Ultramarines - Dawn of the Imperium, M30-M31: First Pacification of Luna (703.M30) - This early Imperial campaign was the first operation mounted by elements of the early Space Marine Legions beyond the skies of Terra. The Unification Wars were still raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. Luna was the bastion of a conglomeration of resurrectionist gene-cults whose members believed that Human nature was both fractal, fractured and transcendent. Each of these Selenar gene-cults clung to a different set of archetypes. Every cult member was a product of creation by the Selenar gene-wrights according to formulae crafted in the Dark Age of Technology. Resurrected in body time and time again they sought to distill the true personification of a single Human archetype. In their subterranean complexes the Selenar cults were powerful, insular and resistant to the Imperial Truth. The Imperials would have normally dealt with these insular cults in the usual matter they handled all of the other Terran factions and techno-barbarian states that refused to accept the rule of the Emperor of Mankind -- by obliteration. The fact that the Selenar gene-cults had something that the growing Imperium needed complicated that position. The Selenar returned the Imperial entreaties for alliance with silence. As the threats of the Imperium soon began to outnumber its offers, the Selenar cults began to gird themselves for war. So it was that the Emperor finally ordered Luna to be pacified by the sword, their superstitious beliefs cast down before the Imperial Truth and their gene-craft yoked to the needs of the Imperium. To this task the Emperor set the three of his newborn Space Marine Legions most suited to this purpose on what some Imperial chroniclers name as the first true battle of the Great Crusade to come. The combined forces of the VII Legion, XIII Legion and XVI Legion (later named the Imperial Fists, Ultramarines and Luna Wolves) lifted from the surface of Terra in a scattering of rocket flame. The as yet unnamed XVI Legion had been chosen to serve as the Space Marine force's vanguard, and had brought its full strength to bear. Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the XVI Legion drifted silently towards Luna through the void like arrows fired into the night. As the smaller wave of assault craft belonging to the VII and XIII Legions approached the airless world, the Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna's surface lashed the oncoming Imperial force. The XVI Legion's assault craft, unlooked for and unseen, struck their targets like a dagger in the night. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the newborn Imperium. Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead, their surrender communique transmitted to Terra calling for the Emperor to "call off his wolves." Broken and humbled, the enslaved gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marines who would carry out Mankind's conquest of the stars. As for the XVI Legion, they had earned their name -- the Luna Wolves.Compliance of the Osiris Cluster (806.M30) - In the eighth year of the Great Crusade, the expeditionary fleet of the XIII Legion discovered the Osiris Cluster, a grouping of eleven star systems that made up the inner portion of the Segmentum Solar's second quadrant. The inhabited worlds of this region, many technologically advanced at contact, were brought into Imperial Compliance in relatively bloodless order. It was viewed as a highly successful campaign in which the XIII Legion themselves had a hand.Osiris Rebellion (833.M30) - For unknown reasons, the eleven star systems of the Osiris Cluster declared independence from the Imperium almost thirty standard years after the original conquest. The XIII Legion sent its 12th Expeditionary Fleet to put down the rebellion. But failures in intelligence turned what was intended to be a swift victory into a battle of attrition against a previously unknown xenos threat -- the Osirian Psybrid xenoforms. The vile aliens drove the Osirian Human population through the use of their psychic abilities to attack the Legiones Astartes in droves. Ordering his force to withdraw after sustaining heavy losses, Legion Commander Gren Vosotho, along with the XIII Legion flagship Sethaln's Thunder, was lost. Command fell to First Captain Marius Gage. The Osiris Cluster was then blockaded. The 12th Expeditionary Fleet returned a standard year later with a force heavily augmented from the Solar Armada, elements of the XVIII Legion and specialist Sisters of Silence anti-psyker cadres from Terra. They found worlds either left as wastelands of unburied dead or locked in turmoil and civil strife.Discovery of Primarch Roboute Guilliman (837.M30) - After a five-standard-year-long sojourn across the Realm of Ultramar, the Emperor's expeditionary fleet, the Principia Imperialis, came to the "Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar" and its capital, Macragge, to reunite with His lost son Roboute Guilliman. Impressed with His gene-son's superlative organisational skills and strategic