Hades Crusade

The Hades Crusade was a massive conflict that took place in the Gaerenthaos Expanse, a large region of Imperial space located within the Segmentum Ultima of the Imperium Nihilus. As a result of a conflicting nexus of honour, treachery, politics and greed, several Space Marine Chapters turned Renegade against the Imperium and bloodshed and outright civil war ensued -- a war which turned entire armies of the Imperium's most powerful warriors against each other and in doing so swept millions to their deaths in its turbulence. This conflict was the result of the arrogance and hubris of a single man, the Cardinal Astral, and de-facto Sector Lord of the Gaerenthaos Expanse, Jeremias Verigant. Angry over the increasing limitations on his power in the wake of the Great Rift and the return of the Primarch Guilliman, he was able to manipulate the High Lords into declaring the Chapters of the vaunted Rift Warders heretics, hoping in the aftermath of their destruction that he could take full control of the Sector without the interference of the Adeptus Astartes. It is not entirely clear how Verigant managed to convince the High Lords that these stalwart Chapters had turned against the Imperium, but he was known to be a very skilled and persuasive leader who earned immense personal loyalty amongst his peers and subordinates. The rebellion was eventually put down by the forces of the Astartes Chapters who had remained steadfast in their duty to the Emperor of Mankind, but it would draw in millions of military forces from the Imperium and result in the destruction of several worlds and deaths of billions within the sector, leaving this region of space a desolate wasteland and vulnerable to the predations of others.

## Origins of the Conflict

### The Tygrathos Zone

Situated along the Halo Stars within the Gaerenthaos Expanse of the Segmentum Ultima, the region of the galaxy now known as the Tygrathos Zone was first explored during the Great Crusade of the 31st Millennium. Within the Tygrathos Zone lies the Mortrior Rift, the Mortrior Rift is a Warp Rift that scars both the physical universe and the fabric of the Immaterium beyond. The Tygrathos Zone covers an area many hundreds of light years across, and its presence in space is marked by a vast, slowly turning gyre comprised of nebulae, dust and stellar material in which countless stars and worlds have long been lost to the Empyrean. The wealth of the worlds bordering the Rift has drawn Mankind to the Tygrathos Zone time and again despite its manifold hazards and difficulties, and indeed there is ready evidence of humanity's presence in the region as far back as the Dark Age of Technology. The Tygrathos Zone has also drawn humanity's enemies as well in their countless number and diverse loathsome forms.

During the Great Crusade, the vast armies of the Emperor of Mankind attempted to penetrate the Mortrior Rift and cleanse it of the evils that lurked within. Hundreds of warships and thousands of troops were lost in these attempts, one final campaign to conquer it was launched in the months preceding the Horus Heresy, the Primarch Vulkan of the Salamanders Space Marine Legion was given command but before much progress could be made Vulkan and his Legion were to recalled to Istvaan to bring the Traitor Horus to heel. During the Great Scouring in the years following the Horus Heresy, Primarch Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines Space Marine Legion decided that the inhabitants of the Mortrior Rift were too great a threat to the shaky stability of the recovering Imperium to ignore, and ordered the surrounding regions reinforced in an effort to contain any attacks that might originate from within.

As the Millenia passed, the Imperium began to slowly establish several important outposts within the Tygrathos Zone during the 38th and 39th Millennia. These outposts became flickering beacons of human influence and strength within the region. Several vital star systems within the Zone formed bastions of safe space that allowed the resources of the Tygrathos Zone to flow into the coffers of the more established Imperial sectors beyond. As the situation in the Tygrathos Zone became ever more volatile, this path of Imperial commerce came increasingly under threat.

By the middle of the 41st Millennium, the flow of Heretics emerging form the Rift had increased exponentially, the heavily militarised Hive World of Hethgallrosh located in the star system of the same name and the most populated planet in the northern Tygrathos Zone had come under attack from without and from within. Having long been a lynchpin of Imperial control of the region, Hethgallrosh was a key strategic world, forming a bulwark against aggressors and serving as a safe port for Imperial merchant and naval vessels. In the year 614.M41 disaster struck, when, with the suddenness of an onrushing storm the planet rapidly fell into bloody civil war between its Imperial garrison and a Chaos Cult backed by the Heretic Astartes of the Invocators. Only the intervention of the Swords of Jaghatai Space Marine Chapter, which itself had made a home in the nearby Wraith Stars prevented the world from being completely overrun but still the death toll rose exponentially into the millions. Faced with defeat the Invocators enacted Exterminatus upon the World, cyclonic torpedoes wiped out all life on Hethgallrosh. With the fall of this key world, Imperial control of the northern Tygrathos Zone swiftly crumbled. Without Hethgallrosh, along with other Imperial losses suffered in the region over the previous few centuries, the area became infested with Heretics, forcing the Terra to act.

### The Rift Warders (701.M41-078.M42)

In 701.M41, the High Lords of Terra pronounced an Edict Imperialis in response to these dire predations, ordering two Space Marine Chapters to permanently base themselves in the Tygrathos Zone in order to protect the Imperium's interests and pacify the region much to the anger of the Ecclesiarchy who had long held de-facto control of the Gaerenthaos Expanse from the Shrine World of Gnosax. In recognition of their past glorious service to the Imperium, the Void Claws Chapter was given the high honour of the senior role in commanding the newly formed Rift Warders. This force was to also include the Swords of Jaghatai who were based in the nearby Wraith Stars while the Promethean Drakes, though not a part of the Rift Warders pledged themselves to aid the Warders whenever called upon. The Void Claws themselves took over the World of Grimaos and built their fortress-monastery within the massive Ramilles Star Fort that orbited it. In order to aid the Rift Warders a detachment of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Melchanrak was permanently assigned to the region to conduct search and destroy and convoy protection duties. Under the Rift Warders the Imperials soon scoured much of the Zone clean of the heretical and xenos elements that had plagued them.

The greatest single operation during these times occurred during the Tyrex Campaign from 740.M41-743.M41, in which the Void Claws and their allies conducted a series of major combat operations, striking at an Ork WAAAGH! that threatened Gnosax, Void Claws Chapter Master Tyrrad Sigisnorn personally beheading the Warboss that led it. Despite the Astartes saving his world the Cardinal Astral, and de-facto Sector Lord of the Gaerenthaos Expanse saw his grip on power at risk but while the Astartes remained within the Expanse nothing could be done.

Spurred by this success, Void Claws Chapter Master Tyrrad Sigisnorn submitted a formal and lengthy petition to Terra, making a detailed case for completely subduing the Mortrior Rift and the surrounding area, which would greatly benefit the Imperium in the long term. In order to achieve this, Sigisnorn advocated the deployment of several more Space Marine Chapters to the Warder's ranks, suggesting even that a new Founding might even be warranted to meet the needs of his plan. Unfortunately, Sigisnorn petition was dismissed without full hearing on the grounds that the requirements of the Imperium were better met elsewhere.

### Opening of the Rift and the Rise of Jeremias Verigant (Late M41)

The waning years of the 41st Millennium marked a seismic shift within the Galaxy, in the aftermath of the 13th Black Crusade the Great Rift formed and split the Galaxy in two, many thousands of worlds were lost during these cataclysmic events. The massive outpouring of warp energy also had a profound effect upon the Warp Storms that plagued the Galaxy, dozens more were created while those that already existed fond themselves swelled by warp energy. The Mortrior Rift was to grow exponentially during this time and threatened to envelop the entirety of the Tygrathos Zone, in response those Chapters that encircled it now joined the Rift Warders, these included the Chapters of the Baleful Spectres, the Star Griffons and the Astral Lions. It was hoped that these added forces would provide an even greater defence for the Gaerenthoas Expanse.

The final years of the 41st Millennium also marked the emergence of Jeremias Verigant. Verigant was originally a servant of Cardinal-Astral Orm and when the aging Cardinal finally perished Verigant succeeded him as a member of the Ecclesiarchy's Holy Synod, the Imperial Church's ruling body. Going on long pilgrimages to many worlds, his passionate sermons and charisma made him a popular figure throughout the Gaerenthaos Expanse. Even before his ascension Verigant had long chafed at the presence of the Rift Warders, angry at their refusal to bow down to his demands and their blatant spurning of the Imperial Creed.

In the aftermath of the Great Rift and spurred on by his chief advisor Scirk, Verigant set about an audacious plan to remove the Rift Warders from the Gaerenthaos Expanse, he first began planting spies upon the most important worlds of the Expanse while setting in motion events that convinced them to withhold the Imperial Tithe as well as paying both Human and Eldar Pirates to attack Imperial Shipping while blaming it on the Rift Warders. To further cement his power, in a massive reorganisation of the uneven and often isolationist native planetary defence forces in the region into what would become known as 'Rift Guard Auxilla' using the pretext of a potential Chaos raid from the Rift, this was accomplished using third parties in order to isolate himself from these events. Second he used falsified documents and vox-calls under the cover of the Chaos that resulted from the Great Rift to convince Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn that he had been authorised to increase the number of Astartes within his Chapter in order to completely scour the Mortrior Rift clean resulting in the Void Claws numbering some 2,000 battle-brothers strong at the outbreak of the War.

By 078.M42 Verigants plans had come to fruition, in an act of treachery that would be remembered for Millenia he petitioned the High Lords to declare all Imperial forces within the Tygrathos Zone traitors, using the evidence of the events he himself had instigated to convince them. He claimed that Rift Warders and their allies had fallen to Chaos and were preparing to launch an attack that could destabilise the Imperium Nihilus. Convinced of their guilt the High Lords immediately ordered all available forces to destroy these Traitors and return the Gaerenthaos Expanse back into the Imperium.

## Hades Crusade

### The War Begins (078.M42)

At the direct request of the High Lords, elements of the Hospitallers Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes were sent to investigate the disappearance of Imperial shipping in the areas to the galactic south of the Montsedoom Wastes, which made up the southern reaches of the Tygrathos Zone. In the past, the Hospitallers Chapter had used the vast orbital dockyards of the world of Zorotach for resupply. It was during their patrols of the Montsedoom Wastes where the entire War could have been avoided had events not turned out the way they did.

