Chaos Space Marines - M40-M41, Age of Apotheosis: Double-Edged Swords (198-485.M40) - For more than a dozen generations, agents of the Alpha Legion infiltrate the hive city slums of Ghorstangrad, homeworld of the Emperor's Swords. Through subtle manipulation of the dominant sects and gangs, the Alpha Legion seed potential future Space Marines with all manner of deviant philosophies and subconscious triggers. Though many of these brainwashed youths are rejected by Librarians and Chaplains, some are recruited into the Chapter nonetheless -- a lurking threat unknown even to the recruits themselves. Almost three standard centuries later, the Alpha Legion mounts a full-scale invasion of Ghorstangrad. They are met in open battle by the Emperor's Swords. The Alpha Legion employ hypnotic and disorientating psychic attacks, releasing the nascent personalities of their unknowing infiltrators amongst the defending Battle-Brothers. Within solar hours, the Chapter disintegrates into a morass of battling factions, some of which join forces with the invaders. The Loyalist Emperor's Swords are entirely destroyed, Ghorstangrad is razed and the gene-seed stores of the Chapter are stolen. The Alpha Legion withdraws to the Eastern Fringe, its numbers swollen with new Renegades still covered in the blood of their brethren.Garanhir Rebellion (649.M40) – A World Eaters warband, under the command of the notorious murderer Dhalahk, launches a mass incursion against the world of Garanhir, intent upon spilling the blood of the faithful in an unprecedented act of veneration of the Blood God. Expecting to find Garanhir unprepared for attack and ripe for the slaughter, what the Berserkers actually encounter as they charge from the assault ramps of their drop craft is a world already claimed by war, the populace armed and led by the famously militant Inquisitor Malphas Kroh and bolstered by a force of Grey Knights Space Marines. Battle is joined without delay, and while the warriors of Dhalahk make a lethal account of themselves, they are ultimately slain, the entire warband cut down by the defenders.Torment of Sherilax (703.M40) – The population of the pilgrim world of Sherilax falls prey to the fell temptations of the Dark God Slaanesh. Nihilistic pleasure cults on the planet take such sadistic delight in slaughtering the planetary governor’s militia in an intense outbreak of violence, they summon the Bringer of Torments, the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, Zarakynel.The Death of the Witching Moon (013.M41) – The Forge Moon of Keziah, in the strategically vital Agathon System, falls into an unnatural eclipse which its population is driven to murder and madness in an endless night of horror. The dread forces of The Tenebrae and Company of Misery reign as dark kings amid the nightmare, and the baleful light of the "Witching Moon" that Keziah has become spreads calamity and warp-tainted phenomena wherever it now falls, threatening the entire star system. The first Imperial attacks by the Astra Militarum, squadrons from Battlefleet Ultima and the Inquisition are hurled back in tatters by the madness of the black light and the warp-fuelled savagery of the defenders. It is only by the unexpected arrival of the Charnel Guard Chapter, accompanied by a sacred band of Adepta Sororitas Order of the Black Sepulchre bearing the holy relic known as the Book of Tears before them, that the imminent loss of tens of billions of lives on Agathon Prime is prevented, and the insanity-inducing radiance of the Witching Moon is held back. The Charnel Guard lead a fresh assault as further Adeptus Astartes, including the Iron Hands, Storm Lords and Angels Porphyr, and Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements arrive, fighting a brutal battle of tank and gunship clashes across the soaring metal canyons which raze the moon's surface and chamber-by-chamber Zone Mortalis actions to purge Keziah of the shadow that has befallen it. The Chaos Astartes inflict fearful losses on their besiegers before they are driven into the deeper darkness of the Warp. In the wake of their retreat, all life is purged from Keziah before it is given back to the hands of the Machine Cult for tech-exorcism and eventual reclamation.The 12th Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (ca. 139-160.M41) - Abaddon leads his great fleet into the Gothic Sector during what becomes known in the Imperium as the Gothic War, capturing two of the prehistoric star forts known as the Blackstone Fortresses. Under Abaddon's control, the might of the Blackstone Fortresses is used to destroy entire worlds. The Despoiler's fleet is driven back at great cost, though Abaddon escapes with the Blackstone Fortresses into the Eye of