Originally founded to bolster forces fighting in the 2nd Aegisine Crusade, the Order of the Lunar Rose would have only a tangential impact in the Crusade, given the relative lateness of their arrival. With their primary mission accomplished, the Lunar Rose wasted no time in establishing other operations in the sector. The Crusade wrought terrible damage across a number of worlds in sector, leaving many Ecclesiarchal relics and shrines dangerously exposed to the ravages of the heretic Mechanicus fragments still smoldering in the aftermath of the battle.

As the Order took to recovery operations, they discovered the value of encircling tactics against the Mechanicus holdouts. Rather than meet their forces in headlong battles, the Order would use the bulk of their forces to draw the heretics into a prolonged firefight, locking them in place with Exorcist fire before surrounding the enemy with speeding Dominion squads and Seraphim falling from the heavens above.

In time, the sector was pacified, but the Order saw little need to rest or recover, there were more holy artifacts in the hands of heretics, and no equal shortage of enemies to the Emperor. Taking only enough time to replenish their stocks of material, the Order of the Lunar Rose took to space again, joining the Black Templars on the newly-declared Jerulas Crusade, eager to avenge the lost missionaries sent to Jerulas. While a prolonged siege of Jerulas would certainly allow for a guaranteed victory, the acting Canoness of the Lunar Rose, Amelia Rosine, added her voice to High Marshal Ludoldus’ call to end the Crusade on the ground. The Order of the Lunar Rose left the primary battle to the Black Templars and their newly-unveiled Land Raider Crusader, and instead focused on outlying pockets of heretics that would have attempted outflanking or rear attacks on the Space Marines.

While the battle itself was a rousing Imperial victory, it was not without losses. Canoness Amelia led an attack on one of the final active macro-cannon emplacements held by the heretics in the closing hours of the battle, but she was lost in its explosion. Without clear leadership, Seraphim Superiors stepped forward to fill the gap, using their elevated position to relay information to Sisters and equipment on the ground. This seeded a tradition within the Order of Seraphim Superiors acting as second-in-command during most ground operations, and the path for an aspiring Canoness to take.

With the Jerulas Crusade successfully closed, the Order of the Lunar Rose, as before, rested only long enough for losses to be replenished and equipment repaired before setting off again, taking on a nomadic role in the fight for the Emperor.

Hungry for vengeance after the embarrassing withdrawal during the Third Purging of Lastrati, Wolf Lord Krom Dragongaze set out in pursuit of what he believed to be the tail end of Huron Blackheart’s pirate fleet, bringing them to battle on the world of Tylvanis. Hoping to gain an advantage, Krom brought only a handful of Wolf Guard, teleporting directly into the massive bunker and tunnel complexes of Tylvanis. However, Krom soon discovered that the apparent weakness of Huron’s rearguard was another trademark deception, and both Krom and his Wolf Guard Terminators found themselves caught in a tightening ring of of Slanneshi Marines, using the tight corridors and echoing chambers to amplify their already devastating sonic weaponry. At the same time, the Red Corsair fleet turned on the Astartes’ cruisers, cutting off the Wolf Lord’s retreat.

Unbeknownst to both Krom and Huron, the Order of the Lunar Rose was also active on Tylvanis, burrowing deep into the warrens and catacombs of the hive world in search of statis reliquaries of fallen Saints. Upon learning of the battle, Canoness Elisha Luead put the Order’s talent for encircling actions to work. In the tunnel and bunker systems, this would normally seem impossible, for both vehicle support from distance and aerial support from Seraphim were rendered impossible. Likewise, moving directly through the tunnels would certainly only lead to the Order falling into the same ambushes as the Space Wolves did. With limited time for reconnaissance, Elisha decided the best path to render aid was to make their own and employed multi-meltas and meltabombs to bore through the ferrocrete bunkers.

