With the loss of the north on Tyranteous, Lord General Brooke at subsector command immediately got a verbal battering from his superior, which via astropath, was a surreal thing to behold for his command council. The irrascible tones of Lord General Thaddeus Roover came through strongly in the entranced voice of the diminutive astropath, who proceeded to deliver the dressing down of a high ranking imperial guard officer with no hint of the peculiarity of the situation. Roover was keen to know why General Denham on the ground had allowed the tau to gain a foothold in Wendrick, and whether the capital was at risk, while demanding an immediate counter-attack with the resources which were already "plentiful" enough for their purpose.
The highest ranking general in the sector sounded worried, even in the warp distorted and infuriated tones emanating from the astropath this was evident. Brooke, commander of the subsector was painfully aware of the arrival of the new sector government, and Roover's need to impress on them that the sector was in safe hands with him, despite the plentiful evidence to the contrary with the loss of Alphe, Betor, Tarsis, Melberg and the Rim Worlds... This meant more and more desperate urging that the campaigns on Hylas and Tyranteous be brought to a successful conclusion, or at least show some positive movement. For now the war against the orks was quiet, but on Tyranteous the tau were enjoying a string of victories with their new technology, and Roover was concerned that by the time admiral Jellicoe's fleet arrived, there would be nothing left to save.
Privately the senior admiral in the sector felt that Tyranteous would be lost before he could send a force, so Grand Admiral Bova Magnus did not order his subordinate Jellicoe to apply any speed to the preparations of the "Tyranteous task force". So far 6 months had past and it appeared the imperial fleet was no nearer to leaving Caitlen station, with Jellicoe citing "urgent repairs" and other pressing concerns as reasons to stall. General Denham had no choice but to continue the war, and in mid 06.013M42 with the help of a small force of Blood Martyrs, he planned his counter attack for his seniors.
Denham began his counter attack on 2006.013M42, using his Librian Guard as a blunt weapon against the tau forces. His objectives were the tau bases which had been set up behind the front line to act as marshalling and supply points for the tau army. His imperial guard forces advanced on a wide front, supported by units of Blood Martyrs and a savage artillery bombardment which crippled a number of hammerhead gunships in the early exchanges of fire.
The attack started well for the imperium, with the tau suffering losses. The aliens gave ground, with Denham's Librian mechanised forces reaching their primary objectives on the first day. Then commander Whitefire sprung his trap. Supported by the up and coming commander Dawnstride, Whitefire's forces included Riptude battlesuits, which once again the imperium found difficult to deal with. the battle escalated as Denham threw in his reserve, committing chimera borne veterans and hellhound flame tanks into the fight. Again the tau took heavy casualties, their infantry suffering to the imperial fire, but Whitefire now committed his reserves. Hordes of kroot which had been hiding in the marshy forests of northern Wendrick surprised the imperial attackers and disrupted their momentum. The Blood Martyrs leading the speartip of the imperial advance were forced to double back to deal with deep striking crisis suits, which proved to be a more difficult foe than even the astartes had imagined.
By 2506.013M42 further reserves had been committed, and the imperial navy had been called in to strafe and bomb the alien positions. Little by little however the imperial advance slowed, and although the tau continued to suffer, losing one of their Riptides finally on 26th, the imperial advance had once again failed to break through. On 2706.013M42 the imperial forces began retreating, a retreat which increased in speed as Shadowstrike committed a fresh attack to the imperial lines. Halt lines were overrun and soon the imperial guard was almost in full rout. The line stabilised on 2906.013M42, but by then the capital had been lost and the Wendrick bridgehead widened along the Lanwick sea and Jute Strait. On 3006.013M42 General Brooke's astropath once again reported a message from his commander. This time Brooke asked for it to be translated to him in writing...
Supply of food to Zadoc is further reduced.
With the success of the chaos forces on Zoggot, Lorek sought to capitalise this by immediately launching an invasion of the far more populous and strategic world of Gargash in the Enceladus subsector. Taking Gargash would be a huge achievement towards the ultimate goal of wiping out the orks in the subsector, and joining the Norsefire empire with the chaos zone around Charybdis. If Lorek could achieve that, and eventual overlordship of the entire subsector, the entire sector would be ripe for a black crusade the like of which would make the losses in the Perseus Deeps seem trivial. The invasion plan was simple. Lorek would infiltrate forces on to the planet then use his summoned daemons to overwhelm key installations protecting the world. Then the major invasion, involving Lorek's moderate fleet, would commence.
Unfortunately the assault on the fortresses did not go well for Lorek. The key installation in the far north was protected by a significant ork force, bolstered by Uzfangs boyz when the ork warboss correctly identified that Gargash would be the next chaos target. The greenskins, keen to impress their leader, fought violently and tenaciously, goading the daemons into pointless fights with little tactical merit, and allowing Uzfang to ensure the key strategic locations of the fortress remained intact and under ork control. The casualty count was high but the fortress held, ensuring a full blown invasion would be suicidal to any approaching fleet. Gargash was safe from chaos invasion, at least for the time being.
Lord General looked out on the scene in front of him from the palace balcony overlooking the city of Jutesburgh. The sun was setting, casting a peaceful orange glow over the settlement, and causing the distant waters of the Jute Strait to shine like a sea of jewels. Seabirds called to each other, and the sound of merchants and city dwellers closing for the day reminded the general of sunny evenings spent drinking on his homeworld many years before. Only the faint smudge of smoke in the far west revealed the danger now posed to imperial rule on Tyranteous, although the imposing presence of Commissar Ehren behind him in the ante room reminded Lord General Mikell Denham of the perilous position he now personally found himself in.
The north had been lost. He had known the tau attack was coming, and he had positioned his forces accordingly. He had the support of four companies of astartes. In the far north his imperial guard units had been supported by the Mantis Warriors, and in the city of Hammerton the Red Angels, Blood Angels and Blood Martyrs had come together to defend the city. Further south Denham had ordered a push north by his Librian units, to link up with the imperial forces in Hammerton. The plan had been sound, and his forces sufficient, so he thought, to turn the tide against the alien invaders and start winning the war.
Now, just a week later, North Vale and North Landing had been lost, and his army in Hammerton destroyed, its guardsman killed or captured, and the equipment lost. The Corellians and Librians further south had barely managed to get across the Jute Strait with the tau snapping at their heels. Further west, the enemy had been stopped at Weybridge crossing, but now the tau had a bridgehead on Wendrick, just a few hundred kilometres from the capital itself. How had it gone so wrong?
Commander Shadowstrike had been instrumental in the planning of operation Ulysses, the plan to rid the northern continent of imperial forces, and begin the next phase of the conquest of the imperial agri-world. Shadowstrike was keen to break the imperial armies, and the operation focussed on the seige of Hammerton. Shadowstrike was well aware that the imperium would try to defend the city, forcing the tau to accept a war of attrition in the streets of the settlement, probably intending to use their genetically engineered elite forces to massacre the tau in the streets. Commanders Windgather and Whitefire were summoned to add their forces to the attack on Hammerton and Shadowstrike devised an assault to cancel out their enemies' superiority in city fighting.
