Deathwatch - Age of the Shield Shivered, M40-M41: Amidst the Snows of Atrophon (Unknown Date.M40) - When the world of Atrophon faced devastation by the Orks of WAAAGH! Dregsmasha, a small kill-team was sent to assassinate the Big Mek leading the war. A misdrop left the team on the wrong side of a storm-swollen river, caught in the teeth of a ferocious blizzard, with Greenskins closing fast. The heroics that followed were the very definition of the Deathwatch's selfless strength.Bane of the Sslyth (Unknown Date.M40) - The Slaanesh-worshipping Sslyth of the Vensine Sector were attacked in their nests when Kill-team Decurius descended to save the world from a truly disgusting fate.To Kill a Jokaero (Unknown Date.M40) - The Deathwatch of Fort Nullifact attacked a seemingly undefended Jokaero star-frame, only to be met by a fleet's worth of firepower. They retreated to a safe distance, monitoring the simian aliens that clambered upon their star-frame as it slowly spun out of the cosmos into the cold void.Yddylia in Flames (Unknown Date.M41) - After a string of punitive strikes from Craftworld Biel-Tan against the Garravissima Sub-sector proved impossible to stop, the Deathwatch of Fort Ajax gave up the chase. Taking every Flamer weapon they could muster, they instead descended to the Maiden World of Yddylia at the height of summer and -- in conjunction with a firestorm barrage -- set swathes of the world aflame. The Exodites of the planet fought hard to repel them, but the Deathwatch stayed one step ahead. Drawn by the psychic distress calls of their backwater kindred, Biel-Tan appeared in the night sky. Within a solar week, the Autarch of Biel-Tan was killed by a Kraken Bolt to the head.Ghosar Quintus Anomaly (ca. 681.M41) - Chaplain Ortan Cassius of the Ultramarines led an Aquila Kill-team -- Kill-team Cassius -- on an unauthorised mission without the knowledge of his watch commander to the backwater Mining World of Ghosar Quintus, only to discover an alien Genestealer Cult infestation known as the Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor spread not only throughout the planet, but the segmentum -- and possibly beyond.The Psychneuein Swarms of Syntax IX (Unknown Date.M41)Day of the Barghesi (Unknown Date.M41)Kryptman Gambit (997.M41) - After seeing the destruction meted out by Hive Fleet Leviathan across a wide frontage of Imperial space, Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman of the Ordo Xenos ordered a cordon of worlds in its path laid barren or actively destroyed to starve the Tyranids of sustenance. This drastic measure saw Kryptman excommunicated by the Inquisition, with many calling for the death sentence. Meanwhile, the Inquisitor's Deathwatch allies stasis-captured a brood of Genestealers from a space hulk and sent them into the Ork Empire of Octarius, a Greenskin stronghold coreward of the main Leviathan tendril. The gambit was vindicated when the hive fleet followed the psychic spoor of its Genestealers into the biomass-rich Ork Empire, buying the Imperium time to regroup as xenos fought xenos across the system.Crown of the Beast (Unknown Date.M41) - Whilst on a destabilisation raid to the war-torn Ork Empire of Octarius, the kill-teams of the Eye of Octos witnessed a Mekaniak invention that disrupted the synaptic control linking Tyranid organisms to their Hive Mind. Appearing much like a crown of electricity, it was used by the self-appointed King Mek Baddkrasha to break swarm after swarm. The kill-teams waited for the two xenos armies to decimate each other before diving in, their Furor Kill-teams cutting through to Baddkrasha before escaping with his decapitated head -- crown and all -- for further study.Ambull Invasions of Triyix Tert (Unknown Date.M41)The Thief Inquisitor (Unknown Date.M41) - When Inquisitor Gao of the Ordo Xenos brought a Necrontyr datacane with him to the watch fortress Fort Volossia, he unwittingly seeded its demise. The Necron Overlord Zhanatar the Vengeful descended upon the watch fortress at the head of a hundred Night Scythes. He brought overwhelming force against the Deathwatch garrison before disappearing, with datacane in hand, taking Inquisitor Gao -- now trapped in a Tesseract Labyrinth -- with him as a cautionary lesson to the Humans to not meddle in Necron affairs.Vault of Aza'gorod (Unknown Date) - A C'tan Shard of the C'tan codified in Ordo Xenos records as The Destroyer was found in the Gulga System, the psychic shadow of suffering produced by its hideous actions so dark it was picked up by long-range astropathic reverb choirs. The Deathwatch sent to investigate found the system rife with undeath, both mechanical and biological. After many solar months of warfare involving forces from three watch fortresses, the C'tan vault of Aza'gorod was finally destroyed by a sustained Lascannon bombardment from massed Land Raiders and Corvus Blackstar dropship wings.The Great Usurper (Unknown Date.M41) - On