Editing Devastation of Baal (section)

==The Battle==
The Tyranids sent nineteen waves of merciless attacks, with each one being even larger than the last. These waves were driven off at great cost by the Imperial forces, with five Chapter Masters falling in these battles; three of the Chapter Masters were killed in the bloody Battle at the Dome of Angels alone.

The Space Marines initially held their own thanks to recommissioning all of their powerful [[Horus Heresy|Heresy]]-era fortifications and weaponry, along with the use of inventive tactics (such as a moat of Thirstwater hundreds of meters wide, which slaughtered tens of thousands of lesser bioforms, and sending ''all'' the [[Death Company]] marines of ''all'' the Chapters present against the hordes in one giant steamroller of [[rape]]) and the [[Grimdark|forced mass-recruitment of tens of thousands of Baalite civilians into]] [[Imperial Guard|a makeshift defence force to supplement the Astartes]].

Despite this, the tide inevitably began to turn - a [[Lictor]] managed to infiltrate the Arx Angelicum of the Blood Angels' Fortress-Monastery, destroying the main reactor and forcing the powerful defences offline, while [[Genestealers]] broke into the Hall of Sarcophagi and butchered the vast majority of the Chapter's slumbering Neophytes, royally fucking over the Blood Angels' future prospects for survival and sending Dante into a [[rage]]. The [[Swarmlord]] took to the battlefield shortly after this, coordinating the final wave of Tyranid attacks.

With the Imperial defences falling little by little, the battered defenders retreated to the Blood Angels' Fortress-Monastery, with the planet close to destruction. The Tyranids began the process of draining the world and her moons of biomass, absorbing even the rad-poisoned deserts of Baal Secundus. But then...

===Daemon Ex Machina===
It was at this moment that the [[Great Rift]] opened up across the width of the galaxy, which fucked over ''everyone'' - millions of Tyranids of all forms and frames died outright or were reduced to animalistic behaviour as the Hive Mind's connections were disrupted by the Warp, while numerous Blood Angels were driven into the throes of the [[Red Thirst]] and [[Black Rage]] by the sudden touch of the Warp; this also drove most of the [[Astropath|Astropaths]] on the planet insane or just plain killed them, seemingly preventing any hope of reinforcements from reaching Baal.

Worse was yet to come, as a ravenous horde of [[Khorne|Khornate]] Daemons surged onto the battlefields of Baal Primus. They were led by none other than the [[Bloodthirster]] [[Ka'bandha]], the archenemy of the Blood Angels and their [[Sanguinius|late]] [[Primarch]]. In a voice that probably sounded like Satan gurgling melted iron and the souls of the damned, he declared to the Tyranids that only ''he'' had the right to destroy his hated foes.

Probably pissed off even more than usual at this point since the Tyranids didn’t understand nor give a fuck about what he just said, Ka'bandha and his groupies surged in and began slaughtering Tyranids and Imperial defenders alike on Baal Prime. With the planet and its moons now cut off from the greater Imperium, two absolutely insane combatants dunking it out on a planet covered with corpses, and Ka'Bandha's presence amplifying the Red Thirst to horrendous levels, Chapter Master [[Gabriel Seth]] of the [[Flesh Tearers]] had no choice but to evacuate with any survivors.

Their forces were only able to escape due to the sacrifice of the [[Knights of Blood]], who all gave in to the [[Black Rage]] and charged directly into the melee of xenos and Daemon, probably blasting death metal from their voxes and [[Angry Marines|screaming obscenities at everything in their path]]. The last thing Seth saw before the ramps on their ships closed were their renegade brothers selling their lives [[Awesome|in one last act of heroic badassery, with their Chapter Master Sentor Jool verbally flipping off Ka'Bandha himself as they engaged in a one-to-one duel to the death]].

===You’ve Heard This Part Before===
With their defences crippled, their Neophytes dead, the [[Swarmlord]] itself leading the Tyranids on a final assault, and no hope of victory in sight, the Blood Angels and their successors collectively decided to go down swinging; using ash, blood, and grime in place of paint, they inducted themselves into the [[Death Company]] and resolved to make the Tyranids bleed as much as possible before going down. The Tower of Amareo was opened, unleashing the Red Thirst-mutated monsters within to accompany them on their last charge into the hordes.

In the resultant fighting, the present Chapters suffered utterly catastrophic losses despite the [[Legion of the Damned]] and the [[Sanguinor]] arriving to lay a smackdown on the 'Nids; all but one of the remaining [[Sanguinary Guard]] were ripped to shreds, along with the likes of Chaplain Ordamael ([[Astorath]]'s second-in-command) and several other Captains from the Blood Angels and their successors. Dante himself came within millimetres of falling to the [[Black Rage]] as he fought his way toward the Swarmlord, keeping himself together through nothing but sheer willpower and hatred for the Tyranids.

The two leaders eventually met in a vicious duel to the death - Dante burned off one of the Swarmlord's arms, broke one of its swords, and tore out an eye, only for it to retort by badly damaging Dante's armour with a stream of psychic attacks before shanking him through the chest with the remnants of its damaged bonesword, popping his secondary heart and leaving him badly poisoned. Unfortunately for the Swarmlord, Dante took advantage of his impalement to [[Rape|fire the Perdition Pistol at point-blank range into the Swarmlord's face, cooking its head to steaming mulch]].

The victory, however, soon proved a ''very'' pyrrhic one. Dante actually died from his injuries on the battlefield, and the war continued to rage on as the last remnants of the Blood Angels and their successors sought to bloody the Tyranids one final time.

===Roboute Ex Machina===
Lo and behold, at the most dire moment for the Imperial forces, who else would show up but [[Roboute Guilliman|Rowboat Gorillaman]] himself, at the head of his merry little [[Indomitus Crusade]] (turns out an Astropath managed to get out one last message after the Rift hit, alerting Girlyman to the mess afflicting Baal at the cost of the psyker's life). With Guilliman and his allies forcing their way into the fray, the tides of battle began to change in favour of the Imperium as the Crusade began to reclaim orbital supremacy; the [[Unnumbered Sons]] of the Blood Angels were also unleashed into the battle planetside, providing the beleaguered defenders with desperately-needed reinforcement.

Around the same time, Dante experienced something between a dying dream and an out of body experience, seeing both the Sanguinor and the soul of [[Sanguinius]] himself. The latter praised Dante's great deeds and loyalty to the Imperium, before Dante asked to be allowed to die and finally find rest. The father of the Blood Angels mournfully revealed that Dante could not yet die - he would be needed in the [[Age of the Dark Imperium|coming years]], and poured strength into him, restoring Dante enough for his apothecaries to stabilize him (much to his chagrin).

Of course, this did nothing to stop the Tyranids from fighting until the very end, and Baal was finally liberated only after a whole mess of battles. The Daemons on Baal Prime were either banished or fell back to the [[Warp]] after wiping out the remaining Tyranids and Imperials there. Ka’bandha, being the Daemonic [[/a/|yandere]] that he was, left a little gift for the Blood Angels in the form of his sigil on the now-barren rock of Baal Prime, [[Grimdark|formed from the skulls of hundreds of millions of Tyranid bio-organisms]]. It was the only trace of Leviathan the Imperials ever found on Baal Prime.