Rather than expend lives attacking the city walls Shadowstrike instead opted to bypass them completely as suits and grav tanks were deployed by mantas directly into the city after bombarding the walls, driving the defenders back into shelter of the city. In the run up to the attack the area around Hammerton was covered by heavy snow and blizzards. This time ground forces are accompanied by sky rays (although deployed in very limited numbers) to guard against air attack, however on d-day snow was fairly light and barracudas are able to fly.
The imperial forces in Hammerton now unleashed their astarted forces, believing the Tau's position in the city to still be tenuous. Space Marines of the Blood Angels and Dark Angels chapter launched an immediate all out counter attack but found themselves caught in deadly crossfire. For the first time the imperial forces on Tyranteous faced the deployment of multiple XV104 'Riptide' battlesuits, the first major deployment of such suits within the Aleph subsector. The effect was devastating, as the suits, backed up by the smaller 'crisis' variants and broadsides, prove to be highly effective in the dense city terrain, and everywhere the counter attacking imperial forces find themselves lit up by markerlights, targetted by missiles from unseen enemies and ambushed as suits and grav tanks appear from behind buildings and on roofs. Light skimmers strike from the maze of alleyways, and despite a spiritied attack from the Blood Martyrs on the right flank, the imperial forces suffer massive casualties.
As the fighting wore on into the second day, the survivors of the Dark Angels and Blood Angels are forced to quit the city, while all counter attackers are slaughtered or forced to pull back. Only a few indomitable space marines make it to the Tau lines and bitter back and forth fighting erupts around strategically important buildings. Left isolated, they are eventually surrounded and gunned down. The battle ended as tau forces moved in on central cathedral with Shadowstrike himself jetting up the approach, flanked by his personal bodyguard and surrounded by multiple Riptides. A few marines of the Red Angels fought bravely on to the last, but Hammerton was lost, well before the imperial attack from the south got anywhere near their objectives.
The southern thrust soon found itself in difficulty, ambushed on all sides in the rolling terrain of North Landing, and taken apart from the sky by barracudas. The retreat began, while in the far north, another battle was taking place.
Shadowstrike had been content to leave the imperial forces bottled up in the north, but the tau received an unexpected offer of aid from the eldar. If the tau agreed to assault Denham's forces in North Vale, the eldar would assist, so long as the tau would not get in the way of their own mission. Shadowstrike accepted the offer as it allowed him to secure his flanks with a relatively low commitment of troops.
The imperium had gathered a large force in the north, comprising of local PDF units, a praetorian regiment, units of the 405th Orbital defence force, supported by a strike force from the Mantis Warriors chapter. They had been planning their own advance on the orders of Lord General Denham, and initially they made good progress, finding tau resistance weak. As usual the tau were only to willing to sacrifice land of low strategic importance for time, and this they did with skill, harrying the attackers but allowing them to advance, spread out, and fall into the carefully prepared eldar trap.
The imperial forces met the allied eldar/tau force in a wide valley in the northern continent. Here they found themselves confronted by a large force and immediately dug in, errecting a vast line of Aegis defences, near to an ancient alien ruin and a vast stretch of woodland known as the wraith forest. This region was in fact the reason for the eldar visit, as the farseers had identified an opportunity to seal the warp gate still active on the planet.
Commander Moonshine had been left in no doubt that the eldar were on their own mission and not to interfere. Instead the tau commander concentrated on the destruction of the imperial forces while the eldar advanced on the monument. At first it was feared the imperium would get to the sacred eldar site first, but the imperial guard commanders along with the space marines had decided on a cautious approach, one which was to prove costly. Once the wraithguard of the Rillietan took up positions in the giant monument's ruins it proved impossible to shift them, and harrying attacks from the tau severely mauled the imperial forces.
In the wraith forest, the ghosts of the eldar past saw some of their kin succumb to their own ancient nightmares, several warriors simply wandering off and disappearing after hearing their ancestors' eerie calls, but the imperial forces were unable to capitalise on this, their own forces being just as loathe to enter the strange woodlands. On the imperial left flank their forces did advance, but too late. The eldar were able to disable the warp gate then turn to the annihilation of the enemy forces. Along with commander Moonface's hunter cadres, the imperial advance was checked, then thrown into retreat as the alliance surged forward. The retreat soon became a rout, as the Mantis Warriors abandonned the imperial guard to their fate. The PDF units and the Orbital Defence Force fled for their lives, while the Praetorians vainly tried to hold the line. General Denham tried to order an evacuation, but Shadowstrike made sure any airborne rescue was turned back by waves of tau interceptors launched from the fleet above the planet. There would be no escape this time.
By 0706.013M42 the last defenders in the north had been mopped up, and the eldar forces simply melted away, leaving the tau in command of North Vale. Further south the Corellians and Zadocians had managed to set up a defensive line south of Lanwick Crossing, and the tau impetus had spent itself. Shadowstrike was more than content with the success of operation Ulysses, while the imperium were once again reeling from a defeat to the tau empire. Meanwhile on Zadoc the lack of food was becoming more critical, with riots and famines now sweeping several of the hives. Food had to get to the imperial capital of the subsecto before it fell into anarchy. Imperial rule in the Zadoc subsector was more tenuous than ever.
During 05.013M42 the war between chaos and the tyranids on Grimlock continued with brutal ferocity. mobile warfare had briefly given way to hit and run raids, bombing campaigns and chemical and biological warfare, before Nemesis launched a major assault on the strategically vital region of Atlis towards the middle of the month.
The chaos leaders hadn't expected an attack on this region, as it was protected on three sides by the Atal and Krendal seas. However, the armoured warriors of Nemesis showed that mere oceans were not a barrier, and turned up in force near the settlement of Eribank. Here an enourmous battle involving over a million defenders took place amongst the ruins of the once populous city, and titan's clashed with vast bio constructs. Eventually the encounter was settled when the chaos army's centre collapsed, allowing the tyranids to break through on all sides. Eribank fell and the defenders of Buttermont quickly fled south. It seemed all of Atlis would fall and with it much hope of a chaos final victory.
The Death Guard however were unperturbed, and holed themselves up in the rocky hills surrounding the former Imperial base of Hakargh. The base itself had long been converted to use by traitor Astartes legions, and the mighty fortress had been embelished with brass towers and monuments to the four powers of the warp.
