Storm Wardens - Notable Campaigns: The annals of the Storm Wardens stretch no further back into history than 945.M36, the events surrounding the Nemesis Incident obscuring all that transpired before.Several of the Chapter's most prized banners, including one of its oldest Chapter banners, proudly proclaim the names of battle honours earned before then, but about which the Storm Wardens have no knowledge at all.Such titles include the "Scouring of Mo'Shan," the "Second Magellanic Expedition" and the "War of the Pillars of Creation." The Chapter may never know what mighty deeds were undertaken to earn these honours, what heroes fell, what vile enemies were slain, and what sacrifices were made that the Imperium might prevail.Kraazgrug's Folly (Unknown Date) - One of the most famous of the Storm Wardens' campaigns took place on the plains of the Agri-world called Keffik's World in the Scarus Sector. An Ork warband led by the Warboss Kraazgrug had been ravaging a number of settlements and threatened the food supply for an entire sub-sector. Just before the Orks overran the last of the star system's defences, an Imperial astropathic distress signal was relayed to Sacris. In response, the Storm Wardens deployed several companies of the Chapter, supported by many armoured vehicles. These forces were placed under the command of Captain Lorgath Maclir as Force Commander (prior to his elevation to the rank of Chapter Master) and included a small group of Veterans from the Chapter's elite 1st Company. Maclir's plan was to face the warboss' Wartrukks and Warbuggies on the open plains of the planet's northern continent. However, the Orks' vehicles manoeuvered through the depths of a potent dust storm and Captain Maclir was forced to change his strategy. Using Scout Marine Bike Squads, Stormravens and Land Speeder Typhoons. Maclir used his swiftly-moving skirmishers to lure the main body of the Greenskins' army into a box canyon. The Orks and their Warboss were eliminated with an unrelenting hail of heavy weapons fire from the rim of the canyon and no Ork left the battle alive to trouble the peace of the Emperor again.Cleansing of Vigil (Unknown Date) - The Cleansing of Vigil was a singularly savage conflict that took place in the lightless tunnels beneath the surface of the Dead World of Vigil against the alien Slaugth and their warrior constructs. The conflict consisted of a series of bloody, close-range firefights in confined subterranean conditions. Due to these conditions, the Storm Wardens' favoured armoured vehicles were impossible to use and their advance became cautious and methodical. To make matters worse, the Slaugth forces seemed adept at provoking the Storm Wardens out of such careful tactics. The toll of casualties eventually grew high and this tested the morale of the Chapter. Despite their losses, the Storm Wardens finally pulled through and Vigil was cleansed of the Slaugth. Those Veterans who survived the Cleansing of Vigil had learned to pay closer attention to the wisdom of the Codex Astartes. Chapter Master Lorgath Maclir promoted many of these Veterans to serve in his honour guard.Ambush in the Maw (331.M41) - The Storm Wardens' strike cruiser Eternal Sentinel was ambushed in the depths of the Maw travelling between the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse. The attackers were a previously unidentified Chaos warfleet and subsequent analysis of augur-core archives determined that it was emerging from an unknown Warp interface beyond the 12th Station of Passage. The Eternal Sentinel affected a boarding action against the enemy flagship, slaughtering its command crew before triggering a cascading plasma core purge cycle that destroyed the vessel and crippled three nearby escorts.Achilus Crusade - Operation Hammerfall (777.M41) - Of all the Space Marine Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes to have contributed forces to the opening battles of the Achilus Crusade, the Storm Wardens committed by far the largest single contingent. Seven entire companies and significant fleet assets were dispatched from Sacris, a number not far short of the Chapter's full strength. By mutual assent of the crusade's ruling council and personal sanction of Lord Militant Achilus himself, Ward-Master Lorgath Maclir, Chapter Master of the Storm Wardens, was appointed the figurehead and nominal leader of all of the Space Marine forces committed for the opening battles. The deployment would be known as Operation Hammerfall, and it would achieve some of the most stunning victories, and suffer one of the most galling twists of fate, in the entire crusade. Planning for Operation Hammerfall began in