The Fall of Damnos I 40k Lore and Story

deep within the Eastern Fringe of segmentum Ultima we will find the world of damnos this icy cold frigid hunk of rock was colonized for the glory of the Imperium of man during the fabled days of the great Crusade the sheer abundance of raw resources on this planet made it a perfect Contender for a mining world its Bounty would be harvested refined and sent off to the farthest reaches of the Galaxy all to fuel the ravenous War Machine of the Imperium by sustaining the ever burning furnaces of the most distant Forge worlds due to this planet being situated in a relatively peaceful area of space with the chance of a conflict occurring here being rather low the high Lords Of Terror did not provision damnos with a significant military presence their barracks and watchtowers were manned by a small contingent of Astro military tarum forces who were assigned to act as the planetary Defense Force and nothing more the civilians who lived and died here would toil away their days for the glory of the emperor where they would endure the sharp Frozen Winds of damnos only being able to take some meager pleasure in the knowledge that they were serving the greater Imperium but whilst the unfortunate dregs of humanity worked quarreled and died upon the icy surface there was an unknown threat slumbering deep beneath their glaciers this enemy was simply waiting in a state of hibernation and with a simple signal they would reawaken and end their long aons of Slumber to reclaim their world this threat however was to be activated by an unfortunate series of events at the hands of a curious mechanicus Expedition Force the planet of dam was primarily powered by a series of immense geothermic power stations which could harness and mobilize the huge amounts of energy produced by the tectonic movements beneath the planet's surface many of these geothermal plants were situated on the Northern pole of this world close to the densely populated city of mandas prime unfortunately for its Denis however a series of unprecedented earthquakes shook through their City leading to many of the power plants shutting down due to large scale structural damage with rolling blackouts bringing their Industries to a screeching halt the governors promptly requested for a team of mechanicus tech priests to be dispatched to damnos with haste in accordance with the ancient Treaty of Mars a mechanicus team was sent to mine through the ice sheets where they sought to locate the source of this damage and to repair any crippled components they could whilst blasting through the thick layers of Frozen Earth several of the accompanying Servo skulls began to emit vast lurgical scripts of binary to their Tech priests informing them of an abnormality below the ice the mechanicus group paused in their rather brutish mining methods and instead began to carefully excavate the cavern and it is here that they found something truly remarkable close to where the geothermic station was located they discovered a set of ancient ruins constructed out of an unknown black metal jutting rather starkly out of the blue ice the pillars and obelisks around this structure were indented by faintly glowing green runes and symbols with their meaning being completely unknown to the science of Mars in an instant the tech priest s ceased in their efforts to restart the power plant and instead claimed the entire excavation site for the adeptus mechanicus they sent a relay message to the planetary Governors that they were required to investigate and study the newly uncovered structure and that damnos would simply have to wait until they had completed their research until further efforts could be made to restart their geothermal stations the Imperial Aristocrats replied with a furious barrage of colorful Gothic text within their data messages but the priests did not even bother to check their contents as their new discovery deserved their utmost and undivided attention due to the mechanicus forces only consisting of a small Squad who did not have the required tools or equipment for a full excavation they knew that they could only retrieve a select few artifacts and samples and that a full Expedition would be required to fully survey this site with that in mind they retreated to the nearby Forge World of Gerta maoris to begin their in-depth analysis on their prized Treasures as well as to organize a future visit by a fully equipped exploratory Fleet mere days after their ship Departed the northern pole of damnos was racked by a series of terrible atmospheric storms which cut off all contact the citizens of Mandos Prime once held with the rest of the world vast occlusive storm clouds soon spread out to envelop the surrounding region with small communities reporting that bolts of green lightning were sporadically bursting out from the skies leaving small pools of melted ice where they landed Imperial meteorological stations simply assumed this to be a freak atmospheric disturbance but unfortunately this storm was in fact a dark forewarning of a Calamity which was soon to befall all of damnos far beneath the ice the Forgotten ruins had begun to stir energetic pylons hummed into activity once more and vast Crypt complexes shuddered and moaned as their doors lurched open whilst under the cover of the storm the first of the necrons marched forth from their ancient tombs walking upon the cold