Alpha Legion - Notable Campaigns: Third Rangdan Xenocide (ca. 890.M30) - This campaign was led by the Dark Angels under their Primarch Lion El'Jonson. During the campaign, the Dark Angels prevented the total destruction of the northern Imperium but suffered devastating casualties, losing 50,000 Battle-Brothers. The losses the Dark Angels endured eventually contributed to them losing their status as the largest Legion to the Ultramarines. During the later stages of the war a member of the XXth Legion identifying himself as "Alpharius" but admitting that their primarch had not yet been discovered came before the Lion. This "Alpharius" offered aid to the primarch against the Rangdan in hopes that the Dark Angels would maintain their prominence and thus one day the Lion would be made the Imperial Warmaster. The Lion at this time did not even know what the title of "Warmaster" portended, but still secretly believed that such a title would one day likely be bestowed upon one of the primarchs by the Emperor. Alpharius stated that the XXth Legion would prefer the Lion be named Warmaster over someone like Roboute Guilliman, as El'Jonson was not so different from them in their views of war and secrecy. It is not ultimately known if the Lion accepted the help of "Alpharius" or not, though the Rangdan were destroyed shortly after. In the aftermath of the battle, the Space Wolves assisted the Dark Angels in purging the remaining Rangdan from northern Imperial space.Castigation of Terentius (Unknown Date.M30) - When the forces of the Great Crusade first entered the Ordoni Cluster, they encountered the formidable warlord Vatale Gerron Terentius. Observing the forces arrayed against him, Terentius was forced to take the path of survival and surrendered to the Imperium. For the next five decades he rose in power and reputation, conquering worlds around the Halo Stars in the name of the Emperor. At the height of his powers, he had the ear of Malcador the Sigillite and the countenance of several primarchs. When he finally turned against the Imperium, many were shocked. He began a contra-Crusade to conquer already-Compliant worlds to add to his pocket empire. The Imperium responded by sending Horus and his Luna Wolves Legion to not only break the Renegade but to demonstrate to any others who harboured similar ideas within the Imperial forces the inevitability of a betrayer's defeat. Large support from the Night Lords, Iron Hands and the yet-unnamed Alpha Legion, joined the might of the Luna Wolves. At the height of the campaign, Horus himself, with a cadre of 50 elite Justaerin Terminators, teleported aboard the bridge of Terentius' flagship, where the Commander slew the unrepentant traitor with his Talon. Soon the rebel forces were fragmented, driven by tales of culled worlds. The Night Lords decimated every world within Terentius' rebel empire. The power of the Iron Hands and elements of the Ordo Reductor were brought to bear on every structure on Terentius' bastion worlds. Soon the rebels of his realm were slaughtered, their cities smashed to dust, and his homeworld's very air laced with toxins. Once the castigation was complete, Horus sent the gold-dipped skull of Terentius to Terra with the ironic warning carried on the lips of the messenger who bore it, "So perish all traitors".Cryptosi Purgation (927.M30) - When an exotic, meta-dimensional strain of xenos thought to be the species later referred to in some accounts as the "Cryptosi", invaded the Imperium's northern reaches, a sub-company from the Alpha Legion was sent to investigate the atrocities that had been committed. This campaign appears not to have been committed to record, although contact with colony worlds in that region was lost soon after, seemingly as a result of Legiones Astartes activity.The Hunting of the Ak'Haireth (986-989.M30) - One of the earliest campaigns of the Alpha Legion whose date can be well-corroborated involves the xenocide of the alien form known variously as the Ak'Haireth, or "Bone Drinkers" in the vernacular. These fungoid, predatory and parasitic life forms acquired their sentience from operating as physically interwoven gestalt "blooms". Their existence was fuelled by the slow and agonisingly painful siphoning of nutrition from living animals, primarily human bone marrow. Given to no technological creativity of their own, the Ak'Haireth operated at the edge of the western Segmentum Solar, inhabiting the scavenged voidships of other star-faring species and raiding isolated colonies and Feral Worlds unable to resist their predations. Initially encountered in the early years of the Great Crusade, the Ak'Haireth had been subjected to extermination pogroms carried out by both the Luna Wolves and the VIIIth Legion (not then yet formally known as the Night Lords) which had been thought to have been successful. However, a cowardly species, the Ak'Haireth had been wont to flee if not cornered in battle, and over time it became apparent that some marrow-blooms of the foul xenos had hidden themselves and survived. By 986.M30, reports of attacks against isolated outposts and shipping in the region of the stellar wastes near Olmec indicated that the Ak'Haireth were again dangerously growing in strength and number. The Alpha Legion, only a handful of years previously united with their primarch, were assigned the order for the xenocide of the species before it could spread further. Alpharius and his Legion's solution to the problem was both calculated in its planning and ruthless in its execution. Firstly they divided much of their fleet into hunter-killer squadrons to hunt down the Ak'Haireth's infested voidships across the wastes, using their own predatory instincts for ambush and evasion to identify likely places the xenos would be hiding in wait or fleeing to escape pursuit. Secondly, they analysed previous patterns of infestation and attack, and quickly reasoned that, in their terror, some had given themselves over to the alien species' dominion, providing them with a tribute of living sacrifices. While in others, in return for being spared or perhaps for gain, the xenos had human aid in plotting their attacks, such covert corruption having protected them from the Imperium's eye for several decades. This dark communion the Alpha Legion used to their own advantage, infiltrating the conspiracy with their own agents, gathering intelligence and luring the largest concentrations of the parasitic marrow-blooms to their deaths in pre-arranged traps, slaying the rest in close boarding actions of their infested ships or by the mass-cyclonic bombardment of their concentrated breeding nests. The punishment for those worlds that had aided the alien was similarly brutal, as their rulers were put to the sword for their crimes, and the colonies themselves punished by the poisoning of their water supplies or the destabilisation of their climates or seismic patterns. Inside of three sidereal solar years, the Ak'Haireth had once again been hunted to the precipice of extinction, but analysis indicated that some would have fled into hiding and