The Jericho Reach, once known as the Jericho Sector, is a region of space close to the Eastern Fringe of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum. This area of the galaxy was once a part of the Imperium of Man in ancient days, remaining so for millennia until it fell into an age of isolation, disintegration and evil. It has been lost to the Imperium for over four thousand Terran years. During those long millennia, many of its worlds became tainted by Chaos, whilst others were infested by dangerous xenos. To recover the Reach and restore it to the Emperor's light, the Imperium recently unleashed the Achilus Crusade.
The Achilus Crusade is a war of re-conquest fought on three fronts within the region. It is a brutal conflict waged with every weapon that the Imperium possesses and its leaders have sworn in the Emperor's name that they will never retreat and never surrender. In spite of such intentions, the Achilus Crusade may yet fail. The growing Tau Empire, ever mindful of opportunities to further spread the Greater Good, has cast covetous eyes over the worlds and resources of the Reach and has initiated its own efforts to claim it. On worlds long forsaken by the Imperium, the slaves of the Chaos Gods reign while at the Reach’s heart, unsuspected at the Crusade’s start, the servants of the Ruinous Powers have created a blasphemous domain ruled by Daemon Princes and Chaos Lords, where the mutable laws of the Warp rather than those of realspace govern the fragile bounds of space-time.
While the war between the forces of the Achilus Crusade and its many enemies rages, others with agendas far older than those of the Crusade move amongst the stars of the Jericho Reach. The fate of the Jericho Reach now hangs in the balance and only additional imperial forces may possess the skill and tenacity required to bring victory for the leaders of the Achilus Crusade -- and protect the Emperor's children from the terrible threat to all the galaxy that breeds within the Reach's confines.
The Achillus Crusade Salients
The Orpheus Salient was once the most secure of the three fronts of the Achilus Crusade within the Jericho Reach. The planets located rimward of the Reach were made up of sparsely populated frontier worlds and a few former Imperial planets -- many of which had kept faith with the Imperial Creed through the long millennia of the Age of Shadow. These still-Loyal worlds even managed to maintain some haphazard contact with the Imperium, providing the Crusade's scout forces with aid and intelligence about what to expect within the Reach.
The Acheros Salient was the central advancing arm of the Achilus Crusade. It soon became bogged down in blood and infamy. It showed the least progress in terms of worlds captured and, even given the massive losses on the Orpheus Salient, this front consumed the greatest amount of Imperial lives and war materiel on the pyre of battle. For the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, serving in the Acheros Salient is akin to being deployed in hell, whilst to the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes this region is a battlefield made up of everything they hate and despise, made reality. After the appalling reversal of fortune on the Acheros Salient, imperial forces resumed their assault on the region, pouring all reinforcements they could muster into a bloody war of grinding attrition that spanned over 50 star-systems and 25 years of struggle. The war focused around the control of key systems in what is referred to as the Cellebos Warzone.
The Canis Salient is the largest and oldest Imperial warzone within the Jericho Reach. Located to the coreward of the Reach, its first battles were fought in a Crusade to liberate dozens of human-inhabited worlds from Tau expansion. The Greyhell Front is one of the two main war zones where the Imperial forces of the Achilus Crusade were concentrated. The Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy struggled to establish footholds close to Tau-occupied space. This volatile region of the Reach is regarded as a meat grinder by the Imperial troops serving there.
Key planets
Karlack is the lynchpin of the Achilus Crusade’s military might and central to the defences of the Iron Collar which guards the Well of Night. The natives of the once-green planet maintained their Imperial traditions through the Age of Shadow, and welcomed the Crusade as long-lost allies. Their reward was a planet quickly leeched of resources and transformed day by day into a teeming hive of soldiers and bureaucrats working to keep the Crusade moving forwards. The dwindling local population have forgotten why they ever welcomed the Imperium, and their complacency has turned to a festering resentment as they choke on their poisoned air and are forced to scrounge for the very they have been forcibly recruited to grow. Yet something older than mankind and its petty sleeps beneath the surface of Karlack. In an age long before man began to count the years, it became the resting of an ancient alien race with technology far beyond human understanding. Some senior members of the Inquisition have tracked the remnants of this civilisation not just to the Jericho Reach, but to lost worlds and ancient ruins across the galaxy. They see the signs of a race whose reach was seemingly unlimited. What only a few of these scholars suspect is that the tombs hold not corpses, but a diabolical force that waits to one day rise again. The forces of chaos seek these xenos' secrets and have infiltrated the planet.
Spite is the Fortress world from which Lord Commander Ebongrave marshals the Imperial Crusade against the Tau. It is a world recovering from a terrible attack by human malcontents, widely assumed to have been supported by the Tau, which killed millions and left Spite a ruined and shaken planet. Captured relatively intact from Tau infiltrators early in the Crusade, Spite is a heavily settled and industrialised world, which turned its whole production over to the war effort. Less than three years ago, it was subject to an unexpected and devastating attack by fanatical Tau sympathisers. Spite has barely been able to function as a military headquarters since. Ebongrave has a great deal of political and military influence. His paranoid actions against alleged sedition and Xenos worshippers have caused a schism between the imperial forces in the Jericho reach.
