Adeptus Ridiculous - ​ARMAGEDDON HAS FALLEN | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculous​The Fourth (or Fifth, or technically the Third Part Two) War for Armageddon is here, and things are looking incredibly grim for the Imperium. In this massive episode, Bricky, DK, and Kirioth break down the epic conclusion of the 10th Edition storyline and the explosive kickoff to Warhammer 40k's 11th Edition.​Just as the Imperium thought the Orks were on the ropes after the Season of Fire, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka initiates a master plan. Using the experimental Mega-Tellyshokka, an entire Ork armada is instantly warped into the system, displacing entire moons and space stations in the process. With Wazdakka Gutsmek's relentless Speedwaaagh! tearing across the planet and encircling Hive Volcanus, all hope seems lost—until a ghost steps off a Space Wolves gunship. Commissar Sebastian Yarrick, Ol' Bale Eye himself, has returned to rally the desperate defense.Support the show

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous Podcast. My name is D.K. Diamantes and Armageddon the hell out of this intro so my co-host can introduce themselves. Hello, Kerioth and Bricky. Bad. Hello. Just immediate, bad. Straight way. What?

You make fun of me when I don't have a joke and then I make a quality Armageddon joke. And bad? Quality. Come on. The quality part. is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. I was surprised you think it's doing any lifting. I nearly, when I started recording,

I nearly named the audio file Armageddon out of here. And then I decided not to. And now I'm just concerned that there's like one brain cell that's being shared. Oh, I know. No, that's a, that's a classic Armageddon joke. Come on. The guy with the sign that says, Armageddon the hell out of here. Come on.

No, this is actually a terminal illness. You're reaching into high levels of ad-rickification. Where, you know, you spend too much time on this podcast and you start saying random shit. You know, you were a humble, fine British bloke, D.K. Oh, what's Heidi? You see, it's already happening to me. You were a fine British bloke there, Kuriath. And then next thing you know, you're out here painting penises on gnomes.

And we replace you with some Midwesterner who ignores tornado signs. And, you know, this is, this is the ad rickification of Warhammer. If the ad rickification lasts more than four hours, please consult your doctor. Mm-hmm. Exactly. At rickification is just high levels of bros just saying shit. It's too late for us, Karioth, but you can still save yourself. No, he's getting known penises.

I don't think he can save himself. Oh, no, you're right. Yeah, yeah. I think that time is long past, especially since I saw something earlier, someone was asking what the hell boss-babying it means. And he's only reading that, he's only reading that thread that I was like,

oh, man, I guess I also do say that a lot now, don't I? I think it's game over. It's game over. That's it, done. I'm very happy about the boss babyification of our phrasing as well. We didn't even invent the phrase, but, you know. I know, but it's pretty good.

Speaking of, you know, speaking of, I'm speaking of arreification and things that are, I'll be totally honest, not particularly good. So in the world of Warhammer news, Hell divers have shown off their Warhammer war bond. And I got to be honest, I don't think it looks that good. However, our resident Hell divers player here is shy. so I will, so Shai says, Warhammer's Helldiver 2 reveal and I want to say I called that shit. Katie and Armour, Lasgun, bolt pistol, melta, and melta bomb, the most vanilla vanilla you could possibly get. Yeah. It, I don't, I got to say, I don't really like it that much.

Yeah, I mean, so this is the first time I'm seeing any of it. And, yeah, I think it's just. I feel like they tried to play it a little too safe. And it's just, it doesn't really scream Warhammer to me. It's just kind of like, yeah, it's, I mean, it's kind of strange, isn't it? Because like, so it's bizarre to me because like, if we take one thing in a vacuum, right? Like, let's take a look at the Caster Kit, which is the TG8 sharpshooter, right? They have their hot shot marksman rifle, right?

And like, the bolt pistol. And you're like, all right, you know, this is exactly what I would expect from the first. tier of the pass. Everything seems correct here. Sure. The fact that like the next armor is, is not only also Cadian, it's also Casercan. It is the demo armor that is the other build

in the Casercan box. It's two casercans. Yeah. And like, we were talking about hopefully getting some scyons, especially because those are, you know, drop troops. Literally drop troopers you'd want for your helldivers drop trooper game. It kind of feels that thing where there's so much you could do in terms of crossovers with 40K and literally anything ever, like gaming-wise, but the easiest option is always to just go.

Okay, here's this flavor of guard that is frankly kind of similar to every other flavor of bog standard non-superhuman you know human soldier in the future like it's i don't want to well do i do i want to not say that it's generic there is like a sort of genericness to that kind of design no you're totally right the disconnect comes for if you're looking for something specifically 40k in that game as part of a crossover but is also the thing that means it's probably more palatable to like Hell Divers and to Games Workshop as a whole, where it's, it's close enough that it's not a problem, but at the same time it is distinct enough

that anyone who knows anything about Guard and 40K in general will most likely, you know, know what Kazakin look like. And so they'll be able to look at that and go, that's the thing from the other thing I like. Arrowhead are so obviously Warhammer fans. Like they are some of the most on their sleeve, clearly Warhammer fan game companies I've seen.

And my first thought was, damn, a lot of the other war bonds look like, look more 40K than this does. And then I kind of had a small epiphany moment where I was like, wait, shit, they really do. Are they going to do catachin? No, they had the Python commandos already. Are they going to do creak? No, they had the trench one already. Are they going to do like a commissar? No, they had like the tyranny one already.

And I'm like, maybe that's why we have. have a problem here is because they've done all the other factions already. Dave referenced 40K in ways that we weren't really paying attention to. So now the base easiest guard is the only direction they have left to go. That's kind of where my mindsets. We can't do the gas mask. We've already got the gas mask. Shit, what do we do?

I guess I've been so long. I kind of forgot that they had those. Yeah. I still absolutely think they should. the scion instead of a second casserkin and something a little bit more exciting than like a melty gun but even so i did kind of think about that a little bit and i was like shit maybe that's part of the problem it could be we got permission to do this tie-in what we're going to do oh damn it we've already done all the more interesting ones what's left

shit we already referenced all the cool stuff and we can't do a space rain obviously yeah i don't know it's it's like it's warhammer but but but But as far as as weird as Warhammer could get, I definitely could have kind of hoped for a bit more. Yeah. But, well, what are you going to do? I don't play Hell Divers too. So if it looks cool to you, great.

It affects me none, zero. So, you know what? I'm probably going to hang out with Commissar Kai because he's going to play it. And he's a Warhammer fan. He's a nice guy. So I'll do that for a little. But like, we'll see. Anyway.

way. Shai's like, I mean, I'm still gonna buy it. All of us are going to complain and Shai's like, yeah, I'm gonna buy it anyway.

But Shai's like a resident hell divers lover here. That's true. That's true. I also say to be fair for, for kind of saying it's not the most interesting one they could have chosen,

which is true. I would probably also still get it if I played Hell Divers. Because it has the thing of it's like, oh, this is part of the other thing that I really like.

This is kind of cool to see it in this setting. I quite like that. Like, it could have been more interesting, but I would still get that little moment of, yeah, this is, this is the, are we weak? Are we weak? Are we weak people?

Yes, I am. I have made no secret of this. Of course I am. Yes, I am weak. I will buy the 40K thing because I like the 40K. Okay, okay. I bought three defilers when I didn't have an active chaos army. Yes.

I'm weak. No. Hey, well, that's different. Well, hold on. The Defiler's remake was,

was up and down. Awesome. That's very different. Fat, that's true. What is a more games workshop, a customer than giving them money anyway while bitching?

Ah. The ad rigification continues again. Let's get all of the episode. Hey, did you enjoy that witty banter? Do you maybe want to support the podcast? over to patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous where you can get access

to the Discord, bloopers if they happen, $15 tier gets you access to all of our posters in just the crispiest digital form. You should check it out. Neclerosis, great poster, great Patreon, Patreon. Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous.

Bricky with the merch? Oh, yeah, merch. Go to Orchidate.com. Check out all the cool merch. You can get some of those posters, some of those cool commander deck card sleeves, some desk mats, some dice, some clothing options, many cool things to rep all of your cool stuff,

including our great researcher possum that eats rock crete. Mmm. Mm. Good things, good things. Yummers. Still an absolutely legendary t-shirt design. Absolutely love that.

It's so good. Now, I've got something for you here. You already know what it is. You know this. There's a reference straight. way soon to be started. So I'm not going to have your guess, but I will tell you that this is one of my favorite titles that Possum has given a script recently.

This is the fourth war for Armageddon or the fifth, or technically the third part two, which really just highlights how much of a colossal shithole Armageddon actually is at this point. It's not going well. Jesus. No. Armageddon. Wow, with the name like Armageddon, it's not.

going well, no way. They could go truly counter and have it all be peaceful and lovely, but no, they've decided to go straight for the name is also the place. I have got a quote, but I won't make you guess because you already know it. As Gazgoals' hordes descend in their teeming millions, Armageddon's exhausted soldiers and the besieged hives once more occupied battlements and defensive lines. These outmatched defenders cling to their faith in the God Emperor, denying the incontrovertible truth they face. Armageddon has fallen again. You know, there's a part of me that's like,

oh, wow, brother, that would have been an easy quote to guess. But my dumb ass probably like, oh, we're doing orcs and Gaskell, eh? And yeah. Oh, I'm kind of, I'm almost sad that didn't happen. But, you know, I feel like, I've beaten you down with quotes, you know, so many times a freebie is it's warranted once in a while. If only we didn't release a schedule. Damn it. Just banned from looking at any of any sort of ad-rich stuff until the end of the month. Shy, why have I specifically been banned from the schedule channel?

