The invasion of Corticant: Loyalists

The loyalists defending Corticant soon found themselves beset by enemies. General Greaves, appointed by Veers to oversee command of imperial forces on Corticant had significant forces at his disposal, and he had prepared well. The Lycannon guard were deployed largely in the west, which proved fortunate when the Death Korps of Krieg, loyal to Inquisitor Vorushko, landed in force near Lochford. In a large and bloody set piece battle the soldiers of Krieg were decimated by the Lycannon, and their assault on Blackhollow failed. However, just hours later the Minotaurs led their own assault on the imperial guard, smashing the Lycannon at Bymarsh and quickly fortifying their position. The Lycannon Guard now found themselves cut off in the north west from Greaves at Fort Bastion.

The excavation site itself was defended by the Librian 12th Armoured division, which was considered to be loyal by the commissariat, loyal enough to defend the archealogical dig at least, where Greaves, unaware of its importance, did not suspect any hostile intervention. He was wrong of course, the excavations were the primary reason for Corticant becoming the target of invasion, but the senior ranking official responsible for the defence of the planet was not deemed important enough to know what had been found there. Even so, his deployment of a full division of Librians (mostly to get them out of the way) was fortunate. On 0606.017M42 an enormous host of daemons punched through into realspace, led by a daemon prince proclaiming to be the head of a cult known as the "Emerald Serpent". What that meant know one knew, but the Librians fought valiantly anyway, their big guns and multilasers ppouring fire into the daemons and their vehicles for once proving reliable and sturdy. The attack was over in just a few hours, with the remaining daemons banished back to the warp.

Still, a daemon incursion was a concern, but no sooner had Greaves received news of this than reports came in of tyranid activity in the north west. The nascent threat of Nemesis had awoken, seizing its chance to call the hive fleet to the world. Greaves was thankful to have a force of Ultramarines on hand however, and the astartes, remembering their hatred for the foe that once ravaged their own domain, obliterated the tyranid infestation in short order.

Worse was to follow for Greaves however. The necrons soon appeared, using arcane technology to arrive and seize Ironhaven, and the Deathwatch force sent to remove them found the Sautek Dynasty had reinforced the Charnovokh in strength. The imperial force were unable to dislodge them and retreated to Fort Bastion, where they hoped to aid its defence from a new attack. The alliance had finally arrived.

The alliance had landed just south of the ocean known as the Squallor, and now had pushed in to the capital Fort Bastion. THe Praetorians fought doggedly but with the Astartes still mopping up tyranids and the Lycannon guard cut off by Vorushko's forces, General Greaves could only watch as gradually the tau and federal forces took down the mighty fort's defences. Within a day the capital, and spaceport, were in the hands of the alliance. A few days later however the Lycannon guard, aware the Minotaurs could not be everywhere at once, forced a path through to the north of Lake Hartford. There they met and defeated a large army under tau commander skyfall, and by 1505_017M42 the alliance were besieged themselves in the fort. General Greaves managed to escape into the wilderness, and he took command once again when the relief force arrived.