Scythes of the Emperor - Notable Campaigns: Corinth Crusade (698.M41-705.M41) - The Scythes of the Emperor participated in the Corinth Crusade that fought under the command of the famous Chapter Master Marneus Calgar alongside elements of the Ultramarines, the Angels of Absolution, the Lamenters, Silver Skulls and Marines Errant Chapters, supported by 50 Imperial Guard regiments against the Ork WAAAGH! Skargor that emerged out of the Greenskins' pocket empire of Charadon. The Crusade drove WAAAGH! Skargor back to the world of Corinth and ultimately Warlord Skargor was slain. This Crusade pushed back the later invasion of Imperial space by the Charadon Orks' WAAAGH! Argluk by 30 standard years.Damocles Gulf Crusade (742.M41) - It was in the years following the Damocles Gulf Crusade against the T'au in M41.742, that the Scythes of the Emperor would come to the forefront of warfare within the Eastern Fringe. The Scythes led the first landing into T'au territory, the world of Sy'l'Kell. After establishing the landing zone, the Imperial Guard regiment of the 17th Brimlock Dragoons heavy support element moved on to expand the Imperial foothold. The Dragoons were nearly destroyed by a heavily mechanised T'au counter-assault against the expanding Imperial position. The timely intervention of the Scythes, accompanied by the 4th Imperial Storm Troopers, broke through the T'au lines, averting a near-disaster. After claiming Sy'l'Kell, the crusade moved across the Damocles Gulf. After a brutal first fleet engagement with the T'au, the Imperials landed on the major T'au world of Dal'yth Prime. This led to solar months of bitter fighting, during which the Scythes (alongside the Ultramarines and Iron Hands Chapters) were constantly engaged against T'au heavy jump infantry units, during an effort to claim the T'au city of Gel'Bryn, intended to be used as a major starport for the forces of the crusade. The Astartes maintained constant night patrols against T'au infiltrators during the months-long fighting. With news of the encroaching Hive Fleet Behemoth bearing down upon the Eastern Fringe and the stalemate between the two sides, the crusade was forced to withdraw in order to bring full Imperial resources to bear against this new xenos threat. Despite requests from some in the crusade leadership to perform an Exterminatus upon the T'au planet before Imperial withdrawal, the Astartes and Imperial Guard commanders refused. An unusual mutual respect between both sides had been forged during the conflict.Verdeworlds Campaign (865.M41) - A Black Templars Crusade Fleet joined forces with the Blood Angels and Scythes of the Emperor to cleanse the Verdeworlds of their Aeldari settlers.Aftermath of the Badab War (912.M41) - After the conclusion of the Badab War, the Scythes of the Emperor were charged by the Inquisition with watching over the penitent Lamenters Chapter of Astartes who were performing a penitent crusade for their role in the rebellion, to make sure there were no further signs of heresy. Through this long watch, both Chapters became firm allies.Second Tyrannic War - The Fall of Sotha (992.M41) - Over 300 standard years after the assault of Hive Fleet Behemoth upon the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, the Emperor's Tarot began to tell of foul portents ten standard years before the arrival of Hive Fleet Kraken. Among the planets overwhelmed by the locust-tide of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken was the Scythes of the Emperor Chapter's homeworld of Sotha. Even for a well-defended Chapter planet, there was little hope against such vast numbers of xenos and their remorseless hunger. With devastating losses to the Chapter fleet, the Scythes were driven back to their fortress-monastery on their homeworld of Sotha, which quickly came under siege by the Tyranids after the hive fleet was called there by the psychic lure of a Genestealer Cult infestation. Thousands of Tyranid creatures landed on the planet, and the Scythes, led by Chapter Master Thorcyra, prepared to make their stand at their fortress-monastery in order to give as much time as possible for the population of Sotha to evacuate. Before the planet and fortress-monastery were completely overrun, the Scythes managed a breakout from the doomed world, falling back to regroup in the nearby Miral System. Sotha, along with so many other planets in the path of the inexorable advance of Hive Fleet Kraken, was reduced to the barren state of an asteroid by the Tyranid swarms. Two hundred Space Marines from the Chapter broke through the Tyranid assault. With much of the region overwhelmed by the Tyranids, there was nowhere for these brave Astartes to go beyond the claws of the Kraken.Battle of Miral (992.M41) - The last of the Scythes eventually landed on the Death World of Miral. Somewhere on the surface of this planet, a huge rocky outcrop called the Giant's Coffin rose from the jungle. The pursuing Tyranid fleet caught up and encircled them, leaving the Scythes trapped and surrounded on the jungle planet. The surviving forces of the Scythes prepared to make this their final stronghold. The Giant's Coffin was a tremendous natural citadel whose steep cliffs would slow the invaders and the rocky promontories would provide excellent firing positions for heavy weapons. As the Tyranids mounted their forces for a final push to wipe out the remaining Sycthes, Chapter Master Thorcyra ordered all of the remaining battle-brothers to withdraw from the world so as to avoid the complete