Latoti Crusade

This article is about a battle in the /tg/ Heresy project, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40k universe.

Latoti Crusade
Date	897-898.M30
Scale	Multiple Sectors
Theatre	San Angelus Strategic Theatre
Status	Imperial Victory
Belligerents
WAAAGH! Rok'Ed	Imperium of Mankind Craftworld Meros
Commanders and Leaders
Warlord Rok'Ed Mek Boss Orkenheimer Gran Marshul Gorecuttah	Imperials Gaspard Lumey Fabrice Diallo Antoine Antonelle Hassan 6b6'16262-656c Rani Stolarz Eldar Autarch Yarennath Farseer Olatari
Strength
Various warbands, including; Rok'Ed's 'Ard 'Eds, Chugzod 'n' Ko, Gorecuttah's Spidahs	Imperials 25th Expedition Fleet 333rd Expedition Fleet 581st Expedition Fleet Assorted Compliance Groups One maniple of Legio Antsar Pandoran Militia Eldar The Mirrored Host of Meros
Losses
estimated between five and twelve million boyz at least eight Gargants	Imperials approximately two thousand Fifth Legion Marines three Titans between four and nine million Auxilia upwards of four hundred million civilians casualties among Al-Sherar Taghmata undisclosed Eldar Losses unknown but probably light
Outcome
WAAAGH! Rok'Ed defeated.

The Latoti Crusade was a vast interstellar conflict fought between the Orks of WAAAGH! Rok'Ed and the Imperium of Mankind. Although the Orks held the strategic initiative early in the conflict, Primarch Gaspard Lumey used his Fifth Legion to draw the WAAAGH into a trap at Pandora. There, the Imperials and Orks fought a brutal war of attrition until Warlord Rok'Ed was slain by the Eldar of Craftworld Meros.

Background: The Fall of Omegon

The cataclysm that ended the Age of Technology sent most human worlds back towards savagery, but fragments of the old human federation could be found scattered across the Galaxy. The Markian Pact is the best-known advanced realm in the Segmentum Pacificus, but were it not for the savagery of the terrible Orks Markia would have been a poor second to the Realm of Omegon. Sadly for the nascent Imperium, this sophisticated trans-stellar realm was annihilated by Xenos before it could be peacefully incorporated into galactic human society. The full total of wisdom and advanced technology destroyed by the Orks can only be guessed, but Omegon was worse than lost. Though the weapons of the Omegon Annihilators had failed to halt WAAAGH! Rok'Ed, the Orks looted many sophisticated machines from the civilisation they had destroyed. Flush with stolen arms and advanced warships, Rok'Ed's warriors rampaged across a trail five hundred light years wide, devastating everything in their path.

Visant Le Gall was the first Imperial citizen to discover the Orkish threat. The Rogue Trader had established contact with the Realm of Omegon in the early 890s and had planned a second trading expedition for 897.M30. After re-supplying at the Civilised World Pandora, Le Gall's flotilla got underway towards Omegon space. However, within a day of subjective time in the Warp, the Rogue Trader's Astropaths reported profound psychic distress and a savage warp presence ahead of them. The ships' Navigators confirmed a disturbance in the Warp. Le Gall was already one of the most successful traders of his day, and his success had been underpinned by sure instincts. These signs meant trouble, not profit. Rather than carry on, Le Gall had his warp ships make Realspace at a nearby uninhabited system designated LG52b so that the psykers could have time to read their portents.

The portents were grim. Le Gall was informed that the disturbance was a scattering of fearful cries preceeding a seething mass of aggression, the tell-tale signature of an Orkish WAAAGH! According to The Weatherman's Astropaths, the scale of the disturbance indicated a vast host of greenskins. Le Gall rejected a search for refugees or humanitarian effort out of hand. There was no margin in it. He ordered his flotilla's Navigators to chart a course back to Pandora and instructed the Astropaths to summon the warriors of the Imperium.

Prelude

'Ere we go!

The savants of the Ordo Xenos have spent thousands of years trying to uncover the logic beyond the actions of the Orks with little success. Some give up and conclude that the greenskins are just beasts for whom war just is their existence. Others continue to posit theories and test them against historical records. Not a few go mad. According to the reports of Fifth Legion warriors and attached Remembrancers, Warlord Rok'Ed was an Ork of truly prodigious size, outmassing even the greatest of Knight Walkers. We now know that such stature could only result from a long career of violence and destruction, no doubt stretching back decades - perhaps centuries! - before the violation of Omegon. Rok'Ed was also a canny if unsubtle commander, possessed of the Orkish virtues of "cunnin'" and brutality in equal measure, and had attracted a vast following of vicious greenskins to his banner.

Worse yet, Rok'Ed's WAAAGH! had dozens of space vessels at its disposal, ranging in size from looted Omegon cruisers up to massive space hulks. Studies of the ruined Omegon worlds suggest that the Orks followed a zig-zagging, almost random course, with elements of the main WAAAGH! frequently separating off to seek plunder and battle elsewhere and later rejoining the main mass. Dispatches from Fifth Legion indicate that elements of the Orkish WAAAGH! were moving towards newly-pacified worlds in the Jenon Subsector as the Latoti Crusade began. Without the swift intervention of Gaspard Lumey's Space Marines, Pracaliv, the moons of Nadriynus, and Jenon itself would certainly have been overwhelmed and the whole Pandora Sector would have quickly followed, adding more loot and boyz to Rok'Ed's rampaging horde.

As always with an Orkish WAAAGH!, there was no ultimate goal to Rok'Ed's campaigns. The destruction of civilized life was the Ork's goal and only the beast's death would put an end to the violence.

