Blood Angels - An Age of Red Wrath, M41: Cleansing of the Sin of Damnation (589.M41) - A space hulk code-named Sin of Damnation drops out of the Warp, dangerously close to the Blood Angels' homeworld of Baal. Strike Force Raphael moves to intercept the Hulk, deploying squads of 1st Company Terminators via Boarding Torpedoes. A vicious battle erupts throughout the kilometres of tangled corridors, chambers and ducts as the Blood Angels battle furiously against the hulk's Genestealer infestation. A force of 80 1st Company Terminators eradicated a force of more than 40,000 Genestealers, cleansing the Sin of Damnation, its secrets plundered in the Imperium's name.The Scouring of Ultramar (746.M41) - Lord Commander Dante recognises that the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth's invasion of the Realm of Ultramar is but the first of many scourges that will befall the galaxy at the hands of the Great Devourer. Dante sends three full companies of Blood Angels to assist the Ultramarines in scouring the Tyranids from the sectors of the Eastern Fringe. Upon their return to Baal three Terran years later, the three companies are much reduced in number, but have earned invaluable experience in combating Tyranids that are soon passed on to the rest of the Chapter and many of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters.WAAAGH! Big Skorcha's Assault on Baal (798.M41) - Three monstrous Space Hulks emerge from the Warp in the Baal System, bringing with them the massive Ork WAAAGH! Big Skorcha. Lord Commander Dante orders the deployment of 2 companies of Blood Angels to defend each of Baal's moons. The remaining companies of the Chapter are assigned to serve as strike forces and ordered to board and destroy the Greenskins' Space Hulks. The Blood Angels prove successful and 2 of the Space Hulks are destroyed with much of the WAAAGH!'s Orks still aboard them. Before it can be destroyed, the final Space Hulk disgorges thousands of Orks, commanded by the Warlord Big Skorcha, onto the surface of Baal. Knowing that the bulk of the Blood Angels forces is still in orbit destroying the Space Hulks or on the two moons of the world, Big Skorcha aims to lay siege to and ransack the Chapter's Fortress-Monastery. However, the Blood Angels prove not so easily outmanoeuvred. The Chapter's Dreadnoughts, deemed unsuitable for use in the cramped confines of the Space Hulks had remained behind on Baal. With the remains of WAAAGH! Big Skorcha still at large, the Venerable Furioso Dreadnought Astramael assembles all 41 of the Blood Angels' Dreadnoughts and coordinates the defence of the Fortress-Monastery in what was later known as the Battle of Iron. Although Astramael and his Dreadnoughts needed only to defend the Fortress-Monastery long enough for Astartes reinforcements to arrive from orbit, they fought with such savage fury that there were precious few Orks remaining when the first Stormravens finally landed.Assault on Kammelstadt (801.M41) - Captain Zorael of the 4th Company leads the Blood Angels strike force Bloodhawk against rebels who have risen up against the Imperium on the world of Golgotha. Using their Land Raiders, the Blood Angels' armoured column smashed through the walls of the rebels' fortress and trapped the rebels behind their own defences. The rebels were then wiped out by an air strike of Zorael's Stormraven gunships.Bloodcaller's Triumph (820.M41) - The Blood Angels Battle Barge Bloodcaller is badly damaged by an Ork Freebooterz ambush while patrolling the Tresinka System. The Bloodcaller seemed to be finished, as its main drives had been silenced and boarding Kroozers had deployed a horde of Greenskins within it. Nonetheless, deft manoeuvring by Fleet Captain Bellerophon managed to bring the great vessel's main batteries to bear on the Ork fleet, destroying the Greenskins' flagship and half a dozen support vessels in a single salvo. Meanwhile, the furious counterassault by the Bloodcaller's crew and Astartes swept the Orks who had boarded the Battle Barge from its lower decks and then carried the fight to the Kroozers. Though it took nearly a full standard year for the Bloodcaller to make its way at sublight speeds to the nearest Imperial Navy orbital repair docks at Haringvleet, the great Voidship did so proudly, bearing its scars as a tell-tale sign of the great victory it and its crew had won against incredible odds.The Khartas Incident (823.M41) - Captain Zorael leads elements of the Blood Angels 4th Company to the world of Khartas, there to put an end to localised acts of piracy by a ragtag fleet of Renegades. Though the pirate fleet was quickly shattered, their flagship broke up in the Khartan atmosphere, raining its wreckage across the planet. The ship's Warp core suffered a cascade failure and tore a hole in reality through which poured a host of Khornate daemons. The Blood Angels -- who had made planetfall to check for pirate survivors -- found themselves stranded on Khartas, surrounded by an ever-growing tide of Daemons. Though they fought with honour and determination, Sanguinius' scions were soon in danger of being overrun. Their predicament worsened when the mighty Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha slew Captain Zorael in single combat. Just as all seemed lost, the Sanguinor appeared, plunging like a bolt of golden lightning into the midst of the foe. The angel battled the roaring Daemon back and forth, finally hurling Ka'Bandha down and banishing his corporeal form back to the Warp. Rallying behind the Sanguinor, the last of Zorael's men cut a path to the Warp core, deactivating it and ending