After over a year of hard but inconclusive fighting in the Caeralon valley, at the start of 11.013M42 the eldar launched a massive offensive on Ares. Never before had Vassilevsky faced such a concentration of force, and there was no warning of the attack. Suddenly his forces were in full retreat from Hellebron, and his imperial guard units found themselves outgunned and out manouevered by an enemy fielding no fewer than three massive titans.
The Legio Gryphonnicus and the Salamanders attempted to rescue the situation. In the north on the road to Pallian the alien titans were confronted by three imperial warmachines, massive warlord titans not fielded in such numbers in the Perseus Deeps before. However the eldar ground down the imperial defenders and by 0411.013M42 the imperium had withdrawn from Pallian and were retreating towards Forbestown.
Worse was happening further south as the Salamanders faced the eldar alone without titan support. Sindon Station fell after a brutal eldar attack, which saw the half company of Salamanders blocking the road wiped out to a man. The southern settlement of Gorballs fell a day later after the last Salamanders to face the Rillietan attack withdrew from the town. The astartes forces regrouped, but recent fighting had taken their toll and the chapter master warned the imperium of his chapter's fading strength.
On Ares Vassilevsky had lost all of the settled territory barring Forbestown by 0611.013M42. After a year and a half of hard fighting it was a bitter pill to swallow for the Imperium. Now General Veers had to decide whether to fight to regain the planet or withdraw to strengthen his defences elsewhere in the Deeps. With the situation on Zadoc, it was certain any request for reinforcements would be denied.
Although the tau had all but defeated the Imperium on Tyranteous, at the beginning of 11.013M42 Luthor's order to defend had been followed by General Cunningham. Defences had been built in the two remaining imperial footholds left on the planet. Never the less the tau were keen to finish off Tyranteous to focus their efforts on Zadoc. At the beginning of 11.013M42, despite the defensive preparations taken by the imperium, the tau showed no sign of slowing their offensive.
Commander Skyfall's relatively fresh troops now took over the main thrust, giving those of Windgather a chance to rest. Initially the new tau advance stalled as the ultramarines launched a series of well planned and well executed raids against the aliens, bringing their offensive to a halt. However the ultramarines were few in number and gradually the tau superiority in numbers began to tell in the east, as Skyfall launched probing attacks, feeling out the imperium's weaknesses.
The tau commander felt he had found such a weakness in the far south of Grent. He managed to find an area more weakly defended and soon broke through. On 0211.013M42 the Librians counter attacked, supported by the Blood Martyrs chapter of space marines. The astartes immediately closed with the tau, ordering the Librians to cover their advance. In the ensuing action a number of incidents occurred which aroused suspicions of the loyalties and willingness to carry on of the the Librian regiments.
During the battle it was noted that at least one Librian tank, a Librian Leman Russ Executioner variant, fired upon and killed four Blood Martyrs at close range, claiming it was accidental. This on its own would have been put down to battlefield confusion, but moments later a Manticore artillery strike "accidentally" shelled a Blood Martyrs' Land Raider, instead of the enemy, in a show of astounding inaccuracy (which the Librian artillery corps has been trying to shake off for years) or something much worse.
After the battle several more incidents of "friendly fire" came to light, and the overall effect of these certainly blunted the Blood Martyrs' assault, allowing the tau to whether the astartes storm and advance into east Grent. His line compromised Cunningham withdrew north to prepared defences in front of Yellowmouth. The situation remained grave, and now there were suspicions that Librian regiments were trying to defect to the tau. Given that Libria was now the only secure base of operations in the Zadoc subsector, this was worrying news for the Imperial high command, and Lord Titus Luthor dispatched inquisitors and the commissariat to investigate the situation.
While the tau ground forward on Tyranteous, they made no progress on Zadoc as the newly landed troops made good their bridgehead. Meanwhile in the far south, where the lush vegetation in Atonerni gave way to the polar tundra of Mida, the forces of chaos continued their advance against the imperium. However in Mida the Imperium put up a determined defence, knowing the narrow strip of land south of the southern ice sheet would force their enemy to advance along predictable lines.
The first of these advances came on 0311.013M42 with a determined thrust from Khornate legionaries and their allies. The bezerker marines rushed headlong at the enemy positions, defended by the Adeptus Mechanicus and a force of Astartes, hoping to quickly overwhelm the loyalists. The Imperium had dug in well however, and the chaos advance soon ran into difficulties as it was pounded by imperial gunfire. In only a few hours the rush had been halted, the forces of chaos unable to cross the killing ground prepared for them. For now at least the chaos advance had been halted.
