Anyway, lore time. As promised, I'll cover the story in the latest Journal Strategia: The Ruin of the Salamanders. God-Emperor, I hate saying that. If there's any Legion who doesn't deserve to fall to ruin, it's our Salamanders bros. Sigh.
This Journal Strrategia covers the fall of the Salamanders on Isstvan V. The Dropsite Massacre is such a colossal event that it cannot be covered in one or two books (we already have the Journal Tactica: The Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre Part One, which means more parts are incoming, and more expansions. The Dropsite Massacre is such a massive event that changed the galaxy in Warhammer 40,000 (or Warhammer: The Horus Heresy) forever, that it can be broken up to several segments. The Ruin of the Salamanders, in particular, focuses only on the Salamanders Legion and their role, as well as their tragic demise. Still, as the book insists, they didn't die, but will be reforged and rise again, and that Horus would regret not being able to slay them. Despite being a Shattered Legion, they would return, tempered and stronger than ever, to bite the Traitors in the ass.
The Isstvan system, though on the far fringes of the Imperium's galactic territory, is much like our Sol system in that it has 9 planets and a yellow sun. After the massacre on Isstvan III, the fifth planet - despite being a barren world filled with volcanoes and freezing basalt deserts - was selected by Horus Lupercal and the Traitor Legions to establish a fortress, including void shields that can withstand orbital bombardment, and lots of trenches (too bad the Death Korps of Krieg haven't materialized as an army yet).
The Warmaster planned to lure the Loyalists into the Urgall Depression at the foot of a volcano and surrounded by sheer cliffs, where he can trap them in a killing ground. This is broken into three sectors: the Umbral Sector in the north defended by Angron's World Eaters, the Malleus Sector in the center under the protection of Fulgrim's Emperor's Children, and the Ignis Sector in the south guarded by the Death Guard.
The Salamanders would take charge of the Ignis Sector (Ferrus Manus's Iron Hands force their way into the Malleus Sector while Corvus Corax's Raven Guard attacked the Umbral Sector), Vulkan favoring massed heavy infantry assault. He didn't have Titan support, unfortunately. Rather, Vulkan brought 83,000 legionaries, which included the Saturnine Excubitor Cadre - a significant force of Saturnine Terminators and Saturnine Dreadnoughts, I think numbering over a hundred of them! They are led by Bul'an Kothe, previously a member of the now defunct Librarius, and obviously his psychic talents helped him master the use of the Saturnine Terminator suit. Wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the Saturnine Terminators are equipped by former Librarians of the Legions. That would explain where all the Librarians went after the Edict of Nikaea. Cassian Dracos, the first master of the Salamanders, led a phalanx of Dreadnoughts, named "Claws of the Dragon." Then there's the Dragon's Crest detachments, which feature veteran infantry riding in Land Raiders (nust be the new MKII dudes carrying disintegrator weapons). We also have Nocturne's Thunder, which is a super-heavy tank formation composed of Vindicator siege tanks supported by Ascalon super-heavy tanks. You know, the new super-heavy tanks armed with Inferno cannons, the gigantic flamethrower usually mounted on Warhound Titans. And what they're selling in Legions Imperialis alongside this expansion.
Got to feature the new, shiny toys in the latest expansion, am I right?
Forge Lord Arik Xergoth is in command of the Salamander's armored assets and substantial super-heavy tank formations.
Anyway, we also have the Solar Auxilia - the 484th Cohort of the Proximan Sacramentii, an infantry-heavy veteran force who just fought Orks in the Great Crusade, and the 486th Cohort, a fresh cohort that is predominantly armored, and fielded a number of Foehammer formations (Leman Russ and Stormhammer tanks). They are commanded by Phera Ikaeron, the youngest of the three marshal primes of the Proximan chorts. Oh, the Salamanders also always made use of significant levies of bound-auxilia, which once again emphasizes their close bonds with mortals, and they trusted the Proximan Sacramentii to shield their flanks during the approach. They amounted to over 125,000 men. There's an interesting tidbit about the Martian Mechanicum, where the Lords of Mars have forbidden any of their troops from joining the Retribution Fleet. However, many Archmagi went against that order, with Archmagos Koros Kadorikus from the often besieged Forge World of Yarath-maximal pledging his loyalty to the Salamanders and White Scars Legions for helping him defend his home from Orks. They comprised of 3,000 automata and arrmored vehicles of exotic patterns favored by the Mechanicum,
The Traitors are an interesting bunch, with 90,0000 Death Guard warriors, 150 from the Sons of Horus, 170,000 Solar Auxilia soldiers from the Barbaran Ambaxtoi and Death's Heralds, and a single maniple from Legio Mortis. They will later be joined by 60,000 Word Bearers, 35,000 Iron Warriors. 1,300 Night Lords and 20,000 Solar Auxilia soldiers from the Selucid Thorakites. Unlike the Loyalists, who sought to lessen the Imperium's reliance on the Legiones Asrtartes, the Traitors intended to return the Astartes to the apex of glory and make the Space Marine Legions great again (deja vu, anyone? I'm not kidding, it was literally written here: "...to make the Legions as great as they had once been during the Great Crusade"). Hence, the mortals were mostly relegated to support or reserves or even sacrificial distractions.
