13th Black Crusade (Original) - Cadian Sector: The Fortress World of Cadia still stands, but she stands alone, a failing beacon of the Emperor's light flickering against the encroaching night. Total war has come to the Segmentum Obscurus, and all hopes of repelling the invaders have been dashed for the moment. The Imperium must now consolidate its grip upon those worlds of the segmentum it still holds, and prepare to fight a war that will not end within the lifetime of any of its combatants. While Cadia still stands, humanity has reason to hope, but Abaddon the Despoiler has finally achieved what he had failed to do on twelve previous occasions, over more than ten thousand standard years -- he has breached the Cadian Gate, and none can now hold back the eventual tide of Chaos he will seek to unleash upon the Imperium of Man.The Forces of Chaos won a small if significant victory over the Imperium and the Eldar, capturing a number of Imperial worlds in sectors beyond the Cadian Gate for the first time since the Horus Heresy. Cadia still stands, but only just, as most of the planet's surface belongs to Chaos. The battle for Cadia will last centuries without aid, but if Chaos gains headway in the space above Cadia, then the defenders will be doomed, especially with a Blackstone Fortress still lurking somewhere. Even without aid to the Imperial forces in orbit, there is a large chance that simple supplies such as food will be unable to reach the defenders, and that the defenders will eventually starve to death. No man, no Space Marine, fought harder to save Cadia than the Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed. Although each Castellum levelled cut him deep, the faith of Ursarkar Creed proved unshakeable. His victories could not easily be counted, but the numbers of the Archenemy did not lessen whereas each defeat drained the strength of the Imperial forces. Creed was forced first to give ground to preserve his forces and then to abandon his favoured mobile defensive tactics in favour of defending fortified lines. His friend, Jarran Kell, was wounded defending him from yet another Chaos Champion eager to make a name, and Creed was fatigued to the point of collapse when finally the momentum of the Chaos forces ran out.The Inquisition Fortress World of Nemesis Tessera, its existence supposedly unknown to all but the highest members of the Inquisition, came under fierce attack during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. The systems surrounding the Inquisition Fortress World experienced hitherto unknown levels of civil insurrection that could not be explained without recourse to the malign influence of the Ruinous Powers. In one such incident, a previously peaceful sect of contemplative monks turned on the populace of the nearby planet Trionora, engaging in a series of bloody massacres across the planet's surface. Ordo Hereticus strike teams were dispatched to cull these killing sprees -- they discovered the barricaded monasteries to be full of corpses, the monks having chosen to end their lives in an orgy of self-mutilation. The monasteries were burned to the ground, the ruins sown with salt and reconsecrated.While the agents of the Inquisition policed the systems surrounding their fortress, many strange omens and portents were unearthed, all indicating great disaster. Many believed this simply to be the foretelling of the invasion of Abaddon, but other, more cautious Inquisitors believed it to be something more. These doomsayers were proved correct when the blind servers of Nemesis Tessera detected unauthorised psychic activity within the depths of the fortress itself. Inquisitor Van Hel, a Radical Inquisitor who delved too deeply into mysteries best left alone, had been seduced by the whispered promises of the Ruinous Powers and only the timely intervention of Inquisitor Cyarro prevented a Warp rift of cataclysmic proportions from developing. At almost the exact same time, a determined force of Chaos Space Marines launched an attack on the Inquisition fortress and laid siege to it for many months. Only the timely arrival of the Space Wolves saved the beleaguered Inquisitorial forces and the combined forces of the Inquisition and the Sons of Russ were finally able to repulse the attack. The reason why the Space Wolves abandoned their previous station to deploy throughout the Nemesis Tessera Sub-sector remains a mystery.