After having bullied their way into the eastern Sathugar mines complex, the Imperium resolved to continue the pressure on the chaos front line, using their now large numbers to apply force at many points up and down the line, keeping the chaos forces off balance. The broad front approach was approved by high command, and while the Novgorod Guard continued to fight bitterly for the mines in the south, the Hammers of the Emperor planned a strike towards the strategic city of Festergax. Taking this city would unhinge the "red wall", a series of chaos fortifications preventing the Imperium from taking the Mekken Plateau and the escarpment that extended east to Festergax.
The Hammers of the Emperor found their enemy well spaced, as the Emerald Serpent had deployed across the front dispersed to avoid damage from sustained orbital bombardment. This allowed the astartes to perform a number of rapid assaults against these isolated positions, ensuring that early in the engagement the space marines made good progress on their objectives. The Emerald Serpent tried to use psychic powers to make a tactical withdrawal on their right flank, but the astartes librarian called on the power of the emperor to deny the magicks of Tzeentch. The resulting failure of the chaos withdrawal led to the swift demise of the daemon prince and further shifted the initiative in favour of the Imperium.
The Emerald Serpent did send in reinforcements, teleporting in Obliterators and terminators along with a powerful sorceror lord. The terminators on the right flank soon became bogged down, struggling to reach their loyalist enemies, while on the left the chaos forces were more succesful as a cabal of sorcerors managed to take back some of the objectives previously taken by the Hammers of the Emperor. The counter attack was too little too late however, and the obliterators were taken out after their initial destruction of astartes armour did not prove to be a decisive blow. The Imperium now had a position to the south and east of Festergax, and only two blood red lava rivers defended the city from the advancing Imperial armies.
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