Gothic War

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143.M41 - SURPRISE ATTACK

The first outright battles of the Gothic War were fought as the year 143.M41 came to a close. During the first few months of conflict, Chaos fleets launched a number of wide ranging all out attacks against Imperial Navy bases within the sector.

THE FIRST STRIKE
Reports of attacking Chaos fleets flooded in from all across the Gothic Sector. Much planning must have gone in to the all-important first strike, as the Chaos fleets targeted a dozen major Imperial bases in the Gothic Sector. With no warning, the renegades struck hard and fast, ambushing Imperial warships as they were in dock or orbiting around their stations. Caught unawares and already overstretched by the increasing tension within the sector, the Imperial Navy was poorly prepared to respond to this sudden offensive. At Bladen, the Rhadamanthinehad her starboard flight decks blown clean off by torpedoes, while at Cherys, Doomfire bombers from the Heartless Destroyer damaged the warp engines of the Lord Sylvanus so severely that it took nearly two years of constant repairs for the ship to be able to make warp jumps greater than five light years.
Orbiting stations also fell to the Chaos invaders, destroyed or captured by the swiftness of the attack. The loss of many of these orbital shipyards, such as Tripol Docks, Port Imperial and Gathara Station, was doubly felt – not only were Imperial ships badly in need of refitting, but the means to do so were being put to use by the enemy. Captain Grove of the Admiral Drake, an old Relentless class cruiser used as a training vessel, was one of the few survivors of the attack at Halemnet Base in the Cyclops Cluster, which typified the style of attack used by the Chaos vessels. Grove and his crew were lucky to escape.
The ships log entry tells of how the ship engaged in a close range fire fight with the Chaos renegades, taking significant damage in the exchange.
Fortunately for the crew of the Admiral Drake and many others, the Chaos fleets were not normally disposed towards lengthy battles, preferring instead to hit hard and then retreat, leaving the Imperial Navy suffering heavy losses, with many capital ships destroyed or needing months of repairs and refitting.

THE DEFENCE OF ORAR
However, the Chaos fleets did not achieve total success. In a few battles the traitors suffered serious reversals, most notably during the defense of the hive world Orar. When one of the many Chaos warfleets, led by the Chaos Warmaster Malefica Arkham, master of the Deathbane, ambushed the Imperial battlegroup which was stationed at Orar, they did not, on this occasion, find their enemy taken unawares and helpless.
Having just received orders to help put down a rebellion in a neighbouring system, the Imperial
Battlegroup, led by Captain Compel Bast on the battlecruiser Imperious, was just preparing to break orbit. Already at full alert status, the Imperial ships easily evaded the raiders’ initial torpedo salvo and counter attacked.
Unable to abort their attack the Chaos ships swept into the hail of gunfire from the Imperial war ships and orbital defenses. The renegade cruiser Soulless suffered a warp drive implosion after continuous bombardment from the Imperial fleet and the Chaos ship Deathskull was reduced to a hulk, was gripped by Orar’s gravity and was broken asunder in the planets upper atmosphere.
Only a handful of Chaos escorts escaped without damage and the Deathbane and its fleet was pursued out of the system by the vengeful Imperial commanders.

UNLIKELY ALLIES
Orar was not the only major set-back inflicted upon the forces of Darkness during the opening stages of the war. In one incident, a small Chaos fleet consisting of several Iconoclast and Infidel class escorts, bound for a raid on Denerair in the Cyclops Cluster, fell foul of the numerous bands of Ork pirates in the region. The garbled transmissions of the Chaos ships were intercepted, giving some idea of what happened.
Using their traditional tactic of lurking in an asteroid field for an unwary victim, the Orks leapt from hiding and plunged into the heart of the Chaos fleet. Unable to use their greater maneuverability in the swirl of asteroids, gas and dust clouds, the Chaos ships were mercilessly hammered by the Orks and not one Chaos vessel survived the battle.
Upon hearing this news, Lord Admiral Ravensburg was quoted as saying, “If he wasn’t damned green-skinned scum, I’d make their commander my Flag-Captain!” although he later denied this statement. Such occurrences were however rare and the greenskins were as happy to continue attacking Imperial shipping as they were to fight against the invading warfleets.

