Editing Rangdan Xenocides (section)

==The Campaign==

The Xenocides began sometime in the late 860s.M31, around the time that the Imperium was entering the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. As they were expanding toward the Halo Stars, they drew the attention of the Rangdan Cerabvores, a mysterious and hostile xenos species who decided to tell these upstart humans to get the fuck off their lawn. Unfortunately for the Imperium, they had the will and the technology to <s>make it happen</s> make a decent attempt at it, and would in fact prove to be the single greatest threat to its existence up until [[Horus]]' [[Horus Heresy|little temper tantrum]].

Information on the Xenocides is scarce, coming from multiple sources and usually only in vague references. This appears to have been intentional, as the Dark Angels deliberately purged all knowledge of the Rangda and the wars fought for the good of the Imperium. No actual images of the Rangda themselves remain, though enough secondary details survived to paint a grim picture: they were lithe yet towering and monstrous in appearance, dangerously intelligent, highly cunning, cruel, ambitious, and technologically advanced. They shared the Imperium's ambition of galactic conquest and were just as determined to seize control of the galaxy. They were also said to be vulpine (fox-like) xenos according to Horus Heresy book 9: Crusade...so basically giant scary space [[Furries]].

The Rangdan Wars, as they are also known, consisted of three separate campaigns: The Conquest of Advex-Mors, the Second Rangdan War, and the Third Rangdan War (also known confusingly as the Rangdan Xenocide).

The first campaign occurred in 839.M30 and focused on the assault and conquest of Advex-Mors by the Dark Angels. This marked the first encounter between the Imperium and the Rangda Empire, and it more or less incited the extreme response that followed. The system was heavily defended, including protection from an armada of Rangdan ships and an orbital war-moon. The latter was able to hold off the combined firepower of three ''Gloriana''-class capital ships (aka the biggest and most powerful warships the Imperium ever produced). In fact, it was so well protected that some mistook it for the Rangdan homeworld. In reality, it was only a minor garrison at the edge of their domain. The fighting was fierce, with the Dark Angels taking more than 10,000 casualties, but this was nothing compared to slaughter that was to come.

The second campaign kicked off in 862.M30 when the Rangdan struck back, plowing into Imperial space with thousands of vessels and more than a dozen war-moons. They attacked from the galactic east and north, overrunning entire worlds and putting the Imperium onto the back foot with shocking speed. Fleet after fleet was lost with all hands, entire Titan Legions were obliterated, and dozens of planets were destroyed as the Cerabvores continued their relentless assault.
Eventually, forces from the [[White Scars]] and [[Raven Guard|XIXth]] legions managed to delay the attack long enough for the Imperials to rally and make a stand at the Forge World of [[Xana II]]. The siege would be broken after eight months and three thousand dead Astartes when the [[Dark Angels]] and [[Death Guard]] arrived to counter-attack. But this was only the next step in a war that would last two decades.

The Imperium wound up throwing no less than nine Legiones Astartes at the Cerabvores: the Dark Angels, Space Wolves, [[World Eaters|War Hounds]], Death Guard, White Scars, [[Raven Guard|XIX Legion]], [[First Founding#Two Unknown Legions|the lost XI and II Legions]], and eventually the [[Alpha Legion|Ghost Legion]]. Even this wasn't enough, and the destruction continued unabated. The Space Marines committed to the conflict sustained heavy casualties. The Dark Angels especially got their shit kicked in, with one source claiming they were reduced to a tenth of their original strength. Considering the same source lists their overall strength at 100,000 legionaries at the time of the Lion's rediscovery...well you can do the math. By the end of the Xenocides, they had lost their status as the largest Legion to [[Roboute Guilliman|Papa Smurf's]] [[Ultramarines|blueberries]]. The Death Guard had to conduct emergency intakes of non-Barbaran recruits just to keep their numbers up, and the II and XI Legions apparently ceased to exist during or shortly after the conflict, hinting that they may have been corrupted or otherwise compromised by the Rangdan and needed to be purged. The Lion received his baptism of fire in the Xenocides, as he had been rediscovered in the midst of the campaign and was almost immediately put in charge of the entire war effort. Despite his sheer Tactical Genius, the bloodshed continued until the climactic battle at Taxal, when more than 300,000 Space Marines were deployed.

Eventually, things got so bad that the Emperor concluded he was going to have to do something incredibly dangerous: open up the Labyrinth of Night and unleash the motherfucking [[Mag'ladroth|Void Dragon]] in an effort to break the Rangdan once and for all. Whatever happened, it totally worked and didn't cause a galactic calamity that we know of.

The third and final Rangdan War occurred between 887-890.M30. The numbers are unclear because at this point, the Imperium was more concerned with covering up the truth of how close they had come to a complete loss. Nevertheless, we do know that the Rangdan apparently mounted one last effort to destroy the Imperium. The Dark Angels and Space Wolves were able to turn them back at the staggering cost of 50,000 Astartes. Most of the forces that had fought were sworn to silence, executed, or dispatched to new fronts. A lot of misinformation emerged during this time, with later historians putting their own spin on the conflict. While authorities were busy quarantining planets and downplaying the immense cost of the war, the Rangdan slunk back to their homeworld to rebuild their strength.

When a group of White Scars had managed to locate the Rangda home system after long searching, it became clear that, while broken, the Cerabvores were still a threat too grave to be allowed to endure. With a target now identified, the only thing that was left to be done was for the surviving Rangdan to be slowly, bitterly, painstakingly purged from the galaxy. What followed was a series of "bio-pogroms", a task which fell to the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Dark Angels]], as they were the two Legions the Emperor could most rely on to perform such an ugly and brutal job. This last phase of the conflict took a decade, as the two legions scoured the sector clean of the xenos menace. This earned the Space Wolves their nickname of the "Emperor's Executioners" and the Dark Angel's less well-known, yet equally appropriate nickname of the "Emperor's Exterminators".