Ork violence increases

The inhabitants of the Zadoc subsector - those in the know anyway - watched with alarm the military buildup of Ork forces during the middle of 012M42. By the end of 08.012M42 Ork raids across the sector were becoming more brutal and ever increasing in scale. Once such raid occurred on Aornis on 0109,012M42, when a huge force of orks led by Uzfang dropped into realspace just days from the planet. By 0309.012M42 the ork fleet had had begun landing troops on Aornis, who immediately began looting and pillaging everything they could find. Whether the raid on Aornis was by design or by accident is still not known. It is known that the ork Warlord's Uzfang and Na'Porkleon couldn't agree on where to strike next, and so the two settled their differences in the only way orks know how, by fighting.

The outcome of the ork battle was a decisive victory for Uzfang, and just a week later Uzfang's forces, as well as those loyal to Na'Porkleon were raiding Aornis. It's not a huge leap of imagination to infer that Uzfang was keen to raid chaos, while Na'Porkleon wanted to concentrate on the Mabb Nebula, especially as it became obvious the ork warlord was massing troops on Bothorion.

The raid on Aornis was abloody affair, as the Claws of Lorek were forced to raise daemons to defend their bases. This led to violent close quarter fighting, with Na'Porkleon's forces suffering heavy losses, before Uzfang's arrived to smash the daemonic hordes. While the battle raged, gretchin were busy taking anything of value from Aornis, which they all but picked clean before disappearing on their ramshackle craft, back to the Vork Ork Expanse.

Despite Uzfang's defeat of Na'Porkleon, it seemed there were no hard feelings. Na'Porkleon, as well as warlord Krumpgutz continued to build up their forces in the Mabb Nebula, and it seemed a new Waagh! would be inevitable. The Tau preferred to await developments, hoping the orks would strike Imperial worlds, and they didn't have enough strike power in the region following their wars on Hylas and Va'Doran to even attempt to stop the orks. The eldar however, concerned that their exodite worlds would once again be at risk, launched a punitive strike on Krumpgutz on Bothorion in early 09.012M42, which was successful in damaging several key ork installations. This probably delayed the subsequent ork offensive.

Later in 09.012M42 the orks on Bothorion were attacked once again, this time by the Salamanders chapter of Space Marines responding to a request for aid from General Alexander. He now rightly considered his existing forces inadequate to defend imperial interests against the combined threats in the subsector, so the company of Salamanders who arrived in the subsector were gratefully received. The Salamanders quickly sized up the situation in the Mabb Nebula and prepared for a raid against Na'Porkleon on Bothorion. Lacking any sizeable force to invade the ork held world, the space marines would wreck as much as possible to slow their build up to invasion.

The Salamanders identified key targets, with their primary objective being the main ork telyporta which would be crucial to the ork invasion plans. If this could be knocked out, or better still, stolen, the ork plans would be set back weeks. In the end however the raid on Bothorion was a terrible fiasco, as Na'Porkleon's forces had chosen to defend the telyporta with strong forces. By the time the Salamanders realised this it was too late, and crippling Loota fire quickly pinned most of the marine force. The main charge for the objective by the Salamander's elite terminators in Land Raiders was interecepted by one the ork warlord's warbosses, and despite managing to cut down the mega armoured giant and his retinue, the terminators suffered badly from heavy fire once their vehicles were destroyed. The final blow was delivered by ork air support, as careening and wildly firing dakka jets finished off the Salamanders' insertion force. Days later, on 1909.012M42 Na'Porkleon's ramshackle fleet arrived in the Hylas system, much to the relief of the tau, and began unloading troops on the planet's surface. The new ork Waagh! was underway.