Xanthus bid to coerce Aethor fails

With the loss of Ares to his cause, inquistor Xanthus attempted to sway Aethor to his side during 06.011M42. Aethor lay on the critical Perseus Run warp route, and Xanthus desperately needed a secure supply route from sectors towards the Imperial Hub and his base on Sentinel. Hathek and Huron had made sure he couldn't have Ares, so Aethor would have to do. Xanthus' position was bolstered by the arrival of half a company of Blood Martyrs space marines, but the Inquisitor lord remained marginalised and isolated.

Lords Hathek and Huron hadn't been blind to the move on Aethor, and had made provisions for its defence should Xanthus try anything. So it cam as no surprise when on 1906.011M42 the Grey Knights discovered that a small squad of Blood Martyrs had attempted to force their way into Aethor's main communications array. They had no idea what the purpose of this raid was, but pursued the Blood Martyrs into the wilderness of the world, finding themselves bitterly opposed by the astartes chapter forces. In a brief skirmish the Blood Martyrs lost half their team, but the outnumbered Grey Knights disengaged first, realising they could not afford to lose men at the hands of fellow space marines, and the remaining Blood Martyrs escaped.

Only later did Hathek learn what Xanthus' agents had been up to. Without warning the population of Aethor suddenly found their normal vidcast programmes interrupted by an address from High Priest Garrett Van Buerden, extoling the virtues of the emperor and imploring all to follow His will. Realising this was turning into a propaganda coup for Xanthus, Hathek immediately asked the Grey Knights to shut down the broadcast. No-one outside the council yet knew of Van Buerden's rift with the Crusade and Hathek, and the wrong words now could uncover the rift and start a civil war as the general population of the world, or even the sector, took sides. This had to be stopped.

Unfortunately the communications station was defended by units of the Prozan Cavalry, leading to an unfortunate firefight between the two Imperial forces. The Grey Knights couldn't explain why they had to destroy the communications array, nor could they merely say it was on the orders of Hathek, or suspicions would be raised. The unfortunate Imperial guardsmen were slaughtered and the broadcast stopped before too much had been said, and Inquisitor Hathek "explained" the situation to the planetary governor. Suitably impressed and trusting of the high inquisitor, the world of Aethor pledged its support to Hathek's position and another world was lost to Xanthus' cause.

War on Glossop V

During 06.011M42 the war on Glossop V, under-resourced and neglected by the Imperium, continued. The world wasn't of massive strategic significance and only a few regiments of Imperial Guard held the line between the human colonists, numbering 500,000, and the ever growing green tide of Waagh! Krumpgutz.

Unexpected help did arrive on 1806.011M42 in the form of a handful of Grey Knights units. The Ordo Malleus had a growing interest in the Cerrack Nebula with the recent appearance of chaos forces on Triam and Quim. As the only Imperial held world in the nebula the choice of Glossop V as a base was obvious, and the astartes forces agreed to help the guard defend the world from the orks. To this end the Imperial forces planned and executed several small raids against the ork horde, searching for weaknesses.

The Grey Knights were reasonably successful, establishing the size, disposition and weaponry of the ork forces arraid against the Imperial perimeter, but the Prozan cavalry suffered at the hands of the greenskins. One raiding force found itself completely cut off and surrounded by angry orks, with a desperate airborne rescue only able to extract one or two of the elite commandos. The war on Glossop would continue, largely forgotten by the rest of the sector.

Inquisition war hots up

Although the Inquisition dispute between Hathek, Huron and the council on one side, and Xanthus on the other, had cooled off after the Astartes settled the score on Ares, neither side was content to leave things as they were. Xanthus was now effectively outlawed, cut off from his usual endless resources and only commanding a few regiments of guard and a flotilla of Jellicoe's ships. Xanthus needed to sway more governors and Imperial representatives to his side, and to do that he needed to discredit the other two inquisitor lords.

To this end the Ordo Hereticus inquisitor once again planned to disrupt the Imperial-Tau alliance. Through still loyal agents, Xanthus gave false information to the Grey Knights, suggesting that a daemonic incursion was imminent on the Tau held world of Skera. Unfamiliar with the Tau dispositions in the Perseus Deeps and not bothering to check with the council, the hot headed Astartes immediately set out for the Tau system. Their strike cruisers easily evaded Tau warships and deployed a force of Grey Knights on the planet, close to the suspected daemonic outbreak centre. Unsurprisingly they found nothing, except an angry Tau force who asked why they had been assaulted. Pride quickly got in the way of negotiation and the Grey Knights soon found themselves under attack. After a brief skirmish the Ordo Malleus strike force abandoned its attack and fled the system, but the alliance still held thanks to swift interevention from Inquisitor Hathek once again. The Tau informed him however that he was on his final warning.

