The 13th Black Crusade Warhammer 40k Lore

for the glory of the imperium [Music] the 13th black crusade as i write this death stalks cadia my name is alexis grail adjutant general to the canadian high command man but one man amongst a multitude one servant of the almighty god emperor of mankind it has been my honor and my burden to serve during this humanity's darkest hour in ten thousand years the tome you hold is an edited collection of my journal entries made during the desperate months of the defense of the acadian gate you are a brother officer in the armies of man for to be reading this you have received clearance from your superiors and are entrusted with the lives of many men it is my most fervent hope then that my accounts of the events of the last few months will grant you wisdom and foresight in your own endeavors and that you will gain some understanding of what has led us to this juncture in the annals of our glorious imperium i make no apology that this account is written from the perspective of a man of the imperial guard but i firmly believe that it was the fortitude and sacrifice of mortal men that held the enemy at bay as long as we did those wishing to learn of the actions of the space marines the xenos eldar or indeed any of the hundred other forces that stood beside us or against us will find mention of such things within but will not find an exhaustive account of their deeds or their motivations such an account would merely serve to distract the reader with half truths and supposition and the emperor knows in times such as these we must content ourselves with those few facts we can trust my beg of you to employ this information wisely then bravely for should you fail then all is surely lost lieutenant general alexis grail casa galan medicaid m41 the eye of terror has been guarded by the men and women of the imperium for thousands of years ever have the dread forces of chaos battered at the castle gates and always they have been broken but now they have come in greater force than ever i will fight for the emperor and i will fight to the death but can we stem the flow in my darkest hours i have grave dirt the general julius of the grand thyme seventh from his private journals importance man warnings and lo as the veil is drawn on the last age of men the despoiler shall gather his hosts once more where 12 times before the faithful have cast him out now shall he prove their undoing for man has grown weak despairing at the woes of the galaxy where are the faithful now where are the men that stood beside our lord the immortal emperor and at his side conquered all gone they are less than ashes in the cold cold earth at the 13th hour shall the despoiler return all humanity shall tremble for lo his doom is upon him the last oration of the heretic archivists of the gefsamayan reclusium to canadian high command it is the duty of this astropathic station to report that a high number of space hulks have been detected approaching the outer reaches of the bellassar and agrapena systems first signs are that the majority of these hulks are uninhabited but this could be wrong current estimates place these vessels on a vector for the core planets of each system in response to this alarming report marshall helk the commander-in-chief of the second army group has ordered the deployment of additional troops aboard the 231st 340th and 401st naval interdiction squadrons with a view to affecting boarding operations on those hulks suspected of harboring life the commissariat has tripled attachment levels to these units and all higher command ranks have been informed of the possibility that these vessels may carry the taint of the war i must confess to my unease at this turn of events but it follows reports of increased cult activity upon the worlds of the bellassa and agrippina systems following the discovery of a recidivist cell within the 34th bellassar pdf regiment i've ordered a full sweep of all the world's defense units less they harbor further malcontents and traitors i learned the depths to which such men will sink during my service on fen heights 37 now know where to look for the signs quartermaster stores and reserve depots will be targeted by these heretics to be picked clean over a period of many months i've ordered a detailed audit of equipment levels to be launched immediately i know full well the junior adepts will curse such orders yet it will be impressed upon them that the security of their worlds is at stake should they fail in their vigilance i would further note that this report comes in the wake of the launching of operations to locate the space hole codified as the scion of anguish the commodore bales strike group has reportedly split into four squadrons to traverse the outer reaches of the coreleos nebula and intelligence reports indicating xenoforms aboard the hulk have been called into question in the light of this new information i have ordered my staff to liaise with the ordo's cadia to ascertain whether the psion may in fact harbour servants of the dark powers and i pray that it does not but we can ill afford such an incursion nor the loss of bale's command or that of the mordant three hundred and third attached to it two segmentum obscurus naval high command and supramundi it is my duty to report on an engagement fought in the shadow of the fran rax dust cloud imperial ships were attacked in a cowardly ambush in the vicinity of this spatial anomaly by a force of traitor warships reportedly led by the terminus s flagship of the herald of nurgle typhus himself ritz of commendation have been lodged for the conduct of admiral quarren who rallied the forces under his command and launched a brilliant counter-attack which allowed his ships to fight their way clear of the trap a full damage assessment is attached with this missive the journal entry high command has been a place of friendship activity these past days for coron's disastrous clash with the terminus est whilst hunting the plague claw as harold did an unprecedented increase in space hulk contacts it is almost as if the ocularis that cosmic cinco for all that is impure in the galaxy has suddenly began to spew forth the jetson it has collected over the past millennia gestalt conglomerations of vessels of patterns not even recorded in the most ancient and venerated archives of the adeptus mechanicus have been reported and our savants are at a loss to explain such an event a number of these vessels have been boarded by both the naval boarding crews and inquisitorial kill teams of the order xenos and malleus furthermore the battle brothers of at least five chapters of the adopted societies have boarded and destroyed hugs that their fleets have intercepted on route to our core systems though the astartes remain as ever aloof in their dealings with us they have reported that the hulks they destroyed were places of filth beyond imagining and crewed by creatures made twisted and vile by their devotion to the walk journal entry further ill news reached us not 12 hours ago in the form of reports of the crew of the duke lustefan have been placed under a quarantine order following an outbreak of an unknown preternaturally virulent plague upon their vessel the source of the plague is a mystery yet the fact that it follows the ship's contact with the plague claw has led naval authorities to treat it with extreme caution the fact that the duke lostefon did not if reports are to be believed execute a boarding action against the play corps she merely approached a beam within twenty thousand kilometers confirms to those of us with access to the larger picture that the influence of the ruinous powers is waxing journal entry the quarantine placed upon the men of the duke lustafon has proved ineffective my command is receiving reports of plague outbreaks in naval facilities across three sectors reducing the navy's capacity to a terrifyingly low level the vessels of admiral quaran's fleet now reportedly operating on skeleton crews as the same plague manifested itself during their return voyage to bellis corona to segmentum obscurus naval high command supramundi now that you're aware of the virulent epidemic spreading through the sector so i shall spare you the gory details of its effects what you may not be aware of are the circumstances surrounding this outbreak as it has spread apocalyptic sects have appeared with monotonous regularity on every world afflicted preaching that the emperor's wrath has descended the plague is a punishment for the sufferers sins of wickedness and vice apparently only the faithful will be spared the curse of unbelief as the masses are calling it and hordes of flagellating devotees now fill the streets whipping up hysteria and panic i urge you to send more troops to stem the flow of these lunatics before any further disturbances occur two segmentum obscurus naval high command supremundi in the wake of such catastrophic breakdown of imperial rule on so many planets and the surrounding sectors vast russians have been sensed in the war the stirring the already volatile medium of the imperium into new and violent life the fringes of warp storm baphomel have expanded to engulf the edges of the canadian system and many of the astroparts based here have reported terrible visions and bloody omens that all point to a time of coming war reports are also coming in which if they are to be believed we indicate a horrifying escalation of the scale of these disturbances reports are sketchy at present but it appears that a massive psychic backlash has caused the choir chamber at bellassa inspired of hive tariaks to explode the top nine levels of the spire have been obliterated and the death toll is sure to be in the thousands journal entry any doubt that chaos is in the ascendant has been cast aside following recent events on almost every civilized world of this sector the rantings of self-proclaimed prophets of the end times have whipped up entire populations into frenzies of insanity the ecclesiarchy has dispatched the highest offices of the church to quieten the souls of the people yet at this time of direst need has become itself embroiled in internacional conflict a number of cardinals have cast in their loss with those who preach that the emperor's judgment has found us wanting rendering the synods impotent and powerless to impose their spiritual authority when it is most desperately needed my own confessor pattor connisticus it cancels this fracture is the will of the great enemy and so my resolve to act is strong even here on cadia we have seen signs of recidivist activity so close to the eye we have come to expect the taint of the warped to afflict those of weak soul and we have learned to recognize and excise its influence wherever we find it yet today lord kamasar salin seconded the company of kazakin assigned to headquarters security and led a raid upon the barracks of the 92nd he rounded up a carter of senior officers who he claimed were in league with agents of the war no evidence of this accusation was presented to the general staff and there is no duty upon the lord commissar to do so the officers were summarily executed upon the parade ground of kaza olak that highly regarded officers of the canadian military might have thrown in their lot with the enemy fills my soul with shame and confirms the worst of my fears a dark time is surely approaching phase one insurrection and plague to canadian high command it is with a matter of grave concern that i come before you in all the time i have been studying the canadian pylons i have never known them to be anything other than utterly inert but over the last few weeks we have been detecting a resonation causing microscopic stretch fractures along the surfaces quite what is causing this is as yet unknown i fear the worst journal entry the pylons of cadia have stirred since long before the coming of man to the world that much we of the officer class are told but that purpose remains a mystery we occasionally hear hypotheses and theories amongst the adepts of the machine god some of these it has whispered stray perishly close to heresy i've read in several texts that the pylons exert some effect of the immaterium rendering it calm and creating the canadian gate yet none have been able to measure any activity in the structures or as the com states they have always been inert what this sudden activity means i have no idea but i am a military man and not privy to the ways of the machine to segmentum command supramundi confirmed reports indicated the 31st destroyer squadron the deathbringers operating out of the demios binary have been attacked and destroyed by unknown ambushers in response to this latest attack in the sector the navy has pulled all ships back to port tactical strategos have identified a pattern in the attacks that implies a movement inwards from the eastern subsectors directly towards cadia ad mech file of 5810 known intact pylons it is verified that 1200 are now emitting a psychotemporal resonance in excess of the third magnitude on the getler magnus scale teams have been dispatched to investigate the remaining sites and it is estimated that this endeavor will take between 14.3 and 14.5 local days to complete of the 2000 known semi-intact ruined or sunken pylons three today to have been examined by our brethren which is giving readings that cause us grave concern with artifact n free slash free for free slash 6890 the transmitting a polarized subplanar accretion field of an amplitude that i have never before witnessed nor even heard of in my humble opinion this field is symptomatic of submolecular instability in the fabric of the artifact and i believe it may lead to a significant quantum translation flux should an unchecked cascade event occur clearly these damaged pylons are malfunctioning and determining the mode of containment must be our primary objective further to these events i've ordered a psych astrometric scan of surrounding subspace the preliminary results of these researches make disturbing reading when i offer hourly prayers to the omissor that they do not indicate what i fear they may at a distance of merely free l use the warp exclusion termination threshold as revised by magus tristan of course i would never use adept ursis flawed m39 model have been reduced to merely two percent at 4.73 aus it drops to one percent and at 0.87 l wise 0.5 i will not presume to patronize by spelling out just what this could mean journal entry the attack on the deathbringers has proved to be just the first in a series of devastating raids conducted across surrounding sectors neither are these attacks contained to those sectors within the canadian gate the several systems in the scarole sector have reported enemy activity as a free sub-sectors along the cassandra spa reports are coming in from venosa prime indicating an attack by warriors thought to be of the traitor legion the raid was timed to coincide with the local annual festival of the free maidens a holy time for the population of prime and its free moons during which the appearance fast and meditate upon their own weaknesses the better to serve our lord emperor evidently the attackers took advantage of the fact that most of the world's population were cloistered in prayer and descended upon the capital medea like a pack of pterosaurs amongst the grok's calves survivors have reported that the enemy may planet fall at medea's primary janitorium destroying it and plunging the city into darkness before crippling the city's reserve power facilities with the city's power grid out of action the traitors stalked the streets killing wantonly as and when they saw feet it was many hours before the pdf could be mobilized to face the threat although many militia units mounted heroic improvised counter-attacks to no avail by the time the native defense forces were able to muster the raiders had vanished into the darkness leaving a death toll of many thousands in their wake zercia too has suffered at the hands of the enemy i have received a delegation from the order of the wounded heart an order militant of the adepter sororitas during which it was reported to me that a small force of unidentified traitors had been defeated when they came to the aid of a cult that the sisters were engaged upon purging it appears the cults had chosen their moment to call upon the traitors with great care hoping that the counter-attack would wipe out the small force of sisters as they closed upon the target it is a great credit to the sororitas that they defeated both the cultists and the renegades and i have passed their commendation onto their canon s superior we also have received gobbled astropathic communications from forces in the helotus silax and skyrim systems over the last 12 hours though no details have been confirmed we feared the worst less than an hour ago we received word that the listening stations at ormantep had come under attack by traitor forces in this particular instance it appears the traitors were repelled though by a force we have no record of reports indicate only a handful at most of the station's personnel survive the attack and we have requested a naval task force redirect there to ascertain what has occurred all of this comes at a time when civil disorder across the surrounding sectors has reached unprecedented levels now we must guard against both traitors within and traitors without from autohereticus operative 4794 to ordo's canadian command on lilitha powerful figures arisen amongst the raving cults and fanatics proclaiming himself to be the voice of the emperor an orator of fearsome skill this mysterious individual has roused entire populations with his passionate speeches i would advocate the extermination of this individual lest his outpourings lead to further unrest journal entry the above communication was shared with me less than an hour ago for the orders cadier believe this voice of the emperor to be an individual of the utmost danger lilitha is home to several thousand pdf regiments divided into 65 army groups and it appears that an estimated 40 percent of their personnel have thrown in their lot with the voice many of these units have deserted a large number actually making it off world where they have dispersed varying locations including yale ammo still albertan and barrel that we have lost such a body of men to a demigod is caused for grave concern in itself but it would be enough for me that the autohereticus wanted him dead the journal entry it is with great pride that i ride this personal entry the events of previous weeks have sorely tested our faith you know we see a great resurgence in piety thanks it seems into the so-called voice of the emperor scant weeks ago we feared that the teachings of this heretic might plunge the region into the depths of apostasy yet the people have rallied against his twisted followers casting down his prophets and decrying his words even now the agents of the throne hunt the voice and surely his days are numbered though chaos and anarchy have come to a great many of our worlds we have reason for hope for all is not lost while faith is strong the great strength of the imperium is stirring at last caden high command has ordered a master to take place in cadia upon the ancient and venerated tyrok fields there we will begin the emperor's work in earnest for none can stand against the gathered might of the imperium of man the battle of tyrok fields in the dark doom laden days before the 13th black crusade of abdomen that is spoiler was unleashed upon the dutiful servants of the almighty emperor blessed cadia was the scene of an act of base treachery as is ever the case with the foul tricks of the heretic their deeds drew forth greater resolve and courage from the faithful and few were more loyal in their faith than the lord castellan of cadia or a sakura e creed at the time kedya was alive with the diligent preparations of the servants of the divine emperor shock troop regiments were being mustered alongside titan legions and their schitari regiments of mighty feud feral warriors stood alongside brightly accurate mordian guards amongst this mighty throng faith world strong and the morale of every man soared to see the power of his lord the emperor but a vile serpent lay ready to strike the vulscania regiments landed to join the muster many were the battles they had won against the great enemy and each of them had stared into the moor of hell and still fired his last gun straight and true never been some time since their last action and the sure knowledge of the horror they would face again had worked on their minds sometimes knowledge of what the enemy truly is will stiffen a warrior's resolve to protect his half and home from deprivation other times the thought pushes men beyond their endurance especially when given time to brood perhaps the holy inquisition should have retired the volskarni after their last battle but in such times soldiers cannot be easily discarded suffice to say the vascani regiments feared to face chaos again and even if they had not changed sides they had decided that it was better to die in clean battle against men than to stand at the gate to the warp and close ranks in the face of hell once again on the great landing fields of kaza tirokh the vulskani disembarked from their dropships for each of their nine regiments there was a mighty leviathan command transport around each leviathan the companies fell in nine companies to a regiment each company 300 strong around the dark phalanxes of infantry the vulskani armour mostly like chimeras and sentinels swiftly formed their squadrons it was an impressive display from atop their leviathans the high command of cadia took the salute some wondered why the troops wore helmets with lowered blast visors rather than full dress cappies but no one was suspicious then in accord with a wailing claxson from each leviathan great banners of blue and yellow showing sigils too obscene to be looked upon were unfurled over the sides of the transports with a roar the hoscani surged forward presenting a rolling sea of razor-edged sword bayonets the canadian honor guards were unprepared but we're trained to aim and fire without hesitation the thin line of the 840th fired three volleys on the on rushing column but it did not halt the vascani sentinels swept the line with multi-laser fire before their infantry struck home the two companies