Militarum Tempestus - Notable Campaigns of the Tempestus Millennium: Military campaigns documented in Imperial records are outnumbered by those lost under the weight of history. Many of these conflicts have involved the Ordo Tempestus sometimes overtly, but more frequently under a shroud of secrecy.The records of the most glorious of these wars are relayed to each Schola Progenium as a lesson on what it means to be a Tempestus warrior.The Macharian Conquests (392.M41) - During seven bloody standard years spent purging the western reaches of the galaxy, Lord Solar Macharius unites the Astra Militarum and the Officio Prefectus in order to reconquer a thousands worlds.The First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - The vital world of Armageddon is invaded by Angron and his maniacal hordes. It takes the combined might of the Astra Militarum, the Ordo Tempestus, the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights to hurl the Daemon Primarch back into the Warp. Though Armageddon is saved from utter destruction, millions of Imperial Guardsman and Tempestus Scions are killed in the process. In the war's aftermath, the Inquisition employ drastic measures to contain the knowledge of the daemonic forces involved. Dozens of Imperial Guard regiments are subjected to mass sterilisation and confined to Imperial labour camps, and in the Months of Shame that follow, the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights come into conflict, whilst entire planets are subjected to the ultimate sanction in order to prevent the truth spreading into the Imperium at large. Even the luminaries of Segmentum Command are not immune from the subsequent scouring -- they are executed to a man by their own Commissar advisors, who upon their return to the Officio Prefectus submit themselves for extensive mindwipe protocols. Such is the fate of those who have learned of the horrors of the Warp and survived.The Sabbat Worlds Crusade (755.M41) - In the most extensive military campaign waged by the Astra Militarum since the time of Macharius, the Sabbat Worlds Crusade reclaims dozens of worlds lost to the worship of the Ruinous Powers. At the forefront of the war effort was Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the light infantry regiment of the Astra Militarum under his command, the Tanith First and Only.The Lost Patrol (853.M41) - When an Eldar raid is repelled at great cost on the recently settled world of New Starhaven, the Tempestus Scions 47th Thetoid Dragons Regiment, having successfully engaged the Eldar command structure and survived, are given new orders to prosecute. Whilst the Officio Prefectus assesses the devastated planet's orphans for new recruits, the Dragons pass through the rune-inscribed dolmens that have been uncovered behind the Lemuelian Falls. On the other side they find a series of shimmering tunnels that never seem to end. Several harrowing solar days of full-alert march slide past, but the Scions proceed apace. They are finally forced to slow their march when they are assailed by capering Eldar in multicoloured costume, who bewilder them with holographic and hallucinogenic assaults before dancing in close to deal lethal blows. Eventually the Harlequins that have been tormenting the intruding Scions are forced to turn their attention to unknown events elsewhere, and lead the humourless humans in a running battle towards a rune-inscribed portal that opens out onto the surface of the planet Exsanguille. The Scions plunge through the gate, only to find themselves stranded upon a blood-covered Crone World in the heart of the Eye of Terror. To their credit, the Dragons survive for a full two solar days before succumbing to the daemonic legions of Khorne that prowl that world.The Prize Unclean (871.M41) - On the world of Orgal VI, a strange skin-plague billows through the population. Three squads of the Tempestus Scions' 835th Psian Pegasi are despatched to rescue the Planetary Governor, Maas Dietral, from the plague and deliver him to the Adeptus Administratum for debrief. However, on penetrating the stained armourglass of Deitral's inner sanctum, the Pegasi find that their quarry is beset by cyclopean daemons, his dwindling bodyguard fighting desperately to keep them at bay. The Pegasi waste no time in scouring the throne room of infestation, sending blistering volleys into each of the Plaguebearers in turn and then using Meltaguns to explosively evaporate the sludge-beasts that begin to rise from the palace's polluted indoor lakes. With typical efficiency, the Scions clamp a spare respmask over the governor's face and their medic begins to tend to his grievous injuries. After fitting the governor with his own Grav-Chute and reversing the repulsor fields, the Pegasi rocket skyward, reaching their Valkyrie transport and leaving the planet. By nightfall, the Pegasi have delivered their prize to a beige-hulled starship