THE BATTLE OF BLACKSTONE IV
The initial Chaos attacks struck at important installations such as Adeptus Mechanicus forge worlds and naval bases. Of the seventeen bases in the Gothic Sector, six of them were founded upon the Blackstone Fortresses.
As the Liber Monumenta tells:
“The architects of the edifices known as the Blackstone Fortresses remain unknown. All analysis of their materials and construction methods has proved inconclusive. Attempts to date them vary massively between seventeen thousand years old and three hundred thousand years. They have remained dormant since their discovery early in the second millennium of the Emperor’s divine rule.”

Even with most of its systems inoperative, a Blackstone Fortress made an incomparable foundation for a naval base.
After extensive refitting by the Adeptus Mechanicus, with Imperium constructed defense turret and primary weapons systems added, the Blackstone Fortresses’ defensive capabilities rivaled those of the Naval Command stations at Port Maw itself. It was the pride of Battlefleet Gothic that no Blackstone Fortress had ever been taken in battle.
This was to change at Rebo system, where the naval base Blackstone IV orbited the system’s fifth world. A Chaos fleet, probably led by Abaddon himself, struck at Rebo V. The Imperial ships on station put up a ferocious defense, but were overwhelmed by the size of the fleet facing them.
Twenty capital ships, including two Despoiler class battleships and a score of escorting vessels, swept through Rebo’s outer defenses and attacked Blackstone IV itself.
The battle was short and bloody – just as the Chaos fleet approached within range, the Blackstone Fortress’ power systems shut down completely.
With the energy grid dead, the guns were unable to fire, the armored gates to the attack craft bays couldn’t be opened and the personnel on board were defenceless. Soon after this information was projected by the station’s Chief Astropath, Blackstone IV fell to invaders. There was no more news from Rebo and it was assumed there were no survivors. This was to be the first of a number of critical blows that shook the Imperial forces right from the outset of the war.

THE DEATH OF SAVAVEN
Even as Abaddon pushed home his attack at Rebo, more disaster was to befall the loyal defenders of Gothic Sector. At Savaven, a Cardinal world of the Ecclesiarchy, the few system defense ships could do little to protect their planet against a new and awesomely powerful vessel. Simply dubbed the Planet Killer, this monolithic ship bristled with gun decks, lance batteries and torpedo launch systems. As the defense monitors withdrew from its implacable advance, the Planet Killer achieved orbit over Savaven. Jeremiah Soldagen, commander of the orbital defence forces, was later to record the dreadful events to follow:
“Within the Planet Killer’s central cavity, we could detect a massive power surge. Energy crackled from a number of ports on the hull. Then, with a blast that blotted the sun from our scanners, it opened fire. The energy beam lasted for about a half hour. Emperor knows how they could generate that much energy. We linked in to the planetary surveyors to see what was happening on the surface. That bolt bored its way through miles of the planet’s crust and seared through the mantle beneath. As the attack finished, the magma surged forth through this continent-sized wound, breaking apart Savaven from within. The seas boiled into the skies, the ice caps melted and whole continents sunk beneath the tidal wave. With such an unimaginable release of energy Savaven was blown out of her natural orbit and flipped over on her axis. I guess nobody was alive by then, but if they were they didn’t last long. Like a rations pack crushed in your fist Savaven just crumpled in on herself, then broke up into thousands of fragments. There’s just an asteroid field there now, really dense, impossible to navigate. There were fourteen billion people living on Savaven. Fourteen billion dead in an hour.”

Soldagen and the other survivors were to suffer traumatic mental breakdowns from what they witnessed and three months later they all took their own lives in a mass suicide. The effect on Imperial morale was devastating. All had heard of Exterminatus with fusion torpedoes, virus bombs and mass drivers, but to know the enemy had the ability to destroy an entire planet, not just all life on it, must have been the most chilling thought that any naval crewman had ever faced. As the Imperial Navy reeled at this news, Inquisitor Horst was left wondering if this was the power gained from possession of the Hand of Darkness and the Eye of Night. If it was something else, then perhaps even worse news was to come.

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144.M41 – THE BLACKSTONE FORTRESSES

The Imperium was beset by many Chaos fleets led by individual Warmaster (estimates vary from eight enemy fleets to twenty or more). Each was a rival to any battlegroup Lord Admiral Ravensburg could muster at the time. One in particular, led by the hateful Abaddon himself, was to pose the most serious threat of all.

