Mordecai Tersius falls to Imperium

While the Imperium were focussing their efforts at Hexis and in the Foramen Interdictum, newly appointed Lord General Militant of the Aleph Sector, Justinian Flavius Maximus, spotted an immediate opportunity to strike a blow against the forces of chaos in the Perseus Deeps. For a long time the intitial invasion of Mordecai Tersius had been neglected as a diversion to redirect chaos forces away from the Foramen Interdictum. Now, Stahl had moved all his naval assets to the Interdictum, all but abandoning the Mordecai system. Realising this, the Lord General ordered a swift end to the campaign on Mordecai Tersius in order to build up for a potential invasion of the heart of the system. This they would either be able to do with chaos forces at the Foramen, or it would force Stahl to split his forces, relieving the pressure on Paradorn and other vulnerable worlds of the Imperium.

Without enemy fleets to worry about, the Imperial Titans of Legio Ossium made Planetfall in the northern imperial held sector of the agri-world and immediately drove south to the remaining chaos held areas. Stahl however had not totally ignored the possibility of an attack on Mordecai while the fleets were away however, and the loyalist imperial Titans encountered a strong defensive force of legio Skyphos war engines. The imperium needed to act fast while the eyes of chaos were fixed elsewhere, so the primary legion for Legio Ossium was to drive at the chaos lines and break through. This they did, aggressively pushing forwards into the traitor legion and quickly wiping out the warhounds escorting the larger titans. Reeling from the shock of this early blow, the chaos force retreated, abandoning the rest of the traitor armies, which were quickly obliterated by the God engines.

By 2602.019M42 the imperial commander on Mordecai Tersius reported the planet to be entirely in Imperial hands, the first time an imperial invasion of the agri-world had actually succeeded. Now Maximus planned for the next stage, beginning the process of appointing a General and directing the Departmento Munitorium to draw up and supply sufficient assets to successfully prosecute an invasion of the rest of the system. This would take time, but for now the Imperium had a foothold in the most important chaos system in the Perseus Deeps.