Months of Shame

The Months of Shame was the unofficial name given to a secret, sad, and shameful chapter in Imperial history. It refers to the Inquisition purges that followed the First War for Armageddon in 444.M41, and the related violent months-long confrontation between the Inquisition's "Armageddon Containment" task force and the Space Wolves Space Marines. These threatened to erupt into a full-fledged civil war between that Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes and the Inquisition. The internecine hostilities ceased in early 445.M41, following an uneasy truce; however, the larger institutional dispute between the Space Wolves Chapter and the Inquisition remained unresolved.

Background
The Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines is one of the most idosyncratic in the Imperium, in terms of both organisation and philosophy. In both these areas their practices sometimes contradict traditional norms and Imperial decrees. The Chapter is also fiercely independent. The Chapter's peculiar qualities have created problems with Imperial authorities, who have sometimes interpreted Space Wolves actions as non-cooperative, defiant, or even heretical.

The Months of Shame campaign was not the first time the Space Wolves had been involved in violent disputes with other Imperial organisations. There was a history of clashes with the Adeptus Ministorum in particular, as well as with the Inquisition and others. It is likely that Logan Grimnar, then Chapter Master of the Space Wolves, was personally involved in some of these incidents, and had become in turn highly suspicious and disdainful towards the Inquisition and its methods.

First War for Armageddon
The First War for Armageddon in 444.M41 was fought and won for the Imperium under the overall command of the Space Wolves and more specifically, their Chapter Master, the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar. The Inquisition, along with a force of Grey Knights, became involved when the nature of the enemy was revealed: millions of Chaos Cultists known as the Children of Sanguinary Unholiness, and a Khornate army of Chaos Space Marines from the World Eaters Traitor Legion led by the Daemon Primarch Angron and his elite guard of 12 Khornate daemons, the Cruor Praetoria. Grimnar, who as Chapter Master was aware of the Grey Knights' existence, asked for their help.

A hastily mustered ad hoc Brotherhood of Grey Knights, along with other Inquisition forces and as many as 30 Inquisitors, made swift passage to Armageddon in order to join the ultimately victorious fight. The Inquisition task force was under overall command of Lord Inquisitor Ghesmei Kysnaros, an unaligned Lord of mysterious origins.

As much as defeating the Archenemy, the Inquisition was there to guarantee that sensitive information regarding the nature of the enemy, and the secret Imperial assets arraigned against it (the Grey Knights in particular, and the Ordo Malleus in general) would not spread beyond the planet. The suppression of these truths is a basic element of the Inquisition's mandate concerning the Chaotic, and often involves brutal and indiscriminate purges, where Imperial citizens are liable to be executed on mere suspicion, and whole worlds subjected to Exterminatus.

Early signs of trouble
The first indication that there were going to be problems with the Inquisition's post-war plans was revealed months before the end of the war, in the first meeting of Grimnar with the newly arrived Inquisition task force. Although he knew that the Inquisition would have to suppress the truth of the war after it was over, Grimnar was clear that he expected it not to. As there was already mistrust and suspicion of the Space Wolves within the Imperial hierarchy over past disputes and the Wolves' disregard of Imperial authority, Grimnar's demand seemed either naive or an excuse for a fight, while his manner was condescending towards the Inquisitors. However Grimnar was genuinely sympathetic to the human element on Armageddon, and questioned the wisdom of saving a planet if its inhabitants and defenders would then have to be "processed" by the Inquisition for the sin of knowing about the existence of Chaos or the secret Imperial organisations arraigned against it. Grimnar had specifically structured the planet's defense and use of Grey Knights in order to minimise the chances of the remaining civilian population accidentally finding out the truth behind the war. This strategy to protect the civilians guaranteed "catastrophic casualties" among the defenders, both Astartes and human.

The Inquisition was not moved, nor did it deviate from its position that it was by law and the Emperor's decree the ultimate arbiter of what is right for the Imperium and Mankind: the truth of Chaos and the existence of the daemonic had to be contained. In practical terms, it made sense to the Inquisition to contain the situation on the planet itself, as this would affect a relatively small number of Imperial citizens compared to the damage control that should have to take place if any escaped the planet. The Armageddon containment was the result of a majority vote by a conclave of the Inquisitors on duty at the planet, and had several directions. One was the sterilisation and quarantine of the entire surviving civilian population in Adeptus Arbites work-camps scattered across the galaxy. This was decided even though that population was generally considered untainted, and had no knowledge of the truths of the war. A similar fate, or even outright liquidation, awaited the human defenders of the Armageddon Steel Legion and the Armageddon Planetary Defence Forces, who had valiantly faced the Chaotic hordes that had invaded the planet. The use of Exterminatus against the world in order to keep the secret of Chaos' existence was not an option: the industrial capacity of the planet was too important to the Imperium to be destroyed.