of the 840th in the line outnumbered 40 to 1 died to a man as the enemy swept over them their sacrifice will be remembered from all along the volskani line the leviathans opened fire the huge forward macro cannons were heard in casa voltas some 50 miles away each leviathan was rocked back on its tracks by the recoil and the swarms of infantry surrounding them fell to the ground unable to stand this close to the discharge the 10 yard long cannon shells could scarcely miss the leviathans of the acadian command barely a mile from them this first volley was aimed low hitting the tracks the kady and leviathans not had chance to raise their void shields each was rendered immobile by the fuselage too late did their shields come to life but this time the traitor leviathans were roaring forward their battlements swarming with soldiers manning the power grapples and corvus ramps but woe to the traitor at that time an ornithopter in the markings of the eighth cadium regiment was approaching casa terrac inside it was the lord castellan of cadia urasaka creed and jaron kell his colour sergeant their instinct told them something was a foot before the first terrible volley of the macro cannon it is said that creed sniffed like a great hound sensing a wolf near the flock and immediately began issuing his battle orders through the ornithopters vox caster back on the field of treachery the vascani leviathans rumbled through the void shields of the courageous canadians it is a fact that leviathan armament is primarily devised to destroy infantry once another leviathan has its void shields raised gunnery will not conclude the issue as the first volley had immobilized the canadians another option was available pulling alongside the faithful canadians the vile vulscani fired grapples and dropped their corvus ramps with a blasphemous roar they swarmed aboard on each kady and leviathan the warning bells sounded armed topside and the bastions filled with gallant defenders in the iron heart of the exuberator castellam the leviathan that had for four thousand years been the ceremonial transport of the canadian high command governor primus marius perezka drew his sword and organized the defense of the command deck the huge doors of the volcani leviathans were opened their infantry swarmed towards them and began to climb deck by deck to the battlements where each cady and leviathan had little more than a platoon of troops the vascani leviathans were a gateway for a limitless horde of borders the foscani chimeras had meantime been filled with infantry and stood off to one side of the battle along with their sentinels every time an imperial detachment approached the battle this mobile force would fall upon them and destroy them piecemeal their commander was disturbed to see a dust cloud coming out of the west be tokened a strong force he had not expected serious resistance this soon but still signaled for his chimeras to move out according to the records of the departmento munitorium general cliff had been a proud volks ghani soldier it is sad that his good service to the emperor should now be rendered to nothing by an act of contemptible treachery better he died in his first action but instead at his command a few chimeras stopped to allow his heavy weapon teams to deploy a line of sentinels formed up ahead of them as a skirmish line while a further hunting party moved off wide to the right the remaining chimeras formed up in three huge chevrons and wheeled to the left he would draw the enemy in on his chimeras hit them with flanking fire from his heavy weapons and then charge his sentinels in behind them while disembarking the remainder of his infantry for a frontal attack it was now that the blessed creed dismounted from his ornithopter and joined his waiting command squad in accordance with his orders the eighth canadian was deployed in three lines each of five companies each company had six platoons the frontline companies had each deployed one platoon as a skirmish line and the center platoon of each company was made up of elite kazakin troops banners fluttered over each company in the gaps between the platoons the canadian heavy weapon team stood ready on each flank sentinel squadrons strutted forward eager for the fight at the rear stationary for now but roaring their readiness was a group of canadian armoured fist squads and lehman russ battle tanks creed fell in alongside them as kell unfurled the banner of the eighth the sight of their blessed standard its eagle the direct copy of the original touched by the hand of the emperor himself caused the loyal eighth regiment to begin their imperium glorium chant the nearest troop saw crete kneel and make the sign of the aquila across his chest he placed one hand on the ground and concentrated veteran soldiers say the creed was able to sense from the vibrations of the ground where and what troops were nearby although no one was sure whether this was a skill or a sacred gift the order went out the eighth canadian will advance fix bayonets this was answered by the sound of over four thousand bayonets being expertly attached as the order was relayed from company to company the sound brought a grim smile to the lord castellan's granite features he had come to love the calm before the storm the vulscani sentinels bounded forward their multi-lasers swiveling hungrily from side to side but before they could find their range the kdm missile launchers auto cannons and last cannons ripped into them general cleef's stratagem might have worked on some enemies against creed they were undone in 20 minutes the canadian line marched over the wreckage of the vulskani mobile column the heavy weapon squads lay in earthshaker shell craters where creed supporting basilisks had found them thanks to the warnerthupter mounted observers high above the volskani sentinels had been devastated by cayden heavy weapons and then swept away by the canadian's own sentinels amidst the burning wreckage of their chimeras the heretic infantry that remained were overwhelmed by the kazakh-led charge of the seventh company creed had halted their charge with a volley from the battle cannons of his lehman rust tanks and then decimated them with a fire of almost 400 infantry and carried heavy weapons his command squad caught up with the seventh company as it overran the last of the bulscani jaron kell paced ahead of creed slaying heretics with every stride he vaulted atop a burning chimera and skewered the despised general cleef with a downward stab of his regimental banner creed stood next to kel surveying the battlefield the banner of the eight flying the prouder for having dealt death to a traitor creed was wise and knew that engaged so closely the void shields of the leviathans would protect each other and be nigh impenetrable the lord castellan was undaunted however as he had already made preparations for this stage he ordered the ranks to be redressed and drew up his sentinels on one flank and his armor on the other the kdn's soldiery was eager to be at the enemy but none would disobey urasaka creed even though they could see the hordes of the enemy still attempting to swarm aboard the leviathans of the high command it was then the creed's delay was explained striding over the tirok fins came three river titans of legio ignitum the god machines changed direction to fall in behind the ape canadian and the advance was resumed no one should ever forget the majesty of that advance on the right creed's armour roared ahead at full speed on the left his sentinels inclined outward ready to swing around the enemy in the center the eighth advanced as if on the parade ground with banners flying the vorskani saw them coming and turned every available weapon from their leviathans on them huge gaps were torn in the cadium ranks by mega bolters and macro cannon but they were immediately filled behind the canadians the free ignatum titans turned their turbo lasers on the fulscani focusing on one leviathan at a time they ripped through their void shields and began to tear great holes in their hulls the voskani infantry thronging by their titans died in hundreds with each shot and left from the sides rather than be cremated creed's armor was upon them next disdaining to fire they roared around the base of the volskarni leviathans crushing the traitor infantry beneath their tracks and breaking up the few ordered formations they had left the chimeras then discharged their passengers canadian armored fist squads that rushed to surround the nearest volcani leviathan attacking the exceptio castellam the volskarni traitors turned to find righteous justice at their backs the hammer blows devised by lord castellan creed continued to fall led by the kazakhstan and the company command squads the eighth canadians struck the line they swept their heretic infantry aside clearing the way through to the nearest leviathans and linking up with the armored fifth squads of the nine volsghani leviathans two were burning and two more were being cleared decked by deck finally the exalted titans reach the fray and striding straight up to the remaining leviathans seized each in turn tipping them over and spilling volsgani infantry like ants from a crumbling anthill before turning their weaponry on them all that remain now was to execute the richly deserved sentence of death the eighth regiment rightly showed no pity and fought their way to the ramparts atop the corrupt levitons they saw things within those defiled vehicles that honest soldiers should not have to still they pressed on until they in turn crossed over the boarding ramps to the embattled cadian leviathan exubertar castellam which the heretics had boarded creed and kell led the way now and it was they who reached the command deck first and succeeded in preventing the foul desecration of the fallen body of governor primus marius perezke the governor had fallen there's a canadian should with a blade in his hand and heretics at his feet lord castle and creed carried the body of the governor back to the battlements of the leviathan wrapped in the banner of the eighth many more kdm regiments were now coming upon the scene and a great throng of them gathered around the lord castellan being a pious man allowed them to sing their praise to the emperor and then from his lofty position he delivered his first exhortation to the armies of cadia to strive without rest until every disciple of chaos had suffered the same fate as the voskani the host demanded that the noble urasaka creed should take him out three times he refused but ultimately he could only exceed to the will of the regiments as ever greatness thrust itself upon urasaka he creed any good but strain to bear its weight lieutenant orsana rivald archivist eight acadian regiment to kirian high command following the betrayal on kedia please for aid from forces beyond the canadian sector have been dispatched to military commands in the surrounding sectors we expect warriors from the austerity's precious chapters and possibly from the space walls also naval assets have been promised from supramundi and regimental musters have begun on many nearby sectors forces are gathering but only time will tell whether or not is at a quick enough pace journal entry i've seen more activity in the last week than i've seen in my entire career as an officer of the general staff nothing could prepare us for this yet every man and woman from the lowest supplement to the new lord castellan himself throw themselves into the work ahead with such energy that surely the emperor is smiling upon us in this time of peril that a major incursion is imminent is now beyond doubt but the enemy will find us ready if only we can complete our preparations in time creed has elevated myro in the general staff ruthlessly reappointing those officers he deemed ineffectual though many resent his brusque manner and he has undoubtedly made enemies amongst the established officer class i believe his approach and necessary one considering the task at hand over the last 10 days i have chaired meetings with the senior officers of every major unit based in the canadian system receiving reports that millions upon millions of men stand ready and know their duty though morale was dealt a terrible blow by the betrayal at casa tiroc our new commander-in-chief lord castle creed has rallied the officers magnificently i have seen men who fought 100 battles over their careers waiver yet a single word from creed has galvanized them into action the man is imbued with fierce resolution and those under him cannot help but be infected by it the work of organizing the forces at our disposal goes on as is standard practice each world contributing regiments has organized its forces into battle groups and we are assigning munitorum support services to each as they become available we are fortunate in that many worlds in this region follow the acadian doctrine with regard to regimental structure there there are notable exceptions to this rule with units such as those raised from finra and mordent with a starting establishment of six to nine regiments per battle group at least six such battle groups forming an army we have been able to assign a minimum of 10 army groups to the defense of every notable world in the region with the capitals assigned as many as 100. of course experience shows that these battle groups will soon break down once they are required to redeploy and staff officers on the ground will need to organize their forces as best they are able such is the reality of staff work when one is required to coordinate diverse units over vast distances there are reports of raids on outlying sectors continue and we now have confirmation of the involvement of the nightlord's traitor legion with such warriors as logan grimner of the space wolves and commander azrael of the dark angels standing alongside us we face the uncertain future with hope and determination phase two invasion to canadian high command calamity has befallen us while no first hand the cooperation exists enough circumstantial evidence along with astropathic readings that cannot be ignored points to a disaster at earthworld a force more potent than anything we could have foreseen has returned to our emperor's realm and unleashed a power beyond imagining a psychic death scream more piercing than the astronomican itself has ripped through the ether from earthwart i fear something terrible has happened journal entry the invasion we knew was coming is now upon us reports are flooding in from every sector even though persistent warp storm activity is making our task of forming a clear appreciation nigh on impossible in the midst of the chaos of the opening moves the lord castellan led the senior general staff in prayer 160 officers knelt together in the high command bunker color sergeant kell muting the endless chatter of the vox units and cogitator banks as creed spoke he beseeched the emperor to fill our hearts with courage and resolution and the strength to do our duty he told us that each of us would be called upon to send untold numbers of men to their deaths in the defense of the canadian gate and although all of us had done so at some point in our careers we each gained an insight into the meaning of true sacrifice through his words he ended by telling us that this war would not be over until every last one of the enemy laid dead and until we ourselves had given our lives to hold back the tide of chaos we knew he spoke the truth and renewed our vows to defend the realms of mankind with every last drop of blood in our veins for to fail in this undertaking would be to condemn the imperium to an eternity of damnation having made his speech creed gave his orders none would rest until the defense was mounted intelligence reports were filtered and collated and within the day a picture began to form oathworth had fallen yet admiral quarren had once again triumphed when he led battle fleet agrippina to relieve admiral polowski's force at ormantek the worlds of the agrippina sector had come under overwhelming attack as that bellis corona and ammo still majoris plague fleets were discharging their putrid cargos from orbit and reports from these sectors were fragmented at best creed ordered reserves deployed to these areas but in the meantime we would have to trust the commanders on the ground each of which had been given as orders by creed in person some weeks previously then each of them knew the consequences of failure each must hold the line to the last man if necessary we are also receiving reports of activity closer to home even now the vanguard of the enemy is racing through the canadian system and we have lost contact with saint joseman's hope admiral quarren has been ordered back to canadia but we fear the defenses of the sola marathis will not hold against the forces closing upon it to canadian high command astropaths and ford listening posts which have since been lost have detected the emergence into real space of a traitor fleet consisting of hundreds of warships and hulking transport vessels all are on course for cadia reports indicate that the plague claude and terminus est along with a massive flotilla of plague hulks have emerged in the sabaccio diablo system worse than this unconfirmed reports claim that two blackstone fortresses accompany the chaos fleet i find this last fact difficult to countenance though given the state of the sector in the previous months and i would not discount the possibility journal entry though i can scarcely believe it the enemy are at our gates already our ground defenses are holding yet we are sorely pressed our orbital fortresses have fallen and in the last hour enemy landing craft have made planet four upon the soil of cadia quaran's forces have been forced to fall back though the great company of logan grimnar himself managed to break through the enemy blockade and affect a drop the invasion is larger than anything we had ever expected we commend our souls to the emperor's care journal entry the wave of the despoilers invasion had broken across the sectors of the canadian gate and it soon became evident that the inquisition fortress world of nemesis tessaria was to be the main target of the first phase of the assaults quite why the enemy had chosen nemesis tessaria is at this stage a mystery my best guess is that the system was chosen out of sheer hatred of the agents of the golden throne i do not wish to even attempt to understand the mind of our foe in too much detail it first became evident that nemesis was to be a major focus of the enemy's assault when chima lomas was literally smashed aside by chaos forces nerus the primary world of the system was taken by the enemy forces with contemptuous ease by our best reckoning not as a target in its own right but merely to secure the lines of communications along the rogue conduit native defense forces amounting to 17 pdf army groups supported by battle group net contested the enemy's planet for 300 kilometers south of nerius delta going by the few reports we have they held up an invasion force at least 50 times their own strength for a whole day the last transmission we have from general neath suggests he was preparing to sell his forces dear and i pray that he conducted his last battle with honor but he was a fine warrior as well as a friend and an example to us all having crushed chima lomas that the spoilers forces dispersed as they traversed the kent sea gulf splinter forces separating to assault ovaries gulag no command the communications have been received from that world in over a month the voyage across the kent sea gulf was achieved with alarming speed with all elements of the enemy fleet translating within two aus in a week of one another a feat of astro navigation our representatives of the navis nobility attain would only be possible with the aid of the darkest of arts whether or not the masters of the holy orders of the emperor's inquisition were quite prepared for the savagery and scale of the assault upon their fastness i cannot judge and as the world does not fall under the authority of canadian high command i can only speculate as to the ferocity of the battles fought there that the forces of the enemy regard the destruction of nemesis tessaria as of the utmost importance is evident from our observations and from intercepted communications they invested an epic degree of resources into their attack and my staff and myself read the dispatches with horror fearing the worst yet after several days it appeared the situation was brought under control it would appear the inquisition's fortress is the whole yet i can only speculate that the icy surface of that grim world must be infested with millions of traitors and heretics who may planet fall upon it i would estimate that those who do not fall to tessaria's inhospitable climate would soon be hunted down and exterminated by the blessed agents of the inquisition i feel no pity for them but we soon came to realize that the assault on nemesis tessaria was to be but a prelude to the storm that was heading towards the canadian sector with our orbital defenses already breached and the fleet forced to withdraw world after world and the system came under attack initially we held even throwing the enemy back at bellassa makaria vigilatum and especially cersei and cantrell yet the enemies soon found our weak points throwing countless thousands of low-born filth at us so that the real masters the traitor marines could exploit them the first buckle was the prison world of saint josephine's hope whose inmates are believed to have thrown their lot in with the invaders in the vain hope of being granted freedom they were granted only eternal damnation but their liberators turned out to be the renegades of the violators chapter i had not heard of this force until i was invited to a closed session briefing along with the lord castle where a representative of the inquisition imparted to us the awful truth of these heretics so as to be the better prepared to combat them what we were told filled me with horror for no man no matter his crimes could surely deserve to have the attentions of these vile creatures visited upon him soon the defenses of every one of the worlds in the canadian system were sorely tested and despite the efforts of the commissariat words spread of the atrocities being committed upon saint joseph means hope with morale