Within the central bunker, Wolf Lord Krom fought back-to-back with his dwindling Wolf Guard. Unable to escape, Dragongaze had vowed to take down as many of the Slaanesh-worshipping enemies as possible, but the press of numbers, and the overall effectiveness of sonic weapons in the confines made such defiance paltry at best. A paltry defiance made even weaker as Huron’s lieutenant Ashrin Soulblighter, a slithering serpentine Lord of Slaanesh moved in to deliver the killing blow to the Wolf Lord and his retinue. Clutching a bulky frost axe, Krom looked clumsy and slow against the darting Soulblighter, who seemed to relish the desperate fury building within the Space Wolves, particularly their leader as he tore the Wolf Lord’s frost axe from his grasp.

Through the cacophony of sonic weaponry and the Chaos Lord’s own deliberate torment of the Space Wolves, none noticed the rising whine of heating ferrocrete until the side walls vanished in an explosion of superheated air. Before either Wolf Guard or Chaos Space Marine could react, the chamber filled with the staccato roar of bolter fire, and the blast furnace heat of meltaguns. Canoness Elisha led the charge, barely breaking stride as she hoisted her chainsword to the Chaos Lord. However, even with fresh reinforcements, the battle was not won, for Elisha’s weapon could find no purchase against the cackling naga-like Chaos Space Marine. But again, the Chaos Lord’s decadence proved harmful, as its mocking laughter and lascivious display of triumph did not account for Canoness Elisha taking up the fallen Frost Axe and burying it into the Chaos Lord’s neck. With a shocked and plaintive gasp, the enemy fell and soon no heretics blighted Tylvanis’ tunnels. Simultaneously humiliated and impressed by the display, Krom Dragongaze gifted the frost axe to Elisha in recognition of her valor. While she accepted the gift, Elisha earned the immediate enmity of the Space Wolves by stripping the weapon of any talismans, cutting the frost axe down to its most plain form, bereft of the history that went into it.

The Lunar Rose believes wholeheartedly in pursuing the Emperor’s will with a zeal that burns as brightly as any other of the Orders of the Adepta Sororitas. However, as years have moved on, the Lunar Rose grew into its particular specialties and mindsets. While many Sororitas Orders have a generalized principle of holding Shrines, tending to civilians through their Hospitaliers and enforcing the will of the Ecclesiarchy, the Lunar Rose steadily shred the aspects that would normally beholden them to sessile works. While they remain stationary long enough to re-equip and repair, the Lunar Rose stays in a system or planet only long enough to get moving again, leaving cleanup and rebuilding to the Astra Militarum.

To the leadership of the Lunar Rose, rebuilding and re-establishing the hold of the Empire in devastated warzones, while an important task, is not one that they are suited for. Having spent nearly a millennium as the outriders of the Ecclesiarchy, the Lunar Rose threw increasing resources and influence into keeping their Order as on the move as possible. To that end, the Lunar Rose fostered alliances and garnered favors from as many aspects of the Imperial Navy as possible, always ensuring that they have large scale transportation available.

Just as a constant desire to be on the move has influenced their battle strategy, so has the notion of speed and agility penetrated the ranking systems of the Lunar Rose. Where normally Celestians stand as the highest-ranking individuals outside of established leaders, instead the Seraphim have taken over the role of minor officers. Likewise, the hasty Dominion squads also enjoy additional prestige and selection for their squads is taken as a sign of significant honor and pride.

On the battlefield, the Battle Sisters of the Lunar Rose espouse their faith in the Emperor, calling out the destruction of the foe in war songs and battle hymnals that raise over bolter and melta fire, as well as the screams of dead and dying. Above even their strength in speedy campaigns, the faith of the Lunar Rose is legendary, with Battle Sisters gaining in fervor and shrugging off even mortal wounds as relics of the Emperor are recovered and the fires of faith burn around them.

Because of their intensely aggressive mobility, the Lunar Rose has long garnered the attention and alliances of Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos, their relative mobility pairing will with a force that moves at the same pace that most military forces cannot muster. The Inquisitors benefit by having a mobile, aggressive army that is already cleansing planets and recovering artifacts that is only too happy to let them pick over the xenotech remnants, while the Lunar Rose benefits from the expanded influence provided by Inquisitorial alliances, creating a partnership that is equal parts righteous fury, and mutual benefit.