During their investigation in the Aeratoron System the Hospitallers unders Captain Ancus Augustandar encountered the Strike Cruiser Rapturous Sword, part of the Astral Lions Chapter, in his subsequent report Augustandar noted that the Lions showed no hostility to them and did not even power up their weapons, completely at odds with what Augustandar had been told of them. When the Lions enquired as to his presence in the System, Augustandar informed them that he had been sent to investigate Imperial Shipping losses within the Zone and that the Rift Warders had been declared traitors, even over the Vox Augustandar could feel the confusion and shock in the Lions as they heard this news. The Astral Lions captain Demias Delgedrecht offered Agustander a parley on the nearby Planet of Mordrian's Reach, there he said the mistake would be put right. The parley proceeded smoothly, both side set out what they knew and it looked like their might be an accord when the event known as the Betrayal at Mordrian's Reach was enacted, an Imperial Navy Ship that happened upon the parley opened fire, in the confusion neither side claimed to have knowledge of the ship and both sides would blame the other and soon the parley would break down into open fighting. Although both sides escaped with trivial causalities a line had been crossed, the Astral Lions returned to their domain convinced that they had been betrayed, a scene that played out within the Hospitallers as well and both sides believed the other to be the Traitors, War was now inevitable.

Following the Betrayal at Mordrian's Reach both sides began to plan their next moves, the Rift Warders began to fortify worlds within the Tygrathos Zone while the Hospitallers, reinforced by 3 company's drawn from the Marines Errant began their own preparations in earnest. Knowing they could not attack the Rift Warders directly due to the overwhelming disparity in numbers they began by attacking the outlying systems in the southern reaches of the Tygrathos Zone. Conducting search and destroy operations in the southern reaches, Captain Ancus Augustandar dispatched several starships towards the Wraith Stars, an area of space long under the stewardship of the Swords of Jaghatai. One such vessel, the Herald of Angard, entered the Skerrit system in 078.M42. When the Herald of Angard entered the System, they were intercepted and surrounded by Swords of Jaghatai vessels. Ever fierce and  proud, they were goaded by the Marines Errant refusal to allow them to board amid accusations, insults and threats of reprisal and opened fire, inflicting heavy damage upon the lone cruiser. With this single act, the full-scale conflict between Space Marine Chapters that was to follow was ignited. The Swords of Jaghatai boarded and captured the Herald of Angard, but the engagement was brutal to the extreme as both sides took heavy casualties. Less than 20 Marines Errant were captured alive, and none surrendered, but their struggles brought time for an Astropathic message to be dispatched to Augustander warning of their fate and who they had fought. To Agustander their could now be no doubt as the Rift Warders actions proved to him that they had turned from the Emperor, immediately he sent word for aid, the Hades Crusade was now under way.

### The Chapters Gather (078.M42 - 079.M42)

Over the next few months a major deployment of Space Marine forces was brought into the war at the request of Captain Ancus Augustandar. The first to arrive were the Astartes of the Fulminators who deployed their 3rd and 8th Company's, followed quickly by the entire Lions Malevolent Chapter,they were soon backed by Battle Companies drawn from the Omega Marines, Howling Griffons, Brazen Consuls, Storm Giants, Storm Hawks and the surviving members of the Hospitallers and Marines Errant Chapters.

Further Imperial support came in the form of the Loyalist elements of Battlefleet Melchanrak, troops of the Astra Millitarum and Sisters from the Order of the Ember Thorn.

Assuming command as the Magister Militum; a "first amongst equals" Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel Chapter Master of the Lions Malevolent set out his plan as regard to the Rift Warders. Given the inherent dangers with conflicts between Space Marine Chapters and their relative autonomy from direct Imperial control, Vendreel's first command was to deploy his own Lion Malevolant along with the bulk of the Battlefleet Melchanrak warships to conduct a series of offensive strikes and feints into the Secessionist controlled regions to gauge their resistance. This resulted in the heaviest naval engagement of the war to date, at the indecisive Battle of the Silent Void early in the conflict, when the fleet of the Star Griffons clashed with the loyalist Battlefleet Melchanrak and elements of the Lions Malevolent fleet in the barren void between the Caleilior and Temrius star systems.

This engagement proved inconclusive with both sides suffering damage but few losses of any major ships by both sides, only the Luner-Class Cruiser Lord Harrici and the Mars-Class Battlecruiser Tempestus Umbrea were lost, the Tempestus Umbrea having been destroyed by the Star Griffons flagship Aeternus Ira while the Lord Harrici was boarded by the Star Griffons Strike Cruiser Ardent Fury and subsequently scuttled. The Loyalist fleet broke off from the engagement into the Warp soon afterwards, leaving the Secessionist's to claim a tentative victory. A dozen such engagements occurred in a short space of time during this period.

Following these inconclusive engagements, the Loyalists quickly moved to stop the Secessionist advance during the early part of 079.M42, most notably within the Charybdis system where a force from the Secessionist elements of Battlefleet Melchanrak was destroyed by the Omega Marines in orbit over the planet of Charybdis Proxima. The Hospitallers however were forced to withdraw from the Ghedak System as the Baleful Spectres made their presence known, first attacking the 5th Company on Ghedak VI while in orbit the Baleful Spectres Battle Barge Cruor Simulacra Viro nearly destroyed the Adamant Pride and crippled the Silent Vow. Other Secessionist forces under Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn of the Void Claws captured most of the Heterazost Cluster including the stragicaly vital world of Garganthet, it's garrison falling within a Solar Day.

### Seccesionist Gains (079.M42 - 081.M42)

Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn's next viable target of opportunity presented itself in the form of the Skorgothold System. Skorgothold VI was an important world as several of the major Warp-Routes into the Tygrathos Zone exited at the System and it was also one of the primary supply centres in the entire Sector, capturing the World would force the Loyalist to use the much more dangerous and unstable Typhula route, hindering both resupply and reinforcements. Furthermore, its defences and garrison were weaker than the heavily reinforced Calthoga System. Led by the Astral Lions the Secessionist made quick work of the planets defences, capturing the world within a week of the operation beginning.

The next attack was launched against the Hive World of Danor, garrisoned by the Astra Millitarum it was considered a formidable target but Sigisnorn deployed the entire Star Griffons Chapter which first captured the 2 orbital Stations above the World and then struck at the Astra Militarum defences, breaking them and subsequently capturing the World. With Danor taken the Loyalist's were forced to divert forces and attempt the recapture of Danor, led by Lord General Erasmus Sturheim, the 23rd Assault Army was swiftly despatched to the System which had now been garrisoned by the Rift Guard Auxilla. Confronting the reformed and reorganized human troops in open warfare for the first time, the Loyalist's had greatly underestimated them, the 23rd Army was stymied in their attempt to take their defences. Though they managed to capture the orbital stations the 23rd were unable to break through the Rift Guards lines and resorted to increasingly bloody attacks upon them.

Despite the attacks the Secessionists maintained control of Danor, and shortly afterwards further ill news came to the Loyalists, informing them that several that several military convoys had been attacked and scattered by an unknown warship that later proved to be the Void Reaper of the Baleful Spectres Chapter. They also received more disturbing news in regards to the fate of the World of Ryzoca, a world famed for it's vast orbital dockyards, the reports stated that it had fallen to the Astral Lions, granting the Secessionist control of the largest manufacturing centre in the sub-sector. Located too deep within enemy territory to mount an effective relief operation it would remain under control of the Secessionist's for several years.

### Firebombing of Colchagus Primus (080.M42)

The event known as the Firebombing of Colchagus Primus would go down as one of the most terrible moments of the entire war. Colchagus was located on the border of the Tygrathos Zone and thus far it had remained unclaimed by either of the warring sides. Late in 080.M42 an unknown vessel slipped into the system, arriving above the world it ignored all attempts at communication, remaining stationary in orbit for hours it finally reacted, it unleashed the planet-killing weapons known as Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo's, in seconds the world was an inferno as the atmosphere itself ignited devouring everything in a blistering conflagration that seared all signs of life from the world, turning metal into molten slag and rock to glass. It's task complete the unknown vessel departed, both sides would come to blame the other for this atrocity but it's true architect would not be known for some years.

### Loyalist Reinforcement (081.M42)

By the beginning of 081.M42 the progress of the Loyalist Chapters had ground to a halt, dozens of separate actions had already been fought but the Loyalists were unable to advance further due the strength of the Rift Warders, however the situation was to change rapidly thanks to the combined actions of the Storm Hawks and the Marines Errant who attacked the vital world of Gorgatek Epsilon, defended by elements of the Rift Warders themselves. At the same time the Loyalists were bolstered by fresh forces from Adeptus Mechanicus, including Titans from the War Griffons as well as increasing numbers of Astra Millitarum but the most significant forces to arrive was the Angels of Purgatory Chapter, who immediately lent their support to the attack on Gorgatek Epsilon as well as carrying out probing attacks into the region of the Heterazost Cluster and against the edges of the Garganthet System, maintaining pressure on the Secessionists. Another Chapter of Astartes would soon arrive in the Tygrathos Zone, a terrifying precursor to what was to come.

## Wrath of the Loyalists

### The Wrath of the Revenants (082.M42)

The powerful Chapter of dark renown, the Revenants, arrived in full strength in the Tygrathos Zone in mid-082.M42. They announced their presence in the war by launching a full Chapter-scale assault on the Secessionist controlled mining facilities on Phyron, wiping out the 100,000 strong Rift Guard Auxilla garrison and rendering the mine-works unusable. Afterwards, the Revenants sent a ship with a representative and officially presented themselves to the Loyalist council of war. Their master, the infamous Lord Glorion remained with his Chapter to raid through the Tygrathos Zone in order to decimate rather than conquer a pre-planned list of resource production sites within the region in order to starve the Secessionist war effort. While the Revenants Chapter ceded overall strategic authority to the war council of the Loyalist Chapters already engaged in the conflict, they deliberately stayed largely aloof and distant from its general chain of command. The Revenants' Chapter Master Lord Glorion never put in a personal appearance at the war councils, and the only evidence that he served during the Hades conflict at all came from pict-footage recovered from battle sites and fearful stories spread by the few Secessionist survivors of the Revenants' brutal attacks.