Hathek then directed the Grey Knights to Ares, recently retaken by the Imperium but still reporting minor intrusions from the warp. On Ares however the Grey Knights met with a government hostile to their presence, and the recently installed planetary governor refused to allow them to land, The Astartes did anyway, and found the Blood Angels already on the world pursuing their own aims. The Grey Knights demanded that the Blood Angels confirm their alliegance to the Crusade council and declare Xanthus a traitor. When they refused the Grey Knights found themselves in another uneccessary battle, although this time the Blood Angels were forced to withdraw, complaining bitterly that the Knights were exceeding their remit.

Hathek meanwhile began machinations of his own. Realising the governor of Ares was hostile to his faction, the inquisitor resolved to remove him. He reasoned, correctly that the Grey Knights could be easily swayed and used as a tool in his plans. He planted the suspicion that the government of Ares were complicit in the recent daemonic incursions on the world, and planet suitably damning evidence. On cue the Grey Knights declared the governor a heretic and attacked the capital. The ill-equipped 24th Islandlwanfa found themselves in the way and were defeated in short order by the Knights, suffering apalling casualties. The governor, all the time protesting his innocence, was summarily tried and executed under Hathek's supervision. The inquisitor then replaced the entire government with his own sympathisers, cutting another link in Xanthus' supply chain.

Parthenope Secured

General Veers' Crusade in the Perseus Deeps received an unexpected boost from the Blood Angels in late 05.011M2 when they arrived in orbit around Parthenope. Veers met with their commander, and although their quest was unrelated to the cleansing of the planet, the forces of the Astartes agreed to co-ordinate their strikes with an all out offensive planned by Veers to take the Vregal peninsular.

The Blood Angels dropped from orbit on 2905.011M42, landing near Gand and on the Lone Isles. Searching for ancient artefacts it is believed the Blood Angels were successful, but for the Imperial high command the real good news was the destruction of Anticross and Shadow Suns traitor Astartes forces.With the elite soldiers of chaos smashed apart by the fury of the Blood Angel's attacks, the door to Gelanath and Torradi now lay open. Veers assembled his best regiments of Librian Guard and deployed the feared Cerberex mechanised regiment he was keeping in reserve for the final push. The Imperial guard advanced on a narrow front, the tanks of Libria and New Cerberex punching deep behind enemy lines and by 0106.011M42 the remaining chaos forces prepared for their final stand.

Just east of the settlement of Cayal the forces of chaos played their last card, summoning a huge gibbering mass of other-worldly daemons in the path of the advancing troops, aiming to blunt the spearhead and allow the traitor marines units to recover from their defeat at the hands of the Blood Angels, and drive into the flanks of the Imperial advance.

The daemons appeared in a concentrated mass, right in front of the Librian main firepower, and were punished severely. Leman Russ tanks and massed multilaser fire proved devastating to the daemonic host, and the Punisher variant of the Librians' main battle tanks proved particularly adept at blowing apart the warp-beasts.

While the Librian regiments bottled up the daemonic horde, the Cerberex mechanised force managed to drive forward through the chaos lines and deliver a decisive blow. Too late the chaos commanders realised this had left the Cerberex right flank almost undefended, but the forces summoned to exploit this weakness were insufficient to prevent a decisive Imperial victory.

The battle lost, the daemons disappeared back to their blasphemous realm, leaving the Imperium to mop up the final defenders of Parthenope. Thousands of cultists were put to the sword, but few traitor marines were ever discovered, most having used their daemonic pacts to depart from Parthenope when it became clear all was lost.

Veers had another victory and finally secured the Farport region of the Perseus Deeps. Now however the crusade faced a crisis. What now? Where next? The council soon fell into argument. Many suggested redirecting troops to the Cerrack Nebula to respond to the activity there while others were more bullish, recommending an all out attack on Mordecai or Calliden. Some in the military ranks preferred the Rim worlds to be the next focus of the campaign, while others felt it was time to draw a line under the Perseus Deeps crusade. This against the backdrop of simmering discontent within the Inquisition made General Veers far more downcast than a conquerer of worlds had any right to be as 06.011M42 progressed.

Vastrid Subsector War

During the second half of 05.011M42 and early 06.011M42, small forces in the Cerrack nebula were reinforced, and a general escalation of hostilities began to take place. With the invasion of Glossop V by orks, the Imperium responded by sending two regiments of Prozan Cavalry, but the greenskins of Waagh! Krumpgutz proved a difficult opponent, and the airborne regiments were defeated and forced to retreat. The orks now had the initiative on the world, despite the rather unexpected appearance of eldar aircraft in the world's atmosphere on 0306.011M42.

The Orks intercepted the incomming Eldar Sky Host and a fast moving airborne engagement eventually resulted in the Eldar withdrawing when it became apparent they would be unable to penetrate the swarming ork fightas without suffering heavy casualties. The aim of the raid wasn't apparent to the Imperium, but may have been a reconnaisance mission. The interevention however only seemed to stir up the ork aggression even more than before, perhaps the real intention of the aliens.