inevitably the threat had to be ended. In order to fully eradicate the Bone Drinkers, the Alpha Legion worked in co-operation with the Magos Biologis of the Mechanicum to create a deadly phage to help annihilate this alien menace once and for all. The Alpha Legion insidiously deployed this virus upon the worlds on which the Ak'Haireth had preyed. The humans that populated those worlds and the Voidborn who plied the stars between those planets were infected with the virus. In the human population, the malignancy rate of the virus was as little as 7%, but to the Ak'Haireth that might feed on them or the generations born of them in the centuries to come, it was irrevocably lethal. Alpharius had won the ultimate victory against the xenos by poisoning their food supply -- Mankind.Compliance of 5-29 (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action carried out by the Alpha Legion against an adversary of unknown origin upon the world designated Five-Twenty-Nine.Compliance of the Ferinus Worlds (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action carried out jointly by the Alpha Legion and an Imperial Army sentry force comprised of the Geno Seven-Sixty Spartocid. The Seven-Sixty were a well-drilled regiment and did not spook easily. They played an instrumental role during the Compliance of the Ferinus Worlds.Compliance of Thorium Abominiplex (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action that was carried out jointly by both the Alpha Legion and Death Guard Legion against an unrecorded adversary.Tesstra Compliance (Unknown Date.M31) - The battle to force the human world of Tesstra into Imperial Compliance has been seen by many as an exemplar of both the Alpha Legion's particular strengths and ultimately its flaws. Tesstra was at that time part of a close alliance of totalitarian colonies resistant to the Imperium's authority. This alliance, known as the "Conservation", had survived the Age of Strife through a mixture of relative good fortune and rigidly imposed eugenic control. This divided its population into highly stratified castes enslaved to their civilisation's greater needs. For the Imperium, the Conservation's worlds represented an addition to the Great Crusade's conquests; a prize that would liberate a human population of nearly eleven billion, but in order for this to be the case, the abhorrent civilisation created by the Conservation would have to be systematically dismantled. Once the Imperium's emissaries made their desires known they were fired upon and driven away, while the Conservation geared its worlds to violent defence against the Great Crusade. The Warmaster Horus, whose own forces were at the time engaged in battle elsewhere, diverted the forces of two Expeditionary Fleets, commanded by Roboute Guilliman and Alpharius respectively, to bring the Conservation to heel. The Ultramarines began to immediately conduct a campaign to engage and conquer the outer worlds of the Conservation, whilst pinning down its mobile military assets in an ever constricting noose. Alpharius and his XXth Legion did not immediately attack, but instead circled, launching probes and raids without seeming rhyme or reason. Increasingly infuriated by the Alpha Legion's lack of progress and co-operation, Roboute Guilliman is known to have openly berated Alpharius in council, demanding that the Alpha Legion learn from his own Ultramarines' method of warfare and emulate it to achieve the victory that the Great Crusade demanded of them both. Further, that if Alpharius were to place his Legion under Guilliman's full command, the Conservation could be made to fall in a matter of solar months. This demand Alpharius ignored. Through the tactical brilliance and strategic genius of Alpharius Omegon, the Legion employed their well-known deceptive tactics of infiltration intelligence gathering through the use of their human non-Astartes agents on the ground. To the Tesstrans they appeared to be delaying their invasion, appearing only as threatening spectres as more and more Tesstran forces were deployed to Tesstra Prime's defences in preparation for the inevitable attack. When the assault finally came, it sent the Tesstrans reeling, striking from a hundred vectors at once yet leaving whole swathes of the defensive lines untouched. Soon sabotage ran amok, causing severe supply shortages and Alpha Legion strike forces began to appear inside the world's capital city, making red slaughter of government facilities and security stations with impunity. Sheer anarchy reigned as the Tesstran commanders were unable to redeploy their forces from the defences not under attack back to the city. Supply lines collapsed or were cut, orders were redirected or simply failed to arrive, and entire divisions were stranded trying to cross bridge networks that had been blown apart before they could reach them. It was then that the Harrowing of Tesstra Prime truly began. Beset on all sides by Alpha Legion forces, the Tesstran forces were subsequently torn apart by the XXth Legion's super-heavy armour columns, and their own forces were advanced directly into the teeth of a vicious trap already laid for them. The battle was short-lived and effectively over, but the killing continued. As the Alpha Legion withdrew from Tesstra Prime, their task done, they left an anarchy of riot, fire and ruin in their wake. The regime and infrastructure had collapsed, and the dead and dying were everywhere in the streets, with pestilence and famine soon to follow. It is estimated that 90% of Tesstra Prime's population, both military and civilian, would not survive the battle and its aftermath. The rest of the planet capitulated in a matter of solar days. Alpharius Omegon's conduct invited censure from many quarters, especially from Primarch Guilliman, who declared the Alpha Legion's tactics dishonourable and unworthy of Astartes in a formal protest to the Warmaster. Horus was the only primarch who openly praised his brother-primarch and the way in which his Legion had conducted a truly masterful campaign, but the Ultramarines would never again serve directly alongside the Alpha Legion for the rest of the Great Crusade.World-Prince Campaign (999.M30) - This was one of the final campaigns fought by the Imperial Fists during the waning years of the Great Crusade upon an unnamed Hive World against a non-Compliant civilisationruled over by a monarch known as the World-Prince. Initially, the World-Prince had refused to surrender to the Imperium and stubbornly resisted the efforts of the Imperial Fists led by Lord Rogal Dorn himself. The Imperial Fists systematically fought one hive at time, and were making slow but steady progress, until the Alpha Legion arrived unexpectedly. Informing their fellow Legion that they were there as allies, the Alpha Legion immediately began operations against the intransigent world. Though no Alpha Legion warriors were encountered by the Imperial Fists during the campaign on the ground, their signature passing was abundantly clear, as soon, uprisings and coups began to erupt across the remaining hives, which