badly shaken every effort was made to bolster those war zones most affected with creed ordering a series of redeployments that rotated out those units whose faith was apparently wavering a particular note during this stage of the operations are the actions of general speedel whose personal intervention at the front line during a particularly fierce assault on casa galan was truly exemplary but our fortune was not to hold though we of the canadian military uphold tried and tested martial traditions we're all too often reminded that the universe we live in and the realm we fight for is one governed by powers few amongst us can fathom two nights passed our astropash reported that their communications with their peers were becoming indistinct and distorted and that their sleeping hours were filled with nightmares yesterday morn every astropath i met appeared pale and drawn as if haunted by waking visions they warned us that a time of peril far worse than our most pessimistic appreciation was upon us stating that the creatures of the dark shall be made flesh such importance made my skin core and i absorbed the absolution of my confessor three times in the last day alone now i am told that a great warp storm is upon us touching at the edges of our system and causing grievous disruption to our astropathic communication capabilities i can only pray this stormfront passes before the crisis we are already mired within takes another turn for the worst to canadian high command from inquisitor lord justus habenika requisition of troops by the power vested in me as an ordained agent of the holy ordos of the emperor's inquisition i hereby invoke the juris inquisitor and order you as follows you are required to render up to the masters of nemesis tessaria such men and material as they shall deem necessary and sufficient to combat the forces that assailed him during this present time of strife such forces shall in the first instance consist of but not be limited to the following item the first 22 regiments a foot each man to be issued with arms at your expense or to provide his own guard issue flak armor is to be worn as is thermal gear sufficient for extended operations upon the surface of our most blessed world item the second five regiments of armour to be equipped with approved patent lehman rus no local variants are permitted item the third five regiments of artillery not less than one half to be self-propelled furthermore you are ordered to provide such services and material as are required to sustain these forces for a period of no less than six months and to establish further reserves of replacements assuming 50 losses within one month you are required to execute this order as a matter of highest priority on pain of death regards lord inquisitor iostas habeneker journal entry with warp storms rendering astropathic communications erratic we are experiencing enormous difficulties coordinating command and control of our forces communications from the more distant sectors are particularly affected and i am advised that they are not to be trusted due to psychodynamic distortion i have no knowledge of such phenomena so i must assume the worst in every case a particularly implausible report from the scaris sector indicates that in addition to chaos attacks the defenders there have faced the menace of the awkward species after action reports cite mordek's prime as the initial focus of an orc incursion and if this were an isolated case i would write it off as misinformation caused by inexperienced troops facing an enemy they have no experience of however every major system in the sector has now logged such reports so i must take them seriously until more determined information is forthcoming roncadia creed himself led his canadian eighth now referred to as the lord castellan's own on an operation to hunt down and exterminate a group of vulskani cataphracts who unknown to us had escaped the chaos of tairuk fields and were attempting to link up with elements of the despoiler's invasion force the lord castellan had always been known as an officer who will fight at the front line with no hesitation whatsoever leading his men and setting the standard for his junior officers the apes brought the enemy to battle at casa vasana in the shadow of the pylon that dominates the vasani moors the battle was brief yet vicious in intensity and not a single traitor was allowed to escape with his worthless life it later had proved fortunate that creed had wasted no time whatsoever in launching his assault but a chaos astartes force believed to be the vanguard of a larger black legion warband caught up with him as dusk fell necessitating a hasty withdrawal across the moors it is said that the true test of a general is the ability to disengage in the face of a superior foe and the eighth is even now regrouping to head back out into the moors to face the black legion on more favorable terms the last of the reports i've received in the last few hours indicate two further items for which our command has reason to rejoice firstly the fleets of the iron knights and imperial fist chapters of the adeptus astartes have established contact creed is now in conference with the great wolf logan grimnar of the space wolves chapter planning how best the space marines may be deployed though we hold no authority over the astartes creed has indicated his support for grimner should he establish himself as nominal head of the space marine chapters operating in our region captain ekian of the patriarchs of alexis commander of the ultramarine's honor company has voiced his support for this arrangement lastly within the hour i've received word from the adeptus mechanicus temple at casa galan that the ordo reductor is to reinforce the defenses there and i have only ever read of this force consisting as it does of ancient and venerable siege engines akin to the dreadnoughts employed by the astartes though the skills of the ordo reductor line laying siege rather than counter siege operations regularly marvel that such a force is to be counted amongst the defenders of cadia and i must confess to a curious longing to witness them in battle journal entry the last three days have seen the general staff exhibiting a somewhat ebullient demeanor a state of affairs that troubled me considering the enormity of the task before us bolstered by local successes a number of senior staff preferred the suggestion that a campaign medal be struck to commemorate those victories we have won this state of affairs came to a head this evening when lord colonel jaffer's mandate proposed a toast to our inevitable victory during supper in the senior officer's mess i admit to being temporarily struck dumb by the man's presumption while i remain a past servant of the imperium of man and know full well the power of faith i saw in this pompous fool the sin of pride rather than the father of the righteous before i could stand to challenge the lord colonel creed entered the room his color sergeant at his side every officer present fell silent under his stern gaze except jaffa's mandate who raised his glass of vintage american repeated his toast creed nodded to his retainer who stepped up to the lord colonel and took the glass from him casting the priceless vitrion vessel to the floor creed then proceeded in a low but deadly serious voice to avail his staff of the truth of the situation he told us that we stand upon a critical juncture in history but should we fail in our duty to the immortal god emperor then all the volumes of glorious victories won by the cadium regiments throughout the millennia would be as dust if we should fail he told us then we would cast the entire imperium unto fire and damnation as he spoke his voice grew louder until he took on the aspect of a preacher berating his flock for wayward and immoderate behavior at that moment i saw in creed what i had glimpsed in him in the wake of the hell that was tyroc fields the man is truly touched by the emperor who acts through him to deliver us from the evil of the despoiler then he used a phrase that truly brought home to every officer in the room just what we were facing he dared name our foe abbad on the despoiler a name we rarely utter lest it somehow grant the beast power over us and he described the war as his 13th black crusade truly i can think of no more dad a description of the invasion for we had all read of the previous black crusades and knew full well that entire worlds have burned to halt them creed spared me a nod as if pardoning me from the admonition he so forcefully impressed upon my colleagues they left the officer's mess stronger men for having been shown the truth intercepted transmission my lord cardinal as you well know the brothers of the blessed enigma have lived a peaceful contemplative existence deep in the wilds of the trionora for centuries with the invasion however comes disturbing news that the brothers of the order have turned upon the populace of the world that houses them attacking any and all in a berserk and utterly unexplainable outbreak of unreasoning violence i hereby request that a sororitas force be dispatched with all haste to eliminate this rogue element for i tremble at the consequences for us all should the autohereticus receive word and take a hand in our affairs end intercept journal entry having received reports from a number of france as to the nature of our foe i have today presented an appreciation of his capabilities and characteristics to the lord castellan and distributed these facts to those commanders in the field yet to face him numerically it is the traitor and the turncoat that our forces must commonly face the first facet of our foe to consider is his moral an intellectual makeup or as with any warrior this is the foundation upon which all other characteristics of an army are built the traitors we face are men who have renounced their vows of loyalty and servitude to the emperor in the most base of blasphemies these are not simply deserters or mutineers they are men who have committed the ultimate sin that of heresy and are far less than men because of this having reneged on their loyalties the traitors have thrown in their lot with the antithesis of all that made them men they have sold their souls to the great enemy and it is this fact that makes them such a dire foe the traitor has nothing to lose his life and his soul are already forfeit but he will find no forgiveness from us and no sympathy from his new masters his existence is a haunted one and he rages against his fate venting his anger and pain on those he once counted friend where the loyal righteous guardsman knows his life and free will are secondary to his duty the traitor cares not for his own life or that of his fellows for he has nothing to live for and no duty other than hate and bloodshed yet the traitor also offers a contradiction but upon the field of battle he's want to display berserk fury one moment and brazen coward is the next he perceives the urban flow of battle very differently to us engaging his fortunes in terms no sane man can fathom one moment he may stand in the face of overwhelming firepower yet the next he may flee often his fear of his dark masters is greater than his fear of death yet at other times his selfish and capricious nature that which led him to turn against his fellow man in the first instance reasserts itself and he will flee for his sorry life this hypothesis is confirmed in that it has been observed that his resolve is bolstered exponentially by the presence of traitor adeptus astartes who he evidently fears and admires in equal measures the best advice we can issue to field commanders with regard to defeating the traitors is to sever his leadership focus your strength on destroying his masters and his resolve will disappear allowing you to destroy him at your leisure journal entry the situation on lilitha has taken a drastic turn for the worst in an attempt to bring to ground the heretic calling himself the voice of the emperor the legio ignatum the deaf specters and the jaroon dragoons have laid siege to the world's capital soon after the arrival of these forces a large proportion of lilifah's native defense forces and populace rebelled and dug up arms against their government slaughtering the governor and his staff in an orgy of bloodletting the siege has ground on now for many weeks but more bad news has recently reached us while inspecting the troops of his world the newly instated imperial governor's motorcade was ambushed by traitors armed with crude rocket launchers who disabled the vehicles of his bodyguards and murdered the governor in cold blood security forces reacted with commendable speed breaking up suspected cults and anti-imperial organizations but once again lilitha is plunged into anarchy it concerns us greatly that we are unable to control lilitha even with the presence of a titan legion and a chapter of the adopted societies the rebels continue their actions and the voice broadcasts his lies across the region i pray lilitha slips no further into anarchy and ruin for we can ill afford its laws authors note the native volunteer reserve and citizens militia units were affected most by their defections while the off-world settler volunteers were almost completely unchanged and able to absorb what defections they did suffer with no adverse ramifications to their orders of battle further note that the governor's personal guard remained steadfast throughout the initial defections and paid the price for their loyalty and blood these facts should be borne in mind when planning the integration of native units with guard forces on other worlds where defection is considered a serious possibility to canadian high command subject civil unrest agrippina skilled demagogues and rabble-rousers are inciting civil unrest throughout the smaller hives of the agripena system their evil words are taking root but the walls of the hives are becoming covered with chaos graffiti the tendrils of the great enemy have spread far enough that soon entire continents may defect with every uprising we crush another cult seems to declare for the enemy my master inquisitor valentine is dead slaughtered at the hands of a cannibal cult as nobility i myself have not the authority so must phrase this as a request rather than as an order should our purges fail when these hives fall irrevocably to death and anarchy key to any transponder and destroy them from orbit plasma warheads are i fear the only way to ensure the destruction of the foes we face journal entry these last days have seen my staff engaged in the labor of analyzing traitor legion astati's attacks this task was ordered directly by the lord castellan and has brought about a degree of conflict within our high command for commander azrael of the dark angels chapter heard of our endeavor and ordered us to cease stating that the actions of the traitors are the business of the astartes themselves and are of no concern to other units creed rejected these assertion as patently ridiculous under the circumstances of the current crisis and logan grimnard agreed with him azrael has withdrawn what cooperation he was prepared to offer i've ordered the general staff to carry out creed's orders regardless of azrael's objections though i have no desire to become involved in the internacion quarrels of the astartes of all the incidents logged with high command over the period in question the greatest amount has involved the night lords traitor legion our analysts have reached the conclusion that this legion has been employed in a vanguard role throughout the early stages of the invasion and it has been extremely effective in its mission the nightlords are notorious for the cruelty of their assaults for the prediction for inflicting want and cruelty on all they encounter we believe the enemy to have employed the legion in this role with the hope that our civilian populations will be thrown into panic by the nature of the attacks fearful that where they will be the next to suffer to date we have been successful in containing the effects of the night lords raids thanks at least in part to the nature of our plague containment protocols simply put word has not spread because people have not spread if the knight lords are being deployed as terror troops then the alpha legion are employed as infiltrators this particular force is one that high command has been briefed on by the auto malleus who considers their activities of dire import for some time we have been receiving scattered reports of deadly attacks upon key facilities though these often paled into seeming insignificance considering the overall scale of the invasion however our own analysis coupled with the information supplied by the inquisition leads us to believe that these attacks represent the work of the alpha legion and as such we must move to determine their exact purpose and objective initial findings indicate a number of rear echelon supply and communication facilities are amongst the targets hit and i cannot help but wonder if their objective is to hinder movements of reinforcements into the region from fervor to field journal entry all commands are now on high alert for we have recently received the most alarming news since the beginning of the war the planet killer has been cited few are aware of the existence of this monstrous ship but it was fought last at the battle of carlos ii during the gothic sector war the origins of the vessel are unknown but many amongst the adepts of the machine god attest that it could only have been fabricated within the eye of terror so blasphemous to all the laws of nature as its construction the ship served as the spoilers command vessel during the gothic war but it is its main armament that makes it the most feared ship in the galaxy the planet killer's maid ordinance is the aptly named armageddon gun a monstrous weapon capable of directing a focused blast of what is hypothesized to be the very stuff of the war this weapon is capable of bringing about the destruction of worlds but its blast is powerful enough to pour through the crust of any planet causing catastrophic instability within the core literally ripping it apart naval experts are plotting worlds likely to be chosen as targets for the vessel's attentions intelligence gathered during the gothic war indicated that the planet killer is a ponderous vessel and the armageddon gun takes a great deal of time to power up and exert its effects upon a world once it is functional i would hold true then that the vessel is likely to be accompanied by a large fleet which would be employed to subdue and distract our own naval forces until the planet killer deploys all available naval assets have been tasked with locating such a flutilla and system defense pickets are on high alert but any signs of one approaching our worlds senior naval strategos believe that if the planet killer has returned the despoiler may utilize it against our outlying systems in the first instance they believe this will be an attempt to incite panic in our forces although panic is already rife in our command staff causing us to divert our naval battle groups to these distant systems in an effort to bring the planet killer to battle this would be a grievous mistake but it would leave our key worlds undefended and open to destruction and so we are stuck between the demon and the cold black void should we allow outlying low value worlds to fall then panic spreads but if we oppose their destruction we surely invite ruin i pray the planet killer is a myth journal entry naval high command has today briefed the general staff on the status of their units across the region while the war goes badly upon the surface of many worlds in particular saint josephine's the war in space is being fought more on our own terms with regards to grand strategy however we are presented with a quandary orbital space around many worlds is held firmly by the enemy though even in these areas we are able to deploy new units for no blockade fleet could hope to envelop an entire planet control of intra-system space is held more firmly by imperial naval forces which are able to traverse system-wide space lanes with relative freedom as the enemy's efforts are by necessity focused on the worlds they are assaulting thus admiral quaran has been able to conduct a highly mobile style of warfare conducting hit and run attacks against enemy lines of communication withdrawing when reserves are deployed in reaction the intra system and intersector space lanes are being patrolled enforced by navy vessels which have yet to face serious efforts to take them we have been warned however that although our forces can be said to control deep space actually bringing enemy forces to battle in these areas is difficult in the extreme but the enemy is far more intent upon avoiding our forces than they are of facing them so while our control of the space lanes is hardly threatened this is little help to the troops fighting the enemy on the ground where the war will ultimately be decided the scouris sub sector the scanner sub-sector is of vital importance to the imperium and its loss will not be countenanced by high command its hive worlds are amongst the most productive in the entire region and its fleet and guard units amongst the most respected and capable to let the region fall would be to hand the enemy a vital prize and battle fleet scarce has been bolstered by a great number of reinforcements to ensure it prevails scalars sub-sector our control of this system has steadily increased throughout hostilities as it appears the enemy's actions here are largely unfocused and ill-disciplined our greatest concern in this region are the actions of the renegades known as the sons of malice a traitor astarte's unit thought to have been wiped out some years ago the federal world of skelos itself has to date been the target of their attacks and intelligence suggests that the world's value to the traitors is symbolic only naval high command rates the varmid system of greater value to us and so free naval battle groups have been deployed to defend it bellis corona sub-sector the situation in the bellis corona sector is currently judged to be largely under control and the navy have been able to deliver sorely needed aid and reinforcements to the beleaguered forces on sabaccio diablo reports indicate that the activities of the