The Containment begins
Lord Kysnaros, as the ranking Inquisitor present, had overall command of the containment from his flagship, the commandeered Imperial Navy battle cruiser Corel's Hope. His attitude to the Armageddon purge was typical of the Inquisition's pragmatic and calculating position: better to sterilise or kill millions on suspicions of taint, than to have to eventually kill billions in order to prevent the possibility of taint from spreading. As the war was winding down, over the objections of Grimnar (which were broadcast to all Imperial forces), he ordered the start of the first phase: Inquisition Storm Troopers began to evacuate the remaining hive cities and to herd the population into camps for "vaccinations" -- in reality, sterilisation by injection. The civilians were told that the evacuation was a "temporary security measure." The planet's human defenders, including at least a million Imperial Guardsmen who arrived for mop-up operations after Angron had been banished, were ordered in barracks pending their own "processing."

The Space Wolves on the surface engaged in only minor disruptions -- as they were clearly overmatched on the ground by the more than 100,000 Storm Troopers and other Inquisition forces. However, they had the advantage in space, with 16 ships to the Inquisition's 12 -- additionally the Wolves' ships were generally bigger, better armoured, and better armed. Grimnar's plan was to help the human defenders and civilians escape the Inquisition by making sure their transports safely jumped into the Warp at the first opportunity. Twenty such transports were already waiting for their human cargoes above the planet.

Escape from Armageddon
Soon, the first such transport, the Trident of Ilmatha, loaded mostly with defenders but also with civilians, was en route to the system's Warp jump-point, escorted by the Space Wolves frigate Runefyre. The ship never made the Warp jump, as its Warp-Drives were disabled by the Grey Knights frigate Karabela which then proceeded to scuttle the ship; there were no survivors among the Trident's 400,000 passengers. These were the first shots and the first casualties of the internecine war that followed. For their part, the Space Wolves did not retaliate against the firing vessel. Grimnar wanted to see whether the Inquisition would actually go ahead with its plans -- one of the many miscalculations that occured among both sides.

Following this episode, Grimnar ordered all the remaining loaded transports off-orbit at the same time, each protected by his own vessels, who put themselves in the Inquisition ships' line of fire with orders not to fire back in any circumstance; with this strategy, at least some of the transports would safely make it to Warp jump-points. Kysnaros, who had tried to reason with Grimnar in an exchange that descended into insults and terrible threats, countered by ordering his fleet to fire at the interfering Space Wolves escorts, as well as targeting the troop transports. However, as Inquisition ships opened fire and before Kysnaros' order could be completed, Space Wolves reinforcements lead by the Battle Barge Gylfarheim translated into the system, presenting overwhelming naval superiority. A triumphant Grimnar then bade Kysnaros to call off the attack and the chase, which the Inquisitor Lord had no option but to do. The majority of troop transports had survived the brief engagement; escorted by the Space Wolves vessels, they safely translated into the Warp.

Cross-Sector Purges
With several witness-bearing transports now safely off-system, the Inquisition plan inevitably proceeded to the appropriate contingency. In addition to the transports and their escorting Space Wolves vessels, every person, installation, or world that came in contact with Armageddon escapees, even in the most temporary and fleeting manner, was now liable to be "cleansed" by the Inquisition. Kysnaros apparently had an extraordinary cross-Sector mandate and freedom of action, as his armada ranged far and wide, raining death to anyone or anything whose misfortune was to have crossed paths with Armageddon survivors. Exterminatus was carried out on several worlds, including the planet Tybult, virus-bombed by the specially rearmed Corel's Hope -- the planet's fate was sealed when an Armageddon transport briefly stopped at the world's orbiting space docks for supplies. A number of Grey Knights vessels, some veterans of Armageddon and others that joined Kysnaros' growing armada during the Containment, were also involved. Among them was the Battle Barge Fire of Dawn, flagship of the 8th Brotherhood of Grey Knights commanded by Grand Master Joros, which also carried out Exterminatus missions during to the campaign.

Lord Joros was leading the Grey Knights force attached to Kysnaros' armada. This was another ad hoc Brotherhood-strength contingent, steadily (though slowly) increasing in numbers, that joined the Containment campaign after the Armageddon war, along with the few Grey Knights who survived it. Joros became Kysnaros' principal advisor in the interactions with the Space Wolves, as the former had no experience in dealing with Astartes. Joros advised in favour of appealing to the Space Wolves' instincts, who respected strength and boldness above all -- they were to meet them, at all times, from a position of strength. Overwhelming force and steadfastness of purpose was proposed as the strategy to be followed, which Kysnaros readily accepted.

