The Perseus Crusade


-Part I: M29-M41

Early History
Located on the outermost Southern edge of Segmentum Tempestus close to the Veiled Region, the Perseus Sector has had one of the highest levels of isolation from the rest of the Galaxy of any other Sector. When it was first settled by humanity has since been lost to history, but Human settlements were known to have existed as early as the Dark Age of Technology. During the Great Crusade, the Sector fell to the forces of the Emperor without a struggle.
The outer areas around the Sector were the site of fierce fighting in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy during the Scouring, with a band of Traitor Marines, Mechanicus, Imperial Army soldiers fleeing to Perseus proper. But before elements of the Imperial Fists and loyalist troops could wipe out the Heretics, powerful warp storms erupted and isolated multiple sectors in the area, Perseus included. Though most of the Imperial forces escaped the sector before the warp storms hit, most of the human worlds around the Sector were lost to anarchy, starvation, or daemonic rampages. The Warp Storms came to eventually surround the Perseus Sector, trapping the remaining human population with not only the forces of Chaos that had taken shelter there, but also roving Ork warbands.

The Rise of Elijah
The next century of the Perseus Sector has been dubbed The Time of Tears in the histories of the sectors human population, 40 inhabited human worlds of the sector erupting not only into civil war and anarchy as Imperial authority all but disintegrated, but also coming under attack from the forces of Chaos, Orks, and Dark Eldar Raiders who saw the area ripe for the picking for fresh captives. Over this century, the number of inhabited human worlds not under the influence of the Ruinous Powers fell by half. After another century, only 13 worlds remained free.
But just as all seemed lost for the remaining free human worlds of the Perseus Sector, a hero arose. Going only by the name of Elijah, he was a giant of a man in both the literal and figurative. Uniting and then rallying the remaining 13 worlds, over the next 30 years he would drive back the myriad threats to humanity. Personally killing the warlord of the Ork forces threatening his worlds in a surgical strike, Elijah correctly surmised that the Orks would quickly fall into anarchy and civil war. As for the forces of Chaos, Elijah had taken their momentum and now sought to wrest away the initiative, and launched an offensive with the full might of his accumulated weapons: mostly remaining Imperial Army equipment and warships as well as many crude makeshift armaments, inspired by Orkish ingenuity. In the ensuing 12 year war, he not only liberated 18 worlds which had fallen under the taint of Chaos, but also drove back the forces of Chaos to the very borders of the sector, where raging the Warp Storms that isolated the sector themselves dwelt.

In the end, the Chaos forces led by a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers, Zoroaster, chose to flee into the raging Warp Storms as Elijah closed in. As if reacting to the defeat of Chaos with displeasure, the Warp Storms intensified and would erupt into a full Warp Rift not unlike the Eye of Terror. 8 of the worlds Elijah had fought so hard to liberate would be engulfed by the Rift. Most disheartening for Elijah that not only were these worlds now lost to the vagaries of the Warp, but many of these worlds still had enslaved human populations which were now out of his reach and doomed to a fate worse than death. For Zoroaster whose Word Bearers and allied World Eater forces which now resided in the Warp Rift, these worlds would become his empire. However, Elijah's victory was only possible because of a civil war that erupted between the Chaos forces when victory was in their grasp: a Champion of the Emperor's Children, known only as Reed the Violator, attempted to steal the Word Bearers secret stockpile of gene-seed for his own ambitions. After an unknown Sorcerer of the Word Bearers provoked the World Eaters, they too entered the fray. The resulting 3-way war between the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Emperor's Children distracted and weakened them enough for the forces of Eiljah to stand a fighting chance.

By the end of the Time of Tears, the major 40 inhabited human worlds of the Perseus Sector had fallen to just 13. 8 had been swallowed by the Warp Rift now dubbed The Blight while the remaining 19 had been so devastated by Chaos, Ork, or Dark Eldar attack that they were depopulated wastelands. Most of these worlds were to become breeding grounds for the Orks, with future human attempts at re-colonization proving disastrous in the face of never ending war with the Orks. Elijah became the exalted hero, crowned the Messiah of the humans of the sector. He was even called a God, a title he discouraged. Part of the reason for his claimed divinity was by his very nature: he was far larger than a normal man, far older, and capable of seemingly impossible physical feats. Though recurrent generations of humans would credit these traits to divine intervention, Elijah and only his most trusted advisor knew the true answer: he had once been a Space Marine. A member of the Imperial Fists Veteran Company, Elijah had remained in the sector after his comrades left in the face of the Warp Storms. Whether he was left behind by accident or chose to remain is unknown, and only Elijah himself knew the truth.

After ruling over these 13 worlds for another 70 years, Elijah would finally meet his end at the hands of Dark Eldar Raiders, who captured his Cruiser and brought it back with them into the Webway. What became of Elijah afterwards is unknown, as those captured by the Dark Eldar never return. Elijah would never return, and many humans speculated that he had ascended into heaven after achieving true Godhood. The truth is far darker: Elijah would be used by the Dark Eldar as a pet, plaything, and gladiator and after 14 years of torments only a Space Marine could endure finally succumb to his wounds in the prisons of Comorragh.


