By the middle of 10.013M42 the Imperium was in serious trouble in the Zadoc subsector. On Hylas, just days after a modest offensive, Warlord Na'Porkleon's "Gen-rall Doo-Pwee" launched a massive offensive in the west. Several armies charged across the Birego Plains while several more conducted a lightning advance along Tennys Coast. It was clear the orks would soon surround Tennyson so General Van Dorn dispatched what forces he could to the beleagured settlement. A heated debate took place in the high command at Collingwood as the imperial hierarchy realised it did not have anything it could realistically throw in the ork warlord's way. Eventually the Adeptus mechanicus volunteered to defend the city.
The mechanicus troops along with a small contingent of marines defended the city for several days as Doo-Pwee's orks massed around the city. Both sides found it difficult to fire on one another amongst the factories in the outskirts of Tennyson, and the fighting devolved into bloody hand to hand skirmished in the industrial complexes. At first the difficult terrain around the city hampered the ork advance, as did the sacrifice of the marines helping to defend the city. Eventually however the imperial force was overwhelmed by the greenskins, and Van Dorn gave permission for a general withdrawl from the west of Hylas. Now imperial control of the planet was limited to the eastern third of the world.
On Zadoc the Iron Warriors made use of their Daemonforge, landing a significant force on Foregia to the south of the main imperial-chaos battle line. They made good progress and the Crimson Fist company sent to deal with the new incursion was all but wiped out.
On Tyranteous the tau, aided by the eldar, smashed the imperial line near Thraxicon, causing the entire imperial defence of Fernal in the far west to collapse. The tau took over 300,000 prisoners and at a stroke the imperium lost almost a quarter of its fighting force. The tau under commander Windgather then drove south into Badvale, once again coming into contact with General Chuikov's Novgorod forces. Once again the imperial general launched an immediate counter attack which at first stunned the tau. However the aliens then took up defensive positions, and were easily able to mow down the Novgorod conscripts as they charged over open ground. Again the imperial casualties were astounding, with ten thousand falling in a single day. Cunningham called of the Novgorod attack and moved all imperial forces east into Badvale, where a dangerous salient had now built up which the tau were threatening to encircle.
The grim news from the Zadoc subsector was received by a very subdued imperial council on Vastrid. Titus Luthor was even handed with his generals, and Brooke and Montgomery retained their jobs. It was clear however that the situation in the subsector was out of hand, and contingency plans were begun for the evacuation of New Cerberex and Caitlen Station, with a possible halt line at Libria. This would mean abandoning the rest of the subsector, something which was not a popular suggestion with the inquisition.
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