Minotaurs - Notable Campaigns: Solar Rebellions (ca. M32) - Across a hundred scattered systems in the western marches of the Segmentum Solar, cult uprisings led by a core of Chaos Space Marine warbands drawn from the Iron Warriors, Night Lords and World Eaters Traitor Legions brought entire planetary governments to their knees in a solar year of blood and anarchy. With whole sections on the brink of collapse, events took a dramatic turn when a combined force of the Adeptus Astartes emerged from the black depths beyond the spiral arm and launched a sudden and overwhelming attack directly upon the uprising's command. Though many Space Marines fell in glory, the warlords of the Traitor factions were slain and the uprising fractured into a thousand localised rebellions which were soon put down by local forces. Subsequent Inquisitorial studies claim that these Space Marines were drawn from several Chapters, including the Minotaurs, Carcharodons, Death Eagles and Angels of Absolution. Other evidence however, including the Minotaurs' estimated Founding and projected deployment dates, contradict these assertations, consigning the entire event to conjecture.8th Black Crusade (999.M37) - During Abaddon the Despoiler's 8th Black Crusade, a combined force of Night Lords and Iron Warriors captured the Andromax System and a direct threat to Terra was identified. Initially, the notoriously insular Fabricator-General Uixot of Mars refused to pledge his aid in eliminating the Heretic Astartes. However, when a diplomatic mission from the Adeptus Custodes attended his forge-temple in person, the Fabricator-General's ego was stroked and his mind swayed. Mere solar months later, a combined force of Minotaurs Space Marines, Adeptus Mechanicus war maniples and Custodians from the Dread Host annihilated the Traitors in their captured strongholds.Macharian Heresy (ca. 400-425.M41) - When the Minotaurs reappeared again for the first time in millennia during the Suppression of the Macharian Heresy, they were a Chapter familiar through their fell reputation and yet profoundly changed. Equipped to the highest Imperial standards, they fought as an integrated and highly flexible force and were based upon a powerful Chapter fleet operating more than a dozen Strike Cruisers. No less brutal than their ancient reputation suggested, they fought in what was nevertheless a more considered and controlled manner than that heard of in the ancient tales of the Imperium. During the suppression, it was the Minotaurs who formed the spearhead of the battle group which shattered the petty star empire of the outlaw Colonel Lyrias of the 11th Kahdu Armoured Corps, their Chapter's Land Raiders blasting apart the famed tanks of the elite Kahdusine "Immortals" on the ice plains of Gyros Prime. They also carried out Exterminatus orders on the Hive World of Duval and the Sword Realms of the Hope Cluster. While on the Ocean World of Nereus they hunted down and obliterated the xenos-possessed remnants of the Imperial Paladins Chapter's 4th Company in the mazes of the sub-surface cavern cities, poisoning the seas of this once vital Agri-World.The Euxine Incident 400-425.M41 - The Euxine Incident was an action for which the Minotaurs gained the most infamy during the Macharian Heresy and involved the near-destruction of two Imperial Space Marine Chapters -- the Doom Warriors and the Inceptors -- who had become locked in conflict. With the two combatant Chapters refusing calls to end their battle and aid with the pacification of the Macharian Crusade's conquered worlds, the Minotaurs were despatched to sunder the two and end the strife. Caring nothing for the causes or rights of the two Chapters, the Minotaurs attacked in full force. Overmatched and broken, the Doom Warriors fled the system almost immediately in a barely organised retreat. The remaining Inceptors Space Marines were forced into a humiliating surrender, as fewer than 100 battle-brothers survived the Minotaurs' assault. This created enmity between the Minotaurs and the Ultramarines and their Successor Chapters, who have sworn vengeance on the Minotaurs should the opportunity arise and have banned them from entering the realm of Ultramar.Defence of Hermetica (760.M41) - The Defence of Hermetica was a notable Imperial military campaign carried out by the Minotaurs Space Marine Chapter against the forces of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion on the world of Hermetica in 760.M41. This vital Hive World was the capital of the Chonma Sector in the Segmentum Solar, and it came under a massive assault from a vast mutant horde numbering in the millions, led by the armies of the Word Bearers