Editing Guardians Exemplar (section)

====The Lasturias Campaign (644.M38)====

Lasturias was a remote, isolated world covered in dense, fog-obscured swamps. The only real civilisation on the planet was that of the native Lasturians, a species of slug-like clones with four arms with which they could operate their venomous, living weaponry. As part of Humanity's manifest destiny, the Golden Gryphons chapter of Adeptus Astartes, with support from the 254th Cadian Shock Troops and 53rd Drookian Fen Guard, were called upon to purge the planet of xenos. 

The invasion was a disaster from the start, the Lasturians using a planet-wide force field to separate the invasion forces from the fleet above the planet. While the force field let ships fly through it, they  were unable to leave it. The commander chose not to send more ships into the force field, not knowing whether or not the men already on the planet had been slaughtered or not. The clones then launched a series of rapid ambushes, destroying the scarce-few ammo depots that the Imperium forces had been able to set-up before the force field was activated. They then used chemical weapons on the invaders, slaughtering much of the Guardsman population and forcing the immune marines to use much needed troops to guard the sick survivors. A distress signal was sent out for assistance from any available Space Marine chapters. Much to the surprise of everyone, the Guardians Exemplar replied. 

Informed of several likely locations where the force field generator may be located, the Guardians Exemplar touched down on Lasturias via Thunderhawk and quickly began to reinforce the exhausted defenders. The chapter sent out squads of marines to try and locate the force field generator, while the remaining forces defended the few positions still in Imperial hands. Unfortunately for the imperial forces, an important position was occupied by the Lasturians who discovered the location of the main Imperium base. A day later, the Lasturians had launched their attack, meeting surprisingly little resistance from Golden Gryphon space marines. During the midst of the fighting, with much of the Lasturian forces now within the base, the force field suddenly failed. 

The Guardians Exemplar had left documents revealing the location of their main base as a trap for the Lasturians, who would undoubtedly use the majority of their forces in an attack upon the base, hoping that it would finally drive the humans from the planet. But once the Lasturians began their attack, Guardians Exemplar forces raided and destroyed the force field generator. With the force field down, the Guardian Exemplars began to bombard the imperial base from orbit, wiping out not only the Lasturian attackers, but also the surviving Guardsman and Golden Gryphons. 

When a Golden Gryphon's captain demanded to know why their fellow chapter had not rescued their allies, his Guardian Exemplar counterpart simply shrugged and replied:
“Why should we proud sons of the Emperor waste our lives by trying to rescue inferior beings who just so happen to be our allies? Besides, they would not have fallen for the trap if we'd relocated the surviving guardsman and space marines of your chapter.”

The Golden Gryphons pulled out from the campaign, leaving the Guardians Exemplar to begin the second invasion of the planet. In just over a year, the planet had been annexed into the Imperium, the Lasturians unable to fight against the chemical weapons of the chapter. Lightning fast raids were launched on breeding vats, wiping out any hopes of growing more weaponry and reinforcements. When the Guardians Exemplar finally left the planet, the entire Lasturian race had been driven to extinction.