THE GOTHIC WAR WARHAMMER 40K LORE

foreign [Music] War Omens love Darkness one three nine to one four two m41 many Imperial scholars believe the gothic War to have started several years before the first Invasion fleets actually entered the gothic sector with hindsight a number of seemingly unconnected events can be linked together warning of the darkness and bloodshed it was to come although the bulk of the imperium's defenses around the eye of Terror were based in the area known as the Acadian gate there are many monitoring stations throughout the segmentum obscurus these outposts are constantly raided and attacked by the empress foes but during the mid-second century of the 41st Millennium the number of these attacks dramatically increased most important of all in the eyes of Scholars is the attack on the watch station at arcs due to its low priority and importance arcs was inhabited by only a skeleton Garrison of Imperial Guard whose Duty was to protect the few Tech adepts required maintain the station's observation equipment early in 139 the Scout frigate ascendants received a garbled plea for help from Ark stations aging astropath the attackers were unknown and when reinforcements arrived four months later there was no sign of those responsible the Imperial Guardsman stationed on the planet had been wiped out as Captain theaters of the 122nd Boolean Imperial Guard wrote in his journal they had been horribly butchered their mutilated bodies left to the ever-present Scavenging wild dogs that are arx's only natural predators the Inquisition sent one of their agents they experienced Inquisitor Horst but there was little evidence for him to uncover if arcs had been the only Outpost attacked in this way the raid would have become just another intriguing riddle in a Galaxy full of mysteries soon to be forgotten however over the next three years a number of similar attacks were reported throughout the neighboring systems and spreading into the adjacent sectors an Inquisitor host began to suspect that some large scheme was in motion however we've now proved to support his instincts or identify the attackers he decided to watch and wait for his enigmatic enemy to make another move just over a year after the ark's raid several Patrol vessels made grisly discoveries in the Athena sector a number of Imperial Merchant vessels and warships one of them an emperor class Battleship were found drifting and control through Wilderness space upon being born it it was sound that the crews of the ship were all dead their disease-ridden corpses strewn along corridors and gantries some found still at their workstations zabul astalax Magus biologists of the adeptus mechanicus elicited the various symptoms he encountered on his examination of corpses from the merchant vessel shanksy the skin was blistered with many weeping sores the blood thin and watery fungal growths were found within the brain cavity which must have caused extreme pain and delirium when the victims were still alive each ship also bore the scars of a brief space battle and signs of being boarded though no enemy dead could be found as Inquisitor Horst puzzled over these new developments his many agents and spies brought more news a rumor was spreading amongst the captains of the Imperial Navy concerning an ancient despised chaos ship known as the plague law crude by pestilential followers of the god of Decay the ship had been the scourge of the Imperial Navy for four Millennia the infection of the ship's Crews and the reappearance of the plague claw must have been more than coincidence and when a force of chaos Marines from the death guard traitor Legion sacked to The Hive world of morgenghast Horst was convinced that the forces of chaos were planning another major incursion the watch posts around Acadian gate were put on close alert and navy ships from all over the segmentum obscurus were detailed on increased patrols around Acadia while Inquisitor Horst investigated the chaos activity around arcs and its neighboring systems events began to take an even more Sinister turn in the gothic sector 2 500 light years away The Navigators of the navis nobility reported greater disturbance within the warp around the region the incidence of warp storms gradually increasing as the year went on on many worlds this news was received with panic a situation which was made more precarious by several religious Fanatics declaring that the emperor was displeased and was sending warp storms to purge the Unholy this led to a number of sects forming members stricken with feelings of impending doom they were desperate for the empress forgiveness and as the shocked preacher of flexberg noted they spend their whole time flagellating themselves to purify their souls decrying the excesses of their fellow men and driving their neighbors to cast out the sinful and urge their own blasphemies their very laudable behavior in itself they have forgotten their sacred duties to the emperor while they wail and gnash their teeth the coffers rattle emptily on many planets the Cults became very powerful swelled by popular support to such a degree that the ecclesiaki and sometimes even the planetary government could do nothing to stop the rampaging hordes it has a hysteria spread lynch mobs around Hive cities and Mining colonies seeking the impure impromptu burnings and hangings became commonplace as the desperate citizens threw themselves into a fervor of apocalyptic Faith scouring their friends and loved ones to atone for real or imagined sins against the emperor yet it was to no avail Fleet Admiral bratha when sending a message to the Naval Base said Portmore lamented and still the warps Swirls and rages and the situation becomes everyone more desperate and a cover of widespread paranoia secret Cults and covins insinuated themselves into positions of power as subverting ever more people to their to causes misguided followers of the dark Gods openly proclaimed that chaos would save Humanity when the emperor had turned from them thousands even millions of Imperial citizens were deluded by false promises flocking to these calls and the Inquisition was hard-pressed to root out every cult member deviant and heretic to make the situation worse several Naval vessels were destroyed in dark by reactor overloads and magazine explosions though official reports declared the incidents the result of poor maintenance faulty ammunition or rather ordinary causes many readily believed the tales of sabotage and Rebellion within the Navy's own ranks while the golf executive was being engulfed in Anarchy and confusion to say the least caused was searching for more clues to the plans of their Heretics when he