Battle of Corrin

Though the Butlerian Jihad was deemed officially over following the Great Purge, the armies of the League of Nobles remained busy guarding the planet of Corrin - the last haven of Omnius. The deadlock continued for some 20 years, with the thinking machines unable to break free and the League of Nobles unwilling to use sufficient force to deal a final blow.

Two key events rekindled humanity's interest in destroying Corrin once and for all. First, and most significantly, the arrival of Piranha Mites - non-gelcircuitry machines which attacked humans on Salusa Secundus and Rossak; secondly, the cymek defeat by Vorian Atreides. After the League came to the realization that the thinking machines could still strike at humanity Vorian Atreides used the situation to push for a final strike against Omnius.

After a formidable League of Nobles' military force arrived at Corrin via conventional space travel, and joined up with the existing 'watchdog' fleet, the battle began. The combined League's battle group was three times larger than the watchdog fleet, and included large space-faring battleships, smaller Kindjal vessels, conventional ground troops, fanatics of the Cult of Serena, and mercenaries from Ginaz.

The thinking machines, under the control of the two Omnius incarnations SeurOm and ThurrOm and the consultation of Erasmus, were hard-pressed to fend off the fleet after more than two decades of attrition. With Corrin having been strip-mined, few natural resources remained, which limited their ability to regenerate combat equipment and personnel. In a desperate bid to repel the League forces Erasmus recommended that some 2 million human slaves (including a clone of Serena Butler) be put into orbit and linked with the pulse satellites that keep the thinking machines on Corrin. Erasmus then warned the human forces that should they pass the limit, the cargoes would explode, making them responsible for the deaths of two million innocents.

Erasmus' had hoped that this "shield", the Bridge of Hrethgir, would weaken the resolve of the free humans. But Vorian Atreides' determination to defeat Omnius at any cost saw him order the forces through the defense network, a decision that was protested by a horrified Abulurd Harkonnen. His disgust led him to disobey direct orders and disable the automated weaponry of the fleet.

After discovering their lack of artillery, the furious Atreides decided to use Pulse Atomics against the defense forces and push forward. Upon crossing the threshold that should trigger the death of the 2 million slaves, the fleet is happily surprised to see nothing occur. The trigger had been defused by Erasmus upon his discovery that his human ward Gilbertus Albans had joined his beloved Serena Butler clone in orbit.

The League battle group progressed through three lines of space defense before gaining clear access to the surface of Corrin. After defeating ground-based defenses they descended to the planet's central city to destroy the Omnius incarnations.

Rayna Butler with some Cultists descended prematurely in the heat of the battle to fulfill their "mission", along with mercenaries and Istian Goss.

When the orbital battle opened a way, Supreme Bashar guided his command shuttle toward the center of the main square of Corrin's primary city; the remnants of the mechanical army massed in a protective formation around a central shielded dome and sent a wave of kindjal attack flyers against the last stronghold of Omnius, softening it up and removing any ground robot defenses. However the dome "healed" itself with each blast, sealing a flowmetal layer over the gap, but finally it crumbled under the massive detonations by Ballistas.

The next move after Vor landed, was for the Ginaz mercenaries, who would complete their surgical strike. Viceroy Faykan Butler had also landed and was strutting around the battlefield, surrounded by other nobles (who wanted history to record that they had been there personally) while enraged Cultists of Serena raced through the city in an orgy of destruction.

Then Vor learned that Reyna was buried under the citadel he just bombarded; engineers and soldiers supported by Ginaz mercenaries went for the rescue when suddenly the plaza cracked open; like a snake bursting out of its hole, the silvery, tentacular growth of the Central Spire lunged out of the rubble and shot skyward. It formed a parabolic dish and vomited a flash of light,through the atmosphere out into space, and splattered into puddles across the broad, rubble-strewn plaza.

After Rayna was found alive, the mercenaries arrived at their target with three surgical pulse-warheads. Vor and the Viceroy retreated with all of the other personnel, standing at a safe distance. The battle concluded with the destruction of the last surviving thinking machines and the liberation of many of the surviving slave humans.

• The final vestiges of thinking machines were destroyed, and a commandment emerged that forbade the creation of machines in the exact image of a man's mind.