Though the arrival of this savage Chapter was cautiously welcomed by the Loyalists, they undoubtedly couldn't deny the considerable strength that would be added to the Imperium's cause. The conflict was in its fourth year of open warfare, and the Revenants committed their entire strength to the war; ten companies and eleven capital ships of various types. While the Chapter coordinated their efforts with the Loyalist command, they operated largely independent throughout the conflict, striking targets as they saw fit. The Revenants attacked indiscriminately, attacking not only the sixty-plus Secessionist-controlled minor worlds and stations, but also overlooked independent minor outposts. Operating largely independently in the southern Tygrathos Zone, the Revenants proceeded to strike targets amid the Heterazost Cluster and later the Pale Wastes and Phantom Stars border regions. The viciousness and sheer bloodthirstiness of the Chapter's reputation for leaving no survivors among those that resisted them quickly grew, and remained uncontested until the arrival of the possibly even more brutal and savage Flesh Rippers Chapter.

Only the warships and strike forces of the Baleful Spectres seemed able to fight the Revenants' on an equal footing, the two Chapters seemingly relishing the battle between them as a kind of bloody sport. For the remainder of the year, the Revenants gained several important victories for the Loyalist cause, destroying the Rift Guard Auxilla force on Cindron and Nihandreum's Fortress, and forced the Secessionists to withdraw or risk having their worlds isolated and ravaged one-by-one. Within one third of a standard year of the Revenants arrival in the region, the direct and collateral damage caused by their forces reduced the human population of the Heterazost Cluster alone by more than 20 percent. The power of this Chapter quickly proved a decisive weight in the Loyalist's favour regardless of its brutal methods.

By the end of 084.M42, the Secessionist forces had begun to be pushed back from several key systems and suffered severe losses. In the northern-central Tygrathos Zone, the battle for Melchost Gamma between the Void Claws and a joint force of Lions Melevolent and Brazen Consuls eventually resulted in the Loyalists successfully taking the system. To further add to the Secessionists' dreadful losses at this point, was the loss of Purgior V, which finally fell after a assault by the Revenants. As the Angels of Death fell amongst the beleaguered defenders, their end was swift and brutal, and by dawn Purgior V was in Loyalist hands as the Rift Guard Auxilla was put to the sword.

### Draventel Campaign (081.M42 - 083.M42)

While the fighting on Gorgatek Epsilon raged, Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel preppared his next moves, first the Heterazost Cluster had to be retaken of the Loyalists had any hope of victory, the resulting Campaign would involve the largest fighting of the war so far and result in the loss of over 10 Million Guardsmen while the vital systems of the Golazost's Haven would need to taken before an advance on the inner worlds of the Tygrathos Zone could be attempted.

Gathering his forces including elements from 6 Chapters including 3 Company's from his own Lions Malevolent, Vendreel struck against the secessionist forces in the Heterazost Cluster, first striking at Jourek where he put over 100,000 of the Rift Guard Auxilla to the sword. Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn reacted swiftly to the threat posed by  the Imperial attack, dispatching over a thousand Astartes and 6 Million of the Rift Guard under Khan Tarathio Crohnius, Chapter Master of the Swords of Jaghatai to the Cluster.

#### Arkhon III (082.M42)

Arkhon III was a Feral World of poisonous fens and corrosive jungles. This heavily contested world soon turned into a savage battleground as the Lions Malevolent and the Angels of Purgatory Chapters clashed against the Swords of Jaghatai, Void Claws and Star Griffons amid the tangled and often lethal vegetation. The war on Arkhon swiftly developed into a series of hit-and-run engagements of ambush and counterattack. The battle lines on Arkhon remained non-linear, save for a few scattered landmarks of half-overrun Explorator bases and old smugglers' outposts. The outcome of such vicious fighting was uncertain and a high amount of casualties were sustained on both sides. Arkhon remained a contested world of vital strategic importance due to the planet being one of the few life-sustaining worlds in the region. The Secessionist forces were finally displaced from the planet at the end of 083.M42 and the system reclaimed for the Loyalists.

#### Garganthet (083.M42)

The desert world of Garganthet had fallen to the Secessionist's early in 079.M42, it is a world of vital impotance to the Secessionist forces as it has vast reserves of promethean, it's loss would severly hamper the Rift Warders. The Storm Giants, supported by Titans and the Tanks of the Astra Militarum engaged the Promthean Drakes with their own Titan and Rift Guard Auxilla support what became a brutal war of attrition, and it was only at great cost that the Imperial forces emerged victorious.

While the Battle's of Arkhon and Garganthet were the largest single battle's of the Draventel Campaign they were by no means the only ones, on Rhorschrius Bastion the Baleful Spectres and the Revenants fought each other to a bloody standstill, neither side willing to quit the field while at Davrus II the Promethean Drakes and the Brazen Consuls battled for weeks over control of the Orbital Stations. However in the Yrnis system, disaster befell the Imperial Crusade when elements of the 23rd Army of the Astra Militarum were surrounded and eventually destroyed by the Rift Guard Auxilla, 3 Million Guardsman falling in the brutal year long battle. A thousand other battles on a hundred worlds were fought during the Campaign as the Imperial Crusade wrestled control of the Heterazost Cluster from the Secessionists.

### Gorgatek Epsilon (081.M42 - 083.M42)

The battle for Gorgatek Epsilon, a fortress world located to the galactic north of the Heterazost Cluster was initiated as an attempt by the Imperials to hold back the Secessionist advance in the area. Gorgatek formed part of the Secessionist defensive line and like all fortress worlds it was manned by a vast standing army, the attack was intended to dilute the Secessionist strength by forcing them to withdraw forces from their advance in order to defend this vital world in what would eventually become the largest armoured battle of the war. Elements from the Storm Giants and the Marines Errant had attacked early in 081.M42, first displacing the Secessionist fleet in orbit before landing in force, reinforced by other units including forces from Adeptus Mechanicus, Titans from the War Griffons and tanks of Astra Millitarum they battled the Promethean Drakes, Star Griffons and the Voids Claws, backed by their own Titans and Rift Guard Tanks for control of the vast plains outside the citadels while strike groups from the Storm Hawks assaulted and took control of the citadels themselves along with the orbital defences. In all over 600 Astartes, 100 Titans and 40,000 Tanks would fight over this barren world, eventually ending in a costly but vital Imperial victory.

### Dyneddran Campaign (081.M42 - 083.M42)

Fought concurrently with the Draventel Campaign, the Dyneddran Campaign, though smaller in scale was of no less importance. Two separate Imperial advances were launched into the western edge of the Tygrathos Zone, Captain Cadoven of the Storm Hawks led the largest of these advances against the Thantengian and Gehandrras Systems while a smaller force would move into the Wraith Stars, long under the control of the Swords of Jaghatai. This second attack would result in failure as the Imperial force was unable to bring the Swords to a decisive battle, instead being bled dry in a series of hit and run attacks and following their defeat at the Battle of Zelorn IV the Imperials withdrew from the Cluster in order to preserve their forces and support the attack on Skorgothold VI. The main advance against the Thantengian and Gehandrras Systems was a resounding success although warning signs about the actions of the Revenants were beginning to appear.

#### Gehandrras (083.M42)

The Battle of Gehandrras was a brutal and bloody engagement and a high amount of casualties were sustained on both sides, fought amongst the Hives of the toxic world. The Revenants led by their Chapter Master Lord Glorion engaged the Void Claws in a series of skirmishes leading up the Batle of the Bloody Hive where the Revenants unleashed their Death Company, the blood-crazed Marines joined by their by now maddened Battle-Brothers from the Battle Companies slaughtered both the Void Claws and innocents alike, their rage only abating when their was simply no one left to kill.

Following their defeat in the Draventel Campaign and the partial defeat in the Dyneddran Campaign, the secessionists withdrew back to their fortresses in the Wraith Stars and on  Skorgothold where they would soon come under brutal attack by the Loyalists.

### Second Battle of Skorgothold VI (084.M42)

The Second Battle of Skorgothold VI was a major planetary assault undertaken in 083.M42 during the Hades Crusade that drove the Secessionists from their fortresses in the Skorgothold System which the Secessionist had taken early in the war. The assault was carried out by the largest combined Loyalist force fielded to that point during the Hades Crusade.

This offensive utilised the massed strength of the Lions Malevolent, Storm Hawks and Brazen Consuls Chapters supported by assault-specialised forces drawn from the Angels of Purgatory and the Hospitallers and led by the Magister Milliterum himself. The Secessionists would heavily reinforce their defences in order to avoid giving up the strategically vital Skorgothold System, sending 11 Astartes companies to aid the defences.

The fighting proved to be bloody and costly in the extreme and resulted in the highest death toll of any single engagement of the war to this point in the conflict with the year long battle resulting in the loss of over 600 Astartes, along with 5 Million mortal troops and thousands of war-machines falling as well along with the loss of several key Secessionist warships during a failed counterattack on the system.

The successful invasion of the Skorgothold System proved to be a major turning point of the war. After the system fell under Loyalist control it became the primary Imperial base in the Tygrathos Zone, affording the Loyalist offensive greater access to the primary stable Warp routes into the region while denying those routes to the enemy. This Loyalist advance also effectively forced the remaining Swords of Jaghatai forces into a purely defensive posture, isolating them from their Secessionist allies.

Shortly after the end of the campaign, Skorgothold VI was used as a supply point in order to fully support the start of the planned Khurea Suppression Campaign.

### Secessionist Forces forced onto Defence (084.M42)

The loss of Skorgothold VI was a major blow and when combined with the defeat in the Mezernit System the Secessionists were forced onto to the defensive, their area of control effectively cut into two separate Zones. In the western Zone the Swords of Jaghatai withdrew back to their domain within the Wraith Stars while the Baleful Spectres and the Astral Lions made for the Pale Wastes and the Phantom Stars and in the eastern Zone the Void Claws, Promethean Drakes and the Star Griffons consolidated their still formidable forces in the Stavrae Cluster. As the War entered it's Seventh Year, little did the Secessionists know, a force whose name would go down in infamy for the bloodshed and terror it was about to unleash were mere weeks away.

