Anphelion Project
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The Anphelion Project was a classified operation based out of Beta Anphelion IV conducted by the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos to investigate the Tyranid threat. Collecting samples from various captured and deceased Tyranids, the Inquisition hoped to find some weakness in the creatures that could potentially save humanity from the Tyranid menace. However in 850.M41 all contact from the research facility of Beta Anphelion ceased, leading to an investigative team of Red Scorpions, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Imperial Guards led by Inquisitor Solomon Lok to arrive on the planet.[1]
Overview
The Red Scorpions terminators swept the three labs and the command facility. Magos Biologis Arthon and his team analysed the records and discovered what the facility's purpose truly was. It was built to find a way to counteract the rapid-evolution tendencies of Tyranid creatures. Huge areas spreading out from the labs were cut off from the outside. These were where the Tyranids had been kept. But for reasons unknown, the fence had failed. The Tyranids had escaped, overrunning the three hundred man garrison. When the terminators swept the lab complexes, they encountered genestealers. Now there could be no question. The Tyranids were here.[1]
The first order of business was to reactivate the containment fences. The Elysians had the task of escorting a technical servitor to repair the generatorum. As the servitor and its guard reached the generatorum, the Tyranids attacked. The Elysians held off the Tyranids as the servitor repaired the generatorum. Back at the command facility Lok found in detail what had happened. The Tyranids had been small specimens. They had shown aggression at first. When the samples in one area had started to evolve wings, the area was purged. Then the Tyranids in another section vanished. A failure in the containment fence in the third section loosed the Tyranids upon the moon. The creatures had hid in the jungles and swamps until they reached sufficient numbers to overwhelm the labs' garrison of three hundred.[1]
Meanwhile the Cadians at one of the lab complexes were attacked and overwhelmed, with them Biologis Arthon. At the command complex the Elysians were attacked from below by Raveners and a Trygon and a force of Elysians and Cadians were attacked by Harridans. The Red Scorpion terminators attempted to return to the command complex but floating spore sacks caused them to crash-land. The rest of the chapter's forces, in defiance of Lok's orders, set out to rescue the terminators. They arrived to the clash and roars of battle; the terminators were surrounded. The relief column made a successful rescue and returned to base. They arrived in time to aid the garrison who had again come under attack. After the fight, the Red Scorpions received orders to evacuate themselves, and only themselves. The transport requisitioned for the mission refused all of Lok's requests, stranding Lok and the small force of survivors on the moon as the Tyranids closed in. In the last battle, Lok succeeded in taking down a Hierophant Bio-titan, only to see two more stride out of the ammonia fog. Lok was killed along with the Beta Anphelion rescue team, and the Imperium has since lost all contact with the world.[1]
Sources
- 1: Imperial Armour Volume Four, pgs. 13–55
