Zadoc war intensifies

During the second week of 10_013M42 the war for Zadoc intensified once more. The Iron Warriors were once again in action as a force of Space Marines and Adeptus Mechanicus troops landed on the southern shore of the now chaos controlled Vasto in order to put a stop to heretek activity. In the settlement of Gerzonne the Iron Warriors were fortifying, but in addition a new industry was taking root in the city. Putting the enslaved workforce to good use, Warsmith Stahl managed to secure the help of the Dark Mechanicus, who began work on a daemon forge, a hideous fusion of warp power and conventional industry, enabling the Iron Warriors to equip their army with all manner of daemon engines.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, horrified at this, launched an immediate punitive strike, intending to wipe out their mortal enemies and cleanse the settlement of Gerzonne. However no sooner had they established a perimeter the imperial forces came under sustained attack from the Iron Warriors and their allies. Blasphemous fusions of daemon and steel assaulted the loyalist lines, although the mechanicus were able to put an end to many of the abberations fielded by Stahl's army, the Helldrakes shot from the sky by astartes storm talons.

Unfortunately the imperial forces were unable to move forward, and gradually the Iron Warriors took the initiative, outflanking the imperial positions and rendering the imperial beach head untennable. The mechanicus were forced to withdraw leaving the daemonforge intact.

As a direct result of this raid the Wordbearers, led by the "Truthbringers" faction launched an assault on Ascobabria against the imperial centre. Here the loyalists were supported by the Legio Gryphonicus and the Salamanders chapter, but now with the Daemonforge up and running the word bearers were able to field a far larger number of forge beasts, putting the imperial defences under strain. A huge battle erupted around the city of Sangnauy which the imperium managed to defend, much of it reduced to rubble, but gradually the forces of chaos were grinding forward in greater and greater strengths. Losses in the traitor ranks were high, but there were always replacements.

The second week of 10_013M42 also saw another fleet clash in the outer reaches of the Zadoc system. This time Tragaen once again sent a significant force, this time of five cruisers, to the system to reinforce the Arch Cleric on the ground and to bring much needed supplies. Again the imperium intervened, this time with a battlegroup from the neighbouring sector, brought in by Titus Luthor and the Adeptus Mechanicus to bolster Jericho's fleet. The squadron, comprising of two lunar class vessels, a mars and a retribution class battleship and the Mechanicus Arch Magos Navos, met Tragaen's numerically superior force outside the Zadoc narrows. A brutal close in firefight developed which saw one chaos vessel hulked and two crippled, but the imperium were obliged to withdraw after the loss of two cruisers and the crippling of their battleship. This was a victory for chaos, albeit at a cost, allowing Tragaen to maintain control of the system and resupply the forces on the ground.