And they all use WINGED HUSSAIRS.
"Hive Gemischersatz was a quaint village by Imperial standards, containing mere hundreds of millions in its medial habrings. It was fortunate in a way, that over the proud course of Planet Cinnabar's history, the difference between fortified walls and civilian hab-towers had become blurred. No one knows exactly when His Majestic Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Paramount Commander Karafa Pask of the Order of the Noted Femur started worshiping amongst the lot of heretics, but for that matter no one ever really cared about what the government was doing. Which is a bit of an arse scrape because all I did was sell off-license grox-cream and yet the arbites still managed to find out who was doing it, all in all I'm glad they were a bit distracted by the sudden appearance of Pask's armies outside our door."
- Sarch "Muffin Man" Mustapha
"Capturing Hive Gemischersatz was one of the most significant strategic ambitions of Karafa Pask. Despite being a mere fraction of the size and population of Pask's own home Hive Malgheim, Gemishersatz was the principle western port to the dusty sea and sat upon the planet's largest extant promethium reserves; capturing it would be the key to launching naval assaults upon all remaining Hives and towns of Cinnabar IV. As Lord Paramount Commander of Cinnabar IV, Karafa Pask had overseen extensive logistical improvements to the roads and bridges connecting Gemischersatz with Malgheim, and had gradually consolidated much of the Planet's Planetary Defence Forces under his own banner. The conquest of Cinnabar IV should have been a quick and bloody campaign."
- Remembrancer Arthur Bludwyn
"When Mayor Coronis ordered the garrison at Gemischersatz to open fire upon the Planetary Defence Forces at the Dragon Gate, he was unaware they were heretics.
He believed they were coming to remove him from office for embezzling the Lord Commander's tribute."
- Inquisitorial Committee C43.
"The Main Karafite army laid siege to Gemischersatz on the 40th of Felsite, the same day Karafa Pask sent the traditional demand for surrender to the city - with one amendment, stating that resistance would lead to the entire Hive being sacrificed to the blood god. It was a surprisingly polite letter, though I noticed the parchment was written in blood."
- Herald Donsinger, before his execution. Inquisitorial Committee C43.
"Mayor Coronis declared himself Lord Mayor of Cinnabar IV, his hasty command over the Hive's security forces and hab blocks led to the timely fortification of the city just in time to blunt the Karafite vanguard's assault. His emotional speech detailing to all the citizens how the fellows in red and skulls were coming to flay them and desecrate the Emperor's name convinced all to place their faith in the Mayor's excellent abilities, surrendering all of their property to him and dedicating their lives to his cause. Without him, Cinnabar IV would be fallen."
- Seneschal Kay.
"It was the Mayor, or suicide."
- Sarch "Muffin Man" Mustapha
"Karafa Pask led the main body of 4 Malgheim Mechanized Regiments, 37 Indentured Legions, 81 Regiments of the Cinnabar Rifles, followed by Commander Gav Trost & 111 Regiments of the Malgheim Militia, 30 Batteries of the Vesuvian Bombardiers & 3 precincts of Adeptus Arbites; most Adeptus Arbites remained loyal to the Imperium and continued to fight the Chaos uprising deep within Hive Malgheim.
The initial bombardment lasted only three days, the ferrocrete outer limit walls subcontracted to the cheapest bidder, barely posing any resistance to the relentless salvoes of mortar shells and earthshaker rounds. The shells continued to fall long after the outer walls fell until a path was cleared through all the hab-blocks standing between the heretics and the inner Hive. Karafa Pask swore to raze all of Gemischersatz to the ground upon discovering Mayor Coronis had filled the lower hab slums with refined prometheum, creating a firestorm so potent no living thing could survive unexposed for more than a few minutes. The smoke from the burning of the slums still causes black lung disease to this day. Upon realizing that the Inner Hive would remain defiant, Karafa Pask ordered the Vesuvian Bombardiers to reduce the Innner Hive to rubble. Discovering that the Inner Hive was protected from bombardment by Lord Mayor Coronis's palatial void shields, Karafa ordered an immediate assault by the mechanized, ███████ and aerial components of his rebellion. Valkyries dropped traitor guardsmen and ordnance from above, hoping to destroy the void shield generators. Chimera APCs drove through the black smoke, crushing flame afoot to bring war to the Inner Hive. Summoned ██████ fell upon the wall."
- Remembrancer Walter Mentlee.
"The Karafite Rebellion cut off Hive Gemischersatz from the grox plains and kelp trenches of Amanra, any loyalist ocean convoys attempting to enter harbour were shelled by enemy basilisks occupying the Edin Horn, cutting the jugular of the straits of Tako. As the other Hives wrestled with the conflict between traitors and loyalists, it remained clear that Gemischersatz could expect no reinforcement. Hunger began turning to desperation as the population rapidly decreased. Lord Mayor Coronis declared that any citizen found guilty of cannibalism was to be immediately shot. The Karafites continued their assaults without respite, the Inner Hive's ancient walls smoldering red through the smoke from the ceaseless discharge of so many lasguns. Every breach in the wall was filled with rubble by the garrison, yet their labours grew further wearisome with time. Fatigued, exhausted and ready to perish from defending Gemishersatz so well, the Hive was close to extinction."