The Elios Commonwealth
But Elijah had already built a strong domain, the 13 free human worlds of the sector united under a central government based on the planet of Baka, now renamed Elijus in his honor. With Chaos forces mysteriously quiet and the Orks never able to become a unified threat, this human civilization would prosper over the ensuing centuries. Always an isolated sector due to its proximity to the Veiled Regions even under Imperial Rule, all vestiges of the Imperium soon died out. Subsequent generations would have no idea what the Imperium of Man was, nevermind they had once been a part of it. To them, the universe was the Perseus Sector, everything else was untouchable in the face of Warp Storms. Centuries would become Millennia, even the great Elijah became a thing of myth and legend. Nearly 10,000 years would pass, and by the 41st Millennia, many humans of the Perseus Sector argued that Elijah may not have actually existed at all. Terror, war, and worship of Elijah would become replaced with science, reason, human rights, and prosperity. Eventually becoming known as the Elios Commonwealth, its level of technology would greatly surpass the Imperium, just as other human civilizations which had been free from Imperial rule such as the Interex and Adrantis Five. Elios would learn the hard way to limit the capabilities of its machines A.I. after a revolt by robotic workers nearly resulted in the end of the Elios Commonwealth in M37.

Isolated by Warp Storms and with most of the nearby worlds overrun with Orks (with whom Elios would fight frequently with during its history), Elios would not make attempts at colonization. To their extreme South however laid a Maiden World of the mysterious Eldar, the first non-overtly hostile aliens Elios would encounter. In late M39, Elios would make a series of colonization attempts on the Maiden World of Al’lura, only to be swiftly destroyed by Eldar forces which left as quickly as they came. Large-scale fighting between the Eldar and Elios became rare thereafter, with Elios learning to respect the Eldars Maiden World as forbidden fruit and with the very concept of forceful colonization contradicting the philosophy of human rights and equality of all sentient life that would come to dominate Eliosan politics. The exception to this respect for the Eldar was Eldrad-Uldunus, a Corsair who had left his Craftworld of Biel-Tan to become a notorious Pirate and self-declared defender of Al’lura of in the Perseus Sector by early M41. Eldrad’s raiding would make him a plague to the Admirals of the Eliosan Navy. The Foreign Ministry of Elios would be quite offended when attempts to contact the Eldar and convince them to somehow stop Eldrad were in vein. They had little understanding of the Eldar indeed.

Inside The Blight
Inside the great Warp Rift of The Blight, these 10,000 years only seemed like mere centuries, and they were dominated by sectarian violence between the forces of Chaos. World Eater forces which had been allied to Zoroaster soon blamed him for their defeat at the hands of Elijah and a civil war erupted. The instigator who had persuaded the World Eaters to turn on the Word Bearers of Zoroaster was a scheming Sorcerer of Tzeentch by the name of Sargon. He claimed at first that Tzeentch had instructed him to create strife within the ranks of Chaos as part of the Gods of Changes plans, but overtime Sargon found a new God. He would forsake Tzeentch and did not turn to Khorne, Nurgle, or Slaanesh but rather the far lesser known 5th God of Malal, the Renegade God whose very name inspires fear in the followers of Chaos who even know of his existence. Why Sargon did this is unknown, but he would claim that he became so dedicated to the cause of Chaos that he would come to represent its own discord.

Sargon received many gifts from his God, Malal would prove to be a generous patron indeed. He made pacts with many of Malal’s Daemons and committed acts of self-mutilation in the name of devotion so grotesque that the Emperor's Children would be proud. Sargon became a true champion of Malal, and the Cult of Malal spread to the point where he was able to take a world for himself, Urak. Converting its entire population to the purpose of Malal, Sargon was at first only able to recruit handful of Chaos Space Marines to his cause. But overtime, the number grew to dozens. After stealing a large quanity of gene-seed from the Word Bearers during a raid, the number of Chaos Space Marines under his command rose to roughly 200. Dubbing his forces The Shadows of Death, Sargon would lead his own Black Crusades against the forces of Zoroaster’s Word Bearers as well as the World Eater forces under the deranged Champion of Khorne Tac. These 3 factions would incessantly war in a series of alliances, treacheries, and stalemate not unlike the Great Game that endures for Eternity between the Ruinous Powers within the Warp. The worlds overseen by the various Chaos Warlords were transformed into visions of Hell, with the unfortunate remaining human populations bred with the intent to act either as slaves, sacrifices to the Gods, or soldiers in the armies of their overlords. Though occasional raids were launched out of The Blight against Elios, by the 41st Millennia they had been quiet for 10,000 years, with the grateful people of Elios unaware of the sheer scale of the strife that raged within The Blight. The forces of Zoroaster, Sargon, and Tac would only occasionally raid outside of the Blight against the worlds of the Eilos Commonwealth. However despite the sparse number of these raids, their sheer brutality and infamy made these 3 Chaos Lords the objects of absolute fear within Elios society.


