"On 414.830.M41, the Siege of Vraks was officially declared at an end. The Administratum scribes that had recorded the first shells fired now completed their report, closed the thick tome into which they had scribbled every detail of the war and sealed it with their stamps, not to be re-opened before it reached the headquarters of the Lord Militant Obscurus. He in turn would see copies made for his own archives and then forward the Liber Vraks Obsidius to the great central Administratum archives on Terra for final processing.
The projected twelve standard year campaign had lasted almost eighteen Terran years. It had seen the deployment of 34 Krieg regiments, and the loss of an estimated fourteen million Guardsmen of Krieg. The enemy losses were likewise massive. Eight million souls on Vraks bad been caught up in Apostate Cardinal Xaphan's misplaced ambitions, and now almost all had been purged from the galaxy. Exact numbers of enemy losses could never be known but the vast majority now lay in the charnel pits and mass graves of the Van Meersland Wastes. There were also tens of thousands of prisoners. All were now to be vetted by the Ordo Malleus interrogators. Those found to be beyond redemption would face execution for their crimes. Others would find themselves shipped to far-flung penal colonies and work camps, there to aid the Emperor's realm with their hard labour.
Vraks itself had been ruined by the war. Nothing of value had survived the siege. The planet's infrastructure had been destroyed in the endless artillery duel. The Citadel itself was gone. Later, the Krieg Engineers saw to it that anything that had somehow survived the battle was leveled.
The surrounding landscape was a nightmarish vision of total war, littered with the detritus of many past battles. The tank hulks would gradually turn to rust and slowly moulder into the ground, as would thousands of kilometers of razorwire. The trenches retained their dug-outs and bunkers. Below ground, the labyrinth of tunnels hacked out by the engineers would also remain abandoned, deserted and silent.
Crossing the Van Meersland Wastes remained dangerous long after the armies had gone. There was still many hidden minefields and unexploded shells buried in the mud. Worse were the chemical weapons still liyng unexploded, or a sudden storm might reenergise ground soaked in poisonous chemicals that would billow up to form new deadly fogs of greenish gas, drenched in acid that could strip flesh from bone. The shattered remains of the three outer defence lines also remained -- smashed bunkers and pillboxes testament to the ferocity of the fighting that had destroyed them. Vraks was now a world beyond reclamation. If the Departmento Munitorum ever hoped to rescue the planet as an Armoury World it was to be disappointed in that ambition. The original armouries were all gone, destroyed in the fighting. The supplies were also gone, used up by the war. Little of anything remained to be reclaimed.
In the years to come the Ordo Malleus would conduct a long review of what had happened on Vraks, and it was Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex's conclusion that the Vraks System should be interdicted. Automated sentry warnings were to be positioned to warn starships away, and periodically Imperial Navy patrols would sweep through, making sure the system did not become a haven for pirates and aliens. But the planet and its star system were no longer of any value to the Emperor, save as a memorial to the valour of those who had fought and died there for the sake of Mankind."
Third OWAC completed with three Epic armies done, 903 infantry (or cavalry) models, 76 vehicles or artillery and one small gaming table for a total of 8000+ points in less than 6 month.
Krieg's Army
Khorne and Renegades
Yeah, I will brag about this at my club for a couple of years, at least.
This project was a dream that I kept postponing for quite times, and was almost on the verge of selling all the stuff, but thanks to this competion, each year I find the strenght to complete something from my ever growing pile of shame.
Thanks OWAC, you and our Mighty Overlord truly are a secret government project for sleep deprivation a source of motivation!
There are still many other Epic models in the pile of shame, but I doubt I'll paint other small scale models in the next month.
..Legionis Imperialis? What's that.. OH SHI..
See you in 2024, bones are rattling, Warp engines are flaring and armies are moving, let's see which will win