Blue Hand Heresy

The Blue Hand Heresy was a conflict between the loyal forces of the Imperium of Man and those forces which succame to Chaotic corruption upon the world of Craw at the culmination of WAAAGH! Blakskull. While the Heresy would be primarily contested within the Levan Sub-Sector and the world of Craw, it would involve forces and impact worlds from across the Mandavi Sector and beyond.

Background
The Death World of Craw existed within an astrographic choke point on the edge of Imperial Space known as The Throat. Once WAAAGH! Blakskull was detected beyond The Throat, Azulite Manibus, Chapter Master of the loyalist Blue Hand Space Marines led his entire Chapter to Craw. He was accompanied by over half of Battlefleet Mandavi and several million men of the Imperial Guard. This represented the preponderance of the Mandavi Sector’s military forces, and it was thought that it might prove sufficient to stop the massive Ork onslaught. However, as the First Battle for Craw raged between the Imperials and the Orks, events from Craw’s ancient history would soon alter the fate of the Mandavi Sector forever.

Xeno-Archaeological research was conducted upon Craw in the wake of the Blue Hand Heresy, under close supervision of the Ordo Hereticus and Ordo Xenos. This research determined that the world was once the capital of an unknown Xenos empire which fell to the worship of the ruinous powers during M14.

The Xenos became aware of the nature of Chaos as the manifestation of the universal principle of entropy. They sought to escape its power by seeking perfect precognitive ability. In so doing, the Chaos God Tzeentch, The Architect of Fate, ensnared them to his purposes. As their knowledge of the future grew, their free will shrank, until they could no longer see any path forward except to offer themselves to the very power they had sought to escape.

In a ritual, frightening in both its magnitude and it's effect, the entire species, spread across dozens of worlds, took their own lives as sacrifices to Tzeentch. Almost all of this chaotic power was focused into a single artifact upon the world of Craw; although some dissipated to create the near permanent warp storms surrounding the Throat. All of this, was exactly according to the dark God’s plan. As was it that Azulite Manibus would come into contact with this artifact during battle twenty-four thousand years later.

The Heresy Begins
The psychic energy released when Manibus touched the relic was enough to corrupt every Astartes in the Blue Hand Chapter. The millions of Guardsmen and Navel Ratings in Warzone Craw never stood a chance. It is known that some present, like Inquisitor Von Kurtzberg, who represented the Holy Ordos in the conflict, and Admiral Silas Cave, commanding the the Naval forces, resisted corruption and were slain. However, virtually all of the forces deployed to Warzone Craw instantly became servants of Chaos. It also appears that the shear force of Warp energy released overwhelmed the psychic WAAAGH! field, breaking the Orks’ morale and causing them to flee back beyond The Throat.

With the Orks gone and those still loyal to the Golden Throne dead, Azulite Manibus declared himself Warlord of Craw and Holder of the Blue Hand of Tzeentch. He slew the overall commander of the Guard forces upon the world and demanded the Regiments swear fealty to him and their souls to Tzeentch. This they gladly did. Under the guns of the Blue Hand Chapter fleet, the warships of Battlefleet Mandavi also swore themselves to the cause; and thus the Blue Hand Heresy was born.

The War in Space
When news of the Heresy finally reached Port Amyntikós, the commander of Battlefleet Mandavi went into crisis mode. Lord Admiral Arturius Hargrove III had been in command of all Naval forces in the Mandavi Sector for 53 years. The Captains who had gone to Warzone Craw were hand picked, mostly men and women he had trained personally. What's worse, the man he had tapped to lead those ships was his most gifted subordinate and closest friend, Silas Cave. It came then, as almost a relief when the Lord Admiral learned that the first shot fired, when the traitors took the Levan Anchorage, was Admiral Cave’s corpse, fired broadside from his own flagship.

Even without Admiral Cave’s leadership, the traitors still had three of the Sector’s five Battleships and two thirds of the Cruisers. While loyal Battlefleet Mandavi retained the lion’s share of the the Sector’s Escort ships, that would have counted for little, even had the Blue Hand’s own Chapter Fleet not been engaged on the traitor’s side. There was no denying that the preponderance of naval power now lay with the Emperor’s enemies.

With a heavy heart, Lord Admiral Hargrove transmitted an Astropathic call for aid to the Segmentum Fortress at Kar Duniash. With the message was his offer of resignation and, impicately, suicide. The response from the Lord High Admiral was terse, “Renforcement being assembled. Holding action required. Resignation denied.”

