For months the war on Hexis had been quiescent with neither side making any serious moves to remove the other from the face of the now ravaged and radioactive landscape that was now the hell around the capital city of Praxis. However General Konev, recognising the potential strategic benefit of controlling the northern end of the Foramen Ignotum, was not about to give up an go home.
Having dealt with - or so he felt - the Tyranid threat on his northern flank, Konev petitioned for more resources from imperial high command. Sector commander Titus Luthor was loathed time invest more efforts at Hexis however. Already the alliance were chipping away at imperial gains in the Hadron Expanse, and the main focus of imperial efforts was now at Mordecai and the Foramen Interdictum. No imperial guard help would be forthcoming.
Konev was not to be disappointed entirely however, as in 09.019M42 the titans of Legio Dominus and their attendant knights arrived, responding to Konev’s appeals for aid, and immediately set about planning an offensive.
The titans and knights would be ineffective in the compact ruins of Praxis, so it was agreed Legio Dominus would strike out from the east, attempting to surround chaos forces in Menthoteph and cut off their supply lines. Then, if the ground could be held, Konev would be able to conduct later offensives against the city and its device chanber from three sides.
The initial assault went as planned. The eastern chaos flank was only weakly defended, Stahl’s iron warriors having mostly departed and the remaining troops not wishing to spend too long in the radioactive wastelands south of the ruined cities. However as Menthoteph was surrounded, the Emerald Serpent reacted.
Deploying their own titans and moving forward in strength, the Aether Striders traitor household met their loyalist counterparts on the southern plains known as the great ash wastes. The set piece battle raged for many hours, with the main thrust of the Emerald Serpent coming on the imperial left flank, where ruins of an old settlement impeded the ability of House Corvus’ helverins to lay down withering fire.
On the imperial right, the combined efforts of a Castellan, Warhound and Helverin squadron decimated the traitor forces, knocking out knight after knight with only minimal damage in return. On the left however, the imperial force suffered as the Emerald Serpebt deployed their lords discordant and a Khytan in close combat, duelling with a Knight Errant and its supporting Armiger Warglaives.
The battle in the ruins was intense, and the imperial knights were never going to defeat the chaos force opposing them. However they fought valiantly, the knight Errant doggedly refusing to yield, and its eventual sacrifice was well worth it for Konev’s force, as the combat in the ruins significantly and fatally delayed the Emerald Serpent counter attack.
By the time the ruins had been wrestled from the stubborn imperial forces, the Legio Dominus titans had arrived. After a brief Titan duel, the Aether Striders realised their position was untenable and withdrew to the west, allowing general Konev to consolidate his position and dig in just kilometres from the ashen ruin that had once been Stahl’s HQ.
By late 09.019M42 the front line had stabilised, seeing the imperial armies capturing hundreds of miles of territory. It was however just blasted wasteland, and despite the victory and the improvement of the imperial strategic position, the forces of chaos still retained control over the device chamber and much of the ruined city of Praxis.
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