"The First Siege of Kimara"

(M31.14)

Only the light of computer consoles, displays, and other important electronic equipment brought the command center of the brutalist palace out from pure darkness as one lone soul remained within well into the night. Possessing an appearance equally as oppressive as the architecture of his palace and especially this location meant to facilitate the military planning and maneuvering of his Principality, the Lord of the sovereign world Kimara maintained a silent vigil as he poured over every minutiae, every detail that he could to avert the decision he had already logically concluded must be done. For a man of pure logic and rationale, he was still Human at the end of the day, and to eschew such diligence would be a betrayal of those whose lives he was weighing.

Even the lights beyond the command center within the hallway had dimmed, so long had he been lost in his ruminations that day had been overcome by dusk and caused the automatic light sensors to reflect that. This lack of external light as well left him in deeper darkness than he might otherwise be, the configuration of dimmed computer screens doing little but leaving him as an outline within the void should an onlooker peer within. The Astartes guards once common to the halls were wholly absent, deployed to what would no doubt be their final battle, and despite his own nature the Lord found himself mourning their sacrifice already: they had served him well, and if there was any alternative he would ensure they survived the coming events.

Alas, such sentiment meant little when something of far greater value was to be sacrificed alongside them.

At a height of two meters exactly and possessing a firm and lithe musculature, the Lord was as imposing a figure even when witnessed in broad daylight, though his physical qualities were well surpassed by his name: Trahaearn Jarn the Third. Now the third to carry the name within his family's distinguished lineage of larger than life figures, he possessed the collective awe and cult of personality that had been building generation by generation by the efforts and manipulations of his ancestors.

The Jarn family has risen to power through merit and competence in their services to Kimara when paired with Trahaearn the First, the Unbroken, being selected as an Astarte candidate by the Iron Warriors. This boon to the clan's reputation at an early stage of the world's development and culture saw the working-man Jarns displace the mercantile and more refined Conomors as the center of Kimaran politics. A member of a well-regarded family being chosen by the saviors of their world, from raiders and monsters both, to join their superhuman ranks and carry on the Great Crusade was exactly the kind of narrative the Jarns needed to become more than one pack of wolves amongst many: for a people besieged on all sides by monsters in human skin from Wostyn and terrors such as the Yormungaros the citizens of Kimara had come to worship the Iron Warriors led by Forrix, who built the infrastructure and laid the foundation for their society after driving back such threats.

Trahaearn the Third, or Trahaearn the Loyal as history would come to know him, may have nearly possessed the height of an Astarte but his true strength lay in his mind. A predilection for both politics and warfare had been honed since his youth by his parents, at least prior to their deaths in battle against raiding Xenos, and in their honor he had used those talents for the betterment of Kimara's people by ruthlessly finishing the work of his father Trahaearn the second, the Unifier: while the prior ruler of Kimara had managed to bring all of its many clans together, he had not been able to complete his work in rooting out dissidents and competing interests, something which Trahaearn the Third would prove adept at even through underhanded or inhumane means.

It was not avarice that saw such machinations be his life's work, but rather a continued filial piety and loyalty to the ambitions of his family as a whole. This quality was known to all who witnessed him, and the increasing callous nature of Kimara's population coldly overlooked the elimination of countless threats to the Jarn Family's rule. A terrorist strike by alleged yet unproven Conomor supporters at Trahaearn's coronation had claimed the life of his brother Maelgwn, the oldest of his younger siblings, and with overwhelming public support saw over two-hundred thousand (a relatively small number to their population at the time) dissidents culled shortly thereafter.

The attack had led many subversive elements to creep out and show themselves in an attempt to seize the opportunity presented by the Jarn family's loss of one of its scions. Too late did they realize that as soon as they stepped from the shadows hidden daggers awaited them, trained right at their hearts and throats to cut down every last member of the opposition who dared step into the light, culling them until entire Fortress Cities ran red with traitor's blood.

In this way Trahaearn was no stranger to cutting down renegades and dregs who stood in the way of his planet's future, and that was exactly why he now struggled with the course of action he now had to take such that he agonized over it for so long: for all of his purges and political killings meant to engineer the security and prosperity of his homeworld, never once had he considered the elimination of someone truly loyal, that in order for Kimara to endure the approaching storm he would be forced to lose the only brother he had left.

