40K - THE GREAT NACHMUND WAR [2]: VIGILUS BURNS | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/History

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign the Galaxy would be torn asunder the Imperium left Riven by the catastrophic psychic tear its emergent forces that emanated from the sikatrix maladictum by damaging and empowering Humanity its worlds and forces lying be strewn along the wake of the Great Rift those on the side of the Galaxy which still lay in the light of the emperor Imperium Sanctus were able to stand firm Resolute and United the return of robote Gilman the Primark of the ultramarines the Lord commander of the Imperium was desperate to reach the Dark Side of Imperial territory the Imperium nihilus none knew if the worlds on this side of the Galaxy had even Survived the Great cataclysm that had torn through it ships could not Traverse the incredibly disruptive power and storms of the Great Rift that made walk travel to Traverse it near impossible Italy as an impenetrable more Tempest between two halves of the Galaxy any ships who attempted to cross it would be shattered crushed and Torn to Pieces by incomprehensible forces the direct cause of the Great Rift itself remains unknown although Gilman and the forces of the Imperium rightly suspect their Nemesis enemies the traitorous astartes led by abaddin Abaddon who continued his unending campaign to wreak Vengeance and destruction upon those loyal to the Emperor of mankind the dark Imperium nihilus had struggled to make contact with those on the opposite side of the rift astropathic communication the only long-distance method of communication in the Imperium remains difficult if not impossible worlds on this darkened side of the Imperium were unable to call for Aid many were continually being assaulted or raided by the darkest of Humanity's enemies such as the drakari many planets were isolated and besieged Gilman had deemed it absolutely critical that his forces find some means by which to to locate or otherwise secure a stable access point to enable travel across the vast warp disturbance of these sticker tricks maladictum for this would be necessary to enable a continual Transit of Imperial fleets between the two regions and enable continual campaigns for no one knew just how long the rift could exist if this would become the new reality for the next 10 000 years the Imperium would have to learn to adapt any natural space Bridges across the rift would become immediately absolutely critical and indeed these links could determine the very survival of those members of humanity who now existed in the dark Imperium a region estimated to be roughly around one-third of the Galaxy The nagmund Gauntlet was discovered soon after the rift had torn through the Galaxy and was one of the first warped corridors known to bridge between the world of sangraterra within the Imperium Sanctus and on its opposite side the planet of vigilus within Imperium nylon less now if you wanted to know just how and why ships would Traverse the nachman gaunted I would refer you back to vigilus part 1 where I discussed many aspects of warp travel essentially though the point is that in the galaxy of the Imperium your ships do not simply travel instantly from one point to any other in the Galaxy it requires complex difficult navigation using the most stable and well-charted routes to reach a destination while the warp enables Humanity a means by which to travel through the Galaxy faster than in real space it comes at an immense price of being both difficult and very dangerous so the arrival of the cigatrix maledictum meant that many charted routes were now completely obliterated meaning that in the Contemporary period for the Imperium they faced the prospect of any stable Roots crossing the rift becoming quickly raging War zones of unfathomable strategic importance which upon its Discovery is exactly what the nachman gaunted and vigilus became a focused and immediate pressure point for the Imperium and its enemies to which the Lord Commander sent his forces rushing toward yet as we learned previously vigilus had already been deluged by troubles a stagnant self-indulgent incompetent ruling Council as is all too typical for Imperial worlds Orcs looking for a good bit of edge smashing Gene sealer Cults and lastly with a grim inevitability the dark Forces of chaos hearken World claimer Herald of the apocalypse and now a badon the despoiler vigilus faced Darkness from all sides hordes of orc Invaders attacked vigilus from the barren wastelands launching their assaults Against The Hive sprawl cities and despite taking continual heavy losses their Spirit was in no way diminished and the hordes would continue to attack whenever they could in no small part because of one crawled Dhaka the speedlord Supreme the leader of the orc war effort his hidden run assaults were a continual headache for many of the Imperial commanders and despite any number of Imperial Knights having vowed to defeat him he remained elusive The Cult of the Pauper princes had fully emerged from below the hive spores infesting Hive streets and infrastructure and the Imperials had limited resources with which to deal with them but they were frequently fought off by local forces but for all of their great efforts of the hive Defenders the cultists numbers seemed indomitable these incursions also contributed with the ongoing conflicts over vital resources the gene steel occult of the porber princes had sees the space elevator supplying the extremely essential water to the vast sprawl of Mega Borealis and while the Orcs And cultists fought with each other over reservoirs the impact was having upon the Imperial Hive spores was reaching now a severe point of criticality despite the Orcs and Gene Steeler Cults seemingly being enemies that should have been easily crushed their Shin numbers and surprising cunning left the Imperials always on the back foot coupled with them having to split their forces against numerous enemies attacking at unexpected locations whereas still were the rumors of dark Raiders appearing from nowhere stealing human miners in the Frozen South while in the general populace chaos worship was Rife leading to Violent disturbances and plague outbreaks all while the dark scar of the sickatrix maledictum loomed large in the sky vast gaping more that reminded all that their impending doom was imminent with the Imperial reinforcements of his studies upon the world however all this had still seemed a problem that could be readily counted and contained but that was until news arrived that chaos Space Marine armies were heading to vigilus and worse still was that some of their number had already secretly seized the hive spiers harken world claimer had publicly proclaimed that abaddin abaddon's imminent arrival had already claimed vigilous for chaos and this had a very troubling impact for the populace of vigilus and left manaeus cowgirl the Lord mccrag with no other option than to now prepare for an aggressive counter assault the planet was balancing on the edge of Destruction and khalgar had already begun to prepare for the final battle determined to resist abaddin's claim on vigilus at any cost with chaos forces fast approaching the now somewhat redeemed vigilous Senate vowed to intervene and enacted a motion for a naval expedition to head off the incoming Heretics this unfortunately also meant that they would be opening yet another additional warfront in the void so calgar mobilizes his assets to engage the chaos invasion in the skies above vigilus he gathers the deadliest ships of the Imperial Fleet even as the herald of the Apocalypse continues to spread his message eroding the remaining hopes among other citizenry cowgirl deploys his pilots and assault squads to engage any chaos Space Marines or demon engines spreading the message as evidently the black Legion were no longer concerned with Illusions about a stealth assault they simply sought to inflict fear and weakness as a precursor to the oncoming Slaughter of their foes and as cowgirl prepares to leave vigilous in the hands of Pedro Cantor of the Crimson fists now aboard his Flagship kalgar sets course for the traitor fleets but as they leave the planet they can see the traversed fields of wreckage caused by orca salts and vigilus now stands as a world racked by both War and the planet itself and in its surrounding space while still intransit kelgar's worst fears were quickly confirmed the energy signature of incoming vessels was detected by his Bridge crew and identified as an ancient vessel the identity of the craft was confirmed and its title was deeply troubling it was the vengeful spirit this was no ordinary heretic vessel this was a ship of dark infamy the flagship of the ultimate traitor Horus lupacal who had dragged the Imperium into a cataclysmic Civil War and the Very ship upon which the Ember of mankind himself had been mortally wounded the name of the ship itself appearing on data screens aboard khalgar's ship created a great unease an intense concern among the crew including many audible gasps cowgar organized his Fleet into a double chord in defense to confront the approaching black Legion Armada unlike these strange ancient vessels of History the Imperial ships had only their considerable Firepower to rely upon and khalgar and his arch Commodore which is a Naval rank above Captain had already been working upon multiple strategies to counter any response the traitors could hope to deploy abandon Abaddon and his lieutenants however fully ignored the Imperial Fleet maintaining their course without hesitation khalgar's concern grew as he realized they must have a hidden and plan which they had not accounted for which soon was realized for the Imperials as without warning a burst of blurring light materialized on the bridge