Unimpressed with the display of martial prowess, Nemesis assaulted the fortress of Hakargh, finding the nurgle devotees defending the narrow passes to the installation both tough and stubborn. The tratior marines arrayed their forces in disciplined lines, sending a withering hail of accurate fire into their enemy's ranks as the hordes of tyranids tried to close with their foe. The weather was appalling and this seemed to slow the hive mind and the warriors themselves, and gradually the death guard thinned out the press of alien creatures before finally breaking the back of the attack.
having saved the fortress, the Death Guard set about leading the counter attack against an increasingly disorganised foe. Before the month was out the ruined cities of Buttermont and Eribank had been retaken, and all of Atlis restored to chaos rule. Nemesis would have to think again before considering the world of Grimlock ripe for consumption.
During the latter half of 05.013M42 the Aleph Sector as a whole began to see a steady upsurge in violence. The main arenas of the Perseus Deeps and Zadoc Subsector were the most active, and the war on Fort Sparcos between the orks and tyranids continued, with hive fleet Nemesis closing its grip ever tighter around the massive ork facility, while ork pirates and rok fleets vied with the tyranid bioships in a chaotic series of running battles around the planet.
Further afield the Dark Eldar of the Shattered Silence cabal continued their machinations in the Vastrid sector, continuing their construction of a secret base in the Radeon Cluster, putting their successful raid over the Death Guard to good use. In the Enceladus subsector, the Tau launched their first ever mission into the unknown, following a sudden calming of warp tides in the region. Commander Fastblade, finding a number of worlds infested by chaos and orks, put his new equipment and technology to the test, conducting a series of successful raids against the greenskins.
The most notable event came on 2405.013M42, when the Oberon class battleship Barham arrived at Vastrid after several months in the warp. The vessel had not announced its arrival, and the vast vessel, escorted by a flotilla of smaller craft caused some concern on the subsector capital before finally it was revealed that the new Aleph ruling council had arrived.
Lord General Roover and Lord Admiral Magnus had got wind of the changes several months previously, and were relieved to find an imperial governor appointed rather than a warmaster of a new crusade. They would keep their posts, for now at least. The new arrivals also included a Cardinal and a Lord Marshall of the Adeptus Arbites, as well as an inquisitor lord. The Adeptus Terra clearly meant business about bringing the rule of imperial law back to the sector as a whole.
The new Imperial Governor, Titus Luthor had chosen Vastrid as his seat of power after finding out in transit that the former capital Aleph 4 was no longer loyal to the emperor. This was of particular irritation to the current government of Vastrid, which found its government offices and imperial palace forfiet to Luthor's requirements, and they were forced to move their own seat of government to Cravenhead.
Luthor had had to spend his months journeying to the sector learning about the history of the sector, and why his new domain was half the size it had been a millenia previously. Luthor made good relationships with Cardinal Cassar and Lord Marshall Van-Gelt during the trip, and they agreed that the sector was in serious need of guidance. Luthor would be having stiff words with commanders of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy upon his arrival as well.
The Barham's most secretive new arrival was Lord Inquisitor Natalia Vorushko, who had kept herself mostly to herself during the trip. Upon her arrival she set up the Aleph Sector Convocation, of which she was head, and summoned all inquisitors to her from across the sector. This included the rivals Hathek and Xanthus, as well as Lord Inquisitor Huron. Vorushko was determined to "clear up" certain matters around the recent "inquisition war", and prevent any further outbreaks of violence between her colleagues.
Aleph Sector Ruling Council - Bloodmouth, Vastrid, Vastrid subsector
Imperial Governor Titus Luthor (Adeptus Terra) - arrived 2405.013M42
Cardinal Leoten Cassar (Adeptus Ministorium) - arrived 2405.013M42
Lord Marshall Severus Van-Gelt (Adeptus Arbites) - arrived 2405.013M42
Lord General Thaddeus Roover (Imperial Guard)
Lord Admiral Bova Magnus (Imperial Navy)
Aleph Sector Convocation
Lord Inquisitor Natalia Vorushko (Inquisition) - arrived 2405.013M42
- Lord Inquisitor Xanthus
- Lord Inquisitor Hathek
- Lord Inquisitor Huron
On Hylas, while Uzfang had been fighting an agressive war in the west with the help of Da Verminator and the remnants of Snazzgubbins and Thruggnik's warband, Na'Porkleon had been doing very little in the east. Since his initial successes over the Salamanders, the ork commander (still widely rumoured to be two gretchin one standing on the other's shoulders) had sat with his army, sulking, behind a line of ork fortifications running from the Colleridge swaps to the Eden sea.
The ork warlord was sulking because since his defeat the Praetorians, in charge of the defence of East Hallen, Seaford and Arin, had built a parallel row of formidable fortifications blocking any ork advance. Na'Porkleon decided this wasn't sporting, and had sat sulking ever since, both sides refusing to come out and fight each other.
Uzfang grew increasingly frustrated at his ally and subordinate, so much so that in mid 05.013M42 he took a large force of orks south east to reinforce the eastern front, before launching his own ferocious attack on the Praetorian lines. Supported by Medusa artillery the Praetorians stood firm as Uzfang's orks swept across the plains and into the guns of the imperial guard. Refusing to retreat, the Praetorians died where they stood, stoically refusing to abandon their posts. The result was a bloody stalemate, with the orks failing to make a dent in the imperial defences. Collingwood and Eden't Landing remained safe and General Van Dorn urged the Praetorian commander to follow up on the failing ork assault. He refused.
Much to Van Dorn's frustration the Praetorians instead extended their lines of fortification, arguing to push forward now would simply expose them to another ork counter attack. Instead the Praetorian colonel planned to reinforce his line further so that the offensive, when it finally came, would be unstoppable. In any case the trench digging and bastion building continued, forming an even longer line of fortifications to further protect Eden's Landing. Meanwhile on the ork side, Na'Porkleon was unable to hide his amusement at Uzfang's failure as he returned to the greater part of his armies fighting in the north.
With the chaos position almost hopeless on Tyranteous, the imperial guard commanders were confident that now only the tau would prove to be their real enemy on tht planet, but still they were instructed to hold defensive positions against the forces of damnation, rather than launch an all out attack to finish them off. Little did they know that the fact that imperial intelligence were well aware that the strength which had so far been pitted against them by the forces of chaos did not represent the total strength of Lorek and his allies. Daemons had been used in place of conventional troops, and Lorek was in fact husbanding his valuable ground forces as he knew he was vastly outnumbered by his loyalist enemies.
The invasion of Tyranteous had taken a turn for the worse however, so Lorek ordered his entire strategic reserve, along with a massive daemon summoning, to attack by surprise out of the Granite hills in the shadow of mount iceclaw. Although the imperium were right about the chaos ground forces, arcane technologies and daemonic pacts had so far shielded the bulk of Lorek's marine forces from the imperium. On 1405.013M42 he committed them.
The imperium first learned of the new offensive as farming collectives and small settlements sent garbled pleas for help then stopped responding altogether. A PDF batalion was sent to investigate and did not return. Observation by air, resulting in savage casualties to the imperial navy determined that a huge force of marines and daemons was now moving north on Fernal Crossing. If this fell, the entire region of Ferval would fall to chaos and the final victory of the imperium over their arch-enemy would be set back once more.