Hargrove knew that it would take years for aid to arrive. In the meantime, his enemy had a superior force, knew his entire order of battle, had access to all of his codes and ciphers, and included Space Marine Battle Barges. The Lord Admiral ordered all loyal ships to rally in the Mandavi system. His only option was to try to defeat his enemy in detail. The traitors would be actively seizing territory, they would have to disperse their forces to assault multiple worlds at once. Battlefleet Mandavi could not hope to defeat the whole traitor fleet, but any one Battlegroup might prove vulnerable.

As the loyalist fleet slipped its moorings, the men and women aboard its two Battleships, six cruisers, and dozens of Escorts had but one prayer: that they might hold the traitors long enough for help to arrive. It was to be a long and bloody three years before they knew if they had succeeded.

War for the Levan Sub-Sector
It was imperative that the Blue Hand quickly grasp the Levan Sub-Sector. The world of Craw could be easily defended, but without inhabited worlds to draw from, the Blue Hand would run out of mortal thralls in mere decades. Once the Sub-Sector was occupied, the forces of Warlord Manibus could push into neighboring Sectors to seize resources and create defense in depth for the inevitable Imperial counter attack. Manibus also knew he needed to maintain a heavy reserve of his Space Marines as a to counter punch against any Loyalist Astartes who decided to intervene.

Therefore, the Warlord sent three of his nine Companies to assault the capital world of Levan Prime while splitting two additional Companies into detachments and dispatching them to seize the other worlds of Sub-Sector. He divided the bulk of his traitor Guardsmen into two forces: one was sent to take Sub-Sector’s single Forge World under the command of the Captain of the Blue Hand’s 8th Company the other was broken up piecemeal and sent to accompany those Marines he had ordered to seize the lesser worlds of the sector. He used his Imperial Navy ships to escort his transports and to seize Levan Anchorage. Meanwhile, he kept four Companies, his Battle Barges and two Strike Cruisers in reserve upon Claw; where he built his Fortress and polted his schemes.

Had all gone according to plan, the Levan Sub-Sector would have been subdued in 18 months and the Blue Hand would have moved on to the rest of the sector. However, one world would go from afterthought, to irritant, to obstacle till finally it resembled the Quagmire of ancient Terran legend. This world was Heb, and the Blue Hand would come to know that name all too well.

1st Invasion of Heb
Heb was a minor Civilized World just beyond the Erendani System; in which lay the key Forge World of Erendan. Azulite Manibus first sent Brother Sargent Carpus Pavo to claim the world. Pavo was a favorite of Manibus, having served as his Equerry; and it is thought that the Chapter Master intended the world as a plaything for his trusted friend. Pavo landed in Sanctum, the ancient capital city of Heb, with two Regiments of traitor Guardsmen. He ordered his drop ship to crush the statue of Imperator Triumphant in the city square, thus earning him the epithet of Iconoclast from the Heb. From there, he personally assaulted the Palace of Justice, disemboweling the world’s Arbites Judge upon his own bar. Meanwhile, the traitor Guardsmen spread through the city, dispatching the local PDF and driving the good and the great off into the hinterland.

Having been driven from the capital, the world's aristocratic leaders became convinced that victory was impossible. It was soon discovered that these same leaders had hidden a warp capable vessel in the outer system and we're preparing to flee the world upon it. These included the Planetary Governor, all senior members of the Administratum, the High Marshall of the PDF and all but one PDF Colonel. That lone Colonel, along with a council of common born PDF Majors, the senior surviving Arbites and the local Ecclesiarchical Pontifex declared almost the entire planetary nobility of Heb to be heretics and traitors.

The nobles’ ship was seized and sent to acquire desperately needed weapons and shields from Forge World Erendan. Meanwhile, the loyal Colonel and eight of the Majors were named the Council of the Holy Commanders of Heb and placed in charge of the PDF. The Holy Commanders rallied the remaining PDF units and led them as an organized force against the traitors. Carpus Pavo’s forces were taken on unfavorable terrain outside the ruins of Santum, and while he alone accounted for an entire company and two of the Heb’s few tanks, he was slain by overwhelming numbers.

Siege of Erendan
The Forge World of Erendan had provided equipment and supplies to the expedition meant to secure Warzone Craw against WAAAGH! Blakskull. Fabricator-General Bedan also dispatched great earthmovers and constructors for use in fortifying the world, and Tech-Preists to oversee their use. Bedan was taught the cost of such generosity when all Imperial forces in the Craw system were converted to the worship of Chaos. Azulite Manibus, the Chapter Master of the Blue Hand Space Marines, dispatched the Captain of his 8th Company to Erendan. Captin Lividi Digitulus brought no Astartes with him, but with over a million traitor guardsmen, their tanks, and their artillery, he invaded the Forge World.