## Blood will Out

### Blood in the Void (085.M42)

Arriving without warning in 085.M42 an unidentified, fire-blackened Space Marine Strike Cruiser identified itself with ancient, though still valid, Imperial authorisation protocols. It was the Blood Shrike, and its coming heralded the arrival of a force whose name was to become synonymous with bloodshed and the darkest acts of the Hades Crusade. The unidentified Space Marine force had come to offer its aid to the Loyalist cause against the Secessionists, claiming to have come in answer to a summons from Terra itself. They identified their Chapter as the Flesh Rippers and formally requested the Loyalists' acceptance and permission to enter the war zone and draw blood. They offered a parlay on a nearby moon. Leading a single squad the Lions Malevolent Chapter Master Zakaras Vendreel met with these unknown Astartes and though he was wary of them, his Chief Librarian stated that he believed that they were not followers of the Dark Gods but nor could he be certain they were followers of the Imperium. The Flesh Rippers' Force Commander Mica Vulkov presented Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel with Notices Patent provided to the Chapter affirming the rights and titles issued to it by several High Lords of Terra and Chapter Masters now long dead. Over the course of several hours the two parties conversed until finally Vendreel was convinced that the Flesh Rippers were true to the Emperor at least, and so, Vendreel, the Magister Militant or supreme commander of all the Loyalist forces, accepted the Flesh Rippers presence in the Crusade, although he was still wary of their loyalties. The Flesh Rippers' reappearance, as if predators drawn by blood, when the Hades Crusade was to enter its most deadly stage seemed to many a suspect one at best.

### The Vorgolus Campaign (085.M42)

"'**We Surrender, by the grace of the Emperor, We Surrender, TELL THEM TO STOP'**"
—Last Transmission from Machula Primus
By 085.M42, the Swords of Jaghatai had withdrawn back to their home in the Wraith Stars to reconsolidate their forces in preparation for the next stage of the war, Vendreel recognised the folly of leaving them undefeated at his flank as the Loyalists turned their attention to the forthcoming Khurae Campaign. The 'Magister Militum' had already considered a change in his deployments in order to mount a renewed offensive against the Wraith Stars, but with the arrival of the Flesh Rippers, Vendreel had been offered an unexpected asset to deploy, and so he let loose their savage ferocity against the Swords of Jaghatai and the unsuspecting worlds of their domain. The fleet of the Flesh Rippers broke out of Warp directly above the Lycosura System on the galactic plane, perilously close to Lycosura's swollen and violent sun, masking their presence with its solar flares. Split up into dozens of striking forces, the black and red-clad Space Marines let the Lycosura system have the first taste of their Berzerker wrath and fury as they proceeded to devastate the numerous belt-colonies, ship-clans and asteroid citadels. The Flesh Rippers proceeded to devastate the entirety of the system, destroying in mere days and weeks what had taken millennia to build and had withstood the ravages of xenos and corsairs alike. In the aftermath of this brutal campaign, an Imperial Naval scout vessel reported the entire system littered with wreckage, their vox channels full of discordant ghostly vox signals of dead and dying ships. It was also noted that the Flesh Rippers had deliberately plundered and scavenged, both in terms of gear, resources and indeed human life. It has been the conclusion of several authorities since that the choice of Lycosura, with its wealth of void-colonies and infrastructure, had been the Flesh Rippers' first target not simply because it had long connections with the Swords of Jaghatai, but because after the Flesh Rippers' unknown voyage from the outer darkness they had need of its bounty to replenish themselves in readiness for their part in the war.

The Flesh Rippers continue to systematically annihilate planets in the Cluster known to have harboured the Swords of Jaghatai, forcing this Secessionist Chapter to stop using their hit-and-run tactics against the Loyalists, and mass their forces in defence of these worlds. This strategy spared the Flesh Rippers from having to pursue them across the Cluster to places where their foes held the advantage of support and local knowledge. First the Flesh Rippers ravaged the Feudal World of Iblis, smashing its infrastructure and putting its rulers to the sword, then they attacked the planet's scattered settlements and nomadic crawler-caravans by night, leaving bloody wreckage in their wake. They proceeded to turn Iblis into a wasteland inhabited only by shell-shocked survivors. The savage Chapter then moved on and attacked the blighted industrial world of Knarrillrah Prime itself. The Flesh Rippers launched an orbital assault, oblivious to the Swords disposition, hundreds of red-coloured drop pods dropping to the planet's soot caked planet amid a great slaughter.

Honour bound to defend this world, the Swords of Jaghatai were forced to respond, coming to Knarrillrah's aid with increasing numbers of their Chapter to curb the savagery of the Flesh Rippers' assault. Though the Swords of Jaghatai matched the Flesh Rippers with their own fierce martial skill, they were too few, and could not turn the tide of the assault. Led by their 1st Captain Ahazra Khan, the Swords of Jaghatai refused to retreat and died in the defence of the planet, just as the Flesh Rippers' leader Erhlen had predicted. The Flesh Rippers continued to employ this pattern on the worlds of C'sthal and Largitor, and then the twin worlds of the Vorgolus System themselves. Each battle forced the Swords of Jaghatai to come to the aid of the beleaguered worlds, destroying the Swords of Jaghatai' ability to affect the war. Now worn down and scattered, the Chapter had ceased to exist as an effective fighting force, finally surrendering to the Imperial authorities on their battered homeworld.

With the threat of the Wraith Stars neutralised, the Flesh Rippers redeployed, joining the Revenants in their blood-drenched attack on Vorgoric before ravaging the unfortunate systems of The Pale Wastes much to the Horror of the Sable Swords who petitioned Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel to sanction the Flesh Rippers and Revenants and order them destroyed, instead he would turn a blind eye to these brutal Chapters, ignoring reports of their atrocities even as world after world fell to their savage berserker fury.

While the Flesh Rippers Chapter ceded overall strategic authority to the war council of the Loyalist Chapters already engaged in the conflict, they deliberately stayed largely aloof and distant from its general chain of command. The Flesh Rippers Chapter Master Erhlen never put in a personal appearance at these councils, and the only evidence that he served during the Hades conflict at all came from pict-footage recovered from battle scans and fearful stories spread by the few Secessionist survivors of the Flesh Rippers brutal attacks.

Though the arrival of this savage Chapter was cautiously welcomed by the Loyalists, they undoubtedly couldn't deny the considerable strength that would be added to the Imperium's cause. The conflict was in its seventh year of open warfare, and the Flesh Rippers committed their entire strength to the war; twelve companies and more than a dozen capital ships of various types. While the Chapter coordinated their efforts with the Loyalist command, they operated largely independent throughout the conflict, striking targets as they saw fit. The Flesh Rippers attacked indiscriminately, attacking not only the sixty-plus Secessionist-controlled minor worlds and stations, but also overlooked independent minor outposts. Operating largely independently in the southern and western Tygrathos Zone, the Flesh Rippers proceeded to strike targets amid the Pale Wastes and the Phantom Stars border regions. The viciousness and sheer bloodthirstiness of the Chapter's reputation for leaving no survivors among those that resisted them quickly grew.

Only the warships and strike forces of the Baleful Spectres seemed able to fight the Flesh Rippers on an equal footing, the two Chapters seemingly relishing the battle between them as a kind of bloody sport. For the remainder of the year, the Flesh Rippers gained several important victories for the Loyalist cause, destroying the Rift Guard Auxilla force on Praetenura XII and Fortur Diablo, and forced the Secessionists to withdraw or risk having their worlds isolated and ravaged one-by-one. Within one third of a standard year of the Flesh Rippers arrival in the region, the direct and collateral damage caused by their forces reduced the human population of the Pale Wastes alone by more than 25 percent. The power of this Chapter quickly proved a decisive weight in the Loyalist's favour regardless of its brutal methods. By the end of 085.M42, the Secessionist forces had begun to be pushed back from several key systems and suffered severe losses. In the northern-central Tygrathos Zone, the battle for Melchost Gamma was fought between the Baleful Spectres and Astral Lions and a joint force of Revenants and Flesh Rippers, the battle was swift and brutal and eventually resulted in the Loyalists successfully taking the system.

Unfortunately for the ravaged people of the Wraith Stars, this would not be the only time when calamity was visited upon their doomed worlds, for the Flesh Rippers would yet return in later years to enact a final act of savagery against them.

#### Slaughter at Vorgoric

In the aftermath of the bloody Wraith Campaign the Rift Warders attempted to capture the Vorgoric System to use a bulwark against the advancing loyalists as they, the Rift Guard Auxilla, mortal auxilliarys of the Secessionist Chapters were sent to capture the worlds while the Rift Warders themselves engaged the main Imperial advance in order to slow them down enough that Vorgoric could be taken, however a staunch defence from the Loyalist population on Vorgoric VI delayed the attack enough that an Imperial relief could be conducted, the Adepta Sororitas Order of the Ember Thorn along with 28 Regiments of the Astra Militarum made up the majority of this relief force. The Order sent seven whole companies of Battle-Sisters to assist the beleaguered system. In one notable incident during the brutal campaign, the Order found themselves fighting alongside the the Astra Militarum on Vorgoric VI as well as the notorious Flesh Rippers and Revenants Space Marine Chapter, who had appeared and joined the attack. . The Blood Reaver Ehrlen denied Canoness Anastasia any tactical counsel whatsoever and even refused to meet with her.

Talks between the two Imperial forces was conducted by the Captain of the 6th Company of the Revenants, Blood Captain Gideon. After nearly 2 century's leading her Sisters to war, occasionally alongside Space Marine Chapters, this treatment came as no surprise. But the Order's main grievance was with the way the 2 of the Chapter's conducted themselves during the ensuing battle. The Battle-Sisters struck the massive Secessionist army as it changed positions from shelling the main Defences of Gaius City, to occupying the settlement.

Battered by three days' bombardment, the loyalist population of Gaius City had dug underground and, under the careful ministrations of the Order's Sisters Superior and the Sergeants of the Astra Militarum, were determined to form an ad hoc militia to defend their homes, alongside them stood the Adeptus Sororitas and 8 full regiments of the Astra Militarum. The Flesh Rippers and Revenants launched their attack on the Secessionist column when it was approximately one Imperial mile from Gaius City and, hitting the Secessionists in the rear and flanks, they drove the disorganised enemy into the Battle-Sisters' and Guardsman's waiting guns.