of calgar's ship Laurels of Victory it was a warp portal and from it poured incomprehensible creatures their screams filling the air tearing at the senses of the humans with intolerable frequencies the bridge was immediately a chaotic screaming Battle Zone as the portal continued to engorge and spew out hell creatures pale skinned clawing androgynous writhing staggering beings with a disturbing seemingly impossible animation of movement without even a moment of hesitation the ultramarines were laying down Boulder fire shredding the horrors but to this the creatures only responded by dancing and flitting their leave pailed bodies many were evading the worst of the incoming fire others endured seemingly wounds that should have ended them and almost immediately cowgirl was being assaulted by a greater demon its four clawed arms one brandishing an ornate Spear and although his honor guard had thrown themselves between him and the horrors their fire and melee strikes were being deflected by glow surrounding the being itself it's through its pole arm weapon directly at the chapter master and although he caught the spear in the gauntlets of Ultramar he could not resist its strange force with which The Entity forced down upon him it impaled calgar right through his heart and the demon tore out his throat by now the bridge of the ultramarine ship was in complete chaos with the best efforts of the Space Marines only barely holding their own ground certainly not vanquishing the horrors in a perhaps textbook example of the value of the Navigator class of humans to the Imperium the ship's Navigator who is present at the bridge revealed their third eye which is usually hidden from all to Sea and upon opening it Unleashed a hull storm of warp energy which lashed the bridge of the ship itself like a self-contained warp storm the greater forearm demon could not stand against the power that had been Unleashed upon it and was deluging the now horrors of the warp they all fled screaming and scurring back into the localized tear in the warp they had been vanquished but the initial conflict with the traitus had been by any measure a catastrophic failure but as Vox Communications began to pour in as well from other vessels in kalgar's Fleet the realization of what had befallen them came to pass the subsequent consequences were even more or serious the battle to defend against the oncoming traitors was already lost it was a dismal performance [Music] the fleet had been crippled before it even had any attempt at resisting the traitors most if not all of the fleet had been penetrated by the Demonic incursions and left many of them in a far worse State Than The Laurels of Victory which had only just survived itself screaming agonized wailing and crazed ramblings were saturating the Vox Communications the Commodore took decisive action given the now incapacitated calgar and ordered the fleet to immediately Retreat to vigilus any other action would have surely resulted in their total Destruction and the certain loss of vigilous and perhaps even doomed the Imperium on this side of the Great Rift but it would not be a disorganized cowardly fleeing they laid down fire in a tactical fighting withdrawal lances and bombardments were thrown out from the vessels who were capable in a firestorm of defiance as was so typical of the traitors abandoned's arrogance was all too apparent in his ships were unprepared for such a defined assault from the retreating ships with the trader ships taking even more damage than they really should have done unfortunately of course many Imperial ships took a considerable beating in return still it was a small crumb of comfort to hold on to as now the path to vigilus was of course entirely open for the traitors who continued their Voyage to now assault the world as the Commodore did all they could to ensure as many ships as possible survived the return to vigilus when is cowgirl was in a critical state of survival himself being rushed to the prime apothecarium he was urgently attended by a team of apothecaries his second heart had saved his life and the new primarist belisarity and furnace had triggered a flood of stimulants that had kept him alive his destroyed throat was quickly sutured remembering that Space Marines have a host of adaptations such as quick clotting and their bodies limiting General damage to injuries that would be very quickly fatal for ordinary humans cowgirl was being aided with regen Ken baths and cybernetic surgery followed by rejuvenant treatments he had survived but he certainly would bear the scars of the assault his voice now edged by a mechanical tinge upon their return to vigilus the populace were generally quite jubilant the nature of things in the impairment that their departure had been talked up considerably by the general propaganda messages in civilian areas and of course the ministorum now those same mechanisms would have to explain the surprisingly fast return to the world but anyone who really had time to think about it would have connected the dots from the fact that the Estates did not now hold a Victory Parade through the streets but instead began deploying in drop pods from the skies to engage with the traitors embedded Among The Hive spiers their initial surprise assaults had tipped the balance in places elsewhere the hives were already being rotted down through and largely now Beyond salvation cowgar had only a minimal period of time for recovery but it was enough and he was now viewing all the information available to him to try and Salvage something of the situation but the picture was inevitably a bleak one dirked in the abandoned and mostly neglected Hive spaller vigilus was pretty much already lost as was calyx Bane the glacier money region which had suffered innumerable assaults by the Jakari the besieged sprawl of mortwold had so far held out against the Orca salt but as with everywhere it was the ordinary citizens and local militias who were bearing the cost the indulgent Nobles and Wealthy Hive citizens the aristocracy had retreated into their heavily defended secure Zone bastians within the hive palaces and the situation was little different wherever cowgirl looked the vast spall of Mega Borealis was suffering greatly by forces of the omnisaya and zenos the great Hoist the orbital relay had been controlled by the gene Steeler Cults for some time now denying vital water for the world and dontoria highsball was suffering an out-of-control plague spread by the infections of nurgle that had fast descended into its depths and despite immense firestorms and bombardment had not been contained otec and Stovall much the same no matter the Defenders the sororitas Estates kill teams local forces all were overcome by all manner of diet events and enemies for the more vital areas such as the orbital relay and mega Borealis these were the critical locations to focus upon but few paid any thought for those suffering within say Dirk Den the dark and isolated pitiful houseboar which was declared a lost cause upon near the arrival of calgar the people within now scratched out survival facing an onslaught of Jean steel occultists but worse was still to come things were of course chaotic everywhere it hadn't taken long after the return of the fleet for the populace to begin sensing that something was awry even more so when a visible chaos Fleet arrived in orbit rumors knew speculation about khalgar's defeat began to spread like wildfire in the hives which quickly led to panic fear rage and even those who had been on the fence about siding with traitors like the cultists of the Pauper princes or those who even would now welcome the arrival of abaddin but by contrast there were as many who if they had never been devout followers of the Imperial cult before certainly were now sororontas who had previously been shown just respect and by degrees of course worshiped from the very devout followers were now seen as akin to being Saints in the eyes of the ordinary citizens these were their saviors who were the emperor's living Divine will and would certainly save them from the horrors that were descending upon vigilus or so they thought anyway yet there was one small problem for the traitors abandon had not been aware of the significant presence of the gene steel occultists when planning the assault of vigilus not only this but they had no idea of its fighting capabilities or the locations they were embedded within when they began deploying to the world now you may think well some cultists that's just ordinary humans with auto guns maybe a few loud rifles and Chimera tanks well it's fair enough but consider also that the gene still occultists had already been insurmountable for the Fairly sizable impure assets on the world including their pure strained Gene Steelers and hybrids so now even when bolstered by a startis the Imperials were unable to overcome them not to mention the fact that many of the gene steel occults had overpowered and seized significant locations and assets since they began bleeding into the open so by the time the Heritage had been deploying to vigilus they were immediately and quite to their shock set upon by the Scions of grand sire worm and I think worse to remember Gene steel occultists are not really just a ragtag band of militia I mean by degrees but they're fully captivated by their powerful and likely somewhat psychically synaptic sense of Duty and loyalty to their cause their planning and Devotion to the cause are in some respects better than that of their militarum counterparts for many situations they may be more willing to just throw themselves into decisive actions driven by a blind belief in serving their leadership more ready to take decisions on the Fly that are critical but all of that aside the trade Marines just did not expect the citizenship