But with the opening of the Eye, plague had broken out on Fornax.

This was no ordinary plague that could be tended to by the medicae of the Administratum or even the genetor-magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This was a sickness of the soul. This was the same affliction that had infected dozens, if not hundreds, of worlds surrounding the Eye of Terror, if rumour were correct. This was what the Imperial forces had termed the Plague of Unbelief.

And it was a plague that could only be ministered to by the death-dealing weapons of the righteous. It was a canker that had to be excised like a malignant tumour from an infected body, a disease that had to be purged with the Emperor's light, manifest in purifying flames.

With the rise of the plague, cultist cells had taken the opportunity to put into action their long held plans. All across the northern continent of Fornax servants of the Dark Powers had revealed themselves, the cultists coming from all walks of life, all strata of Imperial society and all branches of the Imperial machine. Downtrodden worker ratings had turned on their overseers and then taken up their tools to use as weapons against their former masters.

But that was almost to be expected of those among the lowest in Imperial society, Vessig considered. However, what had come as an even more devastating blow was when fully half of the Planetary Defence Force had turned traitor, the uniform that had once displayed the holy aquila of the Imperium with pride now defaced and daubed with blasphemous sigils and unholy symbols. The marks of cruel eight-pointed stars and stranger, indescribable runes were carved directly into their own living flesh.

Even tech-priests had turned on their masters, transferring their loyalties from the Omnissiah to the abyssal rulers of the warp.

And then, as the plague and the rebellion both seemed to reach their height, there had come the unholy servants of the Lord of Pestilence and Disease himself. Looking back now, with the benefit of hindsight, the cultist uprising and the outbreak of the plague had almost precisely coincided with the arrival of the plague fleet.

Their ships had appeared on the planet's observation station surveyor screens like pus-ripe buboes. The Chaos fleets of Nurgle's own Death Guard. These putrescent plague ships had launched the first barrage from space, an orbital strike that wiped out a third of the remaining faithful PDF and tech-guard forces already stationed on the planet.

Then the rebels had joined the attack on those precious few who remained loyal to the Emperor, launching their own barrages using tanks and gun platforms newly birthed from the enemy-held manufactories and immediately put into the service of the very blackguards they had been built to be used against.

Ships had been dispatched from other nearby Mechanicus outposts, with full complements of tech-guard, and engaged the Chaos fleet in orbit before delivering their precious cargos of men and weapons.

These included six tank companies and even, Guard rumour had it once again, one of the legendary Ordinatus engines of the tech-magi of Mars.