LUKITAR STATION
With the threat of Abaddon’s planet killer looming over them, many Imperial worlds surrendered without a fight. Sub-sector after sub-sector fell out of Imperial control and with them a number of shipyards and orbital docks. As the Imperium faced increasing difficulties in repairing its vessels, building new ones became ever more unlikely. With its critical early strikes, Chaos may well have won the war before it had even started.
There was some hope for the Imperial Navy. On a desolate moon orbiting a gas giant in the Lukitar system was an Adeptus Mechanicus facility. The Tech-Priests were already researching the wisdom of their predecessors to uncover knowledge of more powerful weapon systems, more efficient drives and better shield generators. A few Imperial ships were fitted out with these improved systems, but the results were never entirely satisfactory. A ship could only provide so much power and if gunnery was improved, communications would suffer; if the engine power was increased, the shield generators could not be sustained. The search continued, with each new development slightly more successful than the last. Then the ships of Abaddon arrived. Commodore Vandez commanding 202 Red squadron, consisting of four Sword class frigates, was among the first Imperial vessels to sight Abaddon since his attack on Blackstone IV.

THE BLACKSTONE FORTRESS
Abaddon, accompanied by the captured Blackstone Fortress, pummeled Lukitar station to rubble. The Blackstone appeared impregnable to the few ships which managed to fight through to attack it.
Commodore Vandez proceeded to Brinaga, a mere seven light years away and where Blackstone VI was stationed, believing the renegades would attempt to capture another Fortress.
Even with Vandez’s warning, there were few available ships left to defend Blackstone VI. As with the capture of the first Fortress, the Chaos followers had some means of controlling the Blackstone Fortresses from afar, able to shut down its power systems and turn it into a death trap for the tens of thousands of personnel aboard. Brinaga system fell to Abaddon four months after the attack on Lukitar.

IMMEASURABLE POWER
While Lord Admiral Ravensburg pondered the many military and logistical problems facing his isolated sector, he was visited by Inquisitor Horst. What passed between them was never recorded, though it is widely believed that the revered Inquisitor told Ravensburg of the Hand of Darkness and the Eye of Night. A plan was formulated to try to recapture the Blackstone Fortresses by covert means rather than open attack.
However, before this plan achieved any visible results, news came through of another assault by Abaddon’s fleet, this time at Blackstone I in the Fularis system. The personal log of First Lieutenant Elijah Borgia of the Vindictive was recovered from the hulk of the ship, found floating towards the Fularis star.
It depicted how the two Blackstone Fortresses somehow exchanged a form of energy between each other at a range of five thousand leagues and how what appeared to be some form of breach into Warp Space opened..
Other recovered evidence points towards an energy beam being unleashed towards Fularis II. The Vindictive was caught full on, her shields overloaded instantly and outer hull vaporised as the energy wave passed over the ship. Fularis II was later found with its atmosphere stripped off and the surface scoured to a rocky plain. Of Blackstone I, there was no sign.

144-149.M41 – THE WAR CONTINUES

Across the entire Gothic Sector the Chaos and Imperial fleets clashed. For five years the battles continued, with the death toll on both sides running into millions. Planets were invaded and recaptured, fleets ambushed, bases attacked and all the while the sector was isolated from any outside help.

SLAUGHTER AMONG THE STARS
From the Hammerhead Deeps to the Cyclops Cluster, Imperial ships fought desperately to hold back the Chaos ships that spilled into the Gothic Sector. In some areas, the Emperor’s forces were hurled back by the ferocity of their foes, while other regions, protected by more skilled or experienced battlegroup commanders, held against the initial impetus of the Chaos attack. It is impossible to chart exactly the ebb and flow of battle and many worlds changed hands four, five or even six times during the period of fiercest fighting. By 147.M41, the Lysades sub-sector was almost entirely overrun and Chaos ships held sway in over a dozen systems surrounding Port Maw.
However, in the Cyclops Cluster the Orks gave the Chaos vessels stiff resistance and from staging points in the Quinrox Sound, the Imperial fleet launched many counter-attacks, pushing back the spread of Chaos for months before being forced to turn their attention to incursions elsewhere.
While the Imperial Navy and the renegades dueled across the stars, the attacks from Orks, Eldar and Human pirates increased. With the watchful eye of the Imperial Navy elsewhere, these bandits had an almost free rein. Convoys were captured, raiding parties sacked cities and on dozens of worlds, millions died from disease and starvation. Those convoys that did get through safely often found enemy warships prowling through their destination system, blockading all craft entering and establishing a stranglehold on the worlds they besieged. On the hive world of Stranivar three hive cities, with inhabitants running into a hundred billion souls, were overcome with rioting due to the shortages of drinkable water. With no incoming supplies, the world’s own recycling centers were unable to cope and four fifths of the population died from dehydration before the next convoy managed to break through the Chaos blockade. The docks and shipyards were frequently starved of supplies and ships which put in for repairs and re-arming were often sent into battle with only makeshift refits and half-empty magazines.