Terror. The vast engines of destruction emerge once more into the material universe during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41.The Iron Labyrinth (Unknown Date.M41) - A Chaos fleet spearheaded by the Black Legion cuts a path into the worlds of the Cadian System. With the aid of the Imperial Fists, the Astra Militarum manage to break the Chaos forces at the Battle of the Iron Labyrinth, driving them back to the Eye of Terror. However, what their enemy's seemingly reckless thrust so far in-system achieved remains a mystery to the Imperial commanders.The First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - Imperial forces upon the strategically vital Hive World of Armageddon struggle to contain an armed rebellion that spontaneously breaks out across both the sub-continents of Armageddon Prime and Armageddon Secundus. At the height of the civil war, a Space Hulk enters the system and disgorges a horde from the Daemon Worlds of the Eye of Terror, led by Angron and accompanied by massed warbands of World Eaters. Angron and his Daemon armies carve a red path across Armageddon Prime and the conquest of the planet appears inevitable until the Daemon Primarch is delayed drawing Chaotic energy to the planet. During the reprieve, the Imperial forces are reinforced not only by Space Wolves from nearby Fenris, but also by a company of one hundred Grey Knights Terminators. Though it costs the lives of all but a handful of the Grey Knights, Angron and his honour guard of Bloodthirsters are finally driven back into the Warp.The Kynbaex Genocides (709.M41) – Adharon's Reavers, a Renegade warband under the former Sons of Guilliman Captain Adharon, instigates a series of bloody uprisings and mutinies across a dozen worlds of the Kynbaex Nebula in an effort to topple the already tenuous and overstretched Imperial presence in the region. Unknown to Adharon, however, the celebrated Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman and his arch-militant Thor Malkin, later Inquisitor Malkin, are present in the region forging trade routes to outlying systems. Zuckerman responds by ordering an immediate and bloody reprisal, crushing the uprisings with his own fleet and ground forces, led by Thor Malkin, in what became known as the Kynbaex Genocides. Adharon's Reavers are believed to have fled the region rather than face such a massive reprisal and do not appear again in mandated Imperial histories until their involvement in the Siege of Vraks over a century later.Magdelon Incursion (712.M41) – The renegade Bleak Brotherhood makes a compact with a daemonic power for aid in coming wars, the price the entity demands being the casting down of the Crystal City of Magdelon. The renegades enact their pact of the fell bargain, and in so doing attract the attention of the Space Wolves. The ensuing battle amidst the shattered ruins of the Crystal City is so pleasing to the denizens of the Warp that a major daemonic incursion is triggered.The Constantinus Iconoclasm (746.M41) - The Sons of Guilliman free Nova Terra from a Tyranid attack. Afterwards, Squad Constantinus hunts down remnants of the Hive Fleet, finding Genestealer Cults within the noble families of the capital. The entire ruling class is executed. The outraged population rises up against their Space Marine liberators. His patience gone, Sergeant Constantinus blames the Imperium for making him a monstrous killer and denounces the Emperor. Constantinus swears to lead Nova Terra's populace to a better future, and his conviction is infectious. As his oratory takes hold amongst the anarchy, his agenda of martial discipline is beaten into the fabric of the Nova Terran civilisation. The old order is thrown down and statues of Constantinus the Liberator are raised in their place. Other servants of the Ruinous Powers soon arrive, drawn by the anarchy and bloodshed. The rebel sergeant's megalomania escalates until it plunges the whole sector into war. The rebellion ends only when Constantinus is killed by agents of the Officio Assassinorum.The Plague That Walks (757.M41) - The first recorded outbreak of the Zombie Plague occurs on Hydra Minoris after Typhus, and his Death Guard foot soldiers, penetrate to the heart of its capital hive city. As the living begin to fall prey to the painful disease, its true horror is revealed; the dead victims begin to rise up and attack the living. The resultant Imperial quarantine traps 23 billion uninfected citizens alongside a rising tide of the hungry undead.Legacy of the Luxor Uprisings (812.M41) – A coalition of Alpha Legion warbands foments an uprising on the Munitorum provender world of Luxor, threatening the supply of war material to war zones across the northern marches of the Ultima