Khartas' nightmare. In the wake of the madness, the Sanguinor disappeared without a trace. Francesi Castigon replaced Zoreal as the new Captain of the 4th Company.Axonar Spirewar (830.M41) - Lord Commander Dante despatches the Blood Angels' 3rd and 4th Companies to quell a rebellion against the Emperor's authority on the Hive World of Axonar. Determining the rebel defences at the bases of the world's hive cities to be too potent for his Space Marines to launch a frontal assault, Captain Metraen, the Force Commander for the operation, ordered a series of low-orbit insertions onto the cities' upper spires using Jump Packs. Once trapped behind their own defences, the rebels were easily crushed by the Blood Angels' savage assault.Blood on the Ice (841.M41) - On the frozen world known as the Omnissiah's Eye, Explorator Station Lambda-Binaris comes under attack by unknown assailants. Blood Angels Strike Force Castigon responded to the station's distress call, reaching the ice-locked planet at the same time as a bulk transporter sent by the knightly house Krast. Captain Castigon and Baron Bartolf of House Krast made common cause, the two warriors quickly establishing a bond of mutual respect. Combining their forces, Castigon and Bartolf launched a heavy combat drop at the northern and southern extremes of the sprawling Explorator station. Household detachments of Krast Knights made planetfall amongst plummeting spreads of Drop Pods while Stormraven gunships stroke overhead. The two forces began to sweep through the complex from opposite ends, combing its snow-heaped streets and semi-ruined buildings for signs of life. However, within minutes of the operation beginning, both forces came under heavy attack by ambushing forces of Night Lords Traitor Marines. A running battle erupted through the frozen complex, Knights wading through the traitors' firepower with guns roaring while Blood Angels flooded forward around their feet. The Night Lords' trap began to unravel as the traitors realised they had caught more dangerous quarry than they bargained for. Abandoning their assault, the Night Lords attempted a fighting retreat, triggering explosive charges spread throughout the complex in an attempt to cover their escape. However, Captain Castigon led his Assault Squads and Death Company in a frenzied attack upon the retreating Chaos forces. This maddened charge pined the foe in place long enough for reinforcements to move up. Caught between the Blood Angels and their towering allies, the Chaos force was exterminated to the last warrior.Dalaric Campaigns (843.M41) - Three companies of Blood Angels are sent to the world of Dalaric to stop the raids of the deceitful Eldar. The Blood Angels initially earned a string of victories against the forces of the elusive xenos, but the Eldar managed to carry out an ambush that killed almost 100 Battle-Brothers, transforming an easy victory into a catastrophe for the Chapter. Fortunately, at the darkest moment, when it seemed that every Blood Angel might receive the Emperor's peace, the Sanguinor appeared once more, striking down the alien Avatar of Khaine and forcing the remaining Eldar to flee for their lives.Assault on Zoran (859.M41) - The forces of the insidious Alpha Legion incite an uprising against the Imperium on the Ice World of Zoran. The Blood Angels' Captain Metraen led elements from the Chapter's 3rd and 8th Companies to that frigid planet to eliminate the rebellion and drive the Traitor Legion from the world. Metraen's bold tactical choice at first seemed to drive the enemy back but the assault stalled when the Alpha Legion's base of operations on the world was determined to be an ancient and long-lost Imperator-class Titan left from the days of the Horus Heresy. Though still half-buried in the ice of Zoran, the monstrous war engine's Void Shield generators and weapons batteries proved to be operational with devastating consequences for the servants of the Emperor. Many Blood Angels Astartes fell in the first assault against the Titan and Metraen feared that the only course open to him to end the threat would be an outright Exterminatus order against Zoran and its people. Fortunately for the innocents of that Ice World, aid arrived in the form of Kor'sarro Khan and the 3rd Company of the White Scars Chapter. Sent to claim the head of the Alpha Legion's infamous Daemon Prince Voldorius, the Khan joined his forces to the remains of the Blood Angels force on the planet. As the White Scars launched their own attack on the Alpha Legion's bastion from below, the Blood Angels used their Stormravens to initiate a series of drop assaults against the secondary plasma reactors that powered the Titan's weapons. Metraen's Astartes neutralised the Titan's defences and the White Scars swarmed into the massive war machine's lower levels. Though Voldorius ultimately escaped once more, his followers were exterminated to the last Chaos Cultist and Alpha Legionary. Though Kor'sarro Khan was obliged to continue his hunt for the Daemon Prince, Zoran had been restored to the Emperor's light and the recovery of a battered but fully repairable Imperator Titan is no mean feat. Metraen eventually brought the Titan back to Baal, from which it was sent on to Mars, where Lord Commander Dante hoped that such a priceless gift might finally smooth over the conflicts between the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Blood Angels.Armoured Might (872.M41) - Several armoured regiments of Astra Militarum fall to the temptations of Chaos during the Kasablan campaign. Turning on their allies, the renegade tankers seized the world's