You know, get them off of Twitter. We got to get them out of here. So true. So today is a special day because we're going over not only the final book in the farewell to 10th edition series, but also the first book in the Hello to 11th edition series. The final box slash book set released for 10th was the Armageddon book, and the law book in it is simply called Armageddon, the Return of Yarrake, which as far as titles are concerned is pretty self-explanatory.

It brings the addition to a close by bringing almost an end to the planet we all know and love, and then in the 11th edition starter set we got a law book called Operation Imperator. So this episode covers both seamlessly, so you can see the extent of the extent of of how things ended in one edition and started in the next. We have a lot to cover, so let's crack on. The events of this conflict in Armageddon take place just a few short months after the conflict during the season of fire with Angron. Armageddon is marching towards the beginning of the season of shadows,

and for the first time in a good long while, things are actually somewhat passable for the Imperium at that moment on this planet. Sure, the presence of all that chaos really did do a number on the forces on the surface, and admittedly the remaining space marines are absolutely battered and in no capacity to help anymore. If you don't recall, outside of the Grey Knights, the two main forces of space marines that assisted with the conflict on Armageddon with the Space Walls and the Black Templars. They do still have a slight presence here, but they mostly went off to get reinforcements in some capacity and get their ships repaired.

Things did not go well for them. We will get into it later when we get to the Imperial bit of this. episode numbers wise, like how many are still around. Anyway, space means aside, the Imperium has sent some reinforcements to help rally the troops, and fingers crossed, not deal with any new additions of the game set on the planet or anything like that. Currently, Armageddon, possum, currently Armageddon has a new planetary governor by the name of Agmond von Ruger.

Great name. Actual, actual good name. Very good name. I don't know if he's going to be a good guy. Well, that's obvious. Agman von Gruber, whatever, his name is, that sets off alarm bells. There's a problem. It's like, is this the guy that gets shot in the back of the head in the trailer?

It's got a hint of something isn't right about this lad. So he serves as one of the members of the Council of Armageddon, is convened once the Imperium reinforcements arrive. Another part of this council are Canaaness preceptor mercia, dogmata superior intrancia fray, which Boston has had this model ruined for them. As an aside, I can't even look at her, many or see her name without thinking of that one person in Brickie's live stream chat that said, my beautiful wife bound to the toilet.

I don't remember that, but that's really funny. Wait, have I seen this mini? Yeah, it's the lady on the big throne. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's the, it's the woman who's stuck on the toilet. Yeah. Whoever made that comment, I just want you to know you, you have effectively ruined that miniature for Possum.

So on the one hand, shame on you. On the other hand, that is funny. There you go. There she is. Oh, that's actually really cool. Yeah. And ironically, I call the throne, the same thing I call my toilet. It's the throne of blame.

Shut up. Why have you done this to me? It sounds like I didn't do anything to you. This is a product of your own bad decisions. This is your doing, not mine. Why is the toilet talking to me? It could be one of those really expensive ones that play music and everything. don't know. What?

All right. That's a thing, right? On Armagedon. Let's move on. We also have General Tibald Locke of the Armageddon Steel Legion, who is the acting supreme commander of the Imperial Guard on Armageddon, and the very mysterious Inquisitor Nigo, Nigo, Yinigo, Croil from the Ordo Xenos. Another person is going to show up, but she's running late.

The governor points out that the events of the... Season of Blood did a number on everyone, of course, but it did also do a number on the orcs. And the number that was done on the orcs was dramatic. The reason why they didn't show up a whole lot during that was apparently because they were getting beaten up badly. The orcs are on the ropes, more or less, and the governor believes that this might be the best time to strike. If they're effective, they could potentially wipe out the orc issue on the planet once and for all. Yeah? Oh, you sweet summer child.

Also, it's cool that they're putting Inquisitor Croil in stuff now because he's got that weird horse shrimp dog thing. It's cool, though. Also, is he rocking like an Eldar sniper rifle? It looked El Dari to me and I was like, is he? Is that? You know, it does look Eldari, but I actually don't know if it is Eldari. It's got a normal-ass scope on it too, which is weird. Yeah, it's like a toxic repeating rifle.

So it's got a really goofy thing in game where like every time you shoot it the damage goes up because it's like consistently getting more powerful It's very funny but It does look Aldari though It could just be because it's painted all bowen-like

Yeah Yeah It's got like those weird little bulbous bits though Which feel Which feel quite El Dari But then there's also a bit of carving That looks a bit necrone-esque It's cool I like it

And the shrimp mantis Dog Horse is excellent and weird as hell. The tremendous dog horse. Got any other animals you want to throw in there, dude? I think that rounds it out. I think that makes sense. Yeah.

The room didn't really say much at the moment of, you know, the idea of actually wiping the orcs off the face of the planet, except for General Locke. Locke was much more of a cautious man than his predecessors, and he was very concerned about the feasibility of this plan. Sensible bloke by the signs of things. He was concerned that if they acted, it may cause more damage to themselves than the orcs. This forced a bit of a standstill, where people were leaning more towards the let's not position on that idea.

The person that was running a bit late decides that now is as good a time as ever to kick down the door. Commissar Thinia Graves marches in and does what every good commissar does, tears them a new asshole. She doesn't understand why everyone is sitting around and doing nothing while they're still orcs on the planet. Are they tolerating the Xenos? Are they? Of course, her really calm and cool means of negotiation resulted in everyone realizing that they needed to immediately act and take care of the orc holdouts on the world, of which there were two major ones. Oh, sick many, though. So she walks in girl bosses, everyone, and it's like, it's very strange to me that all of you have not killed all of them now.

That's pretty suss. I can't wait for this to go spectacularly against her. Why would she assume such a thing? She's got a power fist though. A hasty commissar? I would never. No, surely not. Who's going to step to that, though?

Come on. She'll be fine. I mean, power fist and power sword and a heavily armored transport with a gun sticking out of the front, borderline invincible this character, surely. So the first of the orc holdouts was the equatorial jungles, which were the homes of just various mostly unorganised tribes and some feral orcs. The second was Hive Tempestora, which was currently ruled by the war boss Uggrock Glitstooth.

Locke, still being a bit haphazard about everything, opted to go and take care of the equatorial jungles first. He would break up the armies into fully mechanised, corps that were lightly armored and armed to the teeth with flamers and chemical weapons. Hell yeah. These forces would be supported with tanks, admec and assorted infantry, mostly Krieg and Cadian. Initially, these forces would be kind of successful in torching the orcs, but the forces would be spread a bit thin in the process. This would prove to be a major problem, when the following things happen almost all at once as the skies turn green. Oh, great, great start.

Well, that didn't take long at all. No. To be fair, I don't think Commissar Graves could have seen what's about to happen coming. I'm not going to fully blame her for this, but the timing was catastrophic and, you know, in hindsight, she may not have gone for this idea. So, firstly, a space wolf ship called the Ice Troll appears out of the war. Now, Possom wants to stress this next bit. I say a ship because, and I'm not making this up, on one page it's called a frigate, and then two pages later, not counting the double page spread of just pictures of minis,

it's called a strike cruiser. So for the rest of the episode, Possum is opting to just call it different things. Anyway, that's appeared. This is why we hire Possum because this would have glazed right over my eyes. I would have not been like, it's a ship. All right, cool, man. Yeah, I would not have picked up on that. I would have just been like, cool name for a ship anyway.

So, yes, the ice troll appears, flies into orbit. Second, a bunch of stuff just disappears from the Armageddon system. This includes the following. The Ramelees-class star fort, known as the Obdurate Guardian, the third moon of Atlaxia, and the ice world of Chosen. Third, thousands upon thousand, Thousands of orc ships appear inexplicably in the system and begin to rain orcs onto Armageddon within seconds. Wait, wait, wait, I'm sorry.

I want to make this understand. So the planets disappear. So yes, a Starfort, a moon, and an entire planet simply vanished out of the system. Okay, as in like on radar or like are just gone? gone. Okay. Not there anymore. Wow.

Fascinating. That's, uh, that's, that's, that's, that's tough. That's tough. That's a, that's a tough one to recover from. That is an alarming 20 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you're on one of those moons star for all planets.

That's, that's real bad for you. Not only did you lose all those forces, but now there's a shitload more orcs too. Great. Wonderful. We love it. here. Yeah, thousands upon thousands of orc ships. So that's, I mean, bad is a vast understatement. So the forces in orbit and in the command, like central command units on the planet were stunned

by this sudden appearance and they immediately ran into issues like astro-telepathically. The sheer volume of energy from these riled up orcs essentially blocked out communications. The Imperials were sitting ducks when the orc at the vanguard would make his presence known. and I've got a nice quote for you here, D.K. All right. Wazdaka Gutsmack thumbled frustratedly at Big Reva's throttle. He couldn't let any other get reach Armageddon before him.