Dark Apostle Leyak the Devourer in 659.M41. The Chaos attack arrived from a Warp Rift that opened on the system's edge and was carried aboard a colossal space hulk designated the Nightmare Paradox. Although Hermetica was well-protected, owing to the suddenness of the onslaught and the sheer scale of the Chaos attack, the system's outer defences were soon overwhelmed, and the trans-continental hive cities of Hermetica itself swiftly became battlegrounds on which its beleaguered defenders fought desperately against the tide of damned horrors that assailed them. In 760.M41, the Minotaurs Chapter was the first outside force to respond to Hermetica's strangled pleas for help, and using their Chapter fleet's firepower for cover, they cut off the invaders from orbit and swiftly counter-assaulted the main Chaos foothold on the planet at Hive Casaubon, centred on the Basilica of Saint Lehsor the Anchorite. The Minotaurs' assault was devastating and indiscriminate, and after a heavy bombardment of their landing zones they smashed through the cathedral district's plazas and temples in attack columns of heavy armour heedless of the cost in civilian lives. The Minotaurs' advance was relentless, blasting apart any strong point they encountered and driving the enemy before them along with thousands of trapped civilians fleeing the carnage but who had nowhere to run. Swiftly the cathedral complex itself was encircled and bombarded; its kilometre-high main spire toppled in a crossfire of turbo-laser strikes from the wings of the Minotaurs' Thunderhawk gunships. Into this storm of debris and ash, the Terminators and Assault Squads of the Chapter attacked to wipe out any survivors, led by their Chapter Master Asterion Moloc at the forefront of the attack. Fighting his way into the depths of the basilica vaults, it was Asterion Moloc who slaughtered the foul Leyak's daemon-possessed bodyguard and struck a mortal blow to their hulking, toad-like master. But before the fatal stroke could be dealt to the Dark Apostle, he fled into the Warp through the use of his black arts. The degenerate mutant tide fought on, but now leaderless and without direction, it was beaten back and contained until the arrival of the Imperial 17th Battle Group and Imperial Guard regiments from Necromunda which purged the world of the Chaos taint. Deflected from its course by Nova Cannon strikes, the Hulk Nightmare Paradox, now silent, occupied a quarantined orbit in the distant reaches of the star system, awaiting further detailed examination by the Grey Knights and the agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus.Badab War (907-913.M41) - The Minotaurs arrived in the Maelstrom Zone of the Ultima Segmentum in 907.M41, answering the direct call from the acting Legate Inquisitor for more Space Marines to join the Loyalist cause against the Secessionist Chapters during the Badab War. The conflict was in its fourth year of open warfare, and the Minotaurs committed their entire strength to the war; ten companies and eleven capital ships of various types. While the Chapter coordinated its efforts with the Loyalist command, it operated largely independent throughout the conflict, striking targets as it saw fit. The viciousness of the Chapter's reputation for leaving no survivors among those that resisted it quickly grew, and remained uncontested until the arrival of the even more savage Carcharodons Chapter. The Minotaurs gained several important victories during this time, effectively destroying Secessionist forces on multiple worlds. However, the action for which their fame would spread far beyond the conflict (despite a deliberate suppression of the war's progress by the Inquisition), would be their wholesale defeat of the Lamenters' Chapter in a close-quarters space battle in the Optera System in the closing days of the early Badab Uprising in 908.M41. Finally, the Minotaurs withdrew from the Maelstrom Zone in 913.M41 after the fall of Badab Primaris, taking with them several former Lamenters warships to replace their own losses.Battle of Rynn's World (989.M41) - The Minotaurs saw action on Rynn's World during the attempt to reclaim the Crimson Fists' homeworld from the Orks.Harrowing of the Night Reapers (989-992.M41) - The Night Reapers' path to corruption began when they were condemned to crusade on the fringes of the Laanah Rifts region following their actions during the abortive Defence of Salvation-Gamma in the midst of the Constantinus Iconoclasm. Their crime had been dereliction of duty for, when confronted by a massive counter-attack by a dozen Chaos warbands drawn to the Iconoclasm's revolt, alongside an unknown number of degenerate