Apostles of MinthRas - Notable Campaigns: Antecanis Massacre (165.M37) - Perhaps the greatest of all the bloodthirsty warlords of Chaos is Abaddon, Warmaster of the Black Legion. It was during Abaddon's 9th Black Crusade that the world of Antecanis IV felt his ire. At the start of the 37th Millennium it was a heaving Hive World with a population in the tens of billions. Its principal export was people, most of whom were sent to labour in the nearby naval dockyard of Cancephalus or to crew the warships built there. Knowing that the Imperial Navy orbital docks were heavily defended, Abaddon chose to strike at its most vulnerable point -- the world from which its workers came. Without a supply of millions of labourers, Cancephalus' manufactoria and orbital shipyards would fall silent. Abaddon promised great riches and countless slaves to his warriors, making pacts with the frenzied Heretic Astartes of the World Eaters, the darkly zealous Word Bearers, Renegades from The Purge and the Apostles of MinthRas, and dozens of smaller warbands. The might of the Black Legion and their allies fell upon Antecanis IV in 165.M37. A space battle erupted around the orbital defences, but the defence monitors and Imperial Navy space stations could do little against the Battle Barges, Grand Cruisers and Battleships of Abaddon's fleet. After seven solar days, Fusion Bombs and Vortex Torpedoes rained down from the heavens onto the towering citadels of Antecanis' hives. Millions died as glistening towers toppled under the orbital barrage. In the wake of this devastation, dropships poured onto the surface, disgorging hundreds of ruthless killers. Abaddon's lieutenants and allies had divided the spoils and set about attacking their targets. Abaddon focussed upon Monarchive, the seat of the world's Imperial Commander. At the vanguard of Abaddon's attack strode Dhar'Leth, a Daemon Prince who had fought for the Night Lords during the Horus Heresy, but who now swore allegiance to the Warmaster. Dhar'Leth's assault was relentless; for sixteen solar days the Daemon Prince and his Black Legionaries burned and butchered their way through the lower levels of Monarchive. Refugees fled in the tens of millions, but still columns of slaves hundreds of kilometres-long trudged across the wastes to the Black Legion's landers. When the Chaos Space Marines attacked, Astropaths had broadcast warnings and calls for aid. Space Marines of the Silver Skulls Chapter were the first to respond. They harried the Chaos fleet with daring hit-­and-run attacks that robbed the warriors on the surface of orbital support. The Silver Skulls were but the first warriors in the Imperium's response as the Departmento Munitorum gathered forces and raised regiments for all-out war. Abaddon knew that once the limitless numbers of the Emperor's armies were committed, Antecanis would become a cauldron of battle from which there would be no escape. He resolved to swiftly end the siege of Monarchive. Abaddon led the final assault on the capital, attacking with his bodyguard of Black Legion Chaos Terminators. They slaughtered squads of Adeptus Arbites, whole platoons of Planetary Defence Force troopers and the elite Oath Wardens of the Imperial Commander's personal guard. The sacrifices of the defenders were in vain, for it took Abaddon a mere two solar days to breach the final defence line and storm the inner sanctum of the Imperial Commander. With Monarchive now under his control, Abaddon sent his forces to kill or capture as many of the hive's populace as possible. Those too old or too infirm to slave for the Warmaster were executed, while millions of others were transported to captured haulage and merchant ships waiting in orbit. When Abaddon received word that the first Astra Militarum transports had broken from Warpspace, he ordered his lieutenants to quit Antecanis. To his allies, he gave no warning, knowing that they would be forced to fight and would delay Imperial pursuit. With the holds of his ships crammed full of loot and slaves, Abaddon departed Antecanis, dropping a dozen Cyclonic Torpedoes onto the ruins of Monarchive as a last contemptuous gesture. Breaking through the cordon of Silver Skulls warships, the Black Legion moved on to their next target. Imperial Guard regiments from Cadia, Lostak and Second Hubris arrived at Antecanis in the following solar weeks and months, and the Traitor Marines left behind fought grimly. Some escaped the tightening Imperial noose, others fought to the last in battles marked more by bloody slaughter and defiance than tactical acumen. As Abaddon had planned, Cancephalus gradually stopped its construction works and within a standard year was unable to refit even the smallest naval warships. Unmolested by the Imperial Navy, Abaddon's fleets were able to ravage the sector at will. For seventeen Terran years, battles continued for possession of Antecanis, from which the world never recovered. The ruins of its hives now loom darkly over the ash wastes like the skeletons of gargantuan beasts.Invasion of Ultramar (999.M41) - The Invasion of Ultramar occurred when a large Chaos warband known as the Bloodborn invaded the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, led by the Iron Warriors Warsmith Honsou and the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn. Both were servants of the Ruinous Powers who had sworn revenge against the Ultramarines for the past wrongs they believed had been done to them. This Chaos invasion occurred roughly concurrently with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, though the Bloodborn's invasion was not officially a part of the Black Crusade's forces. The Bloodborn were comprised of a large following of multiple warbands and rogue regiments comprised of both Planetary Defence Forces and Imperial Guardsmen. These throwaway troops were used as cannon fodder during the Bloodborn's initial assaults. The rest of the Bloodborn's elite forces were comprised of Chaos Space Marine warbands which included the Apostles of MinthRas, the Skulltakers, the Claws of Lorek, and the Death Shadows. The Apostles of MinthRas were not a part of the Bloodborn themselves, and unlike the other Chaos warbands and the Iron Warriors detachment, they were not often seen fighting alongside the Bloodborn's main forces.