threw the beleaguered world into absolute anarchy. Following the death of over 400 members of the World-Prince's nobility, he capitulated to Lord Dorn. Enraged, Rogal Dorn confronted Alpharius and scorned him for his disreputable way of waging war. He then ordered the Alpha Legion to cease all operations and to leave the planet. In one final act of spite, Rogal Dorn also proceeded to lay out the Alpha Legion's entire plan, and poked holes in its overall effectiveness, before walking away in disgust.Compliance of 670-25 (Nurth) (ca. 999.M30) - The Desert World of Nurth was discovered during the Great Crusade by the 670th Expeditionary Fleet under the command of Lord Commander Teng Namitjira. Nurth was a lost human colony world. The population refused to accept the light of the Imperial Truth and opted not to join the Imperium of Man, resulting in a drawn-out, protracted compliance campaign that would eventually result in the death of the entire world. The Primarch Alpharius and a force from his XXth Legion, the Alpha Legion, fought alongside the 670th Expedition during the tragic campaign to bring the world of Nurth to Imperial Compliance, but never became an official part of the 670th Expedition's order of battle. Lord Commander Namitjira remained in formal command during the operation, though of course he deferred to the primarch's orders. When first contacted by the Imperium, Nurth was a primitive, pre-industrial Desert World with geographic features fairly typical for such an arid environment. An exception to this was the harbour of Mon Lo, in the city of the same name. The harbour, while appearing perfectly natural to the ordinary onlooker, was actually an entirely artificial construction, having been created by the xenos organisation known as the Cabal some 11,826 Terran years before the arrival of Imperial forces on the world. Before natural environmental changes had filled the harbour of Mon Lo with water, the bay had served as a giant landing pad or "waystation" for the Cabal's massive primary starship. As such, a detailed orbital scan of Mon Lo revealed features similar to that found on other worlds where Cabal waystations were built and the Cabal's mobile headquarters had come to rest for a time. Another location that featured unusual terrain was the town of Tel Khat, also known as Visages. The plain surrounding the town was littered with old, weathered sculptures of human heads, made from diorite and ranging in size from a pebble to a boulder. For unknown reasons, the ground of Nurth was coloured a striking combination of red and orange and the sky an unusually vibrant blue. This, combined with the brightness of the desert environment, meant that glare-protection was essential equipment for all military forces operating on the planet, so as to avoid disorientation and eventual eye damage. Nurth was eventually destroyed by the Nurthene themselves, as, on the verge of losing the war against the Imperial forces, the Echvehnurth, the Chaos-corrupted Nurthene military forces, activated a Chaotic weapon known as a Black Cube, an ancient weapon of planetary destruction created eons before by the first intelligent races of the galaxy. This weapon, through unknown means, transformed the climate of the planet, turning the air into noxious vapours utterly inimical to any form of life, and generating winds so strong that they scoured soil from the bedrock and raised the temperature to the point where the ocean boiled. In a matter of days, the process was complete, leaving Nurth a lifeless Dead World.Kayvas Persecution (002.M31) - Many tribes of Orks, scattered and leaderless after the hammerblow they had suffered at Ullanor during the Ullanor Crusade, had fled to the points of the etheric compass -- and many had come to rest in the Kayvas Belt, where they carved new outposts out of the drifting, mineral-rich rocks, licked their wounds while they re-armed. The Greenskin xenos soon began to strike out at nearby Imperial star systems and newly Compliant daughter colonies, and it was the duty of the Space Marine Legions to reinforce the lesson of Ullanor again. The Alpha Legion had tracked them to their lair and petitioned the Warmaster Horus for the reinforcements required to prosecute their plan of annihilation, but after the war at the world called Murder and the disastrous engagement with the civilisation known as the Interex, the Luna Wolves had been reluctant to commit ships to Alpharius' new campaign. In the end, it was the Blood Angels who agreed to assist their cousins in the XXth Legion, with Sanguinius himself marshalling a sizable intervention to support the efforts of the 88th Expeditionary Fleet. The mission, Alpharius said, would be five standard years in execution. The Angel rejected that premise and promised it would be over in one, and he committed vessels from every active Blood Angels expeditionary fleet to the cause. Sanguinius was proved right -- more or less. Just over thirteen months after the commencement of the Kayvas initiative, the Orks were almost totally annihilated, but like animals backed into a corner they fought harder than they ever had before. The 88th Expeditionary Fleet took their warships into the Kayvas Belt and vanished from the sensors of the IXth Legion's fleet, leaving the Blood Angels flotilla at the edge of the system to wait. Soon it became clear that the mission Alpharius had been so eager to secure support for was little more than picket duty. First one at a time, then in squadrons and finally in fleets, the Orks began to flee from the Kayvas System. Each time they bolted for open space beyond the mass shadow of the supergiant sun and its asteroid belt, the Blood Angels were waiting for them. Imperial starships and Ork cruisers engaged in deadly games of cat-and-mouse that lasted for weeks on end, threading in and out of the dense dust clouds at the periphery of the star system, mercilessly hunting each other. Mighty vessels clashed again and again, but months of protracted ship-to-ship engagements and naval warfare made the Sons of Baal restless. They had been bred for battles where they could face their foes, not ranged conflicts conducted over huge spans of empty vacuum. However, the chance to fight blade-to-blade did come. The behaviour patterns of the Ork crews began to change. They eschewed what little animal cunning they had and made mistakes. Instead of showing the brutish slyness they were known for, the xenos exhibited conduct that more closely resembled panic. They would take chances, running the gauntlet of the Blood Angels' blockade when the odds were stacked against them. It was almost as if there was something at their backs that they feared far more than the guns of Sanguinius' Legion. No one within the IXth Legion knew what the Alpha Legion had done to make the Orks run. All that was certain was that the Alpha Legion had gone dark, only rising to send regular communiqués out to the Blood Angels' blockade fleet that contained little more than a message to "maintain the line". Finally, Sanguinius tired of Alpharius' evasive