"My lord, the Imperial Fist retaliatory fleet is approaching orbit."

The voice of an attendant broke Trahaearn from his thoughts concerning that very topic, the normally sharp lord caught unaware due to his dire focus. There simply was not enough time to avert the course they were on now, as much as he desired there to be. The Imperial Fists were moving as a Legion, wiping out Iron Warrior strongholds and uprooting entire worlds corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. That Kimara held no allegiance to anyone but themselves and the Emperor of Mankind's vision for Humanity would not even be considered when they arrived, instead being damned by their declaration of independence which cast aside Imperial shackles during Horus' rebellion.

That Kimara had just brought its neighboring world Wostyn to near-Exterminatus, a world which on its surface was wholly loyal to the Imperium, simply reaffirmed that there would be no escaping their damnation unscathed. That they had no choice in the matter, having been forced between one form of their own extermination or another, was just the blind cruelty of the harsh times Humanity endured.

Trahaearn dismissed his subordinate and motioned for the man to close to door behind him, intent on the coming conversation to have no outside party. This would be difficult enough for the Lord without having to account for others hearing his final conversation with his last surviving brother.

Trahaearn opened a hidden and near flawlessly secure communication channel to the Fortress City which Gautier had selected to be the place of his final battle, all to mask their shared 'treason' that their discussion would entail. Gautier had actually volunteered himself from the beginning should this outcome occur, taking responsibility not only for his actions but also for his failure to fully eradicate Wostyn to prevent their falsified 'evidence' of Kimara's loyalty to Horus and the Ruinous Powers. Gautier had been the one to use the Kimaran fleet to purge Wostyn mercilessly, reducing the desert planet to an even more inhospitable wasteland for reasons both tactical and personal, yet he had only done so with the unspoken blessing of his wiser elder brother Trahaearn. If Gautier was the weapon of their dynasty, it was Trahaearn who wielded him to the most devastating effect.

Far be either brother from fools, they both knew the outcome of the coming battle ever since word first arrived that the Imperium was mobilizing a force to quell their alleged uprising, especially once it became known that the Imperial Fists led by Rogal Dorn himself were deploying as a full Legion on their way to conquer an even greater threat. Foreseeing such a possibility was why they had divorced their chain of command prior to their actions, allowing one to appear wholly innocent of the other's so-called crimes should the worst come to pass.

The hologram which appeared before Trahaearn of Gautier would appear to be larger-than-life to many, though it was instead a one-to-one recreation of the augmented Human's size. Gautier possessed an even more robust build than his brother and a far greater height, appearing far closer to their family's inadvertent founder in build and possessing very much the same biological gifts which saw Trahaearn the First recruited in the ranks of the Iron Warriors. The first Trahaearn Jarn had been a man destined to stand head and shoulders above other men even before he became an Astarte, his natural growth accentuated by the process and transforming him into a formidable entity upon the battlefield who eventually won the loyalty of an entire warband of other Iron Warriors who refused their brothers when Olympia was razed. The result was that Trahaearn the Unbroken stood shoulder-to-shoulder with reputed giants such as Alexis Polux, Ezekyle Abaddon, and by proxy the Primarchs of the Astartes Legions; his descendants all shared these natural boons of stature in one form or another, which helped the foundation of their cult of personality by towering over all others.

A mountain of pure gene-crafted and artisanal augmented muscle, Gautier towered over the Iron Warriors assigned to protect him in battle, and what foes did not fall first to his brutal tactics would be cut down by Gautier himself as the man leveraged his physicality to carve his way through battlefields and lead from the front. Wostyn boarding parties had long since learned to steer clear of any vessel known to carry Gautier within the Kimaran fleet he commanded, for even their savage culture born of their history as raiders did not prepare them for the sight of such a 'daemon' mercilessly tearing through their ranks while wielding an axe larger than their bodies—more frighteningly, he was capable of wielding it one-handed, though he often preferred two for control over its arc.