-Part II: Discovery

Contact
In 960.M41, the unthinkable happened to the people of Elios. The Warp Storms which had persisted for nearly 10,000 years suddenly ceased, why is unknown and can be credited to just another example of the chaotic nature of The Warp. With Warp Travel having been so dangerous during their entire history, to the brilliant scientists of Elios Warp Travel was considered unthinkable and their own methods of transportation, FTL Drives, were still slow compared to the methods of long-distance travel utilized by the Imperium, Necrons, or Eldar. Elios sent out space probes to their Galactic North, eager to find out what existed in their galaxy. Not unlike the Voyager Spacecraft of the 20th Century of Earth’s history, the probe contained in it information on Elios and even a history of its civilization, as many within the Eliosan scientific community theorized that they had once been part of a civilization before the emergence of the Warp Storms. The documented history of Elios within this beacon was meant to act as proof that they are a friendly civilization intent on peace with greater humanity should humans outside of the Perseus Sector discover it. The probe even included the enemies of Eilos, such as the Chaos Forces of Zoroaster, Sargon, and Tac, in the hopes that other human civilizations that no doubt suffered from the Forces of Chaos would find a common cause to unite.

But the probe was found by the wrong kinds of life forms indeed. Being found by a travelling party of Orks which frequently raided Imperial space, the creatures were not very interested in the holographic messages projected and simply used the Probe to cover up a hole on their Kill Kroozer. The Kroozer would become part of Warlord “Tuska the Daemon-Killa” Waaagh! Into the Eye of Terror in M41. The Kill Kroozer would eventually fall prey to a Word Bearer fleet in the Eye and as Chaos raiders scoured the floating wreckage for anything useful, they came across the advanced probe and brought it back to their home world of Sicarius.


Chaos Gathers
Upon discovering the existence of this new and advanced human civilization in Segmentum Tempestus, the Dark Council of the Word Bearers on Sicarius was shocked to discover that not only was the Dark Apostle Zoroaster still alive, he was engaged in a bitter war with a follower of Malal, the hated renegade God whom even the faithful Word Bearers of Chaos Undivided would not worship. Communing with their Dark Gods, it was eventually decided by the Council that a small taskforce would be sent to the Perseus Sector to recover Zoroaster and not only aid him in his war against Sargon and Malal, but also claim the sector in the name of the Ruinous Powers. A fellow Dark Apostle, Moloch, volunteered to let his warhost take charge of the expedition. But seeing that his warhost was not enough, Moloch had to strike deals with local various Chaos forces within the Eye of Terror. Showing off the rich spoils and souls of the Perseus Sector to the other Chaos factions, Moloch managed to recruit forces from the warband The Berzerkers of Skalanthrax and the Death Guard splinter faction The Purge. The latter was enjoying a high level of infamy for slaying 14 billion Imperial citizens in under a month in the Vaxhallan Genocide and wished to repeat such atrocities in the Eilos Commonwealth. In addition, Moloch was also able to recruit some 50 Night Lords mercenaries-for-hire and a Traitor Titan Legion from the Daemonic Forgeworld of Xana II. The Daemon-machine masters of Xana II were eager to discover any lost STC's that may dwell in the Perseus Sector and thus had given their dark blessing to the cause. And Tzeentch, weaving a new intricate plot, urged one of his Daemon Princes, Rak'Gul, to join the expedition. But most mysterious of all, a small Alpha Legion Cell under a Chaos Lord known as Ceres approached the gathering Chaos Fleet and volunteered to join the Black Crusade, how they even discovered its existence or why they were in the Eye of Terror in the first place a mystery.

The various deals were struck among the Chaos forces was to simply avoid killing one another and focus their efforts independently against the forces of Malal and Elios in the Perseus Sector, and virtually no combined command or coordination existed within the Chaos Forces. None the less, Moloch now had a substantial Chaos force at his disposal, and amused himself with thoughts of being the next Abaddon, on his own Black Crusade. Within months of receiving the probe of friendship from Elios, the Chaos Fleet managed to infiltrate out of the Eye of Terror and set course for the Perseus Sector. In total, it included:

-Some 800 Chaos Space Marines from the Word Bearers, Berzerkers of Skalanthrax, Purge, Alpha Legion, and Night Lords Warbands.
-Some 500,000 Cultists, Heretics, Mutants, and Beastmen from the Daemon Worlds of the Eye of Terror.
-A Chaos Titan Legion from Xana II, consisting of 10,000 year old 1 Imperator (the Deacon of Woe), 1 Warlord, 4 Banelords, 6 Reavers, and 6 Feral Titans.
-A Daemonic host led by the Daemon Prince of Tzeentch Rak'Gull. They gathered on a massive Space Hulk.
-A Fleet of 1 Daemonic Space Hulk, 1 Battle Barge, 1 Despoiler Class Battleship, 1 Heavy Cruiser, and 3 Cruisers plus Escorts, Raiders, Attack Craft, and Transports.

