Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Time of Ending (ca. 744.M41 - ca. 999.M41): As the threats to the Imperium grew, Mankind stood on the precipice of utter extinction. The Time of Ending was the era of Humanity's judgment, where faith was tested by fire and all Humankind's courage was pushed to its limits -- and well beyond. Secession, rebellion, Chaos corruption and heresy were rife within every corner of the Imperium. Sensing weakness, alien empires ancient and new to Humanity's experience -- Orks, Aeldari, T'au, Necrons and perhaps worst of all, the Tyranids -- closed in from every side.Zealots ranted that the xenos were Mankind's punishment, its just consequences for straying from the Emperor's guidance. The rise of mutants and witches was yet another sign of Humanity's sin. Desperate messages from across the galaxy echoed through the Warp. Astropaths worked feverishly to pull the transmissions from the Immaterium and translate them, to sift the meaning from the garble.And those messages were increasingly dire: planetary governors sent desperate pleas for aid, Astra Militarum officers called for reinforcements, fleet commanders issued ominous warnings of enemy starship movements. The forces of the Imperium fought with the valour of ancient heroes, defending Humanity from within, without and beyond -- but they could not be everywhere at once.The Space Marines and Astra Militarum were at war as never before, even during the Horus Heresy. The news grew worse daily, the attacks on the Imperium steadily increasing. Most ominous of all, the prescient foretold of great ripples in the Warp, like a swell in the water disturbed by some colossal but unseen menace in the depths below. Fell things were gathering in that dread realm, straining as never before to break the bounds of reality.It was surely Humanity's darkest hour...The Imperium as a whole made its first official contact with the T'au during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, also called the Damocles Crusade, which was the first military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the rapidly expanding T'au Empire in the Lithesh Sector of the Ultima Segmentum adjacent to the galaxy's Eastern Fringes during the 41st Millennium. The conflict essentially ended in a stalemate, as the Imperium was forced to conclude its military offensive early to deal with the encroaching Tyranid threat while the T'au sought to begin diplomatic negotiations with the Imperium to show Humanity the benefits to be had by accepting the Greater Good.Members of the T'au Water Caste had established trade agreements with Imperial worlds on the frontier of the T'au Empire, near the Damocles Gulf region of the Ultima Segmentum in the galactic east, and exchanges of goods and technology across the border between the two empires were common. Alarmed by the threat of alien contamination, the Administratum readied a suitable response and almost a standard century later, the Damocles Crusade smashed into T'au space, destroying several outlying settlements and pushing deep into the T'au Empire.When the Imperial fleet reached the T'au Sept World of Dal'yth Prime, however, the crusade ground to a bloody stalemate as the formidable numbers and high technology of the T'au and their Kroot and Vespid allies thwarted every attempt to capture the world or its star system. Many solar months of terrible fighting ensued with nothing gained on either side. By late 742.M41 the crusade's commanders eventually agreed to requests from the Water Caste for peace talks. The negotiations were successful and the Imperial fleet withdrew from T'au space unmolested, primarily due to the impending approach of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth.The Time of Ending earned its name in 744.M41 when Taggarath, the Seer of Corrinto, proclaimed the approach of the End Times for Humanity. He prophesied a time of unprecedented upheaval, in which even the light of the Emperor was swallowed in darkness. Taggarath was swiftly executed by the Inquisition for heresy -- and to keep his prophecies unknown by the wider Imperial public -- but the doomsayer's cry is picked up by other psychic sensitives on planets beyond count across the Human-settled galaxy.In 745.M41 the Tyranids first entered the galaxy and the Tyrannic Wars began. Hive Fleet Behemoth destroyed the Imperial star systems of Tyran (for which the Tyranids are named) and Thandros. Later that same year, Hive Fleet Behemoth descended upon the Realm of Ultramar, the fief of the Ultramarines, laying