of the Administratum, and depart for their next mission. However, during Deitral's extraction and interrogation, the Administratum Adepts' ship suffers a critical biohazard breach. The vessel is subject to immediate quarantine and, when the breach infests the entire ship, summary extermination by order of Sector Command.Warmaster Brabastis' Triumph (931.M41)The Tyger and the Bull (939.M41) - The Tempestus Scions of the 5th Betan Tygers scramble to defend the Ogryns of Drannon Prime from the massive Ork WAAAGH! that descends upon it.Stubborn Unto Death (939.M41) - On the T'au planet of Bork'an, the Tempestus Scions of the 196th Iotan Gryphonnes are deployed en masse. Their orders come in the form of a single short sentence from Lord Commissar Tilenus -- target the planet's academic facilities and kill as many of the Earth Caste there as possible. In the first few solar hours of the war, the Gryphonnes' Valkyrie-borne attacks meet with great success. Earth Caste teachers and students alike are gunned down in white-walled auditoriums and research facilities across the planet. However, T'au High Command cannot countenance the destruction of a whole generation of engineers and scientists and the T'au's counter-strike is terrible in its ferocity. Giant bipedal Battlesuits prowl the colonnades, a number of hastily armed but deadly prototypes amongst their number. Each proves more than capable of annihilating the out-matched Scions, whose return fire does little but scorch their foes' iridium alloy armour. A flawlessly executed tactical withdrawal sees the Iotan Gryphonnes come within a hundred Terran yards of their extraction point when Tilenus' repeat order chimes out across the Vox-net once more. Uncomplaining, the Scions plunge back into the fight, a full half of their number giving their lives in order for their comrades to seek out any Earth Caste stragglers. Unfortunately they are too late. The remainder of the T'au's robed scientists and students have already been evacuated by Manta gunships. The regiment's Tempestor Prime transmits his findings to Tilenus, but his request for extraction is denied. Over the next solar hour the Gryphonnes do as much damage to the Earth Caste facilities as possible, concentrating fire on assembly lines and data cores even as they are hunted down and reduced to ash by chameleonic Battlesuits.The Second War for Armageddon (941.M41) - The selfishness and incompetence of Overlord von Strab sees the military forces of Armageddon buckle and break under the avalanche of violence that is WAAAGH! Ghazghkull. Only the determination and steely charisma of Commissar Yarrick holds the Imperial armies together long enough for the Adeptus Astartes to repel the Ork invasion.The Long Night (945.M41) - In the dead of night, Phrell's Schola Progenium is infiltrated and assailed by a strike force of Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé. Only the quick thinking and tenacity of two of its brightest students, the Brothers Krassus, save a generation of recruits from pitiless execution.Death on the Brawla (955.M41) - The Tempestus Scions of the 196th Omicroid Hydras are sent to intercept the titanic Ork superkrooza Brawla. Augur reports had shown that the giant scrap-craft was heading straight for the world of Macharia. If it continued on its projected course, it would not be able to slow down before breaching atmosphere, crashing into the sacred world's surface and causing an extinction-level cataclysm in the process. The sleek drop-craft Mercurian drifts the last few thousand miles in order to evade detection before locking down in the shadow of the Ork craft's towering finials. The Hydras drive out, their Taurox Primes forming up and gunning towards the stern of the enormous vessel. As the Brawla's engines come into view, the Scions disembark in tight formation, their mag-boots clamping to the underside of the spacefaring metal hulk with each exaggerated step. The troopers are less than a hundred Terran feet from the engine arrays when several blinding flashes of blue-green light illuminate the entire strike force. The Scions drop into battle stances and raise their Hot-shot Lasguns as thirty heavily-armoured Orks appear from nowhere and clomp forward, Exo-armour hissing steam. The Tempestor's plasma teams open fire, but to a man their weapons detonate in their hands, their ragged torsos bleeding spheres of blood into the void. Guttural Orkish laughter rumbles across the comms-net as the Tempestus Scions realise their boots are locked down tight -- according to their Slate Monitrons, the entire section of the Ork warship is now crackling with a crude electromagnetic field. The ensuing firefight is terrible in its intensity. The Ork's crude weaponry takes a horrible toll on the crouching Tempestus Scions, even with the Taurox Primes' supporting fire hammering into the Greenskins' midst. Only a desperate Vox signal from