Rogue Trader reports “shadow” in the Warp

A “shadow” has dimmed the Astronomican in sectors to the galactic east of the Corvus Cluster, disrupting Warp travel and astropathic communications.

So reports Rogue Trader Adeon Drake, who recently returned from an apparently difficult, six-month journey from the Darkspire Sector.

After crossing nearly 50 light years in a week, Drake’s ship, The Atropos, was forced to make an emergency exit of the Warp when it entered a region of space where the Astronomican no longer could be seen by the ship’s navigator.

At the same time., the ship’s astropathic choir began to panic, reporting fearfully of an utter lack of the astropathic signals that normally crisscross the galaxy and regularly emanate from countless planets and voidcraft.

With his navigator unable to guide his ship through the Warp, Drake was forced to rely on a series of”calculated” or “blind” jumps—of three or four light years at a time. This is a very dangerous form of Warp travel, as any change in the Warp-currents can divert a spacecraft tens to hundreds of light years off course—or even result in a ship’s permanent disappearance.

It reportedly took 20 jumps over a period of four months to escape this mysterious dampening of the Astronomicon and allow The Atropos’ navigator to once again make piloted jumps.

Drake has given a full report of this dangerous phenomenon to the Imperial Navy, which has put a high priority on investigating the matter.

Unknown xenos attack ork-held planets

An Imperial cruiser patrolling the Dryillian Quarantine Zone has reported an unusual encounter with an Eldar vessel that later disappeared from Imperial sensors.

The xeno voidcraft appeared at the extreme weapons range of the cruiserThor’s Wrath and broadcast a warning in High Gothic that a sizable xeno fleet of unknown origin was laying waste to the ork’s fractured Maxilla Empire.

Situated on the border of the Corvus Cluster (to the galactic east), this once powerful greenskin empire was shattered by an Imperial Fleet during the Maxilla Crusade of 419.M41.

The crusade killed the undisputed warlord of the 12-system ork domain, sparking a civil war involving more than 24 lesser warlords—a war that has continued for more than three centuries and largely distracted the greenskins from threatening Imperial territory.

The Eldar message ended with a warning that several ork worlds have been left uninhabitable by this unknown xeno fleet and the surviving ork worlds have reunited in a losing battle with the xenos.

The xeno ship disappeared from the auspices of Thor’s Wrath before the cruiser could open fire.

More xeno cults discovered on Belliose III

A year after the Adeptus Arbites on Belliose III discovered 150 government officials tainted by xeno genetic material, Enforcers have conducted three large-scale raids on the planet against reported cult activity involving xeno worship.

During two of those raids, Enforcers found themselves involved in fierce gun battles with armed cultists, and two battalions of PDF troops were deployed to help the Enforcers crush the well-armed heretics.

One violent uprising was at the Ingsten Plasteel Manufactorum, on the outskirts of the planet’s capital, where more than 500 menials confronted Enforcers with a range of weapons—from autoguns to autocannons—and drove the surprised Arbites from the manufactorum.

“This is a most shocking act of heresy and treason and a threat to public order,” Planetary Governor Otto Canella said in a public statement released on Imperial vox-channels. “Such defiance against Imperial rule must be met with cruel rebuke.”

To make his point clear, Gov. Canella ordered the PDF to use artillery and aircraft to flatten the manufactorum into rubble and leave no survivors.

Rumors are spreading that some cult members managed to escape through underground sewer drains. The idea that fellow citizens may be infected with xeno taint also has sparked vigilante attacks on citizens with visible mutations caused by pollution or radiation exposure.

Although such vigilantism is not condoned by the Adeptus Arbites, Gov. Canella made clear that Enforcers would be aggressively hunting any surviving xeno-tainted cultists.

“Suffer not the heretic—or the xeno tainted—to live,” the governor warned. “Report all suspicious activity that you see, my fellow citizens, or you, too, shall find yourself suffering the Imperium’s wrath.”

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TheGM: Notice a theme in these rumors? Spoilers.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.