The Defense of Novus Majoris
Novus Majoris was once a thriving Hive world. Now it is a sparsely populated world, where the population barely ekes out a living as the world is rebuilt. But even this would not be possible were it not for the help of the Celestial Lions.
Novus Majoris came under attack by a massive Waaagh, that of Warlord Gorlik Umie Stompa. The attack came without warning as a massive fleet of ork ships arrived in orbit around the planet, quickly tearing the orbital defences apart with typical ork savagery. Not long after the orbit was secured, the crude landing craft of the orks descended to the planet’s surface to disgorge millions of greenskins and their vehicles. One landing site saw no fewer than 5 great gargants and an even larger gargant, rarely seen by the Imperium; a mega gargant, Gorlik’s personal command Gargant. Most of the orks forces surrounded this core of gargants while elements of the Kult of Speed rushed off ahead and engaged the Imperial Guard units stationed there before any reasonable defences could be mustered.
Although the outlying outposts quickly fell to the Freakers, the hives were already well prepared for the attack when the main ork force arrived. The defenders managed to exact a heavy toll upon the ork forces, but once Gorlik’s mega gargant, the Umie Krusha became involved, it quickly became a one sided battle. Within a matter of days the first of Novus Majoris’ hives had been decimated and the surviving human population enslaved by the orks.
The same scene was repeated for four of the remaining 5 hives on the planet. The final hive, Novus Sextus, the smallest hive on Novus Majoris, was located in a much more remote area of the planet compared to the other hives. On its own small continental island, the ork forces were delayed while they had to cross the harsh oceans of the planet. Millions upon millions of human slaves were worked to death constructing massive transport ships to ferry the multitude of orks and most importantly, the gargant mobs, across the oceans. As the construction of the vessels was completed and the ork forces were on their way to the island the entire fleet of the Celestial Lions chapter arrived in the system. The fleet rapidly decimated a large section of the ork fleet which was over the area that Novus Sextus was located. Not long after, drop pods and thunderhawk transports screamed down to the surface of the planet to deliver their cargo of marines. The Marines, coordinating with the remaining Guard Regiments setup defensive lines along the predicted landing points for the orks, while they organised with a small force of Techno Magi who were present to bolster the defences of the hive when the forces needed to withdraw.
While the preparations were hastily carried out, the thunderhawks turned their attention on the massive transports making their way towards the shores. They managed to inflict serious damage on several of the transports, sinking three, sending the orks within plunging to the cold depths of the oceans below. One transport even contained a portion of Gorlik’s gargant mob, unfortunately his gargant the Umie Krusha managed to escape this fate. Despite these losses, the orks still poured from their transports in unbelievable numbers. To some of the weary Guard defenders, it seemed as if the orks had lost nothing since the outbreak of the war as they descended upon the defences in a tidal wave of green bodies. The defenders held the shores for 3 whole days before the weight of the orks threatened to overwhelm them. Mounting up, the defenders sped back towards Novus Sextus, while the assault element of the Celestial Lions harried the orks’ faster units to prevent the retreat being turned into a rout.
As the defenders looked on at the approaching horde, Leopold Kruger outlined a desperate ploy to try and slow down or possibly even halt the ork horde. The warlord Gorlik Umie Stompa had to be killed. Unfortunately there seemed to be no way for any force to be able to get close enough to the Warlord’s gargant without being drowned in the tide of orks approaching the Hive. So, Leopold’s desperate plan came to the fore. Leopold would lead the chapters terminators in a direct attack against the Warlords gargant by teleporting inside it. The sheer size of the monstrosity meant that the terminators had a decent chance of being able to arrive inside the gargant intact.
After teleporting back onto the Celestial Lions main battle barge, the fifty marines of the first company equipped with terminator armour, readied themselves for the task at hand. Most of the marines equipped themselves for close combat, with the majority preferring lighting claws or a thunder hammer and storm shield over the more ubiquitous storm bolters and other ranged weapons. Due to the tight confines expected, several marines were equipped with heavy flamers to help clear the corridors and rooms that would doubtless be filled with orks. Once ready, Leopold gave the signal and the terminators were sent through the warp.
The Emperor’s light shined upon such a bold stroke and each terminator arrived unharmed, at precisely the location they had been sent to. The orks and their gretchin servants in the areas they arrived in were quickly dispatched with ruthless efficiency as each squad secured their arrival point.
While the rest of the units moved on to cripple the gargant and to attempt to cause the gargants main reactor to overload in order to destroy the beast, Leopold and his command squad marched upon the “bridge” to find Gorlik Umie Stompa and do battle with the Warlord.
Cutting their way through the orks in between them and their destination like a scythe though stalks of wheat, it was not long before they arrived at their destination. As they emerged into the room, Gorlik ceased bellowing his orders down the various communications tubes and turned around. With an angry roar he powered towards Leopold and his terminators. His sheer bulk, supplemented by the huge weight of his mega armour made the deck shudder with every stride. With one swipe of his claw he crushed the chest of the first brother that attempted to intercept him without even slowing his stride. Leopold moved forwards and halted Gorlik’s charge with the sheer strength only a genetically enhanced super human could. Despite having braced himself for the impact though, Gorlik forced Leopold back several metres before they both came to a halt. They stood there staring at each other for a few moments before Gorlik let out a deafening roar and combat ensued. Leopold managed to avoid or block every blow, but found no opening to strike back, but he was not aiming to kill the Warlord, merely keep him occupied. After an hour of solid fighting, with neither combatant tiring, Leopold received a communication from the rest of his force. After a quick affirmation of the message, he signalled the Celestial Lions’ flagship. He gave the warlord a victorious smile as he was suddenly surrounded by a bright light and vanished off the Umie Krusha’s bridge.
Gorlik yelled out a stream of profanity at the cowardess of his opponent having fled the battle. Satisfied with his superiority, he once again returned to bellow down the tubes to the engine room to increase the Gargant to maximum speed. Enough time had been wasted. But there was no response. After a short while, he became curious and stared down the pipe, he saw a bright light that rushed closer to him as he looked. A jet of explosive plasma streamed up though the tube and into the warlord’s eye. He stumbled back yelling in pain, but his frustration was short lived as the gargant was enveloped in an explosion as the plasma reactor that the orks had salvaged from an Imperial Titan to power the beast went critical.
Defenders in the hive were momentarily blinded by a bright flash as the gargant was evaporated in the giant explosion. A huge swathe of the ork horde was incinerated along with the gargant. Despite this, the rest of the orks still had sufficient numbers to continue on and be problematic for the defenders to deal with. And on they came. Wave after wave of greenskins.
Luckily for the defenders, the greenskin attack was uncoordinated. Without a head, the body of the horde flailed about simply trying to cause as much devastation as possible.
After 3 months of solid fighting the orks were finally driven off and the remnants hunted down. But Novus Sextus lay in ruins. The civilian population had mostly been spared due to the courageous actions of the defenders, but had still suffered during the prolonged engagement due to a lack of supplies.
Miraculously, the Celestial Lions had managed to suffer only moderate casualties. In strength, they had lost 2 full companies of marines, with another 2 companies worth of marines sustaining serious, but treatable injuries. It was an amazing result for the chapter when they surely should have come close to the fate they would later suffer on Armageddon. As with the attack on Gorlik’s gargant, the Emperor must have surely blessed the chapter with His divine protection.