Prelude to Battle
By the end of 11.021M42 the Imperium under general Konev had amassed significant forces on Hexis. Realising the strategic importance of the system in relation to the newly discovered region of the Rifts of Hecate, imperial high command had decided to force the issue and clear the planet of two major enemies, the forces of chaos and the tyranids. To do this the Imperial Fists had taken over overall command and had begun to erect defences prior to a major assault. A warhound titan had been deployed, and it was obvious to the Imperium's enemies that a major offensive was coming.
The forces of chaos, more or less leaderless since the abandonment of the campaign by the Iron Warriors, now had the Emerald Serpent take control. Using their psychic forces they managed to secretly increase their own strength, which now centred around a massive warlord titan. Before the major battle of Hexis, the Emerald Serpent gathered as many chaos forces to their banner, and also looked elsewhere for allies. They once again managed to convince the ork tribes to follow them into battle, promising a good fight and a share of the imperial scrap, while in an unusual turn of events, the worshippers of tzeentch managed to communicate with the tyranid hive mind. The tyranids had no reason to ally with the chaos forces, as it was their intention to build up enough bio-warriors to consume every living thing on the planet in order to create their own hive ships to escape the world and begin a new feeding cycle. However, the sorcerers of chaos tried to convince the tyranids that they would not be prevented from consuming as much of the imperial flesh as they desired, although the hive mind did not answer explicitly as to whether the chaos appeals had been successful.
Imperium's enemies launch massive frontal assault
On 2911.021M42 the forces of chaos, led by the mighty warlord titan, launched a massive offensive against Konev's outer defences. Using the power of the warp to create dust storms and electrical interference, the imperial defenders had no warning of this impending attack, and were quickly overwhelmed. The chaos forces were joined by ork tribes, which crashed over the imperial trenches decimating the guard units on the front line. Worse still for Konev's men the tyranids launched their own attack at the same time, apparently in a coordinated attempt to eliminate the loyalist forces from Hexis. Only the necrons, who the Emerald Serpent did not try to convince, stayed away from this assault, content to watch events unfold.
In the Imperial HQ an urgent meeting was convened, where several imperial guard regiment commanders recommended falling back to the newly built inner defences, but the chapter master of the Imperial Fists took control of the situation. Gregor Dessian proposed to meet the incoming enemies head on, with the full force of the Imperium now deployed on the planet. Overruling general Konev, Dessian now commanded the imperial forces and began to place them directly in the path of the oncoming assault.
Imperium sally forth
Gregor made his plans simple enough for the diverse imperial forces to follow. On the imperial left, the Fists themselves would charge forward into the chaos lines, inviting the enemy to assault them. The Fists' chapter master knew that he had to secure critical objectives before the chaos forces, then break the oncoming tide against the mass of the imperial armies. In the centre, the Lycanon guard would lead the advance, although this meant almost certain death, while the warhound titan and heavy firepower of the guard tank and artillery regiments would provide massive fire support.
The battle grew in intensity as the two sides clashed on the plains of Hexis, close to the ruins of the northern suburbs of Praxis. On the imperial left the Imperial Fists had to face swarms of tyranid creatures, while holding off the enemy warlord titan. In the centre, chaos knights obliterated the Lycanon mechanised force, but there were always more guardsmen to pour into the breach. The orks on the right flank proved difficult to contain, but mass firepower and the sacrifice of thousands of guardsmen held them at bay.
The Warlord titan was able to dominate the centre of the battlefield, but the chaos forces, surprised and checked by the imperial sally forth, were unable to shift the imperial forces from the critical objectives. The Fists took heavy casualties, and the Lycanon guard elite infantry contingent were almost wiped out, but the Imperial gun line was never reached. Having expended significant forces in trying to overwhelm Dessian's "wall of bodies", the Emerald Serpent now had too few units left in good fighting condition to run the gauntlet into Konev's heavy guns. The warlord titan was also taking a heavy battering from imperial firepower, and the commander of the chaos forces knew that to continue this attritional struggle would mean the loss of one of their most prized assets.
Imperium sweep into Praxis & Chaos withdraw from Hexis
Having broken the back of the chaos and allied assault on Konev's lines, the Imperial Fists had won the battle of Hexis, and passed over control to general Konev for the next phase of the operation. While the Lycanon guard tried to regroup, and the astartes paused to recover their precious gene seed, the rest of the imperial army swept into the city of Praxis, keeping the retreat of the chaos forces going all the way to the south of the city. This necessarily meant they were unable to deal with the orks surrounding the city of Menthoteph or the tyranid hive nodes in the desert of Cralth, but the focus of this assault was to secure the city of Praxis and remove the chaos forces from the planet.
The imperial force also began pursuing the enemy warlord titan. In this endeavour the Adeptus Mechanicus now deployed their assets, driving forward into the Shifting Sands region in an attempt to hunt down and deal with this ancient and powerful traitor. In this they were joined by the orks who, having realised the chaos forces were now not going to deliver them prize scrap, decided to hunt for chaos scrap instead. For this chase phase of the battle, the orks and Mechanicum managed to ignore one another, as they chased down the enemy titan. Realising they now had the imperium and the orks to deal with, the remaining chaos forces began to evacuate the planet, and the remaining battle worthy heavy units from the Emerald Serpent contingent now fought an effective rear guard to prevent the titan - believed to be the mighty "Astralis Invictus", from falling into enemy hands.
The chaos forces were successful in meeting this objective, and the gigantic war engine managed to escape, teleported back to the chaos staging post on the Hexis moon and from there back via the warp to the shadow realm which the imperium could not access. By 0312.021M42 all chaos forces on Hexis had been eliminated. The orks and tyranids still remained, though weakened, and now after years of hard fighting the Imperium had a commanding hold on the surface of Hexis. The war was not over however, as the necrons still remained a credible threat, but for now the security of Hexis as a staging post for expeditions into the eastern fringe and the Rifts of Hecate had been significantly improved. The strategic effects were only minor for the Emerald Serpent however. They had failed to advance their agenda against the Imperium and had suffered heavy losses, but by successfully withdrawing they had prevented their retreat from turning into a rout.
Hexis 0312_021M42
No comments:
Post a Comment