But unlike Abaddon, this Black Crusade would not be launched in the name of the Four Chaos Gods. Rather unbeknownst to all but his closest Warhost, Moloch and his followers had long converted to Malal. Being instructed by their God to keep their allegiance a secret for decades, the opportunity Moloch had been waiting for had finally arrived. After intense meditation and psychic communication with his God, Moloch was instructed by a Greater Daemon of Malal, Jerak’hakul, to convince the Dark Council on Sicarius to have his warhost launch an expedition to the Perseus Sector and take as many followers of Chaos as possible with him. Once there, the Renegade God who had been quiet in the Materium for so long will make his spectacular comeback, with a scheme that will not only claim the souls of the humans of Elios for himself but also take all Chaos forces in the sector with them. By leading this effort, Moloch was promised the reward that all Chaos Space Marines strived for: Daemon Princedom. Not only that, he would become the first Daemon Prince of Malal in 7,000 years, for the Renegade God has few followers and is unforgiving to those who fail him.

The Imperial Discovery

The Imperium of Mankind would make its own discovery of the Elios Commonwealth, exploring the Perseus Sector before the Word Bearers had found the Elios Commonwealths probe. When Warp Storms around the Sector dissipated, an Adeptus Mechanicus exploratory ship had ventured into the long-forgotten Perseus Space and had made contact with a Eliosan mining colony. The local Eliosan Labor Ministry delegation on the world was astonished to have come into contact with other humanity, and immediately welcomed the Mechanicus delegation and urged it to visit their capital world of Elijus to expand relations. Jubilation arose throughout the 13 worlds of the Commonwealth, with many hailing it as the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity between the Commonwealth and its ancestor civilization.

After several months, a delegation of Imperial officials arrived to replace the Mechanicus exploratory team to initiate formal diplomacy with Elios. Led by a high ranking Adept of the Administratum, Gerhard Ubrect, it included the original Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus Exploratory team plus a Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus plus their retinues, a small force of Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, an Ecclesiarchical mission led by the infamously short-tempered and fanatical Cardinal Lucius Luxcana, and members of the Adepta Sororitas Order Famulos Branch, which specialized in diplomacy and negotiations. Most imposing however were the 35 Sisters of Battle which accompanied the delegation. The Imperial mission was well-received on the streets of Elijus, greeted with cheerful crowds, peace signs, and flowers. Ubrect was met by the Eliosan President, Takand Halfaeus, and his Foreign Minister. Many were horrified by the bizarre appearances and modifications of many of the Imperial delegates, particularly among the Tech Priests, but the Elios Commonwealth had always been a place of tolerance.

Tolerance however, was not what the Imperium had in mind. At the meeting within the Eliosan Parliament to establish diplomatic relations both sides had very different objectives. Whereas the Eliosan Foreign Ministry and President wished to formalize a series of deals which would include an Imperial Embassy on Elijus, the Imperium was there to negotiate the terms for the Elios Commonwealths absorption into the Imperium. More disturbing was the demand by the delegation to submit to the Imperial Cult, abandon their “heretical” technology, and immediately begin sending resources and manpower to the Adeptus Terra for the benefit of the Imperium. It soon became apparent after a few hours of discussion that the Imperium was a very different place from the Elios Commonwealth, and negotiations quickly broke down. Cardinal Luxcana became infuriated when he was told that the Imperial Cult cannot be forced upon Commonwealth citizens as there is religious freedom.

He began declaring the Eliosan President a heretic and ordered the accompanying Sisters of Battle that he, the foreign minister, and the entire gathered Eliosan Parliament be arrested for heresy. The equally uncompromising Inquisitor Shatz agreed, while the more cautious and diplomatic Admistratum officials tried to urge calm and return to negotiating the Commonwealths assimilation. But the Cardinal would have none of it and blew a hole through the chest of the Commonwealth Foreign Minister on live Eliosan television with his laspistol. A firefight between Eliosan security and Imperial escort force soon erupted, with Eliosan secret service battling the forces of the Sisters of Battle and Inquisition throughout the Parliament building as President Halfaeus was rushed out of the building and into a waiting hovercraft by his security detail. Though well trained and equipped under normal circumstances, the Eliosans had naively thought that too much armed presence at the negotiations would send the wrong message to the Imperium, so the scant Commonwealth Security forces at the Parliament were quickly annihilated by crack Sisters of Battle and Inquisitorial Storm Troopers.

Nearly the entire Eliosan Government was wiped out in the span of 30 minutes and thousands of bystanders, news reporters, and other government officials were gunned down as anarchy and bloodshed ripped through the Parliament complex its adjacent parade ground, Liberty Square. Now in the middle of a battlezone, Adept Ubrect was disappointed but realized that negotiations for the Commonwealths Assimilation was no longer possible. An Arvus Lander class shuttle was called down by the orbiting Cruiser Emperor’s Mercy and the Imperial delegation escaped under a shield of strafing Thunderbolt Fighters just minutes before Eliosan reinforcements arrived to secure the now-destroyed Parliament building. When the smoke cleared, President Halfaeus himself was found dead in front of his destroyed hovercraft, the entire upper half of his head missing. Inquisitor Shatz had used a Mutant with a keen sense of smell in his retinue to hunt down and personally slay the Leader of the Commonwealth.
Becoming known as the Contact’s Day Massacre, the event was deeply traumatic for the Eliosan Commonwealth. Not only had they lost nearly 800 citizens and most of their government, but they now realized they faced yet another enemy, one possibly far stronger than any other.


