The Lost by Dan Abnett

Author:Dan Abnett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2018-03-08T15:39:34+00:00

THE ARMOUR OF CONTEMPT

For my friend Richard Collins

on the occasion of his fortieth birthday

‘Chaos claims the unwary or the incomplete.

A true man may flinch away its embrace,

if he is stalwart, and he girds his soul

with the armour of contempt.’

– Gideon Ravenor, The Spheres of Longing

‘The twenty-second year of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade saw a period of renewed fortune for Warmaster Macaroth’s main battle groups. Flush from swift and decisive victories at Cabal Alpha,

Gerlinde and Zadok, the Warmaster’s forces made a vigorous advance into the disputed Carcaradon Cluster, and threw the principal hosts of the Archenemy overlord (‘Archon’), Urlock Gaur, into hasty retreat. Macaroth’s intention was to scatter and destroy the Archon’s musters before they could form a cohesive line of resistance in the Erinyes Group.

‘To Macaroth’s coreward flank, and increasingly left behind, the Crusade’s secondary battle-groups – the Fifth, Eighth and Ninth Crusade Armies – maintained their efforts to drive the forces of Magister Anakwanar Sek, Gaur’s most capable lieutenant, from the margins of the Khan Group.

‘Weakened by problems of morale and logistics, and the fact that the bulk of its manpower came from new and recently founded regiments (the majority of experienced and veteran Guard units had been routed to the main line), the second front had begun to stagnate by the start of 777.M41.

‘To compound the problems, the armies of the second front often found themselves outclassed by the highly proficient ground forces fielded by Sek. It is likely many of the second front commanders would have incurred Macaroth’s severe displeasure, had the Warmaster not been so singularly occupied with his own objectives. However, General Van Voytz of the Fifth made strenuous efforts to rally the second front, in particular by promoting a series of uncompromising actions to liberate certain worlds previously regarded as ‘lost causes’.

‘Van Voytz dubbed his strategy “Crush and Burn”, and its purpose was to restore pride to the second front through the systematic purging of worlds that had, until then, seemed incontrovertibly the possessions of the Archenemy.

“Crush and Burn” had the desired effect, though the vast expenditure of resources necessitated by the policy was later questioned by the Munitorum. Confidential position papers also reveal that, in one particular case, there was an altogether different motive behind these costly liberation efforts.’

– from A History of the Later Imperial Crusades

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