Scourge Stars

The Scourge Stars is a small pestilent empire comprised of several former Imperial systems that have fallen during the creation of the Great Rift, following the fall of the Fortress World of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade at the hands of Abaddon the Despoiler. The resultant chain reaction of the newly formed Great Rift cracked open the galaxy, causing a tidal wave of unnatural energies to be spilled outwards into realspace. The resultant warp storm activity caused all long-ranged astrocommunications to become virtually impossible. This period came to be known as the Blackness. Throughout several Imperial systems located in the southern reaches of the Ultima Segmentum, the seeds of corruption were sown, and a terrible new contamination spread, causing multiple worlds to fall as the Blackness descended. These fallen systems collectively came to be known as the Scourge Stars -- a trio of sickly systems that had fallen to Nurgle. From this power base, the Death Guard and Plague legions, led by their Daemon Primarch Mortarion sallied forth, to launch the Plague Wars, in an attempt to bring the Realm of Ultramar into the embrace of the Plague God.

Background
Cadia had stood for millennia as a bastion world, bearing the brunt of countless Chaos assaults as the daemonic forces attempted to reach Terra. Cadia, and the fortified worlds of its system, were for long centuries a redoubt that withstood every horror that issued from the Eye of Terror. But Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade had seen the fortress world cast down and destroyed, and with it catastrophic destruction, the veil between the immaterium and material realms were sundered.

As the Blackness settles across great swathes of the Imperium, cult activity and recidivist uprisings lead to the daemonic infestation of several prosperous star systems to the galactic north of Ultramar. Where the seeds of corruption had been planted by the Plague That Walks, a new and terrible contamination spread. The diseased dead rose to claim the living. Previously, the walking corpses could be destroyed, but now doing so only released hordes of Nurglings that writhed impossibly out of the withered flesh of the fallen. Hive Worlds were toppled, and as the Blackness descended, there was no escape. In the horrific ruins, Cults of Corruption slithered out of hiding, summoning forth further aid from the Realm of Chaos itself. Under the influence of Mortarion, these worlds fall entirely into Nurgle's grasp and become the Scourge Stars, a feculent fortress for the servants of the Plague Father within realspace. It is from these suppurating staging posts that Mortarion will launch his campaigns in Ultramar. Now, wherever the sepsis cohorts of the Death Guard's 7th Plague Company strike, the Crawling Pustulance extends its reach into the Ultramarines' realm.

Fall of Daxar
When the Scourge Stars arose, Death Guard vectoriums launched strikes against nearby worlds, ensuring that no enemy was in a position to disrupt Mortarion's muster for the Ultramar invasion. On the planet of Daxar, the Apostles of Contagion met stiff resistance from an Astra Militarum force built around the 56th Cadian Heavy Infantry. Though the Death Guard drove the Cadians back from the defences of Haldyon City before harrying them across the sulphur deserts beyond, at the mouth of Tarran's Pass the Imperial Guard dug in and resisted all conventional attacks. Conscious that his enemies were mustering their reserves for a concerted counter-strike, and that the will remained upon Daxar to disrupt Mortarion's plans, Lord Thelugh Poxmaw commanded that a mighty summoning ritual be performed. As dark clouds spiralled overhead and the moons crawled backwards in the sky, several hundred Beasts of Nurgle were conjured into being and sent gambolling towards the Imperial defence lines. Dozens were blown apart by Cadian fire, dozens more hacked and blasted apart at close range, but the remaining Beasts ploughed on regardless, and the depleted Death Guard followed in their wake. With the barricades smashed, the pass ran red with Imperial blood, and Daxar fell soon after.

Rain of Filth
During the siege of Godorian – a world unlucky enough to be within light years of the Scourge Stars – squadrons of Plagueburst Crawlers lob their shells in high parabolas. The diseased munitions slam down on manufactorum stack-vents and spill their filth in the Godorian labour furnaces to create giant, toxic plague censers. The resultant smog clouds drive the Imperial defenders into the open, easy prey for the guns of the Death Guard.

Unholy Endurance
WAAAGH! Badsmak overruns a score of worlds to the galactic west of the Scourge Stars, forcing Mortarion to deploy numerous vectoriums to counter its wrath. During the campaign's pivotal battle on Krug's World, Warlord Badsmak himself leads a headlong charge against the outnumbered Death Guard. Lord Fulgous the Bloated orders an immediate advance into the teeth of the greenskin assault, calling down Plagueburst Crawler fire upon his own position. Weathering the pounding ordnance through a mixture of resilience and sorcery, the Death Guard draw the Orks into an explosive meat grinder. Plaguespitters dissolve wave after wave of the enemy hordes. Noxious Blightbringers toll their tocsins of misery again and again, driving the greenskin Weirdboyz insane and spreading despair through the ranks. Finally, Badsmak and his surviving Boyz flee in abject terror, only to be annihilated by the Plague Marines' pursuing fire.