In the ten thousand years since the Horus Heresy, Chaos Warmaster Abaddon had forcibly rallied the disunited Chaos Legions and launched thirteen crusades.
Although the Imperium had successfully defeated Abaddon almost every time, the sacrifices of countless heroes had exacted a terrible price from him and sent him fleeing in disarray.
Yet there was no denying that Abaddon had inherited almost all the wisdom of his father, Warmaster Horus.
Although every crusade ended in defeat, Abaddon had achieved his objectives perfectly each time, using the Black Crusades to gradually undermine the blackstone matrix throughout the Milky Way.
With foresight and wisdom far beyond ordinary men, Abaddon had spent ten thousand years achieving his objectives through one defeat after another.
The Imperium won war after war, yet its situation only grew worse.
And after Cadia fell, the opening of the Great Rift had indeed come close to choking the life out of the Imperium of Man.
The Imperium had been split in two. Like vile parasites, Chaos and xenos proliferated unchecked throughout Imperium Nihilus. One day, the minions of Chaos would wield the strength of half the Milky Way to destroy the Imperium of Man once and for all.
But a tiny bug had appeared in this grand plan.
The Nachmund Gauntlet (The Nachmund Rift).
A minuscule yet utterly disastrous bug in the Chaos Warmaster's grand plan.
On Vigilus, in the Imperium's light, and Red Earth, in Imperium Nihilus, stood two enormous blackstone complexes. They pointed toward one another across the void, forming a stable passage.
Through this narrow passage, the Imperium of Man maintained its sole remaining link with Imperium Nihilus.
Regretting his oversight, the Chaos Warmaster personally led the vast Black Legion to destroy Vigilus and seal the Great Rift completely.
But the government on Terra was no longer