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===The Horus Heresy===
[[Image:Corax-Soulforge-clean.jpg|thumb|right|295px|[[Corax]] leads the Raven Guard against the [[Dark Mechanicus]] during the Horus Heresy]]
The Raven Guard legion was one of the smallest legions during the [[Great Crusade]], numbering 80,000 Astartese Astartes as well as an [[Imperial Army]] [[Regiment]] known as the [[Therion Cohort]] attached to the legion's expeditionary force.{{Fn|12}} As a legion they were a fierce enemy for anyone who opposed the [[Imperium of Man]], using time honoured tactics of guerilla warfare which Corax himself had learnt during the Revolution he himself had commanded to free his people from the merciless slavery forced upon them by the Tech Guilds of [[Kiavahr]].{{Fn|12}} Extremely efficient and trained, the Raven Guard would engage in acts of mass sabotage along with infiltration, blink-of-an-eye Strikes, and expert covert operations, all of which they had perfected into what would look like ease to any other warrior.{{Fn|12}}
The [[Raven Guard]] were one of seven legions to be sent to the Istvaan system (Others present were the [[Iron Hands]], [[Salamanders]], [[Alpha Legion]], [[Iron Warriors]], [[Night Lords]] and [[Word Bearers]]) to quell a rebellion lead by the former [[Warmaster]], [[Horus]] - [[Primarch]] of the [[Sons of Horus]] Legion (Formerly the [[Luna Wolves]]).{{Fn|12}} Horus and his other three traitor primarchs ([[Fulgrim]], [[Angron]] and [[Mortarion]]) had entrenched themselves on the planet of [[Istvaan V]], and lay in wait for the Loyalist forces to land and engage.{{Fn|12}} The fighting once joined was fierce and hot-blooded, brother versus brother, and no quarter was given on either side.{{Fn|12}} Mid way into the fighting, Horus and his allies retreated back into their fortifications for no reason that could be grasped by the loyalist factions.{{Fn|12}} The Raven Guard were in the thick of the fighting from the start, though out of their element due to the lack of tactical planning and the close-up-and-personal combat spreading like wildfire across the plains of Istvaan V. They fought both with as much honour and as much skill as any other legion would in the circumstances.{{Fn|12}} When the traitors made a surprise withdrawal back to their fortifications, the Raven Guard used this cease in the fighting to regroup and re-arm.{{Fn|12}} However, when they neared the "loyalist" defences (which were tenfold reinforced by the expert siege engineers of the Iron Warriors legion under their [[Primarch]] [[Perturabo]]'s direction, they were fired upon by the very guns meant to protect them. Hundreds were gunned down in the first few minutes of the betrayal, before they even realised that there were traitors in there midst.{{Fn|12}}
Upon escaping the tailing forces of [[World Eater]]'s picket ships, "[[Avenger]]"{{Fn|12}} broke real-space into the warp, and headed for Terra.{{Fn|12}} Upon arriving Corax headed for the Imperial Palace, which was being fortified by Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists in preperation for the coming Siege (Siege of Terra), upon which after much argument with Dorn and Malcador the Imperial Regent, The Emperor himself boomed in a psychic voice for the arguing to cease and pulled Corax into a vision of extreme light, and showed him the secrets he had been asking for - The gene forging tech used to create the Primarch's by the Emperor himself.{{Fn|12}} After navigating the treacherous and dangerous contraption which was the ever shape-shifting maze on Luna, by using his advanced logic, and the skill of his sons to out-think its logic engine and freeze it in place, he retrieved the gene tech and returned to Deliverance under the watchful eye of the Adeptus Custodes (who were charged by Malcador to keep an eye on its safety).{{Fn|12}}