capital city in the name of the Ruinous Powers, before beginning extermination sweeps across Kasablan's plains. Retribution is swift, however, as a spearhead of Blood Angels tanks was loosed upon the traitors. Lucifer engines howling, the Baal Predators and Razorbacks of the Blood Angels consistently outmanoeuvred the heavier traitor armour. The renegades found their tanks cut apart by withering crossfires that left smoking wrecks littering the azure plains. The fallen Astra Militarum forces staged a breakout toward Kasablan's mountaintop spaceport, but their charge came to a crashing halt when Thunderhawk Landers deployed a wave of red armoured Land Raiders directly in their path. Caught between the wrathful tank brigades of the Blood Angels, the last traitors fought frantically, but their position was hopeless. Despite significant casualties, the Blood Angels crushed the foe beneath the grinding treads of their battle tanks.Blood on the Sand (Unknown Date.M41) - Rebellion and heresy claims the searing Death World of D'akhar, and the Blood Angels respond in force. Vicious gunfights rage through the subterranean habs and manufactoria. Meanwhile, the Blood Angels' armour meets the Traitor tanks upon D'akhar's rad-blasted deserts, capitalising on their speed and the Baal-like terrain to cut their lumbering enemies to pieces in a series of blistering battles.Mel'yanneth Skywar (877.M41) - Captain Metraen is charged by Commander Dante with the destruction of Aeldari Raiders who were assaulting Imperial commerce from a fortress making use of Aeldari anti-gravitic technology hidden in the toxic atmosphere of the gas giant called Mel'yanneth. Making use of the Chapter's entire existing fleet of Stormraven and Thunderhawk gunships, Metraen launched an airborne assault that had no equal in the Chapter's long history. Stormravens cut through the blaze of anti-aircraft fire to disgorge their cargoes of Assault Squads and Terminators directly onto the floating fortress' docking platforms. These Astartes secured the landing zones for heavy armoured vehicles like Land Raiders and Predators which were delivered by a follow-on wave of Thunderhawk Transporters. As the battle then unfolded through the Aeldari fortress hangars and maintenance shafts, the overwhelming firepower brought to bear by the Blood Angels was able to scythe through the arcane traps and dishonourable defensive systems erected by the Eldar Corsairs. Once they realised that they had no chance to stop the human assault, the xenos abandoned the fortress, although not before sabotaging its gravity nullification technology. Metraen was forced to retreat as the fortress was sucked down into the gas giant's grasping depths. Only the incredible skill displayed by the Blood Angels' gunship pilots, who fearlessly plunged deep into Mel'yanneth's gravity well to rescue their Battle-Brothers, prevented what became a famous victory for the Chapter from ending in mournful failure.Battle of Stonehaven (901.M41) - Commander Dante personally leads a Stormraven drop assault on the Ork forces outside the hive city of Stonehaven that finally breaks WAAAGH! Bludcrumpa's decade-long siege of the Forge World of Ironhelm.Vengeance of the Blood Angels (911.M41) - Justicar Parsival of the Grey Knights brings word to Baal that the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha, ancient bane of Sanguinius, has returned to realspace. Sepharan, the leader of the Blood Angels' Sanguinary Guard, received Commander Dante's permission for the Sanguniary Guard to serve in the coming battle against the hated Greater Daemon. United in their determination to banish such an evil from the mortal realm, a force of Grey Knights and the Sanguinary Guard stormed the gates of Ka'Bandha's fortress and defeated both the Bloodthirster and his Chaotic army in a single night's assault.Semmel Betrayal (918.M41) - The Blood Angels strike force Breath of Hermes is attacked by a large contingent of Eldar on the ghost world of Semmel. Fragmentary communications make clear that the Blood Angels briefly held the upper hand until an unknown party intervened on behalf of the Eldar. The strike force was wiped out to the last Astartes.The Necron World Engine (926.M41) - The 2nd and 4th Companies of the Blood Angels are despatched to the Vidar Sector to assist their fellow Space Marines against the threat posed by the monstrous Necron construct known as the World Engine. After the sacrifice of the entire Astral Knights Chapter led to the final destruction of the World Engine, Captain Donatos Aphael of the 2nd Company proposed that an Imperial shrine be erected upon the world of Safehold in eternal memory of the Astral Knights. From that day forth, two Blood Angels of the 2nd Company are always assigned to stand guard over the memorial, which is considered a signal honour for the Astartes of that company.Battle for Antax (927.M41) - Captain Donatos Aphael and the Blood Angels' 2nd Company battle WAAAGH! Gutstompa on the Forge World of Antax. The battle looked likely to go against the Blood Angels, until they unleashed the fury of their Death Company. Led into battle by the ancient Death Company Dreadnought Moriar, Captain Aphael and his surviving Battle-Brothers crushed the reeling WAAAGH! Gutstompa, ending the threat to Antax amid fire and blood.Day of the Swordwind (930.M41) - The Blood Angels' 3rd Company manages to preserve Explorator Station Ghosa Prime from the unprovoked fury of the Aeldari of Craftworld Biel-Tan.Second War for Armageddon (941.M41) - The massive Ork WAAAGH! Ghazghkull descends upon the Hive World of Armageddon in the