Echo Reach invasion thwarted by Alliance

In mid 09_018M42, after the abortive initial invasion by Barham's battlegroup, Admiral Enkvist arrived with his fleet, escorting a Hammers of the Emperor Strike Cruiser and several transports carrying fresh Novgorod forces. In overall command on the ground, general Chuikov would allow the astartes to take the initial action, this time against the Federacy held outer world of Vostar. First however, the space lanes needed to be cleared.

In order to prevent Admiral Sunstrike from interfering with the invasion of Vostar, Enkvist deliberately took his warships, complete with a new Dominion class battlecruiser and two nova cannon equipped Dominators into a thretening position near to the tau base at Naitonaito. Swiftstar could not allow the Imperial Fleet to come within bombardment range, so for the first time in the Hadron Expanse Sphere campaign the tau gave battle. Approaching cautiously, Swiftstar was careful to keep his fleet togehter to maximise firepower, but this allowed the dominator class Tsushima an array of targets, and the battle opened with the protector class Sun Sword being ripped apart by explosions as a devastating volley overwhelmed her shields.

The battle then became a stalemate, as neither side were able to land telling blows. All Enkvist's vessels had upgraded turret protection, neutralising the threat from Swiftstar's mantas and torpedoes, while the Imperial Vipers were unable to get their own torpedoes through the accurate and numerous tau close action weaponry. Gradually the fleets got closer and closer, before the distance became uncomfortable for even the Imperium. One imperial cruiser attempted to board Dawn Sight, but accurate weapon fire and repeated manta wave attacks had crippled her, and the action was repulsed by the Xenos.

As the two fleets passed by each other the tau were able to overwhelm the imperial defence turrets by timing their torpedo and manta attacks, finally wrecking Tanenberg and Vorskla. In return however Dawn Sight, which had spent much of the battle taking evasive manouevres dodging incessant lance fire from the battleship Kulikovo, finally succumbed, exploding dramatically after internal safety mechanisms failed, leading to her plasma core overheating. At the same time the battle between the escort forces was no less dramatic, with all but one of Enkvist's Vipers taken out of action, the last one lucky to escape concentrated fire from the tau fleet. The tau too lost their escorts, and as the fleets drew away a final volley from Kulikovo heavily damaged the tau battleship Vigilence. The tau also lost the emissary class Lightfoot, although her battered hull was later recovered and towed back to Echo Reach.

As both fleets drew away from one another both sides rescued what they could, and Enkvist briefly considered pressing the attack. Two of his cruisers had been put out of action and he had lost all his escorts, so instead the Novgorod admiral returned to the system jump point. Although an inconclusive action, the imperial admiral knew he had at least done enough to ensure the next part of the operation would not suffer interference from the tau fleet.

Imperial Losses
Vorskla hulked
Tanenberg hulked
Several Viper escorts destroyed

Tau Losses
Vigilence crippled
Sun Sword destroyed
Dawn Sight destroyed
Lightfoot destroyed
Several escorts destroyed

With the space above Vostar cleared, the Imperial transports moved into orbit. First however the Hammers of the Emperor launched their planned attack on the main federal bases on the planet. These needed taking out, otherwise the ensuing guard landing would turn into a massacre. Landing a fair distance away from the federal defences, the Hammers then made their way overland towards their enemy, keeping their elite captains in Thunderhawks ready to charge into the action where they were needed the most.

Once contact was made, the marines soon set up a firebase in one of the outer buildings of the federal complexes, breaching the line before the federal Librians were even fully aware of the attack. The Librians rallied however although many of their Leman Russ battle tanks were taken out in the opening minutes of the main firefight. Charging forward the hellhounds subjected the charging astartes to horrendous casualties, and in the centre of the battle line the Librian infantry fought valiantly against superior foes, despite eventually being overcome by the genetically engineered enemies in brutal hand to hand fighting.

Now the Hammers sent in their captains, while their firebase continued to wreak havoc against the Librian armour. Only the Librian artillery, carefully deployed out of sight, was not eliminated. This would prove costly. As the astartes captains and the remaining marines dealt with the rest of the Librian infantry, the artillery began pounding the Federacy's own lines. shells poured in from above, with the Librians using their few spotting aircraft to home in on even the lone captains. The marines at the firebase were then ordered to move forward and take the objectives, but they too were cut down by incessant and accurate Basilisk fire. 

By the end of 1809_018M42 the remaining space marines had been cut down, or escaped during the long night of Vostar. Casualties were high, but the Federacy had taken terrible punishment from the astartes raid. Nevertheless, Chiukov had to reluctantly admit that despite the damage, the main federal bases were still intact, and no landing would be possible. The operation to take Vostar was postponed.