The Librian 78th, 114th and 59th mechanised were sent to face this threat, assisted by half a company of Blood Martyrs astartes, representing the greater part of General Mikell Denham's southern armies. He was sure this was Lorek's last roll of the dice and was determined to smash his foothold on Tyranteous once and for all.
General Sackville was given charge of the force, designated West Army, as Denham re-organised his forces into four armies. Other than West there was North, defending against the Tau in North Landing, led by the Corellians, but made up of a range of forces. East, covering East and Grent, under General Illiani, commander of Zadoc forces and Centre, defending the capital and the Wendrick region led personally by Denham himself.
Sackville devised a brutal strategy to counter Lorek's advance, and one the Blood Martyrs fully endorsed. The forces of chaos were baited to fall upon the imperial armies, who had formed a wide front as they travelled north west, stretching from the Granite hills to the Lanwick sea. Sackville's advance was obvious, and as soon as the forces of chaos wheeled to meet him, he took up defensive positions.
The two armies clashed in the planes, the forces of Lorek and his daemons piling into the Librians with savagery. The 78th regiment was almost wiped out, the 114th lost half its strength and the 59th had nearly all its equipment destroyed. For a long time it appeared Sackville was losing, as horrific reports of casualties came in from the front. Sackville merely nodded, consulted with the Blood Martys, and threw ever more men into the meatgrinder.
The loss of life was horrendous, but the imperium could make good the losses, while Lorek could not reinforce his precious legionaries. Worse still while the daemons and traitor marines were orchestrating a massacre in the valleys, the Blood Martyrs met lighter resistance on the imperial left flank, taking the high ground and putting Lorek's forces at the disadvantage. After four days of fighting the daemonic entities began to weaken, and yet Sackville still had men to throw into the battle, though by now even his superior Denham was having second thoughts about the strategy. However, by now the Blood Martyrs had scouted the territory of the Granite hills, and quite by chance found one of the small cultist parties responsible for the summoning of the daemonhosts. The space marines quickly determined the source of the daemons from the screaming captives, before executing their prisoners and ordering a strike on the daemon portal from orbit. The strike cruiser Phoenix quickly ran the tau blockade, fired on the co-ordinates before escaping into deep space.
On 2105.013M42 the daemons allied to Lorek abruptly vanished, and the gods of the warp withdrew their favour from the venture. What was left of Lorek's legions made their way into the wildernesses, either teleporting back to unseen ships during night hours, or using warp portals to evacuate the planet. The chaos invasion of Tyranteous was finally at an end.
Meanwhile the tau had been highly successful in expanding from their initial beachhead but the Imperium still held out in the northern cities. If they could be driven out of their prepared positions in the major population centres Imperial resistance in the north would collapse. The honour of claiming the cities was given to the cadres of the Ksi'm'yen Sept, Shadowstrike's own Sept and veterans of the Tau's wars throughout the sector.
The meticulously planned operations were imperilled when poor weather covered the northern continent on the day of the attack. Rather than push back the operation and lose the element of surprise Shadowstrike ordered the attack on Fallenvale to go ahead anyway. At zero hour Stealth Suites and Kroot auxiliaries who had infiltrated the settlements overnight fell upon the defenders as Shadowstrike's Cadres moved into the city outskirts.
The defensive positions were manned by men of the Corellian Storm Guard, an elite and well lead unit but outnumbered as the Tau had been successful in keeping the point of their attack from Imperial Intelligence. The Corellian artillery and fortified positions were neutralised by stealth units before they could do much damage but before long re-enforcements began pouring in from throughout the city and the battle hung in the balance.
As the battle raged the weather worsened with torrential rain, lightning storms and high winds blanketing the city. The appalling weather kept the Tau atmospheric fighters grounded, unable to patrol the air over Fallenvale without exposing themselves to Imperial flak guns. Used to air dominance Shadowstrike's Cadres without ground based anti-aircraft weapons and were totally vulnerable to the strafing runs of the Corellian Vendetta gunships. The Tau's supporting armour paid a heavy price, utterly exposed to the aerial attack.
But in the fierce street fighting it was the infantry that held the key to victory and after many bloody hours the Tau emerge victorious. Fallenvale was taken and many of its remaining defenders forced to surrender, although the air mobile Storm Guard were able to make their escape under cover of the storm. In the south Hammerton was also encircled by an armoured push and cut off from friendly forces. The Imperial position in the north was looking untenable, only constant raids on the Tau's supply infrastructure preventing a total collapse.
Following the Astartes failure in the preceding weeks, General Vasilevsky scrambled to prevent a general eldar breakthrough. He had been warned that the eldar were attacking in force and that to hold the line would be a challenge. However, despite not having overwhelming numbers, Vasilevsky could still call on elite regiments, including one from the Corellian Storm Guard. It was these elite troops the imperial general placed along the most likely axis of advance for the aliens, and it was the Corellians who met the eldar advance head on.
The elite imperial guard formation absorbed the initial shock of the eldar attack, and then counter attacked using Vendetta gunships and chimera borne mechanised regiments. Attacking in force, sheer numbers overwhelmed the disciplined eldar, in a way the astartes could not. Backed by heavy artillery and air strikes, the Corellians stopped the eldar advance dead, and by 2305.013M42, despite ongoing bitter fighting, the eldar were once again retreating back up the Hellebron Valley and to within sight of the ruined capital. The Corellian's had stopped the eldar advance, but Vasilevsky now needed more troops to press home his advantage.
The eldar were not only active in the Zadoc subsector in their new policy of overt support for the orks. In the Enceladus subsector, far from imperial control, the orks were also under threat. Chaos had invaded the minor world of Zoggot, and should it fall, eldar farseers had predicted swift gains for the forces of chaos, with the possible collapse of the orks in the region. This in turn they predicted would lead to a further assault by chaos on the Vork Ork Expanse, leading to a new Waagh! which would draw orks away from the Zadoc subsector, and potentially put the orks themselves on a colision course with eldar ambitions.
The forces of chaos, united for once in their victory over the orks, chose the death guard to lead the advance on the last remaining ork stronghold, unaware that the eldar were now supporting their greenskin enemy. As the final battle was joined the eldar forces fought valiantly and almost tipped the tide as the ork commander smashed into the death guard ranks taking out the chaos lord himself, charging through the chaos lines and causing much destruction before being shot down by cowardly havocs with lascannon.
The battle itself hinged on a rather peculiar action near the centre of the ork settlement. In their attempt to prevent the chaos forces from breaking through the ork lines the greenskins had developed a new powerful weapon, capable of levelling entire city blocks. Based on unstable wormhole technology the first experimental firing unfortunately ended up firing an unlucky grot helper into a tree near the enemy lines. This was particularly calamatous as this particular grot had been carrying the ork "planz" to the device. One ork warboss immediately tried to use "stelth" to rescue the unfortunate creature before the enemy noticed what had just been fired into its midst, but his clumsy approach brought an entire death guard company swiftly onto his position.
