Celestial Lions - Third War for Armageddon: In 998.M41, the Third War for Armageddon began. This was a massive conflict between the Imperium of Man and the largest Ork WAAAGH! ever raised, led by the Greenskin Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. The war was fought on the Hive World of Armageddon where Ghazghkull Thraka had launched his first attempt to seize the planet exactly 57 Terran years before. The conflict eventually drew in portions of more than 25 Space Marine Chapters, dozens of Astra Militarum regiments, and several Titan Legions.The Celestial Lions had brought 983 warriors to this world. Their entire Chapter had landed on Armageddon but for the most remote, uninitiated training forces still spread across the Segmentum. By the time they stood in defence of the Mannheim Gap, they had been on the surface for three solar months and sixteen days, defending Hive Volcanus on the west coast of the subcontinent of Armageddon Prime. In that span of time, all of which was spent Bolter-to-blade in the city's burning streets, they suffered casualties far, far in advance of any other Chapter.Everywhere they fought, the enemy struck back in overwhelming numbers. Countless times they were deployed to reinforce elements of the Imperial Guard that were already long dead by the time the Lions arrived, leaving the Space Marines deep in enemy territory without an easy path for withdrawal.On at least fifteen catalogued occasions, they were ordered to advance on specific critical objectives, only to find themselves alone without the planned support forces or the promised reinforcements. As casualties mounted, ambushes were common, even on routine patrols through pacified territory.The Lions were assigned to hold crucial districts and sectors, and accordingly moved in force to cover all necessary ground. Yet they found their patrols being hit harder than any orbital intelligence had predicted possible. The enemy would appear in numbers undreamed, rising from ambushes in sectors that were recorded as being cleansed beforehand.The Lions were granted orbital picts and Auspex-scrye readouts from Hive Command, only to find their intelligence scarcely matched the embattled realities of their deployment zones. Time and again, the Lions jumped into the fire. They had no choice, for the Chapter would not allow the city to fall and they could not allow the enemy to live.It did not take long for them to rely first and foremost on their own scanners and Scouts, but their equipment suffered unexpected deterioration and frequent jamming; their Scouts often fell silent while out in the city alone. Sometimes the Lions would find their Scouts' bodies, but usually they were lost.Pict-feeds from their vessels in orbit were distorted from the void war playing out above, but those rare, wrecked visual clues were the most reliable intelligence they could muster. The Lions swore by them, thanking the thrall-captains of their warships for any and all devoted efforts. But these also grew more infrequent as their fleet was massacred in the sky.The Lions had fought well. No other Space Marine Chapter would cast aspersions on their fighting character. Their difficult straits had arisen from apparent ill-fortune: orders given but never received, or too slowly answered. There were many reports of Vox interference and orders never reaching their warship's captains. Much of it reeked of enemy guile.The Lions' Battle Barge Serenkai was boarded and overwhelmed when it pulled free of the Black Templars spearhead, failing to heed orders to maintain formation. The Cruiser Lavi took four solar hours to die from structural haemorrhage when it collided with the wounded Flesh Tearers flagship Victus. The Nubica destroyed itself when it was boarded, choosing sacrifice over capture. Only three vessels from the Lion's fleet remained during the latter part of the conflict. And those who might have borne closer witness to what had actually happened were in their graves.It was difficult to know which of these events were born of sabotage or treachery, rather than honest battle. If the Inquisition had moved against the Lions, it was doing so with a tenacity and subtlety rarely seen among its agents.Less than a solar month into the campaign, rearming runs from orbit began to grow as rare as reliable intelligence. Celestial Lions drop-ships were destroyed high in the atmosphere on two occasions, and on another, Volcanus' own wall-guns malfunctioned and destroyed an incoming shipment, blowing seven loaded Thunderhawks gunships out of the sky.Mere solar weeks into the war, half the Chapter already lay dead, the names of the slain added each dawn to the rolls of honour. The survivors fought on, for contained within each surviving Celestial Lion was a nourishing well of resolve that did credit to any son of Dorn. And then came the conflict in the Mannheim Gap.