The Green Death

The Green Death was an Imperial defensive campaign conducted by the Rebutors Space Marine Chapter against the encroaching Orks of WAAAGH! Bludletta when they invaded the Chapter's demesne - the Chiros Sector - and invaded their Chapter homeworld of Nemothil.

History
"The hordes were endless, pouring over the hills, carving through the forests, slaughtering innocents. Truly, have I not seen such evil since the days of the Beast."

- Sergeant Willard Brigadus, relaying the story of the Green Death to his battle-brothers

In the late 32nd Millennium, Fortis Primaris came under siege by an Ork WAAAGH! led by Warlord Gok Bludletta. Bludletta and his boyz viciously raided and pillaged the humble villages of the Feudal Planet, immediately raising the concern of the Lions of Retribution. Immediately, the Chapter engaged the invading xenos in combat. Initially, the Orks suffered heavy blows from the well-trained Astartes of the Chapter. The horde was weak, the greenskins held no morale other than the willingness to fight. Quickly, the invasion was culled by the Lions with relative ease. Bludletta, however, was nowhere to be found. It was assumed that he had fled. Once more had the Lions valiantly defended the planet Fortis Primaris from alien scum.

Not one night after the WAAAGH! had been seemingly destroyed, the citizens heard the sounds of dakkajets overhead. The sky was filled with thousands upon thousands of Orkish aircraft and drop pods. Orks poured from every visible corner of the planet; millions of them. Cities burned, forests were flattened beneath the treads of wartrukks, looted tanks, stompas and orkeosauruses. The feudal humans were slaughtered by the unrelenting force of the greenskins. The sky roared with the rumbling of crude engines from dakkajets and deffkoptas. It was a green storm.

The Lions barely held their ground against the Orks that poured over the crumbling walls of Principalis Ultima. Surely and quickly, the Lions began to wane. The Chapter faced utter annihilation head on. No matter how many greenskins were killed, thousands more took their place. The Lions dispatched a distress signal in desperation and evacuated the planet. Extreme measures had to be taken in order to preserve the planet for the Imperium. Grand Paladin Drehg Calavar himself had been slaughtered by the Warlord, Gok.

After having received the distress signal dispatched from Principalis Ultima during its assault, the Inquisition, namely the Ordo Xenos, quickly arrived to the Fortis System with one action in mind; Exterminatus. The Lions despised this idea, and attempted to persuade the Inquisition otherwise. However, their attempts at convincing the Inquisitors were in vain.

First, the Inquisition covered Fortis Primaris with an artificial Virus upon the planet's surface, resulting in the countless hordes of greenskins being reduced to naught but a toxic sludge. Soon after, lance batteries from the Rebutors' Battle Barge, Praetorian's Shield, ignited the highly flammable sludge. Furious and raging fire then engulfed Fortis Primaris as what remained of the Orks -or any other organic life- was wiped from the face of the galaxy. During the firestorm, the world was rent and pollutants, namely the sulfur the Orks exposed and carbon compounds from the sludge, were burned and permanently damaged the planet's atmosphere, preventing the planet from ever recovering from the pollution the Orks wrought upon it. Shortly after Armageddon was delivered to Fortis Primaris, the Rebutor fleet then destroyed what little remained in terms of alien resistance, reclaiming their home.

After all was said and done, the Lions stood fractured. They had lost hundreds of Marines, their Grand Paladin, and their morale. Their planet was now nearly uninhabitable. The Chapter was renamed to the 'Rebutors,' as truly the pride of the Lion had been vanquished. Now, they were dedicated to absolute retribution for Fortis Primaris and those who lost their lives to the greenskins. Among Rebutors today, there is no event more important than the Green Death.