waste to several worlds and badly damaging the Space Marines' greatest Chapter. The bold deeds done during the Battle of Macragge were one of the most enduring of the many legends of the Ultramarines. The immediate threat presented by Hive Fleet Behemoth was ended under the guns of two entire Imperial Navy battlefleets. Still reeling from the terrible wounds, Imperial Commanders across the Ultima Segmentum looked to their borders with growing unease.The Blood Star Campaign unfolded in 748.M41, when the star Ares turned blood red. It heralded increased Daemonic activity in the Scarus Sector. Before the brutal campaign ended, it claimed untold lives, including three Adeptus Astartes Chapter Masters and the Fleet Admiral of the Segmentum Obscurus' battlefleet.In 750.M41 the Great Exodus occurred. A strange, swirling phenomenon in the Argos System was only an astronomical curiosity until the sudden appearance of six Aeldari craftworlds. By the time an Imperial fleet arrived, both the swirling mass and the Craftworld Aeldari were gone, yet in their passing all prime suns within sixty light years were extinguished. The Imperial fleet and innumerable transports attempted to ferry the countless billions of endangered Imperial citizens to neighbouring star systems, in what was the largest exodus and rescue mission ever attempted by the Imperium. It is estimated that nearly 12% of the population and 32% of the heavy industry of the region were safely removed to other worlds. The ring of dead planets and suns in the region is now known as the "Deadhenge," a salvager's paradise and refuge of pirates.The year 757.M41 saw the first recorded incidence of the dread Zombie Plague erupting on the world of Hydra Minoris. A quarantine was imposed by the Imperial Navy, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of the hungry, contagious and mindless undead children of Nurgle.In 766.M41, many Imperial watch stations and listening posts in the Catachan and Ryza Systems were attacked by Aeldari Corsairs under the command of Yriel. Without their early warning "eyes and ears," this left both star systems vulnerable for solar decades to come.In 783.M41 Asuryani from the Ulthwe craftworld destroyed an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet above the Dead World of Maedrax, but not before several probes were released. Space Marines from the Blood Angels Chapter were dispatched to investigate the loss of the fleet and instead became embroiled in a battle between the Asuryani and the Necrons who had just recently awakened on Maedrax.An uprising in the Krandor System in 795.M41 was harshly put down by the 23rd Cadian Regiment. Several of the Chaos Cults involved in the rebellion, notably the followers of the Shining Deity, the Cult of Many Tentacles and the red-robed Brotherhood, had not been seen since the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion. Although both military and civilian losses were high, the Krandor Rebellion's quick subjugation proved vital. The Imperium could ill-afford to lose the resource-rich Krandor System, which held planets strategically vital to the defence of the Segmentum Obscurus.Throughout the Segmentum Ultima, in 797.M41, countless Ork invasions threatened to mass into a single colossal WAAAGH!. The forces of the Imperium were stretched to their utmost to contain each individual war zone. Notable actions included Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, holding the gate alone for a solar night and a day against the Greenskin hordes during the Siege of Zalathras and the Ultramarines 2nd Company's utter devastation of Warboss Brug's planetary stronghold.In 801.M41 a brief flicker in the Astronomican threw thousands of Imperial starships off course, dooming them to destruction in the Warp. The incident indicated that the Emperor's strength might be weakening.The lamentable campaign known as the Siege of Vraks occurred from 813-830.M41. The Apostate Cardinal Xaphan led the Armoury World of Vraks Prime into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As the forces of the Imperium arrived to quell the rebellion, they were immediately met in battle, followed by a rapid escalation of forces on both sides. The seventeen-year-long campaign ended in a full-scale Daemonic incursion on Vraks and, finally, the intervention of the Ordo Malleus and the Grey Knights. By the end, Vraks was laid waste, its entire population exterminated.In 822.M41 the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon the Despoiler raided the