7th Black Crusade
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For the seventh time
He came as shadow.[5]
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The Seventh Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler, also known as the Ghost War, occurred in 811.M37[2]. Abaddon claimed the gene-seed of many Blood Angels to barter with Fabius Bile.[1]
Overview
The forces of Chaos spewed forth from the Eye of Terror past Cadia and then disappeared. This is where it earned the name, the Ghost War. The following years saw a game of hide and seek which spread confusion, paranoia, disinformation and deceit. Raids became commonplace in far-flung areas but eventually they went back to the Eye and mankind had to simply wait for the next attack.[1] At one point, the Blood Angels Strike Cruiser Sanguine Tear was ravaged by forces under Kharn the Betrayer.[7]
In the aftermath of a Blood Angels defeat and rout at Midian, Carcharodon forces descended upon Abaddon's fleet as they attempted to chase the Blood Angels. The Carcharodons' scouring of the traitors was recorded in detail on the Cemetery World of Hypasitis.[6]
Battle of Mackan
In one of the most important battles of the 7th Black Crusade, the entire Blood Angels Chapter fell upon Mackan to do battle with a vast Black Legion warband led by Abaddon the Despoiler himself. Though they had their full strength behind them[3] and were supported by Rampagers Chapter reinforcement,[4] the Blood Angels were nearly destroyed at the hands of Abaddon and his primary lieutenants Telemachon Lyras and Iskandar Khayon.[3][8] Despite this, the Black Legion also suffered heavy losses, including chief officer Lheorvine Ukris.[8] Ultimately, Abaddon killed Captain Acrion in single combat, a parody of the duel between Horus and Sanguinius.[1] After most of the Blood Angels' Chapter had been annihilated by the Traitors, the Black Legion began to desecrate the Blood Angels' corpses and ruin their gene-seed beyond recovery.[3]
However, Reclusiarch Thalastian Jorus and his Death Company managed to survive the initial slaughter of their Chapter and emerged from hiding to launch a surprise attack on Abaddon and his honour guard weeks after the main battle for Mackan had ended. Jorus and the Death Company managed to kill many of the honour guard before being struck down. Not long after, the Black Legion departed from Mackan. Imperial forces subsequently discovered that Abaddon had desecrated all dead Blood Angels with the exception of Jorus' forces; indeed, the Warmaster had left the Death Company's corpses intact, sitting upon thrones made from the armour of the Chaos Space Marines they had killed.[3]
Aftermath
Abaddon would go on to use the recovered gene-seed to create new Space Marines with the aid of Fabius Bile.[1]
Sources
- 1: Black Legion - A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement (E-Book), "The Ghost War"
- 2: Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition), pg. 23
- 3: Index Astartes: Death Company pg. 10
- 4: Imperial Armour Volume Two - Second Edition: War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pg. 18
- 5: Liber Chaotica: Khorne, Black Crusades
- 6: Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two pg.119
- 7: Warlords of the Dark Millennium: Khârn the Betrayer — Blood for the Blood God
- 8: Talon of Horus (Novel), Chapters 19–20
