General Cunningham took control of the situation on Tyranteous by immediately arranging a daring counter-attack on Shadowstrike's forces nearing Greenberg. On the right flank of his armies the Praetorians would hold a defensive posture, while the Librians and Blood Martyrs led the assault from the west of lake Renbow.
The offensive was begun in complete darkness, and Cunningham committed significant armoured forces to the attack on the built up industrial farming complexes north of the city of Greenberg. To a casual observer this would seem poor strategy, as the Librian armour would be at an apparent disadvantage in the built up area, and the tau had superior night fighting equipment. However Cunningham knew that the tau were also very effective in the open fields, so by taking shelter amongst buildings and ruins he was reducing the aliens' advantage. He also reasoned the tau would not expect an attack at night, and in this he was right.
The assault initially took the tau completely by surprise. There was no preliminary bombardment and the imperial forces were able to close with their enemy before the tau realised this was a serious attack. Losses were high and several units simply withdrew without orders, and the tau retreat soon risked becoming a rout. Shadowstrike was away at the tau HQ at the time, but the tau commander on the ground was an able and experienced commander. As the Librians and Blood Marryts surged forward the tau commander kept his head, and despite having lost much of his army he utilised his remaining forces expertly. Riptides were once again key to the battle, but in the end the outcome of the battle was decided by a fierce firefight between tau fire warriors and the astartes. In the end the tau just held on, and despite Cunningham's initial hopes, the offensive stalled as the sun came up, and Shadowstrike was able to wrestle the initiative back for the tau.
With mounting casualties and the tau reinforcements plugging the gaps in their lines, the Librians were forced to retreat, allowing the tau to encircle and take Greenberg, reaching the shores of lake Renbow and cutting the imperial army in two on 0307.013M42. Now commander Dawnstride launched his own offensive in the east, seeking to smash the Praetorian armies on the imperial right flank.
Dawnstride's forces moved into the plains of east Wendrick meeting little resistance from the imperium until two days into the advance. Then the tau met the prepared positions of the Praetorians, who had created formidable defensive positions in a line running all the way from Tallengrove Crossing to just north of the Renbow Refinery complex. The tau struggled to penetrate the prepared positions of the Praetorians, although they quickly dealt with the imperial heavy guns. In a confused battle which degenerated into a long range gun duel, Dawnstride's forces were simply not prepared for the close quarters fighting which was needed to take the Praetorian defences.
After several days of inconclusive fighting, the Praetorians even launched an infantry counter-attack, led by their abhuman Ogryn auxilla. This attack was repulsed with heavy casualties sustained by the imperium, and the tau wondered why the imperium would launch such an attack which had such a slim chance of success. In fact the tau had simply failed to understand imperial logic. The Praetorian commanders knew full well the outcome of an infantry assault against the tau in broad daylight, but while the tau were busy annihilating these forces, they were not concentrating on the defenses themselves, and the imperial forces were given breathing space to move their reserves up to the defence lines. By 1007.013M42 it was clear that Dawnstride would be unable to penetrate the "Praetorian Wall", and the tau called off the offensive in the east.
The previously relentless onslaught of Hive Fleet Nemesis had been quiet of late, the Hive Minds seemingly content to sit and digest the worlds they had consumed. Biomass was being stored and readied for the next offensive, with analysts on all sides wondering where it would strike.
Perhaps unsurprisingly it was the Eldar Farseers who correctly predicted the movements of the Hive Fleet. It was fortunate that the Tau counted the Eldar as their allies for it was the Tau outpost of Memnon where the Tyranids were next to attack. Slipping through the webway the Eldar met the advance force of the invasion as it was landing. The battle was brutal, with heavy losses on both sides – but these were losses the Eldar could ill afford, and the Tyranids could easily replace. The attack was blunted but in no way stopped.
With the Eldar failing to stop the attack their only hope was that they had bought enough time for their allies to prepare. Outside Research Station Re’Lso Tau forces were being hastily assembled and initially it seemed this may be enough, for only a few Tyranid creatures initially came into view to attack. But as they thought they had the upper hand the defenders were unprepared for a rain of spore pods and winged creatures dropping from the skies, and tunneling beasts emerging from the ground.
Used to keeping their enemies at range the Tau were thrown into disarray, and monsters rampaged through their lines. Many of the defenders broke and ran early in the battle rather than be ripped apart by tooth and claw. An XV104 Riptide held its own amongst the chaos, but was finally bought down by psychic assault for which belief in the Greater Good provides little defence. The battle was over swiftly, the Tyranids quickly consuming what they could. The Tau, who until now had managed to avoid the unstoppable tendrils of Nemesis, realized that they were entering a new fight, possibly their most dangerous so far.
Following the chaos uprising on Zadoc, it was quickly discovered that the Arch Cleric was not a local force confined to the imperial world. Clearly keen on destabilising the entire subsector, forces claiming loyalty to this new and enigmatic chaos figurehead, again supported by Word Bearers astartes, declared themselves the rulers of Tyndareous, a tau base with some half a million human subjects.
The city of Arrenton was soon lost by the tau, and Dawnstride, nominally in control of Tyndareous, ordered is forces to restore order. In scenes similar to those on Zadoc the tau soon came up against a well prepared and well equipped enemy, supported by heavy weaponry, war engines and vehicles. Somehow the forces of chaos had been slowly building up their forces across the sector, and both the imperium and tau began internal investigations intending to understand how they had allowed such forces to build up on worlds they claimed to control.
The tau assault was easily beaten by the Arch Cleric and his army, and the tau were preparing to re-deploy forces from Tyranteous to secure their vital base, but in the end the sudden and unexpected appearance of eldar forces on Tyndareous turned the tide. A large eldar warhost, supported by at least one mighty Wraith Knight was too much for the Arch Cleric's forces, and the chaos uprising on Tyndareous, unlike on Zadoc, was brutally eliminated. Their base secure the Tau could now concentrate once more on defeating the imperium, but the appearance of chaos forces on one of their own bases had weakened the tau claims that they were superior to the imperium in keeping order, and the water caste now found human ears more skeptical to their overtures. The tau redoubled their efforts to sway the starving on Zadoc however, but now the Arch Cleric appeared to embody salvation for many of the poor, rather than the tau.