As was to be expected, Forge Primus was well defended with redundant orbital shielding. Bastion walls of diamantine lined plascrete were studded with fixed weapons emplacements, and manned by Cohorts of Skitarii. However, the world’s most formidable defense was the Erendani Prime Macroclade, a Maniple of Titans belonging to the Legio Destructor, lent to Erendan through the auspices of the Fabricator-General of Anuaris. The Warlord class Titan Nomen Solitudinis, with its Warhound companions the Pacum Factoris and Pacum Ruptoris, represented an enormous concentration of mobile firepower.

Captain Digitulus understood that his best chance for victory was to draw the Prime Macroclade into combat, away from the defenses of Forge Primus. He therefore spent the first year of what would come to be known as The Siege of Erendan attempting to lure the Titans out from behind the Forge’s walls. The traitor forces would assault outlying facilities, often with deceptively small forces, hoping to bait the Titans out into the open. While the Fabricator-General was conscious of his obligations to the Tech-Priests of his outposts, he refused to allow his Titans beyond the range of the guns of Forge Primus.

It was in the second year of the war, 825.M39, that the siege of Forge Primus truly began. Traitor guardsmen dug lines of encirclement, often using the very holy engines the Erendani had sent to Craw. Heretical warships remained in orbit at all times, sealing the world off from contact with the wider Imperium and bombarding the Forge’s shields, ever probing for weakness. Digitulus launched a number of powerful assaults across the next 8 months, culminating in a multi-pronged assault that drew the Prime Macroclade out of position, before nearly overwhelming the defenses of Node 283. Had the pace of the offensive continued, there is little doubt Forge Primus would have fallen. However, during the last two years of the siege, the traitors launched few major offensives as whole Regiments of traitor guardsmen had been pulled out to counter setbacks on another world.

The Blue Hand Captain then sought to break the will of the Mechanicus through starvation, not of food, but of the mineral and chemical resources which were the lifeblood of the Forge. The lines of encirclement were tightened, reclaimator parties were attacked ruthlessly, and the airspace above Forge Primus became the exclusive domain of traitor aircraft. In response, the Fabricator-General called for drastic recycling and rationing to be implemented. Bedan announced this program to the Tech-Priests of the Erendani Synod while publicly disassembling his own mastercrafted left arm, carefully preserving each component to be used in the war effort, before replacing it with the damaged and unpainted arm of a destroyed Skitarii. With his unwavering example, the Erendani renewed their determination to stand fast.

As the siege wore on, few upon Erendan were aware of, and fewer still remembered a small act of generosity which would soon be returned many times over. During the first year of the war, a small Imperial transport had breached the loose blockade and beseeched the Forge World for aid. On board were representatives of the Planetary Defense Force and Ecclesiarchy of Heb. They told of how they had repelled the first traitor force, but begged for weapons and shields to help them against the retaliation that was sure to follow. The ship was small, by the standards of a Forge World, and what it could carry would be a minor loss to Erendan. Even the shield pylons they sought would cover only 0.06% of Forge Primus should the primary and secondary shields fail. Once the supplies had been loaded, the transport had slipped away, bearing with it the hopes of the Heb.

2nd Invasion of Heb
In the brief lull following the death of the Iconoclast, the planetary Ecclesiarchy took control of the Administratum upon Heb. The nobles executed for treason during the first invasion had included the Planetary Prefect of the Administratum, as well as most of his Ordinates. The purge seemed likely to continue to the last Scribe, until a Curator, citing ancient precedent, suggested that the world’s Arbites Judge take custodianship of the Administratum, until suitable replacement leaders could be sent from off world. When it was pointed out that the Arbites Judge had been slain by the Iconoclast’s own hand, the Curator cited a more obscure precedent whereby the world’s Ecclesiarchical Pontifex might act in place of the Arbites Judge, said personage being dead or incapacitated, as arbiter of the God Emperor’s divine justice. Therefore, the Curator declared the surviving leadership of Administratum upon Heb to be inadequate to the task of self governance and appealed to the Pontifex, in his temporary role as chief enforcer of the Lex Imperialis, to take charge of the Administratum. Upon careful reflection, the Pontifex declared this to be right and proper, and thank the Curator for his wisdom.

With Ecclesiarchical Priests now running the Administratum, every effort and every lever of government was turned toward the destruction of this heresy. The estates and manufactorum of the nobility were seized and turned to produce lasguns and other light weapons. When the expedition returned from Erandan, the six largest remaining cities were outfitted with orbital shields. What heavy weapons and tanks were available were distributed to those cities. Zealous Preachers gave fiery sermons, warning the populus to prepare for the traitors’ return for they would not have long in which to do so.