Imperial Preparations

BITTER BROTHERS After the Latoti Crusade, Alexandri of Rosskar and Gaspard Lumey began a long and heated argument. Both parties agreed that the Silver Cataphracts' 98th Expedition Fleet had been engaged in routine Pacification efforts not far from Pandora when the Ork threat was detected. According to Gaspard Lumey, the 98th had been called on to help and refused. Alexandri claimed that this was a slander and that the 98th had received no such request. The War Council ruled that a communication had been attempted and lost to the vagaries of the Warp, but the two Primarchs would remain suspicious of one another for years to come.

In the days of the Great Crusade, warnings of a potential Xenos incursion drew a swift response. The Imperium's frontiers had not been established and government consisted of little more than a military organisation. Le Gall's reports were relayed by the Astropaths on Pandora to the Al-Sherar Sector, base of the Fifth Legion. At this point, Gaspard Lumey's gene-sons were yet not the famous Void Angels or even the glorious "Winged Victory" of the late Crusade. When they were spoken of politely, they were "Fifth Legion". Other names were more common.

Gaspard Lumey's own 25th Expeditionary Fleet was in Sector, taking on fresh troops after detaching veteran battle brothers to form the core of 581st Expedition Fleet. The Primarch received news of an Orkish threat coolly and met with advisers on Ciban IV to determine a strategy. Le Gall's reports were trustworthy but the path and full strength of the Xenos would have to be assessed by closer contact. This task fell to Lumey's Space Marines. However, if the greenskins were moving in force towards Imperial Space, the 25th Expedition Fleet couldn't stop them alone. The 581st Expedition Fleet, together with new cohorts of Auxiliary forces from the Markian Pact, would move to Pandora to fortify the planet. Finally, the techpriests of Al-Sherar agreed to activate their mighty god-machines and dispatch a maniple of Legio Antsar Titans with their supporting forces under the command of Kazi Hassan 6b6'16262-656c.

The 25th made good time through the Warp arrived at LG52b without any mishap. Even before emerging into Realspace, the Fifth Legion's psykers had sensed the feral presence of the Orkish WAAAGH! and confirmed Le Gall's warning. Careful readings of the portents at LG52b suggested that the Orks were moving irregularly but generally heading in the direction of nearby and vulnerable Imperial conquests. Although the Fifth had little experience in fighting Orks, Gaspard Lumey had studied dispatches from as long ago as the Volemar Gamma Campaign and believed that he had the measure of the Xenos foe. The Primarch divided his force into four combat groups, each tasked with making hit-and-run attacks on the Orks intended to lure the enemy towards Pandora.

While Gaspard Lumey was setting his plans into action, Rani Stolarz was disembarking the first echelon of Ciban Chasseurs at Pandora. The venerable Force Commander had been considered for retirement from front-line duties after the Curis-4 Compliance but Lumey had felt that her talents for organizing and motivating hastily-trained forces would be invaluable. Stolarz's initial brief was to train a militia and prepare fortifications on Pandora, ostensibly to serve as an Imperial base for further crusading efforts. However, her mission was quickly expanded to transforming the planet into a killing ground. Cities were transformed into gigantic military garrisons. Where possible, civilian populations were evacuated from Pandora on macrotransporters returning to the Al-Sherar Sector, though not for any humanitarian reasons. Stocks of food and medical supplies would have to be rationed throughout the coming battle with the Orks and non-essential personnel would be an unwelcome burden.

Signs and Portents

Although Craftworld Meros drifted through space on the opposite side of the Galaxy, the supernatural sight of Farseer Olatari apprehended a range of possibilities in the coming clash of Orks and Humans. Slowly tracing the lines of fate, Olatari picked out a destiny that would satisfy her own mysterious ambitions. Her part in the affair would be small, no more than a short meeting with Autarch Yarennath and Eleathiae of the Endless Fangs. That short exchange of words would send Eldar warriors to the Mon-keigh planet Pandora, twisting altering the destiny of the Mon-keigh, Meros, and perhaps the Galaxy as a whole.

Unpleasant work, perhaps, but Olatari was not above making sacrifices.

Early engagements

The first clash between Fifth Legion and WAAAGH! Rok'Ed was at the Aram system. The old Olympia-class Cruiser Ténacité discovered a small fleet of Orkish warships taking on victorious boyz from Aram-6. Ténacité made a quick hit-and-ran attack on the Orks, causing minimal damage with her torpedoes before withdrawing. In the coming months, many similar light engagements occurred as the Imperials gathered information and attempted to lure their opponents into a change of course.

This strategy was not without its risks. Talisman, a Crusade-class Cruiser transferred to the Fifth by the Steel Marshals was ambushed by Orkish warships at the Soistea system and escaped with heavy damage. Several smaller vessels, among them Siluria-class Light Cruiser Galant, were lost in action and few ships in the 25th Expedition Fleet's complement went undamaged.

The Latoti Crusade

While the Fifth Legion's efforts at baiting Rok'Ed's captains were extremely successful, Gaspard Lumey soon realized that the Orkish horde he was facing was considerably larger than anticipated. He scrapped his initial plan to lure the whole greenskin force to one place for a decisive battle and instead drew up a more complicated strategy to divide and exhaust the Orkish warriors in a series of engagements across multiple Sectors. It is unclear why Lumey chose to designate the area of engagement the San Angelus Strategic Theatre. Most assume that the Primarch wished to signal the seriousness of the battle to his men to extract the maximum effort, but some sages believe that Lumey expected his forces to be destroyed. In any case, the Primarch redoubled his efforts to secure additional forces, ordering Fabrice Diallo's 33rd Expedition Fleet to abandon Pacification efforts at Roanov and get under way to Pandora.