planning, as well as the well-ordered realm he had established, the Emperor quickly passed on command of the XIII Legion to Guilliman, who reforged it into his own, as the newly renamed Ultramarines. The Ultramarines' forward base was relocated to Macragge. The primarch quickly assimilated the many wonders and advanced technology of the Imperium, and set about his new role with dutiful vigour.Xenocide of the Osirian Psybrids (899.M30) - A sub-fleet of the XII Legion, under the command of Praetor Erad Krüg, was fighting on the south-western extreme of the Great Crusade's frontier near the Eurydice Terminal, against Ork raiders of the self-styled Glortian Empire from the untracked abysses beyond. As both sides fought one another, they were suddenly beset upon by a mysterious third party -- the deadly xenoforms known as the Osirian Psybrids. As nightmarishly powerful xenos teleported aboard the War Hounds' vessels, only their savage tenacity allowed them to survive, as they lost dozens of their own voidships and hundreds of Ork vessels were shattered. When Primarch Roboute Guilliman received word, he ordered the War Hounds to hold at all costs, and if possible, to track the Psybrids' vessels to their source. The Ultramarines despatched a powerful Retribution Fleet to the Eurydice Terminal, and soon joined their fellow Legion. With their combined might, the Ultramarines systematically wiped out the Psybrids, and when they died, so too did their Human slave armies. The two Legions soon made short work of the remaining Glortian Orks as well, driving them into the outer darkness. The blood price of the battle had been high, but it was a price the Ultramarines were willing to pay to finally gain vengeance and restore their honour after the defeat they had suffered at the xenos' hands nearly six solar decades earlier.Fall of the Lords of Gardinaal (ca. 900s.M30) - The Gardinaal was a solar empire comprised of eleven inhabited worlds encountered at the edge of the Dominion of Storms to the galactic east. It was a stellar empire which possessed a considerable might of arms, enough to give even the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade pause. When an honour guard of Thousand Sons was sent to meet with the lords of Gardinaal, at first the negotiations went well, but unfortunately, the Thousand Sons were able to detect a psychic attempt to subvert the Imperial emissaries. The nearby Ultramarines 413th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Master Ulan Cicerus of the XV Chapter, was forced to intervene militarily. But soon their gains were forestalled by the superior defences of Gardinaal Prime, which proved disastrous, as they utilised powerful STC weaponry and vehicles never encountered before. A blockade of the Gardinaal's home system was employed. The stalemate was soon broken by the arrival of a new Imperial war-host led by the Iron Hands and the Emperor's Children Legions. The Emperor's Children contingent led a diversionary attack, while the Iron Hands led a relentless and tireless assault spread over the entire world. The Ultramarines requested to lead the final assault on the capital city to restore some of their lost honour, though the blood price they paid was steep. The Iron Hands fleet left the Gardinaal System shortly afterwards, its other inhabited worlds pleased to surrender unconditionally to the Imperium's mercy. Though initially faced with famine and hardship, Gardinaal soon proved a valuable addition to the Imperium and a model of Imperial Compliance.Compliance of Tarsis (ca. 900s.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action carried out by the Ultramarines Legion upon the world of Tarsis against unknown assailants. During the assault, Primarch Roboute Guilliman was attacked by a mysterious assailant, but was saved by a native soldier of this world. In a supreme display of humility, Guilliman bent his knee before the soldier and vowed a warrior's oath that should this world ever need aid then the Ultramarines would answer the call. A temple within the capital city of Erebus displayed the Tarsis Frescoe, a mosaic of enormous proportions painted by an unknown artist that covered the walls, ceiling and even the floor, covering the entire chamber like a canvas. This frescoe displayed the events that had occurred during the Great Crusade. In gratitude to Guilliman and the Ultramarines, the planet renamed itself Tarsis Ultra in honour of its saviours.Victories Beyond Count (Unknown Date.M30) - Led by their incredibly efficient primarch, the Ultramarines recorded more triumphs and liberated more Human-settled worlds than any other Space Marine Legion during the decades of the Great Crusade after Guilliman is rediscovered by the Emperor. Those planets captured by the Ultramarines benefit from Roboute Guilliman's genius for establishing a self-supporting defence system and government, ensuring that industry and trade are set up to prosper.Razing of Monarchia (964.M30) - Nearly six solar decades after being brought into Imperial Compliance and some forty-three standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy, the