When Chapter Master Manibus learned that his friend Carpus Pavo had been killed upon Heb, a foul humor overtook him. He sent word to Indígo Articulus, Champion of the 3rd Company, to pull four Squads out of their battles upon Levan Prime and to teach these impudent mortals a lesson. Articulus rendezvoused with a force of traitor Guardsmen recalled from the siege of Erendan and made for the world.

Champion Articulus landed his forces a safe distance outside the four cities concentrated on the continent of Latus. There, they would be able to provide mutual support to one another. He then ordered them to advance on each of the cities, destroying everything in their path. The Heb would dub him The Despoiler, as for the war that followed, they would remember it simply as The Killing Time.

The Heb fought The Despoiler simultaneously in the cities of Constantia, Iustitia, Salubritas, and Veritas. Civilians and soldiers alike, driven onwards by faith, threw themselves into the resistance. Traitor guardsmen paid in blood for every block they claimed, and one by one, the Traitorous Space Marines were buried under the ruins of the loyalist cities.

To achieve this, the Heb spent the Emperor's currency, their own lives. This they spent freely, but not foolishly: In particular, the Council of the Holy Commanders insisted that one in forty veteran guardsmen be periodically recalled from combat. These veterans went on to serve as the NCOs of freshly raised Regiments which could then be fed back into the fight.

It quickly became impractical for the traitor forces to support each other between the four cities. None of the heretical assaults had men to spare, and the countryside beyond the cities crawled with loyalist ambushers. Champion Articulus would focus all his efforts on destroying the shield pylons protecting Salubritas. Once the shields were gone he could level the city from orbit and redeploy the units under his direct command to assist the other forces.

However, when he finally cleared the sky above his head, he found that the Warships he was counting on had been recalled, or perhaps driven off by loyalist elements of Battlefleet Mandavi. His forces, and those in the other three cities, where all but exhausted. Articulus ordered his forces to withdraw and rendezvous in the middle of the continent, where he hoped to defend a great mesa until he could be reinforced. However, the Heb had continued to raise and equip fresh Regiments, each of which had a hardened core of veteran NCOs. With these forces, the Holy Commanders pursued and cut down the traitors, killing Articulus within sight of the highland he had hoped to fortify.

The War intensifies
Twice Azulite Manibus had set his hand upon the world of Heb, and twice the world had slipped from his grasp, such a slight could not be ignored. Manibus ordered the entire 6th Company, and the rest of the 3rd, from which Atriculus had drawn his forces, to rid him of this turbulent world. However, the war had now stretched on far longer than had been intended. Forge Primus upon Erendan continued to resist the Blue Hand, despite Captain Digitulus’s efforts. This was likely due to the diversion of traitor Guardsmen to Heb. Meanwhile, little remained of the defenses of Levan Prime, but now two thirds of the forces Manibus had committed to the world had been diverted to Heb. Three years had past, and relief from the Imperium could not be far off. In fact, as 827.M39 drew to a close, relief had arrived.

Shortly after the 3rd and 6th Companies entered the Heb System, they were confronted by fresh Imperial forces, spearheaded by the loyalist remnants of Battlefleet Mandavi, now reinforced directly by elements of Battlefleet Ultima. The naval forces were accompanied by numerous Regiments of the Astra Militarum raised in nearby Sectors as well as representatives of the Ordo Hereticus and strike craft from the White Panthers and Blood Angels Space Marine Chapters. In the face of such holy might, the traitors withdrew from Heb space, with the Loyalist Astartes in pursuit.

The Inquest of Heb
What followed became known as The Inquest of Heb. The new Planetary Prefect, who had arrived with the fleet, looked with ill favor upon having had the Administratum upon Heb subordinated to the Ecclesiarchy, even if only temporarily. The Perfect asked Lord Inquisitor Bartholomew Geisel, who had accompanied the fleet representing the Holy Ordos, to declare the Council of the Holy Commanders of Heb to be traitors. In particular, he made a point of the Holy Commanders proclamation that noble birth would no longer be considered in the attainment of any high office upon Heb. This, the Prefect claimed, undercut the natural order of things and the established rule of the Imperium. Representatives of the Adeptus Ministorum, including the Ecclesiarchical Pontifex, defended the Heb as pure and faithful sons of the Imperial Creed.

The Lord Inquisitor's decision was likely swayed most by the arguments of Lord General Militant Darrick Garvaan. Garvaan commanded the Imperial Guard Army Group attached to the expedition which had been sent to put down the Blue Hand Heresy. He explained to those gathered that he needed the Heb military intact and ready to start loading Regiments onto transports immediately. Without the Heb There were not enough loyalist ground forces to both relieve Levan Prime and Forge World Erendan. However, the with the aid of the Holy Commanders they could potentially liberate both worlds and have enough forces left afterwards to scour clean the world of Craw.

