Outcome

“Correct strategy”

General Cunningham was devastated following the battle on the Teranno, as it became known. Having held the Tau in one of the bloodiest engagements on Tuva, a messenger rushed in to the Generals headquarters with the news that Silverbrook had fallen to Shadowstrike. Cunningham is reported to have thrown his cup of Caffiene at the poor unfortunate recruit bringing him the message.

If Cunningham had been devastated, Lord General Du Prez was in a more serious predicament. The Lord General soon had a visit from the Commissariat, who gave the overall commander on Tarsis Major a stark choice. Resign, or be removed. Somehow his connections prevented the Commissariat taking the ultimate sanction, and Du Prez simply “retired”, while General Cunningham received the unexpected, and somewhat unwanted information that now he was overall commander on Tarsis Major.

In the Imperial Navy the commander of Naval forces on Tarsis Major, Admiral Ozzel, who many considered the cause of the sudden loss of two of the Emperor’s cities, did not escape with his life. A Commissariat officer visited his chambers in Tarsis Prime and offered him the usual choice. Faced with a firing squad, the Admiral shot himself with his laspistol.

Cunningham’s first act as overall commander was to call a meeting of all generals and Astartes commanders, and all came. The Imperial Navy attended to, but with fewer than five hundred planes remaining it was clear they could provide little for Cunningham’s war effort.

Cunningham surmised the overall strategy on Tarsis Prime had been right. Force the Tau to take losses they could not accept, but that the tactical planning had been bad, as had the co-ordination of efforts. What was VII corps doing invading northern Merrin while VI and V Corps were hard pushed in south Tuva? Cunningham refocussed minds and drew up a plan which would hopefully prevent the total overrun of the planet by the end of the year...