Segmentum Solar and unleashes what became known as the Second War for Armageddon. The Blood Angels were one of 3 Space Marine Chapters who responded to the strategically-located world's plight. Lord Commander Dante's reputation amongst other Astartes was so great that Chapter Master Tu'Shan of the Salamanders and Chapter Master Marneus Calgar of the Ultramarines ceded overall command of Astartes operations to him. The fighting proved to be the fiercest in and around the planet's hive cities. The Blood Angels bore the brunt of the close-quarter fighting, primarily because only the overcharged engines of their Lucifer-pattern Rhinos could keep pace with the convoys of roaming Ork Trukks and Battlewagons. The tactical manoeuvrability of the Blood Angels forces was a crucial factor in the later stages of the war. The 3rd Company, under the command of its newly promoted captain, Erasmus Tycho, formed the heart of a spearhead of armoured vehicles that severed the primary Ork supply lines, which left the WAAAGH!'s Mekboyz without the necessary materiel to keep the Greenskins' massive Skullhammas and Stompas operational. With its heaviest units thus put out of action, the WAAAGH! was finally broken before the walls of Tarterus Hive, where Dante and Tu'shan famously fought together against Ghazghkull Thraka's own bodyguard of Nobs.What Price Victory? (Unknown Date.M41) - Captain Castigon leads Strike Force Nobilitus into battle against the Drukhari on Tolos. Amidst the ruins of the planet's agriplexes, the Blood Angels witness the horrors inflicted by the cruel xenos upon the world's populace. So repugnant is the butchery that Castigon and his warriors lose their grip upon their inner fury. The red whirlwind of destruction they visit upon the Drukhari leaves no foe standing, yet still the Blood Angels face shameful censure in the battle's wake, for a victory won in the grip of the Flaw is no victory at all.Gehenna Campaign (955.M41) - Commander Dante and the Blood Angels' 3rd Company face the Necron legions of the Necron Lord known as Szarekh, the Silent King, on the dusty wastelands of the Tomb World of Gehenna. For three weeks, neither side was able to gain an advantage though Dante found his own tactical acumen stretched to its limits countering the space-time manipulations of the Silent King and the advanced technology of the Necrons. The stalemate was broken when a Tyranid splinter fleet suddenly entered the orbit of Gehenna, which forced the two armies to break off from hostilities with each other to deal with the Great Devourer. This unwanted alliance proved to be the downfall for the Tyranids. Following the final battle against the Tyranids at Death's Crag, Dante and the Silent King left the field without further combat, as each side was now too damaged to guarantee victory over the other. In addition, for the Blood Angels, the idea of turning in combat upon those they had so recently shed blood beside was distasteful in the extreme.The Temptation of Mephiston (965.M41) - The Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn traps the Blood Angels' Chief Librarian Mephiston in the crystal caverns of Solon V. He attempted to lure Mephiston into the embrace of Chaos by accusing him of already having walked upon the path to daemonhood in the eyes of the Dark Gods. Mephiston rejected the Daemon Prince's deceptions and throttled the life from his captor, banishing him back to the Warp, but not before a seed of doubt had been planted within his heart.Vaults of Pandrax (990.M41) - In a search for a cure to the Blood Angels' genetic flaw, Brother Corbulo discovers the repositories of archeotech from the Dark Age of Technology on the world of Pandrax III that are in the hands of the Eldar of Craftworld Alaitoc. Three companies of Blood Angels, including the Terminators of the 1st Company, were assigned to seize the vaults from the xenos interlopers. A fierce battle erupted through the tech-vaults and catacombs of Pandrax III. The Blood Angels were the ultimate victors, the Farseer commanding the Alaitoc Eldar sacrificed himself to destroy the very records of advanced genetic manipulation techniques that Corbulo had sought. The search for the cure to the Blood Angels' flaw must continue elsewhere.Hives of Hollonan (992.M41) - In response to a request for assistance, Chief Librarian Mephiston leads the Blood Angels strike force Sanguinatus to the Hive World of Hollonan to deal with an uprising against the authority of the Imperium. What at first appeared to be only a run-of-the-mill, if still large rebellion, was soon revealed to be a deep-seated infestation of Tyranid Genestealers. Mephiston's strike force purged the xenos parasites and their psychically-addicted cult members from the hive cities of Hollonan, but it has already been too late for the Hive World -- even as the last brood of Genestealers was brought down in fire and blood, Hive Ships from a splinter fleet of the approaching Hive Fleet Kraken were arriving in the Hollonan System. Mephiston immediately recognised that his strike force lacked the numbers to repel a Tyranid swarm of that magnitude and so he assumed command of Hollonan's defences and sent an astropathic request for aid to Baal and to Coinal, the nearby Chapter planet of the Blood Angels successors, the Angels Vermillion. The battles that ensued within the depths of Hollonan strained even the ever-present lust for battle of the Blood Angels. The first assault by the Tyranids eliminated the planetary defence batteries and automated Sentry Guns. The second destroyed the chain of ancient but necessary fusion accumulators that