The ramp began to lower, revealing the mountains of Armageddon. Their jagged peaks rising like broken teeth from a sea of ash. He gazed down at the rising ground and threw the throttle forward. Big Reva lurched, scattering orcs and Gretchen aside. Then he was gone. hurled through the warp towards the hive world's surface and the cauldron of roaring engines, burning Prometheum, and glorious high-speed violence that awaited. Glorious high-speed violence.

You love to see it. I love good old Wazdaka and his sick-ass mini. It's so good. It's still so, so good. I also love that he's just like, open the ramp. I'm going down. I haven't landed. He's just going to get there first. Glorious high-speed violence.

Well done. Excellent band name. So before we continue, there's a bit of context on two of the three things that occurred. Gazgal, Magurug Thracca, had mostly been up to side quest since his last truly big fight against Ragnar Blackmayne, where he was decapitated. This was intentional, as Gaz is not only the biggest orc, but he's also the smartest org. Gaz knows a bit about the state of the galaxy at the current moment, and even he can tell that things are not great. Things are getting more and more crazy out there, and because

of how mad things are out there, it means that someone or something might break the entire galaxy before he could. He also realized that the only way that he could truly crush the galaxy with his claw was with an organized org war, but he doesn't have that currently. Gaz's wah at this point was so big that it didn't even conquer systems anymore. It would literally roll past them as if nothing had happened, and he didn't know where his forces were at any given moment. He decided he needed to go back to his roots, and he needed his forces to have a dedicated cause. Armageddon was the best place for this to occur in his eyes, but after his encounter with Blackmayne, he knew that he needed to be a bit more careful. But remember, he is the smartest,

so he devised a plan. He would return to Armageddon, and he would not treat it as a conquest. He would treat it as a fire, one that would need to be made from kindling to be made from kindling first and tended to carefully and methodically. When the attack occurred, it would be a rapid fire nightmare attack, yes, but it would be with a vanguard, not him. He would sit back and direct the orcs accordingly to keep the fire going consistently. As the fire kept burning, more umis would come eventually and then he could add more orcs. This would keep building and building until Armaged became a bonfire so big and so violent that the entire galaxy would have no choice but to burn

gorse I don't know if you heard this also, DK., but did you hear Organized? I did not. I specifically heard organized, but I like it. And now I'm going to side with you and say,

of course I heard Orcanize. Are they good old Organized War? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. And he did all this planning after getting decapitated. He's just rolling around.

Some orc has got him on a silver platter and he's just yelling out orders. I do like the idea. I do like the idea that he's like, yeah, gas is like too strong, you know. How are you going to take over the planet if you keep killing the planet? It's such an insane problem to have. I've just got too many orcs. Nothing's a challenge.

We're just destroying everything. And I don't even know what's going on. It's such a wave destruction. We need to focus down. It's too much. Has any other ork ever gone, I've just got too many lads here? Too many lads, it's all too easy.

This one, apparently, he's the smartest. Yeah, otherwise, the orcs would have been too organized and they would have killed everything. I guess this would be the first time an orc has said this. What a wonderful problem to have. Knowing you're on top to that extent. Who is as strong as me? Literally nothing, in any respect.

Orrin Ork, that sucks because there's nothing left to, you know. Yeah. I can't say shy. That feels like an old pull right there. So Gazwood gather some allies together, which included Bad Moons, Warlord Nasdregudududgrub. Sorry, I got that wrong. I always get it wrong. Nasdreg Ugg Uggardgub.

It's such an insanely difficult name to say. I don't know why. I was going to say. Did you have a little hair ball there or something? That's good. Erg. There's just too many D's and Gs in his name. There's just too much of it.

It's like when you try to pronounce a demon name they give you. And it's like, oh, yes, the demon name. Oh, he. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you're trying to beatbox. Oh, no. Then they tell he was got a specific meaning.

And you're like, no, it doesn't. Shut up. That's not true. So we've got it. We've got Nasdreg. We've got Speedboss Wazdaka Gutsmec, obviously. Badmoons Big Mech, Uggrock Glitztooth, Commando Snickra, and Orchimedes. I love Orchimedes, yep. Yeah, that's in quotes because it specifically stated that it's not clear whether this is one individual or some sort of a code name for multiple orks. Regardless, Gaz and these guys would amass their forces and utilize the piece of technology.

Orkommides was worth. looking on for an assault, which was the mega teleshocker. Now, as we talked about in the most recent orcs episode, the mega telethshocker is essentially a gigantic space version of a shock attack gun that when used properly, by following the very intricate setup, can send millions of orcs to a location almost instantly. The device certainly isn't perfect. I mean, it's orky, what do you expect?

But it does have one very major issue with it that can be somewhat troublesome, which is forced mass exchange. So. You just don't know, please. Yeah. When it teleports a gigantic amount of matter from one location to another, it can forcibly remove an equal amount of matter from the destination to compensate for it. Now, it does say that's a problem.

If I'm the orcs, that's not a problem, unless, you know, the planet, you were really hoping to invade has now just vanished in which case that it's upsetting for sure it's disappointing but uh yeah that's why the station the moon and the planet all just vanished as the orcs arrived as for where they went all comedies never figured out where any mass displaced entities went when they were displaced didn't really care either so whatever oh you know i am i am kind of crying and shitting myself that they got all the games there from each clan, except that the blood axes has Snickrot instead of our new boy Slitta. Very upset by that knowledge.

Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunate. Yeah. Damn. Even though Snickrott does rock. But like, I don't know. I'm just so, I'm so slid upilled lately.

Also, this is probably written before the book came out. So whatever. Also, I could see. I could see orcs being mad that like planets and armies are just places. I was like, oh, right, small humus I don't get to kill. Like that, you're right, they'd be kind of upset by that. Like, they wanted those kills. What the hell, man?

That's true. That's true. It is, it is thieving away good, good fighting material, isn't it? Yeah. Not knowing where they end up. My gut feeling is that shit is gone straight into the wall. I was going to say, yeah, you are suffering in hell with teeth now. Yep, that'd be the guess.

There's no way it ends up somewhere nice, is all I'm saying. Not in this universe. There's just no chance. No. I hope that Starforce got Geller Shields, because otherwise that's, that is going to be, that is just going to be a dead space scenario right there. It's going to be real bad. Even if they do, they can't keep that thing up forever, and they are isolated in the warp now.

Good luck. A horrible way to go, even by the standards of 40K. Man, your own business then, you just get forcibly thrown into the warp by an orc who was just faffing around and managed to get something right. So back on Armageddon, even though Wazdaka Gutsmec is at the lead here,

he is far from the leader. Gaz is watching him and he has high expectations for him from afar. Fortunately for Gutsmec, wherever he went, cults of speed would inevitably follow in his wake. His objective on Armageddon was to encircle high vulcanus, as well as the entirety of the Volcanus Mountain Range, and do so immediately.

Gaz would only go to the surface if this was done, so if that's not an incentive, I mean, what is? Seeing the movement of the orcs and fending for their actual lives amidst the sudden horde, Locke would rally as many forces as he could and send them to the Volcanus Mountains in an attempt to potentially cut the orcs off at the pass. The forces would be supplemented by the sisters of battle, and this seemed like it could be enough to maybe hold the line until more reinforcements arrived. But General Locke had never seen a speedwire before. As if they were nothing, Wazdaka would overrun Kreeg defensive fortifications and minefields

while going so fast that the explosions straight up couldn't catch them. As the Imperium fired artillery from the ground, the orcs would fire ballistic from orbit and as the forces tried to trap Wazdaka, his warp drive on his bike would cause him to literally teleport past resistance. Vazzaka would encounter the defensive line making their weight of Olcanus in the Mannheim gap and they would just be a bit. speed bump for him. If it wasn't the orcs on bikes that got them, it was the

war trucks that would grind resistance into the dirt. All General Locke could do was watching horror from his chimera as this occurred. Of all the forces only the sisters of battle were doing anything meaningful and even they were struggling. In order to survive this, he would need a miracle.

Luckily, luckily, a miracle inbound, it turns out. So I have... Oh, I've just noticed. I do have a quote for you, Bricky. Oh, boy.

Fix that typo before I sent it over to you. You're getting better about those long pauses, too, by the way. An armored gunship, its blue-gray hole emblazoned with the canine sigil of the space wolves slept low over the orcs. Black Valkyry transports followed. Door gunners pouring fire into the aliens. Tempestus Sions leapt from within. Graveshoots flaring. as the drop troops opened fire mid-air.

The space wolves transport settled low over the surrounded guardsmen, its ramp opening. A trio of space marines emerged from within, howling battle cries as they poured boulter fire into the mass of Zenos. Yet it was the fourth figure to emerge that stunned the soldiery to silence. They witnessed a ghost. Bum, bum, bum. And the ghost had a red eye.

bum bum No, you are absolutely correct Through means unknown Hero of Hades hive commissar Sebastian Yerick stood before them He's back He's back in action And he's not happy

Which is fair Is he ever? Like No, that's true That's also fair He's not had the greatest The greatest of experiences thus far, has he?

