The Wolves' Treachery

The Wolves' Treachery is the most regrettable event that occurred in the history of the formerly Loyalist Wolves of Retribution Space Marine Chapter. Notable adherents of the Imperial Creed, the Wolves of Retribution were once considered zealously loyal to the God-Emperor and those responsible for shepherding the masses of Mankind. However, in 569.M40, when the Wolves of Retribution were discovered to have been executing entire Astra Militarum Regiments and Ecclesiarchy convents, they were subsequently declared as Heretics and excommunicated. Upon being declared heretics the Wolves turn traitor, declaring that it was, in fact, the Imperium who were heretics and vowed to crusade against the 'false religion' of promulgated by the Ecclesiarchy.

Background
Long ago, the Mordekaisers Space Marine Chapter held a friendship with the Wolves of Retribution, a chapter known for its extreme zeal and devotion to the Imperial Creed. Despite the differences in belief and culture the two Chapters fought alongside each other without issue, their skills combining into an effective force. The only point of contention was that the Wolves' hardline version of the Imperial Creed that often brought them into conflict with Priests of the Ecclesiarchy and even other Chapters other worship of the God Emperor. The Mordekaisers overlooked this, seeing as the Ecclesiarchy often praised the Wolves for their devotion regardless of the strict interpretation, there could be not trouble.

Alas, they were wrong.

When reports of the Wolves of Retribution purging entire worlds came out, the Mordekaisers were concerned but stood by as Inquisitor was sent to investigate the Wolves' claims of the worlds' heresies. What he found was terrible. The worlds were no bastions of corruption, they were shrine worlds or homes to loyal regiments! The Wolves had burned these worlds not for the crimes of heresy but for the crime of not following their own strict interpretation of the Imperial Creed! At the same time, Kaiser Markus Stahlhelm, Kaiser of the Mordekaisers, received a message from Raedwald Harus, Chapter Master of the Wolves of Retribution. The message consisted of insane ranting and murmured prayer that ended, to the Kaiser's horror, with a declaration that the Imperium was rife with heresy and must be purged. Already aware of the investigation into the Wolves, who were close friends with the Mordekaisers, Markus contacted Inquisitor Heika with this new development and immediately set off for the Wolves of Retribution homeworld of Cythron in order to confront them.

But it was far too late.

When Heika and the Mordekaisers reached Cythron they found only a burnt wasteland with all life destroyed. The Fortress-Monastery, Elboros, was abandoned and filled with scenes of the Wolves' rampage. Chapter serfs had been placed in piles and used as makeshift fuel for fire pits to burn "heretics" alive, Astartes were placed in cages and similarly set alight and holy books and iconography were burned and defiled and replaced by crude icons that could only be marks of Chaos that yet praised the Emperor's name. The only living being they found was the burned form of Captain Valden, of the Wolves' 2nd Company, tied to a stake in the center of what was once the Chapter's reclusiam. In his final moments, Valden told them that he had been sacrificed to the Emperor to light the way to their new fortress from where the Wolves of Retribution will mount their noble crusade to save the God-Emperor from the Imperium's heresy. He died before he would reveal their destination, his final words being a declaration of the Wolves of Retribution's loyalty to the God-Emperor of Mankind, ignorant of the Chaos markings carved into his charred flesh.

For their terrible crimes and open admission of breaking from the Imperium, Inquisitor Heika declared the Wolves of Retribution to be Excommunicate Traitoris. Where there was once kinship, the Mordekaisers now only hold hatred for their former friends. Coincidentally, the Wolves return this hatred. As such whenever these two foes meet, the battle is bloody and brutal.