Grey Knights - Notable Campaigns: The Grey Knights have fought to hold back the Daemonic hordes of the Dark Gods for a hundred centuries, waging their war in absolute secrecy against an unrelenting and tireless foe.Their deeds are known outside the Chapter and the ranks of the Inquisition only as myths and legends, tales of silver-armoured warriors saving Humanity from the beasts of nightmare.Foundation of the 666th Chapter (ca. 021.M31) - The hidden moon of Titan returned to the galaxy during the Second Founding, and the Inquisition recorded the Grey Knights as the 666th Chapter. Under a veil of secrecy the Chapter began its work, hunting down the Daemonic enemies that threaten the Imperium. For the Grey Knights, many Terran centuries of subjective time had passed while Titan was hidden in the Warp, allowing the eight founding Grand Masters to fully train and prepare an entire new Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes from the raw recruits given them by Malcador the Sigillite during the Horus Heresy.Fate Unravels (938.M32) - The Tzeentchian Daemon Ix'thar'ganix, the "Slayer of Destinies," foresaw the role that the Grey Knights would play in his downfall, and the threat they might eventually pose to the plans of the Dark Gods. Overcome with his own cunning, the Lord of Change began a plan that would take eight thousand Terran years to come to fruition, seeding lesser Daemons on worlds all across the Imperium so that he might subtly manipulate future events.Ghost Quell (832.M33) - On the desolate planet of Forlor, the Grey Knights cornered the Radical Inquisitor Vetrix. After enacting the Psycantic Necrolarus upon the Segmentum Solar, Vetrix had been declared a Heretic by his ordo. The Inquisitor was dragged back to the dungeons of Titan, pleading with his stony-faced captors that the Necrolarus was the Imperium's only hope for survival.Final Sanction (093.M34) - Neodan, brother-captain of the 5th Brotherhood, slew the Butcher of Xor, an abattoir overseer possessed by a Daemon of Khorne. Only after the Daemon and its mortal servants had been dealt with did Neodan discover that the creature had been tainting the meat-beasts of the blood factorums, and spreading them across Xor and its neighbouring worlds. With no knowledge of how far the corrupted flesh had spread, Neodan declared a final sanction against Xor, condemning millions to death in an Exterminatus action rather than risking a Daemonic incursion.Hollow Cult (290.M34) - During their long war against the Chaos Hollow Cult and its many-limbed pleasure god, the Grey Knights lost almost the entire 7th Brotherhood. The Chaos Cult laid a series of cunning ambushes for the Grey Knights, bending reality to isolate each of the battle-brothers and overwhelm them in a tide of Daemonic flesh. The Grey Knights' retribution was absolute, and Supreme Grand Master Calastan gathered the full might of the Chapter against the cult. In the end, the only memory of the Hollow Cult that remained was recorded in faded ink within the Sanctum Sanctorum in the Citadel of Titan.Lost Brotherhood (708.M34) - Brother-Captain Edeon led a dozen squads of the 2nd Brotherhood into the Veiled Region seeking the Daemonafex. All communication ceased, and eventually the Council of Titan declared them lost.Haunting of Titan (566.M35) - The Chambers of Purity were sullied by haunting spectres of the Warp: the ghosts of vanquished foes clawing at the walls of reality and whispering portents of future catastrophe. The creatures warned of a time when the light of the Emperor would fail and the Grey Knights would stand alone against the darkness, the fate of Humanity resting upon the razor edges of their blades. The Purifiers endured the maddened tirades of these ghosts and the visions of the Imperium fallen into darkness and fire; they knew that these shades were but echoes of the monsters they purported to be, barely connected to the Warp and able to do no more than spew forth lies. The Purifiers also knew, however, that the Daemonic ghosts were a symptom of something ancient and powerful that slumbers beneath the surface of Titan...Eye of the Storm (976.M35) - A Warp storm descended on the Rorn System in the wake of the arrival of the Pallid Prince and his Daemon host. A squad of Grey Knights was trapped by the storm on the Rorn Primarex shipyard, having destroyed the Pallid Prince and his Warp-iron vessel. Unwilling to risk discovery by the citizens of Rorn III, and denied Warp travel by the onset of the storm, the Grey Knights set out into the void at sub-light speeds, the battle-brothers entering stasis for their millennia-long voyage back to Titan.A Brotherhood Out of Time (108.M36) - Nearly two thousand Terran years after their disappearance, word reached Titan of the lost Brother-Captain Edeon and his brothers. Unbeknownst to the Chapter, Edeon had followed the Daemonafex and its thralls into an area of the Warp that owed its existence to the echoes of forgotten moments. Edeon and his Grey Knights fought at the foot of the Daemon's Fortress of Deceit, each solar day falling to grievous wounds only to rise again, borne up by their unwavering resolve and psychic fury. Faced with their combined might, the Daemonafex was finally cast down, though