Segmentum. The rebellion is put down by the Ultramarines, but the population is so embittered by the Chapter's actions that insurrection and rebellion flares on numerous occasions over the next century. Some strategio-savants even ascribe the fall of the entire Aradme Cluster some eight decades later to chronic under-supply in the aftermath of the 812.M41 uprising.The Skull of Kern'gar (Unknown Date.M41) - Abaddon travels to the Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking the Skull of Ker'ngar. Though initially confounded on the planet's surface by Eldar snipers from Craftworld Alaitoc, he orders all cover around his position to be levelled by orbital bombardment. Eldar reinforcements react swiftly to drive the Despoiler back, but not before he secures his prize.The Pilgrimage of Dark Lament (Unknown Date.M41) - Struck by a vision of Abaddon, millions of Imperial pilgrims abandon their worship of the God-Emperor and turn their voidships toward the Eye of Terror. After a long and perilous journey in which thousands perish, the pilgrims finally reach worlds held by the Black Legion, where they are immediately enslaved. Even as they fall beneath the lash of their new masters, the pilgrims give thanks to the Warmaster of Chaos.The Badab War (901-912.M41) - Lugft Huron, Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, declares himself the Tyrant of Badab and secedes from the Imperium. Eleven standard years of inter-system war follows, embroiling more than a dozen Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes in one of the largest fratricidal conflicts between the Astartes since the Horus Heresy itself. Huron's reign is eventually brought to an end, but despite suffering grievous wounds, he escapes into the Maelstrom with his followers vowing revenge, now calling himself Huron Blackheart.The Skull Harvest (913.M41) – An Administratum tithe-fleet arrives at the three worlds of the Hreidmal Cluster, seeking the tally of lives and produce due the Imperium, only to find each world laid waste. The headless corpses of each world's inhabitants lie abandoned, not slain in battle but carefully harvested and their skulls piled in great towering obelisks. Attempts to demolish these foul monuments bring the Slaughterkin warband down upon the Imperial forces, led by Warlord Mahaur the Harvester, and soon the skulls of the Administratum factors and regiments assigned to their protection are offered in sacrifice to Khorne atop the rebuilt obelisks.Wars of the Paraxial Succession (917.M41) – When the Adeptus Terra praefect of the Medea Cluster, Lord Sector Parax, is discovered to be harbouring deviant mutation and accused of being in league with the Ruinous Powers, he is executed before a court of his peers without trial. With no successor however, the Adeptus Arbites Lord Marshal takes direct control of the Cluster, his rule so brutal that a dozen uprisings flare up within the year. The entire Cluster erupts into anarchy as the Wars of the Paraxial Succesion draw in Space Marines, both loyal and renegade, from far and wide.Steel Unbound (919.M41) – Following their alliance with Lufgt Huron during the Badab War and their subsequent voluntary internment under license to the Salamanders Chapter, the Executioners are released to begin their standard century-long penitent Crusade. In the first decade of the Crusade, a dozen recidivist cults are purged from the Telamon Cloud and three minor xenos strains infesting the Garya Rifts are exterminated. The most glorious of many action fought during the opening years of the Crusade is against a previously unknown pocket empire deep within the galactic core, entirely in the sway of the Ruinous Powers and maintaining pacts with at least three Traitor Legion warbands and one Traitor Titan Legion. The Executioners earn countless honours far from the glaze of the Imperium, the only witnesses the agents dispatched by the High Lords of Terra to track the penitent Chapter's progress through the lawless void.The Blood Tide (920.M41) - The T'au Empire expands into uncharted territory, hoping to bring new populations into their fold. The Tau diplomats forge an uneasy peace upon the planet of Ur-Clemait, a world that has been consumed with civil war for many Terran centuries, simply by supplying one side of the warring factions with hi-technology Pulse Weapons. Though most of the remaining population seems content with the Tau's enforced pacification, the elders and priests of the Old Faith are distraught, insisting that the Blood Tithe must continue to be met. While most of the wizened priests try to incite rebellion against the xenos, several attack the Tau directly, clawing feebly at their Battlesuits or even taking their own lives in messy