manner and sent a frigate in past the outer marker, in defiance of the rules of engagement the two Legions had agreed upon. When the frigate returned weeks later, the crew reported that they had come across no signs of their allies, only the wrecks of Ork vessels and the bodies of dead aliens. The Alpha Legion's 88th Expeditionary Fleet comprised hundreds of warships, and yet no trace of them was sighted. The tempo of the Kayvas campaign had finally reached a terminal pitch. The final remnants of the Ork forces took flight from the belt in a disordered exodus, and perished in the flashes of Lance cannons and torpedo barrages as they crossed the sentry line. At last, the Alpha Legion's starships appeared at the very edge of scanning range, apparently moving in a wall, herding the enemy towards the fringes of the system. The Alpha Legion stated they had fully exterminated the alien infestation in the Kayvas Belt, and were grateful to the Blood Angels for their co-operation. The blockade was finally over, and with the death of the final monolithic Ork wreck at the hands of the Blood Angels fleet, the campaign came to a successful conclusion, though relations between the IXth and XXth Legions remained somewhat strained.Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V (566.006.M31) - Noted as one of the most devastating defeats in the history of the Adeptus Astartes, the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V saw the Iron Hands crippled and the Raven Guard and Salamanders Legions nearly annihilated as effective fighting forces and only the quick thinking and initiative of the Salamanders allowed a bare few Space Marines of these two Legions to escape that dreadful day. In response to the treachery of the Warmaster Horus and his betrayal of the Loyalist Astartes in the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard Legions at Istvaan III, the primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, on the direction of the Emperor who had learned of Horus' actions from the Loyalist survivors aboard the Eisenstein, ordered 7 Loyalist Space Marine Legions to Horus' base on the world of Istvaan V to challenge the Traitors. They would attack in two waves and fall under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Legions comprising the first wave were the Raven Guard, Iron Hands and Salamanders. The Legions comprising the second wave were the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Word Bearers that their Primarch Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to the Loyalists, the Night Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers had all turned from their service to the Emperor and secretly pledged their loyalty to Horus, and been instructed to keep their new allegiance to Chaos a secret. The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave of the assault. After they secured the drop site, they were to have been followed by the arrival of the other four Legions. The first wave secured the drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, though at a heavy cost. Horus ordered his front line troops to fall back in a feint, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin lines. Against the advice of Corax and Vulkan, Manus led his Veterans against the fleeing Traitor Marines unsupported. Manus then brought his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two primarchs drew their weapons, the Raven Guard and Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to advance and earn glory. However, as they returned they were mowed down by the four Traitor Legions that had landed to supposedly support them, thus revealing their new allegiance to Chaos. At the same time the apparent rout of the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children suddenly halted and the Traitors pressed their attack. As Horus pressed the counterattack he managed to sandwich the Loyalists between the two Traitor forces, killing most of them. Meanwhile, the Iron Hands were cut off and slaughtered to a man -- the Veteran Morlock Terminators cut down and the Primarch Ferrus Manus beheaded by Fulgrim. The Salamanders and Raven Guard could do nothing to help the Iron Hands, and were forced to make a costly break-out with precious few of their forces. Those Thunderhawk and Stormbird gunships that lifted off and escaped Istvaan V were far fewer than those that had landed. Corvus Corax, the primarch of the Raven Guard, was badly wounded and Vulkan's fate was unknown for some time. The remainder of the Iron Hands Legion arrived to find their Veterans and primarch dead while the Salamanders and Raven Guard had been reduced to a fraction of their full strength, with both Legions nearly wiped out.Battle of Ravendelve (006.M31) - Shortly after the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V early in the Horus Heresy, and unbeknownst to Loyalists and Traitors alike, the Alpha Legion managed to infiltrate the remnants of the Raven Guard Legion, surgically altering Alpha Legion operatives to resemble dead Raven Guard Space Marines and then inserting them into the ranks of the XIXth Legion during the chaos of the Drop Site Massacre. Acting on information received from the alien organisation known as the Cabal, Alpharius Omegon believed that the XIXth Legion was going to eventually receive an extremely valuable, top-secret asset from the Emperor that would prove to be of immense value to the Traitors' cause if it could be secured. In an operation personally overseen by Omegon, the Alpha Legion managed to appropriate the asset, which turned out to be a sample of pure primarch gene-stock and related information on its genetic manipulation that the Primarch Corax had recovered from the Emperor's gene-laboratories beneath the Himalazian Mountains in the bowels of the Imperial Palace. Playing their typical game of deception and intrigue against all sides, Alpharius Omegon misled Horus by surrendering tainted information about the pure primarch gene-stock to the Traitors' chief geneticist, the Emperor's Children's Chief Apothecary Fabius Bile. However, Horus knew that the Alpha Legion might have infiltrated any Legion, and had ordered the Alpha Legion to be put under surveillance by other Traitor forces to prevent any double-dealing. Alpharius Omegon also misled the Cabal, by not destroying the pure primarch gene-stock as they had promised to damage the Loyalists' war effort, keeping it for their own benefit. However, the pure gene-stock had been infected by a daemonic virus that had been intended to make it worthless to the Raven Guard. The Alpha Legion had been assured by the Tech-adepts of the Dark Mechanicus that this daemonic taint could be removed once the primarch gene-stock was in the hands of the Traitors, but whether this assertion proved to be correct remains unknown. A second, major objective of the Raven Guard infiltration by the Alpha Legion was the destruction of the Raven Guard's remaining stocks of gene-seed, thereby eliminating any chance that the XIXth Legion could be rebuilt after the massacre on Istvaan V. However