Vrykul Xenocides

The Vrykul Xenocides were a series of multiple campaigns against encroaching xenos forces within the Vrykul System, located in the Segmentum Obscurus, the demesne of the Death Templars Space Marine Chapter.

History
The Vrykul System is located somewhere on the edge of the Eye of Terror. This isolated system is the Chapter demesne of the ancient Death Templars Chapter. They have sentinel over this domain since they first discovered it in the early centuries of M31. The exact location of this system is a closely guarded secret and the entire system is heavily fortified and defended. This domain serves as a bulwark against Chaos incursions. All that is known is that the Death Templars operate from a world located deep within the dense stellar drifts of the Mors Pallida Nebula somewhere on the western border of the Segmentum Obscurus. Although which world locked within its coruscating depths is Vrykul, is a matter they have kept deliberately obscure, to avoid being attacked by the many enemies they have made during their long and glorious service to the Emperor.

The First Battle of Vrykul (269.M31)
When the Death Templars first discovered the feral world of Vrykul within the Segmentum Obscurus, they also encountered the foul xenos known as the Drukhari – specifically the Kabal of the Bloodied Blades – which had come to the human world to inflict pain and misery upon the humans, before eventually retreating to the Dark City of Commorragh with a screaming bounty of slaves clutched in their merciless grasp. The raiders' plans were foiled, however, as they didn't count on facing an entire Chapter of Space Marines. Soon a bloody war ensued between the Death Templars and the Kabal.

Over time, the attrition of the Drukhari forces left the xenos little choice, but to flee or face annihilation. The Death Templars gave chase, haranguing the Dark Eldar across the Segmentum Obscurus, and chasing them into a Warp Gate that led into the Eldar Webway itself. Over many long months, the Death Templars relentlessly pursued their foes through the twisted pathways of the Webway, bringing them to battle, and slowly ravaged their forces through their use of brutal shock assault tactics. In the end, it became too difficult for the Death Templars to keep up with their fleeing foes, as the Drukhari used their innate knowledge of the webway's hidden paths to outmanoeuvre their foes.

In frustration, Lord Marshal Malik ordered his Death Templars to utilize heavy weapons and explosives to collapse a portion of the Webway, effectively blocking the Drukhari's path back to the Segmentum Obscurus. But this was merely a temporary solution, as the webway possessed more than one hidden gateway throughout the galaxy. The Death Templars knew that the Dark Eldar would return one day, and that when they did, they would finish what they had started.

The Second Battle of Vrykul (389.M33)
The Drukhari returned to the Vrykul System to enact their revenge against the upstart Space Marine Chapter that had humiliated them two millennia earlier. A large Kabalite Raiding Party struck the feral planet in order to inflict as much suffering and terror as they possibly could. The Second Battle for Vrykul lasted many months, with both sides inflicting horrific casualties upon one another. Often, small strike forces would engage each other in smaller skirmishes that saw both sides fighting each other to mutual annihilation. Unbeknownst to the Death Templars, a small cabal of Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines had made a dark compact with the Drukhari raiders, who would distract the Death Templars in open conflict while the Word Bearers infiltrated the Death Templars fortress-monastery Castellum Mortem. Led by a Dark Apostle, the Word Bearers were intent on stealing the Chapter's sacred relics, but fortunately, the Chaos Space Marines were quickly discovered, and a small firefight ensued, forcing the Word Bearers to retreat.

Lord Marshal Valdar concocted a cunning plan that would trap both the Dark Eldar Kabalites and the Word Bearers on Crysemel's moon, Dimalas. Though it galled them to do so, the Death Templars feigned a tactical withdrawal from Vrykul, and made their way to the isolated moon. Sensing inevitable victory, both the Drukhari and Word Bearers believed they had forced the ignominious retreat of the Death Templars, and quickly gave chase. Luring them to the moon's surface, the enemy forces believed they faced the last of the Chapter's survivors, but this was when the Lord Marshal sprung his trap. The token Death Templars force drew the opposing forces into a ravine, where unknown to them, the rest of the Chapter's forces had been shielded and unseen. Falling into a fighting withdrawal, the Death Templars lured the Drukhari and Word Bearers further into the ravine. Then, the Lord Marshal ordered his Chapter to attack.

At point-blank range the unsuspecting enemy were cut down by the hundreds, by the Death Templars' tanks and Dreadnoughts, catching them in a blizzard of missile and lascannon fire. Explosive pyres ignited in droves up and down the enemy's battle lines. Death Templars gunships raked across the sky, raining down phosphex and cluster munitions, screaming Thunderhawk gunships followed in their wake, and without warning, the Chapter's Terminator veterans of the elite 1st Company, cut their way through the enemy's flanks, murdering with ruthless efficiency, while the Death Templars fast-moving armour and mechanized squads encircled the Drukhari and Word Bearers before slicing into them with a surgeon's precision.

In orbit, the Death Templars fleet, which had remained hidden by powering down their vessels to bare minimum power on the far side of the moon, launched a brutal orbital attack on the joint fleet of the Drukhari and Word Bearers. Caught unawares, the foul xenos and Chaos Space Marines were utterly decimated as the Death Templars secured swift victory before the full might of the foe could be roused to wakeful wrath against them.

The Lord Marshal's plan was executed brilliantly. The few remaining Dark Eldar and Word Bearers' vessels were forced to retreat, leaving the majority of their vessels behind as ravaged and burning hulks within the moon's orbit. The enemy forces on the ground were utterly annihilated. The Death Templars ensured that their foes would never again rear their ugly heads within the Vrykul System.

Third Battle of Vrykul (635.M39)
During this tumultuous period, the Segmentum Obscurus was punished by wave after wave of greenskin uprisings and invasions, the largest being an Ork WAAAGH! comprised entirely of Ork Speed Freaks led by the infamous Warboss Zhardsnark, 'da Rippa', a brutal and grizzled Ork Warbiker. Numerous outlying sectors were overrun, until WAAAGH! Zhardsnark encroached upon the Vrykul System. With the majority of the Death Templars Chapter deployed upon crusade, only a token force remained on Vyrkul to defend the sector from the onslaught of the green tide. The Chapter's astropathic choir sent a desperate astropathic message recalling the rest of the Chapter back to Vyrkul.

The timely arrival of the remaining Death Templars prevented far greater destruction from occurring within the sector, though it took a further eight months of grueling fighting to drive off the remainder of the WAAAGH!. The Death Templars launched a surprise attack upon the Warboss's headquarters, that nearly saw the death of Zhardsnark, who only avoided this fate after he fled upon his custom warbike, 'da Beast'. In his wisdom, at least for an Ork, Warboss Zhardsnark decided to recall his Boyz and left the Vrykul System in search of easier prey.