XIII Legion, the Ultramarines, utterly destroyed the city of Monarchia on the world of Khur on the order of the Emperor as an example to both Primarch Lorgar and his Word Bearers Legion that violations of the Imperial Truth through the encouragement of the continued error of religious faith and the spread of idolatrous doctrine would not be tolerated. This action, against a living monument to the worship of the God-Emperor the Word Bearers had called "the Perfect City," crushed the morale of Lorgar and his Space Marines and led them to seek out new gods more worthy of their worship -- the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.Compliance of Dwell (976.M30) - The world of Dwell was brought into Imperial Compliance by the Ultramarines Legion, led by Roboute Guilliman himself. This world, settled during the Dark Age of Technology by settlers from Molech, contained a vast repository of information that would later lead the Chaos-corrupted Horus to Molech in search of the origin of the Emperor's power.Ullanor Crusade (999.M30-000.M31) - The Ullanor Crusade was a vast Imperial assault on the Ork empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk, the largest such Greenskin empire ever encountered in Mankind's history at that time. The crusade included the deployment of 100,000 Space Marines from various Legions, including the Ultramarines, 8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Armada Imperialis starships and their support personnel. The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of Humanity. Following the defeat of the Orks of Ullanor, the Emperor of Mankind returned to Terra to begin work on His vast project to open up the Aeldari Webway for Mankind's use. In His place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade He left Primarch Horus Lupercal, whom He raised to the rank of Imperial Warmaster and gave command authority over all of his fellow primarchs and every expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade.Tesstra Compliance (ca. 000s.M31) - Tesstra was at that time part of a close alliance of totalitarian Human colonies resistant to the Imperium's authority. This alliance, known as the "Conservation", had survived the Age of Strife through a mixture of relative good fortune and rigidly imposed eugenic controls. This divided its population into highly stratified castes enslaved to their civilisation's greater needs. For the Imperium, the Conservation's worlds represented an addition to the Great Crusade's conquests; a prize that would liberate a Human population of nearly eleven billion, but in order for this to be the case, the abhorrent civilisation created by the Conservation would have to be systematically dismantled. Once the Imperium's emissaries made their desires known they were fired upon and driven away, while the Conservation geared its worlds to violent defence against the forces of the Great Crusade. The Warmaster Horus, whose own Luna Wolves forces were at the time engaged in battle elsewhere, diverted the forces of two other expeditionary fleets, commanded by Roboute Guilliman and Alpharius respectively, to bring the Conservation to heel. The Ultramarines began to immediately conduct a campaign to engage and conquer the outer worlds of the Conservation, whilst pinning down its mobile military assets in an ever constricting noose. Alpharius and his Alpha Legion did not immediately attack, but instead circled, launching probes and raids without seeming rhyme or reason. Increasingly infuriated by the Alpha Legion's lack of progress and co-operation, Roboute Guilliman is known to have openly berated Alpharius in council, demanding that the Alpha Legion learn from his own Ultramarines' method of warfare and emulate it to achieve the victory that the Great Crusade demanded of them both. Further, that if Alpharius were to place his Legion under Guilliman's full command, the Conservation could be made to fall in a matter of solar months. This demand Alpharius ignored. Through the tactical brilliance and strategic genius of Alpharius Omegon, the XX Legion employed its well-known deceptive tactics of infiltration and the gathering of intelligence by their Human non-Astartes agents on the ground. To the Tesstrans they appeared to be delaying their invasion, appearing only as threatening spectres as more and more Tesstran forces were deployed to Tesstra Prime's defences in preparation for the inevitable attack. When the assault finally came, it sent the Tesstrans reeling, striking from a hundred vectors at once yet leaving whole swathes of the defensive lines untouched. Soon sabotage ran amok, causing severe supply shortages and Alpha Legion strike forces began to appear inside the capital city, making red slaughter of government facilities and security stations with impunity. Sheer anarchy reigned as the Tesstran commanders were unable to redeploy their forces from the defences not under attack back to the city. Supply lines collapsed or were cut, orders were redirected or simply failed to arrive, and entire divisions were stranded