Libria IV: Alliance force their way into Porthaven

On Libria IV the alliance bridgehead had been secured by mid 09.015M42, and by the beginning of 10.015M42 the outskirts of Porthaven had been reached. Already the alliance had a foothold in the city thanks to disruptive raids carried out on the Novgorod Guard by the kabal of the Venom Drake, and the Iron Warriors followed up these spoiling raids, driving into the north east of the city. The guard were supported by a powerful combat knight, but the alliance forces found this no obstacle.

Meanwhile in the south a company of Space Wolves and a company of Ultramarines held a defensive line against rebel guard and tau forces. The combined astartes force successfully blunted the alliance attack for several hours, but eventually the defence lines were over come. The rebel guard units and their tau allies were able to push first west then north, linking up with the Iron Warriors on 0410.015M42 and isolating a division of Librian Guard.

The next blow came from the east. Skyfall's tau now joined in the attack, aggressively attacking the Librian defenders in the eastern suburbs. After taking out the Librian artillery the imperial forces found it difficult to deal with Skyfall's highly mechanised forces, and once again the advanced shielding deployed on Skyfall's riptide suits proved its worth.

Having nullified the Librian capacity to deal damage the tau now took their time, knowing the guard regiments had nowhere to retreat to. There was no need to sacrifice any more tau lives than was necessary to complete the mission, although the kroot were given permission to conduct a flanking attack, with limited success. By 0610.015M42, cut off and surrounded, the remaining Librians in the pocket of the eastern suburbs surrendered to Skyfall.

Worse was to follow for the loyalists. On the same day as the Librian surrender in the east, Windgather's forces attacked from the west, having deployed another KX139 Ta'unar Supremacy suit to the planet. The deployment of such a monstrous battlesuit caused horrendous casualties amongst the Novgorod guard, who were not expecting an assault from that direction. The tau pushed in, establishing a new bite out of the imperial territory within the beseiged city. At the current rate of advance Porthaven would fall before the end of the year, yielding Libria IV to the alliance.