Emerald Serpent assert dominance

While the battles increased in intensity on Hexis in pursuit of the Necron Device known as the Nexus Arrangement and the war on Mordecai stalled once more, the Iron Warriors saw an opportunity once more to challenge the Emerald Serpent.

 

By 06.020M42 Warsmith Stahl had retreated back to his domain at Charybdis, brooding over the failure of his allies. The Iron Warriors still maintained forces in the Aleph Sector however, and in late 06.020M42 the sons of Perturabo, backed by an army of daemon engines, assaulted the Emerald citadel on Mordecai Primaris, in order to destabilise the Emerald Serpent and force a change to the overall chaos strategy in the sector.

 

The arrival of a powerful Iron Warriors army outside the stronghold of the sorcerous cult was met not with reason or debate, but the summoning of a daemonic host led by three bloodthirsters, supported by large numbers of tzeentch lesser daemons. The Bloodthirsters gleefully charged forward, and although one was sent back to the warp by the combined firepower of the Iron Warriors, the remaining greater daemons slammed into the traitor astartes lines, tearing apart the vehicles and daemon engines of their enemy. Meanwhile the denizens of tzeentch poured psychic fire and arcane magic into the astartes themselves, thinning their number. The Iron Warriors prepared to launch a counter attack led by their lord discordant, but a soulgrinder, having failed to make an impact in the early phase of the battle, now landed telling shots on the enemy chaos lord, destroying the counter attack before it had begun.

 

Worse followed. With a tearing sound of reality buckling under the weight of chaos energy, an enormous host of bloodcrushers appeared, launching an immediate close assault against anything that stood in their way. By now the Iron Warriors had taken a beating trying to deal with the greater daemons, and the arrival of this new force broke their resistance. The remaining units of the traitor astartes were hunted down and eliminated, and the dominance of the Emerald Serpent was maintained.