Whatever reasoning informed his decisions, Lord Inquisitor Geisel ruled that the Heb distaste for aristocracy was an acceptable variation upon the principle of local autonomy: as long as Heb paid its tithe and fully recognized the authority of all Imperial Institutions, they could organize their world as they saw fit. The Council of Holy Commanders would thereafter hold and execute the authority of the World’s Imperial Commander. With the Inquest of Heb concluded, Holy Commander Gregory Samualson was chosen to lead the first ten Heb Imperial Guard Regiments off world, to lift the siege of Erendan.

Relief of Erendan
So it was that, early in 828.M39, the situation in the Erendani system changed drastically. A heavy taskforce of Imperial Navy ships, both loyalist elements of Battlefleet Mandavi and reinforcements from the Segmentum, crushed the traitor warships in Erendan orbit. As Loyalist Thunderbolt and Lightning fighter aircraft dueled with their treasonous kin, Naval landers deposited half a million Heb guardsmen and women behind the rebel lines. Captain Lividi Digitulus of the Blue Hand 8th Company, commanding the traitor guardsmen, ordered an immediate armored counterattack. He hoped to rout the lightly armed Heb Regiments before they could envelop his encirclement. However, it was at this time that Fabricator-General Bedan finally ordered a major sortie: the Titans of the Prime Macroclade, along with two War Cohorts of the Secunde Macroclade slammed into the traitors’ lines, forcing Digitulus to recall his tanks and hunker down.

The Heb had managed to hold off the Traitors until reinforcements arrived in no small part thanks to the weapons and shields Erendan had gifted to them, and they had come to repay their debt. Though armed with little more than lasguns and satchel charges, the Heb pressed the traitor forces from all sides, searching for weak points in their line. Any time the Heb could break through temporarily, the Mechanicus would rush crates of heavy weapons over the Forge’s bastion walls and into the hands of their allies. At one such exchange, the Magos Dominus in command of the Tertie Macroclade, Druzekiel, accompanied the Heb as an emissary of the Fabricator-General.

Magos Dominus Druzekiel met with the leader of the Heb, Holy Commander Gregory Samualson. He gifted the Holy Commander with an ancient heirloom weapon, the power sword Friend of Jamis, forged by master cybersmiths within the Jamisian Forge upon Anuaris. The sword would be carried by Samualson till his death, and would remain a sacred relic of the Holy Commanders of Heb from that day forward. Druzekiel and Samualson would then plan the final phases of the relief of Forge Primus and the liberation of Erendan.

The Heb Regiments would focus pressure upon both flanks of the traitors forces, while leaving the Heb center deliberately weak, in order to draw a counteroffensive. Meanwhile, the Prime, and Secunde Macroclades would mass for a sortie directly in front of the the traitor’s center. When the invaders moved to break the center of the Heb lines, the Mechanicus would drive directly into their rear, as the strong Heb flanks created a killing corridor for the traitors to be driven down. Roboute Guilliman once said, “No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.” On the last day of the siege of Forge Primus, Lividi Digitulus, Captain of the Blue Hand 8th Company, sought to prove him right.

Everything seem to be proceeding according to the loyalists’ strategy. The traitors drew in their flanks in response to the Heb push, and massed to push against the weaken Heb center. The Mechanicus took the traitors in the rear, killing many and driving the rest far from the Forge. It was only after the Erendani forces had passed that Captain Digitulus plan was revealed. In the dark of night, using the Erendani earthmovers and constructors, the traitors had built a series of bunkers, buried, and strong enough to bear the weight of Titans walking across them. From these bunkers now emerged two traitor regiments of mechanized infantry and a column of tanks, all behind the Mechanicus forces and with nothing between them and the open gates through which the Titans had just emerged.

At a word from Fabricator General Bedan the main gate screeched shut, but one of the sally ports, located at Node 601, suffered a mechanical failure and would not close. Only a single Maniple of the Tech-Guard stood between the traitors and entry to Forge Primus. However, the Skitarii of Maniple II, Delta Cohort would not face the traitors alone.

Armed with faith in the God Emperor as well as missile launchers and meltaguns tossed to them over the bastion walls the night before, the first elements of the 5th Zealous Light Foot Regiment of Heb would reach the gate moments before the traitors. The Chimera APCs and Tanks of the traitor onslaught seemed intent upon forcing through the loyal Guardsmen by sheer momentum, but the Heb kept coming, and for every five infantrymen run down, there was always a sixth with a meltagun or a satchel charge. Soon the wrecks of traitor vehicles formed their own barricade, sealing Node 601 and forcing the enemy to dismount.