provided Hollonan's hive cities with most of their power. What resulted was a ferocious war for survival in the guts of Hollonan's primary underhive. Mephiston's Blood Angels found themselves stretched to the limit of even their considerable abilities as they tried to rally the Planetary Defence Force against the endless swarms of Termagants, Raveners and Carnifexes. Only where Mephiston personally entered the fray did the human defenders hold. Over the course of two terrible weeks, Mephiston proved his worth time and again, never once sleeping or taking rest from combat, though even his fellow Astartes became weary beyond the measure of mortals of the constant bloodshed. His deeds wrote a new legend for the Chapter. At the Chapel of the Emperor's Repose, Mephiston teared a Carnifex to shreds with his bare hands. He held the entrance to the hive city's filtration plant for six hours by himself. In the final hours of that terrible assault, he cleavef his way alone through the spearhead of the Tyranids' primary assault, slaying a Hive Tyrant and all of its hideous guardians before he himself was struck down by a Trygon. Mephiston's fall, which could have easily crushed the last strands of fragile morale amongst the world's defenders, instead led them to redouble their efforts to be worthy of his example. Such was the determination borne in the hearts of the Blood Angels and the soldiers of Hollonan that they held out long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Fresh companies of Blood Angels and Angels Vermillion Astartes came from the sky in Drop Pods and Stormraven gunships just in time to save the world's remaining defenders. Yet the Astartes have not been alone, for they were joined by the Asuryani of Craftworld Ulthwé, led by the ancient Farseer Eldrad Ulthran, who had decided to fight beside the guardians of Mankind for reasons of their own. The Tyranids were crushed between the attacks of the three descending armies and this splinter of the coming Hive Fleet Kraken was removed from existence before its parent Hive Fleet arrived in full. Eldrad Ulthran and his forces remained just long enough to see Mephiston recovered from the rubble, terribly wounded but miraculously still clinging to life, before they vanished once more. This second resurrection only served to increase Mephiston's legend within his Chapter -- and beyond.Blackfang Crusade (994.M41) - After determining that the Ork strongholds located in the Blackfang System had defied the will of the Emperor for far too long, Lord Commander Dante mobilises the entire Blood Angels Chapter for a year-long Imperial Crusade that not only drives the Greenskins from their empire within the 12 worlds of Blackfang but also from 2 neighbouring star systems that had long been Ork bastions.Beheading the Serpent (995.M41) - Captain Erasmus Tycho's 3rd Company is one of the many Space Marine strike forces that responded to the threat of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Jormungandr. Though Tycho led his Astartes to numerous crucial victories that turned the tide against this tendril of the Great Devourer, his tactics proved so reckless, even for a Blood Angel, that the Sanguinary Priests of the Chapter began to fear for his sanity.Vengeance for Semmel (996.M41) - Commander Dante learns of the location of the Eldar who slew so many Blood Angels on Semmel years before. He ordered the Sanguinary Guard to earn the Chapter's vengeance. The strike force caught its quarry in the arid badlands of the world of Zoros. In the resulting aerial combat, Sanguinary Guardians dueled with Eldar Jetbikes and Swooping Hawks Aspect Warriors, but emerged as the victors. Unfortunately, the identity of the individual who betrayed the Blood Angels at Semmel could not be determined and so final vengeance for that loss remains beyond the Chapter's reach.Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - The Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka returns to the Hive World of Armageddon at the head of another, even larger Ork WAAAGH!, unleashing the Third War for Armageddon. Over 2 dozen Space Marine Chapters responded to the Greenskin assault this time, which was necessary as the Blood Angels were forced to deploy much of their existing strength against the equally dangerous threat of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Even so, honour demanded that the Chapter provide at least some assistance to Armageddon and Dante sent the 3rd Company and a generous number of support units. During the course of the campaign, Captain Erasmus Tycho finally succumbed to the Black Rage and spent his life valiantly on the outer walls of the Hive Tempestora, taking hundreds of Orks with him down into death. The 3rd Company's new commander is Captain Galan Machiavi.The Shield of Baal (998.M41) - News reaches Baal that the Cryptan Shield, intended to hold back the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan, has collapsed. Already Commander Dante had put plans in motion to defend the Blood Angels' homeworld, strike forces fighting hit-and-run battles with Leviathan's smaller splinter fleets throughout the Red Scar. Meanwhile, the defences of Baal and her moons have been bolstered like never before; indomitable fortresses rose above the sweltering sands, and the might of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters gathered from across the galaxy. Yet still it did not seem to be enough, for the Tyranids were seemingly without number, and Hive Fleet Leviathan was learning the weaknesses of its prey at an exponential rate. Knowing that the consumption of the Cryptus