Background - Part II: Rynn's World

In the 989th year of the 41st millennium, an Ork Warlord known as Snagrod, the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon, united many of the warring Ork factions surrounding the Loki sector and began a massive Waaagh! Taking several colonies with minimal resistance, Snagrod boasted that his next conquest would be Rynn's World.
In response, the Fourth Company of the Crimson Fists was sent to stall the Waaagh! and gauge its strength. The size of Snagrod's forces had been significantly underestimated, and only a few Space Marines escaped to relay vital intelligence back to Chapter Master Kantor. Kantor ordered the immediate recall of all Crimson Fists, and set about organising the defences of Rynn's World.

When Snagrod's Waaagh! hit Rynn's World, it was with a force unseen since the Second War for Armaggedon. During the initial invasion of Rynn's World, a great tragedy befell the Crimson Fists.

A single missile, launched by one of the planetary defense installations, faltered in its trajectory and struck the Crimson Fists fortress monastery. The missile managed to strike an unknown weak point in the fortress' design, detonating the Chapter's entire arsenal of weapons. The resultant explosion levelled the monastery, the mountain it rested on, and wiped out everything within a half mile's radius. Of the forces stationed around and within the monastery, there were just over a dozen survivors, Kantor among them.

The survivors, forced to move stealthily through territory captured by the Orks, were able to link up with a detachment of Crimson Fists assigned to defend Rynn's World's capital, New Rynn City. Taking command of the Imperial forces, Kantor was able to eventually repulse the Orks from Rynn's World, although the siege of New Rynn City lasted eighteen months, and the effort to cleanse the planet took many years.

Check back for Part III - The Aftermath