Hive fleet Poseidon invades ork world of Mendrus Mundi

Ordo Xenos Report: The splinter of hive fleet Poseidon has been observed for some time while a threat it is not close enough to imperial space to warrant the substantial resources needed to destroy it. It may be a blessing or a curse that the fleet picked a massive Ork Waagh-world to invade. This world was a heavily fortified base for the Bloodfang Tribe and raiding base for WAAGH Bloodfang fleets which had recently towed a massive space hulk “Mork’s Gift” into High orbit for “Orkification”.

The space battle would begin with the ambushing of the Terror Ship “Hunta” by the Poseidon Fleet burring out its bridge with pyro acid and scattering the escorts securing the fleets path into the system. It seamed the rest of the Bloodfang fleet was only emboldened by this as “Gork’s Little Toe” a “Battlekroozer” heretically fashion from remains of a space marine Battle Barge and the newly constructed “Grin” Killa Krusier closed fast with Nids instantly destroying one Razor Fiend “transport” cruisers using massed gun batteries while the escorts were bombed into the void by crude Ork fighter craft.

The Ork left flank would soon crumble and 2 Razor Fiends would get past Gork’s Little Toe heading straight for the planet. In the centre 1 hive ship would be destroyed by the heroic? Act of the Grin’s Captain ordering his burring wreck of a ship into a full-scale collision that left both ships as drifting hulks. Finally, the space hulk hand pondered into weapon range. It began spewing fighta-bombaz and crude torpedoes to intercept the Razor Fiends. This successfully destroyed one of the breakthrough vessels but the other would hide behind a small moon and escape to the planets surface.

Gork’s Little Toe would be overwhelmed but the remaining Hive ship and final Razor Feind with waves of assault bugs burrowing into the hull until almost as a final act of defiance from the imperial machine spirit its plasma drives detonated leaving only a crippled hive ship behind.

On the planet Ork in orbit fighters and Missile batteries would shoot bomb the Razor fiend to death but in had managed to sin low enough that waves or harpies would make it to the planet’s surface and start clearing a LZ for the hive ship that outran the space hulks bomber wings to the planet and crashed itself securing spawning pools on the planet. 

The ground war has begun.

Mordecai - Battle for Menoria Hive

Having gained a foothold on Mordecai Primaris in 06.023M42 the Imperium had taken their time to build up supplies before breaking out of their bridgehead. General Kutuzov was planning a regular ground offensive from the North Averbrike hive sprawl, using mechanised units to take swathes of territory before attempting to take another city, but in 09.023M42 the Angels of Vengeance, a successor chapter to the Dark Angels, offered Imperial command an alternative plan.

Using their elite strike forces the astartes promoted the idea of a direct assault on Menoria hive. If successful the capture of this second strategic location relatively close to the existing bridgehead offered the opportunity to attack any chaos forces in the plains from two directions, while doubling the supply logistics if the city could be taken intact. The operation was high risk, as a direct assault on Menoria would likely result in direct intervention from the Thousand Sons from Astralis, but general Kutuzov was convinced by the arguments made by the Angels' chapter master.

The assault on Menoria started with a drop directly into the chaos held hive sprawl, and it wasn't long before Magnus the Red himself intervened, a large force of Thousand Sons arriving to defend the city. There would be no retreat from this battle, either the Angel's of Vengeance would take the city or its space port, or die trying.

The battle for Menoria was ferocious, with the Angels of Vengeance deploying their most elite forces including their Chapter Master, facing off against the strongest forces the Thousands sons could field, including a daemonic apparition of Magnus himself. The deathwing knights held the line against a storm of sorcery and daemonic energies, and after several hours of brutal combat, the Angels of Vengeance had broken the back of the chaos resistance in the hive, destroying the Thousand Sons forces and sending Magnus and his chief sorcerer back to the warp. The Imperium now had a bridgehead at Menoria, and efforts now turned to consolidating the separate areas of imperial control and joining them up to move forward across the rest of Mordecai Primaris.

Calthingum Raid

With the forces of chaos now engaged in a number of battles across the sector and the tyranid threat occupying the minds of many in the galactic east, in 09.023M42 the Drukhari decided to increase their raiding, first taking on the chaos forces on Calthingum. The dark eldar expected the chaos controlled world to be lightly defended, but soon found to their dissatisfaction a force of Iron Warriors on the world. Rather than withdraw and return another time when conditions were more favourable for a raid, the drukhari pride and bloodlust drove them to engage anyway, eager to test their skill against the traitor astartes. Things then became even more complex as the Ynnari arrived in support of the dark eldar, pursuing their own agenda, while the Iron Warriors themselves summoned a host of daemons to strengthen their defences.

After an initial assault by the Ynnari failed to deal with a host of nurglings, the Iron warriors used daemon shock troops to counterattack with elements of the warband into the ambush from the strange mix of eldar forces overrunning their lines. Digging in with their legionaries, the 121st siege battalion then threw back any melee attempt from the eldar to dislodge them. the dark eldar and Ynnari force suffered significant casualties, while the chaos forces proved far more resilient than the aeldari had hoped. With the raid driven off, the Iron Warriors proceeded to fortify the world.

Tau prepare for Zadoc Invasion

Having taken the Zadoc moon base in 06.023M42 the Tau had been preparing their invasion of Zadoc proper for some time. It came as no surprise that the next target for the Tau would be the trading outpost of Adriante, as this installation on the cold outer planets of the Zadoc system was strategically vital to incoming supply traffic to the system. Given the time between the creation of the initial bridgehead and the assault on Adriante, there had been plenty of time for the forces of chaos to react to the Tau presence in the system. 

