Rogue Traders - Era Indomitus: In the wake of the birth of the Great Rift, nearly one hundred Rogue Traders were invited to Macragge for an emergency symposium. The summons bore the seal of Roboute Guilliman, the resurrected primarch of the Ultramarines, lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, and thus was an honour no one in the Imperium could refuse. From this magnificent beginning would stem a truly hellish journey.It had been many thousands of Terran years since so many Rogue Traders were gathered in one location. It was rare enough for a handful to meet. Many of the assembled Rogue Traders had guessed the purpose of the quorum by the time they had arrived, for Ultramar had been ravaged by war.The sovereign domain of the Ultramarines Chapter -- once thought inviolable given its peerless infrastructure and many-layered defences -- had been broken open and brought to ruin on a dozen fronts by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard during the conflicts known as the Plague Wars.Though Guilliman had returned following the end of the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade in securing the Imperium Sanctus to lead a masterful defence of his realm, the aftermath would take solar decades, if not standard centuries, to resolve.Many of the Rogue Traders genuflected as the primarch entered the halls, but Guilliman bid them stand. He spoke to them as equals, as was his way. The primarch claimed that the Imperium was not just being invaded, but locked in a struggle for its spirit as much as its body. The Realm of Ultramar had been afflicted with plagues, each supernatural in origin and voracious in its spread. Before the invading forces of Chaos had been driven back to the Scourge Stars, a trio of conquered Imperial star systems, many of the moons and planets under Guilliman's rule had been wracked by the spoor of Nurgle -- the Dark God that Mortarion and his fallen Traitor Legion called lord and master.During the Indomitus Crusade, Guilliman had travelled across the war-riven galaxy and seen his father's empire in flames. He knew every resource would be needed to save Mankind, and even as he took the fight to Humanity's enemies, his statesman-like mind dwelled on how the Imperium would recover from its losses. To this end, he knew the Rogue Traders would be vital.The Rogue Traders that Guilliman had selected were to fight for the Imperium's future -- not as warriors or bureaucrats, but as pioneers. The front line upon which they would face their destiny was not that of the battlefield, but of deep and uncharted space.They were to find new worlds to conquer in the name of the Emperor, fresh lands upon which Mankind could settle and thrive. While Warp storms had cut off much of the galaxy in the wake of the Cicatrix Maledictum's birth, they had also opened up never before explored Warp routes upon the fringes of Imperial space. There could be found opportunity, hope -- and such danger that meant many of the Rogue Traders would never return.Guilliman gave those gathered at the symposium on Macragge the opportunity to leave, to walk away without a stain on their honour, for it was a perilous task he proposed -- since the opening of the Great Rift, the Astronomican had been occluded more than ever, and the creatures of the Warp seemed to haunt every space lane and distant moon. Yet not one of those assembled took a backward step. Some remained out of pride, some out of duty, some out of a sense of adventure -- but all were to find themselves set on a new path that would see them meet either victory or inglorious damnation.Within solar days, the fleets of the Rogue Traders had left the Realm of Ultramar, bound for the yawning reaches of space beyond the Eastern Fringe and the extremities of the Ultima Segmentum's spiral arm. Most carried in their holds large populations of Ultramaran colonists kept in cryogenic hyper-freeze seeking a new and better life somewhere else.Out there were the youngest stars in the galaxy -- those most likely to have untouched planets in their orbits, and therefore most likely to have habitable lands. That all hoped to find territories unspoilt by the ravages of Chaos was an unspoken truth.Each Rogue Trader fleet took a different heading, their Navigators guiding them through the Warp towards destinations unknown. They all underwent challenges upon the way, and some found nothing but cruel and violent ends.