it was to cost Edeon and his brothers their lives in the material realm. On their return to realspace, their bodies began to atrophy at an alarming rate. Before he died, the brother-captain only had time to send a coded signal to Titan, telling of the brotherhood's victory.A Thousand Deaths (222-234.M36) - Xorgar the Cruel ascended to Daemonhood amid the blood-drenched battlefields of the Rusting War. The Grey Knights already fighting against the Chaos Cult called the Ragged Host focused their attentions on Xorgar and slew him before he fully manifested his newfound powers. However, it amused the Dark Gods to torment their vassal by giving him life once more, and for the next twelve standard years the Grey Knights hunted and killed Xorgar hundreds of times on scores of worlds. Only when their servant's mortal shell was destroyed for the thousandth time did the gods finally tire of their game.A Daemon Assassin (493.M36) - The Slaaneshi Daemon assassin Hex'tan attempted to sneak onto Titan and hide among an intake of Grey Knights recruits. Initially successful, the Daemon lurked on the plains of the Xanadu Region among the bones of the dead, awaiting a suitable candidate to possess and carry it back to the citadel. However, the creature's plans unravelled when a strong-willed aspirant and future Grey Knight hunted it down and imprisoned it in the corpse of another recruit, unaware that this was not part of his trial to join the Chapter.The Quiet Heresy (713.M36) - Tzeentchian Daemons robbed the populace of the world of Sundel of speech, every citizen rendered mute by Warp sorceries. In the silence that followed the Cult of the Severed Tongue was born, its debased members torturing and killing men and women with no voices to scream. For a standard year the Chaos Cult reigned without opposition, turning the planet into a silent hell where corpses rotted in the streets and men and women lived like vermin in the shadows, fearful of making the slightest sound that would give them away. The Grey Knights confronted the cult as Sundel stood on the verge of utter destruction, its cities completely given over to worshipping the very Daemons that orchestrated their ruin. In the empty silence, the only sounds to be heard were the bark of Storm Bolters and the crackle of Nemesis Force Weapons as the Grey Knights purified the planet and annihilated any in their path.The Tarnished Blade (121.M37) - The Astral Blades Space Marine Chapter was led down the path to Chaos by their prideful Chapter Master, who had been possessed by the Daemon Etherak the Unrepentant. The Daemon's servants used sorcery to possess almost every battle-brother within the Chapter's subterranean fortress-monastery one by one, slaughtering those strong enough to resist. As the blood of the last of the fallen was still cooling, the possessed Space Marines plundered the Chapter's gene-seed stores and set off for the Eye of Terror. However, when their battle barge, Sword of Stars, reached high orbit, the Grey Knights were waiting for them. In the furious battle that ensued Grey Knight Terminators teleported onto the bridge of the battle barge and banished Etherak back into the Warp in the midst of a furious melee. Broken in body and spirit, the Chapter Master of the Astral Blades accepted the Emperor's Peace delivered at the hands of his "saviours."Daemon Maze (813.M37) - The Heretek Malforea the Mad constructed a vast maze structure of ghost-glass and etheric siphons in an attempt to harness the power of the Warp for his corrupt machines. The maze had the unintentional side effect of trapping Daemons, the creatures drawn toward the device only to become lost within its multi-dimensional twists and turns. When the Daemon Prince Kaslidi became ensnared, its rage shook the structure to its foundations and it became a locus for the creature's essence. The Grey Knights arrived to find the Heretek a puppet of Kaslidi and his world on the verge of a full-blown Daemonic incursion. To defeat the Daemon Prince, the Grey Knights entered the maze, hunting down the Daemons trapped within. A battle of reflections and illusions ensued, the battle-brothers surrounded by flickering Daemonic faces and psychic manifestations. Reaching the centre of the maze the Grey Knights' Justicar cut down the Malforea flesh-puppet and shattered the ghost-glass face of Kaslidi, bringing down the structure and casting the Daemons back into the Warp.First Scouring of Coriolanthe (948.M38) - For three solar months a warband of the Night Lords Traitor Legion preyed upon the gleaming marble cities of Coriolanthe, turning the white-flagged streets crimson with the blood of their victims and decorating the rearing stone towers with looped viscera and severed body parts. At length, the population rose in a maddened frenzy of terror plunging the planet into anarchy. When a Grey Knights Purgation Force, under the mandate of Inquisitor Lord Baum, arrived to challenge the Renegades and restore order, they were confronted not just by the Night Lords, but also by a force of Traitor Titans. Coriolanthe was reduced to ruins in the ensuing carnage, and the Inquisitor Lord and all but a handful of Grey Knights were slain.The Damned Voyage (394.M40) - The Grey Knights strike