Editing Nobledark Imperium Drafts (section)

==== Twelfth Black Crusade (001.M41-???) ====

''The Destruction of Macharia''

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Macharia is a Hive World in the Segmentum Obscurus that has the dubious distinction of being the closest Hive World to the Cadian Gate and the Eye of Terror. Normally the conditions surrounding the Eye of Terror and the inhabitants that live within it are too harsh to allow a hive world to exist (indeed, no Hive World could exist within the Cadian System itself or else it would be a target of opportunity for Crone Eldar raiders), but being slightly “downwind” of the Cadian Gate in a neighboring sector Macharia is just far enough away from the Eye to allow a Hive World to exist. Macharia is significantly more fortify than your average Hive World, but it is a Hive World nonetheless. Together the three systems of Cadia, Agripinaa, and Macharia are considered the crown jewels of the region surrounding the Cadian Gate, a trinity of worlds that acts as the Imperium’s first bastion against any Chaos incursion.

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The surface of Macharia has seen hordes of plague zombies raised by wight kings, roving bands of Khornate Crone Eldar berserkers, and attacks by the imposing, deadly Fallen, just like any other system neighboring the Cadian Gate region. During the 12th Black Crusade, after the repeated failure of Cadia to hold back the Chaos death fleet, the imperial navy fell back and drew a secondary battle line at Macharia, hoping to halt the Chaos invasion there. The surface of Macharia was fortified to the greatest degree possible and Imperial warships buzzed about the planets of the system like angry hornets. Before long the Chaos war fleet entered the system, headed by the dark chaplain Erebus and his flagship the Chariot of the Gods, a.k.a. the Planet Killer. The Imperial military had their doubts about the ability to hold Macharia, but they were determined to take as many of the Chaos invaders down with them. Macharia was a Hive World, and nobody expected the planet could be taken with anything less than protracted, bloody struggle.

Then the Chariot of the Gods ominously shifted configuration before opening fire and unceremoniously reduced Macharia to rubble with a single shot. The beam set fire to the planet’s atmosphere, blew through much of the upper mantle and core, and sent continent-sized chunks hurtling through space. The few ships that survived the sudden conflagration and the resulting debris cloud could not stand up to the Chaos war fleet, having no planet to use as cover and no place to which they could retreat for fuel and repairs, and were quickly swept away. The Last Battle of Macharia, which had been predicted to have taken months or even years, was over within a few days, and there was nothing to stop Chaos forces from moving further into the Milky Way.

The only good news for the Imperium is that the forces of chaos were just too surprised by this turn of events as the Imperium was. Chaos had also expected a long, protracted siege in order to take Macharia, and in fact Erebus was giving a motivational sermon to his troops in preparation for such a battle when the Planet Killer unexpectedly activated and fired on Macharia without orders. Nobody on board the Chariot of the Gods has any idea what caused the ship to activate or how to repeat that shot. Erebus has begun taking to bothering Be’lakor, the “last of the first race to discover the Primordial Truth” in the hopes of getting him to tell Erebus how to unlock the Planet Killer’s secrets. Despite being amused by Erebus’ groveling and his rightful deference, Be’lakor has no intention of sharing such information.

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''The Gothic War''

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Following a lead based on ancient Eldar Empire records where the Eldar refuse to utter the true name of aliens who they fought. It was said that the aliens could use technology that rendered Eldar technology almost useless. Malys devised a plan on studying then using the artifacts scattered throughout the Gothic Sector to mass produce and integrate these weapons onto Crone ships. Slowly and secretly Chaos built up a force to bypass Cadia then swallow the Gothic Sector where they summoned a Warp storm to isolate the sector. This was done after several Cronefleets were in position and a diversionary attack started on Cadia.

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One such artifact was the Eye of Night which is said to drive machines mad by emitting beams of light that could hit kilometers away. Using sleeper cells, the Cadian garrison force on a planet with the vault holding it, they leaked the location then started a rebellion when a Cronefleet blockaded the world. Ornsworld, the homeworld of the Ratlings, was depopulated when the Warp Hunter warband landed to kill off the tiny garrison force while Crone Eldar witches began excavating the planet for the Eye of Night. Warp Hunters who loved the sadistic extermination of the planet after they refused to surrender, went out of their way to personally make sure "Let no livestock, pet, or citizen live in those settlements" for the Ratling towns. Attempting to reverse engineer the ancient xenos technology with psyker witches and hereteks. They were interrupted in the middle of their experimentation by an Imperial Guard force, led by Ordo Xenos, who reclaimed the artifact after many losses. Battlefleet Gothic was able to clear the Chaos blockade of Onsworld long enough for the Inquisition to smuggle the Eye of Night back to Sol, after multiple failed efforts to destroy the artifact back on planetside. The Imperial Army is unsure if the research on the technology has ever left the world.

At the same time as the Fallen Marine assault on Ornsworld began, the forces of Chaos arrived on the Imperial world of Purgatory to extract another artifact from the weak defenses of the Adaptus Mechanicus. The Hand of Darkness was an artifact that could disintegrate anything it touches when powered by the Warp. The Black Crusade came to study then copy how such a technology can exist by violently extracting it from the Imperials. Although there were a few Cadian regiments present to protect the vault holding the Hand of Darkness, they could only delay the capture. With a change of plans on the fly, the Crone Eldar planning the operation forced the human Battlegroups on the planet to protect the artifact to ship it off-world rather than go off looting. Battlefleet Agripinaa tried to intercept and prevent the evacuation of the Crone Eldar off-world to no avail as the Cronefleet proved too powerful while defending the void space over the planet. The Hand of Darkness was never seen again outside of the Eye of Terror as the Crone Eldar covet the weapon to study then copy the technology which the Imperium never recovered.

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