The Grey Knights led the planned assault, but this time
received help from the Imperial Fists. Despite the two astartes forces having been on either side of the Inquisition war, both knew that the survival of the Imperium in the Aleph sector was at stake, and both chapters acted with the utmost faith and professionalism, planning a detailed raid against Mordecai II, which would render the space docks in orbit above unusable for a long time.
The first raid had destroyed the supply docks at Mordecai Primaris, but this raid would target Mordecai Secundus, where mining operations provided the raw materials for the maintenance of the mighty chaos fleet. If production here were destroyed, the base would be redundant, as it would be a floating fortress without the ability to service and repair Thok and Trageans fleets.
The operation was not without risk, as to prevent forewarning of the chaos forces, the imperial force would have to avoid the usual jump points and enter the system a lot closer to the baleful orb of the Mordecai star. This immediately led to problems, as while the Imperial Fists strike cruisers arrived on time at their scheduled jump point, the operation was delayed for some time as the Grey Knight's navigators made a critical error, leading to the fleet being lost in the warp for a considerable period.
This time allowed the chaos forces of the Emerald Serpent to intervene, lending much needed support to the defenders of the Mordecai system - the Venturi Cataphractii led by the chaos abomination Lord Malinda. Now the imperial force faced a significant defence as the element of surprise had been lost.
Without fleet defence however, the forces of chaos were powerless to prevent the astartes from landing where they chose, and although the traitor army reacted as best they could, by the time battle had been joined the damage had already been done. Massive stockpiles of materials protected from bombardment by void shields were destroyed from below, as the astartes rapidly created breaches in the facilities' defences, allowing the adeptus mechanicum to set off massive demolition charges.
Then the astartes forces had to escape. Barring their way Magnus himself appeared from the warp, enraged by this second trespass into the very lair of chaos in the Deeps. However, the Imperial Fists commander stood before him, and many then attest to a miracle occurring. Despite the impossibility of such an event, all witnessed the space marine captain take on the appearance of their lost Primarch, Rogal Dorn himself, who stood in a shining halo of light battling his brother in single combat as the rest of the astartes forces made good their escape. Magnus was struck down and once again banished to the warp, as the vision of Dorn watched over his sons as they escaped into the waiting strike cruisers.
The raid annihilated the mining stations on Mordecai Secundus, wrecking the facilities of the system itself. Realising now that the situation was becoming intolerable, Lord Tragean and Thok broke with Stahl, with Thok moving his fleet immediately to his anchorage, where he would need to spend months repairing the damage done by the astartes actions.
Tragean, fearing a similar raid at his base on Kendrenec, similarly fled the Paradorn system. Now Warsmith Stahl found himself alone, with his fleet facing the newly arrived battlegroup under Admiral D'Oyly-Hughes. The situation on Paradorn had changed drastically, and Stahl's hope to close off the Foramen Majoris from the Imperium had suffered a huge setback. Thanks to the actions of the adeptus astartes, and the "miracle of Dorn", the Imperium had been saved from the brink of annihilation.
No comments:
Post a Comment