The war for Mordecai Secundus which started on 2710.019M42 officially ended on 2005.023M42, three and a half standard imperial years after it had begun. Following the collapse of the East Front, general Kutuzov wasted no time in pushing fresh units through the gap for the final drive on Talo'khar. Resistance on the way to the city was almost nil, with only a few disorganised cultists giving any meaningful resistance in the conquest of the remaining Jurukai mines. It was expected that the fight for the city would be much harder, but the chaos defences had been completely unhinged by the offensive in the east, destroying the capability for the Emerald Serpent or the Death Guard to put up any meaningful resistance. the only force of note available to defend Talo'khar was the Night Lords, who chose not to fight in the city itself, instead hoping to ambush and destroy what appeared to be a fresh and potentially green formation of imperial guard leading the offensive.
The force that drove towards Talo'khar was made up predominantly of the Lunar Guard, an experienced and well equipped fighting force that had seen action on Libria and Hylas before being redeployed after the coming of the great rift. Now the Lunar Guard, fully re-equipped with fresh equipment and a new organisation, were tougher than ever, and took the fight to the attacking night lords. Using heavy mortar batteries to soften up the enemy traitor astartes, the Lunar Guard followed up with a devastating combined armoured and infantry assault, breaking the Night Lords and surrounding the city of Talo'khar. Tentatively the imperial force moved into the city, but found no significant defences. The last chaos stronghold and supply centre of the enemy army had been taken.
With no spaceports, and no centres of industry left, the chaos forces on Mordecai Secundus now held nothing other than worthless lava plains. Their only supply route was the warp link with Astralis, and as general Kutuzov prepared for a bloody struggle to remove the remaining forces from the planet, imperial intelligence noted that the warp link to Astralis was now being used to evacuate the arch enemy's elite forces. The Death Guard, the Darrantine Guard, Emperor's Children and Thousand Sons all abandoned the world, no doubt regrouping via Astralis to the world of Mordecai Primaris, which would now be the next invasion target for the Imperium. Kutuzov couldn't meaningfully interrupt this evacuation, so watch on as millions of enemy troops left the world.
The war for Mordecai Secundus was over. The cost had been high, almost eight million had been lost all told in the battle for the mining world, in three and a half years. Initial projections of winning the world in six months had been dashed by the arrival of the daemon world of Astralis, and on a number of occasions the success of the invasion had hung in the balance. Historical Analiticae of the Tactica Imperialis would study the campaign for years to come, but for now imperial high command collectively drew breath, and celebrated the capture of a key world for the Imperium of Mankind. After millennia, Mordecai Secundus was once again under imperial rule.
The war for the Mordecai System was not over however. Astralis still hung like a sickly orb in the skies over all the worlds in the system, and the Mordecai space docks remained intact, and a powerful fleet base with an array of lethal defences. Above all however, the fortress world of Mordecai Primaris and its sprawling cities, harbouring a total population of over a billion, remained the main target for the overall Mordecai campaign, and it was still in the hands of the arch enemy. Both sides paused in 05.023M42, as the Imperium prepared its plans for the next invasion, and the forces of chaos built up their defences to meet the next assault.
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