Caitlen station 12.025M42

Excerpt from the Caitlen Station War Record, Aleph Sector Archive

Recorded: 12.025.M42

In the final month of 025.M42, violence continued unabated across the vast, labyrinthine corridors, docks, and sub-structures of Caitlen Station. The shattered megastructure, already fractured by years of neglect and infestation, had become a shifting mosaic of short-lived victories and brutal reversals, where no faction could hold territory for long.

Skirmishes in the Inner Decks

Imperial Astartes strike elements—operating without heavy support and cut off from sustained reinforcement—launched a successful purge against a Death Guard patrol in the station’s inner maintenance levels. The engagement was swift and brutal, with the Plague Marines annihilated in close-quarters combat and their corrupted war-gear destroyed.

For a brief time, the Space Marines secured a series of strategic junctions and access corridors, marking one of the few clear Imperial victories within the station’s interior zones. The victory, however, proved fleeting.

Within days, a roving Ork warband surged through the same sector. Overwhelming the depleted Astartes force through sheer numbers and ferocity, the greenskins drove the Space Marines from their newly claimed objectives. The Orks seized the area in a storm of violence, looting equipment, fortifying scrap barricades, and transforming the corridors into crude strongpoints.

The Federacy Consolidates

Elsewhere on Caitlen Station, the Tau–Federal Alliance adopted a markedly different posture. Rather than committing to direct confrontation, Federacy forces—primarily Votann Hearthkyn elements—conducted organised training exercises within their secured zones. These drills focused on void-combat manoeuvres, corridor clearing, and rapid redeployment tactics, suggesting long-term strategic intent rather than short-term opportunism.

Imperial intelligence interpreted this as a sign that the Federacy was preparing for sustained operations on the station, rather than mere raiding or looting.

⸻

By the end of 12.025.M42, Caitlen Station remained a fragmented and contested battlefield. Control shifted constantly between factions, with victories measured in corridors and junction nodes rather than sectors or decks. No single power dominated the installation, and every gain was temporary.

The station had become not a prize to be seized—but a permanent warzone, where conflict itself was the only constant.