Sons of Medusa - Notable Campaigns: Great Cull (011.M37) - The first campaign the newly designated Sons of Medusa Chapter undertook after its recognition by the High Lords of Terra was participation in the Great Cull; the systematic destruction of those organisations within Imperial space upon whom the High Lords' judgment at the end of the Nova Terra Interregnum had not been so kind. With unalloyed zeal and implacable determination, the Sons of Medusa seemed to want to prove themselves to their doubters, outshining even their progenitor Chapter in the harsh and unforgiving manner in which they executed their duties. Even after the Great Cull ended, the Chapter continued to have its three Chapter fleets tirelessly prosecute the enemies of the Imperium.Bellrath Crusade (182-453.M38) - In the year 182.M38, the mighty Bellrath Crusade was launched to liberate and dominate the area of space designated as the Laanah Rifts in the northwestern fringes of the Segmentum Pacificus from the hands of xenos and Heretics. This crusade, one of the largest of its kind in centuries, was conducted by well over 25,000,000 levied Astra Militarum troops with unknown numbers of pilgrims and hangers-on swept up in its wake. The crusade was further augmented by two Titan Legions, and 8 Space Marine Chapters at various times, with the Sons of Medusa being the most active. The Chapter was heavily engaged during much of the crusade with an unknown xenos species. Within 50 standard years of its inception the crusade began to falter, and it was at this time that the Sons of Medusa would win the greatest victory of the crusade against the twisted alien race the Imperium named the Hellgrammites. The Chapter circumvented the aliens' attack fleets and conducted a perilous counterattack, striking at the heart of their domains in the star system codenamed "Wormgyre." Using the arcane science of their Explorator magos allies from the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Chapter's modified fleet (the spacecraft of the Sons of Medusa made use of modified Warp-Drives that repelled the aetheric fire that shielded Wormgyre), provided them with a measure of defence for a time, and allowed them to catch their complacent enemy unawares. With time running out, the Sons of Medusa gathered the might of the entire Chapter, and plunged headlong into the heart of the Hellgrammite throne-world. The Chapter's attack was as relentless as it was merciless. It was said that the Sons of Medusa killed and killed again, methodically and coldly destroying the vile xenos creatures, firing until they exhausted the promethium in their Flamers and all of their bolter shells were spent. Still they continued the merciless slaughter, with combat blade and chainsword and when even these dulled and failed, with anything they could find to wield or just their bare power armoured fists. The onslaught continued until the alien temple-cities were painted with the foul pale ichor that served the Hellgramites for blood and half their world had been smashed to ruin. Only then did the Sons of Medusa withdraw. Having torn the heart from the enemy, both militarily and spiritually, the Hellgrammites' resistance collapsed. In a handful of Terran years they were no more. Within a standard century, a great swathe of the Laanah Rifts was brought under Imperial dominion, and the Sons of Medusa entered the mythology of the new sector's Human inhabitants, whispered of in the old tales as "the Emerald Death" that fell from the stars to punish the God-Emperor's foes.Angevin Crusade (322.M39) - The Sons of Medusa participated in the Angevin Crusade, which led to the conquest of the Calixis Sector for the Imperium, fighting alongside elements from their fellow Astartes Chapters of the Black Templars, the Tigers Argent and the Charnel Guard.Badab War (907-912.M41) - In direct response to the Legate Inquisitor's request for Space Marine reinforcements after the Secession of the Badab Sector of the Ultima Segmentum had been declared heretical, the first Sons of Medusa strike cruisers and attack squadrons arrived in the region in 907.M41 to participate in the Badab War. The combined Sons of Medusa force comprised the full strength of the Chapter's Atropos War Clan backed by forces drawn from the Lachesis and Magaera War Clans with a combined estimated strength of between five and six companies as defined by the Codex Astartes, with a fleet of 6 strike cruisers, 2 forge ships, a battle barge and 14 escort and attack vessels of various types. The undisputed master of the Sons of Medusa force was the Iron Thane Vaylund Cal of the Atropos War Clan. Though he deferred to the Magister Millitum of the Badab War, Lord Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions, in strategic deployment and the use of his Chapter, no Astartes from the Sons of Medusa Chapter answered to the orders of any but their own Chapter superiors at the tactical level. Having fought alongside the Sons of Medusa before, Lord Commander Culln wisely deployed their forces where their strengths and tenacity would provide the greatest effect. During the early part of their involvement in the Badab War, the Sons of Medusa were first assigned to scourge the post-atomic wasteland of the world of Cygnax of the Secessionist forces, and later led the assault raids against Decabalus and Eshunna, both outer worlds of the Badab Sector. They later famously conducted the subjugation campaign against the Secessionist world of Galen VI. The Chapter's greatest single defeat in the conflict came with the destruction of their strike cruiser Warspite which was lost with all hands in battle with the Executioners Chapter near the Grief System in 911.M41. The aftermath of this battle was to result in the Salamanders and Sons of Medusa nearly coming to blows over the Executioners' withdrawal from the war. The last major engagement the Chapter was involved in was to be the hard-fought assault on the orbital fortress of Sentinel-Sigma in preparation for the Loyalists' final attack on the heart of the Secessionist movement, Badab Primaris. In this brutal boarding action the Chapter fought alongside the feared Exorcists Chapter, eventually emerging victorious and taking command of the city-sized star fortress. The conquest of Sentinel-Sigma shattered the defences of the Badab System's so-called "Ring of Steel" and allowed the final Loyalist assault on Badab Primaris itself to begin.Primarch's Gift (Unknown Date.M42) - A Torchbearer task force was a special detachment of the