mid-773.M41, when Maclir was summoned to attend the Senatorum Imperialis. In sealed session, the High Lords of Terra bid the master of the Storm Wardens to lend their support to the man they had not an hour earlier confirmed as High Lord Militant of the Eastern Marches, Achilus. Maclir knew Achilus of old, having served alongside him during the Scouring of Low Boria, when so many had fallen prey to the repulsively neurophagic xenos species called the Khrave. Maclir would have fought alongside such a man regardless of the High Lords' wishes, but he knew that the undertaking at hand must be a truly epic one for the highest council in the Imperium to have summoned him in such a manner. Then, the new Lord Militant emerged from the shadows below the High Lords' dais, and greeted his old friend. Achilus apprised Maclir of the flight of the Spear of Tarsus through the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate, and of the weight of the discoveries made since in the region. Maclir committed his Chapter to the crusade there and then, and the foundations of the operation were set down. While Achilus and Maclir laid their plans for the subjugation of the Jericho Reach, messengers were sent out to dozens of Space Marine Chapters. In many cases, Maclir sent his own brethren to petition his brother Chapter Masters to lend their support to the coming Imperial Crusade. In other cases, Achilus dispatched his own agents and emissaries, so that in total, almost a hundred Space Marine Chapters were approached. The requests for aid were by necessity short on details, for the need to conceal the existence of the Warp Gate was overriding. Some Chapters refused to commit based on the scant information they were given. Others, notably those who had served alongside Maclir or Achilus in previous campaigns, agreed outright to lend whatever aid they were able, and within the standard year several dozen Chapters were committed to the Achilus Crusade. A Space Marine command council was formed, consisting of the most senior officer of each Chapter represented in the force, and Maclir was elected its figurehead. The build up of military force and logistical support that precluded the crusade was an undertaking only the most brilliant of minds could have conceived. Achilus was a leader of prodigious will and vision, and the authority vested in him by the High Lords of Terra meant there were precious few limitations in the scope of his power. Yet, the need to maintain secrecy remained paramount, for if the existence of the Warp Gate became known, the numerous enemies of the Imperium might utilise it to strike from one side of the galaxy to the other. The totally unheralded arrival of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth on the Eastern Fringe had defied all strategic prognostications, and although most in the Imperium's highest echelons believed the threat overcome, others feared that another such foe might descend upon the region and, utilising the Warp Gate, strike directly towards the Imperium's heartlands. Achilus conceived the plan of conducting the build up in the guise of directing troops towards the Margin Crusade on the fringes of the Calixis Sector, for while that war still officially raged, in reality it had long ago lost momentum and become a fruitless meat grinder. Astra Militarum regiments were raised from the worlds of the Calixis Sector and numerous others. Strategic segmentum reserves, including veteran regiments originally drawn from such famed worlds as Cadia and Mordia, were committed to the crusade. The Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas pledged the zeal of their battle-sisters. The Adeptus Mechanicus committed Titans, Knights, and Skitarii regiments. The Imperial Navy assembled the largest fleet deployed since the Battle of Macragge. The Departmento Munitorum, by far the largest contingent in the entire crusade, mobilised countless support formations, without which not a single las shot could have been fired or a single trench dug. Even the Rogue Traders answered the Lord Militant's call, and those he trusted were promised riches beyond even their wildest dreams when it came time to apportion the prizes of war. But mightiest of all the contingents were the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes. Hundreds of battle-brothers were gathered under the banner of the Achilus Crusade, literally, for Maclir ordered a composite Crusader Company raised. Each Chapter present contributed battle-brothers to an elite honour guard whose sacred task was to wield and protect the Crusade Banner. Finally, after several solar decades of planning, standard years of preparation and