As corruption grew and storms formed over the twin planets, the battle raged on. Cypher warned Purson of a trap but was ignored. What happened next?
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
The corruption grew worse and storms quickly drew over the twin planets. Battle raged as the Unforgiven razed den after den of Cultists, mutants and renegades – always pressing more deeply into the wasteland continents of both planets. Twice Cypher had eluded them. What was even more infuriating was that he had sent them messages, urging them to depart and warning that they were heading into a trap. Begrudgingly, Purson had to admit that it looked as if Cypher was correct. He gave the command to retreat as the Warp storms crashed over the region. He was loath to abandon the battles, but he knew his time was running short. The Lions Sable, however, refused.
Since splitting into Chapters, each successor was meant to remain autonomous, but the Dark Angels had always maintained more control over their progeny than was laid out in the tenets of the Second Founding another secret they kept hidden. So many times had their Primarch Lion El’Jonson stubbornly held onto a position or refused to give ground that the Lions’ defiant act seemed more in character with their mighty forefather, and for a moment Purson hesitated. Taking with him only his bodyguard, the Supreme Grand Master headed back down to the planet. He commanded the fleet – for there were now six of their ships in orbit – to get clear of the Eye of Terror. He would contact them when the storm cleared. None knew it then, but that was the last anyone would ever see of Purson or the Lions Sable.
The storms had become so violent – the ever-spinning spiral arms growing wider and wider as raw Chaos vomited from the Eye of Terror’s centre – that the frigate Vendetta was lost into the Warp. The tumult provided one advantage: the Unforgiven fleet escaped out of the Eye of Terror and past the Cadian Gate unobserved in the impenetrable murk. They alone survived to bring word of these events back to the Rock. They were dismayed to find that although they had been gone for but the span of a few years as measured inside the storms, in realspace over a thousand years had passed. Many small sorties had attempted to penetrate that murk, but none ever succeeded. When at last the tempests ceased, a small task force was sent into the Eye of Terror once again – but no sign of Cocytus I or its twin could be found. It was as if the Eye of Terror had swallowed them.
Cypher, however, did return, and much more quickly. His telltale signal appeared in the same system as the Rock, which quickly scrambled hunt-teams to seek him. Once again he eluded them, but not before leading them into an empty cathedral to the Emperor on a ruined and desolate planet. There, they found neatly placed where they could not miss them the returned Sword of Secrets and the Lion Helm – the most potent icons of the Dark Angels and tokens carried by their Supreme Grand Master. Whether trap or test, the Unforgiven Chapters suffered serious losses upon Cocytus, and those events were to have profound effects upon the Sons of the Lion.
To cover up their immediate losses after their warriors were thought lost to the Warp, the resources of the recruiting world of the Lions Sable – the ebon orb of Nachwald – were usurped to replenish the Angels of Vengeance and the Angels of Retribution. The Dark Angels staged a false plasma explosion aboard the Rock to explain their loss of records, for it was decided by the Inner Circle to destroy all records relating to the event. As for the survivors of Cocytus that did eventually return, they were spread out amongst the Unforgiven Chapters so their sudden influx would not be noted. For the rest of their lives, each was closely monitored by Company Chaplains to ensure the prolonged Warp exposure had not contaminated them in any way.
Of the Forgotten Wars, the Dark Angels do not speak, nor has it entered into the apocryphal tales told to their initiates. They have gone to great lengths to ensure all references to that campaign or to the Lions Sable have been stricken from the records available to the Adeptus Terra. Yet it is the custom and battle cry of the sons of Lion El’Jonson to ‘Never forget, never forgive’. Deep in the dungeons of the Rock are secreted the only remaining accounts, and only those of the Inner Circle ever learn of that heroic sacrifice that must forever go untold.