Meanwhile in space the Dark Angels pushed further in system, encountering lord Tragaen's vessels as they escorted more chaos reinforcements to the surface of Zadoc. The Dark Angels immediately launched an assault on the chaos ships, but found to their dismay an enemy whose gunfire was unnaturally accurate. As the two fleets passed each other in the upper atmosphere of Zadoc, the exchange of fire was unusually one sided. The astartes quickly started losing ships, a strike cruiser exploding dramatically in the early stages of the battle, which led to further destruction of a host of excorts.
The Dark Angels returned fire, but somehow Lord Tragaen's vessels managed to evade much of the withering fire, partly thanks to distortions in the upper atmosphere and partly due to blind luck. Regardless of the reason the chaos vessels only suffered minor damage, although one carnage class was forced to retire. As the fleets closed for battle once more following the first pass, another strike cruiser was critically hit and detonated, its remains plunging to a fiery death into the Gontina sea, throwing up tsunami all along the coast.
The Dark Angels now realised to continue the engagement would be a serious folly, and retreated from Zadoc, allowing Tragaen to complete his reinforcement of the planet, taking the moon base in orbit for good measure as his personal fleet base. The Dark Angels meanwhile moved their fleet away from the immediate vicinity of the primary inhabited system, looking for other ways to cause problems for the chaos invasion. They found their opportunity when they made contact with elements of a Khornate fleet, attracted to the Arch Cleric's cause on Zadoc by the fighting. The force of five cruisers was immediately attacked by the Dark Angels, who inflicted significant losses on the fleet before withdrawing again. It was a pattern of hit and run tactics the Dark Angels would now continue in their determination to disrupt the invasion of Zadoc.
The overall effect of the Dark Angels' action in space was mixed. Tragaen's reinforcement of the world had not been stopped, and his fleet remained very strong with perhaps eleven capital ships in the system by 0611.013M42. The khornate fleet had been mauled, but this force was only loosely allied to the invading forces at best, and the Iron Warriors had gained use of "the Device" in any case. The actions did show that the chaos fleet now deployed at Zadoc had increased to maybe twenty capital ships, and a force to dislodge them was not currently available, lest the defences of the Perseus Deeps and Vastrid be severely weakened. On the ground the action by the Mechanicus greatly improved the morale of imperial forces on Zadoc, giving them their first victory since the invasion began.
While the defence on Ares collapsed, the Imperium under General Veers were experiencing slow but renewed success against the Necrons on Corticant. Since the initial invasion the Necron advance had petered out, and the defence lines at lake Hartford had held for months. Now Veers felt confident enough to launch an offensive, but it would be the Adeptus Astartes who began the assault.
The Apocalypse Riders and Ultramarines agreed an attack plan to use their moderate forces to test the Necron defences at Bymarsh. The initial raid tested out the enemy strength, the Apocalypse Riders hitting hard and fast before withdrawing having dealt the Necrons a significant blow. The Ultramarines followed up this success by securing much of the Bymarsh settlement, mercilessly eliminating the remaining Necron resisitance. Guard units followed in their wake and consolidated the imperial gains. It was a small victory compared to the scale of the events in the Zadoc subsector and on Ares, but it was an imperial victory none the less.
By the beginning of 11.013M42 the imperial position in the Zadoc subsector was dire. On Tyranteous Cunningham's army had been forced into a small rump on the east coast, and part of his force was cut off behind the Praetorian wall. Despite several counter attacks the orks on Hylas had overrun more than half the world, and on Zadoc the tau had just landed, adding to the pain caused by the chaos invasion. Only the vast fortified system of Libria, and the small world of Cerberex held out, islands of calm in a storm of war.
Titus Luthor demanded changes, and tasked General Montgomery and Admiral Jellicoe with holding the line until he could get hold of more forces. Luthor knew the resources in the Zadoc subsector were insufficient to turn the tide, but now he needed time.
Jellicoe and Montgomery came up with a plan. System commanders such as Cunnungham and Brooke were ordered to go over to the defensive. Marines would restrict themselves to defensive raids and the imperial guard and PDF would dig in. Ground would be given where necessary, and battles fought where the maximum toll on the enemy could be extracted. If manpower was not an issue, such as on Zadoc, it would be expended to delay the enemy. Any tactic was allowed to slow the advance of the enemy, but grand sweeping offensives were banned for the time being.
