War for Malverus

The War for Malverus
In M37 the Iron Shields were alerted to a Biel-Tan invasion of the planet of Malverus. At the time considered a backwater at the outer reaches of Imperial power, the Iron Shields raced to liberate the planet. When the they found that the planetary governer had surrendered, they unleashed fiery retribution on Malverus before engaging in a decades long war against the Biel-Tan. When an Ork Waagh! descended upon the planet an ill-advised alliance with the Eldar forestalled the greenskin tide, but at the cost of betrayal - when the dust had settled on Malverus, the Iron Shields had lost much of their number, Chapter Master included. It would become their defining action.

The Biel-Tan invasion
Unknown to the Imperium of Man was that world of Malverus had once been created as the Eldar Maiden world of Athuariel, a golden gift created in the depths of time and a promised land for the Eldar. For tens of millennia the Eldar had waited. Now the Biel-Tan were intent on recovering the lost treasure, and directed firebrand Farseer Ultharyon to seize the planet.

Taking advantage of the severed communications the Biel-Tan Eldar attacked Imperial space, diving through the Webway and ambushing the Planetary Defence Forces encamped on Malverus. While some PDF soldiers gallantly held their ground Lasguns blazing, they were eliminated. Biel-Tan kill teams of Swooping Hawks, appearing in the midst of the Imperial soldiery, negated the use of heavy weaponry by the PDF and many of the heavy guns of Malverus remained silent. Accounts gathered by the Iron Shields indicated that Planetary Governor Theodorus Panthax had surrendered a mere days after the planetary shield had been disabled.

Despite the shock attack, the PDF suffered relatively little during the Biel-Tan invasion. Some units guarding critical installations were overrun by the Swooping Hawk assault and wiped out. To their shame, many PDF regiments surrendered, even before Governor Panthax's proclamation of defeat. Few men made any attempt to instigate a guerilla war and the Malverus was considered entirely pacified by the Biel-Tan in a matter of weeks. Civilian losses too were slight and with no aid forthcoming the populace of Malverus were presented with a choice by their Eldar conquerors – evacuation of the planet, or extermination. Evacuation was chosen by executive decision.

With the PDF defeated, the government of Malverus subservient, and the Warp storms continuing unabated Farseer Ultharyon hailed the victory as the first step in a continuing campaign for the resurgence of the Eldar. Imperial scholars are unsure whether Ultharyon had actually foreseen the coming the Iron Shields, for not long after his proclamation he drastically reduced his garrison forces on Malverus. It is unknown whether this was an act of Eldar arrogance, or an attempted trap.

Months after the Eldar's lightning strike on Malverus, across the depths of the Segmentum Tempestus, a garbled automated distress signal from the beleagured world had reached the chapter fleet of the Iron Shields. The Iron Shields were at the time under their Chapter Master Vortegan, and had been ordered on a century long patrol of the region, pushing back the Xenos tide wherever they found it. When the signal had been relayed to Chapter Master Vortegan he declared it an unavoidable priority that they attempt to aid Malverus in battling the Eldar, he was unaware that the planet had long since fallen.

The Iron Shields Arrive
Mindful of the urgency and growing Warp storms the impetuous Vortegan ordered the fleet to make for Malverus via a series of small Warp jumps hoping to avoid catastrophe and the severity of the Warp storm. By the time the Iron Shields arrived, the evacuation of Malverus was already under way, they had spent almost a year en route – enough time for the Eldar to believe that no help was coming for the conquered world. What remained of the Eldar cordon around the planet had neither the time nor numbers to properly react to the coming Iron Shields. Emerging from the Warp Vortegan ordered cruisers and frigates to tear into the enemy formations bringing their weapon batteries to bear at close range. Screen from attack and at a distance, the Battle Barges of the Chapter began the liberation of Malverus.

The Iron Shields hit the planet hard, using their Battle Barge's bombardment cannons they obliterated the recently restored planetary defences. As the great guns of the fleet continued to pound the planet the Chapter began its descent. The chapter's 3rd Company, backed up by elements of the 8th led the assault, drop pods tore through the night skies and plunged into the governor's palace. Bringing the fury of the Imperium upon the Apostate planet, Chapter Master Vortegan's first objective was to remove the collaborationist government. Retribution arrived on the planet as the Astartes of the 3rd and 8th unloaded from their drop pods. Enemy traps and choke points were made insignificant thanks to the liberal use of jump pack troops who seized vital structures and high ground advantage while the foot troops of the 3rd Company surged, bolters blazing, towards the Palace. Planetary Defence Guardsmen and Eldar alike fell before the righteous fury of the Astartes. As the Tactical Squads of the 3rd reached the steps of the monumental palace large elements of the Malverus PDF had surrendered or turned on their Eldar conquerors.

