Pyrrho Zeta: Imperial Advances

During 03.023M42 the battles for Haven and Ergura's Fall had briefly paused, as many of the factions consolidated or withdrew their forces on those two worlds, and the remaining combatants prepared for an inevitable showdown. On Haven the Imperium were building up their forces to conduct an all out offensive against the orks, while on Ergura's Fall general Maximus was organising his forces to take on the Tau, who were themselves preparing for the imperial onslaught.

Within the Rifts themselves the Imperium - despite being told by Inquisitor Esquerra to withdraw, were building up their forces and going on the offensive, in line with Inquisitor Huron's instructions. Huron was confident of victory in the Hecate Gap, and saw no reason to wait for this success before continuing the crusade into the Rifts. In his view, the pessimistic assessment by his colleague was incorrect, and the combined threats from the necrons, tyranids and orks had not materialised into the sector threatening combination that Esquerra apparently feared.

With the order given to continue into the Rifts, crusade general Maximus wasted no time in assembling strike forces to push forward in two systems he had established bases at already. On Pyrho Zeta the initial garrison was first made aware they would soon be evacuated, then had that order cancelled and were told that they would soon be reinforced. In mid 03.023M42 the Unnumbered Sons astartes chapter arrived on the world delivering a surgical strike against the necron forces that had been keeping an eye on the imperial garrison. This decisive victory then paved the way for Imperial Guard reinforcement, but not before the Drukhari decided to intervene.

Either for their own profit or because the dark eldar feared the Imperium would find secrets the xenos would rather stay hidden, the drukhari launched a raid against the newly arrived imperial forces on Pyrrho Zeta. The xenos were unpleasantly surprised however by a force of Adeptus Custodes that had deployed with the imperial invasion force to counter such unexpected eventualities. The elite imperial force battered the dark eldar, forcing them to retreat back into the webway. With the imperial beachhead on Pyrrho Zeta now secure, the Imperium moved forward in a more deliberate fashion, employing units of the Imperial Guard from the Novgorod regiments.

On 2803.02342 the Guard forces moved out into the plains of Pyrrho Zeta to be immediately met by a large necron force. The Necron army surged forward only to have their front line annihilated by a massed cavalry charged which decimated the massed infantry wave under the impact of exploding lances. The imperial tanks engaged the Necron fire support in an unequal duel which they quickly won, and in a desperate attempt to reclaim the initiative the Necrons then brought down a monolith and counter charged. The nightbringer materialised in the middle of the militarum lines and slew the marshal directing the attack but the counter attack, whilst inflicting some damage and killing most of the cavalry, failed to blunt the Novgarod's momentum and the Necron lines rapidly collapsed as the tanks pushed forward.

By the end of 03.023M42 the necron presence on Pyrrho Zeta had been neutralised, the imperial perimeter secured, and fresh waves of reinforcements and supplies were now arriving on the world. Now the Imperium only needed to deal with the chaos occupation of the southern hemisphere and the system would be controlled by Maximus' crusade.