Hunt for the Spearhead

The Hunt for the Spearhead, was the name of the Imperial castigation campaign carried out by both the Storm Sentinels and Astral Warriors Space Marine Chapters, to seek out and run to ground the traitorous elements of the Storm Sentinels that had openly declared their allegiance to the Chaos Blood God, Khorne, which resulted in a Chapter civil war. However, elements of the Khorne-aligned faction, now calling themselves the Sons of Khorne, managed to effect their escape by stealing a Strike Cruiser, the Spearhead and fled to parts unknown. However, the Storm Sentinels and their Astral Warriors allies remained determined to seek them out and slay every last traitor, or die in the attempt.

Background
According to the Tech Adepts of Sicadus, the Spearhead could only travel within 3 parsecs for a year and would most likely orbit a planet within that range to be repaired from the damage, which would take about 2 years. With this information, the two Chapters split their forces into Strike Cruisers and Frigates. The Frigates created a blockade on the 3 parsec border while the Strike Cruisers ventured within Spearhead’s range.

During this time, the Chapter was left vulnerable to xenos invasions and was left unable to reinforce their ranks. The only usable Companies were the 6th and 7th, and due to high demand, these Companies were restructured to hold their own. Due to the Lightning Fall tactic's success, the Companies were trained vigorously in it, even with the Lightning Squads being transferred to it. These Companies fought back heavily against any xeno threats and held the recruitment on Ignis VIII while the other companies were away. These Companies were renamed the Surrogate Companies after all these changes.

A squad of the 2nd Company of the Storm Sentinels and from the Astral Warriors in a strike cruiser were able to find Spearhead in orbit of a planet. All the alliance’s forces travelled to that location, and a brutal naval battle was fought in the planet’s orbit, however, due to the amassed forces, the Sons of Khorne retreated to the planet surface, where the allied Chapters deployed their ground forces. The alliance had the advantage in numbers, however they were ambushed by bloodletters, summoned by the traitors. Using Jump Packs, the Storm Sentinels and some Astral Warrior squads were able to escape being surrounded from the hordes of traitors and daemons. They fought the bloodletters in two flanks, and eventually, they paved a way for the trapped Space Marines to escape.

A brutal battle was fought on the planet, using the Lightning Fall tactic, the Storm Sentinels were able to prevent heavy losses, and the Astral Warriors’ biker squads were able to keep some enemies at bay with quick attacks. After hours of fighting, Traitor Solaris was alone, standing his ground against the allied Loyalists. It was with the combined might of the allied Captains, that Solaris was finally slain. The two Chapters signed a pact that strengthened their bond, throughout the decades, cultures and tactics were exchanged between the two Chapters.