WaW: Dark Storm, Intro

It is the 11th Millennium.  In the darkness and chaos that is the far future, only two things govern the galaxy's fate; Faith, and War.  The holy kingdom of Mankind wages a constant battle against the darkness of the galaxy, such as demons, the sons of Zarkros the Demon Lord, and each other.  Even the tiniest of sins could plant the seed to summon forth the darkness within a man.  The only thing that stands between this darkness and the hope for mankind was the greatest weapons of the human race; the Space Warriors.
Descendants of the knights that fought alongside King Narsill, the son of The Maker, the Space Warriors were the greatest of all of mankind's soldiers.  They are more than mere mortal; they are warriors of metal and bringers of hope to the believers of the Maker and doom to their enemies.  Unfailing servants of the Maker, each warrior is a crusader bred for the purpose of spreading the Maker's message and destroying the sons of Zarkros; the Demon Lord, and the enemy of mankind for thousands of years.
Though the Space Warriors are never enough to destroy the enemies of the Maker, they are never alone.  Man has always had his allies in this troublesome galaxy.  Elves, Dwarves, and a number of other races also served the mighty The Maker of all that was heaven and earth and beyond, and sometimes found themselves constantly by man's side as they fight to destroy Orks, Goblins, and a number of other monsters in the galaxy.
However, all the races descended from the planet of Terra and servants of the Maker had to remain vigilant, for the sons of Zarkros were not the only threats out in the galaxy.  There were many other groups; xenos, monsters, and many other unknown horrors lurked among the stars.  Every one of them was alien to the teachings of the Creator, and though some were willing converts…others were as evil as Zarkros himself.  It is this threat that the Space Warriors had to be the most vigilant against, for, should they fail, these monsters would surely flock to Terra like plagues of locusts, potentially bringing the downfall of the human race…

In the 11th Millennium, man's greatest weakness had always been the borderlands.  In the past, the provinces of Terra were always legendary for being too large for any one race to control.  The future proved to be no different, as men desired to grow, and were too fast for the galaxy to catch up.  When a limit finally was placed on how far they could reach before their expansion should cease, man already controlled hundreds of colonial worlds, each and every one threatened by the madness of demonic influence or xenos threats.
Space Warrior chapters were often asked to send ships to patrol the borders of the empire annually, to ensure that a great threat would not breach into the colonial worlds.  Even though few creatures arrived from the void beyond, it was inarguable that these patrols were the ones in the most danger.  It was often believed that those ships that suddenly disappeared were those that were on patrol near the great void, where potentially the unknown could strike the unwary at its leisure.  Occasionally the Warp, a phenomenon of sorts that could open the Gap-between-Dimensions, would belch one or two ghost ships near these borders.  These ships would be explored and discovered to have disappeared many hundreds of years back, and upon discovery the ship would refuse to reply to hails from allied ships.  When explored, the ships are usually found empty; judged to have been completely stripped of life, even though the life support systems were still in working condition when found.
It is unknown what exactly caused these attacks to occur, though soldiers who had explored such ships often stated that they felt like they were constantly being watched.  They claimed to have seen ghosts; spirits of the fallen, often friends who were posted on the ships that had disappeared.  These ghosts would bring forth messages of doom and devastation, leaving the visited frightened and with an uncontrollable desire to return to their home world as soon as possible.
No one knows what could have caused these ships to disappear and then reappear with no crew and no signs of life.  However, a group of Warriors under the mighty chapter known as the Red Swans were soon to find out for themselves, as a powerful warp rift suddenly opened forth right before their eyes…