Necrons awaken on Cathasaea

The end of 11.010M42 saw events in the Perseus Deeps take a dramatic turn. Until then the Necrons had been an annoyance, a thorn in the side of Veers' crusade or an unwelcome distractio to Lorek and his allies. In late 11.010M42 however the mysterious signals eminating from Cathasaea were finally deciphered by Inquisitor Huron and his entourage, but by then it was too late. With a squeal of digital static which knocked out logis engines as far away as Caitlen Station, the tomb world awakened.

Veers called an immediate conference of his generals upon hearing the news. Already Necron ships had been detected int he Cathasaea system and huge energy signatures had been intercepted. Worse, the other two necron tomb worlds were also showing heightened activity and for several days the Imperial fleet was put on high alert, fearing an invasion.

It did not come. Instead the Covenant of Damnation at their supply point on Scallius were the first to feel the might of the newly invigorated Necrons, their armies smashed asunder by a sudden and vigorous raid. The Necrons didn't stay however, phasing out after just two days on the surface of Scallius. Just as suddenly the energy signals vanished, but Inquisitor Huron knew this to be a bad sign. the Necron forces, travelling in their faster than light spacecraft were now abroad in the Perseus Deeps. An invasion would soon follow.

War on Bastien continues

As 11.010M42 wore on there seemed to be no end to the fighting on Bastien. The deadlock remained and the two sides poured vast armies against each other without great success. On 1811.010M42 the Covenant of Damnation, who made up the lions share of troops on Bastien, began a well planned and brutally simple advance on the Imperial lines. Despite taking heavy casualties the Covenant forces ploughed forward, grinding down the Imperial Guard facing them in a war of attrition.

Unwilling to continue this death match General Veers accepted the aid of two Astartes chapters, including the Dark Angels. The Dark Angels moved in first, attempting to secure forward positions to allow the recapture of Heretic. The insertion mission was a disaster however, and the front line moved ever further away from the city. Many valuable Dark Angels were lost in the mission, but the other marine chapter was undeterred.

The section insertion mission followed a similar pattern to the first, but the chaos forces were taken utterly by surprise. They did not expect a second attack to be almost identical to the first. Suddenly key installations in Heretic had been siezed and the Covenant's supply lines cut. Now, with increasing pressure from Veers' guard regiments, the chaos army now found itself in full retreat. By 2311.010M42 the front line had returned to its previous position and Heretic was once again in the hands of the Imperium, the shattered smoking ruins being renamed "Nova Imperious".

Despite this return to fortune and overwhelming logistical superiority General Veers was unable to maintain the momentum. Once again the fighting bogged down into a familiar pattern and sweeping advances were replaced with trench warfare. The Astartes were recalled and the stalemate resumed. Veers knew he needed a new tactic and started planning for a "Big Push" to take place within the next couple of months...

Minos fortified against raids

In 11.010M42 Minos, the smallest Tau base in the Perseus Deeps, came under attack again. Previous raids had been carried out by the forces of chaos in an attempt to secure a new supply base for Bastien, but this time the Dark Angels were the aggressor. The purpose was the same. Minos lay in a strategically important position for the Perseus Deeps crusade and the possessor of it would enjoy a distinct advantage in the war on Bastien. The Tau were caught in the middle.

Commander Fastblade was a veteran in defending Minos however and the Dark Angels were easily spotted and taken apart by his highly mobile hunter cadres. Few Dark Angels survived the massed pulse rifle and railgun fire and those who did lost all their heavy equipment. The Imperium quickly abandonned the idea of using Minos as a base for the crusade, but commander Fastblade ordered a strengthening of defences in any case. This time he was successful and in addition to the world's new defences, Admiral Swifstar's fleet was ordered to send a force to Minos to dissuade any further enemy intervantion.

Bastien Latest

Bastien: Covenant of Damnation retake Imperious

Veers' strategy appeared to be going well, but it suffered a setback on 1811.010M42 when the Covenant of Damnation launched an all out attack in the northern sector of Bastien. The attack was so ferocious and unexpected that the Imperial forces, let down by their intelligence, were taken by surprise and soon fell back to defence lines west of Imperious. This left the city isolated but the Red Angels refused to abandon it.

Fighting desparately the Astartes chapter found itself outgunned and outnumbered, lacking sufficient support units and vehicles to fend off the crazed and determined traitor guard forces. By the end of 1911.010M42 the city of Imperious had fallen to chaos once again and the brave Red Angels defenders had been wiped out.

The loss of Imperious was a huge blow to Veers. Once again chaos had wrestled a key city out of his grasp and the Imperium now controlled fewer than half the cities on the planet. Not only was this a setback but Veers knew his career, and perhaps his life, rested on the result of this campaign. Now more than ever he felt bitterness at the loss of the Corellian Storm guard to other campaigns... )

Battle of Parthenope

With the Imperium losing ground on Bastien the news that Chaos vessels had been sighted near Parthenope was most unwelcome. In late 10.010M42 an estimated four or five traitor vessels were detected near Parthenope.

Jellicoe dispatched the newly arrived battlegroup Cardale to investigate the threat, assuming that the force belonged to Tragean, Thok or Shaidar Haran. The three largest chaos fleets known to exist in the sector.

Commodore Cardale led the battleship Agamemnon, the cruisers Glorious, Cressy, Aboukir and Repulse, along with three sword class escorts to the Parthenope system on 1111.010M42. There he was rather surprised, and somewhat alarmed to find the sensor returns of five capital ships, none of which had been encountered before.
After a detailed search of old Imperial naval records the ships were identified as the battleship Savage Messiah, the heavy cruisers Iron Juggernaut and Hand of Tartarus and the cruisers Devastation and Black Wolf. Somehow Lorek, the “Master of Chaos” had got his hands on a fleet.

