EXAMPLE MIGHT HE FOLLOW? WHAT STRATAGEM OR RUSE MIGHT HE EMULATE WHEN HIS TIME TO FACE SUCH AN ENEMY ARRIVES? SURELY, WHEN FACED WITH SUCH A FOE ALL NOTIONS OF STRATEGIES AND TACTICS MUST BE CAST UPON THE WIND, INSTEAD, THE COMMANDER MUST LOOK NOT UNTO THE FIGHTING STRENGTHS OF HIS FORCES, THE CAPACITIES OF HIS LINES OF COMMUNICATION OR ANY SUCH CONCERN. INSTEAD, HE MUST REACH DEEP INTO HIS SOUL AND THE SOULS OF HIS MEN, AND HE WILL FIND THERE THE GREATEST, MOST TERRIBLE AND POTENT WEAPON IN HIS ARSENAL — UTTER DEVOTION TO DIE IN THE SERVICE OF THE EMPEROR, EVEN AS DEATH ITSELF REACHES OUT TO CLAIM HIM. IN THE FACE OF SUCH A WEAPON, WHAT POSSIBLE DEFENCE CAN THE ENEMIES OF MANKIND MOUNT?

 

[MolotovKraken]

Here ends the first volume of the Tactica Imperialis. Those who truly aim to : honour the works of the past and carry the glory of the Immortal God-Emperor of Man forward should study the wars described herein. Honour the names of your predecessors, study their deeds, meditate on their sacrifices and seek at all times to emulate their examples.

Seek first to identify the essential wisdom, the eternal truth at the heart of each account, for each has much to teach.

One might look to Carnhide for an object lesson in a vital principle for any high commander - your efforts should be entirely focused upon reinforcing success, and not wasted on shoring up failure. Though not recognised at the time of his greatest battles, Carnhide knew this well, and his deeds are now taught in every Staff Collegia in the Imperium. For that reason alone he was - afforded a place in this volume of work. Look too to the actions of the Iron . Snakes at Naxos, for they displayed the detached wisdom with which every commander, no matter his posting, must learn to plan. Captain Trokus displayed a keen sense of timing allied to a ruthless determination to sacrifice all in the prosecution of his mission. Many suffered, yet that mission was successful.


Lord Blythe teaches us a similar les- son, but on an entirely different scale. His command style also married the methodical approach so typical of one risen through the Staff ranks as he did, with a propensity to change plans and surprise his foe. This alone should form a salutary lesson against becoming hidebound and predictable in one’s strategy, for then the enemy will be able to predict your actions, and you will be forced onto the defensive. Such is a sin against the Emperor, a waste of his ammunition and of the lives in your charge.

Lastly, look to the fall of Jihar the Lacerator. One might question why such an account has been included in this volume, for surely tactics and strategy played little in the conclusion of that terrible war. And this is entirely the point of its inclusion, for that war was won when the 13" gave them- selves wholly unto the Will of the Emperor. They became the vessels of His divine judgment, and through them the Emperor brought low the heretic Jihar. The lesson here is simple. Learn your tactics and your strategies, but never forget that it is not the calibre of your ordnance nor the thickness of your armour, nor the capacity of your logistics train that will ensure you victory.

It is the Will of the Emperor. Embrace it, and victory shall be yours, of this you can be assured.