trying to cross bridge networks that had been blown apart by sabotage before they could reach them. It was then that the Harrowing of Tesstra Prime truly began. Beset on all sides by Alpha Legion forces, the Tesstran forces were subsequently torn apart by the Legion's super-heavy armour columns, and their own forces were advanced directly into the teeth of a vicious trap already laid for them. The battle was short-lived and effectively over, but the killing continued. As the Alpha Legion withdrew from Tesstra Prime, their task done, they left an anarchy of riot, fire and ruin in their wake. The Tesstran regime and infrastructure had collapsed, and the dead and dying were everywhere in the streets, with pestilence and famine soon to follow. It is estimated that 90% of Tesstra Prime's population, both military and civilian, would not survive the battle and its aftermath. The rest of the planet capitulated in a matter of solar days. Alpharius Omegon's conduct invited censure from many quarters, especially from Primarch Guilliman, who declared the Alpha Legion's tactics dishonourable and unworthy of Astartes in a formal protest to the Warmaster. Horus was the only primarch who openly praised his brother-primarch and the way in which his Legion had conducted a truly masterful campaign, but the Ultramarines would not serve directly alongside the Alpha Legion for the rest of the Great Crusade.Council of Nikaea (001.M31) - There was an increasing concern as the Great Crusade progressed about the use of psychic abilities. More and more often during the progress of the Imperial conquest of the galaxy, the Imperial Army and Space Marines would make planetfall only to find that the populace was in thrall to mysterious powers and unnatural mystics and so-called "sorcerers". These powers were also very akin to those used by the Thousand Sons Legion of Primarch Magnus the Red. The Thousand Sons had come under criticism for their use of sorcery by some of their fellow Legiones Astartes. The schism grew so great that it threatened the very stability of the fledgling Imperium and so the Emperor Himself had called for an Imperial conclave to resolve the issue once and for all. This conclave was held upon the world of Nikaea, which was intended to determine whether or not the use of psychic sorcery represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man. The Council of Nikaea was also the trial of Magnus the Red, primarch of the psychically-talented Thousand Sons Legion -- for he was accused of sorcery and of introducing sorcerous practices to the Space Marine Legions through the earlier institution of the corps of Librarians among the Legions. Ultimately the existence of psykers like Navigators and astropaths in the Imperium was allowed by the Edicts of Nikaea but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control, while the potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was defined as "sorcery" was officially banned. This included the use of Librarians within the Legiones Astartes despite a notable effort by the Chief Librarians of several Legions, including the Ultramarine Promus, to sway the Emperor to let the Librarians continue their work. The psychically powerful Magnus and his Thousand Sons would continue to study such powers in secret on their homeworld of Prospero, which would ultimately lead them to their damnation by the Ruinous Powers during the early days of the Horus Heresy.Pacification of Arkenath (ca. 004-007.M31) - Captain Hektor of the Ultramarines, commanding 500 of his battle-brothers, helped prosecute the Emperor's Great Crusade to bring enlightenment to the galaxy and repatriate the lost colonies of Humanity by fighting the Vektates of Arkenath. The Vektates were a deviant Human culture, controlled by an alien overmind that had enslaved the Human populace of Arkenath. Hektor and his warrior brothers had shattered the yoke that bound their unfortunate Human kin and in so doing had destroyed the Vektates. The Human populace then owed fealty to the Imperium, and demonstrated it gladly when they were free of psychic tyranny. It had been a grim war. Captain Hektor's voidship, the Fist of Macragge, had been involved in a brutal ship-to-ship action against the enemy, but had prevailed. Repairs had been conducted on Arkenath, as well as the requisitioning of a small tithe of the natives, eager to venture beyond the stars, to help replenish elements of the ship's crew. Once the war was over, Hektor and his battle-brothers had been summoned to the Veridian System and the region of space known as Ultramar in preparation of the massive joint campaign of extermination with the Word Bearers XVII Legion against the Greenskins' Ghaslakh xenohold, a common mission for the Astartes during the final days of the Great Crusade. It would be on the Veridian System's primary world, Calth, that Lorgar Aurelian would launch a surprise attack on the Ultramarines, later known as the Calth Atrocity, whilst they were gathered for the campaign against the Orks of Ghaslakh. The XIII Legion would be caught completely unaware while the