So we're going to double back to the end of the Yarrick episode. As we discussed, Yarra was last seen on the world of Ikaria, where he was attempting to stop Gaz and whatever orc signs he was working on with this big-ass teleporter. He would 1V1 Gaz, and Gaz would grab him. He would crunch his bones in his claw and headbutt Yarrick before leaving. That gets me every time the fatty headbutted him. He didn't kill him, and he thought that the damage was sufficient enough. Yarrick was swiftly taken away by a wolf priest of the Grand Cruiser known as the Ice Troll and would be, you know, tended to.

As he came to, he would ask the wolf priest why he was saved and the priest would tell Yarrake that he was more important to the fate of the planet than he realized and that he needed to return. As the escort vessel arrived in the system, Possom was not joking. Differencyp every time. Excellent work. Everything.

Sure. We've had strike cruiser frigate, a Grand Cruiser and escort vessel so far. I can't remember if there are any other mentions of the Ishtral, but we can keep a good running tally. As the escort vessel arrived in the system, everything went to hell in a handbasket. Immediately, the wolves realised they could not contact the Imperium at large

due to the influx of org nonsense, and their numbers were far too thin to do anything meaningful. Yarrick saw what was occurring from the ship and requested to be transported to hive volcanos. The wolves would agree, sending three of their own, join him, along with the fucking armada of tempestusions apparently. The other wolves would then seek out food and supplies in the deadlands so they could support the defenders as best as possible, knowing that they would be unable to directly provide attack aid outside of potential space bombardment.

The presence of Yarrick stepping out of the Thunderhawk promptly freaked most of the orcs the fuck out, causing them to crash their bikes and cower. With his forces, Yarrick was able to save about a third of Lox Relief Force and make way for high vogue. Wazdaka was slowed down quite a bit. Big Reva took a bunch of hits from a chimera and his grot fix it had to stop and tinker with the bike. The quest to hive volcanus was littered with constant orc attacks and it was agonizing for the defenders. They would pass the Mannheim Gate and Kannanes Merica would stay behind with Her Zephyrim to defend it. The presence of Yarraic had a monumental impact on the forces of the Imperium and they would eventually make it to the hive.

But Big Rever was fixed and the speed while was at his heels. They would tear through the defenders and even through the Mannheim Gap with ease, including a very unfortunate death of a named character. So, we have a direct apology from Possum. I'm sorry. Out. The following sentence devolves into something a character on the Sims would say. They're not wrong. Okay. All right. Are you going to make D.K. read it? You know what? That's a great idea. I was going to do it, but no, you can have it D.K. Okay. I will certainly read this gibberish.

Though she stood valiantly, Canaaness Merca was not prepared for the grab-a-draga shot from Wazdaka's Big Reva. It would snag her by the leg and he would drive her around in violent circles, each bump knocking her seramites so violently that her bones shattered in her armor until she eventually was torn to pieces by the jagged rocks. Holy shit. You know, the first half, definitely agree.

Second half was a bit more normal, but the first half, yeah, that's some simulish. Grabba Draga shot from Wazdak as a big Reva. Yeah. I was expecting it to be a little crazier than that, but that, yeah, that is a little rough. One of my favorite parts of playing 40K

is like when you're at a table and you're like, what's the stat line for the Grabba Draga a lot? The one on Wazdegas is Big Reva? Yeah, that one. God, the ratio, the ratio of nonsense to actual words in just that short sentence is actually magical. Love it. So, though say fish inside the hive and receiving food slash water from the space wolves,

Wazdaka was successful in encircling hive volcanus. Yarrick would call for council where he would learn that the vast majority of the other hives, including Tartarus, Asheron and Hells Reach, were under siege. and he would say that it's time to put some final efforts into place. If the planet was to be saved, a distress call for aid would need to be powerful to us to break through the orc madness in the sector. This is when Yarek pulls out one of the most OPE devices. I think we've seen in recent 40K memory that POSM is close to 100% sure

has never, ever been mentioned before. And I did, having read this section, go and do a bit of googling myself. and from what I can tell Possum's dead on the money I don't think this has ever been mentioned previously and it is the the Farris Horrifica Okay so I mean all main characters in 40K

have some dark age of technology bullshit but like Yeah I'm very but you saying that is crazy What the hell does this do So So the Farris Horifica is a gold-plated Relic servo skull that was long held within the vaults of the Black Templar flagship, the Eternal Crusader.

This skull was gifted to Yarrake by High Marshal Helbrecht after they'd spent months together to hunting Gaz. The Horifica has the sigil of the astrataepathicor on it, and for good reason. Under all that gold plating is the skull of a master astropath. Essentially, what this device does is it acts as a focus point and a beacon for an astrophatic choir. Once it processes the message, it laces the message to make it as if it is speaking with the voice of the emperor, ensuring that this message can cut through any warp turbulence and is instantly marked with an extremely high priority signal

above any other distress calls in any nearby system. Wow. Oh, okay. You know, I didn't expect it to be the most powerful telephone of all time. I definitely thought it was like, and then Yorik pushed the button on it, and then all the orcs died. But, I mean,

That is like really, really OP. Don't get me wrong. But I guess I expected something with a little more violence. Yeah, when it's called the Horrifica, I was like, oh, certainly this is like a giant or killing laser weapon, right? It's like, oh, no, it's just a super beacon. I don't want to downplay it. That is extremely powerful. But I guess I expected something a little bit more violent because it's a 40K story.

It's the most extreme in case of emergency break glass alarm the universe has ever seen by the sounds of it. Also, I feel like anything programmed to speak with the voice of the emperor is kind of heretical. Well, yeah, that did raise an eyebrow a little bit. Is it with the voice of the emperor or is it this is the same like power going through the warp type thing? It kind of assumed was like that. It kind of makes it seem as though it is to give it that high priority signal boost of all of the distress signals can get lost. This is the one that matters kind of thing. Right.

Oh, no. The religious zealots aren't playing by their own rules. That would never happen in 40K and or real life. Wait, wait a minute. How many members of the Black Templars 1,000 person chapter is there? It's only a thousand. We know this. They're very, very careful. So, Yarrick believes he can use this device with the entirety of the astrophatic choir of the hive to send a distress signal to every imperial force. Like every single one imaginable, be it space marines or sect commanders, every one of them.

The council was like, bro, what of course you can do that, just go and just go and do. do it, what the fuck are you doing here? And he went off with the planetary governor von Ruger to do so. Now, this would leave the rest of the council, and one person has a bit of a thorn in her side. See, Commissar Graves was frankly kind of pissed off. Armageddon wasn't doing well, and the Imperium was being spanked by the orcs in an inconceivable manner. The forces were spread too thin, and there was no good defensive line and no preparedness for this invasion. Now, you might be thinking that she's going to have a real introspective moment here and realize that the thinning of the troops and all that stuff is kind of because she freaked out and told everyone to act

immediately while General Locke saw the benefit of a good defense and such. No, Keir. No, I'm not going to think that. I was never ever planning on thinking that. He's going to get really mad. Thought never in my mind. I think you'll find she did get, introspective a bit, and she would turn and pull out her las pistol.

Overwhelmed with everything going on in this Godfusaken planet, she would pull the trigger. Oh. General Locke would lie dead, and she would call him a coward for his actions in front of everyone. Of course. Oh, God. Well done. All right. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

She's girl bossing too hard, shy. She's too powerful. Good for her for standing up for herself and doing what's right. Can I say how much I love that the brand new commissar character is acting exactly like how I would want them to act? We're like, this is the brand new commissar character. They're going to be a little bit more nice, like gaunt or cane and really, no, no, this lady is insane. I love this. This is your typical commissar that you expect.

No fluff, all business. I will kill you. Lovely. Fantastic. The way it's supposed to be. Why are you all sitting here doing nothing when there's a bunch of orcs we could be out there killing? Well, I feel like we should probably short the defense. No, get out. Get out there right now.

Literally half an hour later. What do you mean there's no defenses? The fuck are you playing at? Come on. Come on. Locke, what is this? just because I told you to go and do this thing and you then did it, that's not an excuse.

I'm afraid it's curtains for you. We're not having this. Absolutely insane behavior. And excellent, frankly. I like that her mini has a skull that has a guard helmet on it. And normally, like, oh, she's just walking through a battlefield. I'm like, no, that's probably someone that just like.

You know, I never noticed that. Talk some shit to her. And she was like, you say, what, bam. And it's like, yep. You actually make a great point. there, D.K., normally it's like the skull of a necron, like an or a tyrantid biomass. That's a Canadian skull. That's really funny. She probably killed that, dude.

Oh, God. So, yeah, Locke was a failure and needed to be replaced. His court should be dragged out and the new Supreme Commander would be Marshall Gorman of the death call, a cold and calculating man who would match the commissar's own sensibilities. Well, Okay, Parson, I very Very, very, I feel like he's, he's copying what was said from the book in this sense. Oh, yeah, yeah, I don't, I don't think Parson thinks that cold and calculating is a match to Commissar Graves wasting general lock for him essentially being forced to follow her suggestion. Like, I don't think Parson's drawing that equivalence because that's mental. That's neither cold nor calculating.

