The Ultramar Chronicles: The Plague Wars
When the Great Rift ripped open the cosmos in the 999th year of the 41st Millennium, the Ultramar was assailed by a torrent of cataclysms. The tendrils of several Tyranid Hive Fleets ominously drifted towards Roboute Guilliman’s realm. The arch arsonist of Chidan, an infamous Ork Warlord, orchestrated a colossal war from his anarchic domain, his eyes set on engulfing the Ultramarines’ eastern defenses. Yet among these formidable foes, the most ominous threat emerged from the shadowy servants of chaos.
An unholy horde of traitors, renegades, mutants, and maniacs, led by the malevolent Daemon Prince Makar the Reborn, fell upon Ultramar. This marked the infamous Invasion of Ultramar, followed by the Noctis Aeterna, a cascade of warp storms brimming with demons. Amidst this chaos, the servants of Nurgle, the Chaos God of Plagues and Decay, launched an assault on the Ultramar Stellar realm, seeking to taint its idyllic beauty.
These conflicts birthed the Plague Wars. Some of the most harrowing battles the Imperium had ever seen unfolded, with every inhabited planet of Ultramar witnessing staggering casualties. The precise genesis of the Plague Wars remains a topic of heated debate among Imperial circles, as do the specific war zones encompassed by this conflict. Like all of Nurgle’s designs, the Plague Wars have ebbed and flowed, flaring up just as victory seemed within the Imperium’s grasp.
The Plague Wars have not only ravaged Ultramar, where Nurgle’s forces have repeatedly struck at Guilliman’s sons, but also the star systems to the north of the Ultramarines realm, now known as the Scourge Stars. Following the opening of the Great Rift, these stars were plagued by diseases such as the “crawling pestilence”, “the plague that walks”, and the “oozing pox”. Imperial defenses crumbled under the relentless onslaught of shambling plague daemons and fanatical cultists.
In this maelstrom of corruption, Mortarion, the Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard, established his staging posts for the invasion of Ultramar. From these pox-riddled systems, he launched initial sorties, sowing chaos before commencing his final offensive. The Plague Wars also included the conflict known as the War of Flies, a relentless war of attrition waged by the Death Guard and their allies against Ultramar worlds in the wake of the Noctis Aeterna.
The Ultramarines, though often outnumbered, stood resilient against Nurgle’s minions. They fought alongside battalions of the Ultramar Defense Auxilia, repelling one attack after another, purging the corruption of Chaos wherever it took root. The capital world of Macragge became a battlefield, its sprawling Fortress Monastery, including the shrine where Roboute Guilliman had lain in stasis for over ten millennia, came under a concentrated attack.
The Plague Wars saw numerous other theatres of conflict, including the Tarella system, seized by the bubonic legions led by the favored Great Unclean One, Ku’gath Plaguefather. The garden world of Iax faced a similar fate, while the Asor system suffered beneath the creeping doom offensive of Mortarion and the Death Guard. On Palmeno, a great armored battle unfolded, and throughout the sub-sector, a naval battle raged against a plague fleet led by the Death Guard Lord Typhus.
Roboute Guilliman, after over a Terran Century of combat to stabilize the Imperium during his Indomitus Crusade, returned to aid his home system. Recognizing that victory lay in seizing the initiative, the Primarch masterminded a brilliant campaign known as the Spear of Espandor. Through rapid counter-strikes and daring boarding actions, many of the enemy’s gains were reclaimed. Where the disparate Chaos armies fought alone, the defenders of Ultramar stood united, allowing Guilliman to reverse the course of the Plague Wars.
Stay tuned for more tales of valor and resilience from the chronicles of Ultramar, where the line between life and death is drawn with a boltgun and a prayer.
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