Indomitus Crusade assigned to bring to Firstborn Space Marine Chapters the genetic engineering technology needed to create Primaris Space Marines and the Adeptus Mechanicus Genetors with the expertise to use it. Some of these task forces were assigned to Chapters who, for reasons of doctrine, genetic heritage, or historical circumstance, were expected to resist the bequest of what was called the Primarch's Gift. It was unacceptable, but not unbelievable to the resurrected Roboute Guilliman and his advisors, that the most traditionalist or headstrong Firstborn Chapters might wholly reject the Primaris gene-tech or the intrusive presence of the Adeptus Mechanicus magi who accompanied it. In such cases the task force's complement of Adeptus Custodes was typically larger than average. Their presence left no doubt that this boon came by the grace of the Emperor Himself and that to resist its implementation was to deny the will of the Master of Mankind. Just such Torchbearer forces were dispatched to locate the tripartite fleet elements of the Sons of Medusa. Resistance was predicted from their three War Clans: Lachesis, Mageara, and Atropos. The gene-seed used to fashion their Primaris Marine reinforcements came from that of their parent Chapter, the Iron Hands, and the internecine savagery of the Moirae Schism had left no love lost between them and the Sons of Medusa. In the event, the task force sent to locate the Lachesis War Clan had the easiest duty; by the time they had rushed to aid the Sons of Medusa in their battle against the Orks of the Dravus Cluster and fought alongside them for a full Terran year the martial bonds they forged superseded all other barriers. Those Torchbearers assigned to the Mageara and Atropos fleets, however, faced much greater challenges that went far beyond resistance from the Sons of Medusa themselves.War of Beasts (Unknown Date.M42) - In the wake of the Great Rift's birth, the Sons of Medusa deployed 5 companies to the strategic world of Vigilus to defend it from xenos infestation and an assault by the Chaos forces of Abaddon the Despoiler.Second Relief of Mordian (Iron Crusade) (Unknown Date.M42) - As Imperial forces withdrew from the Stygius Sector during the Invasion of the Stygius Sector, the Iron Hands refused to retreat and instead gathered on Mordian, itself under siege from Chaos forces. Alongside a mere dozen or so regiments of the Mordian Iron Guard, the Iron Hands sought to reforge themselves and purge the weakness they had displayed earlier in the campaign. During the siege the Iron Hands were joined by allies enraged by the defeatism of the Imperial forces, among them the Brazen Claws, Fire Lords, Silver Skulls, Sons of Medusa, and Iron Lords in what became known as the "Iron Crusade." They arrived on Mordian to find the planet terrorised by a Night Lords warband under the command of Ahrak Deathshriek and his Raptor hordes. Deathshriek planned to use the terror his Heretic Astartes created in the Mordian population to power a Chaos ritual that would plunge the entire world into the Warp. The Iron Hands and their allies struck with customary bluntness, emerging without warning from the Warp and engaging the Traitor fleet in orbit and launching a Drop Pod assault on Mordian's capital. Clan Avernii under Iron Captain Caanok Var led the charge and Deathshriek drove his Chaos Cultists into the Iron Hands' guns. One by one, the remaining Iron Hands clan companies joined the battle and Deathshriek was wounded in single combat by Var. Even as the Iron Hands' drop zone came under fresh assault from the Benedictian Guard and the Cult of the Whispered Word, Renegade warlords from across the sector united in their realisation that the Iron Hands could be wholly destroyed. With the Loyalist assault faltering, Deathshriek claimed victory as he led his fleet against the Iron Hands in space, outnumbering their warships three to one. It was at this point that the Iron Hands Successor Chapters arrived. Deathshriek's armada was caught in disarray by the Loyalist reinforcements and crushed. The newly-arrived Loyalist warships rained obliteration below on the Mordian populace. The orbital bombardment seemed indiscriminate, but nothing could have been further from the truth. The tactical doctrine known as "Hammer and the Storm" had been pursued planetside as well as in the trackless void, the Iron Hands' assault calculated to stir the Renegades and Traitors into reckless deeds. What had seemed a faltering Loyalist advance had merely paused while the Iron Hands Techmarines laboured to erect void shields and reinforce the capital city's surviving bunkers. Thus the Iron Hands and those portions of the Mordian populace they deemed worthy of survival endured the orbital firestorm. Their foes, caught in the open and drunk on the prospect of their imminent victory, were not so fortunate. In a little over one solar hour's bombardment, the Chaos hold on Mordian was broken for the second time. Eventually other Imperial reinforcements arrived from Cypra Mundi and the Iron Crusade was able to not only push the Chaos forces off Mordian, but to counterattack Chaos garrisons on nearby worlds. The Iron Hands' governing Iron Council then unleashed a second phase of the campaign, with a plan to scour the surviving worlds of the Mordian System of their Chaos presence and wrest the refineries and orbital shipyards of the neighbouring Kharvos System from Chaos. At present, the campaign is ongoing.Assault on Damhal (Unknown Date.M42) - In the Era Indomitus, the Shrine World of Damhal was overrun by the Hrud, who were drawn to the rich veins of crystallised time given off by the stasis-crypts that stored the world's many Imperial relics. Once the world's plight was learned, several regiments of the Mordian Iron Guard and a strike force from the Sons of Medusa Chapter were deployed to destroy the xenos. Each was rapidly aged and destroyed by the Hrud's natural entropic powers. After their destruction, two Deathwatch Watch Companies from the Keep Extremis Watch Fortress attacked the Hrud next and were led into battle by eight Deathwatch Dreadnoughts. It was these ancients who led the final strike upon the Hrud's warren within Damhal and they endured the xenos' parasitic aura long enough to slaughter their leaders and collapse their tunnels. The victory was costly though, as all of the Dreadnoughts were rendered inoperable by the accumulation of rust and the heroes they held within the sarcophagi were turned to dust by the Hrud's horrific entropic powers.