Vortegan had hoped that the Eldar Headquarters would be situated with the errant Governor, to cut the head off the snake in one blow would have likely liberated the planet there and then, but it was not to be. As the Astartes spearhead stormed through the long marble corridors of Malverus' seat of government, the Eldar faded away. Across the planet, the Iron Shields chapter encountered disarmed PDF units, but no Eldar.

Abandoned by the Eldar, Governor Panthax, who had overseen the surrender and the beginnings of the planet's evacuation had little to do but wait with his cabinet and plead mercy when the Space Marines arrived. In their gilded stateroom, the echoes of bolter fire, and the cries of the dying heralded the approach of the Iron Shields. All sitting with Governor Panthax likely knew that their much hoped for mercy was a myth.

Without ceremony Governor Panthax and his cabinet was seized and summarily executed by Sergeant Apostolion of the 3rd Company in retribution of their surrender to the Eldar. It is said that Apostolion took the Governor's last words but no record of them has been found, even the Astartes himself was silent on what he heard. With Panthax's death and the Eldar seemingly in retreat, the Iron Shields secured the planet for Imperial rule.

Officers of the PDF were executed and replaced and a general compliance order against the populace was put in place. The Warp storms continued to rage, and with no hope of Imperial reprieve, the Iron Shields installed a military government and prepared the planet's tithes for transit once the Warp storms abated. In the days after Panthax's death the enormity of the task became apparent as transport links across the planet were found severed, newly built defences were sabotaged, and the Astartes approved government officials in the provinces turned up dead. When the sensor stations at the planet's poles went silent, Chapter Master Vortegan knew that the Eldar had returned.

The Malverus War Begins
When it appeared that the planet had been pacified the Biel-Tan returned, the Chapter, with a skeleton Planetary Defence Force, began the bloody defence of the planet, more and more resources were poured into the war by both sides until after decades of war the entire chapter was fighting on the decimated planet.

The situation was grim, but became desperate when an Ork tribe under Warboss Bluddspitta descended on the planet. Both Iron Shield and Eldar began to fall back against the growing Ork horde. Despite slaughtering thousands upon thousands of the Orks, the Iron Shields and the Biel-Tan were forced into a compromise. Farseer Ultharyon of the Biel-Tan Swordwind proposed an alliance against the Orks and judgement on the planet's ownership after the war. Chapter Master Vortegan accepted the offer despite the misgivings of his Chief Librarian, Silvanus.

With the Iron Shield-Eldar alliance agreed, the war against the Orks began in earnest, months of fighting culminated in a vast battle in the ruins of Malverus' capital city - known only as The City. There, led by Silvanus, the Chapter Librarian, a cadre of surviving Battle Brothers stormed the Ork defenses and with Eldar support and unnerving ferocity engaged Warboss Bluddspitta in combat. Harnessing all his power, Silvanus threw aside Nobz and Weirdboyz alike before obliterating Bluddspitta in an overwhelming psychic blast.

Weakened and exhausted from the years of battle, Silvanus was easily overpowered and killed when Farseer Ultharyon turned against the Iron Shields whilst the Orks scattered. The battle that followed levelled the city, the Iron Shields called down orbital fire upon themselves in a desperate attempt for vengeance against the Eldar. Faced with such a slaughter, the Biel-Tan attempted to extricate themselves, as they fled, Vortegan fought his last battle against Ultharyon, cornering him among the mountains of Ork, Astartes and Eldar dead. Alone in battle, Ultharyon met his end against Vortegan's Lightning Claws, while the Chapter Master himself died days after, redeemed.

Malverus - The Aftermath
The Chief Librarian Silvanus became a Chapter hero after the war, and his name became legend among friend and foe alike in the sector. Vortegan was not so lucky, though the killing of Ultharyon went some way to restoring his name, the stain of collusion with the Xenos remained and he became an allegory for the Iron Shields' hatred of the alien, and of the weakness against which they must always strive. Over the next two centuries the Iron Shields rebuilt, the City was replaced with the Basilica Ferrax, the Chapter monastery, and around it were settled the surviving inhabitants. Outside of the new city, there was nothing but blasted wilderness and ruin from which feral Orks and mutants roamed and were periodically hunted by the Chapter.