The Crucible

The Crucible was an Imperial campaign conducted by the Sons of Galastram Space Marine Chapter against the Black Legion Traitor Legion upon an unnamed death world.

History
After two Terran years of light engagement with roaming bands of xenos races, the young Sons of Galastram Chapter found itself engaged in a much more serious war. As Chaos had begun to gain momentum in Segmentum Obscurus, and a warband of Black Legion marines crossed the path of the Sons of Galastram. The loyalist Astartes found the Chaos Marines upon an unnamed Death World, where the Chapter Master, or Lord Crusader, as their culture dictates, ordered the Chapter's fleet engage the traitor warships while three of the Orders (Companies) brought battle to the Black Legion Warband on the surface of the Death World.

The relatively young Astartes faced traitors with far more experience, and though few in number, fought as fiercely as could be expected. The Warlord of this Warband then used some strange technology to trap the Orders of the Sons of Galastram upon the Death World for weeks by making the planet's atmosphere extremely hazardous to prevent the use of aerial vehicles, subjecting them to arduous trials and ambushes. However, the Lord Crusader, Cadlaine, freed his brothers by slaying the Warlord and destroying the weather device. The Sons look back on this event as their first true trial.

Lord Crusader Cadlaine, after returning with the survivors of the encounter, deemed that the Chapter's brothers needed to be more ready for such battles, and thus, aboard the Chapter's immense Battle Barge, the Anvil of Valor, a grand arena was fashioned to host a constant tourney of squad-based fights between the Scions or against captured xenos beast races. Cadlaine named this tournament, the Crucible. Using non-lethal weaponry against brothers, the Sons would be a constantly sharpened blade, always improving their skills between glorious battles in the Emperor's name, or to bring pride to both the them and their progenitor Chapter.