cruiser Titan's Hand suffered a catastrophic Geller Field failure, leaving the warship unshielded against the Warp. Almost at once, the ship was engulfed with Daemonic creatures hungry for the souls of those mortals on board. The Grey Knights stood haloed by psychic energy against the Warp, each one shielding his mind and body through sheer willpower and the blessed seals of the Aegis. Against servitors and Chapter Serfs turned into puppets of Chaos, the battle-brothers fought to reclaim their vessel. When the Hand finally made an emergency translation back into realspace the surviving Grey Knights stood in the midst of a command bridge covered in the remains of their unfortunate crew.Convocation of Souls (453.M40) - The public execution of 666 Heretics on the planet of Horvar III had terrible consequences. Through the pageantry and extravagance of the event the nearsighted planetary governor unwittingly completed an ancient Daemonic ritual. As the last Heretic died with a curse upon his lips, the circle of sorcery was complete and a gateway to the Warp was opened. The Chaos well yawned wide and Daemons spilled out, gibbering, howling and spitting lurid fire into the mass of terrified citizens. In a matter of solar hours Horvar III was turned into a Daemonic playground of madness and death. The unfortunate planetary governor was possessed by the Slaaneshi Daemon Prince Laesydra and the Daemonic Golden Host was released upon the world. The Grey Knights arrived in force to discover Laesydra hosting blood games with the surviving citizens, the Daemon forcing them to commit unspeakable acts of violence against each other or be hurled into the Warp-well. Turning its attention to this new foe, Laesydra crafted a series of tests for the Space Marines, shaping tangled labyrinths of living, screaming flesh around them and sending Seekers of Slaanesh to hunt them down. The hunters soon became the hunted, however, and the Grey Knights fought their way to the Warp-well where the Daemon Prince was holding court over the mutilated remains of Horvar's citizens, wearing the skin of their governor. At the cost of the lives of a score of Grey Knights the Daemon was cast back into the Warp. Before the battle-brothers departed they piled the citizens' tortured bodies onto the corpses of the executed Heretics, sealing the Warp-well with the blood of innocents.Garanhir Rebellion (649.M40) - A World Eaters warband, under the command of the notorious murderer Dhalahk, launched a mass incursion against the world of Garanhir, intent upon spilling the blood of the Imperial faithful in an unprecedented act of veneration of the Blood God. Expecting to find Garanhir unprepared for attack and ripe for the slaughter, what the berserkers actually encountered as they charged from the assault ramps of their drop craft was a world already claimed by war, the populace armed and led by the famously militant Inquisitor Malphas Kroh. Kroh had employed a precog-coven to predict their assault, his punitive intervention sparking a general uprising which he put down a mere solar day before the berserkers' attack. The World Eaters found the Inquisitor and a large force of Grey Knights, as well as Dark Swords and Black Wings Space Marines, waiting for them. Battle was joined without delay, and while the warriors of Dhalahk made a lethal account of themselves, they were ultimately slain, the entire warband cut down by the defenders, though not without significant cost to the Imperium's forces.Storms of Judgement (Unknown Date.M41) - The Storms of Judgement occurred along the Caradryad Warp fault. The entire Grey Knights Chapter responded as the dangerous Warp fault opened and three massive Warp storms suddenly lashed the Caradryad Sector in the Segmentum Tempestus. The populated planets of the sector were plunged into anarchy and revolt as millions were driven insane overnight. Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Ferrando Qui first recorded his encounter with the Daemon Beast of Khorne known as Gorefeaster during this time. This foul abomination of Chaos is a creature taken by the Dark Gods and corrupted for the Blood God's entertainment after being possessed by the spirits of ravenous Daemons. Tormented and driven insane by its hideous form, its soul is possessed by the base and bloody desires of the Daemon within, seeking only to kill. Gorefeaster is a huge beast of muscle, sinew, fangs and claws with only one thought driving it -- to charge headlong into the enemy, tearing and goring a bloody path across the battlefield. The Inquisitor named the creature in his work the Ars Practica Animum Daemonica, and told of his encounter and exorcism of the beast on his expedition to the Hel Quadrant.First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - The space hulk Devourer of Stars appeared in the Armageddon System. Upon reaching orbit, it disgorged a vast Chaos horde -- led by the infamous Daemon Primarch Angron -- upon the world of Armageddon's sub-continent of Armageddon Prime. The Chaos horde initially made great gains, taking control of Armageddon Prime and threatening to overwhelm the other sub-continent of Armageddon Secundus. However, the defences of the lower continent held -- chiefly due to the