-Part III: The Gathering Storm

The Cardinals War

Though the events of the Contact’s Day Massacre were met with widespread shock and uncertainty in the Elios Commonwealth, it was taken with a grain of salt in the Imperium. For the Adepts of the Administratum it simply meant more paperwork to shuffle, and yet another military campaign among thousands more for the Imperium. When word of the events of the massacre reached Segmentum Tempestus’ headquarters at Bakka, many at the Segmentum Fortress wanted to leave Elios be for the time being, there were far too many more important matters to deal with from the Imperial viewpoint. A major Ork migration was sweeping through the Galactic Southeast, and 4 Imperial worlds had already been put to the flame of Warboss Gringitz. 3 entire systems of the Khanatz Cluster were in open revolt against Imperial Rule, led by disgruntled Laborers and requiring the attention of elements from the infamous Space Marines of the Red Talons and mysterious Dark Angels Chapters. Moreover there were rumors of sightings of Tyranids South of the Galactic Plain, leading some within the Templars Psykologis to speculate that a major Hive Fleet was preparing to invade the area.

One exception was Cardinal Lexcana, who gave fiery sermons throughout the Segmentum Fortress to whoever would listen of the terrible sights he bore witness too in the Eliosan Commonwealth. He spoke of Black Technology and no worship of the Emperor, something which both horrified many of the listening Missionaries of the Ministorum yet at the same time made many eager to gain fame by converting these heretics to the light of the Emperor. Cardinal Lexcana and these eager Missionaries would have a private audience with the Lord Commander Tempestus himself, Gabriel Hoth, the famed Imperial Admiral who had earned a name for himself in the Gothic War against the forces of Abaddon the Despoiler. For 7 hours they presented their case before Hoth, who finally was moved by their powerful sermons and calls for a Crusade against the heretics of Elios. Hoth however was not completely a man of faith, he had previously been given intelligence reports by the Ordo Malleus which spoke of a sizeable Chaos Space Marine presence in the Perseus Sector. In light of this fact, Hoth would formally approve the Cardinals request to launch a major Crusade against the Perseus Sector.

Among the first of his allies who agreed to accompany him on this war of faith was Lord Inquisitor Georgi Shatz, a veteran and stereotypically stern Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus. Shatz was able to secure approval of the Inquisitorial Conclave at Segmentum Headquarters for the personal use of 7 Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus and 1 of the Ordo Xenos plus their retinues for use in the Perseus Crusade. Better yet, the Inquisitor was also able to secure a Strike Team of elite Deathwatch Space Marines after presenting the Segmentum Conclave with intelligence gathered on the major Ork presence within parts of the sector. Inquisitor Staz also received authorization to employ agents of the dreaded Officio Assassinorum if need be, not only deal with Eliosan leadership and to keep the Orks divided in the Sector. Lexcana also was able to mass a significant force of Adeptas Sororitas, better known as the Sisters of Battle, as the religious fervor for a crusade in the Perseus Sector spread across Bakka with each sermon he gave. Many common menials of the Administratum on the Fortress World became so inspired by his orations that they would quit their careers and join the ranks of the Ministorum as Frateris Militia, barely organized and trained armies of religious zealots. As the news of the Crusade grew, more and more of the Cardinals deacons and missionaries would recruit these zealots by the tens of thousands. The Cardinal would also secure control of an Ecclesiarchy Shrine Ship, Virtuous Solace, a massive but lightly armed craft which contained the bones of Saint Serkuhein, a hero of Imperial History who is said to have died defending his Church from a rampaging hoard of Orks. The ship was to be the centerpiece of the Cardinals holy mission, holding nearly 100,000 frenzied Frateris Militia from Bakka.

Most important for Lexcana however was to secure enough resources from the Imperial Guard. Hoth had already used his influence to secure a sizeable fleet of Imperial Warships, but the Departmento Munitorum had the characteristic bureaucracies, red tape, and slowness that one can only expect from the Administratum and the Cardinal found himself frustrated in his attempts to immediately secure a force. Hoth had personally signed an approval for at least 140 Regiments, but he was told that his request would not even be processed for 6 years and to return to the Departmento headquarters on Bakka in 13 years to check back and see if any forces had been mustered. In the end, the Cardinal would again use religious fervor to his advantage. Gathering a large number of his Frateris Militia and devoted masses of followers to Bakka he would give a dramatic sermon outside of the massive Segmentum Fortress Complex. He accused the Administratum of being complicit in heresies against the Emperor, and what began as peaceful protests soon erupted into riots with Arbites control teams needing to be called in. “Hang the heretics” became the rallying cry of hundreds of thousands who had gathered outside the Departmento Munitorum complex on Bakka, and with every one of his followers that was arrested the Cardinal brought another to replace him. Finally having enough of his shenanigans, the Administratum Adepts agreed to reshuffle some paperwork and give the Cardinal a sizeable force of Guardsmen in only 9 months.

