Relentless necron advance on Corticant

The war on Corticant continued throughout 04.013M42, with the first half being dominated by necron successes in the same vein as on a succession of worlds during the Harakhty Dynasty expansion. Initially General Veers was loathe to take the Necron invasion in the far west of the world's inhabited strip seriously. Surely it was a raid testing out the imperial defences? It couldn't be a full scale invasion as the invasion fleet itself could not be found. With this reasoning Veers and his staff remained resolutely in Fort Bastion and tasked Librian Colonel Bryers to contain the situation and analyse the threat posed by the necron "incursion".

Unfortunately for Veers he was quite wrong in his assessment of the necron mission on Corticant. The Harakhty dynasty fully intended to overrun Corticant but were unwilling to risk their fleet against the Imperial starbase and attendent warfleets stationed in the system. This was in fact the reason behind their invasion so far away from the centre of power on the Imperial world. The necrons had used an old webway portal to establish a landing force and now were using the same portal to continually reinforce their position on the world. This did mean the Imperium would be free to reinforce from space, but the necron lord by now had a very low opinion of his enemies, and barely considered that a risk to his plans.

His confidence in his troops appeared to be well founded as the Librian Guard forces sent to "contain" the necrons ran straight into trouble on the Blackhollow to Fairmont road. Attacking across the broad plains of Corticant the necrons made their attack at dawn, catching the Librians off guard in an abandonned mining complex. Very quickly the necrons neutralised the most serious threats to their forces, and by daybreak the shattered Librian forces were in full retreat, abandonning Blackhollow and calling for immediate reinforcement.

The Blood Angels and Red Angels responded, with the severely under-equipped Red Angels taking up a defensive stance in the settlement of Lochford, while the Blood Angels launched an aggressive assault to slow down the necrons. However the Blood Angels once again proved to be difficult allies, refusing to attempt to retake Fairmont of Blackhollow and immediately embarking on an apparently random and punitive raid on their enemy in the scrubby hills to the north of the main settlements. Why they chose this strategy the Blood Angels did not reveal to Colonel Bryers, as it was a selfish one. By now the Blood Angels were close to recovering their ancient suit of Sanguinary armour lost in the Deeps several centuries before. It just so happened they were looking on Corticant, and the necrons got in the way. In fact the Blood Angels had deliberately changed their plans to search on the world before it was lost to necrons, though this they did not share with any outside their own brethren.

Despite gaining the element of tactical surprise the Blood Angels found the necrons well prepared for counter attack, and despite making initial gains were unable to dislodge the aliens from their positions. Cutting their losses the Blood Angels withdrew, having done nothing to halt the advance of the necrons on the next settlement, Lochford.

The Red Angels fought bitterly for every street and house as the Harakhty dynasty advanced implaccably on the Imperial settlement, but lacking in equipment and any support the space marines once again found themselves fighting a lost cause. By 1804.013M42 the Imperium had lost three settlements and effectively control of Corticant west of Lake Hartford. The Librians were now cut off at Violetwind Coast, their armoured units unable to cross the marshy ground to the north and east and the necrons blocking all other excape routes. General Veers now scrambled to arrange a defence line on the southern shore of Lake Hartford, in order to halt the necron advance before his own base was overrun. Meanwhile he contacted his superior, General Roover, for permission to evacuate his command and all its staff to the space station in the Corticant system.