Third Rangdan Xenocide

The **Third Rangdan Xenocide** was the third major war of the Imperium of Man against the Rangdan Empire. This was the largest of the wars, with elements of five Legions involved, the Emperor himself, four Primarchs and millions of troops. The result was the apparent total destruction of the Rangdan, whole systems being devastated, significant loss of manpower and material, but the Imperium was triumphant.

## **Events**

### The Enemy Rises

After the Second Rangdan Xenocide, a large contingent of troops remained and fortress worlds were ordered for construction. Araphel left a company of Iron Revenants in the region to oversee the operation and deal with any Rangdan that remained. For almost two decades there was little activity, with no Rangdans being found and more and more forces being drawn away from the sector to fight on other fronts. The defences progressed slowly, with little urgency and increasing bureaucracy leading to only the bare minimal being constructed. Astartes garrisons were replaced with Imperial Army skeleton crews, and the Imperium moved on.

There were the occasional reports of soldiers going missing, nothing on a scale large enough to raise the notice of the authorities. Local planets developed stories around the boogeymen, of tentacles snatching away naughty children in the night. Scanners would sometimes see blips indicating unknown ships moving through the sector, but no actual evidence was found. This may have continued for decades, but after a few years a chance inspection of a mundane world changed everything. On the world of Lutatune, a planetary governor recently elected had run on a platform of security, as a string of kidnappings had scared the capital city. Organising the PDF forces to help solve this issue, he unwittedly awoke the Rangdan cell on the world, which proceeded to slaughter the inhabitants. The governor managed to send an alert to the commander of the system who immediately began scrambling forces. The Rangdan on Lutatune also sent a signal, informing the other cells and the main forces that they had been revealed and that Imperial forces would be massing. Across hundreds of worlds in multiple systems, the Rangdan swarmed the local inhabitants, easily defeating the local forces and stripping the worlds of resources. Large Rangdan fleets began heading into the sectors, with the smaller cells streaming to the more heavily fortified locations.

### A Desperate Defence

The Imperial forces attempted to hold the line, but the forces available were completely inadequate and the Rangdan were striking further east than they had previously, bypassing the fortress worlds constructed. The very few Imperial Army garrisons were overrun, with no survivors being recorded and it was only years later during the purging that what the Rangdan had used the soldiers for was discovered. Several systems fell in swift succession, with the north of the Imperium under threat of collapse.

The first legion to respond to this threat were the Dune Serpents, whose shattered forces in Segmentum Obscurus swiftly moved to harass and contain the Rangdan. Though Azus was not in Obscurus, Salihmali Nafasnari Al’Shaba ben Alrrabeshr was there with around a quarter of the legion, and began probing the Rangdan fleet to see its response. The Rangdan chased the small bands of Dune Serpents for a short distance, but refused to be drawn far where they could be ambushed. Salihmali sent calls to the War Council and his Primarch, knowing this situation was far out of his control and his forces could do little but inflict minor damage on the fleets.

The first reinforcements that could reach him were the Imperial Army forces, but Salihmali scorned them as useless against the Rangdan, and did not change his strategy of avoiding major confrontations. Soon a Primarch did arrive to take charge, though it was not the one Idirmali had expected. Kejene Teward Reiner, Primarch of the Midnight Host, leading both the Midnight Host and the Marauders of the IIIrd Legion, brought significant forces including Knights and Titans. Faced with numerous fleets across various sub-sectors, not even the armada of the XVIIIth could take them all on. He thus determined to attack the fleet that was heading for the largest pocket of resistance in the Rangdan’s way: the Industrial World of Aten III.

Aten III was where the Dune Serpents had been resupplying during their raids, and the majority of the Imperial Army reinforcements who had arrived were stationed there. The Rangdan were heading there to crush this growing force that if left unchecked would be able to get behind the fleets. Salihmali put the Dune Serpents in front of the Rangdan fleet, buying time for Kejene to reach Aten III. With buying time the goal, the Dune Serpents fought in brutal void combat, unleashing all the chemicals and poisons they could and overloading several ships to take the Rangdan down with them. Salihmali’s flagship, *Mua'hulud*, being one of the last ships remaining, fought a brave rearguard action, evacuating as many troops as possible, led by the 91st Company under Idir Al’Wahiwatis. Finally, knowing that all was lost, Salihmali ordered a head on assault and dove into the centre of the Rangdan forces, blasting apart enemy ships as the *Mua'hulud* was torn to pieces. His sacrifice had paid off, though, as Kejene reached Aten III and deployed his heavier elements.

### The War Widens

The Rangdan fleet threw itself at Aten III, but the Midnight Host, Marauders and remaining Dune Serpents now had the upper hand in the void battles. The guns of the Imperial forces ripped through many Rangdan hardships, and any boarding attempts were shut down by the Hosts’ Terminators and vicious Marauder counter-attacks. The Rangdan stopped their assaults after suffering these defeats, and the Imperial troops raised a cry of victory in Kejene’s name. Kejene did not rest on his victory, sending an immediate report to the War Council and calling for more reinforcements as the troops were rearmed and restocked.

