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So Im playing Space Marine 1 as I am want to do, and I take notice of one thing.

In a Servo Skull, a Imperial Guard mentions they are the only Imperial Guard in the sector,

Really, the Crown of Miracles, the highest production Forge World in the Belt of Iron, They make Titans, theres literally no protection against a Ork WAGHHH! really?

Watch any Star Trek movie. The Enterprise is the only ship that is in the right place at the right time.

Something implausible is happening so that the plot can occur, you say?

In my warhammer 40,000?

Surely you jest, sir!

Charax wrote:
Something implausible is happening so that the plot can occur, you say?

In my warhammer 40,000?

Surely you jest, sir!

touche, and dont call me surely.

Eh.

The Imperium has, near as dammit, infinite resources. But it’s also quite staggeringly inefficient. Mind bogglingly so. It’s also fighting never ending wars across the entire galaxy. Which unlike our world, is a three dimensional front, and again on a scale our minds simply aren’t evolved to need to comprehend.

There’s also an awful lot of Big Old Question Marks on the galactic map between Imperial Holdings.

It’s entirely possible such an important Forgeworld was so far behind concentrated Imperial Lines, that with standard application of Warp travel it was seen as pretty secure, its defence being,,,,well behind a solid concentration of Imperial Lines, making it stupendously unlikely to be attacked, as in theory you’d need to get though a bunch of other Imperial sectors first.

Orks though? They’re Orks, innit. Get your Weirdboy to punch a hole into the Warp, stuff your ships through, enjoy the fights as Daemons try to invade, and….just sort of turn up where you turn up, and hope it’s at a Really Good Fight. Actual planning and steering and navigation is for wimps.

They also have Gork and Mork on their side, who might well see a planet that can give a good fight, and ensure the Ladz turn up there.

So it’s not as entirely implausible as we might think. Indeed its lack of plausibility is, entirely perversely, the entire reason it’s possible.

Tin foil hat moment:

What if the chaos lord had Nemeroth had deliberately orchestrated events to leave the forgeworld vulnerable. A diversion attack the next system over would draw away forces from the closest neighbor. Next you use a little sorcery to pull some wandering orks over where they're not meant to be. Once the chaos ensues, you can slip in with the help of your inquisitorial patsy and take the artifact.

As long as some Ultramarines with magic plot armor doesn't show up!

The most important world in the sector might well have a lions share of all the Imperial Guard.

Remember that doesn't mean the other worlds are without any military support, it just means that they have whatever local planetary defence units that they can muster from their own resources.

I can very readily see that a major world in a sector could have a ruling power body that demands that the Imperial Guard weighted their defence of it over every other world. Eventually resulting in the Imperial Guard being hyper focused on the single planet rather than being spread over the whole system.

A Forge World shouldn't really need to be relying on the Imperial Guard for defence. They kind of have their own dudes for that...

Easy answer is that the Orks killed everyone else.