Adeptus Custodes - Era of Vigilance Unstinting, M33-M39: Siege of the Eternity Gate (Unknown Date) - Capitalising upon contacts within the Fartraders' Guild of the Yndonesic Hives, the Cult of the Hedonic Lord seize control of much of the Eternity Gate spaceport on Terra in the Outer Palace comnplex. Repeated attempts are made by the Adeptus Arbites to break the Heretic barricades, but every attack is hurled back by tides of fanatics. Meanwhile, word escapes the space port that the cultists are re-purposing hundreds of heavy landers and atmospheric barges for an all-out attack upon the Imperial Palace. Identifying the cult activity as now posing a direct threat to the Emperor's safety, a Shield Host of the Adeptus Custodes launches a blistering attack. Land Raiders and Venerable Contemptor Dreadnoughts smash through the cult's barricades, even as sleek squadrons of Vertus Praetors strike at the Heretics from above. Bands of Custodians tear through the Chaos Cultists with merciless efficiency, driving their victims before them and trapping them in macro-hangar level 142. There the Cult of the Hedonic Lord are slaughtered to the last, and their deviant dreams of an attack upon the Golden Throne ground to dust.Blood Will Tell (Unknown Date) - Leotydus Dat-Hastael runs a successful Blood Game, spending over a solar decade in hiding, evading every ward and sentry to finally reach the Sanctum Imperialis with blade in hand. Precautions are put in place to seal off his route of ingress, just in time to catch the elite Drukhari killer known as the Blade of Ptesh as he attempts the very same route as Dat-Hastael in his efforts to slay the Emperor on behalf of a mysterious and exceptionally persuasive patron. The Blade's ambitions, and indeed his life, meet a merciless end, though he refuses to the end to give up the identity of the one who sent him.Envoys to the Omnissiah (999.M37) - During Abaddon the Despoiler's 8th Black Crusade, a combined force of Night Lords and Iron Warriors captures the Andromax System and a direct threat to Terra is identified. Initially, the notoriously insular Fabricator-General Uixot of Mars refuses to pledge his aid in eliminating the Heretic Astartes. However, when a diplomatic mission from the Adeptus Custodes attends his forge-temple in person, the Fabricator-General's ego is stroked and his mind swayed. Mere solar months later, a combined force of Minotaurs Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus war maniples and Custodians from the Dread Host annihilates the Traitors in their captured strongholds.The Ominous Gift (Unknown Date) - Halo Belt Augurs surrounding the Sol System reveal the Space Hulk Ominous Gift advancing inexorably out of the dark void towards Terra. Using his status as a High Lord to overrule objections by the Imperial Navy, Captain-General Aesoth Koumadra orders a strike by several Shield Companies to gut the spacecraft from the inside and ensure its corruption is wholly purged. Those outside the Adeptus Custodes do not understand the significance, but the attack is led by the Lockwarden of the Shadowkeepers and a band of his black-armoured comrades. The Ominous Gift is destroyed -- the wider Imperium need never know any more than that.Guardians of Greatness (Unknown Date) - A controversial act of insubordination sees Lieutenant Nathasian of the Cadian 86th Regiment slated for execution. Yet he is spared when a band of grim-faced Custodians from the Aquilan Shield appear at his side in a blaze of golden light, and wordlessly cut down his would-be Commissariat executioners. With his remarkable bodyguards at his side, Nathasian is free to exercise his flair for unconventional tactics, which soon sees his promotion to Commander Army Group, then to Warmaster of an entire Imperial Crusade. The Shuddering Stars are swept clear of Ork tribes, stopping WAAAGH! Dakskrag in its tracks before it can descend upon the Sol System. In the wake of Nathasian's triumph over the Greenskins, his bodyguards depart as suddenly as they had arrived and -- never ones to rescind a sentence -- the Commissariat sees Warmaster Nathasian dead before the solar day is out.