Orpheus Sector - Portents of Doom: It was in this state of disarray that the Orpheus Sector entered far more tumultuous times. With the local political powers squabbling, it fell to the sector's foremost defenders to maintain some measure of stability within the region.However, this task grew more complicated in 672.M40 when the Orpheus Sector was increasingly plagued by sudden and unpredictable Warp squalls, aetheric disruptions or other strange phenomena of the same ilk. These were not isolated incidents, as much of the Segmentum Tempestus was suffering from the same problems at this time. The Warp had grown restless, and even safe and established routes were not spared from the rise in unusual aetheric activity. Many voidships were lost in the Warp, so many that commerce within the sector rapidly declined, and inter-system ship traffic was gradually reduced to a historic minimum. Only the vessels of Battlefleet Orpheus and the Angels Revenant tirelessly continued their patrols. However, the increased Warp activity also bore dire consequences for the physical realm.This untamed Warp energy was held responsible for many natural disasters in the sector, but most notoriously it spurred Chaos Cults to action. At the same time, psyker-daemon incursions rose to levels the Sector had not seen since the Time of Revolts. On many worlds, latent psykers and psychically-sensitive Imperial citizens reported recurring nightmares, all painting a bleak picture of a rising darkness and burning cities. Some told of pale figures treading in eerie silence in the dust of dead worlds, or stalking immense labyrinths, malice written in their eyes. These unsettling reports quickly came to the ears of the Inquisition, which immediately tried to suppress wider knowledge of the visions. Emboldened by these aetheric disturbances, the Eldar Corsairs of the Hesod Nebula also increased their raids on the sector, preying upon the worlds of the Cold Veil and the Capitoline Sub-sector alike.In the end, the power of the Empyrean gave birth to a full Warp Storm, the Howling Vortex, which engulfed the system of Morros in 689.M41. All communication with the penitentiaries of Morros Lachrymal and its thirteen million prisoners was lost, their fate unclear, as were the fates of the last prison-hulks despatched by Decapolis.It is generally assumed that the vessels, like so many others of that time, perished in the Warp. At the same time, the Celestarii Cult emerged from the shadows and redoubled its activities, culminating in the famed Kellerman Murders of 744.M41. With the sector's rulers still openly distrustful of each other and unable to set their differences aside, the Inquisition, already overstretched, failed to prevent a Chaos-inspired uprising on the industrial worlds of Chemarium. The sector lacked the strength to smash the rebellion and the worlds of the Chemarium System were cordoned off, its loyal citizens and cities left to fight the threat alone.These events perhaps explain why no importance was given to an incident of 811.M41 in the distant system of Harrow Watch, at the exterior borders of the Orpheus Sector. The Wayward Son, an Escort-sized Warp dromon of the Rogue Trader flotilla of Caleb Gilderoy, unexpectedly returned from the Outer Darkness, limping into the Harrow Watch Exclusion Zone. The voidship was heavily damaged, and what garbled communication could be received at the Mechanicum outpost indicated that its crew claimed to have been attacked by unknown xenos. This "terror" had wiped out the rest of the Rogue Trader's flotilla.The communication ended in desperate pleas for immediate sanctuary at Harrow Watch, but as the voidship did not carry the proper authorization codes to enter Harrow Watch's defence perimeter, the Wayward Son was destroyed by the Mechanicum for having failed to comply with the Magos' orders to turn back.The Wayward Son-incident was unique, but was representative of the increasing number of vessels lost at the Orpheus Sector's outer borders. Since the Harrow Watch System is close to the Hesod Nebula, the losses were attributed to Eldar Corsairs rather than to another possible xenos foe of the Imperium. Even when operatives of the Inquisition ascertained that the Cult Celestarii awaited the imminent End of Time, this news was not taken seriously or linked to the other strange incidents in the sector. In hindsight, it appears that these events heralded the awakening of the Necron menace. Alas, all of the most obvious signs were misinterpreted.After plaguing the Orpheus Sector for more than three hundred standard years, the increased Warp activity and other strange phenomena were suddenly snuffed out by a tremendous Warp Storm. Many voidships were driven off-course by the storm, emerging in star systems far distant from their original destination, some reemerging violently in realspace or dropping out of the Warp unexpectedly, while others were simply destroyed, broken apart by the force of the Immaterium, the souls of their crew and passengers fodder for daemons.All across the sector, astropaths, psykers, hedge-wizards and witches suffered inexplicable death or had their minds burned blank by the stress put on them. Even mundanes were affected as the cases of mass hysteria, mania, inexplicable murders or disappearances in the Cold Veil region and the Drucillan Sub-sector testify. Believing the Warp Storm to be but a precursor of a larger daemonic incursion from Apollyon, the Ordo Malleus and the Conclave Orpheus issued a warning for maximum vigilance among their Inquisitors and Acolytes.So it was that at the end of the year 990.M41, these urgent messages supplanted a communication from the distant Mechanicum outpost of Harrow Watch, a message which warned that both suns of the binary Caracol System beyond the Veiled Region had gone supernova at the same time that the Warp Storm hit the sector's outer limits. This report was largely dismissed at the time as insignificant.No one within the Ordos thought of cross-referencing the destruction of the Caracol System with the sacred text of the Cult Celestarii, which had foretold that these stellar catastrophes would herald the End of Time. In hindsight, these events can be clearly interpreted as unheeded warnings portending the awakening of the Maynarkh Dynasty that ultimately destroyed the sector in the Orphean War. One cannot help but wonder that if the data had been correctly interpreted and swift action taken, perhaps the Orpheus Sector would still exist today.