Blood Angels - The Darkest Hour: In 998.M41 a tendril of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan was on a direct course to attack the Blood Angels' homeworld, Baal. News reached Baal that the Cryptan Shield, the Shieldworlds of the Cryptus System, intended to hold back the might of the Great Devourer, had collapsed.Exacerbating this already terrible threat was a massive Daemon army led by the dread Bloodthirster Greater Daemon of Khorne Ka'Bandha, which had already struck at Ammonai, the outermost planet of the Baal System.Facing a possible war on two fronts, Lord Commander Dante sent out a call for all the Space Marine Chapters in the Imperium who were Successor Chapters of the Blood Angels -- the so-called "Sanguinary Brotherhood" -- to send forces to aid their ancestral Legion; the Flesh Tearers were the first to do so, deploying their entire Chapter for the war to defend Baal.Ultimately, all the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters save for the Lamenters answered Lord Commander Dante's call, including the Knights of Blood, who had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the High Lords of Terra centuries before but believed themselves to still be Loyal to the Emperor and their progenitors.Together with these allies, the Blood Angels prepared to meet the greatest threat they had known since the Horus Heresy. As the Time of Ending loomed large over the galaxy, and the Shieldworlds of Cryptus teetered on the edge of collapse, the Sons of Sanguinius had greater cause than ever to stand together.For the sons of Baal are never stronger than when destiny demands great deeds of them -- and whether they stand and fight in the gates of the Imperial Palace on Terra, or the vitrified sands of some alien world, they will not be found wanting.Thus the Blood Angels hurled themselves into the Imperium's greatest and most terrible wars, fighting with a dynamism and determination that leaves even their brother Space Marines in awe. Of late, they have found themselves stretched thinner than ever, fighting simultaneously in the Third War for Armageddon, in actions around the Eye of Terror, and against the onrushing horror of Hive Fleet Leviathan.It was on the Shield Worlds of Cryptus that Commander Dante and many of his finest Battle-Brothers faced the horrors of the Cryptoid Tendril. This splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan was headed straight for the Blood Angels' homeworld of Baal, and its advance had to be stopped.The Blood Angels prevailed against their xenos foes, yet Baal was still at risk. Dante's forces made all speed through the Warp to return and bolster the defences of the Blood Angels Chapter planet, but they were still many solar weeks distant when word reached them from High Chaplain Astorath the Grim.A new threat had emerged in the Diamor System, an invasion by the armies of Chaos that could undermine the defences of the Cadian Gate in preparation for Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade if it were allowed to succeed. Already the high chaplain was en route at the head of the Blood Angels' 5th Company, but greater strength would be required to defeat the traitorous foe.With a heavy heart, Commander Dante diverted much of his own force, knowing that every warrior sent away was another who could not defend Baal. Yet they were the Blood Angels. They could do no less.Dante pressed on towards Baal with little more than an Honour Guard at his side, while the rest of his warriors turned their voidcraft and made for the Diamor System.