Joint astartes force secures Aspaster

For many centuries the orks of the Vastrid subsector had been bottled up in the Cerrack Nebula warring amongst themselves. The Imperial forts of Thrace and Ate kept watch over the region, home to two large ork worlds, guarding against an ork incursion via the major warp lanes to Perisia and Vastrid itself.

Another world, Aspaster, was less populated, but often played a part in the ongoing territorial battles between the different ork clans and tribes, but in 019M42 the situation had changed. Unknown to the sector administration (or the sector commander Titus Luthor), the Inquisition had been secretly supplying imperial weapons to the orks of the Blod Axe clan. This clan had become a focus for the orks who, united in their dislike of the Blood Axes, threatened to overwhelm them and then - now united - pose a threat to the Imperium. With the main imperial effort focussed on Mordecai and the Perseus Deeps, an unexpected ork Waagh! was not something the Imperium could risk.

Not everyone in the Inquisition agreed or approved of this approach however, and in 019M42 with Lord Huron missing, the continuation of the operation to arm the orks could not be allowed to continue. Even before Brother-Inquisitor Cyrus Ezquerra was confirmed in his position of Inquisitor for the Aleph Sector, he had taken actions to stop the shipments, and unfortunately this had led to the destruction of Fort Thrace in the process.

To mitigate this Ezquerra had left standing orders for any imperial force to conduct operations against the orks "as soon as was expedient", given their competing concerns. Finally, with his inquisition agents highlighting growing ork activity in the Cerrack nebula, the Dark Angels and Hammers of the Emperor undertook a joint expedition to suppress the orks.

Landing on the frontier scrubland landscape of Aspaster, the astartes soon found a world not riven by inter-clan war, but a world of increasing military build up. During the course of 10.021M42 the Hammers and Dark Angels launched a series of operations against the main forces of Bloodfang orks, and Orks who seemed to be loyal to a figure they called "Ludendork", though this faction also seemed to have forces far to the east in the Hadron Expanse, suggesting that once again the shared consciousness or "belief" of the orks was playing a part.

Ork ideology notwithstanding, the astartes smashed both camps of orks, killing their warlords and wiping out the greenskins. The few that escaped disappeared into the vast wildernesses of the planet, while the Imperium setup a watch on the planet and in the system, to ensure any "regrowth" of greenskin activity in the system was closely monitored. From here, a systematic watch of the larger ork worlds of Keprok and Magark began, with the possibility of a full scale invasion of them not ruled out.