In space Admiral Jellicoe appointed Admiral Beattie to the defence of the Zadoc subsector. His orders were similar. Keep supply lines open. Avoid uneccessary engagements, only engage when the damage to the enemy will be greater than the damage to his own vessels. These changes to strategic planning finally admitted that that the war in Zadoc was currently unrecoverable. While Luthor played for time, he sent an urgent request for a vast force of men. So far he had brought in close to a million, mostly Novgorod Guard, and a few space marine companies. Now he asked for more than three chapters of marines and a further five million guardsmen, and waited for the response.
The end of 10.013M42 also saw a renewed offensive from the eldar on Ares. Instead of consolidating their gains in Ares City and waiting for the counter attack, this time the eldar advanced, taking Vassilevsky off guard and breaking the defences on the Hellebron road in under a day. Vassilevsky was forced to retreat rapidly, evacuating to Pallian Settlement before his forces were trapped in the mountains by the eldar.
With only a few tens of thousands defending the planet, Vassilevsky was please by the intervention of the Ultramarines, whose forces quickly deployed between the eldar and the retreating guard. This gave the imperial force time to regroup, but the ultimate prize was retaking Hellebron, which the Ultramarines set about doing on 3010.013M42.
The marines pushed forward, trusting in their armoured vehicles to protect them from the inevitable eldar reaction. Unfortunately the eldar were well equipped and ready to deal with this move by the astartes, and a bloody firefight on the Hellebron road quickly turned into a one sided massacre. The eldar easily penetrated the armour of the space marine vehicles, and soon the smoke from buring tanks could be seen as far west as Pallian. In under two days the ultramarine force had been smashed and its survivors limped back to the west. Caeralon surrendered and over the course of two weeks the eldar had reached a new high point in their invasion of Ares, holding now nearly half of the imhabited zone of the planet.
With the tau fleet in the Zadoc system having suffered significant damage, and a known imperial fleet on the way to reinforce Zadoc, Admiral Swiftstar was recalled to reinforce the tau position as the empire prepared for an invasion landing. Swifstar duly embarked several Hunter Cadres onto his ships and proceeded from Tarsis Major. Swiftstar was only able to send four capital vessels and a trio of escorts to the Zadoc system, but this was deemed a satisfactory detachment to carry out the landings.
Upon passing Caitlen Station the Imperium's warp listening devices picked up Swiftstar's movements, and the imperial battlegroup newly arrived to Jellicoe was immediately dispatched to Zadoc. Thanks to superior imperial warp technology the four capital ships, a mars class carrier, two lunars and a retribution class battleship, arrived at Zadoc well ahead of the tau. The two then closed for battle, with Swiftstar forming a smaller version of his "box formation".
The imperial fleet scored the first hits and first success, wiping out the tau escorts which were caught by surprise, before turning to starboard to show the tau their broadsides, but it was swiftstar who got the first decisive blow. He successfully directed all his firepower at the imperial battleship, using his messenger class vessel to direct fire control. Swiftstar knew the imperial fleet, and instructed his captains to aim for the enemy vessels' bridges, hoping to decapitate the command and control of the larger enemy craft.
The initial tau volley was even more devastating than the tau had hoped, and the imperial battleship was heavily damaged, her bridge shorn completely off. Soon the mars class suffered a similar fate, with at least two tau vessels pouring fire into the command centre of the carrier vessel. Unable to follow orders, the two large imperial vessels simply drifted forward firing opportunistically at the tau.
Swiftstar then closed to near suicidal ranges. The effect was devastating for one of the imperial lunar class vessels, as she was crippled and her bridge also smashed, leading to the death of the fleet admiral who had decided not to use the retribution as his flagship. However, as the fleets closed, the signal went out from the remaining imperial ships. "Prepare for boarding". This was interpretted by the tau and a wave of panic briefly flared throughout the xenos vessels.
The protectors were the first to be boarded, but the few boarding parties who managed to arrive on the tau capital ships were quickly cut down. In return the tau pummelled the battleship at close range, rendering her uncontrollable and on fire. The lunars scored more success, boarding the emissary class vessel at the rear of the tau formation. There was little swiftstar could do as the tau crew were butchered to a man, and the emissary left drifting in space.
