Editing Hektor Heresy (section)

===The Supply Battles: Zhuko V===
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<center>'''A WORLD OF TANKS'''</center>
[[File:Polluted city by metalyoyamon.jpg|right|160px]]
Zhuko V was an old, heavily populated world when it was brought into Compliance.  Two centuries of progress as part of the Imperium saw the Zhukons move from sprawling industrial cities into massive hives separated by ash-coated wastes.  Although Zhuko V was not part of the advanced realm of the Mechanicum, it still produced war material in formidable quantities.  The Zhukons assembled reliable ''Tiran Osoros'' Battle Tanks, massive ''Gorgon'' Heavy Transporters, and ''Thunderbolt'' Heavy Fighters, along with more humble items of war such as flak armour and lascarbines.  Due to the shipping disruption caused by the Heresy, Zhuko V's warehouses were overflowing with material, ready for use by the first taker.
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''In the name of the Council of Terra and their Warmaster, Alexandri Ibirien, I pronounce you guilty of high treason.  The sentence is death.''

- Discipline Master Konstantine Maloyar, addressing the corpse of Governor Telesius Secundus

Not all of the battles of the Heresy were fought between Space Marines. In fact, some of the largest engagements were between entirely mortal armies but these are generally lost to history or included only as footnotes to the fast-moving campaigns of the Primarchs. To some extent this reading of the war is justified, because the auxilia were assigned to secondary roles.  However, these secondary roles typically included securing key sources of food, munitions, and promethium, the vital supplies that allowed the armies of the Heresy to function. Thousands of conflicts, ranging from regimental-scale battles on Astrariums up to enormous sector-wide campaigns were fought by mortal men and women for the sake of war material, but the best-known by far is the elephantine clash of armour on Zhuko V.

When the civil war began, Zhuko V was governed by Telesius Secundus, a graduate of the ''Scholae Astartes'' system established by the Heralds of Hektor. Naturally, Telesius favoured "his own" Legion and intended to provide Hektor Cincinnatus with the full support of the Hive World. However, after the hostilities began and Alexandri of Rosskar gave Imperial Discipline Masters license to police the whole of the Segmentum Solar, Telesius was promptly executed by Konstantine Maloyar for high treason.  Maloyar then attempted to establish a military government on Zhuko V, but was opposed by Telesius's partisans. The hab-blocks of Zhuko V's three main hives were the scene of low-level warfare for months while Discipline Master Maloyar and his loyal soldiers fought to secure control. By the time that forces loyal to Hektor arrived to harvest the fruits of Zhuko V's industry, the battles within the hives were drawing to a close. Loyalists controlled Gorbman City and Buzuluk City (the planetary capital), while the Traitors were in possession of Kruppuk City.

This situation was far from what Prinz-Direktor Hermann von Rausendorf expected. The trim and fussy [[Exirans|Exiran]] commander had orders to recruit new army groups from Zhuko V, not to lead a battle for control of the planet. His XXXVIII Grenzer-Korps was a light force by Exiran standards and in any case lacked the numbers to subdue a Hive World.  However, failure was not an option. Even if the Heralds of Hektor had been inclined to accept the Prinz-Direktor reporting that he simply could not secure Zhuko V (and this was unlikely), Exiran martial honour demanded that von Rausendorf prove the superiority of his methods. Without any attempt to hide his disgust at the failure of his new Zhukon allies, the Exiran commander landed his forces at Kruppuk City and declared himself Acting Planetary Governor.

Over the next three years, von Rausendorf and Maloyar mobilised the population of Zhuko V and expended its great stores of war material in a brutal conflict. The largest tank battle of the campaign, fought in the Ostrovya Gap, saw hundreds of thousands of armoured vehicles and millions of soldiers committed, and other clashes such as the Vogrovnok Flats, Gebrokye Downs, and the Second Ostrovya Gap were almost as large. Eventually a Battalion of Heralds of Hektor arrived and put an end to the much depleted Loyalist defenders, but the bounty of war they had expected had been sunk into the ruin of Zhuko V. The Traitors left the battered planet with little more than they had sent, though Hermann von Rausendorf's surviving troops were hardened veterans and the Prinz-Direktor had won the favour of the Blood God.