Tyranteous: General Patraeus takes Weybridge Crossing, Fallenvale abandoned

General Denham's much expected advance on Weybridge Crossing came just a week after the astartes raids on the settlement. The raids had devastated the infrastructure of the port, and the battle to take the strategic crossing point and last refuge of chaos in the south took place over a ruined and shattered landscape.

The main offensive was carried out by two veteran regiments of the Librian guard and Corellian Storm Guard. These were in turn supported by PDF and less experienced formations on their flanks, while the imperial Navy provided air cover. In the eventual conflict which lasted less than a week, the imperium enjoyed complete air supremacy over Weybridge, allowing the Corellians to emply their Vendetta borne infantry without fear of marauding chaos aircraft.

The conventional forces of Lorek had been severely damaged in the preceding raid, and now the imperial offensive, comprising of some 50,000 men faced no more than a hundred or so traitor marines and perhaps 5000 cultists. As Denham's forces closed in on the settlement, Lorek's forces once more turned to the malign powers of the warp to aid their cause.

The daemons summoned were numerous and powerful, but by now the imperial forces had become used to their tactics. The battle was tight and hard fought, but on day three of the attack the Corellians held the key high ground overlooking the bridge itself, and refused to relinquish control of it despite repeated and increasingly desparate counter-attacks. By the fifth day of the offensive the chaos resistance had been broken and Lorek's daemon allies vanished back into the warp, allowing the Librian and Corellian units to mop up the last defenders of the city. Chaos had been defeated in the south.

The imperium received some additional good news in late 04.013M42, as the beseiged city of Fallenvale finally fell to the imperial side, rather than to the tau. Now the forces of chaos had been forced back into the far north of the planet, away from any strategic areas or valuable crop yielding land. The only downside to the campaign so far had been the attrition, sometimes approaching 30%, in imperial guard regiments exposed to daemonic forces. Here despite rigorous attention from the ecclesiarchy nearly a third of some regiments had to be "cleansed" by the inquisition following battles against Lorek's forces. Even so this was an attrition rate Denham could afford, although he was keen to constantly rotate the forces likely to be exposed to daemonic taint.

As 05.013M42 the threat of chaos receded on Tyranteous, and Denham now had to hold his gains against a tau foe which had superior supply lines to his own, and was rapidly gaining in strength.