The eldar knew this would be the key action, thanks to the prescience of their psykers, although they perhaps didn't forsee the loss of their commander to an unfortunate mishap with a shokk attack gun... Nevertheless the strange ork-eldar "alliance" held, and together they made a concerted effort to come to the rescue not just of a grot and a warboss, but of the planet of Zoggot itself. The ork boys, expecting to wade through the death guard ranks like their commander, crashed into a wall of plague ridden bodies and were hacked down. In the end the eldar forces were unable to save the grot or the warboss sent to retrieve him and had to withdraw. Zoggot had fallen to chaos.
General Denham had been right to fear a renewed offensive from the Tau. Since their initial invasion they had continued to build up their forces, and despite the recent imperial successes against chaos, the tau still controlled the outer reaches of the Tyranteous system and the strategically vital Tyranteous Moonbase, a desolate but vital installation orbitting one of the system's larger gas giants. Here the tau had already converted the imperial base, and having defeated a chaos incursion, were now at liberty to use it as an effective staging post for troops and equipment bound for Tyranteous itself. With Jellicoe's fleet still en route to Tyranteous there was nothing the imperium could do to challenge tau superiority in space, so Denham was forced to defend his recently won territory with the forces he had to hand.
The imperium fortified the important settlements and strategically significant positions on their front line with the tau, but when it came the renewed offensive bypassed much of these defences, out manouvering Denham's guard formations and driving deep into imperial territory between Fallenvale and Hammerton. The tau plan had been simple, to cut the imperial general's supply lines to the northern city and encircling a large portion of his army.
Initially the tau plan succeeded, but the Raven Guard had positioned themselves in the rear ready for such an eventuality. They immediately threw themselves at the "speartip" of the tau attack, aiming to blunt the tau advance and knock out their elite forces. General Denham would then be able to issue a general order to counter attack, catching the tau between two formidable forces.
The Raven Guard assault went wrong from the start, with strong warp currents blinding the chapter's librarians and causing the drop pod assault to go badly awry. One veteran librarian was almost overwhelmed by the warp turbulence, almost certainly caused by the frequent daemonic manifestations which had characterised the war against chaos on Tyranteous.
Despite the setbacks the Raven Guard pressed home their attack, eventually assailing the tau commander himself in close combat with the superior genetically enhanced super humans. Overall however the tau advance was not checked, and the astartes could do little to prevent the xenos forces from linking up several hundred miles south of the now beseiged city of Fallenvale. The Raven Guard abandoned their mission, feelings of bitterness and unfinished business dominating their return to their strike cruiser.
In mid 05.0143M42, the tau realised that the continued ork victories on Hylas, while weakening the imperium, also posed a threat to their own ambitions in the Zadoc subsector. Were the orks victorious on Hylas, they would likely turn on the tau holdings in the Mabb Nebula, which put the entire aleph sphere expansion under threat. Rather than directly help the imperium, whith whom the tau were at war with on Tyranteous. Instead the ethereals determined that Fort Aerin, a powerful and important ork occupied base near to Va Doran, should be rendered ineffective. This would deter the orks from attacking tau worlds while not helping the embattled general Van Dorn on Hylas with his greenskin enemy.
Despite the war on Tyranteous the tau force to carry out the attack on Fort Aerin still had imperial allies, in the shape of the Knights of Dorn. This astartes force had been working with the tau for some time and recognised the dangerous shared enemies of human and tau, and had long ago decided that this far on the eastern rim, co-operation with the tau was a neccessity if either race was to survive. Pointedly the chapter forces had stayed well away from Zadoc command since re-appearing in the Zadoc subsector.
The raid would have been an unremarkable event in sector history, but for the strange appearance of the eldar at fort Aerin - fighting on the side of the orks. Though this perplexed the tau especially, the eldar had forseen that were the tau successful on Aerin, the orks may be weakened sufficiently to abandon their dogged defence of fort Sparcos against the tyranids. This would - eventually - threaten the eldar exodite worlds once more. With a small intervention now, the whole crisis would be averted.
Unfortunately the eldar chose not to even attempt to explain this to their erstwhile tau allies, and were unaware of the astartes allies in the tau forces. This surprising lack of foresight was a tragedy for the eldar, who found their forces outgunned and outmanouevered. Despite the usual violence expected from greenskins, the orks were defeated and fort Aerin ransacked by the tau forces, securing the tau right flank in the Mabb nebula and souring tau-eldar relations in the subsector.
General Denham's much expected advance on Weybridge Crossing came just a week after the astartes raids on the settlement. The raids had devastated the infrastructure of the port, and the battle to take the strategic crossing point and last refuge of chaos in the south took place over a ruined and shattered landscape.
The main offensive was carried out by two veteran regiments of the Librian guard and Corellian Storm Guard. These were in turn supported by PDF and less experienced formations on their flanks, while the imperial Navy provided air cover. In the eventual conflict which lasted less than a week, the imperium enjoyed complete air supremacy over Weybridge, allowing the Corellians to emply their Vendetta borne infantry without fear of marauding chaos aircraft.
The conventional forces of Lorek had been severely damaged in the preceding raid, and now the imperial offensive, comprising of some 50,000 men faced no more than a hundred or so traitor marines and perhaps 5000 cultists. As Denham's forces closed in on the settlement, Lorek's forces once more turned to the malign powers of the warp to aid their cause.
The daemons summoned were numerous and powerful, but by now the imperial forces had become used to their tactics. The battle was tight and hard fought, but on day three of the attack the Corellians held the key high ground overlooking the bridge itself, and refused to relinquish control of it despite repeated and increasingly desparate counter-attacks. By the fifth day of the offensive the chaos resistance had been broken and Lorek's daemon allies vanished back into the warp, allowing the Librian and Corellian units to mop up the last defenders of the city. Chaos had been defeated in the south.
The imperium received some additional good news in late 04.013M42, as the beseiged city of Fallenvale finally fell to the imperial side, rather than to the tau. Now the forces of chaos had been forced back into the far north of the planet, away from any strategic areas or valuable crop yielding land. The only downside to the campaign so far had been the attrition, sometimes approaching 30%, in imperial guard regiments exposed to daemonic forces. Here despite rigorous attention from the ecclesiarchy nearly a third of some regiments had to be "cleansed" by the inquisition following battles against Lorek's forces. Even so this was an attrition rate Denham could afford, although he was keen to constantly rotate the forces likely to be exposed to daemonic taint.
As 05.013M42 the threat of chaos receded on Tyranteous, and Denham now had to hold his gains against a tau foe which had superior supply lines to his own, and was rapidly gaining in strength.
