Death of Chemos
The Death of Chemos occurred during the Horus Heresy, when the Dark Angels destroyed the Emperor's Children's Homeworld, Chemos, in 12.M31.[1a]
History
It began when the vengeful Dark Angels' vast armada entered the Chemos System and swept aside the defense fleet the Emperor's Children left to protect the System. The Legion left only the wrecks of venerable warships and frozen corpses in their wake until the Dreadwing were sent to invade Chemos. They were unleashed en masse and engaged the traitor legion's garrison while also planting seismic macro-charges of immense potency in key locations on the world. Though they were outnumbered, the Emperor's Children fought fiercely in defense of their homeworld and inflicted heavy casualties on the invaders. The Dreadwing, however, were merciless in the prosecution of attacks on strategic targets and scoured enemy strongholds of all life using weapons born of humanity's darkest nightmares. When their objectives were completed, they returned to the Dark Angels' fleet and remotely detonated the planted seismic macro-charges.[1a]
The resulting explosions caused a chain of catastrophic explosions that began the destruction of Chemos. The world's tectonic plates split apart, which created kilometers-deep canyons that swallowed Chemos's glittering metropolises into their cavernous depths. At the height of the world's cataclysm, the Dark Angels' orbiting fleet then began an orbital bombardment. The legion's spread of cyclonic torpedoes struck at predetermined weak spots across Chemos's surface and even somehow detonated within its core. This caused the Emperor's Children's once proud homeworld to break apart and sent colossal slabs of its remains tumbling through space. Before the Dark Angels departed, the Legion declared the Chemos System Perdita and placed warning beacons around its boundaries. Upon their activation, the devices promise the Dark Angels will deliver swift retribution upon any trespassers within the system[1a]. Elements of the Emperor's Children that fled Chemos's destruction later invaded the Pale Stars region and came into conflict with the Salamanders.[1b]
Sources
- 1: White Dwarf 478 - Horus Heresy: The Passage of the Angel of Death
