Special operations lead to four way clash on Sulidaan

Mordecai Primaris: Imperial sectors reunited again

Gamordal: Another setback for Veers

Zadoc: World Eaters lead the charge

Hylas: Van Dorn's Winter Offensive

Tyranids rampage on Helos Majoris

In the wake of the Blood Angels’ defeat at the hands of Hive Fleet Poseidon, General Maximus was left with few options to contain the Tyranid threat on Helos Majoris. With elite forces depleted and reinforcements from Sector Command delayed, the general turned to the Novgorod Guard, a regiment known for its resilience and sheer weight of firepower.

Maximus’ plan was straightforward: use the big guns of the Novgorod to blunt the Tyranid advance and drive the xenos back into the hinterlands, buying time for reinforcements to arrive. However, the execution of this strategy revealed glaring weaknesses in the Imperial forces.

The Novgorod Deployment

The Novgorod regiments deployed to Helos Majoris were equipped with reserve stockpiles, including older-model Leman Russ tanks, aging Hydra flak tanks, and artillery pieces that, while functional, lacked the reliability and advanced targeting systems of newer equipment. Infantry were similarly hampered by aging lasguns and inadequate supplies, including ammunition and rations ill-suited for a protracted engagement against Tyranid hordes.

Despite these limitations, the Novgorod forces established fortified positions around key outposts, supported by heavy artillery batteries and tank formations. Initial engagements were promising, as volleys of coordinated fire cut down waves of smaller Tyranid bioforms, and the first xenos assaults were repelled with heavy losses to the enemy.

The Tyranid Counterattack

The tide turned when larger bioforms—including Carnifexes, Trygons, and Tyrannofexes—joined the fray. These monstrous creatures absorbed immense amounts of firepower while spearheading relentless charges against the Novgorod gunlines. The reserve equipment of the Guard, effective against infantry and lighter vehicles, proved inadequate against the durability and sheer strength of these Tyranid organisms.

The Imperial armoured units managed to hold for a time, their Leman Russ tanks destroying multiple bioforms with concentrated fire. However, as the Tyranids closed the distance, these tanks were overwhelmed by toxic sprays, acid projectiles, and living ammunition that bypassed their armour. Imperial artillery was silenced as bioforms breached the rear lines, while infantry positions were overrun by Hormagaunts and Genestealers.

The Collapse

The xenos advance was relentless, and Novgorod casualties mounted rapidly. At least one outlying base was completely destroyed by swarms of Tyranid bioforms, while another suffered critical damage, leaving it vulnerable to further attacks. Surviving units were forced into a disorganised retreat, abandoning artillery pieces and vehicles to the encroaching Tyranid swarm.

The Imperial Strategica, analysing the unfolding disaster, predicted that at the current rate of attrition, Helos Majoris would fall within three months. Without reinforcements, the planet’s vital bases and settlements would be consumed by the Hive Fleet, and the Imperium would lose a critical foothold in the Rifts of Hecate.

A Growing Crisis

The failure of the Novgorod counteroffensive marked a grim chapter in the defense of Helos Majoris. General Maximus, already under scrutiny for his handling of the Tyranid threat, now faced mounting pressure from Imperial High Command to produce results. The deployment of reserve forces, while necessary, underscored the logistical challenges and lack of preparedness facing the Imperium in the Eastern Fringe.

As Hive Fleet Poseidon continued its inexorable advance, it became clear that only a bold and innovative strategy—or a significant influx of reinforcements—could prevent the planet’s complete annihilation. Helos Majoris stood on the brink, its fate hanging precariously in the balance.

Grey Knights decapitate Tau command on Hylas

As 012.024M42 dawned, the Imperial forces on Hylas, under the command of General Van Dorn, were teetering on the brink. With the Tau Empire pressing their offensive and the Imperium struggling to maintain its foothold in East Hallen, the situation seemed increasingly dire. However, unexpected reinforcements arrived in the form of the Grey Knights, whose ongoing mission against the forces of Chaos in the Zadoc subsector had brought them near the embattled world.

Recognising the strategic importance of holding Hylas, the Grey Knights agreed to assist Van Dorn, albeit temporarily. Their intervention proved decisive in halting the Tau advance and buying the Imperium precious time to reorganize and reinforce their defensive lines.

A small but elite detachment of Grey Knights, equipped with their potent psychic abilities and sacred wargear, launched a lightning-fast raid deep into Tau-controlled territory. Their objective was clear: disrupt the Tau chain of command and eliminate critical assets, destabilizing the xenos offensive long enough for the Imperial forces to regroup.