A barren, radioactive, and haunted wasteland of shattered hive cities and fallen grandeur, 'Vanity' was once the Hive world of Corulsiem. A prominent world, Corulsiem was once capital of the Cellebos sub-sector. During the age of shadows, the prideful and fractious rulers of Corusciem were among the first to fall to internal division and strife. Its hive cities erupted into a savage civil war, which quickly escalated to the use of forbidden atomic weapons, rendering the planet into a lifeless cinder-shrouded carcass of a world. With the coming of the Hadex Anomaly, Vanity's reputation grew darker: engulfed for a time within the burgeoning warp storm, legend has it that the tortured souls of Corulsiem's billions of dead rose up screaming. Since then, Vanity has become legendary as a deadly, haunted place. These legends were proved to be lethal truth as this world became a second line in the war between the advancing imperial crusade and the chaos forces of the stigmartus. The fighting on Vanity has been both sporadic and brutal, with both sides trying and failing to gain the upper hand and use the system as a base for their own operations, or at least deny it to their enemies.
Eleusis is the closest planet to a Shrine world that the Ecclesiarchy can claim in the darkness of the Jericho Reach. The original glass shrines and extravagant worship spires of the ancient planet were desecrated by the loathsome worshipers of Chaos who took control of the planet during the Age of Shadow, and were then razed to the ground twelve years ago in the Conquest of Eleusis. Since that day, the missionary forces of the Adeptus Ministorum have adopted the world to serve as the centre of Ecclesiarchy power in the Reach. Between the righteous zeal of devoted labourers and the endless coffers of the Ecclesiarchy, over a dozen centres of faith have already been rebuilt. Efforts to restore more cities to their former grandeur are unending. Recently a Tau presence revealed itself on Eleusis where they were trying to open a portal to allow their alien allies to come forth.
Millennia ago, when The Reach was known as the Jericho Sector and firmly under the stable control of the Imperium, Imbru was a small but bustling and exceedingly ambitious hive world home to an unusually large Mechanicus mission. A stark and lovely world of broad, undulating plains, seething volcanic calderas, and vast, towering, obsidian-faced hive cities, Imbru was home to billions of the Emperor’s subjects. The might and glory of Imbru eventually came to a slow and painful end, however. Now daemons stalk the halls of the ancient capital. Numerous cults worshipping one or the other of the Chaos Gods sprung up all over the planet and warred with one another over the supremacy of their dark masters. The agents of the Imperium were hounded from the planet or killed in their beds, and the towering cathedrals and monuments erected to the glory of Him on Earth were torn down, their stones scattered and their art and trappings defaced. In their place arose blasphemous halls dedicated to Chaos, twisted mockeries of the once proud and holy buildings they replaced. Today, Imbru is essentially a shabby, disreputable fiefdom where Chaos Space Marines rule the debased world completely, driving its enslaved denizens to their deaths as they work the forges and manufactorums. No longer a rich and lovely world, it more resembles the corrupt forge world of Samech.
Aurum has just undergone integration into the Imperium vis the Achilus Crusade. It's Hot/Temperate, abiding planetary climate is tropical with a low degree of precipitation and storm activity. The planet has two main continental landmasses. Each are dominated by arid plains and rain forest zones surrounding a chain of large mountain ranges. The equatorial regions are made up of bands of deserts. The planet also possesses relatively small polar oceans. Aurum is rich in promethium deposits and the rare decavane crystals. In addition to its abundant natural resources, the planet is strategically well-suited to the needs of the Crusade and the Aurum tribes themselves are a fierce warrior culture that is nearly ideal for integration into the Imperial Guard.
Lying in the otherwise starless depths trailing the Black Reef, Justertii represents an undiscovered enigma. Once an Eldar “Maiden World” — a planet seeded long ago by the Eldar for future settlement — Justertii is now a desolate waste studded with the blasted remains of Eldar wraithbone structures. None can tell what fate befell the world and caused it to become a rogue far from whatever star must have birthed it. To date, both Imperial and Tau scouts have logged the existence of the world, yet it appears to be subject to some unfathomable process that causes it to vanish from the void to reappear elsewhere.
