Editing Lion El'Jonson (section)

===The Sarosh Campaign===
Sometime during the Crusade, the Dark Angels took over the campaign to bring the planet of Sarosh into “the light” of the Imperium from the White Scars. The Saroshi managed to fool both legions into believing that they were interested in becoming a part of the Imperium (though the Imperials suspected that something weird was going on). In reality, the Saroshi were secret worshipers of the Ruinous Powers.

The Lion invited their leader The Lord High <s>Executioner</s> Exacter to his flagship (for dinner) in order to finalize the compliance. The Saroshi took advantage of this by smuggling a nuclear device onboard the spacecraft. The High Lord Exacter then denounced the Imperium and its false Emperor, before [[Derp|personally insulting the Lion]] by claiming that he and his sons were abominations and nothing more than the product of rutting beasts. The Lion responded by splitting the bureaucrat in twain.

Meanwhile in the hangar bay, [[Luther]] had discovered the nuclear device and was pondering whether or not he should let it go off and kill his long-time rival, thus finally becoming the rightful head honcho of the Order. Luckily for everyone, [[Zahariel]] was once again in the right place at the right time, and successfully reasoned with Luther. Then they ejected the device into space where it detonated, causing only minimal damage to the ship. Meanwhile, the Saroshi executed the unsuspecting Imperial civilians and army personnel on the planet's surface.

After the situation in space stabilized, a meeting was called to decide what was to be done with the Saroshi. But before the meeting, Zahariel observed the Lion and Luther speaking in a huddled corner, their words unheard by anyone, though the intensity of their conversation was plain for all to see. The Lion then abruptly turned away from Luther, his face a mask of unreadable emotion, while Luther's expression was one of despair and anguish. Zahariel would later note that from this moment on, the seemingly unbreakable bonds of trust and brotherhood between the Lion and Luther were gone forever.
[[File:Lion and his Dark Angels.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Lion and his Dark Angels, from the Will of Iron comics]]

Needless to say, the Lion wasn't too pleased by all this and so he decided to personally lead his forces to the surface. After dealing with the Saroshi and their daemonic allies, the Lion made a declaration, announcing that the [[Imperial Guard|flow]] of new recruits from Caliban was not proceeding as swiftly as was hoped. The Great Crusade was entering a new and vigorous stage and the Dark Angels needed fresh warriors to take the light of the Imperium onwards into the dark places of the galaxy. Therefore, a corps of experienced Astartes were to return to the homeworld with all speed to ensure that the recruitment of new warriors for the Legion was put back on track. [[Luther]] and [[Zahariel]] and around five hundred other Dark Angels, made up of those that had been injured during the fighting but also some that seemed to have been picked at random, were to return to Caliban. Though officially there was no stigma or disgrace placed upon those returning and despite the apparent honour in such a responsibility, many were shocked by the decision, especially at the apparent dismissal of Luther, as up to that point, he and the Lion had been inseparable. If the Legion needed warriors so badly, why were they being pulled from the front lines? Training recruits was a job for elders, men who were full of wisdom but past their physical prime.

In “Angels of Caliban”, we are given a brief look into the mind of the Lion, which shows that he is very much conflicted about sending Luther back to Caliban, meaning it to be both a punishment and a genuine desire to demonstrate to his father/brother that he still trusted him enough to put him in charge of the very future of his sons and his Legion (he really [[Rogal Dorn|isn’t very good at expressing himself]], is he?). He viewed himself as little more than a warlord whose place was on the battlefield and believed that he had left his homeworld in the hands of people that were far more suited to running and safeguarding it than he ever could be. On top of that, he had mixed feeling regarding Caliban itself, as it brought him to question exactly where he belonged. Despite wanting to return home, there was always something more important that took precedence; there was always another enemy, always another war to wage, and new frontiers to discover (duty before anything else).

This may seem like a convenient excuse, but the Legion really was low on numbers during this period. When the Lion first bought the Legion together, they numbered only around 100,000 Marines, a pitiful number for what had been the largest of all legions; the First had already suffered significant losses during the first war against the Rangdan and would go on to suffer more during the second war. Although the initial influx of new Marines from Caliban was around 20,000, it wasn't enough for the legion to regain its former might. The Lion's decision may seem harsh, but it proved to be an effective one, as by the time of the Heresy, the Dark Angels numbered roughly 200,000. Of course, this did come at the cost of Caliban becoming heavily industrialised and its population being redirected toward supporting and supplying the needs of the legion (some were not happy about this). Of course, the campaign occurred nearly a hundred years (give or take a few decades) before the Heresy occurred. The legion barely breaking the 100,000 mark (some records putting them closer to 50,000 due to the losses suffered against the Rangdan). The Legion needed to rebuild and the number of new Marines produced on Caliban rose to just over 2000 Marines every cycle thanks to the men that the Lion sent back; by the time of the Heresy, this number had risen to over 4000 per cycle.