The Battle of Gamma-Omega-2571D – The Hammers of the Emperor, 09.025.M42

In the aftermath of the disastrous failure of the Aleph Wardens Mechanised Regiment, General Kutuzov faced mounting pressure to regain momentum in the northern hive sprawl of Mordecai Primaris. The costly defeat at Gamma-Omega-2571D had left Imperial morale shaken, and the district remained a critical bastion of the Death Guard line. Unwilling to commit more Guard formations to what was becoming a meat grinder of attrition, Kutuzov turned to the Adeptus Astartes.

The Hammers of the Emperor, a Chapter famed for its unyielding determination and willingness to wage prolonged campaigns of urban annihilation, answered the call. In early 09.025.M42, the Chapter committed significant forces to a direct assault on Gamma-Omega-2571D, aiming to break the Chaos hold where the Guard had faltered.

The opening phase of the battle saw the Hammers make gains on their left flank, where their elite melee shock troops – heavily armoured assault brethren – cut a swathe through the diseased cultists and plague marines guarding the ruins. On the right flank, however, progress was far slower. The Death Guard, entrenched in collapsed hab-blocks and fortified manufactoria, resisted with their usual inhuman endurance, forcing the Astartes to clear every structure at enormous cost.

The battle reached its climax when a formation of Death Guard Terminators arrived in the centre of the battlefield. These bloated monstrosities of corrupted ceramite dominated the fighting, shrugging off bolter fire and cutting through squads of Space Marines in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The Hammers’ advance stalled under their relentless assault, and the engagement devolved into a grinding struggle of attrition.

Yet the Hammers of the Emperor proved as stubborn as their foes. Refusing to yield ground, they locked the Terminators in a vicious stalemate, their resilience and faith in the Emperor preventing the collapse of their line. By 04.09.025.M42, the wider strategic situation forced the Death Guard to withdraw; Kutuzov’s Guard regiments had begun pushing into the flanks of the Chaos salient, threatening to cut off the defenders entirely.

The battle was officially judged a tactical draw, yet for the Imperium it was enough. Though the cost in Astartes lives was grievous, the Death Guard had been forced to abandon Gamma-Omega-2571D, and Imperial forces now pressed into the shattered streets.

The victory, however, carried its own grim warning. Progress would be slow and punishing – every street, every hab, every room in the ruins would have to be seized from plague-ridden hands. The road ahead for Kutuzov’s campaign on Mordecai Primaris promised only more attrition, more sacrifice, and more blood paid for every crumbling sector of the hive sprawl.

The Failure at Gamma-Omega-2571D – Mordecai Primaris, 07.025.M42

By the high summer of 025.M42, the war on Mordecai Primaris had slowed to a grinding stalemate. The northern hemisphere of the daemon-tainted world endured the full force of its red dwarf sun, which hung in the skies for over sixteen hours a day, irradiating the surface and baking the already desolate wastelands in a merciless heat. Conditions were brutal, yet Imperial High Command pressed for continued advances, fearing that any pause would give Chaos time to reorganise and reinforce.

The most intense fighting during this period took place amidst the sprawling ruins of the northern hives, where shattered hab-blocks and collapsed manufactoria provided natural choke points and strongholds for the defenders. In 07.025.M42, General Kutuzov committed the Aleph Wardens Mechanised Regiment to spearhead an assault on the ruined district of Gamma-Omega-2571D, a key sector whose control would have opened up new approaches towards the hive sprawls further north.

The Aleph Wardens, veterans of numerous campaigns across the Aleph Sector, deployed in strength. Their Chimeras and Leman Russ tanks advanced under heavy covering fire, their armour shielding them from the intense heat and radiation. However, their progress soon ground to a halt. Waiting for them in the shattered cityscape were the Death Guard, entrenched in the ruins with their usual doggedness. The corrupted legionnaires showed no signs of fatigue under the blistering sun, their rotting ceramite plate impervious to both the climate and much of the Guard’s firepower.

Worse still were the Death Guard Terminators, whose relentless counter-attacks and brutal close-range firepower repeatedly shattered the Imperial spearheads. The terrain of Gamma-Omega-2571D favoured the traitor elite; narrow avenues and crumbling ruins denied the Wardens the manoeuvrability of their armour, forcing them into grinding, attritional combat for which they were ill-suited.

Despite repeated attempts, the Imperial mechanised formations could make no meaningful progress. Casualties mounted, with dozens of tanks destroyed in ambushes or bogged down and abandoned in the rubble. Infantry losses were even higher, whole companies reduced to nothing in close-quarter battles against plague-ridden warriors who simply refused to die.

By the closing days of 07.025.M42, the assault was called off. The Aleph Wardens had suffered crippling casualties, losing a substantial portion of both men and materiel, while the ruins of Gamma-Omega-2571D remained firmly in Chaos hands. The effort had achieved nothing, save to demonstrate once again the immovable resilience of the Death Guard when entrenched in their chosen ground.

For Kutuzov, the failure at Gamma-Omega was a sobering reminder: while momentum had been with the Imperium earlier in the year, the path to total victory on Mordecai would be long and costly. Every ruined sector, every ash-choked hive, would have to be paid for in the blood and armour of the Astra Militarum.