displays of martyrdom. The puzzled Tau continue their mission of absorption and assimilation, but before the standard year is out, the Word Bearers arrive to enforce the neglected Blood Tithe. They attack the newly prosperous world of Ur-Clemait in terrible force, chanting prayers of appeasement to the Dark Gods as they cut down Human and xenos alike. The Tau Fire Caste meet the invasion head-on, and the world is plunged into an ongoing war far more terrible than the ritual struggles of old that had once provided payment to keep the Heretic Astartes at bay.The Vaxhallian Genocides (926.M41) - The vile Chaos Renegades known as The Purge seek to vent their hatred of all living things, and choose the verdant Imperial world of Vaxhallia as their victim. The planet's surface is soon riddled with consumptive disease and crippling famine. Over the course of a single solar month, The Purge engineer the destruction of no fewer than fourteen billion Imperial citizens.The Scourging of Kerrack (932.M41) – The Agri-World of Kerrack has long exported the processed root of the Cholam trees that cover most of its surface to feed the Astra Militarum regiments prosecuting the Katbargo Crusades. When the primitive harvester clans turn their hand-scythes against their Imperial overseers, the world falls to anarchy and war. Warlord Malfaur the Harvester and his Khorne-worshipping Slaughterkin are found to be behind the Charnel Cults that spring up across Kerrack. The ensuing war is fought on foot beneath the dense canopy and air-to-air in the skies above, large numbers of the native defence militia turning traitor and falling to the worship of the dark gods. Deliverance only comes when the 5th Company of the Adeptus Astartes Star Phantoms arrive in-system to resupply, and launch an immediate and devastating attack upon the rebel stronghold of Calder's Ark, slaying the Harvester and driving the Slaughterkin from Kerrack.The Wolf at Bay (937.M41) - Mustering five companies of Space Wolves, as well as the Cadian 301st and the Tallarn 14th Regiments of the Astra Militarum, the decorated Inquisitor Pranix attempts to reclaim the nine Hollow Worlds of Lastrati from the traitorous Red Corsairs. The Drop Pods of the Space Wolves crash straight through the Hollow Worlds' algae-crusted surface, and war soon rages throughout the catacombs beneath. The Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart collapses preselected portions of his tunnel networks with cold precision and timing, isolating and destroying much of the Imperial army sent against him. The invading forces are forced to withdraw in disarray.The Damnation Cache (959-961.M41) - The Despoiler invades the Pandorax System with an alliance of Traitor Legions. Sweeping aside Imperial resistance, Abaddon breaks into the vaults below the world and opens the Damnation Cache, an ancient portal to the Warp. A combined force of Dark Angels and Grey Knights come to Pandorax's aid in an attempt to stop a daemonic incursion from engulfing the sector, and eventually succeed in closing the portal. Unbeknownst to the Imperium, however, the Despoiler has already left Pandorax, taking with him a rogue psyker of prodigious strength.The Terminus Est (969.M41) - The plagueship Terminus Est is sighted in the Cando System. It disappears soon after, but it is already too late. The Zombie Plague ravages all of the planets in the system over the following solar months, exposing the worst in Human nature as brother turns against brother in their desperation to survive.The Promethean War (980.M41) - The Salamanders fight an urban war against the Black Legion on Heletine. The Order of the Ebon Chalice arrives to reinforce the Space Marines, and together they push forward, but their advance is halted by the Daemon Prince Gralastyx. Saint Celestine appears suddenly, storming through the Chaos hordes and slaying Gralastyx, before vanishing once more.The Constantinus Iconoclasm Redux (981.M41) – The Adeptus Astartes Night Reapers are heavily censured after they abandon the Shrine World of Salvation-Gamma to the massed Chaos Space Marine and mutant forces closing in upon it during the Constantinus Iconoclasm, turning the guns of their gathered war fleet on the planet in order to grant the population what they consider a merciful end. The Ecclesiarchy lodges such vociferous objections with the Senatorum Imperialis that the Night Reapers are declared to have committed a gross dereliction of duty and, as punishment, are consigned to duty along the outer fringes of the Laanah Rifts. Within a solar decade, contact with the Chapter is almost entirely lost.The Perun Cross Incident (989.M41) – Having been conclusively linked to the destruction of the fleet of the Rogue Trader