Titans fail to take Kuneus but Novgorod break the lines

On Mordecai Secundus, despite the difficulties with interstellar travel and fleet battles in the system, general Kutuzov was keen to continue the campaign against chaos. By now the advance on the planet had become more steady, although was way behind the original estimates. Now, Kutuzov predicted, it may take a year or so to take the planet, with perhaps a million casualties, however this was deemed acceptable by the command of the sector, and the operation to take Kuneus, the besieged city acting as the gateway to the Sathugar mines began.

Kutuzov was fortunate by now to have the aid of a titan legion, and the warhound titan Lunae Spiritus Procellarum, commanded by Princeps Lady Constance de Coverlet made itself available for the upcoming mission, along with two regiments of Novgorod Guard. Analysing the enemy deployment, Kutuzov could see the city itself was defended by the dreaded death guard, but to the west were highly mobile and dangerous Emerald Serpent forces, positioned to react to any imperial move on the city. Kutuzov quickly came up with a plan.

Lunae Spiritus Procellarum would force its way through the Emerald Serpent units, using its devastating firepower to disrupt and disperse the highly mobile elite chaos forces. Then, sweeping back west, the god machine would provide a flanking assault as the Novgorod had the unenviable task of fighting street by street against the Death Guard. Casualties were projected to be moderate, but acceptable. Unfortunately, Kutuzov was unaware of two things. First, the warhound titan was not yet supported by any skitarii warriors or other Ad Mech formations, leaving the titan dangerously exposed. Second, the imperial general could not have been aware that in the Emerald Serpent forces, a great cabal of psykers had been assembled.

As the operation went into effect, the inevitable happened. Unsupported by any other ground forces the lone titan put up an impressive display of firepower, but was very swiftly overwhelmed by extreme use of psychic powers by the enemy forces. Bolts of energy tore into the war engine, taking down its void shields, before the titan itself toppled and fell, brought down by mastery of the warp. The swift destruction of such a powerful asset shocked the imperial command, but the Novgorod advance could not be called off. Now all would rely on the Imperial Guard being able to take the city in a frontal attack against the Death Guard.

Fortunately the Novgorod were well prepared for their mission, massing seige tanks and artillery flattening everything in their path and forcing the death guard, led by the manifestation of Mortarion himself to charge the imperial attackers in a last ditch attempt to get to close quarters with the guard. Had they succeeded, the battle would have turned into a massacre, as following up were hordes of pestilent poxwalkers which would have rendered the entire Novgorod regiments "unfit" for further use, their exposure to the pox requiring their immediate "liquidation".

The Death Guard however were unable to get to grips with the Novgorod line. Knowing if their enemy got close they would all die a horrible death, the footsoldiers of humanity unleashed a terrifying fusilade onto their enemy, bringing down mortarion and destroying the plague marines' heavy support. Cheered by this, the Imperial Guard gleefully set to work firing disciplined volley after volley into the poxwalkers. The carnage was unpleasant to watch, as the guardsmen realised the entire population of the city had been turned into a shambling infectious horde of plague creatures, and while a few specimens did manage to reach the Novgorod lines, their weapons were useless against the wall of steel the Novogord now pushed forward into the city as their infantry fell back.

By 2304_020M42 the city of Kuneus fell to the Imperium. Barely ten percent of the population remained, and most of these had to be "liquidated" for fear of infection. Now the Imperium set to work transforming the city into a new forward base of operations to carry on the campaign south, their next target the Sathugar mines.