Caught between Battle-Sisters and Space Marines, thousands were slaughtered, with the survivors mounting their vehicles to escape with all haste. The Sisters first noticed something was very wrong when the Secessionists began pouring towards the Imperial line. Cannoness Anastasia saw in the faces of the soldiers, absolute terror, and they displayed no fear of the massed guns of the Imperial Forces, only a desire get away from the Flesh Rippers and Revenants, who apparently driven mad by some kind of battle-frenzy, crashed into the Secessionists rear ranks, just as the first soldiers reached the loyalist Astra Militarum's lines.

The crazed Space Marines fell upon the Secessionists in an orgy of bloodletting. Many Astartes had removed their helmets, and eschewing the use of pistols and other ranged weapons, set about the soldiers with chainsword, chain-axe, combat knife and even their own teeth. Canoness Anastasia witnessed in mute horror, Astartes ripping out the throats of men with their bared teeth. The raw fury and love of carnage she saw in their faces, as they literally tore the enemy apart, made her shudder in fear. The Secessionist forces were annihilated within minutes of the Space Marines' brutal attack, but the small number of the enemy were simply not enough for the Flesh Rippers and Revenants, who by now seemed to have been driven into a fever pitch of absolute bloodlust. With no more Secessionists for them to butcher, they scrambled over the breastworks of the Astra Militarum and Militia and smashed into their line.

Properly driven into a true battle frenzy now, the Flesh Rippers and Revenants performed acts of the most debauched nature, in the name of violence. Every guardsmen they found, fell beneath their blades. Even though they were allies, none were spared by the Marines crazed attack, Men, women and youths, all fell beneath their blades. The old, the infirm, none were spared the Marines crazed attack. The Canoness later reported that she had personally witnessed cannibalistic acts committed by the frenzied Marines. She ordered a hasty withdrawal of her Sisters from the Flesh Rippers and Revenants with all haste, before they reached their positions.

The Canoness later reported the incident to the Inquisition. Her report stated that both the Flesh Rippers and Revenants were unstable beyond redemption and that they were not fit for duty anywhere within their mighty Imperium. The Canoness firmly believed that it was evident that the Flesh Rippers and Revenants had devolved far beyond any point reached by a loyalist Chapter and requested their immediate destruction.

## The Final Phase

### Khurae Campaign (085.M42 - 087.M42)

The Khurae Campaign was launched in the aftermath of the The Vorgolus Campaign, knowing that the brutal destruction of the Swords of Jaghatai would disrupt the Rift Warders plans for a time, Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel launched what would become the largest and bloodiest Campaign of the War.

Two separate battlegroups set out from their staging posts less than a week after the destruction of the Swords of Jaghatai, led alternatively by Vendreel and Captain Amulius Odinus of the Sable Swords these two separate forces were to assault the Secessionist forces in the Stavrae Cluster before converging on the twin fortress worlds of the Prospaxrak Diablo system.

The initial advance proceeded swiftly, the Rift Warders having been forced to move their forces to plug the gap left in their defence by the loss of the Swords but as the advance continued the Imperials encountered increasingly stiffer resistance. During this initial part the Campaign, thousands of separate engagements were fought and many victories were recorded including the pivotal battle of Skorgon where the Angels of Purgatory and the Void Claws fought a brutal seven month war in the mutant haunted hives that dotted it's surface, the Loyalists emerging victorious only at great cost and the notorious Void Action in the asteroid fields that surrounded Gaeretri where the Lions Malevolent smashed a secessionist force including the Promethean Drakes Strike Cruiser Forgeblade, leaving half a dozen ships drifting in void and the Forgeblade taken after a seventeen hour battle, it's corridors running with the blood of Loyalist and Secessionists alike as Zakaras Vendreel himself led over 30 Terminators of the Knights of the Lion though it's halls. The second battlegroup, led by the Patriachs of Ulixis would find themselves fighting several brutal actions as they advanced including the Battle of Moirenzura where an entire Astra Milleterum force was surrounded and almost destroyed by the Star Griffons only for the Secessionist Astartes to withdraw and allow the survivors to retreat, however a complete victory at the Battle of Cyrinvros Prime including one of the largest void actions of the war saw the battlegroup clear the western part of the Stavrae Cluster and open a path to Prospaxrak Diablo.

As the Loyalists penetrated into the inner worlds of the Tygrathos Zone a growing suspicion began to gnaw at the Astartes commanders, they had begun to believe that the Rift warders and their allies were not the Traitors they had been led to believe. The populous of the worlds they had captured still worshipped the Emperor, they still believed themselves to be his loyal servants and the Rift Warders themselves had shown a level of honour and respect completely at odds with what would be expected of Traitors, but despite these misgivings the war had to be fought to it's conclusion, the Loyalists had been ordered to retake the Tygrathos Zone and nothing would stand their way.

However cracks had begun to appear within the Loyalist Host, centred largely on the actions of the notoriously belligerent Lions Malevolent. Upon the world of Gholan Primus the master of the Lions Malevolent, Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel, hurled the members of it's ruling nobility one by one from the spire of its oratory-cathedral. This he did after impaling the Planetary Governor to the front of his personal Land Raider transport as an example to Secessionist's of the fate that awaited them. These actions and a dozen others almost led to conflict between the sons of the Lion and the Patriachs of Ulixis, only the commencement of the exceptionally bloody Battle of Prospaxrak Diablo averted the conflict.

#### Battle of Prospaxrak Diablo (086.M42)

By the beginning of 086.M42 the Secessionists had been pushed back in the Stavrae Cluster, millions lay dead and a dozen worlds had fallen but the key strategic world of Prospaxrak Diablo was now in sight. In terms of defences only the Rift Warders homeworlds, and the worlds of Ryzoca, Skorgothold VI and Gorgatek Epsilon exceeded it and the Secessionist were determined to hold it at all cost, it's status as the gateway to Ryzoca ensuring that. Both Loyalist battlegroups converged on the world not long after the Battle of Cyrinvros Prime had been won and soon forcing the Secessionist fleet from the world although 17 Vessels were either crippled or destroyed outright in order to achieve this, Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel also knew that any attack would first have to deal with the ring of weapons batteries that orbited the World, the Storm Giants were to be assigned this task and quickly captured them in a series of boarding actions. With the defences subdued, Vendreel personally led the main attack on the world, the ground assault would prove to be extraordinarily bloody and at one point it looked like the world would hold, but with the ever increasing strength of the Loyalist's, victory was inevitable and finally after a solar year of conflict Prospaxrak Diablo was declared won, now the Loyalists had a clear path to Ryzoca and the most destructive single engagement of the War.

Even as the Khurae Campaign continued, disturbing events in the Uttillona Campaign would cause the war to enter an even more terrifying act for the Flesh Rippers and Revenants had returned and the Stars would be washed with Blood.

### Uttillona Campaign (086.M42 - 087.M42)

As the War entered it's eigth year the situation for the Imperials was stable, dozens of world's had fallen, the front had stabilised and the vaunted Swords of Jaghatai had been eliminated but five Secessionist Chapters were still active in the Tygrathos Zone, Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel was well aware of the danger they represented and with the Khurae Campaign already underway, Vendreel sent a second force into the Western Zone to deal with the Baleful Spectres and the Astral Lions. The Fulminators, Brazen Consuls and the Omega Marines made up the bulk of this force supported by Companies from the Storm Giants, Hospitallers and the Marines Errant, Forge Captain Iralius Telan of the Brazen Consuls assumed overall command, despite this strength the Uttillona Campaign would prove to be one of the most hard fought campaigns of the War

A disastrous defeat for the Loyalist forces in early 086.M42 would mark the bloodiest year of the conflict, greater even then the slaughter that had been witnessed in the previous year, for the secessionists would prove to the Imperials that they had not yet been beaten in the Tygrathos Zone. As the Brazen Consuls and the Omega Marines advanced towards the Pale Wastes, the Baleful Spectres Chapter immediately conducted a surprise attack at Corrak, the Campaign Staging post. They succeeded in destroying the Loyalist outposts, listening stations and the vital Astropathic relay complex on the night moons of the Corrak System in one stroke. The Marines Errant Chapter forces present in the Corrak System were outnumbered and overwhelmed, suffering greatly as their bastions and stations fell one after the other despite their tenacious defence.

The Marines Errant were systematically destroyed by the relentless onslaught of the Baleful Spectres from an unseen quarter. As the Marines Errant positions were being overrun and decimated on the airless dust moon and with the Corrak System's defence platforms and listening stations destroyed, the Baleful Spectres force had achieved their primary objective. They could have pressed their advantage and utterly destroyed the Marines Errant' outpost but instead withdrew suddenly from the system, leaving the Marines Errant with more than 70 percent casualties. Despite the grievous losses dealt to them, the remainder of the Marines Errant taskforce continued to doggedly fight on, refusing to shirk away from their responsibilities to the Loyalist cause even to the final battle.

The Uttillona Campaign would involve dozens of engagements including the overwhelming Loyalist victory on Boritora and the hard fought victory on Trantian, however the Loyalists were to suffer defeats at Eswern and at Voltran. Other Battle's were equally hard fought such as the Battle of Agorax

#### Agorax (086.M42)

The largest battle of the Uttillona Campaign proved to the Battle of Agorax, the battle would pit a combined force drawn from the Omega Marines and the Hospitallers against the Astral Lions on the Ice World of Agorax, both sides supported by their mortal allies, brutal fighting erupting over the ice flows and snow wastes. The battle itself ebbed and flowed with neither side gaining a significant advantage over the other but by the end of the seven months long battle the Loyalist had pushed the Secessionist's from the World but only at great cost.

Despite having such an inauspicious beginning the Uttillona Campaign would eventually be considered a victory for the Loyalists, by the end of the Campaign they had captured much of the Pale Wastes and the Phantom Stars, however a large proportion of both the Baleful Spectres and the Astral Lions had escaped but it was the actions of the savage and merciless Flesh Rippers and Revenants that tipped the balance.

