40 Thousand Reasons

The Vail Report

Inquisitor Amberly Vail took another glance at her psychic-linked diary, the empty pages longing to be filled with more words, while the archeo-stylus in her hand quivered with anticipation.

With a sad smile, she began drawing new words and schematics, in High Gothic. With a subtle twist of the Warp, the words were encrypted and encoded with the Ordo Xenos engrams as to deny the Enemy access to critical data. Hopefully.

"To the God-Emperor of Mankind and my fellow Inquisitors, I hereby testify to the events of the Invasion_of_the_Stygius_Sector, as witnessed with my own senses.

As some of you may know, my new mission had been to observe and document the life and feats of Pef Lancefire, and his forces, at first at the order of Lord Inquisitor {Redacted} and later with follow up orders from High Lord Of Terra {Redacted} and Primarch {Redacted}.

I will not go into much detail about Pef Lancefire himself, not only for my personal safety, as he is certainly able to observe me at any time due to the xenos artifacts like {Redacted}, {Redacted}, {Redacted} and Primarch {Redacted}, but simply because it is not relevant.

Lord Lancefire himself has claimed to abstain as much as possible from 'cheating', as he calls the use of his powers or artifacts, mainly because he intends for Humanity to achieve the same feats with their own skill and strength.

In this regard, I can indeed attest to Lord Lancefire's minimum use of outside forces, and instead using and abusing his own military forces to a degree not known possible or even theoretically proposed, not for human forces at least.

Of course, the Lamenter's Xeno Auxiliary units are not human, and they did provide a huge impact as force multiplier and distraction, as well as ambush and simple meat-grinding units on the frontlines, in addition to Warp-phenomena suppression or special abilities.

Also, the feats of Primarch {Redacted} onto the battlefields of the Stygius Sector are also not the purview of this document, nor could they be, since the words would self-erase at the same speed I could write them down.

Firstly, I will describe the forces brought into play by House Lancefire and the Lamenters' Astartes Chapter, although some leeway should be given due to {Redacted} and {Redacted} abilities of Lord Lancefire to resupply or recover troops in the field.

The Lamenters' are indeed still Codex compliant and their Battle-Brothers' numbers have never exceeded 900 in the field, although liberal use of tech-marines (about 2200 observed) and their thousands of Guardian walkers (roughly 200000 observed) did provide extreme levels of firepower and suppression comparable to a full Astartes Legion.

However, the Lamenters themselves are rarely deployed as frontline units, as their doctrine calls of the use of the Lamenters Auxiliary Forces as the principal units to hold the field.

Human Auxiliary units were mainly of Catachan genetic stock(with sizeable elements from Valhalla and Cadia descendants), and were organized as follows:

Heavy Infantry: 600 regiments, or about 600 million troops, with integrated logistics and walkers (about 600000 Armed Sentinels of various types), Artillery: 100 regiments with over-strength numbers if compared to the nominal Imperial Guard(estimated 200000 artillery guns), plus anti-air and air-to-ground vehicles (roughly 400000 ground attack aircraft), Armor: 300 regiments of over-sized strength(roughly 300000 light tanks, mostly Chimera and Weasel patterns, 30000 heavy tanks mostly Ragnarok-patterns and some Leman Russ, 1300 super-heavy tanks of various Baneblade-pattern, (mainly Doomhammer models armed with twin-Magma Cannons).

Of note in the above lists, the vehicles themselves are not the standard patterns used by Astra Militarum and other Imperium of Man's units. Lord Lancefire has taken great care to upgrade these machines with new(or archeotech) auspex, weapons, armor and shields, plus various bits like enhanced tracks and logic-engines, thus giving his troops at least an order of magnitude of superiority versus similar vehicles from other forces.

Adding to this were Forge Machine and Forge {Redacted} allied forces, plus the Knights of House Lancefire with about 500 Knights of various models(mainly armed with Volcano Lances). The Mechanicus units were rather secretive about their numbers and capabilities, but I did observe roughly 300 Titans in the field, plus assorted support and skirmish troops mostly made up of combat-servitors (estimated over 1 billion), Skitarii (over 10 million) and battle-automata (over 10000), plus a few {Redacted} siege engines.