heard of a chaos attack on the Imperial world of purgatory he demanded to accompany the investigating Fleet there was one thing which made Purgatory different from dozens of other raids the device known only as the hand of Darkness its existence known only to a few of the most trusted members of the Inquisition the hand of Darkness was an incredibly ancient alien artifact located deep beneath the surface of purgatory all attempts to Divine its purpose had proved fruitless yet distant legends from older races such as the Eldar spoke of the hand of Darkness with horror and revulsion it was widely believed to be a weapon of immeasurable power although its exact function was a mystery when Horst arrived at Purgatory the inquisitor's deepest fears had come true the hand of Darkness was gone if the followers of chaos learned how to activate this unimaginably potent weapon who could tell out what destructive power they could unleash on the forces of the Imperium Horst knew of another artifact connected to the hand of darkness in the old myths called the eye of night it was located on the rattling planet of Owen's world as horse sped towards it on the fastest ship he could commandeer a report came in of an attack on the rattlings a small force of Renegades had landed close to where the eye was embedded in an ancient statue worshiped as a God by the rattlings in pre-imperial times after a brief Skirmish an Imperial Guard recruiting Force stationed near to the chaos forces Landing site drove off this initial foray however a month later chaos ships blockaded orange World in a full-scale Invasion began the defenseless rattling stood no chance against the depraved chaos Marines and the death toll reached Millions as the hills and mountains were scoured with fire and shells by their followers of the dark Gods Lieutenant Compton Hawkins a attached to the recruitment team recorded the scenes that followed the attack piles of rattling skulls towered over the plains funeral Pius black in the skies as the traitor systematically wiped out everything in their path the small settlement of Esmeralda's Dale is now but a smoking crater the bones of its four thousand inhabitants crushed a powder and Scattered over the surrounding area a powerful seismic detonation brought down a Mountainside of the great belly sweeping away seven towns in 82 000 rattlings in a tide of crushing Boulders and boiling mudslides amongst the Carnage The Eye of night was torn from its mounting and the thief Slipped Away into the Stars the forces of chaos now had waved the hand of darkness and the eye of night and with them perhaps the power to overthrow the Imperium in its entirety Inquisitor host was tormented by a single question where would they strike first the answer was to come all too soon the old Inquisitor began compiling scattered reports of unusual activity in an Ever widening area and learned of the disruption engulfing the gothic sector as he headed for the region more reports of sightings of chaos vessels came to horse detention reinforcing his belief that the gothic sector was to be the arena of this latest incursion a month after horse arrived in the sector three years after he had begun investigating the arcs raid a cataclysmic Shockwave passed through the war the massive storm engulfed the gothic sector in swirling tempests cutting the area off from the rest of the Imperium whatever happened next the ships and Warriors of the gothic sector would face it alone surprise attack 143 m41 the first outright battles of the gothic War were fought into the year 143 m41 came to a close during the first few months of conflict chaos fleets launched a number of wide-ranging all-out attacks against Imperial Navy bases within the sector reports of attacking chaos fleets flooded in from all across the gothic sector much planning must have gone into the all-important first strike as the chaos fleets targeted a dozen major Imperial bases in the gothic sector with no warning the Renegades struck hard and fast ambushing Imperial warships as they were in dark or orbiting around their stations caught unawares and already overstretched by the increasing tension within the sector the Imperial Navy was poorly prepared to respond to this sudden offensive at Bladen the radamanthine had her starboard flight decks blown clean off by Torpedoes while a cherry a doom 5 bombers from the heartless Destroyer damaged the warp engines of the Lord Sylvanas so severely that it took nearly two years of constant repairs for the ship to be able to make warp jumps greater than five light years orbiting stations also fell to the chaos Invaders destroyed or captured by the swiftness of the attack the loss of many of these orbital shipyards such as tripol docks Port Imperial and cathara station were doubly felt not only were Imperial ships badly in need of refitting but the means to do so were being put to use by the enemy Captain Grove of the Admiral Drake an old relentless-class Cruiser used as a training vessel was one of the few survivors of the attack at Hallam net base in the Cyclops cluster which typified the style of attack used by the chaos vessels Grove and his crew were lucky to escape as his entry log shows Fourth Watch third day of you Fasteners I'm under attack from Renegade vessels they approached from Starwood blinding our surveyors long-range torpedo strikes have destroyed the Vanguard a dauntless class light Cruiser and crippled the indomitus imperius a lunar-class Cruiser broke from dock with the reactors still at 75 percent of operational capacity engaged in short-range exchange with Squadron of renegade escorts disabling our starboard batteries and destroying the torpedo tubes fires broke out and the port quarter galleries the emergency bulkheads had to be lowered casualties estimated of 5 000 or more many of them gun Crews on the starboard decks we are attempting to disengage trying to avoid a Slaughter class coming in around Hallam Net's gravity well mortaring all available power to the engines to outrun him time to visit the chapel and pray for the empress protection fortunately for the crew of The Admiral Drake and many others the chaos fleets were not normally disposed towards lengthy battles preferring instead to hit hard and then Retreat leaving the Imperial Navy suffering heavy losses with many capital ships destroyed or needing mumps of repairs and refitting however the chaos fleets did not achieve total success in a few battles the traitors suffered serious reversals most notably during the defense of Hive World Order when one of the many chaos warfleets led by the chaos warmaster malefica Arkham ambushed the Imperial Battle Group which was