of a world to be armed and ready for a fight at this point in time it's worth bearing in mind as well the vast numbers of citizenry contained within the hive Sports weakly armed or not it's a considerable weight of individuals to contend with even the Legion of angron had struggled during the Guinness scouring when they were faced with hordes of these strange unarmed semi-citizen constructs who just threw themselves at the astartes even crushing some of them under a sheer tsunami of humanoid form eventually of course they prevailed but it came at a punishing cost not one that they had expected by any means the same unexpected weight of resistance was now facing those deploying dividulous so Dirk Den had been seen as a relatively soft target ripe for the plucking by those who reveled in such things and the night Lords were chosen for this task along with the Renegade chapter known as the scourged now incidentally the term Renegade chapter is another one of those annoying 40K isms that can be true to several definitions at the same time Renegade Space Marines are formerly Loyalists and have most often been corrupted by chaos succumbing to The Temptations and the machinations of the ruinous Powers now having forsaken their Oaths of loyalty to the Imperium they'll often retain some semblance of their original organization their structure their Gene seed but their souls belong to chaos they may align themselves with one of the chaos gods or more often follow a path of undivided worship these Renegades are adjacent to those traitor Legions like the death guard or the world eaters or the Thousand sons who were once loyalist Legions during the Great Crusade but whose Legions would be instrumental in the Rebellion against the Imperium therefore to chaos was often more extensive more deeply ingrained than that of the other Renegade Legions or later the Renegade chapters for they have fully embraced the power and the influence of Chaos for seeking any remnants of their former loyalty these Legions have their own unique traits iconography and preferred chaos Gods such as nurgle for the death guard or corn for the world eaters but the term Renegade be it a legion or chapter can apply just broadly for those astartes who are considered to have turned against the Imperium for reasons other than the worship of chaos you could still have a nurgle worshiping Renegade chapter but who are not quite as fully corrupted as say the death God but the term Renegade be it Legion or chapter can apply just broadly to those Estates who are considered to have turned against the Imperium for reasons other than the worship of chaos although notably their isolation and resentment toward the Imperium does commonly lead them down the path that results in alignment with chaos usually chaos and divided but sometimes more specific while Renegade chapters and Chaos Legions share the common trait of turning against the Imperium the depth of their corruption and their historical background sets them apart Renegade chapters will still Bears some vestiges of their loyalist Origins and may struggle with conflicting loyalties while chaos Legions are fully immersed in the worship and service of chaos dedicating themselves entirely to the cause of their chosen chaos God so when the Traders deployed to Duggan they had expected an enjoyable herd of human cat or essentially at their disposal a veritable Smorgasbord of humans suffering to be enjoyed the night Lords were undoubtedly looking forward to all manner of Horrors to enjoy at the expense of the slum citizenry of an abandoned Hive sprawl no doubt the scourged were eager to get on with well scourging except there was of course one small problem that they would not be facing a terrorized swath of unarmed civilians and feeble local militia these still existed in duckden to be sure but they could not know this and so only a meager contingent of night Lords participated in the invasion as the majority of their Infamous Brotherhood were engaged elsewhere near the eye of Terror ramagan savastus the leader of the night Lords had struck a pact with the badon to secure ashinid non-hive as the site of their primary Onslaught Guided by his Visionary brother Rainer adorned with his skull mask ramagan had discerned the potential of the Capital City's sizable criminal populace viewing them as fertile ground for recruiting potential new Warriors or failing that resilient slaves yet even the considerable foresight of Uranus had not anticipated the irresistible bleed of xenos corruption that it so heavily permeated dirkton the psychic essence of the gene Steeler hybrids proved elusive to his senses and those akin to him and whether this was due to the intentional obfuscation by the cult's Magi or an inherent resonance within the shadow in the warp which Heralds the arrival of each tyranid High Fleet regardless it became a pivotal factor in the ensuing Conflict for upon their arrival the night Lords Unleashed their Bloodshed throughout the streets of dirkton subjecting resistors to unspeakable tortures their battle raged against the criminal underbelly of the continent and the sole remnants who remained to claim the high sport this corrupt Syndicate concealed a darker truth that its members were pawns being manipulated from the shadows sevastus reynus and their warban soon found themselves fighting for survival as now a multitude of Gene steel occult hybrids emerged from passages and concealed entrances joining forces now with the hive's criminal denizens the Weaponry of the hereticostatis be it baltus blades or lightning crawls exactly the gruesome tall creating piles of mutilated bodies that served as impromptu ramparts within the exposed chambers of ashenid non-hive but undeterred the cult Unleashed wave after wave after wave seeking to drown the Invaders beneath an overwhelming tide of numbers and it was working but the cultures of risking their pure strained Gene sealer progeny dispatched instead Primus hollandesh from Mega Borealis to secure their Dominion leading hordes of aberrance and metamorph hybrids against the night Lords in a shock King assault this formidable charge shattered the night Lords and discouraged alike thus ducked in for now remained firmly in the grasp of the Pauper princes the victors of this harrowing conflict for the Imperium vigilus was fast becoming a planetary scale Battlefield triage there were some areas already declared lost others were stable but at risk but required still further monitoring others were in a critical situation and needed immediate surgical attention this could mean of course many things it may mean life-saving intervention or it could also mean cutting away badly damaged areas even cauterization to destroy an area of infection before it could spread in severe cases amputation may be necessary the goal overall of course was to save the whole even if sacrifices had to be made but too many of those had been made already then once though finally some positive news and hyperia the Swift and Resolute deployment of their studies returning to vigilus in the hopes of scouring the chaos incursions within the hive spies have been considerably effective yet elsewhere reports continued to pour in and the increasing gravity of the situation necessitated broader and more drastic measures to confront the encroaching Darkness while there had been practical progress within the spies of hyperia and Beyond he was slowly becoming evident that abaddin was not merely deploying his own forces within this theater but that he had apparently forged an alliance of renegade chapters and traitor Legions against vigilus including any number of traitors such as the iron Warriors the night Lords even the alpha Legion and this was a reality that was becoming all too painfully apparent as the Estates Defenders continued to encounter their Twisted corrupted Brethren ten thousand year old traitors who had sold their souls to Darkness and now served Masters Beyond mortal comprehension they spoke not their bolters did the talking as the corridors carried the sounds of their hatred thundering sounds ringing the death now of loyal Defenders as they prowl The Hive sprawls yet this was no simple deployment this was not merely one Legion temporary rarely aiding another it was clear that a badon had gathered a Congregation of traitors like none other for he well understood the critical importance of this world and in some cases he literally had said to them please engage in this fight but effectively sow as much chaos and Discord as you can basically create Havoc for he intended to claim this world one way or another and if they could not then the price paid for the world in Blood by the Loyalists would be far beyond its material worth within the vigilous Senate names of the forces assailing the planet were being thrown around by The Imperials but barely recognized by The Nobles and the ranking members of the planet for these were titles and names that had only previously been heard as whispered Legends on rumors at best the Striking Clarity that they were not only real but here now and assaulting the world sent a cold shock through the Civil rulers of vigilus a heart-stopping gut punch as if some long distance relative had inadvertently he walked across their future grave for the attending astartes in calgar these were the names of abhorrent traitors the miserable kin of nightmares ancient adversaries of the Imperium that must be vanquished once again the black Legion with their painfully pointed eyes of Horus they cast along the shadow over the world and one of the ultramarine's most hated Nemesis the word bearers who came with their inscribed armor saturated with profane scriptures of their Primark laga who in their numbers continued to pour down upon the increasingly damaged spiers of hyperia the iron