Most of these Guardsmen would be drawn from the Hive World of Ghenna Prime, which had recently beaten back an Ork invasion with the help of the Space Marines and had some of the most battle-hardened Regiments in the Segmentum. Originally being dispatched to put down the revolt by a rebellious Governor in the Zurik System, the Administratum upgraded the priority status of the Perseus Crusade to get the Regiments transferred and shut the Cardinal up. Though the unglamorous but experienced Ghennan Regiments would make up the bulk of the Imperial Guard Regiments in the Crusade, sizeable numbers would also be provided by forces from Valhallan Ice Warriors as well as a Regiment of the famed Elysian Drop Troops.

The Imperial Guards general staff had assigned a young but promising General, Karl Broz, to lead the Regiments. This would be Broz’s second major command after a brief stint as the commander of a purge of Orks from the Nam System years earlier and he had received a baptism of fire early in his career serving as a Major in the battles against Tyranid Splinter Fleets on the Eastern Fringe. The highly professional Broz was not persuaded by the Cardinals religious fervor and sought only to achieve military victory in the most efficient manner possible. He would be accompanied on the mission by his supervisor but old friend Lord Commissar Yuval Satoslag, a hardened veteran of the wars around the Cadian Gate and unwavering beacon of dedication to the Imperium. The two had become close friends during the desperate defense of the Forge World of Marshal II from a surprise Tyranid attack.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals fortunes would increase massively when his requests for aid in the Perseus Crusade was approved by 3 chapters of the legendary Adeptus Astartes. The Black Templars saw the Crusade as a new opportunity to spread the Emperor’s Glory to a rogue human civilization and dedicate 6 full companies of the 3rd Crusade to the Cardinals cause. The Dark Angels were unmoved by the Cardinals ambassadors passionate sermons but the Cardinal had suspected as much of the mysterious chapter and his delegates gave the Astartes the Inquisition reports of Chaos Space Marine strongholds throughout the Sector. Realizing that many of these traitor marines had escaped the scouring through sheer luck, the Dark Angels would contribute a full company to the Cardinals cause, though their real motivation was to search for The Fallen of their chapter, who they suspected may haven taken refuge in the sector so many millennia ago. Upon hearing of the reports of a sizeable Word Bearers presence in the Sector, the Ultramarines descendant chapter of The Inceptors would also send 2 Companies, eager to fight their Word Bearer arch-enemies of the Heresy once more. The Cardinal had thus secured not only the support from elements of 1 of the mighty Space Marine chapters, but 3.

At the last minute, the Cardinals request for Titan support was approved by the Adeptus Mechanicus as well. Seeing the opportunity to study the advanced technology of the Elios Commonwealth and perhaps even recover some of the precious lost STC’s, the Titan Legion Legio Venatores plus a sizeable contingent of Skitarii Techguard escorts were sent from the Forgeworld of Metarius Prime to aid in the Crusade. At its core were 6 of the mighty Warlord Titans. A representative Magos Tech Priest of the Metarius Prime ruling council, Kildit Makyar, was sent to oversee Mechanicus activites in the Crusade.

In the span of roughly 1 year, Cardinal Lexcana through dedication, religious fervor, luck, and skillful political maneuvering had managed to amass one of the largest concentrations of Imperial Might in Segmentum Tempestus. Overall command for the operation however would go to General Brom, Inquisitor Shatz, and the Black Templar Marshal Gervhart. In all their forces consisted of:

-Some 900 Space Marines from the Black Templars, Dark Angels, and Inceptors in addition to a Deathwatch Kill Team
-Roughly 2.2 Million Imperial Guardsmen from Regiments of Ghenna Prime, Valhalla, and an elite Armageddon Stormtrooper Company.
-A Titan Legion consisting of 6 Warlords, 14 Reavers, and 10 Warhounds.
-Some 6,000 Sisters of Battle and a supporting 100,000 mob of Frateris Militia gathered by the Ecclesiarchy
-A Fleet of 1 Space Marine Battle Barge of the Black Templars, 1 Retribution Class Battleship, 1 Mars Class Battlecruiser, 3 Lunar Class Cruisers, 12 Dauntless Class Light Cruisers, 2 Space Marine Strike Cruisers, and an Inquisitorial Strike Cruiser in addition to dozens of Escort and Logistical Craft. The Ecclesiarchy Shrine Ship Virtuous Solace would also accompany the fleet.
-Supporting Inquisition, Templars Psykologis, and Departmento Munitorum staff.


Chaos Unleashed
Inside the Blight over the last centuries, though they had been mere years for those inside, the situation had grinded into a stalemate. Through both might and taking advantage of the mutual hatred for the Malal-worshipping Shadows of Death of Sargon, Zoroaster and his Word Bearers had once more united the World Eaters of Tac against Sargon. Nonetheless the alliance was loose, and Sargons forces were proving skillful and fanatical. For Malal is a parasitic God, feeding off the power of the other Chaos Gods. As Zoroaster or Tac pleased the pantheon of Chaos with his actions against Malal, so too did the Renegade God grant Sargon with more power. With neither side able to defeat the other, the great game within the Blight continued as Elios began to wonder that perhaps the threat of Chaos had passed.