solar months of build up, the Achilus Crusade was ready to embark. Incredibly, the undertaking had remained secret, the cyclopean bureaucracy of the Imperium ensuring, even without deliberate effort, that the flow of troops, materiel, and information was strictly one-way. Though never openly acknowledged, it is suspected that the Inquisition had a hand in reinforcing the issue of operational secrecy, the little known Ordo Redactor purging the archives of any data that might compromise security and tracking down and eliminating any who might let the secret out. Ten solar days before the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension in 777.M41, Lord Militant Achilus gave the final, irrevocable order, and the countdown to the crusade began. The first Imperial warriors through the Warp Gate were the Space Marine strike forces assigned to Operation Hammerfall, and these were led in person by Lorgath Maclir, who had planned every aspect of the assault in person, in minute detail. The crusade's objective was to push the T'au out of the region and reclaim the worlds of the Jericho Reach for the Imperium of Man. It was Achilus' most cherished dream that the T'au would be so undermined by the crusade that they would fall back towards their own region of space and, in time, be destroyed utterly. But for now, Achilus and Maclir held the T'au capital in the Reach, Tsua'Malor, firmly in their sights, and nothing, or so they thought, could possibly distract them from their goal. Operation Hammerfall ranged ahead of the bulk of the crusade, smashing aside all enemy forces that dared stand before it. As hoped, the T'au were initially unprepared for the attack, coming as it did from an entirely unanticipated quarter. The Space Marines fought as angels of death, conducting planet strikes, boarding actions, and massive frontal assaults in the manner of the battles of the Great Crusade. Despite the potential for destruction, Maclir ordered that those worlds occupied by Human populations be spared unnecessary suffering and allowed to rise up against the T'au and join the crusaders. Shockingly, the Human populations failed to welcome the crusade, let alone join it. Instead, their leaders declared the Imperium the enemy, rejecting all communications and asserting their independence. As world after world rejected the crusade, the forces of Operation Hammerfall were forced to divert around planets they had no immediate resources to suppress. Initial planning had assumed that the worlds coreward of the Well of Night would be usable as staging points for later stages of the operation. With the worlds rejecting the Imperium, the Space Marine strike fleets were forced to operate far from their rear echelons, and their line of communication were becoming more stretched with every world they were forced to bypass. Despite these setbacks, Operation Hammerfall achieved countless glorious victories, overwhelming the T'au in battle after battle. At Spite, twenty T'au battle cadres were utterly wiped out, while the Battle of Kaggeran sent an entire Air Caste picket fleet burning through the skies to crater several thousand square kilometres of the surface. At Wrath, the T'au attempted to mount a rearguard action while they evacuated several hundred thousand of their worker caste. The battle barges of the Storm Wardens, Black Templars, and the Dark Sons Chapters annihilated them from orbit before seven entire Assault Companies made planetfall to destroy what little resistance remained. Perhaps the greatest battle honour won in those opening months was that earned by Maclir himself, when he held the line at Epiphany Rock against a massive T'au counterattack. The xenos fielded heavy T'au Battlesuits, whose weapons were capable of punching straight through Adeptus Astartes power armour and which accounted for dozens of casualties before Maclir took the initiative. The Storm Wardens Chapter Master led a teleport assault of the massed Terminator squads of a dozen Chapters, materialising in amongst the enemy formation and tearing it apart before the heavy battlesuits could re-deploy. With Epiphany Rock smashed wide open, Maclir scented blood and drove Operation Hammerfall on still further, pushing the T'au back along the Hyades Ebb Warp route and down the length of the Arethusa Flux all the way to the Death World of Ravacene. There, amongst the ash forests and volcanic chains, the forces of Operation Hammerfall fought their largest and most costly battle to date. The T'au threw every asset they had into a last ditch effort to repel the Space Marine advance, committing Fire Warrior cadres, thousands of battlesuits, and massed grav tank wings. Vast