Editing Blades in the Dark (section)

==Chapter History==
Thierre Boulet was a popular marine in the Void Angels. He fought in the Heresy and beyond, gaining a small cadre of sergeants and Captains that respected his martial prowess, though he rarely commanded more than his own company.

When the legions were split with the reforms of the Institutorum Astartes,  Boulet and his comrades formed the Blades of the Emperor, and were assigned to the Ultima Segmentum. They controlled a small region, several Hive Worlds, a Forge world and countless agriworlds.

Their homeworld was the feudal world of Vaniteux. A grand melee was held on the world every year, and those children that accounted themselves best in the fighting were recruited to the chapter, as they best fitted the chivalrous duelling style of the Chapter.

The Blades of the Emperor served with distinction for 700 years, but spread thin, with forces as small as 20 and at most 100 marines on each planet across several systems, and were therefore all but destroyed in the Vetrovnak Incursion, and those that survived forged a very different chapter.

===The Pacification of the Vaniteux System===
The Blades of the Emperor travelled far to reach the system they were to make their home, and upon arrival, wanted only to begin construction of their Fortress Monastery.

The system was not, contrary to the claims of the Administratum, a part of the Imperium. So the Blades set about rectifying this fact.

Again the transhuman might of the Adeptus Astartes, the feudal forces of Vaniteux folded like a wet paper bag. The campaign was over within hours, when Thierre slaughtered all 32 of the High King's bodyguards to deliver the Emperor's justice to the man.

No Marines were lost.
===The Second Vetrovnak Incursion===

The Blades of the Emperor deployed across 15 systems, so they could respond rapidly to any developing threat. However, this meant they were woefully underprepared for the Vetrovnak onslaught.
The Blades, spread so broadly, took horrendous casualties. Aghast, Thierre called the Blades back to their homeworld.
Only the first and tenth company did not come. The tenth was spread throughout Hive World Tribulus, on the orders of Scout Captain Ombre, matching the Vetrovnak at their own tactics, hitting isolated groups and supplies, and evaporating into the Hive when the Vetrovnak moved more forces into the area. In this manner, they blunted the Vetrovnak advance, however temporarily, in the system, and therefore were not ordered to withdraw.
The First Company, meanwhile, was caught up in a desperate last stand on the death world Sitio, which baked under a too-large sun. They were trapped in the promethium mines that riddled the world, and were slowly bleeding men, their Terminator Armour ill suited to the narrow mine shafts.

The rest of the chapter assembled on Vaniteux, and retreated to their fortress. Boulet immediately set about preparing for an assault, which he hoped would break the back of the Vetrovnak forces in his domain. The Vetrovnak encircled the planet with their fleet, so none could land or take off on Vaniteux.

He led 400 marines in a glorious charge against the Vetrovnak besieging his fortress, slashing a path through them, to engage the leader of the raid.

The two battled for hours, before Thierre managed to break through the Vetrovnak's defence, and bury his power sword in it's stomach. He roared his triumph, and turned to check on his men, and the Vetrovnak impaled on the end of his sword stabbed him in the back of the head. He dropped wordlessly to the ground, quite dead. The marines called for a general retreat.

Of the 400 marines that entered battle with the Vetrovnak, only 120 returned. They retreated to the fortress, and protected those that had reached it before the Vetrovnak. They would take a further 50% casualties before they were evacuated.

On Tribulus, the Scouts were finally forced to withdraw from the planet, leaving behind 15 dead from their 100 strong force. They made their way back to Vaniteux. THe Vetrovnak were preparing to leave the world, having seized the entire population, and preparing to destroy it from orbit, to wipe the chapter out.

Thunderhawks made near-suicidal dives through the Vetrovnak blockade, escaping with the Geneseed stocks, and 45 marines, the rest lost to the Vetrovnak fleet.

The highest ranking officer remaining was Ombre, leader of the 10th company. He was in command of the remains of the chapter; 130 marines, none of them Terminators, and 85 of them scouts.

Thus reduced, they dropped into the warp to leave the system.

Ombre hoped to reunite with the First Company, but the astropathic messages made the fate of the terminators clear.

Without a hope of facing the vetrovnak on even footing, Ombre recalled his [[Al-Sherar Sector War|service under the primarch on Jolof]], and instructed the marines of his chapter in how to wage war as the Void Angels had been forced to in the campaign against the Amatteir.

For the rest of the Vetrovnak Incursion, the Blades cut the Vetrovnak on every planet they could get to. Arming the populace to resist the Vetrovnak, murdering commanders and striking at their support, whilst the Vetrovnak could do little to retaliate against the small, fast moving groups of Astartes.

The chapter began building their strength back up, claiming the orphans left when the Vetrovnak reaped their bloody harvest from the worlds they fought on, and screening for their ability to serve the chapter.

Though few reached maturity in time to face the Vetrovnak, they gave the chapter the confidence that this was not their last battle, that they could rebuild.

By the end of the war, the chapter knew well the value of guerrilla warfare, of fear, of resistance movements. They had been the sword of the Emperor, striking down the enemy before him, but now, they would be his dagger in the darkness, and they would make his foes bleed.