Crimson Slaughter

The Crimson Slaughter. (Formerly Crimson Sabres)
The Crimson Slaughter is a Chaos Space Marine faction in the Gehenna system. Originally sent ahead of the imminent 13th Black Crusade to destabilise the entire sector, the rumour of an ancient relic has returned them back to their private quest to escape their curse. "'What separates us from the Loyalists is just one bad day...'"Their allegiances in relation to the other factions is largely unknown. While utimately renegades and thus traitors to the Imperium, Kranon has shown a fondness in treating with the survivalist Black Scorpions. Their stance towards the Emperors Children in the area has so far proven to be hostile, if not unfriendly.

Notable Characters
Kranon the Relentless - The former Chapter Master of the previously loyalist Crimson Sabres Space Marines, now leader of the largest group of Crimson Slaughter renegades.

Kharn the Betrayer - Infamous Traitor captain, formerly of the World Eaters Legion.

The Fallen Scorpion - The mysterious Epistolary Librarian Voldus, formerly of the Black Scorpions Chapter.

Draznict - Veteren of the Crimson Slaughter, possessing prophetic foresight. Leader of the chosen unit, the Ravagers

Verrick - Aspiring champion of Squad Render.

Kol Cebr "Blind Fury" - A former captain of 5th reserve company, specialising in assualt. Stricken by the unwanted mark of Slaanesh, he teeters on the edge, forever trying to dim his increasingly advanced senses from rendering him insane. Unfortunately, Slaanesh seems to like that he does not give in easily...

Gehenna Conflict Actions
The forces of the Crimson Slaughter arrived slightly later in the beginnings of the conflict, surprising many Diviners and Precogs in that their inclusion was not predicted at all. Their mission officially was the use of the "Prey Bleed" device: a horrific amalgamation of Eldar technology and demonic influence. Gifted by the Warmaster Abaddon himself, the device was said to amplify suffering into a psychic scream that could in theory attract the attention of the Tyranids and even Necrons. The aim was to destabilise the whole sector, foreshadowing the 13th Crusade.

Unbeknown to even the leader of the Black Legion, Kranon had his own designs. Rumours persisted of an artefact in the system which could feasibly cure them of their curse. Such a possibility demanding investigation.

Battle for Fort Watts - Acadia's black moon Èasca
After translating into the Gehenna system, the Crimson Slaughter warband under the command of Kranon himself, came under a wave of bad luck.

Their initial attempt to engage the Ibraesil Eldar was met with utter failure.

Challenging them on a field of mysterious alien pylons, Kranon sent Lord Voldus, who hoped to use the terrain to close with the Xenos early. Dubbed the "The reaping fields" by the old Rogue Trader charts available, Voldus quickly found that the more injured of his forces died suddenly as if the weakest were being killed every time the pylons pulsed.

Despite this, they pushed on, quickly discovering that their enemies were none other than the veterans of the Faustian Schism. Within minutes of the engagement beginning, The Fallen Scorpion called a fighting retreat, giving their enemies the territory.

Irritated by the failure, Kranon took the fleet closer toward the star, letting the solar energies their mask their position from pursuing Eldritch vessels.

Failure at Dis
Given a second chance, Lord Voldus set the course to challenge the Imperial Guard stationed on Dis. He reasoned that with the recent conflict with the Loyalist Astartes, the Black Scorpions, the guard would be ripe for breaking.

He could not have been more wrong.

What he had not heard, was that Captain Bromhead had been transferred to the very Outpost he planned to attack. Centred in the Northern hemisphere in Sector 4: Amon, Bromhead had been busy. Since the revelation regarding the regiment's plasma weapon sabotage, he has ordered fresh checks and had increased drills.

The resulting conflict was brutal as it was quick.

Charging on the left flank while holding a strong centre, Voldus was horrified to see his forces obliterated piece meal by the Krieg's plasma tanks. Meanwhile on the left flank, the slaughtering attack under the command of Verrick ground to a halt as increased focus fire forced them to withdraw.

So enraged by Valdus' second loss, Kranon refused him future command, taking on the next operation himself.

Mayhem on the Cliffs of Cain - Invidia.
After securing a parlay with the Black Scorpions, Kranon bemused himself at his own luck, as their joint augurs picked up the nearby Eldar presence. A perfect opportunity to solidify an alliance? Or betray one.

The conflict was at first between the Loyalist and Traitor Astartes on one side and the Eldar and their dark cousins on the other. Despite good gains in the beginning, the appearance of Ozzy being chased by a gigantic greater daemon of Slaanesh reduced the conflict into a series of back stabbings. The chaos was so complete that in the end, the battlefield was rendered unwinnable. Though Kranon survived, the losses he had suffered were too much.

