The Jericho Reach

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The Jericho Reach
The Jericho Reach, once known as the Jericho Sector, is a region of space close to the Eastern Fringe of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum. This area of the galaxy was once a part of the Imperium of Man in ancient days, remaining so for millennia until it fell into an age of isolation, disintegration and evil. It has been lost to the Imperium for over four thousand Terran years. During those long millennia, many of its worlds became tainted byChaos, whilst others were infested by dangerous xenos. To recover the Reach and restore it to the Emperor's light, the Imperium recently unleashed the Achilus Crusade.

The Achilus Crusade is a war of re-conquest fought on three fronts within the region. It is a brutal conflict waged with every weapon that the Imperium possesses and its leaders have sworn in theEmperor's name that they will never retreat and never surrender. In spite of such intentions, the Achilus Crusade may yet fail. The growing Tau Empire, ever mindful of opportunities to further spread the Greater Good, has cast covetous eyes over the worlds and resources of the Reach and has initiated its own efforts to claim it. On worlds long forsaken by the Imperium, the slaves of the Chaos Gods reign while at the Reach’s heart, unsuspected at the Crusade’s start, the servants of the Ruinous Powers have created a blasphemous domain ruled by Daemon Princes and Chaos Lords, where the mutable laws of the Warp rather than those of realspacegovern the fragile bounds of space-time. Even worse, from the depths of the intergalactic void the Great Devourer has once more made itself known. The Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon seek to consume all the inhabited worlds that lie within the Jericho Reach and leave nothing but the corpses of dead planets spread amongst the ancient stars.

While the war between the forces of the Achilus Crusade and its many enemies rages, others with agendas far older than those of the Crusade move amongst the stars of the Jericho Reach. The Reach is watched over by the Deathwatch: the unique division ofSpace Marines raised from every Chapter that is bound into the service of the Inquisition and tasked with defending the Imperium from the worst alien threats. While the rest of the Imperium turned its face from the Jericho Sector after it fell, the vigilance of the Deathwatch has never wavered. In the long millennia of the Age of Shadow when the sector was sundered from the Emperor's grace, the Deathwatch still stood sentinel from their Watch Fortress and scattered Watch Stations dotted across the fallen sector. By their hands, many enemies of the Imperium have been defeated, and many great threats ended before they rose up to plague the greater Imperium of Man, even when they were unknown to the Deathwatch’s own distant masters within the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos. However, these battles have been but the prelude to the terrible strife to come, for according to many within the Imperium the Time of Ending has come at last, and the final watch has begun. The fate of the Jericho Reach now hangs in the balance and only the Deathwatch may possess the skill and tenacity required to bring victory for the leaders of the Achilus Crusade -- and protect the Emperor's children from the terrible threat to all the galaxy that breeds within the Reach's confines.

With the extraordinary discovery of the Jericho Maw Warp Gate in 777.M41, a piece of advanced technology whose mysterious creators remain unknown but which connects the Eastern Fringe to the Calixis Sector of theSegmentum Obscurus, the possibility of using this stable Warp conduit to launch an Imperial Crusade into the Jericho Reach and reclaim this strategic area of space for the Imperium quickly found favour with the High Lords of Terra. Lord Militant Tiber Achilus formulated a plan to undertake such a unique military campaign and he proceeded to muster forces from the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperial Guard, the Adepta Sororitas, and scores of Imperial Navywarships to enact the Emperor's will, all under his command. The High Lords were mindful, however, that the existence of such a Warp Gate offered dire peril as well as opportunity, and under a shroud of the deepest secrecy, with the complicity of the Inquisitorial masters of both the Calixis Sector and the Departmento Munitorum, launched an Imperial Crusade from a staging point half-way across the galaxy from the territory it intended to conquer. The Imperium soon found itself faced with significant obstacles in bringing these goals to fruition as the attempted re-conquest soon become mired in blood. The Achilus Crusade would become a grinding conflict fraught with reversals of fortune and beset by enemies both unexpected and nightmarish. As for the Lord Militant Achilus himself, he would not live to see out the campaign's first decade.

The Canis Salient


The Canis Salient was the largest and oldest Imperial warzone within the Jericho Reach. Located to the coreward of the Reach, its first battles were fought in a Crusade to liberate dozens of human-inhabited worlds from Tau expansion. This Imperial Crusade did not go well, however, as the Imperials soon found themselves embroiled in a war on two fronts as they were assaulted by another xenos menace, the Tyranids, who blunted the Imperial thrust. Only through great and terrible sacrifices were the forces of the Imperium able to halt the aliens from stripping the life from every world within the Canis Salient and beyond.

The Canis Salient advance is under the command of Lord Commander Sebiascor Ebongrave, a ruthless and efficient leader who drives the crusade forward from his fortress world Spite, right at the edge of the Iron Collar. All military decisions in the Canis Salient ultimately rest on his shoulders. It is a great burden to bear, especially with signs of Tau sedition at every turn. Some have rumors abound that the burden might be too heavy for Ebongrave and that he is slowly spiralling into paranoia...

As with the Acheros Salient, the campaign has slowly ground to a standstill with a war of attrition being fought on all the worlds of what's been known as the Greyhell Front, and along the rimward planets where Tyranid vanguard forces have begun appearing.

What the crusade needs is a way to get an edge on the Tau empire, and the best way to do so would be to find a way to circumvent the main battlelines and strike at their vulnerable rear.

A stable route through the Black Reef is exactly such an opprotunity, and Ebongrave would be most interested in any news about  such a finding.