During 05.013M42 the ork warboss Uzfang resumed his offensive on Hylas after reorganising from the ork victory over the Librians. Since that battle, the Librians had been performing a fighting withdrawal, and General Van Dorn was sorely pressed to hold the greenskins at bay. As with Vasilevsky in the Perseus Deeps the imperial commander requested more forces, but his superior, General Brooke, had none to give. His reserve had now been committed to Tyranteous, and none of the worlds in the sector could provide any more regiments in the near future. Even the mighty Libria was being bled dry of its young men and stretched to breaking point to provide the vehicles and equipment needed to feed the imperial armies' voracious appetite.
Van Dorn was reinforced by the Salamanders, Dark Angels and Blood Angels. These three chapters at least had seen the many challenges the imperium was facing in the chapter, and had worked together to split their forces for maximum effect. Now all three chapters had dedicated forces on practically every active warzone in the sector, and more units in reserve. These flexible battle formations would now be able to react to events across the sector in a way the imperial guard could not.
Grateful for the astartes help, both General Veers in the Perseus Deeps and Brooke in the Zadoc subsector invited the three chapters to send representatives to their war councils, held on Corticant and Zadoc respectively. All three chapters agreed, and now for the first time in years the imperium had a consolidated command structure in both regions, it was only a shame that the imperium was now facing stronger enemies than at any time in the last 5000 years of sector history. The three chapters were joined by the Blood Martyrs in 05.013M42, who had agreed to deploy half their chapter strength to the sector to allow the Red Angels time to rebuild their shattered chapter.
The reinforcements on Hylas were almost too late, as another massive assault by the orks erupted on 0505.013M42, shattering Van Dorn's front line on the plains of West Coast and driving north towards Etonia. The Salamanders reacted first, driving straight towards the ork centre and focussing their attention on Uzfang's elite units. The space marines caused a great deal of damage to the ork warlord's most experienced troop, but at terrible cost. The Salamanders suffered heavy losses, and were unable to stop the ork advance, although they had bought the imperium some time.
Less than a day later, the Dark Angels and Blood Angels co-ordinated a strike on the same elements of the army targetted by the Salamanders. This time the astartes were successful, and after a bloody battle Uzfang's elite units were either destroyed or routed. Their leaders in retreat, the rest of the army followed suit, abandoning the offensive and reducing the pressure on the battered imperial guard regiments. The ork advance north had been stopped, at least for the time being.
The long running war on Ares had become something of a stalemate by mid 013M42, with the eldar holding Ares City and the Imperium holding the valleys and heights which protected the settlements of Hellebron and Caeralon. General Vasilevsky was content to hold the eldar at bay in this way, complaining his forces were not numerous enough to attempt another assault on the capital, but his superior, General Veers, was anxious to get the city, or at least its ruins, back into imperial hands. Most importantly the eldar were still in possession of the main starport, making it all the more difficult for Veers to reinforce his subordinate, not that he chose to in any case.
Vasilevsky stubbornly refused to launch another assault, and would have risked the attentions of the commissariat, had the Salamanders, Dark Angels and Blood Angels arrived and agreed to mount a large raid against the eldar. Following the raid, Vasilevsky would follow up with his imperial guard regiments, and mount another offensive on the imperial capital.
The Blood Angels, aided by a smaller force of Dark Angels in support, mounted the first reconnaissance along the shores of the Helion sea, a region populated by humanity for millenia, and home to a number of small and ancient settlements, their buildings dating back hundreds of years to Ares' "medieval period". The astartes force were taken completely by surprise by a carefully planned ambush by the eldar forces, demonstrating that the aliens had built their forces up on the planet once again. Despite a valiant effort, the Angels of death were forced to evacuate their force before it was surrounded.
The Salamanders now moved in to cover theit brother astartes' retreat, expecting to brush aside the eldar army with their renewed attack. They were disappointed. The eldar forces once again proved themselves too strong and too organised for even the greatest of humanity's warriors. Suffering heavy losses and despite checking the eldar advance for a time, the Salamanders were also obliged to withdraw, warning Vasilevsky that the eldar now had overwhelming force and would easily overcome his defences unless Veers provided more troops.
In the Perseus Deeps during late 04.013M42 the Necrons continued to make gains, while the forces of chaos suffered an unexpected blow in the Mordecai system. On Corticant, General Veers was denied permission to leave the planet and ordered to take "all necessary steps" by his superior in order to prevent the Imperial base from falling to the necrons.Heavy fighting continued between the imperial guard, Red Angels and the necrons in Lochford, and a narrow strip of imperial controlled road kept open supplies flowing to the two regiments of guard cut off from the rest of Veers' forces in Violetwind coast.
In order to relieve this deadlock, general Veers used his influence to pursuade the Blood Angels and Dark Angels, who had for some time based their operations in the Deeps at Corticant, to intervene. A combined strike force attacked the necron forces at Bymarsh with the intention of sabotaging necron operations further east, thus giving the defenders of Lochford a chance to fight back.
The raid itself was conducted by a force of company strength with representatives from both chapters. Working well together, initially the necron invaders were sent reeling from the shock of the astartes assault. Unfortunately, the space marines were unable to hold onto this advantage, and then at a critical juncture were forced to abandon the mission and embark for more important duties elsewhere. The necrons, although shaken by the lightning raid, recovered and by the end of 04.013M42 had secured the rest of Lochford, trapping the Corellian Storm Guard regiment and the Librian 42nd regiment at Violetwind Coast. Veers was furious and lost faith with the space marine chapters after the incident, which permanently soured relations between the two chapters and the veteran general.
Meanwhile at Mordecai, the forces of chaos suffered an awful shock when a vast host of eldar turned up on Mordecai Tersius, which had only recently been evacuated by the imperium. Using their knowledge of the ancient webway, the eldar warhost ripped into hastily prepared defences on the chaos world, which had seen its garrison forces much reduced since the imperial evacuation.
The main battle came at Slaydon, as the eldar had poured out of the Vaylin mountains from their secluded webway portal, and quickly beseiged the town. A significant response was sent by the local garrison commander, and a battle involving mighty war engines and several eldar titans took place in the middle of the city itself. After several hours of bitter fighting the chaos forces were soundly defeated, and the eldar swept into the city before driving west to threaten the already wartorn region of Skrime.
As 04.013M42 drew to a close, the mobile warfare continued on Tyranteous with movement on key fronts and action on land, in the air and in space.
The Imperium were heartened by the relatively successful Operation Sledgehammer, and continued to press their advantage against chaos gained from recent victories in the western sector of the front line. Having pushed the traitor forces back to Weybridge Crossing, general Mikell Denham looked at possibilities to immediately launch an assault on the settlement, but his subordinate commanders were less than enthusiastic. Weybridge crossing had been considerably fortified and a direct assault on the settlement could lead to losses the imperium could ill afford, and hand the initiative to the tau.
