Combined alliance teams push into Charion

The districts of Kaeleth and Charion now became the focus of alliance attention as 11.018M42 drew to a close. These districts in the west of central Praxis represented mile after mile of ruined streets, buildings ziggurats and other crumbling structures. The area was vast, over 75 imperial miles from the central core of the city to the ruined suburbs where the Tau had set up a temporary base. These areas were currently used by the alliance to join together their disparate forces, but the alliance now wished to consolidate their hold on Praxis and begin construction of a new landing strip, capable of supplying an army of several hundred thousand in the quest for the device.

 

To secure Charion, the alliance put out several patrol groups of harlequins and Hartak rangers in the north, with the tau and Librian forces patrolling the "border" with chaos. For now the chaos lines seemed quiescent, but the patrols in northern Charion soon found trouble in the form of the Imperial Cult and their Grey Knights allies once again.

 

Having secured Menthoteph for the Imperium, the Grey Knights pursued the Harlequins back to Praxis, and now with cultists adding to their number, the imperial force engaged the alliance patrols in a series of chaotic and confusing engagements. The Cultists in particular attacked with frenzied zeal, while the harlequins of the Rose division of the Sisters of Quartz danced their combat moves around them. Eventually however, imperial faith and numbers overcame the Sisters' combat proficiency, and the alliance began to take casualties. 

 

The squats of Hartak then moved in, exchanging fire with the Grey Knights and taking a number of human prisoners for interrogation. Despite accurate return fire from the astartes, the squat armour proved to be unyielding, and the imperial force was unable to rescue its cultists nor drive off the alliance force. Withdrawing, the Grey Knights and remaining cultists knew that any chance of surprising the alliance had been lost, and that Charion would have to be allowed to fall into the hands of the xenos and traitors, for now. The alliance had won an important engagement, and work on the new landing strip began in earnest.