Astra Militarum - M41, The 13th Black Crusade: In 999.M41 Abaddon the Despoiler launches his 13th Black Crusade, the most powerful and destructive of his campaigns to sunder the Imperium. Once again, Cadia is his primary target, but more than the fate of this one planet is at stake.795.999.M41 The Dead Arise - In the sectors bordering the Cadian System, diseased Space Hulks burst from the Warp and drift toward core Imperial worlds. Though many are destroyed, some reach their destinations and the hideous Zombie Plague takes hold. Planetary Defence Forces are overrun as the dead vomit forth from heaving plague pits to consume the living. Apocalyptic religious cults arise, proclaiming the End of Days.890.999.M41 The Storm Gathers - As madness and death spreads through the Cadian Gate, this outpouring of horror and zealotry echoes in the Immaterium. Warp Storm Baphomael expands rapidly into the Cadian System, bringing with it visions of burning worlds overrun by cackling daemonic hosts. The mysterious Cadian Pylons begin to resonate at an amplitude similar to that of a Gellar Field, and are found to be developing alarming hairline cracks. Outlying worlds including Dentor, Sarlax and Amistel are left blackened husks by mysterious raiders. On Lelithar, a demagogue of terrifying power leads the faithful into heresy. Across the Cadian System, Planetary Defence Forces and Cadian Shock Trooper garrisons alike desperately attempt to quell the spreading rebellions.975.999.M41 The Battle of Tyrok Fields - Increasingly concerned by the havoc spreading through neighbouring star systems, Cadian High Command orders a general muster on Cadia. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen are already assembled outside the city of Kasr Tyrok when the previously trustworthy Volscani Cataphracts spring a suicidal trap. Confusion reigns as the Traitors open fire upon their former comrades, slaughtering hundreds before any response can be coordinated. The intent of the Volscani's treason is revealed when they swarm aboard the Leviathan command vehicle of the Governor Primus, "Fortress Imperium." Though they fight hard, Cadian High Command are wiped out in a single stroke. At the darkest moment, Ursarkar E. Creed rallies the reeling Cadian regiments and orders the counterattack. Accompanied as always by his trusted second, Jarran Kell, Creed orders the 8th Cadian Regiment to link up with the 7th Cadian Regiment and advance towards the captured Leviathan. Kell is wounded when he intercepts a las-round intended for Creed but refuses medical attention and continues onwards. In an impressive feat of military coordination, Creed utilises artillery cover to scatter the Traitors and bring down the Fortress Imperium 's Void Shields mere moments before his charge crashes home. The Leviathan is soon recaptured, the colours of the Cadian 8th flying proudly from its command deck. Shortly after, Ursarkar Creed is appointed Lord Castellan of Cadia and the Cadian 8th is renamed "The Lord Castellan's Own" in his honour.976.999.M41 Bracing the Gate - Now convinced that an attack by the Forces of Chaos on an unprecedented scale will soon fall upon the Cadian Gate, Ursarkar E. Creed takes what steps he can to prepare the defences. Though heavy with portents of doom, the Emperor's Tarot is consulted time and again in the hope of gleaning insight into the movements of the foe. New fortifications are raised across Cadia and her surrounding worlds. Astropathic choirs begin broadcasting a deafening call for aid. Though it incinerates the minds of countless psykers, Creed orders that Cadia's distress call must ring ceaselessly through the Warp. The Munitorum respond with uncharacteristic speed, mobilising vast forces, but with aid solar weeks away at best the defenders of the Cadian Gate must stand alone.994.999.M41 First Blood - Cadian High Command sends a force of Tempestus Scions out to the very edge of the Eye of Terror in an attempt to gauge where the first blow will fall. Making planetfall upon the benighted world of Urthwart, the expeditionary force finds no sign of life until it breaches the primary planetary shelters. As the vault doors swing open, a billion moaning undead Plague Zombies spill from the darkness. Meanwhile, in orbit, a vast Traitor armada thunders from the Empyrean, its vanguard elements completely annihilating the expedition's transports in an inescapable storm of plasma-torpedoes.995.999.M41 The Great Eye Opens - Abaddon the Despoiler's armada blots out the stars with its sheer volume; mutants and Heretics pour from the Eye of Terror in numbers beyond count. Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, Imperial Navy forces under Admiral Quarren do what they can to stem the tide. Quarren's fleet fights with nobility and distinction, but the heavy toll they exact upon the foe is as drops in the ocean. Forced to disengage, the survivors limp back to Cadia as harbingers of the oncoming storm. Abaddon's forces arrive just hours after Quarren's, the sheer fury of their attack setting the Warp aboil. The skies of Cadia fill with fire as twisted landing craft descend like clouds of flies, and invaders in their millions spill onto the surface. Yet a sliver of hope remains, for Cadia's defenders know that Space Marines, Titans, and unnumbered regiments of Imperial Guardsmen are rushing to their aid.Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed defends his world with a strategic brilliance not witnessed since the days of Macharius, and rumours begin to spread that the Lord Castellan is preparing some as-yet unguessed masterstroke. Whatever the truth, all know that they must fight to the bitter end with no thought for themselves. If the Cadian Gate should fall, then the unbridled fury of the Warp will spill forth into the Imperium, sweeping all of Mankind away in a tide of horror and madness.995.999.M41 The Fall of Cadia - The full force of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade descends upon Cadia. As the servants of Chaos spew from the Eye of Terror, the armies of the Imperium rush to defend the Fortress World. Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed leads the defenders' stand from Kasr Kraf, where millions of Guardsmen die holding back the onslaught of daemons, Chaos Cultists and Heretic Astartes. Morale ebbs at the sight of the atrocities being visited upon the Guardsmen caught outside the walls, but is kept from breaking altogether by Creed's defiant dictum, "Cadia Stands!" When the Daemon Prince Urkanthos and the Hounds of Abaddon launch an assault on the heart of Kasr Kraf, what little hope remains seems utterly lost -- but into the fires of damnation flies Saint Celestine, the hallowed warriors of the Adepta Sororitas following her holy path. Fighting alongside the Cadian defenders, they drive the attackers from the walls. The dead are burned during the brief respite, the Sisters of the Order of Our Martyred Lady providing ministrations where they can. Having battled their way through the blockade, Adeptus Astartes and Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements also manage to make planetfall. Among their number is Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, who uses the geometric pylons scattered across Cadia to hold back the Warp. As the Despoiler's hordes set about their butchery, Creed is nearly slain by Abaddon himself, but is saved by the last heroic sacrifice of the ever-faithful Colour Sergeant Jarran Kell. Then, with agonising finality, the last sliver of hope is shredded -- Abaddon sends the shattered remains of his orbiting Blackstone Fortress, the Will of Eternity, plummeting into Cadia, sundering the Necron-built pylon network that holds back the Immaterium. The number of Imperial soldiers consumed in the cataclysm is unknown, and countless more are slaughtered by the daemons that pour from the Warp tears opening on the planet's surface. Of nearly a billion souls who had stood to defend Cadia, scarcely three million are evacuated. Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed is not among them.