War of The Wolf

The War of The Wolf was an Imperial campaign led by the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter in 612.M41, against the vile geneticist Fabius Bile and his Forces of Chaos. When Grimnar learned that the arch-traitor Abaddon the Despoiler had found the location of one of the long-lost members of the Space Wolves' only successor Chapter, the Wolf Brothers, the Great Wolf led his elite Champions of Fenris to rescue the battle-brother from the clutches of the Black Legion, before the Clone Lord could use him for some nefarious experiment.

History
For the Space Wolves, one of their greatest and most closely-guarded secrets is the fate of their one and only Successor Chapter, the Wolf Brothers. Created as part of the Second Founding, the Wolf Brothers' gene-seed proved unpredictable and unstable, combining all the worst aspects of the Canis Helix and the curse of the Wulfen. After the Chapter was disbanded hundreds of Wolf Brothers vanished entirely, taking with them prized gene-seed created from the Space Wolves' own stockpiles. In the year 612.M41 word reached the Great Wolf that one of these long lost brothers was found. For millennia the Space Wolves had been watching over their wayward kin, secretly shielding them from both the wrath of the Imperium and the influences of Chaos -– though not always with success. So was it to be this time, and the glad news of the Wolf Brother's discovery was tainted by word that the planet upon which he rested was in the hands of the Black Legion. Worse still, rumour placed the arch-traitor Fabius Bile within the system, and Grimnar knew it could only be the Wolf Brother and his unstable gene-seed that Bile sought. Access to the successor Chapter's gene-seed would enable the traitorous geneticist to create an army of monstrously corrupt, mutated horrors to fight for the forces of Chaos. The Great Wolf would be damned before he let this come to pass. Calling his Wolf Guard to his side the Old Wolf ordered his Great Company gathered. So armed, Grimnar, his most trusted champions and a small fleet of ships set off into the Sea of Stars to find the Wolf Brother and slay any who dared stand in their way.

The Well of Souls
Keen hunters and able voidfarers, it did not take long for the Champions of Fenris to find the planet on which the Wolf Brother was hidden, despite the stench of traitors hanging heavy around the Eye of Terror. Guided by intelligence collected by his Wolf Scouts and following the augur-scent left by the Black Legion craft, Grimnar and his Wolves came upon the world of Lumerius. A frozen ball of frost and snow, barely warmed by the watery light from its distant blue star, Lumerius was where the Wolf Brother lay, imprisoned in the ice-locked ruin of a shipwreck thousands of years old. From the command bridge of his Strike Cruiser on the far edges of the system, Grimnar considered the reports of his Wolf Guard and the faint outline of the Styx-class Heavy Cruiser Well of Souls hanging like a dark splinter in the milky white eye of Lumerius. Grimnar had chosen a small but elite flotilla of ships for speed and stealth, and lacked the brute strength to take on such a powerful vessel in open combat. Neither could he ignore it, however. In the end it was his champion Arjac Rockfist that came up with a daring plan to take out the enemy vessel, one that brought fierce grins to the faces of the Champions and a thundering din as they beat their fists onto their chest plates in approval.

Like shadows racing across the night sky a salvo of boarding torpedoes silently bore down upon the Well of Souls. The Space Wolves had launched the missiles from the depths of space, letting their engines burn cold until they glided in under inertia alone. Inside the lead torpedo Grimnar, Arjac and a dozen Wolf Guard Shieldbrothers braced for impact. Seconds before they struck home the Chaos vessel's augurs detected them, enemy crews scrambling to quad-lascannon turrets and krak missile batteries. As the void came alive with slashes of light and fire the Wolf Guard joked over the vox that they might have to swim the rest of the way, as the armoured hulls were rocked by nearby explosions and raking lascannon fire. Grimnar's boarding torpedo had its tip sheared off by a fusillade of turret fire, vaporising the Servitor pilot and sending the craft spinning. It tumbled through the open launch bay doors of the Well of Souls and crashed into the deck with the screech of tortured metal. With a bellowing war cry Grimnar smashed his way free of the wreck, the first of the Champions of Fenris out into the hold. Tangled in a twisted ruin of gantries, the torpedo had skidded to a halt beneath a Heldrake roost, dozens of the Daemon Engines hanging like monstrous mechanical chiropterans overhead. Black Legion Chaos Space Marines on the deck below fired bolters one-handed as they scaled ladders to meet this unidentified threat. Moments later, Arjac and the Shieldbrothers rejoined their lord. The first Black Legion warrior to reach them had his head hacked from his shoulders by the Axe Morkai, while the second was torn to bloody ribbons by Grimnar's Storm Bolter. Stirred by the sounds of battle, a Heldrake descended from above, sweeping out its wings and snatching up a Wolf Guard Terminator in its claws. Even as the daemonic beast soared off over the launch bay the veteran smashed at it with his hammer, cursing the creature and the Warp that had spawned it. The Heldrake let out a metallic screech as it tore the Space Wolf apart in a shower of gore and shattered ceramite, its kin heeding its call and unfurling their wings.

Bolt rounds hurtled up from below, blasting ragged holes in the gantry and exploding against the Shieldbrothers' armour as the traitor Space Marines concentrated their fire on the invaders. In the air above, Heldrakes circled like gargantuan carrion birds, swooping down to snatch up Wolf Guard or washing the Space Wolves with flaming death. Arjac Rockfist held the centre of the Space Wolves' formation, the Anvil Shield bashing aside the razor jaws and claws of the Heldrakes as they snapped hungrily at the Space Wolves, while Foehammer scored fracturing blows against the creatures' Warp-iron hides. Again and again his hammer was cast at the Daemon Engines, each time flashing back to his hand in an actinic blaze. With his warriors outnumbered and trapped amongst the wreckage of insertion, the Old Wolf had known from the start it would be but a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. Thinking on his feet, Grimnar struck at the supports of the gantry from which enemy reinforcements were arriving. In a shower of sparks the walkway came free, the scream of twisting metal drowning out the cries of the Heldrakes as it hurtled to the deck below.