New tau offensive besieges Fallenvale

General Denham had been right to fear a renewed offensive from the Tau. Since their initial invasion they had continued to build up their forces, and despite the recent imperial successes against chaos, the tau still controlled the outer reaches of the Tyranteous system and the strategically vital Tyranteous Moonbase, a desolate but vital installation orbitting one of the system's larger gas giants. Here the tau had already converted the imperial base, and having defeated a chaos incursion, were now at liberty to use it as an effective staging post for troops and equipment bound for Tyranteous itself. With Jellicoe's fleet still en route to Tyranteous there was nothing the imperium could do to challenge tau superiority in space, so Denham was forced to defend his recently won territory with the forces he had to hand.

The imperium fortified the important settlements and strategically significant positions on their front line with the tau, but when it came the renewed offensive bypassed much of these defences, out manouvering Denham's guard formations and driving deep into imperial territory between Fallenvale and Hammerton. The tau plan had been simple, to cut the imperial general's supply lines to the northern city and encircling a large portion of his army.

Initially the tau plan succeeded, but the Raven Guard had positioned themselves in the rear ready for such an eventuality. They immediately threw themselves at the "speartip" of the tau attack, aiming to blunt the tau advance and knock out their elite forces. General Denham would then be able to issue a general order to counter attack, catching the tau between two formidable forces.

The Raven Guard assault went wrong from the start, with strong warp currents blinding the chapter's librarians and causing the drop pod assault to go badly awry. One veteran librarian was almost overwhelmed by the warp turbulence, almost certainly caused by the frequent daemonic manifestations which had characterised the war against chaos on Tyranteous.

Despite the setbacks the Raven Guard pressed home their attack, eventually assailing the tau commander himself in close combat with the superior genetically enhanced super humans. Overall however the tau advance was not checked, and the astartes could do little to prevent the xenos forces from linking up several hundred miles south of the now beseiged city of Fallenvale. The Raven Guard abandoned their mission, feelings of bitterness and unfinished business dominating their return to their strike cruiser.