13 - Galrisian - Apocalypse at the forges of Ruhr, The VI° Legio Metalica Battlegroup, escorted by a cult mechanicus legion of Piombus, at the head of the CCXLIII° imperial regiment faces the ork assault on the lost factories of Ruhr.
"There are beasts among the stars, beasts that would crush our lives, make ash of our worlds and break all that we hold sacred. The beasts wait in the dark and shunned reaches like the things glimpsed in the forests of old, things that looked out with red, shining eyes and hearts filled with the joy of ruin." from Remarks on the Nature on the Unknown by Estivan Mauritin, advisor to Rogue Trader Hiram Sult
Across all the continental front line, hundreds of imperial armies march forward, pushed at the frontal clash against the brutal arrogance of the orks. Wave, after wave, after wave, millions of imperial guards, supported by divisions of the cult mechanicus and the Knights of Piombus, and few squat regiments of Mognar House, move forward in a monstrous friction war that claims, day after day, thousands of dead. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of artillery batteries, manticores, bombards and basilisks shoot from the rearlines, continuously, while dozens of deathstrike missiles launchers launch the most devastating weapons in the imperial arsenal, intercepting, from orbit, some orks war engines, and knocking them down before they can reach the front. But the orcks' artillery is terrific as well. Blasta gargants, immense howitzer mounted on titanic tracks are placed in the orkish rearlines, and cannonade after cannonade they devour entire imperial infantry regiments, that hopelessly march to the front, but it's on Ruhr industrial complex that the clash may have a turning point.
Ruhr industrial complex: a gigantic industry of forges, factories, reactors. A sprawling structure that extends for tens kilometers where once two hundred thousand workers were hard at work, day and night, for the Glory of the Doge of Galrsian and the God Emperor. As the largest steel industry, it served as the main hub with a number of minor structures, scattered all over the planet. But the war, thirty years ago, took away everything. Almost everything. Some structures are still going, powered by reactors that can run for thousands years, while others are titanic rusting hulks.
Conquered and lost dozens times over the years, it has become a huge industrial carcass, a monster of steel and rust, a deadly maze, den for imperial bandits bands, ork freebooterz, heretical sects and vile alien entities that crawl among the abandoned tunnel. Anyone who would disappear from the planet would take the road to Ruhr, fading in the microcosm of its underground tunnels, and his name would be erased forever from the book of the righteous.
Planet: Galrisian Sector: Ruhr. Sector DeltaX658. Relevance: Defeat the ork army in Ruhr sector, pivot for force them to retreat. Force: VI° Legio Metalica Battlegroup at the head of the CCXLIII° imperial army. With cult mechanicus auxiliary. Danger Level: Medium-High. Fall of the main continental assault line will result as a stalemate.
[MAP, click to enlarge]
ARMY ARMY OF THE IMPERIUM - strategy 3 - 9.000 pt - 3.100 pts Titan Legion. - Download - 2.600 pts Cult Mechanicus. - Download - 3.300 pts Steel Legion. - Download
Victory condition and campaign effect: classic tournament
After the failed attempt to break through Verdun forest, the Supreme Imperial Command, led by Supreme General Lord Joseph Petrescu, now supervises the advancement of the imminent, apocalyptic clash at the Forges of Ruhr. One month later, an armored army of imperial guard, together with the Piombus cult mechanicus and the titan legion form the bridgehead, battering ram that will have to break through the enemy armored lines. The whole continental line has now exploded in a myriad of clashes of various intensity, and the imperial forces and the orkish one are frazzling in continuous battles, in a cauldron of flames and steel. Veteran Princeps Julius Zar on its Warlord Titan "Nuntius Fragor", at the head of the entire army, advances leading a legendary army. Beyond, beyond the long chimneys on the horizon: fury and steel. The immense armored ork horde approaches: Gargants, battlewagons, battlefortresses, stukas, and armored beasts to which it's difficult give a name.
<< Veteran Princeps Julius Zar, we need a solemn victory, here. Bring it to me on a silver platter. >> FIeld Marshal of the twelve imperial guard army, Cavalier of the East Cross, Lord Jasper "Immanuel" Tanaiser.
<< Field Marshal, we don't march here in vain, we march to victory or oblivion! >> Veteran Princeps Julius Zar on Warlord titan Nuntius Fragor
<< Beautiful words, boss, but on the horizon I see only a sea of trouble. >> Princeps James Draco on warlord titan Lux Vindicta
<< Please, call the things by their name, James Draco, it's a sea of shit! >> Princeps Fabius Faber on reaver titan Portae Custos
++ support ++
<< Hey, nice bastards! I remind you that if it's time to slink off, I'm the one who runs faster! Ha! Ha! Veteran Princeps Julius Zar, we wait... we wait for... They are coming along the path of the titans. Their light is dead, resurrected in horror and rotten glory. The Omnissiah spirit erased by rotten, gurgling spirits of Nurgle.
They march to the citadel of Tarthia in the name of their false Emperor, the usurper. To Tarthia, where our biggest secret is guarded. By thirty-eight thousand years, they hate us, and we hate them, in a never-ending feud. Ten millennia ago our rivalry was silenced by the God Emperor, together, with them we conquered the galaxy and found an invincible empire. Ten millennia ago, with them this empire is likely to be won. forever. Forgive me Veteran Princeps. Damn nightmares, but when will they end? ...we wait for orders. >> Princeps Bill Hudson on warhound titan Ardens Lupus
<< Who are you, nemesis in the night of times? Remains in the shadows! The Secret of Steel... VI° Battlegroup, the soul of your ancestors lives in your titanic steel bodies. Be one with them, from here to victory! From here to eternity! Veteran Princeps Julius Zar, lead us beyond this forges. >> Legate Carl Pastorius, Lord of the Legio Metalica H.A. divisio on Rex Archangelus, imperator titan.
Steelworks, foundries, kilometric assembly lines run for tens of miles above and below the ground's surface, in a sprawling maze of rails, winches, wagons.
Huge mechanical arms once grasped tons of steel to trap them into other immense wagons, but now they lie immobile, dead.
Various plasma generators and some crude nuclear centrals are still operating, maintained operative by automated systems that virtually allow them eternal life. But now, they are the center of contention of the outlaws that populate the Ruhr subsoil.
In the Sector DeltaX658 are still visible signs of numerous battles, between gangs, between orcs and planetary forces, that for decades in combat have attempted to regain it. An Imperial landing vessel class "Behemoth" still burns, allegedly destroyed by an intercontinental missile fired from orbit by the orks. Two hundred imperial guard, predominantly police guards on motorbikes and jump packs, lying defeated on the ground, amidst the bodies of as many feral orks. The last, unsuccessful, attempt to recapture of the sector dated to no more than two months ago, a battle in an attempt to regain the space harbor of the sector, now theater of the imminent titanic battle.
A huge tower, tall over three hundred meters, rises and cleaves the sky, waiting for satellite signals destroyed by years.
The Ruhr forges are now only a huge, pantagruelic, steel monster, lair for an undergrowth of rejects, bandits, chaos cultists, ork freebooters and genestealers.
It's dawn, when the immense armies are now at the gates of the forges. It's dawn, but it's a dawn of death, flames and steel.