Word Bearers attempted to use the advantage of surprise to utterly annihilate their hated rivals. The Fist of Macragge would never arrive, as it was completely obliterated by the Word Bearers' secretly-constructed warship, the Furious Abyss, while en route to Calth.Cleansing of Ariggata (ca. 004.M31) - This was an Imperial Compliance action that was carried out jointly by the Ultramarines, Sons of Horus and the World Eaters Legions against the world of Ariggata. A technologically advanced planet, the world of Ariggata had been isolated from the rest of Humanity for many centuries, and when Imperial envoys arrived bearing word of the Emperor and the Imperial Truth, they were executed in a bloody gesture of independence. The military might of Ariggata was formidable, and thus the honour of its pacification fell to the Warmaster Horus and two other Space Marine Legions under his command. Most of the planet was quickly conquered, except for the massive fortress within which most of the leaders of the planet cowered. Eager to be on his way, Horus commanded Angron, primarch of the World Eaters, to take the citadel and kill only the leaders. Eagerly, Angron led the assault. However, the fortress was heavily defended and the casualties were horrendous, a dozen World Eaters falling for every metre of land. Eventually, a ramp of corpses led up to a single breach in the wall, and the Astartes of the World Eaters Legion plunged in. Filled with rage over their fallen brothers, they were merciless. By the time the Ultramarines arrived, the battle was all but over. The inside of the fortress was filled with the dismembered and mangled corpses of the defenders, for not one soul had been spared the vengeful fury of the World Eaters. It was an absolute slaughter, the fortress having been transformed into an abattoir of Human blood. The Ultramarines were disgusted by this savage behaviour and by the time the appalled Sons of Guilliman left the citadel, the Sons of Horus and the World Eaters had already departed, leaving the Ultramarines to garrison Ariggata until the Imperial Army arrived. Before Guilliman was able to confront his brother primarchs regarding the massacre on Ariggata, the Horus Heresy erupted, both Horus and Angron spitting on their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor, and Guilliman's worst fears were confirmed.Destruction of the Furious Abyss (007.M31) - Following the destruction of the Auretian Technocracy and securing of their rare STC templates, Lorgar Aurelian, primarch of the Word Bearers, secured a secret alliance with the traitorous Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. He commissioned the Dark Mechanicum to construct a trio of mighty vessels built for the service of his Legion. The Furious Abyss was the first such vessel of its kind. The Word Bearers had been secretly ordered by the rebellious Warmaster Horus to bring their unfettered wrath down upon their hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. The Furious Abyss was to play an instrumental role in the Battle of Calth and the Traitor Legion's destructive campaign that intended to see the Ultramarines capital world of Macragge destroyed. But before the mighty voidship could reach its destination, the secret of its existence had been discovered. The Word Bearers' vessel was secretly infiltrated by a small ad-hoc Loyalist strike force, led by Ultramarines Captain Lysimachus Cestus, of Legionaries from various Legions, who proceeded to sabotage the ship's plasma generatorium, which began a chain-reaction that resulted in the destruction of the massive vessel. Through these Legionaries' valiant sacrifice, the destruction of the Furious Abyss ensured that the Traitors' plan to cripple the Ultramarines Legion and destroy Macragge was for naught.Battle of Calth (007.M31) - The Battle of Calth, also referred to as the Calth Atrocity, was the name given by later Imperial historitors to the treacherous campaign conducted during the early stages of the Horus Heresy by the traitorous XVII Legion, the Word Bearers, on behalf of the Warmaster Horus against their hated rivals the Ultramarines. The campaign was launched by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar Aurelian with the goal of tying down the XIII Legion and preventing it from reinforcing its fellow Loyalists as the Traitor Legions marched relentlessly on Terra itself. Kept far from Terra by the Warmaster's machinations, the Ultramarines were mustering on the Agri-world of Calth -- a key world in the Realm of Ultramar intended to be a staging post to cleanse the Eastern Fringe of Orks -- when they were attacked by the Word Bearers, their supposed allies. The Traitor Legion wreaked havoc on Calth's orbital shipyards and set in motion a disaster that caused the system's sun to emit deadly solar storms that scoured the nearby planets, and led to the complete destruction of Calth's atmosphere and once-verdant biosphere. Additionally, the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus used the death and destruction his Legion rained down upon Calth to empower a