The Magog system has been drawn into and exited from the Hadex Anomaly countless times in the millennia since the disturbance first appeared. These transitions have had a substantial effect upon its only inhabitable planet and those who dwell upon it. Once this was a stable Agri-world filled with citizens loyal to the God-Emperor and the Imperial Creed. Now, it is a breeding ground and a training centre for the forces of corruption that extend into the Jericho Reach. The planet’s environment and indigenous life all bear the taint of the Warp. Rivers that were once filled with water now flow with blood. Much of the plant life—including some that is harvested for food—is predatory and feeds upon those who tend it. The planet’s surface ebbs and flows, as though the entire world draws breath. Landmasses—even mountain ranges—migrate on a whim and are often subsumed beneath the world’s surface, only to emerge days or decades later in a different locale. In addition to those surviving humans, the planet is also rife with creatures spawned from the Warp. These foul daemons closely interact with the tainted humans; breeding mutants and providing a seemingly endless supply of further soldiers for the forces of the dark gods. Their presence serves as a powerful motivation for the tainted humans as they pay their obeisance. The mortals are constantly driven to commit acts of debauchery and cruelty in their service. In spite of these constant acts of wanton destruction, Magog remains a crucial asset to the forces of Chaos. For unknown reasons, the planet’s environment has consistently remained capable of supporting life and abundant agriculture. Though the foodstuffs are hideously deformed, the fortress world’s fields are constantly tilled and harvested by countless slaves. The mutated crops provide yields with an efficiency that far exceeds even many of the most bountiful planets of the Imperium. This bounty of both food and manpower is likely the reason for the system’s extensive defences, and very few of the craft sent to scout the system have returned from their missions. While Warp instability contributes to the high failure rate, the dark fleets reported by those that have returned are undoubtedly a factor as well. The Stigmartus actively recruit from Magog’s population. There are numerous reports of traitor Space Marines active in the Magog system, or moving towards the system. The extent of their involvement is unclear, but they may be recruiting from the native population as well. Magog’s many uses clearly dictate that it must be a high priority target for the Achilus Crusade. However, until additional assets can be allocated it is virtually impenetrable. The Chaos forces must be drawn away from the system, or the Acheros Salient would need to receive a substantial increase in manpower and resources.
Laatst aangepast door Necron op ma sep 02, 2013 11:38 am; in totaal 1 keer bewerkt
Necron Malekith's Best Friend
Aantal berichten : 2193 Registration date : 15-07-09 Leeftijd : 45 Woonplaats : Lede
Onderwerp: Re: Forging the narrative ... wo jul 31, 2013 6:03 pm
The Commander’s strategy room was lit by the perpetual gloom that passed for daylight on the planet known as Spite. The heavy industrialization on the fortress world had left it a barren rock, its crust empty but for the fortresses, hive cities and manifactora, its skies blackened with smog and filth, blocking out the sun forever. In this gloom, several people were seated. All of them important and high ranking, all of them victorious, yet none of them pleased.
At the head of the table sat lord commander Ebongrave, marshal of the Achilus Crusade, and the tone in which he spoke, grim and dark, belied his words: ‘We won.’ He paused there, daring the other commanders to agree to the statement and earn his scorn. When no one did, he continued: ‘Right now, those incompetent fools are celebrating what they call “a grand victory”… Yes, we managed to prevent the enemy from breaking the iron collar, but they forget how outrageous it is the enemy ever got close enough to it to attempt such a thing in the first place. We didn’t win today gentlemen, we only managed to turn horrible defeat into a stalemate at the last possible moment. The enemy is far from defeated. Although no more tyranids or orcs have been sighted since they mercifully annihilated each other, the other xenos still run rampant throughout the region. The tau even seem to have increased their military presence, and there is evidence the eldar are machinating alongside them. A new breed of xenos, horrifying and unknown, is rising from the depths of worlds we believed secure, presumably awakened by heretics. The traitors’ presence has not diminished a single bit as far as we can see, it even seems to increase. Another such a victory, and we are done for.’
Another of the commanders spoke, a giant in black power armour to which several dozens of parchments were affixed: litanies of purity, scrolls of devotion, vows of hatred towards the enemies of the imperium. ‘Our allies are weak. They may not be traitors, yet they wander from the emperor’s light. They follow the edicts of Guilliman, who failed to fight with us at the most crucial of times, while shunning the edicts the emperor himself has declared. They allow witches into their ranks, they lack true focus and zeal.’ He emphasized the ‘may’, as if he was not entirely certain they really were not traitors, they consorted with witchcraft after all.
The last person in the room, if possible even larger than the second, his armour the greyish blue color of the winter sky and draped with furs of several mighty beasts, nodded in agreement. ‘Traitors rise up everywhere, and those that rise today will not be the last of them. Our stray brothers allow this by their weakness. Even now they are celebrating how they came back from the brink of defeat, further indulging in the complacency that put us in that situation in the first place.’ At these last words, he thundered his fist on the table in outrage. ‘They feast before the tale is fully told, they allow the enemy to regroup, they are fools, or maybe worse.’ The dark tone of his last words hinted he too considered the possibilities of traitors even amongst the astartes ranks.
Ebongrave stood and spoke again, solemnly: ‘I have called this meeting with you because I knew we share these concerns. No longer will we depend on them to serve the imperium. No longer will we allow their lackluster ways to hold us back. While they celebrate hollow victories, we will achieve the meaningful ones. And if they get in our way, we will know them by their true face and respond accordingly.’ The response in question was not spoken out loud, yet everyone knew it and nodded.
Whether or not Ebongrave and his commanders were right or paranoid, only time will tell. All I know is the Achilus crusade is about to enter its second stage, known as the stage of the witch-hater’s schism, and while some do it in rage, some in fear and some in anticipation, everyone shivers.
I am the chronicler, and i will tell you this tale as it unfolds.
