Disciples of Y'nead defeated on Achreom

For many months the imperial high command in the sector had largely ignored the slow but insideous progress of the eldar forces in the Vastrid sector. Titus Luthor understandably had more pressing concerns on Zadoc and Libria, with the latter threatening to end his career, and his life, but the Adeptus Mechanicus percieved a threat to their own interests in the Vastrid subsector which logic dictated should be dealt with sooner rather than later. They acted accordingly and during 08_014M42 shipped a pair of Warhound scout Titans to the remote planet of Achreom, where the eldar had most recently invaded.

Aided by the appearance of two mighty war engines the Librian forces, themselves oblivious to the civil war on their homeworld, were soon organised into an attacking force. Confident of victory the guardsmen launched their offensive and found the capricious eldar less than willing to give battle. The aliens simply stood off as much as possible, preferring to engaged the Librians in a long range gun battle. This suited the Librians, as the objective of the assault was to contain the bridgehead for mopping up by the titans, whose the imperial commanders hoped they had kept secret from their enemy.

The first Warhound was sent in against the shrinking eldar pocket and was soon picking up kills, hunting down enemy skimmers and wraithguard with powerful twin Turbo Lasers. However within minutes of arriving on the scene the Warhound took a hit from an unseen enemy, its void shield collapsing suddenly before the entire top of the war engine detonated in a titanic explosion. The legs burned breifly before toppling over, and the Librians looked on in shock at the scene of destruction, before spotting the skulking form of an eldar Scorpion in the ruins of a water purification facility. Clearly the eldar had known about the Warhound, and had acted accordingly.

All was not lost however, as although the eldar had scored a morale victory with the destruction of the imperial scout titan, the eldar losses were becoming untenable. After stubbornly holding their perimeter for a further eight hours, the remaining eldar left Achreom during the hours of darkness, shortly before the arrival of the second Warhound at the bridgehead. Achreom had been cleansed of Xenos, but the loss of such an engine so quickly in the heat of battle had the Adeptus Mechanicus ordering an extensive analysis into the events leading up to its demise.

Libria V: Prozan Cavalry defeated in Acronia Valley

Following the disaster in the Daralon Valley a force of Prozan airborne troops were called in to halt the inexorable advance of alliance forces down the Acronia Valley. It was felt their mobility would be a winning factor in any engagement against the tau, and they were readied for their mission as 09_014M42 began.

By the time the Prozans were ready to assault the advancing alliance, their enemy had gained nearly 100 kilometres of open ground and were well south of the snow line. The speartip of the alliance force was now led by rebel Librian forces, already referring to themselves as "Federal forces", their rebel leader having committed to joining the Federacy following victory in the civil war. The highly mechanised Librian forces were supported by tau battlesuits, including broadsides and Riptides, and the imperial commander felt this would be an ideal test of the Prozan air cavalry against a well equipped foe.

The initial engagements went well for the imperial forces, as although the ground troops facing the alliance took heavy casualties from the firepower of variant Leman russ and tau battlesuits, the federal army was forced to halt for several hours. On 0709_014M42 the counter attack began with the airborne units of the Prozan regiments screaming into battle, their speakers emitting their customary ancient earth battle music.

The counter attack took the alliance by surprise, as they had not provided dedicated air support. However the tau battlesuits soon found their rail rifles and missile systems an ideal answer to the airborne assault. Soon Valkyrie and Vendetta gunships were either sent blazing to the ground or exploded in mid air, as the rail rifles proved the more valuable anti-aircraft defence. Even a Vanquisher Leman Russ managed to score a lucky kill with its main cannon as a low flying Vulture briefly crossed its field of vision.

The airborne assault quickly became a shambles after that, as the imperial forces found the imperial tanks a tough nut to crack, and the tau battlesuits extremely difficult to dig out of cover. Some of the failure can be put down to pure bad luck, but it was also clear that the narrow terrain of the Acronia valley and its scattered industrial installations was favouring the alliance. Gradually the alliance forces picked up their advance once again, and by 0909_014M42 the imperium had once again gone over to the defensive on Libria V.