sorcerous ritual that summoned the Ruinstorm, a vast Warp storm that cut half of the galaxy off from communication with Terra for several standard years. The resulting battle on Calth was forced underground, into the planet's sprawling subterranean caverns. It raged on for many standard years even after the end of the Heresy and across dozens of different theatres of war. After the Word Bearers' attack, future generations of Calth's people were required to live deep underground in massive, subterranean hive cities to escape their world's radiation-scorched, airless surface. While both the Ultramarines and their primarch Roboute Guilliman survived the Word Bearers' assault, the campaign's outcome and the birth of the Ruinstorm greatly contributed to the XIII Legion's inability to participate in the Siege of Terra as Horus had planned.Underworld War on Calth (007-017.M31) - Its surface ravaged by the slow death of the Veridia star, the battle for Calth between the trapped forces of the remaining Ultramarines and Word Bearers remained locked in a death-struggle that descended into the extensive arcologies beneath the world's surface. The Underworld War would grind on for ten Terran years before the last of the Traitors were finally hunted down and slain.Shadow Crusade (007-009.M31) - Enraged beyond the capacity for speech by the Word Bearers' betrayal of the Imperium and assault upon Ultramar, Roboute Guilliman gathered what vessels he could spare after Kor Phaeron's ambush of the Legion fleet at Calth, drew additional numbers from the first Ultramarines relief fleet bound for Calth after the massacre above that world, and tracked Lorgar directly through the use of the XIII Legion's own astropathic choirs. In the wake of the Battle of Calth, the Word Bearers Legion, led by Primarch Lorgar Aurelian, linked up with Angron and his World Eaters Legion to launch a Shadow Crusade against the Realm of Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds in an attempt to spread the massive Warp storm known as the Ruinstorm that had been conjured by the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus at Calth across the Eastern Fringe. This prodigious Warp storm would effectively split the galaxy in half and deny needed reinforcements to the Loyalists as Horus drove on Terra in an attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. The Shadow Crusade laid waste to 26 Ultramarian worlds until Guilliman's retribution fleet finally caught up to the Traitors above Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, which the World Eaters Legion were preoccupied with wiping clean of all life in vengeance for the treatment the Nucerians had merited out a Terran century before to Angron as one of their slave-gladiators. The XIII Legion's warship Courage Above All, Guilliman's temporary flagship, broke from the Warp at the system's edge, at the head of a large void armada consisting of 41 vessels. In their wrath, the Ultramarines destroyed the Word Bearers' flagship Fidelitas Lex during the furious void combat. Eventually, the Ultramarines managed to take the fight to the surface. The first Ultramarines poured forth from their Drop Pods but the World Eaters were waiting for them. The XII Legion crashed against the XIIIth in rabid packs, showing why Imperial forces had feared to fight alongside them for solar decades. Uncontrolled, unbound, unrestrained, they butchered their way through Ultramarines strongpoints, enslaved to the joy of battle because of the Butcher's Nails cortical implants sandwiched within the meat of their minds. The XVII Legion also met their enemy cousins, replacing ferocity with spite and hate. The Ultramarines returned it in kind, hungry for vengeance against the vile Traitors who had defiled Calth and damaged its star. Eventually Guilliman confronted Lorgar, and the two primarchs came together in furious combat as their warriors killed each other around them, and neither primarch spared their gene-sons a glance. But in the midst of their life-and-death struggle, the Word Bearers' primarch, Angron, intervened and confronted Guilliman. Guilliman held his own against the pair of Traitor primarchs, but took multiple wounds for his efforts. Eventually Angron managed to plunge his chainsword up under Guilliman's breastplate, leaving him with a serious wound. Despite the strife raging around them, Angron still fought Guilliman, standing above the kneeling Ultramarine primarch. Guilliman was beaten and down. His wounds bled profusely, a palette of proud defeat. Guilliman's warriors fought desperately to retrieve him. Fortunately they were granted a brief reprieve, as Lorgar used the opportunity to unleash a sorcerous incantation that he had long intended to unleash to save Angron from the death all but guaranteed by the Butcher's Nails in his brain. The incantation locked up Angron's muscles, and began to transform the Red Angel into a new form as an immortal Daemon Prince of Khorne. Guilliman took the opportunity to escape into his gene-sons' defiant phalanxes, retreating in enviable unity. Lorgar saw the expression of disgusted awe on his brother's face as the wounded Ultramarine primarch stared at the transformed Angron atop the mound of dead Astartes from all three bloodlines of Space Marines. The XIII Legion continued to fire even in retreat, leaving the world of Nuceria battered and bloody. Their campaign against the two Traitor Legions had ended at Nuceria...for a time.Establishment of the Imperium Secundus (009.M31) - With the Imperium severed in two halves, isolated and ignorant of each other as a result of the raging tumult of the Ruinstorm, the light of the Astronomican was no longer psychically visible from Ultramar and no word of the Emperor had been heard for several standard years. Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman declared the foundation of the "Imperium Secundus" as a means of continuing the fight against the Traitors and securing the Emperor's great work. When the Blood Angels arrived at Ultramar having escaped the Signus Cluster, Guilliman proclaimed Sanguinius as the rightful heir to the Emperor. The Dark Angels arrived in the Five Hundred Worlds shortly thereafter, guided by the artificial beacon from the alien artefact known as the Pharos, on the distant world of Sotha. Lion El'Jonson, primarch of the Dark Angels, was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Realms of Ultramar and supreme commander over all its military forces, an equivalent rank to that of "Warmaster", which he had once so coveted. Unfortunately, the foundation of Imperium Secundus was marred when Night Lords Primarch Konrad Curze, who had been taking refuge in the bowels of the Dark Angels flagship, Invincible Reason, escaped and rampaged across Macragge, intent on spreading as much terror and chaos as he could. Eventually, both Guilliman and the Lion confronted the cornered Curze. Their attempts to kill him were unsuccessful as the Night Lords primarch had laid a cunning trap. He brought down an entire chapel upon the two primarchs through the use of planted explosives and fled the scene. Guilliman and the Lion were only saved through the direct intervention of the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who was communicating with Guilliman at the time of the attack, through a portal that was opened by the Pharos. On instinct, the Warsmith reached through the portal and pulled the two primarchs to safety on Sotha.Battle of Sotha (009.M31) - The far-flung world of Sotha lay close to the edge of the galaxy's Eastern Fringe, almost at the limits of both the fiefdom of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar and the span of all Imperial territory. Upon this world the Ultramarines had discovered beneath its tallest peak, named Mount Pharos, a massive aperture constructed by an unknown xenos species (later determined in the Era Indomitus to be the Necrons). This device functioned both as a beacon and route-finder, and it also permitted instantaneous communication across unimaginable distances, even penetrating the raging tumult of the Ruinstorm. Following their defeat at the hands of the Dark Angels at Tsagualsa, remnants of the Night Lords Legion followed this beacon in the Warp, which guided them safely to the world of Sotha. Over many solar months, the Night Lords secretly gathered intelligence on the suspicious activities of the Ultramarines, and soon discovered the nature of the arcane device, named the Pharos, upon the restricted planet. The Night Lords launched a surprise assault upon the lightly garrisoned world, intent on seizing the Pharos in order to use it to determine the location of their flagship, the Nightfall, as well as the whereabouts of their missing primarch Konrad Curze. In the ensuing battle, the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch sacrificed himself by overloading the Pharos, so that the Night Lords would be unable to utilise the device's powerful empathic abilities. What far-reaching consequences this had for the galaxy, would not come to pass for another ten millennia.Capture & Fate of the Night Haunter (ca. 011.M31) - While continuing his obsessive hunt for the elusive Night Haunter, Lion El'Jonson and Roboute Guilliman continuously clashed over policies, especially in regards to the security of Imperium Secundus, and how best to deal with rebels on Macragge that the Lion was certain Konrad Curze had something to do with. Following a suicide bombing of an Astartes convoy, the Lion used the I Legion to establish martial law on Macragge. Certain that Curze was hiding within the rebellious Illyrium region, the Lion advocated the use of a massive orbital saturation bombardment of the region to ensure Curze's death. Facing resistance from both the Regent Sanguinius and Guilliman, the Lion instead opted to deploy his Legion's Dreadwing in order to flush out Curze and the rebels. During an attack on the city of Alma Mons, the Lion finally cornered the elusive Night Lords primarch and the two come to blows. After a brutal confrontation, the Lion eventually emerged victorious, and questioned his brother on why he had turned away from the Emperor, to which Curze