As the fleets passed the mars class, its command gone, was unable to evade the full firepower of the tau fleet, and she was soon knocked out of the fight, venting atmosphere and tumbling end over end. The battle ended then, as the imperial battleship suffered a plasma containment breach, exploding violently and crippling one tau protector. The remaining lunar class ships, one damaged, slipped away behind the mass of burning plasma and debris of their battleship.
With the retreat of the imperial fleet the remainder of the tau vessels joined up with their comrades and began the invasion of Zadoc. On 0111_013M42 hundreds of thousands of tau were dropped from orbit, barracudas and mantas securing the skies over Foregia as the day 1 objectives were secured. Within two days the tau had established a bridgehead from the Nanalia Sea to the lagiaca sea, taking the city of Guion on day 3 of the invasion. From here they were well placed to strike the heart of the imperium to the west or the chaos to the east. Once again the tau had intervened in an imperial vs. chaos war. They hoped that like Tarsis Major before and on Tyranteous, they would end up the eventual victor in their quest to add the entire subsector to their empire.
Despite the Ultramarine success, General Van Dorn still didn't have enough forces to hold the extended line into Berkeley. This was demonstrated when Na'Porkleon attacked all across the Tennys coast front line just a few days after the city had been retaken. Massed ork attacks from the Sump Sea to the coast soon ensured the imperial positions in Berkeley became untenable, and Van Dorn retreated to straighten his line.
The local Novgorod Guard commander offered to prove his new arrivals' mettle by counter attacking to halt the ork advance. Surprised but intrigued Van Dorn agreed, pleased that at least some of his commanders were showing a positive attitude to the war which had now ground on for 413 days. The Novgorod Guard deployed in their positions and didn't have to wait too long for Na'Porkleon's hordes to show up.
The battle of West Coast lasted from 28-3110.013M42. During those three days both sides sent in waves of infantry with very little in the way of support, and for once the greenskins even found themselves outnumbered. Each ork assault slew thousands of men, but the Novgorod Colonel simply threw in more battalions, headless of the losses.
After three days of the slaughter, Van Dorn had had enough. He ordered a withdrawal to the north, fearful that the Novgorod units would soon break or be annihilated, allowing the orks to breakthrough. He didn't want a repeat of the fall of the west and was horrified at the colossal loss of life in his guard units. By the end of 10.013M42 the imperial line had retreated fully out of the West coast region, shortening the imperial line and providing some respite from the fighting for the exhausted guardsmen. Nevertheless the Novgorod commander maintained that had he been allowed to continue his meatgrinder tactics, the orks would have broken first. Van Dorn had clearly disappointed his new Colonel, but he simply couldn't afford such attritional tactics while supply lines to Hylas remained blocked by the ork fleet.
By the end of 10.013M42 the imperial forces on Zadoc were beginning to show some resolve. Although they did retreat further the chaos assault slowed, and their losses steadily increased. The Arch Cleric now turned to his old allies, the Covenant, who were first noted on Zadoc on 2910.013M42, as daemonic forces and cultists bearing the mark of the Covenant were identified taking part in the assault on Gredau. On the imperial side the local PDF and imperial guard units began to work well together, supported by marine detachments and forces of the adeptus mechanicus in a more unified force. It seemed General Brooke was finally halting the unstoppable chaos advance, and soon his reinforcements would arrive, or so he was told.
Until the very end of 10.013M42 the Praetorian wall had held on Tyranteous. Defended by the imperial guard it had prevented the tau from breaking through and almost certainly ending the war on Tyranteous. The tau had been unwilling to expend too many lives trying to breach this formidable defence, so they simply went around it.
The outcome of the winter offensive in the west had been disasterous for the imperium and General Cunningham's troops. Half his army was gone, captured or destroyed, Fernal and Badval had fallen and the adeptus mechanicus facility at Thraxicon was beseiged. Only the Apocalypse Riders had managed to hold the tau in two critical engagements along the Grent Pass, preventing the Praetorian wall from being taken from behind. Now however Lightspear had broken through in the south, and the Apocalypse Riders were called on once again to repeat their actions and push the tau out of Grent.
The Apocalypse Riders moved out with confidence and high expectations, but commander Windgather and his eldar allies were waiting. Tau high command expected this move by the Imperium and placed their most dangerous and effective formations accordingly. As soon as the astartes came into range the tau-eldar alliance opened up on the Riders, killing their leader and throwing their charge into disorder.