Warriors who broke through the low orbit like an immense wave upon the heavily fortified trench networks of mortwold once the comparable masters of Siege Warfare to their now most hated Rivals the Imperial fists their knowledge of such matters so intuitive they relished in laying down last cannon fire to dismantle with specificity the bastians and fortresses of redemption that had long repelled the clumsy and random inefficiency of the Orcs with a terrifying speed and strength they shattered the Imperial defenses and fought as quickly as the Imperial fists moved to counter their Advance they were continually hammerstrong and obstructed by the annoyance of chaos cult fiends and mass albeit pointless charges which kept them continually distracted within the defending lines while the traitor struck elsewhere wood had come through the Justice khalgar had hoped the cultists who had previously impaired Imperial forces within dugden would similarly impede the progress of The Wretched progeny of curse this was no Panacea though for while he knew they could surely not be defeated by such forces their stalled attempts to unleash a campaign of horror within Dirk then would likely mean they would then redirect their assault towards the hyperior duct in fortwar and the southern regions surrounding Saints Haven one of their main command headquarters elsewhere critical water purification plants were being afflicted by a strange machine parasitism being imbued by abaddin's Vex machinator his raw chaos Aura afflicting the vital water plants which succumbed to hopeless corruption wreaking havoc upon both man and machine similarly dontoria hives bore the massive population Center in the north was played still by the nurgle plague which had steadily been spreading after its failure to be curbed early on it had become so severe now that it was no longer just affecting organic material plastille Shanty structures were becoming decayed in every Hab block devoured by ravenous rust curses while the Flesh of its inhabitants steadily blackened before putrefying and becoming dissolved foul sludge enormous swollen blisters appeared on the denizens of grodholve sometimes appearing to mirror the rift in the skies above and Within These blisters could be seen not only fluid but writhing things itching scratching to break out and if the pitiful victim did not scratch them open worsening their own infections they would eventually become so engorged that they just burst like a swollen liquid balloon spilling out the the tiny writhing creatures the demon maggots grew swiftly like little waddling glitchlings and their Aura infected machines as well as flesh and much like dirkton the situation was becoming strategically untenable warp plagues such as this were beyond the Estates ability to fight and cowgirl had to bitterly accept the reality that the massive Northern Hive sprawl of dontoria May well be lost worse still the initial success within the hive spies had not played out as it had been hoped the traitors still were inhabiting the spiers of vigilus and various plans were put forward which often came at too high a price for the citizenry in the end of solution they set upon was select major fires in the core Central structure suratas team set about igniting The Inferno which would leave most spiers on vigilus along with the traitors within hopefully fully destroyed but while generally speaking things were steadily going from bad to worse at the omniscion Hoist there had been some genuinely destructive progress the immense mechanical contrivance created by the adeptus mechanicus which sprang out of the core stygian spiers before reaching into space that it might drag ice heavy asteroids to enable the extraction of the lifeblood aqua meteoris was known as the omniscient hoist and it was one of the landmarks of vigilus unfortunately it had fallen into the cunning claws of a band of pure strained Gene Steelers who had squeezed their way up the pipes to its less protected higher levels and in a matter of days the primary source of water sustaining Mega Borealis had been severed a culmination of generations of clandestine scheming was now Unleashed with dire consequences with water on vigilance becoming ever more scarce even more than it normally was the control of the omniscient hoist became especially important and the tech priests rallied their forces for a Resolute Onslaught to reclaim this prized piece of infrastructure below all this the battles that had raged in Borealis had completely spiraled out of control Flames consuming the land and though the uprising of the gene steel occultists had been quelled in most districts of the continent via Relentless efforts of methodical extermination teams comprising skitari catafront servitors and Space Marines the fiercest battles had centered around the grand Marvel of technology that ascended into the celestial realm to give that Marvel its full title it was the greater omniscient hoist during the dark days of the war of beasts with the Orcs the lower echelons of the Hoist had fallen to the cultists of the Pauper princess their meticulous Invasion plans employed their covert agents embedded within the stygian workforce to obtain access codes however the upper Sanctified levels had resisted their attempts to control much more of the Hoist then worse still for the cultists the beeping vigilance of ever-present Servo skulls had raised the alarm exposing their incursion and all of this disruption is what had enabled the pure strain though to climb ever higher out of sight and out of mind the conflict moved on and by the time the engagements with the Orcs were beginning to wane the struggle for the Hoist became ever more urgent and would see the iron hands as studies execute a meticulous attack upon the Holdings designated as being lost to the xenos Menace by the adeptus mechanicus but just as the conflict with the Orcs had been looking to diminish the arrival of the Space Marines drew the unfortunate attention of those orc forces who were suddenly now invigorated by the prospect of fighting with the Space Marines and would proceed to bludgeon their way through the hivespore to join in The Fray and in mere hours the space winds now found themselves engaged in a Relentless battle against two xenos were it not for the calculated prowess and compartmentalized War doctrines of their esteemed leader Clan Captain galkran they would have swiftly succumbed seizing the momentary respite the Pauper princes regrouped in the depths of the state she inspires but any hopes of a recovery was shattered as the iron hand strike Crews a dark spear Unleashed a punitive barrage upon coordinates relayed by goldcran reducing vast sections of the gene steel occultists claimed territory to smoldering ruins the path now cleared mechanicus cast iron robot and devoted cult overseers descended upon the lower levels advancing methodically guns Ablaze with horrific phosphor rounds simultaneously now great Legions of skiptari macroclades were dispatching with urgency to reclaim the upper levels seized by the pure strained Gene Steelers and for once they struck with awe-inspiring might they surged forth from forgotten Transit capillaries and now at last it was the turn of the gene Steelers occupying the control Hub to discover that the tables had finally turned against them this guitari radium carbines and galvinic rifles poured on a storm of lethal fire decimating scores of Abominations driven by their synaptic instincts the gene still does tore the auto lumens from the walls and now Darkness enveloped their chamber in the brief pause the mechanicus forces could hear an emergence coming from the bowels of the largest water conduit finally saw what only the closest Inner Circle of the gene steel occultists had seen until now emerging from the pipeline was the immense bulk of the tuning progenitor of the vigilous infestation the venerable Grand sire worm the Zenus Unleashed its monstrous Talons sundering the skitari warriors with such force that their bodies would render Sunder blood spraying mixed with sparking wires under the patriarch's Sinister psychic sway the gene steel is a metamorph hybrids fought alongside their patriarch adeptly sealing the transit capillaries with twists of the wheel locks isolating this guitar reinforcements who are still ascending the massive patriarch hammered its gnarled fist upon a crimson icon on the primary control panel and armored plastial shutters designed to protect the control tower began to descend out of nowhere the room was suddenly Ablaze with fire incoming from outside the staging Tech priests had orchestrated a surprise assault to the exterior employing on June crawlers who had with their powerful electromagnetic legs scaled the near vertical slopes of the hive Spire their Neutron laser fire continued to burst and pepper the control center already having badly injured grandsile worm the seemingly disorientated remaining pure string Gene Steelers were annihilated as they were caught in the deadly Crossfire additionally the immense pipelines containing the skitari reinforcements had been opened and they surged into the control center along the side the oniga June crawlers together they pushed back any remnants of the gene sealer cultists and hybrids reclaiming the control Hub of the omniscion Hoist it was a resounding and well-earned victory and in retaking the greater omniscion hoist it marked a turning point in the battle for Mega Borealis the tech priests could restore the flow of Aqua meteoris to The Hive spores of the continent but the greater Gene steel occult threat was still far from being exterminated a fact that the mechanicus and their allies well knew but this was one of their first significant victories upon vigilus and it gave them pause to raise a sliver of Hope morale was