The space marines operating in the Zadoc subsector offered assistance. The dark angels and blood angels, having split their forces into small battle units across the sector, were working more and more together as a combined astartes force, and now offered to launch a punitive strike on Weybridge. Their targets would be fortifications, military installations and anything of potential value to the traitor forces, which would make a subsequent follow up attack much less bloody. General Denham accepted the offer and a few days later an elite strike force of humanity's super human warriors launched themselves against the chaos defences.
Initially the chaos forces were sent reeling by the ferocity of the imperial raid, leading to the forces defending Weybridge to implore their dark gods to help. Their patrons answered, and soon the space marine force found itself facing a dread daemon host. However, unlike previous encounters with the daemonic legions allied to the arch-traitor Lorek, this time the warp connection to reality seemed unstable, with the daemons flickering in and out of focus, their powers diminished.
Even so the force arrayed against the dark angels and blood angels was still potent, but gradually the loyalist marines gained the upper hand, before finally crushing the daemon host. Eventually Lorek's forces managed to redeploy their conventional forces from Hollyden, but by then the small astartes force had long gone, leaving a mass of destruction in their wake.
General Denham now knew the forces on his left flank to be weak. Unable to break out and launch an offensive of their own and liable to fold if attacked. He now had the luxury of deciding on his axis of attack before launching his next major offensive.
Seeking to redress the balance of power on Tyranteous, which was now rapidly shifting against him, Lorek conceived a new bold plan. Having secured the support of Admiral Tragean, he now knew that a force of six capital ships had succesfully transitted the warp from the Perseus Deeps, arriving in the Zadoc system far sooner than Jellicoe's battlegroup thanks to some help from the gods themselves. Tragean was entrusted with completing the takeover, or destruction of the tau base on Tyranteous moon, where Kor'O Pureheart was keeping the bulk of the tau fleet assigned to the invasion.
On 2804.013M42 Tragean's forces, led by the desolator class battleship Irredeemable Apostate, were able to shield their energy emissions behind an asteroid belt, allowing them to take their enemy by surprise. The two protector class vessels on picket duty that day, Sentinel and Salvation, were suddenly fired on by the bulk of the chaos fleet emerging from the darkness directly astern of them, while the rest of the tau fleet hung in high orbit above the planetoid of Tyranteous Moon. Very quickly Tragean capitalised on his surprise, crippling Sentinel and leaving Salvation a battered, powerless and drifting hulk.
Kor'O Pureheart scrambled to get the rest of his fleet alert and responding to the threat, and most vessels came on line rapidly, pushing themselves away from the approaching chaos vessels and using the moon to slingshot back to face the enemy threat. The two carriers Deliverance and Liberator were soon launching all Mantas they had to harry the chaos fleet until the tau could bring their guns to bear. The custodians took far longer to get in formation and join the fight, but the smaller Wardens were soon advancing on the chaos fleet launching volleys of torpedoes.
The rest of the battle was dominated by the superior tau technology. Despite some glitches, the mantas and torpedoes performed well, and soon both the slaughter class cruisers Reaver and Doomblade were crippled and burning. Their captains tried to disengage but their heat signatures were all to easy for the tau scanners to detect, and soon both ships had been wrecked. The hades class battlecruiser also suffered and was forced to disengage, the tau pilots and gunners aboard the larger vessels deliberately targeting the command decks of the chaos vessels with devastating results.
No fewer than three of Tragaen's cruisers had their command structures decapitated in this way, and this cost the chaos admiral dearly. With his vessels leaderless they were unable to make their escape and by the end of the battle he had lost three of his capital ships and had another two severely damaged. As the tau battleships came around the Tyranteous Moon and faced the remaining chaos vessels head on, the admiral disengaged the remainder of the fleet, leaving the tau to lick their wounds and complete the cleansing of their base on the planet below.
Lorek was unaware of the defeat of his ally in the Tyranteous system when he simultaneously launched the next part of his plan. On the planet's surface itself he knew he was too weak to launch an offensive against both the imperium and the tau at the same time, so he planned accordingly. In the north he would take ground off the tau and threaten their base, while the imperium would also suffer a devastating raid, this time on the Fallowvale oile refinery far from the front lines. With a fuel shortage, General Denham would have difficultly making good on the initiative he had so recently been handed by the astartes.
Both strands of Lorek's plans unravelled before him. His hand picked small squad of elite traitor marines, supported by a small host of summoned daemons, failed abysmally in their raid in the south. The imperium had been sensible enough to guard their vital military installations appropriately, and the alarm was soon raised. A single squad of veteran guardsman, helped by two sentinel walkers were easily able to fend off the chaos raid, catching their enemy unprepared out in the open.
In the north Lorek's forces once again summoned a host of daemons to defeat their enemy, but the tau fought hard and with tenacity. Mid way through the battle commander whitefire was given the news from Shadowstrike that Pureheart had defeated chaos in space and those hunter cadres fighting chaos forces on Tyranteous Moon would soon be able to join the tau army on the planet itself. Having access to this knowledge, which Lorek did not, Whitefire was able to pin his enemy down before committing his reserves to outflank then envelope his foe.
Lorek had not accounted for the tau being able to commit their reserves, and his position in the north became untenable. The daemonic host was banished, and the rest of the traitor army was soon in full retreat, with the victorious tau making their lives a misery as they surrendered much of North Vale, leaving the settlement of Hammerton surrounded and cut off.
Da Verminator was unable to halt the progress of the forces of chaos by himself ont he minor world of Zoggot. The ork warboss found his forces stretched to thinly, and was forced to ask for help in ridding Zoggot of the Catechism invasion. Asking for help is never easy for an ork, but Da Verminator "sold" the idea to his fellow ork warlords by advertising "da best fightin in da sekta" and that the other orks would miss out if they didn't join in.
Only Uzfang responded with anything more than derision. Na'Porkleon was brooding in his forts on Hylas, waiting for his forces to be built up for his next big strike, while Krumpgutz and Snazzgubbins had clearly wandered off elsewhere. Uzfang didn't believe the advertised scrap to be all it was cracked up to be, nor did the ork warlord have any interest in the Enceladus subsector, at least not now. However, Warboss Hawkfoot was becoming annoying so Uzfang was more than happy to let his underling go on an adventure far away from the real glory. Hawkfoot set off in mid 03.013M42 and arrived in late 04.013M42. His forces immediately deployed as requested by Da Verminator, ready to face the massed Imperial guard and traitor marine forces of the Catechism.
Unfortunately for the orks, the Catechism did not attack. Instead the greenskins found that Moonface had secured the support of a number of powerful daemon princes of the empyrean itself, and now these led a horde of warp spawned entities against the enemies of Moonface, starting with the recently arrived Hawkfoot. Uzfang's lieutenant soon began to regret his decision to join in the "adventure" on Zoggot, as his army was systematically annihilated by the daemonic host. The orks struggled to find an answer to the forces of the warp, who tore the greenskins, particularly Hawkfoots elite biker formations, limb from limb in an orgy of violence.