Meanwhile newly arrived regiments from the world of Islandlwanda found themselves posted to the supposedly safe world of Hogan's Fall, established as a base by Inquisitor Cicerus in M39. However within weeks of their arrival daemons loyal to Lorek suddenly swarmed out of nowhere and fell upon the guardsmen, who were entirely unprepared to deal with such an attack. Though the Islandlwanda tribesmen fought with zeal and faith, the Imperial line was forced to pull back, allowing chaos to gain an important foothold on the planet.

Dark Angels prevent Warp Rift

With the threat of civil war averted for now and tensions returned to a low simmer, Captain Angelus redeployed his company in support of the invasion of Parthenope. The war was proceeding well. The Librian Guard had advanced deep into the Vregal Peninsula when forward reconnaissance reported a spatial distortion ahead. Conditions on the ground were too risky for mere guardsmen, many of the scouts had already gone insane and needed to be put down. Fearing daemonic incursion Ritchie requested the aid of the Dark Angels.

A task force was immediately dispatched. It was headed by the 4th's Company Chaplian, Azurath El'Ressius, to ensure the mental fortitude and purity of spirit of the expedition. The mechanised column deployed onto the planets surface some distance from the anomaly and advanced cautiously. This caution proved well founded – daemons began pouring out of the warp rift as soon as the task force had visual contact. Rather than the usual tide of lesser daemons Azurath counted not one but five greater daemons and princes of chaos, their bloated forms sustained by the unnatural energies of the portal. The task force opened fire but their weaponry, whilst accurate, seemed powerless against such terrible entities.

Azurath lead his brothers in prayer, calling forth the power of the Emperor to aid them against the dread forces arrayed against them. Lifted by the power of their faith and devotion to the god-emperor of mankind the Dark Angels raced forward, unleashing a torrent of firepower into the colossal daemons. Bolter rounds seemed to glow with a holy radiance and Azurath's Crosius crackled with arcane balefire. In a matter of moments all but one of the mighty daemons fell and scores of lesser minions were slaughtered. Only one dark champion remained and he bellowed his devotion to the blood god Khorne and charged into the Dark Angel's ranks. For a moment the battle hung in the balance as Khorne's champion set about an unholy slaughter, but its rampage was brought to an end when Brother Kaleal of the Ravenwing fearlessly skidded his bike between the daemons legs and hamstrung it with his power fist. The daemon fell.

The Dark Angels had carried the field but the remaining lesser daemons still had to be hunted down. The daemons were cunning and spiteful and it was dark before the last was banished. Many battle brothers lay dead or injured. Chaplain Azurath was heavily wounded in the fighting and Brother Kaleal of the Ravenwing fatally eviscerated by a Blood Letter's blade. His bravery had secured the Dark Angel's victory so his dying body was recovered to be interred in a mighty dreadnought. When the fighting finally ended a Thunderhawk brought down Librarian's Metatron and Bartharion who sealed the warp rift. The battered task force were carried back to the Strike Cruisers orbiting Parthenope.

Necrons gain on Blight

While the forces of chaos fought amongst themselves for dominance and began their new reign of terror in the Vastrid subsector, they also found themselves on the defensive on Blight. Necron raids continued to plague the planet as 05.011M42 continued, and on 2505.011M42 the Shadow Suns were once again on hand to defend the chaos outpost. The Shadow Suns followed the trail of destroyed villages and abandoned settlements and found their enemy in the northern latitudes of the world. The chaos marines fell upon the aliens with savagery and once again forced the Necrons to phase out.

It had been a trap however, as no sooner had the Necrons been engaged in the north another force appeared further south. With limited resources to spare on their colony worlds the Claws of Lorek had to resort to summoning daemons to halt the Necron advance, but the Necrons were more than equal to the slavering hordes raised from the immaterium. Lorek's loyal servants were easily banished back to the warp and whole swathes of territory fell to the aliens. Blight was fast becoming an unwelcome sideshow in the Aleph sector and the necrons threatened to ruin Lorek's plans to restore chaos domination in the Deeps.

Chaos factions vie for supremacy

By the end of 05.011M42 it was obvious that the Imperium were going to win on Parthenope. The system was totally cut off and even with Thok's machinations in the Vastrid sector the Imperial fleet ensured that no reinforcements would be reaching the chaos ground forces, save those summoned by the infernal pacts with the warp. The factions of chaos had therefore decided to abandon the world to its fate, summoning daemons to aid them to ensure the utmost bloodshed amongst the Imperial invasion force.

