Traitor's Hand Strikes

Traitor's Hand Strikes was the name of the Imperial campaign carried out in the defence of the Kolleshian Sector, the personal demesne of the Argent Blades Space Marine Chapter, against the Chaos Warband known as "The Faithful".

History
In 580.M41, the Argent Blades continued to watch of the Kolleshian Sector, but would rarely find the need to deploy their forces within the sector. When there was conflict within the sector, rarely was there more than one company required. Without a need to remain confined by the borders of the Sector, the Lord Commandant permitted companies to leave the sector and take part in crusades beyond its borders. The Blades spreading the Imperial Truth throughout the Imperium. As many companies of the chapter crusaded throughout the Imperium, many worlds across the Kolleshian Sector began to erupt into civil wars. Rebel factions rising from the underworlds of each planet and overthrowing the Imperial Rulers. Claiming those worlds with a warlord only referring to himself as "the Faithful."

The Argent Blades companies crusading beyond their borders of there origins were soon apprised of the dire state of the Kolleshian Sector. All companies of the Blades made haste to swiftly return to the Kolleshian Sector. The Argent Blades and regiments of the Imperial Guard who had been ordered to help contain the spread of rebellion across the sector as they entered the outer borders. As the Blades and the guard fought to purge the rebellions, a new force entered the Sector. These forces of traitors boldly passing from system to system in a straight line towards Alexandria. On high alert, only half of the Argent Blades chapter had returned and began mounting defenses within the system and in the systems nearby. Watching as the other half of the Blades slowed the assault of the growing armada of the Archenemy. The remaining forces of the Argent Blades companies returned, realizing that stopping the advance of the Faithful had become too cumbersome and ineffective. The armada of the Faithful soon appeared within the Mandeville point of the Alexandrian system.

The full fleet of the Argent Blades set out on a intercept course for the heretic fleet. The Blades engaged the Faithful fleet in ship combat, blowing dozens to pieces with pinpoint fire. As the Argent Blades continued to fight the Faithful fleet, more heretic ships continued to approach Alexandria. The skies were filled with the treacherous Faithful vessels and ships of the Argent Blades. The apostates then began dropping traitors and heretics to the surface and then firing upon the Imperial citizens and the Argent Blades. The Blades desperately tried to cut off the ground assault of the turncoat Faithful forces. On the surface, the world of Alexandria descended into all out war. Squads of Argent Blades operated against overwhelming mobs of cultists and hunting packs of Chaos Space Marines. The naval battle lasted days as the Archenemy retreated to lick its wounds before returning again. Even after the last vessel of the Faithful had fled, the ground war would go on for another four months. Unwilling to order orbital bombardments on their own home world, the Argent Blades were forced to deploy strike teams. The whole of the Blades spreading their forces over the world in an attempt to reclaim as much ground for the pure as possible.

During the fourth month of the war, the warlord known as the Faithful finally emerged, becoming more than just a myth. He taunted the Argent Blades for their inability to purge him from their world, claiming that it was his fate to claim the sacred ground they stood upon for the Impure. His forces began to fight with a previously unseen level of zeal, throwing themselves into the sights of the Argent Blades at the mere mention of their warlord's title. The Blades however used this bravado against the Impure, and began to push on. The Argent Blades left stacks of charred corpses in their wake. When they reached the Faithful, the Blades had destroyed all but his most trusted and faithful servants. Lord Commandant Kysilar called for the Faithful to emerge from his den, challenging him to single combat. Lord Commandant Kysilar swore that he would punish the Faithful for the scars of impurity that his legion of traitors had left upon the world of Alexandria. The Faithful charged the Lord Commander of the Blades to meet him in open combat. The warlord's head soon laid upon the ground at the fleet of his headless corpse. The whole of the Argent Blades then opened fire on the rest of the traitors, exterminating every last trace of the vile Faithful and his servants.