Camenox Crusade

Armorial of the Solar Falcons.

The **Camenox Crusade** was one of the first recorded Imperial campaigns conducted by the newly formed Solar Falcons Space Marine Chapter. This campaign occurred early in their existence, taking place in 039.M32 on the Imperial world of Camenox in the Segmentum Solar. The chapter would see its final penance to erase their legacy of shame from the time of Horus, and the horror of this crusade would forever cement the Chapter's religious beliefs and savage demeanor.

## Background

#### The Last Holdouts

A large force of the Sons of Horus Traitor Legion, now calling themselves the 'Holdouts of Horus', had forced the planet of Camenox to help the Warmaster and was still under their control. Most of the population had, by this point, converted to the worship of chaos to survive. That is except for an underground resistance, known as 'The Last', that did its best to undermine the heretics but were seen as little more than vermin skulking in the underhives. When the Solar Falcons arrived into the system they found a seemingly desolate area covered in hills and away from the hives and known heretic fortifications that would make a perfect drop site.

#### Drop into Hell

As expected orbital defense fire erupted from the surface as the Falcons closed in onto drop pod range. When their fleet got within range the entire chapter deployed en masse to quickly strike at the enemy before they could mount a real counterattack. but as the bulk of the drop pods and Thunderhawks reached the edge of the atmosphere, cultist piloted fighters swarmed from a hidden hanger near the drop site and destroyed most of the vanguard and much of what followed with suicide attacks, over a third of the chapter and most of its ground vehicles was wiped out by the time the last of the surviving elements had landed. The remaining Falcons gathered around their Lord Castilian, surrounded by entry vehicles & the debris from those that were destroyed, and prepared for the incoming heretic assaults. In space, their fleet was hammered by enemy warships moving to defend the planet, with few marines left in space many of their ships fell easily to boarding actions or were picked off from massed barrages from the surface and heretic voidships.

#### Last Stand on Castilian Hill

The few vehicles they had were put to use for scouting and hit & run attacks on the enemy forces, while the rest of the Falcons used what they could for cover as the heretics came upon them. Though the heretics had more astartes and were backed up by thousands of cultists, they could not overwhelm the Falcons or their position. For hours they fought a savage and desperate melee that should have wiped them out but somehow a defiant core of them had beaten back the tide of heretics. Each one of the Chaplains & Librarians voxed hymns as loud as possible to keep the faith of their brothers strong, soon every Falcon was screaming hymns and religious oaths while slaughtering & dying alike. Eventually a second force of heretic forces were seen approaching from the opposite side of the first, along with the slow heavy armour columns of tanks and personnel carriers they were escorting.

#### Templars Cometh

While the ground forces were fighting the fleet was down to its last few warships, the Fleetmaster had contacted a nearby loyalist force right after the disastrous drop pod assault and before the flagship he was on was destroyed, a crusading fleet of Black Templars. They arrived right as the second ground wave was sighted and quickly moved in to add their warriors to the fight, as well as orbital fire support to keep the heavy armour back. As the second heretic wave faltered under the counterattack the Falcons redoubled their fury and held their position until the Templars were able to fend the rest of the heretics off.

#### Aftermath

This crusade would take another two decades before Camenox and the surrounding system was clear of heretic forces, in the process massive genocides were committed against most of the local population found in order to keep any spread of chaos from happening. Much of their time during this crusade was used as outriders for the larger Templar force. After the final chaos lord was killed, the Lord Castilian claimed the planet as their new homeworld and set about rebuilding their brutalized chapter, less than 200 of the original 1,000 Astartes that dropped, survived the crusade. The resistance groups known as 'The Lost' were allowed to live on and repopulate their homeworld, but they and all future generations on Camenox would toil in the planets hives to repay the Chapter and the Imperium.