The 5th and Maniple II then engaged the traitors in a whirling melee beneath the walls of Forge Primus. Captain Digitulus emerged from Chimera which had been specifically modified to carry his bulk, and began to cut a swath through the loyalists. Traitor guardsmen flocked to Digitulus’s side, and it seemed the Astartes would carry through to the sally port. However, 20 meters short he was confronted by two figures: the Heb Holy Commander Samualson, wielding the Friend of Jamis, and the Magos Dominus Drezekiel, armed with an ancient Volkite Blaster and flanked by Cyber-Familiars.

Captain Digitulus sent the men with him to attack the Magos, hoping to dispense with the Power Sword before he had to face the deadly rays of the Volkite Blaster. However, in spite of being no trained swordsman, and in spite of facing a transhuman warrior, the Holy Commander managed to parry nine blows of the Blue Hand’s Chainsword. The tenth blow sent him flying in one direction, and his hand holding the Friend of Jamis flying in another.

However, the traitor’s mortal thralls had proved no match for the Magos Dominus, and the Heb 5th was closing on the Space Marine from behind. As Digitulus stood over Samualson’s bleeding form, he took in the forces surrounding him: before him stood the anvil of the Mechanicus, behind him, the hammer of the Imperial Guard. The traitor growled in frustration. He raised his Chainsword to finish off the Holy Comander, but a Volkite blast took him in the arm, mirroring his own dismemberment of Samualson moments before. Then, like a swarm of flies devouring a lion, the lasguns of the Heb 5th ate away at Captain Digitulus‘s exposed head, until he crumpled to the ground dead.

Once his wound had been dressed, Holy Commander Samualson was led before the walls of Forge Primus by Magos Dominus Drezekiel. There, Fabricator-General Bedan threw open the main gates of his Forge to the Heb 5th and welcomed the Holy Commander as his honored guest. A mechanical replacement hand would be crafted for Samualson by Bedan himself, and the two would go on to speak pacts of friendships which would bind their worlds from then onward.

While joint forces scoured the last of the traitors from the Erendan, Holy Commander Samualson informed the Fabricator-General of Lord General Militant Darrick Garvaan’s ongoing battle upon Levan Prime, and the occupation of the lesser worlds of the Sub-Sector. Samualson meant to liberate those lesser worlds, before uniting with the Lord General Militant to crush the Blue Hand upon Craw. The Fabricator-General promised to supply the war effort, of course, but he promised more besides. He would send forces of the Erandani Tech-Guard to accompany the Heb, token forces, in some cases, but wherever the Heb fought the Blue Hand, they would not fight alone.

The Liberation of the Levan Sub-Sector
828.M39 would go poorly for the Traitors, as would 829. The 3rd and the 6th Companies, while fleeing the Heb System, would be overtaken by the the White Panthers and Blood Angels. The traitors had hoped to rejoin the 1st Company upon Levan Prime, but the loyalists were relentless. The understrength 3rd would be forced to lure the loyalists into combat on the moon of Levan Secundus to allow the 6th to make planet fall on Levan Prime.

There they would be pursued by the Astra Militarum Army Group under Lord General Militant Darrick Garvaan. Gravaan would fight a brutal two year campaign against the 1st and 6th Companies upon the world. After four years of multiple Companies of Astartes assaulting them, the Levanine Hives were in ruins. For two years, the Lord General Militant would contest those ruins against two Companies of traitor Marines.

Across 829.M39, Heb and Erendani forces swept the Traitors from the remaining worlds of the Sub-Sector, killing dozens of additional Blue Hand Marines and cementing the particular hatred of them in the traitors’ hearts. However, Azulite Manibus did not sit idly by through this period. Some forces were withdrawn to Craw ahead of the loyalist onslaught, and much was done to strengthen his Citadel upon that world. However, most significantly, hundreds of thousands of cultists mutants and psykers, along with tens of thousands of loyal Imperials from the lesser worlds of the Sub-Sector were crammed into the holds of traitor ships and carried off to Craw. Those loyalists were then delivered into the hands of the dark Librarius of the Blue Hand, who were concocting something foul upon the world.

Likewise, Lord Admiral Hargrove took advantage of his numerical superiority, and the Blue Hand’s own unwillingness to commit their Chapter Fleet before the final action, to harass and whittle down the traitor warships. Upon reclaiming Levan Anchorage, Hargrove found the desecrated body of his old friend, Admiral Cave, displayed on the Anchorage’s command deck. He ordered it cut down, and renamed the Anchorage after that loyal soul. Sailing from Cave Anchorage, the Ships of Battlefleet Mandavi kept the traitor’s pined in the Craw system until the loyalist ground forces were ready to go on the offensive.