the Alpha Legion failed in this objective due to the heroism of the Astartes of the Raven Guard, and the XIXth Legion was eventually able to reconstitute itself and play a crucial role in the future history of the Imperium.First Battle of Paramar (006.M31) - The world of Paramar V was the scene of an invasion and overthrow of the Paramar System by the Traitor Alpha Legion and the forces of the Warmaster Horus during the opening days of the Horus Heresy. Lying at the outer northern edge of the Segmentum Solar, Paramar was a vital staging post and supply terminus for Imperial Expeditionary Fleets, vital to the outward expansion of the Great Crusade. Paramar lies in almost direct conjunction between the Istvaan System and Terra. Before even the blood spilled in such great effusion in the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V had cooled, Horus' generals viewed Paramar V and the vast stockpiles of military supplies cached there with covetous eyes, and drew their plans against it. With typical guile and subterfuge, the Alpha Legion launched a massive assault, following in their wake came a second armada of Dark Mechanicum barques and mass-arks drawn from forces loyal to Horus, including the Titans of the Legio Fureans. The world of Paramar was the scene of several fierce battles during the Horus Heresy, amongst which the Traitor assault on Landing Zone Secundus of the Paramar Nexus was perhaps the most bloody. The forces of Chaos, supported by a Sub-Legio of 8-10 maniples of Tiger Eyes Traitor Titans of various classes, strode into the deserted spaceport expecting little resistance. They were surprised to meet Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus, along with support troops and armour from the Mechanicum and Loyalist forces from the Iron Warriors' 77th Grand Company. The speed and overwhelming force of the Alpha Legion's attack took its toll and the battle quickly swung full force in the Traitors' favour. Against the massed firepower of the Tiger Eyes Titans, the final Loyalist base known as Terminus could not stand. The Paramar Nexus fell and with it Paramar V belonged to Horus, its stockpiles and industry intact.The Culling of the Wolves (ca. 007.M31) - Following the Fall of Prospero, the depleted fleet of the VIth Legion, the Space Wolves, is attacked by the Alpha Legion in a great naval battle. Largely superior in numbers and fresher troops, the Alpha Legion forces the Space Wolves to seek shelter in the dangerous and highly corrosive fogs of the Alaxxes Nebula. With cold efficiency and pragmatism, the Alpha Legion harasses the Space Wolves, forcing them ever deeper in the maze of stable corridors within the Nebula, cornering their prey, humiliating the Emperor's henchmens and staying their killing blow until the Space Wolves have nowhere else to run. Every counter-attack from the VIth Legion has been anticipated, the XXth Legion even sacrificing scores of lighter vessels to get the opportunity to destroy one of the Space Wolves capital ships. However, with the Space Wolves finally cornered and the killing blow ready to strike, the Alpha Legion's fleet is forced to retreat as the Space Wolves are unexpectedly rescued by fresh forces from the Dark Angels Legion, the firepower of the Ramilies-class Starfort Chimaera gravely wounding the primarch's flagship, the Alpha. While Leman Russ and his Legion still survived, they had been humbled in a way they never had been. The myth of the Space Wolves' invincibility had been truly shattered in the coils of the Hydra.Battle of the Chondax System (007.M31) - Shortly after the Triumph of Ullanor, Jhagatai Khan and his Vth Legion were next sent to the worlds of the Chondax System. The system was comprised of the planets Epihelikon, Teras, Honderal, Laerteax and Phemus IV, the furthest of the outlying worlds. The culmination of this campaign took place upon the world of Chondax, labeled Chondax Primus EX5, 776 NC-X-S by Imperial cartographers, but named "The White World" by the White Scars due to its salt-like earth. The White World was the crucible of the whole campaign, the heart of those Greenskin forces that had chosen to go to ground in the system. The Khan was ordered by the newly-promoted Warmaster Horus to hunt the remnants of the Ork empire destroyed on Ullanor, the last slivers of the Warlord Urlakk Urruk's Greenskins. The brutal campaign lasted six long standard years as the White Scars hunted the remaining Greenskin forces to extinction. It was at Chondax that the White Scars would first learn of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy and the betrayal of Horus Lupercal. Delayed by the arrival of the fleet of the Alpha Legion, the White Scars would break-out from the Traitors' cordon and begin the long journey back to Terra in search of answers -- leaving multiple Alpha Legion warships as flaming wreckage in the bargain.Capture of the Omnissiax (Unknown Date.M31) - The Omnissiax was a super-heavy ark-freighter registered out of the Heliodyne shipyards which had been charged with the transporting of Battle Group Astramax of the Legio Perennia to Terra. This precious cargo had drawn the attention of the Alpha Legion, which set about to infiltrate the Omnissiax, helped in their task by a number of their sparatoi-agents. Masquerading as empty suits of newly-forged Power Armour, a small force of fifty legionaries under Strike Commander Dartarion Varix, would take the immense vessel. These Legionaries were awakened from their self-induced coma by one of their sparatoi-agents shortly after the Omnissiax had been rerouted to the world of Callistra Mundi to crush the rebellion forming in this important planet of the Gnostica System. With their primary objectives unattainable, Varix settled for the capture of the Titans, a task he had obviously considered a possibility as a full Titan-crew had also been smuggled on board the Omnissiax and was kept in cryostasis somewhere else in the ship. The opening moves for the capture of the Omnissiax were all carried out by sparatoi-agents, an infiltrated Astropath killing the other members of his small choir, while a simple worker destroyed the ark-freighters comm arrays. With almost immediate access to the Mechanicum inner-ship communication, the Alpha Legion lured the Mechanicum troops into ambushes. Through the use of armour-penetrating Banestrike-ammunition, even the most heavily armoured battle-automata such as the Castellax were no match against the Alpha Legion. To further confuse the Mechanicum forces, the Legionaries purposefully set fire to crew-quarters as to better scramble enemy auspexes, killing those units with advanced detection- or sensor-systems first before despatching the remaining Skitarii while still occluded by the surrounding heat-waves. On several occasions the Alpha Legion managed to sneak through security cordons and assassinate high-ranking Magi, including the Magos Dominus in charge of the ship's security. The Mechanicum reacted by using its numerical superiority to swarm the Alpha Legion and hold them of until reinforcements could be brought in from Callistra Mundi or its own escort. Holding the Alpha Legion at bay in selected choke-points, the fight soon reached a stalemate. However Varix had already considered this possibility and enacted a contingency-plan accordingly: to use the Titan's devastating firepower to annihilate the Mechanicum forces within the ship. As the Warmonger-class Abyssus Edax opened fire from the cargo-hold, the last resistance of the Mechanicum was swept away, clearing the way to the bridge and complete victory.Tallarn and Yarant Campaigns (Unknown Date.M31) - During the Horus Heresy the Alpha Legion went out of its way to prove itself as capable as its Loyalist Space Marines counterparts. The XXth Legion inflicted stinging defeats on the Loyalist White Scars at Tallarn, a company of the Space Wolves at Yarant, and units of the other Loyalist Legions at dozens of smaller outposts.Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula (007.M31) - As the Space Wolves were still licking their wounds following their heavy losses during the Razing of Prospero, they were ambushed by a sizable Alpha Legion strike force and subsequently routed at Yarant. Primarch Leman Russ organised a tactical retreat and fled towards the Alaxxes Nebula. The Alpha Legion gave chase and soon the VI Legion found itself in a precarious predicament -- it was effectively cut-off and surrounded. Though Russ reluctantly sent a distress call for assistance to his brother-Primarch Jaghatai Khan, of the White Scars Legion, the Khan declined to assist the Space Wolves and instead set course for Prospero to determine the truth for himself in regards to the Warmaster's heresy. The Space Wolves were eventually forced to flee in order to survive. A final confrontation eventually erupted between the Loyalist and Traitor forces as the Space Wolves vowed to take as many of their foes with them before they are annihilated. The Sons of Russ received relief from an unexpected quarter, in the form of the Dark Angels Legion, and their mighty Ramilies-class Starfort, the Chimaera. Answering Russ' distress signal, the combined force of Loyalists were able to turn the tide, and inflict serious losses on the Alpha Legion, and forced them to withdraw.Blood Among the Pale Stars (008.M31) - A previously unidentified Blackshield group of unknown provenance, calling itself the Dark Brotherhood, carved out its own corsair empire on the edge of the Pale Stars and began a long war against an Alpha Legion hunter-killer force tasked with crushing resistance to the Warmaster's Dark Compliance.Blight of Isessos (008.M31) - A series of void raids on the outskirts of the Isessos System in the Segmentum Pacificus by an Alpha Legion strike group led to severe casualties, which were returned to the colony habitats of the system's three Agri-Worlds for treatment. Several of the casualties were later found to have been infected with an unknown algal strain. Within a year this virus wiped out the system's vast macro-output saturation fields, reducing them to poisonous slime. This resulted in a sector-wide famine that killed an estimated ninety billion Imperial citizens and the complete political destabilisation of the region.Battle of Pluto (010.M31) - The Alpha Legion carried out multiple diversionary attacks of sabotage and preparation, which plunged the Sol System into complete chaos. Their true target however, was the fortress moon of Hydra, which orbits Pluto. First Captain Sigismund and a small fleet of Imperial Fists stubbornly defended Pluto against the larger Alpha Legion fleet until help arrived, in the form of the Phalanx and a large fleet of Imperial Fists and Armada Imperialis warships. At the height of the battle, Rogal Dorn led an assault on the fortress moon and confronted his brother Primarch Alpharius and engaged him in melee combat. Alpharius was killed by Dorn, and the Alpha Legion forces were forced to withdraw. Secretly, Omegon assumed his brother's identity permanently, unknown to the Warmaster Horus and the Imperium at large.Battle of Eskrador (Unknown Date.M32) - During the Great Scouring, the Alpha Legion and the Ultramarines Legion met in battle on the world of Eskrador, where Roboute Guilliman faced his hated brother Primarch Alpharius (unaware that it was actually his twin brother Omegon, who had assumed his brother's identity following Alpharius' death at the hands of Rogal Dorn during the Battle of Pluto) in bitterly contested close combat. Both struck one another in an instant, each Power Sword making a single stroke. For a second the two primarchs stood facing one another, then Alpharius slumped to the ground. Exalted by their primarch's victory the Ultramarines renewed their attack and cut down every last Alpha Legionary. But their exaltation was short-lived, as over the next few days the Ultramarines were harried from all sides by the Eskrador natives as well as remnants of Alpha Legionaries hiding throughout the mountains. After another solar week of futile combat against their shadowy opponents, Guilliman ordered his Ultramarines to evacuate the planet's surface. He then used his Legion's ships to bombard the Traitors from orbit. Despite Guilliman's protests that he had no wish to fight such dishonourable foes, it seems hard to dispute the fact that the Ultramarines were soundly beaten by the Alpha Legion at every turn, despite the loss of Alpharius.The Scourge of Dynat Crowbane (pre-100.M31) - Driven outwards by the resurgent armies of the Emperor of Mankind after the Siege of Terra in what was later called the Great Scouring, Dynat Mal, the main architect behind the Raven Guard’s shaming defeat at the Battle of Lyx, took his forces to the Dark Marches region of the Segmentum Tempestus. There he raided and destroyed the major outpost on Amarah Prime and gathered a coterie of renegades, mutants and heretics that took the name of "The Shadowed Ones". Hiding out with his fleet in the debris fields and nebulas of what would one day become the Orpheus Sector, Dynat Mal successfully ambushed and destroyed several Imperial punitive expeditions and established a reign of terror that lasted for several decades. Although the fate of the Shadowed Ones remains a mysterious one, it is generally believed that Dynat Mal was defeated and subsequently killed by an awakened portion of Necrons belonging to the Maynark Dynasty.I Am Alpharius (Unknown Date) - Word reaches the High Lords of Terra of a Chaos Lord claiming to be Alpharius ravaging the adamantium-laced moons of the Danevra Sub-sector. Debate rages about whether this could potentially be the case, for the primarch's death has been recorded more than once across the span of Imperial history. The Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum despatches a force of six Vindicare Assassin marksmen. Over a number of standard years they identify and slay a dozen Alpha Legion Chaos Champions bearing the name of Alpharius upon the scrolls of their battle plate, but the reports of raids upon the sub-sector's mining operations only intensify. Five standard years later, the decapitated