THE PIRATES’ HAVEN
While Lord Ravensburg’s forces struggled with the ships of the Chaos Warmasters, the Imperial fleet made significant progress against another deadly foe. A rough confederacy of nearly two dozen pirate bands had gathered in the Quinrox Sound. With over 50 escort-sized vessels, a captured Gothic class cruiser and two salvaged Lunar class cruisers, the marauders had become a serious threat to the security of shipping in the sub-sector. Lord Admiral Ravensburg, unable to turn his attention from stemming the Chaos incursion, ordered Fleet-Admiral Mourndark to deal with the pirates in any way he saw fit.
Mourndark drew ships from battlegroups across the sector, including the [i]Sword of Orion, Havock, Uziel, Fortitude[/I} and the fearsome Cypra Probatii. Along with these capital ships, Mourndark also took command of the 24th Destroyer Squadron [Widowmakers], the 1st Frigate Echelon [Eagle Claws] and the Sword class frigates of the Anvil 206 Patrol Flotilla.
With a large convoy of empty transports, Mourndark lured the pirates into attacking. When the Imperial ships counterattacked, Mourndark ordered that at least one of the renegades be allowed to escape. With the aid of the Master Navigator Absalom Draal, Mourndark and his fleet were able to follow the surviving pirates back to their lair in the Barbarus Costa system. Confident in the knowledge that they were safe in their den, the pirates had given little thought to defences. The Imperial attack came as a total surprise, as Mourndark concluded in a report to Lord Ravensburg after the battle.
The Pirate ships which tried to run were chased down by Imperial escorts, while those that fled to the surface of Barbarus III were burned out of hiding when plasma torpedoes, modified by Magos Urilun of the Adeptus Mechanicus, set fire to the atmosphere of the near-deserted world.
The Cypra Probatii herself claimed fifteen kills that day and Pirate losses were estimated in excess of thirty ships.
With a large proportion of the pirates dealt with in one blow, Ravensburg was able to concentrate his forces onto fighting back against the Chaos fleets once again.

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150-151.M41 – THE IMPERIUM RESURGENT
For the first seven years of the Gothic War, the Imperium had been fighting defensively across an extended battlefront.
As 150.M41 passed into the year 151.M41, Lord Admiral Ravensburg decided to take the fight to the enemy and claw back what had been taken.

THE BATTLE OF GETHSEMANE
Knowing that although the Chaos ships were more numerous overall, they were divided into many smaller fleets, it was Lord Ravensburg’s hope that he could destroy his attackers if he could bring the weight of Battlefleet Gothic to bear against each of the Chaos fleets individually. This was a very risky ploy, because to amass the battlefleet in any strength meant weakening convoy escorts, system patrols and squadrons on anti-pirate duties. Ravensburg stated his reasons in a missive to Inquisitor Horst, saying:
”These are troubled times that require resolute action.
If we do not act boldly and with the confidence of the
Emperor we will be bled dry within ten years and we will
have lost the whole sector to our enemies. Not only will
a decisive blow eliminate enemy vessels, it will send a
message to the Chaos fleets and the Imperial forces alike
– the Imperium is not going to give up without a fight.“

After numerous aborted attacks and false starts, Ravensburg saw his first real chance in mid 151.M41, when scout vessels reported a Chaos fleet moving en masse towards the Gethsemane system. Ordering his task force to get underway with all possible speed, Ravensburg took personal command aboard the Divine Right. With seventeen capital ships (including two battleships and two battlecruisers) and twenty escorts under his command, Ravensburg pursued the enemy fleet into the Gethsemane region. Suddenly becoming aware of their plight, the Chaos forces headed out- system again to try to get far enough from Gethsemane’s star to make a warp jump.
Ravensburg detached the fastest vessels in his fleet to pursue and a week-long stern chase ensued. What happened next was recorded in the memoirs of Captain Blythe of the Guardian
The Imperial battlegroup had been lured into a trap. The Chaos fleet was bolstered by another twelve ships. The Imperials lost three destroyers and four frigates in a series of small skirmishes as they attempted to evade the Chaos fleet. Chaos losses numbered between five and ten escorts but with all the Battleships and Cruisers in Ravensburg command the battlegroup had little choice but to run.

