Libria V: Sky Lords break Novgorod offensive

With the loyalists removed from Libria III and the surrender of so many guardsmen to the alliance, Inquisitor Vorushko was keen to get her revenge and launch a demonstration of strength on Libria V, where the war between the loyalists and crusade forces had gone quiet for several months.

In the end however she was beaten to it, as the Novgorod guard launched a new offensive along the Acronia valley on 1608.014M42. Her forces depleted, there was little meaningful resistance from the crusade, until the Novgorod reached the outskirts of Daralon. Here the Sky Lords launched a counter attack headlong into the Novgorod forces, while more substantial crusade units scrambled to get into defensive positions. The Sky Lords managed to halt the Novgorod attack in its tracks, holding off the imperial guard for two days while taking heavy casualties. At one point a loyalist and Crusade Knight met in the middle of the battlefield, and the titanic combat culminated in the spectacular detonation of both war engines, after the crusade knight had smashed through hundreds of Novgorod conscripts.

The gigantic explosion ripped the heart out of the northern district of Daralon, but also further blunted the loyalist offensive. By 1808.015M42 the Sky Lords themselves were utterly spent, with just one uninjured marine and one battered vehicle left in the fight. However it was too late for the Novgorod as they now faced a significant defensive force. By 2008.015M42 the loyalists had actually lost ground, as Vannaheim regiments dislodged and ground the Novgorod back past their starting positions. The Libria V war had gone hot once more.