He forgot to type the slash S in the script, so, you know. He's what it is. He was blunt, he was unimaginative, and he was perfect for what needed to be done on the planet while Yarrake went to get some help. Speaking of Yarrake, he and the governor would make their way to the astrophatic choir, and the door would be shut and locked. They would force their way in and see a horrific mess of destroyed machinery and Astropaths hacked to pieces at their stations. They'd gotten there quick, but the Orkommandoes had got their first.

Hell yes. Sure, man. Why not? Though there was no... I feel like Games worked at them as to know what to do with Ork Commandos. Like, are they actually cunning? Or are they just like, well, if we make a hole in the wall, we can go through the wall? I guess Snickroth

If it's Snickroth, then I guess they're actually cunning That's true I feel like they're either just Farses on one end Or actually like gods Like in the war boss book on the other end It's a little bit conflicting Samo's like they got that brutal cunning aye

A little more Australian Yeah that did kind of lean Australian Didn't it? Yeah It really did Yeah you're right I think the All Commandoes there's definitely a, there's a significant gap between the best and worst of them.

Like, it really does feel like it's either comic relief or this, this group of five orks could topple governments. But there doesn't seem to be much in, much, like, in between somehow. It's one extreme or the other. Yeah. There's no sign of any orcs in the room, but there was a message there that was left for Yarrake to see. scrawled in the chamber were the words no escape. The plan here failed, but it sort of needed to not fail. This was their only hope.

Sure, hive volcanoes could hold out for a considerable amount of time in its own, but that didn't matter without a message in the void. Four hives on the world were assigned astrophatic choirs, Volcanus, Death Meyer, Hell's Reach and Infernes. The equatorial jungles cut off both Hell's Reach and Infernes, so travelling to either one of them would be near impossible. There was only one option. Yarrake and the soldiers needed to move from Volcanus to Deathmire. Now, in order to get to Deathmire, they would have to escape Volcanus and go onto the Volcanus Highway.

From there, they'd need to outpace not only Wazdaka and the Speedwire, but they'd also have to get past Uggrock Glitstooth forces in Hive Tempestora. There were a lot of things that needed to happen just right, and in order to do so, Yarek would need a distraction. This distraction would be courtesy of Commissar Graves, and her forces would serve as a blunt object that the Speedwall was to smash into and shatter. Among her forces would be the surviving lot that managed to escape the Mannheim Gap. Her forces would also include her Centaur, the RSV Vigilant, some Rogaldorn tanks, and as many death corps as she needed to lead the way and reoccupy the fortifications. While this occurred, Graves and her forces would essentially leave the hive through the front door, while Yarrake and his lot, including plenty of Lehman Russes and some knights would go through an exit to the opposite side of the hive. The slamming attack against the Speedwire caught the orcs wildly off guard and they had quite a bit of

trouble rallying. Graves was able to essentially flatten a line of orcs and strike a tum down with her sword while doing so. The push would allow for the sisters of battle to reinforce the guard both with their presence and then with their words. The Speedwire was going to rally and they needed to be ready to serve as the metaphorical anvil. The following wave of orcs would, as predicted, slam into the lines and get crushed by the tanks. The light orc vehicles didn't stand a chance and the Imperial Cavalry was able to rip orc riders off their bikes.

However, the arrival of battle wagons changed the tide of battle pretty quickly. They would make the slow march forward with their brutal swinging of blains and other chaotic weapons. But even if the line got smashed, the orcs of the speedwale make a melee fatal flaw. They stopped moving, which resulted in their flanks being exposed long enough for the Imperial Armoured forces to unleash hell into their columns. Graves would dismount to a

vehicle and lead the Imperium forces headlong into the waves of Ork Boys. Now, okay, so you like. Graves, bit of a nutter, potentially somewhat short-fused. Yeah. You can't say that she's lacking in, in like, willpower and desire for a fight. Yeah, I clearly. Running headlong into that, brother. No, no, the, the, the mini with her standing on the prow of her tank with a sword, like, no, I, I never once said she lacked the want for violence. No, definitely not. Just like when the violence is directed in the right direction.

Jesus Christ. Yeah, Shire, not lacking in gumption, but at all. That is not a way to describe her. Jesus Christ. So how does she die? Oh, she won't. She's a new mini, man. Oh, that's true.

Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's got the plot armor. She's got the mini. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're right. That was foolish of me. Okay.

She might eventually get a bigger truck to ride around. But she's not going anywhere. Yeah, she's got the plot armor. Yeah. I mean, given that she's charging. into waves of orc boys and chopping them out with the sword. She's definitely got the plot armor. Yeah.

The volume of orcs would eventually give Wazdacker enough cover so that he could force his way out and re-rally for another attempt at Blitz. Graves held the line as best as he could, but the writing was very much on the wall. They needed to withdraw. Those who were able to were told to rush to Volcanus, and if they weren't in a position to retreat, they would need to fight to the end.

eventually less than an eighth of her forces would make it back to the hive. But to be fair, it was a success because they served their purpose as a distraction. Heric imperial dub, let's go. I mean, as distractions go, her like flattening orcs on that big centaurs, that'll work. That'll do it. Yeah, that'll do the trick for sure. It's pretty good. On the south side of the hive, Death School Speed Boss Grisnack was pretty much just

vibing. He was doing a bit of looting, doing some donuts around the back of the hive. It wasn't super defended, so he was just having a great time until, you know, all the vehicles that were released alongside this specific Armageddon supplement exited from the door right in front of him. So we're talking Hippagriffs, Centaurs, Leman Russe's Knights, Admec transports, and Warhound Titans, all of which were being led by old Baylai on his fortune. of arrogance. Grisnag had about a second to process what was going on before he was burnt to a crisp by the Warhound Titan Hound of Hades, and the rest of his orcs were torn apart as they began their long march to Deathmire.

What's the fortress of arrogance again, Kyrie? I believe it's a hellhammer. It's a hellhammer, right? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense, you know, I mean, I've said it that. I've said it's a hellhammer a lot, you know.

Yeah, you'd never make that mistake again, right? Oh, no, that would be ridiculous. Yeah, adeptus ridiculous. Oh, the adricification continues. It's clearly a hellhammer. I heard you going for it, too, carrying up. You just couldn't pull the trigger fast enough on that's adeptus ridiculous. Unlike Commissar Graves.

Let's go. Oh, wow. So there was a bit of a problem for me. They were ready on the ground to hit the highway and make their way to the hive, but air support was severely lacking. Yarrick's air support needed to refuel before they could provide aid, which is one thing, but another issue was that the weather starting to get pretty bad on the planet, making air support at this point kind of impossible. Despite this, they would continue onward announcing very loudly over all channels that he had returned.

As they moved, they would encounter a scrap fortress that was under construction, and thus was cutting off the road with an incredible amount of artillery. The weather was getting worse and worse as a nuclear dust storm was beginning to approach. What a combination of words, Jesus. Of course. They needed to keep moving fast regardless of the consequences. They would hit the gates of the fortress hard as the storm consumed them. Within a very short amount of time, one of the Warhound Titans was destroyed,

but not before several stompers were taken out. Knights didn't fare much better either, especially since one stomper essentially would take out three in a single hit. Flyboards would come through and attack from the skies and take down a few vehicles, but the combination of the ground forces and the nightmarish weather would scare them off. Though the vehicle casualties were high, they were able to get through, and Death Meyer was now within view. Yarrick would make contact with them and get in touch with Inquisitor Croyle,

but someone else was going to be getting in touch with Yarrick. At the front of Death Myers Tunnelgate waited Wazdaka on Big Reva with a sizable army. He would make a mad dash toward Yarrick, and Yarrick would complement it by charging forward with the fortress of arrogance. The last standing Warhound Titan would step in to provide as much cover and support as possible, and it did so much more than that by pretty much pure accident. Wazdaka saw the old man on the chimera next to a Titan and decided that the Titan was far more enticing of a titan, target. So he would reroute his speed while to go after the war hound. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, the old man on a chimera?

Yes. I thought this was Yorik. That may well be Yarek. On the fortress of arrogance? Or is he? Ah, my bad. Hmm. My bad. Just couldn't let him finish, could you?

My bad. Wasdaka. He had a prime opportunity here. He saw the old man on the chimera. Listen, we had the ship Space Wolf ship debacle earlier. I thought it was another one of those. My bad. Oh, Shai said he wanted to be correct so much after his Bainblade fuck.

I don't be correct. I wanted to know. Chimera, what are you talking about? Clearly, it's a hell. This is the fucking poor hammer storm tiger meme all over again. Oh, we need an ad-rick shirt that now is just, it's, it's the. No, we don't move on. Hellhammer.