With Parthenope all but lost, the various factions which made up the chaos presence in the Aleph sector continued their struggle for dominance. Three of the major factions were vying for the overall control of chaos forces in the region, but of late Lorek's title as Master of Chaos had crumbled to ashes. Now the Shadow Suns and the Covenant of Damnation held dominant positions.

Lorek first attempted to wrestle control over the Covenant, in a ritual-esque engagement of daemonic forces on Parthenope. The daemons of Lorek clashed with those loyal to the Covenant in a battle of supremacy, but Lorek's bid for power backfired and his daemons were banished back to the warp. Later, Lorek attacked the Shadow Suns in the Vastrid subsector with similar results. The former master of chaos had lost to both his biggest rivals in the space of a week.
Meanwhile the Covenant, high on their victory over the Claws of Lorek, took on the Shadow Suns in an attempt to secure their own place as the supreme power in the Aleph sector.

Transported to the Cerrack Nebula by the warfleet of Lord Traegan, their attack on the Shadow Suns on Trian was savage and unexpected, and a daemonic horde summoned by the Covenant obliterated the Shadow Suns forces on Quim. The assault, and their bid for power was, it turned out, uneccessary. The Shadow Suns, though a formidable force, had arrived in the sector merely to indulge their lust for battle. They had no interest in setting the agenda or planning grand strategy and were happy to be directed to the most savage warzones available. The Covenant now had their mastery, but at the needless cost of forces which were badly needed in the fight against the Imperial crusade.

Thok at large in the Vastrid Sector

For months it had been believed that admiral Thok's renegade battlegroup was safely contained in the region of space around his lair at Mordecai, and Imperial intelligence had been concentrating on supporting the invasion of Parthenope. Somehow Thok's ships had slipped through admiral Jellicoe's blockade and on 2505.011M42 a fleet of chaos cruisers suddenly appeared at the Imperial forward fleet base at Gamarok, between Vastrid and Hemera on the main warp lane between Farport and the rest of the Vastrid subsector.

Thok's battlegroup was led by the fast battleship Ragnarok, a ship Jellicoe has fought had to bring to heel in 009M42. Thok had managed to repair the blasphemous vessel and now it got its revenge as the entire chaos formation opened up on the Canopus, in orbit around Gamarok IV. Caught by surprise the Imperial force of four cruisers stood little chance, and Canopus was quickly reduced to a drifting hulk and the cruiser Intrepid was forced to disengage.

Cressy and Agincourt however put up a spirited fight against the chaos ships, refusing to disengage and performing a series of impressive manouevres, using the planet's gravity well to gain position on Thok's fleet. The fightback saw Rheintochter caught in an appalling crossfire and she was reduced to a flaming wreck. Midgard was also badly damaged before the chaos fleet fled. The damage had been done however and the loss of the grand cruiser was a severe blow to the Imperial fleet.

A week later Jellicoe dispatched a force of cruisers led by the battleship Resolution to a remote system near Trian in the Cerrack nebula. Rear-admiral Craddock split his fleet up in an attempt to flush out the renegades, but this played straight into the hands of the renegade admiral, whose faster ships quickly ambushed the cruisers Agincourt and Centurion. Rushing to their aid the light cruisers Firedrake and Phoenix managed to get behind the Acheron class cruiser Baldir, crippling the vessel, but by then the cruiser Audacious had had her main drives crippled, and the massive cruiser plunged into the planet Mor Khan, obliterating the Imperial base on the planet.

Phoenix and Firedrake now found themselves caught between chaos vessels on two sides, and the crossfire from Ragnarok pummelled both Imperial cruisers, reducing them to wreckage. By now the Imperium were staring defeat in the face, but the appearance of Resolution and Bulwark turned the tide, battering the chaos fast battleship and forcing her to disengage. Skoll was also crippled and once again the chaos fleet fled the scene.

Although both sides had taken damage in both engagements, Jellicoe's fleet had come of worse, losing four capital ships, while Thok's fleet had lost only one. The Imperium managed to recover three of the hulked vessels and had crippled four enemy vessels including the Ragnarok, but it had been bested by Thok significantly for the first time in years. Jellicoe immediately moved a portion of the Imperial crusade fleet to Vastrid to counter Thok's move while trying to work out the motives behind the insane admiral's latest actions.

Rumblings in the Deeps

While the Imperium concentrated their efforts on the crusade against chaos, the other races active in the Perseus Deeps were far from idle as 05.011M42 wore on. The Necrons showed their hand once again after months of inactivity, this time appearing on the chaos held world of Blight.

The forces of chaos were rightly concerned when Necrons appeared on the planet once known as Sulidaan. The system, lying close to the known Necron tomb world of Gamador would clearly be a target for the necrons, should they have expansive desires, and there was now growing suspicion that the entire region may have once been under the sway of the ancient alien race.