heads of all six Vindicare Assassins are found frozen in the food storage halls of the High Lords.War of Hidden Lairs (Unknown Date) - The brotherhood of Alpha Legion Chosen known as the Shrouded Hand infiltrates the way station world of Zharastia Jensen, a principal link in the supply chain of the Golgotha System. In their delvings amongst the lower strata of society to recruit more agents to their cause, the Shrouded Hand uncover a hive of Genestealer Cultists. In doing so they trigger an uprising that sees the industrialised populace rise up to seize rulership of the planet. The sleeper cells placed by the Alpha Legion are awakened by the coded messages of the Shrouded Hand, and the streets run with blood as the hidden Chaos Cults fight a savage guerrilla war against those who bear the mark of the Great Devourer. Content that Zharastia Jensen is now a broken cog in the Golgotha war machine, the Shrouded Hand disappear without trace.Dreams of the Serpent (Unknown Date) - A plague of nightmares engulfs the psyker-rich world of Seer's Rest. Each of the planet's oracles, hedge wizards and soothsayers reports having the same recurring dream -- that of a rain of serpents that covers the land. Such is the intensity of these dreams that the subconscious gestalt of the planet's psykers manifests them in reality, and the planet's populace is halved in a day. Millions die to venomous snake bites before the psykers fall into a fugue state and the rain stops. The Adeptus Arbites investigation finds, too late, that the atmosphere processors of the world's terraforming engines have been spiked with psychotropic gas. When the Alpha Legion descend to destroy what remains of the planet's guardian provosts and Astra Militarum regiments, the storm of psychic energy intensifies to such a degree that Seer's Rest is reclassified as a Daemon World. The Alpha Legion abduct thousands of comatose psykers.Planetary Heist of Avernia (Unknown Date) - A coven of Alpha Legion sorcerers, using a combination of psychic hypnosis and double agents seeded within the Administratum, convinces the Imperial authorities that their maps have the system of Avernia in the wrong place. When the Alpha Legion invade the Industrial Worlds of Avernia III and Primavernia, psychic distress calls are sent out into the void. The Adeptus Terra, spurred into action by reports of a Heretic Astartes attack, divert a formidable battle group from the war for the jewel world of Negligence towards Avernia's coordinates in the Segmentum Pacificus. They make their Warp translation in good time, but in entirely the wrong Segmentum! Both Avernia and Negligence fall to the Alpha Legion within the solar year.Zambeque Rebellion (883.M37) - The Zambeque Rebellion was an anti-Imperial uprising on the world of Zambeque. Beginning after the planetary governor was approached by the Dark Angels 5th Company for questioning, upon their arrival the planet declared open rebellion against the Emperor. The Dark Angels task force was soon surrounded in an ambush by Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines. Only the timely intervention of half the Deathwing prevented the annihilation of the 5th Company. After the battle it was revealed that the Governor was a Fallen Angel known as Solas, who escaped with the remnants of his Chaos Space Marine allies before the planet fell back into the Imperial fold.Relief of Rael's World (814.M39) - In 814.M39 the Imperial penal facility on Rael's World was the target of a concentrated assault by a coalition of Alpha Legion warbands. Many amongst the segmentum's High Command were unwilling to expend their overstretched resources in its relief. Then, with no warning or explanation, a Dark Angels strike force intervened and the Alpha Legion warbands were routed, their leader captured by the Dark Angels. Unknown to the planet's population, the deliverance of Rael's World was a by-product of the Dark Angels' ongoing Hunt for the Fallen.Gothic War (12th Black Crusade) (139-160.M41) - This was a vast military campaign against the Imperium of Man launched by Abaddon the Despoiler. This conflict consisted of hundreds of planetary invasions and naval battles and only ended when Abaddon was forced to retreat to the Immaterium with the arrival of Imperial reinforcements. The only known battle the Alpha Legion took part in was the Lethe Ambush, though undoubtedly the Legion were working behind the scenes manipulating the outcomes of battles, using secret spy networks and fomenting rebellion to assail their enemies from as many different directions as possible in carefully orchestrated attacks.Daethryu Plague (255.M41) - The Agri-world of Daethryu Prime was suddenly plagued by a species of locusts not usually found anywhere in the sector. Thriving in the planet's warm climate the locusts multiplied exponentially, decimating food crops and causing a planetwide famine. The population had a surge of anger and unrest which they directed at the planet's ruling authorities. Within a week's time, riots broke out in every major population center and much of the local military mutinied. A Mordian Iron Guard regiment was dispatched to quell the riots but was ambushed and summarily destroyed as they disembarked from their transports by a force of hidden Chaos Space Marines. The complete loss of food exports caused major supply problems in the subsector for years, resulting in further unrest on other worlds. This hindered Imperial forces during subsequent Chaos incursions into the Segmentum Pacificus. It seems certain the Alpha Legion orchestrated much of the events that occurred in the sector, more than likely being involved at some level.Macharian Heresy (400-470.M41) - The Alpha Legion's allied Chaos Cults carried out a number of infiltration and subversion actions during the conflicts of the Macharaian Heresy.Destruction of the Crimson Consuls (742.M41) - The Alpha Legion's deceptions played a key role in the destruction of the Crimson Consuls Chapter of Loyalist Space Marines.Achilus Crusade (777.M41) - Warbands of the Alpha Legion are among the forces of Chaos that have been opposed by the Achilus Crusade seeking to restore Imperial control over the Jericho Reach.Legacy of the Luxor Uprisings (812.M41) - A coalition of Alpha Legion warbands foments an uprising on the Munitorum provender world of Luxor, threatening the supply of war material to war zones across the northern marches of the Ultima Segmentum. The rebellion is put down by the Ultramarines, but the population is so embittered by the Chapter's actions that insurrection and rebellion flare on numerous occasions over the next century. Some strategio-savants even ascribe the fall of the entire Aradme Cluster some eight decades later to chronic under-supply in the aftermath of the 812.M41 uprising.Hunt for Voldorius (865.M41) - Kernax Voldorius of the Alpha Legion is elevated to daemonhood by the Dark Gods. Kor'sarro Khan of the White Scars is tasked to hunt down the Daemon Prince and to return with the monster's head, or not at all. After driving Voldorius from his foremost