For their part the Wolves, following Grimnar's strategy, were engaged in an increasingly successful cat-and-mouse game with the containment forces. Notwithstanding their losses to the containment fleet, they managed to spirit away several Armageddon transports, safely dispersing their human cargoes to a variety of far flung systems.

Dissent and aloofness
Within the containment armada dissent was building over both the scope and scale of purges, and the violent actions against the Space Wolves -- which went unanswered by them. Some Inquisitors were against the purges from the start, and had voted so in the Armageddon Conclave; the continuing campaign added to their frustration. Notable, and increasingly vocal among the dissenters, was Fenrisian Inquisitor Annika Jarlsdottyr of the Ordo Malleus. Attached Grey Knights were also frustrated over the course of events, and the fact that they were being used outside of their mission parameters -- they gave the campaign its unofficial moniker as the "Months of Shame." In the dissenter's eyes, the situation was made worse by the fact that Grimnar, even if misguided, seemed to hold the high moral ground, as the Space Wolves never fired back during hostilities.

At least some of the dissent was fueled by the mystery surrounding Kysnaros, and by his aloofness. He was a secretive and inscrutable figure, even to other members of the Inquisition. No reliable information was known of his past prior to his involvement in the First War for Armageddon and the containment campaign that followed. The mystery was enhanced by another unusual fact: Kysnaros was an Unaligned Inquisitor Lord, working outside of the existing Ordos of the Inquisition, and leaving no evidence trail available to them. Unlike other Inquisition Lords, he had no retinue or servants, and seemed to keep his own counsel. His stature and authority were diminished in the eyes of detractors by his apparent youthfulness, as extensive rejuvenat treatments made him look like a young man in his 20s. Yet the mandate entrusted him by his unknown masters seemed to be absolute.

Parlay betrayed
Five months after the containment campaign begun, its cost was rising and its effectiveness diminishing, with no ending in sight. As the campaign stretched into months, Joros proposed that the Inquisition capture Grimnar. In his opinion, this would result in the Chapter's capitulation, and Kysnaros readily authorised a plan. As part of the plan, Kysnaros asked for a parlay with Grimnar, to which the latter agreed. The opponents decided to meet (with weapons and shields down) in Haikaran, a neutral space.

Kysnaros mistrust of the Space Wolves was a match for Grimnar's mistrust of the Inquisition. The Inquisitor Lord knew that in similar previous situations the Space Wolves had misled and waylaid Imperial servants: he was not going to allow the Space Wolves to surprise him, and he called the containment fleet to Haikaran. As soon as the Space Wolves parlay flotilla, consisting of Grimnar's flagship, the cruiser Scramaseax, and four escorts, translated into Haikaran realspace, the already assembled and waiting Inquisition force opened fire. The four Space Wolves escort vessels were destroyed with all hands, while the Scramaseax was heavily damaged. Kysnaros then "invited" Grimnar to meet with him and discuss his surrender, the end of the conflict, and the reintegration of the Space Wolves in the Imperial hierarchy.

Grimnar agreed, or pretended to. He and three remaining Wolf Guard travelled to the Fire of Dawn where all the Inquisitors under Kysnaros were present, accompanied by their retinues. Also present was the entire Grey Knights detachment, lead by Lord Joros. Kysnaros tried to explain the reasons behind his betrayal of the terms of parlay, and offered the Space Wolves peace in exchange for their surrender, or endless and inevitably ruinous conflict if they did not.

Grimnar however had not come to surrender or be captured -- but to find out who was responsible for violating the "sacred oath of armistice." Lord Joros admitted that he, with heavy heart, had given the order to fire on the Space Wolves vessels. In a blinding display of speed and ability, Grimnar then beheaded him. As everyone on the Inquisition side was ready to fire on Grimnar, Kysnaros ordered them to hold. Over Joros' headless body, he again tried to alternately appeal to, and threaten Grimnar. The latter was unmoved. He treated the Inquisitor Lord with disdain, and had correctly guessed the feelings of the Grey Knights towards the containment campaign. Then, as the Grey Knights tried to psychically block them from escaping by teleporting, the Space Wolves shot four Grey Knights Justicars -- Justicars focus the Knights' psychic power and the four's death broke the binding attempt. This way the Wolves managed to teleport to the Scramaseax. Kysnaros, outplayed and forlorn over the episode and the Wolves' intractability, let the badly wounded vessel and its passengers sail away.