Aeldari Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking a long-lost Chaos artefact. He was driven away by the forces of the Alaitoc craftworld. Such an action was minor compared to the many wars consuming the galaxy at this time, but its portents loomed large in hindsight.By 853.M41, the uprising against Imperial rule on Krandor III, thought to have been successfully suppressed over fifty standard years previously, had once more grown strong. Mutants, psykers and all manner of outcasts had been nurtured in darkness and corruption by the whisper of cowled Chaos Cultists. Even as the surging rebellion took over the planet's surface, hive city by hive city, the orbital sentinel stations and moon-based defence lasers were captured by Chaos Space Marines accompanied by loathsome creatures, neither man nor mutant but wholly Daemonic. Three Space Marine Chapters, led by the stoic Imperial Fists, secured resources, Imperial artefacts and a few Adeptus Administratum officials before an Exterminatus was mercifully delivered to the world. Some 42 Astra Militarum regiments from Krandor III still exist, the only survivors of their lost and benighted world because they had been shipped to distant war zones before the rebellion began.In 863.M41 the Saint Cyllia Massacre occurred when the Adamant Fury Titan Legion betrayed the Emperor and fell to Chaos. The Traitor Titan Legion turned its guns upon Loyalist regiments of the Saint Cyllian Planetary Defence Forces before making good their escape off-world. The loss of a full Titan Legion sent ripples of concern through the Imperium and great effort was exerted to find and destroy it, particularly by the Adeptus Mechanicus and its Collegia Titanica.In 876.M41 Chaos came to the world of Van Horne in the event later known as The Bloodtide to the Inquisition. The Bloodthirster Ka'jagga'nath, Lord of the Bloodtide, broke free of its bonds and unleashed a tide of gore that corrupted everything it touched. For eight solar days and nights, the orgies of blood continued, each fresh death luring yet more Chaos Daemons to the mortal world as the barrier between the Materium and the Warp broke down. Only when the Grey Knights' 4th Brotherhood arrived was the Bloodtide abated, and then only at great cost. Ka'jagga'nath was cast back into the Warp following his defeat. The psychic backlash also banished the Bloodtide and the Khornate Daemons it had drawn forth.In 883.M41 the 423rd Cadian Regiment's spearhead, led by Knight Commander Pask, was the largest armoured assault undertaken by the Imperium since the Battle of Tallarn during the Horus Heresy. Over 8,000 Imperial tank companies and 35 super-heavy tank detachments were annihilated during the near-total destruction of the Renegade Adamant Fury Traitor Titan Legion upon the Planus Steppes.In 888.M41, during the Crusade of Wrath, the Black Templars Chapter inflicted heavy losses on the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, reclaiming several star systems previously lost in the Warp rift of the Maelstrom.In 891.M41 the worlds of Persya suffered attacks from Aeldari Corsairs during the Long Midnight who swathed their targets in utter darkness before pillaging and slaughtering at will. The vicious raids only ceased upon the arrival of the Imperial Navy's Praxion Patrol.In 897.M41, the fortress-convent known as Sanctuary 101 was destroyed, along with all the Sisters of Battle within, during an attack by the Necrons. No survivors or signs of the perpetrators' identity are left behind. Some few scholars in the Imperium begin to understand the vast threat that the awakening Necrons might become to Mankind.In that same year, 897.M41, a new Tyranid menace, code-named Hive Fleet Gorgon, is spotted by Imperial outposts, heading directly for the growing T'au Empire in the Eastern Fringe. No warnings are given to the T'au of what is soon to befall them.In 901.M41 the terrible civil conflict known as the Badab War began when Lufgt Huron, the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws Chapter, refused to hand over his Chapter's tithe of gene-seed to the Administratum and instead announced his secession from the Imperium, declaring himself the Tyrant of Badab. Twelve standard years of intersystem war follow, wreaking havoc on shipping lanes in the Maelstrom Zone and embroiling more than a dozen Space Marine Chapters. With much loss, Badab Primaris finally fell to the Loyalist forces, but Lufgt Huron and some 200 of the Astral Claws escaped to take refuge in the Maelstrom of the Ultima Segmentum. There, they became Heretic Astartes and