valour of the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar and 300 of his brave Space Wolves -- allowing a full brotherhood of 100 Grey Knights under the command of Brother-Captain Taremar Aurellian to arrive, carrying the battle directly to Angron and his diabolic horde of Khornate Berserkers and Khornate Daemons. In a titanic clash, Angron and his Bloodthirster honour guard were eventually bested, though it cost the lives of almost the full brotherhood -- 96 dead and 9 permanently disabled out of a total force of 109. The Space Wolves continued to fight in the First War for Armageddon through to its conclusion. The First War for Armageddon was also significant for the heroes it produced. Of the scant few Grey Knights who survived the final confrontation with the Daemon Primarch Angron, many went on to achieve high ranks within the Chapter. Arvann Stern, Caddon Varn and Dhark Tegvar fought as newly ennobled Knights on Armageddon's dusty plains, as did the then-Justicar Vorth Mordrak. The battle had a profound effect upon one Grey Knight in particular: upon returning victorious to Titan, Garran Crowe set aside duty to his brotherhood and entered the ranks of the Purifiers -- where he has served with unblemished honour to this day.Months of Shame (444-451.M41) - Although they had defeated all that the forces of Chaos had thrown at them during the bloody campaign that was the First War for Armageddon, the victorious soldiers of Armageddon were doomed from the start. They had gained knowledge of the existence of Chaos, and been exposed to its corruption. The Inquisition had no intention of letting the wider Imperium discover the true nature of the Daemonic foe that had attacked Armageddon, or of the ways and means victory had been achieved with the aid of the Grey Knights; the Inquisitors present voted to sterilise and quarantine-for-life the remaining population of the Hive World even though it was generally considered untainted, and ignorant of the truth concerning the existence of Chaos. The valiant IAstra Militarum, PDF regiments and other Human defenders of the world were to suffer the same fate or be liquidated. The Inquisition ordered all of the people who had fought on the planet, except for the Space Marines, to be rounded up at gunpoint, sterilised to prevent any possible Chaos-induced mutations in their offspring and placed in Adeptus Arbites work camps across the galaxy, with their world to be re-colonised by people from other regions of the galaxy with no knowledge of the war. Over the strident protests of the Space Wolves and their Great Wolf Logan Grimnar, the Inquisition followed through with this plan, and the Grey Knights frigate Karabela still in orbit of Armageddon, was ordered to destroy the first Astra Militarum troop transport to leave Armageddon as it approached a Mandeville Point off-world. Following this first incident, a years-long cat-and-mouse campaign later remembered as the "Months of Shame" took place between the Space Wolves and their Human charges from Armageddon on one side, and the Inquisition and Grey Knights on the other. It was characterised by increasingly deadly fratricidal actions by both sides, and rapidly escalated into a full-fledged Imperial civil war between the Space Wolves and the Inquisition. However many of the attached Grey Knights were upset at their involvement in the purge, and were demoralised by having to fight the brother Astartes of the Space Wolves. Grimnar saw the Inquisition's actions following the war as betraying the very people who had honourably fought for their homes and for the Emperor, and if the Imperium did not protect those who fought for it, he did not believe it had any purpose. The Inquisition saw this policy as an unfortunate but necessary part of its mandate and duty in applying the Imperial policy of secrecy concerning Chaos, and it would not suffer the questioning of its authority. Finally, in an attempt to bring the conflict to an end, in 451.M41 the Inquisitor Lord Ghesmei Kysnaros ordered his growing Inquisitorial armada, including Grey Knights Chapter fleet vessels, to Fenris, the Space Wolves' lightly defended homeworld, in a last-ditch gambit to force those Astartes to comply with the Inquisition's wishes concerning the liquidation or imprisonment of Armageddon's survivors. Kysnaros' armada, including a multitude of Inquisition warships, Grey Knights vessels, and the entire Chapter fleet and strength of the Red Hunters Chapter, arrived at Fenris and surrounded the planet in high orbit whilst targeting The Fang, the Space Wolves' fortress-monastery, for a devastating orbital bombardment. The planet was virtually undefended as the vast majority of the Space Wolves and their Chapter fleet were dispersed on missions across the galaxy. Kysnaros again asked for a parlay with any ranking Space Wolves present. A delegation consisting of Kysnaros, the Grey Knight Hyperion (who commanded respect amongst the Space Wolves as the "Bladebreaker") and Inquisitor Annika Jarlsdottyr, a native Fenrisian, arrived at The Fang for the meeting. The Space Wolves had awoken the Venerable Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell-Handed to deal with the Inquisitorial party. The ancient warrior