Such ferocity was second only to Gautier's love and dedication to his family and people, and it was in fact those qualities which drove the former: he would do anything and everything required to see to their protection, even if it meant wading through constant battles and the danger therein, wearing his wounds and scars proudly for all to see rather than having them surgically removed. His fearsome appearance and battlefield record gave him the reputation of being the might of Kimara to his eldest brother's intellect, an absolute monster to behold for any who dared threaten their home, but rather than become consumed by such notions Gautier remained kind-hearted and supportive to all those who surrounded him.

In contradiction to his deep scars and imposing size Gautier notably doted on his wife, nieces, nephews, and even the soldiers under his command: to join the Kimaran navy was to in essence become an extended part of Gautier's own family. Such a personality was not uncommon within the Jarn dynasty, it being a large part in what saw their rise to power through loyal subjects who repaid such magnanimity, but it was made more notable by how jarring it was for such a towering behemoth to be playful and kind to children and gentle towards subordinates. One example of Gautier's true personality was how he took time to know his soldiers as well as their families and circumstances, even using such knowledge to speak on their behalf for promotions or arrange for them himself when possible. A lack of political presence and his focus towards his naval career left Gautier relatively unknown as a person to the wider population on Kimara, but those who served him would follow him to the gates of hell without asking and obey any command he gave.

Despite their circumstances Gautier's first reaction to seeing his brother on his side of the communication was to smile, though it was one that was strained by the deep emotions he had been embroiled by for far too long.

"Has there been word from the Warsmith?" the giant questioned half-jokingly, knowing the answer before he ever vocalized it. If they had heard from a returning Iron Warrior fleet things would be far different.

Trahaearn looked his brother in the eye as he told him the blunt, honest truth while his tone turned solemn.

"None."

Kimara had not played a role during the Horus Heresy, quietly seceding from the Imperium and refusing the overtures of the Legions supporting Horus: their loyalty was to the Iron Warriors now led by Trahaearn the Unbroken, who earned his title for his role in leading the Iron Warriors on Olympia who refused to join their kin in damnation. They remained true to the ideals sold to them about the Great Crusade and Humanity as a whole, ideals which they felt the Imperium in its present form had failed to uphold. If the Imperium was unfit for purpose, they would do it themselves...they could not however plan for the manipulations of the Warp.

The Iron Legion led by the Unbroken took a proactive role preparing for the eventuality of the Imperium invading Kimara by seeking out the tools and resources required to firmly establish it as an unassailable position beyond Imperial control. While they were gone, Kimara focused on its defensive infrastructure and improving what systems it possessed, with its grid of Fortress Cities wholly encompassing the planet in a hexagonal formation. Each Fortress City could repel an army on its own, and with their overlapping fields of artillery fire any one endangered would have a multitude of others to provide assistance. Robust anti-air capabilities and orbital defenses would repel invading forces before they even set foot on the world, and the environment and weather would slow those who did reach it to a halt.

Time was not on their side however: Kimara as a Death World had possessed a low population size when the Iron Warriors first arrived upon it, but over the years they had substantially increased it to a respectable but still minor level—not quite the status that would be required to fully staff and support every single Fortress City to fully maintain its fidelity however. They could only deploy in so many locations at once, so an invading army could land and make usage of the Fortress Cities crafted yet largely uninhabited against Kimara. In building a nigh-impenetrable defensive system faster than they could grow their population, Kimara had inadvertently made it possible for any sizable invading army to turn Kimara's cannons upon its masters.

Those who had been purged would not factor into such an equation given that they would instead be the ones undermining any defensive effort as political enemies to the Jarns, but even if they had been loyalist they would have been a drop in the bucket for the total manpower required.

"At this point it is for the best: had they arrived years ago we might be ready to repel a Legion, but as we are they would only join us in death," Trahaearn spoke softly as his mind mulled over details to set the stage for a time when the Iron Warriors did return.

