Mordecai battles rage on

On Mordecai 07.020M42 saw a renewed escalation of fighting between the forces of chaos and those of General Kutuzov. The chaos forces, with the arrival of Astralis and the collapse of the Foramen Interdictum, still held a considerable strategic and logistics advantage, and they began to probe the defences of the Imperium even as Kutuzov ordered all hands to the construction of ever deeper and more elaborate entrenchments and emplacements.

 

First, the Death Guard once again tried to force the imperial southern flank, by deploying their elite formations for a narrow thrust along the coast. The Novogorod Guard were prepared for this however, and the opening counter barrage by the imperial artillery wrecked a great deal of the chaos assets, and stalled their initial advance. In the centre of the Death Guard formation, an entire group of blighthaulers exploded catastrophically, dealing a great deal of damage, and as the Death Guard slowly tried to regain some momentum, the insane bravery of one freateli militia squad gave hope to the imperial line, as they charged and bayoneted to death an entire squad of plague marines, as well as a dangerous Noxious Blightbringer. The southern flank held, and the entrenchments continued.

 

In the centre of the imperial lines, smaller probing attacks met with more success for the forces of chaos. Elite bands of Thousand Sons were able to find gaps in Kutuzov's defence lines between the southward facing "red wall" and the west facing southern defences. At this intersection, near Fort Drago, the imperial defences were incomplete, and Kutuzov had hoped that his Novgorod guard regiments would be able to resist any advance.

 

The forces of chaos however had learned from previous engagements, and their new assaults were supported by tanks, giving Kutuzov cause to think that this new Thousand Sons force may not be directly under the control of the Emerald Serpent. In any case, the heavy armour the predators provided quickly destroyed the Novgorod tanks support, leaving the infantry dreadfully exposed. Facing certain annihilation the Novgorod force was obliged to withdraw, opening up a salient in the imperial lines or "bulge", which Kutuzov could not afford to ignore for long.

 

in order to prevent an immediate exploitation of this new salient, the Hammers of the Emperor immediately conducted an armoured raid against the Death Guard who were now massing behind the new territory gained. Advancing from the north, the astartes armoured column made good initial progress, but the loss of an impulsor in a spectacular detonation inflicted heavy casualties amongst the Hammer's lascannon devastator squads. This was a severe setback, but the Hammers knew they had to reduce the capability of an immediate chaos attack so pressed on regardless. the final result of the engagement was a victory to the Imperium, but a highly pyrrhic one. The Hammers of the Emperor suffered serious losses in equipment and personell, and while the immediate threat to the imperial line had been diminished, their capacity to conduct similar operations in future had been reduced. The threat of a breakthrough by chaos forces remained.