It also proved that Ozzy Lovecraft's alliance with the Emperors Children was more complicated than previously thought!

Acadia - Muster point.
Reduced to half of their number, Kranon the Relentless directed the fleet to the uncontrolled planet of Acadia. There, he deployed Warp Smiths and slaves to construct a base of operations. A great transmitter was set up and several captured astropaths burned up to send an encrypted signal.

Reinforcements. More than a couple of old favours were called.

Kol Cebr, wayword son of the Crimson Sabres answered and brought with him not only more astartes, but more complications. One being that he was already serving someone called Djall Ramus, a name not heard since the Chapter fell.

Background
The renegades who call themselves the Crimson Slaughter were once the Crimson Sabres Chapter of Space Marines. It is unknown from which founding the Crimson Sabres were created, or which Chapter served as their progenitor. The earliest mentions of the Crimson Sabres that have been have been uncovered are battle records that list them as participating in campaigns at the dawning of the 36th Millennium. That the Chapter’s founding is unknown seems tied to two events – the Amalgamation Schism and the destruction of the planet Rhoghon.

Following the Amalgamation Schism, the chapter was rebuked by the greater Adeptus Astartes for its breach of protocol. Angered, Chapter Master Nigellus was determined to shed his Chapter’s growing self-doubt and make a statement. In a bold move, he declared the Crimson Sabres would sever all ties to their brother Space Marine Chapters, including their founders, while still remaining loyal to the Imperium. All ties to their founding chapter were erased. Chapter Master Nigellus was slain a hundred years later during the Fornstadt Rebellion, but he laid the foundation of the Chapter's new creed: accomplishing each mission with faultless efficiency.

During the Imperium's Age of Redemption, the Crimson Sabres saw the multitude of ongoing Crusades as an ideal opportunity for the Chapter to prove itself. However despite proving themselves in many battles, Chapter Master Drabek became increasingly convinced that the reputation of his Chapter was still in question. Many allies became frustrated with the highly suspicious and overly-critical Space Marines. Moreover while they were away on the Crusade, the Chapter's home of the Brakatoa System fell to Daemonic onslaught. When the Chapter returned, their homeworld of Rhoghon was in ruins and many worlds of the system fell to Imperial Exterminatus. The devastation of their star system and the loss of their home world struck the Crimson Sabres hard. While they would soon resettle the Chapter on Drogsh, the third world of the Brakatoa System, the loss of Rhoghon was a blow to the Chapter’s pride.

Massacre At Umidia
For over a millennium after resettling their Chapter upon Drogsh, the Crimson Sabres continued to do their duty. But everything changed at Umidia. After receiving a distress call from the Jungle World, the Crimson Sabres were en route to the world. Escalating calls for support eventually summoned all available warriors from the entire Chapter onto the fateful planet. With each new location their augers scanned, they found more corruption, so that it was not long before they went from localised assaults to genocidal cleansing. In their methodical manner, the Crimson Sabres purged Umidia, seeking nothing less than to eliminate every single one of the world’s inhabitants. Much later, when questioned about the deed, members of the Crimson Sabres claimed that all of Umidia’s citizenry were given over to Chaos worshipping Balethu Cults. In the wake of their purge, teams of Inquisitors from the Ordo Hereticus were sent to investigate. The Inquisitors found no evidence that the Balethu Cults were worshipers of the Dark Gods. The Inquisition report was damning to the Space Marines, determining that The Crimson Sabres’ action went well beyond the eradication of some hidden cult, it had been an act of butchery.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Sabres began to experienced bizarre symptoms. their multiple hearts racing to peak levels for no purpose, or the onset of a growing sense of foreboding, as if some unseen fog was closing in all around them. A rising pressure weighed heavily upon their minds. Even before the mission was fully complete and the Crimson Sabres returned to their orbiting fleet, some of their members were already feeling the first effects of what they would later call ‘the haunting’. Individual members of the Chapter found that they could not properly clear their minds. The Crimson Sabres failed in attempt after attempt to reach the peaceful meditative state Space Marines used as a substitute for sleep. Rather than being able to relax, they visualised instead the faces of those they had killed, living over and over again their massacre. In an ever growing state of unrest, the most agitated of the Crimson Sabres began to hear voices, the whispered words of the slain. Since he had watched the slaughter on Umidia unfold, Chapter Master Sevastus Kranon too felt a growing unease.[6a]

But despite the voices that attempted to alter his perception, Kranon at last made a resolution. They would halt their Warp travel and steer back towards Umidia, setting their course instead for her sister planet – Demetra. There, they would seek clues of contamination. If, as he suspected, the Crimson Sabres uncovered further spread of the Chaos-worshipping Balethu Cults there, then he could offer them up as proof of the righteousness of their cause. It also gave the Chaplains, Librarians and Apothecaries some time to assess the mental malady that enshrouded the Chapter. However the short trip to Demetra saw the Chapter's paranoia and insanity grow. It was not the Crimson Sabres that made planetfall upon Demetra, but instead raving madmen. In an instinctive attempt to burn away the harrowing memories that haunted them, the red-armoured Space Marines arrived forgetful of all their plans, now intent upon only a single undertaking: slaughter. They viciously butchered the planets populace with Bolters, aircraft, and orbital bombardment. To the Chapter's astonishment, the tormenting voices in their heads vanished after the massacre.