mutant hordes drawn from the edge-worlds of the sector, the Night Reapers had abandoned the Shrine World as both effectively indefensible and of "negligible strategic worth". Rather than allowing the world to fall, the Night Reapers turned their own weapons on the basilica-cities and granted the pilgrims and refugees who had sought harbour there a "merciful end". The rage of the Ecclesiarchy over this loss was boundless and ensured the Night Reapers Chapter's censure by the High Lords of Terra. Shorn of their fortress-monastery and Chapter homeworld and condemned to the perilous and thankless task of policing the outer reaches of the Laanah Rifts, the Night Reapers bore their punishment with grim impassivity and obedience but little contrition -- or at least appeared to. Within a decade, however, Imperial contact with the Chapter, which had long carried a reputation for ruthless efficiency, independence and technical aptitude, grew untowardly infrequent. Official contact ceased and such second-hand reports of them that could be gleaned pointed towards steadily increasing deviation from Codex Astartes doctrine, tactics and equipment in their ranks. In 989.M41, some six standard years after the last Imperial contact, the Night Reapers were declared Excommunicate Traitoris after forensic examination of wreckage found in the Guyathis Belt provided incontrovertible evidence of the Chapter's direct responsibility for the destruction of the Rogue Trader fleet of Baron Stross Yuen. This followed a series of other raids and incidents where the involvement of the now-Renegade Chapter had been suspected, but firm enough evidence could not be found to blame them, while several Imperial expeditions to find the Night Reapers had disappeared without trace. The first Space Marines to respond to the call to find and punish the Night Reapers comprised a four-company strong force of the Avenging Sons Chapter who, alongside Imperial Navy support, set out into the Rifts in search of the Renegade Chapter. Responding to a distress call from the Imperial outpost on Svarga Wells, the Night Reapers ambushed the Avenging Sons and forced them into a humiliating retreat, capturing one of their Strike Cruisers, wrecking a second and badly mauling their would-be destroyers. The debacle of the Avenging Sons' defeat, which they blamed on the Night Reapers' use of unknown "Warp flame weapons" that bypassed their starships' Void Shields, moved the High Lords into direct action and two full Chapters of Space Marines, the Red Templars and the Minotaurs, alongside considerable local support from the fleets and defence forces of neighbouring sectors, were directly tasked with the destruction of the Night Reapers. This was to be done before their threat could grow further, lest they become a beacon to other Renegades and malcontents in an already troubled region. The harrowing of the Night Reapers was to take a further three years of running battles to reach its fruition and it was a campaign in which, of the Imperial Chapters, the Red Templars, experts as they were in search and destroy and pursuit operations, were to be the hounds and the Minotaurs with their brute strength and aggression would be the hunter ready to deal the death blow. The Night Reapers fought with savage resistance across a dozen star systems and in a score of ship-to-ship battles as they were driven before the Imperials, bloodying their pursuers at every turn. It soon transpired that the Night Reapers, having thrown off the rule of the Emperor, had sought advantage in innovation, their Techmarines adapting xenos weapons technology originating with the cursed and near-extinct Hellgrammite race to their own ends, and their masters striking pacts with the servants of the Archenemy to further their cause. From this the Night Reapers gained the strength to resist the Imperial onslaught for a time, but their relentless foes eventually cornered the bulk of the surviving Night Reapers at the Perun Cross -- a massive derelict pre-Human space wreck large enough to have accrued its own thin atmosphere and parasitic life over the long ages. Here the Night Reapers were tunnelling into the ancient artificial core of the wreck, kilometres deep, in search of a weapon that they believed would be sufficient to rid themselves of the Imperial forces who now encircled and besieged them. Events as they transpired at the bitter point of the siege remain shrouded in confusion, but what is known is that at the height of the Minotaurs' attack, the Grey Knights Strike Cruiser Equinox Blade and a force of Grey Knights, under the command of Brother-Captain Danicus, arrived in orbit around the Perun