Devastation of Baal - Against the Swarm: The first few Tyranid swarms to make planetfall were obliterated by pre-ranged artillery bombardments and a blistering fusillade of bolter rounds long before they reached the defensive lines. Yet with each passing moment, more Tyrannocyte spores rained down from low orbit, their bulging flesh-sacs bursting open to disgorge warrior-organisms into the fray.By the tenth wave, the ground was barely visible beneath a stampede of chitin-armoured bodies. Amidst this carpet of living flesh loomed colossal synapse creatures -- Hive Tyrants and giant Tervigons which spewed out Gaunts by the score. These monsters directed the swarms around them even as they unleashed salvoes of burning bio-plasma, or tore great rents in the fortifications with massive weapon-limbs.Genestealer broods swept into these breaches, where the fighting descended into frantic hand-to-hand slaughter. At the rear of the Tyranid swarms, a hulking creature surveyed the carnage, observing the Blood Angels' strategies, directing its lesser kin to counter their every move with a cunning born of aeons-long warfare. The Swarmlord, herald of the Hive Mind, had been spawned anew to ensure the Blood Angels' demise.Tyranids poured from the skies in ever-increasing numbers. Their spores slammed down like hellish seed pods to spill ravenous waves of war beasts directly into battle. Orbital lasers and hurtling gunships took a mighty toll upon the xenos, in some regions wreaking such carnage that purple ichor fell like storm rain across the defenders below.Yet still the Tyranid waves came on, Tyrannocytes falling thicker and thicker while Gargoyles and Harpies swooped between them, spitting acidic gruel that sent Blood Angels aircraft spiralling down in flames.On Baal and its moon of Baal Secundus, rippling tides of warrior organisms surged onto the defenders' guns and were shredded amidst storms of fire. Their corpses piled up in hideous drifts, yet still they pressed forwards, metre by metre.The settlement of Angel's Fall, where the Blood Angels gathered all aspirants for the trials to become new initiates of the Chapter, became a blood-drenched altar to the gods of battle, its defenders massacred by an avalanche of chitinous bodies and razored talons.Gabriel Seth and his berserk Flesh Tearers led the counterattack, tearing the heart from one Tyranid swarm after another, but their victories did not come without cost.At the same time, elsewhere on Baal Secundus, the Carmine Blades hold firm in the face of each Tyranid attack. Feet planted, Bolters roaring, they defend Baal's astropathic relay against impossible odds, bringing honour to their names with each bloody day that dawns in the hope that someone, anyone, will hear the astro-telepathic call for help of the scions of Sanguinius. On the moon of Baal Prime the situation was worse still, as the Tyranids hurled overwhelming forces into battle.Over the course of solar weeks the scions of Sanguinius hurled back nineteen waves of Tyranid assaults, fighting with a valour and skill that honoured the memory of their fallen primarch. Blood Drinkers fought back to back with Angels Encarmine, forming a circle of blades and Bolters against phalanxes of advancing Tyranid Warriors. Blood Angels Assault Marines leapt into the heart of the enemy swarm, hunting the largest and most ferocious monsters.Amidst rad-scorched desert valleys, massed formations of Adeptus Astartes tanks and artillery clashed with stampedes of charging Carnifexes in a grinding, churning maelstrom of metal and flesh. For solar weeks the fighting raged on. The Tyranid body count spiraled upwards with breathtaking speed, Dante's warriors felling hundreds of xenos for every one of their own that fell.Yet fall the sons of Sanguinius did, as their defence lines were breached and overwhelmed one after another. As brave as the defence of Baal was, it could not last.With every Tyranid attack, more battle-brothers were slain. Five Chapter Masters amongst the Blood Angels' Sanguinary Brotherhood gave their lives to hold back the surging tide, but as the bodies piled higher it seemed such selfless sacrifice would be for naught. Baal was ready to fall.