### Slaughter in the Pales Wastes (086.M42)

Following their attack on Vorgoric both the Flesh Rippers and Revenants had seemingly retired from the war, neither Chapter had been sighted for over a year but the Uttillona Campaign was to be their return and would bear witness savagery on a scale not seen for millennia.

As the Uttillona Campaign advanced into the Pale Wastes they came under increasing attacks by the Secessionist's. The barbarous Baleful Spectres Chapter continued to prove to be the scourge of Loyalist forces, destroying numerous outposts and listening stations. They also committed themselves to several heavy raids as far as Bellerophon's Fall and Kyro. Their heaviest actions fell against the savage Revenants and Flesh Rippers Chapter's in the Pale Wastes, such as the bloody battle fought on the airless moon of Yngrar in the Raven's World System.

In the waning days of 086.M42 the Uttillona Campaign had captured much of the Pale Wastes as well as a large proportion of the Phantom Stars and was on the verge of victory, in part due the actions of the Flesh Rippers and Revenants, they ranged ahead of the main Imperial advance, seemingly intent on slaughter for slaughters sake. The 2 Chapters never appeared at command conclaves and avoided their fellow loyalists for reasons of their own choosing.

The Secessionist's and the two barbarous Loyalist Chapters would turn the Pale Wastes and Phantom Stars into a Charnel house, both sides exibiting an almost gleeful savagery as they butchered each other for months. The Chapters of the main advance stayed apart from this fighting due to the inherent danger of interfering in the Flesh Rippers and Revenants's actions, a lesson well learned on the world of Gidrikigo VIII where the 52nd Faeburn Vanquishers found themselves caught between the warring sides, disaster was only averted when the Omega Marines arrived to extract them but hundreds still fell to the crazed Marines.

The Flesh Rippers and Revenants ravaged the Pale Wastes, slaughtering Secessionists and Loyalists alike but the greatest blood-letting occurred on Mordraelu Prime where all four Chapters would finally deploy their full strength, the carnage these four unleashed would go down in infamy.

#### Mordraelu Prime (086.M42)

The Battle for Mordraelu Prime was the final battle of the Slaughter in the Pale Wastes, forced back by the savage ferocity of the Charnel Berthren and Flesh Rippers, the Secessionist of the Baleful Spectres and Astral Lions would make a final stand in the blasted wastes of the Hive World of Mordraelu Prime. The Secessionists made their battleline in the massive Hive Domina and the Orbital Defence stations, determined to stand and die they waited for the Loyalists to come, they did not have to wait long.

The Loyalist fleet broke from the Warp with a roar of hate and immediately launched an all-out assault against the World, heralding the attack was a wave of orbital bombardment sent to sow havoc below as weapons fire split the sky above Mordraelu Prime. The massive *Covenant of Baal* and *Cruor Caedes* led the attack as they breached the upper atmosphere, rocked by explosions from the planet's surface weapon emplacements. The battle barge's answered in kind with their roaring cannons and impossibly powerful lance's, gouging great rents and scars in the planet's surface. Behind the dauntless battle barge's dozens of other warships swept low releasing their deadly payloads. The skies darkened as wave after wave of midnight black and red painted drop pods rained down in precisely executed assaults. Blazing bright lances of energy pierced upwards, futilely trying to stave off the attackers. The mighty warships in orbit unleashed devastating attacks from their batteries, burning a great trench in Mordraelu's surface and sundering the bastion wall of Mordraelu's main city, Hive Domina. Soon after, Thunderhawk gunships and Cestus Assault Rams spiraled down to exploit the breach. The burning pall of smoke, swirling cinder ash and choking dust blackened the sky, causing night to fall over Mordraelu as the siege assault raged.

A full hour had passed since the opening of the Loyalists' assault, and though the defence batteries had not yet been fully silenced, many were now choked off or destroyed. Descending perilously through the storm of smoke and fire were Thunderhawks, ferrying their reinforcements and heavy armour down to the chaos of the ground assault. The Loyalists launched themselves at the defences, smashing through the line and plunging into Hive Domina itself.

Hive Domina soon became a city of death as the assault moved into its second, third and then fourth hour without any sign of relenting. The Rift Warders fought an insane battle against the loyalist's, matching their blood-drenched fury with their own, even the Astral Lions, never noted as among the most savage of the Scions of Dorn, allowed the Crusader Fury that exists within all of his sons to come to the fore but the Loyalists were savagery personified, uncontrolled, unbound, unrestrained, the loyalists crashed against the secessionist's in rabid packs. For both sides it simply became a battle of roaring blades and screaming axes, neither side took a single step back, no quarter was given and none asked, they simply fought and died, at that time nothing else mattered.

For the Rift Guard Auxilla trapped between them, there were no means of escaping their gruesome fate as transit junctions became clogged with burning vehicles and shattered rubble, trapping them and the wretched civilians within the doomed hive. There was nothing but terror and death, both sides attacking them indiscriminately. The soldiers of the Auxilia bitterly fought on as best as they could, faced with the choice of surrender or survival. But the unstoppable blood-red tide of the Astartes fell upon them with nightmarish fury, savagely hacking through their lines, leaving nothing but torn bodies and shattered war machines in their wake as they battled each other for supremacy. Command and control quickly broke down within the ranks of the Auxilla as their vox-sets uttered nothing but screams and unanswered pleas for mercy. Soon the carnage only worsened as fire began to spread and rage out of control. Those Auxilia that had managed to survive began shelling indiscriminately into the shadows of buildings in a vain hope of stopping the savage assault of the Astartes. But their efforts were for naught. Hive Domina fell that day and over 100,000 Rift Guard Auxilla and more than a million civilians lay broken in the ruins. As for the Astartes, the Rift Warders within the shattered Hive had been slaughtered to a man, their honour preventing them from retreating, only those outside the hive survived and they soon withdrew and made for the Grimaos system where they joined the remainder of the Rift Warders. The two Loyalist Chapters soon departed the ravaged world and by the time the remainder of the Imperial advance arrived they had long gone, the inside of Hive Domina had been turned into a Charnel House, the mutilated and dismembered remains of the Secessionists littered the wrecked Hive along with those of the civilian population whose traumatized survivors had fled from the place of death, as the first Imperial landers approached they immediately knelt in subservience, they told Captain Iralius Telan all that had happened. Disgusted by the savagery displayed, Iralius Telan had no hesitation in ordering the Hive to be wiped from the planet, a task completed by the guns of the fleet,

One final act of horror was to be revealed, Iralius Telan reported that the Astartes dead within the Hive had been stripped of their arms and wargear but most horrific of all, the dead on both sides were missing their heads.

### Victory in the Khurae (087.M42)

Following the Batte of Prospaxrak Diablo and the end of the Uttillona Campaign,the Secessionist defeat in those campaign's had made their position in the Stavrae Cluster untenable, the Loyalist could reinforce at will from a dozen systems while the Secessionists could not and were also now outflanked by those forces moving from the Wraith Stars. Determined not to give up the Cluster without a fight the Seccessionits conducted a fighting withdrawal, making the Loyalists pay for every system they captured and inflicting several notable defeats on the advancing armada but they could not hold out forever and eventually fully withdrew to the world of Ryzoca.

### Fall of Ryzoca (087.M42)

Ryzoca was one of the most important world within the Tygothros Zone, located to the Galactic North of the Stavrae Cluster it's vast orbital dockyards could repair over 100 vessels at a time. Long considred the lynchpin of the entire sector it had been captured early in the war but it's location deep within Secessionist held space meant recapture was simply not possible but after 9 years of grinding warfare, the war had finally  come back to Ryzoca, all that stood between the Loyalists and Victory was the largest single host the Secessionists had yet assembled, a vast army some 10 million strong, the stage had been set for the largest battle of the war entire.

Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel waited as long as he thought was strategically advantageous to gather his forces for the heavy assault, and with the arrival of those forces that had proscecuted the Uttillona Campaign he put his plans for the invasion and conquest of the Ryzoca System into action. The Ryzoca system was the key to the subsequent attack on the central Grimoas System due in no small part to the stable Warp rout between the two regions as well as it's massive orbital dockyards that served as the primary repair station and anchor point for the Secessionist fleet. The initial attack would occur with an combined Astartes and Imperial Navy assault to interdict the Secessionist fleet above the industrial world of Ryzoca V before a direct Space Marine assault against the lunar orbital batteries on the second moon of Ryzoca III itself. This second attack was to be conducted by the combined forces of the Brazen Consuls and the Omega Marines Chapters, their strike force amounting to an effective strength of 6 Space Marine companies. A final assault on Ryzoca III would follow the successful silencing of the orbital batteries.

The Loyalist assault armada entered Realspace in the Ryzoca system on 317.087.M42, high up on the vertical plane of the planetary system, directly on an attack course for Ryzoca III. The armada consisted of no fewer than 7 Space Marine battle barges and 23 strike cruisers, along with 27 Imperial Navy ships of the line and 144 escorts and strike vessels of various classes. As soon as they arrived within the system the Loyalist fleet immediatly pressed the attack. The bulk of the Imperial fleet led by the Battle Barge Lion's Roar broke off to engage the Secessionist fleet, while the Space Marine strike force diverted to assault the moon of Ryzoca III. A flotilla of planetary assault craft ferrying Imperial Guard and Inquisitorial forces formed a rear echelon intended to consolidate and exploit a successful Astartes attack. Initial enemy resistance in space proved insufficient to slow the attack down even though the Imperial forces sporadically encountered minefields that were breached or bypassed without loss. The Secessionist armada around Ryzoca V moved out quickly from their staging posts and engaged the Loyalist in a great battle. The fighting above Ryzoca V proved particularly fierce, the strength of the Secessionist fleet ensured that the Loyalists would have to fight a seventeen-hour battle in order to break them with over 70 vessels from both sides either crippled or destroyed outright before the battle had been won.