hordes of Kroot Carnivores stalked the grey forests, while the ash-choked skies were darkened further as Vespid Stingwings swooped down to bring death from above. Alien mercenaries not seen before or since swelled the T'au's numbers still further, and soon the ash coating the forest floor turned to a glutinous mire as the blood of xenos and Space Marine alike was spilled. The First Battle of Ravacene raged for three solar weeks, neither side able to gain the initiative or strike a telling enough blow against the other. During the darkest days of the battle, it is said that Maclir was everywhere, bolstering the defence, leading bold counterattacks, and taking the fight directly to the enemy without rest or respite. The Storm Wardens drew on every single one of their traditions. Riding their mighty armoured Land Raiders and Predators in the manner their ancestors rode their huge Sacrisan steeds to war, the Storm Wardens smashed aside whatever T'au forces stood before them, dismounting to engage the enemy in the brutal melee of close combat and continuously testing themselves against the very best the T'au could field. Maclir is said to have dreamed of seeing the white domes of the T'au capital in the distance, knowing that Operation Hammerfall was mere light years away from its objective and that one final push would see the crusade attain its primary goal. Achilus had always planned for a solar decade of war, yet Maclir sensed that victory could be won within mere solar months if one final push could be made. Knowing that a second wave of Space Marine strike forces followed by a third of front line Astra Militarum regiments was fighting its way down the Hyades Ebb, Maclir ordered all available forces to mass at Ravacene and smash the T'au aside, so that the advance on Tsua'malor could begin without delay. Lord Militant Achilus signaled his assent and the final phase of Operation Hammerfall was ordered. But Maclir's order was never enacted. All across the Jericho Reach, those worlds that had refused to yield to the crusade rose up, millions-strong armies and ramshackle fleets of ancient system defence vessels smashing into the Imperial Crusade's exposed and over-stretched lines of communication. Worse, it soon became apparent that the recalcitrant populations were not motivated by notions of mere misguided isolationism. Underlying the resistance was the hand of Chaos, the poison of the Ruinous Powers lending the armies strength at the very moment when the Imperium could have pressed home its assault and driven the T'au from the Jericho Reach. Maclir's reinforcements never arrived at Ravacene. Instead, Imperial transport fleet after transport fleet was ambushed, encircled, and destroyed, entire regiments of Astra Militarum perishing in the cold void before setting foot on a single world of the Jericho Reach. Maclir raged in the face of such perfidy, swearing to avenge himself of the Traitors who had cost the Imperium its victory, for he saw there and then that Achilus had, if anything, been overly optimistic in his estimation that the conquest of the Jericho Reach would take a solar decade. With Chaos raging in the central zones, Maclir knew the crusade might not complete its objective even in his own lifetime. Ironically, it had not been even partially completed by the end of the Lord Militant's lifetime, for Achilus died in tragic, and some have said suspicious, circumstances when his flagship Proclamation of Wrath suffered a catastrophic Gellar Field collapse in 786.M41. In truth, the longstanding friendship between Achilus and Maclir had soured by the time of the Lord Militant's death, both warriors deeply embittered by the Achilus Crusade's descent into a gruelling war of never-ending attrition.Garrison at Oetha - Watch Station Oertha is a Deathwatch bastion in one of the primary warzones of the Canis Salient of the Jericho Reach. It is currently under attack by T'au forces who wish to colonise the planet Oertha, which, they believe, possesses vast reserves of fuel and other primary materials. It is jointly defended by the Achilus Crusade defence forces and the Deathwatch. Fifty battle-brothers of the Storm Wardens, along with twenty Deathwatch Astartes under Watch Codicier Kurita, currently garrison the watch station. The garrisoned base is used as a platform to launch devastating raids against the T'au invaders.Destroyer's Last Crusade (784.M41) - Three companies of Storm Wardens accompanied Rogue Trader Tyral "Destroyer" Cathek into the Halo Stars beyond the Calixis Sector, encountering several isolationist pocket empires. The Destroyer lived up to his moniker in razing to ashes each kingdom he encountered