LIBRIA I: Stalemate continues

The violence on Libria I continued in the early months of 017M42 with the Imperial Loyalist forces initially making good progress in their drive northward towards the last crusade held settlements in the northwest. Overall loyalist commander general Zhukov knew that if he could take Davey and Slater the remaining crusade forces would be bottled up in the west of the planet, and without access to good supply routes, overall victory would be in sight.

The loyalists however had issues of their own. The alliance were now in full control of space in the Libria system, so supply was not only a problem for the crusade. Only small supply convoys escorted by fast astartes strike cruisers were able to get through to the inner planets, and Zhukov's army was tired and lacking in equipment, much of which was now being hurridly diverted back to Libria II thanks to the tau invasion.

Zhukov's frontal assauly reached a high when the Ultramarines secured Davey, defeating a poorly equipped Darantine Guard regiment, but the advanc now put the loyalists into a salient Zhukov didn't really like, and he expected the counter attack. It came less than a week later when the Vedrians moved in to hold Davey were assaulted from two sides by the Kreig units and the unwavering Volscians, who hd now become the backbone of Vorushko's crusade armies. The loyalists were hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded, but unexpected help came in the form of the necrons. Once again the Charnovokh dynasty appeared as if from nowhere and interfered in the Librian campaign.

The necrons were themselves under pressure in the Perseus Deeps. They were well aware that a victory for the crusade would inevitably lead to a full scale crusade against the xenos in the DEeps, and they were not sufficiently strong to counter the tau, tyranids and imperium. A loyalist victory would likely result in the Imperium consolidating their existing systems, and perhaps leave the necrons alone long enough for their armies to be fully reawakened.

The crusade armies were however even more fired up by the appearance of the necrons, and despite a dogged defence of Davey the fanatical devotion to duty saw the Volscians and Death Korps retake the settlement street by street before forceing Zhukov to retreat south before Carteret also fell. The war on Libria I would continue, setting the imperial armies against one another while the alliance steadily took the Libria system for themselves.