Baron Stross Yuen, the Night Reapers Chapter is declared Excommunicate Traitoris. The Minotaurs and Red Templars Chapters are despatched to track them down in the depths of the Laanah Rifts and bring them to the Emperor's justice. The harrowing of the Night Reapers drags on for three years, with evidence of the renegades harnessing numerous forms of xenos technology amassing throughout. At length, the Night Reapers are cornered onboard a vast, pre-Human void construct known as the Perun Cross as they attempt to mine some unknown but no doubt blasphemously potent weapon from its core. In the final assault, a Grey Knights strike force arrives and boards the Perun Cross, but events take a drastic turn as the construct, the entire Grey Knights force and a large number of Minotaurs squads are consumed together in atomic fire. It is assumed that the Night Reapers Chapter is no more, though Imperial forces stationed along the Laanah Rift remain vigilant for signs that any of the fallen brethren survived the Perun Cross incident.Skulls for the Skull Throne (992.M41) - Having long ago amassed more Human skulls than he knew what to do with, Roghrax Bloodhand, of the World Eaters, swears to collect a skull from every warrior species in the galaxy and offer them up for the throne of his master, Khorne. Bloodhand's masterwork takes a dramatic new turn with the coming of the Tyranid fleets into the galaxy. Making haste fur the Eastern Fringe, the maniacal trophy-collector leads his fleet directly into the path of Hive Fleet Kraken. Delighted at the prospect of collecting such large and impressive skulls, he reaps a grisly bounty from the Tyranids, which become more varied after every battle.The Night of the Steel Daemon (995.M41) - Unbeknownst to the settlers that make their home upon its crust, the dormant volcanic planet of Abheilung is honeycombed with subterranean forge-vaults where the Dark Mechanicum lurk. As protein farms and hab-blocks are established high above, the Warpsmiths below use the livid heat of the planet's core to bind Daemons into their allies' strange machines. The surface settlers continue to expand, until one night, all the volcanoes across Abheilung erupt spectacularly, incinerating millions in an immense pyroclastic cloud. Out from the molten depths climb great hosts of Daemon Engines, magma-clad horrors that spill like insects from each volcano's caldera. The mechanical horde depopulates Abheilung in less than a solar month.The Tyrant and the Wolf (995.M41) - Huron Blackheart stages a counterassault upon Parenxes, a world defended by the Death Hawks and Space Wolves. During the engagement, a series of Red Corsairs strike forces manage to board, disable and capture the Space Wolf Strike Cruiser, Wolf of Fenris.The Fall of Forgefane (997.M41) – The Iron Warriors bastion world of Forgefane is overrun by the uncountable warrior organisms of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Iron Warriors and their million-strong armies of slave-troops mount a masterful but ultimately doomed defence, the scale of which has not been witnessed for many centuries.Ke'lshan Besieged (998.M41) – The Purge warband lays siege to the beleaguered Tau Sept world of Ke'lshan, which is recovering after a series of invasions by both the Imperium and Hive Fleet Gorgon. Their attempt to corrupt the world’s atmosphere, turning it into a corrosive soup that would cleanse the planet of life, are foiled at great cost by Fio'O Sho'Aun, renowned Tau artificer and weaponsmith, whose experimental Remoal throne-fighters duel with airborne Blight Drones for control of the skies of Ke'lshan.The Reapers at Bay (999.M41) – A reclamator fleet of the Renegade Night Reapers Chapter, thought destroyed, is cornered by Inquisitor Celaeno of the Ordo Malleus in the bleak expanse of the Caligulan Nebula. With a full company of the Red Hunters Chapter at his command, spearheaded by the ancient Fellblade Tellum Veritatis, Celaeno forces a confrontation on one of the many barren worlds found in the nebula and is met by the warp-tainted armoured vehicles of the Night Reapers. As the Tellum Veritatis duels with the Daemon-touched Typhon Heavy Siege Tank Nidhoggr amid a plain strewn with the broken remains of battle tanks, Celaeno is slammed by an errant shell and the Red Hunters retreat, carving oaths of vengeance into the armoured flanks of Tellum Veritatis.The Sons of the Maelstrom (980.999.M41) - A massive Chaos Space Marine fleet emerges from the Maelstrom with three dozen Daemon-infested Space Hulks. The massed fleet brings the Chogoris, Kaelas and Sessec Systems to their knees, establishing a stranglehold over their space lanes.The Great Awakening (982.999.M41) - A ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. The