stationed at Aura and they did not on this occasion find their enemy taken away as in helpless having just received orders to help put down a rebellion in a neighboring system the Imperial Battle group led by Captain compel Bast on the battle cruiser imperius was just preparing to break orbit already at full alert status the Imperial ships easily evaded the Raiders initial torpedo Salva and counter-attacked what happened next is best summed up by Bast himself not unable to have board the attack the chaos ships swept onwards into a hail of torpedoes gun deck fire and land shots from aura's orbital defenses now Nova Cannon struck the reviled Renegade soulless full-on crippling the vessel in a huge blast of gas and debris extra beverage rations to the gun crew that night as we closed in for the kill the other kale ships abandoned their fellow vessel to its fate and attempted to escape with a torrent of fire pouring into its breached hole the soulless finally destroyed itself as its warp drives imploded under our continuous bombardment Arkham ship the death beam and its Bridge smashed to Pieces by a volley fire from the Iron Duke and rumors say that Arkham was the only man on the bridge to crawl from the wreckage somehow protected by his Dark Masters my sighted Art Attack craft Crews for their admirable performance of their Duty several of our bomber wings were instrumental in reducing the death skull to a Hulk unfortunately we were unable to claim our prize as the Hulk was gripped by aura's pulled and broken asunder in the upper atmosphere only a handful of chaos escorts escaped without damage and the death pain and its fleet was pursued out of the system by the vengeful Imperial Commanders is not the only major setback inflicted upon the forces of Darkness during the opening stages of the war in one incident a small chaos Fleet consisting of several iconoclasts and Infidel class escorts Bound for the raid on dinner in the Cyclops cluster fell fowl of the numerous bands of orc pirates in the region the garbled Transmissions of the chaos ships were intercepted giving some idea of what happened using their traditional tactic of lurking in an asteroid field for an unwary victim the Orcs leapt from hiding and plunged Into the Heart of the chaos Fleet unable to use their greater maneuverability in the swirl of asteroids gas and dust clouds the kale ships were mercilessly hammered by the Orcs and not one chaos vessel survived the battle upon hearing this news the Lord Admiral ravensberg was quoted as saying if he wasn't damned green skin scum I'd make their Commander my flat captain or they will later denied this statement such occurrences were however rare and the green skins were as happy to continue attacking Imperial shipping as they were to fight against the invading warfleets the initial Chaos Attacks struck out important installations such as adeptus mechanicus Forge worlds and Naval bases of the 17 bases in the gothic sector six of them were founded upon the Blackstone fortresses as the Lieber monumenta tells us the architects of the edifice is known as the Blackstone fortresses remain unknown all analysis of their materials and construction methods has proved inconclusive attempts to take them very massively between 17 000 years old and three hundred thousand years they have remained dormant since their Discovery early in the second Millennium of The Emperor's Divine rule even with most of its systems inoperative the Blackstone Fortress made an incomparable foundation for a naval base and after extensive refitting by the adeptus mechanicus with imperium-constructed defense turrets and primary weapon systems added the Blackstone fortress's defensive capabilities rivaled those of the naval command stations at Portmore itself it was the pride of Battlefield Gothic the narrow Blackstone Fortress had ever been taken in battle this was to change at Rebo system where the Naval Base Blackstone four orbited the system's fifth world a chaos Fleet probably led by Abaddon himself struck at repo 5. the Imperial ships on station put up a furious defense but were overwhelmed by the size of the fleet facing them 20 Capital ships including two dis spoiler-class battleships and a score of escorting vessels swept through rebos outer defenses and attacked Blackstone four itself the battle was short and bloody just as the chaos Fleet approached within range the Blackstone fortresses Power Systems shut down completely with the energy greed dead the guns were unable to fire the armored gates to the attack craft base couldn't be opened and the Personnel on board were defenseless soon after this information was projected by the station's Chief astropath Blackstone 4 fell to Invaders there was no more news from Rebo and it was assumed there were no survivors this was to be the first of the number of critical blows that shook the Imperial forces right from the outset of the war even as Abaddon pushed home his attack at Rebo more disaster was to befall the loyal Defenders of Gothic sector at savovan a cardinal world of the ecclesiaki a few system defense ships could do little to protect their Planet against the new and awesomely powerful vessel simply dubbed the Planet Killer this monolithic ship bristled with gundex Lance batteries and torpedo launch systems as the defense monitors withdrew from its implacable Advance the Planet Killer achieved orbit over savileen Jeremiah sold again commander of the orbital Defense Forces was later to record the Dreadful events to follow within the planet Killer's Central cavity we could detect a massive Power Surge Energy crackle from a number of ports on the old then the blast that blotted the Sun from our scanners it opened fire the energy beam lasted for about half hour how they could generate that much energy we Linked In to the planetary surveyors to see what was happening on the surface that bolt bored its way through miles of the planet's crust and see it through the mantle beneath and as the attack finished the magma searched forth through this continent-sized wound breaking apart savovan from within the Seas boiled into the skies the ice caps melted and all continents sunk beneath the tidal wave with such an unimaginable release of energy savithan was blown out of her natural orbit and flipped over on her axis I guess nobody was alive by then but if they were they didn't last long like a ration pack crushed in your fist sabbathin just crumpled in on itself then broke up into thousands of fragments there's just an asteroid field there now really dense impossible to navigate there were 14 billion people living on sabbathin 14 billion dead in an hour a salad again and the other