Ever since the Space Wolves of Erik Morkai initiated the invasion of Va'Doran in the Shadow Worlds the imperial assault to take the world had been half hearted at best. Even when the Librian Guard made headway in the first half of 012M42, this was not followed up with further assaults or reinforcements. General Alexander, the overall commander of operations in the Zadoc subsector, had his eyes firmly fixed elsewhere, and by 08.012M42 the standing orders for the imperial forces on the Tau world were to hold their positions and await reinforcement, which could be as long as a year in coming.
Unfortunately this was easier said than done. The Tau were certainly not treating Va'Doran as a backwater, and began reinforcing the colony with troops from Moonshine's contingent in late 07.012M42. This spurred on the local commander of the Librian Guard to launch an offensive as soon as he saw Moonshine's troops digging in in front of him.
The Librian's launched their assault on 1008.012M42, thrusting down from the high ground towards the tau lines, but were shocked to find the tau being very "un-tau like". Moonshine's troops had spent their time building fortifications and creating a killing field in front of their line, and the Librians blundered into it. Despite fighting hard to breach the tau lines, haphazard reinforcement, in part complicated by the tau superiority in the air, meant the attack fizzled out, the imperial forces smashing themselves on the carefully created defences prepared by Moonshine's cadres.
The battering of the Librians allowed the tau to immediately mount a counter attack, and Alexander authorised a general withdrawal from Va'Doran, as it was clear that even with reinforcement, the imperial bridgehead would fall long before they arrived. The imperial forces rapidly returned to their troop carriers in orbit, and escorted by two light cruisers the small battlegroup left tau space on 2008.012M42.
General Alexander had now cancelled two campaigns in as many weeks, losing his footholds on Va'Doran and New Sparta. In addition General Percival was about to be evacuated from Alphe, and only the successful invasion of Rhesius kept Alexander in a job. Lord General Roover was furious with his subordinate, and demanded an action plan to get the campaign under way again. Alphe would be evacuated, and a defence force left in place in the Shadow worlds. The Rim worlds remained top priority but the remaining chaos worlds were all the time receiving reinforcements from Calliden, abandoned to the necrons. Alexander and his war council now had an uphill struggle to maintain the current campaign.
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