That's not a hell. Just text that says it's a hellhammer and nothing else. No, and it's a picture of like a Bainblade or something. It's a hellhammer. I can imagine that getting taken down so quickly. Immediately, dude. It wouldn't even be up for five minutes. So Wazdaka Speedwa, it would circle the warhound

and manage to crush the hydraulics of it enough to make it vulnerable to gunfire. They would then snap its ankle and cause it to fully collapse. It would unleash one final blast of fire before exploding. Wazdaka was proud of the kill and barely even clocked the fact that Yarrake and the rest of them were still moving forwards. In fact, he didn't even really notice that Gaz was firing orbital shots down on the fortress of arrogance, because he saw how bad Wazdaka was fucking it all up. It didn't matter much. He still took down

the big thing, so that was fine. You know, it's time for a bit of fun. Now, a slight step back here, but Gaz was in space prior to this, debating on what he should do next, and probably thinking, I shouldn't have let Wazdaka deal with this. Ultimately, he knew that he needed to stay behind the scenes as best as he could because he knew that as soon as he left, the command structure would begin to collapse in orbit. It was around this time he heard two boys talking about some big black super wagon that had some Oomi on it, and Gaz knew immediately that it was his buddy Yarrick. But if he was moving, it meant that nobody was stopping him. He didn't want Yarrick calling for help, and he needed to be blasted from orbit before he could do that. Now at this point,

Inquisitor Croyle is out there doing some sneaky things when he sees the four of arrogance show up. Good times, excellent, except as soon as it shows up, it immediately gets detonated from orbit. Bad times. But then, popping out of the chimera is Yarra. Turns out he was one step ahead of Gaz and decided to hide elsewhere. Funny Wasdaka had been paying attention, eh? Yeah. Man, rip the fortress of arrogance. The, yeah. Yeah, it's just like, It's just like, all right, atomize it from orbit. That, that blows. Come on, it'll be back.

It's already been trashed like three times, hasn't it? And they keep resurrecting it. I guess. But damn, I really love that hellhammer. Fortress of arrogance has been Shepathius time. It's been rebuilt so many times that it's not really. Come on. I was going to say, just take another hellhammer and paint it black.

Did you say ship of Thessia? What's the ship that keeps getting rebuilt? The Fesia is the whole world of the Asari. Is it? Oh, no. You see the ship of Theseus. Oh, man, that sucks for me. But I mean, hey, that's a mass effect reference for your bingo card.

No, no, no. I was trying to get me by being like Bricky trying to correct people. I heard the mass effect in there. My brain woke up and I was like, oh. I got to be honest with you. I don't know where I pulled. that from because I did I did not remember that was the name of the Asari home world anyway oh it'll have been in there somewhere yeah let's be honest there's always some mass effect fact rolling around

in my brain that's just ready to spew out without any any conscious thought yeah that's fair there's a second layer of consciousness to his to purely mass effect references that's that's all it is you just misspoke and bricky's brain rot turned it into a mass effect to reference. Damn, that's crazy. Sick Mass Effect reference, D.K.

Really love that one. Yeah. Completely on purpose. Just wanted to get the bingo card marker for all the listeners out there that were waiting for it. Jesus. I'm now getting genuinely concerned

that the the Bayblade Hellhammer thing is going to take root and I'm going to start misremembering what it actually is. And that's a big of an odd kind of dread. That happened to me. That was the, that was the,

That was what was happening. Routro. So, yes, Yarrick is in the chimera. He was one step ahead of Gaz and decided to hide not in the super recognisable famous super heavy tank that literally has his name on it. Successfully, Yarrick and his forces

would make their way into hive, death, Meyer and would begin cleaning up the Ork forces inside alongside Inquisitor Croyle and his praying mantis shrimp horse. dog. They would successfully regain control of some very key infrastructure in the hive, including the astrophatic chambers. Once inside the room with the choir, he presents the Farris horrifica to them, and they know the significance of it. I'm glad they knew what it was. They know that this is a last ditched effort, and they know that the extreme nature of the

device's activation will literally fry them, but they also are loyal servants of the Imperium, so they know what needs to be done. They convene, and see them. send the message out. Not only do they fry in the process, but every weird boy in astropath in the system either gets killed or knocked out as the message is sent. Oof, that is, uh, is there a, is there a number attached to that?

Or is it just, because that's a lot, that's a lot, a lot of sacrifice. Either dead or unconscious. I mean, that is, that is a strong AF servo school right there.

Yeah, basically just becomes a psychobomb for people who happen to be nearby. Absolutely horrendous. It's more like the emperor than we thought of it. Yeah. So as the message shoots into the abyss, more orcs fall onto the surface of Armageddon to the point where it's as if the planet and the system are running out of room. More and more, orcs ships arrive and things are deteriorating fast. Days turn to weeks as they continue their best. to hold the lines. Yarrick gets handed a slate that has some information. Hydeades was smashed to pieces by an orc rock,

and when the asteroid cracked open, more orcs just poured out of it. Great. Lovely. Of the nine primary hives on Armageddon, the Imperium only held four, and holding is a generous term. The final transmission on the data slate confirms Yarrick's worst fear.

Gasgull has landed on the planet, but he wasn't coming towards him, He was nowhere near where he knew Yarek was. If he was going to fight Yarek, it would be on his terms. Yarrick came close to breaking at this moment. He hoped that he could somehow muster some form of resistance and bait the one thing holding this nightmare together to him, and even he was outwitted.

It was truly over. Armageddon had fallen. But, but, but, but, but. But. Reinforcements. It's happened. Strygium of Death Meyer, lighting up all over the place, dots of illumination all over the maps and the like. And Yarrake immediately knew what it was, and this is for you, Bricky.

Have they come? Is it them? A sense of awe. The wonder flooded Yarek. He stamped it down. Fearful his heart would break if what emerged from the landers was not the planet's redemption, but it's death knell. officers shouts caught in their throats a buzz of feedback scratched over the Vox network

a static laced voice emerged from a Vox emitter its timber possessing the distinctive power and authority of one of the Emperor's angels amid the sounds a single word was heard Imperator A bunch of dwebes So the message The message sent from Yarek

would be answered first by none other than chapter master Marnius Calgar. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Our favorite 40K character. He's in everything. We love him. Could it have at least been Dante? Actually, which side of this is?

Where's Armageddon? Is it Nylis or? I don't know if Dante's on this side. I feel like that's something we should know, but I don't. I'm going to tell you what I'm sorry So yeah He's uh Oh okay so

Yeah Not that far from Oh yeah Not that far from terror really In the grand scheme of things Yeah Yikes Put Calgar in goddamn everything

At least Dante is neat At least Dante hates his life God We only like our Imperial heroes If they're miserable as fuck Yes, Calgar simply isn't miserable enough. That's what we've been waiting for.

Calgar is too thick-headed. At least I can relate to that. Same. Oh, no. Same. So, yes, the message would be answered by Chapter Master Mania's Calgar, and his answering of the call would serve as the beginning to what would be known as Operation Imperator. The plan was fairly intricate.

of the Imperium would need to do an overlapping offensive strategy and send reinforcements in stages and to various parts of the system. The hope is that the layering of these efforts would provide relief not only to Armageddon itself, but also the other worlds in the subsector. Currently, Calgar was in a battle group Zazarian. I don't care who came up with this. Fire them. That's just a silly way to spell something of the Indomisus Crusade. And, uh, though he had numbers, he needed more. He was aware that there were some space marine forces around Armageddon before the events of this new invasion,

but they still needed to be replenished. And obviously, everyone is fighting their own battles, so not everyone could contribute huge numbers, not even Kalgar himself. But the call to arms would be answered by about two dozen space marine chapters. Fortunately for Kiryath, they list them all in alphabetical order. Best of luck, buddy, thanks. Passum, thank you.

So, I mean this in the nicest way possible, and this is absolutely not Possum's fault, but this is tedious. We have the Angels Eradicant with five companies, the Angels of Fury with four, the Black Dragons with four, the Black Guard with six, the Black Templars with three fighting companies led by Marshall Kula and Castel and Abelard, since Helbrecht and his ship are in rough shape. One company of Blood Angels led by Captain Sandini, The celestial lines have one company

While the Crimson Fish show up with four And Captain, what? You're just on sea Yes Do you plan on going through this whole thing? It's in the script, so I'm going to read it Okay, I'm going to go take a piss, keep going. I just love that you get to see

And there's just this very stern stop From breaking, like, you cannot do this, you're not allowed. So minor thing, I have got brain blindness, or I've got like a chapter blindness when it comes to the celestial lions because every time I see celestial lions, I immediately think of the astral claws, which, you know,

who the red corsairs were before I turned renegade. And I was like, I don't understand why I get these two confused. But then I was like, well, to be fair, astral and celestial, but like thematically incredibly similar and also

lions and claws again kind of similar theme and then I was like maybe it's the color scheme one's golden blue and the other silver and blue but the one that silver and blue

has gold highlights and one that's golden blue has silver highlights so to be fair I don't think it's that outlandish to occasionally have that moment anyway oh yeah shats right

you got to sing that like just the 12 days of Christmas Christmas song. Absolutely not. It's not going to scan. There's no way it's going to scan. Fine. Coward.

Don't make this worse for me. Don't you dare. The commissar would shoot you on the spot for your heresy, sir. I'm like a third into a list of just Space Marine chapters and how many companies. Bring it on. That's the worst thing I could have heard after sitting back down. I'm not going to lie. I genuinely.

I may have stalled purely so that you had to sit through the rest of it. That's so fucked up. This podcast is a fuck. The adricification comes around again. I wasn't going to mention the celestial lines, Astral Clause confusion, but then Bricky left, so I was like, well. Fuck him, he's going to deal with this. Yeah. So we also have the dark trackings.

