The Powers Plan

300th post!

The winter on Tarsis Major brought rainstorms across all continents, as the planet swung away from its parent star and the heat in the atmosphere gave way to a general cooling. The bad weather and warp storms around the system brought a comparative lull in action on the ground as all sides went on to the defensive and planned their campaigns for the Tarsis Spring.

This was not true of Nazghat's Orks. Having secured a strong beachhead on Fort Aerin the Ork Warboss began planning the next phase of conquest. First he needed to secure the fort. opening a route from the south to the Ork world of Kallack. On Kallack Nazghat planned to assert his dominance, creating an even bigger Waagh! to take Fort Sparcos and dominate the Mabb Nebula and the Shadow worlds. If he achieved this the Tau on Melberg and the Imperium on Alphe would be in serious trouble.

Meanwhile back on Tarsis Major Snazzteef refused to give up on his dream of taking Tarsis Prime. To do this he secured the services of a (quite mad) big Mek who had delusions of grandeur. Imperial agents were quite concerned in 1901.009M42 when they discovered plans for a "Grate Big 'Uge Pully Beam" and frantically began risk assessments on the number of asteroids in the vicinity of Tarsis Major itself.

The Tau were by early 009M42 being largely led on Tarsis Major by Commander Shadowstrike and his influence. Sunstrike already hated the venture but Shadowstrike's influence with many in the Ethereal caste meant his strategic decisions were given greater weight and the war on Tarsis Major would continue. Shadowstrike and his subordinate commanders agreed on a policy of "Imperium first", taking the southern part of Tuva while performing a holding action against Chaos and acting strategically against them.

The plans of the Catechism, and the Night Lords remained to take Tarsis - and quickly. By early 009M42 the alliance of the Night Lords and the Catechism had already become strained with the Catechism's continued use of Daemon armies and the Night Lords' apparent inability to make progress against a tough Imperial defence. The Chaos cause suffered another blow early in the year as the Night Lords fleet was decisively beaten in a skirmish with the Imperial fleet, delaying supplies and allowing a reinforcement convoy to land nearly 100,000 more troops on Tuva.

While Moonface prepared his army to strike at the heart of Imperial power on Tarsis, it was becoming increasingly obvious that his forces may not be able to control the daemons indefinitely. Already the Chaos marines had been forced to attack their own daemon allies and now ominous portents were growing in indicence. Milk spoiled for no reason, the mutation rate skyrocketed, several statues began weeping blood and strange storms were seen in the skies over Merrin. In addition astropaths began having fits and Navigators travelling to the system reported unnerving experiences sent to them from the warp. One described perceiving a huge vortex centred around the planet and another a giant maw opening up and engulfing the planet in its gape. Overall the signs were bad and even mortal generals serving the forces of Chaos began questioning the wisdom of using daemons as allies.

The Imperium, though disturbed by the daemonic portents, kept to their attritional plan, attempting to throttle the Tau and Ork reinforcements while pitching their main offensives in 009M42 against the forces of Chaos. General Du Prez admitted he would most likely sacrifice Merrin and Sartano, while building up the defences on Tuva to make an "unbreakable bastion" against which the Tau, Chaos and Orks would exhaust themselves. However some began planning the "final solution", should the daemonic incursions get any worse.