Based on previous Rangdan behaviour, it was assumed that the Rangdan would retreat to regroup and come back stronger. As such, Kejene left the battered and heavier vessels stationed over Aten III and led a faster fleet commanded by himself in his Gloriana Battleship, the *Helios Pertinax*. As he reached the furthest planet in the Aten system, which was positioned currently in front of the Mandeville Point to the next system, Kejene ran into the Rangdan fleet. The Imperial scanners detected significant activity on Aten V, but the sheer weight of numbers forced the Imperial fleet back. Skirmishes continued at a constant low-level intensity within the Aten System as Kejene fought to reach Aten V again. With the strength of the Midnight Host fleet growing everyday as Kejene summoned the full might of his legion and the numbers of the Rangdans seemed to grow to match them. There were many minor victories for the Imperials, with the *Helios Pertinax* claiming many kills and the Marauders under Legion Master Isak Kiriev proved their fearsome reputation well-deserved. The Imperial forces were bolstered by their second major outside reinforcements, as regiments of the vaunted Vasalius Terra Heredes arrived under their supreme commander Benedict Purechild. They arrived just in time to be involved in a resurgent Rangdan push.

The Imperium was not idle to the threat of the Rangdan, and the Emperor decreed the ultimate sanction against them, declaring that they were to be wiped from the Imperium and never return. To this end, he ordered the Iron Revenants, The Riven and the most destructive elements of the Dune Serpents to assemble in full legion strength and decisively defeat them. This was the largest concentration of Legiones Astartes forces in the whole Great Crusade up to that point, led by the Emperor himself. However, it was not only the Imperium that had gathered its strength, as both the number and the destructive capabilities of the Rangdan fleets were much increased as well, and it took the Emperor’s direct leadership to prevent a Rangdan fleet ravaging the Askellon Sector, with several hard fought battles where the Emperor fought on the front lines and slew some of the largest Rangdan Osseovores and Slaugth Murder-Minds. It was not only the Emperor who turned the tide, as he brought with him weapons as yet unseen anywhere in the Imperium. The Titans of Ordo Sinister strode at his side, rumoured to have been designed especially to deal with the Rangdan Macrobeests and Osseiovores.

On the other side of the war fronts, Araphel led a large contingent of the Imperial forces in brutal, methodical extermination campaigns, systematically destroying any worlds where the Rangdan had gone to ground. The battles on that front were titanic, with heavy casualties on both sides and some of the most brutal moments of the whole war. It was at the Battle of Rahiri that the Thandrian Sons first fought for the Imperium, being on the front lines of a Rangdan assault that decimated the Imperial line before Araphel’s direct intervention drove them off. On the world of Banvopra, Morrigar and most powerful psykers of The Riven unleashed the most destructive of their psychic might against hordes of xenos, turning them into ichor and vapour with a flick of their hands and the air itself was hazy with the psychic energy on display. Many worlds became the graveyards for whole regiments of the Imperial Army and companies of the Legiones Astartes, and scrap yards for Titans and Knights. Nevertheless, the might of the Imperium refused to break under the onslaught of the Rangdan, and Araphel and Morrigar pushed the Rangdan back.

### The Battle of Aten III

The Rangdan Assault on Aten III began with the battle in the void around the world, with the combined Imperial fleet arrayed to block them. It was in the opening shots of the battle that the Rangdan revealed what they had been doing on Aten V. The Midnight Host’ Battle-Barge *Price of Salvation* was hit by a single shot of pure darkness and was atomised, as the centre corroded and collapsed. In the centre of the Rangdan fleet, a series of huge, hulking behemoths moved slowly towards Aten, rivalling even the *Helios Pertinax* in size. The Rangdan fleet parted, and huge cannons were revealed on the front of the ships and they unleashed thick streams of an unknown energy. The world of Aten IV, which had long been contested between the two sides but had recently come under the Imperium’s control, imploded, the surface cracking and then disintegrating inwards. Kejene made them a priority target, and focused his forces on opening up a gap in the Rangdan battle line. Smaller ships aimed at distracting the Rangdan or opening any small gaps, but the Rangdan were able to easily repel them. The Imperial fleet drove forward in a speartip, taking heavy losses as heavy frigates and battle cruisers disintegrated under the concentrated fight of the Rangdan seeking to blunt the assault. As even grand cruisers’ and battleships’ shields failed, Kejene used the firepower of the *Helios Pertinax* to force a crack in the Rangdan fleet and focus the fleet on forcing the gap. Knowing that the gap could only be kept open with heavy losses, Kejene ordered all of his Battle Barges to stop the Rangdan to close them. As the *Helios Pertinax* led the charge through, they disgorged waves of boarding torpedoes towards the gigantic Rangdan ships. Despite the loss of many of the torpedoes, and many Battle Barges being destroyed, the Marauders led by Legion Master Kiriev himself landed and tore a bloodied path through the ship. The combined Midnight Host’ mastery of Zone Mortalis warfare and savagery of the Marauders cut through the xenos vessels and located the core of the ship. A strange, bio-mechanicum engine groaned, pulsated and churned, and the Imperial forces fired their most destructive weapons into it.

