Event · M41

Invasion of Rynn’s World

The Invasion of Rynn’s World was an Ork Waaagh! that assailed the Crimson Fists’ homeworld in 989.M41, led by Warboss Snagrod of Charadon. Rynn’s World, an agri-world in the Loki Sector, was struck as part of Snagrod’s wider offensive, and although the Imperium eventually prevailed, the fighting all but annihilated the Crimson Fists Chapter as a fighting force. The invasion followed an earlier Ork thrust into the sector, in which Warboss Urzog seized the neighbouring world of Badlanding after overwhelming its defence force. A Crimson Fists company under Captain Drakken counter-attacked Urzog’s warband at Krugerport and was destroyed. Chapter Master Pedro Kantor suspended further raids and recalled the Chapter’s companies to Rynn’s World, though the planetary government mobilised its own defence force, the Rynnsguard, only slowly, believing the Orks would not risk attacking a Space Marine home world. Snagrod’s armada emerged from the warp in overwhelming strength, destroying the Imperial Navy squadron and the planet’s orbital defences before Urzog’s forces descended on the surface. A malfunction in the defences of the Crimson Fists’ fortress-monastery, Arx Tyrannus, sent one of its own missiles into the arsenal, destroying the monastery and killing most of the Chapter along with its gene-seed reserves. Kantor gathered the survivors and fought through to New Rynn City, the one settlement to withstand the onslaught, where the Crimson Fists and Rynnsguard held out through a prolonged siege, notably the 563-day defence of the Silver Citadel, before Snagrod withdrew the Waaagh! to fight elsewhere. For some eighteen months, Imperial Navy and Rynnsguard pilots under Governor Maia Cagliestra and General Saedus Mir held the skies over New Rynn City. Relief came under Lord Admiral Galtaire, whose fleet brought Guard regiments and detachments of the Imperial Fists, White Scars and Dark Angels. Kantor led the recapture of the spaceport, challenging Urzog, who fell in the fighting, allowing Imperial Titans to be landed against the Ork Gargants menacing New Rynn City. Fighting flared again when Snagrod returned to defend a beacon at Blackreef City, but the destruction of his flagship in 991.M41 was taken as marking the liberation of Rynn’s World, though Ork remnants remained and Snagrod was never found. The invasion left the Crimson Fists a fraction of their strength and destroyed their gene-seed reserves, a loss the Chapter has struggled to recover from since. Rynn’s World was later threatened again in the Rift Siege of Rynn’s World, a separate and later crisis for the rebuilding Chapter. Among the sixteen Crimson Fists who escaped the destruction of Arx Tyrannus was Captain Alessio Cortez of the Fourth Company. He fought through the siege of New Rynn City under Chapter Master Pedro Kantor. During the reclamation he lost his right arm to the Ork warboss Urzog Mag Kull and killed Mag Kull with a krak grenade. After Imperial reinforcements arrived, Kantor sent Cortez and Chief Librarian Delevan Deguerro to Terra to argue before the High Lords that the Chapter remained viable.

See where Invasion of Rynn’s World occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.

Open in universe