With no meaningful artillery or air support the space marine bikers raced bravely but ultimately suicidally towards the tau lines. Few returned from the charge and by 2910.013M42 word had reached Cunningham of the slaughter of the Apocalypse Riders. The news crushed the general, who is said to have laughed wryly. He knew the writing was now on the wall for Tyranteous, and the position could not be saved. Two days later the tau had reached the Kethwick Sea, encircling the Praetorian wall from behind and cutting his remaining forces in two. Only a few regiments stood between the tau and the last two imperial cities. Cunningham remained outwardly defiant but in Ashwater and Yellowmouth the many agents of the Imperium began moving sacred relics and destroying valuable equipment and artefacts. The end game on Tyranteous had arrived at last.
By mid to late 10.013M42 the situation on Zadoc was poor for the Imperium and Lord General Brooke's forces. His immediate superior, Lord General Montgomery, whose role Brooke had so recently performed himself, promised reinforcements for Zadoc from the security of Vastrid, but failed to come up with a specific timetable or list of units to be made available. This vexed Brooke, who felt his demotion to Zadoc command had been unwarranted, as it had been Roover who had run down the Imperium's forces, and Veers' crusade into the Deeps hadn't helped matters.
The disposessed factions of the Deeps, worshipers of chaos forced out of the Deeps by the necrons and Imperium had flocked to the Arch Cleric's banner, while the Iron Warrior leader Marshall Stahl had not been slow to pick up on the growing power of chaos and the opportunity it presented. Together, the Iron Warriors, Word Bearers and the Arch Cleric had devastated much of the east of Zadoc already and the Imperium was in full retreat. This continued during late 10.013M42 as the Arch Cleric launched a major offensive to the south of Ascobabria.
The chaos forces were numerous and well equipped, once again calling on the denizens of the warp to aid their progress. Against them the Novgorod Guard were once again in evidence, as well as native Zadocian units and other hastily thrown together formations. High on manpower, low on equipment and training, the imperial forces put up an admiral defence, their commanders trading lives for time as the chaos advance fell behind schedule. Try as they might the chaos forces found it hard to penetrate the imperial defence in depth, despite horrific casualties especially amongst the conscript units.
Unfortunately for the imperial guardsmen and general Brooke, the god themselves then intervened, and suddenly the rent between realspace and the warp surged open, allowing hordes of daemons to materialise. Although this was a brief manifestation, the effects were dramatic. The Novgorod defence broke and the breakthrough could start. By 2610.013M42 the Word Bearers had reached the south coast of Ascobabria, cutting off three regiments on Gontina and making landfall on Antonerni. By 2910.013 Carelian had fallen to the dark gods and the chaos forces were moving south towards Gredau.
The continuing advance of chaos on Zadoc had not been ignored back on Vastrid. Jellicoe had been orderd to put together a fleet to reinforce the system, and thirty regiments of guard had been ordered to join the task force. On top of these Astartes companies had pledged their aid, and the Inquisition were preparing to take measures against daemonic incursion. The Dark Angels provided the most immediate support, announcing their intention to cripple the chaos fleet blockading the Zadoc system. Lord Tragaen had been joined by vessels of other warlords, bringing the strength of the fleet at Zadoc to over eleven capital vessels, but the blockade meant this force had to be split up. On 2810.013M42 the Dark Angels intercepted part of this blockading force in deep space. It is unknown how much damage the Dark Angels inflicted on the chaos fleet as they gave no record, only confirming the task had been completed and the fleet portion defeated. However this was not the only fleet action of the day.
The tau had also been alarmed by the rapid chaos advance on Zadoc. They coveted Zadoc for themselves, and as they had intervened on Tyranteous, now the tau prepared to land on Zadoc, much earlier than planned. The intention had been to allow the war on Zadoc to run on, until the invasion of Tyranteous had been completed, but with the imperium losing so badly, the tau decided to act sooner. Within days a sizeable warfleet had arrived in system, slipped through the chaos picket ships appearing near the Zadoc moon itself, where Tragaens close blockade couldn't fail to intercept them.
