Background

Date: 006.M31

Location: Planet Akrus VII, Rifts of Hecate, Aleph Sector. The planet of Akrus VII was among the first settled by the Imperium of Man in the Aleph sector. Its landmass , made up of just one continent, surrounded by a vast ocean, ranges from flat saltmarshes to soaring peaks. It has a temperate climate at sea level but due to its humid atmosphere its coast is covered by rolling banks of sea fog and its many peaks are a frozen wasteland.

Akrus VII quickly became the focus of the Mechanicum Explorators under Arch Magos Akran. A vast spaceport, underground Manufactorum complexes and armouriums were set up within solar years of landing to support and defend their research, rumours of Aledari Raiders in the sector were rife. The risk was worth the rewards however, as early planetary scans showed vast stores of Ceramite buried deep within the mountains which would greatly assist Man’s expansion out into the hostile Cosmos. If a mining complex could be established, it would provide a tremendous base for further exploration in the Aleph Sector, with the main focus being on the strange readings originating from the Hexis region. However, the galaxy wide uprising of the Men of Iron put an end to the Magos’ grand plans. Akrus, home to a complete STC buried deep within an Explorator Vessel hidden in the mountains south of Drakkas, was one of the worlds hit hardest by the betrayal of technology. While it had no hive cities or vast industrial areas, the meagre number of Mechanicum Adepts and the small human population found themselves vastly outnumbered by the Abominable Intelligences, their hijacked manufactorums could produce copies of them in numbers far surpassing the small human contingent. Conflict spread throughout the planet, settlements were razed their populations massacred. 

Deep within the citadel of the Manufactorum,  Arch Magos Akran inserted a Scrapcode into the Planet’s networks, halting the Manufactorums, disabling the STC and the AI. In the final death throes of the Men of Iron, a planetwide swarm of nanobots were released. A dead man’s switch of sorts. They devoured all the biological elements that remained of Magos Akran, his Mechanicum detachment and the human population of the world, leaving it utterly devoid of humanity. All that remained were the husks of their shelters and their sealed Mechanicum Vaults. And so they were left, to degrade through the centuries until a joint element of the 3rd (Imperial Fists) and 90th (Thousand Sons) Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade stumbled upon the remains of this planet and subsector. With the XVth Legion being more interested in the Warp anomalies coming from Hexis, it was left to the Fists of Dorn to reclaim Akrus VII for the imperium, landing a number of their human colonists, remembrancers and imperial army forces on the planet to begin to rebuild Drakkas and attempt to discover what had brought such an idyllic world low. Compliance was reached quickly due to the utter lack of a population and the Administratum were fast to order the fleets onwards to explore the rest of the Sector. This never happened. An order from the Crimson King himself was delivered via the Adepts of the Corvidae Cult on Prospero, ordering all XVth legion Fleets to halt whatever actions they were undertaking and to answer only to the Warmaster. There were Wolves on Prospero! And so they halted, much to the annoyance of the Fists who continued alone in their exploration of the Rifts of Hecate. 

This remained until A Hidden One, A member of the Scout Auxilia of the XVth, a sorcerously reprogramed spy among the bridge crew of the Fist’s Capital ship overheard a Vox transmission from an Ultramarines Praetor that his Fleet would be travelling through the Aleph sector at sub-light speed on their way to their muster point at Calth to escape a particularily vicious warp storm surrounding the sector. The Ultramarines brought with them the news of the Istvan III & V Atrocities and the betrayal of Magnus, which were broadcast to the Fists, and also the Sons through their infiltrators. The VIIth & XIIIth Legions immediately turned against the Sons of Magnus. In their outrage they made no attempt to parlay or communicate. The XVth were assumed to be traitors and they must be destroyed as the traitors they are. 

Both sides knew they would need the facilities and resources of Akrus in order to gain the edge over their former brothers. The STC fabled to lie there would surely tip the scales of the conflict in favour of whoever found it, potentially impacting the Horus Heresy as a whole. Both sides rushed towards Akrus VII, scouting parties from either side first, followed quickly by the bulk of their forces. The Loyalists landing in the capital city of Drakkas, the Garrison of the loyalist imperial army there granting them use of the landing pads. Meanwhile, the Traitors chose a site along the coast, The Palo Flatlands, as their drop site.