the regiment's Tempestor Prime saves them from total destruction. The drop-craft Mercurian stabs a series of pulsing, flickering lasers into the toroid copper structures on Brawla's midsection, and a moment later the electromagnetic field rippling across the hull fizzes, spurts and shorts out. As if lifted by invisible hands, the Orks drift off the hull into space, roaring their denial and hammering the last of their ammunition into the Scions as they go. Several hit their mark, the Carapace Armor-clad bodies of Tempestus Scions spinning off after those of their foes. Despite this last desperate attack, there remain enough Scions to set several strings of melta charges across Brawla's fuel silos. That night the people of Macharia witness a series of vast explosions as the Ork ship detonates.The Antinomican (975.M41) - Guided by a squad of Sanctioned Psykers, the Tempestus Scions of the 7th Epsiloid Hawks are deployed to hunt down and destroy a rogue psyker acting as a beacon for daemonic forces upon the megaship Amphinyx.The Metallophagic Plague (981.M41) - Myosan, a vital Agri-world at the heart of the Diosis System, is saved from a planet-wide Necron incursion by the swift action of the Tempestus Scions of the 14th Alphic Dragons.A Bitter Seed Planted (997.M41) - After learning of the increased Imperial tithe expected of him in the next standard year, the elderly Governor Mulian of Ulterior Prime dies of a heart attack. His son, a superb athlete, is soon recruited by the Schola Progenium stationed on the ice cap of Olvein Devus. Though young Mulianses -- renamed Vastus after a mythical strongman of old -- is an exceptional physical specimen, the steel in his soul is found wanting. During his third Trial of Compliance he is required to drink hot oil in order to counteract a disfiguring virus introduced into his system. He cannot bring himself to do so, and after the virus does its evil work he is ejected from the facility. Only his tremendous physique spares him from being reconstituted; he is instead denominated, mind-scrubbed and seconded to the Adeptus Mechanicus as raw material. On a cargo vessel en route to the servitorums, Vastus escapes from his bounds, garottes his guards with a lifecord and hijacks the shuttle with a stolen Autogun. After freeing his fellow Schola rejects and persuading them to join him, he escapes from the space lanes into the nameless void. Six standard years later a regiment of Tempestus Scions from Olvein Devus is sent to cleanse the Ork-infested Space Hulk Mother of Terrors. It transpires that the inhabitants are not Orks after all, but a band of Renegades led by the self-styled Warlord Vastus. A desperate running battle breaks out in the depths of the haunted Hulk. After four solar days of bitter fighting, Vastus is run down by one of his old contemporaries and shot through the neck. His last act is to prime his personal corpus detonator, triggering a chain explosion that tears the Hulk and takes three hundred of Olvein Devus' finest with it. This incident has never appeared in Schola Progenium records.Red WAAAGH! (998.M41) - The Ork Warlord Grukk Face-rippa rampages across the Sanctus Reach System and is met in battle at Alaric Prime. Amongst the defenders under the command of Castellan Stein of Cadia are Tempestor Prime Salem Whitlock and his Tempestus Scions. Whitlock leads a daring raid to destroy an immense Mekaniak tractor beam that threatens to give the Orks their victory in one fell swoop, making a near-suicidal drop directly onto the Ork position and destroying the device.The Chainsword and the Knife (998.M41) - The Fortress World of Helwynd, its gradual corruption hastened by the Renegade Space Marines of the Company of Misery, declares itself the heartworld of the Empire of Despair. Helwynd slowly pollutes the other Imperial world in its system with its bleak message, each broadcast robbing hope and loyalty from all those who hear it. The doom-mongering reaches not only the divinatory arrays of the local Schola Progenium but also the keen ears of the Flesh Tearers Astartes on the nearby feral planet of Cretacia. Both the Flesh Tearers and Militarum Tempestus hasten to Helwynd with all speed. The Cretacians get there first, though to their mounting fury their Drop Pod assaults are swiftly countered by the Firestorm Nexuses that slide out from hidden bases in the planet's hillsides. Even the Stormravens and Thunderhawks that enter low orbit are forced to disengage by blistering fusillades of Lascannon fire. The planet's defence net seems all but impregnable and, for a time, the Flesh Tearers are held at bay. When the drop ships of the Tempestus Scions of the 3rd Alphic Jackals enter orbit, Tempestor Prime Vigilian volunteers his men for an orbital drop that he believes will thwart the defences. Turning his voidships so their hulls are parallel to the planet's surface, Vigilian orders his Scions to cram