despite the growing protestations of the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator contingent accompanying his fleet. Eventually, the Explorators refused to allow any more pre-Age of the Imperium technology to be lost, and attempted to stop Tyrel from destroying any more. The Storm Wardens were forced to choose between the two factions, and sided with the Mechanicus, with whom they have well-established ties, forcing the militant Rogue Trader to continue his crusade alone. Tyral has not been heard of in solar decades, and it is assumed he met his match amongst the Halo Stars.Liberation of Colhep (789.M41) - Battlegroup Venicus, together with a company of Storm Wardens Space Marines, broke the alien enslavement of the Colhep systems. A daring in-system translation from the Warp and surgical strikes against key enemy holdings in overwhelming force returned the Human population of the region to Imperial rule in a single solar week of fighting.Battle of Port Mad Dog (801.M41) - The Battle of Port Mad Dog illustrates the precarious nature of the extreme long-range patrols many Space Marine vessels undertake, as well as the unique capabilities of the Adeptus Astartes. While the Imperial Navy would no doubt argue that their own crews would have found an equally imaginative means of returning to port, the Storm Wardens achieved a notable victory, if one that is likely to go largely unmarked amongst the calamitous wars engulfing the Jericho Reach. It was during a long-range sweep deep into the Outer Reach that a Storm Wardens Hunter-class Destroyer suffered a navigational error during an unprecedented flicker in the beacon of the Astronomican. Cast adrift in the lifeless nebulae of the Slinnar Drift, the destroyer's crew found themselves light years from any Imperial installation and far beyond the reach of the nearest logged friendly unit. The ship's navigational array, Warp-Drive vanes and Gellar Field projectors were damaged. Meditating on the matter for several solar hours before consulting his peers, the destroyer's master formulated a plan, if one that was highly unconventional, to extricate his vessel from its predicament. The Storm Wardens decided that they had no choice but to set in for repairs at the nearest port, which happened to be the pirate haven of Port Mad Dog. The Space Marines decided they had two options, both of which they would try. Firstly, they would set in at Port Mad Dog and simply demand the denizens provide them with the materials and facilities needed to affect repairs. However, the Storm Wardens suspected that the outlaws were unlikely to agree to such demands and, if they did not, the Space Marines would simply take what they needed. As predicted, the pirates rejected the Storm Wardens' demand. The dozen Space Marines aboard the destroyer were drastically outnumbered by the pirates, so they executed a swift strike against the pirate king, seeking to decapitate the enemy before serious resistance could be mounted. The Storm Wardens found the enemy leader attended by a veritable menagerie of alien bodyguards, including Kroot, Loxatl, and a multi-headed monstrosity never before recorded. The battle was joined in the pirate king's throne room and, although the xenos bodyguards were far more dangerous foes than the Space Marines had anticipated, they were ultimately no match for the champions of Humanity. Having decapitated the pirate hierarchy, the forces of the port were thrown into anarchy. The Storm Wardens dug in for a days-long defence of the docks, knowing that their foes would not attack without order or direction. While the Space Marines held the dock, the crew-serfs of their destroyer effected the needed repairs, a process that was completed within three solar days. Breaking dock, the Storm Wardens released the pirate king of Port Mad Dog in the fashion his kind were notorious for, ejecting him from an airlock as they pulled away.Through the Warp (815.M41) - Answering an astropathic distress call emanating from the Feral World of Belami, the Storm Wardens rapid strike cruiser Glendyr's Lament rescued the Navigator Hernando Jurkantz from an entire nation of angry natives. Known as one of the most skilled Navigators in the quadrant, Jurkantz' skills were tested to near breaking when the cruiser was engulfed in a Warp flux and spewed from the Warp twenty thousand light years away and several solar decades before it had set out, through the stellar phenomenon known as the Hadex Anomaly. Only Jurkantz' skill in traversing the Warp and the Storm Warden's bold stand against the enemies that assailed the vessel throughout the journey saved the souls of every man on board.