Legion of the Damned - Notable Campaigns: Despite the strange occurrences that all too often prevent the Legionaries from being monitored, there exist those events in Imperial records that undeniably show their presence as a recurrent phenomena.Every one of these appearances has been picked apart in minute detail by the Ordo Chronos, though in truth, their examinations have raised as many questions as they have answered:The Pyrocataclysm of Vilidad Prime (006.M40) - After broadcasting a terror message condemning the lack of beauty in the populace, the Renegades of the Flawless Host invaded the Adamantium mines of the world of Vilidad Prime. The 122nd Imeldan Destriers, a veteran Astra Militarum regiment assigned to monitor the tithe, made a valiant attempt to hold back the Renegades. Modified nova charges were set by the Flawless Host throughout the Adamantium mines and the population centres above them. Though the surviving Destriers fought the Chaos Space Marines every step of the way, the vast majority were slain in battle, their persecutors claiming the kills were "for the sin of mediocrity in the face of true beauty." Though the Destriers were reduced to their mortis threshold within the first three solar days of fighting, reports of strange Space Marines appearing in the mining districts croped up again and again, each time engaging the Flawless Host and driving them back. At first, the strikes were so sudden and brutally effective that the Destriers thought they had a real chance of outlasting the Renegades. When the Chaos Lord that called himself the Visionary joined the fight, a hundred daemonic handmaidens at his side, the tide swung back again, for many of the Legion's number were banished by the vorpal claws of the Slaaneshi daemons. Those Legionaries that remained became searing columns of fire, fighting with a fury that made them every bit as frightening as the Renegade invaders. During what came to be known as the Pyrocataclysm, the fire of the Legionaries proved able to burn even daemon flesh, and the Slaaneshi entities were sent screaming back to their master's foul realm. Though commiting a number of spiteful acts during its retreat, the Flawless Host fled back to its ships rather than risking disfigurement and defeat. During the fighting, a dozen new seams of adamantium were revealed by weapon blasts that scared the surface of Vilidad Prime. The nearby Forge World of Lipitou Anville tripled its production of war materiel, ensuring the majority of its labours benefited the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.The Swords Reforged (343.M41) - When Hive Fleet Moloch invaded the Imperial weapons testing planet of Ghodba, the Tyranids found that the world had a vicious bite of its own. Everything from unclassified super-heavy war engines to gatling Macrocannons was employed by the Tech-priest Enginseers that supervised the planet's defences, with entire phalanxes of Baneblades and Shadowswords leading each charge against Moloch's many leader-beasts. Yet though Ghodba's surface was soon thick with Tyranid corpses, reinforcements couldn't reach the planet for solar months at best. The war of attrition started to tip in favour of the xenos invaders. The last Steel Fury squadron, the Swords of Ghodba, was crippled by sustained bio-cannon fire and swiftly overrun by numberless Gaunts. Its crew commended their souls to the Emperor, taking up their Laspistols and Autoguns, preparing for a last stand. Upon throwing open the hatches of their mobile fortresses, the crew of the Swords were stunned to see squad after squad of black-clad Space Marines forming a cordon around their tanks, the relentless pounding of their bolters and the billowing flames of their heavy weapons blasting back the Hormagaunts scuttling around them. The crew bailed out, their saviours maintaining the cordon around them as they fought across three miles of corpse-strewn battleground to reach a squadron of Doomhammers, whose crews had been slain by Lictor attacks. With the chameleonic assassin-beasts blasted apart by pinpoint volleys from their Legionary escort, the crews of the Swords quickly familiarised themselves with the weapon suites of the Doomhammers and rejoined the fight. The introduction of three more super-heavy tanks and almost a hundred Legionaries tiped fate in favour of the Imperium. The invading swarm was shattered, dispersed, and hunted to extinction, forcing the rest of Hive Fleet Moloch to seek its prey elsewhere.The Doom Of Idharae (852.M41) - The Legion of the Damned came to the aid of the Invaders Chapter as it waged a devastating attack upon the Asuryani Craftworld Idharae. When their flaming bolts did little harm to the raging Asuryani Avatar at the heart of the battle, the Legionaries instead blew out the great dome under which they fought. They vanished once more as the Asuryani defenders and the single surviving member of the Invaders force left fighting there were blasted out into the void. Idharae was left as a ruined and desolate hulk.The Great Bastion of Andraxas (922.M41) - Chief Librarian Tigurius led an Ultramarines strike force to rescue a delegation of Tech-priests from the Ork invasion of the world of Andraxas. Within the towering mega-fortress known as the Great Bastion, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests had unearthed a Force Staff that bore the Electoo recognition codes of none other than Malcador the Sigillite. The Ultramarines struck with pinpoint accuracy and great fury, only to find that the Ork forces