With their war against the Imperial fortress garrison on Fort Sparcos going nowhere, the Dusk Raisers were pleased to receive an emissary from the Catechism in mid 05.009M42, who suggested the invasion of Alphe should be a joint one. The exact terms of this "deal" remain unknown, but the Dusk Raiders, who always intended to assault the Agri-World to spread their beloved contagion, accepted, and a new alliance of Chaotic forces was created.
With the Imperial fleet elsewhere the force of Dusk Raiders was unmolested leaving Sparcos, and although an astropathic message was sent to warn the Imperial command that a large Chaos army was on the move, if it was recieved, no action was taken. On 2405.009M42 the Dusk Raiders' small fleet arrived in orbit around the planet. The inhabitants of Wheathaven in the north were able to get away a short distress transmission as the traitor legions teleported their finest shock troops into the middle of the town, but little else was achieved.
Panicked, the Imperial governor Torak blamed the Imperial Guard regiments for not protecting his citizens, and all out war between the Guard and PDF was only narrowly avoided by the intercession of Inquisitor Hathek. By the time an Imperial response was mounted the Dusk Raiders had dug in, taken half of the North Reach and were advancing into Hulme Island, the heart of Alphe's great farmlands. Eventually they stopped to regroup, but the Chaos force, some thousand marines and a hundred times that in support and cultists, now forced the Imperium to fight a war on two fronts against a foe of almost equivalent numbers. General Percival's army had to start winning, and soon.
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