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Orvar

After the initial engagements on Orvar, warp energies have rippled across its surface, emanating from the region of the ruined temple where Chaos forces and the Iron Hands clashed. It appears as though a dark ritual has been conducted, unleashing dark powers on the barren world.

 

Stymied, the imperium must commit vast resources and quickly conquer orvar, or the crusade may falter.

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YOUR SOULS ARE SO SWEET AND TASTY. WE WILL TEAR THEM APART FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS. YOUR HOWLS OF AGONY WILL ECHO THROUGH THE DARKNESS. SUCH SWEET MUSIC!

 

-The last words of astropath Melikir

 

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A dark day. I saw the work of the ruinous powers first hand, and the wound it left on my soul may never heal. I stood transfixed as an astropath come under their influence on the bridge of the Lord Commander’s very flagship. He writhed and shuddered as the warp possessed and consumed him. I will not soon forget that sight, nor the terrible voice that shrieked from his lungs. It was chaos manifest.

 

We have reached a precipice; soon we will be beyond the Emperor’s light.

 

-From the journal of Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Gabriel Sand

 

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The Plains of Eriodor

The Crusade has begun. Imperial forces crushed all resistance in the cavern-hives of Kraken, and departed known imperial space with their ships’ stores fully stocked, spirits high, guided by the radiant light of the God Emperor.

 

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To: Crusade Fleet Lazarus High Command

Re: Results of initial survey of LR071369-3 “Eriodor”

 

Eriodor is a sea of grassy plains and rolling hills. Its wind-swept surface is populated only by herds of lumbering ungulates  and massive reptiles. No intelligent life is known to exist on the planet. The vast stretches of grassland are broken only by the overgrown ruins of ancient settlements; This strange world was one of the first colonized when Saint Lazarus led the people of the Imperium into this region of space, but it never became heavily populated.

 

Initial Explorator surveys indicate some of the lost human settlements may sit above much older ruins, possibly from human expansions that predate the foundation of the Imperium. There has been some whispered speculation that these ruins could also be the remnants of an ancient xenos society. These heretical notions have been suppressed with extreme prejudice. Adeptus Mechanicus cogitators have found no evidence of environmental or other factors that could compel humans to build atop known xenos architecture.

 

We are dispatching additional survey teams to these areas to determine the age of these ruins, and if there is any evidence of intact material that could aid the Crusade fleet.

 

May the blessing of the Omnissiah be upon you,

 

Magos Stegmann

 

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To all landing forces,

 

Survey teams dispatched to the surface of Eriodor from the Explorator outrider fleet have ceased communication. It is unknown at this time if transmissions have been blocked by a disturbance on the planet’s surface, or if the survey teams encountered some sort of hostile resistance. Contact was lost with all teams at once; this is a coincidence that cannot be overlooked. I recommend the utmost caution.

 

Your forces will be dispatched to the sites the survey teams were investigating. Determine the nature of their disappearance, and exterminate all enemies of the Imperium.

 

Eriodor will be our beach head. From here we will strike out into the Lazarus Reach, and reclaim those gems of humanity stolen by the wicked, thieving hands of aliens, heretics, and the foul denizens of the warp.

 

The Emperor Protects,

 

Lord Commander Militant Drang

 

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The Battle for Kraken

Kraken joined the Imperium of Man as a rich mining world that served as a waystation for the early settlers of the Lazarus Reach. Beyond Kraken lies the Veil of Sorrow, a treacherous nebula that obscured the verdant worlds of the reach for nearly a millenium after the conclusion of the Great crusade. The world’s surface is a fiery hell, unable to support any sort of life, as a result the planet was mined in caverns deep below the surface. As resources on the world dried up the empty mines were converted into hives and forges. Asteroids and moons from the other worlds of the system were drawn into Kraken’s orbit where they were slowly processed by a halo of satellites and space stations. These create a defensive network that protected the world even after xenos invaders and the forces of chaos overran the reach

 

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The crusade fleet swelled with supplies. Thousands of vessels clung to the spars and and rocks of Kraken’s ring, never suspecting that they were flies trapped in a deadly web. Violence erupted throughout the forgeworld when the forces of chaos sprang from dark and forgotten caverns and the eldar materialized from hidden webway portals. The warriors of the Imperium faced a brutal fight if they hoped to escape intact. The fate of the Lazarus Reach Crusade depended on their success…