'But of course, my lord.’ Gdolkin said fixing his eyes on the massive dreadnought that dwarfed the other assembled Iron Hands' leaders.

'But of course.’ Bannus echoed. 'But before we tell you the reason, you should know.what has caused us to convene this council meeting. Librarian Madeus?'

The Iron Hands psyker stepped forward, out of the shadow of the dreadnoughts. He immediately stood out from his counterparts, not merely because of the archaic psychic hood surrounding his head and the crackling lightning discharging around his skull, but because of his suit of Terminator armour.

'Iron-Father, the Imperium is facing the darkest threat it has confronted in the ten thousand years since the great betrayal of the Horus Heresy. Both the physical galaxy and the unreal universe of the warp are in turmoil. We have read this in the ether. The myriad forces of Chaos are even now being vomited forth from the Chaos maelstrom that is the Eye of Terror, united under one despotic commander, one who fought our forebears at the gates of Terra one hundred centuries ago. The one known as the Despoiler.'

'Abaddon.’ Gdolkin gasped involuntarily, so great was his horror. He felt a wave of nauseous dread wash through him, just at the mention of the Chaos despot's name. There had not been a commander of the Despoiler's stature since Horus, the Great Traitor himself. Anger followed as he considered how even now his physical body caused him to have such reactions, producing hormones and chemicals over which he had no control.

'You are correct,' Librarian Madeus confirmed, reading Gdolkin's troubled expression, and possibly his surface thoughts as well. 'From our reading of the Imperial record, this is the Despoiler's thirteenth Black Crusade.'

The Black Crusades. Again Gdolkin shivered involuntarily and then screwed up his face in a snarl of anger at the frailty of his body. The motto of all Space Marines, whatever Chapter they might hail from, was, 'They shall show no fear, for they are fear incarnate.’ And yet at the thought of one of the great enemy's heretical crusades a Space Marine felt the cold grip of fear - he did not normally feel - take hold and shake him to his very core, in the face of losing everything that he and his forebears had fought for ten long millennia to maintain, since the time of the immortal Emperor's own Great Crusade.

It took all the prayers and acts of devotion he could muster to focus his mind and quell such feelings. But still at the very centre of his being there remained a kernel of doubt, lurking there like a cancerous growth.

There had been twelve before in the long history of the Imperium and there were the lost and ravaged worlds to attest to that fact. The greatest Black Crusade to date, and from the Imperium's perspective the worst, had been the Gothic War, more than eight hundred years ago.

'The Cadian Gate and Fortress Cadia itself seem to be the Despoiler's main target, for that world appears to be the focus of some great power that holds the Chaotic tides and storms of the warp at bay, allowing safe passage for ships throughout the outlying sectors, and possibly even holds back the expansion of the Eye itself.’ Pelles explained.