Grey Knights assault south Praxis

Following the success of the titan legions in the far east of Hexis and the completion of the "left hook" that Konev had planned, the grey Knights took the opportunity to deal with the daemonic forces in the centre of Praxis. The Emerald Serpent were known to be harbouring daemon worshippers and were preparing rituals in the southern and eastern parts of Praxis. Concerned that this would lead to a daemonic incursion in Praxis, and the loss of valuable imperial assets, the Grey Knights struck first, assaulting the city sectors of Marateph and Girishtar, destroying cultist forces and securing the ground for the Imperial Guard to follow up. In addition, the Ordo Malleus astartes found part of what they were looking for, blasphemous rites and other paraphernalia regarding the summoning of warp creatures.

 As the astartes consolidated their positions and destroyed the daemonic artefacts, the Emerald Serpent counter attacked, employing a host of daemonic entities against the loyalist space marines. Plaguebearers lead the attack, supported by daemons of tzeentch, and the terminators were particularly hard pressed as they were assaulted by a storm of psychic energy. They thought they had inflicted a major blow to the daemons, when the plaguebearers were cut down by withering fire, only to see the host of daemons rise once more by the power of the warp. Outnumbered, the elite astartes withdrew, but were destroyed when a sudden manifestation of khorne bloodletters surrounded them and cut them to pieces.

 Despite the trials of the Grey Knights' terminators, the rest of the astartes faired better. Their bolter discipline and air support from gunships kept the bulk of the daemonic horde at arms length, preventing a breakthrough. By the end of 1401.019M42 the remaining daemons had become unstable and disappeared back to the immaterium, and imperial guard forces were able to follow up into the astartes positions, all but surrounding the central region of the device chamber.