themselves into each of the ship's starboard airlocks before forcefully ejecting them towards the planet. Though each trooper is protected from atmos-burn by little more than Carapace Armour and an ionised body-shroud of pressed alloy, the Scions hurtle towards the ground in tight formation. Vigilian's gamble pays off, for the individual soldiers are small enough to evade notice from the automated defences below, and their energy signatures are light enough to register as a shower of space debris. Discarding their shrouds once they enter the atmosphere proper, the Scions activate their Grav-Chutes and glide through the night to land undetected in the heart of the enemy complexes. Here the 3rd Alphic Jackals are in their element, disabling one Nexus after another and holding the facilities against the rebel forces with grim resolve. As the defence network falls, the contrails of Flesh Tearers ships scar the skies once more, and the Space Marines make planetfall in great number. The carnage that follows is spectacular as the wrath of Cretacia's finest rips apart rebel soldier and Renegade Space Marine alike. Many of the planet's would-be rulers withdraw in the face of the fearsome assault, but they soon find their routes of retreat have already been cut off by cordons of Militarum Tempestus troopers. Those few vessels that attempt to escape off-world are shot down by their own Firestorm Nexuses, each now taken over by Imperial crews. The rebel forces are exterminated to a man. When the Space Marines holster their bloodied weapons and gather to make for their ships, the Militarum Tempestus have already left without a word.The Third War for Armageddon (998.M41)War in the Undercavern (998.M41) - The Tempestus Scions of the 33rd Zetan Falcons, accompanied by Commissar Krassus, use the tunnels bored by the world of Balk's native ironwyrms to isolate and destroy an Iron Warriors warband in their subterranean lair.War Zone Damocles (757.999.M41)Great Cull of Jach (999.M41) - As the Damocles War escalates further, the battle analysts of the Ordo Xenos conclude that the T'au Empire relies heavily on auxiliaries. The vast majority of these in the Damocles Gulf hail from the Jungle World of Jach. The Ordo's research determines that the Kroot are able to evolve at an extreme rate by selectively feeding on the bodies of their enemies and assimilating those genetic quirks their tribal elders deem desirable. Seeking to tip the balance in the Damocles War by whatever means necessary, the venerable Inquisitor Lord Heiss-Alumin makes transition through the Warp for Jach without delay. Eight regiments of Scions requisitioned from the Ordo Tempestus accompany him. Making planetfall via Grav-Chute, the Tempestus regiments split up into separate task forces. Their orders are to locate and exterminate the leader caste of the Kroot wherever they are found. So begins a gruelling jungle hunt, the high technology and stoic discipline of the Scions ranged against the savagery and feral cunning of the Kroot tribes. Unfortunately the Inquisitor has greatly underestimated not only the resolve of his quarry, but the technology with which they are equipped. Each jungle tribe's Shaper is guarded not only by a cadre of experienced Kroot snipers, but also a delegation of the T'au Fire Caste and swarms of accompanying drones. The Scions quickly find themselves outgunned and out-manoeuvred by Tau Battlesuits and swift-moving Kroot, and only the 88th Kappic Phoenixes make it off-planet once the withdrawal is ordered. Though the Kroot Shapers dine well on the Imperial strike force and learn much from Heiss-Alumin's superior brain, the Phoenixes learn a great deal about the foe in return. Before the solar month is out, a new anti-Kroot doctrine is relayed to the Imperial armies in the Damocles Gulf.First Blood (999.M41) - Six regiments of Militarum Tempestus troopers are sent to penetrate the edge of the Eye of Terror in order to gauge where the first blow of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade will land. They disappear into the penumbra of the Eye and are never seen again.Guardians of the Great Gate (995.999.M41) - As humanity faces the onslaught of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade, the forces of the Astra Militarum are engaged in the most violent and severe warfare it has ever known. The largest force of Tempestus Scions ever formed is rushed to Mankind's defence, their voidships flocking to the Cadian Sector to lend their skills and bravery to the war effort. Meanwhile, thousands of Commissars -- many only just out of the Schola Progenium -- are despatched among the earthbound infantry of the Astra Militarum to steel the nerves of the Imperial Guard in its darkest hour. None of this was enough to save Cadia itself from the Chaos onslaught, but proved to be crucial to holding the other worlds of the Cadian Gate after the birth of the Great Rift.