extinction of their Chapter. In his last official act, Master Thorcyra passed the artefact known as the Emperor's Scythe (the Chapter Master's symbol of office) to Captain Mansirius Thrasius of the 3rd Company, the only Captain of the Chapter still alive. As the rest of the surviving Scythes escaped the doomed planet in Thunderhawk gunships, Thorcyra and the remains of the Veteran 1st Company took up the position as the last line of defence. Leadership of the nearly destroyed Chapter passed to the new Chapter Master Mansirius Thrasius. The solemn ceremony of investiture was conducted on the bridge of the Honour's Might (the Chapter's only remaining starship, an almost-crippled Battle-Barge with severely depleted resources). Thrasius then ordered the starship renamed The Heart of Sotha in memory of the Scythes of the Emperor's homeworld and the terrible sacrifices made there. The fate of the planet is unknown, although at the end of the Tyranid onslaught, little more than a company of the Scythes of the Emperor remained. For a time the remnants of the Chapter sought out and annihilated the remaining Tyranid splinter forces within the Ultima Segmentum and beyond even as they ought new recruits to replenish the Chapter's shattered ranks.Rebirth (970.999.M41) - The Scythes of the Emperor finally emerged from the dark shadow of Hive Fleet Kraken and announced that their Chapter would be born anew.Battle of Hamagora (Unknown Date.M42) - The 2nd Company of the Scythes of the Emperor, newly reinforced with Primaris Marine battle-brothers in the wake of the reinforcements brought by the Indomitus Crusade, found itself under siege upon the Hive World of Hamagora, assailed by an endless swarm of Nurgle Daemons. Intercessor Squads established a punishing series of kill-zones amongst the ruins of hive city Agrippa, yet for every Daemon they slew, two more emerged from the dank tunnels of the undercity, and their casualties began to mount. Operating in total secrecy, Strike Force Harbinger of the Grey Knights' 5th Brotherhood teleported into the sub-city. Their quarry was the Great Unclean One Gul'gulm'ga'tol, who had turned Agrippa's sprawling sewage works into his personal baths -- hordes of putrid Daemons crawled endlessly forth from the morass of rancid gruel. After a bloody battle, the strike team sent Gul'gulm'ga'tol screaming back into the Warp. Hamagora was saved, though the Scythes never discovered how.War for the Aberrus System (Unknown Date.M42) - Captain Nikeras of the Iron Lords' 2nd Company led a strike force composed of elements from the 2nd, 8th and 10th Companies to the Aberrus System alongside forces drawn from the Lamenters, Knights of the Raven and the 3rd Company of the Scythes of the Emperor Chapter. There, the Adeptus Astartes served as crucial reinforcements in defending the system from an assault by a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken. While the Space Marines helped to stabilise the ongoing conflict and raise Imperial morale, they did not realise that Inquisitor Shalisha Talaris of the Ordo Xenos had learned from her void watchers that a second tendril of the Kraken, twice the size of the first, was about to assault Aberrus. She feared that if the Tyranids could not be defeated, the hive fleet would sweep into the Grendl Stars and claim the genetic material of the hyperviolent Barghesi for themselves, putting the fate of the entire Eastern Fringe at risk.Expedition to Sotha (Unknown Date.M42) - The birth of the Great Rift that bisected the galaxy at the start of the Era Indomitus reactivated the ancient alien Warp beacon called the Pharos. This was discovered by the Scythes of the Emperor, who still guarded the ruins of Sotha after the planet's destruction by a Genestealer Cult infestation and Hive Fleet Kraken during the Second Tyrannic War. Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl led an expedition to Sotha with the aid of the Ultramarines and the remaining Firstborn Space Marines of the Scythes of the Emperor to study and perhaps use the Pharos' technology to close the Great Rift and defeat Chaos. The expedition came under assault by Genestealer Cultists who had infiltrated the Chapter Serfs of the Scythes of the Emperor. Ultimately all of that Chapter's remaining Firstborn Marines were slain alongside their Chapter Master Thracius in combat with the Genestealer Patriarch whose cult had first called Hive Fleet Kraken to destroy Sotha. After reaching the Pharos, Cawl discovered that a shard of the C'tan Zarhulash the Potentate had provided the power source for the ancient Pharos. He forged a deal with the alien star god, in which Zarhulash agreed to destroy the device by removing its heart, creating a destructive miniature singularity. In exchange, Cawl agreed to remove the shackles of necrodermis that kept the C'tan Shard captive and create a portal with the Pharos to allow him to finally escape from Sotha. Cawl seemingly agreed, but this was only a ruse as he actually teleported Zarhulash to a far region of the galaxy where the C'tan Shard was surrounded by hostile Necron Tomb Worlds. Zarhulash swore revenge on Cawl for this betrayal. Cawl was able to escape from Sotha and gathered much data from an examination of the Pharos' heart, including the location of other Pharos devices and large deposits of the strategic material known as blackstone across the galaxy. Cawl hoped to use this information to eventually find a way to build a technological solution that would seal the Great Rift once and for all.