Battle of Rai

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Battle of Rai
Date	M31
Scale	Planetary
Theatre	Rai
Status	Imperial Victory
Belligerents
Loyalist Legions	Life Bringers
Commanders and Leaders
Golgothos Cardinal Merik Antoine Antonelle Fabrice Diallo	Johannes Vrach Wilmut Sachs Nikephoros Galen Tribulus Bercilak
Strength
The Entombed Void Angels	Plague Marines Green Men
Losses
-	-
Outcome
Life Bringers defeated Green Men betrayed their Legion

The Battle of Rai was fought on two battlefields at once, on the surface of the accursed jungle world as well as in the heavens above it. The combined naval forces of Void Angels and the Entombed strove to destroy Valetudinarium, Johannes Vrach's pestilent void stronghold, while their ground forces fought the Life Bringers in the planet's poisonous thickets.

Green Men vs. Void Angels

While Wilmit Sachs took on the Entombed, Nikephoros Galen was tasked with stopping the numerically superior Void Angels. His opponent's advantage did not bother him very much, though, for he was sure that the planet's malicious flora would even out the odds. While reconstructing Rai's biosphere, Galen connected the roots of all the plants into an enormous neural network spanning the planet's entire surface. This essentially turned the whole world into a colossal organic computer programmed to destroy any intruders.

From their first moments on Rai, the Void Angels felt as though the planet itself was attacking them: the tall grass was ensnaring their feet, explosive fruits were falling down on their heads, unseen predators lurking in the canopy picked out their battle brothers one by one. Even before their first encounter with the enemy forces, they had already sustained minor casualties. The first skirmishes also proved disastrous, as the Green Men were much more adept at jungle warfare than their adversaries. Aiming at finishing the weakened enemy, Vertumnus Alraun conducted a blasphemous ritual that infused the trees in the battle zone with spirits of the Warp. When the trees pulled their roots out of the grounds and started attacking the Void Angels, crushing them with their mighty branches and tearing their vehicles apart with their roots, their field commanders wisely decided that this was quite enough for the first skirmish. Under heavy enemy fire, they retreated to their fortified landing site and began awaiting orders from their commander, Antoine Antonelle.

Correctly identifying the jungles as the source of the enemy's tactical advantage, Antonelle ordered them burned to the ground via promethium carpet bombings. However, this was easier said then done. Having anticipated this move, Tribulus Bercilak set up an impenetrable air bloackade in the skies of the battle zone. The Void Angel pilots took this challenge as an opportunity to prove their superior aerial combat skills and initiated a full-on assault on the enemy airforce. For several hours, the heavens over Rai were filled with fire and explosions that made the sunlight seem dim in comparison. Eventually, the Void Angels emerged victorious out of this inferno, and their bombers unloaded their deadly cargo on the lush vegetation below, turning the lush jungles of Rai into hell.

Seeing his beautiful creation reduced to ashes really upset Galen. Not even attempting to hold back tears, he made a vox announcement to his troops, promising gene modifications beyond imagination to whoever would bring the one responsible for this floricide to justice. But the Green Men were in little need for motivation: their hearts were already filled with fury, since they considered all plant life sacred. On Rai's orbit, a great deal of warships entrusted to Galen by Johannes Vrach perished in a suicidal attack on Antonelle's strike cruiser Endurance. However, their efforts were not in vain, as their concentrated fire eventually managed to bring the great ship down. Although this foolish act put the whole of Life Bringers' fleet in great jeopardy, Galen considered it a sacrifice worth making.

Much to his fury, Antonelle managed to survive by escaping the doomed vessel at the last moment. The Equerry to the Primarch decided to make landing on the planet's surface to personally lead his troops to victory. Initially, his presence greatly boosted the morale of Void Angels, resulting in a series of successful skirmishes. Antonelle's forces moved deep into the enemy-controlled territory, seeking to destroy communications and turn the enemy retreat into a rout. Everything was going according to his plan, when suddenly the landscape around them exploded in great fountains of muck and plant litter, and enormous flower buds emerged from under the ground. These buds opened to reveal squads of Green Men that immediately charged the surprised Void Angels. The ensuing fight quickly turned into a slaughter. Antoine Antonelle was challenged to personal combat by Tribulus Bercilak, and although he was without a doubt a superb swordfighter, his opponent was simply one of the best in the Galaxy. After several minutes of fencing, he was disarmed and thrown to the ground. With a sadistic grin on his lips, Bercilak emptied the entire cartridge of his Brambleseed gun into Antonelle's chest. Much to his disappointment, Antoine didn't flinch even as his chest was being torn open by vicious barbed wire-like vines.

Bercilak was hoping that Antonelle's gruesome demise would destroy the enemy morale and stem the tide of battle. In the short term, his calculations proved correct, and his troops started getting the upper hand against the Void Angels, crestfallen at the loss of their hero. Yet his great mistake lay in forgetting that Antonelle was hardly the only great enemy commander present on Rai on that day. Upon learning of his dear friend and mentor's death, Fabrice Diallo was at once filled with righteous fury, which he managed to share with his soldiers through his famous Colossus Has Fallen speech. Like a tsunami of ceramite, the Void Angels smashed the ranks of the Green Men, sending them fleeing. Neither Bercilak's tactical prowess nor Alraun's sorcery or Galen's biomancy could stop the furious sons of Lumey. Eventually, a realisation dawned on Galen that his forces stood a very real chance of being exterminated to a man in this hopeless battle. After some deliberation, he decided to betray his Primarch and escaped the planet, leaving the remaining Life Bringers to deal with two Loyalist Legions at once. This foul betrayal marked the origin of the Green Men as a separate warband.

To this day, the Void Angels have not forgotten the heroic death of Antoine Antonelle. A lot of their iconography depicts a Void Angel trampling a slain treeman. Bercilak in particular is universally reviled by all of the members of the Legion and its successor chapters, and his execution is considered a holy duty.