who had once fought beside Primarch Leman Russ during the Great Crusade immediately received the unbidden respect and reverence of the Inquisitorial delegation, and was thought to be a more temperate and wise representative for the Chapter than Logan Grimnar. Kysnaros asked for the Space Wolves' express obeisance to Imperial authority and the chain of command, and a Penitent Crusade to be undertaken to expiate the Chapter's guilt for their attacks upon the servants of the Inquisition. In exchange, the Inquisition and the Imperium at large would take no other action or censure against the Chapter. Before negotiations could go further, to the surprise of everyone, the Space Wolves' Chapter fleet under the command of Logan Grimnar translated from the Warp near Fenris. As the Inquisition delegation made haste to their flagship, a short, brutal fight ensued over the planet. Eventually Grimnar and his Wolf Guard teleported to Kysnaros' flagship's bridge, where the Great Wolf unceremoniously beheaded the Inquisitor Lord. Grimnar then proceeded to maul the last survivor of the Grey Knights' Squad Castian who had survived the conflict on Armageddon. To save his brother, Hyperion confronted Grimnar, and in the duel that followed, he used his psychic powers to crack Grimnar's ancient, venerated Frost Axe Morkai. As Hyperion then confronted Grimnar and twenty Space Wolves alone, Bjorn the Fell-Handed teleported to the bridge and put an end to the fight. Bjorn told Grimnar that the internecine war between the Chapter and the Inquisition on behalf of the survivors of Armageddon had to stop. The Inquisitorial force should be allowed to leave Fenris unscathed, and the Space Wolves should reach an understanding with the Imperium. He then addressed Hyperion and Inquisitor Jarlsdottyr, as the ranking Inquisition representatives present, and told them that no Inquisition vessel should ever again appear above Fenris. Additionally, the Space Wolves who had acquired knowledge of the existence of the Grey Knights would not be mind-scrubbed, as was customary, though the remaining Armageddon survivors would be handed over for mind-wiping and dispersion across the galaxy. The combatants accepted the terms, and shortly afterward, the Inquisitorial force left the system. Yet, the larger institutional dispute between the Inquisition and the Space Wolves was not resolved. As a result of what they continued to believe was a betrayal of the Imperium's core values, the Space Wolves have never again trusted the Inquisition and move to frustrate Inquisitorial designs at every opportunity. Since that time the Space Wolves have had little but hostility to show towards the Inquisition and few indeed are the Inquisitors allowed into The Fang in recent times. The Months of Shame caused extensive casualties among the Chapter, which lost almost 100 Astartes engaged in the combat. Several Grey Knight starships were lost or destroyed during the hostilities, including at least one capital vessel.Unwelcome Allies (601.M41) - Brother-Captain Ramstorn Fane tracked the fabled Bloodwulf to the world of Crytor, the Khornate Daemon leaving a trail of burning worlds across the sector. In the ghost-filled ruins of the dead planet, Fane and his battle-brothers cornered the Daemon before a megalithic tomb of black glass. As the Bloodwulf and his Flesh Hounds turned to face the Space Marines, the seals on the tomb hissed open and metallic xenos warriors marched forth. A bitter three-way combat erupted, with the Grey Knights fighting both Necrons and the Daemons of the Blood God. Fane finally managed to land the killing blow against the Bloodwulf as the Daemon tried to tear apart the Necron Lord. As the Daemon collapsed in on itself in a cloud of smoke and blood, the brother-captain readied himself for attack from the Necrons, only to find their lord lowering his weapon in what appeared to be an archaic gesture of parley. Deciding not to risk his remaining brothers against the xenos, Fane warily signaled for them to withdraw, satisfied that their true quarry was no more.Cleansing of Acralem (799.M41) - The notorious Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn launched an attack on the world of Acralem, seeking to claim it as a throne world from which he could carve an empire. Acting on an Inquisitional request, the Grey Knights spearheaded the Imperium's counter-offensive, and in the final battle the young Kaldor Draigo made his name by banishing the Daemon Prince.Battle of the Ghost Halls (800.M41) - A dire vision from the Prognosticars resulted in a Grey Knights strike force being dispatched to a point in space where no worlds were known to exist. On arrival the strike force encountered the massive, bio-acid scorched hulk of the Aeldari craftworld Malan'tai. Though its inhabitants had been all but destroyed by Tyranids, Malan'tai was not so empty as it first appeared. The ancient Keeper of Secrets N'kari and his kind stalked the fallen halls, growing bloated with power on Craftworld Aeldari Spirit Stones. To fight such a foe would have ordinarily been beyond even the Grey Knights, but the Prognosticars dictated more than the location of this new threat, they also bade Brother-Captain Pelenas to take as many Purifiers as he