Operation Hammerfall - Crusade Preparations: Planning for Operation Hammerfall began in mid-773.M41, when Maclir was summoned to attend the Senatorum Imperialis on Terra. In sealed session, the High Lords of Terra bid the master of the Storm Wardens to lend their support to the man they had not an hour earlier confirmed as High Lord Militant of the Eastern Marches, Tiber Achilus.Maclir knew Achilus of old, having served alongside him during the Scouring of Low Boria, when so many had fallen prey to the repulsively neurophagic xenos species called the Khrave.Maclir would have fought alongside such a man regardless of the High Lords' wishes, but he knew that the undertaking at hand must be a truly epic one for the highest council in the Imperium to have summoned him in such a manner.Then, the new Lord Militant emerged from the shadows below the High Lords' dais, and greeted his old friend. Achilus apprised Maclir of the flight of the Spear of Tarsus through the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate that had connected the Calixis Sector to the Jericho Reach at the other side of the galaxy, and of the weight of the discoveries made since.Maclir committed his Chapter to the coming Achilus Crusade there and then, and the foundations of the operation were set down. While Achilus and Maclir laid their plans for the subjugation of the Jericho Reach, messengers were sent out to dozens of other Space Marine Chapters.In many cases, Maclir sent his own brethren to petition his brother Chapter Masters to lend their support to the coming crusade. In other cases, Achilus dispatched his own agents and emissaries, so that in total, almost a hundred Space Marine Chapters were approached.The requests for aid were by necessity short on details, for the need to conceal the existence of the Warp Gate was overriding. Some Chapters refused to commit based on the scant information they were given.Others, notably those who had served alongside Maclir or Achilus in previous campaigns, agreed outright to lend whatever aid they were able, and within the year several dozen Chapters were committed to the Achilus Crusade.A Space Marine command council was formed, consisting of the most senior officer of each Chapter represented in the force, and Maclir was elected its figurehead.The build-up of military force and logistical support that precluded the crusade was an undertaking only the most brilliant of minds could have conceived. Achilus was a leader of prodigious will and vision, and the authority vested in him by the High Lords of Terra meant there were precious few limitations in the scope of his power.Yet, the need to maintain secrecy remained paramount, for if the existence of the Warp Gate became known, the numerous enemies of the Imperium might utilise it to strike from one side of the galaxy to the other.The totally unheralded arrival of Hive Fleet Behemoth on the Eastern Fringe had defied all strategic prognostications, and although most in the Imperium's highest echelons believed the threat overcome at the Battle of Macragge, others feared that another such foe might descend upon the region and, utilising the Warp Gate, strike directly towards the Imperium's heartlands.Achilus conceived the plan of conducting the build-up in the guise of directing troops towards the Margin Crusade on the fringes of the Calixis Sector, for while that war still officially raged, in reality it had long ago lost momentum and become a fruitless meat-grinder.Astra Militarum regiments were raised from the worlds of the Calixis Sector and numerous others. Strategic segmentum reserves, including veteran regiments originally drawn from such famed worlds as Cadia and Mordian, were committed to the crusade.The Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas pledged the zeal of their Sisters of Battle. The Adeptus Mechanicus committed Titans, Knights, and Skitarii regiments. The Imperial Navy assembled the largest fleet deployed since the Battle of Macragge.The Departmento Munitorum, by far the largest contingent in the entire crusade, mobilised countless support formations, without which not a single las-shot could have been fired or a single trench dug. Even the Rogue Traders answered the lord militant's call, and those he trusted were promised riches beyond even their wildest dreams when it came time to apportion the prizes of war.But mightiest of all the contingents were the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes. Hundreds of Battle-Brothers were gathered under the banner of the Achilus Crusade, literally, for Maclir ordered a composite Crusader Company raised. Each Chapter present contributed Battle-Brothers to an elite honour guard whose sacred task was to wield and protect the Crusade Banner.Finally, after several solar decades of planning, years of preparation and months of build up, the crusade was ready to embark. Incredibly, the undertaking had remained secret, the cyclopean bureaucracy of the Imperium ensuring, even without deliberate effort, that the flow of troops, materiel, and information was strictly one-way.Though never openly acknowledged, it is suspected that the Inquisition had a hand in reinforcing the issue of operational secrecy, the little-known Ordo Redactor purging the archives of any data that might compromise security and tracking down and eliminating any who might let the secret out.