Riders raid Ares

While the crusade forces battled aliens and humans alike on Libria V, the smaller contingent of astartes associated with the crusade continued to aid their fellow imperial forces in the Perseus Deeps. For the crusaders this was not a contradiction. The crusade was limited simply to carrying out the lawful edict of Inquisitor Vorushko - where it applied on Libria. Hathek had stood in the way of the Inquisitor Lord and tried to overturn her judgement. In the Deeps no such unloawful acts had taken place, and the astartes remained a useful tool for General Veers.

Following the defeat of the eldar on Aethor the Apocalypse Riders went over to the offensive, following the tell tale warp signature of the dark eldar vessels as they left the system. The navigators aboard the Riders' strike cruiser successfully determined the forces of the Kabal of the Glass 5 were regrouping on Ares, and the astartes decided to disrupt them by launching a lightning raid.

The Apocalypse Riders' strike cruiser arrived in the Ares system just days after the dark eldar had retreated. Before the xenos could react to the interloper in their system, the space marines had landed a small but powerful raiding force of bikes and land speeders on the surface of the planet. an orgy of destruction followed, with the dark eldar sustaining heavy losses, although the Apocalypse Riders too suffered high casualties, and in the end the raid failed ot penetrate the outer defences of the main strategic objective, the munitions and equipment store of the kabal on Ares.

Eldar reinforcements were soon being tracked converging on the space marines' location, and the Apocalypse Riders were quickly evacuated by Thunderhawk. The mission was considered not to have met its objectives, and the effect on the overall strength of the combined eldar-dark eldar military machine in the upper Perseus Deeps was negligible.