The tau fleet, led by two custodians, three protectors and a host of escorts, closed on the chaos fleet which had adopted line astern. With their superior range the chaos fleet achieved the first casualties, destroying half the Castellan squadron which were then forced to flee. At the end of the chaos line the two slaughter class vessels Reaver and Doomblade were caught out of position, and concentrated firepower, torpedo runs and manta attacks soon removed the two vessels from the fight, destroying Reaver.
in the centre of the battle line both Tragaen and the tau suffered from poor gunnery and disappointing ordnance attacks. the battle soon became a war of attrition as one by one the chaos vessels were put out of action or forced to retreat, with one of the carnage class vessels eventually being reduced to millions of tons of floating junk. The tau suffered too, having one custodian crippled, a protector badly damaged and the unfortunate loss of every single warden escort when they happened to drift across the gunsights of the remaining carnage and the chaos flagship.
After several hours trading blows both fleets retreated, with the tau able to claim a minor victory. Tragaen was forced to retreat in the the outer reaches and await repairs, while the majority of the tau fleet were able to push in system, establishing a base of operations on Zadoc moon. The invasion planning then began in earnest.
With the Praetorian line retaken the Ultramarines moved south into Grent, as news had emerged that a new aggressive force had appeared under commander "Lightspear", a known follower of the teachings of Farsight. This new commander was known to have aggressive, often brutal tactics which drew the attention of the astartes chapter. They didn't have to wait long.
On 2310.013M42 the tau launched yet another offensive into Grent, once again attempting to encircle imperial forces there. Once again Grent pass became critical to the outcome of the offensive and this time the Ultramarines barred the way of the tau forces. Lightspear's troops were not phased however, and subjected the highly mechanised marines to a bombardment of anti tank munitions which decimated their defence. Only once the fighting power of the marines had been severely reduced did the tau advance, butchering any survivors and opening the road into Grent. Cunningham was forced once again into retreat, and a new more unsavoury force of tau had shown its hand on the plains of Tyranteous.
In the Perseus Deeps the end of 10.013M42 saw another eldar assault on Ares, where Vassilevsky had deployed the Cerberex Guard in place of the Ultramarines in Ares city. Confident of their ability the imperial commander initially didn't worry too much when the eldar attacked once again, but their assault was determined and highly orchestrated. As the days wore on the Cerberex commander kept Vassilevsky updated, but the news wasn't good. The eldar firepower was too strong and for the fourth time the Imperium lost control of their capital. The eldar then took positions once more in Caeralon, the imperial army retreating to fixed defensive lines they had occupied only weeks before.
Elswhere in the Deeps a company of the Apocalypse Riders, en route to Ares, was unexpectedly ambushed by Dark eldar following its deployment on the world. Initially the eldar were thought to be part of the alliance and the new attack caused much concern, but imperial intelligence finally proved their worth, identifying the Xenos as the "Kabal of the Venom Drake", and not known as part of the Rillietan alliance.
The Apocalypse Riders however didn't care. They were aliens to be purged. As usual the riders responded to misfortune by aggressively going over to the attack, to the point of recklessness. Despite the raid having little strategic significance, the astartes company went "all in", charging the dark eldar lines at some risk, and sustaining heavier than necessary casualties. This headstrong recklessness drew criticism from imperial command and even the Ultramarines, who incurred the ire of the Rider's chapter master by pointedly suggesting pages in the codex astartes on deployment and tactics.
The Apocalypse Riders were once again saved by the bravery and tenacity of their land speeder pilots. They showed their skill on Ares against the dark eldar, using the terrain to evade incoming firepower while accounting for several enemy units and causing the aliens much distress. This display by just a handful of astartes allowed the remaining Riders to escape the raid, although the nearby supplies depot was completely ransacked by the Kabal.
In the Mabb Nebula the orks suffered setbacks as 10.013M42 came to a close. In deep space the tau fleet finally encountered the mighty "bork" - a fleet of ork Rok's and a space hulk led by the same ork warlord as that now orbiting Hylas. The tau engaged the orks, though less than willingly, but the tau admiral had little choice, since the fleet now posed a significant threat to Tyndareous, which if invaded, would cause even more issues for the tau in the Mabb nebula.
The tau closed in an oblique line, attempting to maximise their firepower on the ork right flank. Although this achieved some success, with a number or roks destroyed, before long the tau vessels had been badly damaged by massed ork firepower, and withdrew for repairs. No tau vessel had been lost, but the orks still posed a threat to tau posessions in the region, causing more headaches for the tau command, facing war on two fronts already, and planning a third on Zadoc.