The results were near instantaneous, as the ship began to die, the outer hull rotting as the engine melted under the melta fire of the Marauders. With a howl of victory, the Marauders cut their way back to their Storm Eagle and the Imperial forces withdrew. The Rangdan aboard went into a berserk craze, slaughtering the retreating boarding squads and throwing themselves at the landing sites. Many Midnight Host sacrificed themselves to buy their brothers time to escape, with only a dozen Storm Eagles escaping and fewer still surviving the journey back to the *Helios Pertinax*. The monstrous ship expired, the outer flesh falling off the ship and the carcass was suspended in space. The Imperial fleet pushed into the gap and split the Rangdan fleet, the Rangdan panicking in the wake of the loss of their grand weapon. The Rangdan eschewed tactical manoeuvring and all at once rushed the Imperial fleet, disgorging Rangdan boarding forces. These attacks were desperate, simply aiming to overwhelm the Imperial forces with their numbers. The Imperial forces pushed the Rangdan back, suffering losses but now sensing that victory was near. Kejene led his sons in person, cutting through the Rangdan in the corridors of the *Helios Pertinax* with ease. The majority of the Rangdan fleet was broken in this engagement, and only a small number were able to flee the system.

### The End Nears

With the fleets of the Rangdan broken, the Imperial forces were able to surge forward, reclaiming the worlds taken previously by the Rangdan. This heralded an end to the war, with the Emperor gathering the Imperial forces and making for the outer edge of the Rangdan Empire. Several artificial space stations, named Rangdan war-moons by later Remembrancers, were discovered, the largest of which was above the six worlds of Alvers-mors. The Emperor took the Riven and Dune Serpents with him to tackle Alvers-mors, and Kejene and Araphel were sent to cut out the supporting war-moons. The Iron Revenants and Midnight Host launched brutal, frontal assaults against the war-moons and small defence fleets, with little space for cunning strategy. Despite taking losses, the legions were successful, destroying the fleets and then virus bombing the stations and igniting the surface. At Alvers-mors, the Dune Serpents, majority of the Riven and Imperial Army regiments engaged the Rangdan fleet and orbital defences, whilst the Emperor and Morrigar, alongside the Riven’s Hierarchs, gathered on the bridge of the Bucephalus. Extending their psychic will outwards, a beam of pure psychic energy coalescing and then rocketing into the battle station. Hitting the huge stores of fuel deep within the war-moon, the fuel ignited and ruptured, the world cracking under the size of the explosion. With the war-moon permanently crippled and the Rangdan fleet pushed off, the Imperial Army forces began the process of taking the worlds of Alvers-mors. The Terran Vasalius Heredes distinguished themselves on Alvers-mors Secundus, spearheading the assault and claiming the world in the Emperor’s name.

With the worlds of Alvers-mors cleansed, the Emperor handed Araphel an order of extermination for the remainder of the Rangdan Empire, and departed to take command of another front in the Great Crusade. Dozens of worlds had been scoured, hundreds of thousands of Imperial Army soldiers and thousands of Space Marines had been killed, but the Imperium had crushed the Rangdan Empire. The legions remained purging worlds and performing bio-pogroms for several years after this, leaving each with a dark mark on their reputation for years to come. The Xenocides profoundly affected all the Legions which participated. The ways in which these effects manifested, however, would vary wildly from Legion to Legion.

## Legacy

The Legion that came away from the Xenocide with the greatest reputation was the Midnight Host. With many pict-captures and accounts of their bravery and self-sacrifice being circulated, the nobility of the Host was only heightened in the eyes of the Imperial citizens. For the Marauders, the Xenocide was their crowning victory, hard-won as it was, but one that stoked an already overweening pride. Therefore it can be argued that their triumph in this campaign set them on the path to near censure.  For the Riven, Iron Revenants and Dune Serpents, the Xenocide was a vindication to varying degrees of their methods and worldview. For the Western Horde of the Dune Serpents in particular, the Xenocide proved a bonding moment for many within the Horde, forming the origins of the later-known Viper Fangs. The Halcyon Wardens perhaps benefitted the most from the Xenocide, as their non-involvement helped them grow to become the largest legion and keep their golden reputation intact.

## **List of Forces Involved**

### **Legions**

* Iron Revenants, led by Araphel
* Marauders, led by Legion Master Isak Kiriev
* Dune Serpents, led by Azus Bahmut and Salihmali Nafasnari Al’Shaba ben Alrrabeshr
* The Riven, led by Morrigar
* Midnight Host, led by Kejene Teward Reiner

### **Titan Legios**

* Legio Mortis
* Legio Gryphonicus
* Legio Reavas
* Legio Kydianos (Death Cry)
* Legio Vulturum (Gore Crows)

### **Imperial Army Forces**

* Vasalius Terra Heredes
* 163rd Cohort of the Solar Auxilia, the Cthonian Basilisks
* 297th Cohort of the Solar Auxilia, the Storm Spears
* Thandrian Sons, led by Marshal Adelar Tauber
* Korrikan Steam Troopers
* Jurrakan Cavaliers
* Skiirad Cohort

### **Mechanicum Forces**

* Forces from Forge World Yivadus
* Forces from Forge World Xana II