Ma'at Campaign

The Ma'at Campaign took place within the Ma'at System with the forces of the Mechanicum, under the command of Secutor Erridan Kraus, launching a campaign to cleanse the world of Ma'at of Greenskins. This campaign was the pivotal action of the wider campaign known as the  Taurian Cleansing  where forces of the Mechanicum were tasked with wiping out the Greenskin infestation within the Taurian Sub-Sector. The campaign to take Ma'at was estimated to take no longer than 1 year at most, but the even known as the Ma'at Disaster saw that the campaign would take 4 years to complete with the need to call upon Astartes forces to aid the beleaguered troops of the Mechanicum.

Defense of Kori
The Taurian Cleansing began shortly after the Imperial Victory over the Greenskin invasion of the mining world of Kori, known as the Defense of Kori which took place between 498.M41 - 500.M41. Emyl Garidos led a force of Skitarii, Battle Automata, and Auxilia Myrmidon from the Obsidian Forge Temple of Stygies VIII to bolster the meager defenses of Kori in an attempt to repel the Greenskin invasion. After a bloody series of engagements, the Greenskins were on the verge of overwhelming the defenders, for Emyl had attempted to defeat the Orks at their landing zones of their Rok crash sites but was utterly outmatched by sheer weight of numbers. Warboss Borx Gutrencher butchered Emyl Garidos and his honor guard after smashing through the Mechanicum's breaking lines with his own band of nobs. The rest of the Mechanicum's forces fought a fighting retreat to various strong points on the planet following the death of Emyl. However, the majority of Mechanicum forces were overwhelmed in the field during their flight to safety and all the mines of Kori were quickly lost to the Greenskins due to their defenses being undermanned and overrun by the Green tide.

Within months of loss after loss, only one bastion remained in Mechanicum hands left under command of Erridan Kraus. Barely a cohort of Skitarii and a maniple of Auxilia Myrmidon were fighting off a force of some 10,000 Orks. Luckily, Kraus masterfully took up the reins of command and saw off 9 Greenskin assaults upon the battered walls of the mining world's main fortress. However, the walls were breached in the 8th assault with the detonation of a large ammunition's deposit when a stray Ork mortar shell breached the depot's roof. Orks flooded the breach during the 9th assault and they were only barely held off with the Mechanicum's final reserves being thrown into the fray. Only a 2 maniples of Skitarii remained and a handful of Myrmidons were left standing following the repelling of the 9th wave. Kraus knew he could not hold the walls for a 10th time and so pulled his forces back and allowed the Greenskins to pour into the fortresses outer courtyards.

From the ramparts of the inner fortress walls, Kraus watched as thousands of Greenskins poured into the courtyard and began throwing themselves at the second, much less formidable, walls of the fortress. Again, the Greenskin assault was pushed back but had almost overtaken the defenders with sheer weight of numbers, for the inner walls had far fewer heavy weapons and was itself only half the height of the outer wall. Kraus watched from his position on the wall as the Greenskin warboss stood at the center of his horde, anticipating that the fortress would fall with this final assault. The Greenskin amassed the full array of his forces around him and sounded the charge once he felt prepared to unleash his warriors. The horde began to bellow their savage warcry and began to swell forward as Kraus raised a single hand holding a device which he flipped a switch with a single mechanized finger and watched silently as the ground trembled. The horde's warcry was then deafened by the sound of countless high explosives going off below and around their feet as the horde was consumed by a torrent of hellfire. Upon taking position within the fortress, Kraus knew he could never hope to match the Orks pound for pound and knew that eventually they would overwhelm his outer defenses. So, whilst his forces fought the Greenskins off during the first few waves, he had his reserves plant mining explosives and rigged high explosive ordinance throughout the outer courtyards of the fortress to ambush the inevitable Ork breakthrough. In a single action, Kraus slew Warboss and butchered thousands of Orks, including most of the horde's nobs. Right as the last explosive went off, Kraus sallied forth with the remainder of his troops who were bolstered with the entirety of the mining world's penal slaves and servitors and butchered the Orks within the fortresses' outer courtyard. The loss of their warboss and the unexpected counter attack broke the Orks and the remainder of the horde at the fortress fled to the mines they had captured. Shortly following the Mechanicum victory at the bastion, the Orks on the planet fell to infighting, giving Kraus and his warriors time to await reinforcements. Following the arrival of reinforcements 8 months later, Kraus led a campaign of cleansing and quickly retook the mines lost to the Orks and ended the xenos presence upon the planet. Following the genocidal campaign, Kori was free of the Greenskin infestation within a few months and Kraus returned to Stygies VIII to a hero's welcome and promoted to Secutor. He was then tasked with cleansing the rest of the Sub-Sector of Greenskins after showing his quality and ability to outsmart and crush the Greenskins despite facing overwhelming odds.

Taurian Cleansing Begins
Following the defeat of the Greenskin Waaagh on Kori, Erridan was recalled by his father to return to Stygies VIII. Upon his return, Erridan was welcomed with cheering and a military triumph and elevated to the rank of Secutor. He was granted complete command of all Auxilia Myrmidon forces of his father's forge temple and then granted temporary command over two Macroclades of Skitarii to cleanse Kori of Greenskins and then purge the Greenskin plague from the sub-sector. It took Kraus a year to assemble his forces

The initial purgation of the Greenskins was going well. Following the death of their warboss, the Greenskin hordes broke into rival warbands as Nobs and minor Warbosses fought for dominance. This allowed Kraus to lead his forces to victory after victory against the fledgling Greenskin held planets. However, his train of victories ended with a crushing defeat upon the planet of Ma'at in 504.M41. Unbeknownst to Erridan, a Greenskin known by the name of Tukthar the Red had managed to unite the Ork warbands of Ma'at before his arrival and turned the once industrial world into an Ork stronghold and was attracting large numbers of Greenskins to his cause through the construction of numerous Gargants and other Ork machines of war. Tukthar also managed to create an unsteady alliance with the Freebooter now known as Admiral Zigoth Iron Gob. Reports about a Greenskin Warboss rising in power upon the former industrial world of Ma'at drew Erridan's attention, who then decided to crush the Ork before he could begin another Waaagh and savage the sub-sector once again.

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The Ma'at Campaign was the pivotal action during the Mechanicum's cleansing of Greenskins from the Taurian Sub-Sector known as the Taurian Cleansing. The campaign to cleanse the sub-sector began with the Defense of Kori where Erridan Kraus earned his promotion to Secutor after slaying the Greenskin Warboss Borx Gutrencher who invaded the mining planet with his minor Waaagh. Kraus was then ordered to wipe the rest of the sub-sector clean of Greenskins so as to prevent further incursions of Greenskins from their infestation in the region. The campaign went well for the first three years, with the outer worlds of the system easily being claimed from the Greenskins by Kraus due to internal conflict, lack of organization, and relatively low numbers of Greenskins. However, by the end of the at the end of 501.M41, reports arose from Kraus' scouting parties that upon the world of Ma'at was a Greenskin who was consolidating Orks in the region for a renewed Waaagh into Imperial Space. This Greenskins Warboss known as Tukthar the Red was a massive beast which managed to unify the densely populated world of Ma'at under his rule. The rising of the Greenskin Warboss Tukthar the Red on Ma'at led to Erridan Kraus taking his crusading force to crush the Warboss before he could mount a significant threat to the Mechanicum's interests in the region. The Ma'at Campaign was estimated to take no longer than 1 year to cleanse the planet and slay the warboss.