Blythe and his battlegroup headed back towards the vicinity of Ravensburg’s main fleet, but even with Ravensburg’s capital ships, the Imperial forces were still outgunned to a serious degree. For three days the two fleets circled and dodged each other through the system, neither fleet commander prepared to commit the bulk of his ships against an enemy whose exact position was unknown. Three weeks after arriving in the system, Ravensburg’s fleet and the Chaos ships clashed. Six Firestorm class frigates located the Chaos fleet near to Gethsemane II, using the cover of several dust clouds to avoid being detected themselves. Seizing the opportunity, the Lord Admiral moved his whole fleet in on the attack. Ravensburg’s Cobra destroyers launched several torpedo salvoes at extreme range – although they had little hope of inflicting damage, the torpedo attacks forced the Chaos ships to alter their heading so that they were moving towards the Imperium’s capital ships. Flag-Lieutenant Martyrn, aboard the Divine Right, related the battle’s events.
The Chaos ships were forced into a head-on clash with the Imperial fleet. Torpedo salvoes crippled several traitor ships while the Imperials armored prows ensured they suffered little damage in the return fire. Imperial escorts kept the Chaos fleet herded in a compact mass as the capital ships passed between the Chaos ships, firing a continuous fusillade into the enemy ships.

The Imperial fleet tore through their adversaries, crippling four capital ships and destroying eleven escorts in the initial pass. Rather than turning to fight, which with hindsight would have given him the greater chance of victory, the Chaos Warmaster ordered his fleet to continue on their course in a bid to escape.

[Stubber]

THE EXECUTIONERS’ BLOW
It looked as if the Chaos fleet would escape justice again, as the faster renegade vessels accelerated away from Ravensburg’s pursuit. Even as the enemy drew away, more drama was to occur, as an account by Captain Drew of the Fortitude described.
An armada of Eldar ships appeared from no where and attacked the Chaos fleet.
Caught between the attacking Eldar and Ravensburg’s fleet, the Chaos ships were annihilated, although a dozen more of the Emperor’s vessels were crippled or destroyed before victory was finally attained. Why the Eldar decided to lend their weight to the Imperial cause was never discovered, though it is a common belief that they had finally heard of Abaddon’s capture of the Blackstone Fortresses and had seen an alliance as their only chance of survival.

THE TIDE TURNS
As the news of Ravensburg’s great victory in the Battle of Gethsemane was spread throughout the fleet, even more promising tidings were to come. In the late months of 151.M41, the warp storms that had isolated the Gothic Sector began to abate and several ships from neighboring battlefleets arrived to reinforce the Lord Admiral’s bloodied fleets. The battle barges and strike cruisers of several Space Marine Chapters also arrived, bringing fresh, elite troops to the fighting. The Imperium’s solid defense, though broken in places, had prevented the Chaos fleets from achieving swift victory, and with the help of the Eldar and ships from nearby sectors, the Emperor’s servants could go on the offensive.

THE DESTRUCTION OF TARANTIS
Just as Ravensburg had never contemplated defeat, it seems that Abaddon was equally loath to give up what he had won. With two, possibly even three, Blackstone Fortresses under his command, it was Abaddon who was the greatest threat to Imperial worlds in the Gothic Sector. Just how much of a threat was not realized until the attack on the Tarantis system. On the edges of Gothic Sector, Tarantis was a common gathering ground for ships entering or leaving the region from Tamahl Sector and so it was here that Abaddon tried to stem the flow of reinforcements coming in.
His main fleet, accompanied by all three of the missing Blackstone Fortresses, swept aside the few Imperial ships close to where it broke from the warp. Closing rapidly into the system, the cruisers and battleships of the Chaos armada punched a hole through the defenders to allow the Blackstone Fortresses to break through. Countless millions of navy personnel and Imperial Guard died, planets were destroyed and an uncountable number of innocents perished as the two mighty fleets clashed, but what happened next was to totally eclipse all the horrific events of the war so far.
Combining their power together in the same fashion as at Fularis, the Blackstones unleashed a massive energy wave into the Tarantis star. With their objective complete, the Chaos ships conducted a fighting withdrawal and then jumped into warp space once more.
For a whole month, the Tarantis star raged and boiled. Tortured storms moved across its surface, its corona expanding to engulf the two nearest worlds. Any that could leave fled the system, but to evacuate the populations of three worlds was an impossible task. Four weeks after Abaddon’s attack, Tarantis’ star went nova, wiping out everything for many thousands of billions of miles in every direction in a storm of gas and plasma. Tarantis, a whole star system, was no more and Abaddon had the power to unleash this destruction wherever he wished.

