Libria: Current state analysis

By 09.015M42 the Librian war had been going on for 18 terran months. Following the collusion between the Librian rebels and the Alliance had been uncovered and Lord Inquisitor Vorushko issued her now infamous edict, judging and condeming the entire system to purgatory, the most important planetary system in the Zadoc subsector had been in turmoil. At first it had simply been a civil war on the most populous planet, Libria III. Then the alliance intervened. First the tau, eldar and federal forces, now including Apollo's astartes, had tried to invade Libria V to set up a waystation, before Vorushko made her move.

Inquisitor Vorushko gathered her own forces, mainly hard line space marine chapters and the adeptus sororitas, and declared anyone who was against her edict was against the imperium. Unfortunately another lord Inquisitor - Hathek - *was* against it, and attempted to nullify it, taking control of the imperial guard hierarchy to create the "loyalist" faction.

Vorushko acted fast, landing on Libria III and attempting to knock out General Launceston's command, while simutaneously landing on Libria V to prevent the alliance from establishing a base. Meanwhile the "crusade" took Libria I in just a few weeks, crushing the loyalist opposition. Hathek urged the loyalists to resist both the alliance and the crusade, and a three way war developed. The alliance, taken by surprise, were removed from Libria V, but on Libria III it was Launceston's loyalists who were eventually defeated, with the battle now in the balance between Vorushko's crusaders and the alliance.

The Crusade remain in control of Libria I, while its binary companion Libria II remains neutral. Libria III is contested by the crusade and the alliance while the alliance themselves attempt to wrestle Libria IV from the loyalists. Libria V is a face off between the crusade and the loyalists, who still refuse to bow to Vorushko's edict. Meanwhile in space, Appollo's Iron Warriors fleet holds command of the system. At the end of 09.015M42 the Librian heresy is a confused affair, but so far the imperial split had been limited to the Librian system. This was about to change...