resultant backlash creates innumerable Warp rifts, and countless worlds are lost to daemonic incursions. The Thousand Sons are seen in unprecedented numbers as the psychic apocalypse runs its course.The Night of a Thousand Rebellions (992.999.M41) - Carefully seeded rebellions sown across the Segmentum Pacificus all bear their bloody fruit upon the same solar night. Uprisings and discord strike at the heart of hundreds of worlds, including the supposedly secure Imperial strongholds of Enceladus, Darkhold and Minisotira. Contact is lost with large swathes of the Segmentum as the Chaos Space Marines move in, revealing themselves as the orchestrators of the insurrection.The Fall of Vilamus (994.999.M41) - After a series of daring raids leaves the titanic fortress-monastery of the Marines Errant garrisoned only by a single company of Space Marines, Huron Blackheart sends his Night Lords allies to infiltrate the fastness and bring down its Power Shields and Defence Lasers. Teleporting in from low orbit, Chaos Terminators launch a sledgehammer assault upon the fortress' apothecarion as Huron Blackheart simultaneously moves in to steal the Chapter's relics. Caught in the horns of a dilemma, the outnumbered and outmanoeuvred Space Marines fail to repel the invasion. The Red Corsairs withdraw with nearly all of the Chapter's gene-seed, dooming the Marines Errant to a slow demise.The Cage is Cracked (999.M41) - Lord Xorphas of the Black Legion invades the planet Amethal alongside the World Eaters of Khârn the Betrayer and the Crimson Slaughter. An alliance of the Blood Angels and the Adeptus Mechanicus repels the invaders, but as the planet is consumed in a rising tide of carnage, the ancient "Daemon cage" that forms the planet's interior has its structural integrity breached. The Chaos invaders are driven off, but the damage has been done. Within the solar year, a nearby Warp Storm breaks the Daemon cage entirely, plunging the system into Warp-haunted mayhem and adding to the empyric tempest raging across the galaxy.The Wrath of Magnus (999.M41) - With the aid of the Tzeentchian trickster known as the Changeling, the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red, gathers his Sorcerers and, at the head of several war sects of Rubricae, visits his revenge upon the beleaguered world of Fenris, homeworld of the Space Wolves, during what is known as the Siege of the Fenris System. Soon after, the Thousand Sons Daemon World of Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers, returns to realspace from the Eye of Terror directly above their lost Legion homeworld of Prospero.The 13th Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (995.999.M41) - The armies of Chaos invade Cadia and its many surrounding worlds. The forces of the Dark Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of the ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and other Traitor Legions from the annals of the blackest days. Renegade Space Marine Chapters long thought extinct renew their assaults on the Imperium of Man. Before them run scabrous Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to count. Behind them march Daemons of all the Ruinous Powers, the nightmares of mortals made real, led by their infernal overlords. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange pylons that for millions of standard years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space. Cadia falls soon thereafter, and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy. Astropaths everywhere fear to open their minds to receive or broadcast messages, for the Immaterium rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping open in the barrier between the material universe and the Warp, or perhaps the laughter of the Dark Gods...Guilliman Awakes (ca. 999.M41) - Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade. The primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos assault by the Black Legion as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return.The Great Rift Opens (ca. 999.M41) - Reality tears itself apart from the Hadex Anomaly at the core of the Jericho Reach in the Eastern Fringe, to the furthest star system of the Segmentum Obscurus. From that hole come Warp Storms not seen since the Age of Strife, cutting off the galactic north from Terra. The initial period, known as the Noctis Aeterna -- or the Blackness -- is terrible indeed. For a time, all Warp travel is impossible and the far-spread planets of the Imperium are isolated, with no travel or astropathic communication between them. Worlds in their hundreds fall before the ensuing Chaos onslaught. The pulsing Cicatrix Maledictum spreads like an impenetrable curtain, robbing entire systems