7th Black Crusade

7th Black Crusade
Attacker	Carcharodons (Unconfirmed)
Defender	Black Legion
System	Unknown
Sector	Unknown
Segmentum	Segmentum Obscurus

The 7th Black Crusade was a Black Crusade against the forces of the Imperium of Man led by the infamous Chaos Champion Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion, launched out of the Eye of Terror in 811.M37. When the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter battled against the Forces of Chaos at Midian, Abaddon singled them out with implacable fury. He led a band of Khornate Berserkers into the teeth of the Blood Angels' Devastator positions. Even the Blood Angels' own Assault troops could not dislodge the frenzied warband and recapture the bodies of their comrades. But there is an obscure reference to the Blood Angels being saved by an unidentified Space Marine Chapter of mysterious origin. Written within the The Canticle of Cassandria Lev - Vol. CVI, the eponymous Sainted Sisters' highly mythologised and oblique account of the wars of the 7th Black Crusade, is found mention of a "grey-clad" Space Marines Chapter who came from "The outer night" to aid the Imperium, and whose "Jagged maw did swallow the stars ... and whose ... black gaze did mirror the void of oblivion". In the course of the canticle this Chapter's ships set upon Abaddon's forces following the disastrous defeat and routing of the Blood Angels at Midian and attacked the pursuing forces as Saint Lev writes: "...fell upon the servants of the skulled-one with great fury from the darkness, unseen as the beast that lurks beneath the black waters, death for death, blood for blood...thus were the Sons of Sanguinius bought respite, and did turn back upon their pursuers and so were the damned traitors of the false gods driven unto their ruin." Images of these events can be found upon the walls of the Cemetery World of Hypasitis created to house the honoured dead of that war, depicted in repeated fresco and bar relief. Curiously, the faces of the intervening Space Marines depicted there are obscured with featureless disks of black obsidian. Given the largely unknown history of the star-faring Carcharodons Chapter, accounts of their activities can only be constructed from recorded historical incidents and fragmentary records that are believed to have involved the Carcharodons on balance of evidence. This notable engagement is listed by Imperial savants as a "[Special] Probable Encounter/Recorded Sighting" of this notorious and mysterious Space Marine Chapter.

Canon Conflict

There is some confusion as to where the attack by Abaddon and his Forces of Chaos against the Blood Angels actually took place. In Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex) it states, "When the Blood Angels battled against the horde at Mackan, Abaddon singled them out with implacable fury." But in the recently released Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, under the Notable Campaigns of the Carcharodons Chapter, "...following the disastrous defeat and routing of the Blood Angels Chapter at Midian." One could assume that with the more recent release of the Imperial Armour book, that canon would most likely place this notable engagement at Midian instead of Mackan.

Sources

• Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), p. 22
• Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, p. 118