For months the situation on Zadoc had been deteriorating. With food stocks dwindling and supplies from Tyranteous becoming fewer and more sporadic, the great cities were suffering more and more unrest. The highly stratified society of Zadoc ensured the poorest suffered first, and as food prices spiralled out of control, vast throngs of angry and hungry citizens began protests in each of the cities. These soon became riots, and the Adeptus Arbites and the local PDF spent much of their time putting down the unrest. Governor Valentine Pole did much protesting to the Lord commander of the Sector, but in general, Pole took little action to alleviate the problems on his world, and much food was wasted or squandered by the rich while the poorest starved.
The city of Celliano, governed by a cartell of merchants in much the same way as the rest of the planet, first reported problems on 2006.013M42. At first the ruling elite on Zadoc believed the subsequent loss of contact with the settlement, home to 17 million inhabitants, was just a symptom of a rather more successful uprising, but the PDF regiment sent in to restore order soon found something much worse, reporting an army of cultists following the "Arch Cleric", backed by blasphemous warmachines and the agents of chaos. The PDF regiment was annihilated.
The response to the news of chaos forces on Zadoc was remarkably swift. General Montgomery immediately assigned several Librian regiments to Zadoc, ordering Libria herself to double her military tithe. The Salamanders, at the time conducting operations on Hylas and Tyranteous, already had forces on Zadoc, and these were rapidly redeployed to the northern city. Meanwhile Governor Pole became another casualty of Commissar-General Crowe, removed from power and placed under house arrest for his dereliction of duty and woeful handling of the Zadoc food crisis.
The Librians and Salamanders found the city of Celliano already held by the forces of chaos, and intelligence suggested daemonic forces as well as those of the hated Word Bearers traitor legion in place in the city. It seemed the Word Bearers had found fertile ground in which to spread their treacherous and heretical ideas. On 3006.013M42 the imperial force attacked from Chemart, directly assaulting the rebel city. At first the battle went well, as the Salamanders forced their way into the heart of the city, while the Librians protected the astartes flanks.
The Librians had difficulties however, finding the streets of Celliano less than ideal for their mechanised force, and it became increasingly difficult to redeploy their armoured assets as the chaos forces rapidly moved to meet the threat of the Salamanders. In the centre the fighting was brutal. While imperial artillery massacred the lightly armed and armoured cultists, the forces of the Arch Cleric concentrated on the Salamanders' thrust. Here both sides took heavy casualties, with the elite of the elite trying desperately to break the chaos line. However the Salamanders fell just short, and by early 07.013M42 it was clear that the imperial force hadn't managed to dislodge the chaos forces from critical objectives in the city. Reluctantly the Salamanders commander ordered his forces to withdraw, and the Librians backed off too, forming a defence line just to the west of the city.
A rapid series of operations had driven Imperial forces from Tyranteous' northern continent and secured the planetary capital for the Tau Empire. This was a significant blow to Imperial moral but the Tau themselves place little value on the acquisition of territory. The major obstacle to breaking the back of Imperial forces on Tyranteous were the Space Marine chapters currently supporting the Imperial war effort. Elite, well equipped and superbly mobile the Emperor's finest were capable of striking anywhere and at any time.
Shadowstrike badly wanted to eliminate this threat but the Marine's mobility and grasp of strategy made them impossible to engage on the Tau's terms. In order to destroy them they would have to be brought to a time and place of the Tau's choosing. To this end Shadowstrike decided to employ the strategy of Kauyon – The Patient Hunter. In Kauyon a bait or false indication of weakness is used to draw enemy forces into an ambush. In order to lure the mighty Space Marines en masse the bait would have to be something of enormous value, something totally irresistible to Imperial command, and the location would have to be a place only the Space Marines could reach.
Only one bait would be sufficient to entice the Imperium into taking such a risk: Shadowstrike himself. In an intricate operation the Tau ensured that Imperial Intelligence would discover the location of Shadowstrike's command complex, codenamed Superiority. Located far behind the front lines and covered by the protective umbrella of the Tau Air Caste in air and space only a rapid orbital insertion could hope to succeed in breaching the base and killing Shadowstrike.
The bait was further sweetened by the arrival of Commanders Whitefire and Dawnstride at Superiority Complex. In a heated war council Marine captains warned of the risks of an orbital strike so far from friendly forces but High Command would hear none of it. They were desperate for a significant victory to demonstrate to their own superiors they had a grip on the situation. The spectre of a multitude of worlds lost to the Tau under Shadowstrike's command hung over them and motivated them to abandon all reason in securing his demise. Reluctantly the Space Wolves and Lamenters based on Tyranteous agreed to the strike.
The trap set, Shadowstrike's plan was disrupted by the last minute arrival of an Ethereal at the base on a surprise inspection. He was quickly escorted back to the landing pad and a shuttle called in to remove him from the impending conflict but before it could arrive the Marines struck.
Without warning drop pods screamed down from orbit, blazing through the sky in trails of fire. Closely behind followed the finest of the Lamenters, jumping out of Thunderhawks in the upper atmosphere and using their jump packs to control their fall. The suddenness and ferocity of such attacks had broken many armies throughout the galaxy but Shadowstrike had studied his enemies tactics and the Tau were ready and waiting. Even as the Marines made planetfall they took heavy incoming fire from carefully sited and concealed air defences and found themselves instantly surrounded by a force many times strong than they had expected.
In the open layout of the Tau base there was no place of respite from the overwhelming volume of fire directed at each contingent as they arrived. The Space Marines had some initial success in bringing down the Tau's Riptides – suits so large their positions had been identified from orbit and were the first targets of the Marines' wrath. But it was too little and the Marines suffered catastrophic casualties. A mechanised thrust which approached the base perimeter, somehow not detected by the Tau until it was too late, was able to make a stand but as soon as the Marines within the base had been eliminated the Tau turned their weaponry outwards and the tanks too were destroyed.
The Tau plan had been an overwhelming success and the attackers casualties had been enormous with the Tau's own losses minimal. Despite this Shadowstrike took little joy in the victory. Over many conflicts the Tau had learned to respect the Space Marines as skilled, honourable and worthy adversaries and the sight of so many great warriors slaughtered through the stupidity of commanders who would never themselves set foot on a battlefield was tragic. In a show of respect the bodies of the dead marines were returned to their Chapters so that they might be honoured in whatever way their battle brothers deemed fit.
This action did bring one unexpected ray of hope to the Imperium – the grainy imagery from a dead Space Wolve's helmet camera seemed to show a battle suit tentatively identified as Commander Whitefire being felled by a Krak missile in the closing moments of the battle. His fate was unknown but in a desperate effort to save his own neck it allowed Lord General Brooke to claim the attack had been at least partially successful in eliminating the Tau high command. This did little to endear him to the Space Marine chapters supporting his efforts who saw such a 'victory' as no compensation at all for so many dead.
