A Brief History of the Mardannon Sector
For five millennia, the Mardannon sector has been a bastion for the Imperium of Mankind. In the wake of the 13th Black Crusade, the entire sector stands on the brink of annihilation. Never before has war surged through the worlds here in such a fashion, and many believe this recent rash of conflicts indeed heralds the end of all things. From the glittering spires of Mardannon Prime to the bloody wastes of Magnum Sierra, warriors gather in their thousands, preparing for the next day of battle.
All is not lost, however. The Imperium has a mighty and proud history, and many worlds will fight tooth and nail to preserve their future. Across the sector, legendary tales are told of the Old Crusade, when the servants of the Emperor reclaimed the worlds of Mardannon for Him. Faith is resurgent throughout the citizenship, invigorating their fighting spirit and sense of duty. However, Mardannon sits close to the Eye of Terror, a region of space where madness and daemons rule. The Men of Mardannon have already faced down many terrors already, but how many more wars can the Imperium withstand here?
The Old Crusade
In the 35th Millennium, the High Lords of Terra decreed that a crusade be undertaken against the Ork tribes inhabiting a large area of space west of the galactic core. This Crusade, led by Warmaster Polemides Mardannon, had the primary goal of reclaiming worlds lost to the Imperium thousands of years earlier while eradicating the threat of orks throughout the sector. The Hallegen’s Gulf Crusade, as it was called, was an incredibly immense undertaking of ships and men, sending millions on a colonization mission across the stars.
At the forefront of the crusade came three Great Companies of Space Wolves. Accompanied by several regiments hailing from the world Catachan, the combined forces of the crusade smashed almost all resistance in the sector, establishing a peace of sorts after twenty three years of fighting. As a reward, most of the Imperial Guard regiments were given rights of settlement, and the sector was renamed after Warmaster Mardannon, who had perished during the battles at Urbanus Scapulare.
The powerful ork tribes of the sector were not as unified then as they are now, and offered little resistance to the crusade. Orks once occupied most of the sector, but since then have been confined to a much smaller area of space. Even so, many planets have orks hiding in the dark bowers, much to the chagrin of the Ordo Xenos.
At the same time, other important engagements occurred. Though the Imperial commanders of the time did not realize it, there are documented encounters with known Tyranid life forms on many planets. Though full scale war was uncommon, it is known to the Ordo Xenos that Tyranids did visit the Mardannon sector prior to the events at Tyran. It is widely speculated that advance seeding was due to Tyranid infestation of certain space hulks in the area also at the time.
The Long War
For years after the Old Crusade, Mardannon was troubled by intermittent wars with Xenos, but more worrying were the depredations of Chaos. Abaddon himself has pursued an agenda in the sector, and cohorts of Black Legion rampaged through the colony worlds. It was not long after stories of these traitor marines began to spread that the Space Wolves began to chase them down.
Companies of Ultramarines and Dark Angels arrived soon after, and a space marine Crusade was declared. The Scorched Legion, a cohort of Abaddon’s Black Legion, began to cause problems for the Imperials, but the intervention of the Eldar at various points ultimately caused the Black Legion to fail in their mission - to fortify vital heretic positions throughout the sector with fresh troops and supplies. The Eldar appeared so many times fighting aliens and Chaos it is surmised that Ulthwe Craftworld had to be in the sector at the time.
Eventually, the Crusade disbanded, but to this day the people of Mardannon honor the space marines of the Space Wolves, Ultramarines and Dark Angels chapters. The Eldar of Ulthwe vanished, leaving Mardannon on its own for centuries. Only the people of Mardannon remained to defend themselves, and thus the mighty Guard regiments of the sector were first created.
Holy Worlds of the Immortal Emperor
The Orks of Magnum Sierra united in a massive Waaagh in the early part of the 41st millennium, subjugating systems throughout the subsector. The Dark Angels returned to help stem the tide of orks, if only briefly before embarking on their ships and leaving the sector. However, the orks were merely contained and not destroyed, and thus the Orkoid subsector of Mardannon was conquered by the greenskins.
The Eldar of Ulthwe would return to Mardannon in the early 41st millennium as well. Along with Rangers of Alaitoc Craftworld and hitherto unidentified Eldar marauders and Dark Eldar, these Xenos became more common during this period. It can be surmised that this many Eldar were drawn to one spot because of the depredations of the Chaos Legions mobilized at this time.
Foulest of the traitor legions, the Death Guard was at the forefront of the Chaos Armies during the wars in and around Mardannon. An entire company of Death Angels space marines reportedly turned traitor and then disappeared into the Eye. A sect of Khornate berserkers calling themselves Void Knights appeared, doing battle with the Eldar and subsequently being annihilated or forced to retreat to the Eye.
The Daemon Prince Kal’duraas, favored of Slaanesh, first grew to prominence during this period. His Cult of Excess flourished on several worlds, and at least a company of Emperor’s Children Chaos space marines has sworn to do his bidding. Kal’duraas’ fleet was broken by the Imperial Navy at the Battle of Kelphis, where the daemon prince was banished to the warp for two-hundred and forty-four years.