boosted at the news and A Renewed sense of vigilance and determination settled upon all the Defenders as they prepared to confront the wider Gene Steeler infestation and ensure the survival of not only themselves here on vigilous but indeed the survival of the Imperium until this point in the conflict the Imperials had largely taken it as an entirely obvious conclusion though the Trader's interest and assaults upon the world of vigilus were for its strategic location but they were extremely troubling Secrets hidden upon the planet that so far not even the psychos of the Imperium or the hive nobility had become aware of nor had they realized just how dangerous a presence had already been on the world for some time these so-called vulian swirl was a gigantic never-ending dust storm which twisted and lashed across the Eastern Frontier of the hyperia hive Spore it was so massive and dangerous that all avoided it completely this region was largely believed to be just a Barren desert A Wasteland that held absolutely nothing of value coupled with the fact that this immense barrier fully prevented any realistic attempts to explore the region at all any vehicles at ground level or in the air would be absolutely torn to shreds the moment they came near to its immense cyclonic forces filled with sharp particles of sand and debris that would cut through not just flesh but metal rendering a person's paste in mere minutes so this environmental fixture was just a feature of vigilous rather than some unusual occurrence it never really appeared to significantly reduce in scale nor ferocity and it also did not move across a particularly large territory seemingly to swirl around within a fairly confined Geographic space the only individuals who may have had a hope of penetrating the swirling Vortex of many billions of tons of particular matter would have been the Estates with their heavy ceramite armor or at least vehicles of comparable durability such as mechanicus transport the previous aquilarian Council of vigilus had consequently dismissed the Boolean swirl as a wasteful and irrelevant study but now the Dark Angels force that was on Pawn vigilus had deemed it worthy of Investigation for reasons of their own they decided to venture Into the Storm despite the past failures of the inhabitants upon to their surprise they even struggled to penetrate this wall of swirling material they tried rugged transports armored bikes in different formations but all were halted by the swirling Sands still very determined though they attempted to press on on foot they held some sense that there was something important within unfortunately with visibility at near zero and electromagnetic interference disrupting their sensors they were forced to abandon the effort but their suspicions about something of Interest rusting at the center were in fact entirely correct the swirl had concealed what was known as The Citadel Vigilant and more troubling for the Dark Angels it had been claimed Long Ago by the Fallen led by one librarian osandis The Citadel Vigilant was a Monument built from noctilith more commonly known as Blackstone it also contained obsidian and hypersteel to an ill-educated observer the lack of weathering upon its surface might have implied that it had been recently constructed but in truth it had existed since long before Humanity had even stepped out into the Stars upon the emperor's great Crusade those Warrior Mystics of the Fallen though broken traitors of the Dark Angels were protected by these strange temporal Aegis of the Citadel they sought to unlock its secrets and the minerals they discovered below the surface this noctilith but they were never able to confirm their suspicions that Blackstone was in fact in any way tied to the power of the dark Gods some had attempted experiments in which they tried to expel the corruption of souls by chaining the victims to slabs of noctilith while it were charged to then repel the energies of chaos over an entire year hoping to basically expel push force it out of them still others among the Fallen claimed that the planet was so vital to the future of the Imperium that they had been called there to act as Guardians for the final Day of Reckoning whatever their own intentions though these would fall by the wayside now they'd been tied to a Baden after he previously had aided them the Fallen had been established here for some time using vigilus as their base whilst they were conducting their investigations into the Citadel and into Blackstone Abaddon having located librarian asandas now planned to balance up what they owed [Music] Blackstone also known as noctilith in High Gothic has become one of the most critical materials in the Contemporary period of m41 it remains a mysterious substance that possesses unique properties related to psychic energy its technical origin remains unknown but has been found upon various worlds and concentrated in varying amounts most commonly seen upon the tomb worlds of the necron Empire but also on some planets along the length of the sikatrix maladictum It is believed that millions of years ago before Humanity had even ventured Out Among the Stars during what is mythically referred to now as the war in heaven the necrons used Blackstone to construct pylon-like structures across numerous planets and in doing so they were able to create regions of space-time that were null or otherwise immune to the influence of the immaterium the reasons as to why they may have done this at that time are unknown although very small adjacent there's potential reference to this in the novel wild Rider which deals with the further exploits of the Inari and reveals that there is a possibility that at some point in the ancient past at least some of the Eldar necron may have collectively worked together to seal away the warp which seems unbelievable but this is suggestive that the warp was becoming so dangerous and problematic even prior to the emergence of humanity that they had to cooperate to do something to seal it but it need not necessarily point to the existence of what Humanity would understand as chaos during that time Blackstone can be mined from dark rocks resembling obsidian or Onyx it remains exclusive to certain mineral-rich planets often correlating with worlds settled by the original mechanicum which may be suggestive that the mechanicum now mechanicus may have had some suspicion or belief or information in the importance of the material long before the period of the Imperium even if they were not aware fully of what it was capable of it also is as noted seen upon worlds displaying evidence of ancient mining or the installation of Blackstone monoliths by again likely the necron in the broader picture though the true purpose and properties of Blackstone had remained a mystery to the Imperium but following the opening of The Great Rift the adeptus mechanicus under the guidance of arch magos belisarius core began to steadily understand the significance of Blackstone and to this end the mechanicus have initiated mining operations across the Galaxy to gather enough material for constructing their own zones of stability in real space aiming to contain chaos incursions facilitated by the Great Rift however this Quest has brought them into conflict with the necrons who also seek to acquire Blackstone for their own purposes of closing the Great Rift and reclaiming the Galaxy now I've previously speculated that in the ancient Eldar mythology they speak about bathing in the warp walking between the two Realms of the materium and the immaterium as if they were overlapping like an ocean washing against the shores and it's possible that the Great Rift was in fact always present that maybe it wasn't really a rift originally and that in the most ancient times of the Galaxy when the warp was more passive and calm it presented no danger and could be engaged with as the Eldar suggest without the horror we see in the era of the Imperium the fact that the necron already though had structures they seem to have previously used to seal the rift are also suggestive of this that it became problematic later at some point in time although another alternative could well be that during the war in heaven between the necron and the Eldar the war became so extreme especially with the involvement of the Katan that they may have actually torn the Galaxy apart during that conflict unleashing maybe not chaos but certainly malevolent entities from this realm and then it became necessary for the survival of both necron and Eldar that they seal the rift but of course this is just all entirely speculation Arch magos beliserius call has theorized that Blackstone when probably treated and shaped could reinforce the structure of the material Universe acting in fact as a barrier against chaos and the warp's psychic energies he believes that blackstone's structures could prevent empiric manifestations and hold back demonic intrusions and catastrophic warp storms this Revelation has prompted the adeptice mechanicus to search now more proactively for Blackstone across the Galaxy but the debate within the mechanicus has continued to rage some speculate that Blackstone even originates from another dimensional resonates with the psychic energies of the immaterium and is capable even of manipulating chaos energy but Cole's theory of empiric polarity suggests that Blackstone is not inherently imbued with any kind of chaos energy but that it can be be charged under specific circumstances to interact with war energy thus structures like the Canadian pylons and the Eldritch needles of Nemesis tessera are believed to be negatively charged while the ancient Blackstone fortresses captured by a bad and the despoiler were thought to be positively charged and currently in the most simple terms these explanations seem to be