Editing Gothic War (section)

==Prelude to War==
===The Doom of Arx===

Barely a hundred years into the 41st Millennium, the [[Imperial Navy]] frigate '''Ascendance''' received a garbled astropathic request for aid from '''Arx'''; the world was apparently under attack by unknown forces. When Imperial forces finally arrived four months later, they found the [[Imperial Guard]] garrison there wiped out and the bodies of its soldiers horribly mutilated.

In response, the [[Inquisition]] sent [[Inquisitor]] '''Thadus Valconet Horst''' to the planet to see if he could find evidence of who perpetrated the massacre. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot left to find, as the attackers cleaned up their tracks unusually thoroughly.

Barely a year after the slaughter at Arx, naval patrols in the neighboring Athena Sector made worrying discoveries of Imperial warships and merchant vessels drifting through the void, their crew all dead of disease and contagion. Rumors soon spread that these were caused by an ancient [[Nurgle]]-aligned warship called the '''Plagueclaw''', and with the increase in sightings of [[Chaos]] warships, Horst was worried that a new [[Black Crusade]] was in the making. The worlds around the [[Cadia|Cadian Gate]] were put on high alert and across Segmentum Obscurus Imperial fleets were roused to readiness.

Three years after the attack on Arx, a massive [[Warp Storm]] engulfed the Gothic Sector. Isolated from the greater Imperium and cut off from any sort of reinforcement, the brave men and women of the Gothic Sector were on their own.

===The Despoiler Strikes===

It was at this point that Abaddon made his opening move, launching multiple and simultaneous strikes on naval bases across the sector, in many cases catching Imperial warships unprepared while they were still at dock. Chaos didn't totally have its way however; at '''Orar''' Imperial forces struck back and drove off the invaders while [[Ork]] pirates hounded [[Chaos]] fleets once these drifted close to the greenskins' hidden asteroid bases.

The holdings of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] were also attacked, particularly the [[Forge World]]s where the powerful [[Blackstone Fortress]]es were at anchor. It soon became apparent that these were the Despoiler's primary target after a fleet of twenty warships overran the defenses of Rebo system just to get at the fortress there.

The worst was yet to come: at the Cardinal World of '''Savaven''', Abaddon revealed his trump card - a warship simply called the '''[[Planet Killer]]'''. The name was soon proven to be well-merited, as its powerful guns soon blew the planet to pieces, taking with it the lives of 14 billion Imperial citizens.

Inquisitor Horst, still continuing his investigation in the area, soon realized that this powerful warship was powered by two artifacts stolen in the Gothic Sector years prior: the '''Hand of Darkness''' and the '''Eye of Night'''. These two artifacts would bedevil the Imperium for years to come, well into the [[Age of the Dark Imperium]], where they were finally recovered by the [[Ynnari]] and [[Inquisition]] respectively.

As if things weren't already bad enough, the overall commander of the Imperial Navy of the sector, '''Lord Admiral von Ravensburg''', had to deal with an increase of [[Eldar]] corsairs raids taking advantage of the chaos on top of Ork and regular human pirates. Forced on the defensive, the Imperial losses continued to rise without any relief in sight.

===Under the Despoiler's Bootheel===

As the [[Planet Killer]] had proved itself to be a legitimate threat, it's no surprise that sub-sector after sub-sector surrendered rather than face its wrath. Abaddon captured his second Blackstone Fortress at '''Lukaris'''; as he deployed these to capture the one defending '''Fularis II''', he revealed what two Fortresses linking their energies could do. Fularis was scoured clean of life by the blast of the linked Fortresses and soon the Despoiler had a third Fortress to his name.

Everywhere in the sector the Imperial forces struggled to stem the Chaos tide. '''Sub-Sector Lysades''' fell to Chaos control, while at the '''Cyclops Cluster''' Ork pirates raided Chaos shipping allowing the Imperial navy some respite. At Barbarus Costa, '''Fleet Admiral Mourndark''' finally broke the back of the Eldar and Human pirate threat in its attack on the Pirates' Haven. With the pirates dealt with, the Imperial Navy could focus its entire attention on the Chaos invasion again.

At the [[Hive World]] of '''Corilia''' fifty [[Chaos Terminator]]s under [[Chaos Lord]] '''Vastakel Khyre''' teleported directly into the capital spire and slaughtered their way through the [[Planetary Defense Force]] before leaving as soon as they came. In their wake, the Imperial Governor and his closest advisors were found missing. What happened to them remains one of the conflict's biggest mysteries.