Daredevils: Calderis

by Arcsquad12

The desert world of Calderis comes under sustained attack as the Third Aurelian Crusade sweeps across Subsector Aurelia. Sergeant Major Merrick and the soldiers of the Vendoland Guard are redeployed to the planet to protect the world's significant natural resources. However, the threat from without may be less dangerous than the threat from within.

1. Prologue

DAREDEVILS: CALDERIS

By the year 004.M42, the Third Aurelian Crusade had entered its second stage. As the war for the Meridian System continued, the violence threatened to spread across the Subsector. The neighbouring systems of Typhon and Calderis, hinterlands compared to the sector capital, came under renewed attacks by local uprisings and xenos incursions. With Angel Forge, the subsector's primary manufacturing facility, irreparably damaged, the defense of the outer systems became a new priority. The Imperium sought to secure its supply lines to the sector's capital. Particular attention was paid to Calderis, and its considerable natural resources.

With reinforcements pouring into the killing grounds of Meridian, several veteran Imperial Guard regiments were reassigned to defend Calderis. Learning their lessons from the early years of the Crusade, Segmentum Command would take no chances with the subsector's outer systems. The defense of Calderis would be paramount to the continuation of the Aurelian Crusades. As both a source of materiel, and as an Adeptus Astartes recruiting world, Calderis became the lynchpin of the subsector's defenses.

Of peculiar note is Segmentum Command's failure to inform the Blood Ravens, the Emperor's own Space Marines, of the arrangement. Needless to say, tensions remained high between the recruiting world's wardens and the occupying force...

Excerpt from "The Early Crusades of M42 (Inquisitor M. Adrastia)