dreaded plague fleets appear to have lessened in the area though navy units maintain the highest degree of alert lest they should return agrippina sub-sector in the initial stages of the de spoilers invasion a great deal of his efforts were directed towards contesting control of the space lanes of the agripena sector the imperial navy has made great inroads into opposing the great number of enemy fleets active in the area and further reinforcements have been dispatched to increase our grip of the area in the last few days however enemy activity has increased noticeably with chaos fleets making assaults upon a wide variety of strategic targets in support of their ongoing ground defensive in albatern barrel and dental with a hunt for the planet killer such a high priority few vessels can be spared to aid the forces engaged in the defense of the sector's space lanes nonetheless the strategic situation across the sector is a positive one for the forces of the emperor's imperial navy canadian sub-sector the acadian system has been the focus of the spoilers fleet actions and our fortunes there change from day to day the situation is highly fluid and our forces are stretched to exploit those victories they have won although our fleets cannot hope to oppose those of the enemy in and around orbital space we are holding on to control of the inter-system space lanes we cannot under any circumstances afford to let our guard waver here but it is upon one of these routes that we hope to bring the planet killer to battle to let it past is too terrible a failure to contemplate dispatch message pd24 d2 imperial adeptus are bytes conducting routine searches have uncovered plans and materials for smashing security on saint josemaine's hope along with lists of prisoners worth recruiting to the cause of the enemy hundreds of arrests have been made preliminarily among the members of the corrective rehabilitation movement this supposedly charitable organization had portrayed itself as being committed to giving the criminal classes a last chance to serve the emperor and the term for their sins forewarned we plan to smash this treacherous organization before he can put its plans into effect journal entry following a week of disastrous events upon the penal world of saint josephine's hope the lord castleman has issued an order the likes of which i never believed and would be required to enact the world of saint josephine's hope is to be destroyed the order was issued in closed session at 22 20 local time late last night now present at the meeting were representatives from all major arms and services operating in the canadian system including the lord martial procurator general lord provost and comptroller majoris of the departmento munitorium representatives of the commissariat the imperial navy the adeptus mechanicus the adeptus ministorum and the adept is terror furthermore lord grimner attended having returned from his actions against the traitors of the alpha legion now as did two agents of the holy orders of the emperor's inquisition i was present in my capacity as senior general staff officer the meeting began with my appreciation of the strategic situation in the canadian system now enemy was assaulting every world in the system with unprecedented fury with solar emiratius faring particularly badly in my opinion saint joseph means hope which was all but lost to us was being used as a staging point for chaos forces should it fall entirely from our control it would soon be used in this role so that the flow of enemy forces and material into the system would become an unstoppable tide recapturing the world was i concluded the fool's errand creed proposed its destruction though none in the united council took such a proposition lightly the approval to proceed was unanimous and so the business of the murder of a world was debated well the options opened to us each in turn was discussed at length and each in turn was rejected exterminatus was beyond our resources in the time available to us the agents of the inquisition confirmed this and said that their ships that carried such weapons were many weeks distant grimnar too confirmed that none of the available vessels in his fleet carried cyclonic torpedoes and neither did any astati's ship within range the navy put forward the plan of instigating a massive nova cannon bombardment on the world in the hope of causing a degree of tectonic instability but all available intelligence suggested that the enemy fleets blockading saint josephine's hopes orbital space were too strong the bombardment vessels would not survive to launch a single shell let alone the hundred or more required to complete the task it was this last suggestion though that set in motion the train of thought that led to the eventual plan for the destruction of the world the representative of the adeptus mechanicus adept gaul expounded the notion of creating the tectonic instability in another manner overloading the generatorium grid of its main prison complex could pierce the world's crust causing the meltdown to sink through the outer crust and into its mantle should the meltdown be triggered in the correct manner fatal tectonic movement could be triggered thus causing the crust followed by the mantle to tear itself apart the drawback was that such an objective would need to be completed by a team of operatives on the ground for it could not be attempted remotely these operatives would need to be highly skilled and they would need to be infiltrated directly into the heart of the chaos ridden maine prison complex i doubted such a party could be assembled in time until the inquisition took a hand in short order the team was assembled and given the moniker strike force herald it was an unlikely mix including marines of the space walls howling griffins subjugators and iron knights chapters three squads from three different imperial guard regiments a cultist assassin five tech priests and a number of additional personnel i cannot even begin to categorize in addition to the unnamed pair of inquisitors themselves this small force was assembled in under an hour and is now left for saint josephine's hope 24 hours before it is due to achieve its objective the evacuation order shall be issued to those few forces we still command there i pray they will get out in time although i doubt all will journal entry we have just this hour received information that strikeforce herald has made planetfall upon saint joseph means hope the evacuation order is given the emperor protects journal entry it is done many um forgive us it is done my plan was successful when saint joseph means hope is no more of the heroism enacted to make it so we may never know for none of strikeforce herald have returned to cadia following the issue of the evacuation order our forces upon the planet began a fighting withdrawal worthy of the greatest of commanders truly i have never heard or read of such heroism this was displayed during the desperate rearguard actions of that day regiments laid down their lives so that entire armies could escape to their transports even as those transports departed men stood their ground at the overrun landing areas and fought to the death rather than board the escape vessels so determined were they that their comrades should live to fight another day at 11 57 canadian standard the plasma grid was overloaded causing exactly the effect adept gaul predicted it would though to imagination to watch the picked captures two entirely different prospects the grid's meltdown caused the world's mantle to erupt as a volcano the tectonic plates splitting as their mass shifted within hours an ocean of magma was visible from space centered upon the former site of the main penal colony hours later the world's crust was no more having been swallowed whole by the sea of lava and vaporized by self-sustaining plasma storms soon the world was convulsing great goblets of plasma and magma locking into space before freezing in the coldest vacuum and crashing back down to the surface these impacts stirred the ruins of the world still further and saint joseph means hope literally disintegrated as our troop ships fled for safety even now our fleets scour the newly created debris field for survivors the enemy are licking their wounds and we are granted a brief respite to gather our forces i pray we were right for the destruction we have wrought upon saying joseph means hope he's all too similar to that caused by the planet killer upon our own systems i know we are right for as the proverb says in the battle for survival there can be no onlookers perhaps survival is one step closer thanks to our actions this day journal entry with every world in the sector's oculus now embroiled in a war that has already claimed countless billions of lives a new and unexpected faction has taken a hand in events the ever-elusive ships of the eldar have been sighted by the crew of imperial navy vessels and by troopers on the ground across at least a dozen sectors in the depths of interstellar space these vessels have reportedly intervened in battles between the imperial navy and the chaos invaders on occasion providing aid to imperial ships and allowing them time to escape when overwhelmed but at other times attacking them without provocation other darker elder prey on the lesser worlds of the canadian sector and have even taken slaves on the feral world of medusa it is even rumored that a legendary eldar faction referred to by her ordo zenos allies as harlequins have been sighted on the battlefields of agrapena and skellers as ever with the mercurial xenos their motivations are as alien as they are unpredictable we have long been aware that the eldar of the althui craft world maintain a strong presence in the vicinity of the eye though little is known of their ways it is widely believed that they ultimately work towards the downfall of the great enemy this opinion has been reinforced by the appearance of small numbers of black-clad eldar turning the tide of battle in crucial battle zones before disappearing once more into the ether the elder have been sighted upon the worlds of acadian gate as well the black guardians of olfui have taken a hand in a number of battles appearing unexpectedly and without any warning upon the surface of planets saw distant from any eldar activity upon bella's corona eldar strike forces have freed imperial navy ground crews from the chaos legions closing in on them although there are reports from the canadian system of the eldar falling upon themselves in fits of madness and from the agrippina sector of their attacking the warriors of the ultramarine's honor company and also of their ghost ships harboring fiendish beasts of the warp we view these aliens with extreme mistrust yet despite this and though the motives of the eldar remain unknown many within our upper echelons pray that their actions tipped a balance in this humanities darkest hour in many thousands of years journal entry the entire galaxy it seems is going insane i spent the day in conference with a representative of the ordo zenos calling himself inquisitor goridan who informs me that an alien race who he called the necron tear are active in the sentinel worlds over the course of my career i've had mercifully few contacts with any zmos creatures and have certainly never heard of or encountered this one he would furnish me with few details and beyond those facts i require to combat them i have no desire whatsoever to learn more gorham it did tell me that he suspects these xenos to have been present upon the sentinel world for many years even centuries hinting they have laid dormant in some manner of stasis how an entire race could slumber under our noses i have no idea but now they have awoken we must do all in our power to combat them goradon believes that the necron tear are in some way reacting against the activities of the despoiler and expounded at length his theory that the necron tear are in some manner the very antithesis of the warp and are stirred into activity by its waxing power in practical terms this means that we can expect the newly awakened xenos to oppose the forces of chaos however this does not mean that we can or should treat them as allies even in the loosest sense this race gordian warned are anathema to us they are death incarnate to our entire species may have enacted creed's orders in this regard our forces are to stay clear of those of this race and to allow them to engage the forces of chaos wherever it is their intention to do so however our armies must not under any circumstances render aid to the xenos even if to do so would be to the detriment of the invaders we will tolerate their presence in our space so long as expedience dictates they may be the enemy of our enemy but that does not make them our friend further to inquisitor gordian's warning regarding the necron tear he briefed me on a number of other factions as reported earlier the eldar are once again active in and around the sector's oculus inquisitorial forces are attempting to ascertain their intentions for their actions appear contrary and mercurial one moment actively aiding our forces the next slaughtering them having once in my career actually met an elder i held no illusions that they fight for anyone other than themselves and will proceed with planning accordingly the orcs appears are increasingly active in the scara sector inquisitor gordian believes the xenos there have been building up an invasion for some time lurking in the unexplored depths of wilderness space and launching their attack with a low cunning few would expect of these barbarous aliens lastly the inquisitor warned me to be alert for seemingly incongruous reports of alien infiltrations in the subukiyo diablo area particularly attacks coming up from the galactic plane he would not expound further on this but insisted i inform him should any such attacks materialize i left my meeting with gordian imbued with a sense of righteous indignation if every damned creature in the galaxy is ranged against us we shall take them all with us if we fall this is the long-range patrol vessel wrote for luck hailing all imperial forces in the void worlds region repeat this is the road for luck to all imperial vessels within range our squadron has just witnessed an unidentified ship of apparent xenos manufacture break orbit from tx2144 the vessel is of capital scale and accompanied by numerous smaller air scorch sized ships i'm transmitting telemetry and preparing to track rope for luck out last transmission of the falcon class escort vessel wrote for luck journal entry truly we face an enemy whose deceit is without limits erebus a war leader called the dark apostle of the word bearers traitor legion has risen in the marlins reach system and his voices are causing great damage to our efforts there this enemy is of a particularly insidious nature as he styles himself a prophet of the ruinous powers seeking to convert as much as to slaughter this erebus has spread his corruption far and wide and in so doing has manipulated our allies of the ultramarine honor company into an attack upon the world of fascia the fourth planet in the marlins reach system the company hoped to draw arabes to battle within the dark methane shrouded groves of the world but found that the dark apostle had instead drawn them into a trap the word bearers were far from forseer by the time the ultramarines arrived who instead found a force of eldar waiting for them at the sights of one of the zenos's planet-bound warp transit portals upon making planet for captain ekion the leader of the company ordered his force to make ready for battle but not to launch an assault upon the xenos immediately he had been advised by my command that the eldar have on occasion aided our forces and though he knew well the duplicity of these xenos he nonetheless afforded them the opportunity to retire without the need for bloodshed but unfortunately for us all the malicious xenos were of her mind for war and launched an unprovoked attack upon akion's forces the battle that ensured was a prolonged and vicious one with running combats being fought through the dark vitrified forests death would come by stealth for both sides and both sustained terrible levels of casualties in time erkian ordered his diminished force to regroup at its drop zone for one last assault upon the duplicitous foe but in doing so found the enemy's positions abandoned upon coming to the eldar portal his librarian leicesters of the sons of guillermo advised him that the zenos had fled through their web way and were working to seal the portal from afar judging that many of his brethren have been slain for little gain echion washed his hands of the elder determining never to give them the benefit of the doubt again were that the only ill consequence of this sorry saga things would have been bad enough but it later transpired that erebus had not only drawn two of his foes to waste precious time and lives fighting each other but he had made use of the distraction to launch an attack elsewhere upon the primary world of the malin's reach system for three days and three nights the world of malin's reach was subjected to hell first localized and focused warp storms flared into being around the planet shrouding its free moons behind a sickly violet haze waking nightmares wrapped the population as the stuff of insanity was made real many took their own lives so terrible were their visions and many more roam the streets in acting want an acts of carnage and madness on the third night the traitor's landing craft streaked from the tortured sky securing a drop zone scant kilometers from the ministorum district of the world's capital of ruskin city debilitated by the ordeal of many hours of psychic torture the defenders of malin's reach could offer scant resistance in the face of the assault falling upon ruskin cathedral the word bearers committed such blasphemies that i am forbidden from recounting it even here where only highly ranked individuals will ever read of it how they accomplished it i do not know nor have any desire to understand but they summoned forth the very creatures of the warp into the ruined cathedral before returning to their craft and leaving our own forces stationed on malin's reach were sorely pressed for many days containing the incursion and the beasts unleashed there were only banished when captain ekion's force arrived in orbit and obliterated the entire site with an orbital bombardment it was he recounted the only way to be sure a great many of our own forces were lost in that barrage along with the greater part of the city i sincerely believe that it was a merciful end for them such is the price of protecting the emperor's domains from the servants of the ruinous powers journal entry the good inquisitor gordian has chosen to take me into his confidence for this evening he paid me a visit accompanied by one interrogator ferdinkirus a pupil of inquisitor sivak i have never encountered inquisitor see that before but it is clear to me now he is a man of vital importance to all we hold dear gordian and kiras presented me with a transcript of a remote scrying a ritual enacted by those sanctioned to use psychic powers for the good of mankind the contents of this scrying shocked me for though i have served with sanctioned psyches in the past i have never felt entirely at ease with their skills the transcription told of a man a savant in the service of interrogator kiras seeking knowledge of a foe of his order a sorcerer in the service of the despoiler known as araman of the thousand sons i could scarcely believe the end of the transcript but the good inquisitor assures me it is accurate this araman penetrated the savant cell using some dark art only a servant of the ruinous powers could utilize and murdered him upon discovering this deed kiras determined that aruman the long-standing nemesis of sivak had finally caught up with his master and acting upon his standing orders contacted gordian at this point i was trusted with knowledge few will ever share i can only recount a summary of it here sivak is a unique individual for he is trusted by the xenos eldar with access to their other realm the web way now i've heard they utilize the web way to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other deep within the web where the eldar have constructed a repository of the darkest secrets of the universe referred to by gordian and kiras as the black library this archive contains the accumulated knowledge of eons and sivak rarest amongst men is trusted by the eldar to partake of its secrets the better to combat the great enemy but aaron covets the knowledge held within the black library for with it he hopes to challenge the powers of the warp and gain mastery over chaos he wishes to become as a god and through sivak aims to penetrate to the heart of the webway and breach the secrets held within and this is where i come into the story though i am but a man i can set in motion the vast engine of war that is the emperor's army and so do all that i can to aid the inquisition in any way i can though he could merely have ordered it the inquisitor lord gordian has requested that i aid him through my own free will and aid him i will so far he has requested the aid of the 34th gudranite rifles and this i happily grant but it is clear that over the course of the defense of our realms i shall be required to divert troops from the main obvious warfront to aid the inquisitor in his hunt for arrowman though many may lay down their lives to aid the hunt never knowing the service they do to mankind the burden of ordering their sacrifice must lie with me for i have been judged worthy of such a duty then i will enact it no matter what it costs phase three the war in the webway journal entry with a number of attacks by eldar raiders increasing alarmingly the command council has ordered a number of forces tasked with the specific objective of challenging them it appears that it is the so-called cabalite elder the darker kin of the xenos that reside on the craft worlds and though we hold the entire race in duke and tempt it is this faction which we have decided to target in an effort to teach them the lesson that the might of the imperium although slow to react is impossible to avoid forever nade came from an unexpected quarter the dark angels chapter of the