It wasn't enough for General Brooke. By 0607.013M42 he was out of a job, replaced by General Montgomery by the Commissar-General of the sector, Lord Ferdinand Crowe. Crowe, who had arrived with the new sector government, had been content to sit back and watch events unfold. The latest catastrophe on Tyranteous made up his mind. In the same week that Brooke was moved to an "administrative role", Lord General Roover was "retired", and the general on the ground, who had fallen so completely for Shadowstrike's trap, Mikell Denham found himself courtmartialled and executed for dereliction of duty. General Cunningham, a veteran of Melberg and Tarsis, was called upon once more, finding himself again facing the tau in an almost impossible situation, with orders to hold the line.
With the loss of the north on Tyranteous, Lord General Brooke at subsector command immediately got a verbal battering from his superior, which via astropath, was a surreal thing to behold for his command council. The irrascible tones of Lord General Thaddeus Roover came through strongly in the entranced voice of the diminutive astropath, who proceeded to deliver the dressing down of a high ranking imperial guard officer with no hint of the peculiarity of the situation. Roover was keen to know why General Denham on the ground had allowed the tau to gain a foothold in Wendrick, and whether the capital was at risk, while demanding an immediate counter-attack with the resources which were already "plentiful" enough for their purpose.
The highest ranking general in the sector sounded worried, even in the warp distorted and infuriated tones emanating from the astropath this was evident. Brooke, commander of the subsector was painfully aware of the arrival of the new sector government, and Roover's need to impress on them that the sector was in safe hands with him, despite the plentiful evidence to the contrary with the loss of Alphe, Betor, Tarsis, Melberg and the Rim Worlds... This meant more and more desperate urging that the campaigns on Hylas and Tyranteous be brought to a successful conclusion, or at least show some positive movement. For now the war against the orks was quiet, but on Tyranteous the tau were enjoying a string of victories with their new technology, and Roover was concerned that by the time admiral Jellicoe's fleet arrived, there would be nothing left to save.
Privately the senior admiral in the sector felt that Tyranteous would be lost before he could send a force, so Grand Admiral Bova Magnus did not order his subordinate Jellicoe to apply any speed to the preparations of the "Tyranteous task force". So far 6 months had past and it appeared the imperial fleet was no nearer to leaving Caitlen station, with Jellicoe citing "urgent repairs" and other pressing concerns as reasons to stall. General Denham had no choice but to continue the war, and in mid 06.013M42 with the help of a small force of Blood Martyrs, he planned his counter attack for his seniors.
Denham began his counter attack on 2006.013M42, using his Librian Guard as a blunt weapon against the tau forces. His objectives were the tau bases which had been set up behind the front line to act as marshalling and supply points for the tau army. His imperial guard forces advanced on a wide front, supported by units of Blood Martyrs and a savage artillery bombardment which crippled a number of hammerhead gunships in the early exchanges of fire.
The attack started well for the imperium, with the tau suffering losses. The aliens gave ground, with Denham's Librian mechanised forces reaching their primary objectives on the first day. Then commander Whitefire sprung his trap. Supported by the up and coming commander Dawnstride, Whitefire's forces included Riptude battlesuits, which once again the imperium found difficult to deal with. the battle escalated as Denham threw in his reserve, committing chimera borne veterans and hellhound flame tanks into the fight. Again the tau took heavy casualties, their infantry suffering to the imperial fire, but Whitefire now committed his reserves. Hordes of kroot which had been hiding in the marshy forests of northern Wendrick surprised the imperial attackers and disrupted their momentum. The Blood Martyrs leading the speartip of the imperial advance were forced to double back to deal with deep striking crisis suits, which proved to be a more difficult foe than even the astartes had imagined.
By 2506.013M42 further reserves had been committed, and the imperial navy had been called in to strafe and bomb the alien positions. Little by little however the imperial advance slowed, and although the tau continued to suffer, losing one of their Riptides finally on 26th, the imperial advance had once again failed to break through. On 2706.013M42 the imperial forces began retreating, a retreat which increased in speed as Shadowstrike committed a fresh attack to the imperial lines. Halt lines were overrun and soon the imperial guard was almost in full rout. The line stabilised on 2906.013M42, but by then the capital had been lost and the Wendrick bridgehead widened along the Lanwick sea and Jute Strait. On 3006.013M42 General Brooke's astropath once again reported a message from his commander. This time Brooke asked for it to be translated to him in writing...
Supply of food to Zadoc is further reduced.
With the success of the chaos forces on Zoggot, Lorek sought to capitalise this by immediately launching an invasion of the far more populous and strategic world of Gargash in the Enceladus subsector. Taking Gargash would be a huge achievement towards the ultimate goal of wiping out the orks in the subsector, and joining the Norsefire empire with the chaos zone around Charybdis. If Lorek could achieve that, and eventual overlordship of the entire subsector, the entire sector would be ripe for a black crusade the like of which would make the losses in the Perseus Deeps seem trivial. The invasion plan was simple. Lorek would infiltrate forces on to the planet then use his summoned daemons to overwhelm key installations protecting the world. Then the major invasion, involving Lorek's moderate fleet, would commence.
Unfortunately the assault on the fortresses did not go well for Lorek. The key installation in the far north was protected by a significant ork force, bolstered by Uzfangs boyz when the ork warboss correctly identified that Gargash would be the next chaos target. The greenskins, keen to impress their leader, fought violently and tenaciously, goading the daemons into pointless fights with little tactical merit, and allowing Uzfang to ensure the key strategic locations of the fortress remained intact and under ork control. The casualty count was high but the fortress held, ensuring a full blown invasion would be suicidal to any approaching fleet. Gargash was safe from chaos invasion, at least for the time being.
Lord General looked out on the scene in front of him from the palace balcony overlooking the city of Jutesburgh. The sun was setting, casting a peaceful orange glow over the settlement, and causing the distant waters of the Jute Strait to shine like a sea of jewels. Seabirds called to each other, and the sound of merchants and city dwellers closing for the day reminded the general of sunny evenings spent drinking on his homeworld many years before. Only the faint smudge of smoke in the far west revealed the danger now posed to imperial rule on Tyranteous, although the imposing presence of Commissar Ehren behind him in the ante room reminded Lord General Mikell Denham of the perilous position he now personally found himself in.