Fall to Chaos
Shortly after the massacre upon Demetra, the Crimson Sabres had been declared Excommunicate Traitoris. They were now named as renegades, a standing order for all forces of the Imperium to open fire upon the Crimson Sabres on sight. Calling for Librarians, Kranon dictated an urgent message to be sent to Drogsh. In essence, it read "flee if you are able" – to remain on the planet or the old moon bases of Rhoghon, or to be affiliated in any way with the Chapter, was a death sentence. Whether they escaped or some other fate befell them, Kranon never knew. Bereft of sanctuary, the Crimson Sabres would now be hunted without mercy. After the message, Kranon gathered his Chapter aboard the vast flagship Red Honour. He declared that only through battle and death could the Crimson Sabres rid themselves of the voices that haunted them. It was Sevastus Kranon’s plan to steer a course into the Eye of Terror.There, they could attack the hell-spawned traitors within that forsaken region and no further innocent lives would be lost. They might be branded as traitors, but Kranon knew they were not. It would be a noble end. After battling through a blockade of Imperial Fists Cruisers, the Crimson Sabres were able to enter the Eye.

The Crimson Slaughter battle inside the Eye of Terror
So it was that the Crimson Sabres descended upon the Eye of Terror with the unequalled fury of both the righteous and the psychotically enraged. Whether witch or abhuman, mutant or renegade Chaos Space Marine – all fell before the scythe that was the Crimson Sabres. During what became known as the Renegade Wars, there was no single moment that marked the Chapter’s turning to Chaos, rather it was a gradual evolution. The flowing powers of the Warp and the heightened fears and desires of each Space Marine combined to morph the Crimson Sabres into the Crimson Slaughter. However the chapter was slowly becoming hideously mutated, and already two hundred Marines were dead. With aid out of the question, doom seemed imminent for the chapter. At that moment, at that low point of despair and utter failure, Kranon Sevastus decided that he no longer wanted martyrdom. Instead, he wanted to live.

Kranon gathered his chapter once more and announced that he no longer served the Imperium. Instead, he would seek a cure to halt the madness that had grown in his mind. The Crimson Sabres were dead, he told them, claiming the very name the Imperial agents had pinned upon them for their acts on Umidia and Demetra. From now on, he would lead the Crimson Slaughter. What followed was brief, but bloody. To some score of Space Marines this was a final blow. They heard the words of sedition and, looking around them, saw that which they had forsworn to destroy. Kranon’s war council had already earmarked who the likely loyalists would be and stationed their own supporters nearby, with guns already aimed. Less fought than expected, and the action was swiftly over. However Kranon faced another challenge, this time from his own friend Captain Barkman, commander of the 6th Company. Barkman insisted he was fit to lead the Crimson Slaughter, and the two duelled and Kranon emerged victorious.

Now Chaos Space Marines and with the Space Hulk Lost Hope as their base of operations, the Crimson Slaughter launched a series of bloody campaigns in the Eye of Terror and Imperial space. Mutants, exiles, and hive gangsters in their millions have set off in quest to pledge themselves before the most fearsome of the Renegade Chapters. The Cult of the Red Disciples, the Bloodbathers and Dirtdogs make up but a few of the thousands of different cultists that serve the Crimson Slaughter. However Kranon still knew the Crimson Slaughter had no way of sustaining themselves, so he made a deal with the infamous Fabius Bile. Bile agreed to create new Space Marines for the Chapter if Kranon provided bodies, and the new Chaos Lord handed over Battle-Brothers who had refused to join him, condemning them to grisly fates. But with help from Fabius Bile, great laboratories had been set up aboard the Lost Hope. Row after row of chem-vats grew the organs that would be transplanted into aspirants to transform them into initiates.

When the Crimson Slaughter’s numbers began to wax strong once more, Kranon knew it was time for a large scale foray into the Imperium. Thus began a rampage across a dozen worlds near the Veiled Region. These were not raids, but full-scale invasions that viciously swept over planets.

