Battlefleet Agripinaa engaging a Chaos Fleet during the Gothic War
Battlefleet Agripinaa is a small fleet of Imperial Navy vessels charged with the protection of the Agripinaa Sector. Battlefleet Agripinaa forms a component part of the Bastion Fleets which make up the massive Battlefleet Obscurus, as do its neighbours, Battlefleets Cadia, Corona, and Scarus, as well as the more distant Battlefleets Gothic, Tamahl and Odessa, among others. Located in the Segmentum Obscurus near the Eye of Terror, this Imperial Battlefleet must maintain constant vigilance against the Forces of Chaos and the dreaded Black Crusades led by the Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler. In 139-160.M41, during the 12th Black Crusade, known also as the Gothic War, Battlefleet Agripinaa helped provide the Imperial bulwark against the encroaching Forces of Chaos, reinforcing Battlefleet Gothic. During the latest incursion of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the world of Agripinaa did not weather the attacks of the Forces of Chaos well and much of its industrial infrastructure was laid ruin. Battlefleet Agripinaa fared no better, sustaining heavy losses during the brutal conflict.
History[]
Segmentum Obscurus[]
Departmento Cartigraphicae Map of the Segmentum Obscurus
The Segmentum Obscurus, also known as the Segmentum Obscura, is the region of Imperial space to the galactic north of Terra. This Segmentum of the Imperium of Man is the home of the vast Warp Storm and Warp Rift called the Eye of Terror, the primary home for the Forces of Chaos in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Imperial Navy's Segmentum fleet headquarters is located on the world of Cypra Mundi, which also serves as the central headquarters of the Imperial military's Segmentum Command. The Segmentum Obscurus is the area of the Imperium most often under deadly threat by attacks from the Eye of Terror and is also the point of origin for all of Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades. As such, it currently is home to the majority of the Imperium's armed forces, which were most recently mobilised to a state of readiness not seen since the Horus Heresy as a result of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41
Agripinaa Sector[]
Departmento Cartographicae Map of Sector Locations surrounding the Eye of Terror
Departmento Cartographicae Map of the Agripinaa System
The Agripinaa Sector is one of the closest sectors to the vitally important Fortress World of Cadia and the Cadian Gate, the only predictably stable Warp route that leads out of the Eye of Terror and into the realm of the Imperium. The Imperial Navy shipyards for the sector were located on the Forge World of Agripinaa. This world provided materials for the Cadian front, and its industrial heartland was solely engaged in the production of ammunition. As such, it was considered a valuable lynchpin in the defence of the Cadian Gate.
In 999.M41, war came without warning to the Agripinaa Sector, and the opening moves by the Forces of Chaos saw large number of plague-ridden Space Hulks entering Imperial space. Though many were intercepted by the Space Marines and destroyed, some managed to escape the Astartes' attention. Some of these foul vessels of contagion found their way into the Agripinaa Sector, spreading their disease and pestilence amongst the masses throughout the sector. Along with the adjacent Belis Corona Sector, they were some of the first to bear witness to the rise of hordes of infectious, undead zombies that threatened billions of people on many of the Imperial worlds within the sector. This plague was later named the Plague of Unbelief.
While the defence of the Cadian Gate from the Forces of Chaos continued to go badly upon the surface of many worlds in the Cadian System, in particular Saint Josmane's Hope and Solar Mariatus, the war in space was fought more on the Imperium's terms. The Cadian System had been the focus of Abaddon's primary fleet actions, and the Imperium's fortunes there changed from day to day. The situation was highly fluid and the Chaotic naval forces found themselves stretched to exploit the victories they had won.
A fleet the size of which has not been seen since the end of the Gothic War eight standard centuries earlier had been dispatched from Cypra Mundi, and arrived at Belis Corona in preparation for a massive Imperial counter-offensive into the Cadian Gate. The arrival of this vast armada allowed those Imperial vessels that had been fighting continuously since the beginning of the invasion a brief respite. Severely depleted ship’s companies were bolstered through indiscriminate press-ganging, and hasty repairs and refits were undertaken on those vessels most in need of them.
The Imperial reinforcements were split into battlegroups, each tasked with bolstering the defences in a specific sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. The regions around the Eye of Terror encompass many millions of cubic light years, and only by the concentrated application of resources in those areas in most desperate need could the Imperial Navy hope to make inroads and slow, stall, and eventually repel the Chaos warfleets plaguing the region. A small number of Imperial Navy ships won a decisive victory when they managed to hold back a larger Chaos Fleet at the Ilthirium Belt, buying time for Battlefleet Agripinaa to arrive and allow the remaining ships to retreat. This course of action however, left the Agripinaa Sector open to invasion and soon the worlds of this sector and the Belis Corona Sub-sector of the Belis Corona Sector were transformed into nightmarish realms of plague and pestilence.
As the full force of Abaddon's invasion hit the sector, one man, Regu Hane, was hailed as a saviour -- he led a bold counter-attack that succeeded in banishing a horde of Khornate Daemons, and would later be raised to the status of sainthood. Later the mysterious Eldar Harlequins intervened in the fighting, but the defenders were stymied when the notorious Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, Lord Erebus, caused the raging tempest of Warp Storm Baphomael to surge forth and engulf the outlying star systems of the sector.
It was only in the closing stages of the conflict that the Imperium was able to mount an effective defence against the raging hordes of the Ruinous Powers, when the combined forces of a number of Space Marine Chapters broke through the storms and fell upon the invaders with a righteous hatred born of 10,000 years of conflict. By the end of the war, the planets Albitern, Amistel, Lelithar, Malm's Reach, Ulthor and Yavor lay in ruins, and a number of other key systems of the Agripinaa Sector hung in the balance. Though Agripinaa itself still stands, without the Agri-Worlds of Yayor. Ulthor and Dentor. Its populace may yet starve to death, and without the vital materials provided by the Hive Worlds of Albitern, Amistel and Tabor, its mighty forges may yet fall silent. The so-called "Herald of Nurgle," Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, has claimed the now blasted world of Ulthor as his own realm, a stronghold beyond the Cadian Gate from which he can bring terror to the other worlds of the Imperium at his leisure. Nightmare visions of a thousand Astropaths tell of the birth of a new Daemon World within the domains of Man.
Further, unconfirmed reports state that one of the Blackstone Fortresses were destroyed by raiders of the Necrontyr off the shoulder of the Lustitia Belt. Senior members of the Ordo Xenos are en route to the area, and Deathwatch Strike Cruisers are already engaged in ensuring no vessels other than their own enter the area.
Notable Vessels of Battlefleet Agripinaa[]
- Warrior Knight (Exorcist-class Grand Cruiser)
Sources[]
- Battlefleet Gothic Armada, pg. 16
- Battlefleet Gothic Rulebook (Blue Book), pg. 101
- Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 25
- The Thirteenth Black Crusade (Background Book) by Andy Hoare
- 13th Black Crusade Worldwide Campaign - Eye of Terror Newsletter, "Death By a Thousand Cuts"