adaptive societies so long having pursued its own ends throughout the war has extended its full cooperation in this effort acting upon intelligence passed to high command by the ordo xenos and relayed by us to commander azrael of the dark angels for entire companies of the chapter and free of a number of its successor chapters collectively known as task force shadow guard staged upon the outlying mining world of ex-lucan seven there the composite force lay in waste within the hollow mountains of the cryan range every vehicle powered down unless their energy signatures portray the force's presence to enemy orgas sure enough a substantial force of eldar raid has arrived upon the world appearing out of nowhere through the portals the race makes such deviant use of the xenos wasted no time in launching an attack against the scattered mining settlements of the cayenne range they were splitting their forces to attack each simultaneously as the first moves of the raid were made task force shadow guard revealed itself powering up its engines of war and flooding out of its hiding place the first force of eldar raiders was taken entirely by surprise and by all reports that no chance against the righteous fury of the dark angels and their allies exploiting the momentum of the victory shadow guard executed a maneuver that smashed aside a second xenos force and swept up the gorge to the enemy's staging point their eldritch portal their only means of escape the eldar threw themselves upon the hastily organized battle lines set around the portal but the attacks were made piecemeal and at once did the eldar coordinate their assaults in order to force a breakthrough the result was an outstanding victory for the forces of order and what we pray will prove a devastating massacre for the elder with luck we have taught these deviant xenos a lesson that they will not forget in a hurry journal entry our war against the cavaliet eldar though nothing more than a distraction from the maelstrom of the despoilers invasion is going well another force of raiders has been defeated on this occasion by the relectors chapter of the adeptus astartes upon the world of xercia the electors have not acknowledged the authority of brimner's council and appear to have launched this attack upon their own initiative not as a response to command council directives we believe the xenos slave raids simply attracted the chapter's attentions and the raiders certainly paid for their crime cersei is a well garrisoned system and so many of our forces witnessed the relector's assault it is said that the chapter slaughtered three entire cabals uh purging this system and hunting down every last zenos before slaying him without mercy the chapters officers are said to bear arms of terrifying potency swords able to spew cleansing fire and axes that suck the essence of the emperor's foes leaving nothing but a dried husk behind so do they march under arcane banners and icons of tangible power the followers of their enemies scattering before them truly their electors deliver the emperor's wrath wherever they pass a number of officers on the ground at cersei had attempted to contact the electors chapter master commander articus bardain but the chapter refused to acknowledge their communications subsequent to this action the electors have appeared on kedia upon their arrival in system grimnar issued orders the chapter should reinforce kdir itself bardain refused to acknowledge the great wolf's orders and his fleet has now departed the system headed by best estimates for framers grimner is furious that the electors have refused to submit to his command he has refused to speak to even his most senior officers for some days now in a fit of rage he has ordered his most elite scouts to track down the electors and discover their mission this grizzled band of veteran space wolves departed mere hours ago i do not pretend to fathom the minds of such men as the astartes i only thank the emperor that they fight for the imperium to lieutenant general alexis crail from interrogator kirus clearance omicron subject the araman of the thousand sons the dark sorceries of araman and his thousand sons are twisting the thin tunnels of the webway over the chincar sub sector ripping vast lesions in the fabric of the webway dimension and rendering entire sections unusable several strike forces of of eldar are plunged into limbo or worse into the warp itself i have penetrated the sentinel worlds and have found indications that araman has breached the webre through a portal somewhere among the void worlds i am preparing to track him there may ask that you dispatch free regiments to ortinis and one to set van to launch dear visionary attacks as soon as possible upon receiving your confirmation that their attacks have begun i shall make my move may the emperor watch over you kill us journal entry the imperial navy for long weeks forced to fight a desperate holding action against the seemingly endless waves of chaos vessels has been reinforced a fleet the size of which has not been seen since the end of the gothic war eight centuries ago has arrived from sipra mundi and is now staging at bellis corona in preparation for a massive counter push into the canadian gate the reinforcements have been split into independent battle groups each tasked with bolstering the defenses in a specific sector the regions around the eye of terror encompass many millions of cubic light years and only by the concentrated application of resources in those areas in most desperate need can the imperial navy hope to make inroads and slow stall and eventually repel the chaos fleets plaguing the region if the imperial navy can gain the upper hand in the conflict it is hoped the enemy will soon find his forces cut off from aid and reinforcement although orc mercenaries have reportedly joined the fray and eldar fleets have mysteriously been drawn away the iron fist of the imperium is slowly being brought to bear ancient defense laser batteries upon demios binary combined with programs of orbital bombardment on lorentics and setvan are said to harris the servants of chaos wherever they are to be found admiral quarren himself has succeeded time and time again in defeating chaos fleets many times the size of his own allowing reinforcements to enter the fray around the fortress worlds a massive influx of reinforcements in the skeles sector has penetrated the chaos blockade of ships and minefields and in the bellis corona system the entirety of battlefield gothic has stormed into the fray infernal mines sown across the battlefront accounted for only a few of their number and now the fleet has the opportunity to avenge the losses it suffered in the gothic war at the hands of the spoiler's own fleet if the relentless momentum of the invasion can be slowed for just a short time then the defenders on the ground will have a real chance of victory the imperial navy has gambled all in this sector-wide retaliation should it fail battlefleet obscurus will be so weakened that only the redeployment of fleets across the whole imperium will hold any hope of holding back the despoiler's invasion journal entry the activities of the xenos elder those of the craft worlds at least have suddenly ceased for weeks now the ships of this race have been active in most instances hitting the enemy though on occasion attacking our own for no discernible reason now it is as if they have simply disappeared entire staffs of savants seers and strategos have been assigned with the task of tracing the activities and objectives of the elder and we are in constant communication with the auto xenos in this regard long-range scouts have caught brief glimpses of movement but as we have learned when the eldar wish to remain hidden there is little even our most skilled crews can do to find them on the subject of xenos the orcoids are putting intolerable pressure on a number of worlds in the scara sector notably leth 11 and mordak's prime the magus biologists of the adeptus mechanicus believe these foul creatures to be working alongside the despoiler to further their own ends though they do not consider it to be an alliance as such more likely the orcs are taking advantage of an opportunity granted by the despoiler through which both find an advantage and we suffer because of it the situation on these worlds is grim indeed in particular mordak's prime cannot be allowed to fall into xenos hands but it is a forged world of prodigious output and its loss would hit us more to the point we dread to imagine just what monstrosities the orcs may turn the production lines to creating but now it can only mean desecration of all that the machine adepts holds sacred at present 15 guard army groups and five legions of mechanicus troops hold mordak's prime yet clearly such a large body of men is insufficient to stem the green tide engulfing the forge world i am drawing up plans to send a further 35 to 40 regiments drawn from the regional reserve circadian high command my dear friend a sucker i have to report that my force is now in sufficient strength to begin the counter-offensive this day has been long in coming but finally the hour is upon us myself my officers and my men are chomping at the bit to deliver such a kick of the invaders backsides that they send howling back to the cosmic suspect that puked them up in the first place i've planned a series of faints designed to distract and confuse the enemy whilst the main body of my fleet penetrates their high press veil once the enemy is committed by the false pushes i plan to withdraw the raiders to draw more enemies across the disamira gulf where his lines of communication will be stretched to the limit there my approach shrouded by the celestial phenomena raging within the veil i shall fall upon them with the largest fleet muster in segmentum obscurus for centuries they almost pity the bastards yours quarren gethalomore demios binary journal entry progress has been made on the matter of the sudden disappearance of the eldar fleets one of our scout vessels managed to record traces of eldar activity in the system xt90304 slash g an empty system in the wilderness space 30 light years to the galactic north east of bellas corona on the outskirts of the system he picked up readings of a vessel of prodigious size executing a single picked capture before being detected the pick capture confirms just why the eldar have redirected their efforts the forces of the despoiler are in possession of a blackstone fortress an engine of destruction not seen since the end of the gothic war as if the presence of the planet killer in the sector's oculus we're not down enough a threat now we must contend with this if the notoriously aloof and uncaring eldar are prepared to throw their all into combating the black stones the threat must be terrible indeed journal entry with the situation on the ground in the canadian sector increasingly tenuous the lord castellan has ordered the redeployment of troops defending the scala sector to bolster the defense here scalas is firmly under our control following the efforts of lord marshall attica and a number of the astati's forces the problem has been the blockade which the enemy fleets have put up around skelos itself in order to prevent our forces from redeploying to expedite the breakout i plan to push upon the enemy forces at varmard hoping that vessels of the blockade fleet would be drawn off to oppose it simultaneously a battle group upon the surface of the mining world launched a sudden frontal assault upon enemy positions with the intention that the blockade fleet would be forced to ferry ground troops from skellers to varmard thus complicating their departure this ruse was successful in fact it was too successful reminding us that the reactions of the servants of the ruinous powers can never be anticipated the varmid assault was a complete success in that it caught the enemy unawares it appears the hordes of cultists forming the chaos presence upon varmad were engaged in some form of mass ritual the combination of which was disrupted by our attack the cultists were caught unprepared to defend their positions and were cut down with negligible losses to our own forces as anticipated the enemy began to move troops upon the surface of scalist up to orbit and their battle fleets waited for the transfer to be completed before setting off for varmad at this point lord marshall attica made his breakout leading 40 of his forces to their own transport ships and running the gauntlet of the remainder of the blockade fleet though a number of his troop transports ships did not make it through the enemy lines a great many did enough in fact to render that portion of the operation a success indeed we could not possibly have hoped that such a great number of chaos vessels would be pulled out of the line for had more remained attica's breakout would have been far less of a success than it proved however three days later the enemy reinforcements reached varmard so great with a number of troops ferried there that our forces stood next to no chance against them history may never recount the sacrifices made of vamart so that atticus forces could reach cadia it appears we stirred up a veritable storm by interrupting the mass ritual there but i cannot help but wonder what evil may have transpired had we not journal entry these last few days have seen a dramatic increase in warp storm activity though such celestial phenomena are commonplace throughout the sector's oculus in particular those sectors in contact with warp storm germanicus and hippocrene given our enemies propensity for dark sorceries i cannot help but conclude such an increase is far from coincidental the potential for disruption to our efforts is huge in the first instance astropathic communication is rendered unpredictable at best and completely unreliable at worst even an apparently minor storm surge can play havoc with communications the effects of time distortion are amplified significantly so that messages transmitted from even nearby worlds may not arrive for many weeks on free occasions messages have been received that appear to refer to events that have not yet taken place and i am told by the master adepts that such an effect is want to manifest during particularly disruptive storms unfortunately such messages from the future are of no use to us but we cannot trust that they are not the works of the enemy said to disrupt us still further and the missives have been ordered sealed by the agents of the auto malleus and it is not only our communications that are threatened by these increasingly volatile storms our shipping too is put in grave peril a vessel caught in a warp storm is likely to find itself in a dire predicament indeed at best the crew and passengers will be subjected to terrible waking nightmares and should these be inflicted upon the passengers of a troop transport ship those warriors suffering such a psychic assault may all but be useless as fighters upon their arrival at their destination at worst the vessel may be delayed for many years or lost entirely my duties as senior staff officer are made difficult to say the least by these conditions if i am unable to receive accurate information from our commands then i am unable to form an accurate appreciation of the progress of the war the task of coordinating fleets and armies across such a vast segment of space is a demanding one at the best of times but in situations such as these it approaches the impossible it is fortunate indeed that the commanders on the ground are so competent and capable of independent action as they are forever has it been the way of war in the imperium that a battle group dispatched to a war zone has had to consider itself isolated and independent however with the forces of disorder apparently so well organized and coordinated our own efforts must be focused at the segmentum level or we shall surely fail journal entry one of my many duties as senior staff officer of canadian high command is the evaluation dissemination of critical battlefield intelligence to our commands i have recently issued an appreciation of the war machine known as the defiler this dread engine of war is not unknown to us but its appearances in battle have proved mercifully rare since its discovery over six centuries ago with the disporters invasion bringing the forces of death and america to every world in the sector's oculus these machines are suddenly everywhere accompanying every traitor astarte's unit and a great many of the hordes of traitors and mutants that assail us in appearance the defiler is an armored behemoth its means of locomotion are four piston driven legs sheaved in armored cowling a further two appendages are affixed to its front section ending in monstrous crab like claws large enough to tear apart a battle tank or crush a man atop its base unit is mounted a turret from the front of which juts a large bore cannon protected by a mantlet crafted into a leering beastial face upon either flank of its turrets is to be seen a weapon mount which may sport any number of configurations the machine is covered on every facing with spikes chains and barbs decorated with blasphemous icons no sane man of the emperor can bear to look upon but most terrifying of all the defiler's characteristics is the fact that it is not crewed by mortal men what fearsome anima guides this engine of destruction i do not know but every report i have viewed leads me to this conclusion that the twisted artifaces of our enemy have perhaps corrupted a sacred machine spirit is a possibility other possibilities struck me too but i will not utter them many post-action reports have spoken of this war machine and it has deservedly become an object of fear amongst our front line units witness accounts speak of the defiler as a rampaging thing of friendship destruction moving and acting more like a deranged creature than a vehicle of steel reportedly it hungers for battle and attacks with an almost tangible desire to rend men asunder few can be expected to stand in the face of such a beast but somehow we must discern a way to combat it in the course of compiling my appreciation i came across an individual who i believed knew far more than any other on the subject of the defiler magus decimar an adept of the machine god agreed to provide me with at least a portion of the information he had gathered during the course of his studies i received free communications from the magus each detailing certain technical details our forces would benefit from on the field of battle he confirmed that many reports had already stated that the defiler is able to ignore hits that would ordinarily stop a battle tank dead in its tracks though we stopped short of detailing exactly why this may be the most useful information provided by the magus was the location of a number of weak points upon the beast the successful targeting of which will at least incapacitate it after the third communication from magus decima i received no more word from him and assumed that the course of his duties had led him to turn his attentions to more pressing duties i heard no more on the matter for several weeks and kept the file open while i continued with my other duties then an agent of the auto malleus one inquisitor rothenberg paid me a visit rothenberg warned me against the dissemination of any intelligence regarding the defiler he warned me in no uncertain terms i can only obey journal entry last night i stood upon the ramparts of casa home and looked into the mouth of hell the eye that never present reminder of the tangible power of the great enemy flared and swelled to engulf the entire night sky as it did so terrible wailing rose up from all around ten thousand souls stirring from troubled sleep and crying out like helpless foundings at the time of my voxlink i heard it back to the command center to be greeted by a scene reminiscent of the culmination of the final act of van feld's conflagration i was mobbed by a gaggle of junior staff officers barely controlled panic evident in the babbled reports they spouted at me it took a goodly while to assimilate the data but in due course the awful significance in the flaring of the oculus became clear to me the spoiler had unleashed a new and calamitous phase in his invasion one of his allies the infamous iconoclast and blasphemer erebus dark apostle of the word bearers traitor legion had unleashed the foul list of forbidden magics upon the loyal subjects of the god emperor of mankind upon the world of ibrahim that glistening jewel of the ecclesiaki he has ordered the building of immense cathedrals to the powers of the war that these monstrosities exist upon such a world is profanity beyond words but according to these reports before me they were constructed at the expense of a million souls seoul's promise to the emperor upon the completion of these dark monuments so i am informed he ordered the ritual execution of every last innocent that still drew breath at the completion of their labors a million innocents my mind can scarcely comprehend the depths of the evil done to us this day yet the dark apostles sins do not end at mass slaughter the rights by which the people of ibrahim were sacrificed have drawn forth the full fury of the empyrean unleashing its anger upon the domains of man now thieving warp storms that threaten to cut us off entirely from outside aid wreck our space lanes and the eye throbs with malevolent purpose above our heads from rear admiral falconberg it is with great regret that i must report the loss of all hands of the safrikan lady the lady was providing rearward cover as my fleet traverse the corridor to omega-4 jump point when a spur of warp storm baphomet flared out directly towards us being the last vessel in the convoy the lady was caught in an x-48 rated surge i swear that i have never in my eight decades as master of this ship seen such a thing i will take the sight with me to my grave the warp storm reached out for the safrikan lady and pulled her to her doom as if guided by some gargantuan malevolent will i cannot begin to describe the horror i felt as i listened to her last transmissions helpless to intervene i attach a picked capture of our last sighting of the lady recorded 7.2 seconds before she was taken from us and i must report that prevailing stellar conditions have now reached a level when