Cunningham had done well to halt the Tau advance on Tarsis Prime, though at a painful cost in men and equipment. He thought, wrongly, that the main thrust of the latest Tau assault had been broken, and Tarsis Prime saved. However, Cunningham didn't know that Elan Ro had fulfilled his objective, just, and that Commander Shadowstrike was about to assault Silverbrook, where defences were thin on the ground. Just two PDF regiments and a newly arrived Cadian regiment stood between Shadowstrike and the city.
Shadowstrikes personal cadre had been held in reserve throughout operation Triton, ready to take advantage of the developing situation. When a route opened up to silverbrook his cadre was deployed from his command manta. As the only regiment mobile enough to intervene the Cadian 501st air dropped to defend the city. A screen of infantry in prepaired positions and backed by heavy weaponry barred the way. Forces sent forwards on reconnaisance were ambushed and annihilated by the tau before they moved up their heaviest units to begin pounding the imperial positions. Casualties began to mount and their sited heavy weapons positions were destroyed. The defences finally gave way when kroot auxiliaries, who had worked their way around the flank, attacked and rolled up the line. A last ditch effort to destroy the Tau's most valuable assets through an air strike by valkyries and air dropped storm troopers failed to inflict significant damage before Shadowstrike lead a counter attack in person. Defeated and cut off from loyalist forces all imperial resistance was destroyed or forced to surrender.
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