The stalemate upon Levan Prime would finally be broken by the arrival of more Loyalist Astartes. Captain Solomon Rex of the Blood Ravens 4th Company personally slew First Company Champion Caelum Unguiculi in single combat and the arrival of another full Company of loyalists from the Crimson Consuls Chapter sealed the fate of the 1st and 6th Companies. The stage was now set for the final act.

2nd Battle for Craw
The forces which landed upon Craw in 831.M39 to crush the Blue Hand were formidable. The Blood Ravens 4th Company and the Crimson Consuls 7th Company were joined by squads of Blood Angels Assault Marines and White Panthers Attack Bike Squads. Alongside these were 16 full Regiments of Heb infantry: zellous, tested, armed and eager for vengeance. Lord Inquisitor Bartholomew Geisel led his personal retinue of witch hunters and stormtroopers bearing searing flame and burning las. Lord General Militant Darrick Garvaan brought the remains of his Army Group from Lavin Prime, bristling with Guard Armor; tanks and guns manned by raw recruits corralled from the ruins of the Levanine Hives. Then there were the Skitarii of Erandan, backed by the holy fire of Electro-Priests and the guns of heavy servitors, and watched over, literally, by the Nomen Solitudinis. The ancient war machine made up one third of the Titans available to Fabricator-General Bedan, but it was the only one of the Warlord Class.

Against this, Chapter Master Manibus had over 600 Marines, his chapter’s armory, eight remaining formal regiments of damned guardsmen, hundreds of thousands of lost cultists drawn from the Sub-Sector’s worlds, his dark Librarius, his own overweening ambition, and the blessings of the profanity he worshiped as a God.

The two great armies gathered before Manibus’s Fortress. Over the course of nine years the Citadel had been raised ever higher and made ever more formidable: firstly by the functional architects of the Imperial Guard, then by the transhuman efforts of the Blue Hand Techmarines, and finally by the unholy will of the Changer of Ways, who obeys no geometry understandable to sane minds. Within its walls, Pollex Caeruleorum, who held the distinction of being both the last Chief Librarian of the Blue Hand Chapter and the first and last High Sorcerer of the Blue Hand Warband, had formed a great coven centered upon the Blue Hand Dark Librarius but aided by witches and psykers drawn from across the Levan Sub-Sector.

While Battlefleet Mandavi clashed overhead with their traitor kin and the Blue Hand’s own fleet, the ground of Craw was heavy with death. The Chapter Master used his cultists as living shields to defend his traitor guardsmen and his guardsmen as fodder to protect his Space Marines. Leman Russ and Predator tanks from both sides clashed, crushing mortals beneath their treads. The rebel Stormblade, Fire Eyes, played a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Nomen Solitudinis, hoping to bring the Titan into the gaze of its plasma blasts before the walker could flatten it. The Lord Inquisitor watched from the sidelines, hoping for an opportunity to seek out the Warlord; while his acolytes sought out the Captains and Champions of the traitorous host. The loyalist Astartes swept forward in graceful maneuvers, the Heb advanced in open order, ever ready to bring their heavy weapons into play, the Skitarii Marched forward with unwavering mechanical precision, and the conscripts skulked behind, driven on only by the threats of their Commissars.

By late in the afternoon of Craw’s 60 hour day, the Imperial left flank had breached the Fortresses outer fortifications. The Heb 1st, with Holy Commander Gregory Samualson at their head, led the assault and arrived at the walls of the Blue Hand’s inner sanctum. By his side, of course, was the Erendani Magos Dominus Druzekiel and his Kataphron Breachers. These living war machines delivered upon the promise of their names, rending the Fortress walls and opening a path for the Heb to advance.

What heroism and treachery occurred within the inner walls of the Blue Hand Citadel will never be recorded, for none survived to tell of it. Roughly 80 minutes after the Holy Commander and the Magos Dominus entered the Fortress, a great explosion tore forth, ripping stone and plascrete, and flinging turrets and weapons emplacements into the air. Blue ethereal warpfire mixed with red flames from exploding magazines as the inferno consumed the Fortress and instantly killed two thirds of the remaining Blue Hand Space Marines. Later investigation by the Ordo Hereticus would find the skeletons of the nine Dark Librarians still upright in their armor, with the twisted metal skeleton of the Magos Dominus nearby, and the Holy Commander’s augmetic hand griping his Power Sword, the Friend of Jamis, as it protruded from the High Sourceror’s back. It can only be inferred that Samualson and Druzekiel penetrated the chamber while the coven was seeking to work some act of tremendous warpcraft. Whether Samualson managed to slay Caeruleorum with his blow, or merely distracted him at a crucial moment is unclear, but either way, Azulite Manibus’s dream of his own empire died as a result.