The north had been lost. He had known the tau attack was coming, and he had positioned his forces accordingly. He had the support of four companies of astartes. In the far north his imperial guard units had been supported by the Mantis Warriors, and in the city of Hammerton the Red Angels, Blood Angels and Blood Martyrs had come together to defend the city. Further south Denham had ordered a push north by his Librian units, to link up with the imperial forces in Hammerton. The plan had been sound, and his forces sufficient, so he thought, to turn the tide against the alien invaders and start winning the war.
Now, just a week later, North Vale and North Landing had been lost, and his army in Hammerton destroyed, its guardsman killed or captured, and the equipment lost. The Corellians and Librians further south had barely managed to get across the Jute Strait with the tau snapping at their heels. Further west, the enemy had been stopped at Weybridge crossing, but now the tau had a bridgehead on Wendrick, just a few hundred kilometres from the capital itself. How had it gone so wrong?
Commander Shadowstrike had been instrumental in the planning of operation Ulysses, the plan to rid the northern continent of imperial forces, and begin the next phase of the conquest of the imperial agri-world. Shadowstrike was keen to break the imperial armies, and the operation focussed on the seige of Hammerton. Shadowstrike was well aware that the imperium would try to defend the city, forcing the tau to accept a war of attrition in the streets of the settlement, probably intending to use their genetically engineered elite forces to massacre the tau in the streets. Commanders Windgather and Whitefire were summoned to add their forces to the attack on Hammerton and Shadowstrike devised an assault to cancel out their enemies' superiority in city fighting.
Rather than expend lives attacking the city walls Shadowstrike instead opted to bypass them completely as suits and grav tanks were deployed by mantas directly into the city after bombarding the walls, driving the defenders back into shelter of the city. In the run up to the attack the area around Hammerton was covered by heavy snow and blizzards. This time ground forces are accompanied by sky rays (although deployed in very limited numbers) to guard against air attack, however on d-day snow was fairly light and barracudas are able to fly.
The imperial forces in Hammerton now unleashed their astarted forces, believing the Tau's position in the city to still be tenuous. Space Marines of the Blood Angels and Dark Angels chapter launched an immediate all out counter attack but found themselves caught in deadly crossfire. For the first time the imperial forces on Tyranteous faced the deployment of multiple XV104 'Riptide' battlesuits, the first major deployment of such suits within the Aleph subsector. The effect was devastating, as the suits, backed up by the smaller 'crisis' variants and broadsides, prove to be highly effective in the dense city terrain, and everywhere the counter attacking imperial forces find themselves lit up by markerlights, targetted by missiles from unseen enemies and ambushed as suits and grav tanks appear from behind buildings and on roofs. Light skimmers strike from the maze of alleyways, and despite a spiritied attack from the Blood Martyrs on the right flank, the imperial forces suffer massive casualties.
As the fighting wore on into the second day, the survivors of the Dark Angels and Blood Angels are forced to quit the city, while all counter attackers are slaughtered or forced to pull back. Only a few indomitable space marines make it to the Tau lines and bitter back and forth fighting erupts around strategically important buildings. Left isolated, they are eventually surrounded and gunned down. The battle ended as tau forces moved in on central cathedral with Shadowstrike himself jetting up the approach, flanked by his personal bodyguard and surrounded by multiple Riptides. A few marines of the Red Angels fought bravely on to the last, but Hammerton was lost, well before the imperial attack from the south got anywhere near their objectives.
The southern thrust soon found itself in difficulty, ambushed on all sides in the rolling terrain of North Landing, and taken apart from the sky by barracudas. The retreat began, while in the far north, another battle was taking place.
Shadowstrike had been content to leave the imperial forces bottled up in the north, but the tau received an unexpected offer of aid from the eldar. If the tau agreed to assault Denham's forces in North Vale, the eldar would assist, so long as the tau would not get in the way of their own mission. Shadowstrike accepted the offer as it allowed him to secure his flanks with a relatively low commitment of troops.
The imperium had gathered a large force in the north, comprising of local PDF units, a praetorian regiment, units of the 405th Orbital defence force, supported by a strike force from the Mantis Warriors chapter. They had been planning their own advance on the orders of Lord General Denham, and initially they made good progress, finding tau resistance weak. As usual the tau were only to willing to sacrifice land of low strategic importance for time, and this they did with skill, harrying the attackers but allowing them to advance, spread out, and fall into the carefully prepared eldar trap.
The imperial forces met the allied eldar/tau force in a wide valley in the northern continent. Here they found themselves confronted by a large force and immediately dug in, errecting a vast line of Aegis defences, near to an ancient alien ruin and a vast stretch of woodland known as the wraith forest. This region was in fact the reason for the eldar visit, as the farseers had identified an opportunity to seal the warp gate still active on the planet.
Commander Moonshine had been left in no doubt that the eldar were on their own mission and not to interfere. Instead the tau commander concentrated on the destruction of the imperial forces while the eldar advanced on the monument. At first it was feared the imperium would get to the sacred eldar site first, but the imperial guard commanders along with the space marines had decided on a cautious approach, one which was to prove costly. Once the wraithguard of the Rillietan took up positions in the giant monument's ruins it proved impossible to shift them, and harrying attacks from the tau severely mauled the imperial forces.
In the wraith forest, the ghosts of the eldar past saw some of their kin succumb to their own ancient nightmares, several warriors simply wandering off and disappearing after hearing their ancestors' eerie calls, but the imperial forces were unable to capitalise on this, their own forces being just as loathe to enter the strange woodlands. On the imperial left flank their forces did advance, but too late. The eldar were able to disable the warp gate then turn to the annihilation of the enemy forces. Along with commander Moonface's hunter cadres, the imperial advance was checked, then thrown into retreat as the alliance surged forward. The retreat soon became a rout, as the Mantis Warriors abandonned the imperial guard to their fate. The PDF units and the Orbital Defence Force fled for their lives, while the Praetorians vainly tried to hold the line. General Denham tried to order an evacuation, but Shadowstrike made sure any airborne rescue was turned back by waves of tau interceptors launched from the fleet above the planet. There would be no escape this time.
By 0706.013M42 the last defenders in the north had been mopped up, and the eldar forces simply melted away, leaving the tau in command of North Vale. Further south the Corellians and Zadocians had managed to set up a defensive line south of Lanwick Crossing, and the tau impetus had spent itself. Shadowstrike was more than content with the success of operation Ulysses, while the imperium were once again reeling from a defeat to the tau empire. Meanwhile on Zadoc the lack of food was becoming more critical, with riots and famines now sweeping several of the hives. Food had to get to the imperial capital of the subsecto before it fell into anarchy. Imperial rule in the Zadoc subsector was more tenuous than ever.