They brought one, as well as the Emperor Spears. The Hawke Lord's arrived with three companies, the Imperial Harbingers, have won the Ironhands generally send two clan companies, generously send two clan companies, sorry, while the masters of protelus, I've literally never heard of those before, are super generous and send seven. The Marines Bellevillant have won,

the Necropolis hawks send three, as well as the Nova Marines. The penumbral talons send four, the raptors, send three, and the red talons send two. And goodness me, there's the salamanders with Chapter Master Tushan sending six. Hmm, it's all right.

We're nearly done. The silver skulls send one, and the school bearers send a, single demi company. What a waste of time. Why bother? The sons of Gileman, not the ultramarines, send four, and the sons of Orr send one. Five companies of space walls arrive, along with three companies of storm giants, and an equal amount of brotherhoods from the storm lords. The subjugators make way with five companies. At the very end, we have the ultramarines and the white scars. The ultramarines send two demi companies, along with lieutenant Eothrus, who would be Calgar's

proxy, so who's promoted to honor captain. I could tell you really needed to know that. and the White Scars send three brotherhoods with first Captain Subodin Khan. And a partridge in a pear tree. Man. You're welcome, shot. I got you. I got you. I appreciate it in the end.

Also, is a... I appreciate Graves bullet halfway through. Is a demi company, like half a company or not a full company? Or what exactly is a demi company? Is it like a half, a half a company? That's kind of what I assumed because it's like, you know, yeah. I wasn't, I wasn't sure if that was actually what was happening or not. I think so.

I could be, I could be incorrect, but I believe that's what that is. Yeah, I was assuming half a company, but I wasn't entirely sure. Imagine if it was just a tenth of a company. So, so, so shit. Thanks. It's a semi company and then 10 lads walk out. It's like, oh, cool, thanks, great. I guess it's better than not.

Nothing, but fuck you too. So the space marines would make their way to Armageddon, but as they did so, a group of Black Templars would split up and go relieve the shipyards at St. Jowen's dock. The Black Templar barge Sigismund's Fury would be accompanied by two strike cruisers of the masters of Protelus, and then engaged with Ork forces blockading the shipyard. The non-space marine forces would make their way to the non-Armageddon worlds of Pyrene and basket, to provide basket.

I mean, that just, that to me, that just looks like it would be pronounced basket, but that doesn't sound like a good name for a world. Basquit, yeah, yeah. Like, wicker basket. It just doesn't, I don't know. So, to provide a biscuit, okay, to the non-Armageddon, Pyron, yeah, so they've gone to Pyron and Biscuit to provide as much support as possible, while the space marines would make way for the main theatre of war.

Upon arrival, the forces of space marines would be split into groups, five total, one for each region of importance that they were fighting for. Hive Volcanus, Hive Infernes, Hive Asheran, the Fire Waste and the Deadlands. So we're going to start with the theatre of Hive Volcanus. This theatre includes three different wares. We have Wai, Blitz-Toofs-Dak are tied and Wazdaka Speedwire. Essentially, this is the stuff you see on the box for 11th edition, so there's going to be a lot in this area. The first wave here would be aimed right at the hive, where Captain Sendini and his blood angels would lead the charge. By now, Usmaug Badai and Captain Gull Blitz had breached the walls and were controlling the Kurov spaceports.

The Blood Angels would land and immediately engage head on for a while before reinforcements arrived. This would take the form of a strike force of salamanders and Marines malevolent, which allowed the Blood Angels to change their strategy and attack the hordes by the flanks. The Orks would try to retreat and the Blood Angels would pursue, resulting in Sundini, claiming the head of gulblitz and breaking the orc forces. The Necropolis hawks were deployed into the Volcanus Mountains and would eventually retake the gun batteries, but only after losing half their men. Yeesh!

The celestial lines would reclaim the Mannheim Gap, and it was time to re-secure their forces and keep moving onward. The orcs would strike back by luring forces into some well-placed bombsquig traps, causing a big portion of Marines malevolent to be decimated. And by the time the blood angels made it to reinforce the remaining Necropolis Hawks, they saw that the Hawks have been out of ammo for quite some time and were straight up just beating orcs to death with their bolters. I mean, that'll work. You've seen how big bolters are. Like, those, that'll be a good clubbing.

I just, you know, you can't just assume that they're going to roll over because they've got no ammo. Anything's a weapon when you are. Well, you're from Maris Marines. You're eight foot tall and fists are very good too. They couldn't just do the canonical, very obviously canonical bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and make the orcs think that it was bullets that they still had, right?

Oh no. Oh, no. Oh, God. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they do the bang, bang shots and then the hellhammer rolls in after the facts on the brand new planet of Thessia. You thought the Hellhammer was destroyed, but, you know, the orcs believe that it's still fully functional, so it just carries on working no problem. It's famously how all of that works. You know, even six years ago, I never made that bad of a mistake.

Yeah. I don't, I've, I'm getting so frazzled by this at this point. I don't know what's going on. I've lost my place completely. Okay, there we go. I found it. It's just glanced over and saw fuck you kill this podcast. It threw me.

To be fair, deserved. To the east, the White Scars and Subodin Khan are flinging themselves directly into the speedwire of Wazdaka, and just south of him are the Plains of Anthra, where Imperial forces were still holding out just. They had a trio of titans there, but they were facing down dozens of gargans. Gazgrim was about to launch a killing blow when the Raptors and Sons of Orar attacked from the back, killing orkish lieutenants, but not halting the movement of the gargans. Also divided into this region for the sake of the assault are Hive Tempestora and Hive Deathmire. Tempestora was, as mentioned earlier, a pretty sturdy foothold the orcs have had for quite

some time, and the Imperium needed this to be taken care of. The skullbearers and the masters of Protelus would work to carve out entry routes into the hive. To the west, schoolbearers and the sons of Gilliman were deployed to fight the Goths at the Morpian line, while other Marines were to reinforce Fort Ignace, which was on the verge of collapse. The space marines were fairly successful, holding off the Blitz Brigade of Warboss Thugrot, but it was still a major threat to both Hyde Volcanus and Deathmire. Speaking of which, Deathmire has had a bad time since we last checked in on it. Fortunately for them, the White Scars and the Blackguard were able to land and provide support for Yarrake.

The Ironhands will also arrive so that they could support and protect the ancient observatory, known as the Eyes of the Emperor. being able to focus on restrategizing Yarrake was able to successfully re-route and dispatch Armageddon Steel Legion platoons to support the Emperor Spears' efforts on reclaiming the docking facilities. Also, there you go.

That's like the second mention of the Steel Legion in the entire thing. So all you Armageddon Steel Legion fans, they've had like, you know, two sentences. What more do you want? It's not... Great call out. I don't know.

I don't, I didn't. I'd bring their misery to the surface there, brother. Really? If only we had Armageddon's Steel Legion of the Hell Divers Warbond. Oh, everything would be better. Yep. I just mean that Hell divers got them before forticated, which, I mean, the irony would be delicious, but the complaining would be justifiably quite loud. So we're going to talk about theater hive in furnace.

Here is where a lot of the equatorial. tribes of orcs are, but two wares are here too. We've got war scum-luter and Dreck-nut. Wow, wow. Chapter Master Tushan of the Salamanders is the regional overseer here, and his objective was to prevent the orcs from reaching the walls of infernus, while also repairing the South Ford complex to restore the supply chain that was battered by the orcs. A gigantic contingent of Skittarian Knights would act as defentus. Jesus Christ. Shai. All right. Skul Luter is my porn star name. Yeah.

I was thinking something along those lines. I was like, now, I'll just let that one fly under the radar. I'm glad you picked it up, Shai. Thank you. What a terrible day for years. Sorry, my bad. I understood English. It's your own fault, really, isn't it? Other

salamanders would go to the eastern Diablo mountains and an attempt to secure the remains of another flattened forge. Another big thing in this theater was Hive Heldry, which the orcs were making their priority. In the hive under the rock debris, wait, in the hive under the rock debris, there were still anti-ship missiles.

I missed a word. That's not Basin's fault. That was all me. And the orcs wanted these anti-ship missiles. This, of course, was figured out pretty quickly by the Imperium, and they would send a whole lot of folks there to prevent the armaments from falling into orkish hands. The angels eradicant, the stormlords and the crimson fists

were charged through the former shipping port and make their way to purge the orcs. The equatorial jungles are the final big thing in this theatre, and the Imperium is busy trying to burn as much forest as they can to drive out the tribal orcs, but are also dealing with orc maniacs attempting to do the same thing to them. The salamanders would be able to seize a hold at Cerbera base so they could support the remnants of the Armageddon orc hunters and Kata Chan jungle fighters. The Blackguard would be deployed to assassinate snakebite war bosses in Minas Basin because they were causing havoc, including killing Salamander's

Lieutenant Volshar. Meanwhile, a good portion of imperiales were trying to regain control of Minus Bridge, which connected Hive Infernes to Hive Deathmire. The hawk lords and stormlords were there to reclaim it, and the Black Templars were there to destroy it if they failed. That feels very Black Templar coded, frankly. It sure does. Boss Morbog didn't make this easy,

but a teleportation act courtesy of some Stormlord, terminators threw his plans into disarray. He would successfully kill Captain Sedris of the Stormlords, but the Black Templars would avenge him and assist in finally securing the bridge. The first time I read this through, I was like, and the Black Templars blew it up anyway? But no, they did help secure it, so that's a nice improvement. We then go to the theatre for Hive Asheron. This is the primary location of Waer Grimscar and the Brunt of Waer Gazgal. Hades was a pancake at this moment, thanks to the big assault of rocks, and he attempted to fire another volley of rocks at hive Asheron, but the orbital forces of the Imperium were ready to break them apart.