stronghold, Kor'sarro Khan tracks him to the planet of Quintus. There, the White Scars find no mere warband but a whole planet of Traitors and Renegades. Upon making planetfall, Kor'sarro Khan finds unexpected allies in the form of Kayvaan Shrike and the Raven Guard's 3rd Company. Such is the grievous threat posed by Voldorius that the two rival Loyalist Chapters put aside their differences and join forces, eventually slaying the Daemon Prince in the streets of the planetary capital of Mankarra.Tartarus Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The 3rd Company of the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines and its task force under the command of Captain Gabriel Angelos were sent to the aid of the Imperial forces on the besieged Civilised World of Tartarus, which had been invaded by an Ork WAAAGH!. Over the course of the campaign the Blood Ravens uncovered the planet's dark history, locating numerous sites of Chaos power and relics of the Eldar, left behind to aid future generations in continuing to battle the forces of Chaos trapped on the planet. Over the course of the fighting most of the population that was not evacuated either fell to Chaos or was slain by the Orks and very few civilians escaped from Tartarus. In truth, the Ork invasion had been only a diversion. A warband of Chaos Space Marines from the Alpha Legion, led by the Chaos Lord Baal and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr had used the cover of the Ork WAAAGH! to make planetfall undetected on the world and begin their own operations in pursuit of an ancient and very powerful Chaotic artefact present on the world known as the Maledictum. Gabriel Angelos, whose own intuition indicated that there was more to the situation on Tartarus than met the eye, disregarded the warnings of the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Mordecai Toth and continued to hunt down the hidden forces on the planet. Finally Gabriel discovered that a force of Eldar from the Biel-Tan Craftworld had come to reseal a powerful Daemon in the Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum that had been hidden on the planet, underneath its capital city. However the Blood Ravens broke the back of the Eldar forces, slaying the Avatar of Khaine and killing many of the Eldar warriors. Despite their intervention Sindri managed to get the Maledictum and its key from underneath the Imperial and Xenos forces. Perhaps the most regrettable event of the fighting on Tartarus was not the many Battle-Brothers lost, but the treachery of Librarian Isador Akios, who had been an initiate with Gabriel. He became corrupted by the power of the Maledictum, and it was he who handed it over to Sindri, despite believing himself to be in control, he had been manipulated by the Chaos Sorcerer from the beginning. His treachery could not be forgiven and Isador proved the weaker when he was faced in personal combat by Gabriel Angelos. Sindri used the power of the Maledictum to start his transformation into a Daemon Prince but was slain by Angelos nevertheless. At the conclusion of the Campaign, Gabriel shattered the Maledictum with a Daemonhammer forged from a shard of the Wailing Doom, the blade of the Biel Tan Avatar of Khaine. This only released the Daemon, however, due to the sheer amounts of bloodshed on the planet which served as a sacrifice that empowered the daemon's awakening. When the Daemon was released it hinted at a connection between itself and Inquisitor Toth. It would appear that the Inquisitor was not as pure as he seemed to be. However Gabriel was unable to pursue the matter further, having to escape the planet.Ambush at Kruger Ridge (Unknown Date.M41) - Chapter Master Quesiah Ichabod of the Excoriators Space Marine Chapter had come to the world of Ignis Prime to inspect the Excoriators' mountaintop garrison of Kruger Ridge. He found a slaughterhouse rather than a Chapterhouse, and a waiting ambush in the form of an attack by the Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion. It was there, barricaded in the oratorium, that Chapter Scourge Zachariah Kersh had fallen to Dorn's Darkness, failing both his Master and his Chapter, and allowing the Alpha Legion's victory to become complete. Kersh failed to stop the Alpha Legion's nearly-successful assassination attempt and crippling of Ichabod, and their theft of the Stigmartyr, the ancient and revered Chapter standard of the Excoriators dating back to the days of the Second Founding. This was a devastating blow to the Excoriators' morale, and the cause of many problems for the Chapter. Ichabod was severely injured during the failed assassination attempt. Though strong, the Chapter Master's wounds were grievous, leaving him writhing in envenomed agony. The Alpha Legion's assassination had ultimately failed, but they had employed a virulent toxin for which the Excoriators' Chapter Apothecarion had no record, nor antidote. Chapter Master Ichabod eventually succumbed to his ultimate fate.Kaurava Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The campaign for the Kaurava System saw the Blood Ravens pitted against the Astra Militarum stationed in the system and a holy crusade of the Order of the Sacred Rose of the Adepta Sororitas. Despite the presence of more than enough enemies in the form of the Orks of WAAAGH! Gorgutz, Eldar of the Craftworld Ulthwe, the Dark Eldar of the Kabal of the Black Heart, Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion under the command of the Khornate Chaos Champion Firaeveus Carron, and the Tau, the Imperial forces present in the system wound up engaged in brutal infighting. To make matters worse, the Necrons had been slumbering under the sands of Kaurava III, a Necron Tomb World, for millions of years and were now led by the newly awakened Necron Lord of Kaurava. The campaign proved to be a disaster for the Blood Ravens, Captain Indrick Boreale was lost along with all 5 of the Blood Raven companies under his command, though how events unfolded otherwise remains uncertain in Imperial records.War of Beasts (001-025.M42) - Soon after the birth of the Great Rift, Alpha Legion Heretic Astartes and other forces allied to them are among the forces of Chaos who seek to claim the strategically located world of Vigilus in the Imperium Nihilus for Abaddon the Despoiler.The Nest of Serpents (Unknown Date.M42) - The long-seeded plans of the Alpha Legion come to fruition after the Great Rift ripples into being across the heavens. Billions of mortal eyes look to the night sky, and in a thousand locations and more, networks of sleeper and hypno-indoctrinated agents blink in confusion as the mental imperatives of the Alpha Legion are triggered. A wave of anarchy blossoms across every seeded world as newly revealed demagogues decry the Imperium that has failed to protect them, stirring up swathes of Imperial citizenry that have been forbidden from looking at the night sky by heavy-handed and reactionary new laws in the wake of the Great Rift's birth. Dozens of worlds fall when the Alpha Legion arrive to turn rioting into outright war.