borne out by the Practical evidence but one of the unusual aspects of Blackstone does seem to be this rappelling of warp energy and it's believed this was in fact why the nachman gauntlet existed at all the psychic polarity of the planet were repelling the rift and thereby allowing a passageway to be formed it wasn't random it was because of these physical structures over the course of the gothic War abaddin had also learned that Blackstone could be polarized and that knowledge has informed his Grand strategy ever since aladdam would do everything in his power to destroy Blackstone where it was found to be charged against the forces of chaos and to seize it where it could Empower him furthermore and disturbingly it was found that by chiseling into the stone Blasphemous phrases and Runes of dark language a chaos sorcerer could align their Aura with the dimensional bleed of the warp enabling them to channel unpredictable energies using a noctolith crown which could lead to a tremendous psychic backlash and upon vigilus the word bearers had been attempting to channel power through these noctolith crowns which were aesthetically more like gateways for they well understood that wherever a psychic disaster struck the purest and most devastating forms of chaos was soon to follow in the greater period of noctilist Discovery there Remains the disturbing Prospect of even alliances being formed could the necron and Elder form some kind of Unholy Alliance or even the mechanicus and necron work together to restore stability in order to real space both of these seem very unlikely but anything is possible and given the extreme aggression of the necron dynasties who so far have been not merely conquering world but scouring them of life and Exterminating all sentient beings they encountered to increase and in their mind retake their domain they continue to also construct Blackstone pylons and in some locations create null Fields so powerful such as the Pariah Nexus that ships cannot even easily transition in and out of the warp the null power of Blackstone so strong that even humans who barely psychically register are driven almost insane by the power of the null field for chaos of course Blackstone is truly terrifying it is the ultimate anathema for they can do nothing against its powers of nullification it's true that they can also use it to empower warp energy to extremely destructive consequences but the prospect of not only the Great Rift being sealed once again and worse perhaps even the eye of Terror it's something that the forces of chaos cannot allow to happen if any of this were to actually come to pass the timing of it will be everything because it could in fact be devastating for the Imperium if the rift were to be close too quickly as the effect it's currently having on humans appears to have also been empowering the emperor Blackstone in the period of m41 truly has become one of the most valuable materials in the entire galaxy something a bad and new all too well as he continued to wage war upon vigilus foreign [Music] the Dark Age of Technology was of course this highly Advanced age of human technological achievement and prosperity it was the peak in both scientific knowledge and sociological cultural development of humanity far surpassing the current state of human technology in the 41st Millennium in the Contemporary period for Humanity the Imperium scrapes through the broken detritus Left Behind from this Great era they attempt to salvage where possible individual pieces and often Tech that is discovered is in fact so far Advanced that it's beyond the comprehension of even the mechanicus and without a literal complete STC template a lot of what's discovered ends up having to be simply archived but during the Dark Age of Technology Humanity had developed these awe-inspiring powerful weapons that are the stuff of Legend and are supposedly in instances even rivaling technology akin to the Eldar and the necron in some of the notable examples we do know about that I've commonly discussed here on the channel one being the sparanza and the other the spirit of Eternity the Speranza was a colossal Arc mechanicus these are the ships used by the mechanicus to travel through the Galaxy now this was a massive ship equipped with formidable weaponry and advanced systems and just some of these were gravity well projectors energy Lance's Nova cannons things capable of devastating entire fleets and even obliterating planets but it possessed weapon systems that were only able to be activated by the ship's dormant AI that was in fact entirely unknown to the mechanicus and this was able to fire a kind of localized space-time Distortion that would cause whatever it came into contact with to phase out of time with itself causing them the matter to actually exist twice in the same point in time causing a cataclysmic release of energy then of course there was the spirit of Eternity another ancient and terrifying weapon if you will from that era it was a massive Starship dwarfing even the most imposing vessels of the Contemporary time it's AI though was the most troubling part of the ship as I've talked about previously it was able to lock your studies armor mechanicus in place leaving them just completely helpless and impotent and they were treated with such disdain and contempt such disrespect from the AI that this was somehow more of a devastating blow to them than even its potent energy weapons its impenetrable void Shields and it's generally esoteric capabilities any examples of remnants such of these are from an age now forgotten entirely by the majority of humanity it's only remembered by those few who have had access to ancient historical records or some level of very specifically authorized historical education also just fragments from people who spoke of those times like the Journal of keeper crippius but for those with a broader understanding of the timeline of humanity the relics from the Dark Age serve as a grim and poignant reminder of what mankind once was capable of and stands as a troublingly stark contrast to the Grim war-torn efforts of those who exist in m41 and so within the Boolean swirl within the Citadel was hidden one of these relics of the golden age of humanity now known only as the dark Asian technology none could fathom its original purpose or the manner of its construction and operation but what they were able to discern were practical uses for this tool of devastating and incomprehensible power but what was it well within the Citadel was a construction known as the void claw while the Fallen may have had their own plans for its use those were very much now secondary to the wishes of abaddin as he and his black Legion held with them a tense initial meeting both sides greeting one another with the barrels of their bolters what followed was a pretty terse discussion over control of the Void claw but badon had laid down Hammer blows of power to back up his justifications not least having made deals with other Renegade chapters the support of other Legions in their demon primarks and that he had even spoken to in whatever form accounts for it the dark Gods themselves somehow also surviving this process intact the Fallen obviously had strong opinions of their own they saw the void claw as a means to unleash destruction against their most loathed enemies but this was such small thinking compared to the intentions that Abaddon had for this Dark Age Technology the voigler was not as simple as just a gravity weapon nor was it a concentrated beam of energy it was instead something in between but considerably more powerful than the two of these the voigtclaw when activated would force the fabric of space-time itself into a beam of crushing Force to a singular point and then opening a gravitic anomaly no larger than a pearl The Singularity created at this point was so powerful that no Shield or power of any kind could resist it and of course really unknown to the traitors this technology had been seen before in Dark Age relics and it also can be relatively likened to some weapons employed by the eldari for abandon though this was legitimately a rare and extraordinary tool that he could use to reshape The nachmund Gauntlet itself his intention was to fire the void claw not at their enemies but at an area of space between vigilus and its Moon Neo Vellum the result would be a severe gravity well that would draw masses of matter into the orbits from nearby bodies such as vigilus and then Place The knackman Gauntlet into a dangerous state of contracted instability under the orders of abaddin that is spoiler the Fallen set to work in activating this relic of the Dark Age while the Imperials were consumed with trivial irrelevances of preserving the life of a few billion citizens that a spoiler was activating Hardware that would reshape the entire future of the Galaxy the sandus though was less than pleased at having to bend their will to the demands of abaddin but he had no alternative options certainly not the will or the forces to resist but it also meant that it waylaid their plans for the device as it had been their intention to turn this against of course the Dark Angels he had previously planned to gather such a force of Fallen that the Dark Angels would have no choice but to investigate and enable them to even learn of its location through deliberate misdirected captures of the Fallen who would sacrifice themselves to the cause and that's no small thing when you consider what awaits them in the bowels of the Dark Angels sitted out the rock with its interrogated chaplains his Hope was that this could potentially lure the dark Angel's Fortress Monastery itself to vigilus knowing that even if they began an orbital bombardment the ancient extremely powerful force fields around the Citadel were protect it then with