System would open the floodgates for an unstoppable Tyranid invasion of Baal, Commander Dante took action. At the head of a mighty strike force later known as the Cryptus Campaign that comprised the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Blood Angels, Brother Corbulo, Captain Karlaen, Chief Librarian Mephiston and the bulk of Gabriel Seth's Flesh Tearers, Dante stroke out for the Cryptus System. This mighty force reached the Cryptus System in time to aid the last, hard-pressed Imperial defenders and avert complete catastrophe. Yet the war that follows is unremittingly savage, with both the Imperial and xenos forces suffering rapidly escalating casualties. The Blood Angels are eventually forced to unleash an ancient weapon of Necrontyr provenance called the Magnovitrium to annihilate an entire world of the Cryptus System and use its debris to gut the onrushing splinter fleet. Showing his wisdom, Dante accepts that the Tyranids have been slowed but not stopped. The Blood Angels Commander orders the return to Baal. His Chapter will fight for its survival upon the worlds of its birth.Blood Angels Civil War (ca. 999.M41) - Upon the world of Cybele, one of the most dire events in the Blood Angels' long history came to pass in the form of Brother Arkio, who possessed the sacred relic known as the Spear of Telesto, and proclaimed himself to be the reincarnation of Sanguinius after he mutated and grew a pair of angel-like wuings. Fealty was given to the so-called "Reborn Angel" by many within the ranks of the Blood Angels' 6th Company. Unknown to the Blood Angels, an Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor named Remius Stele, a secret servant of the Ruinous Powers, manipulated the situation to cause a schism within the Chapter. After the 6th Company Loyalists Gallio and Vode were both killed by Arkio's fanatics when they refused to recognize him as the primarch reborn, Chief Librarian Mephiston decided that he, not Lord Commander Dante, should go and deal with Arkio. Mephiston reasoned that since he was a psyker, he could better detect the taint of Chaos upon Arkio and his followers. Mephiston arrived on the Blood Angels' Shrine World of Sabien to judge Arkio, and turned the powers of his formidable witch-sight upon him. He saw the carefully hidden seed of Chaos that Stele had planted inside Arkio and denounced the "Reborn Angel" as false and Inquisitor Stele as a Heretic. Mephiston then challenged Arkio to a duel but before it began, Arkio's biological brother Sergeant Rafen, a fellow Blood Angel, arrived and offered to challenge him instead. Rafen was one of the few Blood Angels of the 6th Company who had doubted the veracity of Sanguinius's supposed resurrection, keeping faith with the Emperor and their primarch, and formally denounced his brother as a false reincarnation. Mephiston looked into Rafen's mind and saw that he had seen a vision of Sanguinius and that he was destined to fight Arkio. The Lord of Death allowed Rafen to take his place, and the two siblings duelled to the death. After Rafen wounded Arkio and he fled, the corrupted Inquisitor Stele ordered the Loyalist Blood Angels and the mortal Human former Word Bearers slaves known as the Warriors of the Reborn who had pledged themselves to Arkio to attack Mephiston and his entourage. Eventually, Rafen emerged triumphant, impaling Arkio through the heart with the Spear of Telesto. Arkio died begging for his brother's forgiveness. After his sibling's death, the true master behind the nefarious Chaos plot revealed himself -- Malfallax, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch. Malfallax and Inquisitor Stele had entered into a devil's bargain with Warmaster Garand of the traitorous Word Bearers Legion to turn the Blood Angels to Chaos by using Arkio as a false messiah. When Arkio was killed by his sibling Rafen, Stele attempted to summon Malfallax, intending to have the daemon possess his slave Ulan. Instead, Malfallax betrayed the Inquisitor and possessed his body, fully manifesting as a Lord of Change. Malfallax then attempted to cause the Blood Angels to succumb to the Black Rage, but was in turn banished by Rafen using the Spear of Telesto. By the time Rafen had defeated Malfallax, Mephiston's iron will had snapped, and he fell once more into the Black Rage. Rafen directed the power of the Spear of Telesto at Mephiston himself, breaking the hold of the curse upon the great Librarian for a second time. In the aftermath of this great tragedy, Arkio's remains were eventually burned upon a pyre out of respect for the fact that he had been duped into heresy through no fault of his own. The Blood Angels that willingly followed Arkio learned of the perfidy of the agent of Chaos, Inquisitor Stele, and tried to comprehend the awful realisation that they had been duped. For they had been turned into unwitting pawns in a grand scheme unleashed by the Chaos God Tzeentch to steal their very souls. The fallen Battle-Brothers were brought aboard Mephiston's warship, the Europae, stripped of their wargear and shackled in manacles. One of the Blood Angels strike teams loyal to Mephiston located the hardened steel module from the interior of the Bellus that housed the Progenoid capsules containing the genetic material of the traitorous fallen Blood Angels who had followed Arkio. Many of the clerics aboard the Europae were of the opinion that this gene‐seed was now tainted and fit only for the fires of the fusion furnace, but Mephiston thought otherwise. The genetic material was placed in secure holding for the journey back to Baal; it would be Lord Commander