Battles on Hexis continue

The battles on Hexis showed no sign of let up as 11.018M42 progressed. Konev's success for the imperium had somewhat run out of steam for the moment, as the imperial forces regrouped to form a secure if rather long defensive line running all the way around Praxis and all but encircling the Alliance positions. The city of Praxis was gigantic however, and the Alliance still had an area almost 500km across, allowing them to ship in supplies and fresh troops at their base, christened Fort Kuwalski after the Federal commander in chief. The fort was an extended base, with an airstrip and munitions facilities, and on 1211.018M42 the first tau arrived.

 

Finally Malkaor had been able to send some badly needed reinforcements to the warzone, and instead of moving south as would be expected, the tau struck north, at relatively weakly defended imperial positions outside the Charion region of Praxis. In the rocks and rubble the guard fell back, while the Ultramarines, also newly arrived, counter attacked. The astartes however were unable to deal with Malkaor's numbers and firepower, and after a brief but furious encounter, yielded the outer ruins to the alliance. It wasn't a breakthrough, but Malkaor had given Konev some pause for thought.

 

In the city itself vicious close quarters action continued to take place in the twisted ruins of Praxis. The Thousand Sons struck out west, defeating the Sisters of Quartz and taking the west of the city, briefly giving control of the entire city centre to the forces of chaos. This was undone later however, as a new fanatical group of Ecclesiarchy warriors struck south, forcing the Thousand Sons to give up their positions and reclaiming the city north of the device chamber.

 

Further west in Menthoteph, the Sisters of Quartz fought against the Imperium in an effort to stop nthem from discovering the underground catacombs wich led to the device room from below. The Rose Division suffered at the hands of the newly arrived imperial cult, despite hacking down several of the fanatics, while in the south the Amethyst Division of the Harlequins fought off a determined attack by a squad of the Hammers of the Emperor astartes, ensuring at least for now that the city of Menthoteph did not easily give up its secrets.