Tau Launch Operation Zephyr

With the T'au presence on New Cerberex now revealed Dawn Strike knew that they needed to press their advantage to the maximum before the Imperium could begin to redirect forces back to the Zadoc subsector. The full strength of the T'au fleet moved into orbit around New Cerberex and the battleships began full orbital deployment of forces whilst the cruisers took up geostationary positions so as to be available for bombardment missions.

The biggest problem facing the T'au was what to do with the Dark Angels base on the world. More reckless sub-commanders argued for the adoption of Mont'ka in order to knock out the elite warriors at the start of the campaign but Dawn Strike respected the human Astartes too much to believe it would be an easy victory. With the element of surprise now gone Dawnstrike instead opted to dispatch a hunter cardre under Commander Bright Moon to pin down Dark Angels whilst his other forces spread out from the beach head with the intent of crushing the scattered and weaker Militarum formations whilst they were still scrambling to organise themselves.

In the south battle was soon joined with the remaining Librian mechanised formations as a hunter cadre under Commander Sure Strike attempted to move into the planet's vital space port. Once again the Librians put up a fierce fight and initially had the advantage over their T'au opponents. The Librians faced the T'au with a wall of armoured fighting vehicles and tanks, and a vigorous exchange of fire forces the T'au to close and try to silence the big guns in close combat. Although they were successful and caused major casualties amongst the supporting infantry, outflanking Hellhounds backed by Chimera transport vehicles caused carnage amongst the T'au and kroot infantry, with only the T'au Ghost Keels proving a difficult challenge for the Librian armoured regiment.

With all his cunning and patience, Sure Strike maintained the pressure and as night fell the fighting finally died off. The T'au had made no progress but the Librian's stocks of ammunition and fuel were exhausted and they were given no choice but to fall back into the city of New Feducia and dig in for a final stand whilst the T'au claimed the port facilities and surrounded the city.

Meanwhile Dawn Strike's own cadres sped across the northern lowlands and down into the western coastal region. To their surprise they met little opposition and began to fear a trap had been set for them. The cadres broke up into smaller forces so they could cover more ground and a small hunter cadre finally located the enemy in the beautific coastal village of Laurier. Realising that only a small enemy force opposed him the fireblade commanding the cadre chose to attack immediately rather than wait for re-enforcment and risk the possibility his enemy might dig in or slip away.

It proved to be a sound decision. A hammerhead tank formed the bait of the Kauyon as it exchanged fire with a large and hitherto unknown class of Imperial tank. As the two vehicles duelled a lone ghostkeel slipped around the flank and destroyed the formidable heavy tank that was the linchpin of the Imperial position. T'au fire warriors advanced whilst laying down disciplined volleys of fire and the Imperial defences began to crumble before collapsing entirely. The T'au encountered no further opposition and they continued to sweep south down the coast. Either the Imperials had concentrated all their forces in the capital or they had chosen to withdraw to avoid being cut off and surrounded by their more mobile enemy.

The attack on the Dark Angel's base under Commander Bright Moon was repulsed with heavy losses, with the T'au commander succumbing bizarrely to a random psychic event that neither side were able to explain. Dawn Strike hadn't allowed himself to hope they would destroy the elite Astartes but the casualties had proved more costly than he had feared, the post human warrior's having prepared their own Kauyon. Rather than break out the Dark Angels dug in and strengthened their position. Their numbers were few and it was clear they believed the defence of rest of the planet to be untenable in the face of the T'aus overwhelming advantage in mobility, logistics and momentum. They would make their stand at the base of Mount Bone until re-enforcements could reach them or else die gloriously for their corpse emperor. Either way the T'au would have to deal with them before they could claim control of the planet. 

In Imperial High command there was significant consternation at the T'au progress and the slowness of the Imperial response. Lord Admiral Jellicoe had for weeks been concerned at the lack of fleet presence in the Zadoc subsector, and at the initial invasion had ordered Admiral Craddock to the area from the Hadron Expanse. Now the battleship Vanguard and four other capital ships had arrived at Hylas, and prepared to make the warp jump to the New Cerberex system. Meanwhile General Gort was appointed by Lord Commander Baran Price, to immediately prepare an army to reinforce the New Cerberex system, or if necessary, reinvade.