The first attack came on 1705.011M42, but the Necrons had clearly underestimated, or not expected, the strength of Covenant forces in the region, and the necrons phased out after a brief if violent battle. The necrons weren't done however, and just days later the aliens returned and mercilessly punished a warband of the Shadow Suns, defeating them and laying waste to several settlements on Blight. The scourge of the necrons remained a present threat.

While the necrons reappeared on Blight, the Grey Knights were also pursuing their own agenda in the Deeps. While nominally attached to the Perseus Deeps crusade against chaos, the Knights were also intent on solving the mystery of the strange Eldar who had been conducting raids apparently at random over the preceding months. The Ordo Malleus, worried by the continuing appearance of the enigmatic avatar of the laughing god, sent a significant expedition to an unknown location in mid 05.011M42. The Grey Knights successfully intercepted the eldar force, but were decisively beaten when they attempted to fight their way into one of the aliens' prohibited locations.

Imperium forges ahead on Parthenope

Following their victories against the Imperial Crusade on Parthenope in mid 05.011M42 the Shadow Suns mysteriously disappeared from the front line on the chaos held world. Despite being the most successful chaos faction in the pantheon it appeared the Shadow Suns held no interest in shaping the destiny of chaos as a whole in the Aleph Sector. Imperial Intelligence suggested that led by a Khornate elite, the Shadow Suns were more focussed on killing and wanton destruction than grand strategy.

Armed with this information, General Veers met with Ritchie to decide on the plan to breakout of their insecure bridgeheads on Parthenope. Ritchie's plan was direct and simple, and quickly accepted by his superior officer. The plan would see the Librian Guard drive south and west from Dalisac, along the main road to Centosar. Centosar itself was believe to be held by Claws of Lorek legionnairies, but it was thought that numerical superiority would enable the Imperial assault to largely bypass the town, with Ritchie intending to push on to Gand and cut the Chaos forces in two.
The Imperial assault began well, with Ritchie able to call upon the forces of the Librian 11th Armoured, 99th Mechanised and three infantry regiments. In addition the Grey Knights agreed to assault Gand directly, holding it until Librian forces arrived.

The drive on Centosar went well, and by 1705.011M42 the loss of territory to the Shadow Suns assault was quickly reversed. By 2005.011M42 Centosar haad been reached with the forces of chaos putting up little or no resistance. That changed once the Imperial force reached the city, as the Claws of Lorek refused to relinquish the settlement. The Imperial advance slowed and despite the support of the powerful tanks of the 11th Armoured regiment, the Librian foot soldiers found the going hard against the Claws' elite soldiers in the labyrinthine streets of the city.

The Claws of Lorek suffered horrendous casualties in the fight for Centosar, which lasted two days. Librian tanks, including Demolishers and Vanquishers, tore apart the Claws' armoured units with ease, and only a determined rearguard action by the ordinary traitor astartes (if such genetically modified superhumans can be called ordinary), slowed the Imperial advance.

Despite the heroic last stand thew Claws of Lorek were forced to abandon Centosar on 2205.011M42 and although the determined fighting had delayed the advance, the Anticross had faired badly in Gand to the Grey Knights. With his allies defeated in Gand and the loss of Centosar, the lord of Parthenope found his forces cut in two, just as Ritchie's plans had envisaged.

Seeing Lorek in serious trouble, the Covenant of Damnation began to demand concessions and a change of strategy from the chaos lord. Incandescant with rage, Lorek sent his forces in to crush the Covenant and teach them who was in charge. However the Covenant forces were prepared and the Claws of Lorek were badly defeated in an action in the Vregal Peninsular. Lorek's forces were crushed and the former master of chaos now found himself losing Parthenope and totally without influence in the Pantheon of Chaos. For now the Covenant of Damnation held the ascendancy. They would now decide whether and how to defend Parthenope.

Parthenope: Imperial breakout

Parthenope Invasion

Dark Eldar raid Corticant

While Veers back was turned, concerned as he was with the full scale invasion of Parthenope. worrying reports of raids on Corticant were overlooked. At first the scores of locals going missing from settlements near Fairmoor and Wellake, far from the main Imperial base at Ironhaven, were put down to rogue bands of chaos worshippers which were still abroad in the brushland wilderness which covered much of the planet. By mid 05.011M42 however, increasing stories of wanton destruction and strangely clad warriors drew the attention of the grey knights.

While many of their number fought on Parthenope, eager to root out the seed of daemonkind as part of the crusade, one company made for Fairmoor where the latest reports had suggested something more than mere rogue chaos warbands. When they arrived they got a nasty shock, finding a Dark Eldar attack underway. The Grey Knights deployed to meet them and a fierce battle ensued. For two days the Ordo Malleus astartes were assailed by xenos forces, sweeping in on their raider vehicles. Despite repeated attempts to force the aliens back, the Grey Knights were held until the Dark Eldar had finished collecting their slave haul, and when the Imperium finally managed to make it into the burning ruins of Fairmoor, the settlement had been utterly devastated.

