Pernicum Campaign

During the Night of a thousand Rebellions at the end of M41, the Imperial Command received an emergency call for help from the Pernicum System at the western border of the Segmentum Pacificus. The Thorn Heralds were dispatched quickly to deal with the situation, and establish a bridge-head afterwards but it turned out to be an elaborate trap.

Background
Years before, the traitor warband of the Scourge Knights had infiltrated the system in search for an ancient artifact, rumored to be blessed by Tzeentch himself. To simplify their search and gain another base of operations, the traitor's agents infiltrated and corrupted the system's government slowly but thoroughly. Eventually, they also took control over the system's armed forces such as PDFs and naval vessels.

Tough not confirmed by valuable sources, it is very likely that the Scourge Knights eventually succeeded in their venture and discovered Tzeentch's artifact. Fragments of the warbands recovered logs suggest that it needed some sort of sacrifice to unfold it's potential.

The Scourge Knights then developed the plan to lure an Astartes chapter into the system under false pretense and then sacrifice their gene-seed to the artifact and ultimately Tzeentch.

The warp ambush
Being a fleet-based chapter designed for quick responses set off into the warp, expecting to have to deal with a minor chaos cult taking advantage of the wave of rebellions scourging the sector. Combat did not wait for them, as the Chapter's fleet, along with the flagship Hand of Deliverance was attacked by demons and other warp-spawn almost immediately. Although not entirely surprised, the Heralds suffered their first losses in the Warp due to the sheer fierceness of the attack and the number of beasts.

Eventually, the Marines fought the unholy hordes off and arrived in the Pernicum system, only to be greeted by the combined traitor fleet. In expectance of a peaceful welcome, the Space Marines fleet neglected to ready their defenses in time. In the following crossfire, the Thorn Heralds lost 1/3rd's of their fleet half of the human personnel and over 400 battle brothers, decimating the Chapter to half of it's original strength.

Eventually, chapter master Godehard Melanthios ordered the fleet to scatter and escape while he and the 1st company launched a suicide attack with the Hand of Deliverance against the traitors' flagship, the'' Thirst of Tzeentch. ''Unbeknownst to the rest of the Order, Vern was captured and imprisoned, along with what was left of the 1st company.

Pernicum Alpha
The vast agri-world of Pernicum Alpha hadn't attracted much attention from the Scourge Knights until that point of time, so the defenses in the surrounding space were comparably weak. The survivors of the 3rd, 5th and 8th company managed to conduct an emergency landing on the northern hemisphere. Pursued by landing commandos of the traitor forces, the less than 150 Marines managed to escape into the vast fields and forests of the world.

Following this initial disaster, the Marines gathered all their supplies, weapons and fit for action brothers and elected Brother-Captain Baptista Almo as commander. Their declared objective was to gather as much information about their situation as possible before they'd be able to strike back. Due to the weak presence of the traitors on the planet until then, however, there was little progress. Their presence was welcomed by the native farmers and workers, though, who had suffered occasional raids and attacks from the traitors.

Captain Almo made direct use of that, laying ambushes for the raid squads aiming to supply to their troops, capturing the traitors and interrogating them thoroughly. Through these means, they were able to ascertain the Scourge Knights' goals and learn about the mysterious artifact they planned to make use of.

Pernicum III
After breaking through the blockade, parts of the 2nd, 7th and 9th company managed to regroup and use the asteroid belt of Pernicum III for cover before the condition of their ships forced them to land. Having lost the majority of their ammunition, the Marines were forced to engage the beasts and traitor groups roaming the feral jungle planet in close combat.

Unknown to them, Pernicum III was the main base of the traitors' research and groups of Chaos Space Marines and corrupt imperial forces roamed the planet's surface in search for either more information or just a test of strength. Soon enough, patrols would not return to their base and others reported of attacks on their camps commenced by wild beasts and Space Marines. Being dependent on the element of surprise, the Thorn Heralds on the planet developed the tactic of gathering and releasing large groups of wild beasts on the traitor camps and facilities, using the distraction and confusion to launch fast and bloody attacks that had the simple goal to kill as much of their enemies as possible. Secondary objectives were of course to secure supplies and gather intel, but the declared goal was avenge every fallen brother ten- if not hundredfold.

Pernicum Secundus
The last group of Marines escaping total annihilation were the 4th, 6th and 10th company. Using Godehard's sacrifice to the fullest, they managed to break straight through the enemy blockade and quickly landed on Pernicum Secundus. The industrial world was the former seat of the system's government, but was now uninhabited for large areas as the Scourge Knights abducted large parts of the population for the sake of experiments or as sacrifice to the Dark Gods.

Taking the now empty streets and factories as a sorry excuse for a defense, the remains of the companies gathered under Chief Librarian Gordo Alexandar. Using their lower numbers to an advantage, they feigned retreat after retreat, letting the enemy willingly invade their perimeter, only to launch devastating counter attacks or have entire buildings explode over the traitors' heads.

Their campaign was perhaps the most desperately fought, constantly in the need of being one step ahead of their enemy while trying to maintain their numbers. Gordo Alexandar's attempts to get in contact with the rest of the Chapter were successful in the way that the leaders could exchange information, but neither of them had much hope of fulfilling their original goal.

The war for survival
The three remaining leaders of the Thorn Heralds, Brother-Captain Baptista Almo, Chief Librarian Gordo Alexandar and Assault Captain Renand Vasquez agreed the chances for reuniting were slim. Their enemy outnumbered them at least 3 to 1, had the advantage of supplies and information and imperial reinforcements were unlikely to arrive anytime soon, given they would receive an emergency signal in the first place.

The original goal of the campaign was obsolete, so the three agreed on a new one: Survival. Every battle group was to search for a way to call for reinforcements while simultaneously trying to put as much damage to their enemy and preserving their numbers as much as possible. After this was agreed upon, the contact between the groups was ceased in order to prevent their enemy from gathering intel on them.

In the following 25 years, the Thorn Heralds fought a war against seemingly hopeless odds.

(More will come later, terribly sorry.)