Flesh Tearers - Notable Campaigns: Zurcon Massacres (021.M31) - Prior to their settlement on Cretacia, the Flesh Tearers were a star-faring Chapter which travelled throughout the galaxy during their initial Imperial Crusade. Still struggling with their new identity as a separate Chapter, the former Blood Angels sought to vent their rage on the enemies of the Emperor. As part of their journey, they even visited the portion of space that would later become known as the Jericho Sector. At this time, the region remained an unconquered frontier, so the surviving records are only fragmentary at best. However, Imperial scholars of the Adeptus Administratum have successfully pieced together some of these data sources, using a combination of resources. Allegedly, the Crusading Chapter answered a distress call of the Zurcon System's main planet. The Flesh Tearers entered the Zurcon System in great strength. Upon their arrival they were immediately attacked by voidcraft belonging to the system's natives. Responding with typical aggression, the Space Marines engaged the enemy with overwhelming force, yet the Zurconians seemed to have accounted well for themselves, as the Flesh Tearers' flotilla was eliminated one-by-one until only the Chapter's Battle Barge, the Victus, and one of its escorting Strike Cruisers, the Shield of Baal, remained. Seeing proof in this aggression that the Zurconians were in fact Heretics, the Flesh Tearers engaged in a series of cleansings of the populations within the Zurcon System. The initial assault was apparently launched according to standard Adeptus Astartes patterns as traces of orbital bombardment could be found on Zurcon Primus. With the system's capital taken, the Flesh Tearers turned their attention to the other two settled worlds. The engagement apparently lasted several standard years, as settlements were active on multiple planets and moons within the region. By the end of their military action, there were no known surviving Human inhabitants within the system. The Zurcon System was only resettled centuries later by colonists from other worlds of the Jericho Sector. The archaeological relics of the Flesh Tearers' assault only hint at its overall brutality, but it is clear that no planetary-scale attacks were used. Rather, the traitorous inhabitants were actually all slain in brutal close combat -- a Flesh Tearers' hallmark.War of the Beast (544-546.M32) - The Flesh Tearers were one of many Space Marine Chapters to participate in the defence of the Imperium against the largest Ork WAAAGH! seen to that time during the War of the Beast.Kallern Massacres (Unknown Date.M36) - During the Imperial defence of the world of Kallern, the Flesh Tearers Astartes present on the planet were overcome by the Black Rage and slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians as well as the foe. As a result of these massacres, the Flesh Tearers came under the close scrutiny of the Inquisition for potential heresy.Tosovic Pacification (201.M37) - The Flesh Tearers were decried for their part in the Tosovic Pacification, a war of such brutality that nothing now grows upon the wind-whipped plains of that planet.Eypharos Campaign (540.M38) - Over a thousand standard years later the Flesh Tearers' name would once again be linked to the worse excesses of the Imperium when Biel-Tan Craftworld Aeldari attacked Human colonists on the verdant world of Eypharos. With unrestrained fury, the Space Marines purged the planet of all Aeldari, resorting to the use of incendiary bombs to clear ancient forests and poison rivers, despite the toll this took on the Human population.Acata Uprising (371.M41) - The Flesh Tearers ruthlessly crushed what was later determined to be a xenos-inspired uprising amongst the void-clans of the Acata Ring. The Flesh Tearers utilised specialised void combat battle rites to fight across the airless surface of the asteroids and to cross from one to the next, systematically destroying the foe in a series of focused and coordinated, yet brutal and bloody assaults.Castigation of Acralem (799.M41) - The Flesh Tearers, working in conjunction with the Astral Knights, the Grey Knights of the 3rd Brotherhood (which included Kaldor Draigo) and nine regiments of the Astra Militarum, descended upon the Imperial world of Acralem to halt the incursion of the infamous Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn and his Daemonic army. What followed was one of the most terrible battles of that century, though ultimately the Imperial forces proved victorious and M'kar was banished back to the Warp for a time.Achilus Crusade (813.M41) - A Flesh Tearers strike force based around elements from the 1st and 2nd Companies arrived unheralded during the Achilus Crusade in the Jericho Reach around the world of Herisor, soon after the first tendrils of Hive Fleet Dagon hit the Orpheus Salient. The Chapter fought a series of actions trailing along the salient, intercepting tendrils of the hive fleet and buying time for other Imperial forces to muster a defence. The Chapter took heavy losses in these actions, yet refused to slow the pace of its operations, throwing itself into battle after battle against the ravening xenos