Parthenope Invaded

The second invasion of Parthenope began on 1105.011M42 and was much stronger than the first. The strike force included five Librian Guard regiments, two companies of Grey Knights Astartes and a company of Space Wolves. Veers still had total superiority in space and used this to good effect, and the entire Imperial Guard force landed without incident in the southern steppes, just to the east of Cradossi.

The Space Wolves landed with the Guard, intending to act as a mobile reserve should the task force encounter any surprises, while the Librian regiments quickly took Cradossi. The Grey Knights meanwhile assaulted Centosar, a city believed to be the centre of daemon worship on the planet, but they got more than they bargained for.

Imperial intelligence had noted several units of Anticross and Claws of Lorek Traitor Legions on the planet, as well as large formations of traitor guard, most notably those of the Covenant of Damnation. However the Grey Knights soon found out that Imperial Intelligence had completely missed the strong Shadow Suns presence on Parthenope.

The Shadow Suns quickly reacted to the appearance of the Grey Knights, taking the daemon hunters completely by surprise. Seizing the initiative of the engagement, the Shadow Suns quickly reduced the Grey Knights transports to burning wrecks and inflicted heavy casualties on the foot troops contained within. The shock was so bad the commander of the company seriously considered pulling his entire force out, but duty made him and his forces stand and fight the traitors. Unfortunately the situation didn't get any better for the Ordo Malleus force and by the end of the day their attack on Centosar had collapsed, their force all but wiped out.

General Ritchie, in overall command of the new invasion, did not immediately find out about the disaster in Herescia and his Librian regiments made good progress, smashing through to Dalisac, a major city, before pursuing the Covenant forces all the way around the Brackeri sea into Konossa. The carnage amongst the traitor guard forces was horrendous, as Librian forces quickly eliminated their armoured formations with accurate, if somewhat lucky lascannon shots from their own Leman Russ tanks and heavy weapons platoons. Still the Covenant did not give up and they threw wave after wave of infantry against the mechanised Librians. By the end of 1405.011M42 the Imperial advance had slowed as ferocious if suicidal counter attacks took their toll on the loyalist guard units. In the first phase of the battle 5,850 Librians were killed or wounded, but the losses of their enemy are believed to total around 15,000 after less than a week.

While the Librians ground the Covenant forces down General Ritchie also received some welcome news. Disorder had broken out in the Chaos ranks with a set of skirmishes erupting in the west between Anticross and Covenant forces. Presumably over supremacy of command, the battles only aided the invasion and by 1405.011M42 the second invasion was going to plan. The Claws of Lorek mounted a night attack against Cradossi on 1505.011M42, encountering the second company of the Grey Knights. The action however was a confused and sporadic affair made worse by the poor lighting conditions. This attack petered out, but much worse was to follow for the Imperial invasion.

Since their rout of the Ordo Malleus, the Shadow Suns had once again been either overlooked or lost by Imperial intelligence, who were still playing down their overall threat to the campaign. Never had the Shadow Suns proved themselves to be a significant fighting force, and recent defeats to them had been put down to bad luck. Now those views were about to change. The Shadow Suns struck on 1605.011M42 with a lightning strike running west to east. They cut the Imperial supply lines between Dalisac and Cradossi before charging headlong into the rear of the Librian advance, encountering the Space Wolves company deployed to meet this very threat.

As the marines of Fenris moved out to give battle, they were suddenly appalled by the numbers and organisation of the Shadow Suns. Led from the front by a chaos lord and khornate retinue in an ancient Land Raider, the rest of the army was far from a disorganised rabble. Instead an elite fighting force of traitor marines tore into the Space Wolves, who knew immediately they were outclassed, but fought on valiantly none-the-less. Casualties were horrific, with the Space Wolves suffering their worst loss in the sector to date, much of the carnage caused by the chaos lord and his retinue. Eventually the Wolves were forced to withdraw, allowing the Shadow Suns to loot and pillage, cutting the Imperial Invasion into three pieces. Now General Ritchie faced a difficult siege and the second invasion's survival hung in the balance.

General Veers and the Space wolf captain attached to the crusade laid the blame squarely at the feet of Imperial intelligence. How had the strength of the Shadow Suns been so underestimated? Who was the chaos lord leading their army and leaving destruction in his wake? they had butchered the Grey Knights, Dark Angels and Space Wolves on Parthenope in little over a week. Who could now stop them?

Necrons surface on Zog

It was 05.011M42 that saw the re-emergence of the Necron threat in the Perseus Deeps. Arriving without warning on 0705.011M42 the unliving aliens fell upon the defenders of the small and unimportant planet of Zog which had only recently been wrestled from the alien grip of the ork. Unprepared to meet this new threat the local PDF called for aid and were soon joined in their defence by several units of Adeptus Sororitas battle sisters - the very same units forced to flee from Libria just weeks before.