Tries they might, though, the Imperium couldn't stop the flood of orcs into Asheron. Gass himself would teleport into the command center of the hive, and the orcs would successfully seize control. Gass would leave a big mek, Girk, tough cop. Jesus Christ. Gerk, Gerk, tough cop. It's the second time The arc name has made you sound like you were going to puke.

Can you spell it? Yeah. So you got G-G-U-R-K-T-U-F-F-F-O-P-K-O-P. Girk Tuck-Tuff-C. Well, you say Girk. Oh, no, no, that's so gutter. That's GERF. That's GERC-Tuff-C-Cop, yeah.

Yeah. It's just, I can't, I, I can't, every time I'm trying to say the first bit quickly, it stalled. It just feels like I'm preparing to be sick every time. It's a really weird feeling. It sounds like it's getting like the gur is getting stuck in your throat

every day. Like the words just won't come out and you have to like kind of it out like a dog that's puking or something. It genuinely kind of is, but I don't understand why. Anyway, I'm not saying it again.

If he comes up again, I'll just I'll just make a vomissing noise and you know what I'm talking about. So Gaz would leave that guy in charge before pissing off. The Big Mac would use his seemingly endless fleets of Gretchen to claim humans are slaves and forced all of them to rapidly

produce a whole lot of stompers, morkenotes and gorkenotes. The remaining imperial holdouts were in the subterranean networks under the hive and they would be assisted by the Nova Marines. Meanwhile, at Hive Tartarus, More cruel Grimscar and his bloodsgar tribe were able to attack the hive after breaking through imperial defences, but hope would be found when the Black Templars led by Castellan Abelard would show up.

He would make it his mission to kill Grimscar personally, while members of the Red Talons and Storm Giants would seek to claim the West Forge complex of the hive. Back at Hades hive, the Raptors would launch an infiltration attempt so that targets could be marked properly for orbital strikes, while the Empress Spears would attempt to reclaim the docks at Yarrake's Hope Harbour. Now we're into the firewaste. And here we have wild grutlug and gorsnicks rippers. This place famously was where Angron died a few times in the last invasion. Currently, an imperial garrison at Fire Harbour is holding out quite valiantly

thanks to mercenaries slash oath ban from the leagues of Votan, led by Carl Varek the Stern. They're fighting so hard you'd think they gave a damn about the Imperium and protecting the civilians, but honestly, no. They're just doing it because they know they're not. a lot of good loot under the firewaste and they want it. But there's bad news for them. The Blackguard are heading to reinforce the settlement, which means that a conflict between the two is going to be inevitable if Varick sticks around. A death company of Blood Angels, led by Chaplain Afriel, marches head on into the orcs of the Firesgar tribe at the Yoraban

hydroelectric dam. Though the death company was wiped out, obviously, they successfully managed to open the dam, drowning thousands of orcs in the process. Another proper Imperium Pyrrhic victory. Love it. The Salamanders, Black Dragons and Dark Crackens arrive at the Victorinious spaceport on Phoenix Island and immediately experienced the cunning nature of Bloodax Freebooter Captain Braggock Badlung. Members of the Black Dragons are successfully assassinated

before the Dark Crackens can manage to reroute and use heavy infantry to begin rooting out the orcs. They would fight the Orcs in the Nizala gorge of the island, but the space marines didn't account for some more blood-act treachery. Explosives and a narrow section of the gorge would successfully crush the Marines, killing more than 20, before Badlung and his boys would jump out at them. Meanwhile, the Nova Marines attempt to secure the heavily damaged Heliopolis Bridge. Unfortunately for them, they were successfully shot out of the air by the hawks, and those who weren't killed in the impact became trapped behind enemy lines.

Ooh. Also, yeah, dark Cracken's colors and logo? Very nice. Black and purple with a cool Crackin logo? Mm-hmm. I'll fuck with that. Yeah, that's... They're pretty cool. Yeah. Now we have The Deadlands, and this one is kind of a popery of things.

There's Commando mobs, Walkers, and Aircrafts here as well as some tribes. This place sucks. It's cold and awful, but there's so many resources here like fresh water that it's essential. Valhans are fighting desperately. in Dante's Canyon against flyboy attacks alongside the mangled remains of the space walls here, including Wolf-Lord Hrothvere Rune Scar. More white scars arrive to assist the tempestor signs as they attack a facility that's making orc submersibles while also protecting essential Promethean platforms. On an island off the Netherian Peninsula sat an orbital weapons array known as Encampment OC-195 Hades Vengeance that was fairly newly constructed. It was full of heavy weapons

batteries, silos and most importantly, an Omnis-scrambler, which prevented the teleporting of the orcs. The orcs obviously really want this thing gone, and they would send countless waves by land and by sea to take it out. The wolfguard of Eric Morkai would arrive, but the Yumi crumpers of the Big Mech Gar-God would be very unforgiving against them. That a station nearby for fuel, Ragnar Blackmayne and Torval Weirdbane, who had been here for a while, are fighting unrelenting hordes of invaders before eventually getting reinforced by the white scars who successfully knocked down the air superiority of the orcs

and finally give them a moment of reprieve. Shy with it. Oh, that asshole is here too. Things though not going great could be worse really. Like Hive Volcanus would successfully be saved from collapse while the forces of the Imperium would reverse the tide of invaders from Hive Infernes. The orcs are still moving. quite heavily towards hive volcanicanus from Hive tempestora, and feral orcs are violently emerging from the burning jungles and assaulting Hive Deathmire. Hades and Theradis are still

covered in a thick green tide and are able to continuously supply armaments to the other forces on the planet. Hell's Reach and Tartarus are desperately clinging to life, but that grip is slipping. And worst of all, the forces in the firewaste and the deadlands are entrenching themselves into a war of attrition without gains. Though there is hope, Calgar, although not there personally, commands along with Yarrake, and though they're rattled with attrition, they plan their next moves to defend the world, they so desperately need to hold. And I believe this last quote is for you, Bricky, I think.

Ah, maybe. With the orcs now possessing two hives, even the cleansing flame of the next season of fire seems unlikely to offer an advantage or respite. And so the fighting will surely grind on, the violence drawing more Xenos and human combatants into a boiling cauldron of conflict that will surely overflow to spill across the galaxy and drown yet more worlds. Yay, all hope is lost. Yay, it's going to get worse. Yeah, it is. Hell yeah. What a note to end on. For that is literally the very end.

Armageddon, it turns out, still a monumental shithole. still absolutely infested with orcs, it's never got any better and it never will. And it'll probably just overflow into the rest of the galaxy. Great. Nice.

Have they thought about changing the name? To what? Not Armageddon. Maybe things will get better. You know, I somehow don't think what they call it is really going to make a whole lot of difference at this point. I don't know.

There's the old phrase of like, you know, it's a mindset thing. You know, if I, open up a new business and called it dead business. I think it might do, I don't know, my mind might place some tricks on me if it was live business. I feel like you could call this place the victory of the empire, the light, and it really wouldn't change the fact that it's a shithole that is not going to see any respite or lack

of conflict any time soon. Just change the name to Boring, the planet of Boring. That's it. You know, maybe that would. These are self-in. No one wants to go to boring. These are self-inserts. They even have a Birmingham in the 40K,

and they say it's one of the worst hive cities imaginable. Yeah. Damn. Yeah, Armageddon is just a shithole. It's just crazy conflict, 24-7, no respite. It sucks. Are you the Imperium? You're dying.

Are you orcs? You're dying, too. But, you know, I guess you have a good time. With it, I guess. I'm going to say that enjoying it. It's a problem. Yeah. Mind you, you know who else is enjoying it?

Commissar Graves apparently. Oh yeah, Graves is probably having a ball there. Oh yeah, she probably loves this shit. There's so many generals here for me to shoot. It's brilliant. I love it. There's so many of my own people to kill here, yeah. Shai said it was not mentioned but famous hive Hades where Yarrick stopped Gaz during second war and made name for himself is 100% destroyed and taken over by Orks,

specifically to piss off Yarek. Yeah, I mean, if I was dealing with someone called the hero of Hades Hive, I feel like I would really like to destroy Hades Hive. Yeah. Fair play by the yorcs, yeah, fair play, fair play. I mean, we know that Gaz is the smartest. We've established this. That is 100% a smart move.

Mm-hmm. Agreed. Gally. Although smart, but also there is an element of pettiness there. that I can, frankly, I can really get behind. Mm-hmm. Like, agreed. Agreed.

Well, uh. Anyway, from that being said, another Pyrrhic imperial, everything, another, it's going to get worse, and more imperial people shooting themselves in the foot and the face. Mm, Pyrials. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Oh, it's described as eternal conflict.

And so the ad rickification It was a hellhammer all along It was a hellhammer all along All right See you next week See you next week everybody