The Malakbael Decree

 

The Watch Knights Primaris Chapter had been operating for thirty years from their founding during the indomitous crusade.  Established from Imperial Fist gene stock to fortify, unify, and patrol a section of the great rift by the Regent, Robutte Guilliman.  The chapter had proven to be an early success accomplishing much of their founding mission in a short period.  They had successfully fortified the imperial worlds within their operational zones and had conducted a few successful campaigns known to the chapter as “rangings” outside their immediate fortified domains.  Then came the Murder Curse of Angron, the fall of fleet Quartus, and the ensuing devastation.  It was right after this the Watch Knights chapter received the Malakbael Decree.

In the wake of the great strategic disaster of fleet Quartus’s fall, Robutte Guilliman reacted quickly after a quick and cold calculation of the situation.  A number of orders were issued immediately in order to contain the situation.  One of these orders was sent to the Watch Knights chapter and was known as the Malakbael Decree.  The Malakbael Decree ordered the Watch Knight to keep three companies in defense of their realm with a further three companies conducting campaigns and patrols just outside it.  A single company was to be held in reserve.  The remaining three companies were ordered to the Stygian sector and surrounding areas caught in the terror of Fleet Quartus’s fall.

The Watch Knights were to engage the enemy wherever they could have the most strategic impact and aid in the fortifying and organizing of worlds still loyal in and near the unleashed carnage.  It was hoped the Watch Knights fortification expertise could form strongpoints capable of withstanding and channeling the unleashed chaos long enough for the Primarch to prepare a proper counter attack force with the capability of reversing the disaster.

Therefore the 4th, 7th, and 9th company were selected for the new campaign laid out by the Malakbael Decree.  The 4th and 7th would focus on strong interventions and ensuring planetary defenses throughout the sector.  The 9th company would conduct shadowspear operations against the Stygian and khornate forces on the rampage in order to keep them strategically off balance and delay their onslaught.

Accompanying the Watch Knights would be 5 regiments of Infantry raised on three of the worlds under the Watch Knights protection.  These 25,000 soldiers had originally been ordered raised by the Watch Knights to augment the pdf but were instead pressed into the new campaign force along with a lone armor regiment from a Watch Knight guarded forge world.

Two wings of Aeronautica Imperialis were raised to accompany the expeditionary force as well.  These additional forces were meant to be used where their presence could tip ongoing conflicts in the Imperials favor decisively and then withdrawn while local forces with a clear upper hand prosecuted and finished the conflicts.  The expeditionary forces human auxiliaries could then also be used as cadre to further train and raise local forces. The Imperium would need all the resources it could muster in the face of the horror now unleashed.

The Stygian wars were entering a new and increasingly deadly phase.