Even the faith of the Sisters of Battle was not enough to overcome the resurgent Necrons however, and the defenders of Zog found themselves retreating in the face of their implacable foe. Veers however was reluctant to send reinforcements to the unimportant world, embroiled as he was in the messy first invasion of Parthenope. For the time being then, the defenders of Zog were on their own.

Inquisition War begins

The first real shots of the Inquisition war were fired on 0805.011M42 when the Grey Knights attacked the Dark Angels on Ares. Believing that Inquisitor Xanthus was on the planet, the Grey Knights moved to arrest the Inquisitor lord and stop an Imperial civil war before it started. Lord Hathek wasn't even consulted as the Knights believed that as Xanthus had broken from the council, and the primary function of the crusade was to destroy chaos, the Inquisitor was now a traitor and aiding heresy.

Hathek and Huron didn't try to stop the Grey Knights, they knew better. However unknown to the astartes chapter, Xanthus wasn't on Ares at all. Certain that the planet was now in Imperial hands, the Inquisitor lord had left for Sentinel to bolster his forces. Instead the Grey Knights found themselves facing the two Astartes chapters who had been responsible for returning the planet to the Emperor's light, the Lamenters and the Dark Angels. The Lamenters didn't interfere with the arrival of the Knights, but the Dark Angels, when asked to withdraw and allow the Ordo Malleus marines to carry out their investigations, they refused.

This refusal led to an immediate attack by the Grey Knights on the Dark Angels positions. By now the knights of the Ordo Malleus had decided that the Dark Angels had declared themselves "for Xanthus", and by their reckoning were already traitors. The attack caught their opponents by surprise and the battle quickly went away from the 6th company. Still they refused to yield and the Dark Angels took heavy casualties before finally departing from Ares in their strike cruisers. By then the Lamenters, still basking in the glory of their victory on Ares, had made themselves scarce. The gauntlet had been thrown down and now the sector waited to see what retaliation or worse, escalation, the Dark Angels would pursue.

Although ostensibly represented on the Crusade Council, the 4th Company of the Dark Angels under Captain Angelus El'Zahariel had taken no part in the crusade since its deployment to Bastien back in 1810.010M42. Since then they had pursued their own goals, brutally suppressing the Aganthean Apostacy in the neighbouring sub-sector. On receiving news of the treaty with the Tau, and with their campaign against the Apostates successfully concluded, El'Zahariel redeployed his company back to the Perseus Deeps.

Before the 4th could rejoin their battle brothers on Ares, El'Zahariel received an astropathic communicae detailing the attack by the Grey Knights. Whilst El'Zahariel was under no illusions about the stubbornness and intractability of his brother captain he was infuriated by the actions of the Grey Knights. Ardently pro-Hathek the Grey Knights had been acting like a loose cannon, attacking Imperial forces without hesitation and pushing the Imperium towards civil war.

Although keen to see the heretical alliance with the xenos Tau broken, Captain Angelus was anxious to avoid a split within the Imperium. This left him in an impossible position. To fail to respond to the attack would be humiliating and make the Dark Angels appear weak and pathetic. To respond in force, and against such a renowned chapter as the Grey Knights, would escalate tensions and plunge the sector further towards civil war.

Having monitored the Grey Knights base of operations on Ares, the 4th deployed a task force of roughly equal strength. They then issued a formal challenge to combat – an honour duel to the death to maintain the reputation of the chapter and hold the Grey Knights to account for their actions. The Grey Knight's pride gave them no choice but to accept and they sallied forth to give battle.

The two astartes chapters manoeuvred through the ruins of Ares, but it was the Dark Angels who struck the first blow, attacking with a fury born of righteous retribution. The Grey Knight's lead vehicles were quickly destroyed in lightning attacks by the Ravenwing, then Dark Angel's fell upon the survivors without mercy. Using their superior mobility they picked apart the Grey Knights, inflicting heavy casualties whilst sustaining few themselves. Clear winners of the duel, the Dark Angels declared honour satisfied and withdrew rather than push forward to attack the Grey Knight's base.

Although costly, the honour duel defused the tension building between the two chapters and the contained, formalised resolution of the dispute met with the approval of the ruling council on Ares. The threat of outright civil war had lessened for the time being.

Chaos repel Parthenope Invasion but Ares falls

At the beginning of 05.011M42 the flagging Ares campaign was finally brought to a conclusion by the sudden arrival of a company of Lamenters marines, more than eager to prove their loyalty to the Imperial cause. The marines fell upon the Covenant of Damnation forces holding up in the ruins of Sindon station, deploying their elite footsoldiers and slaughtering the heretics who still fought in the name of chaos on the planet. Clad in shining gold armour and utilising only their infantry, the Lamenters were the image of avenging angels, an image not lost on those who understood the chapter's need to prove themselves.

