Hylas: No end in sight

Van Dorn's lonely war against the orks on Hylas continued as 02.014M42 began. Un-reinforced from subsector command, the imperial general had none-the-less recieved some reserves in the form of the Adeptus Mechanicus and their astartes allies. These force, although autonomous, recognised the danger of the renewed ork offensive and deployed accordingly. They were also keen to protect the island of Etonia for reasons they did not wish to divulge.

Defensive minded, the mechanicus commander deployed his forces along the northern bank of West Coast, in front of the Etonia bridge, the only safe route to North Eaton from the mainland. Utilising local installations and tall buildings, the imperial force waited for the greenskin advance.

Na'Porkleon's orks duly showed up, but before advancing the aliens too created a defensive position opposite the human defenders, and an uneasy standoff ensued. This state of affairs could not last long however, as the Adeptus Mechanicus would not be moved, knowing that Van Dorn was readying a counter attack from the east. If the orks could be broken here, Van Dorn would have a better chance.

The ork warlord tried desperately to keep his forces from blindly attacking the imperial strongpoints, but in the end that's exactly what they did. Mainly on foot, the greenskins charged towards the Mechanicum lines, led by their elite forces mounted in battlewagons. Na'Porkleon squealed in disgust and bellowed at his lootas to open fire at anything which they could see.

The ork firepower, though heavy, was largely inaccurate. Even so several imperial vehicles, caught out in the open, were wrecked. In the ruins of large factorium buildings however, the astartes and guardsmen were relatively safe, and watched the oncoming greenskin horde, waiting for the order to open fire. When it came a withering hail of bolter and plasma fire tore apart the ork lines, annihilating those mobs caught in the open. Leman Russ battle tanks put paid to most of the battlewagons, and the elite meganobz inside were cut down by plasma fire, their armour melting under the heat of the barely contained energies of the mechanicus weapons. No ork set foot within the imperial defensive perimeter.

The second wave of orks, seeing the untimely demise of the first, took refuge in ruins between the main ork and imperial lines, and began an exchange of fire between their positions and the imperial lines, one which was always going to end badly for the ill equipped orks. Losing badly, the remaining orks of Na'Porkleon's unintended attack force fled back to their own lines on 0302.014M42. Etonia was safe and the ork offensive had left the greenskins in disarray. Now Van Dorn attacked.

The next few days saw the orks flee in disorder as Van Dorn's imperial guard easily overran the ork positions. By 0702.014M42 the line had stabilised as Na'Porkleon halted at the previously held defence lines and the stalemate on Hylas resumed.