However, things would change dramatically upon the arrival of Moloch’s fleet in the Perseus Sector. It had set off from the Eye of Terror not only with nearly a thousand Word Bearers, but also allied Chaos Space Marines from splinter warbands. They were also in regular communication with Alpha Legion intelligence cells operating around and in the Perseus Sector. The cells had just moved into the sector in the preceding months and were already operating a vast multitude of cells. But the greatest secret Moloch had been one only he and a select few of his subordinates knew: for he was acting on the wishes of the Renegade God Malal as well. Moloch had become so dedicated to the cause and belief of Chaos that he thought all things should apply to its discord, even Chaos itself. It is often this literal and fanatical interpretation of Chaos that few possess that leads them to seek the Renegade God. Regularly psychically communicating with a Greater Daemon of Malal, Jerak’Hakul, Moloch had been dispatched to the sector as part of a grand plan of the Renegade God. Just as he would bring terror and discord to this sector, Moloch planned to lead his allies to their demise in the name of Malal with a plan so terrifyingly dangerous and insane that only follower of the Renegade God would even contemplate it.

Upon arriving at the swirling warp rift within the Sector that was The Blight, Moloch quickly found Zoroasters personal world of Urak aboard his flagship, the Battle Barge Exalted Pantheon. Closely resembling the Daemonic worlds of the Eye of Terror, it was a warped planet whose sickeningly disfigured population had been converted into either slaves or cannon fodder for the armies of their overlords. Zoroaster had expected upon the cessation of the Warp Storms that such an expeditionary fleet of Chaos would arrive and coldly welcomed Moloch and his allies. However Zoroaster informed Moloch that Sargon had left The Blight with an elite force of his renegade Astartes sometime ago, for reasons unknown. To make matters worse, the Traitor Titan Legion from Xana II would only risk their God-machines on the worlds of Elios as they hoped to recover the STC’s before their hated brethren of Mars did so. Moreover, a traitor within the ranks of the Imperial Navy in the service of the Alpha Legion had informed their secret masters of the Imperial taskforce that was by this point in the process of dispatching for the Perseus Sector to not only launch a crusade against the Elios Commonwealth, but to purge the sector of Chaos and claim it for their God-Emperor. Even if they did eventually defeat Sargon, it would not be for some time, by which point the Imperium may have already claimed the sector for its own. And the forces of Chaos had learned well that once the Imperium is entrenched into a system, they are indeed hard to move from it. If Moloch and Zoroaster didn't act soon, the unstable Berzerkers of Skalanthrax and the World Eaters of Tac would get so impatient they end their recent alliance

Zoroaster however had a plan, one that may now be possible with the aid of this new fleet. The worlds of the Elios Commonwealth were fresh fruits ripe for the picking, and their experiences against the Ruinous Powers was limited indeed. They had not experienced a major assault by the Forces of Chaos for 10,000 years and the time of Elijah. They had far less restrictions on Psykers than the Imperium, and hoped to control these beings with advanced psychic hampering equipment. Though the wielders of advanced technology that would baffle the Imperium, they knew little of the Warp, the Daemonic, or sorcery. If they played their cards right, these worlds would crumble under the heel of Chaos. But that was just step one of Zoroaster’s hideous plan. For the hampering chips implanted in each Psyker of the Elios Commonwealth were regulated by Beacons which emanated an energy similar to that found in the Soulless “Untouchables”. If they could destroy these beacons, the psychic backlash of a million untrained psykers would open a series of Warp portals. Properly utilized with the daemonic summoning skills of the Word Bearers, they could unleash a billion Daemons across the worlds of the Elios Commonwealth, sacrificing their populations to the Chaos Gods. These vast Daemonic hordes could then be used to annihilate both the Imperial expeditionary force and the Shadows of Death.

It was thus that the forces of Chaos under Moloch and Zoroaster set off from The Blight, to wage war upon the Elios Commonwealth and ready their daemonic hordes for a feast of epic proportions. However Moloch quickly relayed these plans to Sargon and his Shadows of Death via the Daemon Jerak’Hakul. Moloch was then instructed to continue on with their plans, for the Daemonic tide that would be summoned in the Elios Commonwealth would work in the favor of the grand scheme the agents of the Renegade God had planned for the Sector. For Sargon, he and his most loyal followers were dispatched on a mission of their own by Jerak’Hakul. They would travel to the Elios Moon of Hejallah, for buried deep under its soil was an engine of war that none of the Perseus Sector was prepared to face. Of Necron origin, it was the size of a small moon, capable of laying waste to entire worlds in moments. Sargon however was told to expect that he would not be alone in the World Engine, for the warriors of the C’tan guarded such relics in great numbers. His mission was a risky one indeed, not only would he have to raid an Eliosan world with only a relatively small number of his followers but he would have the Necrons to contend with as well. But the results would be most pleasing for Malal indeed: with advanced sorcery provided by Jerak’Hakul they would be able to use the weakness of the C'tan to control the World Engine on a limited scale, enough to fire its primary weapons. They would then lay waste to the Elios Commonwealth, Imperial expeditionary force, the Chaos forces of the Blights, the Chaotic Hordes they would summon, the Orks, the Eldar pirates, everything would be purged. Though they would probably die doing so, this meant little for a follower of Malal. Spreading seemingly anarchy and terror directed at all without prejudice was the greatest reward.