The raid was executed with surgical precision. Guided by divination rites and combat telemetry, the Grey Knights bypassed Tau defenses, targeting key HQ units and advanced support platforms. Their psychic might and close combat prowess overwhelmed the Tau defenders, who struggled to adapt to the unexpected and brutal assault.

The highlight of the raid came during an engagement with a Tau Stormsurge, one of the xenos’ most formidable heavy battlesuits. The Captain of the Custodes, accompanying the Grey Knights as part of his sacred oath, personally led a charge into the massive war machine. His Guardian Spear, imbued with the Emperor’s light, pierced the Stormsurge’s armor and crippled its core systems, reducing the towering construct to smoldering wreckage.

This act of valor not only showcased the Custodes’ unmatched skill but also struck a demoralizing blow to the Tau, who relied heavily on their advanced war machines to dominate the battlefield.

With their HQ units disrupted and their heavy firepower diminished, the Tau were forced to pull back from their positions, abandoning key gains in East Hallen. This withdrawal allowed the Imperial Guard to fortify their lines, reinforcing the critical region and stalling the Tau advance.

While the Grey Knights departed soon after to continue their mission against the Ruinous Powers, their intervention on Hylas left a profound impact. General Van Dorn used the reprieve to regroup his forces, bolster supply lines, and prepare for the next stage of the campaign.

Chaos: Balance of Power shifts to the Death Guard

The Struggle for Kendrenec: The Ascendancy of Nurgle in the Aleph Sector

By the end of 12.024M42, the Chaos war effort in the Aleph Sector had entered a state of disarray. The once-cohesive campaigns orchestrated by the Emerald Serpent had faltered, their influence waning as their leader’s grasp on power slipped. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Warsmith Stahl and his Iron Warriors from the region left a strategic vacuum that the remaining warbands sought to exploit for their own gain. This fragmentation reached its zenith on Kendrenec, the de facto capital of Chaos forces in the sector, as two rival powers vied for dominance: the Death Guard, champions of Nurgle, and the World Eaters, devoted to Khorne.

The Battle for Kendrenec

The conflict erupted in the ruins of Kendrenec’s once-mighty fortresses, where the World Eaters, led by Lord Invocatus, sought to assert their mastery through sheer martial supremacy. The Death Guard, under the command of Typhus, countered with unyielding resilience and devastating firepower. The stakes were clear—whoever emerged victorious would claim the title of Master of Chaos in the sector and dictate the future of the war against the Imperium.

The battle was heralded by the dramatic intervention of Angron, the Daemon Primarch of the World Eaters, whose wrath knew no bounds. The daemon lord launched the assault with terrifying fury, obliterating a Death Guard War Dog in a single devastating blow. His rampage, however, was short-lived. The relentless firepower of the Death Guard’s daemon engines and corrupted artillery overwhelmed even Angron’s considerable might, banishing him back to the warp. Despite their Primarch’s fall, the World Eaters fought on, undeterred and frenzied by Khorne’s unquenchable thirst for blood.

The Turning Tide

The battle raged with savage intensity. The World Eaters unleashed their most devastating war engines, including a mighty Lord of Skulls, whose infernal power laid waste to the Death Guard lines. However, the slow, methodical firepower of Nurgle’s followers proved decisive. Plagueburst Crawlers, Blightlords, and daemon engines blanketed the battlefield with pestilence and destruction, grinding down the berserkers’ reckless assaults. Even as Lord Invocatus led a final, frenzied charge that drove Typhus from the field, the World Eaters found themselves unable to break the Death Guard’s implacable defense.

The climactic moment came when the Lord of Skulls, a towering avatar of Khorne’s fury, was destroyed in a hail of corrosive plague missiles and blighted energy. Its fall marked the turning point of the battle, as the remaining Khornate forces faltered under the relentless attrition of Nurgle’s chosen.

The Aftermath

With their forces shattered and Angron absent, the World Eaters were forced to retreat, leaving the Death Guard in undisputed control of Kendrenec. Though Typhus had been driven from the field, the victory cemented Nurgle’s supremacy over the Chaos forces in the Aleph Sector. From this point forward, the war against the Imperium would be waged according to the Grandfather’s inscrutable designs.

The battle for Kendrenec marked a turning point in the sector’s chaotic struggle. The disorganized warbands of Chaos began to align, however tenuously, under the banner of Nurgle. The House of Eschar, the Blighted Host, and other Nurgle-aligned factions now took their place as the dominant forces in the sector, preparing for a protracted and insidious war against the Imperium. For the Imperium, the defeat of Khorne’s champions only heralded a new, more methodical and attritional threat, as the Death Guard and their allies began consolidating their power with the grim patience of their patron.

