Editing The Markian Corps (section)

===The Pacificus Campaign===
The greatest mobilization of Imperial forces in Imperial history occurred during the legendary [[Pacificus Campaign]], a massive offensive that built the foundation of the Imperial Guard as the most powerful force in the galaxy. Led by the Rosskan Strelky in the north and the Markian Corps in the south, and later joined by several space marine legions during the Great Scouring, the campaign began late in the Hektor Heresy but was fought predominantly during the Great Scouring. Countless billions were pressed into service as the Imperial Army suffered terrible losses in the gruesome battles against the rebels and the foul warp creatures they summoned from Hell, and entire worlds burned in cleansing flame to save them from Chaos's grip.

Following the Battle of Thenar in 012.M31, Sky Marshal Victor Gustave ordered the creation of not one but five armies of the Markian Corps. The forges of Ghalhal and Atashia burned bright day in and day out to match the demands of not one but two armies, but not even the Mechanicum could meet such an order speedily while supplying other worlds that were also preparing for the coming offensive. The entire Al-Sherar Sector reached the breaking point training and arming regiments in preparation for the northward offensive. Such a need for equipment quickly outstripped the sector's ability to produce it, and the Markian Corps needed immediate action to resolve this. Beyond the sector lied multiple forgeworlds and armoury worlds brimming with the materiel necessary to equip the Imperial Army. Initial predictions placed such planets as a later priority that would supply regiments raised during the course of the Pacificus Campaign, but their equipment was required immediately for the Markian Corps and its allies. The great offensive had to start early with the conquest of these worlds before the full might of the Imperium could be brought to bear.

====First Battle of Struthis and Battle for Hauser====
The Pacificus Campaign began with the securing of two vital worlds: the forgeworld Hauser and the armoury world Struthis. In charge of seizing Struthis was the 99th Army commanded still by Grand Marshal Judas Ranc, while the conquest of Hauser was left to the Mechanicum of the Al-Sherar Sector and the Ciban Chasseurs. Initial reports claimed the warehouses of Struthis were lightly defended, but upon arrival Ranc quickly realized their intelligence was trickery. The planet was not only heavily defended, but its reinforcements were renegade Markians of the 56th Army, thought lost in battle at the Heresy's start. The shock of meeting their former comrades in battle struck the 99th's morale a blow as devastating as the defensive artillery the traitors sent their way, and the invasion quickly reached a standstill. Rather than remaining in this deadlock, Ranc instead withdrew the army from Struthis to join the Cibanese on Hauser, where the campaign was similarly bogged down by surprises.

On Hauser, the advance had slowed to a crawl with the intervention of Legio Digitus, the "Finger of God". These ancient titans wrought havoc on the Imperial forces, even with two legions facing them. Such was their strength that before the end of the battle Legio Cataegis had suffered catastrophic damage and was unavailable for the rest of the Heresy. The 99th's entry into the battle did little to change the course; in the end Legio Digitus was defeated by Legio Antsar in a grand exchange of superheavy fire in Vinagio Canyon. Following the destruction of the traitor titans the 99th worked with the remaining Chasseurs and skitarii to clean out the forges of the world and reclaim the world for the Imperium, thus acquiring the first world needed for the Pacificus Campaign.

====Second Battle of Struthis====
The Imperial forces followed the liberation of Hauser with a second attempt on Struthis. Once again the armoury world was strengthened by traitor reinforcements, but with the support of Legio Antsar, knights and regiments of Goda, and the Taghmata the Markian Corps could now better penetrate the enemy defenses. The god machines of Al-Sherar strode over the trenches and shrugged off the barrage of profane guns, laying waste to the rebel Markians all the way to their fortress capital of Bastion Primus. There the guns of Markia shook the fortress's walls to pieces, and warriors of Goda and grenadiers of Markia poured into every hole, fighting for every room in that confounded lump of plascrete until the head of the governor was brought to the Grand Marshal in a wooden box. While much equipment was destroyed in the battle that could have been used by the Imperial Army, there were still miles upon miles of motorpools and storage facilities untouched by the battle. With sufficient materiel now secured the Imperial Army could truly begin the Pacificus Campaign.

In the wake of the battle Imperial forces discovered that the fallen rebels, while Markian, were not serving Hektor willingly. Techpriests of the Mechanicus performed autopsies on multiple traitor cadavers, and discovered they were implanted with strange cybernetics; dangerous cybernetics. Archivists on Ghalhal researched these cybernetics, and concluded they were a blasphemous tech-heresy known as Vitae ex Machina: Life from a machine. A technology prohibited by Mars, the implants can revive a corpse and slave them to the will of their nominal savior. Based on the evidence, Markian High Command concluded the 56th had indeed been destroyed by the traitor forces at the start of the Heresy, but what force was responsible for their revival was as of yet unknown. Depleted and Demoralized, the 99th Army withdrew from the conflict to garrison the worlds the Imperial Army had liberated in the early stages of the Pacificus Campaign.