With Ares secured General Veers put into action his long awaited invasion of Parthenope. The last major world still held by chaos in the Vastrid reach of the Perseus Deeps, its fall would secure the Vastrid subsector and make any chaos incursions into the Valitane sector almost impossible. It would also shore up the supply line to Corticant and Bastien and allow Veers' much anticipated second phase, the assault on Mordecai and Calliden.

It may have been long awaited, but almost as soon as the operation was underway it became clear that operation "Thunderfist" had been badly planned. Landing in the Crad mountains three regiments of Librian Guard secured a landing base at Cradossi before moving down into the plains of Herescia, intending to take Dalisac and cutting the chaos resistance in two. Veers tasked General Ritchie to perform the first assault, and the Librian general sent his regiments off in three directions, intending to encircle Dalisac and crush its defenders on three fronts.

Unfortunately for Ritchie Imperial intelligence hadn't noticed that while the battle for Ares raged, Lorek had deployed a significant force of Anticross and Shadow Suns marines on Parthenope, and now Ritchie's Librian guard found their objective swarming with traitor marines. Worse still the three pronged attack went badly wrong. The three regiments arrived at different times with the mechanised and armoured divisions arriving well in advance of the infantry. Forewarned the Anticross forces simply had to deal with each attack in turn, and this they did with aplomb. Only three days after the initial landing the Librians were calling for assistance.

The Dark Angels 6th company responded to the call and made landfall near Centosar, intending to cut the chaos supply lines and buy much needed time for the Imperial forces fighting for their lives at Dalisac. Almost as soon as they had landed however, the Shadow Suns came racing out to meet them and attacked with such ferocity that the mighty astartes warriors were sent reeling. By 0805.011M42, less than a week after the initial invasion, the Librians and Dark Angels were both in need of extraction, and Jellicoe's battlegroup made a hasty rendezvous with the task force on Parthenope, rescuing the battered remnants of the Imperial Guard and allowing the Dark Angels to extricate themselves.

Veers and the crusade council had seriously underestimated the strength of resistance on Parthenope. Now with the threat of civil war still hanging over him, the lord General made plans for a second invasion which would be much bigger and better planned.

Vastrid Sector activity

As the Perseus Deeps crusade appeared to be moving towards inevitable civil war in the Imperium, the other races of the sector were beginning to make themselves felt more and more in the Vastrid subsector. While the bulk of Imperial forces were deployed in the Deeps, the orks of the Cerrack Nebula had been becoming more troublesome. Soon they might unite under one banner, behind one warboss, and plunge the Vastrid sector into another age of war. It had happened before.

For now the orks were considered little more than an annoyance, despite their conquest of the minor world of Aspaster. The orks however were on the move, and on 0505.011M42 landed a force on Trian, where the Master of Chaos, Lorek, had set up a forward base. The arrival of the orks was most unwelcome to Lorek. His enemy was the Imperium and the orks could ruin his plans to bring down the Vastrid sector, cutting the legs out from under the crusade in the Deeps. Angered at the temerity of this new ork tribe, Lorek sent the Shadow Suns to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately it was the Shadow Suns who were educated in the brutality of orks and now Lorek faced the Imperium in the Deeps and the Orks in the Vastrid subsector.

Lorek's machinations in the Cerrack Nebula were not all for nought however during 05.011M42. On 0905.011M42 a small band of chaos marines landed on Quim, the site of a small Imperial outpost defended by a company of Librians. They were discovered when a squad sent to investigate strange reports became engaged in a violent firefight near to the edge of the Imperial base perimeter. The Librians took heavy casualties and lost a chimera and the marines managed to escape. The Imperium now knew Lorek had landed forces on Quim, but they didn't yet know why.

The Eldar also appeared in the Vastrid sector at the same time, attacking the Dark Angels base on Glossop V for no apparent reason. Once again the Eldar appeared to be led, or at least accompanied by the strange alien performers known as Harlequins, and Inquisitor Huron despatched a trusted colleague to investigate this new band of eldar and discover their intentions. The Dark Angels were able to fight off the eldar raid without too much trouble, but were equally baffled by the aliens' motives.

Sisters of Battle clash with Grey Knights

The first skirmish of the Inquisition war broke out on Ares between the Grey Knights and Adeptus Sororitas. It was triggered when the Sisters of Battle recieved news from their convent on Libria, following the system's excommunication by Inquisitor Xanthus. Reacting to this the Sororitas moved to arrest the senior officer cadre on Ares not part of Astartes chapters. However the Grey Knights refused to let them, and a bloody confrontation left both sides battered and bruised. Realising those loyal to Hathek's heresy were in the ascendency on Ares, the Sisters abandonned the world and retreated to join Xanthus on Xanthus.