Jericho Reach - The Age of Shadows: The Shadows Descend (M37 to M41) - Darkness and dissolution descend upon the Jericho Sector, restoring it to the name of the pre-Imperial Jericho Reach. From this point onwards, the records of its history are no more than a few fragments of an unknown whole, with only the Deathwatch’s tireless vigil maintaining any semblance of Imperial involvement in the region.The End of the Jericho Sector (889.M36) - The endless wars and calamities of the Imperium grind on. Still cut off, the Jericho Sector is left to fend for itself, all but entirely bereft from contact from the outside -- save from occasional deep range patrols from the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Ultima and far-ranging trade and exploration vessels. Cut off and isolated, world after world is subsumed to horror, civil decay, or warfare, until finally in 889.M36, the Imperial authorities declare with the stroke of an auto quill that the Jericho Sector as a political entity of the Imperium of Man is no more. The region of space it once occupied is returned to being designated the Jericho Reach.The Star-Killa Crew (380-405.M37) - An Ork Freeboota fleet of over one hundred ships ravages the northern region of the Jericho Reach, attacking and devastating Castobel, Aurum, and Alphos. Deathwatch Codicier Kiataino masterminds a plan to destabilise the Ork forces before they can become entrenched, and succeeds in killing their Warboss and his immediate possible successors, forcing the Orks to turn on each other in a savage fight to establish dominance, neutralising the Ork threat.The Black Shield (651.M37) - A brother of the Deathwatch bearing no Chapter device arrives at Watch Fortress Erioch. This brother "Black Shield" calls himself Hail, and is the lone Space Marine occupant of the Rapid Strike Cruiser Unquiet Angel. Hail claims that he has learned the location of the remains of the vanished 4th Company of the Black Consuls Chapter, a force lost in its entirety a millennia before, and he seeks the aid of Watch Fortress Erioch in searching them out. Following the convening of the Chamber of Vigilance, a Kill-team joins Hail aboard the Unquiet Angel. Hail leads the Kill-team to a massive Space Hulk drifting in the dead space on the edge of the Phaegis System. The Kill-team board the vessel and succeed in recovering the banner of the Black Consuls 4th Company and a number of other Chapter relics, despite being assaulted by scores of Warp Ghouls and other foul creatures. In gratitude for the eventual return of their remains some decades later when the conveyor ship dispatched from Erioch reaches them, the Black Consuls renew their oaths to the Deathwatch with a pledge of Battle-Brothers three times what it was previously.The Spiders of Mataras (920.M37) - Mataras IV is subject to the final sanction of Exterminatus carried out by the Deathwatch to prevent further contamination by a parasite-colony of the horrific Hadrus Skin-Weaver xenoform from spreading to neighbouring worlds. The Hadrus is a xenos species only previously encountered in the southwestern extremes of the Segmentum Tempestus, and its presence on Mataras IV is a mystery of dire import that remains unsolved.The Nightmare Lords (111.M38) - The Feudal World of Ynnen falls to the tyranny of an Enslaver outbreak. A full eighty Deathwatch brothers and two Dreadnought have to undertake the elimination of the Enslavers. Only eleven Battle-Brothers return alive and both occupants of the Dreadnought sarcophagi are slain, but successfully returned to await new interments.The Long Night of Verronus (249.M40) - The Hive World of Verronus, once a bright star of Imperial majesty and the seat of the ancient Jericho Sector’s power, finally succumbs to centuries of slow collapse, its last threads of civilisation falling into darkness as the ill-tended powerstems that maintain its hive city spires flicker and finally die. Foul cults, witches and abominations that have thus far been kept in check only by the direst sacrifices of Verronus’ last defenders rise up, their hour come at last. With the failing of the light, all that remains is a final long night of anarchy, famine, and living nightmare.The Hereteks of Samech (325.M40) - An Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet battles its way through the Warp Storms shrouding the Jericho Reach to re-contact the Forge World of Samech. The ships are lured into close orbit and fired on by the defence systems that ring the world. The Cult Mechanicus declares the Forge World Apostate under a penalty of death, an order that has yet to be carried out.The Coming of the Carnivores (360.M40) - A modified, marauding "war sphere" vessel belonging to the mercenary (and highly carnivorous) xenos species known as the Kroot appears in the Jericho Reach and attacks outlying worlds in the Black Reef region. Hunted and stalked by Deathwatch vessels and repeatedly raided by Kill-teams, the massive Kroot warship is badly damaged but manages to flee, driven away from the