survivors were to suffer traumatic mental breakdowns from what they witnessed and three months later they all took their own lives in a mass suicide the effect on Imperial morale was devastating all it heard of extermin artists with Fusion Torpedoes virus bombs and mass drivers but to know the enemy had the ability to destroy an entire planet not just all life on it must have been the most chilling thought that any Naval crewman had ever faced as the Imperial Navy reeled at this news Inquisitor Horst was left wondering if this was the power gained from the possession of the hand of darkness and the Eye Of Night if it was something else then perhaps even worse news was to come a constant problem for Lord Admiral ravensburg a commander of the entire battlefleet Gothic was the presence of a large number of Eldar in the sector making Swift forays from their hiding places within the Grail dark nebula it was even widely believed that an Eldar craft world was in the gothic sector during the war though there were no confirmed sightings and its location was never determined of the pirate forces plaguing the Imperium the force is called the executioners became highly active as the gothic War progressed until the number of their raids and attacks had increased from three in one four three to eight in one four seven unable to track the sophisticated Eldar ships back to their base and strongly suspecting that they were connected in some way to The elusive Craft World ravensburg could do little to defend against the aliens and it was up to individual battle group commanders on how best to act against their slippery Fair not only the Elder preyed upon the transports and merchantment of the Imperium bands of human Pirates Renegades from the eye of Terror and even the vessels of other alien races all increased their activity called wolf packs and by the naval officers who chased them these roving bands of small vessels hunted the ships and convoys of anybody and everybody Admiral Coburn of the second battle cruiser Fleet noted bitterly if it came to a straight fight there would be no match for our guns but the Raiders are canning and never rescope in battle if they can avoid it the Pax nibble at the heels of our convoys capturing a single transport here a merchant vessel there their favorite tactic is the lurking asteroid fields or to operate from deserted moons where they are almost impossible to detect and even harder to root out I even heard of one band that docked in a station in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant in the full system every month brings more reports of their attacks but we cannot spare more ships from the battle lines to escort the convoys the Imperial fleet was fighting two enemies at once the chaos battlefleets and the all human and Eldar pirates that have been a constant threat to Imperial shipping even before the gothic War Began everywhere the Imperial forces were on the defensive driven from world upon World System upon system losses were high and the shipyards and orbital stations fought an ever-increasing battle for supplies and Manpower Darkness had descended upon the gothic sector and it looked as if the light would never return the black stone fortresses 144 REM 4-1 the Imperium was beset by many chaos fleets led by individual War Masters estimates vary from eight enemy fleets to 20 or more each was a rival to any battle group Lord Admiral ravensburg could muster at the time one in particular led by the hateful Abaddon himself was to pose the most serious threat of all with the threat of abaddon's Planet Killer looming over them many Imperial worlds surrendered without a fight sub-sector after sub-sector fell out of Imperial control and with them a number of shipyards and orbital docks as the Imperium faced increasing difficulties in repairing its vessels building new ones became ever more unlikely with its critical early strikes chaos May well have won the war before it had even started there was one hope for the Imperial Navy on a desolate Moon orbiting a gas giant in the lucatar system was an adeptus mechanicus facility the tech priests were already researching the wisdom of their predecessors to uncover knowledge of more powerful weapon systems more efficient drives and better Shield generators a few Imperial ships were fitted out with these improved systems but the results were never entirely satisfactory a ship could only provide so much power and if Gunnery was improved Communications would suffer if the engine power's increased The Shield generators could not be sustained The Surge continued with each new development slightly more successful than the last then the ships of Abaddon arrived Commodore vandez commanding 202 red Squadron consisting of four sword class frigates was among the first Imperial vessels to cite Abaddon since his attack on Blackstone 4. second dog watch 19th day of afradal lucatar system the reports from the guardian stations were correct our essayers have picked up an energy pulse of unimaginable magnitude the crew are Whispering fearfully the Planet Killer but that was last cited in savior 65 light years away we are proceeding at full power to investigate ninth watch 19th day of Africa look at our system even seeing it with my own eyes I did not believe it several Renegade Capital ships are heading in system with a dozen escorts with them is a Blackstone Fortress damn my eyes but it's true it looks different more organic and somehow alive if that were possible my surveyors have picked up several weapon systems which are not Imperial in construction now if they managed to wake the Beast the emperor's blood they're building up energy to fire even at this range Third Watch first day of Santa Claus immaterium we have left behind what remains of lucatar station the captured Blackstone Fortress revealed almost impregnable to our weapons those few of us who could fight through to attack it has weapons the like of which I have never seen and even when fighting held our Pirates or chasing down for our Raiders in their buying more The Fortress has pummeled lucatar station to Rubble taking only a few minutes with all its armaments brought to bear there's only a seven light years jump from here to brine again where Blackstone six is stationed we are proceeding with all speed to bring again to warn them of the attack but I believe the Renegades will attempt to capture another of the blackstones I pray to the emperor we can stop them even with valdez's warning there were few available ships left to defend Blackstone six as with the capture of the first Fortress the chaos followers had some means of controlling the Blackstone Fortress from afar able