During 05.013M42 the war between chaos and the tyranids on Grimlock continued with brutal ferocity. mobile warfare had briefly given way to hit and run raids, bombing campaigns and chemical and biological warfare, before Nemesis launched a major assault on the strategically vital region of Atlis towards the middle of the month.
The chaos leaders hadn't expected an attack on this region, as it was protected on three sides by the Atal and Krendal seas. However, the armoured warriors of Nemesis showed that mere oceans were not a barrier, and turned up in force near the settlement of Eribank. Here an enourmous battle involving over a million defenders took place amongst the ruins of the once populous city, and titan's clashed with vast bio constructs. Eventually the encounter was settled when the chaos army's centre collapsed, allowing the tyranids to break through on all sides. Eribank fell and the defenders of Buttermont quickly fled south. It seemed all of Atlis would fall and with it much hope of a chaos final victory.
The Death Guard however were unperturbed, and holed themselves up in the rocky hills surrounding the former Imperial base of Hakargh. The base itself had long been converted to use by traitor Astartes legions, and the mighty fortress had been embelished with brass towers and monuments to the four powers of the warp.
Unimpressed with the display of martial prowess, Nemesis assaulted the fortress of Hakargh, finding the nurgle devotees defending the narrow passes to the installation both tough and stubborn. The tratior marines arrayed their forces in disciplined lines, sending a withering hail of accurate fire into their enemy's ranks as the hordes of tyranids tried to close with their foe. The weather was appalling and this seemed to slow the hive mind and the warriors themselves, and gradually the death guard thinned out the press of alien creatures before finally breaking the back of the attack.
having saved the fortress, the Death Guard set about leading the counter attack against an increasingly disorganised foe. Before the month was out the ruined cities of Buttermont and Eribank had been retaken, and all of Atlis restored to chaos rule. Nemesis would have to think again before considering the world of Grimlock ripe for consumption.
During the latter half of 05.013M42 the Aleph Sector as a whole began to see a steady upsurge in violence. The main arenas of the Perseus Deeps and Zadoc Subsector were the most active, and the war on Fort Sparcos between the orks and tyranids continued, with hive fleet Nemesis closing its grip ever tighter around the massive ork facility, while ork pirates and rok fleets vied with the tyranid bioships in a chaotic series of running battles around the planet.
Further afield the Dark Eldar of the Shattered Silence cabal continued their machinations in the Vastrid sector, continuing their construction of a secret base in the Radeon Cluster, putting their successful raid over the Death Guard to good use. In the Enceladus subsector, the Tau launched their first ever mission into the unknown, following a sudden calming of warp tides in the region. Commander Fastblade, finding a number of worlds infested by chaos and orks, put his new equipment and technology to the test, conducting a series of successful raids against the greenskins.
The most notable event came on 2405.013M42, when the Oberon class battleship Barham arrived at Vastrid after several months in the warp. The vessel had not announced its arrival, and the vast vessel, escorted by a flotilla of smaller craft caused some concern on the subsector capital before finally it was revealed that the new Aleph ruling council had arrived.
Lord General Roover and Lord Admiral Magnus had got wind of the changes several months previously, and were relieved to find an imperial governor appointed rather than a warmaster of a new crusade. They would keep their posts, for now at least. The new arrivals also included a Cardinal and a Lord Marshall of the Adeptus Arbites, as well as an inquisitor lord. The Adeptus Terra clearly meant business about bringing the rule of imperial law back to the sector as a whole.
The new Imperial Governor, Titus Luthor had chosen Vastrid as his seat of power after finding out in transit that the former capital Aleph 4 was no longer loyal to the emperor. This was of particular irritation to the current government of Vastrid, which found its government offices and imperial palace forfiet to Luthor's requirements, and they were forced to move their own seat of government to Cravenhead.
Luthor had had to spend his months journeying to the sector learning about the history of the sector, and why his new domain was half the size it had been a millenia previously. Luthor made good relationships with Cardinal Cassar and Lord Marshall Van-Gelt during the trip, and they agreed that the sector was in serious need of guidance. Luthor would be having stiff words with commanders of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy upon his arrival as well.
The Barham's most secretive new arrival was Lord Inquisitor Natalia Vorushko, who had kept herself mostly to herself during the trip. Upon her arrival she set up the Aleph Sector Convocation, of which she was head, and summoned all inquisitors to her from across the sector. This included the rivals Hathek and Xanthus, as well as Lord Inquisitor Huron. Vorushko was determined to "clear up" certain matters around the recent "inquisition war", and prevent any further outbreaks of violence between her colleagues.
Aleph Sector Ruling Council - Bloodmouth, Vastrid, Vastrid subsector
Imperial Governor Titus Luthor (Adeptus Terra) - arrived 2405.013M42
Cardinal Leoten Cassar (Adeptus Ministorium) - arrived 2405.013M42
Lord Marshall Severus Van-Gelt (Adeptus Arbites) - arrived 2405.013M42
Lord General Thaddeus Roover (Imperial Guard)
Lord Admiral Bova Magnus (Imperial Navy)
Aleph Sector Convocation
Lord Inquisitor Natalia Vorushko (Inquisition) - arrived 2405.013M42
- Lord Inquisitor Xanthus
- Lord Inquisitor Hathek
- Lord Inquisitor Huron
On Hylas, while Uzfang had been fighting an agressive war in the west with the help of Da Verminator and the remnants of Snazzgubbins and Thruggnik's warband, Na'Porkleon had been doing very little in the east. Since his initial successes over the Salamanders, the ork commander (still widely rumoured to be two gretchin one standing on the other's shoulders) had sat with his army, sulking, behind a line of ork fortifications running from the Colleridge swaps to the Eden sea.
The ork warlord was sulking because since his defeat the Praetorians, in charge of the defence of East Hallen, Seaford and Arin, had built a parallel row of formidable fortifications blocking any ork advance. Na'Porkleon decided this wasn't sporting, and had sat sulking ever since, both sides refusing to come out and fight each other.
Uzfang grew increasingly frustrated at his ally and subordinate, so much so that in mid 05.013M42 he took a large force of orks south east to reinforce the eastern front, before launching his own ferocious attack on the Praetorian lines. Supported by Medusa artillery the Praetorians stood firm as Uzfang's orks swept across the plains and into the guns of the imperial guard. Refusing to retreat, the Praetorians died where they stood, stoically refusing to abandon their posts. The result was a bloody stalemate, with the orks failing to make a dent in the imperial defences. Collingwood and Eden't Landing remained safe and General Van Dorn urged the Praetorian commander to follow up on the failing ork assault. He refused.
