Loyalists tighten hold at Destino

While the fighting in the Hadron expanse continued and Barham's loyalist expansion fleet pressed on into the unknown, the loyalists at Destino decided to head the strategic warning from the Adeptus Administratum, and put together an operation to clear the Crusade and ork forces from the outer worlds. 

General Percival organised the small fleet resources he had, and landed a significant force of Guard led by the Last of Sycorax on Destino 6. Meanwhile the Novgorod Guard made landfall on the outermost world, a barren rock planet with a barely breathable atmosphere. Here they knew the orks were entrenched, but the Bork fleet had so far not been encountered.

The operation was a major success for General Percival. The Last of Cycorax made headway on Destino 6, despite the intervention of the Carcharadon Astra and elements of the Crusade Adeptus Mechanicus. The Crusade fought hard, but without logistical support were unable to hold off the relentless guard offensive. By 0505.018M42 the planet was in loyalist hands.

On the barren world of Destino 7, the Novgorod Guard faced wave after wave of ork boyz throwing themselves at the guard lines. Days of hard and bloody fighting followed, but the Novgorod never wavered, always reporting updates to General Percival that the situation was "in hand". 

By 0605.018M42 the loyalist forces had broken the back of the ork hordes and had moved into seek and destroy missions. Across the barren planet pyres were lit of burning ork bodies as the imperial forces removed the taint of Xenos from the world. The loyalists now controlled every world in the system, and importantly had fortified the planets giving them a strategic base of operations. The Bork had not been found, but the orks had been eradicated from the worlds of the system. Now only the eldar on "Alarielle's Triumph" needed to be dealt with.