Elsewhere, in orbit over Ryzoca III, despite strong resistance the Loyalists were able to land their strike force with very few casualties, and between them the combined might of the Omega Marines Iron Shield and the Brazen Consuls Octavius Alpha smashed aside the moon's asteroid forts in short order. Landing zones in the vicinity of the lunar batteries, main citadels and generatora stations were quickly identified and subjected to preliminary bombardment before a full-scale Planetstrike was initiated via Thunderhawk and Drop Pod assault. On landing, the Brazen Consuls and Omega Marines were immediately met head on by the Rift Guard Auxilla in a strong counter-offensive, though the assaulting Space Marines killed the Rift Guard Auxilla in droves, their numbers slowed the attackers down enough and it was hours before the batteries were silenced.

The main attack against Ryzoca III and it's orbital stations could now begin, led once again by the Lions Roar the Loyalist fleet struck in an overwhelming wave, the Astartes Battle Barges proving deadly against the orbital defences, the ancient star-fort Majesty of Destiny coming under assault from no less than 3 Battle Barges. Hard on the wake of these mighty vessels came the Angels of Death in unrelenting fury as boarding torpedoes and assault rams smashed into the massive station, carrying with them the might of the Lions Malevolent and Hospitallers Chapters. Soon they were met in deadly combat amid the station's vaults and corridors by battle servitors and the suicidal fury of the Void Claws vaunted 2nd Company.

As the boarding action raged the battle barges Iron Shield and the Brazen Consuls Octavius Alpha led a wing of strike cruisers to assault the burned and blinded defence network at point-blank range, taking one after the other intact in a series of brutal boarding assaults which left none they found within alive.

With the defence line broken the Loyalists were able to launch a full-scale Planetary Invasion, the Lions Malevolent led the attack, their vaunted Lion's Claws Company launching themselves headlong from their landing ships while wave after wave of drop pods and thunderhawks deploying the strength of 14 full Astartes Companys into the fray, behind them came the massed transports of the Astra Milleterum. Although outnumbered the Secessionists responded in kind, over a thousand Astartes initiating a savage counter-attack against the landing ground as well as striking at targets of opportunity such as the ungainly Astra Milleterum transports. Thousands of the embarked troops aboard these Imperial transports died as they were blown out of the sky. Yard by savage yard the Secessionists were pushed back allowing the colossal landing craft of the Titan Legions to fall to earth, the tremor-shock of their impact shaking the very ground. Vast armoured doors opened and slammed buildings flat as the Titans' sirens echoing across the battlefield, bellowing their clarion call of doom for the beleaguered world, screaming like wraiths the Secessionists Titans surged forward to meet them.

Battle was now fully joined, savage fighting raging on as the Loyalists and Secessionists clashed without mercy. The Secessionists came on in savage and bitter fury as the Loyalists met them with righteous hatred of their own. Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel stood at the fore, his Lion Guard stood at his side, for an entire month the 2 sides fought in the most brutal fighting known, tens of thousands falling with every day that passed, Titans toppling like vast, flaming trees, screaming as they fell smashing down in ruin. As the battle reached it's climax in the ruins of the Palace of the Honoured, Vendreel saw the master of the Secessionist's Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn, Chapter Master of the Void Claws. Sigisnorn saw him at the same time and despite the battle raging about them, both began to hack their way towards each other, Sigisnorn was the first to reach the front, he struck the Loyalist battle line ferociously, smashing aside fellow Space Marines with contemptuous ease, his blood-spattered personal guard poured into the breach behind him, forming a murderous wedge as Sigisnorn strove to reach his foe while Vendreel and his Lion Guard hacked their own way forward, their actions mirroring that of the Void Claws.

As the battle continued to rage the two Chapter Masters at last found each other, and Zakaras Vendreel and Tyrrad Sigisnorn matched their skills in personal combat, both were superlative warriors and neither was able to best the other. In the swirling melee of combat, they dueled for hours while their forces battled beside them, the Loyalists pushing the Secessionists back, then suddenly, a new sun burned the heavens, raining destruction down on all below.

Knowing that they faced defeat the surviving Secessionist's began to withdraw, gambling on a dangerous plan to extract the forces still fighting below, Captain Sevian Korduchal of the Void Claws 6th Company bargained that the captured planetary defences would be half-blinded by the battle raging above them in orbit. The Void Claws battle barge Undying Claw was among the least scathed, its bays filled to capacity with surviving Thunderhawks from across the Fleet. The vast battle barge sliced into Ryzoca III thin atmosphere. The ground batteries proved ineffective against her, as the fire blazing around her shields made the Undying Claw appear as a terrible blazing sun in the sky and the panicked defense crews failed to quickly respond. At this unexpected arrival, the Loyalists were hurled back amid a storm of dust and debris, and below its skyblotting bulk, the battlefield where Vendreel and Sigisnorn fought was showered in rubble and flame, parting them before their combat could reach a final conclusion in either's favour. Immediately extraction operations got under way before the Loyalists could rally as the Undying Claw guns rent the ground asunder and pulverised the towers of nearby citadels. In a desperate operation lasting near two hours almost the entirety of the Secessionist Space Marines that still remained were recovered, although all of them bore some fresh wound or scar to mark the furious combat they had seen.

Above Ryzoca III, battle had once again been joined between the Loyalists and the Secessionist warships. The Secessionists attempting to extract their forces while the Loyalists fought to prevent them. The Secessionist fleet came on in a tight wedge formation and crossed laterally in an oblique pass on the Loyalist fleet, both sides maximising their broadsides. The star battle was eventually won for the Loyalists with the death of the Stalwart Arrow, a Mars-Class Battlecruiser but it was a hollow victory as the Rift Warders had been able to withdraw fully back to Grimaos, and there remained a great deal of bloody fighting to do as the surviving Secessionist Navy ships were put to flight or captured in a series of brutal boarding actions.

The invasion of Ryzoca was over; both sides had seen a victory and both sides had tasted a defeat. For the Loyalists, the Secessionists had been driven off but the Astartes of the Rift Warders had withdrawn relatively intact, for the Secessionists they had lost Ryzoca but had not lost their fleet nor been cornered and destroyed. Fatalities on both sides had been appallingly high with estimates that as many as 1,000 Astartes had fallen along with over 10 Million mortal troops, 7 Titans, 21 Knights and more than 30,000 war-machines, as for the Fleet assets, 127 Ships from both sides had been either crippled or destroyed outright and dozens more were damaged to the extent that might take years to repair and the Orbital Dockyards of Ryzoca had been rendered unusable and most of the planets infrastructure had been smashed with perhaps as mush as 40% of the Population dead. The Hades Crusade had arguably been won at Ryzoca by the Loyalists but there was one last battle to fight, and that was likely to be the most terrible of all; the final Siege of Grimaos.

## Endgame (087.M42)

The Crusade was almost over, after 9 years of bloody grinding war it was finally entering it's final stages. Following their defeat in the Khurae Campaign and the loss of the Orbital Yards at Ryzoca the Rift Warders had withdrawn to the Void Claws homeworld of Grimaos with the Imperial forces following close behind. Both side's knew the battle would be bloody for Grimaos, like all Astartes homeworlds was fortress, massive weapon silos and armoured redoubts dotted the surface while the Void Claws massive Fortress Monestry the Palace of Claws, constructed within a Ramilles Class Star-fort presented one of the most formidable defences within the Imperium.

The two sides faced each other across the void, both preppared for the carnage to come, both waiting for the order to attack, an order that never came. Mere moments before the word was given a new fleet broke warp, at it's head came the Bloodcaller, resplendent in the colours of the Blood Angels, aboard this mighty craft was Dante himself, the lord of the Blood Angels, he ordered his fleet between the warring sides and and bade everyone to "stop this madness."

Dante ordered both sides to stand down and to find a compromise with each other, the Bloodcaller was to host a meeting of the leaders of both the Rift Warders and the Imperial Crusade, Dante and his Blood Angels stood sentinal over the meeting but he did not speak, rather it was Mephiston who spoke, he told the assembled Chapter Masters of all he had learned, he told them of an Arch-Traitor whose actions had very nearly deatroyed them all, he spoke of Jeramias Verigant. Mephiston had seen Verigants crimes, had seen all he had done in his insane quest for power, how he had tricked the Void Claws into increasing their strength, how he had ordered the firebombing of Colchagus Primus and how he had orchestrated the Betrayal at Mordrian's Reach. With each fresh revelation an apocalyptic rage grew within the Rift Warders, all of the death and destruction fuelled this burning rage, a rage that could only be quenched with the blood of Heretics, once the Lord of Death had finished his tale Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn Chapter Master of the Void Claws knelt before Dante, pledging that he would see Verigant burn for what he had done, he asked to lead the Rift Warders in a final attack on Gnosax and bring Jeramias Verigant back to Terra in chains and if any of the Warders remained at the end they would willingly comply with whatever fate Dante proclaimed for them. To the shock of those present Dante agreed to this request, the Rift Warders he proclaimed would drown their sins in the Blood of the Traitors and in the eyes of the Imperium they would be redeemed.

Following this the Rift Warders began the voyage to Gnosax, the ships of the Imperial Host watched as the procession slipped their moorings and moved towards the mandeville point, even the Swords of Jaghatai, imprisoned since the Vorgolus Campaign went with them, the Chapter granted the Emperors temporary forgiveness, entering the warp the Rift Warders headed for their redemption, the Imperial force setting out 2 days behind them.

Emerging from the Warp above Gnosax the Rift Warders, eschewing a prolonged orbital bombardment immediately launched an all-out assault against the world, on the surface they discovered a hellish place for Verigant had corrupted the entire planet, upon landing they were beset on all sides by chanting cultists and most terrible of all, Heretic Astartes of the Crystal Wyverns and of the Invocators. In all the Rift Warders numbered over 2,000 Astartes  and with hatred in their eyes they brutally attacked the heretics in their overwhelming desire to get to Verigant.

Two days later the vast fleet of Dante arrived, he immediately ordered his forces to join with the Rift Warders and so it was that those who had, mere days before been bitter enemies now fought side-by-side as equals. For an entire blood-drenched solar month they fought along-side each other, they burned the Heretics from their strongholds, smashed their defences and put millions to the sword, new bonds of brotherhood were forged in the crucible of battle, Zakaras Vendreel saving the life of Tyrrad Sigisnorn from a Heretic champion, running the foul creature through with the Sword of Vengeance, Sigisnorn returning the gesture by cleaving the arm from a Heretic before his blow could fall upon Vendreel, his return stroke taking the creatures head from it's shoulders.