no warning he would have unleashed the void claw destroying it with the focused power of the singularity generated as for the swirl around the Citadel it should be noted that even when in a passive State the machinery and whatever enabled its terrible destructive power were in fact the true cause of this vast swirl around itself and the Citadel the Fallen as of course with so many Imperials when discovering lost artifacts from the Dark Age of Technology had no full comprehension of the machine in fact probably barely any comprehension of the machine but they had been studying it and they had attempted and been partially successful in using psychic communion to contact the spirit within the void claw and reached what they believed was some level of affinity with the semi-centered weapon now you can probably read into what that may be but chances are it's probably some form of AI so when abaddin proposed his new plan to destroy or at least severely the nachman gaunted asandas became invigorated with the potential Devastation that they could unleash upon the Imperium in one blow it wasn't as good as their plan but it was still pretty exciting the Fallen applied the chantings and shattered ancient Wards to bring the void claw into life cracking shuddering not having been used for well over ten thousand years then anti-citadel was shaking to its foundations upon the activation of the device the ancient machine of the Dark Age roared into life it's machined scream tearing through the atmosphere as the fabric of space-time itself was torn by the creation of an incomprehensibly powerful Singularity formed far above the orbit of the planet The Lure of the voiplaw's gravitic singularity now known as the Boolean anomaly had devastating consequences for the Imperial war effort the vigilous Senate was overwhelmed with reports from all corners of the world and Messengers flooded the streets of saints Haven their command area seeking Aid and answers War rooms were established throughout the governor's Palace each tasked with addressing specific Battlegrounds despite money as khalgar's strategic prowess the Imperial commanders found themselves now unable to comprehend or halt the ever-changing nature of the war of nightmares disaster upon disaster unfolded faster than they could even be reported in the first victims of the anomaly were The Fleets orbiting vigilus as the void Clause engines hummed to life confusion gripped the Imperial Admirals as chaos ships veered off course seemingly without reason Arch Commodore then Satoria was the first to realize they were positioned to counteract the anomaly's effects the Imperial Fleet however lacked the same Advantage outriders ships and escorts near the gravity well were flung way of course crashing into the very ships that they were meant to protect PlanetSide chaos erupted with explosions of Mayhem the Boolean swirl stretched upward to towering spiral reaching towards the anomaly visible from halfway across the planet the anomalies hunger Drew everything close towards it causing havoc in Hurricane wreck and orc scrap City every loose nut and screw rolled in unison streaming out of the city perplexing the maxim amusing profit-seeking grots Mega Borealis hyperia dirkton and stovall's spiers crumbled and collapsed as the planet's tectonic plates trembled each perhaps claimed thousands of lives leaving burning debris to rain down on the streets the greater omniscient hoist twisted and broke as the sacrist Torah Hawking space station it was connected to was pulled towards the vortex neovellum experienced unseen changes as acid swamps slid and bubbled bridges dissolved and transitways crumbled into corrosive muds the most vital of resources for vigilus also succumbed to the gravitational forces the water for it had been the secondary intention of the plan to further the Astra militarum and completely break the planet's morale as the reality descended on the people of vigilus the hive sprawls teetered on the brink of total collapse water was being reduced to a trickle from their reservoirs and sumps in the form of streams that sneaked away from the house brawls to the Arid wastes drawn by the anomalies pull this water was partially absorbed by the parched landscaped but at other significant sources like the giant reservoirs they were pulled into glittering Rivers which all flowed towards the vulian swirl in other areas though even the bizarre formation of new shallow Seas coursing across the desert by now desperate dehydrated citizens fought one another using any container available to collect precious water their initial Triumph turned to desperation when they realized the water was so finite and time was running out scuffles erupted over newly formed rivulets escalating quickly from fist fights to night jaws and even gun battles thirsting masses follow the flowing water towards the swirl exacerbating the chaos the imperiums hold on vigilus had already been weakened by Relentless Invasion but it now suffered another Hammer blow with military forces prioritizing their own water supplies and a collapsing populace the world was tearing itself apart creating even greater immediate problems than the Invaders and further undermining the imperium's control which was exactly the point out in the voids of space Cosmic dust nebulas slowly closed in on the edge of the vigilous system drawn towards the villian anomaly the light of the system's star Astro vigila steadily dimmed slowly bringing the planet into a descending state of gloom and further dampening Imperial morale for whom it felt like the very light of the emperor was being extinguished before their eyes and with it any hope that they still clung to abaddin knew the strength of this position the traitors were confident this was a low the Imperials would surely be unable to recover from the conflict for him was over before it had begun at least in the eyes of the despoiler foreign things were quite literally unraveling upon vigilous which now lay firmly in the grip of abaddin's gravitic curse the war upon the planet was undoubtedly physical but at this point also very ideological forces were saturating their minds in every side of the fight traitors like the word bearers were doing as they always do and attempting to harness the power of the warp through some very convoluted plan they have been attempting to draw the power of the warp and the energies of the sikatrix maledictum through Blackstone crowns or noctolith crowns and these crowns it should be noted are not for individuals they are vital strong points for chaos forces these devices draw in the Raw energy of chaos itself and appear as what could be described as a Gateway and of course the word bearers had been arranging these around the planet in like I say a very convoluted plan to draw some greater event the death guard had Unleashed their plagues upon dontoria which continued to spread and subpurate becoming so Rife they were decaying the very material of structures within the hive Spore as well as the citizens and despite being caught off guard and bogged down by the duct and humans the nightlords continued to fight savoring the intensity of combat they had not anticipated and then of course the iron warriors were continuing their 10 000 year bitter Feud with the Imperial fists over the control of mortuald as for the Imperials they unsurprisingly were here for the duration they would not back down not surrender and give no inch of ground without making the enemy pay for it bitterly with blood they clung to their hopes but the planet was beyond any kind of traditional defense at this point they had entered the end time and all that was left now was to engage in the kind of warfare that the Imperium had been fighting against their darkest foes for Millennia this would be a fight to the end now and as one civilian leader vigilus exclaimed this is a war that cannot be won what good are even a score of Space Marine chapters if all they can do is claim victory over the desiccated corpse of a once great world we shall all be dead by the time they slay the monsters that come from the spiers how can we feed ourselves our children if even the water that We crave is being dreamed by dark magic All Is Lost we can but look to our in survival in the last few days of this apocalypse and was death to those who would hinder us it was a sentiment largely felt by the populace who had invested their hopes and faith in the legendary Savings of the Imperium yet even with the mighty monaeus calgar leading their forces all they had seen was failure after failure and at a terrible price the beleaguered Imperials knew that defensive strategies were no longer practical at this juncture and the time had come to switch to a final strategy of all-out unrestrained War but unrestrained did not mean throwing lives away without thought at the same time engaging with all their enemies simultaneously would only lead to disaster calgar knew this and so did the vigilous Senate so they set about finally reassessing the local knowledge available to formulate a strategy that could yield some breathing space amidst the confusion the riots the Panic that engulfed the cities there was the relatively open and more important unoccupied wastelands that they could use as a strategic battlefield for khalgar's calculated Maneuvers his hope would be that by attacking where it was least expected they could force their enemies into situations they themselves did not anticipate weakening and splitting their attentions then the Imperial forces would drive one enemy toward another hoping to annihilate both in the ensuing Clash this strategy may sound familiar for those who know imperial history and that's because they were attempting to apply the approach of Inquisitor kripman here albeit at a much smaller scale A desperate