Elios Prepares

Following the disastrous Contact Day’s Massacre, widespread panic initially ripped through the worlds of the Elios Commonwealth. With most of its Federal Government including the President and most of his cabinet dead at the hands of the Imperium, the highest ranking civilian left in the Federal Commonwealth government was Zoan Amadeus, the Minister of Park & Recreation Services. She would work closely with the General Staff of the Commonwealth Armed Forces and the Governors of each of the 13 worlds of the Commonwealth to maintain law and order, as lootings and riots erupted over the fear of an inevitable Imperial assault. After a few days however, life in the Commonwealth returned to a sense of normalcy. The week after the Contact Day’s Massacre, Amadeus would call a meeting of the Commonwealth General Staff, led by Chief of Staff General Morfitny, to discuss her options. Most agreed that an Imperial attack was likely sometime in the future, but when was unclear. The Warp Storms had just recently cleared from the Perseus Sector and the Commonwealth had little idea how the Imperium operated or how slow its responses could be.

Soon enough however, the advanced early warning installations on the Commonwealth world of Sagittarius detected a Imperial fleet heading through the Warp towards the Perseus Sector. The Commonwealth’s small size meant historically it had never invested much in Warp Travel, but Chaos raids over the Millennia had forced it to develop advanced Warp-sensitive warning systems. The fleet was by far the largest enemy armada ever detected in the Commonwealths history, the Chaos, Dark Eldar, and Ork warbands they had previously faced were far smaller. The Commonwealth Defense Forces, though well-trained and equipped, now realized the scope of the enemy they now faced and that their very survival was at stake. An immediate emergency mobilization of the Commonwealth Defense Forces was ordered, however conscription had not been enacted in the Commonwealth for nearly 1,000 years, and so only some 2.4 million personnel were available. However the Commonwealth intended to fight their wars as they always had, and numbers were a secondary concern. They would use their powerful and advanced warfleet, unmanned vehicles, swift maneuvers, and electronic warfare to overwhelm the enemy. According to intelligence provided by Warp-scans these Imperial ships were larger than their own, but their armament and support systems were judged to be less advanced.

But luck was not on the Commonwealths side. Mere weeks after the Contact’s Days Massacre, 2 more threats struck the worlds of Elios. Trying to take advantage of the situation, the Orks under Warboss Blasthead (who had a large hole in his head) had launched a major assault, bypassing Elios Asteroid Defenses and instead launching themselves towards the Commonwealth World of Clarius, known for its vast oceans and natural resources. Sweeping forward in great numbers, they overran some 75% of the Clarius's Planetary Defenses before a counter-offensive led by the elite of the Elios military, Special Operations Command, managed to halt their advance. A desperate defense of the remaining Commonwealth holdings of Clarius began. The second threat that had manifested itself after the Contact’s Day Massacre had been the forces of Chaos, the oldest and most enduring enemy of Elios. The Shadows of Death, a warband of Chaos Space Marines dedicated to the God Malal and led by the vile Sorcerer Sargon, had raided the asteroid mining outpost of Daedallus V, swiftly destroying a Commonwealth Defense Force reconnaissance station and capturing nearly 1,800 miners and their families. What happened to the captives next was largely skipped during briefings to President Amadeus, but the Shadows of Death had always been known for their love of terror, anarchy, and acts of evil, for these were ways to venerate their God. But it soon became apparent that this evil was not senseless: the terrified Captives were sacrificed in a Daemonic ritual to summon a Daemonic horde of Malal, which soon rampaged throughout many other outpost worlds of the, killing tens of thousands of frontier citizens. But as if these weren’t enough, Sargon’s fanatical militia of cultists and renegades, the Legions of Malice, were also spotted on the outskirts of Commonwealth Space. Clearly, the forces of Malal were up to something and taking great advantage of the difficulties now facing the Commonwealth.

In sheer desperation, President Amadeus decided to try and contact the Eldar of Maiden World in the Perseus Sector. Even contacting these mysterious aliens was a great task in and of itself, and few expected any response. However astonishingly enough, the Eldar Autarch, Revine Elvinesh, representing a warhost of Craftworld Ulthwe, soon responded and agreed to meet with the Elios General Staff on the frontiers of Commonwealth Space, on an isolated solar monitoring station Youthful Hope. There, the Autarch shocked all humans in attendance by informing them that he and his warhost would join forces with the Elios Commonwealth to meet the coming threats of Chaos and the Imperium, though he refused to pay any attention to the Orks. He would also try and convince the rogue Corsair Eldrad to join them, though could not guarantee his cooperation. When asked why the aloof Eldar had decided to act, the Autarch would not give an answer.

Now faced under siege by 3 enemies, the Commonwealth of Elios, despite its wondrous technology and utopic society, began to realize that something far greater than themselves was about to play out in the Perseus Sector.