It was not from a lack of effort that the Iron Legion had yet to return, but rather a result of the Ruinous Powers: the Iron Legion had made an attempt to return with the fleet they had assembled to provide Kimara with valuable resources obtained through their conquests, but reports indicated their fleet was intercepted by the sons of Fulgrim and in the ensuing battle lost to the Warp. In the years since Kimara had awaited the return of their brethren to no avail, and while it was possible that their allies could arrive at any moment such hope was only a burden to carry now. The Iron Warriors might be lost for years, perhaps even centuries, and so it was best to act under the assumption they would be of no aid in this conflict.

Kimara's Sovereign was confident that had the Iron Legion returned years ago and been able to reinforce the planet not only with their Astartes but with their countless mortal servants that Kimara could withstand the coming tide of Dorn and his sons. As it was, they could fight admirably Fortress City by Fortress City while the Fists turned undermanned Fortresses against them one after another, dragging out the conflict to the bitter end...but to what end? Would it be worth the sacrifices of generations of Kimarans to build this world from nothing, to throw away all their efforts all for the chance to bleed out the Imperial Fists from pure spite?

If there was no other choice, then that was exactly what the Kimarans would do, struggling to the last breath just as they had all along while eking out a living on this hellish world. They could always default back to that if their attempts at diplomacy and scapegoating failed, but it was a last resort. A lesser fleet of Imperial Fists could have be managed, but the contemptable Imperial lapdogs had deployed the force of their entire Legion to face the Iron Warriors at Sebastus IV led by Perturabo himself. In the face of that overwhelming force, Kimara was nothing.

To endure was simply part of life on Kimara, and in this way Trahaearn sought a solution that would ensure that they could survive to another day when they truly could find victory. It might not be for a year, a decade, centuries, or even millennia, but so long as Kimara survived so too could their ambitions and ideals for their promised Utopia.

Minimizing damage to Kimara as a whole was paramount, losing as few of its people, infrastructure, and resources as possible: if a fight were to happen it would be best contained to one location, with one figure scapegoated for the sins of all, that way the rest could endure and survive for when a battle could truly be waged. In this way it had been decided to sacrifice their remaining Iron Warrior garrison, who would be purged no matter the outcome by the punitive Imperial Fists, and a figurehead who could be reasonably assumed to have been behind the actions which wrought the Imperial Fists' ire.

Rogal Dorn was highly regimented in how he conquered worlds, something that was both a verifiable strength and an exploitable weakness. By Rogal Dorn's logic, Kimara would be best stabilized under the rule of a member of the ruling family who first unified it, even if one of its branch members had gone 'rogue' and stirred up rebellion. Once the forces responsible were dealt with and Kimara had punitive measures taken against it to prevent further uprisings, Kimara could rebuild and bide its time until the day it truly could earn its freedom.

Gautier had made peace with the role he was to play in this manipulation, "The fleet and our Astartes are ready for what comes next."

It took no convincing for the Iron Warriors to agree to this sacrifice, for the sons of Perturabo knew their lives were forfeit the moment the Imperial Fists entered the stage. A few hundred Iron Warriors cobbled together could not endure the might of a Legion, but they could make them bleed for the honor of killing them in battle.

Iron Warriors were far from the most honorable of Astartes Legions, but their respect for Gautier was absolute given his long friendship with the garrison's Captain, Kresimir. As members of his naval fleet they had fought alongside one another in countless engagements, and so too would they end their service side-by-side. Kresimir was a faithful adherent to the cult of personality formed around the Jarn Family, being a native of Kimara rather than Olympia, and proudly hailed from one of the earliest clans to support the Jarns in their meteoric rise to controlling Kimara.

While relatively young for an Astarte of his position, Kresimir had proven himself when he lured the far more numerous servants of Horus into a deadly trap when they sought to entreat the Iron Warriors upon Kimara, butchering the Word Bearers who dared to think they could sink their claws into them as they had countless others. The Imperial Fists would be expecting a fight, but Kresimir was already preparing means to make them pay for each inch they claimed on the battlefield.

Select members of the naval fleet were chosen to reinforce and provide support to Gautier and the Astartes, though the majority were disallowed from participating and would remain with the fleet in orbit. Those chosen primarily were those whose bloodlines were secured or who otherwise had nothing to lose, Gautier utilizing his intimate knowledge of his forces to ensure the best outcomes for them and their families. Some officers protested this decision, wishing to die in glory alongside their commanding officer, but they were immediately rebuffed by Gautier: their role was not to die in a battle destined for failure, but rather to help strengthen the Kimara that was yet to come.