After several days of seriously one-sided combat, Hawkfoot abandonned Da Verminator, and the rest of his army, and hot footed it as quickly as possible back to the Zadoc subsector, where he would be greeted by an irate Uzfang. Meanwhile Da Verminator found his forces surrounded in the settlement which passed for the ork capital. The daemons dissipated, but the greenskins were now penned in by the conventional forces of chaos. Zoggot looked almost certain to fall within weeks.
General Denham came under increasing pressure as 04.013M42 went on from his immediate superior General Brooke. Brooke, responsible for what was left of the imperial sector, knew that if the tau advance was not checked, it would gain its own inevitable momentum and lead to another Melberg or Tarsis Major. Tyranteous must not be lost. Denham complained at lack of troops but with the tau fleet in orbit around Tyranteous Minoris it was difficult to see how he could be reinforced before Jellicoe's fleet removed the threat, and the battlegroup was still in transit.
Fortunately the imperium could already call on Tyrantean and Zadocian PDF, who while ill equipped proved to be tenacious in the defence of their homelands, but more importantly the front Line Librian and Corellian regiments had been augmented by the arrival of the Blood Martyrs and a small contingent of Grey Knights. The daemon hunting astartes were led by an inquisitor, who immediately consulted with General Denham. After a discussion, the Corellians were moved to the left wing of the North Landing front, and prepared to launch the first phase of Operation Sledgehammer.
The unimaginatively named operation was designed to push back both the forces of chaos and those of the tau empire, in order to gain time for the imperial fleet to break the stranglehold the tau now had over reinforcements. In the east the Corellians objective was to cut off the chaos held settlement of Weybridge crossing, while pushing north to threaten the major city of North Vale. In the east the Librian and Corellian forces would push on a broad front against the tau, in an attempt to relieve Hammerton and potentially surround Fallenvale on three sides. The Corellians were assigned the coastal sector, while the Librians and the Blood Martyrs faced the main van of tau forces.
In the west the attack north against chaos proceeded well. By 2204.013M42 the Corellians had broken through the chaos lines and were moving swiftly on their objectives. Lorek attempted to summon a daemonhost in front of the main axis of imperial advance but that was the cue for the daemonhunting inquistor and the grey knights of the ordo malleus to make their entrance. Unable to stand before the faith of the emperor's most devout subjects the daemons were swiftly banished and the Corellians reached the Fennerton Sea. By 2504.013M42 they had pushed as far north as Fallenvale itself and were closing on Weybridge crossing from the east.
In the centre the Librian regiments, assisted by units of the Blood Martyrs chapter of space marines made similar impressive progress. The combined firepower of Librian artillery and Blood Martyrs' land raiders quickly dealt with tau heavy armour, and even their Riptides proved less of a threat than in previous engagements, though the tau themselves suffered several malfunctions with their new and untried technology which severely hampered their effectiveness.
Realising the advance in the centre could not be stopped, commander Whitefire ordered a retreat. In some places this became a rout, and significant portions of the tau army in the centre were annihilated by eager pursuing Librian and astartes forces. This almost opened an opportunity for Denham to smash the tau occupation of Tyranteous but Whitefire remained calm. As the Corellian units advanced on the imperial left wing he waited patiently until the Merndin Massif cut off their communication with the advancing Librians. Then he counter attacked.
Whitefire was a lot more fortunate in his engagement on the imperial right, and was facing an enemy less experienced than Librians with the tau way of doing battle. As a result the tau commander was able to keep the imperium at arms length, destroying their armoured transports from range and effecting a devastating ambush. This time their new technology worked, and their specially adapted anti aircraft broadside units proved particularly effective against the Corellian's Vendetta support.
By 2204.013M42 the Corellians were in serious trouble, and Denham authourised a withdrawal. However their right flank had been breached and now the southern portion of North Landing was effectively indefensible. Realising this Denham stabilised the front along a north south axis from the Merndin Massif to the Strait of Jute, the natural barrier of the Allengrove Narrows putting a halt, at least temporarily, to Whitefire's advance.
Operation Sledgehammer had been a partial success for general Denham. Despite losing the south of North Landing the tau breakout had been halted and the rpessure on the strategically vital city of Hammerton had been relieved. However the pressure on Hammerton had been lifted and the forces of chaos dealt a severe blow. Overall General Denham and his forces had bought time for Jellicoe's fleet to come to the rescue. Now they had to wait to see if the imperial navy could tip the odds in their favour.
After several patient weeks the tau were confident enough that their initial bridgehead was secure to launch their new offensive against the Imperium. Events on Tyranteous' Moon by the forces of Lorek had put their schedule back and reduced the overwhelming force the tau could deploy, but the tau commanders were happy with their plans.
The first assault came in the east, as Commander Moonshine was given the task of clearing the region of Odinvale. This operation was vital, if not directly of strategic use to the tau, because of the threat to the tau flank even a small number of forces in the east posed to their position. Moonshine moved his troops forward and Tyranteous and Zadoc regiments were easily routed. Detecting a renewed offensive, General Denham responded quickly to the renewed activity, resulting in the Space Wolves deployed to Tyranteous springing into action. Dropping from orbit, the space wolves confronted the main vanguard forces of Moonshine in the Odin Valley south of the Merdin Massif. After a protracted and vicious battle the Space Wolves realised they would be unable to stop the tau advance and risked getting surrounded unless they pulled out. With the astartes forces gone the imperial resistance in Odinvale was fatally compromised and the imperium soon lost their best opportunity to threaten the tau hold on the north.
Following Moonshine's success the second phase of the operation swung into action. A large force of hunter cadres attacked the imperial lines west of the Merndin Massif, where Denham had deployed his best troops and strongest defences. The resulting battle, occurring in an obvious tau line of advance, was bloody and costly to the tau. The attack stalled, then fell apart, and for a while Denham's headquarters were hoping for a breakthrough to launch their own counter attack.
While Imperial HQ were preparing to mobilise the Prozan Air Cavalry to launch a decisive blow in the north, word came of attack by Commander "Windgather" (a name given to him by the Imperium) in the south. The tau had skilfully deployed new forces on the shores of the Kethick Sea, and now these highly mobile forces, using the latest in tau technology including two formidable "Riptide" battlesuits, launched a ferocious attack against the Librian Guard.
The Librians, used to fighting Tau, were none-the-less taken by surprise by the new alien technology, and many mistakes were made. Despite eventually destroying the tau battlesuits the Librians suffered heavily at the hands of the tau army, falling prey to effective combined arms tactics from an alien enemy which had learned a great deal from previous encounters with the Librians.
By 1604.013M42 the position was dire, and Denham ordered all forces back to defend Hammerton. He was just in time, and the Corellian and Prozan units executed a skillful fighting withdrawal to extricate themselves from a rapidly closing trap. By 1804.013M42 the line had been stabilised, but much of North Landing had now been lost, and the tau were knocking on the door of Hammerton itself.