grounds of their world for the first time in over 60 million years faank after faank silently filed out with a grim sense of direction with huge groupings moving towards each of the major city centers and Industrial zones solely with the goal of Exterminating all biological life as the nekron forces Advanced the mysterious shroud above the northern pole rapidly expanded until it was uding the entire northern hemisphere of damnos any Imperial Defense Forces caught under the oppressive clouds would have no way way of contacting other militarum outposts for Aid and so they would be forced to face off against the coming Onslaught with whatever meager equipment they were stationed with it is of no wonder then that as the necrons descended upon defense complexes that they utterly and remorselessly wiped out any human life which was encountered the weak cracks of Laz gunfire were Shrugged off by the hulking living metal frame of the necron Warriors who would respond with blinding waves of energy emitted from their ancient GS flares any caught by the sparkling green bolts were disassembled at a molecular level with their bodies falling to not but stray atoms lost amongst the falling snow slowly and methodically the necrons continued in their endless March settlement mining complexes and entire cities appeared to go dark across the entire planet as if a silencing wave was spreading down throughout the world the Imperial signals agents upon the hive city of damnos secundus had noticed this concerning pattern and in response they ordered the rapid dispatch of light reconnaissance vessels to investigate the cause of this sudden lack of communication their rationale was that a simple storm should not be causing a complete loss of contact with the rest of the world however if only these poor Imperials knew of the true horror which marched beneath the clouds perhaps they would have sought to flee the world rather than commit to a doomed investigation by this point the Abyssal Comm shroud had covered nearly the entire planet and beneath it the living metal Legions of necrons had extinguished all life they had encount countered Warriors Advanced and eliminated whatever fleeing dregs of humanity could be found through the abandoned settlements leaving not even their bones to be discovered some terrified workers cowered deep within the mines but these lost souls were soon found by the burrowing tomb spiders and Scarab swarms who fell upon their victims with a cold and calculated execution even the heavily armored defensive bunkers were of no match to the advancing hordes groups of flayed ones seemingly materialized through the very walls where they ravenously and brutally eviscerated any who were unfortunate enough to be trapped with them the small contingents of Imperial Armor stationed upon damnos were reduced to piles of glowing slag by the combined GS Weaponry of the floating destroyers these groups would skim across the ice where they were eager to find any offensive sources of life to extinguish desperately hoping that it would bring their scrambled and deteriorated Minds some peace as the war zone crept ever southwards groups of fleeing Imperial forces had managed to make their way to the capital city of kenport where they relayed the horrifying truth to their commanding officers the planetary governor with a heavy heart acknowledged that their world was in a truly dire situation and that if they continued on with their current strategy that they may not even live to see the downfall of their home as such every single possible Imperial Guard Force upon damnos was mobilized and ordered to converge upon kenport where they would make their final stand against the undying Legions of the necrons as a final defense defensive strategy the Imperial Battleship known as the noelis had been stationed in low orbit above kenport and its crew had been instructed to aim their Mighty guns towards the surrounding regions of the city in the hopes that they could obliterate any advancing necrons who would soon arrive within its outskirts this strategy was likely not going to be enough to Halt the encroaching forces thankfully the occlusive Comm shroud had not yet covered the astropath temples within the capital and so A desperate call for Aid was sent out through the stars with the hopes that any Imperial forces May heed their message and come to their rescue only one Fleet heeded this call but in the emperor's Mercy it was the strike Cruisers of the ultramarine second company who would respond and their ships made ready for Transit towards the doomed world as the fated final battle approached the planetary governor and his closest advisers retreated into a proteus class command bunker deep within the buried defensive complexes under kenport here they sought to direct and oversee the defensive operations of their City whilst enclosed within the assumed safety of a hefty ceramite wall it was during this time of planning their final defensive strategy that the imperial commanders thought that they had identified the leader of the necron forces scattered reports from fleeing Guardsmen had described an imposing figure marching at the head of the fenes who wielded a vast ornate scepter which would beam down ephemeral light to slice through the Imperial forces furthermore all accounts describe the Lord as holding a strange impossibly Dark Orb which could be thrust into