Much to Van Dorn's frustration the Praetorians instead extended their lines of fortification, arguing to push forward now would simply expose them to another ork counter attack. Instead the Praetorian colonel planned to reinforce his line further so that the offensive, when it finally came, would be unstoppable. In any case the trench digging and bastion building continued, forming an even longer line of fortifications to further protect Eden's Landing. Meanwhile on the ork side, Na'Porkleon was unable to hide his amusement at Uzfang's failure as he returned to the greater part of his armies fighting in the north.
With the chaos position almost hopeless on Tyranteous, the imperial guard commanders were confident that now only the tau would prove to be their real enemy on tht planet, but still they were instructed to hold defensive positions against the forces of damnation, rather than launch an all out attack to finish them off. Little did they know that the fact that imperial intelligence were well aware that the strength which had so far been pitted against them by the forces of chaos did not represent the total strength of Lorek and his allies. Daemons had been used in place of conventional troops, and Lorek was in fact husbanding his valuable ground forces as he knew he was vastly outnumbered by his loyalist enemies.
The invasion of Tyranteous had taken a turn for the worse however, so Lorek ordered his entire strategic reserve, along with a massive daemon summoning, to attack by surprise out of the Granite hills in the shadow of mount iceclaw. Although the imperium were right about the chaos ground forces, arcane technologies and daemonic pacts had so far shielded the bulk of Lorek's marine forces from the imperium. On 1405.013M42 he committed them.
The imperium first learned of the new offensive as farming collectives and small settlements sent garbled pleas for help then stopped responding altogether. A PDF batalion was sent to investigate and did not return. Observation by air, resulting in savage casualties to the imperial navy determined that a huge force of marines and daemons was now moving north on Fernal Crossing. If this fell, the entire region of Ferval would fall to chaos and the final victory of the imperium over their arch-enemy would be set back once more.
The Librian 78th, 114th and 59th mechanised were sent to face this threat, assisted by half a company of Blood Martyrs astartes, representing the greater part of General Mikell Denham's southern armies. He was sure this was Lorek's last roll of the dice and was determined to smash his foothold on Tyranteous once and for all.
General Sackville was given charge of the force, designated West Army, as Denham re-organised his forces into four armies. Other than West there was North, defending against the Tau in North Landing, led by the Corellians, but made up of a range of forces. East, covering East and Grent, under General Illiani, commander of Zadoc forces and Centre, defending the capital and the Wendrick region led personally by Denham himself.
Sackville devised a brutal strategy to counter Lorek's advance, and one the Blood Martyrs fully endorsed. The forces of chaos were baited to fall upon the imperial armies, who had formed a wide front as they travelled north west, stretching from the Granite hills to the Lanwick sea. Sackville's advance was obvious, and as soon as the forces of chaos wheeled to meet him, he took up defensive positions.
The two armies clashed in the planes, the forces of Lorek and his daemons piling into the Librians with savagery. The 78th regiment was almost wiped out, the 114th lost half its strength and the 59th had nearly all its equipment destroyed. For a long time it appeared Sackville was losing, as horrific reports of casualties came in from the front. Sackville merely nodded, consulted with the Blood Martys, and threw ever more men into the meatgrinder.
The loss of life was horrendous, but the imperium could make good the losses, while Lorek could not reinforce his precious legionaries. Worse still while the daemons and traitor marines were orchestrating a massacre in the valleys, the Blood Martyrs met lighter resistance on the imperial left flank, taking the high ground and putting Lorek's forces at the disadvantage. After four days of fighting the daemonic entities began to weaken, and yet Sackville still had men to throw into the battle, though by now even his superior Denham was having second thoughts about the strategy. However, by now the Blood Martyrs had scouted the territory of the Granite hills, and quite by chance found one of the small cultist parties responsible for the summoning of the daemonhosts. The space marines quickly determined the source of the daemons from the screaming captives, before executing their prisoners and ordering a strike on the daemon portal from orbit. The strike cruiser Phoenix quickly ran the tau blockade, fired on the co-ordinates before escaping into deep space.
On 2105.013M42 the daemons allied to Lorek abruptly vanished, and the gods of the warp withdrew their favour from the venture. What was left of Lorek's legions made their way into the wildernesses, either teleporting back to unseen ships during night hours, or using warp portals to evacuate the planet. The chaos invasion of Tyranteous was finally at an end.
Meanwhile the tau had been highly successful in expanding from their initial beachhead but the Imperium still held out in the northern cities. If they could be driven out of their prepared positions in the major population centres Imperial resistance in the north would collapse. The honour of claiming the cities was given to the cadres of the Ksi'm'yen Sept, Shadowstrike's own Sept and veterans of the Tau's wars throughout the sector.
The meticulously planned operations were imperilled when poor weather covered the northern continent on the day of the attack. Rather than push back the operation and lose the element of surprise Shadowstrike ordered the attack on Fallenvale to go ahead anyway. At zero hour Stealth Suites and Kroot auxiliaries who had infiltrated the settlements overnight fell upon the defenders as Shadowstrike's Cadres moved into the city outskirts.
The defensive positions were manned by men of the Corellian Storm Guard, an elite and well lead unit but outnumbered as the Tau had been successful in keeping the point of their attack from Imperial Intelligence. The Corellian artillery and fortified positions were neutralised by stealth units before they could do much damage but before long re-enforcements began pouring in from throughout the city and the battle hung in the balance.
As the battle raged the weather worsened with torrential rain, lightning storms and high winds blanketing the city. The appalling weather kept the Tau atmospheric fighters grounded, unable to patrol the air over Fallenvale without exposing themselves to Imperial flak guns. Used to air dominance Shadowstrike's Cadres without ground based anti-aircraft weapons and were totally vulnerable to the strafing runs of the Corellian Vendetta gunships. The Tau's supporting armour paid a heavy price, utterly exposed to the aerial attack.
But in the fierce street fighting it was the infantry that held the key to victory and after many bloody hours the Tau emerge victorious. Fallenvale was taken and many of its remaining defenders forced to surrender, although the air mobile Storm Guard were able to make their escape under cover of the storm. In the south Hammerton was also encircled by an armoured push and cut off from friendly forces. The Imperial position in the north was looking untenable, only constant raids on the Tau's supply infrastructure preventing a total collapse.