Imperial Agents removed from Ork Fort Aerin

In 10.024M42, the Imperium succeeded in establishing a precarious foothold on the contested world of Aerin, a planet plagued by an entrenched ork presence. The initial Imperial assessment deemed the orks as uncoordinated and disorganized, leading to a strategic decision to rely on small elite forces rather than deploying the overwhelming manpower and firepower typical of the Astra Militarum. The Deathwatch, specialists in xenos eradication, were selected to spearhead operations against the orks’ heavily fortified base.

The Deathwatch’s mission was straightforward: infiltrate the ork stronghold, neutralize key defenses, and pave the way for follow-up extermination campaigns. Confidence was high, as the Deathwatch had carried out similar operations with success across the Imperium. However, their assumptions about the orks’ lack of organization were quickly proven disastrously wrong.

Upon breaching the fortress’ outer perimeter, the Deathwatch encountered fierce resistance in the form of well-coordinated ork kill teams. These greenskin squads demonstrated an uncharacteristic level of tactical discipline, using chokepoints, ambush tactics, and overwhelming firepower to stymie the elite space marines. Heavy losses were sustained as the Deathwatch squads fought to extricate themselves from the ork-infested corridors.

The unexpectedly high level of resistance forced the Deathwatch to withdraw from the fortress. Their reconnaissance revealed the ork base to be far more formidable than anticipated, with reinforced structures, kill zones, and a high concentration of ork warbands under a capable warboss. The Imperial presence on Aerin, centered around a small forward operating base, was deemed untenable without significant reinforcements. As a result, the foothold was abandoned shortly thereafter.

The failed assault on the ork fortress presented a significant setback for the Imperium on Aerin. Without the ability to deploy significant Astra Militarum forces or Titans to batter the fortress into submission, the Imperium was left scrambling for an alternative approach. The Deathwatch, though bloodied, provided vital intelligence on the ork forces, but their reports painted a grim picture: the greenskins were more organized and dangerous than previously thought.

Imperial Offensive on Gamordal

As the Perseus Deeps Crusade continued into 012.024M42, General Veers sought to restore momentum following the loss of the Southrine Mines to a Necron counteroffensive. Criticised for his earlier setbacks and faced with a crucial strategic need to secure the world of Gamordal, Veers planned an aggressive operation to break the Necron hold on the planet.

On 0212.024M42, the Imperial Guard launched a massive armoured assault spearheaded by the Novgorod Regiments, supported by numerous Leman Russ battle tanks, mechanised infantry, and mobile artillery. The strategy aimed to shatter the Necron defensive lines north of Southrine and exploit any breaches to seize key locations, including Port Primaris, a vital hub for supply lines, and the Southrine mines themselves.

The Imperial armoured columns surged forward in a relentless blitzkrieg. The Necron defenders, primarily composed of Warriors, Immortals, and a scattering of Lychguard units supported by a Monolith, were initially caught off guard by the sheer speed and ferocity of the assault. While the Lychguard and Monolith proved formidable in close combat and in weathering heavy fire, they lacked the mobility to counter the rapid strikes of the Imperial armour.

After breaking through the Necron lines, the Novgorod regiments exploited their advantage with precision. Imperial tanks manoeuvred to encircle the Necron positions, cutting off retreat paths and isolating key defensive strongpoints. By 0312.024M42, the Guard had overwhelmed the defenders at Port Primaris, securing the strategically vital location. The Southrine mines were also retaken, ensuring access to their valuable resources and denying the Necrons their use.

The Necrons mounted several counterattacks, with Lychguard phalanxes attempting to push back the encroaching armour. However, the volume of fire from battle tanks, supported by Basilisk artillery and Valkyrie-deployed Storm Troopers, steadily wore them down. The Monolith’s gauss flux arcs wreaked havoc on one Novgorod armoured battalion, but the machine’s eventual destruction by concentrated Vanquisher cannon fire broke the back of the Necron resistance.

With the Necron forces reeling, the Imperial offensive pushed further into the heart of Gamordal, targeting the outskirts of the capital city. Here, the dense urban terrain slowed the advance, forcing the armour to pause and consolidate their gains. Nonetheless, the swift and decisive victories in the Southrine region restored momentum to the campaign and silenced many of Veers’ critics.

By the end of the first week of 12.024M42, the Imperial forces had secured key objectives, regained control of critical infrastructure, and inflicted significant losses on the Necron defenders. The success of the operation brought the Crusade back on schedule, renewing confidence in Veers' leadership. However, the Necron threat on Gamordal remained far from neutralized, and the Imperium prepared for the next phase of the campaign, knowing that the Necrons' resilience and capacity for sudden counterstrikes could not be underestimated.