Various other allied forces were present, most notably the Adepta Sororitas with 6 priories (roughly 6 million troops with tanks and walkers support, plus the Silent Sisters {Redacted} Vigil, with their own 800 Knight-sized walkers of {Redacted} pattern), the Holy Inquisition's Stormtrooper regiments, as well as the Iron Hands Astartes Chapter (and all their successor Chapters), 24 {Redacted} Astartes Kill-teams, {Redacted} and {Redacted} Assassinorum {Redacted} Clade agents, 6 {Redacted} Augur Teams for psychological-ops and lastly 2 {Redacted} human and cyborg operatives for noosphere surveillance.

For space and space-superiority combat, the forces gathered to fight the Great Enemy invasion consisted of: Lamenters' Strike Force of 5 battlebarges, 5 battleships (including the Glorianna-class Singularity) 62 heavy cruisers (including 40 Drop-cruisers) and 3 Universe-class fleet-carriers (carrying roughly 5000 starfighters, 1000 bombers and 1000 corvettes), plus the Black Lament super-fortress, then the Lancefire House Navy which consisted of 32 Battleships, 14 Battlecruisers, 491 cruisers and 87 escort carriers (carrying roughly 400000 interceptors and 40000 torpedo corvettes), various support, repair, supply and logistics vessels (over 1000 ships), and lastly the Adeptus Mechanicus Machina Basilikon Fleet with 7 battleship-sized Arks, 95 cruisers, 2 Forge ships and 4 platform XXL carriers (estimated capacity: 4 million servitor-brain combat space-drones and 4000 corvettes).

Note that nearly every capital ship deployed was upgraded with Nova Cannons and thick {Redacted} armor and extensive auto-targeting point-defense batteries, plus Blank bridge crew, Blank Machine Spirits and improved Gellar field coverage.

The other Astartes forces present were not quite as heavily armored or armed as the Lamenters, which did cause them significant casualities, not that I've noticed any complaints, quite the contrary. Immediate replacements were provided from the wounded soldiers in the Auxilia, often during high-intensity combat. I did also notice a large increase in tech-marine presence among the Iron Hands forces, generally at parity with the regular Battle-Brothers numbers.

Sadly, I cannot go into detail about the extent of the Xeno Auxiliary Units deployed, mostly because of sheer numbers, distance or psyker-suppression effects involved, or entropic cascade and temporal distortions in the case of the Hrud.

Auxilia Orks were easier to observe, but I believe Lord Lancefire used the greenskins as mere distraction or amusement instead of actual combat units, considering how often I heard him snicker or even laugh loudly once the Orks were being deployed. Note that {Redacted} or {Redacted} artifacts, or perhaps Alpha-level psyker-based telepathy is required to direct such xeno auxiliaries against an enemy. Bribing doesn't work!

As for the local forces of the PDF, Astra Militarum or the Imperial Navy, they were of course present in large numbers in the Stygius Sector, at least in the beginning. However, considering that latter analysis demonstrated losses of upwards of a trillion soldiers per day(sector-wide) in the early phases of the invasion, I uphold Lord Lancefire's decision to ignore local units and instead focusing on taking the fight directly to the enemy, instead of attempting to reinforce the disintegrating Imperial forces in the Sector.

Simply consider the amount of invaders in the Dhobash_System, for example. The Enemy had deployed 6 Titan Legions, 9 Knight Houses and over 20000 tanks obtained from Forge World Rho-Delpha, accompanied by 18 hosts of {Redacted} Daemons and 3 entire corrupted Space Marine Legions. Local Imperial forces were overwhelmed in minutes, and once the {Redacted} and {Redacted} rituals had began, even the most loyal Imperial units had began defecting or suiciding en-masse, not to mention shooting at anyone they could see.

In the void the situation at Tarkan Hive World was even worse, as the last Great Enemy had gathered a giant fleet that out-numbered the relief forces 100 to 1. Of course, they did not outnumber the Tyranid Hive Fleets released against them by Lord Lancefire and his {Redacted} xeno friend, an event which indeed created the setting and conditions for a latter victory against the Unified {Redacted} Front.

