In the middle of 019M42 the major forces in the aleph sector were facing very different challenges, and no faction was clearly in the ascendancy. The following details each faction in turn as the second half of 019M42 began.
The Imperium of Mankind
A problem of supply
Lord Justinian Maximus had taken over an Imperium in great peril at the beginning of the year. The Foramen campaign hung in the balance and despite an immediate upturn in fortunes following the Lord General Militant’s appointment, the final foothold in the Foramen was lost in 03.019M42. Although subsequent operations regained a foothold in the Tarlius system, by 06.019M42 the Imperial supply lines running from Vastrid to Hexis were horribly overstretched. Few vital resources reached Konev in the Lysis system, and the battle there had become a defensive attritional nightmare.
In the Hadron Expanse as a whole, the Alliance, far better supplied locally, had taken Hussaria, and the systems that had been returned to the Emperor following the establishment of the Foramen Interdictum now faced invasion from the Tau and Federacy, sponsored by their Xenos patrons, the Kel Sandros eldar.
In the Perseus Deeps things were little better. The foothold gained on Mordecai Tersius had been reinvaded by a resurgent chaos alliance, and Cybixx’s treachery had strengthened the enemy’s hand. Corticant had seen a re-emerging eldar threat, while Bastien alone stood as the only imperial supply centre linking the Deeps with the Hadron Expanse.
Facing war on all fronts, the Grey Knights and Imperial Fists acted as firefighters, travelling from crisis point to crisis point, while the Novgorod Guard bore the brunt of the brutal attritional fighting against the forces of chaos. The Sky Lords, usually facing the least favourable odds had been shattered, and the imperial fleet had to be on call to face every threat, while defending the convoy lifelines as best they could.
The imperial plan going into the second half of 019M42 was simple, if unimaginative. Lord Maximus continually ordered no retreat, determined to take Mordecai Tersius and the Tarlius system and slowly build a more secure supply line to the Perseus Deeps. The Hadron Expanse and Hexis were deemed lower priority, due to the lack of supply, but here General Konev’s forces were ordered to tie down and destroy as many chaos legions as they could until events allowed them to retake the device room. For decades if necessary.
The Chaos Pact
Unreliable Allies
The forces of chaos, or the “chaos pact”, as dubbed by the imperium, constituted nothing like a united faction, although it did broadly act in a manner which suggested a homogenous organisation. Bound by their hatred of the corpse god’s followers, and their revulsion at all xenos, the forces of the ruinous powers comprised of three to four main factions, with occasional war bands and even orks joining in.
Warsmith Stahl still viewed himself as overlord if all chaos forces in the Aleph Sector, as he sought to reestablish the empire lost in the great scouring some ten thousand years previously. His forces were concentrated at Tarlius, Mordecai and Hexis, although Stahl maintained significant garrison forces in the Enceladus subsector and at Charybdis. Stahl also controlled the one necron device perverted to the ruinous powers and a significant fleet. Stahl had secured the device at Hexis, but did not command enough forces to hold off both the imperium and alliance on all fronts. For that reason Stahl needed allies.
The Emerald Serpent contributed almost as many men under arms to the chaos cause in the sector, as well as daemonic entities thanks to their dedication to the god Tzeentch. By mid 019M42 the daemon prince brothers leading the Serpent has scored some notable victories, claiming three out of the four chaos shards, and establishing a power base at Boltarean and achieving victories over the imperium and alliance.
The Emerald Serpent had however been in command in several pivotal battles against the Imperial Fists and Grey Knights, and despite hard fighting the imperium had won these key battles. Stahl blamed his allies for these defeats and by extension all the woes facing his grand plans. This did not bother the Serpent a great deal, as they did not truly recognise Stahl as their overlord, just an ally of inconvenience.
The Arch heretic Magos Cybixx finally declared for chaos in 019M42, but his forces were still small in comparison to Stahl’s and the Serpent. Forces of the traitor Mechanicum began reaching chaos war zones by mid 019M42 but were not immediately successful, while the Host of Eschar, a large Death Guard cohort seemed to take forever to deploy and proved difficult for Stahl to entice into activity. Meanwhile, admiral Thok remained brooding at his base on Mordecai, and while Lord Tragean’s fleets delivered victories in line with Stahl’s wishes, the aims of Chaos seemed infuriatingly just out of reach. Hexis was in control of chaos, but Konev’s armies wouldn’t die. The Foramen Interdictum could not be closed off once and for all for chaos, and Mordecai Tersius stubbornly held out. And all the while the eldar plotted and schemed, offering alliances one minute then attacking the next. All of this added to Stahl’s millennia old bad mood.
The Alliance
Limited Resources
Thanks to the Kel Sandros Eldar the armies of the alliance in the Hadron Expanse and Perseus Deeps were well supplied, via the Foramen Ancilla. This secondary route through the great rift allowed supplied to travel relatively easily between Tau space, the Federacy and alliance holdings in the Imperium Nihilis. The Hadron Expansion Sphere was the main priority following the failure of the Expedition to Hexis, but even in the Expanse, where the alliance forces enjoyed local superiority, the combined forces of the Tau Empire, eldar and Federacy faced their own challenges.
The Federacy were numerically far inferior to the forces of Chaos and the Imperium, and could only concentrate on one war zone at a time, and even then the isolationist element in the federal government always restricted the number of divisions the Federacy could put into the field. The Tau, having conquered Libria and vast swathes of the Zadoc subsector, only for the Cicatrix to destroy their bases in the Perseus Deeps, had fewer armies and more territory to defend. Reinforcements were arriving steadily via Calabris and the Foramen Ancilla, but the buildup was slow, and in no way comparable to the number of armies their enemies could muster should they be focussed on that task.
The eldar, while supportive, had even fewer troops, and were working to their own agenda. The xenos preferred deliberate strikes to unhinge their enemies, and saw taking territory as a waste of their own limited lives.
The combined effect of the limited resources the alliance could field, necessarily ensured that the gains in the Hadron Expanse were only made at a measured rate. Early fighting for Echo Reach and Mimir had been difficult, but now the Expansion Sphere was steadily growing, with a unity of purpose between the Tau and Federal forces. However, the alliance represented little to no threat in the Perseus Deeps, save for the eldar, whose continual machinations affected the aspirations and plans of all.
The Xenos threat
Fragmented menace
Apart from the three major factions the other races of the sector remained, for the most part, little more than nuisances in 019M42. The necrons, despite briefly awakening on Hexis, appeared to have become dormant throughout the sector, and some believed this to be due to the interference with the necron devices, though none were certain. The dark eldar of Vlokarion has become embroiled in schemes within Commoragh, and the orks mostly fought one another and the daemons within the great rift.
One alien menace did seem to pose a threat however. Very slowly the mind of Hive Fleet R’Lyeh was growing. This new threat baffled the imperial inquisition, as it appeared to be gaining strength with little of no biomass to consume. In the hills around Hexis this new strain of Tyranids was beginning to pose a threat not just to General Konev, but the entire sector.
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