Marneus Calgar - Macragge Besieged: Solar hours later, the main strength of the Tyranids arrived above Macragge. Refusing all but the most vital medical attention, Calgar quickly resumed command of the fleet and pressed the attack. Caught between the blistering firepower of Macragge's polar fortresses and the vengeful hammer blows of Calgar’s fleet, Tyranid vessels were destroyed in droves, but hundreds yet remained. As the battle raged, the remaining Tyranid ships unleashed thousands of Mycetic Spores above the beleaguered world's polar fortresses before retreating from orbit. Trusting to his Ultramarines to hold the vital strongholds, Calgar pursued the Hive Fleet, determined to prevent it from bringing ruin to any other Imperial world.Meanwhile, on Macragge's surface, the valour of the Ultramarines was being sorely tested. The 1st Company's Veterans repeatedly led daring counterattacks to stymie the Tyranid advance before withdrawing to defend every wall and trench. The Titans of Legio Praetor stalked the ice fields and shot smoking furrows through the onrushing hordes with their apocalyptic weaponry.But the roiling swarm's ferocity was relentless. At the northern fortress, they overran the walls by using the steaming piles of their own dead for cover. Even the towering god-machines were dragged down by sheer weight of numbers. Ammunition began to run low, though stockpiles had been established to hold out through months of siege. Still the Ultramarines fought on, not once giving thought to defeat.In space, Calgar pursued the Tyranid fleet towards the world of Circe, where the arrival of Battlefleet Bakka from the Imperial Navy stronghold of Bakka caught the xenos bio-ships in a vice between the two fleets. Though many Imperial Battleships and Cruisers were destroyed, the Hive Fleet was obliterated when the Emperor-class Battleship Dominus Astra sacrificed itself and detonated its Warp-Drive, sucking the Hive Fleet into a rift into the Immaterium where they met oblivion. Calgar's voidships then raced back to Macragge.The Space Marines of the Ultramarines' 3rd Company, led by Captain Fabian and Chaplain Cassius, were the first to make planetfall, deploying amidst the corpse-strewn craters surrounding the northern pole by Drop Pod. Scenes of carnage awaited them below and the stench of death lay everywhere.The 3rd Company came under attack as soon as it landed. Hundreds of creatures emerged from tunnel mouths to assail the Astartes. Only staunch fire laid down by the Company's Devastator Squads kept the alien swarm at bay until Astartes gunships arrived to blast the Tyranids back into the darkness. Bolstered by the arrival of the 3rd Company's three Dreadnoughts, the Ultramarines proceeded into the fortress itself to search for survivors.Through dank corridors and ichor-dripping passageways still swarming with the alien foe, the 3rd Company reached the lower generatorium, where the defenders had made their last stand. Tyranid bodies were piled deep and a circle of Terminators lay where they had fought back to back. Though they had slain Tyranids beyond counting and held onto the fortress for longer than any could have hoped, the Ultramarines' 1st Company had been wiped out to the last man.The Battle of Macragge thus remains a great source of both sorrow and pride for the Ultramarines. Hive Fleet Behemoth was defeated, but the cost had been great. Statues were raised to honour the courage and sacrifice of the fallen, and their names are commemorated each year at the Feast of Days, but their loss remains a bitter blow to the strength of the Ultramarines. It would be many years before the Chapter could properly replenish its ranks, but the sons of Guilliman would endure.Since the Battle of Macragge, Marneus Calgar and his Ultramarines have become instrumental in the Imperium's wars against other Tyranid Hive Fleets. In response to the threat, and counter to the dictates of the Codex Astartes for the first time, the survivors of the Battle of Macragge were formed into elite, specially-trained anti-Tyranid squads. These Tyrannic War Veterans compose the powerful warriors of the Chapter's reformed 1st Company, and are second to no other warriors of the Imperium because of their experience, training and upgraded Power Armour.