the ground only to cause any destroyed necrons to rebuild themselves and Shuffle back into formation with the rest of their undying kin they had named this figure as the voidbringer and so his description was provided to the Imperial defenders in the hopes that they may be able to destroy this commanding figure and presumably bring a halt to the nekron's inevitable Advance this may have seemed to be the logical plan however unbeknownst to the flailing and panicked Imperial commanders the voidbringer was not actually the overarching ruler of this world the lord was simply a subordinate to a far more ancient and Powerful Fon who was already marching his way to kenport after a short week of frantically orchestrating The Defenders into suitable positions the Imperial commanders found themselves out of time and the enemy was finally at their Gates the Relentless March of the necrons had finally reached the capital Hive city of kenport and their terrible assault began with Earnest Fury towering monoliths materialized all around the outskirts of the city which opened up to reveal small gateways from which small squads of nekron Warriors could March out from their gigantic crystalline cores would hum and whine as they charged up before unleashing their cataclysmic particle whips into the city walls the earsplitting discharge from these weapons would leave immense craters and gaping wounds in the large defensive structures with the air itself being singed by the trail of antimatter particles fired from the monolith nevertheless the Imperials had brought their full armaments to bear in order to defend themselves The Mighty Battleship nobiles fired Salvo after Salvo of melter Torpedoes and heavy ordinance down into the necron lines reducing many of the monoliths to hulks of molten sparking scrap similarly the large defensive batteries from the Basilisk artillery units Leman Russ battle tanks and even the heavy weapon encampments were incredibly effective against the tides of nekron Warriors huge SES of the living metal constructs were brought low being utterly devastated Beyond repair by the thunderous fire of the Imperial Guard unfortunately however their triumphs were rather short-lived deep beneath the occlusive shroud the necrons had erected some of their heavier and stronger technological weapons namely their terrible pylons several of these units aimed in unison towards the heavens and with a deafening blast they emitted a Titanic beam of green lightning into the skies this energy pulse arked and pierced its way through the atmosphere where it eventually struck with the nobiles from its impact sight the necron energy sparked and twisted their way through the ship until it eventually exploded in a blinding burst of light huge chunks of the ship rained down upon damnos where they burned and spiral down into the Imperial defensive lines leading to entire areas of the hive City being demolished by the horrific rain of fire this proved to be too great of a moral defeat for some Gods men who saw this as a sign of their own impending doom and so some chose to meet the emperor by their own hands by this point the faanes of necron warriors were already marching through the streets of kenport where they silently and efficiently hunted down the few scraps of cowering Defenders wherever they were to be found groups of flay ones attracted by the scent of blood materialized from their Dimension to appear deep within the slums of the city only to gleefully eviscerate the poor civilian populace in an attempt to quench their Eternal hunger the planetary Governor thinking himself safe within his command bunker was eventually torn to shreds by a swarm of burrowing scarabs which seemingly brought a Grizzly end to the defense of damnos by this point all hope for the few scattered survivors of damnos seemed to be lost but it was here that the ultramarines finally made their glorious entry the strike Cruiser known as valin's Revenge stationed itself in orbit above the capital city Sheltering itself from gas pile on fire with the wreckage of the noblis three waves of drop pods were launched to the planet's surface as part of their initial offensive push the first comprised of hundreds of unmanned Death Storm drop pods which each contained Hefty batteries of missiles and heavy weapons which would rain down Salvo after Salvo of Munitions into the necron lines which surrounded the capital ruins the second wave consisted of Transportation pods Each of which contained a squad of Veteran aartis who were ready and able to reclaim the world for the Imperium this wave was led by none other than the company Captain Kato sarius who along with his command Squad would lead their forces to locate the enemy Lord and eliminate them the third wave similarly consisted of manned pods however this one was l led by the chief librarian varo tigurius and he was tasked with Landing far deeper into the necron lines where his mission was to seek out and destroy the vast gas Cannon batteries which had plagued the Imperial Defenders during this attack during this deployment Chief librarian tigurius and his men moved through the living metal Tides until they finally encountered none other than the voidbringer guarding the immense pylons as the ultramarines did battle with the necron forces tigurius and the necron Lord entered into what can only be described as a psychic duel the unbridled