Following the disastrous initial invasion of New Sparta by the Imperium, General Alexander was keen to try again with minimal delay. It was clear that the forces of Chaos in the Rim Worlds had been underestimated, but on 2007.012M42 Alexander heard he was to be granted double the forces to support his campaign in the Zadoc subsector. Encouraged by this the General summoned his Colonels and put together a plan to reinvade New Sparta.
This time the Astarted weren't invited. Alexander would do it all himself, with Guard forces, and allow the Space Wolves to take the blame for the first invasion. With this in mind the Prozan 8th and Librian 14th Regiments were chosen to lead the initial attack on the Chaos world, which had been substantially fortified since it fell to chaos four years earlier.
The Prozan and Librian Guard regiments landed on New Sparta at night in an uninhabited rocky wilderness. An entire base camp with defensive walls was set up within ten hours, large enough to accomodate a landing strip and hangers for an entire naval air wing. The ten thousand troops of the Librian regiment then moved out, leaving a small defensive force and the Prozan 8th behind at "Camp Alexander".
At first progress was good with negligible resistance, until the Librian forward elements reached a set of pre-prepared fortifications barring their way to the main hinterland of the world. After a brief reconnaissance it became clear that only a small force of Lorek's traitor marines held the fortifications, and that a full frontal assault should overwhelm them. To Colonel Barker in charge of the operation, it looked like a trap, but one he was prepared to spring...
As the Librians advanced on the defenders the air crackled and buzzed with unearthly energies, and Barker's hunch was very quickly proved correct, as the Claws of Lorek were suddenly reinforced by a surging horde of daemons, led by no fewer than three monstrous daemonic entities, which quickly moved to strike at the Librian's left flank.
Within minutes of the daemons appearing the Librian assault all but halted. The daemons mainly attacked the Librian left wing, and here they obliterated Leman Russ and massacred infantry squads who had scrambled in vain to take up defensive positions. Barker himself was cut down by a towering daemonic entity, and after several hours of fierce fighting the Librian nerve was beginning to crack.
Fortunatley before his untimely demise the Librian Colonel has sent for assistance. The forces of Chaos had shown their hand and now the Prozan Cavalry were sent in to finish them. Minutes later the scream of jets was heard over the battlefield as Valkyries, Vendettas and Vultures joined the fray. At the same time the Librian's reserve of mechanised infantry and hellhound tanks was thrown in to try to turn the Chaos flank, and the combined firepower of the Imperial tanks and aircraft was awesome to behold.
The larger daemons were dealt with first, sent back to the immaterium by concentrated plasma and lascannon fire. Then The smaller daemons felt the full firepower of the Prozan airborne cavalry, before the transport aircraft dropped off their infantry to secure vital objectives.
As evening approached the Imperial line had held, and a breach in the Chaos defences had been made and was now being exploited by the remaining Librian armour units. With the daemon threat largely lifted, the Claws of Lorek now started to suffer withering fire from the Imperial Guard on the ground, and before night fell they had abandonned their defensive line and fallen back to the next one. The Imperial advance had succeeded and Alexander had broken out of his bridgehead. The Prozan's lost a number of aircraft and the Librians a fair few tanks, but together the infantry had held firm in the face of a terrifying enemy and secured a foothold on New Sparta.
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