The first Scouring of Reinhaus IV:
Imperial Records show little about how the prosperous world of Reinhaus IV was turned from a beacon of hope to humanity to the ruin-covered and polluted perpetual war-zone it is today. But the truth can be found in the rubble of the worlds former Hive city Capital - The Starspire.
The single continent of Reinhaus IV was almost exclusively covered with verdant, rich fields of grain and produce - the only exeptions being the two gargantuan spires of the worlds hive Cities: The Starspire and Glory Reach. The population lived primarily in those enormous walled cities, with only a small percentile going out to tend the machines and eco-technology that kept the grain flowing. The Hives bustled with activity, the spaceports sending millions of tonnes of foodstuffs to other worlds, while receiving untold thousands of imperial pilgrims, all visiting the sacred halls, deep in the bottom of Glory Reach - The Eagles Landing - where it was said the Emperor himself had once stood, in the glorious days of the Great Crusade.
The Starspire, and the whole world, was run by a family of aristo-bureaucrats, The Calivieri. The last Lord-Governor was named Mikhail, a seemingly pleasant and urbane man, but not tempered to deal with the tumultous events that led to the fall of the family, the spire and the world itself.
The first indications of anything untowards happening was a blackout in communications with the buyers of grain, and a slow but steady decline in the number of Imperial pilgrims. As the warehouses and storage-domes of the two Hives began to overflow with food, the visiting Imperial cultists all but stopped coming, and the ragged few ships that did make it brought desturbing news: The Traitors son, Abbadon The Despoiler, was once again on a collision course with the Imperium.
The Planetary Defence forces, while relatively small and inexperienced, was put on highest alert, and communique's were sent out to the sectors military commanders, for any changes in standing orders. Unluckily for Reinhaus IV, it had already been dismissed as indefensible, and was left to it's own devices. The returm messages were lightly-veiled apologies, and with that, the world was left to decide its own preferred method of death.
Unfortunately for the fate of Reinhaus IV, and excluding the possibility for a quick and painless death, the Calivieri family had long been controlled by the Great Devourer, falling into a Genestealer Cult untold millenia ago. Keeping to themselves, and slowly putting brood-spawn in central positiona in both hives, while the purestrain Genestealers multiplied in the bowels of the underhive, the Hive mind found the general despair of the doomed population the perfect time to strike.
With the black chaos landing crafts crashing into the lush fields, the defences of both hives were crippled by the combined efforts of genestealers and brood-controlled elements of the PDF. With enemies inside and outside the walls, the loyal defenders were hard pressed, but dug in, and prepared to recieve the Emperors peace while defending his realm. This was not to be.
The Techpriests who maintained the ancient and venerable plasma-reactors supplying the two hives with the enormous power needed to maintain the vital systems recieved the high priests in charge of the Eagles Landing, who had a desperate plea: Stop the desecration of the Emperors footsteps. They wanted the Techpriests to overload the critical systems, and intentionally cause a meltdown of the reactors, and topple the entire spires, thereby covering the ancient ground where the Emperor strode in Millenia past. Giving it much consideration, the ancient order of Techpriests eventually accepted, even as the combined attacks from both Chaos Marines and Genestealers were threatening the very control-vaults from where the meltdown was to be started. With Traitorous meltablasts searing through the outer blastdoors, and autogun-sentries fighting a loosing battle with Genestealers and their brethren in the oxy-vents and supply tunnels leading to the vaults, the coven of Priests, both adepts of Mars and the Emperor joined in combined, though sometimes conflicting prayers, and set the systems of the great reactors on their catastrophic course.
In the great conflagration that followed, and the toppling of the twin mile-high testaments to the greatness of humanity, the entire continent was covered in clouds of ash and dust, and rad-particles were flung into the outer reaches of the atmosphere, poisoning the already doomed planet. Over 99% of the planets population died in those fatefull blasts, and the vanguards of both the Chaotic forces and the tendrils of the Great Devourer were severed and slain. With their decision, the Tech-priests had condemneed the planet to die a slower, and more agonizing death, leaving it defenceless in the backwater behind the advancing front of Abbadons unholy crusade, with the scattered few survivors fighting rowing bands of traitorous Chaos forces. The Genestealer cult had been confined mostly to the two hives, and had all but been eliminated in the blasts, but rumours circulated that the foul head of the serpent, the traitor Mikhail Calivieri, had somehow survived...
