Tiber Achilus - Into the Breach: It was to take several Terran years to gather the needed men and resources for the crusade, and in that time Achilus spent much of his waking hours with his tacticians pouring over the data gathered by the Explorator fleets and advanced scouts.The large region beyond the gate (dubbed the Well of Night due to its lack of worlds or stars) worried him, and he set upon making his first priority finding a suitable world on the edge of the Well in which to set up a permanent Imperial presence within the Reach.Studying the charts of the region around the Warp Gate, Achilus settled on a number of possible life-sustaining worlds that would suit his purposes. Most prominent among them were Karlack, Calisi, Alphos and Spite.Though Calisi and Alphos were closer to the Warp Gate than either Karlack or Spite, Achilus ended up discounting them, even though they would make excellent outposts and strong points. They were too poor in resources to support the kind of production he wanted to eventually put out.Spite was seemingly ideal, however Imperial spies who had visited the world reported that is was tainted by xenos sympathizers and its weak governing council already considering treaty with the approaching T'au Empire.Thus, Achilus chose Karlack, a world still nominally loyal to the Imperium which could be quickly subdued and exploited, and which in turn could be turned into a factory to fuel the crusade.Another concern for Achilus was the nature of the Imperial force he would be commanding, comprising troops and commanders from nearly every arm of the Imperial war machine and coming from scores of worlds and several sectors, sometimes with bitter rivalries.Literally legions of diplomats and liaison officers worked ceaselessly to ensure that those commanders and units with grudges remained in different warzones. Troop ships and camps were often designated for regiments from specific sectors and systems, so that they would not mix with those they either hated or those that were too foreign to be trusted.All of this petty military and planetary rivalry however paled in comparison when measured against the problems Achilus faced when dealing with the Deathwatch, Inquisition, and Ministorum. Loosely under his command, each of these Imperial organisations had their own agendas and ideas as to the role they would play in the coming crusade.The Ministorum, primarily concerned with the bringing of Imperial worlds back into the fold of the Imperial Creed, made extensive demands on Achilus for control over strategic placement of their forces and the right to be the first to land on heathen worlds or deal with heathen governments.In the case of the Inquisition and the Deathwatch, the Warmaster held a pivotal advantage; a secret source amongst the High Lords of Terra had given him much information about the activities of both in the region. Achilus knew full well they held secrets about the Reach which could prove vital to the success of his campaign -- the Deathwatch especially as they maintained a presence in the region and had done so for centuries.Try as he might though, Achilus could not exert any direct power over the Deathwatch's Astartes or force them to pass on their secret knowledge.In a relatively short amount of time Achilus had mustered a mighty armada of vessels and troops and embarked through the Warp Gate and into the Jericho Reach -- its was the eve of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension in 777.M41.Aboard his flagship the Proclamation of Wrath, Achilus made a pronouncement to his staff officers which was recorded by his war-scribes for the official crusade annuals:"There can be nothing so great as what we do this day and though I may not live to see the completion of this mighty task, I can stand before the God-Emperor when I die and say I was here when it began."Unknown to Achilus, his words would ring more true than he might have suspected. Like a righteous tide, the ships of the crusade spread out from the Warp Gate and set out for the worlds of Calisi, Alphos, Hethgard, Pyrathas, Spite, and Karlack.This was the first phase of the crusade, and part of Achilus' initial plan to take the worlds outlying the Warp Gate and fortify them, creating an impregnable bastion with which to launch further assaults into the sector and with which to protect the Warp Gate itself.Calisi and Alphos fell quickly, within the first year and without great loss to the crusade (the greatest disaster of the Alphos campaign was when the Mars-class Battlecruiser Spirit of Penance incinerated almost an entire regiment of the Terrax Guard due to an error by her captain).Almost immediately, second wave forces moved through the Warp Gate and began the rapid fortification of the worlds, turning what were once minor colonies into towering edifices of plasteel and ferrocrete bristling with Macrocannon and lance turrets.Hethgard and Pyrathas took longer, both due to distance and a greater resistance by their populations. Hethgard especially posed a problem for the crusaders, and though many of its nations and minor city states were welcoming of the Imperium (or at least not foolish enough to oppose it), some resisted or tried to subvert the crusaders.Achilus expressly forbade excessive planetary bombardment as the mines were too valuable, and so it fell to the Astra Militarum to root the enemy out themselves.Though it was not known at the time, agents of the Stigmartus had infiltrated Hethgard and stirred up some of its population against the crusade, turning mines into underground fortress temples and people into slaves of the Dark Gods.Hethgard was eventually subdued, though not before thousands of guardsmen had lost their lives, hacked to death in the dark depths of its mines.In contrast to the other setbacks, Karlack proved a perfect choice for the crusade to create its headquarters and the simple farmers and peasants of that green world welcomed Achilus with open arms. Almost immediately the Lord Militant began to fortify and in a few short Terran years much of the world's forests and farmland had been stripped bare, replaced with hive-like munitoriums and factories or mustering grounds for troops.Everywhere great winches topped deep mines working endlessly as they harvested the world's untapped mineral riches. In orbit, the Adeptus Mechanicus performed an incredible feat of engineering as they built a shipyard from space hulks and second-line vessels. This feat was so large that it could be seen from the planet by the naked eye, glinting in the sky.While Achilus fortified Karlack, his troops were fighting for their lives on Spite. In one of the first great treacheries of the crusade, the people of Spite turned on the crusaders after welcoming them into their cities under banners of treaty.In the great Mirrored Palace, the emissaries of the crusade were cut down in a brutal ambush while all across the landing zones Imperial Guard regiments found themselves suddenly under attack. The rebels of Spite (and their T'au masters) however had badly underestimated the will and strength of the forces arrayed against them.The Imperium's reprisals were swift and brutal. Even before the sun had set on the first day, the Deathwatch (represented by less than half a dozen Kill-teams) had slain the entire high ranking civilian and military command of Spite, including a number of T'au envoys. Within a solar week, the world was in the hands of the Imperium, and though civil unrest would continue for several standard years, the crusaders could now settle in and begin to fortify.Thus with the securing of the key worlds of Karlack, Calisi, Alphos, Hethgard, Pyrathas, and Spite, Achilus had in the space of less than five years secured a foothold within the Jericho Reach. He had created a defensive line which would become known by the Imperium and her enemies alike as the Iron Collar.