- Commissar Quibirion Falfa,
maintaining civilian morale.
"During the early Winter, the Cinnabar Rifles successfully breached the inner wall at the Emperor's Fist Bastion, the Marketeer Bastion and the Last Burg Bastion. Occupying each breech, the defending garrison launched suicidal assaults to regain the walls; they succeeded in recovering all breeches except at the Last Burg, where the Cinnabar Rifles had effectively entrenched themselves. Anticipating that the walls would soon be overrun, the defenders of Gemishersatz withdrew to the Lord Mayor's Palace. The surviving inhabitants incapable of withdrawing turned to the notorious Penny King gangers for protection, the city's remaining militia preparing to fight within the Innver Hive's streets and rubble. As the Karafites prepared for the third phase of their planned siege, word reached the General Staff of Lord Mayor Coronis that the Karafite rearguard had been attacked by an Imperial force of just 6,000 men."
- General Frederick Leuthen
"You couldn't tell if it were day or night, not anymore. The smoke saw to that, and if you stood still too long outside, the ashes would bury the eyes on your mask. My platoon was fortifying the Budapest Hotel when our Vox Caster heard someone barking an order, wasn't in an accent I knew. Definitely off-worlder. Said they were Commander Victor of the Death Korps of Krieg's 7th Winged Hussars, and they wanted us to regroup & assault the enemy for the Emperor's mercy. None of us wanted to go out into the blackness again. Don't get me wrong, none of us were afraid to die, we'd settled our scores long ago. We weren't scared that our good friend the Commissar was going to shoot us for disobeying either.
What scared us was that when our Commissar heard that voice... It was the first time we'd seen our Commissar afraid."
- Platoon Leader Lewis Rossbach
"I was a Serjeant of the 13th Gemischersatz Militia, we fought our way to the Marketeer Bastion alongside the irregulars of those bloody gangers. Swear, saw one of them have his arm blown off, but he was too jumped up on psycho to notice. They fought us for every inch of soil though so I was happy to have them on our side. When we reached the Marketeer Garrison we weren't prepared to find survivors. Burnt, caked in black ash and black blood, if they stood still or collapsed it didn't take long for you to mistake them for the old statues in the Emperor's Basilica. We wanted to relieve them and send them back. They looked like they hadn't seen sleep in weeks. Probably true for most of them. We took them with us into the burning lowerhive, they didn't seem to have the strength to refuse. Our medic said if we let them sleep they wouldn't wake up again, so to help them die standing would be the best mercy we could give them."
- Sejeant Rubali Simmons
"'I don't remember much. My arms were stiff, I couldn't pull the trigger on my lasgun, I couldn't drop it. We stepped from the walls and into the lowerhive. I stopped being cold, it was too hot. Fires still roamed here and there. Visibility, shit. Saw a traitor guardsman walk through the smoke. 5 metres away, I thought he was charging, he was running away. One of his friends shoots him in the back. I shoot him too. His friend can't see me in the smoke but he knows I'm there. He walks the wrong way and I lose sight of him. I don't know why, I follow, it's too late I realize I'm lost and I can't find anyone. At this point I'm beginning to think we've been tricked, the enemy had been pushing us back non-stop and now all of a sudden they'd drawn us out. I'm beginning to panic and I can't breathe in the bloody mask. I keep walking until I can't walk any further, I've fallen by a big pipe, I can't get back up again. Malgheimers come marching by, a Leman Russ at their centre, I don't know where they're going but they think I'm dead.
I hear it, and they hear it too.
It started as a whistle. The traitor guard halted, setting up defensive positions. They sent a squadron out to reconnoiter, and it did not return. The whistle grew intense, a howling wind cutting at the smoke, a hideous scream torturing the air before the dull thunder of mechanical hoof and roaring chainswords connected with bone and tore at the sinew. When it was done, for it was done so quickly, I heard silence for the first time in so long, quiet but for the sound of my own heart. I did my best to stand, and I saw one of them appear from the smoke. It towered over me, man and beast, all of it steel with a heart of war, its lance raised as it judged me no foe. Its armour shone, its wings carried the light, I thought I saw the Emperor's angels in that charge; looking at it I could see nothing behind the death mask's glass eyes but my own reflection.
I couldn't salute, I wasn't sure if my arm was broken, so I stood to attention. The figure returned a salute, and I pointed in the direction the traitor guardsmen had gone.
Just like that they vanished.
I never saw the Krieg's 7th Hussars again.'"
- Dataslate recording of Militia Rating Kopec, Inquistorial Committee C43.
"All was lost all planetside, THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!"
- Grox-cream van song, often heard playing in Gemischersatz
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