power of the voidbringer was of a near unmatched level and he was able to effortlessly force the librarian to his knees as baleful arcs of ephemeral energies sparked and bled from his ancient staff he simply taunted the ultramarine and insulted him for ever being so foolish as to think that a simple human could match their strength to that of a necron lord this hubris however led to his own downfall with tiguas on the brink of death the ultramarine sergeant scopio varanus charged forth to intervene and save his brother as the voidbringer continued in his insult monologue he did not notice the sprinting aartis who fell upon the Lord with the force of a falling angel with a single strike from his chainsword he shattered the Abyssal resurrection orb and severed the Lord's arm as the vidiian artifact crumbled the ancient figure simply fell apart in a haze of metallic dust with his body unmaking itself and disassembling until there was not even a shadow left in The Frigid ice the Imperial forces closer to the city could see far in the distance an immense flash of emerald light before the shock wave of the explosion hit them rocking the dust and debris off of their defensive fortifications this blast acted as the proof that tigurius and his Squad had successfully completed their mission and destroyed the huge artillery pylons with the skies now safe from heavy particle accelerator fire the second company were able to deploy even more of their forces to bolster the Ragged Defenders of kenport at this point however it was beginning to feel like somewhat of a futile effort the city was crumbling with entire districts having been leveled by the combined offensive fire of the necrons as well as by the indiscriminate bombardments of the Imperial forces nevertheless the sons of gilean stood Resolute against the living metal tide and further bolstered the faltering combat fronts wherever they could it was at this point that the true leader of the necrons Finally Revealed himself the scant joy and pride felt at defeating the voidbringer was replaced by a bitter sense of frustration for if this Lord was such a challenge to defeat what hope could be had against his Superior as it turned out damnos was not an insignificant world in the eyes of the necrons during their old days as an Empire and it was in fact a type of Planet classed as a crown world as such the head of the entire dynastic holding had been slumbering beneath the ice and he was more than prepared to bring a bloody Day of Reckoning to the foolish humans who intruded upon his territory this leader was Aon known as the undying and his resplendant golden frame Shone just as starkly against the Sea of metal as it had back in the Heyday of the necrons thankfully however he was soon to contend with Captain karius in a duel which was to decide the fate of damnos the captain LED his most veteran forces out from their drop pods towards a command node of the nekron forces where this gleaming ocro Lord had surrounded Ed himself with several faanes of lichard Immortals and the most trusted members of his Royal Court a rapid exchange of fire ensued with bursts of Bolt shells blasting through even the thick necrodermis frames of the Lord's Bodyguard the returning arcs of gas fire however were more than potent enough to vaporize and tear through even the ancient artificier armor of the company veterans who were to fall gracelessly into the melted ice much to the dismay of their battle brothers eventually the two commanders entered into their battle together but even a mighty Space Marine is an insignificant opponent to an ancient necron the Lord toyed with sarius parrying and deflecting every swing of his sword with his humming warye all the while he was slowly and silently making small cuts into the ultramarine slicing his leg his arm and even shattering his helmet so that the Mortal could look him in the eyes one final time after testing his abilities the undying Lord grew tired of these games and with a single impossibly fast strike he impaled carcarius through the heart lifted his broken body to the skies and then slammed him into the frigid Earth taking victory over the now shattered Captain the remaining aares upon seeing their Commander apparently die before them rushed forth with an increased sense of fervor and vigor with their intents Now set upon recovering his broken body as well as seeking revenge on this foul metallic creature the surviving members of his command Squad formed a defensive wall around sarius his body before calling for a Thunderhawk gunship to retrieve them back to an apothecary meanwhile the venerable dreadn known as a grippen had been inspired by the sight of his captain fearlessly charging against the ancient enemy and so he channeled what rage and fury remained within him and entered the fry as a crashing torrent his vast mechanical fists bludgeoned dozens of necrons before he stood towering over the undying Lord who even in his resplendent Glory was unable to endure an an assault by a charging dreadn agrian grabbed the golden Lord and simply crushed his frame like a frail Beetle before throwing him down into the Earth in a burst of Brilliant orat Energy with the death of their overarching lord the necrons reverted to their secondary command protocols and in unison they moved into a total retreat with the Enemy forces pulling back the surviving ultramarines were graced with