upon Andraxas had such a high degree of aerial supremacy that they could scramble a dizzying amount of reinforcements to the Great Bastion. Given that the Bastion was the only part of the planet that had not already been subjugated by the Greenskins, the Orks flocked to the fight in impossible numbers. Tigurius and his men were outnumbered fifty-to-one, and were about to commend their souls to the Emperor when the air shimmered and the Legion of the Damned burst into realspace. The slaughter that followed was nothing short of inspirational. Flaming volleys of Bolter shells blasted Orks to bloody scraps on every wall and gulley. Tigurius renewed his attack, only to find the morale of the xenos invaders had been devastated by the sudden and inexplicable strike. The Great Bastion was secured and used as a base for the subsequent evacuation of the world's surviving Imperials. The Force Staff was recovered and examined by the Adeptus Mechanicus and then by Tigurius himself, yielding secrets about the Golden Throne's construction and a greater understanding of the sacrifice its master made in the name of the Imperium. It is still in the Chief Librarian's hands to this day.The Timeaon Deliverance (940.M41) - The Iron Snakes Chapter was ambushed during the Timeaon Planetstrike by Tau Battlesuits and saved from certain death only when the Legion of the Damned appeared from the Warp and launched a devastating assault on the aliens' flanks.A Prize Denied (967.M41) - Drukhari from the Kabal of the Black Heart burst from the Webway to launch a realspace slave raid on the hapless population of the world of Thersuis. The raid was powerful and well-funded, featuring the cream of Commorragh's fighting elite, including the illustrious Queen of Slaughter, Lelith Hesperax. The planet's defenders stood little chance, and many thousands of humans were captured within only solar hours of the raid beginning. Yet the Drukhari had a greater quarry in mind. A large Black Templar fleet was rearming in close proximity to the Thersius System, and swiftly responded to the planet's cries for aid. Led by none other than High Marshal Helbrecht, the Black Templars soon engaged the xenos forces with all of their renowned fury, but in doing so, fell into a cunningly-contrived trap. Seeking a worthy challenger to pit against his gladiatorial champions in the arenas of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect had engineered the entire raid from behind the scenes to draw forth the Black Templars and capture Helbrecht. As the High Marshal dutifully gave battle, Lelith Hesperax led the strike force tasked with abducting him. Despite bloodily repulsing the Drukhari slavers, Helbrecht was finally laid low by the mercurial skills of Commorragh's gladiator queen. Yet even as Helbrecht's superhuman constitution succumbed to the fiendishly envenomed blades of his would-be captor, his last vision before he slipped into unconsciousness was of death and fire, and the last sounds he heard were roaring flames and alien screams. Upon his recovery, Helbrecht was informed by his ashamed Sword Brethren of his redemption at the hands of a ghostly brotherhood, which arrived as if from nowhere to drive the Drukhari from the field. Even the blades of Lelith Hesperax could find no purchase on the spectral forms of Helbrecht's saviours, and she was forced to retreat without her prize or share the fate of her kin that were being slaughtered by the Legion of the Damned.The Rescue of Gloriam (990.M41) - The Ork Warlord Nobgrok and his WAAAGH! attacked the Imperial Forge World of Gloriam, intent on looting the biggest weapons he could find from the planet's myriad weapons testing facilities. Nobgrok and his Greenskins wreaked havoc across the planet and quickly captured its Basilica Principalis. While in the middle of using the Basilica's orbital magno-laser batteries to burn his name into Gloriam's moon, he was interrupted by the mysterious appearance of vengeful Space Marines haloed by etheric flames and with symbols of death deeply etched into their midnight-black armour, who slew him and thus shattered the Orks' grip upon Gloriam so that its defenders could take back their world.The Defence of Certus-Minor (996.M41) - The entirety of the Excoriators' 5th Company was lost in garrisoning the Imperial Cemetery World of Certus-Minor against the predations of the Chaos Cholercaust Blood Crusade. Certius-Minor lay directly in the path of the Keeler Comet, an ancient blood-red comet whose strange route out of the Eye of Terror embodied the will of the Chaos God Khorne, leading the Traitors, Heretics and daemons of the Cholercaust across the stars in a celebration of slaughter for the Blood God. That was until the comet appeared in the skies of the tiny Ecclesiarchy Cemetery World in the Praga Sub-sector. The 5th Company did request reinforcement from the rest of the Chapter but had little expectation of its arrival in time to make a difference. The 5th Company sent long-range astrotelepathic requests to the regiments of the Imperial Guard's Viper Legion at Hellionii Reticuli, the 2nd Company of the Novamarines Space Marine Chapter stationed at Belis Quora and the Angels Eradicant Chapter at Port Kreel. They even sent a message to the Vanaheim Cordon where Imperial forces had gathered to face the oncoming Cholercaust, in full knowledge of its futility, for the Imperial Fists, Exorcists and Grey Knights Astartes stationed there would not leave the line of defence for fear that the Keeler Comet and the trailing Cholercaust