At first the Astartese Astartes created by the gene tech were a marvel, a splice of primarch and AstarteseAstartes, but not in an imbalanced degree so as to cause malfunction, a perfect meld.{{Fn|12}} These new warriors were faster, stronger, and more intelligent than any of the older warriors of the [[Space Marine Legion|Legion]], and within a few weeks more aspirants had been successfully implanted with stable [[gene-seed]] than ever before (the new gene seed also meant that warriors matured into their new forms rapidly compared to standard AstarteseAstartes).{{Fn|12}} The new warriors would be placed under the command of Captain Branne Nev under the moniker "[[Raptors]]", and would be used against a [[Word Bearer]] fortress as their first deployment, which would see them successfully slaughter veteran [[Word Bearer]]s with the ease of much older warriors. Raptors would take injuries that would have killed even an AstarteseAstartes, and still remain fighting due to their enhanced bodies.{{Fn|12}} Word of this reached the ears of [[Omegon]], twin [[primarch]] of the Alpha Legion, whom had been laying dormant on [[Kiavahr]] below stirring up a rebellion amongst the tech guilds, and he sprung into action.{{Fn|12}}
The rebellion and even the Alpha Legionnaires supporting it were a distraction, while the Raven Guard were caught off guard, Omegon and several Alpha Legion operatives managed to covertly spike the gene tech with a daemon blood poison (while managing to keep the pure technology for themselves) using the Raven Guard [[gene-seed]] to produce deformed monsters.{{Fn|12}} The battle finally began as the first Raven Guard recruits to recieve receive the secretly spiked gene seed were implanted, and by the time it raged into the gene labs of [[Ravendelve]], only to be met by deformed warriors created by the spiked gene seed's effects.{{Fn|12}} While deformed, these astartese astartes still fought with otherworldly strength, overpowering even the Alpha Legion AstarteseAstartes.{{Fn|12}} By the time the battle was over, Agents had been found amidst the legion, explaining how news reached the traitors about the gene tech, and thus the loss of such a boon to the crippled legion, gene screening was to be implemented to find and destroy the agents with the stolen faces of Raven Guard Legionnaires.{{Fn|12}}Corax nevertheless led the Raven Guard in full strength (~4000 Astartes) and his allies (over 500,000 [[Therion Cohort]], 100-150 [[Imperial Fists]], ~20 Custodes against [[The Perfect Fortress]], an Emperors Children stronghold{{Fn|12e}}. Planned to be conducted with his legion rebuild to be at least 10.000 Astartes strong, the Fortress was taken by luring the Traitor forces out with an failed assualt assault by the Therion Cohort{{Fn|12e}}. While Raven Guard losses were small, the Traitor force was totally destroyed{{Fn|12e}}. [[The Perfect Fortress]] was on a important strategic planet for the whole sector, but Corax withdrew his legion to strike the next Traior Traitor force, leaving the garrison to the [[Therion Cohort]], and the expected Imperial Army and Titan Legion Reinforcements{{Fn|12e}}.
Without the gene tech the Raven Guard Legion remained a small legion, though their continued work with small cells of warriors allowed them to remain no less of a fighting force, though fewer in number then before{{Fn|12}}. Tales of the Space Wolves report the use of Astartes more beasts than man{{Fn|2}}. The Space Wolves never reported this to any imperial authorities, most likely because they shared a sympathy with the Raven Guard because of their own similar flaw{{Fn|2}}.
When Roboute Guilliman announced his "[[Codex Astartes]]" which would split the legions into organised chapters, Corax was circumstantially forced to adapt to the new rules, Abliet still retaining his legions overall structure, but in smaller [[chapter]]s of 1,000 AstarteseAstartes, As is how the [[Raven Guard]] chapter is to this day.{{Fn|12}}
====Notable Operations====
* Drop Assualt Assault on Istvaan V {{Fn|12}}
* Space Skirmishes in the Istvaan-System {{Fn|12a}}
* Attack on Word Bearers Communication Outpost {{Fn|12d}}
* Defense of Ravendelve {{Fn|12e}}
* Supressing Suppressing of rebbeling rebelling Guilders and Mechanicum-Traitors on Kiavahr {{Fn|12e}}* Assualt Assault on [[The Perfect Fortress]]{{Fn|12e}}* Assualt Assault on Word Bearer Stronghold (planned){{Fn|12e}}* Joined Operation in an assualt assault on a traitor stronghold with the Space Wolves {{Fn|2}}
===Horus Heresy Aftermath===
