Editing Ashur of Banipal (section)

==Stampede Across the Domush Sector==
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Although often willing to prolong diplomatic negotiations, and usually staying longer than expected to ensure a stable infrastructure was available, the Loxodontii made good progress as many of their enemies were but dry weeds under their mighty treads. For most of their initial time as crusading expeditions did the legion make good time as they simply swept across enemies putting up a military resistance, having them surrender after the first engagement. This lured the Loxodontii into a false sense of superiority, a certainty that the conquest of the stars would bemoderately difficult, at best. In their arrogance, they were utterly surprised to find a worthy opponent, an enemy not willing to surrender at any cost. This was the Domush sector, an interplanetary coalition of theocratic and highly militarised worlds. They all had sworn fealty to a God-Emperor of their own, a being of such radiance that each and every single last one citizen of the Domush sector worshipped it with all their soul.

First contact was difficult to establish, as this interplanetary “Imperium” had been hugely isolationist. Negotiations went bad, and time and time again did Ashur’s pleas fall on deaf ears. All the while did the Loxodontii’s spies bring back reports of people toiling away their lives, sometimes not seeing a single ray of sunlight until their deaths, and although some reports claim to have seen people actually be happy about their situation, most others existed in constant dread and fear - Fear of punishment from their God-Emperor and his authorities. It brought Ashur’s blood to boil as he saw the common man and woman enslaved, beaten while already on the ground. And yet, he stayed his hand, for he did not want war, he did not want bloodshed. He did not want these slaves to view him and his men as just a greater, stronger tyrant wrestling control from another. It was his luck that, on yet another diplomatic mission, this so-called God-Emperor’s military postured them just a bit too much, and shots were exchanged between the Loxodontii’s auxiliaries and the locals. with this, he had reason to retaliate - In all the brutality this oppressive regime deserved.

Orbital bombardment would pummel the planetary defenses, and soon carrier craft would darken the sky and deploy the mighty warbeasts of the Loxodontii unto the surface of a planet called Argintium, the outermost planet of the sector, and Ashur was certain that the Domushi’s resolve would crumble after this first mighty display of power.

They didn’t.

With a terrible zealotry did the Domushi military deploy en-masse, throwing themselves against the forces of the thirteenth in suicide runs. Although victory was achieved in the end, the Loxodontii had paid a high price, and Ashur racked his brain over his own guilty conscience and his duty. He had to free these people, he had to bring these worlds into compliance, and he had to do it with less losses on his side. And he wanted to crush this self-declared God-Emperor under his boot like the foul parasite he was.

It took him two days of attritious battle that Ashur had had enough, and he ordered several more of his chapters to rally around him. The fourth, at that time, had already been so distant that they could not heed their primarch’s call, and it greatly embittered them to have been excluded from this great triumph of their legion. Nine chapters stood united under their primarch, and in one enraged charge did they trample throughout the sector. Within barely two weeks of fighting rampage arrived the legion at the Imperial palace, like so many years before when Ashur had besieged the great city of Banipal. This time, however, he could not easily break the fortifications with infiltrators. The God-Emperor of Domush had been more clever than the lord of banipal, and so they had sealed themselves within in good time.

It only added to Ashur’s fury, and the Behemoth made truth on his namesake. with terrible fury he ordered orbital bombardments and ordinance to batter the palace’s defenses, and with his own two hands did he tear apart the sealed gates, tore them open so that the Loxodontii at his back could enter. The roaring of engines, the bellowing war cries of the Astartes and the tremor of a legion trampling their enemies shook the entire complex. Uncaring, unflinching, in blind fury did the Thirteenth charge through the hallways which were so enormous that a landraider could drive through them with room to spare for a Space Marine on either side. The palace guard was merciless and fought tooth and nail, yet it only added to Ashur’s fury and the anger of the Loxodontii. Those not shot dead were crushed underfoot, those not quick enough to disperse were crushed by the bulk of rampant astartes.

Eventually, they reached the throne room. With a single swipe of his maul broke Ashur the gates open only to reveal a measly battalion of palace guards standing ready to open fire, behind them a curious figure tied to a machine with countless tubes and wires stuck in them. A voice in his head pleaded him to offer mercy, yet the Plainswalker’s patience had run out. One salvo of shots was fired from the palace guard, and in that time the primarch had charged right through them, hefting his hammer above his head and bringing it down in one brutal swing that utterly crushed the throne and the one upon it to a pulp. With their emperor dead, the palace guard routed and a signal was broadcast across all the Domush sector that their idol had fallen.

On this day, Ashur returned to his flagship Anu, and retreated to his study. There, he dwelt for another day, not receiving anyone, not making any reports. He just withdrew to process an experience, a realisation, that he had never even dreamed in his worst nightmares to have: That he might be killing good men and women for the rest of his life.
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