Dante alone who would decide the fate of this gene-seed. There were voices from Baal that counseled that Rafen should be executed along with the Loyalist survivors of the 6th Company. They were afraid Rafen might take the same path as his brother Arkio since they shared the same blood. The knowledge that he had been able to wield the sacred Spear of Telesto changed this opinion. Rafen's dedication and honour to the Chapter was unparalleled. Lord Commander Dante gave Rafen a personal audience once the Europae reached Baal. Though offered a promotion to the rank of captain and the command of his own company, Rafen refused, choosing to earn the position on his own merits when the time was right. Rafen only made one request of the Lord of Death -- clemency and compassion for his battle-brothers of the 6th Company who had strayed and followed his sibling into heresy unwittingly. Blinded by their belief in Sanguinius, their faith had been turned against them and misused. Mephiston counseled Rafen that the rites of cleansing and purification that might be employed were quite arduous. Many of his Battle-Brothers would not survive the process. But Rafen informed Mephiston that they would endure and their faith would be twice as strong for it.Scions of Sanguinius Conclave (999.M41) - Teetering on the brink of oblivion following the events on the Shrine World of Sabien, the fate of the Blood Angels Chapter now required the magnanimity of their Successor Chapters. Lord Commander Dante summoned all of the Blood Angels' Successor Chapters for a conclave on Baal following the near-disastrous Chapter civil war that nearly tore the Blood Angels apart. Dante called for the support of the Blood Angels successors to help aid the Chapter in the protection of their common primarch's homeworld and his remains from the attack of both the Tyranids and the Forces of Chaos. While Dante led the discussion at the conclave, the Apothecaria was working on a radical new procedure to replenish the ranks of the Blood Angels in one swift stroke: the lost art of replicae. Caecus was the Chief Apothecary or Apothecae Majoris of the Blood Angels. Disturbed by the dwindling numbers of his Chapter, and dreading its extinction, he was involved in fruitless experiments, which Lord Commander Dante ordered stopped, to clone Space Marines, thus eliminating the need to go through the arduous process of the maturation and implantation of the gene-seed in an Aspirant. However, Caecus disobeyed the order and secretly continued the experiments, prodded by an agent of the vile Chaos Space Marine Apothecary Fabius Bile. He was tricked into bringing Bile, who was disguised as a well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis, to Baal, mistakenly thinking the false "Magos" would help in cloning Space Marines to increase the Blood Angels' numbers. Through Bile's manipulations, Caecus was duped, and only managed to create monstrous, mutant clone-Astartes known as "Bloodfiends" who were consumed by the Red Thirst. These creatures were a shattered mirror reformed in the image of a Blood Angel, but lacked any of the qualities that could be thought of as human. The mutations that cursed the gene-seed of the Blood Angels had been enhanced by the machinations and Chaotic tech-heresy of Fabius Bile, and with each drop of blood they consumed, the thirst that dominated the Bloodfiends grew stronger. The mutants broke free from the confines of Caecus' laboratorium and began to run rampant through the sacred halls of the Fortress-Monastery of the Blood Angels. During their rampage, Bile managed to steal a glass vial that Caeucus had carried back from the Chapel of the Red Grail -- a measure of the mingled blood of a hundred centuries of Sanguinary Priests and the Primarch himself, the raw vitae of the Chapter. During the Bloodfiends' rampage, a small group of the bloodthirsty mutants assaulted the sacred Chapel of the Chapter's Fortress-Monastery. Brother Corbulo raced to the Chapel to confront the vile creatures. He knew exactly what it was the beasts wanted, and he bellowed out a denial, charging in a headlong rush to meet such embodiments of corruption. The creatures swarmed Corbulo as the Sanguinary Priest carved into them with his Chainsword Heaven's Teeth. But the largest of the Bloodfiends, a massive brute easily the size of an Astartes in Terminator Armour, threw itself towards its target -- the Red Grail and the precious blood of the Primarch it contained. The Bloodfiend seized the holy relic and then tipped the contents of the cup into its open mouth and drained it to the dregs. Now that the beasts had tasted the blood of the Primarch, they only craved more. In the aftermath of this desecration, Bile had achieved his goal and escaped from the Blood Angels' homeworld with a sample of the precious vitae of their Primarch. The Blood Angels and their successors among the Sanguinary Brotherhood successfully defended their most sacred of sites on Baal -- the Golden Sarcophagus of Sanguinius within the sacred sepulchre where the Great Angel lay for all time, sleeping in light, forever preserved. The Sons of Sanguinius destroyed the horde of mutants and erased the stain of Chaos from their midst. They had paid for the continued sanctity of the Great Angel with their blood, and in the aftermath of this misery, Lord Commander Dante took responsibility for what had happened and he accepted it without complaint. Dante believed that it was his hubris that had brought the Chapter to this dark place. The Successor Chapters took this into consideration as well as Lord Commander Dante's original request