simply replied: "Why not?" Curze went on to explain that there was a monster in his head that he could not stop. Though he finally had Curze at his mercy, the Lion couldn't bring himself to kill his brother, and instead pummeled him again. He then ripped off Curze's backpack from his battle-plate and lifted him over his head, and then brutally brought the Night Haunter down across his knee, breaking Curze's spine and paralysing him. The Lion brought the grievously-wounded Curze before Sanguinius and Guilliman to stand trial. A Triumvirate of the three Loyalist primarchs was later held, where Curze defended his actions, but refused to admit his guilt. Since each of the primarchs had been created by the Emperor to perform a specific tactical function, Curze was merely acting according to his own nature, and therefore had committed no crimes. The Night Lords primarch then further divided Guilliman and the Lion by accusing the latter of secretly ordering orbital bombardment of Macragge in direct violation of Guilliman's orders. Enraged, the Lion sought to kill Curze, but was halted by the words of Sanguinius and Guilliman who snatched El'Jonson's Lion Sword and broke the blade across his armoured thigh. El'Jonson was furious, but Sanguinius dismissed the Lord Protector, ending the Triumvirate. The Lion was then banished from Imperium Secundus. Taking his leave, the Dark Angels withdrew from Macragge only solar hours later. Standing in the chamber of the Tuchulcha Engine, the Lion brooded over recent events, he questioned his actions over the course of the last few solar decades -- the banishment of Luther, the death of Nemiel as well as other decisions he had come to regret. As the Dark Angels made their final preparations to depart back to Caliban, the Lion went back to the Tuchulcha Engine's chamber. He then ordered the device to teleport himself and Holguin, "Deathbringer", the voted-lieutenant of the Deathwing, back to Macragge. As Sanguinius prepared to execute Curze for his crimes, both the Lion and his lieutenant teleported directly into the chamber and told Sanguinius to stop. As troops entered the room, demanding the Lion surrender, El'Jonson explained his reasons for the intrusion. He reasoned that Curze had the ability to see precognitive visions of potential futures, and repeated the Night Haunter's claim that his death would one day come at the hands of an assassin sent by the Emperor. If this was true, the Lion reasoned, than it was proof that the Emperor was still alive. Sanguinius knew the Lion's explanation rang true, as he recognised that his own precognitive visions of his inevitable death would also eventually come to pass. When Guilliman demanded to know what would become of Curze, the Lion knelt before his two brothers in humility and promised that he would be Curze's gaoler.Second Siege of Cthonia (013.M31) - A fleet of the Sons of Horus known as the True Sons and Traitor support elements separated from Horus' vast armada and bypassed Sol to attack Cthonia, the XVIth Legion's homeworld. The Imperial Fists garrison, with a small detachment of the Ultramarines' 4th Chapter ("Aurorans") stationed at the Astagar Garrison, were outnumbered and isolated, with nowhere to retreat to, and were forced to rely on the hope of a relief force from Terra to break the siege. However, they were left to fend for themselves as the Siege of Terra, the epic final confrontation between the Traitor and Loyalist forces, took place a standard year into the brutal campaign on Cthonia, forcing both sides to fight a protracted and grinding war of attrition. Only with the timely arrival of a large Dark Angels Legion fleet were the Loyalists able to achieve victory; however, it was pyrrhic at best. Cthonia was destroyed and rendered into a Dead World, serving as a stark reminder of the rewards of treachery, though this action marked the start of the unit cohesion that would lead the 4th Chapter of the Ultramarines Legion to be split off during the Second Founding as the Aurora Chapter.A Return to Honour (013.M31) - Arcaes Odenathus, a captain-praetor of the Ultramarines Legion's 10th Chapter, rallied the scattered survivors of his own brethren and those other Loyalists fighting across the Dominion of Storms in the galactic north-east and led them to Honourum. Unexpected and unlooked for, this Loyalist assault struck the Word Bearers garrison of Honourum like a thunderbolt. Three solar weeks of desperate fighting ensued, and as all the Word Bearers' urgent requests for reinforcements were ignored by the Warmaster, focussed now on his push toward Terra, the sons of Lorgar resorted to the most heinous of tactics. Daemons, Warp-tainted infiltrators and terrors of the wars of Old Night were unleashed, with both sides driven on past mortal endurance by hatred. When the last Traitor finally fell, there was nothing left of the grand cities of Honourum but blasted ruins; ruins whose very substance was so contaminated by the fell powers and terrible weapons unleashed that they would blight Honourum longer than the memory of the wars which spawned them.