Achilus Crusade

“I will see the God-Emperor’s domain extended to the farthest reaches. To the places where the light of stars and moons shines on ruin and casts only shadows, and the unclean walk unpunished. I will see those that have turned away at the tip of the sword, and the defilers beneath the hammer. I will see my own blood run out before I turn from this path. – From the oath of Tiber Achilus, taken at the commencement of the Crusade into the Jericho Reach

The Achilus Crusade is a war being waged to bring the Jericho Reach back into the dominion of the God-Emperor of Mankind. It has been waged for over four decades, and in time, it has consumed millions of lives, seen the destruction of dozens of worlds, and its end is lost in a blood-soaked future that none now living may see.

It exists because of a stable Warp Gate linking the Jericho Reach and the Halo Margins close to the long distant Calixis Sector. The first stage of the Crusade was launched through the Warp Gate within years of its discovery. It was a bold attempt to retake the Jericho Reach quickly and use it as a staging point from which a greater re-conquest of lost areas of the Eastern Fringe could begin. From there, the Imperium could start a second front against the encroaching designs of the expanding Tau Empire.

At first, the forces of Lord Militant Achilus enjoyed rapid success, taking several worlds and establishing a core of systems to act as the basis for further conquests. Since these early victories, however, the Crusade has seen the death of its leader, the division of its armies to fight wars on many fronts, and the bleeding dry of its forces by attrition and the onslaught of deadly enemies with unexpected numbers and strength.

In the heart of the Jericho Reach, the forces of Chaos - entrenched in the millennia-long dark ages since the Jericho Reach fell - have battled the Crusade to a corpse-choked standstill. Here, amid these worlds of horror, death, and iron, the slaves of the Dark Gods have drowned entire armies in their own blood.

This has not been the extent of the Crusade's woes. The expansionist forces of the Tau have also made inroads into parts of the region and clashed head-on with the Crusades outer edges in a war for control of over inhabitable planets and the resources to feed their war effort. Pirates, raiders, and hostile aliens have proven far more numerous and troublesome than many of the Crusade's high command had believed possible.

So the situation has stood for decades, but the worst was to come. A new threat, perhaps greater than any other, now casts its long shadow from the lifeless voids towards the Galactic Rim, and this war teeters on the edge of disaster. In that rising tide, whole worlds have died, naval battlegroups have been lost to the howling dark, and a smothering cloud has spread across the Warp.

It is a war begun in secret, waged in darkness, and without mercy or quarter. Yet the truth is that the carnage seen so far is only the beginning.

Pending...