Escalating conflict
After the failed parlay and attempt to capture Grimnar the conflict intensified. In the months that followed, the Space Wolves no longer kept their wrath or their guns in check, and often actively engaged pursuing Armageddon containment forces, destroying several vessels. Among them was the Glaive of Janus, which had been the flagship of the 1st Brotherhood for 10,000 years. It was lost along with the entire crew and its complement of over 50 veteran Grey Knights.

The Inquisition sought reinforcements, securing the support of the Red Hunters Chapter, among others. The Red Hunters joined Kysnaros' armada with their entire fleet and strength, including the massive battle barge In Sacred Trust, under Chapter Master Daemar. Kysnaros had sought the support of the Red Hunters as proof that the Space Wolves did not represent all the Astartes of the Imperium -- but also because he was unsure of the Grey Knights, some of whom were surreptitiously ignoring the developing campaign and were slow to join it.

Casualties on both sides mounted as the armed engagements escalated. At the same time, the containment campaign was meeting with increasingly less success, even as the number of its victims reached into the billions. It was clear that the Armageddon containment was a failure: too many survivors had been dispersed to too many unknown destinations thanks to the Wolves' superior cunning and strategy. However this was a hollow victory, as it made the Chapter indirectly responsible for the deaths of innocents purged by the Inquisition.

Among the Inquisition dissenters, things were reaching a boiling point. A widespread conspiracy to assassinate Kysnaros, supported by ranking Inquisitors such as Jarlsdottyr and respected Grey Knights such as Hyperion, was taking shape among elements of the containment armada. It was the belief of the conspirators that only Kysnaros' death would stop the internecine conflict and prevent it from developing into a full-fledged civil war. Kysnaros, now often counseled by Red Hunters officers, had in the meantime installed surveillance Servo-skulls on the bridge of every ship in his armada.

As the conspirators' plans were gathering steam, Kysnaros finally tacitly admitted that his strategy had failed. In early 445.M41, after 8 months of campaigning, the Armageddon containment was abandoned. Kysnaros announced a new approach: all containment assets were ordered at speed to Fenris, the Wolves' lightly defended home world. In an unprecedented, last ditch gambit, Kysnaros intended to hold the planet hostage in order to force Grimnar to agree to the Inquisition's demands. These demands by now had nothing to do with Armageddon, and everything to do with limiting the independence of the Space Wolves Chapter.

Siege of Fenris
Kysnaros' armada, including a multitude of Inquisition warships, Grey Knights vessels, and the Red Hunters fleet, arrived at Fenris and surrounded the planet in high orbit while targeting The Fang, the Space Wolves' Fortress-Monastery, for a devastating orbital bombardment.

The planet was virtually undefended as the vast majority of the Space Wolves and their Chapter fleet were dispersed on missions across the galaxy. Kysnaros, directing operations from his flagship, again asked for a parlay with any ranking Space Wolf available, to which the few Space Wolves present agreed. Kysnaros asked Hyperion (who commanded respect amongst the Space Wolves) and Inquisitor Jarlsdottyr to join him as representatives of the Grey Knights and the Ordos respectively. Kysnaros knew that Hyperion was for a time part of the conspiracy bent on his assassination, while Jarlsdottyr was open about her mistrust of the Inquisitor Lord -- however Kysnaros apparently wanted the best possible delegation in the parlay with the Space Wolves. The team soon arrived at The Fang for the meeting. The Space Wolves had awoken the Venerable Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell-Handed to deal with the Inquisitorial party. The ancient warrior, who had once fought beside the Primarch Leman Russ during the Great Crusade, immediately received the unbidden respect and reverence of the Inquisitorial delegation, and was thought to be a more temperate and wiser representative for the Chapter than Logan Grimnar.

Kysnaros asked for the Space Wolves' express obeisance to Imperial authority and chain of command, and a Penitent Crusade to be undertaken to expiate the Chapter's guilt for attacking the servants of the Inquisition. In exchange, the Inquisition and the Imperium at large would take no other action or censure against the Chapter. Bjorn was not impressed, countering that Kysnaros was asking a proud, storied Chapter that had served Humanity for millennia to kowtow to faceless bureaucrats, who ruled according to expedience rather than honour. Further, this was demanded while the Inquisition's guns were locked-and-loaded and targeting The Fang. He asked Kysnaros to make a more rigorous presentation of his case, but before the latter could start, and to everyone's surprise, the Space Wolves' Chapter fleet under command of Logan Grimnar translated from the Warp near Fenris -- the fleet had travelled at extraordinary speed and at the cost of the Wolves Rune Priests' lives to pull off that feat. The negotiations abruptly ended, and the Inquisition delegation made haste to Corel's Hope.