the island world of Tharsis Prime, a Lacrymole shapeshifter posing as the paranoid planetary governor Icos Blaille was finally put down by the Deathwatch after a gruelling war with the mercenary Kroot tribes he had hired to protect himself.Extractio Extremis (Unknown Date.M41) - Through their Rogue Trader contacts, the Deathwatch was alerted to the presence of a Space Marine captain in the blood sport arenas of Commorragh. Kill-team Aldric, after seeking the wisdom of the Salamanders' 1st Company, who had once invaded Commorragh themselves, discovered a method of entering the Webway. By smuggling their Corvus Blackstar within the damaged hull of an Aeldari Corsair voidship, they entered the Dark City. There they fought their way into the arena's holding pens. Though it cost the lives of all save Aldric himself, the gladiator captain was freed in time to catch the Corsair ship as it left, the Drukhari still unaware of its Imperial cargo.Farsight Enclaves Raid (Unknown Date.M41) - With Commander Farsight and his subordinates joining the war for Agrellan during the campaigns of the T'au Empire's Third Sphere Expansion, the Deathwatch launched an opportunistic attack on the Farsight Enclaves. They caused untold damage on the Enclaves' command structure before Commander Farsight returned, vengeance foremost on his mind.Worshippers of the Hrud (Unknown Date.M41) - The Ordo Hereticus uncovered a chronomantic cult that worshipped the time-stealing xenos known as the Hrud upon the warren planet of Rhidl. The Ordo Xenos was notified by astropathic communiqué, and the Deathwatch was sent to burn the tunnels clean acre by acre.Nostros Overrun (Unknown Date.M41) - The Ork hordes of Jagga sweep through the Nostros Cluster, overrunning several star systems and slaughtering billions of Astra Militarum troopers. Furor and Dominatus Kill-teams were deployed together, and fought a masterful campaign to slow the Greenskins' advance, but they were too few and the enemy too savage. The Deathwatch were defeated, and the Orks' Nostrosi expansions continued.Second Battle of Damnos (ca. 999.M41) - The ice-locked world of Damnos, scoured of Human settlers during the awakening of the Necrons in the events of the Ultramarines 2nd Company's greatest defeat, was revisited by a full half of the Chapter. Chapter Master Marneus Calgar and Captain Cato Sicarius reconquered the planet's surface as a team of Deathwatch Astartes infiltrated the primary stasis tomb complex and destroyed its Necron lords' ability to regenerate before striking the final blow.Contact Lost on Masuchi Parr (Unknown Date.M41) - A seven-man kill-team deployed to the world of Masuchi Parr, there to investigate reports of the Genestealer Cult known as the Blessed Wyrmlings. Discovering that the threat was greater than first feared, the kill-team fought heroically to reach the planet's space port and escape. Yet their numbers proved too few and, though they heaped the corridors with xenophile corpses, they were eventually overrun. Theirs was but one story of tragic loss during this desperate time, when the Deathwatch are strained to their limits and beyond.Watch Fortress Excalibris' Plight - Drukhari raiders redoubled their attacks at this time around the Crucible of Tales. Meanwhile, the Necrons of Icnarus pushed towards the Gothic Sector, while Hrud infestations were discovered throughout the Kuypax Reach. Forced to deal with all of these threats at once, Watch Fortress Excalibris' Deathwatch garrison was stretched to breaking point and beyond. They were far from the only Deathwatch enclave to find themselves in such dire straits.The Greatest Need (Unknown Date.M41) - With war opened on every front and their enemies multiplying faster than they can be slain, many Space Marine Chapters demanded the return of their Deathwatch brethren during the final years of the Time of Ending. Some watch masters complied, though they do so with heavy hearts. Others refused, and responded in turn with demands for fresh reinforcement, or simply ignored the requests entirely. Relations of the Deathwatch with several of the more insistent Chapters become dangerously strained.Battle of Port Demesnus (ca. 999.M41) - On the crystal moon of Coheria, the Asuryani Farseer Eldrad Ulthran attempted to fully awaken the Aeldari deity Ynnead, the god of the dead. He was opposed by Watch Captain Artemis, who badly disrupted, but does not entirely defeat, Ulthran's schemes, inadvertently giving birth to the Ynnari faction of the Aeldari.Fall of Cadia and Birth of the Great Rift (ca. 999.M41) - After Abaddon the Despoiler crushed the defenders of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade, a series of catastrophes ensued and the Great Rift roared into being across the galaxy. The Imperium was split in two, stranding many watch fortresses alone in the darkness of the Imperium Nihilus, beyond the telepathic light of the Emperor's Astronomican.