Festergax retaken

 The counter attack by chaos forces at Festergax, the city that lay on the spur of the Mekken plateau, was not long in coming. General Kutuzov knew that control of the city was vital if he was to make the grand manoeuvres of encirclement to move the campaign forward at pace. Unfortunately for Kutuzov, the Emerald Serpent had taken an interest in this latest fight, and O'Tek Ra himself ordered the recapture of the city.

 

The Emerald Serpent began the assault on the city with an encircling movement, bypassing the Tempestus Scion forces who by now had fortified the city and breaking through the more vulnerable guard lines on the flanks. The city was soon fully surrounded, but the Imperium had anticipated such a move, and the newly arrived Blood Angels chapter sent their strongest elite force to break through the  chaos lines and relieve the Scions now trapped in Festergax.

 

The chaos forces were ready for this assault, and it was as the famed death company of the Blood Angels charged into the lines of Thousand Sons troops that their daemonic allies appeared. Infused with the strength of the warp, a Daemon prince ripped into the elite Blood Angels' squad, tearing them apart and shattering the astartes attack. The very best of the Emerald Serpent and their Thousand Sons legionaries battled with the superhuman astartes warriors for hours, but the power of the warp favoured the traitors. Shattered by the appearance of the daemonic host, the astartes reluctantly withdrew from the battlefield, ensuring the total destruction of the Scions now left to defend Festergax with no hope of relief. Just days later, the Emerald Serpent and their allies finished off the last of the Imperial forces, and in a bitter blow to Kutuzov's campaign, reclaimed the vital city for the Dark Gods.