of the holy light of Terra. A chain reaction of Warp cataclysms rips across the Imperium, plunging its worlds into disaster and awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. Countless civilisations are lost to daemonic incursions as the galaxy burns.Indomitus (ca. 999.M41 - ca. 111.M42) - In a hundred war zones of the Indomitus Crusade, untested strike forces of Primaris Space Marines are unleashed into battle against the forces of the Ruinous Powers. They acquit themselves well, and by the artifice of Belisarius Cawl and the strategic genius of Guilliman they prove themselves worthy inheritors of the title Adeptus Astartes.To Shield the Shrine Worlds (Unknown Date.M42) - The Shrine Worlds of the Imperial Cult are targeted with especial malice by Daemons and the Traitor Legions, most prominent amongst them the Word Bearers. In an attempt to break the sieges that hold dozens of Shrine Worlds hostage across Segmentums Solar and Pacificus, the Black Templars launch Crusade after Crusade. In their bloody endeavours they are assisted by the Iron Hands and a score of other Space Marine Chapters, along with all the forces the Adeptus Ministorum can muster.Crippling Terror (Unknown Date.M42) - Thousands of Imperial planets lying along the edge of the Great Rift are evacuated as the tapestry of Warp Storms threatens to consume them. On the Forge World Raeddon, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests gather their most sacred manufacturing relics in preparation of shipping them off-world. But before the frigates are loaded and launched, an armada of Black Legion warships emerges from the Warp, forming an impenetrable blockade around the planet. Before long, hordes of Chaos Space Marine shock troops descend upon the forge world. The bulk of its Skitarii defenders are deployed to guard the basilica logisticum where the Mechanicus have stored their invaluable archeotech. However, the Chaos forces do not even attempt to lay siege to this complex. Instead, they conduct a series of devastating orbital bombardments on the planet's spaceports, obliterating their static Lascannon arrays before sending in waves of ground troops to mop up the remaining Skitarii. With Raeddon stripped of its transport capabilities, the Black Legion armada recedes, leaving the Tech-priests and their precious relics untouched as the Warp Storms envelop them.Blacker Pastures (Unknown Date.M42) - The rampant advance of the Hounds of Abaddon through the Bellicose Stars comes to a grinding halt when they are met by the Imperial Fists on Gandor's Providence. The sons of Dorn deploy numerous squads of Primaris Astartes Intercessors, creating a series of heavily defended redoubts across the surface of the Agri-world. Rather than allowing themselves to become bogged down in a prolonged siege, the Hounds of Abaddon withdraw to wreak destruction elsewhere.Gods from the Warp (Unknown Date.M42) - After a solar-months-long battle in the Aralest System, the Imperial Navy are all but wiped out by a massive war fleet comprising several Black Legion warbands. The few remaining Imperial forces retreat to Everwatch Stanchion, the heavily fortified orbital docking platform above Aralest VII, to consolidate their strength. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, Governor Melachron Indis marshals his Planetary Defence Forces and prepares for invasion. As the Black Legion warships approach, dozens of Chaos Cults emerge from amongst the indentured populace of Aralest VII. These deluded fanatics do not see the Chaos Space Marines as invaders, but rather as saviours who have emerged from the Great Rift that burns across the sky day and night. Indis is forced to expend his troops in bloody fights deep inside the hive cities to prevent the planet from falling to the savage cultists before the Black Legion even arrive. These battles do not go in the governor's favour, for with each passing solar hour, more and more members of the citizenry join in the anarchic uprising. Indis and the remaining fragments of his armies barricade themselves inside the spire of Aralest VII's capital hive and pray to the Emperor that the naval garrison on Everwatch will soon be able to send them aid. Their prayers are not answered. The Black Legion, having captured Everwatch Stanchion several solar days earlier, dislodge the platform from its orbit and send it plummeting down to the planet's surface, directly towards the capital hive. The explosion created by the colossal impact leaves only a crater where the hive city once stood, and the ensuing quake is felt across the planet. This display of raw power is the final proof the Chaos Cults need. No one on Aralest VII now doubts that the warriors of the Black Legion are gods.