Space Wolves - The 13th Company: The Space Wolves' most coveted legend states that the group that came to be known as the Space Wolves' 13th Company was ordered by their Primarch Leman Russ to pursue the Thousand Sons Legion into the Warp, after the failed attempt to eliminate that Traitor Legion on their homeworld of Prospero at the very start of the Horus Heresy. The 13th Company vanished from Imperial records, and their loss is honoured by a black stone in the Grand Annulus (the record of Space Wolf Great Companies).Just before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion, Magnus the Red, sent his astral body through the Warp using the Eldar Webway to reach Terra and warn his father the Emperor of Mankind of the Warmaster Horus' turn to Chaos and his betrayal of the Imperium. Magnus had by then already been unwittingly corrupted by the Chaos God Tzeentch and his psychic intrusion destroyed the psychic barriers around Terra and the Golden Throne. Magnus' arrival on Terra killed all of the human cult members on Prospero who had initiated the spell that allowed Magnus to enter the Webway, drove thousands of people involved in the Emperor's Webway Project on Terra insane because of the phenomenal energies released upon his arrival, killed all of the workers, Adepts and Servitors working on the psychic amplifier known as the Golden Throne and opened dangerous portals through the Warp to Terra, through which daemons and other Warp entities could invade the homeworld of Mankind.Unfortunately, Magnus' continued use of sorcery was a direct violation on the ban of its use within the Imperium imposed at the Council of Nikaea during the Great Crusade. The Emperor also refused to believe that his beloved son Horus could possibly betray him and mistakenly believed that it was Magnus, not Horus, who had truly betrayed him. The Emperor ordered Leman Russ and his Space Wolves to bring Magnus to Terra to face judgment for his defiance of the Council of Nikaea's ban on the use of sorcery. Horus convinced Leman Russ that it would be a waste of time bringing Magnus to Terra and that he should be killed on Prospero for his defiance of the Emperor's will. The Space Wolves were accompanied by the Sisters of Silence and the Adeptus Custodes and their attack on Prospero proceeded smoothly largely because Magnus refused at first to join the fray, believing that his world and Legion should fall because he had inadvertently allowed himself to become a pawn of the Chaos Gods.In the final moments of the Battle of Prospero, the Thousand Sons were already reduced to a force of only about 1,000 Space Marines and the Space Wolves, Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence possessed approximately 3,000 warriors combined. The Thousand Sons took shelter in the Pyramid of Photep, the Sanctum of Magnus on Prospero, while their Primarch dueled with Leman Russ outside. The battle between Leman Russ and Magnus was quick and brutal. Magnus drove his fist into Russ' chest, the icy breastplate cracking open with a sound like planets colliding, and shards of ceramite stabbed the Wolf King's heart. In return, Russ snapped Magnus' arm back, and the Thousand Sons sorcerer Ahriman heard it shatter into a thousand pieces. A blade composed of pure psychic energy unsheathed from Magnus' other arm, and he drove it deep into Russ' chest through his shattered Power Armour. The blade burst from Russ' back and the Wolf King loosed a deafening bellow of pain.Magnus and Leman Russ found themselves locked in battle high above the causeway, the furious horror of their struggle obscured by ethereal fire and bursts of lightning. A flare of black light erupted and Russ cried out in agony. His blade lashed out blindly and struck a fateful blow against his foe's most dreaded weapon: his eye. In an instant, the pyrotechnic cascade of light and fire was extinguished and a stunning silence swept outwards. All motion ceased, and the titans battling on the causeway were no more, each Primarch now restored to his customary stature. Magnus reeled back from the Wolf King, one hand clutched to his eye as his shattered arm crackled with regenerative energies.As broken and bloodied as Leman Russ was, he was warrior enough to seize his opportunity. He barreled into Magnus and gripped him around the waist like a wrestler, roaring as he lifted his brother's body high above his head. All eyes turned to Russ as he brought Magnus down across his knee, and the sound of the Crimson King's back breaking tore through every Thousand Sons' heart. With the last of his strength, Magnus turned his head, and his ravaged eye found Ahriman. Leman Russ' blade swept down, but before its lethal edge struck, Magnus whispered unnatural syllables. Magnus' body underwent an instantaneous dissolution, its entire structure unmade with a word, and Ahriman gasped as vast and depthless power surged into his body. Then the Thousand Sons, each carrying a crystal from the refracting caves on Prospero, vanished into the Warp at Ahriman's word and were transported to the Planet of the Sorcerers, a Daemon World prepared for them by Tzeentch. Leman Russ then ordered the 13th Company of the Space Wolves to be sent into the Eye of Terror to pursue the Thousand Sons and put an end to their threat to the Imperium once and for all.The 13th Company's reappearance at the beginning of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade returned them to realspace for the first time in over 10,000 years. They appear to still be in pursuit of the goal Leman Russ set for them and still desire the destruction of the Thousand Sons at all costs and possess an abiding hatred for sorcery and all forms of psychic powers.The 13th Company's organisation departs heavily even from the already-independent Space Wolf norms, due to their lack of reinforcements and new recruits, the inability to train members in specialist roles, the lack of heavy equipment, and the effect of having to exist within the Eye of Terror for 10,000 standard years. The core of a 13th Company warband are the Grey Slayers. Similar to Grey Hunters but far beyond them in skill, they fulfill the same tactical roles in battle. Because of the impossibility of recruiting new brethren, there are no Blood Claws in the 13th Company. Each and every Blood Claw of the 13th Company has long since advanced to a higher rank. The Company's assault specialists are the Storm Claws. They are equally experienced, but still more hot-headed and aggressive than the Grey Slayers. The key to the 13th Company's movement through the Warp were its Rune Priests. Because the Eye of Terror unlocked hidden psychic powers in many of the 13th Company's original Astartes, the Company had no shortage of these highly gifted individuals.