While the Barbaran Ambaxtoi served as the Death Guard's operational reserves, the Selucid Thorakites were thrown straight into the fighting as sacrificial lambs to deplete the Loyalists' munitions. As such, they were lightly equipped, with few armored vehicles or heavy weapons. The few well-equipped Olympians were heavily armed Veletarii who served as slavemasters, known as Infames. The Thorakite commander, Marshal Dace, was punished by Perturabo, who basically told him that he was not to survive the battle, because of his actions on Olympia. On the other hand, Lord Commander Deridos and his Ambaxtoi avoided most of the fighting because Mortarion preferred his Death Guard to fight instead. The Mechanicum, like the Loyalists, participated little in the battle, wtih most of them remaining in support roles to the rear of the engagement.
Perturabo fielded the Broken Fang formations, which were under his less favored commanders and comprised of expendable auxilia and infantry, as well as Obliteration Centuries, which are formations of super-heavy tanks (Kratos and Fellblade squadrons). Under him was the Praetor Ked Rordram, known as The Shorn. But what captured my attention was the small contingent of Night Lords deployed along the hills to wipe out any stragglers and prevent anyone from escaping. These were the remnants of the old Terran comapnies, commanded by the Terran Praetor Morthax.
The original plan was for the Loyalists to send a first wave, establish a beachhead, and prioritized speed over preparation to supposedly catch Horus unaware. There's no mention of the Saturnine Contingency here - you can refer to The Forges of Saturn for that. But there's a brief mention of the Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnoughts depleting the Dies Irae's void shields before it was driven back by massed fire from super-heavy tanks. Mortarion showed up, but the Death Guard were eventually driven back by the Salamanders and Proximian Sacramentii, and the Loyalists expected to push further when the second wave showed up. The Iron Warriors and their drop pods, the Night Lords along the hills, and Word Bearers, as well as Alpha Legion.
Then the Traitors revealed their true colors and stabbed the Salamanders in the back.
The poor Salamanders were massacred, but though hundreds, even thousands fell, they fought back. The Salamanders' Hel-Drakes also showed up and sold their lives to buy their brothers time, and Forge Lord Xergoh's Nocturne Thunder broke through the Word Bearers for a slight reprieve.
There's a brief mention of the fate of the other Legions. The Iron Hands were surrounded on all sides by Traitors and cut down, while the Raven Guard were butchered by the Wotd Bearers and World Eaters, but unlike the stoic Iron Hands, the Raven Guard broke into smaller formations and escaped the encirclement. Most died, though. The Night Lords prowled the Urgall Depression, ensuring no Loyalists escaped.
In the Ignis Sector, though, the Night Lords overlooking the Salamanders' position were older Terran companies, known as the "Night's Children" drawn from Earth's sunken prisons. They took up position in the path of the Proximan Sacramentii. I really like Praetor Monthax - unlike the other Traitors, he seemed like a man of honor. Instead of hiding and skulking around like the other Traitors, he met the Proximan Sacramentii Solar Auxilia in the open and fought them fairly. Well, as fairly as he could under the circumstances of betrayal. Tragically, he was a man who had server the Emepror loyally for almost two hundred years, and the order to commit the gravest of treason didn't sit well with him. So he decided to die in the most epic way possible. He basically stood on the ridgeline, in the open and unarmed, and let the Proximan Sacramentii shoot him to death - they fired a thousand lasrifles into the poor guy, and as he fell, he was satisfied in the knowledge that his record remained unblemished - he had raised no weapon against the Empror's own.
