Sanguinius - The Battle of Terra: The Blood Angels' finest hour would take place during the closing days of the Horus Heresy. Known in Imperial records as the Battle of Terra, this final campaign was the climax of the Heresy that raged on Terra itself between the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Horus and the Loyalist armies of the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind Himself. Many of the Loyalist Astartes Legions had been waylaid by the forces of the Traitor Legions loyal to Horus following his many machinations and they were unable to make their way towards Terra in time to help in its defence.But the Imperial Fists Legion had already returned to the cradle of humanity and under the stern gaze of their Primarch Rogal Dorn had adequately prepared Terra's defences as best they could. Jaghatai Khan, Primarch of the White Scars Legion, had also managed to make his way to Terra with his Legion to help with the defence of the Imperial Palace, despite a curiously ineffectual assault by the fleet of the Alpha Legion.The Blood Angels were also able to make the Warp jump to Terra in time to meet the oncoming invaders. Of the nine remaining Loyalist Space Marines Legions, only the White Scars and the Blood Angels were able to join Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists in the defence of Terra before the arrival of the massed Traitor Legions in the Sol System. Three entire Titan Legions of the Mechanicum and close to 2 million soldiers of the Imperial Army stood alongside them to face the hosts of Chaos in a battle that would determine the fate of Mankind for the next ten millennia. Yet for all the might of the Emperor, for every effort of Sanguinius and the remaining Loyalist Primarchs, the forces of Horus drove all before them.In too short a time, the Emperor of Mankind was assailed within His great palace on Terra, traaped as he was upon the Golden Throne due to the War Within the Webway being fought deep within the Imperial Dungeon. The Blood Angels led the defence of the Imperial Palace, never once losing heart, despite the terrible odds stacked against them. Alongside their Battle-Brothers of the Imperial Fists Legion, the valorous yet overmatched soldiers of the Imperial Army and the grim warriors of the Legio Custodes, the Blood Angels manned the walls of that final bastion.Sanguinius is immortalised in the magnificent stained glass windows of the Sanctus Praetoria Imperator as fighting high above the raging battle, facing daemons so powerful they could unhinge the minds of great heroes with but a word. Sanguinius single-handedly held the crenellations from the tides of daemonic filth attempting to wash into the holy chambers of the Emperor's abode. Many accounts of the time praise the Blood Angels' valour and unceasing efforts in their defence of the Palace complex's Eternity Wall spaceport. Although hundreds of Blood Angels died, they stemmed a sea of foulness the like of which had never been seen before. Many speak of the bright light bathing Sanguinius' sons as the Primarch slew his foes in the skies above with his mighty blade of fire. And yet, it was upon Horus' Battle Barge in orbit of Terra that Sanguinius was to fulfil his greatest duty.During the Battle of Terra, the vile Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha once again confronted Sanguinius, this time, atop the Eternity Gate before the entranceway to the Inner Palace and the Emperor's throne room. The Greater Daemon struck Sanguinius, casting the angel upon the broken stone. Preparing to strike a killing blow, the Blood Angels' Primarch called upon his last reserves of strength and power. With a massive effort, he leapt upon the Bloodthirster, seized it about the wrist and ankle and rose up high into the air, smashing the daemon's form across his knee and breaking the creature's back with a powerful crack. He then swung the body of Ka'Bandha around and hurled the broken behemoth into the midst of the daemonic host, slamming the Eternity Gate shut against the ravening hordes and preventing the fall of the Palace. Yet the fall of Terra still seemed only a matter of time, for all the heroics of its defenders.Yet, in the Warmaster Horus' moment of victory, he became complacent, watching the battle from the bridge of the bloated leviathan that was his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit. He wanted to experience the Emperor's defeat first hand, to force Him to His knees before he fed on the Master of Mankind's soul. Yet it was then that he received word that his gamble had failed -- determined to take Terra before the Loyalist Legions could return to the Throneworld, the Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Space Wolves were only hours away from translating into the Sol System.Their arrival would bring the Traitors' momentum to a halt, if not throw them back from the Throneworld altogether. But there remained a final option -- the Warmaster could invite the Emperor to come to him. Horus relaxed the psychic defences and the Void Shields he had maintained around his flagship.Having long planned for exactly this moment due to his prescient vision, the Emperor teleported aboard the hellish craft, Sanguinius and Rogal Dorn and a contingent from the Imperial Fists, the Blood Angels and the Legio Custodes close behind him.Like his father, Sanguinius was gifted with the power of prescient vision, and had long been able to foresee what lay ahead. His soul was pure, and the prophesies he spoke of inevitably came to be. It can thus be surmised that he knew full well he was going to his doom when he confronted the Warmaster, and yet he went without hesitation. Whether this act was prompted by fatalism or loyalty to the Emperor is a point debated by many Imperial theologians lacking in faith, however there is no doubt in the minds of the Blood Angels. They maintain that the Angel walked into the lion's den out of duty, knowing full well what the outcome would be.Battle raged throughout the daemon-infested warship, and Sanguinius became separated from the Emperor and his other comrades. Now isolated, legend tells that he was brought through artifice before the treacherous Horus.In evil cunning, fully in the grip of the power of all four major Chaos Gods, the Warmaster offered Sanguinius one final chance to renounce the Emperor, to join with Horus in the inevitable victory of the Traitors and Chaos -- yet the Primarch of the Blood Angels held true, and refused. Rejected, Horus flew into a rage and attacked. Although bearing the wounds of his earlier actions and knowing it would almost certainly spell his doom, Sanguinius immediately attacked the corrupted Warmaster. Even at the peak of his powers, Sanguinius could not have hoped to prevail against the embodiment of Chaotic power Horus had become, and the Primarch was weary and wounded from his travails on Terra during the battle against Ka'Bandha.Horus, in his limitless malice, made sure that Sanguinius' death was the most painful and foul that the boundless evils in his service could administer. The Warmaster's psychic assault echoed not just throughout space, but also throughout time, resonating in the souls of Sanguinius' children. The Primarch's sacrifice is thought to have kept Horus occupied long enough for the Emperor to reach the Archtraitor in the very depths of his lair. When the Emperor at last entered Horus' sanctum, he found the rebellious Warmaster standing above Sanguinius' broken, bleeding corpse.In the battle that followed, Horus was finally vanquished, though the Emperor had also been mortally wounded and was near to death. There are many tales told of this final battle and, though the exact facts are long lost, one detail holds through all the recitations of the millennia since. Despite the Emperor's great power, he could never have bested Horus had not the blade of Sanguinius wrought a chink in the Warmaster's armour, and because of this, the Blood Angels claim their gene father to be the greatest of all Primarchs.The pain inflicted upon the Primarch during his battle with Horus was so total that every one of his sons carries the echo imprinted deep within their soul and their genomes to this day. The psychic echo of Sanguinius' sacrifice can still be heard by the Blood Angels down through the millennia, causing a madness and a fury to come upon them as they see dark visions of their Primarch's final hours. And so it was that the Blood Angels came to bear their blood-curses of the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, and they bear it still.