Chapters that had hated each other once were now the closest of allies, the Baleful Spectres launching a pinpoint strike against the Fortress of Hate alongside the Marines Errant, the Star Griffons and Howling Griffons smashing an armoured counter-attack on the Bloody Plains, the Promethean Drakes and Storm Giants burning the Fortress of Despiar to cinders, fast moving assault squads of the Swords of Jaghatai and the Hospitallers attacking all they found, the Astral Lions and Omega Marines breaking the Heretics in the Mountains of Woe and the Void Claws and Lions Malevolent slaughtering the Heretics in unison in the depths of Hive Vance

Blood flowed for an entire solar month untill finally they had come within sight of Verigants stronghold 'The Palace of the Primordial Truth', built on the ruins of the Cathedral of the Emperors Light, shaped into the eight pointed star it was a bastion of hate, it's walls covered with blasphemos sigils and the flayed corpses of those who had refused Verigant, a massive Chaos Army blocking their path.

The combined power of Warders and their allies broke the Chaos host in a great battle and forced them back into the Palace, filled with righteous fury the Astartes of the Rift Warders plunged in, Dante and the others allowing them this honour. Three hours later they emerged, Tyrrad Sigisnorn dragging Jemias Verigant behind him in chains, just as he promised he would, he presented the Traitor to Lord Dante and the Inquisition and along with what was left of the Rift Warders kneeled before Dante, preppared to accept whatever judgement he proscribed for their sins.

Dante took but a minuete to decide their fate, they were guilty of turning from the Imperium but not from the Emperor, their actions however were dictated by the position they had found themselves in, the actions of Verigant had left them with no other option. Much to anger of the Inquisition Dante proclaimed their sins absolved, they were to be welcomed back into the Imperiums fold as brothers, in this Dante had recieved the approval of those that had fought against the Rift Warders. The only caveat was that they undergo purity screenings conducted by Mephiston himself, all of the remaining Rift Warders agreed to this, there was not a single dissenting voice. All of the Rift Warders passed these trials and have remained steadfast in their defence of the Mortrior Rift to this day.

As for Jeramias Verigant he was taken in chains by the Inquisition, his fate unknown though it is known that he was a mere pawn of an even greater threat, the Inquisition have yet to identify this individual, Gnosax and the surrounding Sytems were systematically purged of all heretics with Gnosax istself ultimately being subjected to Exterminatus due the extent of the Chaotic corruption.

### One Last Act (087.M42)

With the War now over, the other Loyalist Space Marine forces having completed their operations in the Tygrathos Zone, began to depart for their Chapter worlds and wars afresh, the Howling Griffons returned to Mancora which has come under increasing attacks by the Orks of Charodon but the Griffons stand firm, the Sable Swords returned home with great glory, the Lions Malevolant have rejoined the Fleet of the Dark Angels and in the years since have served with them in numerous campaigns, the Marines Errant have commited themselves fully to the defence of the Reef Stars from the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan, the Emperor's Spears and their allies within the Adeptus Vaelarii are now fighting a war against the Choatic Exilarchy, a War they are slowly losing and the Storm Giants departed without a word, as for the Revenants, nothing has been heard of them since. As for the Flesh Rippers it was only when the Cerulean Claw, the last of the Loyalist battle barges, was taking leave to depart on the long voyage back to Mancora, that news reached the system of a dark fate that had befallen the Vorgolus system.

The Flesh Rippers, before departing the Tygrathos Zone for good returned to the Wraith Stars. There, without the agreement or knowledge of the Swords of Jaghatai, they once again struck at the Vorgolus System, whose worlds are the primary recruiting and training grounds of the Swords. From these worlds they harvested an entire generation of recruits to renew their own losses, forcing those they selected to fight to the death in brutal gladitorial combat to prove their worth in order to survive as Flesh Rippers neophytes. Thus paid in blood, the Flsh Rippers fleet departed, the last known sighting of them made by an Explorator augury-beacon, which marked them tacking course through the Warp, ascending above the galactic plane and into the blackness of the outer void once more. The current whereabouts and operational activities of the Flesh Rippers remain unknown.

### Morritaga Massacre (087.M42)

The event that became known in Imperial records as the Morritaga Massacre was discovered by an Imperial Navy patrol in 087.M42. The wreckage of an Imperial outpost was discovered in the dust wastes of the forlorn world of Morritaga II. Within the outpost was a nightmarish scene of carnage and destruction rarely witnessed before by men. A bloody battle had been fought between two company-sized forces of Space Marines from the Flesh Rippers and the Secessionist Baleful Spectres Chapter. These two forces, infamous, for their savagery and unyielding stances towards their foes, had fought each other to a bloody standstill. The base around them was ripped apart and many of the bodies of both sides showed signs of having fought on despite suffering horrendous wounds, severed limbs and massive trauma that should have felled even an Astartes, and several were found locked in deathly, gore-splattered embraces, striking at their foes with their last ebbing strength. It is not known which Chapter's last warrior survived to the end to claim a bitter victory. Neither Chapter has acknowledged any survivors of the massacre living to tell of what happened at Morritaga II.

## Order of Battle

### Imperium of Man

#### Senior Commanders

Commander Dante - Regent of Imperium Nihilus and Chapter Master of the Blood Angels (087.M42)

Grand Master Zakaras Vendreel - Chapter Master of Lions Malevolant, overall commander

Blood Reaver Erhlen - Chapter Master of Flesh Rippers

Lord Glorion - Chapter Master of Revenants

Captain Iralius Telan - Brazen Consuls 3rd Company Captain

Captain Amulius Odinus - Sable Swords 2nd Company Captain

Captain Primaris Mercaeno - Howling Griffons 5th Company Captain

Cannoness Selendra Veridine - Cannoness of the Order of the Ember Thorn

Lady Marshal Decima de Durnyr - Supreme Commander Astra Militarum

Lord General Antonius Ironhurst- Commander of 17th Assault Army

Lord General Erasmus Sturheim - Commander of 23rd Assault Army

Lord Admiral Thane van der Hroth - Command of Imperial Navy Forces

#### Adeptus Astartes

Lions Malevolent - Entire Chapter

Flesh Rippers - Entire Chapter

Hospitallers- 2 Company's

Sable Swords - 3 Company's

Marines Errant - 4 Company's

Brazen Consuls - 6 Company's

Omega Marines - 7 Company's

Howling Griffons- 2 Company's

Revenants - Entire Chapter

Angels of Purgatory - 6 Company's

Storm Hawks - 3 Companys

Fulminators - 3 Company's

Storm Giants - 4 Company

Blood Angels - 2 Company's (087.M42)

#### Imperial Guard

17th, 23rd Assault Army's

with the following Regiments

Death Korps of Krieg - 29 Regiments

Mordian Iron Guard - 17 Regiments

Praetorian Guard - 7 Regiments

Vresh Grenadiers - 9 Regiments

Faeburn Vanquishers - 7 Regiments

Tempestus Scions - 2 Regiments

Vostroyan Firstborn - 3 Regiments

Valhallan Ice Warriors - 7 Regiments

Dozens of other Regiments whose names have not been recorded

Unknown Number of Penal Regiments (Estimated 100+)

#### Imperial Navy + Astartes Fleet Assets

##### Loyalist Battlefleet Melchanrak

11 Battleship's

19 Battlecruiser's

23 Front-Line Cruiser Squadron

51 Light Cruiser Squadrons

78 Escort Squadrons

##### Astartes Fleet Assets

8 Battle Barges (Lions Malevolent 2, Flesh Rippers 2, Revenants 1, Storm Hawks 1, Brazen Consuls 1, Omega Marines 1)

47 Strike Cruisers

86 Escort's

#### Adeptus Mechanicus Forces

Legio Gryphonicus ("War Griffons") - 3 Maniples

Legio Ignatum (Fire Wasps) - Demi  Legion

House Terryn - 38 Knights

#### Inquisition

Lord-Inquisitor Deimos - Ordo Hereticus Senior Inquisitoral Representative

Inquisitorial Task Forces - CLASSIFIED

Grey Knights - CLASSIFIED

Officio Assassinorum

Agents - CLASSIFIED

#### Templars Psykologis

Disruption Squads - CLASSIFIED

Augur Teams - CLASSIFIED

### Secessionist Forces

#### Senior Commanders (To 087.M42)

Lord Tyrrad Sigisnorn - Chapter Master of the Void Claws

Lord Mordigis Goreas- Chapter Master of the Baleful Spectres

Khan Tarathio Crohnius- Chapter Master of the Swords of Jaghatai

Lord Calistonus Decimerius - Chapter Master of the Star Griffons

Lord Kazrel Chronean - Chapter Master of the Astral Lions

Lord Vel'tsen Zytek - Chapter Master of the Promethean Drakes

Captain Gaius Aurelius - Star Griffons 1st Company Captain

#### Secessionist Adeptus Astartes Chapters of the Rift Warders (To 087.M42)

Void Claws - Entire Chapter

Baleful Spectres - Entire Chapter

Swords of Jaghatai - Entire Chapter

Star Griffons - Entire Chapter

Astral Lions - Entire Chapter

Promethean Drakes - Entire Chapter

#### Secessionist  Astartes Fleet Assets + Imperial Navy  (To 087.M42)

10 Battle Barges

35 Strike Cruisers

62 Escorts

##### Secessionist Battlefleet Melchanrak

3 Battleship's

7 Front-Line Cruiser Squadron

11 Light Cruiser Squadrons

21 Escort Squadrons

#### Other Forces (To 087.M42)

Legio Hexaos ('Void Serpents')- Demi-Legion, 21 God-Engines

House Vorskian - 34 Knights

Skitarri - 8 Regiments

#### Auxiliaries

Rift Guard Auxilla- Estimated at 50 Million + including secessionist Planetary Defence Forces (PDF) (To 087.M42)

#### Choas Forces

##### Renegade Chapters (087.M42)

Crystal Wyverns - Unknown

Invocators - Unknown