With the increasing Necron activity in the Perseus Deeps and the offensive on Ares stalled, General Veers turned his attention to the final Ork held system in the region, known as Zog (no doubt from the gutteral ork language). Gamordal had already been surpressed but increasing raids by Ork pirates on the crusade's supply routes led the crusade council to decide that Zog needed surpressing as well.
Zog was known to have a large concentration of Ork roks, but the ground forces on the main habitable planet were not considered to be large. With this in mind Jellicoe appointed Rear Admiral Craddock aboard the Retribution class battleship Resolution to command a fleet to root out the Roks, while Wolflord Bran Redmaw's great company of Space Wolves would decapitate the ork forces on the ground. Craddock was given the Jovian class Bulwark as carrier support, as well as Repulse, Agincourt, Conquerer and Phoenix to clear the system, while the Space Wolves would make their own way there.
On 1002.011M42 the Space Wolves landed on Zog itself and quickly annihilated the ork leaders. Some of the greenskins put up a hard fight but within two days the ground war was over and Redmaw signalled that Imperial Guard troops could now land to mop up the remaining Orks who had fled into the vast wilderness zones of the planet.
Meanwhile in space Craddock's vessels soon found themselves with a difficult task on their hands. Instead of a handful of Roks the orks had managed to construct eighteen of the asteroid gun platforms and had immediately reacted to the arrival of the Imperial fleet by launching an all out massed attack on Cardale's forces. The rear admiral had no option but to fight and in the ensuing battle nine of the ork bastions were destroyed, but not without loss. In attempting to clear a path through the massed ork formation Craddock managed to split the ork forces, avoiding the worst of their firepower. However the Repulse was reduced to a hulk by massed ork gunfire, while Conquerer and Phoenix were crippled. The loss of Repulse was a bitter blow to Craddock, who had to abandon the attempt to destroy the remaining ork vessels and return to Corticant for repairs. The Resolution's poor shooting was notable and may have been a contributing factor to the loss of the Repulse, though the hulk was towed back to Corticant for salvage.
Overall the supression of Zog was a success, and the remaining Roks disappeared, though that in itself became a cause for concern to Jellicoe, and the fear of nine or more ork gun platforms appearing in nearby systems without warning became a nagging doubt in the Crusade council's collective mind.
Repulse hulked
Conquerer crippled
Firedrake crippled
9 (of 18) Roks destroyed
2 others crippled
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