TAU DISASTER ON MYRENTAS II

Losing precious supplies commander Longstride acted quickly to end the war against the Imperium on Myrentas II. Realising the key was the HQ in Gethsemane he planned a lightning assault to capture the imperial base, it’s supplies and the vital airstrip, bypassing the new defensive line by swinging around them in a northward thrust, before diving south east onto the settlement of Gethsemane.

On 0302.007M42 the battle began. Employing twenty hunter cadres with limited air support commander Longstride’s forces struck out northward into the Scyllian defences. The imperial guardsmen were forced to pull back and in the first hours of the attack the tau made significant gains. However as the tau pushed forward the arable land around Gethsemane favoured the defenders as every hedgerow and copse became a fortified position.

The hunter cadres began taking casualties as they ran into concealed gun positions and tanks, hidden by the terrain. Hammerheads and Devilfish had no reply to the well hidden Demolisher tanks and Basilisk batteries and soon the wrecks of tau vehicles littered the battlefield. Longstride’s battle plan was falling apart.

Lord commander Lenord sensed a great victory was at hand and ordered the Librian 101st to strike northward towards Allentown. Bursting forth from their trenches under a massive artillery bombardment seven thousand men supported by tanks and armoured transports poured into the tau left flank. The aliens were soon reeling under the ferocity of the Librian attack and fell back towards the bridgehead. At Allentown the tau lost hundreds of troops and crisis suits in a desperate last stand, realising that to lose the bridge would see Longstride’s forces west of the Ornz encircled.

It was an uneven battle. Using Valkyries to drop storm troopers behind the tau lines the Librians overwhelmed the garrison at Allentown and raced north, joining up with the Scyllians early on 0502007.M42. Two days after the attack on Gethsemane had begun it had failed, leaving 1800 tau dead and a similar number captured. Over a hundred armoured skimmers had been lost and the remaining pockets of resistance west of the river were quickly mopped up, despite some daring rescue missions by the tau air cadre.

Longstride was seriously affected by the defeat. As the tau retreated the tau ethereals considered his replacement, while welcoming UFP reinforcements in the shape of the crack Hartak 7th legion, the Sartosan rangers and the Tallaxian engineer corps. First however these troops would have to get past the imperial fleet. Meanwhile the tau were firmly on the defensive on Myrentas II.