strategy to use when few if any alternatives were available to them among the Space Marines who had faced the Orcs they had observed and long understood the zenus's obsession with speed and Reckless violence additionally when faced with enemy targets they would inevitably engage with not the most tactically sound or the weakest forces but usually those who presented them with the greatest chance of a brutal heavy fight and especially if this involved the Estates themselves so kalgar and his Council including other chapter Masters reasoned that if they could relocate the world eaters the Crimson Slaughter and the red course says away from the cities and into these wastelands they could become caught up in the speed War of the Orcs all of these traitors were so tunnel visioned at this point so overconfident in inflicting maximum Slaughter to the Imperials they're actually able to be shifted fairly easily towards the wastelands because in their eyes the humans were just fleeing and this illusion was bolstered by the fact that the Imperials continue to take heavy losses not only from the traitors themselves but also from Orcs engaging them so it seemed not at all suspicious to the traitors if anything it fitted with their reasoning that the Imperials were just collapsing at this point and even making terrible mistakes such as running into the open in their minds order was falling apart so why wouldn't the humans flee wherever they could for the Imperials it was a very expensive but also successful Gambit this new strategy was one the Imperials had largely been forced to accept now they could no longer win a straight defensive fight and face the reality of having to sacrifice many thousands in order to just make minimal gains because in the bigger picture this was all they had left if they still were to hold out any hope of even some form of Survival by the end predictably the speedwag of the Orcs appeared on the Blurred heat shimmering Horizon drawn by the spectacle and the sounds of the explosive bloody conflict they raced at full speed cheering and firing from their vehicles directly towards the Raging fight between Loyalists and traitor so suddenly into the shock of the traitors the Imperials turned and fled but in an unexpectedly disciplined withdrawal the chaos forces attempted to Folly but found themselves under heavy suppressing fire now and lacking any significant error assets they were unable to evacuate in time from the kill zones that they now found themselves in the Raging hyped up Orcs broke upon them like a tsunami and the chaos Marines were swiftly overwhelmed by the blood-thirsting Orcs who quite literally threw themselves into the melee scrum relishing this challenge posed by the new and Powerful opponents initially of course the traitors held the line against the comparatively disorganized orc forces they were far more enthusiastic than they were focused on Breaking the strong defensive Rings formed by the traitoristatis but as they were beginning to feel they could handle the green skins of salt another wave Of Orcs hit them and then another and another until the sheer numbers of Orcs foaming at the mouth and screaming oh Space Marines I got a big shooter for you became insurmountable and if you few hours little combat could be seen by The Imperials watching from afar the Orcs were simply speeding around in their vehicles doing donuts ripping apart the remains of Marines on the ground that seemed generally pretty genuinely jubilant especially having in many cases literally torn their enemies apart giving the Orcs a win like this though it wasn't something one would usually Relish in seeing not because of its distaste but because it often strengthened them up for whatever they were going to plan to attack next but in this very dismal situation it was certainly the lesser of the evils at the sprawl of Mega Borealis lay what was known to the mechanicus as the Bastion of Blackstone Treasures or Silo 15 of thunderstorm until now this had remained defiantly protected by its near impenetrable macro grade refractor Field small adjacent to refractor field is a complex web of intricate energy matrices again like most things they originate from the Dark Age of technology and its purpose is to harness and manipulate the very fabric of reality it bends and distorts to provide a protect shield and it operates on the principle of refraction redirecting incoming threats to nullify their potential energy kinetic projectiles be these bolts or regular shells will be dispersed into harmless Showers of sparked powerful thermal energy such as Flame or scorching plasma become instantaneously converted into bursts of blinding light and even the raw power of nuclear detonations will be simply diffused into harmless glimmers most assaults Upon A refractive field will be rendered in this way where weapons of devastating Force are reduced to a mere spectacle of pyrotechnics of course they're not completely insurmountable but a heavy field based not around an individual but within the infrastructure of a city will have very powerful generators requiring an extremely powerful assault upon it and this was the task now faced by abaddin who sought to shatter this defensive barrier before he could engage his plan of laying waste to the noctilist substance held within yet it was not going to be a quick Victory which the traitors really were beginning to need at this point and they observed how his first wave of demon engines were met with unexpected resistance the tech Priests of Mega Borealis though admitted the ignorant of the true Origins and power of the Blackstone horde fiercely guarded the spear or pylon-like deposits Unearthed from the depths of vigilus these constructs with their suspiciously alien craftsmanship and intricately linear channels hinted at some kind of advanced knowledge waiting to be revealed the mechanicus were so protective of this bounty that Silo 15 became their Fortress with imposing Bastion walls and permanently deployed garrisons additionally a massive heavy duty Vault was constructed around the stockpile to safeguard the mysterious resource abandoned's demon engines were held back now their pent-up ferocity yearning to be set loose the Brazen Beasts were devoted worshipers of the blood God and had arrived on the planet within the serberite a truly hellish Abomination once a noble void craft now having remained so long within the warp in the eye of Terror that it had transformed into a monstrous half-living demon engine and when the ship had descended to the planet's surface and attempted to breach the refractor field by pressing down upon it with the underside of the vessel it remained defiant the ship roared out draining screams of corrupted scrap coat that sent Tremors through the machine spirits of countless barriers and Vault seals heldrakes poured from the shippers clanking metallic pseudopods clawed down through the spiers of Mega Borealis demon engines poured forth and was steadily now overwhelming The mechanicus Defenders including no less than 300 Lords of skulls the methodical logic of the mechanicus had not anticipated nor was prepared for the sheer brutality and savagery of the Demonic engine assault and it broke them in Fairly short order the coming of the sembright had also caused other forces to rush to the site of the battle not to mention that the Orcs were now seeking a new place to have a go at which saw masses of their trucks carrying the scrap creations of big tanker smashing through mechanicus skittari lines and straight into thankfully hordes of the cow cultists and renegades the orc known as cruel Dakka was on a full Rampage at this point and no amount of enemy fire weird Stompy demon machines was going to stop the speed boys and so when confronted by a raging Mauler fiend crudaka and enthusiastically climbed atop his truck's cab and tore the head from the Beast with his power claw the boy's Ravin a quite literal smashing time the speedwire drove on with all of the continual assaults though and now with the silo laid open its field dispersed the vengeful Spirit opened up with a bombardment of cyclic Torpedoes which Hit The Silo with a planet-shattering force completely obliterating Silo 15 and the Blackstone inside of it the speedlord crawledaka along with everything else within a massive radius including the forces of chaos and all the mechanicus had been slaughtered by abaddin's bombardment with the majority of the engines of the braze and beasts and only those with true demon blood within them were able to survive howling prays now to the blood God for corn cares not from whence blood flows and such an indiscriminate Slaughter would please the blood God greatly the war Master would then reinforce with a vast horde of blood letters who would along with the Brazen Beasts begin to occupy a significant portion of the mega Borealis hivespore abaddin had achieved one of his core objectives but the war of vigilus and the broader conflict of the nachman gaunted was still to reach its apex had intentions that would determine the fate of the Galaxy and all that stood between him in the complete destruction of vigilus and The nachman Gauntlet were heavily weakened force of Imperials and astartes the final stand of the Imperium on vigilus was about to begin thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

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Keywords: Gaming, Discuss, Channel, Future, 40K, Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Doom, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, History, Guide, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Rift, War, Slaughter, Horror, Nightmare, Tabletop, Inquisition, 10th edition, Nachmund, 10ED

Id: vIleXU_5eZE

Length: 80min 43sec (4843 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023