to shut down its Power Systems and turn it into a death trap for the tens of thousands of personnel aboard brinegar system fell to Abaddon for months after the attack on lucatar while Lord Admiral ravensburg pondered the many military and logistical problems facing his isolated sector he was visited by Inquisitor Horst what passed between them was never recorded though it is widely believed that the revered Inquisitor told ravensburg of the hand of darkness in the eye of night a plan was formulated to try to recapture the Blackstone fortresses by covert means rather than open attack however before this plan achieved any visible results news came through with another assault by avadon's Fleet this time at Blackstone one in the philaris system the personal log of first lieutenant Elijah Borgia of the vindictive was recovered from the Hulk of the ship found floating towards the flowers star we are in luck today abaddon's fleet has attacked from the other side of Volaris too which means they'll have to DARE the orbital and planetary defense systems to get to Blackstone one we have only just upgraded our weapons on Volaris 2 for just such An Occurrence and I doubt even with his two fortresses our enemy Will Survive borgia's early optimism was to be cruelly shattered the two black stones have taken up station 5000 leagues from each other some 75 000 leagues from Volaris too and just out of range of the weapons platforms except for the torpedo launchers we are picking up an energy surge in the two fortresses they're powering up for something dead priest flavic says there's some kind of energy exchange between them Empress teeth I can see it myself now a column of Shifting energy linking the two fortresses together surge is still Rising the power beam becoming more visible the Damned astropath is screaming now yelling something about a breach into warp space what hell spawn trick are they up to oh my well they're recovered evidence points towards an energy being Unleashed towards Volaris too the vindictive was called full on her Shields overloaded instantly then outer Hull vaporized as the energy wave passed over the ship the filares 2 was later found with its atmosphere stripped off and the surface scoured to a rocky plane the Blackstone won there was no sign the war continues 144 to 149 m41 across the entire Gothic sector the chaos and Imperial fleets clashed for five years the battles continued with the death toll on both sides running into billions planets were invaded and recaptured fleets ambushed bases attacked and all the while the sector was isolated from any outside hell from Hammerhead deeps to the Cyclops cluster Imperial ships fought desperately to hold back the kale ships that spilled into the gothic sector in some areas the emperor's forces were held back by the ferocity of their firm while other regions protected by more skilled or experienced battle group commanders held against the initial impetus of the chaos attack it is impossible to chart exactly the urban Flair of battle and many worlds changed hands four five or even six times during the period of fiercest Fighting by 147 m41 the lysidi sub-sector was almost entirely overrun and Chaos ships held sway in over a dozen systems surrounding Portmore however in the Cyclops cluster the Orcs gave the chaos vessels stiff resistance and from staging points in the Kwon Rock sound the Imperial Fleet launched many counter-attacks pushing back the spread of chaos for months before being forced to turn their attention to incursions elsewhere while the Imperial Navy and the Renegades jeweled across the Stars the attacks from Orcs Elder and human Pirates increased with the watchful eye of the Imperial Navy elsewhere these Bandits had an almost free reign convoys were captured raiding parties sacked cities and on dozens of Worlds Millions died from disease and starvation those convoys that did get through safely often found enemy warships prowling through their destination system blockading all craft entering and establishing a Stranglehold on the world they besieged on the hive world of stranovar three Hive cities with inhabitants running into a hundred billion Souls were overcome with rioting due to the shortages of drinkable water with no incoming supplies the world's own recycling centers were unable to cope and four-fifths of the population died from dehydration before the next Convoy we managed to break through the chaos blockade the docks and shipyards were frequently starved of supplies and ships which put in for repairs and re-arming were often sent into battle with only makeshift re-fits and half empty magazines while Lord ravensburg's forces struggled with the ships of the chaos War Masters the Imperial Fleet made significant progress against another deadly firm a rough Confederacy of nearly two dozen pirate bands had gathered in the Quinn Rock sound with over 50 escort-sized vessels a captured gothic-class Cruiser and two Salvage lunar class Cruisers the Marauders had become a serious threat it is the security of shipping in the sub-sector Lord Admiral ravensburg unable to turn his attention from stemming the chaos incursion ordered Fleet Admiral mourndark to deal with the Pirates in any way he saw fit mourndark Drew ships from Battle groups across the sector including the sword of Orion Havoc Lucio fortitude and the Fearsome cypropubate along with these Capital ships mourndark also took command of the 24th Destroyer Squadron the widowmakers the first frigid Echelon eagle claws and the sword class frigates of the Anvil 206 Patrol flute tiller with a large Convoy of empty transports mondark lured the Pirates into attacking when the Imperial ships counter-attacked mondark ordered that at least one of the Renegades be allowed to escape with the aid of the master Navigator Absalon drawl mondark and his Fleet were able to follow the surviving Pirates back to their lair in the barbarous Costa system confident in the knowledge that they were safe in their den the Pirates said given little thought to defenses the Imperial attack came as a total surprise as mondar concluded in a report to Lord ravensburg after the battle we fell upon them like hounds at the chase they tried to scurry and vote for their holes but my escorts were ready for them the Supra propate herself claimed 15 kills that day and their losses must have been in excess of 30 ships in total many fled to the surface of barbarous free thinking themselves safe from our guns wrong they were using plasma Torpedoes Modified by Magus ulian of the adeptus mechanicus We Set Fire to the atmosphere of the near-deserted world burning them out only three vessels emerged from the conflagration