Cross. Entering the fire zone, they ordered the Imperial forces to concede to their authority and pull back from the assault; the Minotaurs, however, were not included to this course. The retreat of the Loyalist forces paved the way for Brother-Captain Danicus of the Grey Knights to conduct a teleport assault into the depths of the Perun Cross as the battle raged on. What then transpired remains unknown, but sometime shortly afterwards the Perun Cross' structure broke up into burning fragments, riven by a series of gigaton-level explosions. The demise of the Perun Cross led to the complete loss of the Grey Knights' force and a substantial, but undefined, number of Minotaurs Space Marines, along with heavy damage to the Equinox Blade and the death of all those left on board. Asterion Moloc, the stern Chapter Master of the Minotaurs, is known to have survived the incident as he was once again witnessed commanding his Chapter in battle some months later, while the Grey Knight Lords of Titan and the Ordo Malleus have remained curiously silent over their losses. As for the Night Reapers Chapter, it is believed that the fiery death of the Perun Cross served as the funeral pyre for this once-Loyal Chapter. Whatever profane secrets surrounded them are believed to have been buried there, as well.Orphean War (992-995.M41) - The Minotaurs participated in the failed defence of the Orpheus Sector from the Necrons of the Maynarkh Dynasty. When the Imperium proved unable to maintain control over the sector, the Minotaurs were charged by the High Lords of Terra with carrying out Exterminatus actions on those worlds of the sector irretrievably lost to the undying mechanical xenos.Indomitus Crusade (Unknown Date.M42) - A complement of Minotaurs, including Minotaurs Strike Force Abrecht under the command of Captain Ulrech, served with Battle Group Faustus of the crusade's Fleet Secundus. These Astartes served in the campaign as part of Task Force Faustus III and Task Force Faustus IV to retake the Bosphori System from the control of multiple heretical forces, including a contingent of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion. The Minotaurs in particular were responsible for the recapture of the void docks in orbit of Bosphori Deo from the Thousand Sons.A Future Befouled (Unknown Date.M42) - A sepsis cohort of the 7th Plague Company of the Death Guard Traitor Legion struck at the fortress-monastery of the Minotaurs Chapter. Their attack was driven off, but celebration turned to despair upon the discovery that Mortarion's sons had tainted the Chapter's gene-seed stocks beyond redemption. So began a desperate quest for survival, a crusade across the stars to reach Terra and access purified gene-seed reserves before the Chapter wastes away.Hexarchy Rebellion (Unknown Date.M42) - The "Hexarchy" was a group composed of both current and former High Lords of Terra, many of them removed from office by the Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman after his resurrection, who had refused to accept the reforms the lord commander began to make in the Imperium. The Hexarchy was led by Irthu Haemotalion, a former Master of the Administratum who had been removed by Guilliman and the deposed reactionary Ecclesiarch Baldo Slyst. The group also included the still-seated High Lords Aveliza Drachmar, the Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites, the Lord Commander Militant Mar Av Ashariel, Lord High Admiral Merelda Pereth and the Grand Master of Assassins Fadix. Using the vast resources at their command as the leaders of the Imperium's government, the Hexarchy attempted to forcibly take back control of Terra while Guilliman was away from the Throneworld while commanding the Indomitus Crusade. Once Terra was under their control, the Hexarchy intended to take control of the rest of the Imperium and roll back Guilliman's reforms, ensuring that the unchanging status quo of the so-called "Imperium Eterna" that had reigned before the Era Indomitus began was restored. The Hexarchy ordered the Minotaurs Chapter, known for its unwavering and unreasoning loyalty to the Emperor and the High Lords, to the Throneworld to aid their plot. The Astartes arrived on Terra believing the heart of the Imperium was under siege from enemies within. However, the plotters' attempted coup ended in failure after it was revealed that Fadix's loyalty to the Hexarchy's cause had always been a ruse, arranged from the start by Guilliman to ensure the loyalty of the High Lords he left behind on Terra. Once a signal was given by the grand master of assassins, each of the Hexarchy's members were killed by Fadix's well-placed Imperial Assassins.