Libria III: Quatria taken by Iron Warriors

As 03.015M42 came to an end, the alliance, now made up of the Iron Warriors and Tau forces, continued to prioritise the destruction of the Crusade on Libria III. They assessed the Crusade as the greater threat and the least likely to surrender or withdraw voluntarily following diplomacy, whereas events on Tarsis and Melberg had demonstrated that the loyalist forces rarely fought the alliance to the death. Vorushko and her forces almost certainly would, and they had to be eliminated. By avoiding pressure on Launceston's loyalists, the alliance ensured the Crusade still had to fight on two fronts, making the job all the easier.

The assault against the Crusade continued with little in the way of delay following the destruction of the loyalists at Ballong Bay. In an unexpected attack, a large force of Iron Warriors infantry pushed south from Cartasia into the suburbs of Quatria in relative secret before the Adeptus Sororitas and attached Vannaheim regiments realised that a new assault had begun. the Crusade had expected the Iron Warriors to utilise their mechanised forces and had planned accordingly, but Apollo was clever, keeping his enemies guessing.

This time his largely infantry based force were able to utilise the cover of Quatria's massive buildings, and targetted the Vannaheim artillery for early destruction. In this they were phenomenally successful, wiping out much of the Vannaheim long range firepower. Thus compromised, the Crusade forces were unable to prevent the astartes warriors from overunning the city, and where they attempted to hold the Iron Warriors, the Sisters of Battle were brutally hacked down in violent hand to hand combats, the ideological gap between the two sides all to clear to see.

By 0504.015M42 Quatria had fallen to the Crusade, securing the entire western seaboard of Cartasia and much of the south coast. If Rhallor and Aegon could be captured, the alliance would be able to encircle the armies beseiging Cartal.