asking for clemency not guns showed them the mercy of the emperor with a large proportion of the Pirates dealt with in one blow ravensburg was able to concentrate his forces onto fighting back against the chaos fleets once again the Imperium resurgent 150 to 151 m41 for the first seven years of the gothic War the Imperium had been fighting defensively across an extended Battlefront as 150 m41 passed into the year 151 m41 Lord Admiral ravensburg decided to take the fight to the enemy and Claw back what had been taken knowing that leather chaos ships were more numerous overall they were divided into many smaller fleets members Lord ravensburg's hope that he could destroy his attackers if he could bring the weights of battlefleet Gothic to Bear against each of the chaos fleets individually this was a very risky Ploy because to amassed the battlefield in any strength meant weakening Convoy Escorts system patrols and squadrons on anti-pirate duties ravensburg stated his reasons and emissive to Inquisitor horse saying these are troubling times that require Resolute action even or not I bowled in with the confidence of the emperor we will be played dry within 10 years and we will have lost the whole sector to our enemies not only will a decisive blow eliminate enemy vessels it will send a message to the chaos fleets and the Imperial forces alike the Imperium is not going to give up without a fight now after a numerous aborted attacks and false starts ravensburg saw his first real chance in mid 151 m41 when Scout vessels reported a chaos Fleet moving in Mass towards the gafsa main system ordering his task force to get underway with all possible speed ravensburg took personal command aboard the Divine Right with 17 Capital ships including two battleships and two battle Cruisers and 20 escorts under his command ravensburg pursued the enemy Fleet into the gafsa main region suddenly becoming aware of their plight the chaos forces headed out system again to try to get far enough from gapsama and star to make a warp jump ravensburg detached to the fastest vessels in his Fleet to pursue and a week-long Stern Chase ensured what happened next was recorded in the Memoirs of captain blive of the Guardian as we followed the fleeing foe the signals came in warning of another enemy Fleet on a closing course we had been lured into a trap bolstered by a further 12 ships the chaos Fleet turned on us and it was all we could do to evade the bulk of the enemy even in doing so we lost three destroyers and four frigates in a series of small skirmishes the enemy losses totaled at least five escorts and maybe as many as 10 or more with all of our big guns in Lord ravensburg's command that there was little to do but run the hunters had become The Hunted Blythe and his battle group headed back towards the vicinity of ravensburg's main Fleet but even with ravensburg's capital ships Imperial forces were still outgunned to a serious degree for three days the two fleets circled and dodged each other through the system neither fleet commander prepared to commit the bulk of his ships against an enemy whose exact position was unknown three weeks after arriving in the system ravensburg's Fleet and the kale ships clashed six Firestorm class frigates located the chaos Fleet near to gafsamaine II using the cavern of several dust clouds to avoid being detected themselves seizing the opportunity the Lord Admiral moved his whole Fleet in on the attack ravensburg's cobra destroyers launched several torpedo salvos at extreme range although they had little hope of inflicting damage the torpedo attacks forced the kale ships to alter their heading so that they were moving towards the imperium's capital ships flag tenant Martin aboard the Divine Right related the battle's events forced into a head-on clash with our Fleet the chaos vessels came off poorly in the initial exchange of fire salvos of torpedoes screamed into their Fleet some evaded others hitting home with blossoms of explosions with our four Shields and armored plows their return fire did little damage Mar escorts carefully kept the enemy herded in a compact mass as we passed through their lines the ship shook as we fired both broadsides simultaneously then lord ravensburg gave the order and we poured a continuous fuselard into their ships the stars were thick with the Enemy we could hardly Miss at that range the Imperial Fleet tore through their adversaries crippling four Capital ships and destroying 11 escorts in the initial pass rather than turning to fight which with hindsight would have given him the greater chance of Victory the chaos warmaster ordered his Fleet to continue on their course in a bid to escape it looked as if the chaos Fleet would Escape Justice again as the faster Renegade vessels accelerated away from ravensburg's Pursuit even as the enemy Drew away more drama was to occur as this account by Captain Drew of the fortitude shows they attacked without warning one minute the screen was clear the next step verismada of eldar's ships had appeared in front of the chaos Fleet recognizing the colors of the executioners among their vessels we feared for our lives and even as we attempted to haul onto a new heading ah dread became ecstatic happiness the Elder attacked the enemy not us and remember hearing crimes of Joy across the bridge as a pulse of land shot burned through the hull of one of their battleships sending debris tumbling and Flames crawling along its upper gun decks caught between the attacking Eldar and ravensburg's Fleet the chaos ships were annihilated although a dozen more of the emperor's vessels were crippled or destroyed before victory was finally attained why the Eldar decided to lend their weight to the Imperial cause was never discovered though it is common belief that they had finally heard of avadon's capture of the Blackstone fortresses and had seen Alliance as the only chance of survival as the news of ravensburg's great victory in the Battle of gafsa Maine was spread throughout the fleet even more promising Tidings were to come in the late months of 151 the warp storms that had isolated the gothic sector began to Abate and several ships from neighboring battlefleets arrived to reinforce the Lord Admiral's bloodied fleets the battle barges and strike Cruisers of several Space Marine chapters also arrived bringing fresh Elite troops to the fighting the imperium's solid defense though broken in places had prevented the chaos fleets from achieving Swift Victory and with the help of the Elder and ships from nearby sectors the emperor's servants could go on the offensive just as ravensburg had been contemplating defeat it seems that avadon was equally