region.The Fury of Hell (656.M40) - The Hadex Anomaly comes into being, swallowing the Hive World of Verronus. It is believed that the Anomaly emerged due to the bloody rites performed by those dark souls that abided there. Across the Jericho Reach, nascent psykers burn and daemons stalk the land as a sudden wave of unholy power ripples through the localised area of Warpspace. Those afflicted psykers are either sent irrevocably mad or transfigured into short-lived and murderous demigods who kill thousands and further push those few worlds that remain under civilised control over the brink. On Watch Fortress Erioch, a full third of the Astropathic choir dies, weeping blood. The Omega Vault opens, yielding up a holo-projector that shows only the image of a face mask in the shape of a golden human skull.The Fifteen of Midael (175.M41) - The Deathwatch Rapid Strike Cruiser Instance of Fire is attacked by an unknown warship of an archaic Imperial design, and forced to flee before the vastly overmatching vessel. Guided by infernal power, the warship pursues the Deathwatch vessel to Midael and catches the Instance of Fire and disables it in a brief exchange of fire. Escaping to the Watch Station on Midael’s surface, the fifteen surviving Battle-Brothers make Death Oaths and prepare their last defence in the armoured tower of the Watch Station. They hold out for seventeen days against a company-strength force of Chaos Space Marines clad in red armour emblazoned with the marks of the Dark Gods. When a relief force reaches Midael, it is too late; they find the Watch Station despoiled but repairable. The bodies and armour of the fifteen defenders are never found.The Year of Dreaming Depths (397.M41) - A period of sustained and often deadly Warp disturbance affecting the Koronus Expanse in the Segmentum Obscurus is observed. Concurrently, the Warp Storms afflicting the Jericho Reach lessen, but do not give way. Wreckage of the Iron Promise, a Rogue Trader vessel belonging to the minor bloodline of Unurndel lost within the Koronus Expanse in this year, is later discovered on the Dead World of Belissar by the Deathwatch in the Jericho Reach.The Tau Invasion of Black Reef (ca. 400.M41) - At an unknown date during this period, the aggressive, expansionist xenos race known as the Tau begin wide-scale colonisation and invasion operations in the Black Reef region of the Coreward portion of the Jericho Reach. Shielded from immediate detection by the Warp Storms and other strange stellar phenomenon of the region, the Tau fleets quickly gain an entrenched foothold on several worlds, and enslave many human-populated worlds to their "Greater Good."The Visitation (715.M41) - Two Inquisitors arrive at Watch Fortress Erioch unannounced, their credentials and ciphers for access all in order. One calls herself Camilla Noesis, and the other claims the name Kaleb, but hides his face behind a featureless mask of tarnished silver. They give no explanation of how they learned of the Watch Fortress’s location; they simply say that the time was as it should be. Their arrival coincides with an opening of a chamber within the Omega Vault. Within is found a chronograph dating from the Dark Age of Technology which appears to be meticulously marking a countdown of time, measuring the hours and their divisions with total precision. The Chamber of Vigilance stands in discussion for thirteen days and nights. The two Inquisitors take all records of their discussions as they leave.The Jericho Warp Gate Opens (755.M41) - The Warp Gate in the great Warp Storms on the periphery of the Calixis Sector is discovered by the Imperial Navy Frigate Spear of Tarsus. Sensing something causing a localised area of calm in the great Warp Storm, the ship’s Navigator drops the Spear of Tarsus out of the Warp. At the centre of this sea of ethereal calm is a vast Warp Gate of xenos design. The gate is found to be active and becomes the immediate focus of the attentions of the Ordo Xenos, Deathwatch, and savants of the Adeptus Mechanicus devoted to the rare study of such arcane machinery. Preliminary investigations reveal (to not inconsiderable surprise) a static Warp conduit leading to the deadspace region bordering the Jericho Reach on the other side of the Imperium in the Segmentum Ultima.The Gathering of the Ascension (756.M41) - On the eve of the Feast of the Emperor’s Ascension, four Inquisitors and two hundred brothers of the Deathwatch arrive at the Watch Fortress Erioch at the same time. All claim to have received a coded message that called them to attend at the Watch Fortress. The source of the message is unknown. In the days after the Feast of Ascension, the Watch Fortress becomes a battleground of mistrust and murder, as a shapeshifting assassin of unknown origin stalks the corridors and vaults of the Watch Fortress. The assassin is caught and slain after a seventeen-hour manhunt, but only after the death of two of the four Inquisitors, nine Acolytes, and twenty-three Space Marines. [Other Details Classified]