Crusade might resume its progress on towards Terra. The Adeptus Astartes contingents stationed at Vanaheim would never leave the sacred soil of Terra open to attack to help defend a tiny Cemetery World. The Excoriators on the Battle Barge Certius attempted to reach the Cemetary World to answer their Battle-Brothers' call and halt the progress of the Cholercaust, but they were delayed by strange Warp currents in the wake of the crimson Keeler Comet. Much to the 5th Company's dismay, their commanding officer, the disgraced Corpus-Captain Zachariah Kersh, ordered them to make a defiant last stand against the invaders, and stranded his forces on the world by sending their Apothecary and their crippled Strike Cruiser the Angelica Mortis to a nearby Forge World out of the comet's path, taking the 5th Company's precious gene-seed with it to be used to create future generations of Excoriators after they had been slain. Kersh commanded less than half of a full company of Astartes as well as an Astra Militarum regiment of Certusian Charnel Guard against a legion of Chaotic Traitors, daemonic Bloodletters and Khornate Berserkers. Despite the odds, Kersh formulated a plan worthy of his Chapter's ancestors who had defended the Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra, and he led a bold last stand by the Imperial defenders at Certus-Minor's capital necropolis of Obsequa City. The weight of the Khornate assault far exceeded even Kersh's estimates, and things began to look grim for the Imperial forces. The doomed 5th Company faced its inevitable death at the hands of the forces of Chaos, and in desperation sent a last, prayerful plea to the Emperor of Mankind for assistance of any kind. For a miracle. Beyond all hope, its prayers were answered. The Blood God's butchers soon became the butchered as they were completely wiped out by the timely intervention of the mysterious Astartes of the Legion of the Damned, whose mysterious vessel (more than likely the Fire Hawks' ancient Void Fortress Rapturous Rex) unexpectedly arrived to destroy the Keeler Comet which took much of the Cholercaust's warfleet with it. Yet the price was high, as all the Space Marines of the 5th Company valiantly lost their lives in the effort, save for their commanding officer, Corpus-Captain Zacariah Kersh. Kersh would go on to become Chapter Master of the Excoriators after this pyrrhic victory.Defence of the Autoarchive (Unknown Date. M41) - The Legion of the Damned appeared in the astral docks of Luna, freeing a Salamanders Kill-team from the vacuum traps of the Renegade Draco Clan. This act allowed the Space Marines to intercept a transfer shuttle that had been wired to detonate upon landing within the Great Terran Autoarchive. If the Autoarchive had been lost, the Adeptus Administratum would have suffered a blow that would have compromised their logic engines across the galaxy, and possibly even prevented the Imperium from coordinating its military actions for the best part of a standard century.Battle of the Phalanx (ca. 999.M41) - The Phalanx, the brutish supervessel the Imperial Fists use in lieu of a fortress-monastery, was in orbit around Terra when the Iron Warriors Warsmith Shon'tu and his daemonic allies emerged from a Warp rift in the vast warship's heart. Battle erupted as the newly-forged Imperial Fists 3rd Company fought to repel the boarders, their bolter fire booming through the corridors but ultimately failing to halt the onslaught of the Daemon Prince Be'lakor. Shon'tu headed for the gun decks, intending to use the mighty vessel's continent-wrecking firepower to assail the Imperial Palace upon Terra's surface. Without men enough to stop him, the Imperial Fists made an emergency translation into the Warp, and battle was joined once more as the Phalanx plunged through the screaming tides of the Empyrean. Just as it looked like the infested vessel might be lost, the lower decks were suddenly awash with spectral fire that burned back the Daemons capering in its corridors. When the fire faded, an unprecedented number of the Legion of the Damned stamped through the star fortress' iron corridors, pitilessly exterminating those Daemons that survived their initial attack. The Imperial Fists, prepared to fight to the last man if necessary, took heart and launched a spirited counterattack on Shon'tu's forces which eventually cleared the vessel of the Chaos forces. The Legion remained aboard the Phalanx to aid the Imperial Fists as the great vessel moved to aid the defenders of Cadia from Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade.13th Black Crusade (ca. 999.M41) - The Legion of the Damned appeared from the Empyrean to aid the Space Wolves Wolf Lord Sven Bloodhowl and his Firehowlers in destroying the power interchanger on the Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity as Abaddon the Despoiler prepared to use it to destroy Cadia. While their efforts proved successful, and allowed the Phalanx to successfully open fire on the Will of Eternity and incapacitate the xenos star fortress, Abaddon turned the tables on the Imperium when he slammed the inert fortress into the surface of Cadia as a make-shift meteor. This destabilised the Fortress World's internal geological structure, ultimately leading to its destruction.Noctis Aeterna (Unknown Date.M42) - As the Imperium was devastated by the opening of the Great Rift during the Noctis Aeterna, the Legion of the Damned appeared on Baal, Armageddon, Antagonis, and a hundred more worlds to fight the forces of Chaos.