could muster. As the Grey Knights launched their assault on despoiled Malan'tai, the Purifiers led the charge, a bow wave of cleansing azure flame preceding their advance. The fire roared through the desolate halls like a hungry spirit, crackling and growing as it consumed the Daemons in its path, scattering those hellspawn that survived and leaving them ripe prey for the advancing Grey Knights. N'kari was finally cornered in the dead craftworld's shattered Dome of Crystal Seers. The Daemon fought with fury -- in a matter of moments his spear claimed the lives of a dozen Purifiers and struck down Pelenas. Yet, before the Daemon could strike the killing blow on the fallen brother-captain, Justicar Thawn threw himself into the Daemon's path and was laid low in his captain's place. With N'kari's weapon momentarily trapped in the prison of Thawn's flesh, the surviving Purifiers were able to complete the ritual of Twelve Bloody Swords, which drained N'kari of his stolen psychic power and left him vulnerable to Pelenas' deathblow. In the battle's aftermath, the bulk of the strike force returned to Titan with the bodies of the fallen. A score of Purifiers remained aboard the ruined craftworld, standing guard over the empty halls until contact could be made with another Aeldari craftworld, and the recovery of the remaining Spirit Stones could begin.Raxos Civil War (841.M41) - Civil war came to the Hive World of Raxos when the planetary governor -- through a series of intermediaries -- convinced some of the local military forces to rise up against his own regime. Confusion reigned for the first few local days of the coup, and casualties were minimal. However, when the insurrectionists seized control of a Deathstrike Missile Battery, the resulting nuclear bombardment disrupted Raxos' tectonic stability. Millions died in the span of a few solar days. The governor -- later revealed to be Tzeentch's Changeling in disguise -- harnessed the concomitant psychic upheaval to summon hundreds of his fellow Daemons. Alerted to the situation on Raxos four brotherhoods of Grey Knights arrived amidst the ongoing civil war. Taking in the situation at a glance, Grand Master Drystann Cromm split his Grey Knights into several strike forces -- three to strike at the portals from which the Daemons were drawing their power, and a fourth, under Brother-Captain Arvann Stern, to reinforce the spaceport's defences and its fleeing refugee shuttles. Whilst Stern safeguarded the spaceport, Cromm cast broken fingerbones of martyred Imperial saints at the mouth of each portal to prevent further Daemons manifesting, and then performed the rites of cleansing and exorcism that finally sealed the portals and banished the remaining Daemons. Yet, as the first refugee shuttles lifted off, Stern grew uneasy -- the Changeling's psychic spoor still lingered. With grim certainty, Stern realised that the Daemon must have boarded one of the refugee shuttles now heading for outer orbit. Knowing that his forces were too few to have any hope of uncovering the hidden Changeling in time, but all too aware of the anarchy that the Daemon would unleash should it reach another populated world, Stern ordered the battle barge Bright Sword to destroy the shuttles. Hundreds of thousands were slain in the ensuing salvo, their lives sacrificed to preserve millions more on distant worlds.Fall of the Red Talon (855.M41) - Brother-Captain Arvann Stern oversaw the destruction of the Cult of the Red Talon.The Bloodtide Returns (876.M41) - Chaos came to the Basilica of St. Mariel on the world of Van Horne. A statue of the Emperor was accidentally damaged during renovation work of the inner sanctum, disrupting the forgotten stasis-reliquary within. As the ancient prison crumbled to dust, the Bloodthirster Ka'jagga'nath, Lord of the Bloodtide, broke free. At his bellowed command, a tide of gore washed through the vaults, corrupting everything and everyone it touched. It was only when the Grey Knights' 4th Brotherhood arrived on Van Horne that the Bloodtide was abated and the Greater Daemon vanquished. Before Ka'jagga'nath's essence could escape his ruined body, the Grey Knights were able to cast the Daemon's dark presence back into the Warp, and the psychic backwash banished the Bloodtide and the legion of Daemons it drew forth.The Black Planet (888.M41) - Garran Crowe battled Skulltaker, the Daemonic Herald of Khorne, on the Black Planet and, though Crowe couldn't best him in combat, he bought enough time for his brothers to foil the Daemon's plans.Purge of Jollana (913.M41) - Destruction came to the Great Librarium of Jollana in 913.M41 at the hands of the thrice-reviled Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion. Determined to take the secrets of the Librarium for himself, Ahriman wiped out Jollana's defenders and much of the Librarium was ruined. In the wake of Ahriman's attack, the Invaders Chapter dispatched 3 companies of Astartes alongside a relief army of Astra Militarum to Jollana to secure the Librarium. Unable to determine whether or not Ahriman's forces were still present in its catacombs, the Invaders nonetheless acted with their Chapter's famed recklessness and launched a full-scale assault -- though Ahriman was long gone. As