An Empire Close to Collapse

In early 05.009M42 Nazghat’s Empire was in trouble. Since the beginning of the year, when the Ork Empire was at its zenith, the greenskins had lost Memnon and Hylas to the Tau, and had suffered invasions by Dark Angels strike forces on Coronus and Tyndareous.

These two worlds had been initially contested by the Orks and Dark Angels in the previous year, but the Orks had been victorious. Now the Dark Angels were back and intent on taking the worlds back in the name of the Emperor of Mankind.

Meanwhile the Tau were also on the move, keen to expand their Shadow Worlds powerbase. On 0205.009M42 a Tau force under one of Shadowstrike’s protégés, landed on Danelloth with a heavily mechanised force. Nazghat responded personally, leading his army against the Tau beachhead. After heavy fighting however the orks were repulsed, Tau Railgun submunitions inflicting horrendous casualties and decimating the Ork horde. In only a week, the Tau had captured more than 50% of the major installations on the planet, and looked certain to capture the minor world.

While Nazghat was distracted on Danelloth, his erstwhile ally, Da Verminator, was in serious trouble on Tyndareous. The Dark Angels had laid siege to the Ork Warlord’s last stronghold, Flack, and on 0105.009M42 the Marines launched a ferocious offensive against the urbanised settlement. Thousands of greenskins were slaughtered and very quickly all strategic control was lost. By the next day the Dark Angels were conducting mopping up operations. Just as Nazghat was informed of this, eviscerating the gretchin who delivered the message, he heard that Coronus, the scene of bitter fighting in 008M42, had been reinforced by another Dark Angels company and were on the move.

Worse was to follow for the Orks. Since defeating the Imperium at fort Aerin, Nazghat had been using the major Ork world of Kallack to produce his munitions and war engines, and it had become a key strategic asset in his conquests. With his armies in retreat across the subsector, Kallack now became vital. It must have come as a blow then when fighting erupted on the planet, between the Orks and a new alien threat.

On 0305.009M42 the first reports of Tyranids on Kallack came in, and the Orks were not fairing well against the tendril scouts of Hive Fleet Nemesis. The Imperium got wind of this too, and determined the path of the alien invasion. Betor, Alphe, Kallack, the Shadow Worlds and then Tyranteous all lay in the Tyranid path – should it continue in this direction. Threat levels were raised, and plans were put in place to even aid the Orks, should a full scale invasion of Kallack occur...