monstrosities that were the Tyranids.A New Beginning (815.M41) - Gabriel Seth became the Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. His first act was to repair relations between his Chapter and the Blood Angels, as the tradition of brotherhood between the Chapters had been sundered for many standard centuries by the Flesh Tearers' bloodthirstiness.Honour's End (837.M41) - During the Eclipse Wars, the Flesh Tearers fought alongside the Space Wolves and the Angels Vindicant Chapters upon the Shrine World of Lucid Prime. Largely due to a ferocious Flesh Tearers' counterattack, Imperial forces were able to drive off the Chaos Space Marine forces terrorising the hive city of Hive Ratspire. However, the Flesh Tearers continued their indiscriminate slaughter of civilians even after the Chaos Renegades had been driven away. Despite Chapter Master Seth's insistence that his warriors were simply purging those civilians that had been tainted by the presence of Chaos, the Space Wolves were outraged and attacked the Flesh Tearers at once. The resultant battle saw brother fighting brother, with the death of many hundreds of Loyalists on either side. This terrible event was known forever after as "Honour's End."Siege of Hypnoth (910-911.M41) - The Flesh Tearers took part in the Siege of Hypnoth against the Necron forces of the Sautekh Dynasty, led by the Phaeron Imotekh the Stormlord. The Necron Overlord's campaigns were temporarily halted by the Imperium's resolute defence of the Forge World Hypnoth as Astra Militarum and Space Marine reinforcements flooded into the battle zone. Despite a valorous defence by the Flesh Tearers and Iron Hands Chapters, Hypnoth was eventually conquered by the undying Necrons.Stromark Civil War (991.M41) - A political rivalry within the Stromark System led to a civil war between the two manufactorum worlds, Stromark Primus and Stromark Secundus, that coexisted within that star system. The escalating violence halted the flow of much-needed weapons and materiel from these planets to the wider Imperium, a situation that the Departmento Munitorum's adepts determined could not be allowed to continue without adversely affecting the security of the Emperor's realm. As a result, elements of two successors of the Blood Angels, the Angels Encarmine and the Flesh Tearers, were despatched to the Stromark System with the mandate to end the conflict by any means necessary. The fighting on Stromark Prime was the first to cease. The first engagement by the Flesh Tearers Chapter was also the last, as stories of unstoppable Space Marines hacking a vicious and bloody path through literally tens of thousands of Stromarkian warriors quickly terrified the planet's recalcitrant population into submission. Stromark Secundus took longer to be pacified, as the Angels Encarmine used less "direct" methods than their savage brethren amongst the Flesh Tearers. Several solar hours of difficult combat ensued that were brought to an end when five of the Chapter's Furioso Dreadnoughts smashed into Stromark Secundus' military headquarters and tore the planet's High Command apart. The surviving officers of the planet's Planetary Defence Force wisely agreed to immediately end the conflict with their neighbours and resume meeting the system's crucial production quotas.Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - Five full companies of Flesh Tearers participated in the Third War for Armageddon, where the Chapter was nearly declared Excommunicate Traitoris and subjected to investigation by the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus after they had, in a fit of the Black Rage, slaughtered Imperial citizen militia once they had run out of Orks to kill. Amongst the Orks of Armageddon, the Chapter became known as the "Eaters of the Dead". Later in the campaign, the Orks were known to have retreated when the Flesh Tearers attacked or faced them on the battlefield, a display of fear virtually unheard of among Greenskins. The incident occurred after the Flesh Tearers were deployed in the Fire Wastes of Armageddon alongside the Sisters of Battle of the Order of the Argent Shroud. The Imperial forces were deployed against the artillery of the Ork Warlord Ruklum, who held positions besieging the civilian settlement of Gaius Point, the citizens of which had formed an irregular militia to aid the Imperial forces in their defence. The Flesh Tearers managed to deploy behind the Orks and force them into the guns of the Sisters of Battle and the Gaius Point militia. After slaughtering the Orks to a Greenskin, the uncontrollable Flesh Tearers assaulted Gaius Point themselves and killed every member of the mortal militia. Rather than fight their own allies, the Sisters of Battle withdrew from the field, but the Order of the Argent Shroud reported the massacre to the Ordo Hereticus and recommended that the Flesh Tearers Chapter be declared Excommunicate Traitoris for their actions.Cryptus Campaign (998-999.M41) - News reached Baal that the Cryptan Shield, intended to hold back the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan, had collapsed. Already Lord Commander Dante had put plans in motion to defend the Blood Angels' homeworld, strike forces fighting hit-and-run battles with the Leviathan's smaller splinter fleets throughout the Red Scar. Meanwhile, the defences of Baal and her moons had 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 may not have been 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 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 unleashed the Cryptus Campaign. He would see the defences shored up if such a thing was still possible, and if not would do battle with the Cryptoid Tendril directly in a desperate bid for the salvation of Baal. Though successful, the campaign only delayed the final reckoning as the Tyranids closed in on the Blood Angels homeworld of Baal.