the Chapter's Drop Pods crashed home, they unknowingly triggered the complex system of sorcerous wards that Ahriman had left in place as one last act of devilment. Scouring the fire-blackened rubble for any trace of the foe, arcane energies began to build and were eventually released in a violent cascade of pink Warpflame that incinerated the guardsmen to a man. The Invaders fared better, protected from the sorcerous assault by their power armour. Yet the dangers to assail the Invaders had only begun. As the fires guttered and died, the walls of reality were torn asunder and Daemons burst through into the Librarium's great hall. A contingent of Grey Knights then arrived in orbit of Jollana. The Invaders had been fighting for their survival for many solar days. Under such circumstances, an Exterminatus order would normally have been executed, but in the case of Jollana, this was not a viable option. The datastacks of the Great Librarium contained knowledge that existed nowhere else in the galaxy, and so the Grey Knights were ordered to retake the Librarium rather than see it and its precious knowledge destroyed. The Grey Knights teleported into the bloody melee between the Daemons and the embattled Invaders. Through their timely intervention, 15 Grey Knights rescued near five times their number of fellow Space Marines. Though they emerged victorious, the Chaos threat remained. The combined force of Invaders and Grey Knights assaulted the Great Hall of the Librarium, confronted another horde of Daemons as well as the dire threat of a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch known as a Lord of Change. Of the Invaders, only a dozen survived, and none would be permitted to retain any memory of their deeds that day by the Inquisition. Nonetheless, a great victory had been won for the Emperor. Though the rebuilding would take many long Terran years, Jollana and its Great Librarium had been saved, and the Daemonic threat against neighbouring star systems had been put down, at least for a time.The Plague of Madness (941.M41) - Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo led three full Grey Knights brotherhoods against Ix'thar'ganix, the Slayer of Destinies, and his unwitting Nurglite pawn, Lurgon, on the doomed world of Decimalus.Pandorax Campaign (959-961.M41) - In the Demeter Sector, Abaddon the Despoiler led an alliance of Traitor Legions, including his own Black Legion and the Death Guard, in an invasion of the Imperial Death World of Pythos in the Pandorax System, the location of an ancient hidden gateway to the Warp. Another piece in his dark design to bring an end to the Long War, the Warmaster of Chaos fell upon the world with a small force of Daemon Engines and infernal war machines. In the space of a few bloody solar days the major hive cities were overrun and the local Planetary Defence Forces crushed beneath the might of the combined Traitor Legions. Only a small contingent of Catachan Jungle Fighters, the CLXXXIII Catachan Regiment of the Astra Militarum, managed to escape the destruction, trekking through the world's inhospitable jungle to the relative safety of the nearest mountain range. Abaddon commenced the complex rituals and sacrifices that would open the Damnation Cache, a portal between realspace and the Warp, breaking open seals that had remained untouched since the time of the Horus Heresy. Heeding the impassioned cries for salvation from Pythos, the entire Dark Angels Chapter, led by Azrael himself, came to the defenders' aid. Supporting these Space Marines were Grey Knights dispatched from Titan to deal with the escalating Daemonic incursion and the dire peril that the Damnation Cache posed. Both Imperial forces smashed through the Traitor Legion blockade around Pythos, in an epic void battle that pitted the finest warships of the Imperium supported by The Rock, the Dark Angels' mobile fortress-monastery, against the ancient vessels of the Traitor Legions. After the Chaos Warfleet was finally driven from orbit and back into the void, the Space Marines were able to send their troops down through the atmosphere, bringing war to its ruined hives and hostile jungles. Failing to allow this distraction to draw him away from the awakening of the Damnation Cache, Abaddon sent an alliance of Legions to hold the Loyalists at bay. Before either the Dark Angels or the Grey Knights could stop him, Abaddon finally opened the portal to the Warp, Daemons spilling out across Pythos. The ensuing conflict devastated the world as reality itself bent and buckled under the raw power of the Empyrean. The unleashed energies created rampant psychic phenomena, and Space Marines fought under boiling skies of blood and in rolling clouds of keening spirits. All across the Demeter Sector, latent psykers were awakened to full and terrible awareness and rebellions sprung up like cancerous boils on dozens of Imperial worlds in the region. After a long and bitter struggle, a squad of Grey Knights managed to reach the Damnation Cache and close the Warp portal. Starved of their Daemonic allies, the Traitor Legions were forced onto the defensive and finally into retreat. Abaddon's forces left Pythos, escaping the vengeance of the Imperium once again, but the world had been