Mordecai: Breakout from Kuneus

On Mordecai Secundus the retaking of Kuneus gave the Imperium a new springboard from which to prosecute their campaign into the broad basalt plains west of the Kuneus laval sea. On the shores of the Sarkar traps, an active geological formation that spewed mountains of molten lava ever single day, the Sathugar mines were Kutuzov's next target.

If the Imperium took advantage of the disorganised state of the chaos armies, Kutuzov hoped for a swift victory that could deny the forces of chaos fully half of their mining assets, potentially decisively turning the war in his favour. To maximise the disorder amongst the enemy, and with the Hammers of the Emperor still recovering from their brutal assault on the city, the Imperial Fists and Grey Knights took the lead. The Grey Knights struck west, straight into the heart of the Death Guard forces, while the Imperial Fists moved south, intending to bring to battle the powerful Emerald Serpent forces. This would split the chaos line and allow Kutuzov's main armies to move in between the astartes assaults, occupying the majority of the mining complexes.

The battles fought by the Imperial Fists and Grey Knights were particularly brutal. The space marine forces deliberately pitted themselves against the best of the enemy forces, tying them up and preventing them from interfering with the Imperial Guard push towards the Sarkar Traps. In the west, the Grey Knights took heavy casualties from their engagement with elite Death Guard forces, with the battle reaching a climax when their Knights Paladin engaged the enemy Blightlord terminators in a ferocious and bloody close combat. 

The Grey Knights suffered heavy casualties, but their mastery of the warp proved decisive. Unlike the traitor legion, who were compelled to use conventional means of transport, the elite imperial force was able to take advantage of their psychic mastery, always able to move forces where they needed to be to cover any threat. Using this advantage to the full, the Grey Knights outmanouevred their enemy and achieved a decisive victory. There would be no threat to the advance from the north west flank.

In the south, the Imperial Fists faced a different challenge as the Emerald Serpent predictably summoned a host of abominable and terrifying daemons from the warp to fight their battles for them. Unphased by these heretical apparitions of tzeentch and even the Thousand Son's Primarch, the loyalist astartes used firepower to overcome the trickery of the enemy. A methodical and stubborn advance took down the denizens of the warp one by one, and despite the slow going, the Imperial Fists' stubbornness ensured that every counter attack, feint and trick played by the followers of Tzeentch was met with implacable resistance.

For a while Kutuzov was worried about the situation in the south, as it was less decisive than the advance elsewhere, but the Fists' commander remained calm, ensuring the imperial general that he was facing the very elite of the enemy force, but that he would prevail. He was correct. Eventually the resistance by the forces of chaos broke, and the Imperial Fists, bloodied but victorious, managed to secure their objectives on time. With both flanks secured a yawning gap opened up in the chaos lines, allowing Kutuzov's troops to push west, overrunning weakly defended outposts and by the end of 04.021M42, securing all of the Sathugar mines for the Imperium.