Reversals on Mordecai Primaris

Having broken out of their bridgehead on in the North Averbrike hive sprawl and taken a swathe of territory towards the Harian Mesa, the Imperium were under no illusions that they had made a decisive breakthrough. General Kutuzov knew that the forces of chaos would fight tooth and nail against his forces as the loss of the Mordecai System would be a severe blow to Chaos influence in the Perseus Deeps as well as the wider sector. Knowing this, the imperial forces scrambled to create defences and trench lines before their enemy counter attacked, holding a company of Dark Angels in reserve ready to block any move by the Emerald Serpent and their allies.

In the middle of 03.024M42 the counter strike came, and it was far stronger than Kutuzov had feared. Using the arcane and sorcerous powers of the daemonworld "Astralis", the Emerald Serpent had summoned more allies to their cause, as the forces of chaos came together to stop the imperial advance. A large force of Death Guard appeared on the plains south of the Westoria Hive sprawl, and poured over the incomplete imperial defences. The loyalist astartes reacted swiftly, deploying to block the breakthrough. However the intervention of the heavily armoured Terminators of Mortarion teleported from an unseen vessel in low orbit, disrupting the Dark Angels and causing severe casualties to the loyalist astartes. The Dark Angels fought hard, but the plague marines shrugged off wounds that would kill even a superhuman warrior of the imperium, their devotion to their dark patron paying dividends. A festering stench and sickly green fog swept across the battlefield, separating the astartes from the Imperial Guard units. When the fog cleared, the space marines realised the imperial positions had become untenable and requested extraction.

The race was now on to extract Kutuzov's Guard forces from their salient into the Harian wastes, and in the main the majority of the guardsmen made it back to Westosa before the regular chaos army could close the pocket. Much of their heavy equipment was abandoned however, and general Kutuzov soon came under intense pressure from sector general Baran Price to sort out the situation and prepare for a new offensive. The war on Mordecai could not be allowed to devolve into a decades long stalemate.

Worse was to come however. In the Imperial controlled Menoria Hivesprawl, the remnants of Librian, Sycoraxian and other Guard units from the sector had now been amalgamated into a new regimental founding. The Aleph Wardens would be the new name for regiments drawn from the population of worlds across the sector who had now been displaced by xenos and traitor forces. There were large numbers of refugees from these worlds, and Sector Cardinal Valentina Schumadz reasoned it was better to create more regiments of Imperial Guard from these dispossessed, rather than have a refugee crisis further disrupting sector management.

The 1st Aleph Wardens were deployed onto Mordecai Primaris. Well equipped and motivated to fight for the Emperor, they first saw action to the north of the Hive Sprawl, where a mechanised patrol saw off an incursion from a force of Thousand Sons. However, before they could report this news to high command, a much larger force of Thousand Sons supported by dreadnoughts and heavy firepower. The Aleph Wardens fought hard, but were unable to hold on to critical positions, and gradually the Emerald Serpent forces pushed the imperial soldiers back. By the beginning of 04.024M42 the fighting had reached into the Menoria Hive Sprawl itself.

The Imperium was now on the back foot on Mordecai Primaris despite its strategic logistical advantages. High command would now have to rethink its strategy towards winning the war, because it had become clear this was where the forces of chaos would make its final stand.