Terminus Est - Timeline: The Terminus Est is a truly ancient vessel, more than ten thousand years old. It has been witness to much of the Imperium's history, from the Siege of Terra to the dawn of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade against the Imperium:The Emperor's Gift (c.M30) - After the alliance between Terra and Mars, the Emperor commissions the creation of a vast fleet to retake the stars and reunite Humanity's lost children. Some of the most skilled tech-artisans of the age create the Terminus Est in the shipyards of Luna. Its hull, armaments and engines incorporate countless advanced designs recovered from the Dark Age of Technology. The Emperor gifts the vessel to his Dusk Raiders Legion, as a reward for their loyalty. The Terminus Est becomes the Legion's flagship as they embark upon the Great Crusade to unify the galaxy under the rule of Mankind.Shadow Falls (c.M31) - In one of its first acts of betrayal, the Terminus Est is present during the Istvaan III Atrocity where it participated in the virus bombing of the planet. During the battle, the Terminus Est, attempted to pursue and failed to destroy the loyalist frigate, Eisenstein, when it fled to bring warning to the Emperor. During the Dropsite Massacre at Istvaan V, the Terminus Est turned upon the Loyalists' vessels. In the chaotic and brutal space battle that ensures the Terminus Est racks up an impressive tally of enemy kills, Typhon proving himself more than a match for his loyalist counterparts.Siege of Terra (c.M31) - After the battle on Istvaan V, the Terminus Est eventually embarks for Terra to aid Horus in his assault on the Emperor's Palace. Typhon slays the ship's Navigator, promising his Primarch that he can personally lead the Death Guard fleet to Terra. Unbeknownst to his Legion, this is all part of Typhon's plan to offer them up to the Plague God. Ultimately, Typhon becalms the Terminus Est in the Warp, leaving it to the mercy of his new master. When the warship appears above Terra it has changed, the mark of Chaos clearly upon it. The warship rains devastating bombardments and virulent contagions down upon the fighting around the Emperor's Palace. In the Warp, Nurgle cackles with glee to see thousands of defenders succumb to his gifts.A Nightmare Returns (545.M35) - Having been mistakenly thought destroyed after the Heresy, the Terminus Est descends upon the Imperium once more. The cursed vessel proves a formidable foe, more than a match for the Imperium's finest vessels and most skilled captains. Worse still, when a battle is lost to the Terminus Est it heralds only more suffering to come as plague and sickness spread out of control.Mission to Barbarus (216.M36) - In response to Imperial Naval encounters with the Terminus Est the Adeptus Mechanicus seek out the ship's ancient schematics, gifted to the Death Guard after the vessel's creation. An expedition to Barbarus, the scoured remains of the Death Guard home world, finds the data the Mechanicus seeks and the Imperium creates the first Despoiler-class warships inspired by the formidable Terminus Est. It is only much later that the Imperium realises that the design holds a fatal flaw, its Geller fields vulnerable after extended exposure to the Warp. Over the centuries, almost every Despoiler-class warship is lost to Chaos, its crew and captains subverted or corrupted by the Dark Gods.A Deadly Corpse (018.M38) - The long range Imperial scout ship Sword of Truth encounters the crumbling remains of an unknown ship drifting on the edges of the Segmentum Solar. Believing the vessel to be a relic of the Great Crusade, the crew assemble a boarding party to search for valuable salvage. Only when their landing craft draw close do they see the mutated steel and repellent, mouldering growths covering its hull. By the time the captain realises his mistake Warp-flies are already swarming over his vessel. When the Terminus Est appears again, the Sword of Truth has been added to its Plague Fleet.The Dust War (620.M39) - On the edges of the Ork Empire of Octarius the Death Guard and the Overfiend's hordes fight over the Urgorn Dust Cloud. A vast asteroid field of psychokinetic rock, the cloud coalesces around the space hulks and scrap-fortresses of the Orks, creating tiny worlds with micro-atmospheres. The Terminus Est wreaks havoc by infecting the environments with its Warpfly miasma, the ship choking their tiny atmospheres with the bodies of billions of insects. Orks die in their millions, their green corpses bursting into rotting puddles of virulent disease. Yet the war rages on for months as more and more of the aliens spill out of the Octarius Empire looking for a good fight.Encounter at Anvil 206 (139.M41) - The Terminus Est is encountered during the Gothic War, in the void around Anvil 206. The damage done by Typhus' Plague Fleet weakens the hive world's defences and seeds a Warpborn virus that lies dormant for years. One of the mysterious Blackstone Fortresses, a lynchpin defence for the system, later falls to Abaddon the Despoiler. Its defenders are struck down by a virulent contagion as the Warmaster's fleet bears down upon them.The Devotion of Skarlak (755.M41) - A powerful blood-seer is born upon the world of Skarlak, the gene-tribes rejoicing at the gift of future-sight once again within their reach. However, as the blood-seer grows to adulthood she is tormented with dreams of a ship that sails across the stars, pocked and scarred by a disease of steel and iron. By the time the blood-seer reaches the height of her power the entire planet has descended into the madness of worshiping the nightmare ship, painting their bodies with profane symbols and building huge statues to a god they cannot name. When the Terminus Est arrives in the skies of Skarlak the populace cry out their devotion, as Typhus and his Death Guard descend to harvest their souls.The Lamented Hunter (923.M41) Lord-Captain Virator Hax makes a vow before the lords of Segmentum Obscurus to hunt down and destroy the Terminus Est. His fleet scours the stars around the Eye of Terror, seeking the vessel, Hax following every sighting or rumour of the cursed craft. Finally, the captain believes he has found the hiding place of the ship, in the shattered remains of an Eldar crone world. Hax leads his fleet into the great fissures that web its airless husk. In the dark confines of the planet's rocky heart Hax confronts the Terminus Est, his ship, the Glorious Lament, unleashing weapons fire at point-blank range. Only when the first shots strike home does the captain realise the ship he faces is made of Warp-flies, scrap and acres of frozen skin. Out in the void, Typhus bombards the planet, collapsing the fissures and sealing Hax and his fleet within its core.Herald of the Plague God (999.M41) - In the final hours of the 41st Millennium the Eye of Terror disgorges a massive Chaos invasion fleet led by Abaddon the Despoiler. In its vanguard the Terminus Est and its captain Typhus have been spreading disease and destruction to worlds in the path of the Warmaster, including a new and deadly contagion capable of animating the dead.