for the successors to grant the Blood Angels a small tithe of their Chapter's initiates in order to replenish the ranks of the Chapter. The Successor Chapters unanimously agreed to hand over to the Blood Angels some of their own neophytes to help their ancestral Chapter rebuild its strength in the wake of the Chaos assault -- and in preparation for the oncoming assault by the Tyranids and the forces of Chaos.The Darkest Hour (999.M41) - The Blood Angels are tested as they have not been since the days of the Horus Heresy. As the launch of the 13th Black Crusade consumed the resources of the Imperium, a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan is determined to be on a direct course for Baal. To make matters worse, the dread Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha, the Bane of Sanguinius, returned from the Warp leading an army of daemons. His first blow was struck against Ammonai, the outermost world of the Baal System. Faced with a possible war of extermination for the Chapter on two fronts, Lord Commander Dante made swift preparations, and united many Imperial and even non-human worlds under the command of the Blood Angels simply for the sake of survival against Tyranid and daemon alike. Even some former foes of the Chapter and the Imperium are counted in Dante's alliance, though whether or not they can be truly trusted when the time comes remains an open question. Well aware that even these forces will not be enough to repel both foes, Dante recalled the 3rd Company from its operations on Armageddon and sent requests for aid to all of the Blood Angels' known Successor Chapters. The Flesh Tearers were the first to respond and despatched their entire fighting strength to the Blood Angels' aid without question. Ultimately, all of the Successor Chapters save for the Lamenters lent some form of aid to their primogenitor. Even the Knights of Blood, declared Renegade by the Imperium many centuries earlier, heeded Dante's call -- though they are very careful to never take the field alongside the other Chapters. The stage is thus set for the defence of Baal, and perhaps the final battle of the Scions of Sanguinius, the Sons of the Angel.Diamor Campaign - Defence of Amethal (999.M41) - As Dante's forces made all speed through the Warp to return to bolster the defences of their Chapter homeworld, they received word from High Chaplain Astorath the Grim that a new threat had emerged in the Diamor System -- an invasion by the Forces of Chaos that could undermine the defences of the Cadian Gate. 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, the Lord Commander despatched the Blood Angels' elite 1st and 2nd Companies under First Captain Karlaen and Second Captain Asphael to help bolster Astorath's force. As the two companies translated into the Diamor System, they were momentarily delayed by unknown forces. This delay saved them from sudden damnation, as the 5th Company, which arrived earlier, had been struck by Warp sorcery of some kind. The malefic attack struck at the heart of the 5th Company, causing the entirety of the company to fall to the effects of the Black Rage. Only Astorath and Death Company Chaplain Daenor, the other Chaplains on board and their Librarians -- those with psyker training or psychic defences -- survived. The rest had fallen to the Blood Angels' genetic curse. It unleashed sheer bedlam aboard the vessels of the 5th Company. First Captain Karlaen immediately despatched the Chaplains of both the 1st and 2nd Companies, as well as the Sanguinary Guard, to aid the beleaguered survivors and bring their fallen under control. Having succeeded at this task and determined the wider strategic situation in the star system, the Blood Angels wasted no time in launching their attack. They could not do so quickly enough, for it seemed as though the enemy's plans were well advanced. Crimson Slaughter warbands were present at all of the primary Mechanicus Hubs on the world of Amethal. The secret that the Black Legion sought, and that the Adeptus Mechanicus were in a race with them to seize, lay deep beneath the surface of Amethal. It was the Banshee Stone, an ancient cage for the infernal creatures of the Warp, a weapon to dwarf the Damnation Cache that had slipped through Abaddon's fingers on Pandorax. And, according to the divinations of Chaos Lord Xorphas and his followers, it was full to the brim. It required only the correct ritual to be broken open, at which point the sudden release of so many Warp entities would tear a gaping wound into reality itself. In the brutal and bloody fighting that followed, the Death Company sustained appalling casualties, losing over ninety percent of its afflicted Battle-Brothers, and Chaplain Daenor took terrible wounds when he confronted the infamous Khorne Berzerker known as Khârn the Betrayer in single combat. The loss of the Death Company brothers was acceptable, for it had always been their destiny to perish in selfless battle, and they had sold themselves as dearly as they could. In the end, Astorath extracted Daenor and the remaining afflicted brethren from the surface of Amethal, as the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Companies continued the fight against the Chaos Lord Xorphas. Eventually, the Blood Angels seemingly foiled the foul Sorcerer's machinations. But whether true victory had been attained by the Blood Angels remains to be seen, for the Banshee Stone is full, and its cage is cracking. Meanwhile, Dante and the remainder of his Battle-Brothers pressed on for Baal, determined to strengthen its defences against the coming of the Great Devourer.