Taskforce Onyx

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+++CLEARANCE: Cobalt+++

+++DATE: Error: [Warp Transit]+++

+++RED NN. 468673-5+++

+++BY: Lord Inquisitor Sangfroid, Baine Amihan+++

+++SUBJECT: Renegade Warband, Astartes, Threat Uncertain+++

<ACCESS GRANTED>

+++STANDBY FOR DIRECT UPLINK+++

Imperium Tolerandum, Lord Inquisitor Sangfroid, my compilation of data has yielded results that are approaching total. I have compiled a number of datasets for you to peruse at your leisure. What value my extensive research has to our current circumstance is clearly not for me to define, but my feelings align to one of your favourite lines: ‘Whether it is right by any law of morality or destiny, the sins of the progenitor will always fall upon the inheritor’. So it is that we look to the past of the Blades of Onyx, these insignificant mercenaries, that have had some value to us in the past, are so much older than we dared theorise on. They predate our Ordo, the Inquisition entirely, they have roots during the Great Crusade. They have more of an idea, a tangible vision, of the very future we work towards. Donec Iterum Conveniant, Inquisitor Arachus.

+++DATE BURST COMPLETE+++

"*At its peak in the early 31st Millennium, some 203 standard years after it began, there were 4,287 primary Expedition Fleets engaged upon the business of enforcing Imperial Compliance and extending the Imperial aegis across the galaxy as well as 60,000+ secondary deployment groups involved in regulating Compliance or Imperial occupations.
 A further 372 Expedition Fleets were regrouping or refitting in the Sol System or other Imperial hub star systems or resupplying as they awaited new orders. Some 4.3 million Remembrancers, official Imperial artists and journalists, were sent out with these fleets in the final days of the Great Crusade to record for posterity in pictures, words and music all that the Imperial warriors of the Crusade were accomplishing in the name of Mankind.*"
—Remembrancer Yhomas Myesicina on Expedition Fleets, in 'A Brief Overview of the Great Crusade'
The year is 839.M30, and the 99th Expeditionary fleet is mustering, drafted in response to worrying reports of a xenos empire in the distant Ghoul Stars [Attached: Kythros Dominions]. Over three dozen similar expeditionary fleets have already been dispatched across the Galaxy in a short time and reserves are running low across each legion. As no single legion can spare the required 10,000 Astartes, the numbers will be made with contributions from all of them. Sixteen Legions answered the call with various degrees of success or generosity, those of the Revenant Legion [Precursor to Blood Angels], Star Hunters [Precursor to Star Hunters, and Space Wolves did not; The Revenant Legion were nearly destroyed and had no forces to offer. The Star Hunters were spread thin operating across the galaxy and remained aloof to their strategy [Though as you will later see, they did amend their objectives inline with the Expedition's mission]. The Space Wolves' poor relations with the Armada Imperalis relegated any volunteered forces they did offer to only be called upon if there were no others available, ultimately they are not required. Retroactively we acknowledge that the 'Ghost Legion' contributed no forces to the Expedition, but the Imperium were not aware of this force at the current time. I can conjecture that the forces of the 'Lost Legions' were present amongst the '14' Legions that provided forces for the Expedition. Naturally the anomaly that is the 2nd and 11th Legion have been censored, in this case into further contributions of the Ultramarines, but with scrutiny and analysis I have surmised their details wherever possible.