Regarding the relatively low casualities from the civilian population of the invaded Hive Worlds (often in the thousands instead of trillions), this can be explained by Lord Lancefire's softer heart (compared to a regular Inquisitor), and his liberal use of xeno {Redacted} and {Redacted} artifacts, as well as several interventions from Primarch {Redacted} and the Demonifuge {Redacted}, plus unconfirmed reports of glowing Saints or Faith miracles in places I couldn't observe directly.

Regarding the Eldar fleets and Wraithbone Titans deployment during the invasion, plus the rumors of divine intervention by several Eldar Deities or Avatars, a separate report has been sent to the Ordo Xenos Conclave at Aegida Station, along with the necessary document files, pict-captures and psyker-trance memory crystals of the events, in particular my own recordings of a Revenant_Titan in combat against a {Redacted} Horde.

A secondary report of the Forge Venatoria techpriests, Titans and {Redacted} Fortress and their suspected {Redacted} xeno overlords involvement has also been sent in triplicate, after the first copy has vanished in transfer.

As for the curious case of Major Sly Marbo of the Special Operations Group, and his claims of 44 Titans and 97 Knights destroyed by his own hand, I could only confirm 6 Titan-kills via direct observation. Another 56 cases have been documented via battlefield auguries and after-action reports of nearby forces. However, it is my own presumption that our Major has in fact understated his feats during the Invasion, since the mysterious disappearance of the enemy's 5th Titan Legion during the Prismata_System Campaign can have little other explanation.

Considering that Major Sly Marbo is also a Blank and has been observed to {Redacted} himself and displace objects with ease, I consider the man as dangerous as Lord Lancefire himself, at least on a personal scale. Hopefully, due to the man's marriage into the Lancefire House, we do not need to worry about tracking him all over the galaxy as well.

In conclusion, the combined intervention of House Lancefire, the Lamenters Chapter and the allied forces is estimated to have caused 97 percent loses to the physical invaders, including ships and vehicles, and 23 percent permanent loses to insubstantial invaders, as 67 percent non-permanent loses that could be restored with great effort by the Great Enemy. I could also confirm the death of Warlord Khardoff and all of his officers and command staff.

However, despite our best efforts the Archtraitor Ahriman escaped once more, even from a direct hit with a {Redacted} Assassinorum pulse.

A note of caution, for those of our rank who might attempt to copy or emulate the feats of Lord Lancefire in other places.

Make sure your Astartes units consist of Blank Space Marines or have been completely protected via Null Rods and similar means. Like my own {Redacted} Rod.

Obtain the support and presence of a large number of Silent Sisters. Blank officers/retinue too.

Employ the services of {Redacted} or {Redacted} Assassin Clade, or the use of God-Emperor's own {Redacted} Titans.

Get your own {Redacted} Fortress.

Try to obtain {Redacted} or {Redacted} artifacts as to deploy Tyranid bio-titans at crucial points. Ordo Xenos rank or Rogue Trader Warrant required.

Befriend one Primarch and ask him to join your quest. There are at least {Redacted} to pick from.

Obtain Mechanicus support. Titans are nice, but only if they're on your side.

Ask Lord Lancefire to lend a hand. (Obviously the safest path)

As for the aftermath of the Stygius Invasion, Lord Lancefire is still involved with the clean-up and the closing of various Warp-rifts, although other Imperial forces like the {Redacted} Astartes under Ordo Malleus and Primarch El'Johnson with his 42 Space Marine Chapters have also arrived to help. It is of course too late for the 91 worlds burned to a crisp via Exterminatus ordnance, as well as the 5 Imperial worlds that had been dragged into the Warp by the retreating {Redacted} forces.

The Stygius Crusade also has the honorable mention of awarding the highest numbers of Astartes badges ever recorded, including over 4000 Imperialis , over 3000 Machina_Opus and 731 Imperial_Laurel badges. Hundreds of other awards like the Marksman's Honour and Iron Halo shields were also awarded for extraordinary feats of skill and bravery. Furthermore, 98 Lamenters badges called Writ Sanguinatus Mori were awarded post-mortem to fallen Lamenter Marines, including all their Apothecaries that did not posses Blank genes.

By the powers invested in me, I hereby end this communique and send it to the higher Lords in the Imperium for evidence. Follow up reports inbound as more data is gathered.

Amberly Vail, Holy Inquisitor of the Imperial Faith, Ordo Xenos and Ordo {Redacted}.

Thought for the day: "Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men."