Editing Gothic War (section)

===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.