changed their name to the Red Corsairs. They become dreaded pirates and raiders of Imperial commerce. Huron adopts the title of "Blackheart" and continues to recruit more Astartes Renegades to join his growing Chaos empire.In 907.M41 Ork WAAAGH! activity rises throughout all five segmentae of the Impeium, forcing the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons to be redeployed away from the Badab War to counter the growing Greenskin threat.In 913.M41 the disciples of the Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman sacked the Librarium on the world of Jollana in their conitnuing pursuit of knowledge that can be used to reverse the curse of the Rubric of Ahriman upon the Thousand Sons.In 920.M41 Aeldari pirates attacked the advance escort of a fleet of Black Ships as they exited Warpspace in the Thanos System. The pirates destroyed three frigates and captured the troopship Emperor's Faithful. The pirates quickly disappeared, taking with them a vast complement of Astra Militarum and Navis Imperialis personnel. As a result, the fleet of Black Ships is left vulnerable and is picked off one by one in further xenos raids.In 925.M41, the Necron World Engine is revealed as the architect of the destruction of the Vidar Sector. It is finally destroyed, thanks chiefly to the sacrifice of the entire Astral Knights Chapter.In 926.M41 during the Vaxhallan Genocide, a Chaos Space Marine warband known as The Purge slaughtered over 14 billion Imperial citizens and claimed the planet Vaxhall as their own. Vaxhall served as an astropathic relay hub and as an Imperial Fortress World, the buttress of the Herakles System.In 937.M41 Inquisitor Pranix commanded 5 companies of Space Wolves and units of the 301st Cadian and the 14th Tallarn Astra Militarum regiments in an attempt to reclaim the 9 Hollow Worlds from the clutches of the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs warband. The Imperium's forces are stunned to see how quickly the Red Corsairs have expanded in only a few solar decades and how vast their Renegade empire of Chaos-worshipping pirates has grown.In 941.M41 the Second War for Armageddon began when the largest and most powerful Ork warboss in millennia, the Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, led a vast WAAAGH! that, after much rampaging, met its match upon Armageddon, a Hive World of vital strategic importance to the Imperium in the Segmentum Solar. The Orks were defeated only by the stubborness of the defenders, the combined might of three Space Marines Chapters and the legendary heroics of Commissar Yarrick. Ghazghkull escaped and vowed to return one day.In 963.M41 the Imperium ran afoul of the T'au Empire when the Ultramarines clashed with a T'au expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakened the Necrons whose tombs were hidden on Malbede, the Ultramarines joined the T'au in a temporary alliance to defeat the emerging Necrons. In the wake of the battle, Exterminatus is proclaimed on Malbede by the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, but he generously allowed the T'au to evacuate before the surface of the planet was destroyed. The world's destruction set off a brief flicker of unknown energy on dozens of planets throughout the galaxy. Many feared that more Tomb Worlds were awakening in response. Unfortunately, the Imperium of Man now found itself facing two more alien enemies -- the humanoid T'au who sought to expand their growing interstellar empire to "serve the Greater Good" and the Necrons who desired to reestablish their galaxy-wide empire of ages past.In 969.M41 the ancient starship Blade of Eternity was once again sighted, this time near the Cando System. As it is approached, the ship is mysteriously replaced by the infamous Death Guard Plagueship Terminus Est. The Zombie Plague proceeded to sweep across the system. Infected refugees carried the Chaos foulness far and wide across the Imperium.In 973.M41 a violent Warp storm troubled the dreams of men and women across the galaxy -- for those more psychically aware, the storms proved catastrophic. Nightmares cracked the barrier between realspace and the Warp, slaying many psykers and creating rifts between the Immaterium and reality. Although brief, thousands of Daemonic incursions cause untold damage and many dark seeds of Chaos corruption are planted across the Imperium.In 975.M41 the Bloodthirster Skarbrand materialised on the Cadian Shock Troops-garrisoned Fortress World of Lutoris Epsilon. His berserk rage infected all he surveyed and soon the fortifications