irrevocably tainted by the touch of the Warp, its once proud cities and vast wilds twisted into a nightmarish hellscape. Before the portal was closed, however, Abaddon took with him a psyker, rumoured to be of prodigious strength and the bearer of a unique gift that would aid the Warmaster of Chaos in his forthcoming 13th Black Crusade. This conflict is remembered in Imperial records as the Pandorax Campaign.Assault on Beroghast (963.M41) - When WAAAGH! Snappaklaw descended upon the Ice World of Beroghast, the 2nd Brotherhood of the Grey Knights assaulted the Ork horde. A series of decisive strikes left the WAAAGH! cut off from its supply lines and the final Imperial blow against the Greenskins was delivered on the banks of the River Gandor, where the Ork Warlord Snappaklaw himself was slain. Three solar days later, the Fire Lords Chapter, under the command of its newly promoted Chapter Master Jaric Phoros, arrived on Beroghast to discover the Orks in full retreat and the primitive locals bubbling over with tales about their "Steel Saviours."Pandemonium of Sondheim V (997.M41) - The Agri-world of Sondheim V was overwhelmed by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan just as the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn transformed the world into his own private Chaos Pandemonium. The Sky Sentinels Chapter of Space Marines was the first to respond, but judged the world irretrievable and made preparations to begin an Exterminatus. These preparations were delayed following the arrival of a Grey Knights strike force under the command of Grand Master Vardan Kai. Whilst Kai concurred with the Sky Sentinels' assessment that the planet could not be recovered for the Emperor, he ordered a stay of the Exterminatus whilst he and his battle-brothers attempted to capture the Book of Pandegaras -- the cursed tome of Chaos sorcery that M'kar used to transform the planet below into his own private hell-world. The Sky Sentinels reluctantly decided to give Kai twelve solar hours in which to accomplish his mission, and the Grey Knights took to their Stormravens and deployed to the planet below. Upon landing, Kai hastily revised his time limit to a mere six solar hours -- a nightmarish fusion of Daemonic and Tyranid infestations had transformed Sondheim V into a Death World. Fortunately, running battles between the Tyranids and M'kar's Daemonic thralls allowed the Grey Knights to slip through the mutated landscape unimpeded, if not unnoticed. Unfortunately, when Kai's forces reached the temple in which the Book of Pandegaras lay, they discovered that the building had been almost completely surrounded and interpenetrated by Tyranid spore chimneys. Unperturbed, the Grey Knights hacked their way through the xenos biomatter but drew the attention of the Hive Mind. Within seconds, Kai's forces came under attack by waves of Hormagaunts and Gargoyles. By the time Kai finally carved a path into the lower levels of the temple, larger creatures started to arrive, and the Grey Knights' began to suffer heavy casualties. Yet as Kai finally reached the Book of Pandegaras, unexpected aid arrived. Just as the earlier strike on the Tyranid biostructures had alerted the Hive Mind, so did the violation of the Chaos artefact by the touch of the Emperor's servants now bring forth the wrath of M'kar's Daemons. The twisted ruins of the temple erupted into a three-way battle. The Tyranids bore the brunt of the Daemons' attack. With the Grey Knights surrounded by Tyranid bioforms, the Daemons could reach them only by carving a path through the Great Devourer's minions. Bloodletters swarmed over a Tyrannofex, only to be cut down by volleys of Storm Bolter fire. Carnifexes smashed through knots of Grey Knight Terminators only to be immolated between the sanctified flames of Purifiers and the unholy Warpfires cast by the Flamers of Tzeentch. Amid the chaos, Kai was forced to abandon any pretense of a controlled retreat and he made contact with the Sky Sentinels' fleet, who began an orbital bombardment of the temple site. Protected by their power armour, the Grey Knights weathered the storm of barrage bombs that exploded amongst the ruins while their Tyranid and Daemonic foes were less fortunate. When the bombardment ceased, Kai and the surviving Grey Knights evacuated the doomed world before Daemon and Tyranid reinforcements could arrive. Less than a solar hour later, Kai's strike force began the journey home to Titan to contain the Book of Pandegaras in the Chapter's vaults, whilst the Sky Sentinels began the Exterminatus action that would destroy Sondheim V and all of the horrors on its surface. In the wake of the Exterminatus, the Sky Sentinels surrendered themselves for the standard mindwipe to the Inquisition so that all memory of the worst horrors of Chaos would be wiped away.Return to Acralem (999.M41) - Kaldor Draigo returned alone to Acralem to free it from the clutches of M'kar the Reborn, hoping to end the Chapter's ancient feud with the Daemon Prince. Meanwhile, dark forces gathered in the Warp, and something stirred deep beneath Titan's surface. The Prognosticars were plagued by visions of impending doom, and it seemed that the Citadel of Titan itself might face the threat of attack.