====Battle of the White Void====
Among the noteworthy naval engagements of the Pacificus Campaign was the actions by Battlefleet Al-Sherar in the Archaeon Sector, which occurred the same day the Great Scouring began. Tucked in the tendrils of a nebula was the secret base of Battlefleet Archaeon, named the White Void. Throughout the Archaeon Campaign the traitor flotillas harassed Imperial convoys and sent too many sailors to the void. Multiple navigators and astropaths were devoted to locating the White Void through the psychic footprints left by warp travel and communications. Through their effort the Markian Corps was able to locate the White Void, and so dispatched the 4th Markian Battlegroup to eliminate Battlefleet Archaeon from the war.

====Anorexia on Cykarox====
The Pacificus Campaign, so far, had been rather spectacular for the Imperial Army. Regiments and battlegroups jumped from planet to planet, and rebel worlds fell under the heel of the Markian Corps. With the Great Scouring in full swing and the Legiones Astartes dedicating themselves to galactic liberation the pacification of the segmentum was drawing near. However, the enemies of the Imperium were all so worldly and mortal, and the deceptions of Chaos were not yet known to the marshals of Markia. On the hiveworld of Cykarox the 100th Army, with units attached from the Goda Retainers and the Solidus Chromehounds, met major setbacks soon after planetfall in 017.M31. An unknown disease had spread among both Markians and Cykaroxians, and was rapidly rooting itself in the overcrowded hives. A fifth of the army was too ill to fight, and hundreds had died from the plague. Still, the 100th fought on, taking hive after hive, sweating through the pandemic. 

In the spires of Cykarox, the cauldron of Nurgle stirred. The world's aristocracy, including the planetary governor, was afflicted with the pox. This was no mistake, as it was the governor who invited the plague into both his world and his body. The lords of Cykarox, knowing what happened to those who opposed the Emperor, consulted with an agent of the rotfather's cult, and asked for a weapon to defeat the Markians in one fell swoop. They learned of a heavenly matron, said to be the more beautiful than angels, who could save them. Immediately they sought to summon her, and as per the cultist's instructions spread her love through the fluids the cult provided. They imbibed the pus drawn from boils, and slipped contagions into the water supply of the hives. However, the saint they wished for did not come to save them; not when they had yet to meet defeat.

Despite the growing plague the 100th Army fought its way to the final bastion of Cykarox, Hive Hunden. By the time they reached the last hive the 100th only had a single grand corps able to fight, as the rest of the army was dead or dying from disease. Even at only a third of its initial strength the Markians could still defeat the rebel PDF with strength of arms and skill. Now, on the brink of defeat, in the depths of despair, and without a soul left untouched by illness in the hives Cykarox would be saved by Nurgle. From the ground sprung thick vines that climbed the spires of Hunden and blossomed into wilted flowers. From the flowered sprouted creatures of rot and plague. Nurglings and plaguebearers clustered in the streets, citizens wreathed in pain as new and even greater diseases grasped them. In the center of the hive grew a single tree, taller than any tower on Cykarox, its leaves withered and its wood full of fungus. A single flower as red as blood blossomed on the highest branch, and its petals pealed back to reveal the world's new saint. Her limbs were like a fly's, skinny and sheathed with rugged keratin. Her lanky body was pocked and covered with open sores, fungus and worms crawled out from under her pale saggy skin. A thin translucent skin covered her veiny body, and the only substantial flesh on her body were her small droopy teets that ooze pus and her potbelly, pregnant with the children of Septicus and covered in the holes left from nurglings clawing their way from her womb. She opened her mouth, her teeth like rotten wood, and sung her melody of deafening screeches, letting the love of Nurgle reach all the humans of the world through her song. 

The hosts of Anorexia brought gifts of disease and death to the 100th personally, and invited them to be her children with blades and clubs. A tide of disgust swept over the frontline and into the camps, and they brought the soldiers too sick to fight to meet Anorexia personally. She spoiled her guests with poxes and plagues, fed them carcass and fungus. Through her generosity she won the hearts and souls of the 100th, and they swore to tell the whole galaxy of their devotion to their new mother. However, before they could begin to show their new love the 2nd Markian Battlegroup, previously providing orbital support, began bombarding the planet. They granted the remnants of the 100th a swift death, and burned the vines and hives in radfire and macrocannon barrages. The fires of vengeance swept clean the surface and shook the world to its core; not a blighted shrub was left by the time the rancored commodore lifted the bombardment, and all the 100th Army was cremated, spared from an unlife as servants of the alien god. The Markians mourned the loss of their brothers, and carried the ill news to Atashia in silence.

====The Midway Campaign====