The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Standard Terra Calendar 41

Solar System, Beta-Garmon Cluster

"This is Beta-Garmon."

Standing behind the observation window of the Eternal Crusader, Sotha gazed at the endless expanse of morning stars in the distance, sighing. Even in the Maelstrom, there were rarely such high-density star systems.

The Beta-Garmon Cluster was not originally named as such. Located at the edge of the Solar System, six star systems were tightly connected by stable warp routes, serving as the Solar System's most critical barrier and natural defense. The Human Empire incorporated the cluster into its expanding territory in M30. At that time, only five star systems within the cluster had surviving human civilizations. The Human Empire named them Alpha, Beta, Delta, Zeta, and Theta, with the Beta system being the largest and most valuable. It later became the common designation for the entire cluster by the Human Empire.

After occupying the star cluster, due to its key location at the crossroads of routes to Terra, all five star systems were heavily fortified by the Imperium. Since the Ullanor Crusade, the armies under the Emperor, advancing towards the eastern and northern parts of the galaxy, used these worlds as staging grounds and armaments depots. Each world in the Beta-Garmon Cluster stored countless precious resources and armaments, making its strategic significance extremely critical.

Therefore, during the bloody Horus Heresy, it became a coveted prize for the traitors. The largest Titan war in human history took place in the Beta-Garmon system, sadly referred to as the 'Titan Deaths' by the Adeptus Mechanicus. (Readers can find relevant content online, lots of it)

Due to the horrifying warfare tactics employed by the traitor forces during the Horus Heresy, the Imperium was ultimately forced to abandon the cluster. Although it was reclaimed after the war, the wealthy and prosperous Beta-Garmon Cluster was essentially reduced to ruins. Many worlds became silent tombs. At its peak, the Beta-Garmon Cluster contained more than thirty inhabited human worlds, but after the war, only four planets remained habitable. One significant reason was that the loyalist defenders, when unable to hold, often chose to destroy their own cities, or trigger the destruction protocols of hive cities and fortresses, rather than see them fall into enemy hands.

And even worse, the largest Beta system was directly lost in realspace due to the traitors' terrifying warp techniques (I don't even know how they did it).

It wasn't until M36, when Rogue Trader Kolu rediscovered and conquered the Beta system, located in the Caan's Veil, that the Imperium regained this lost legacy of the Solar System, although it was already ravaged and essentially a death world.

Thanks to the assistance of the Silver Skulls Chapter, Kolu later gifted Beta-Garmon IV, the jewel of the Beta-Garmon system, to the Silver Skulls Chapter. However, the Silver Skulls Chapter did not use it as their homeworld, but instead established a monastery-fortress there, serving as a location for recruiting new soldiers and acquiring equipment. The chapter still spent most of its time operating in the Ultima Segmentum.

"There have always been two views in historiography regarding the Beta-Garmon War."

Andar Scayle crossed his arms and walked to Sotha, saying:

"The Adeptus Mechanicus believes that this was a meaningless, even a failed war of attrition. It neither stopped Horus nor defended the critical gateway to Terra, but simply wasted valuable war machines. If these forces had been invested in the defense of Terra, perhaps the outcome of the war would have been different. But Imperial historians believe that it was the massive attrition in the Beta-Garmon War that ultimately stopped the traitors at the gates of the Imperial Palace."

"According to the battle chapter's historical records, the Primarch responsible for defending Terra at that time believed that as long as they could delay until Guilliman and his legions returned to support, then this battle would be won. The Primarch himself also believed that this line of defense could not stop Horus's advance, but it was necessary to use this line of defense to wear down the traitors, because the victory conditions required by both sides were different. The victory condition for the traitors was to destroy the Throne, while the victory condition for the Imperium was simply time. It was based on this judgment."

Lysander also walked to Sotha, but his gaze towards the Beta-Garmon Cluster was much deeper.

"The Primarch made the decision to fight the traitors here, and…"

Lysander hesitated for a moment, then whispered:

"The Primarch believed that the Titan Legions were not entirely controllable. Rather than letting them fight each other in front of the Imperial Palace, causing terrible destruction, it would be better to let them fight to the death here. The Adeptus Mechanicus should no longer possess such excessively powerful forces. The number of Titans participating in the final battle on both sides should be reduced."

This was a politically significant strategy. Sotha simply smiled and sighed:

"These are all mythical past events. It is meaningless to judge the decisions of our predecessors from the perspective of later generations. I would like to visit Beta-Garmon II in person. I heard that it was the site of the most intense fighting."

"That shouldn't be a problem."

Because this location was the gateway to the Solar System, any passing ships needed to be inspected by the Solar System Defense Fleet. However, when Faisel came forward, all procedures were simplified to almost nothing.

Soon the fleet set course for the planet Beta-Garmon II.

"This is the Titan's graveyard."

Through the open hatch of the Stormbird, Sotha gazed at the red wasteland below in the howling wind.

Countless twisted metal piles formed shattered hills. Various huge impact craters, blast marks, and deep bombing traces, even after ten thousand years, still remained on the surface of this planet, like scars that could never heal.

At the height of the battle, the Imperium gathered hundreds of Titans from more than twenty Titan Legions on Beta-Garmon II, and the traitors also gathered almost the same number of engines. Even though the traitors recovered some after the war, and the Adeptus Mechanicus recovered some after reclaiming Beta-Garmon II, a considerable portion of the remnants of the past war remained on the battlefield. Through those shattered giant metal structures, and the engines that seemed to be dissected by giant blades, Sotha could still imagine what a tragic and desperate war it was—

Just closing his eyes, the scene seemed to appear in his eyes.

War machines slaughtered each other under the blood-red setting sun, Knight armors ran around the Titans' feet like hounds, and in the flares of plasma, humanity's most glorious honor collapsed in self-struggle.

It seemed that all the battles he had experienced before were just child's play in comparison.

Soon, the undulating silhouette of Nykona City appeared in sight. This former heart of the Beta-Garmon Cluster had experienced at least three large-scale battles, so that the remaining parts of its old city had long sunk underground. What could be seen now were all newly built later, but because the planet's ecology had been completely destroyed, all the hydroponic farms that could feed hundreds of billions of people were destroyed. Therefore, the current Nykona City was just a small fortress, specially used to garrison soldiers, its scale was less than one percent of what it used to be.

Sotha didn't plan to go and see it either, because there was nothing left to see.

The Stormbird stopped on a cliff, followed by a continuous stream of other aircraft. Warriors in silver-gray power armor stepped out of it, curiously looking around.

This was the best location to observe the battlefield outside Nykona City. In the past, this was the outer perimeter of Nykona City's hundreds of meters high alloy walls, but now it was a full thousand kilometers away from the new Nykona City.

Such is the way of the world.