were drenched in blood as the Imperial Guardsmen turned upon each other in crazed bloodlust. Lutoris has since been considered cursed and is currently classified as a quarantined Forbidden World by the Inquisition.In 976.M41 a massive Ork invasion smashed into the western sector of the Segmentum Ultima. WAAAGH! Grax was denied taking the Forge World of Ryza, but the surrounding sectors suffered great devastation.In 989.M41 WAAAGH! Snagrod rampaged across the Loki Sector, culminating in an assault on Rynn's World that nearly exterminated the venerated Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines when an unfortunate accident destroyed their fortress-monastery with one of their own missiles. Imperial forces retook the Agri-world in 991.M41 and the Crimson Fists began the long process of rebuilding the Chapter back to full strength.In 992.M41 Aeldari forces attacked Cadian holdings on the world of Aurent, only to be utterly defeated through the inspired tactical genius of Ursarkar E. Creed.In 993.M41 the Ultramarines crushed a rebellion on the Industrial World of Ichar IV, only to find themselves in the forefront of a desperate defence against the arrival of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken and the start of the Second Tyrannic War. Elsewhere, the Asuryani CraftworldIyanden was simultaneously ravaged by other tendrils of the Kraken. Two Space Marine Chapters -- the Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters -- were all but wiped out by the hive fleet and hundreds of Imperial worlds were lost to the ravenous Tyranids before the incursion was finally halted.In 138.997.M41 Humanity peered into the abyss when the twin tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan emerged from intergalactic space and struck at the underbelly of the Imperium from below the galactic plane, cutting a swathe of truly horrific destruction through Segmentums Tempestus, Ultima and Solar in what is sometimes called the Third Tyrannic War. It became clear that the two previous Tyranid incursions into the galaxy had been only reconnaissance expeditions for the main hive fleet.In 221.997.M41 the world of Piscina IV was invaded by Orks under the joint leadership of Ghazghkull Thraka and the Bad Moons klan Warboss Nazdreg. Orkish teleportation technology was employed in a surprise attack and only the stout defence commanded by Master Belial of the Dark Angels Chapter and the timely arrival of Imperial reinforcements ended the Ork threat. Although the Imperial victory was great, several Imperial commanders, including Belial, felt that Ghazghkull had another trick up his sleeve.In 509.997.M41 elements from the Ultramarines and Mortifactors Chapters made a stand against one tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Tarsis Ultra. The defenders defeated this tendril with the use of a genetically-engineered biological plague, but the remainder of the enormous hive fleet rampaged on across the galaxy unaffected.In 601.997.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka came face-to-face with his old Human nemesis, Commissar Yarrick, on the battlefields of the world of Golgotha. Yarrick was captured by the Orks but ultimately released as Warlord Ghazghkull was planning to invade Armageddon once more and wanted to ensure a good fight. Greenskins flocked to Ghazghkull's WAAAGH! in ever greater numbers.In 977.997.M41 the small but vibrant T'au Empire began its Third Sphere Expansion. The T'au forcibly captured half a dozen more Imperial worlds on the Eastern Fringe and several more joined the T'au Empire willingly to serve their Greater Good.In 757.998.M41 Ghazghkull finally returned to Armageddon for his long awaited rematch in the Third War for Armageddon at the head of a new, even grater Ork WAAAGH!. Ghazghkull had further perfected the teleportation technology that he experimented with on Piscina IV and began the campaign with devastating victories over the Imperial defenders. Imperial commanders, having learned from their previous encounters with this wily Ork warlord, committed massive numbers of troops and quickly sent out the call for aid from nearby Space Marine Chapters and further reinforcements. Several solar months into what rapidly became a battle of attrition, Ghazghkull grew bored with the grinding stalemate and left his minions behind to finish the fight while he set off to conquer the surrounding planets. He was pursued by Commissar Yarrick and the Black Templars, who swore an oath to finally bring the Greenskin warlord to heel.In 718.999.M41 Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded the large Ork empire based in the Octarius System. This Octarius War between Tyranids and Greenskins raged on for years afterwards with no signs of stopping. Imperial Navy and Inquisition scout patrols kept a close eye on the conflict, for should a victor emerge, there were precious few forces of the Imperium on hand to counter whichever enemy should arise out of the sector-wide bloodbath.In 884.999.M41 the Dark Angels' 5th Company battled elements of the Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marine warband for control of the artefact known as the Hellfire Stone which the Heretic Astartes mistakenly believed would end the curse of Khorne that plagued them to eternally hear the cries of every individual they had ever slain. The Nephilim Sector trembles as the hated foes clash...In 975.999.M41 the light of the Astronomican grew noticeably dimmer, while contact was lost by Terra with the world of Ultima Macharia and was only intermittent with Macragge and Cypra Mundi. Some Imperial scholrs theorised that this was because of delays and losses amongst the Black Ships, while others pointed to omens of impending doom and the gradual weakening of the Emperor.In 978.999.M41 Drukhari raiders crippled the massive Imperial Navy moorings at Bakka, leaving many Imperial star systems vulnerable to attack.In 980.999.M41 the Red Corsairs launched a major raid from out of the Maelstrom, bringing the Chogoris, Kaelas and Sessec Systems under siege. Rumours reported that Huron Blackheart had grown his group of Renegades as large as the full Space Marine Legions of ancient times. The Chaos Lord now wielded military power unseen since the time of the Horus Heresy.In 982.999.M41 The Great Awakening occured, when a ripple of psychic activity passed through the Imperium, awakening the dormant powers of countless latent psykers. The resulting backlash created innumerable localised Warp rifts and a thousand worlds were lost, hopelessly embroiled in Daemonic incursions unleashed by possessed psykers.In 987.999.M41 the Necrons rose to strike the Cypra Segentus System -- the first recorded Necron attack within only 2,000 light years of Terra.In 989.999.M41 the Ultramarines 3rd Comnpany liberated the Lagan System from the T'au Empire during the conflict known as the War of the Rising Sons. Even while they did so, several key worlds of the neighbouring Dolmac System capitulated without firing a shot to T'au ambassadors and joined the T'au Empire.In 990.999.M41 the Devastation of the Octarius Belt occurred when Asuryani from the Biel-Tan and the Saim-Hann craftworlds assaulted many worlds surrounding the Octarius System with the intent of denying crucial biological resources to Hive Fleet Leviathan. Many were Ork-held worlds, but quite a few were colonised by the Humans of the Imperium. The loss of Human life was substantial, as was the loss of tithes that the planets would have paid to the Imperium in its time of need.In 992.999.M41, the Night of a Thousand Rebellions occurred. Uprisings and discord struck countless planets across the Imperium. Unrest raced like wildfire, consuming many outlying planets, but also supposedly secure worlds like Enceladus, Darkhold, and Minisotira. Even the homeworld of the Lions Defiant Chapter was lost to anarchy caused by secret cults and frenetic agitators. Contact was also lost between Terra and large swathes of the Segmentum Pacificus.In 993.999.M41, wave after wave of astropathic pleas for help flooded at once from all across the galaxy, though there was only an eerie silence from the Segmentum Pacificus. So powerful was the influx, so overbearing was the psychic current, that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica suffered serious personnel losses amongst their astropaths. Whole astropath choirs collapsed at once, driven mad or slain outright, their minds bursting. Vast breakdowns in Imperial communications ensued, increasing both anarchy and panic as the endless psychic screams for help echoed across time and space.In 999.M41 the Thousand Sons effected their return to realspace when the Traitor Legion launched the Siege of the Fenris System. The attack drew the Space Wolves back to defend their homeworld of Fenris, allowing the sons of Magnus the Red to wreak vengeance upon them. The scions of Leman Russ were forced to join with their longtime rivals the Dark Angels and other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes to cleanse their home star system of all Chaos taint. But first they had to overcome a plot of Tzeentch unleashed by its Daemonic servant the Changeling intended to make the Dark Angels think that the Space Wolves had fallen to the Ruinous Powers. Unnatural Daemonic footsoldiers from the entire Chaos pantheon joined in the slaughter before Magnus himself stepped forth from the Warp onto the surface of Fenris, there to face the Chapter that had thought to execute his gene-sons on Prospero ten thousand years before. Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Grey Knights champions fell to Magnus' psychic might, their minds and bodies dashed to particulate matter. But the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar was able to land a blow on the Crimson King, allowing the Daemon Hunters of the Grey Knights to work their rites of banishment. Though the Chaos invasion was driven back, its purpose had been achieved. The psychic anguish of a billion deaths rippled through the Immaterium, providing the final component in a ritual millennia in the making.The power taken from the worlds of the Space Wolves saturated the Thousand Sons homeworld in the Eye of Terror, the Planet of the Sorcerers. It vanished from the Warp only to burst violently into realspace, appearing near the burnt husk of lost Prospero. The old and new homeworlds of the Thousand Sons now orbit the same cursed star -- a star that has become an omen of doom in skies throughout the Imperium.In 999.M41 the Blood Angels were tested as never before. A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan was judged to be on a direct course for their homeworld of Baal even in the wake of the delaying action successfully unleashed during the Cryptus Campaign of 998.M41. Worse, the dread Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha returned from the darkness of the Warp with a Daemon army at his command, his first blow striking against Ammonai, outermost planet of the Baal System. Faced with a terrible war on at least two fronts, Commander Dante of the Blood Angels made swift preparation, uniting many Imperial and non-Human worlds under the banner of survival. Even some former foes could be counted in Dante's alliance, though whether or not they could be entirely trusted is another matter.In 995.999.M41, Abaddon the Despoiler launched the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror with the intent to seize the Fortress World of Cadia and the surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate it defended and so allow the forces of Chaos to assault the heart of the Imperium for the first time since the Horus Heresy. The forces of the Chaos Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of past ages. Always in the vanguard were the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and others from the annals of the Imperium's blackest days. The Traitor Legions and Renegade Chapters of Space Marines long thought extinct renewed their assaults on the realm of the hated Corpse Emperor. Before them ran infected, plague-ridden Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to be counted. Behind them towered Daemon Princes, Daemonhosts and other Warp creatures eager for the slaughter to be found in the mortal realm. Astropaths everywhere cringed to open their minds to receive messages from across the Imperium, for the Empyrean rang with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping in the barrier between the Materium and the Warp, or perhaps it was simply the laughter of the Dark Gods. The Imperium was forced to mobilise the largest military force since the Horus Heresy to meet the massive Chaos assault. The valour of the Imperial defenders was ultimately rewarded. Though the forces of Chaos managed to secure a foothold on the surface of Cadia, the Imperial Navy defeated the Chaos warfleets in orbit of the Fortress World and trapped the Chaos armies on the world below where they were annihilated. Unfortunately, Cadia's defenders soon learned to their horror that all the battles they had faced had simply been the precursor to the assault that would begin when Abaddon himself came to Cadia...But the Chaos assault upon Cadia was not the only terrible danger to beset the Imperium. With every passing solar month the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan marched closer to Terra, drawn by the light and power of the Astronomican in the Warp inevitably towards the heart of the Imperium. The heroism of the Space Marines and the Inquisition managed to slow down the progression of the massive hive fleet, but its ultimate objective was never in doubt.