Crimson Fists - Battle of Rynn's World: In 989.M41, an Ork Warlord known as Snagrod, the Arch-arsonist of Charadon, united many of the warring Ork factions surrounding the Loki Sector and began a massive WAAAGH!, taking several human colonies with minimal resistance, Snagrod boasted that his next conquest would be Rynn's World. WAAAGH! Snagrod's first primary attack against the Imperium occurred when they conquered the lightly defended colony world of Badlanding.The world's Imperial citizens cried out for aid, and the Crimson Fists' 3rd Company responded in force. However, due to faulty intelligence, the Space Marines suffered a brutal defeat at the hands of overwhelming numbers of Orks. The size of Snagrod's forces had been significantly underestimated, and only a few Space Marines escaped to relay vital intelligence back to Chapter Master Pedro Kantor. Kantor ordered the immediate recall of all Crimson Fists, and set about organising the defences of Rynn's World.When Snagrod's WAAAGH! hit Rynn's World, it was with a force unseen among Orks since the Second War for Armageddon. The Chapter recalled all of its forces to Rynn's World, in preparation for a defensive action against the oncoming Ork WAAAGH!, suspending any further raids until further information became available.After all of the Crimson Fists companies had returned, but before the Chapter could plan a counteroffensive, the WAAAGH! Snagrod reached the Rynnstar System. The Chapter responded by enabling their many tiered, tactically capable, and technologically sophisticated network of orbital defensive satellites. The system annihilated the initial waves of Ork Roks, Kroozers, and planetary assault craft.Then, tragedy struck when one of the planet's defensive missiles suffered a catastrophic failure. The weapon never made it out of the atmosphere, and instead crashed back into the Crimson Fists' fortress-monastery from which it had been fired. There, its plasma warhead, designed to punch through Void Shields and bore deep into the dense hulls of armoured warships, detonated and in the course of the explosion also set off the structure's vast and ancient arsenal.Secondary explosions ripped through the fortress-monastery, destroying it, miles of defences around it and killing hundreds of Space Marines who had gathered to plan the counter-offensive against the Ork WAAAGH! Six entire companies of Crimson Fists were destroyed. Only sixteen Space Marines, including Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, who had been manning the outermost perimeter defences, managed to survive the devastating explosion.As the Crimson Fists' fortress-monastery served as the primary control for the world's defensive satellites, with its destruction, the planet's defensive network completely collapsed. The Ork invaders were able to nearly overwhelm the planet's resistance as they descended to the world's surface. The survivors, forced to move stealthily through territory captured by the Orks, were able to link up with a detachment of Crimson Fists assigned to defend Rynn's World's capital, New Rynn City, in the process remaining awake for 328.7 standard hours.There, they reunited with nearly four hundred surviving Crimson Fists battle-brothers who were shocked to find their Chapter Master yet lived. Faced with the destruction of the vast majority of his Chapter at Rynn's World, Kantor was faced with a choice few Chapter Masters have ever had to make.He could lead the remnants of his decimated force in a vainglorious last stand, determined to slaughter as many of the enemy as possible before succumbing to their overwhelming numbers, or, as he eventually chose, he could marshal his resources and deploy his remaining force in missions that favoured small, elite units, looking to the eventual rebuilding of the Chapter and retaking of his world.It has been noted that many Chapter Masters in Kantor's position would have chosen the former option, ensuring their Chapter a place in legend rather than accept their virtual defeat. It is to Kantor's eternal credit, and is a mark of a leader of superior character, that he made the choice he did, for the Imperium can ill afford the loss of such a fine Chapter of Astartes as the Crimson Fists.The survivors held out against the encroaching Orks for eighteen solar months until a massive Imperial Navy fleet arrived in 990.M41. Through the inspired leadership of Pedro Kantor, and thanks to the heroic sacrifice of scores of Crimson Fists, the Imperium won out against impossible odds. Wave upon wave of Orks crashed against Kantor's lines in New Rynn City, but the Space Marines never wavered, and countless Greenskins were brought down by Bolter fire. When ammunition ran dry, the Orks fell instead beneath Chainswords, Combat Knives and ceramite-clad fists. Still the Crimson Fists held firm, channeling in that desperate hour a measure of the close-quarters might of their long dead founder, Alexis Polux.The newcomers who arrived with the Imperial relief fleet, which included multiple regiments of the Astra Militarum, contingents from several different Space Marine Chapters and several battlegroups of Imperial Titans, managed to rout the xenos forces from the planet and liberate the surviving Space Marines and people of Rynn's World.However, the damage had been done. In addition to losing their fortress and nearly 60 percent of their brethren, the Chapter also lost much of its irreplaceable gene-seed stock and ancient wargear. The effort to fully cleanse the planet of Greenskin taint took many Terran years.The Rynn's World Campaign resulted in catastrophic losses for the Crimson Fists, with the Chapter almost completely wiped out. As a result, Kantor's primary focus turned to rebuilding the Chapter. Though famous across the Imperium as Ork fighters, Snagrod's WAAAGH! has induced a deep hatred of Greenskins within the Chapter, and it is said that Crimson Fists Space Marines will go to any lengths to defeat any Ork forces they encounter.The Crimson Fists are often on the move, no longer having a true home base and reverting to their ancient practice of operating as primarily a fleet-based Chapter. Yet, they often return to Rynn's World to mourn the battle-brothers who died so heroically in its defence.