Using arcane sorcery fuelled by the daemonworld of Astralis, the Thousand Sons, led by Ahriman and a projection of Magnus the Red prepared an immediate counter attack to any move the Tau made, and when in mid 09.023M42 that time came, the traitor astartes deployed in strength against the hunter cadre sent to take the trading post. The Tau however had anticipated this kind of response, and their attack force was well equipped to deal with the strong counter attack from the daemon led space marines force. Although individually powerful, the Thousand Sons did not have great numbers, and the Tau had brought maximum firepower. Fire warriors deploying from devilfish supported by crisis suits, hammerheads and larger battlesuits overwhelmed the ancient astartes and their sorcery, inflicting a heavy defeat on the Thousand Sons and banishing Magnus back to the warp. Now the Tau had the planet of Zadoc itself surrounded and cut off from outside supply, barring the warp conduit to the Astralis daemonworld. It was only a matter of time before they would make planetfall.

Tyranid Menace plagues Rifts of Hecate

While the Imperium concentrated on the invasion of Mordecai Primaris, and the Tau launched their new offensive in the Zadoc subsector, the Tyranid threat began increasing in scale in the Hadron Expanse. The hive mind had already consumed Candic Minor and Mezria IV, and now exploratory probes were becoming more frequent and violent. One such splinter fleet arrived at Helos Majoris in mid 07.023M42. With the Imperial Fleet guarding the Hecate Gap there was no way to prevent the tyranids from making planetfall, but the combined actions of the Grey Knights and Dark Angels, still stationed at the most important imperial base in the region, were able to drive back the xenos assault.  The Grey Knights held the line against gigantic alien creatures, while the Dark Angels pursued the stragglers remorselessly, hunting down and burning every last creature and seeking out any spore nodes to prevent the aliens from using the biomass of the planet to generate more warriors. By the end of 08.023M42 Helos Majoris was once again free of the tyranid threat.

The Tau too faced another tyranid invasion, having cleared one previously, as more xenos craft arrived from Mezria IV to land an army of alien creatures on Garmenes. The Tau, having decided to make the world a bastion against alien incursions from the galactic fringe, were however well placed to meet this assault. Deploying large numbers of crisis suits the firepower of the Tau overwhelmed the invaders, and the tyranid threat was eliminated within a week.

At the less heavily defended system of Lodax however, the tyranids had more success. No faction held either Lodax Prime or Lodax Secundus outright, and both worlds only had small garrison or patrol forces stationed there. On Lodax Prime the world played host to an eldar garrison and an imperial outpost. The imperial garrison was quickly overrun, with the Imperial Fists attempting to intervene. It was too late however, and the small force of astartes sent to deal with the threat found themselves seriously outmatched. Of the company of Fists sent to investigate the loss of the imperial outpost, only a pair of terminator armoured space marines returned, severely denting imperial strength in the Rifts of Hecate. 

The eldar faired little better. The tyranid swarm overwhelmed them and while they tried to conduct a fighting withdrawal to their webway portal for a while, this eventually became a headlong rout as the eldar warriors fled from the overwhelming power and numbers of the approaching alien horde. By the end of 09.023M42, while the major bases had held against the tyranid onslaught, Lodax Prime was now almost overrun.

Battles at Hylas reach installation

In the Zadoc subsector the Tau were making progress on New Cerberex but the advance had stalled due to the presence of the Dark Angels. At the same time the Imperium were rushing forces towards the subsector as it was now clear the Tau were launching major operations in the region while the Imperium were busily engaged in the Hadron Expanse and at Mordecai in the Perseus Deeps.

Forces would be slow to assemble in the area however, and the first to arrive in the region was a regiment of Praetorian Guard. Acting on intelligence that suggested Demiurg forces allied to the Tau were seeking to take the Imperial outpost of Hylas Reach, a space station in orbit around a gas giant protecting the warp lane to Hylas itself, the Praetorians decided to deploy on the station in order to head off the xenos assault.

Unfortunately neither the Demiurg nor the Imperium were aware that the orks were also on the move in the Zadoc subsector. Ever since the loss of Zadoc and Tarsis Major, the Imperium had allowed the defences of their two remaining worlds and associated outposts to fall into disrepair, and unknown to the Praetorians the space station had been abandoned. When they did arrive in late 06.023M42, instead of heading off the Demiurg they found themselves in a three way battle on the decks of Hylas Reach between themselves, the orks and the Demiurg.

The battle for Hylas Reach raged for almost a day as the imperial forces tried to gain a foothold. The aggressive orks charged into the praetorian lines holding them back, just as the Demiurg force arrived. The Federacy had been tasked with taking the installations, while the Tau concentrated on the major worlds, but the Demiurg were also not prepared for a fight against two enemies. The Praetorians suffered the most, caught between two hostile alien forces, and were quickly forced back to their breaching locations, while the orks swarmed over the abhuman Leagues of Votan forces. It was not clear to the Imperium where these abhumans originated, but it was widely suspected that this was a force from Hartak, rather than a new expedition from the galactic core, and imperial intelligence continued on the assumption that these forces were part of the Federal-Tau alliance, referring to them using the derogatory term "squats" in the official reports.

The orks didn't care. The greenskins simply swarmed all over their new enemies and soon had taken all the strategic locations on the station. With reports of ork spacecraft in the vicinity both the Praetorians and Votann forces evacuated. Hylas Reach would need to be dealt with in another way.