THE RISING LEVIATHAN

THE SHIELDWORLDS

The Cryptus System was a bastion of the Imperium, and its worlds were ramparts that faced the void with bristling guns and high walls. Each of its four principal planets – Asphodex, Lysios, Aeros and Tartortos – toiled for the glory of the Emperor under the twin suns of their system, known as the Eyes of Cryptus. The Imperial citizens were secure in the power of their sprawling defences and brave soldiers; for millennia these worlds had stood inviolate against the darkness, bathed in the baleful red light of their suns, a shield against the enemies of Mankind.

When the first sub-tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan reached out toward the twin suns of Cryptus, the Imperium remained confident that the system’s heavily defended worlds, vast planetary defence forces and powerful battle fleet would hold the xenos back. Even so, Astra Militarum regiments were rushed to reinforce the system, and the veteran Cadian General Dhrost took command of the defence. The Imperial Guard dug in on the city world of Asphodex, garrisoned the void domes of Tartoros, sent air wings to the gas giant Aeros and deployed armoured formations to the toxic moon of Ixoi. Upon the ruined world of Lysios, Canoness Magda Grace’s Adepta Sororitas set to defending the nomadic tribes.

However, these planetbound defences were merely a precaution in the eyes of the Imperium, as the system’s greatest barrier was out among the stars. Beyond the Cryptus battlefleet and its vast armada of void-ships, an asteroid field ringed the twin stars. Known as the Castellan Belt, this ancient field of mined-out asteroids was now a gun line of fortified planetoids, millions of turrets and macro-cannon pointing out into the darkness of space. And yet this was not the greatest of the system’s defences. One more barrier lurked on the very edge of the open void: the Aegis Diamando. This was a wall of unnatural cold that was anathema to all life. It was believed that the Tyranids could not hope to cross the Aegis and survive.

THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS

As has oft happened in the Imperium’s long and bloody history, it had underestimated its foes. The hive fleet sailed straight through the Aegis, encasing itself in vile secretions that quickly froze into diamond-hard armour. This shield not only protected the Tyranids from the unnatural cold but was also proof against the Imperial battlefleet’s massed guns. Numbering millions of bio-ships and lesser organisms, the alien tendril divided as it sailed in-system, heading to each of the inhabited worlds. The Imperial ships were brushed aside, overwhelmed by an enemy that outnumbered them many times over. The battle among the stars was lost in a span of hours, the rest of the system’s defenders forced to watch, powerless, from their planetary fortifications as the Tyranids consumed the Imperial fleet and moved in for the kill.

Then the invasion began in earnest and every planet of Cryptus felt the talons of the Devourer.

On Asphodex General Dhrost led an inspired defence that denied the Tyranids the skies while channelling them into kill-zones on the ground. On Lysios Canoness Magda Grace rallied the nomadic tribes and their caravans into a great corral as the first xenos swarms fell upon them. In the swirling blue skies of Aeros, Astra Militarum Valkyrie wings patrolled the upper atmosphere, fighting off the worst the Tyranids could throw at them. Meanwhile, on the moon of Ixoi, the Vostroyan tank regiments fought a bitter battle in the poison mists against hordes of xenos invaders, and on Tartoros Imperial Guardsmen struggled to defend the void domes from the hulking monsters sent against them.

Everywhere battle raged unchecked, and on every planet the skies were filled with falling spores and screaming alien horrors. At first it seemed like the Imperium might emerge victorious, and great victories were reported on both Asphodex and Lysios as the Astra Militarum and Adepta Sororitas took a heavy toll upon the invaders. The ruins of Phodia, Asphodex’s principal city, and the plains of Lysios were both thick with alien dead, but these successes were bought with the lives of countless brave Imperial defenders.

IN THE JAWS OF THE BEAST

These early victories were to provide only false hope. Only after the first bloody day of fighting did the true size of the Tyranid invasion fleet become clear, as wave after wave of bio-creatures rained down from the skies to take the place of the millions already slain. Worse still, the Hive Mind was adapting at a terrifying rate, and for every tried and tested tactic the Imperium had discovered to defeat the Tyranids the Hive Mind had developed a defence. What little hope there had been died at the sight of the stars blotted out by hive ships, and the worlds of the Cryptus System seething with xenos invaders.

On Asphodex the great city burned out of control and General Dhrost’s defences were overrun. Attacked from within and without, his armies crumbled, and soon the Imperial Guard’s carefully laid lines of defence had become isolated pockets of resistance that were devoured one by one. In the chaos of battle Dhrost disappeared, and all organised resistance began to break down.

On Lysios Magda Grace’s inspired defence became a desperate last stand. The Canoness held her army together until she was eventually slain by a Lictor in the final moments of the evacuation. Though many of her sisters escaped, many more perished in the final retreat. Aeros, Tartoros and Ixoi all suffered similar defeats, their defenders broken and scattered before the alien swarms.

