Paradorn Invaded by Chaos

With Tarlius secured apart from the remaining eldar zone on Tarlius II, Warsmith Stahl felt confident enough to move onto the next phase of his plans. Having expanded his empire to include now two important systems - Minos and Tarlius - near to the entry way to the Foramen Majoris, the next target was obvious - Paradorn.

The Paradorn system was situated at the other end of the Foramen Majoris. Holding both ends with the support of the chaos fleets of Thok, Tragean and Stahl would effectively block passage through the Foramen Majoris for the Imperium, and anyone else for that matter.

The alliance now had an alternative route through the Cicatrix, but the Foramen Minoris remained contested between the loyalists and the Crusade, who held their fleet at Vandrax, effectively denying passage to the loyalists. In addition to that, the Minoris crossing involved a much longer and more tenuous route, and risked interception by Federal and Xenos forces. Only a strong battlegroup would be able to traverse this route, not the trade convoys the loyalists badly needed.

With the strategic situation so obviously poor, an invasion of Paradorn had to be obvious, and yet when Stahl, Tragean and Thok moved in force to the Paradorn system, they faced no resistance from the Imperial navy, now leaderless with Jellicoe missing, and apparently content to remain on the defensive guarding Farport, with D'Oyly-Hughes somewhere in the Perseus Deeps.

The Iron Warriors fell upon the Imperial ground forces on Paradorn I, and despite a spirited resistance from the Novgorod Guard, who had fought Stahl so many times at Minos, with chaos enjoying total air supremacy their defence lasers were no help. Stahl simply bombarded them from space, then deployed his army on the ground. Stahl's forces then systematically destroyed the Vostroyan units, before annihilating the imperial installations on the barely habitable rock world.

By 2105.018M42 Stahl's Iron Warriors had moved on to Paradorn III, neatly avoiding the eldar on the second planet, who for now remained impassive to the massive conflict now erupting in the system. Imperial High Command seemed paralysed. On 2305.018M42 Titus Luthor returned from his pilgrimage to Terra, to find the Imperial cause in an absolute shambles.