"*For your convenience I have summarised the following context: The Emperor had been reunited with 11 of his sons; with Leman Russ, Ferrus Manus, Rogal Dorn, Vulkan, Fulgrim, Roboute Guilliman, Alpharius, Horus & the forgotten 2nd Legion Primarch. Both of the Lost Legions are still active, and the Rangdan Xenocides have yet to take place.*"
—Comment, Arachus

# The Talons of Xenaphi

Officially designated the 99th Expedition Fleet, it would be more widely known and referred to by the designation ‘Taskforce Onyx’, the latest in a line of fleets similarly given monikers with the running theme of gemstones. However another name would become popular within the 99th Expedition Fleet. It was rare that such a diverse gathering of the Legions had taken place, and their elected leading Praetor, Xenaphi of Saiza, was insistent that the Astartes were a single element, not a divided force. The fleet was marked with a unifying colour scheme to respect the leading fleet detachment, ‘The Children of Thunder’. Likewise every Astartes bore a ceremonial tilting shield embedded with a layer of Onyx stone protected by armaglass. Finally the 10,000 warriors came together and as a single entity forged 10,000 'Onyx Blades', each warrior forging the Blade for another of the taskforce. This bond would be the first of many, and ‘broke the ice’ between the distant Legions. The act was a famous one, a sight to behold, and the attached remembrancers ran with the imagery in a number of works. The 99th Expeditionary Fleet, Taskforce Onyx, was soon known by many as the Crusade of 10,000 Blades.

"*As a chronicler with the benefit of hindsight I offer another name, the 'Talons of Xenaphi'*"
—Comment, Arachus.

## Timeline

The events of the 99th Expedition Fleet that I have compiled are divided into eight acts, reflecting the divisions between historical accounts and authors, with the first four acts taking place in the Great Crusade and the last four occurring during the Horus Heresy.

## Order of Battle

In all, two fleets of the Armada Imperalis joined one Explorator fleet and fourteen Astartes fleets to create the combined fleet designated ‘Dorem Facit’. At it’s core were three Courageous Class Vessels; a Battleship and two battlebarges. The Anabasis, hailing from the Armada Imperialis, would be the flagship of the fleet, with High Admiral Crult Alypsar taking overall command of the entire fleet.

The Armada Imperalis fleets were the “Children of Thunder”, which included the Anabasis as well as another Battleship, four Heavy Cruisers, two cruisers, and respective escorts. They were joined by the ‘Radiant Horizon’ that consisted of a Starfort and escorts. While the Radiant Horizon, Knight Houses and Akotaine kept their own colours, the Legion fleets would adopt in part the colours of the Children of Thunder upon their warships to show their solidarity with another.

The Akotaine brought one of their Ark Mechanicus, and two Heavy Carriers with escorts, as well as further auxiliaries and an asteroid Mining Station. In total three independent Knight Houses joined the Taskforce, attached to no Legio of Titans. They each brought enough vessels to transport their forces, and escorts to guard them. House Stryden brought a single family, an extended lance, accompanying the Ultramarines. House Imahara brought two Barons and their vassals in support of the Akotaine. House Valerious sent one Baron and their vassals in support of the 'Children of Thunder'.

A division of Legio Aethon was assigned to the Taskforce, which included two Warlord Titans, a mixed squad of heavy and battle Titans in their support and further escorts to them. Four squads of the Knight House Luentus accompanied Legio Aethon to support their three Scout Titan squadrons. They had their own escort fleet but outside of a number of particular battles they never contributed to naval battles and were considered part of the ‘baggage fleet’.

For the sake of brevity, the combined fleets of the Astartes Legions contributed two Courageous class Battlebarges, six Battlebarges in total, four further Battleships, a Grand Cruiser and five Heavy Cruisers, a small void station and in total forty four strike cruisers; As well as innumerable escorts attached to each of these fleets.

In support of the Legions was a sizable detachment of the Imperial army. Several hundred regiments in all would support the Astartes in their typical role at first. Notably as the Expedition dragged on the Imperial Army was relied on for more and more operations of their own, and their reputation grew. Two dozen regiments of Saiza's finest, the Baikaros Rangers, joined thirty of the Keltan's airborne regiments in support of nearly a hundred regiments of the Solar Auxilia. Further small contributions included the Corsaegans, Lucifer Blacks, Jovian Ironborn Clansmen, Keltan and Heliosan Guardians.

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