loved to give up what he had won with two possibly even three Blackstone fortresses under his command it was avadon who was the greatest threat to Imperial worlds in the gothic sector just how much of a threat was not realized until the attack on the tarantis system on the edges of Gothic sector tarantis was a common Gathering ground for ships entering or leaving the region from the tamahal sector and so it was here that Abaddon tried to stem the flow of reinforcements coming in his main Fleet accompanied by all three of the missing Blackstone fortresses swept aside the few Imperial ships close to where it broke from the war closing rapidly into the system the cruises and battleships of the chaos Armada punched a hole through the Defenders to allow the Blackstone fortresses to break through countless millions of Navy personnel an Imperial Guard died planets were destroyed and an uncountable number of Innocents perished as the two Mighty fleets clashed but what happened next was to totally Eclipse all the horrific events of the war so far combining their power together in the same fashion as Ed fulares the black Stones Unleashed a massive energy wave into the tyrantis star with their objective complete the chaos ships conducted a fighting withdrawal and then jumped into warp space once more for a whole month the tyrantis star raged and boiled tortured storms moved across its surface its Corona expanding to engulf the two nearest worlds any that could leave fled the system but to evacuate the populations of free worlds was an impossible task four weeks after abaddon's attack tyrantis's star went Nova wiping out everything for many thousands of billions of miles in every direction in A Storm of gas and plasma tarantis a whole star system was no more an avadon had the power to unleash this destruction wherever he wished Lord ravensburg firmly believe that avadon would try to capture the other three Blackstone fortresses but he had no idea against which of the three the chaos warm Master would strike next the hunt continued for six months with Imperial and Eldar ships patrolling through long forgotten systems in a desperate bid to find Abaddon and his horrific weapons then the forces opposing chaos achieved a breakthrough the Eldar had located abaddon's Fleet in the lower lice CDs and were able to use their sophisticated ships to Trail him through the war from his course it was clear that the war Master Was preparing to launch an attack on schindelgast where Blackstone 5 floated in the depths of space leaving only a few vessels to deal with the now they're chaos fleets ravensburg and the Elder raced to reach schindleghast before Abaddon using ancient warp gates shown to them by the Elder and the Imperial Admiral sped across the sector and arrived five days before Abaddon was due to reach the area with a constant stream of information concerning avadon's actions the Imperial ships and Elder are laying weight outnumbered and caught by surprise there was little the traitorous ship captains could do except die fighting for three days the two Mighty fleets battled inflicting horrendous casualties on both sides but for all their ferocity the kale ships simply could not match the forces arranged against them as the third day of fighting Drew to its bloody conclusion avadon once more broke the Blackstone fortresses through the Imperial defense and headed towards the star ravensburg ordered all available ships to intercept them though he knew there was little he could do to stop the behemoths only the flame of Purity was close enough to attack but the battle Cruiser's weapons had little effect against the huge stations as the fortresses built up power for their cataclysmic attack they were again linked by powerful energy beams seeing only one chance Captain adrabal ordered all power to the Shields and drove the flame of Purity into the middle of the converging energy waves the ship was destroyed almost instantly scattered into its constituent atoms however the detonation had expended the fortress's power and as adrabal had hoped the Blackstone fortresses would take some time to accumulate the energy required for another attack luckily time was something that avadon had run out of their Power Systems drain the Blackstone fortresses could do little Abaddon managed to escape into the walk with two of them after a lengthy Chase to the edges of the schindelgeist system and a jump into warp space dangerously near to the gravity well the Imperial Fleet closed in on the third unleashing all their weapons although still to little effect finally two strike Cruisers from the Angels Redemption Space Marines chapter combined with assault boats from the Divine Right boarded the isolated Blackstone in an attempt to recapture it Ensign Goldwyn was part of the Navy's boarding party and he later reported to his superiors we were astounded to find no crew aboard the Blackstone Fortress there was no opposition at all to our boarding and on entering I found it entirely unrecognizable from the base where I had been trained the walls themselves pulsed with energy the surface of which had become deep vein black totally unlike the harsh white paint did corridors and rooms I'd call home for six years there was no sign at all of the modifications made by the tech priests as if our intrusion had been totally expunged we had been aboard for perhaps an hour when suddenly a high-pitched wine filled the air and the walls became Ruddy in color a sense of panic filled our hearts and we hunted back to the Sharks our assault Birds we were just in time as no sooner had we left and the Fortress began to break up slowly shattering into thousands of fragments which should have been a happy moment to see our enemy destroyed but although I cannot say why my heart was filled with sorrow and I could not get over the feeling that something magnificent had died at about the same time the recaptured Blackstone destroyed itself the other fortresses across the gothic sector also self-destructive nobody at the time knew whether the blackstones under abaddon's control had been destroyed in a similar fashion that knowledge would only come with the launching of the 13th Black Crusade and the terrible events which followed how or why the Blackstone fortresses were obliterated remains a mystery but Inquisitor horse reportedly said to Lord ravensburg who can tell what Abaddon could have done with all six some things are too dangerous to be allowed to exist in someone or something decided that the Blackstone fortresses are amongst those things the closing years 152-160 m41 with avadon's Fleet gone the attention of the Imperial Navy was turned on the other chaos