In the skies of every single world in the entire Mardannon Sector, a terrible and ever present reminder of the danger that exists to the Imperium soars like a malignant cloud in the heavens. The Eye of Terror is clearly visible, and indeed, stretches across the entire sky of most worlds. A multi-hued and vibrant phenomenon, there are many who are ignorant of what it truly is.
To others, including the commanding officers of the Navy and Guard, it is the enemy’s territory clearly illuminated and demarcated. While still thousands of light years away, the terror of Chaos is quite present throughout the sector. Indeed, corrupted humans swayed to Chaos inhabited many of the worlds now claimed by the Imperium.
The Exparos Incident
Since the Black Crusade began, there have been more than a few major battles and conflicts where the fate of entire systems and the well being of nearby worlds for hundreds of light years. One such incident occurred after Abaddon’s defeat at Cadia, on a world called Exparos III.
The Exparos system is in the Magnum Sierra subsector, the area of space where Imperial authority is almost non-existent. Most of the worlds are held by aliens, notably a huge tribe of orks known as the Blackskull Goffs. The Exparos system, and both its habitable worlds, remains extremely hostile to the Imperium.
Agents of the Ordo Malleus predicted an unnatural warp storm would engulf most of the Magnum Sierra subsector, effectively sealing the Borengrad system off from the rest of the Imperium. Borengrad is a major Navy battlestation, and the only place where Imperial power can be found in Magnum Sierra. The nature of the warp storm was traced to a resonating eldar psychic power grid…which the orks inhabiting Exparos III had built their ramshackle cities on.
As the orks gathered together, the latent psychic energy they produce in large numbers began to activate the alien device. However, as no ork had an idea what was happening, no Imperial could profess to know how the device worked. If it was not shut down, Borengrad may be lost to ork roks and hulks drifting through space, as no Imperial aid could traverse the dangerous storm if it manifested.
The Ordo Malleus acted bravely, and a small strike team landed on Exparos III and braved the ork city in a covert mission to find the eldar power grid. After a long and grueling trek through the ruined underground alien city, the strike team managed to dissipate the artifacts energies and deactivate it. As they left, they planted enough demolitions to bring down the ruins, collapsing the ork city and the unfinished gargant above the eldar power grid.
The Battle of Vogenheim
On Tetrazom Tertius, the capital city of Vogenheim had long been the bastion of Imperial might against an never ending tide of enemies. However, centuries of warfare can only grind you down, and during the resurgence of conflict surrounding the Black Crusade Vogenheim was invaded by several outside forces all at once.
Traitor marines from the Alpha Legion and Emperor’s Children landed and began an orgy of destruction. However, at nearly the same time the renegades descended upon the battle weary citizens of Vogenheim, two different alien forces also arrived to contest control of the capital city.
After nearly of year of constant fighting, the traitor marines withdrew, leaving the Imperials to fight it out with the aliens. Though Vogenheim was not completely lost, it still is precarious. Heretics, aliens and daemons prowl the streets, preying on the unwary. Sections of the immense city are completely deserted for miles, the burned out ruins no longer worth fighting over.
If Vogenheim falls, then Tetrazom Tertius is lost.
The Battle for Tessina
The planet Tessina (Dasnia System, Acherus subsector) has produced many manufactured goods for the Imperial systems within its subsector. Its four giant hive cites are positioned around a huge badzone, where the guilders say lay caches of hidden archeotech from the Dark Age of Technology.
Fighting erupted here when orks invaded one of the hives, but traitor marines from the Emperor’s Children legion took the opportunity to strike at a second hive while Imperial forces were diverted against the orks. The Children made straight for the badzone, and departed the planet shortly after plundering the archeotech site located there. Who can say what it is the deranged worshippers of the Prince of Pleasure sought there?
Fighting still rages in two of Tessina’s hives, with warped cultists and brutal orks controlling them. Tessina is still under Imperial control, mainly due to lack of orbital support for the heretic and alien ground forces. Imperial commanders are optimistic that with time, they will be able to purge the heretics and burn out the xeno infesting their world.
Staring Into the Eye
During the 13th Black Crusade, the Mardannon Sector War truly began in earnest once more, after a short period of relative peace. In the short amount of time since Abaddon’s legions were repelled at Cadia, several traitor legions have begun to insinuate themselves on the Sector in an attempt to usurp Imperial control. In Mardannon, it will fall to a number of individuals who are enlightened to the nature of the conflict, and who command forces that are able to make a difference.
Imperial influence is spread throughout the sector, having at least a nominal presence in each system. Almost every subsector has areas of turmoil, not even the most civilized sub-sectors are spared. Various races and factions are at work in different areas of the sector, including several different breeds of xenos and even worse, armies of heretics.
As the days march on, this volume will be populated with further records of the ensuing conflicts that will determine whether we can count the Mardannon sector as an Imperial sector, or whether it will be lost to the tides of the unbelievers.