Confrontation with Angels
Again and again the Crimson Slaughter materialised out of the Warp and wreaked havoc, yet Kranon was no closer to finding his true goal, the Hellfire Stone. This relic, he believed, could cure the Crimson Slaughter of the maddening voices that plagued them. After capturing the Fallen Angel Turiel (and failing to capture the infamous Cypher), the former Dark Angel said he would give the Crimson Slaughter the location of the Hellfire Stone in exchange for his freedom. Kranon was more interested in wreaking revenge on those who had besmirched his Chapter so long ago during the Amalgamation Schism: the Dark Angels. Kranon instead had Turiel give him the location of more Fallen, who Kranon mercilessly hunted down and slaughtered. The dead Fallen were left in the open on the worlds of Stern's Remembrance, and the Crimson Slaughter sent a message to the Dark Angels that he knew of their secret past. In doing so, Kranon hoped to lure the Dark Angels into a trap.

Soon enough, the Dark Angels appeared. Kranon sprung his trap and in the ensuing fight the outnumbered Dark Angels retreated. During the battle, the Captain of the Dark Angels 5th Company Zadakiel was slain. His grudge repaid, Kranon now had the Crimson Slaughter resume the search for the Hellfire Stone. However he had made a vicious new enemy for the Crimson Slaughter, as the Dark Angels swore retribution and were determined to erase any who knew of the secret of the Fallen. During the Battle of Bane's Landing the Crimson Slaughter was hunted down and defeated by the vengeful Angels just as they were about to acquire the Hellfire Stone. Kranon was forced to flee back to the Eye of the Terror, his prize so close. In a furious state, he struggled with rage and, above all, the manifold voices. In the midst of battle, after bloodletting granted him a rare moment of clear thought, Kranon experienced an epiphany. He was being used, and badly.

The Crimson Slaughter at the Battle for Bane's Landing
It had been a near thing on Bane’s Landing. As they had attempted to wash the Hellfire Stone with the blood of a captured Space Marine, he had felt the skies grow black, he had felt the twitching agitation from the inner voices that were now a part of him. It was not fear they were feeling about the ritual, but a fierce joy. The words that had risen unbidden from Kranon during the height of the ritual had not been his own, nor even in a language that he knew – but it came to him that he had heard similar words before. On Umidia, the Balethu Cults had screamed those words. They sought to summon daemons from their patron, Khorne, but were denied the completion of their ritual by Kranon and the Crimson Sabres that slaughtered them. The ancient magics of the Hellfire Stone were not meant to eradicate the inner daemons, but rather to make them stronger. They were intended to usher in a dark new age. His mind reeling with the implications, Kranon returned to the Lost Hope to prepare for a new plan.

Kranon knew what the next target for the Crimson Slaughter must be. His new Marines implanted with the organs developed from Fabius Bile’s creations, however, were turning into monstrosities, wild and uncontrollable. But he needed more warriors – many more – and there was only so much gene-seed that could be farmed from his own followers. To gain the more stable matter he would need to seize it. After recent clashes and the vendetta the Crimson Slaughter had developed, Kranon knew exactly which Chapter he would steal it from. He raided the Ice World of Numarc, a recruitment world for the Dark Angels. Emerging victorious, all the Dark Angels on Numarc were slain and he plundered the Angels' fortress of its gene-seed stock. Following the battle, it was revealed that the warband's chief Sorcerer Mannon had become possessed by the Lord of Change Tzax’lan-tar. Revealing to have been manipulating Kranon, the Lord of Change vanished. Kranon vowed to hunt down the daemon. He again failed to slay Tzax’lan-tar in the Battle of Myrmidrax.

However the Dark Angels had not forgotten about their vendetta against the Crimson Slaughter. 5th Company Master Balthasar pursued the Crimson Slaughter, eventually running Kranon to ground on an unnamed moon, where the Chaos Lord was finally defeated and had his head taken as a trophy by the Dark Angels.

The Black Crusade
Somehow, Kranon survived his ordeal with the Dark Angels (Allegedly due to some form of prescient trickery on his part). But by this point, the Crimson Slaughter had garnered the attention of Abaddon the Despoiler, Lord of the Black Legion. Upon meeting the Warmaster of Chaos, Kranon vowed to join the Black Crusade, but he would do so only on the condition that the Daemon Tzax’lan-tar was his to kill, whether they be on the same side or not. Thus the Crimson Slaughter joined in the 13th Black Crusade, striking the Hive World of Regallus.

Later, Kranon led the Crimson Slaughter in an alliance with the Black Legion Sorcerer Xorphas in the Diamor Campaign. The Crimson Slaughter believed that the key to curing their spectres could be found within the Diamor System. However, they were largely used as cannon fodder by their allies.