THE TRAP IS SPRUNG
Lord Ravensburg firmly believed that Abaddon would try to capture the other three Blackstone Fortresses, but he had no idea against which of the three the Chaos Warmaster would strike next. The hunt continued for six months, with Imperial and Eldar ships patrolling through long forgotten systems in a desperate bid to find Abaddon and his horrific weapons. Then the forces opposing Chaos achieved a breakthrough – the Eldar had located Abaddon’s fleet in the Lower Lysades and were able to use their sophisticated ships to trail him through the warp.
From his course it was clear that the Warmaster was preparing to launch an attack on Schindlegeist, where Blackstone V floated in the depths of space. Leaving only a few vessels to deal with the other Chaos fleets, Ravensburg and the Eldar raced to reach Schindlegeist before Abaddon. Using ancient warp gates shown to them by the Eldar, the Imperial Admirals sped across the sector and arrived five days before Abaddon was due to reach the area. With a constant stream of information concerning Abaddon’s actions, the Imperial ships and Eldar lay in wait.
Outnumbered and caught by surprise, there was little the traitorous ship captains could do except die fighting. For three days the two mighty fleets battled, inflicting horrendous casualties on both sides. But for all their ferocity, the Chaos ships simply could not match the forces arranged against them. As the third day of fighting drew to its bloody conclusion, Abaddon once more broke the Blackstone Fortresses through the Imperial defense and headed towards the star. Ravensburg ordered all available ships to intercept them, though he knew there was little he could do to stop the behemoths. Only the Flame of Purity was close enough to attack, but the battlecruiser’s weapons had little effect against the huge stations.
As the Fortresses built up power for their cataclysmic attack, they were again linked by powerful energy beams. Seeing only one chance, Captain Abridal ordered all power to the shields and drove the Flame of Purity into the middle of the converging energy waves. The ship was destroyed almost instantly, scattered into its constituent atoms. However, the detonation had expended the Fortresses’ power and, as Abridal had hoped, the Blackstone Fortresses would take some time to accumulate the energy required for another attack. Luckily, time was something that Abaddon had run out of.

ABADDON’S DEFEAT
Their power systems drained, the Blackstone Fortresses could do little. Abaddon managed to escape into the warp with two of them, after a lengthy chase to the edges of the Schindlegeist system and a jump into warp space dangerously near to the gravity well. The Imperial fleet closed in on the third, unleashing all of their weapons, although still to little effect. Finally, two strike cruisers from the Angels of Redemption Space Marine Chapter, combined with assault boats from the Divine Right, boarded the isolated Blackstone in an attempt to recapture it.
Ensign Goldwyn was part of the Navy’s boarding party and he later reported to his superiors:
“We were astounded to find no crew aboard the
Blackstone Fortress. There was no opposition at all to
our boarding and on entering I found it entirely
unrecognizable from the base where I had been trained.
The walls themselves pulsed with energy, the surface of
which had become a deep-veined black – totally unlike
the harsh white-painted corridors and rooms I had
called home for six years. There was no sign at all of the
modifications made by the Tech-Priests, as if our
intrusion had been totally expunged. We had been
aboard for perhaps an hour when suddenly a high
pitched whine filled the air and the walls became ruddy
in colour. A sense of panic filled our hearts and we
hurried back to the Sharks [assault boats]. We were just
in time, as no sooner had we left than the Fortress
began to break up, slowly shattering into thousands of
fragments. It should have been a happy moment to see
our enemy destroyed but, although I cannot say why, my
heart was filled with sorrow and I could not get over the
feeling that something magnificent had died.”

At about the same time that the recaptured Blackstone destroyed itself, the other Fortresses across the Gothic Sector also self-destructed. Nobody knows if the Fortresses under Abaddon’s control destroyed themselves in a similar fashion: rumours have the Chaos Warmaster sighted both with and without the ancient engines of destruction. How or why the Blackstone Fortresses were obliterated remains a mystery.

Sources: Warhammer40000 rulebook, Battle Fleet Gothic rulebook

[Templar Mikeel]

I have checked this entry.