Gabriel's World falls, Achreom invaded

For almost two Terran months the war on Gabriel's World had gone cold. General Pollack had commanded that all available troops, now mostly Librian guardsmen, be pulled back to defend a perimeter around Gabriel's Landing. The city, which had been so painstakingly won back from the Greenskins only two years previously, was now under seige by an enemy once more. The Librians took up defensive positions around the city, but had to wait until 3105.014M42 before the eldar launched their attack. Once again the Disciples of Ynnead led the assault, using their wraithguard as shock troops supported by devastating weapons fire from their super-heavy Scorpions. The Scorpions devastated the Librian armour before they allowed the wraithguard to attack. Once the heavy weapons of the defenders had been neutralised by the longer ranged Pulsars, the wraithguard moved in to deal with the infantry.

The Librians had no answer to the eldar equipment and tactics, and despite desperate short range attacks by grenadiers on the super heavy skimmers, it was too late. The wraithguard were soon among the Librian infantry and unleashed their fearsome short range flamer weaponry. The result was carnage, and in less than 24 hours the line had completely collapsed. A few lucky defenders managed to scramble onto one of the last shuttles to leave the planet, but the majority of the defenders were either killed or taken prisoner by the eldar. Gabriel's world had fallen to the Disciples.

No sooner had word reached Pollack of the loss of Gabriel's World than further alarms flooded in from Achreom. The neighbouring system had similarly come under attack, less than a day after the loss of the first imperial outpost. Once again the Disciples of Ynnead were identified, and although they found their initial raids having limited effect on the infantry heavy Novgorod Guard defenders, eventually the wraithguard elements were once again breaking through the imperial defences. By 1006.014M42 the imperium had been forced to abandon several settlements in the mountains of Naraheim, and as they retreated black smudges on the horizon behind them indicated to the guardsmen the destruction and burning by their alien opponents. Pollack now realised the Disciples' agenda wasn't just local to one system but appeared to be potentially subsector wide in scope. Denied reinforcements before, this time Pollack embarked on the battlecruiser Benbow, which had just returned from a mission in the Valitane subsector, in order to petition Lord Titus Luthor personally.