Huge battles rage on Hexis

Background 

For weeks the forces of Chaos had been planning a major assault on the imperium on Hexis. Led by O’Tek Ra, the leader of the Emerald Serpent, this was a chance for Chaos to assert their domination over the world - and system. The Emerald Serpent were motivated by their difficult relationship with Warsmith Stahl, not helped by their defeat to the imperium in the space battle above Destino. However to make certain of victory, O’Tek Ra decided to enlist some help. 

Vlokarion, Dark Eldar Archon of the Crimson Blade kabal, was approached by an emissary of the Emerald Serpent in early 02.019M42. Of the drucharii would lend their aid to chaos on Hexis, they stood to profit handsomely, or so the tzeentch sorcerer claimed. Vlokarion considered the words of the foul agent of tzeentch and for once agreed. The Dark Eldar had a vested interest in the victory of chaos - or at least not the imperium - at Hexis. Imperial victory world strengthen the hand of mankind in the Hadron Expanse, putting in jeopardy the carefully constructed hunting grounds the kabal has prepared, threatening Vlokarion’s influence in Commorragh. The Dark Eldar would aid the Emerald Serpent in this venture. 

Farseer Cassandros became aware of the dark eldar involvement in the chaos offensive long before the imperium. However he did not inform his counterpart from the Kel Sandros Craftworld. Instead the eldar warhost began preparing for war, seeing that the drucharii would just as likely attack alliance forces as the imperial lines, and potentially gain access to the webway portals on the planet. Cassandros resolved to aid the imperium in their defence against the impending chaos and dark eldar attack. 

The Battle

The combined chaos and Dark Eldar force met the allied Imperial and Eldar force just to the west of the city of Praxis, in the ruined high ground near Kaeleth. Here the combined forces made their stand as the Dark Eldar raced into battle, ahead of a host of Aether Striders Knights and chaos daemons. Barring their way into Imperial and alliance territory, the Space Wolves, Imperial Knights and Eldar of Cassandross were backed up by regiments of Imperial Guard.

The battle was intensely violent, with the chaos Knight Titan's Hand quickly striking down a loyalist knight while a second imperial war engine was pulled apart by the daemon prince Andreos Cain. Then the Space Wolves quickly lost their air support, as a thermal cannon shot destroyed not only their flying war engines, but several of the wulfen deployed within.

 As the battle raged, the chaos forces gradually pushed the imperial force back, while the dark eldar rushed forward, intent on taking down the imperial and eldar leaders. This they did with great efficiency, killing all the enemy commanders and streaking into the back of the imperial and eldar positions. This was then followed up with a precision teleport attack by the Thousand Sons, which took the vital objectives behind the enemy lines, effectively breaking the allied defence and allowing the chaos forces to advance through the gap in the defence lines. When victory seemed clear, Titan's Hand decided to advance into the centre of the battlefield, only to be immediately obliterated by a Shadowdword and the imperial guard that had previously seen off the initial Dark Eldar advances.

 This last success was a pyrrhic victory however, as the imperial and eldar forces watched in dismay as thousands of chaos troops poured through the breach in the allied defences. By 1702.019M42 it was clear that despite the eldar support, General Ivanovich's 1st army had been routed, and now Randolph's forces further west struggled to keep in contact. The situation was even worse in the alliance held territory, as the tau forces were ordered to abandon their positions and retreat to the Akrash Pass and Helmases mountains. In Praxis, Imperial positions in the north were surrounded and destroyed, while the regions in the south of Praxis were cut off and quickly annihilated by the Emerald Serpent. Only a small force of Imperial soldiers now held out in the west of Praxis city centre, and the entirety of western Hexis, apart from a small area on the Haknur Plateau now belonged in the hands of the enemy.

Aftermath

The Imperium had taken a heavy blow, but Konev's preparation for the inevitable assault had reduced the damage somewhat. The imperium may have lost Praxis - for now - but they still had a good hold on the planet with well defended HQ and secure supply lines. Konev suffered a further blow later however, as it became clear the Iron Warriors were fortifying the underground catacombs against an imperial subterranean attack.

For the alliance, the battle for Praxis was the end of the campaign. Farseet Tarquil was furious, his anger directed at Cassandros for going "off script" without consulting him and wrecking his plan to wait out the big push from chaos, see who lost out and negotiate transfer of territory to them in exchange for holdings in the Hadron Expanse. This in itself angered Cassandros, as the Kel Sandros farseer had never bothered to tell his counterpart "the script", nor had he made it clear that the craftworld eldar were already making plans to abandon the Hadron Campaign. 

The loss of so much territory simply brought forward Tarquil's plans and removed the possibly difficult conversation with the tau over abandoning the campaign. It was clear the tau were in no position to reclaim the lost territory and as the eldar simply abandoned Hexis, the tau were left in the Akrash Pass, banned from utilising the webway to escape. This soured relations within the alliance, but the tau were eventually picked up by the federal fleet that had arrived to replace Swiftstar. Now the tau and federal forces would have to run the imperial blockade of Lysis to return to the Hadron Exapanse and prepare for the new alliance strategic plan, something which was already being drawn up between the leaders of the tau, eldar and federal forces.

For chaos this was a major victory which gave the traitors a clear dominating position on the planet. They had secured Praxis and created fortifications, although strategically the overall position of the traitors remained weaker than that of the Imperium. Now the chaos forces, with O'Tek Ra's Emerald Serpent having scored a major victory, decided to consolidate their position before moving forward towards finally crushing Imperial resistance. The forces on Hexis on both sides now paused to regroup.