Following the Astartes failure in the preceding weeks, General Vasilevsky scrambled to prevent a general eldar breakthrough. He had been warned that the eldar were attacking in force and that to hold the line would be a challenge. However, despite not having overwhelming numbers, Vasilevsky could still call on elite regiments, including one from the Corellian Storm Guard. It was these elite troops the imperial general placed along the most likely axis of advance for the aliens, and it was the Corellians who met the eldar advance head on.
The elite imperial guard formation absorbed the initial shock of the eldar attack, and then counter attacked using Vendetta gunships and chimera borne mechanised regiments. Attacking in force, sheer numbers overwhelmed the disciplined eldar, in a way the astartes could not. Backed by heavy artillery and air strikes, the Corellians stopped the eldar advance dead, and by 2305.013M42, despite ongoing bitter fighting, the eldar were once again retreating back up the Hellebron Valley and to within sight of the ruined capital. The Corellian's had stopped the eldar advance, but Vasilevsky now needed more troops to press home his advantage.
The eldar were not only active in the Zadoc subsector in their new policy of overt support for the orks. In the Enceladus subsector, far from imperial control, the orks were also under threat. Chaos had invaded the minor world of Zoggot, and should it fall, eldar farseers had predicted swift gains for the forces of chaos, with the possible collapse of the orks in the region. This in turn they predicted would lead to a further assault by chaos on the Vork Ork Expanse, leading to a new Waagh! which would draw orks away from the Zadoc subsector, and potentially put the orks themselves on a colision course with eldar ambitions.
The forces of chaos, united for once in their victory over the orks, chose the death guard to lead the advance on the last remaining ork stronghold, unaware that the eldar were now supporting their greenskin enemy. As the final battle was joined the eldar forces fought valiantly and almost tipped the tide as the ork commander smashed into the death guard ranks taking out the chaos lord himself, charging through the chaos lines and causing much destruction before being shot down by cowardly havocs with lascannon.
The battle itself hinged on a rather peculiar action near the centre of the ork settlement. In their attempt to prevent the chaos forces from breaking through the ork lines the greenskins had developed a new powerful weapon, capable of levelling entire city blocks. Based on unstable wormhole technology the first experimental firing unfortunately ended up firing an unlucky grot helper into a tree near the enemy lines. This was particularly calamatous as this particular grot had been carrying the ork "planz" to the device. One ork warboss immediately tried to use "stelth" to rescue the unfortunate creature before the enemy noticed what had just been fired into its midst, but his clumsy approach brought an entire death guard company swiftly onto his position.
The eldar knew this would be the key action, thanks to the prescience of their psykers, although they perhaps didn't forsee the loss of their commander to an unfortunate mishap with a shokk attack gun... Nevertheless the strange ork-eldar "alliance" held, and together they made a concerted effort to come to the rescue not just of a grot and a warboss, but of the planet of Zoggot itself. The ork boys, expecting to wade through the death guard ranks like their commander, crashed into a wall of plague ridden bodies and were hacked down. In the end the eldar forces were unable to save the grot or the warboss sent to retrieve him and had to withdraw. Zoggot had fallen to chaos.
General Denham had been right to fear a renewed offensive from the Tau. Since their initial invasion they had continued to build up their forces, and despite the recent imperial successes against chaos, the tau still controlled the outer reaches of the Tyranteous system and the strategically vital Tyranteous Moonbase, a desolate but vital installation orbitting one of the system's larger gas giants. Here the tau had already converted the imperial base, and having defeated a chaos incursion, were now at liberty to use it as an effective staging post for troops and equipment bound for Tyranteous itself. With Jellicoe's fleet still en route to Tyranteous there was nothing the imperium could do to challenge tau superiority in space, so Denham was forced to defend his recently won territory with the forces he had to hand.
The imperium fortified the important settlements and strategically significant positions on their front line with the tau, but when it came the renewed offensive bypassed much of these defences, out manouvering Denham's guard formations and driving deep into imperial territory between Fallenvale and Hammerton. The tau plan had been simple, to cut the imperial general's supply lines to the northern city and encircling a large portion of his army.
Initially the tau plan succeeded, but the Raven Guard had positioned themselves in the rear ready for such an eventuality. They immediately threw themselves at the "speartip" of the tau attack, aiming to blunt the tau advance and knock out their elite forces. General Denham would then be able to issue a general order to counter attack, catching the tau between two formidable forces.
The Raven Guard assault went wrong from the start, with strong warp currents blinding the chapter's librarians and causing the drop pod assault to go badly awry. One veteran librarian was almost overwhelmed by the warp turbulence, almost certainly caused by the frequent daemonic manifestations which had characterised the war against chaos on Tyranteous.
Despite the setbacks the Raven Guard pressed home their attack, eventually assailing the tau commander himself in close combat with the superior genetically enhanced super humans. Overall however the tau advance was not checked, and the astartes could do little to prevent the xenos forces from linking up several hundred miles south of the now beseiged city of Fallenvale. The Raven Guard abandoned their mission, feelings of bitterness and unfinished business dominating their return to their strike cruiser.
In mid 05.0143M42, the tau realised that the continued ork victories on Hylas, while weakening the imperium, also posed a threat to their own ambitions in the Zadoc subsector. Were the orks victorious on Hylas, they would likely turn on the tau holdings in the Mabb Nebula, which put the entire aleph sphere expansion under threat. Rather than directly help the imperium, whith whom the tau were at war with on Tyranteous. Instead the ethereals determined that Fort Aerin, a powerful and important ork occupied base near to Va Doran, should be rendered ineffective. This would deter the orks from attacking tau worlds while not helping the embattled general Van Dorn on Hylas with his greenskin enemy.
Despite the war on Tyranteous the tau force to carry out the attack on Fort Aerin still had imperial allies, in the shape of the Knights of Dorn. This astartes force had been working with the tau for some time and recognised the dangerous shared enemies of human and tau, and had long ago decided that this far on the eastern rim, co-operation with the tau was a neccessity if either race was to survive. Pointedly the chapter forces had stayed well away from Zadoc command since re-appearing in the Zadoc subsector.
The raid would have been an unremarkable event in sector history, but for the strange appearance of the eldar at fort Aerin - fighting on the side of the orks. Though this perplexed the tau especially, the eldar had forseen that were the tau successful on Aerin, the orks may be weakened sufficiently to abandon their dogged defence of fort Sparcos against the tyranids. This would - eventually - threaten the eldar exodite worlds once more. With a small intervention now, the whole crisis would be averted.