an opportunity to assess their own losses and it was here that they discovered that their Captain sarius was not dead only severely incapacitated with one of his Hearts being completely destroyed by the immense strike of the necron Lord due to his condition the Dreadnaught arrien took upon himself the mantle of leadership and directed the remaining aartis to action against the retreating enemy the ultramarines advanced for several kilometers clearing the surrounding areas of kenport to bring some relative semblance of safety to the few survivors within the city but this was not to be the end of their struggle as Thunderhawk gunships came and went Captain carcarius was evacuated back to his strike Cruiser for medical attention and heavier Space Marine battle tank were deployed to shore up the defenses of the city just in case a second nekron attack was still to come as the Marines began to rebuild what few bastions and bunkers they could Chief librarian tigurius had returned from his expedition to destroy the pylons but he brought with him grave News of the World he informed his brothers that the entirety of the landscape around the city was simply teeming with necrons who had reformed into fully strengthened failes and that they were Recon converging towards the city for a final offensive operation looking at what remained of their forces the ultramarines had lost around half of their company numbers and the surviving Imperial Guardsmen were on the brink of death by exhaustion there was truly nothing that they could muster to save themselves this day such was the scale of the city situation that both agrian and tigurius decided that the planet could not be saved and that a full evacuation was the only remaining recourse they had against these undying Legions as such the Imperial crafts began shuttling survivors back to the strike Cruiser of valin's Revenge until only a scant few Imperial forces were left against the coming tide the remaining ultramarines fought with such ferocity and such tenacity against the coming darkness that Legends are still told of their struggle in the deepest annals of their chapter's history books even the Guardsmen were roused into a state of Glorious bravery at the sight of the sons of Gillan charging through the rubble stwn streets and though their names may be lost to time their sacrifice shall never be forgotten tigurius remained at the front of the battle sending waves of psychic Fury into the nekron ranks utterly dismantling their metallic frames with but the unbridled power of his mind meanwhile the adamantium giant of AG grien was seen to channel his thousands of years of battle experience into this conflict as he held the Western gate of kenport alone for hours ensuring that his brothers could Retreat to the evacuation craft eventually the surviving forces were forced back to the Spaceport landing pads at the center of the city and it appeared that only one final Convoy of ships could be sent to save those Within the Ruins as such in this most dire of circumstances the chief librarian and what few forces could fit were rushed into the final Thunderhawk where they left 40 Marines 20 Guardsmen and the ancient dreadn down on the surface to die their sacrifice was to ensure the survival of the chapter's command and the bell of lost souls was surely to ring out with their Noble deaths as the Thunderhawk departed those aboard could see that the survivors were quickly overrun leaving none but a grippen left standing even here in his last moments he still served the emperor with a mighty blast his Reactor Core overloaded releasing an immense explosion which consumed the entirety of the space port bringing thousands of necrons to damnation with him unfortunately however with his martyr's death and with the retreat of the ultramarines the world of damnos was once again to be ruled by the necrons whilst aboard their strike Cruiser the surviving forces began a campaign of orbital bombardment against the necron tide upon the planet's surface any command nodes or power structures were targeted by the vast melter Torpedoes but this operation could not last long the Imperial ship was forced to withdraw as the necron presence on damnos had fully awoken and even more vast artillery pylons were coming back online only to Target their ship with vast arcs of verdant green energy with the tomb world of damnos now fully reactivated it stood as an immense threat against the forces of the Imperium let us remember that as a Crown World it possessed the largest numbers of necron forces within its Crypts and so whatever armies it could muster would surely be of a great enough strength to bring a hundred star systems to their knees any tomb World once awakened is no small obstacle and it would take a vast campaign from the Imperial armies to bring it back into submission thankfully however this was not to be the end of the story of damnos the prideful ultramarines would seek to return to avenge the deaths of their brothers and to bring Justice to the fabled heroes who saved their very lives I will soon return to tell you of their calamitous and dangerous campaign where they sought to ultimately eliminate the deathly Menace from damnos once and for all

Channel: Scholar's Lore

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Id: zE5rbgtbTKQ

Length: 33min 14sec (1994 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2023