Angron continues his wrath on Armageddon and Logan Grimnar with his Space Wolves, along with Grey Knights push back! Let’s take a look!
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
The Imperial defence was well organized. Unknown to the forces of Chaos, Logan Grimnar and his Great Company of Space Marines from the Space Wolves chapter had been assigned to this sector of the Imperium, and they moved quickly to help the beleaguered Imperial defenders. They gained valuable time as Angron raised bloody monuments from the wreckage of the dead instead of pressing his advantage. In addition, his power was dependent on a nearby Warp Storm, and when it lulled the defenders gained precious time to organize a counterattack. When his army emerged from the jungles that separated Armageddon Prime from Armageddon Secundus they found the defenders ready and waiting, and reinforced by the Space Wolves. Grimnar’s commanding presence and charisma rallied the terrified defenders of Armageddon’s.
Huge battles erupted along the entire front. The Space Wolves were outnumbered one thousand to one, but nonetheless Grimnar led the charge. Taking the fight to the Chaos horde, the Great Wolf led an armored assault straight across the River Chaeron into the World Eater horde, inflicting heavy losses on the traitors before withdrawing. The enraged World Eaters pursued the Space Wolves mechanized forces into the jungle, falling into a combined Space Wolf/Steel Legion ambush along the Chaeron and slaughtered. The Space Wolves waded into the river itself and set about the Chaos horde in a mad frenzy, battling for hours and holding the line.
However in the west, the assault along the river Styx was spearheaded by Angron himself and the Cruor Praetoria. The Primarch and his Bloodthirsters smashed through the Imperial lines and led his forces towards Hive Infernus and Hive Helsreach. The Imperial Guard and Space Wolves forces managed to desperately hold the line and bought enough time for the Imperium to unleash the Grey Knights.
It was now that the Imperium unleashed his secret weapon. When Logan Grimnar realized the nature of their foe, he called for the support of the Grey Knights, as only the Chapter Militant of the Inquisition’s daemonhunters had the ability to truly defeat a daemonic entity as powerful as Angron.
The Grey Knights dispatched one hundred and nine Terminator Assault Marines who attacked Angron directly, along with the Cruor Praetoria, his bodyguard of a dozen Bloodthirsters, by teleporting into the center of the daemon army. At the same time, the Space Wolves led a massive Imperial counter-attack. Initially Angron and his escorts decimated the Grey Knights, the Primarch wiping out five Grey Knights Terminators with a single stroke of his Black Blade.
However thanks to the psychic might of the young recruit Hyperion, the Black Blade was shattered and the Grey Knights were now at a significant advantage. Soon after, Brother-Captain Taremar Aurellian was killed while personally banishing Angron back to the warp for a hundred years and a day. The loss of their leader, coupled with the surprise assault from the remaining imperial forces, led to the near-complete annihilation of the chaos forces on Armageddon. Though the final battle was a major Imperial Victory, only thirteen Grey Knights survived.
Although they had won, the victorious soldiers of Armageddon were doomed. They had gained knowledge of the existence of Chaos, and been exposed to its corruption. The Inquisition had all of the people who fought on the planet, except for the Space Marines, sterilized and placed in work camps. Armageddon was re-colonized by people from other regions of space with no knowledge of the war. The Inquisition and Grey Knights went on to purge Imperial Navy and Adeptus Mechanicus ships orbiting the planet and Grey Knights Strike Cruisers destroyed Imperial Guard troop transports that were departing. Three entire nearby worlds were put to the sword to silence the populous when they had heard of the exploits of Stormtroopers that were at the battle of Helsreach Hive.
The purges claimed several billion souls. Logan Grimnar battled long and hard to prevent this and even attempted to have his fleet escort ships of survivors away from the Inquisition, but after an attack by the Ordo Malleus and Grey Knights he failed and has never forgiven the Inquisition for doing what he saw as a betrayal of the people who had fought honorably for their homes and for the Imperium. Moreover the worlds that came into contact with the survivors escorted by the Space Wolves where also put to Exterminatus, resulting the destruction of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica station Ralas Meridian, the worlds of Jendara Quintus and Tybuilt, and the Adeptus Mechanicus outpost of Priam Novus.
Find out more about the First War of Armageddon
About the Author: Zeb Barrett
