Carmine Heresy

Armorial of the Hussars Sanguine, Parent chapter of the Traitorous Carmine Reavers

## Campaign

### Attacker

Carmine Reavers
Cultist Allies

### Defender

Hussars Sanguine (Initially Alone Prior to Reinforcement)
Angels of the Blade
Palatine Vindicators
Praetorians of Blood

### Segmentum

Obscurus

This war marks the moment that it became known that the Carmine Reavers had gone to Chaos, starting with an ambush on a Hussars Sanguine task force before being driven off by their parent Chapter's reinforcement fleet. This fleet was surprisingly comprised not only of Hussar voidships but also a sizable detachment of Angels of the Blade, Praetorians of Blood, and Palatine Vindicators.

## War's History

### Before the Heresy

After millennia of loyal albeit blood soaked service to the Imperium of Man, the Carmine Reavers were slowly becoming more secretive and less communicative to allies, as the Hussars Sanguine themselves are a very reclusive chapter this was not surprising. Unknown to the Hussars or the Imperium, the Red Thirst was running far more rampant in the Reavers than even the Hussars and pushed more than expected into the Death company, with almost 2 full companies at its largest. There was also a growing chaos cult within their very own Sanguinary priesthood that was already beginning to spread to the rest. When this cult fully took hold of the senior officers, they started raiding nearby planets for blood and flesh when their recruiting worlds could no longer meet their demands. A small purge of those who refused to follow their brothers down the road to damnation followed this decision. Slowly they brought their forces back from war zones and pulled as many aspirants as possible from their recruiting worlds, pushing their numbers above that allowed 1,000 astartes, as well as conscripting or outright enslaving as much of their populations as they could to crew their fleet and to feed upon them when needed. The heretic Priests corrupted this population, those that would not submit were the first to be used as cattle.

### Setting the Trap

Once their purge of loyalists was completed, those that were left decided to plan an assault on their hated parent chapter, the Hussars Sanguine. To that end they lured a task force of Hussars, lead by Count-Primus Alcar himself, to help fight entrenched heretic forces who were actually allied with the Reavers. A cover story involving several companies of Reavers dying or missing following a failed head on assault on the nearby hive the heretics were using as a base, these warriors were actually positioned to ambush the loyalist forces at several locations. Along with these astartes were countless cultists waiting all over the hive meant to be assaulted as well as in tunnel networks that were dug under the surrounding badlands that contained the planned landing zone.

### The First Shots

Once the Hussars made planetfall, a vanguard force consisting of around half the 1st Clan, the Carmine Reaver's orbital blockade bombarded their landing zone on the surface, as well as open firing on their void assets and taking out several escorts and a cruiser before any response could happen. From the bridge of the *Walcha Impala*, Alcar could not believe the sight he was witnessing, his grief almost as strong as his fury. He quickly gathered his remaining voidships together and became a loose space hulk of overlapping shields and weapon systems, using the formation to buy time and find a way out of the quickly devolving situation. After several tense hours he spearheaded his flagship into the blockade while his fleet followed suit, guns blazing as they fought to clear the kill zone surrounding the planet. Once within the system, both sides went into a series of ship to ship combat an boarding actions. Alcar knew that this style of warfare was the Reaver's speciality but had no other option but to buy time until his signaled reinforcements arrived.

### Reinforcement & Conclusion

While the Carmine Reavers held the initial advantage in the war, most of the Hussars deployed to the surface having been almost totally wiped out from the orbital barrage and subsequent ambushes on the ground, slowly the rest of the Hussars Sanguine arrived in system and reinforced their brothers. With them came several companies each of the Angels of the Blade, Palatine Vindicators, and the Reaver's fellow successor chapter of the Hussars, the Praetorians of Blood. Together the loyalist forces were able to counter attack the Carmine Reavers who then fled the system into the warp, leaving a planet full of cultists that would be purged in Exterminatus by the Hussars Sanguine. Combined from all sides almost 900 astartes died by the end of the war.