i am forced to withdraw my fleet beyond the saint fonos corridor i respectfully await further orders your obedient servant rear admiral falconberg journal entry the sheer scope of the dark apostles machinations is beginning to be made clear to us now astropathy communications from vessels caught in the flaring of the oculus and at least three warp storms in the immediate region lead us to conclude that erebus intends to isolate our forces by making war travel all but impossible to us it would appear that to a degree at least he has succeeded though by the grace of the emperor we are still in contact with the majority of commands by way of astropathic relay moving troops and material was another matter entirely for a time we were rendered completely blind and deaf as our astropause endured the psychic feedback brought about by the turmoil in the eye even those such as myself not touched with their gift were wracked by the deepest feelings of despair and helplessness for long hours we awaited word of the wider situation all the while creed prowled the command center cursing the perfidiousness of our foe even kel's sage council able to temper his wrath unwilling to allow such a malaise to afflict my staff i ordered petor gorsovnik to lead a mass for the command center staff the blessings of the emperor were upon us and our doubts were lifted even creeds moved lightened after the service throughout the course of the day our isolation was slowly lifted as reports at first trickled and then flooded in from all fronts most disturbing of all these communications was a transmission from a planetary defense force major upon the world of tabor whose account of the last hours of his garrison make for gruesome reading if his report is to believed none other than khan the so-called betrayer has fallen upon that world and shed the blood of its brave defenders in the name of his unspeakable patron despite the arrival of this devil our forces have made gains upon table and across the agrippina sector our position there is entirely far stronger than in recent weeks if we can but contain this madman's rampage the strategic situation in that region will be if not good then at least acceptable journal entry the warp storms grow more intense with each passing day and our command and control capability is stretched to the limit we have lost contact with entire worlds mommies and fleets we must trust to increasingly compromised astropathic communications for each scrap of information we can gather the feeling in the command center is one verging on despair not for despair that the forces of the great enemy may overcome the defenders of cadia for we are men of faith and defeat in this venture is anathema to us rather that the staff core is made up of men and women trained and dedicated to command huge fronts and many feel deep frustration that they are unable to execute their duties in the face of the effects of the enemy's blasphemous machinations we thrive in times of adversity but curse the witchery that befalls us creed has requested the benedictus of the ecclesia bless our work and to this end the command center is now so much more than ever a sight of prayer as much as command votive scripts flutter from every station and sacred cherub creatures wheel and dive in the air sweet smelling incense trailing from swinging senses where previously storm and stress ruled supreme now hush and sanctity encompasses all through the blessings of the holy mission we go about our work that much closer to the holy body of the emperor and feel his benedictions bestowed upon us though the enemy gained temporary advantage over our forces advanced we are now firmly in control at skelos though up to date intelligence is as everywhere else difficult to come by a number of cross-substantiated astropathic communications each originating from a different choir chamber and routed through a different astropathic relay confirm that the situation there is positive creed has ordered a further 20 regiments from scalise made ready for transit to other war zones and this will be executed if and when the warp storms ease the entire sector of scaris was silent to us for long days until late last night when the etho was penetrated by a single message scarce fares ill and the defenders beg that we dispatch reinforcements with all haste only freishan primera stands before the tide of orcoid menace and chaos filth and with each day another world slips from our grip of particular chagrin is that the orcs have seemingly set their sights upon the forged world of mordak's prime broadcasting their designs for the planet they refer to as more daka prime on every channel would it not for the fact that mordak's prime is the sovereign preserve of the adaptus mechanicus i would seriously consider petitioning for exterminators before its vast resources fall to the enemy the ordo xenos may still consider such recourse and emperor knows they have the authority to execute it should even the mechanics try to obstruct them being located somewhat nearer to canadian high command we've had more contact with the defenders of bellas corona than with their many other war zones though i am counseled by the adepts of the astropathicus against any assumption that such prosaic logic is applicable to the medium of the immaterium it appears that bellis is suffering at the hands of the enemy and even the imperial navy is having a hard time of it in the region plague afflicts sabecchio diablo and reports have been received of an unidentified attacker engaging long-range patrols from deep space rather than established warp routes if and when conditions improve we plan to dispatch significant reinforcements to the area and i have already identified 30 battle groups newly arrived to the sector's oculus that should be deployed there as soon as is practical contact with the commands of the agripena sector is sporadic at best and the picture we have compiled is a grim one indeed we know the defense of orange goes well but it appears every other planet is hard-pressed indeed estimates suggest that the region should in fact be capable of raising the reserves necessary for the defense of its own worlds yet i am forced to order the planning of significant troop movements into the area exactly what we send these troops into i have little knowledge of i only pray they are sufficient acadia these last weeks has rallied somewhat and our forces have clawed back many areas lost to the forces of the despoiler in the early stages of his invasion news of our successes has been disseminated as far as possible given the state of communications but the commission for moral truth in the office of historical revision has performed sterling work ensuring every guardsman knows that he fights a war he can win he must win and he is winning the road well undoubtedly be a long one but the strategic situation in space and on the ground is a positive one for the blessed forces of the god emperor of mankind phase four the imperium resurgent journal entry i was awakened at 4 25 local time by an astropath he was in quite a state of animation and he bid me follow him so accustomed to come to dire news that i was prepared for the worst another disaster needing my attentions i thought i dressed and followed the lad to the command center the third watch was on duty as i expected it to be but i'd also expected to be confronted by staff officers engaged upon facing another in a long line of crises to my surprise all was calm and every head in the place turned to me as i entered a junior officer appeared at my side and indicated the master pixelate upon the main wall it took me a moment to decipher the information scrolling across it it took me a moment more to look again i was stunned battlefleet solar the home fleet of blessed soul had arrived early impossibly early i ordered the staffer to awaken the lord castellan some hours later i chair the council of the united command admiral wesson navigator liaison to the lord castellan gave his appreciation capturing the situation in terms such men as us might understand the tides of the warp he explained are twisting and unpredictable each navigator perceives them in a manner unique to himself as a product of his own psyche and imagination one might guide his ship as an insect piercing dense morning dew another as a walker treading a path in a deep dark forest still others may have the strength to perceive the war as the roiling maelstrom it truly is such men western explained are few and far between and are truly the greatest of the navigator houses for much of a journey malicious eyes pierce the gloom to either side of the path and dread howls fill the night at times the beast behind the eyes may leap onto the path ahead or reach out from the canopy with slashing claws and jibbering more at such a time the navigator may have no recourse but to choose a different path perhaps one previously on trodden at times the situation may be so drastic that the navigator dives from the path entirely risking all to pierce the forest in the desperate hope that he may intersect another path before the beasts of the dark converge for any but the most proficient of navigators to attempt such a maneuver is wiesen explained to invite death and damnation not just for the navigator but for every soul aboard his vessel battle fleet's solar we were told is navigated by such men as these and when the ships of the relief force came under attack within the depths of the imperium the lead vessel performed the desperate maneuver wiesen described that one vessel should succeed in this is staggering that the navigator of every other vessel in the fleet did likewise is simply unheard of and so wisson explained to the council why battlefleet solar had arrived many weeks before we had even hoped to receive word that it was even in the segment upon diving off the path it had found another and as one might sometimes stumble upon an unusual trail within the depths of the wood and discover that trail to be in fact a shortcut to one's intended destination battlefleet solar emerged at its destination early and with its formation intact reason recounted to the council that we are to all bear witness to this event but it shall be recounted upon terror when time permits and entered into the histories of the navigator houses already the talk is of a miracle for whom other than the emperor himself could have made such an event possible truly we feel the hand of the divine at work amongst us guiding and protecting us in our hour of need in truth the members of the council could scarcely believe that such a large contingent of battlefleet solar had been dispatched to our aid and it humbled every man and woman present to consider that a single vessel be removed from its most sacred of duties guarding the soul system that the high lords would send so many ships to our aid is testament if anywhere needed of the dire threats that the spoilers invasion represents should we fail here the way is open for the great enemy to strike towards holy terror and no one able to draw breath will for even a moment consider such a possibility with battlefleet solar inbound the council went about the task of assigning its battle groups to the multitude of tasks ahead many possibilities were discussed ranging from allowing the fleet free reign to pursue the hunt for the planet killer or for the blackstone fortresses that have been sighted but once for so many weeks previously should the fleet be given the task of enforcing control of the intrasector routes or should it assume an immediate frontline role after many hours it was decided the fleet should seek to engage the grand fleet of the despoiler to draw it to battle while the initiative is with us the senior officers of the fleet now to confer with us at their earliest opportunity and indications are they are eager to begin the hunt from their communications i can't help but conclude they relish the prospect of frontline duty and regard a battle against the despoiler as a means of settling the account he and his master opened ten thousand years ago during the siege of terror the council concluded with creed's decree that news of the fleet's arrival should be disseminated to all commands at all levels such a boost to morale is surely overdue especially on the ground where the enemy continued to pressure our forces upon every front the commissioner for moral troop approved such a plan and the commissariat concurred in a moment of uncharacteristic frivolity the lord castellan normally an abstentious man ordered the liquor rations of every regiment of cadia double on the morrow my heart left until i remembered that it would be the task of my logistical staff to enact such an order journal entry the lord castellan has determined to take advantage of the warp storms raging around the canadian system to shift troops from planet to planet with little fear of new enemy forces attacking the worlds he strips of defenders he plans to then launch a series of offensives that will catch the forces of disorder off balance my staff are working around the clock to plan such huge movements of men and material for it is the largest single redeployment since the great mustering at the beginning of the war early indications are that 42 million troops are to be moved over a period of three weeks from a total of 23 worlds a spirit of measured optimism pervades the high command for though the end is still far away we feel for the first time that we are in control of our destiny and that the influence of chaos shall soon wane journal entry the enemy is hitting us hard across the entire region my attention has been consumed with the defense of the canadian system itself casaholm has borne the brunt of the past days with wave after wave of frenzied mutants assaulting the walls of the fortress world's capital fifteen regiments manned the defenses there and an entire legion of the adeptus titanicus are deployed when it only the seemingly endless cohorts of ill-disciplined mutants attacking the capital we may have been able to contain the enemy there but the assaults are led by none other than the black legion the praetorians of the despoiler himself the black legionaires are content to allow many thousands of mutants to crash against our defenses aiming i believe to wear us down and deplete our material stores through sheer attrition some of these mutants are massive brutes able to withstand laz bolt after lars bolt before finally going down others are little more than twisted masses of warping flesh so damned are they by the so-called blessings of chaos each wave to date has been repulsed but only at the cost of many brave defenders and with little or no appreciable effect on enemy numbers and just when the attackers are sent once more into in disciplined route the black legionnaires are want to launch their own attack these attacks cost us deer though to date not have penetrated the lines each time though only a handful of enemy are killed but the butcher's bill for us is intolerably high creed has moved his hq to casa home to counter the crisis rapidly developing there then i am confident his presence will make the difference of several regiments he has led in person a bold counter-attack at the head of the canadian eighth against the latest assault sallying forth once the mutant wave had receded and striking at the black legion before their own assault could develop the counter-attack was a resounding success and as he turned to the walls at the head of the 8th the entire length of the eastern wall erupted with the cheers of many thousands of men it was a sight i shall remember for the rest of my days journal entry the battle of casa home has taken on a new and unanticipated turn one that i would scarcely believe had i not seen the evidence with my own eyes at the height of the latest assault upon the eastern wall of the primary fortress at the moment when it appeared as if the black legion would force a breach the 13th company appeared from behind their lines and inflicting a crushing defeat upon them i heard with my own ears the atavistic howl of their warriors even though i was at my station some distance from the fighting the sound chilled me to the core and by all accounts had a similar effect upon our troops at the wall fortunately the effect upon the enemy was greater still the vile mutants fled first turning their backs and fleeing in an instant their black legion masters attempted to forestall the route firing upon the mutants in an effort to render them more terrified of their own retribution than they were of the thirteenth company but their efforts were wasted and many black legionnaires were trampled as the mutants stampeded from the walls soon the black legionnaires were themselves assaulted and those not cut down from the rear were forced to quit the field an event unheard of to date the 13th company's attack was over almost as soon as it had begun and they withdrew we know not in which direction making as they did no attempt to communicate with our forces inquisitor as morales was on the scene within hours and his first action was the quarantine of those defenders who had witnessed the event creed objected in the strongest possible terms to such treatment of these brave men and though the inquisitor's orders were not rescinded he has issued written assurances that the men shall be released with no further ramifications once he has concluded his investigations the crisis at casa holm has been averted for the present at least and creed and the staff are returning to high command upon cadia the inquisitor has yet to complete his questioning of the defenders of the eastern wall and creed has ordered i keep an eye on the situation there journal entry during our return journey from casa hong we discovered the situation around cadia had developed during our absence a sizable fleet of chaos vessels had broken through the naval cordon and were inbound for upper orbit around kadir itself this fleet scout vessels and a number of escorts detected our convoy and a cruiser squadron peeled off from the armada to attack us many of creed's staff believed in that moment we were doomed for the enemy vessels outmatched our own escorts creed however would hear none of it before he would permit a distress transmission he led his staff in prayer i was struck at that moment by the sheer piety of this man who leads us for he is a puritan of the highest order and his faith in his own manifest destiny is unshakable and his faith was not found wanting as we were about to discover the leading chaos vessel was upon us a monstrous brute of a ship of the despoiler class its first salvos collapsed our shields and inflicted fearful damage upon the starboard drive cluster with our engine capacity reduced by at least half we simply waited for our end all except krieg that is who stood up upon the command deck glowing at the enemy vessel as if his will alone would send it running a junior naval officer reported the enemy vessel powering up its batteries for the kill shot but creed ignored him taking a slow draw from his cigar at that moment blossoming sheets of energy obscured the despoiler and i saw with my own eyes its shields collapse one after another the bridge came alive as the command staff shouted reports of another vessel engaging our attackers from the rear then more ships appeared and we soon had confirmation of their identity it was battle group rock the duke lustavon at its head and they put the chaos fleet to route within hours accompanied by the cruisers of the battle group we limped home to cadia captain roark himself accompanied us to high command where he was received as a hero for his timely intervention without his actions a sizable portion of the high command's most senior staff including of course the commander-in-chief himself the lord castellan of cadia would have been lost and a great blow struck against the imperium the captain is to be commended in the highest possible manner and has our eternal gratitude for his courageous actions journal entry a veritable mountain of reports awaited me upon my return to high command and i've spent many hours reviewing the situation across the sector oculus of gravest concern to me are the reported actions of the eldar who it seems have engaged more than one blackstone fortress held our ships have engaged the enemy wherever they may be encountered desperate by all accounts to attack and destroy these hideous engines of destruction they refuse all contact with our representatives and will not share the information they evidently hold i have seen the classified reports into these machines logged after the events of the gothic war and have detailed our forces to seek out and engage them at all costs if the eldar are so determined to destroy them then i can see no reason why we should not also deploy every resource at our disposal to do likewise journal entry the warp storms so prevalent in the region over the last weeks show signs of reducing in level and ferocity and so the war enters another phase the enemy has been afforded the opportunity to move vast numbers of troops but so too have we creed has ordered a massive counter-attack and as his chief of staff it falls to me to organize and plan this operation codified operation cryosos in a matter of scant weeks many millions of troops will be in position to strike a hammer blow against the forces of the despoiler and if successful we stand a chance of halting the seemingly inexhaustible tide of chaos overwhelming cadia if we fail we may not gain another chance to even try again my first task was to attempt an audit of those forces at our disposal such a duty would be far from simple at the best of times but at present is a statistical and logistical nightmare high command has long since lost track of the number and status of regiments operating in the sector's oculus for thousands that answered the call to arms that went out so many long months ago communications are still disrupted by warp storms and so we have few reliable means of ascertaining the status of many of our forces some regiments indeed some armies are likely to have ceased to exist altogether while other newly arrived forces may have taken their place i suspect that it will be many years before history penetrates the veil of confusion and even begins to record an accurate account of those that