Farport - Imperial counter-attack

With the Night Lords’ fleet driven off the impact of the loss in the air was felt less by Imperial forces, though marauding Catechism aircraft plagued General Gault’s forces for much of the remaining war. However, with the Chaos forces failing to make quick gains the General, Nikopolidis and El'Zaharial all agreed that now was the time for a forceful counter-attack to shatter the alliance.

On 2911.009M42 Captain Angelus El'Zaharial launched an attack on Carsonville after rapidly redeploying his forces. Disaster struck however when a planned drop of assault troops was cancelled at the last minute when the incoming thunderhawk was driven off by superior chaos air power. Despite this El'Zaharial inflicted sufficient losses to drive off the Anticross traitor legions and liberate the town. He drove off the sorcerer leading the chaos forces in single combat but the cowardly chaos minion still somehow managed to escape.

At the same time however the elite forces of the Catechism finally showed their hand on the ground, launching themselves at totally unprepared Imperial Guard forces in the recently liberated region of Crossroads. General Gault’s regiments faired badly, taking heavy casualties and retreating en masse to Beckley. The Chaos had once again succeeded in an engagement where no Astartes troops were present. This was a feature of the entire conflict on Farport.

As if to labour this point, while the Imperial Guard were retreating from Crossroads the Castaways were successfully leading an assault into the Barren Hills, a region which, while barely populated, had been identified as strategically vital to the success of the campaign. After a day of advancing on 3011.009M42 the Claws of Lorek rapidly redeployed in an attempt to halt the Imperial advance. They were unsuccessful however and Chaos resistance in the region collapsed on 0112.009M42. The Claws of Lorek then began to quietly organise their core elite forces for an evacuation of Farport. The Chaos Alliance had now begun to fall apart.

Worse was to follow for the Chaos forces as the Porphyrians launched their assault from Pottsland to the shores of McKinley. Realising the only forces defending McKinleyville were barely trained cultists, Moonface summoned a daemonhost to hold up the Porphyrians and drive them into Lake Potter. However the open terrain on McKinley ensured the Imperial Guard were able to employ their full firepower on the daemons, and the warp spawned abominations were sent back to their domain in a hail of heavy bolter and battle cannon shells. McKinley fell on 0211.009M42.

While the Chaos forces struggled in the east they made gains in the west. For some reason Moonface had given the task of assaulting the capital to the Orks, rapidly redeploying them using the Chaos device. Here Moonface employed the bulk of his air power, while General Gault had deployed his most accomplished Guard formations around the city and could call upon the support of the Dark Angels fleet to bombard the Ork forces.

Despite this, the fighting around the capital and the spaceport became desperate as wave after wave of greenskins swarmed into the carefully prepared Imperial positions, manned by veteran Cerberex Guard troopers. Tens of thousands of Orks died, but the tied proved unstoppable. On 0211.009M42 the Orks had made their way into the city and taken the vital spaceport, inflicting a severe blow to the Imperial cause.

At the same time Inquisitor Nikopolidis had redeployed to the Pinnacle mountains in an attempt to thwart the Catechism’s assault there. Once again the daemon host was summoned and finally the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor came face to face with his hated foe. Despite his efforts however the missile silos of the region fell to Chaos and the Inquisitor’s forces were lucky to escape.

In the south however the Imperium made a breakthrough. Seven divisions of Farport PDF, led by the Space Wolves, charged into the Homelands and the vital city of Homestead. Here the Chaos forces were thin on the ground, but included the traitor legions of the Night Lords under Lord Raziel. The fury of the Space Wolves was unstoppable though, and once the traitor marines had been broken the Farport PDF had little difficulty mopping up the remaining Chaos forces.