On Hylas Na'Porkleon's run of advances was brought to an abrupt end when the Ultramarines 6th company moved into Berkeley overnight on 2410.013M42, catching the troops stationed there by surprise. Na'Porkleon ordered a counter attack which took place in the early hours. The Ultramarines however had expected this move, and swiftly blunted the assault, taking out the ork battlewagons in the darkness. They followed this up with a rolling withdrawal, rarely allowing the orks to close while pounding them with vindicator fire. Eventually the orks were able to deal with the vindicators, but the losses in the footslog across the open ground rendered the ork charge ineffective against the marines, who counter attacked with elite terminators in land raider assault vehicles.
By 2810.013M42 the ork assault had run out of steam, and the imperium had Berkeley back again, at least for the time being.
Following the Arch Cleric's victory at Sartignay, the much anticipated follow up by the Iron Warriors came on 2110.013M42 with an obvious but none-the-less expected thrust south from Foregia towards the city of Gyent. In this region General Brooke was only able to field Novgorod Guard regiments while he reorganised from the defeat in Ascobabria, and the Iron Warriors made short work of the massed guard formations. The city of Gyent was soon surrounded and taken by the forces of chaos, cutting the imperial defence in two.
The imperial response to the recent tau offensives was to immediately attempt to regain the Praetorian line. Cunninghame knew his only chance would be to hold the tau along the line using Lake renbow as part of his defences. If the Praetorian line remained breached, Cunningham would have to retreat deep into East Grent, on a line just west of Ashwater to Mount Kedalwing, where the front line would be shortest. This however would surrender the vitally important Renbow refinery, which would ensure reconquest of the rest of Tyranteous would be almost impossible without a full scale re-invasion.
The Ultramarines agreed to take on the mission of retaking the Praetorian Line and liberating Renbow. The marines moved out in force on 2110.013M42 and soon a thick fog descended on the region. There followed a confused engagement, where somehow the tau under commander Dawnstride managed to leave a portion of the line completely undefended, and the Ultramarines easily retook the fort at the southern end of the line before the tau realised what was going on. The tau at Renbow, now cut off, were forced to evacuate via orca over lake Renbow. Fortune had smiled on the imperium for once, and the tau had carelessly surrendered an important strategic gain.
Following on from the Rillietan victory on Parataea commander Shadowstrike arrived in late 10.013M42, adding more force to the alliance defences on Parataea. By now the necrons had been pushed back into a small pocket in norther Parataea, and the tau had liberated their populated settlements. On 2210.013M42 Shadowstrike's cadres delivered the coup-de-grace to the necrons, driving into the northern highlands of the world. Here they encountered the remaining necrons and launched a well co-ordinated assault. After some heavy fighting the necrons finally phased out, leaving the world of Parataea to the alliance.
Following their impressive southerly breakout the tau continued to advance as 10.013M42 progressed. The tau had identified a large salient of imperial troops trying to reform in Badvale and a swift and decisive blow here would eliminate this salient and potentially wipe out almost a third of the remaining imperial armies on Tyranteous. The imperium realised this as well and looked to the Astartes to prevent the collapse. The Salamanders and Apocalypse Riders responded to the threat while a new offensive by the Novgorod Guard from the Praetorian Wall in the east was prepared in order to lessen the pressure in the west.
While commander Windgahter paused to regroup after his lightning dash, it was commander Skyfall's armies who surged south from Lake Renbow, attempting to cut off supply to Cunningham's army in Badvale. In the south, the Salamanders prepared to prevent the encirclement, while the Apocalypse Riders knew they had to stop the tau from pushing up the main road into Grent, or else the tau would be able to get behind the imperial defences at the Praetorian Wall.
In the east the Apocalypse Riders deployed their forces in secret either side of the main highway with another force directly in the path of the tau advance. The main highway travelled through the Grent pass, a long narrow valley which was strategically vital to any army wanting to enter the eastern regions of Tyranteous. The tau meanwhile advanced confidently, backed once again by their tau allies, apparently unaware of the Astartes company in their path.
The tau-eldar alliance force was taken completely by surprise by the imperial force, and the tau were unable to perform their usual deft battlefield manouevres. The Riders closed the range at alarming speed, nullifying the tau firepower, and soon engaged in violent close combat at which they excelled. Casualties on the alliance side mounted and the battle would have turned into a rout, but for the extreme bravery of the tau commander, who held up the imperial warriors by engaging in hit and run tactics, before finally being blasted to pieces by the Master of the Hunt himself.