Following yet another short and fruitless exchange between the near-panic Kysnaros and the snarling Grimnar, over ship-to-ship vox, an all-out close-quarters naval battle broke out over Fenris. Despite the presence of senior Naval officers from Battlefleet Solar, Kysnaros took command of the Inquisition side from Corel's Hope's strategium. His near-panic disappeared, and he exhibited remarkable calmness under pressure and intricate knowledge of large-scale, complex battle tactics. He ordered half of Inquisition assets to commence conventional-only bombing of The Fang, whose defense batteries were already engaging his armada, while coordinating the manouvers and targets of the other half of his ships. Upon detection of Space Wolves boarding torpedoes, he ordered the Red Hunters to counter-board the torpedo-firing vessels.

While the battle was raging, Grimnar had the Scramaseax come abreast of the Corel's Hope, where the Astartes' vessel superior shields, armour, and broadside, were deciding factors -- and indeed Corel's Hope's Void Shields failed first. Immediately, Grimnar and his Wolf Guard teleported from the Scramaseax to the bridge of Corel's Hope.

As the Wolf Guard caused mayhem on the bridge, Grimnar sprinted towards the command throne, where Kysnaros stood. Despite resistance by Hyperion and one other Grey Knight, and assisted by Inquisitor Jarlsdottyr (who slayed three Navy Armsmen in Grimnar's way), the Great Wolf quickly reached the Inquisitor Lord. Kysnaros was unarmed, yet he was a powerful psyker with telekinetic abilities -- however, either he didn't care to defend himself, or he didn't have time to react given the Wolf's speed and ferocity. Grimnar, in one swift move, unceremoniously decapitated the Inquisitor Lord.

Kysnaros' death was not enough to placate the enraged Space Wolves who continued their rampage, until shortly afterwards Bjorn the Fell-Handed teleported to the bridge of Corel's Hope and bade everyone to "stop this madness." Thanks to his timely intervention and mediation, the battle ended and a truce was sought among the combatants.

Uneasy truce
Bjorn told Grimnar to immediately cease hostilities and to find a compromise with the Inquisition and the Imperium. He addressed Jarlsdottyr and Hyperion, as the ranking representatives of Inquisition present, and stated that no Inquisition ship should ever again appear over Fenris; also the Space Wolves who had learned of the Grey Knights would not be mind-scoured as would be expected in such cases, instead Hyperion should personally explain the Grey Knights existence and mission to all within The Fang. The combatants reluctantly accepted the terms, and the siege of Fenris ended.

However the terms of the truce were only accepted by both sides out of neccessity. The losses of the Space Wolves were extensive: during the 8-month engagement their fleet was decimated, many thousands of their serfs had perished, and large numbers of Astartes were dead or disabled. During the siege, The Fang was damaged even more severely than during Magnus the Red's attack in the 32nd Millenium. As many as four Imperial vessels had crashed on the fort, while the orbital bombardment had caused more crippling damage.

The Wolves' losses were mirrored on the Inquisition side. The Grey Knights specifically suffered serious casualties, with several ships lost, as well as a Brotherhood-strength contingent of irreplaceable Astartes. The casualties came at the heels of the Armageddon campaign, which had cost both sides dearly.

Even more damaging were the unspoken repercussions: the almost total breakdown of trust between the Space Wolves and the Imperial authorities, especially the all-powerful Inquisition; the second-guessing of their Inquisitorial masters by some Grey Knights, and the obvious reluctance of others to join Kysnaros' containment campaign. However, despite the dissent within his ranks, Kysnaros was not a rogue operative. He summoned a large number of Inquisitors, and an entire Chapter of Space Marines with their fleet. He prosecuted an 8-month violent campaign against a celebrated Loyalist First Founding Chapter of Space Marines, and had exclusive call on a Brotherhood-strength force of Grey Knights, using them clearly outside of their mission parameters. The fact that his mandate was coming from the higher echelons of the Inquisition, was made clear during the discussion of the truce terms among the assembled Inquisitors over Fenris. The Inquisitors had no choice but to accept the truce, but started immediately to ponder ways of bringing the Space Wolves to heel, going as far as considering manipulation of the Chapter's gene-seed.

The Space Wolves also had no illusions: the Inquisition was not going to leave them in peace. Even as the last Inquisition vessel was departing Fenris, Grimnar and the remnants of the Chapter were preparing for the next round of their conflict with the Imperial hierarchy.