Hylas: Salamanders defeated, ork advance checked by Angels.

During 05.013M42 the ork warboss Uzfang resumed his offensive on Hylas after reorganising from the ork victory over the Librians. Since that battle, the Librians had been performing a fighting withdrawal, and General Van Dorn was sorely pressed to hold the greenskins at bay. As with Vasilevsky in the Perseus Deeps the imperial commander requested more forces, but his superior, General Brooke, had none to give. His reserve had now been committed to Tyranteous, and none of the worlds in the sector could provide any more regiments in the near future. Even the mighty Libria was being bled dry of its young men and stretched to breaking point to provide the vehicles and equipment needed to feed the imperial armies' voracious appetite.

Van Dorn was reinforced by the Salamanders, Dark Angels and Blood Angels. These three chapters at least had seen the many challenges the imperium was facing in the chapter, and had worked together to split their forces for maximum effect. Now all three chapters had dedicated forces on practically every active warzone in the sector, and more units in reserve. These flexible battle formations would now be able to react to events across the sector in a way the imperial guard could not.

Grateful for the astartes help, both General Veers in the Perseus Deeps and Brooke in the Zadoc subsector invited the three chapters to send representatives to their war councils, held on Corticant and Zadoc respectively. All three chapters agreed, and now for the first time in years the imperium had a consolidated command structure in both regions, it was only a shame that the imperium was now facing stronger enemies than at any time in the last 5000 years of sector history. The three chapters were joined by the Blood Martyrs in 05.013M42, who had agreed to deploy half their chapter strength to the sector to allow the Red Angels time to rebuild their shattered chapter.

The reinforcements on Hylas were almost too late, as another massive assault by the orks erupted on 0505.013M42, shattering Van Dorn's front line on the plains of West Coast and driving north towards Etonia. The Salamanders reacted first, driving straight towards the ork centre and focussing their attention on Uzfang's elite units. The space marines caused a great deal of damage to the ork warlord's most experienced troop, but at terrible cost. The Salamanders suffered heavy losses, and were unable to stop the ork advance, although they had bought the imperium some time.

Less than a day later, the Dark Angels and Blood Angels co-ordinated a strike on the same elements of the army targetted by the Salamanders. This time the astartes were successful, and after a bloody battle Uzfang's elite units were either destroyed or routed. Their leaders in retreat, the rest of the army followed suit, abandoning the offensive and reducing the pressure on the battered imperial guard regiments. The ork advance north had been stopped, at least for the time being.