Unfortunately the eldar chose not to even attempt to explain this to their erstwhile tau allies, and were unaware of the astartes allies in the tau forces. This surprising lack of foresight was a tragedy for the eldar, who found their forces outgunned and outmanouevered. Despite the usual violence expected from greenskins, the orks were defeated and fort Aerin ransacked by the tau forces, securing the tau right flank in the Mabb nebula and souring tau-eldar relations in the subsector.
General Denham's much expected advance on Weybridge Crossing came just a week after the astartes raids on the settlement. The raids had devastated the infrastructure of the port, and the battle to take the strategic crossing point and last refuge of chaos in the south took place over a ruined and shattered landscape.
The main offensive was carried out by two veteran regiments of the Librian guard and Corellian Storm Guard. These were in turn supported by PDF and less experienced formations on their flanks, while the imperial Navy provided air cover. In the eventual conflict which lasted less than a week, the imperium enjoyed complete air supremacy over Weybridge, allowing the Corellians to emply their Vendetta borne infantry without fear of marauding chaos aircraft.
The conventional forces of Lorek had been severely damaged in the preceding raid, and now the imperial offensive, comprising of some 50,000 men faced no more than a hundred or so traitor marines and perhaps 5000 cultists. As Denham's forces closed in on the settlement, Lorek's forces once more turned to the malign powers of the warp to aid their cause.
The daemons summoned were numerous and powerful, but by now the imperial forces had become used to their tactics. The battle was tight and hard fought, but on day three of the attack the Corellians held the key high ground overlooking the bridge itself, and refused to relinquish control of it despite repeated and increasingly desparate counter-attacks. By the fifth day of the offensive the chaos resistance had been broken and Lorek's daemon allies vanished back into the warp, allowing the Librian and Corellian units to mop up the last defenders of the city. Chaos had been defeated in the south.
The imperium received some additional good news in late 04.013M42, as the beseiged city of Fallenvale finally fell to the imperial side, rather than to the tau. Now the forces of chaos had been forced back into the far north of the planet, away from any strategic areas or valuable crop yielding land. The only downside to the campaign so far had been the attrition, sometimes approaching 30%, in imperial guard regiments exposed to daemonic forces. Here despite rigorous attention from the ecclesiarchy nearly a third of some regiments had to be "cleansed" by the inquisition following battles against Lorek's forces. Even so this was an attrition rate Denham could afford, although he was keen to constantly rotate the forces likely to be exposed to daemonic taint.
As 05.013M42 the threat of chaos receded on Tyranteous, and Denham now had to hold his gains against a tau foe which had superior supply lines to his own, and was rapidly gaining in strength.
During 05.013M42 the ork warboss Uzfang resumed his offensive on Hylas after reorganising from the ork victory over the Librians. Since that battle, the Librians had been performing a fighting withdrawal, and General Van Dorn was sorely pressed to hold the greenskins at bay. As with Vasilevsky in the Perseus Deeps the imperial commander requested more forces, but his superior, General Brooke, had none to give. His reserve had now been committed to Tyranteous, and none of the worlds in the sector could provide any more regiments in the near future. Even the mighty Libria was being bled dry of its young men and stretched to breaking point to provide the vehicles and equipment needed to feed the imperial armies' voracious appetite.
Van Dorn was reinforced by the Salamanders, Dark Angels and Blood Angels. These three chapters at least had seen the many challenges the imperium was facing in the chapter, and had worked together to split their forces for maximum effect. Now all three chapters had dedicated forces on practically every active warzone in the sector, and more units in reserve. These flexible battle formations would now be able to react to events across the sector in a way the imperial guard could not.
Grateful for the astartes help, both General Veers in the Perseus Deeps and Brooke in the Zadoc subsector invited the three chapters to send representatives to their war councils, held on Corticant and Zadoc respectively. All three chapters agreed, and now for the first time in years the imperium had a consolidated command structure in both regions, it was only a shame that the imperium was now facing stronger enemies than at any time in the last 5000 years of sector history. The three chapters were joined by the Blood Martyrs in 05.013M42, who had agreed to deploy half their chapter strength to the sector to allow the Red Angels time to rebuild their shattered chapter.
The reinforcements on Hylas were almost too late, as another massive assault by the orks erupted on 0505.013M42, shattering Van Dorn's front line on the plains of West Coast and driving north towards Etonia. The Salamanders reacted first, driving straight towards the ork centre and focussing their attention on Uzfang's elite units. The space marines caused a great deal of damage to the ork warlord's most experienced troop, but at terrible cost. The Salamanders suffered heavy losses, and were unable to stop the ork advance, although they had bought the imperium some time.
Less than a day later, the Dark Angels and Blood Angels co-ordinated a strike on the same elements of the army targetted by the Salamanders. This time the astartes were successful, and after a bloody battle Uzfang's elite units were either destroyed or routed. Their leaders in retreat, the rest of the army followed suit, abandoning the offensive and reducing the pressure on the battered imperial guard regiments. The ork advance north had been stopped, at least for the time being.
The long running war on Ares had become something of a stalemate by mid 013M42, with the eldar holding Ares City and the Imperium holding the valleys and heights which protected the settlements of Hellebron and Caeralon. General Vasilevsky was content to hold the eldar at bay in this way, complaining his forces were not numerous enough to attempt another assault on the capital, but his superior, General Veers, was anxious to get the city, or at least its ruins, back into imperial hands. Most importantly the eldar were still in possession of the main starport, making it all the more difficult for Veers to reinforce his subordinate, not that he chose to in any case.
Vasilevsky stubbornly refused to launch another assault, and would have risked the attentions of the commissariat, had the Salamanders, Dark Angels and Blood Angels arrived and agreed to mount a large raid against the eldar. Following the raid, Vasilevsky would follow up with his imperial guard regiments, and mount another offensive on the imperial capital.
The Blood Angels, aided by a smaller force of Dark Angels in support, mounted the first reconnaissance along the shores of the Helion sea, a region populated by humanity for millenia, and home to a number of small and ancient settlements, their buildings dating back hundreds of years to Ares' "medieval period". The astartes force were taken completely by surprise by a carefully planned ambush by the eldar forces, demonstrating that the aliens had built their forces up on the planet once again. Despite a valiant effort, the Angels of death were forced to evacuate their force before it was surrounded.
The Salamanders now moved in to cover theit brother astartes' retreat, expecting to brush aside the eldar army with their renewed attack. They were disappointed. The eldar forces once again proved themselves too strong and too organised for even the greatest of humanity's warriors. Suffering heavy losses and despite checking the eldar advance for a time, the Salamanders were also obliged to withdraw, warning Vasilevsky that the eldar now had overwhelming force and would easily overcome his defences unless Veers provided more troops.
