Chapter Twenty-Three: On Silver Wings (Part IX)

Adeptus Umbrex Records- Compiled by Steel Agents Eigen Dierkind and Tatiana Su-Wong

Sample Text of Historical and Tactical Assessment of the Early Rangda Xenocides.

At the Primarch's command, Hossak was to be put under a thousand-year quarantine to ensure the Rangda was gone and honor the human lives lost to the Xenos. Across the fleet, countless great works of art were started. The passion and emotion of the IX Legion channeled into works that would memorialize Hossak. Despite the great military success of the battle. A sense of bitter loss was palpable. They had crushed the Rangda and sent a message but they now knew what the Imperium faced. This had been a border outpost and farming world. Billions of innocent human lives had been ended by the Astartes, giving them the only mercy they could. The scale and unimaginable cruelty of the Rangda Empire dawned upon the IX Crusader Fleet. Suicide among mortal officials and soldiers involved in the liberation and euthanization of the Farms was not unheard of. Iterator and Chaplain efforts to combat this misery were increased.

Physical injuries were also traumatic. Any damage inflicted by Rangda or Khrave weapons was more horrific than initially noticed. Tissue burned by Necrotic Fire refused to heal and in many cases needed to be excised to stop infection and necrosis. Grid-pattern scars of skin and muscle that had to be removed became common across the Astartes and Auxilia of the Fleet. Even worse were those unfortunate enough to make physical contact with a Rangda. The infection of the Xenos spread ruthlessly. Transhuman biology protected the Astartes from the worst of it. Their body naturally quarantining the viral clusters. This still required cauterization, amputation, and painful surgeries. Mortals infected typically had enough time to write some final letters and say goodbye thanks to Imperial medicine. Most took doses of various painkillers or engaged in ritual suicide according to there home culture. Some even challenged Astartes to honor duels for the glory of dying in battle. Those Angels accepted and marked their armor with a black stripe in recognition.

Samples were taken from countless Rangda bodies and weapons acquired by the Mechanicum and Adeptus Umbrex. A grisly discovery was made that even when burned and hacked to bits. Rangda infected tissue was still technically alive and under the control of a much reduced Xeno intelligence. It seemed total disintegration was the only thing that could truly destroy them. Tech-Priests across the Fleets forge-ships got to work designing and manufacturing new munitions and decontamination procedures.

After three months in the Hossak system, the Imperial fleet prepared to push deeper into Rangda space. The IX Legion would begin a campaign of rapid decapitation strikes and purging to harass and threaten the edges of the Xeno Empire. The VIII Legion and its Primarch Konrad Cruze would be joining them soon. Dante and Konrad as the Seer Primarchs would engage in a War of Shock and Terror as the Imperium mobilized. Giving the Forgeworlds and Recruiting Systems much needed time. Psychic foresight allowing them an estimate of the Rangda military's movement. Giving them plenty of opportunities to strike and make the Xenos suffer. The campaign strategy was to continue this tactic until five other Legions could assemble. Letting the full attack on the Rangda start.

In the coming decades of War, the IX Legion would be tested like never before. The noblest of the Legions would fight alongside its most brutal cousins in a grinding hell-war. That would leave trillions dead in the crossfire. In the ensuing centuries and millennia, scholars would debate why the IX Legion was tasked with fighting in the most horrible conflict of the Great Crusade. Some argued it was a simple matter of luck, with the IX being first to attack the Rangda and start the Xenocide war. Others claimed it was a method for the Emperor to battle-forge his Archangel. Guiding Dantes ascension and evolution into Sanguinius. Preparing him for his duel with (REDACTED) during the Great Doom-Tide of the Eastern Fringes.

Assessment based upon classified records and the Emperor's own statements indicates the reason was both of these and one additional. In the darkest days of the Xenocide when the Imperium surrendered so much of its humanity in the name of survival and victory. Dante and the IX Legion were there to remind mankind that the Dawn was coming. To be a living testament to the good within humanity. Dante shined like a guiding star. Helping his brothers, sons, and nephews keep their humanity. Acting as an Angel of Wrath and Mercy who watched and guided the Imperium through the worst of it. Where Eddard Fendragon was the commander of the Xenocide Crusade and Tyric Balderson was its fangs. Dante was its heart. The IX Legion and its Primarch directly saved millions of human lives and protected billions across the galaxy. Demonstrating compassion, honor and crimson fury in the name of Imperator and Imperium. Truly the IX Legion earned the title it still carries to this day. The Dawn Angels, Ninth of the Legio Astartes and Watchers of Mankind.