Trahaearn nodded, noting the determination in his sibling's eyes, "I am sorry that I must ask this of you, Brother."

Gautier continued smiling, his scarred and fearsome face softening in its expression as he did so, "There is nothing to apologize for. We each have our roles to fulfill, and this is mine as a man of the Jarn Family. Have the arrangements for my wife and son been finalized?"

It was almost an offense that he had to ask such a question, but Trahaearn understood his brother was simply showing concern for his own family, "Of course. Dairine and your son have already taken up new identities under a branch of the Turner Family. Our records will indicate that they were among the casualties in the Wostyn attack on Eisen's vessel, given its intended use of diplomacy."

The mention of their youngest sibling who fell in battle under suspicious circumstances above Wostyn made Gautier wince for but a moment before he regained his composure. While the topic of subjugating or even destroying Wostyn had been raised previously within the halls of Kimara's palace, it was their ambush of the youngest of the current generation of Jarns that sealed the planet's fate: Eisen was an idealist unlike his elder brothers and had sought to make peace with their neighboring world, believing in uplifting all of Humanity and achieving Utopia through means beyond military pacification and oppressive control.

To murder the Kimaran ruler who dared reach a hand out to help them was to invite death, the same cult of personality that surrounded the Jarn dynasty as a whole applying in even greater severity to their young scion who embodied the truest form of their people's ideals. To kill such an individual was to invite the wrath of an entire world of already merciless people, Kimara already known for its callousness born of their cruel lives on a Death World.

Eisen's diplomatic endeavor was born from Kimara learning from a captured raider that Wostyn was cobbling together the means to inform the Imperium of Kimara's secession, including false claims about them having turned to Chaos by showing 'evidence' in the form of the Word Bearers slain by Kresimir: Wostyn would take the credit for the defeat of the sons of Lorgar while using cut footage from a pirate vessel of the Kimaran navy meeting with the Word Bearers, editing out the resulting conflict which saw the Iron Warriors cut their heretical kin down.

Other sources confirmed the plans of Wostyn's upper echelons, but without the depth of information required to counteract it Eisen hoped through diplomacy to both ally with Wostyn (thus neutralizing the need for them to sell-out their kin for favor) and also possibly determine the location of their plot beneath its vast desert sands and canyons in case negotiations were stalled or otherwise did not bear fruit. Should they locate and destroy the falsified evidence Kimara could buy itself time to continue readying its defenses to repel any foe, perhaps facing some minor Imperial forces they could convince to overlook any 'rumors' regarding Kimara's allegiances by showing them what they wanted. Eisen had a way with people, and even those who doubted the young man had come to accept that he possessed even greater charisma than his more experienced brothers.

While young, Eisen was not so inexperienced as to be caught off-guard by a simple Wostyn raiding party: nothing their small vessels meant for harassing and boarding merchant ships could have been capable of the severe damage inflicted upon the Victory-class battleship helmed by Eisen, but even so he had deployed scouting ships to sweep the area and ensure nothing was out of the ordinary. The majority of the Kimaran fleet had remained in orbit of Kimara in an attempt not to provoke their neighbors with whom the mutual enmity ran deep across centuries. By the time Gautier and the others realized something was wrong and attempted to act it was too late.

Wostyn had long despised Kimara for its wealth born of its mineral trade despite how difficult it was for Kimarans to actually obtain such resources, while Kimara looked down upon the people of Wostyn for always seeking the easy way out instead of bearing through the pain required for success.

Remnants of the battle showed that a fleet of Wostyn raiders had all attacked Eisen's battleship and been destroyed as evidenced by the graveyard of scrap they left behind, but more notably damage to an unknown battleship was also found alongside sensors having indicated a Warp jump into the sector at the field of battle.Someonehad intervened on Wostyn's behalf, for there was no feasible reality their primitive orbital station and rudimentary ships could defeat Eisen's forces, but their identity was lost to the battle: just as there were indications that a ship had appeared suddenly to flank and damage Eisen's battleship, so too was there evidence from the leftover debris that Eisen had rammed his ship directly into his assailant to take it out as a mutual kill when the unknown vessel attempted to depart.