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 of the Sanguinary Brotherhood 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 of the 13th Black Crusade. 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 the well-known Adeptus Mechanicus Magos Biologis Haran Serpens, 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 Chaos 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. The Flesh Tearers, along with the Blood Angels and their fellow Successors successfully defended the 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. With the approval of the Flesh Tearers' taciturn Chapter Master Gabriel Seth, the rest of 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 on Baal itself.Devastation of Baal (ca. 999.M41) - After sacrificing the Shieldworlds of the Cryptus System to fend off the xenos' earliest advance on the Baal System, the planet of Baal itself came under intense attack by Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Tyranid hive fleet was of such mass, even after its considerable losses, that it blotted the stars from the skies. Lord Commander Dante bolstered the formidable defences of the Blood Angels' homeworld and its moons like never before. Not one to await attack, he also sent forth scores of preemptive strike forces to delay, mislead, and whittle down the living armada. Hundreds of splinter fleets were thus defeated. Dante's call, beseeching the Blood Angels' Successors to send immediate aid to their parent Chapter, did not go unheeded. The Flesh Tearers were the first to arrive, and ultimately all the Successor Chapters save the Lamenters answered the call. Even the Knights of Blood, who had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the High Lords of Terra, arrived to bolster the defences. It was still not enough. Learning at an exponential rate, Hive Fleet Leviathan could not be thwarted by the same strategy twice. Advancing steadily, their superior numbers cleared the entire surrounding sector of life before the xenos made planetfall upon Baal and her twin moons. The first nineteen waves, each larger than the last, were driven off at great loss to the Blood Angels and their Successor allies. Five Chapter Masters fell in that bitter fighting, three in the Battle at the Dome of Angels alone. The Tyranids began the process of absorbing all biomass from Baal and its moons, absorbing even the radiation-poisoned deserts of Baal Secundus. With their defences in ruin and Baal's moons stripped and broken, the remaining Space Marines retreated back to the rubble of the Blood Angels' sprawling fortress-monastery. There, they prepared for a last stand as the next wave swept downwards. Doom, it seemed, had at last come to the sons of Sanguinius. It was then that the Great Rift cracked open the galaxy in the wake of the fall of Cadia to the 13th Black Crusade, and the withered Baal System was blasted by the aetheric storms. Although no further attack waves came from the Leviathan Hive Fleet, not a single Imperial defender remained alive upon the last moon, Baal Prime. On Baal itself there were already enough Tyranids there to destroy the Imperial troops many times over. Even with no chance of victory, Commander Dante led his troops, each fighting retreat seemingly more hopeless than the last. As the final perimeter was broken, the stars reappeared. Looking skywards, the Tyranids on the surface of Baal sought contact with their Hive Fleet, but it was gone, replaced by a newly arrived Imperial fleet. Like an angel of vengeance came Roboute Guilliman and his Indomitus Crusade. After many more battles, Baal was finally cleared of the xenos threat. A great rebuilding of both world and Chapter was undertaken, for the Blood Angels and their Successors were sorely needed elsewhere in the beleaguered Imperium. What became of the Leviathan is a mystery, although a clue was found upon the now-barren moon of Baal Prime. Xenos skulls were piled impossibly high in the much-reviled, eight-pillared symbol of one of the Blood Angels' most terrible and ancient nemeses: the Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha and his army of Khornate Daemons.Red Scar Campaign (Unknown Date.M42) - Hurled across the void by an empyric convulsion, a T'au colonisation fleet began claiming worlds within the Red Scar. Their efforts were brought to a sudden, violent halt by strike forces of Blood Angels, Flesh Tearers and the Angels Sanguine. The planets of D'sandri and Gendal's Reach were swiftly reclaimed, and the war spilled into the Sevensuns System.