Libria III: Minotaurs assault alliance

With the loyalists ably defending on Libria V, Vorushko requested a new assault on Libria III against the alliance. Against her small but elite forces the alliance had deployed carefully, with their best units, namely the tau and Iron Warriors elements, strategically placed to intevene in any assault on the northern cities and the industrial complexes of Cartasia. By contrast, Librian and eldar forces were known to be operating in the east, behind the easily defensible Varras Isthmus front line and the city of Lazurus.

The arrival of the Imperial fleet of Pendragon, Collingwood and the Adeptus Mechanicus was the opportunity the crusade needed. As the federal fleet departed to the jump point the Minotaurs made an astonishingly audacious assault directly at the heart of Lazarus from orbit. The counter attack came swiftly, and although the astartes were significantly outnumbered by their alliance foes, they held on admirably, allowing a strike from Vorushko's highly variegated convential non-astartes forces to push through the Fulmar gap and into the Varras Isthmus. Lazarus was abandoned within days and within a week the alliance had lost control of the Isthmus altogether.