The End of the Heresy
Warlord Manibus did not, in fact, die in the destruction of his Fortress. He had personally taken the field against the Imperial right flank, leading a charge from atop a Land Raider Crusader. While Lord Inquisitor Geisel sought to bring the fiend to single combat, it was not to be. In the glare of the great explosion, a stray round from the battle cannon of a Leman Russ tank took the Astartes just below his pauldron, severing his arm and ripping into his torso. His main heart burst, half his ribcage shattered, and his entire right side to the hip was left a bloody ruin. For all that Manibus worshiped the Changer of Ways, he had refused to accept mutation into his transhuman form, or to seek ascension to daemonhood. Like the avenging angels they were, two squads of Blood Angels Assault Marines jetted onto the Land Raider, and Azulite Manibus passed from the Galaxy, never to plague the Imperium again.

Official histories of the conflict, even those that acknowledge that the Blue Hand were Space Marines, claim that every surviving traitor upon Craw was hunted to eradication. Only the Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus, those loyalist Astartes who fought upon Craw, and the leaders of the Heb and Erendan know the truth: two ships which recovered Thunderhawks managed to escape the system by transitioning directly into the surrounding Warp storms.

The Burden of Tophet
Following the victory upon Craw, Lord Inquisitor Bartholomew Geisel of the Ordo Hereticus journeyed to Heb. There he went to the valley of Tophet, outside the ruins of Sanctum, the former Heb capital. It was in Tophet that Carpus Pavo, the Iconoclast who led the first Blue Hand invasion had built his shrine to his Dark God. Many loyal servants of the God Emperor had been offered up upon that alter, including the young children of the Planetary Governor. After the war, the Ecclesiarchy had order the valley cleansed by fire, but the Heb would never forget the evil of that place, which was precisely why the Lord Inquisitor went there.

He summoned to him the Holy Commanders of the Heb. He also summoned the Fabricator-General of Erendan, who had come to Heb to renew the vows he had given to Holy Commander Gregory Samualson, and pay tribute to the fallen hero of Forge Primus. When all ten had gathered, Fabricator-General Bedan and the nine Holy Commanders, the Lord Inquisitor informed them of the results of his inquiry.

His Acolytes had accounted for the deaths of 838 members of the Blue Hand Space Marine Warband, including both battles upon Craw and the war for the Levan Sub-Sector. This included Azulite Manibus, Seven of the Blue Hand Captins and all of the traitor Librians. However, that still meant that up to 162 may have escaped into the Warp, avoiding the Emperor's judgement. However, the Lord Inquisitor explained, no one escapes that judgement forever.

The Holy Commanders had already expressed their intent, Heb would remain a War World, and new Regiments would be raised each year and sent into the God Emperor's service. Bedan had pledged his assistance: his Forge World would arm and equip those Regiments, and his Skitarri would fight alongside them when they could. Now, the Lord Inquisitor would lay an added mission upon them, the Burden of Tophet: Wherever the Heb and their allies went in in service to the Emperor, they were to be watchful for signs of the Blue Hand.

Lord Inquisitor Geisel would write a letter, copies of which would be given to the Colonels of every Heb Regiment. Together with their Second in Command, their Senior Tech-Preist, and their Regimental Commissar, those Colonel's would search the Galaxy as they fought and died in service to the Golden Throne. Whenever something was found, they were to send an Astropathic transmission to the Ordo Hereticus: If no transmission could be sent, or if no Inquisitor was available in system, the Heb would be authorized to pursue the traitors on their own. Acting under the seal of the Lord Inquisitor’s rosette, the Heb would be authorized to disregard orders from their superiors in the Astra Militarum. They were also permitted to present the letter to any loyal Astartes or Sororitas forces present in their deployment zone to ask their aid.

The Heb, and the Erendani, would never stop, they would never rest, they would hunt the traitors, even though the bulk of them would never know the truth. The people would be told that the Blue Hand had been destroyed. The Heb would be allowed to remember that traitor Space Marines existed, and that their ancestors had fought and won against them. This would be allowed so that one day, if called upon, every Heb soldier would be ready to face the Blue Hand once again. So the Lord Inquisitor commanded, so it has been for 2,000 years, so it shall be until the Imperium is rid of the very last Blue Hand traitor.