As the second day drew to a close, the Shieldworlds had been all but broken, and the Cryptus System completely overrun by the hive fleet. Only a faint cry for help escaped out into the Warp to be heard beyond the Aegis Diamando.

The Flesh Tearers suffer worse than most from the effects of their genetic Flaw. Yet their heroism is perhaps all the greater because of this. The wider Imperium is quick to judge every misstep the Flesh Tearers make, but this only drives them on to strive for ever more mighty deeds. So it was on Lysios, Seth’s warriors determined to be seen as saviours, not savages.

GABRIEL SETH

The Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers is equal parts iron-willed leader and wrathful warrior, but during the opening stages of the war on Lysios he was forced to stand apart from the fighting, commanding his warriors from the air. As the situation became ever more desperate, Seth had felt a familiar rage building within him, that same curse that all of his battle-brothers suffered from. He had forced the sensation down, his iron will keeping the rage in check as always. Now, with no option remaining but to stand and fight, Gabriel Seth welcomed the killing rage like an old friend, and prepared to turn it upon the hated xenos foe.

Dante stood on the deck of the Blade of Vengeance and watched the world die. Beyond the void shield that divided the Battle Barge’s massive hanger bay from the void, Asphodex was little more than a blackened husk crawling with shadows. Dante tried to find a sense of victory in what felt like an unquestionable defeat. Billions of Tyranids had been destroyed, but at the cost of an entire star system.

The price to the Chapter had also been dangerously high, and as the Commander looked away from the corpse of the planet he had tried to save it was to behold the battered remains of the 2nd Company, still disembarking from their transports, carrying the wounded and the dead down the ramps of Stormravens scarred by bio-weapons and scorched by the hard burn back into orbit.

However, even after surviving the hellish meat-grinder of Asphodex and its ruined cityscape, the Blood Angels showed no signs of the shadow that hung over their retreat. Heads held high and eyes bright with purpose, their faith in their Chapter Master remained undiminished. Dante had no doubt that if he were to order them back into the fray they would not hesitate.

The commander looked at their faces as they marched across the hanger, and could not help but wonder how many would live to reach Baal, or even whether those Space Marines that remained to the Chapter would be enough. What cost to save his Chapter’s home world? And what if, in the saving of Baal, the Blood Angels were destroyed? Had the damage done to the Tyranids been enough? These were the thoughts that chased each other through Dante’s mind as he watched his brothers return from the world below.

Then a cold wind rushed across the deck and light flared from nothing. For a split second Dante thought it was the Hive Mind launching a final attack and his hand instinctively dropped to his holstered pistol. Yet as the light faded it was replaced by a winged figure. For the first time in many years Dante beheld the Sanguinor, resplendent in sculpted golden armour, the mysterious warrior’s face hidden behind a burnished mask that mirrored Dante’s own. At once all activity on the deck stopped, and to a battle-brother the Blood Angels fell to one knee, their heads bowed. Only Dante remained standing, transfixed by the Sanguinor’s sudden appearance, and for the first time in centuries he was unsure of what this meant – had the ancient warrior come to condemn him for his defeat or was this a sign that these events were the will of the Primarch at work?

With slow, deliberate steps the Sanguinor approached the Chapter Master, wings brushing the bowed heads of the Blood Angels as he passed them. At last the two legends stood face to face, the silence heavy in the air. Without speaking Dante drew back his mask, showing the Sanguinor alone his face, and looked upon the blessed warrior with eyes unhindered by lenses or filters. Finally the question he knew he must ask came to Dante’s lips, though it was but a whisper meant only for the ears of the Sanguinor.

‘Was it enough – can Baal still be saved?’

For long moments there was only silence, and Dante felt sure there could be no answer. Then, for the first time in the annals of the Blood Angels, the Sanguinor spoke.

‘There is yet hope.’

STRIKE FORCE RAZORWIND

Gabriel Seth designated his Lysios invasion force as Strike Force Razorwind. Its vanguard elements were chosen for their speed and versatility: Space Marine Tactical Squads in Rhinos borne into battle by heavy landers, supported by Vanguard Veterans carried down from the skies aboard missile-bearing Stormraven Gunships. Reinforcing this speartip assault were Seth’s heavy support units: Terminator Assault Squads, Predator tanks and Dreadnoughts. These support troops would be held in reserve until such time as the Chapter Master could find a good place to make his stand against the Tyranids. This combination of fast and heavy-hitting units would give the Flesh Tearers the ability to move swiftly across the ruined landscape of Lysios and then, once the enemy was outmanoeuvred, to strike with the force of a hurricane.