The other force that the Lunar Rose regularly finds common cause with is the 112th Malvolian Wolves. The Tempestus force and its fleet of supercharged Taurox and Valkyire transports complements the fast-acting strikes of the Lunar Rose well, and their combined strikes often leave enemy forces utterly bewildered as a quiet bunker or battlefield suddenly erupts from all sides with transports and bolter fire.

Regarding other factions, the Lunar Rose remains a polite, but guarded diffidence to the machinations of slower-moving forces. However, the Lunar Rose does maintain a guarded stance around the heroics of the Space Marines. While they do not question their value, the Sisters do believe that many Chapters of the Astartes recklessly enter into conflict, and thus take a certain admonishing pride whenever the Rose arrives to provide reinforcements to overstretched Astartes lines. This breeds a certain animosity in the Chapters more rooted in pride, and has occasionally led to conflict.

Canoness Elisha Luead - The current Canoness of the Order of the Lunar Rose, Elisha represents the qualities of aggressive, righteous fury that the Order is famed for. Unlike her predecessors, who normally take to the air with Seraphim squads, Elish has found her calling leading forces on the ground, relying on the sturdiness of her armor and implacable fate to provide the anvil with which heretics are hammered against by the faster elements of her forces.

While as a whole, the Order respectfully works alongside the Adeptus Astartes despite their occasional misgivings, Elisha holds a far sterner view of her supposed brothers in arms. She strongly mistrusts the elite of the Imperium, seeing the Astartes as glory-seekers who place their own accomplishments above their service to the Emperor, even to the point of destroying shrines and worlds with valuable relics rather than admit that initial attacks have fallen short or require a change. Elisha takes pride in humbling the Astartes whenever they fight against one another, or alongside one another, this attitude exemplified when she took the gifted Frost Axe from Krom Dragongaze and renamed it, stripping it of the honored title that the Space Wolves gave it.

“He called the axe Kraken-Smiter, presumably another burdensome title to further cloud their minds with pride. Remove the talismans and carvings; and the Emperor’s Wrath shall know true service.” -Elisha Luead on receipt of the Dragongaze’s gifted weapon.

Inquisitor Kaleida of the Ordo Xenos - A common sight within Canoness Elisha’s planning teams, the Inquisitor has attached herself to the Order of the Lunar Rose for a number of years, lending her aid in defeating the xenos and heretics encountered by the Order in exchange for assistance in uncovering lost and valuable alien technology.

While this has led to occasional rancor over treating xenos technology with reverence reserved for the Emperor, even the Canoness cannot deny the effectiveness of the Inquisitor’s bizarre array of adapted technology, particularly the belts of chemical grenades the Inquisitor wears at all times to debilitate foes before their blows even land home.

“Fascinating technology. A pity that so much was lost to melta fire, but more than enough to work with. Servitors! Get up here and start disassembling this!” -Inquisitor Kaleida after the defeat of an Alaitoc Wraithlord.

Kurt Dradivoch, Tempestor Prime of the 112th Malvolian Wolves - The curt and silent Tempestor Prime of the Malvolian Wolves, Kurt has been involved in numerous operations put on by the Lunar Rose. Normally silent, Kurt reflects the professional confidence that his entire company of Scions has for all operations. For Kurt and the Wolves, words are only necessary in the smallest amounts, anything else is seen as a failure of planning.

Having fought alongside the Lunar Rose on a number of campaigns, the Wolves and Sisters have developed a rivalry that is intensely unhealthy for anything they are engaged with, catching enemies between ice-cold professionalism and the withering fire of unbridled zealotry both eager to claim the head of whatever unfortunate soul happens to be in command.

“Melta charges out! Prime the Taurox missiles to strike in concert with the Exorcist…

Target eliminated. Moving to secondary objectives.

Dradivoch out.”

-Transcript of the 112th Malvolian Wolves’ engagement with Tau defenses, the only vox communication received in 3 hours from the unit. The next contact was in person in the rubble of the Tau base.