His men silently attacked, giving little thought to defense, and while they killed a lot of the Solar Auxilia, the veteran Night's Children allowed themselves to be annihilated by the Veletarii and armored tanks of the Proximan Sacramentii, grateful for a clean death in the face of the sin of betrayal in the Urgall Depression.
That was...epic.
The Salamanders broke through the Word Bearers' line, harried and pursued by the Traitors, and Xergoh's armored companies found corpses where their reserves should be, for the Alpha Legion had sabotaged and assassinated them. Their munitions were depleted, and though they did their best to preserve ammunition by clubbing and smacking the poor Thorakites to death, the mortal Solar Auxilia forcibly sent by Perturabo and Iron Warriors to try and dwindle the Salamanders' strength, the XVIIIth Legion eventually were blasted by the fresh IVth Legion. The Saturnine Terminators and Dreadnoughts, and armored formations, did their best to survive the onslaught from the Iron Warriors, spending the last of their ammunition in defiance.
The Sacramentii and a few hundred Salamanders and Raven Guard end up congregating and fighting along the Urgall Depression, and there's this really cool scene where they ambushed Night Lords and crushed the overconfident Sons of Horus mechanized columns, only to seize and plunder their tanks and munitions. When the Night Lords approached a phalanx of tanks bearing the heraldry of Horus, mistakenly believing them to be allies, the Sacramentii opened fire, using their pilfered tanks to annihilate the Night Lords. Hah!
The Loyalists managed to reach the landing zone, where they requisitioned the landing craft left by the Traitors. However, there weren't enough landing craft for all the survivors, which comprised of several thousand warriors and armored vehicles. Marshal Prime Ikaeron made a decision, marshaling the Solar Auxilia to make one last stand against the Traitors so that the Salamanders and Raven Guard could escape, because she knew the Imperium needed every legionary it could get.
Back in the "Crucible" - a section of the Urgall Depression where the Salamanders still fought in - the Iron Warriors turned it into a battle of attrition because the few Salamanders can't hold out against the more numerous Iron Warriors despite their superior technology. The Saturnine Excubitors held on well, but they were losing irreplacable warriors and armor by the second, with the last of the Saturnine Dreadnoughts falling in combat with a full talon of Iron Warriors Contemptor Dreadnoughts.
Then Xergoh and his troops saw the mushroom cloud. Apparently, Horus or Perturabo decided to nuke Vulkan.
Understandably, the Salamanders began to waver...but the Solar Auxilia came to save the day! The Proximan Sacramentii, arriving in pilfered Kratos tanks that served as makeshift carriers for Sacramentii infantry, and the Sacramentii Foehammer squadrons, smashed into the Iron Warriors lines and pulverized them under tracks or blasted them at pointblank range. This allowed Xergoh and his super-heavy tanks to break through, spending the last of their shells and munitions on the Iron Warriors' lines. They then fled the Urgall Depression, with the Iron Warriors in hot pursuit. Praetor Rordram knew that Pertarubo will literally kill him for his failure, and he desperately ordered and all-out assault to pursue the Salamanders and Sacramentii.
However, the last of the Saturnine Excubitor Cadre, commanded by Centurion Tunayh of the Cindered, stepped into the breach made by Nocturne's Thunder, and held back the Iron Warriors like the Giga-chads they are. The rest of the Salamanders retreated, even as the Saturnine Excubitor Cadre fell in their heroic last stand, but the Proximan soldiers threw themselves at the Iron Warriors, their courage and selflessness buying more time for the legionaries to escape. Heroes, every one of them. We salute both the Saturnine guys and the Solar Auxilia.
The Salamanders Legion lived.
The sacrifice of so many selfless heroes meant that Xergoh's Nocturne Thunder and the bulk of his forces escaped. A few thousand Salamanders survived and escaped, to continue the fighting as Shattered Legions. Across Isstvan V, not just Forge Lord Xergoh, but also other commands had survived, and in orbit, many ships blasted free from Horus's clutches. Despite the horrific massacre, the survival of these warriors was a victory in itself, one that would pave the way for a larger, eventual victory for the Loyalists.
The Salamanders survived, and would return, reforged, tempered and stronger than ever, determined to make Horus bleed for his betrayal. The Warmaster would regret that he had not slain them in Isstvan V, instead allowing a wounded foe to return to bite him. As for the Salamanders, their tale continued and their Legion endured, and I expect to see them return in Shattered Legions supplements or other expansions. Maybe?
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