Destruction of Caliban
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The Destruction of Caliban was a major event in Dark Angels history, occurring just after the Horus Heresy.[1]
Overview
Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson, wracked with grief over the fate of the Emperor following the Battle of Terra, returned to Caliban to reinforce his Dark Angels and recover in general. When the ships arrived in orbit, they were hit by a savage salvo of fire from the surface.[1] Who exactly first ordered the planet's guns to fire was unclear, but several high-ranking officers on Caliban had no wish for their Primarch to reclaim their world for various reasons: Some held sympathies for Horus, others believed Lion El'Jonson had betrayed the Emperor, several feared punishment for breaking the Edict of Nikaea, a few had embraced the influence of Chaos, and most were just angry over the Primarch's callous treatment of his sons.[4e]
The fleet pulled back and Jonson tried to find out what was happening. He learnt from a merchant ship that his trusted friend Luther had poisoned the minds of the Space Marine garrison on the world and taken control. It could only be seen by Jonson as the taint of Chaos. Jonson's fury was let loose and the planet suffered. He ordered a systematic bombardment of the planet, destroying everything they could to rid the world of Chaos for all time.[1] In truth, most of the Dark Angels on Caliban -even ranking officers like Kai, Borz, and Guain- were completely unaware of the attack's circumstances, and had no idea who had started the battle. Already resentful over their exile on the planet, the garrison's members rallied to defend themselves from what they believed was a baseless or traitorous assault by their Primarch.[4a][4b]
The planet burned and the defences were whittled down to nothing. Jonson led his forces personally against the defenders who had taken refuge in the Order's Fortress Monastery. Jonson found Luther and saw him to be completely corrupted, nothing of his old friend had survived. Luther had been elevated to a strength equal to Jonson by the Chaos Gods and the two met in a duel the likes of which would never be seen again. They leveled the monastery around them, but the planet was still suffering. The bombardment began to crack the surface of the planet, the Dark Angels in orbit unable to see the damage they were doing.[1]
The battle between Luther and Jonson was titanic, but ended with a psychic attack that mortally wounded Jonson. Luther then realised what he had done, as if a veil had been lifted from in front of his eyes. He fell to the floor, unwilling to fight any more, but it was too late for Jonson. The gods of Chaos realised they had lost again, and sent a massive warp storm to wrack the surface of the planet. It then broke apart under the strain, destroyed all but for the monastery of The Order which had been protected by vast force-fields. When the Dark Angels descended to the, now, asteroid, they searched the ruins and found Luther mumbling that Jonson had been taken by the Watchers in the Dark and would return one day and forgive him for his sins. The Dark Angels could not find any trace of their Primarch. The rest of the Dark Angels who had been converted by Luther were sucked into the warp and scattered around the galaxy, now named The Fallen. The Lion himself remained asleep in The Rock for the next ten thousand years, a secret known only to the Watchers in the Dark.[1]
Unknown to either side at the time, the Warp storm that scattered the Fallen was caused by the clash of Astelan, Typhus, Azrael, and Cypher ten thousand years in the future. The traitors wished to bring the Fallen to the present with the Tuchulcha, but were foiled when Azrael confronted them at the Battle of the Caliban System and used the Tuchulcha to scatter all present. However Azrael was not specific enough with the order, and Tuchulcha temporally scattered the Fallen ten thousand years earlier as well.[2]
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