The Anphelion Project was a confidential operation created on Beta Anphelion IV led by the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos to examine the Tyranid menace. Gathering samples from various imprisoned and dead Tyranids, the Inquisition wanted to find some vulnerability in the creatures that could possibly save humankind from the Tyranid threat. But, in 850.M41 all contact from the research facility of Beta Anphelion stopped, leading to an exploratory team of Red Scorpions, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Imperial Guards led by Inquisitor Solomon Lok to come to the planet.
The Red Scorpions terminators swept the three laboratories and the control facility. Magos Biologis Arthon and his crew examined the archives and found what the facility's purpose actually was. It was constructed to discover a way to neutralize the rapid-growth predispositions of Tyranid creatures. Massive areas stretching out from the labs were cut off from elsewhere. These were where the Tyranids had been retained. Then for reasons unspecified, the fence had collapsed. The Tyranids had absconded, attacking the three hundred man barracks. When the terminators swept the lab centers, they confronted gene-stealers. Now there could be no doubt. The Tyranids were here.
The first priority was to restart the containment fences. The Elysians had the assignment of conducting a technical servitor to fix the generatorum. As the servitor and its guard reached the generatorum, the Tyranids struck. The Elysians fought back the Tyranids as the servitor restored the generatorum. Back at the command facility Lok discovered in detail what had transpired. The Tyranids had been little specimens. They had shown hostility at first. When the samples in one area had begun to evolve wings, the area was cleansed. Then the Tyranids in another section disappeared. A breakdown in the containment fence in the third section set loose the Tyranids upon the moon. The creatures had secreted into the jungles and swamps until they achieved adequate numbers to engulf the labs' battalion of three hundred troopers.
Meanwhile the Cadians at one of the lab complexes were assaulted and overrun, with them Biologis Arthon. At the command complex the Elysians were confronted from below by Raveners and a Trygon and a force of Elysians and Cadians were attacked by Harridans. The Red Scorpion terminators tried to return to the command complex, but hovering spore sacks caused them to crash-land. The rest of the chapter's forces, in defiance of Lok's orders, set out to save the terminators. They arrived on a battlefield; the terminators were encircled. The relief column made a triumphant rescue and returned to base. They landed in time to aid the garrison who had again come under attack. After the fight, the Red Scorpions got orders to evacuate themselves, and only themselves. The transport commandeered for the mission denied all of Lok's requests, abandoning Lok and the small force of survivors on the moon as the Tyranids closed in. In the last battle, Lok succeeded in taking down a Hierophant Bio-titan, only to see two more step out of the ammonia fog. Lok died betrayed by his superiors and his faith.