stood before the despoiler after many long days of staff work high command has gathered a force of many thousands of regiments a majority of these units conform to the department of munitorum standard for classification as type 18v m41 light infantry though only 40 percent of these are estimated to stand at close to establishment strength approximately 10 percent of available units are heavy armor conforming in the main to the type 36 m41 standard and the bulk of the remainder a mechanized infantry of the revised 454 point m41 standard in addition to these forces we can draw upon many specialized units such as drop infiltration and close assault types though these conform to such a variety of types that they are to be considered army group reserves and will not be integrated into first-line formations each army group has at its disposal a full range of munitorum support services including engineering technical and logistical units in addition high command has 30 super heavy artillery regiments under its direct control any of which may be called upon to provide army group level support the task of mustering these vast formations was performed by my staff with commendable efficiency and was completed to the lord castellan's satisfaction within three weeks considering the number of units shipped him from off world this is a staggering achievement one i am quite sure will not be exceeded within the lifetimes of any present with several million men now in position operation chrysos is ready to begin journal entry chrysos is underway following a bombardment lasting 48 hours creed gave the order to advance the latest orbital scans show the enemy moving to meet the attack head-on as we had anticipated they would so vast is the concentration of enemy forces that they are quite clearly visible from orbit as a vast stain upon the surface of cadia general entry a week into operation chrysos and i've barely slept i swear creed has not at all the lord castleman divides his time between high command and the front lines where his presence at a stalled advance is sufficient to bolster even the most terrified troopers we're not actively leading our forces creed is directing the operation from the command bunker or leading the staff in prayer the defenders love him and many have come to speak of him as a saint he will tolerate nothing of such talk but it persists nonetheless journal entry chrysos is nearing a conclusion and although enemy troops continue to pour into cadia we feel we have achieved something few will ever emulate not since the great commissary rallied the defenders of armageddon as one man made such a mark on a war journal entry chrysos is grinding to a halt its momentum all but exhausted of the 10 army groups that started the action free have been amalgamated lord commander sidra's forces are reduced to a quarter of their original number but still his tanks thundered across the moors crashing all before them now casualties are astronomical but those of the enemy must surely be worse by our best estimates three million traitors are dead slain by the righteous fury of the armies of the emperor a resounding victory indeed journal entry at 9 15 creed called a halt to operation chrysos we have simply run out of steam high command has declared the action a success but without such a bold counter-attack across cadia the enemy would have taken total control of those areas he occupied at the beginning of the offensive though in the grand scheme of the war operation chrysos may prove but a brief respite to the tumultuous conflict much has been achieved for which we shall ever remain proud and thankful journal entry with the enemy forces still reeling from operation chrysos we are now able to consolidate the achievements of that campaign with a vengeance after many long weeks of beleaguered stubborn resistance the combined forces of dozens of space marine chapters have reinforced the defenders of the acadian gate this crusade has been gathered from the most distant regions answering the call to arms issued when the forces of the despoiler first commence their invasions the space marine crusade has been greeted with adulation and joy by the battered and bloody defenders those space marines who have fought at the gates since the beginning have been joined by their brethren and now stand ready to take the fight to the enemy with the courage and conviction that only a space marine can display one such chapter was the black templars upon that arrival in the region the chapter's first action was the relief of thracian primaris which had sustained heavy assaults by the forces of chaos for some weeks the bulk of the force consisted of brethren previously embarked upon the hunt for gaskill mag eric thracker the orc warlord who had unleashed such devastation upon the imperial world of armageddon and their participation in the action on threshing primaris left the pursuing crusades severely under strength the templars scattered the poorly led and deployed chaos fleet in short order breaking through the blockade to make an uncontested planet fall at the departmento munitorium logistical support complex at hive demitar the brethren were welcomed as liberators by the beleaguered populous but chose not to remain at the hive well for long moving on to drive the forces of chaos back towards the eye of terror the ultramarines honor company has already distinguished itself with a bold space-born counter assault against aberdan's fleet as the planet killer closed on the agriworld of lortox on the outskirts of the agrippina sector the action brought the world's planetary defense force time to evacuate a significant proportion of the population before the world was destroyed by the despoiler's horrific weapon of planetary destruction in the aftermath of the lortox evacuation the honor company redeployed to cadia and the surrounding systems launching a series of operations to hinder abaddon's forces as they assaulted our positions these attacks included a series of highly successful boarding actions against the lumbering space hulls being used to transport vast hordes of enemy troops to reinforce the spoiler siege of cadia in total three hulks were disabled on the outskirts of the canadian system stranding an estimated six hundred thousand traitors mutants and cultists to freeze in the cold depths of interstellar space a fourth hulk codified the herald of grief was destroyed as an honor company boarding force succeeding in activating a seismic detonator deep within its core causing the hulk to splinter into a hundred fragments and killing every one of the estimated two hundred thousand enemy on board medusa the homeworld of the iron hands chapter lies close to the eye of terror and was subject to constant attacks from the forces of the despoiler from the earliest phase of the black crusade given that medusa is the only world from which the iron hands recruit new brethren they were forced to defend it above all other considerations though at least two iron hands clam companies are known to have fought elsewhere in the defense of the region the greater part of the chapter confined its actions to their homeworld where they fought a grueling war to stem the tide of chaos filth at the heights of the defense of medusa the gargantuan tract and fortress monasteries of the ten clan companies came together to face an armored assault launched by the traitors of the excommunicated haradney 13 heavy armored regiment the dark polluted landscape of medusa was host to one of the largest gatherings of armoured might since the battle of tallahan during the horus heresy with over ten thousand traitor tanks arrayed against the iron hands the ensuing battle reportedly raged for five days and nights as armored echelons consisting of thousands of tanks swept across the barren plains towards the mobile fortresses of the iron hands when the fortress's guns opened fire it is said a hundred enemy battle tanks were destroyed each clan company commanding the equivalent firepower of one of the centurio ordon artists of the adeptus mechanicus at the height of the battle on the fifth day the enemy managed to break through the iron hands lines a single traitor armoured company outflanking one of the massive mobile fortresses and unloading round after round of ordnance upon its more vulnerable rear from nyon point blank range the iron hands launched a furious counter-attack assault squads armed with melter bombs launching themselves from the crane elated towers of the monastery to land atop the mass tanks many iron hands lost their lives in the counter-attack shot down by the tank's pintle-mounted weapons as they swooped in or ground beneath their tracks as they made near suicidal charges against them in defense of the monastery despite the iron hands losses the counter-attack succeeded disabling or destroying the majority of the traitor armour and sending the remainder into a disorderly retreat the iron hands then launched their own armored assault on the traitors mass formations of predator annihilators running down the enemy tanks and finishing them off with deadly accurate laz cannon fire with so many space marines now bolstering in the defense the forces of the traitor legions have not been idle the chaos rear guard joins the fray engaging the space marines in every theater of war those who turned upon their masters and ned kin from 10 millennia past are consumed with hatred for their earth wild brothers and have thrown themselves at the new arrivals with wanton bloodlust with such legendary warriors as the blood angels the black templars the imperial fists the howling griffins the white scars and many other chapters now standing before abaddon's invasion we can at long last see a real chance of turning back the 13th black crusade journal entry the world of malin's reach has been deemed tainted beyond redemption lord inquisitor cortes upon his arrival in the system has ordered the ultimate sanction upon the blighted world without a second's hesitation the plague of unbelief has spread its tendrils through out each of the hives and the stain can never truly be eradicated malin's reach has been subjected to a sustained barrage of cyclonic torpedoes that has totally annihilated all life on the planet journal entry though i am not privy to the details the space wolves in the dark angels chapter appear to harbor a great mutual rivalry and this is causing severe disruption to our efforts in the defense of the sentinel world's area the two forces have been operating in the same region for several weeks yet their refusal to coordinate their actions is harming the ability of imperial guard commanders on the ground to act for they can rely upon aid of neither chapter the situation has recently changed however the dark angels have abruptly left the area in search of renegade individuals they refused to identify the space wolves too have departed reportedly heading for nemesis tessaria in search of an artifact of their primarch rus though seemingly trivial incidents i cannot help but feel compelled to comment on them as they may yet have far-reaching effects upon the strategic situation intrinsically linked to the actions of the dark angels have been the reports of a shadowy figure calling himself the voice of the emperor and operating out of lilitha the voice is evidently acting as the figurehead for an extended network of anti-imperial cultists and insurgents and his theoretical teachings have spread across half of the agrippina sector millions being turned to his cause the dark angels have launched a number of strikes against this figure but on each occasion found that the pressure of constant attacks upon the hallowed ground of the caliban system have forced the hasty redeployment of their forces whenever a dark angel's force has managed to close on the suspected location of the voice it always found it recently vacated heretical graffiti taunting their efforts the only evidence of his recent presence there the dark angels harbor and intense hatred for this individual and their actions in this regard have still to be accounted for by our staff the voices heretical teachings and proclamations frequently make mention of the unforgiven and the origins of the dark angels legion the voice has transmitted a number of all-channel vox castes throughout the war each making reference to the events surrounding the legion's earliest history and making some quite astonishing claims about lionel johnson the legion's primark the dark angels and their successors have been vehement in their rebuttal of these blasphemous tracts answering them with bolter and chain sword rather than mere words and facts their fury is something to be heard so eyewitnesses have said to me some say the teachings of the voice contain an element of truth and that he is intent upon some course of action that will see the dark angels and the unforgiven take their part in some yet to be revealed plan it is evident from the unforgiveness relentless pursuit of this heretic and his followers that they have no intention of allowing this to happen being the first chapter master to master acadia and being recognized as the most experienced space marine of those that followed him logan grimnar was elected by his peers as nominal head of all the space marine commanders defending the canadian gate some chapters notably the dark angels and their successors as well as their relictives refused to submit to his authority pursuing their own agendas instead and taking no part in his plans having re-established contact with the other chapter masters fighting in the region grimnar has dictated that all their efforts should be focused on the canadian bellis corona and agrippina sectors now the contact has been made with those chapters newly arrived at the sector oculus a coordinated attack has been launched that is set to sweep away the invaders in one fell swoop i only pray that two of the greatest astartes chapters to serve the imperium the dark angels and the space wolves were put aside there their international disagreements for long enough for their efforts to bear fruit to cady in high command i have long been engaged upon the matter of the eldar fighting in the very eye itself my seers engaged upon the most perilous of vision quests have witnessed a miracle a shattered withered husk of a craft world has drifted into orbit above a long dead planet delivering hundreds of pallid eldar warriors wearing the colours of a long dead craft world onto the field of battle their attack on the servants of chaos is as unrelenting as it is unexpected i shall continue my investigation regards inquisitor remus journal entry the diabolical magics enacted by erebus of the word bearers legion so many weeks past have now come to fruition through the sacrifice of a million innocents the warp has vomited through the thin scheme of reality to burst across the domains of man the entire region is wracked by warp storms so intense that inter-system travel is now impossible as the last reinforcements gather in those sectors still barely accessible kedia agrippina bellis corona scaras and chincar it is clear to us all that the war has entered its final stages exactly what the future holds no one can see but none can deny that a terrible time of reckoning is upon us our forces are set against those of the enemy across the war zones of cadia scaras agrippina bellas corona and even chinkar each is intent upon nothing less than the total and utter destruction of the other these five war zones are to form the battleground for the final conflict of this 13th black crusade as those forces committed to other areas are hastily redeployed or simply forgotten amongst the confusion and anarchy that has befallen us we have long since lost track of the number of troops operating in the region but estimates suggest that the force is now engaged are beyond anything seen in many hundreds of years thousands of imperial guard regiments scores of space marine chapters and hundreds of titans stand alongside the combined conscripted militia of a hundred systems against these heroes of the imperium i set the traitor legions rebel imperial guard mutant hordes and cultists beyond measure millions give their lives in desperate last stands and vicious deadlocks as imperial preachers exhort the faithful to ever greater peaks of bravery and bloodlust the skies above the war zones now burn with the falling of orbital ordnance and the chance of a billion lunatics resound in our ears the tread of mighty battle titans shakes the earth and fighter craft scream overhead the last days of the war are surely upon us creed has issued the order led non-falter in his duty to the emperor for to do so is to surrender humanity itself and to the eternal pyre of damnation and ruin journal entry the dark angels and the space wolves appear to have set aside their ancient vendetta long enough for supreme grand master azrael and the great wolf logan grimner to come to a mutual of temporary understanding the two chapters have taken to the field together intent upon proving to the enemy that the combined forces of the space wolves and the dark angels chapter are far greater than the sum of their parts the exact circumstances and details of this arrangement have been kept from all who are not from either chapter many believe it may have been the result of the mediation of an individual who arrived at high command only days before the war flared and cut us off from outside contact i know not the identity of this man though he is clearly well connected on terror but his clearance is as high as any within high command i've worn witness to the fruits of this pact for i was present during an attack upon the walls of kaza tairok when a force of enemy infiltrators broke through to our headquarters for a brief period i was forced to take part in the fighting the first time i've had to do so in many years our headquarters security detail put up a bold resistance to the mutant scum attempting to penetrate the command center but was cut down to a man by the claws and whip-like appendages of the enemy i gathered my staff around me and led a counter-attack but soon found we were horribly outmatched we prepared to sell our lives dearly at that moment a combined force of space walls and dark angels smashed into the rear of the mutant mob cutting them down without mercy i can truly say that the might of these two chapters is a terrible thing to behold and the brothers of each seem to enjoy a comradely banter as they thought seeking to outdo one another in their skill at arms only as the last few mutants were dispatched did this banter turn less comradely and soon insults filled the air although a victory was won i fear the sons of rus and the sons of the lion may never fight side by side as true comrades journal entry it was a fool's errand to hope the planet killer could be found before it was brought to bear upon us without warning it appeared in orbit over macaria and though i can scarcely believe these words as i write them the world exists no longer it is gone and with it millions of loyal and faithful subjects of the emperor utter dread has now descended upon high command despite the successes of the early weeks of the invasion many have now come to believe that this war may not be won in the short term where at first we fought to repulse the spoiler to deny him footholds upon our worlds now we fight to keep him from overwhelming us entirely this is a grim paradigm and one we are not ready to accept we believe abaddon dare not destroy cadia as its pylons are reckoned intrinsic to the state of the canadian gate so we will stand here no matter the cost the lord castellan's address to the officer carter gentlemen i wish to address those who have stood by me throughout these long months for i may never see you all assembled in one place again indeed none here may survive the coming days and so i say this with pride for all every last one of you have served with faith and conviction you are all true servants of our emperor and it has been my honor to serve alongside you you all know the true cost of command you have looked into the eyes of your men as you order them to their deaths and you know that the memories of those men and the sacrifices they made will live with you for the remainder of your days well you know now the true cost of this war you know the price of failure but it moves against us even now in the sky is far above you've all seen the price of failure you all know that to fail here is to open the gate and usher in the damnation of mankind i know that not a single man here is prepared to let that happen go then take your places alongside your men show not your fear though i know it will gnaw it your soul know instead that your fear signifies you live yet and while you live the enemies of mankind will tremble for even in death shall you serve die well men of cadia die well journal entry our strongholds fall one by one the viklas and caddis lines buckle under the relentless hammering of uncounted enemy we have been engaged upon a mobile defense creed marshalling our regiments to meet each enemy salient and cut it off before an unstoppable assault develops but such are the numbers of the enemy that the strategy is proving increasingly untenable hordes of mutants traitors and cultists smother the moors from horizon to horizon we are forced onto the defensive and we've begun to fall back to kazar paradox i have seen more combat in these last days than i have throughout my entire career i'm a staff officer and proud to serve in that capacity three days ago i stood with acadian eight for casa gahir as i looked out from the ramparts i saw an entire traitor titanicus legion marching in line across the horizon framed against the blazing sky as millions of tons of ordnance fell from orbit i saw a horde of mutant things swarm under the titans feet sacrificing themselves to the twisted god machines i saw living artillery that stalked the battlefield spewing shells the size of tanks i heard the chanting of a million mad men and i almost wept for the faint of cadia and then i turned from the wall to see the men of the eight erading companies across kazakh hare's parade ground i saw pride and courage and honor writ large upon the face of each and every trooper not for nothing but they called the lord castellan's own creed addressed the men he