Imperial Records show little about how the prosperous world of Reinhaus IV was turned from a beacon of hope to humanity to the ruin-covered and polluted perpetual war-zone it is today. But the truth can be found in the rubble of the worlds former Hive city Capital - The Starspire.
The single continent of Reinhaus IV was almost exclusively covered with verdant, rich fields of grain and produce - the only exeptions being the two gargantuan spires of the worlds hive Cities: The Starspire and Glory Reach. The population lived primarily in those enormous walled cities, with only a small percentile going out to tend the machines and eco-technology that kept the grain flowing. The Hives bustled with activity, the spaceports sending millions of tonnes of foodstuffs to other worlds, while receiving untold thousands of imperial pilgrims, all visiting the sacred halls, deep in the bottom of Glory Reach - The Eagles Landing - where it was said the Emperor himself had once stood, in the glorious days of the Great Crusade.
The Starspire, and the whole world, was run by a family of aristo-bureaucrats, The Calivieri. The last Lord-Governor was named Mikhail, a seemingly pleasant and urbane man, but not tempered to deal with the tumultous events that led to the fall of the family, the spire and the world itself.
The first indications of anything untowards happening was a blackout in communications with the buyers of grain, and a slow but steady decline in the number of Imperial pilgrims. As the warehouses and storage-domes of the two Hives began to overflow with food, the visiting Imperial cultists all but stopped coming, and the ragged few ships that did make it brought desturbing news: The Traitors son, Abbadon The Despoiler, was once again on a collision course with the Imperium.
The Planetary Defence forces, while relatively small and inexperienced, was put on highest alert, and communique's were sent out to the sectors military commanders, for any changes in standing orders. Unluckily for Reinhaus IV, it had already been dismissed as indefensible, and was left to it's own devices. The returm messages were lightly-veiled apologies, and with that, the world was left to decide its own preferred method of death.
Unfortunately for the fate of Reinhaus IV, and excluding the possibility for a quick and painless death, the Calivieri family had long been controlled by the Great Devourer, falling into a Genestealer Cult untold millenia ago. Keeping to themselves, and slowly putting brood-spawn in central positiona in both hives, while the purestrain Genestealers multiplied in the bowels of the underhive, the Hive mind found the general despair of the doomed population the perfect time to strike.
With the black chaos landing crafts crashing into the lush fields, the defences of both hives were crippled by the combined efforts of genestealers and brood-controlled elements of the PDF. With enemies inside and outside the walls, the loyal defenders were hard pressed, but dug in, and prepared to recieve the Emperors peace while defending his realm. This was not to be.
The Techpriests who maintained the ancient and venerable plasma-reactors supplying the two hives with the enormous power needed to maintain the vital systems recieved the high priests in charge of the Eagles Landing, who had a desperate plea: Stop the desecration of the Emperors footsteps. They wanted the Techpriests to overload the critical systems, and intentionally cause a meltdown of the reactors, and topple the entire spires, thereby covering the ancient ground where the Emperor strode in Millenia past. Giving it much consideration, the ancient order of Techpriests eventually accepted, even as the combined attacks from both Chaos Marines and Genestealers were threatening the very control-vaults from where the meltdown was to be started. With Traitorous meltablasts searing through the outer blastdoors, and autogun-sentries fighting a loosing battle with Genestealers and their brethren in the oxy-vents and supply tunnels leading to the vaults, the coven of Priests, both adepts of Mars and the Emperor joined in combined, though sometimes conflicting prayers, and set the systems of the great reactors on their catastrophic course.
In the great conflagration that followed, and the toppling of the twin mile-high testaments to the greatness of humanity, the entire continent was covered in clouds of ash and dust, and rad-particles were flung into the outer reaches of the atmosphere, poisoning the already doomed planet. Over 99% of the planets population died in those fatefull blasts, and the vanguards of both the Chaotic forces and the tendrils of the Great Devourer were severed and slain. With their decision, the Tech-priests had condemneed the planet to die a slower, and more agonizing death, leaving it defenceless in the backwater behind the advancing front of Abbadons unholy crusade, with the scattered few survivors fighting rowing bands of traitorous Chaos forces. The Genestealer cult had been confined mostly to the two hives, and had all but been eliminated in the blasts, but rumours circulated that the foul head of the serpent, the traitor Mikhail Calivieri, had somehow survived...