Already aboard a doomed battleship that would be picked apart by Wostyn's vultures after sustaining critical damage, Eisen had displayed that beneath his idealism he possessed the same brutal pragmatism that defined his family and people; if he was destined to die, he would die paving the way forward for the Kimaran people by vanquishing this foe nipping at their heels and daring to strike at them in a moment of crisis. At the end all of the participants of the battle were dead, and no worthwhile evidence existed from their remains to fully explain the circumstances they found themselves now in.

"As a soldier, it was never my place to outlive our brothers," Gautier broke the silence with a quiet voice, his eyes heavy with the grief he still felt. Despite unleashing his fury upon Wostyn for daring to harm his brother it did nothing to bring back the man he still remembered as a young boy he would lift in his arms and let ride atop his broad shoulders, Gautier having alongside Trahaearn and Maelgwn served as substitutes for their deceased parents, "I have never quite believed what has been said of the afterlife regarding the Emperor of Mankind, but if you can hear me, please forgive your foolish brother, Eisen. If I had done what was necessary sooner perhaps you would be here instead of I..."

Already a taciturn man, Trahaearn took a moment to respond to his brother as he once again found himself drifting back to the battle which lay ahead, "All that remains is that we do not allow their deaths to have been in vain."

Gautier sobered quickly, his misty eyes shifting in a moment to those of a seasoned soldier ready for war as he donned a respectful salute to his eldest sibling and leader.

"Farewell, Trahaearn. Kimara now rests on your shoulders. As we break fate's chains, we shall weather its eternal storm."

Trahaearn nodded back as he returned the salute, speaking quietly yet firmly, "Iron and Ice."

Gautier's hologram faded as the transmission cut off, once again leaving Trahaearn with only darkness to accompany him in the night to come. His wife and children would have to do without their father for yet another night, for he could not face them with the weakness etched into his features right then.

The Imperial Fists would soon descend upon their land of snow and ice, and with them the beginning of the First Siege of Kimara, but for now it was time for rain on a world that only knew snow.

Forgive me, Brother. Your true deeds will be forgotten to the pages of history in favor of this fiction we have woven together, but not by me.

When the rain subsided Trahaearn the Third cleaned his face, summoned his staff, and opened communications with the incoming fleet and informed them of the rebellious tyrant Gautier Jarn who laid waste to the planet of Wostyn.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed and that you will leave me your thoughts in the reviews below!

Lot of things happened IRL that I could wax on about at length, but suffice it to say real life can be exhausting and busy, especially when your computer breaks twice in two months due to hardware issues outside your control. I am apologetic though that it took me so long to get back on track, but hopefully you will not begrudge me too much with the content that is ahead of us as we head into the main story arc's final component "The (Second) Siege of Kimara".

To serve as a sort of 'prologue' to the Second Siege of Kimara arc we are heading into I wanted to show off the eve of the fateful encounter that wrought Kimara's fate for 10,000 years. What could have been the death of their entire world would end up being averted, replaced instead by heavy sanctions and suffering. Not ideal, but Kimara survived to live another day which allows all the 'current day' events to transpire.

Tristan and the Iron Warriors will return in the upcoming update "Triumph" featuring the battle between the Bishop's Boundary and the Word Bearer fleet to determine the fate of the missing Kimaran fleet. Can the superweapon of the Iron Warriors helmed by a skeleton crew overcome the sheer numbers of the Word Bearers, or will this feat of engineering they have invested their conquests in fail at its first outing?

Isolde and the Kimaran Krakens will return in the upcoming update "Without Mercy" featuring the Conomor regime's wicked schemes unveiled via a worldwide broadcast engineered to break the Kimaran spirit once and for all. The corruption endemic to Kimara's governance is laid bare for all, but will their injustices stand when a mysterious figure rises from ashes to lead the people of Kimara forward?

I hope you all enjoyed the update, sorry again for the wait, and I hope to hear your thoughts in the reviews below!