The decisive victory in the east for the defenders could have made an important impact to the campaign on Tyranteous, but in the west commander Skyfall was having a much better time against the Salamanders. The tau overwhelmed the marine force with superior firepower and within hours the brave stand by the company had been neutralised, with the astartes suffering heavy casualties. Despite the Apocalypse Riders' victory the salient in Badvale was cut off, though further west than had been feared. Even so, with no prospect of rescue the imperial armies in the west, mostly Librian, Tyrantean and Zadocian regiments, were forced to surrender, netting the tau empire over half a million prisoners.
The Apocalypse riders did make an attempt to break through to the west however, throwing a significant force into commander Skyfall's flank and pushing the tau away from the Renbow refinery. Their real mission however was to retrieve a vital piece of Adeptus Mechanicus hardware, something which had quite unexpectedly fallen into enemy hands and, if lost, would spell the end for the imperium on Tyranteous if not the subsector.
Thus motivated, the emperor's finest warriors charged the tau lines, their vanguard force of bikes taking horrendous casualties. However the broad frontal assault focussed the tau attentions, and a small unit of marines managed to retrieve the artefact for the imperium. Too late the tau realised what was going on and initiated a counter attack, but the timely arrival of the Riders' land speeders blunted their assault, and allowed the badly mauled astartes company to escape back to Grent.
The Apocalypse Riders had bought the imperial defenders under General Cunningham some time, but now the focus shifted to the north, where General Chuikov proudly announced the start of his "grand offensive". The lines of Novgorod Guard lined up along the Praetorian wall before moving out into no mans land, and into a hail of tau and eldar firepower.
Once again an exceptionally bloody encounter occurred as the emotionless general threw wave after wave of imperial guardsmen against the tau-eldar forces. For a while it looked like the tactic would prevail, as the enemy struggled with the sheer numbers the Novgorod forces were deploying against them. Eventually however the aliens' overwhelming firepower told and gradually, starting at the southern end of the line, the imperial advance faltered. By 1810.013M42 the guard forces, having suffered another thirty thousand casualties in three days, had begun to fall back. Now the tau counter-attacked.
With lightning speed and impressive flexibility, the tau-eldar alliance force shifted its focus to the vulnerable south of the line, breaking through the Novgorod lines and taking the southernmost fortress of the Praetorian line. By 2210.013M42 the alliance had established themselves in the southern fort and were beginning to work their way around the rear of the defensive line, at the same time capturing the incredibly valuable Renbow Refinery. Cunningham's position on Tyranteous was now dire, although the Apocalypse Riders had prevented total collapse for the time being.
With the Iron Warriors landing on south east Foregia, the imperial forces remaining on Ascobabria now found themselves fighting a war on two fronts. Lord General Brooke was forced to redeploy his Librian units south to defend his left flank, leaving the Legio Gryphonicus in reserve and the newly arrived Novgorod Guard units in the front line facing the hordes of the Arch Cleric. On 1810.013M42 the attack came, with the Arch Cleric leading a host of daemons, cultists and traitor marines against the imperial city of Sartignay. The Novgorod guard died in droves as usual, but were unable to make their sacrifice count as the hordes of chaos broke through the imperial lines in a number of places.
Too late Brooke realised the danger. The Arch Cleric was bypassing the city and forging ahead to the coast, attempting to cut off the Zadocian and Librian forces in the Ascobian peninsular to the south west, trapping the imperial forces if they reached the coast of the Gontina Sea. The Librians, closest to Sartignay, were able to escape the trap but three Zadocian regiments, some thirty thousand men, were trapped in the salient. This could have been much worse, but the Iron Warriors and Arch Cleric had now joined up, and a concerted drive south from Warlord Stahl would see imperial resistance on Zadoc cut in two.
Meanwhile the continueing chaos success on Zadoc was alarming to the tau, who were straining to complete the rout of the imperium on Tyranteous so they could begin the "liberation" of Zadoc. Now the tau had to consider fighting the imperium and chaos on Zadoc at the same time as finishing off Tyranteous and facing the orks and tyranids in the Mabb nebula. Something the tau wondered if they could support. If they didn't the whole of Zadoc may fall to chaos Irreparably before the alliance could rush to its peoples' defence.