would fight her rearguard back to casa partox i looked upon the men's faces as he made his address for i knew he was consigning many of them to their deaths he knew it they knew it they were proud to know it that night the enemy launched their assault it was presaged by a terrible chilling wailing that bit deep into each man's sanity but non-wavered then a thunderous artillery barrage rained death and destruction upon the walls but still the eighth would not falter then on came the first waves and the eighth opened fire upon them a blazing wall of last fire sprang across the rapidly closing gap before the walls and the enemy fell by the thousands i exhausted my last guns charge in what seemed mere moments and was reaching for a second when kell bellowed creed's orders for every second company to stand down from the walls the rear guard would assemble and the retreat begins i resumed my position at the ramparts and reloaded my weapon i felt a hand upon my shoulder and turned finding myself looking into the face of creed's colour sergeant jaron kell with a curt motion he indicated the waiting command chimera and i turned to see creed pause as he strode up its ramp his eyes met mine for an instant he nodded and then motioned me aboard the last i saw of kazega here was the sight of its central keep the flame as we sped across the moors some ten companies had held to the last to allow the remainder of the eighth to fall back these brave three thousand were to abandon their positions at the last possible moment but something went wrong they were encircled cut off and fight as they might they were overrun and captured a day later we learned of the fate of the men captured at kesar they were ritually disemboweled before our positions on the vic-less line we could do nothing for them and words soon got out the effect upon morale has been utterly devastating and it is all the commissars can do to contain the air of defeat that has settled over many units after the retreat from kassica here creed was forced to issue a harsh missive to his commanders his words to the colonel of the freyja 34th in response to a request that his regiment be rotated out of the front line were relayed to all commanders of cadia for they applied to every man upon the planet let me make one thing clear gentlemen we are now in the fight of our lives the arch enemy has come to our home with greater force and fury than ever before all that stands between him and victory is us us gentlemen it is we who must stand before the enemy and turn him back why because we're here and there's no one else to do it for us so if any man here believes he cannot do his duty to the emperor that he should present himself before the regimental commissars and stop wasting my time the emperor protects us but fate has heaped yet more woes upon our heads we have received word from captain ramire of the wrath of helene that a blackstone fortress has been identified in amongst the debris field of saint josephine's hope it is heading towards cadia it is too late for evacuation we must await our destiny and die like men of the emperor journal entry events are now moving with such pace that i can barely record them within hours of receiving the news of the black stone approaching the leader of the xenos eldar of the olthway craft world contacted us the farseer eldrad ulfrin he stated he had a plan creed agreed to meet him upon the planes before kazar paradox as creed's chief of staff i accompanied him to this council with us came a cabal of psyches scant defense against the witcheries of these aliens but the best we had against any such duplicity the zenos appeared from some form of arcane portal my witness for the first time their alien yet disturbingly familiar form my head aches with the pressure of witchery but i focused on the message this eldrid ofran bore us he told us that he would destroy this talisman of all as he put it meaning the blackstone fortress but to do so he would require the aid of every vessel we had in the canadian system by the way he put it we would require the sacrifice of every vessel we had but we had no choice but to exceed creed shook hands with the farseer who then disappeared in the manner he had arrived we returned to the command bunker the time for planning was over we would stand and perhaps live or we would fail and most assuredly die it called every last member of the command council to trust the lives of so many to the actions of a race so duplicitous as the eldar but as the farseer had said upon his parting with creed none of us has a choice anymore general entry i write this as i stand upon the ramparts of casa partox and look out across smile upon bloody mile of hell my work as a staff officer is all but done and but one man with one rifle amongst literally millions of the faithful our fate now is held in the hands of others the fleet has gathered for their final stand determined to gain time for the eldar to board the blackstone fortress and disable it from within if they succeed we live to fight another perhaps only one more day should they fail this world and all who stand upon it shall be scoured by the very power of the war unleashed upon its surface by the blackstone fortress moving into orbit above us even now this was the spoilers plan all along it has all led to this moment if i could recount the name of every man who stands before the gates of casa partox such a list would be equal in number to the names of the martyrs inscribed upon the golden gate merely listing the names of their regiments would take many days within the fortress stands 23 kdm regiments the men of each determined to uphold the honor of their world and ensure their names a place in the long and proud history of that world beyond the walls stand a further 200 and more canadian regiments their banner standing proud and a prayer upon every lip alongside regiments of cadius and a host of units from worlds near and far each has answered the call to arms each has sacrificed all to be here now kenovians gudrunites mordant thracians jorians and a thousand more many are from worlds i've never before heard of and may never hear of again but each has earned their place in the annals of the glorious histories of the imperial guard earned it through blood and sweat and sacrifice and our sides too are to be found the brethren of the adeptus astartes space wolves dark angels ultramarines doom eagles and many more i cannot name to have such warriors as these on our side as an honor in itself to know they are prepared to die here with us is tribute indeed to the task at hand many more servants of the god emperor of mankind are here too sisters of the adept sororitas the mighty grey knights scores of inquisitors and their personal armies the siege dreadnoughts of the ordo reductor the mighty god machines of the adeptus titanicus and their qatari servants and amongst it all the confessors of our great faith move admonishing each and every man to hold true to the emperor they tell us such a battle as this is a battle of faith versus faithlessness of purity versus heresy though we may die we do so in the service of the emperor and no man can ask for more we are filled with the spirit of martyrs past secure in the knowledge that we will soon stand in the company of the emperor and the circumstances of our martyrdom shall guarantee every one of us a place in eternity but our numbers are dwarfed by those arrayed against us even from atop the mighty walls of the castellam i see not a single square meter of ground that is not held by our defenders or trod by the enemy it occurs to me now that every twisted denizen of the eye of terror must surely have converged here before the walls of casapartox yet i know this is a ridiculous notion for surely such a scene as this is played out across every war zone of the sector's oculus and so as the battle is joined we wait journal entry we have received word that the battle in orbit is underway true to their word the eldar fights side by side with our ships but the toll being taken upon our forces is fearsome indeed now is not the time to count costs however for this endeavor is surely worthy of the greatest of sacrifice journal entry a great pillar of searing destruction has penetrated the clouds and fallen upon the forces of the enemy before us the screams of a thousand incinerating heretics assails our ears each passing minute and the lexa mechanics state it is moving towards us it will be upon the khazar within the hour we are finished journal entry the last days are upon us we have abandoned casa partox and are retreating towards the kadukadee sea if we make it there we shall make our stand at casa galan we have to make it there first how to recount the last day of casa partox i can barely begin the eldar succeeded in halting the blackstone fortress though not before it destroyed casa partox that once proud castellam is now no more than a blasted slag heap of molten adamantium and rock creek the charred corpses of ten thousand brave defenders scattered for miles around it we are still attempting to piece together the details of the battle in orbit that saw the blackstone defeated admiral quarren reports that the bulk of his fleet is destroyed many vessels having paid the ultimate price to ensure the farseer of ulfwij the time to complete his mission it would appear that the farseers vessel the ishra penetrated deep through the chaos lines many of its sister ships being destroyed in the action once close enough to do so ulfran boarded the station and has not been seen or heard from since at the height of this battle it is reported that a fleet of necron tear vessels appeared as from nowhere and assaulted the fortress in the chaos fleet both so confused and incomplete at our records of disengagement that we may never piece together the true details regardless of their reasons for doing so the necron ships forced the blackstone fortress to disengage and contact with it was lost soon after the last we know of the so-called talisman of all was reported by a psycho attached to the general staff lieutenant fortuna who was struck down with a vision of the farseer trapped within a shimmering crystal his soul scream echoing throughout the war no doubt our seers and savants will be looking to unravel this mystery for many years to come yet though the blackstone fortress and the planet killer both are gone the forces of the despoiler are seemingly endless and unstoppable with casa partox fallen our command and control structure is non-existent at least until we can evacuate across the sea to casa galan and set up a new headquarters there the retreat from casa partoc saw the most intense fighting of the war many thousands gave their lives so that the bulk of the army might escape and at first we were actually aided by the blinding beam of warp spawn destruction being projected from the blackstone fortress yet when it fell silent the enemy surged forward and were upon our rear guard in moments the savagery with which they fell upon those brave men shall haunt me for the rest of my days and the honor with which our men fort shall remain with me too i have lost count of the number of times the enemy threatened to overtake us during the evacuation on each occasion i fought alongside the men of the canadian eight creed leading them from the front as ever though it has been many years since i last saw frontline combat i can almost say i've acquired a taste for slaying the foes that would defile our world so and i've lost count of the number of mutants heretics and traitors i have slain and i shall go on slaying them while i still draw breath gentle entry and i stand upon the shores of the kadukadee sea behind me i see nothing but smoke and flame on the horizon and the advancing ranks of the invaders before me is the gray wind-swept expanse of the sea and across it beyond the horizon is casa galan where we shall make our stand here with me are a million men and more the survivors of the fall of casa partox yet they are but a part of the hole that stood scant days ago at paradox many more are now dead their bodies defiled by the blasphemous bastards that pursue us we are to board our transport ships here and fire the port in our passing we are forced to abandon the bulk of our heavy equipment everything from battle tanks to heavy weapons must be left behind so that the warriors may escape for what good are guns without the men who bear them no matter but we shall leave nothing of value behind us all shall be wrecked and ruined to deny the enemy even now i am reluctant to board my transport for steady streams of men are still arriving i do not wish to leave until all are safely aboard their ships my wish to be the last to leave though i know that shall not be journal entry the bulk of those forces that took part in the retreat from casa partox has now embarked upon the voyage across the caducode sea the operation to dispatch them was a gargantuan one but to their eternal credits the munitorum officers oversaw the process with utmost professionalism the provosts and commissioners were hardly needed discipline was kept despite the air of crushing defeat that had settled over our troops one of the last groups to leave was the eclagiacal delegation whose thousands of preachers had attended to the spiritual well-being of our forces throughout the fighting withdrawal from paratox some of these remain in the port now determined to preach the word of the emperor until the very end in their cenorious chants at times drown out even the thunderous explosions of enemy artillery a company of space marines remain here at our side the subjugators whose numbers are so reduced as the threat and very survival of their chapter have chosen to make their stand here truly the astartes are as gods amongst men i count myself honored to serve alongside them they are vowed to evacuate only when all else is lost only a few thousand warriors remain now and the enemy draws near i have volunteered to stay with the engineers to ensure the munitions planted at the heart of the port are detonated such a task is essential and i shall relish the chance to time the destruction with the enemies taking of the port throughout this war i have done my duty as a staff officer of the emperor's armies a duty i'm proud to have performed my place is no longer at the plotting slate or lodgester station it is here at the front line in harm's way my welcome such a duty enemy fighter craft are strafing our positions oblivious to the flack of the hydra units of the canadian 463rd armored that have volunteered to stay behind shells rain down amongst our positions fired by those terrible living engines i swear with all the sights i've witnessed these last months it is these that shall haunt me for however long i have left they are evil incarnate they are a blasphemy against all that we hold dear for all that we fight for the enemy's troops will soon be upon us they can hear their chanting the sound of it pounds within my skull so i raise praises to the emperor and drown them out i see their icons and banners from here they gather around them and give corrupt praise to their twisted patrons here a group of blood-soaked maniacs thrash at each other with flails there a procession of naked and tattooed cultists of some obscene power of the warp raise their shrill voices in blasphemy none of this shocks me it serves merely to redouble my faith in the emperor but the despoiler would see all of humanity debased thus i will be no part of such degradation i shall die to see it crushed utterly i have fixed my bayonet and i will keep recording as long as i'm able it cannot be long now journal entry the enemy is upon us the headquarters security platoon is under heavy pressure from an assault developing from the south eastern quarter the flat tanks of the 463rd are now engaging ground targets and the sound of their cannon is as ripping silk amplified a thousand-fold hundreds of mutants and cultists are cut down as crops by a scythe yet still more pile forward the crews will not abandon their vehicles for they are surrounded already i must wait until the chaos filth are within the central storage yards before ordering the detonation my finger hovers at the vox unit but i shall stay my order until the moment is upon us and not a second before journal entry we are surrounded the security fragment missing is overrun i've heard no word from the engineers i fear they're fragment missing now slain i have but one chance to ensure the detonation of the port in the death of a thousand heretics i am fragment missing to set off the charges from here may the emperor guide fragment missing hand and there we have it the 13th black crusade slightly different to how it turned out uh in the gathering storm series for instance the whole thing with uh old eldridge and the eldar that doesn't happen now that's been retconned although it is mentioned that they did assist in the yeah in the gathering storm thing in the fall of acadia so i think they've tried to have it both ways but um maybe it did exist but the whole thing with the gellerfield sort of projection thing around cadia the shield the world shield that isn't that is that they changed the role of um trezan or whatever as you say is what name the necron dude the trickster dude the collector and uh they introduced call and stuff into the mix and everything so it's like there's a few things that don't quite mesh but this is the original vision for it and just reading this i mean compare i mean all right the full acadia one isn't too bad right that's all right but that series goes off the rails but the third one is just ridiculous i mean some parts of it gilliam and getting captured what's all that about but this is like grounded it's uh it's harsh it's uh it's very grim dark it's full of um you get an idea of the faith sense of duty of the soldiers there in a much more deeper way than i think in some other stuff but um it really shines through in this and it's written by some of the greats you know andy chambers is in this uh andy pete haynes phil kelly and graeme mcneil so these are the writers of this and then a bunch of other people some excellent artwork in this book i read this when it first came out years and years and years ago and it was just like mind-blowing at the time because they've done the sabot worlds one before it which was the first time they've done anything like a full detailed 40k campaign like with from the perspective of like a general that sort of thing rather than just like a novel or a short story and then this came out afterwards mind-blowing great stuff though love it fantastic i did this because the fall acadia has reached a million views now thank you to all the people who have watched that that was the first time i did a big big thing and i've been thinking about it for a while and i just built up to it doing smaller things and it was really successful and everybody seemed to like it so thank you for watching if you have watched that and i imagine that's where a lot of you guys can found my channel so thanks again big milestone for me never thought i'd actually get a million views on a video so it's pretty shocking to be honest yeah this is just a thank you guys i really love this i think it's fantastic again there's a few like towards the end obviously like i said with the blackstone fortress and everything there's a few things that are different but i think overall you can take this as a given that this is the law and it's great law and the detail of it and the writing of it and the feelings it evokes the imagery evokes fantastic anyway thank you to everybody supporting the channel you can see your name scrolling by here thank you lads and if you'd like to join this honor company and support the work i do here please become a channel member down below or becoming a youtube member or on patreon or unsubscribe stuff by following the links below really appreciate that that really helps everybody who does support the channel it helps me do these things and carry on doing these things and the more support i get the more i can do so please do consider helping me out i really appreciate it and yeah you'll get your name added to this list of heroes but otherwise please do like the video share it to anyone you think might enjoy it subscribe if you're not subscribed to the channel and hit the little bell comment as well that really helps the video sort of on youtube and the algorithm and stuff or wherever you're watching this if you listen to the podcast version thank you all very much i will be back again with more stuff very very soon lots of big campaign videos planned i really enjoy doing these i think they're fun to do i enjoy speaking in the voice because it's funny to me and i think it's nice to bring these stories out to people especially these older ones that have kind of disappeared into the mists and you only get like a you know it's just like a shade these things you when you read the wikipedias and everything like that it's just a shadow of what is actually going on in these books you know they're really deep they're really harsh they're really groomed dark there's a lot of elements that don't necessarily shine through as much in some things the spiritual religious element for the guys you know their actual faith in the emperor the brutality of some of the stuff that's going on there i mean it's harsh right you've got millions of people dying and demonic sacrifices and stuff it's cool all right i'm gonna go now again please like the video comment and please consider supporting really appreciate it i've got a baby on the way so uh i'd appreciate that all right i'll see you later have a good one thanks very much more to come cheers bye bye

Channel: ABORDER PRINCE

Views: 1,426,755

Keywords: 13TH BLACK CRUSADE, WARHAMMER 40K LORE, BLACK LEGION, URSARKAR CREED, IMPERIAL GUARD, warhammer 40000, CADIAN GUARD, WARHAMMER, WARHAMMER 40K, ABADDON THE DESPOILER, THE FALL OF CADIA, EMPEROR OF MANKIND, CADIAN SHOCK TROOPS, CHAOS SPACE MARINES, BLACKSTONE FORTRESS, HORUS HERESY, ROBOUTE GUILLIMAN, EYE OF TERROR, BLACK TEMPLARS, ADEPTUS ASTARTES, SPACE WOLVES, LOGAN GRIMNAR, DARK ANGELS, COMMANDER AZRIEL, ASTARTES, GRIMDARK, ASMR, ELDRAD ULTHRAN, warhammer, lore, 40k history

Id: zneNwi3EB0A

Length: 191min 14sec (11474 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 26 2022