fleets the warp storms had decreased to almost their normal level and scores of ships poured into the gothic sector many of the chaos War Masters followed Abaddon and fled back to the eye of Terror to nurse their hatred and bitterness until another opportunity to attack four battle groups each consisting of several dozen Capital ships and escorts systematically engaged and destroyed many of those who remained eradicating them each in turn in the Portmore sub-sector Titanic running battles between Admiral Storm's second Cruiser battle group and the war Fleet of Heinrich Vale lasted for two years as the chaos ships slipped from system to system turning to fight when the odds were in their favor fleeing before the emperor's wrath at other times the battle for crin Rock's sound claimed yet more lives as solitary chaos vessels spread through the Tangled debris picking off the occasional Imperial escort or cruises and to hunt them down although the battles across the stars were drawing to a close he took a further eight years to retake the worlds that had been captured by the forces of chaos many of them were utterly devastated their populations enslaved or sacrificed to the dark Gods the lands ravaged by War slowly but surely the Imperial Guard scoured these planets of the taint of chaos the missionaries and confessors of the ecclesiaki set about restoring faith in the emperor and the Inquisition hunted down those who had collaborated with the followers of the dark Gods however the fight is never truly finished there are worlds within the Grail dark nebula that still awaits the empress fleets to free them there are scattered chaos ships and even two or three fleets that still roam the darkness between the stars of the Hammerhead deeps and the Cyclops cluster waiting for their chance to strike again there's more warships of the followers of chaos departed or were destroyed ravensburg ordered two of the large battle groups to concentrate on the Pirates Who had grown powerful during the Carnage like the chaos fleets they reach hunted down in turn many of the Bands breaking up and seeking sanctuary and forgotten star systems and in Uncharted asteroid Fields the Orcs of the Cyclops cluster became a target of extensive pogroms forced from Worlds where they had enslaved Millions smashed from Star systems where their crude ships had preyed upon Imperial shipping twenty years of war had left deep scars man it will still take centuries of Blood Sweat and toil to repair the harm both physical and spiritual that has been wreaked by Abaddon and his minions and that may be nigh impossible since the fall of Cadia and the birth of the Great Rift for the Imperial Navy and battlefleet Gothic in particular the cost had been high both in human life and in numbers of ships great sacrifices had been made and great Heroes had met the challenge through the determination courage and loyalty of every man in the Navy the war had been won the high Lords Of Terror recognized the efforts of the entire sector Fleet in the name of each crewman who served in the war from Lord Admiral ravensburg to the lowest rating on the smallest merchant ship was engraved Upon A specially constructed monolith which stands 10 times the height of a man in the chambers of Heroes in the Imperial Palace itself Inquisitor host Slipped Away to pursue his duties elsewhere and it is rumored that he spent the rest of his life hunting Abaddon questing to find what had become of the Blackstone fortresses Abaddon may have escaped with not the success of his self-imposed mission no report has ever been made and he has not been seen since the end of the gothic War through those dark times the gothic sector had survived and life would eventually return to some form of normal for the brave men of the Imperial Navy the running battles with Eldar Pirates the constant search for treacherous Smugglers the crushing of Heretics and Rebels and a thousand other jobs for which Humanity owes the Imperial Navy it's Eternal thanks May the emperor protect and there we have it the history of the gothic sector War which I think is a nice complementary piece to the recent readings I've done of execution hour and Shadow point which are novels which concerns some of the major events in the gothic sector War such as Inquisitor hosts uh tracking down of the mystery of what Abaddon was doing the the Planet Killer the alliance with the Elder ah my mind went blank and it's got some amazing characters in it Leighton semper Maxim Barossa of course a fan favorite but uh yeah fantastic little compliment to that and a great bit of the lore one of my favorite bits the battlefield Armada games are also a good complementary so that if you want to go and watch the Cinematic swim I recommend them uh they're really good at visualizing this and those games as well were pretty sick as well it's a shame the multiplayer died so soon it was really into that but anyway I will see you all again soon more stuff is coming up so stay tuned please like the video subscribe if you're not subscribed let me know in the comments what you think all these things really help the channel and to the channel grow and help me out if you'd like to directly support I really really appreciate that as these fine gentlemen have here uh as their names are scrolling past and uh you will get your name on this board as well you'd like to do that you can become a YouTube member by clicking the join button down below and become a direct supporter of the YouTube channel or you can become a patron on patreon or over on subscribe star if you prefer thank you all for your continued support I really appreciate it I thank you for your patience as well uh Channel's been a bit ropey with content delivery last couple of uh about two months or so I've had some big life events occur so yeah uh bear with me we should be back to normal a normalish production uh output uh I don't know stuff will be coming regular all right I'll see you later thanks very much for watching I appreciate it and uh I'll be back again very very soon thanks again Tara bye-bye

Channel: ABORDER PRINCE

Views: 147,808

Keywords: GOTHIC SECTOR WAR, GOTHIC WAR, GOTHIC SECTOR, battlefleet gothic, WARHAMMER, WARHAMMER 40K, ABADDON THE DESPOILER, FALL OF CADIA, BLACK CRUSADE, IMPERIAL NAVY, IMPERIUM OF MAN, EMPEROR OF MANKIND, GODS OF CHAOS, CHAOS SPACE MARINES, SPACE MARINES, EXECUTION HOUR, SHADOW POINT, ELDAR, AELDARI, WARHAMMER LORE, WARHAMMER AUDIOBOOK, ENGLISH AUDIOBOOK, CADIAN GATE, EYE OF TERROR, PLANET KILLER, BLACKSTONE FORTRESS, ASMR SCIFI, SCIFI, SCIFI AUDIBOOK, MILITARY SCIFI, GRIMDARK, ORKS

Id: ntx4VKGQPAs

Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2022