Cardale immediately gave battle, informing Jellicoe before he drew up his battle line. The two gothic class vessels deployed slightly to starboard of the Agamemnon while the Nova cannon equipped Glorious and Repulse brought up the rear.

The two fleets approached each other with the chaos fleet attempting to close the distance quickly to avoid long range nova cannon fire. Despite taking several hits the chaos fleet made it, though Savage Messiah suffered some damage. Cardale, feeling the time was right began to prepare for his tactical move which he hoped would rake the chaos fleet’s stern and deliver him the battle.

Just as he was deploying his ships for the turn, a strange reading appeared of the fleet’s aft, throwing the Imperial force into confusion and losing valuable minutes. A daemon ship had appeared, and then just as suddenlty vanished.

This confusion allowed the chaos fleet to weather the storm of the Imperial battle line and at close range pummel the closest ship, the Repulse with devastating firepower. She attempted to break off but her fires picked her out against the blackness of space. Within an minutes concentrated chaos firepower had reduced the ship to a smoking hulk.

Having lost one of his capital ships Cardale now successfully crossed the chaos fleet’s “T”, swinging Agamemnon and her two gothic class consorts round the rear of the chaos battleship. Opening up with massed lance fire the Savage Messiah and Black Wolf were soon crippled. Fortress of Hate soon followed, a lucky nova cannon hit from the Imperial battleship causing horrific damage.

Then once again the daemonship appeared, but this time took on corporeal form. Identifying it as the ex-Harbinger of Pain the Imperial fleet opened up as she charged them in a suicidal action. The daemonship met the same fate as the Repulse reduced to a spinning, drifting hulk of metal which disintegrated against a wandering asteroid. Whether or not the ship would be seen again however, was not discussed.

Following the loss of the daemonship the chaos fleet disengaged its crippled cruisers. Soon the traitor forces were reduced to a mere two capital ships, facing a battleship and three cruisers, though Glorious was forced to disengage soon after the destruction of the daemonship as both remaining chaos vessels targeted the Imperial carrier as the closest target.

Taking no chances Commodore Cardale continued to shadow the two chaos vessels for some time, before they decided they had suffered enough losses and disengaged. The Imperium had won the battle, but the loss of Repulse, though her hulk was towed back to Caitlen Station some time later, left a bitter taste in Jellicoe’s mouth.

Results
Repulse hulked
Glorious crippled

Harbinger of Pain hulked
Savage Messiah crippled
Black Wolf crippled
Fortress of Hate crippled

Marine forces and Eldar raid Scallius

During the first half of 11.010M42 it had become apparent that Lord General Veers' crusade against chaos in the Perseus Deeps had ground to a halt. On Bastien the slaughter of half a million men in a month had gained nothing, and the Imperial base at Corticant was surrounded by ever strengthening alien threats, while more Chaos forces flocked to the banner of Lorek.

Veers asked for reinforcements, but was denied. The Tyranid menace was winning on Betor, the Tau were barely being held on Tarsis and the Inquisition were becoming decidedly edgy about the planets Cathasaea, Gamador and Malius. The Lord General had to make do with the forces at his disposal. Veers met with his tacticae in late 10.010M42 and unexpectedly asked for advice.

There were many voices clamouring to capitalise on this rare opportunity, but Veers favoured one of them, that of master strategist Hyram Alderbrand more than the rest, and he accepted a lot of the old man's suggestions. To defeat Chaos would mean ensuring their supply was cut off. Bastien would be given enough forces to hold the line but the Chaos bases around the Bastien system must be raided, overrun or destroyed. Meanwhile Corticant was becoming a bottleneck for the Imperium. Another base was needed in the Perseus Deeps to become the centre of operations for the peripheral raids.

Veers redeployed his forces. Most of the Space Marine chapters at his disposal joined the Blood Drinkers on the newly established base of Aganthus, which Veers ordered to be enlarged and fortified. Even the Lamenters chapter, shunned by many of their peers, was included in this. The Lamenters however based themselves on the opposite side of the world to the rest of the Imperial base, which by 0511.010M42 was a riot of construction activity and a logistics nightmare.

Jellicoe increased the fleet's presence in the Deeps, the only reinforcements the crusade received, moving the fleet that had been blockading Tarsis, with little or no effect, to Corticant, while Dreyer's battlegroup moved to Aganthus. With his new dispositions Veers now plotted the next course of the Perseus Deeps campaign.

The first part of Veers' new strategy called for the annihilation of their base on Aethor. The Adeptus Astartes agreed to this task, as it would be dangerous and well behind enemy lines. Their task was to render the base at Aethor unuseable and to scout out likely landing sites for an Imperial Guard ground crusade.

The Lamenters and Red Angels carried out their tak with great zeal and courage that is expected of the genetically enhanced superhumans. The Lamenters raided the southern hemisphere, destroying a company of Khorne Bezerkers who were soon to be embarked for the War on Bastien, before blowing up the main facility in the south and returning with most of their comrades to the safety of their orbitting strike cruiser.

Meanwhile in the north a small team of Red Angels successfully scouted a likely landing ground in the northern plains of the savannah which covered much of the planet. They were spotted however by a patrol of Chaos Marines, but held their ground when the traitors attacked long enough to escape with their valuable data. They also killed a score of some of the Imperium's deadliest foes.

Much of Aethor was left untouched, though a great deal of damage had been inflicted by the raids and general Veers now had enough information to plan a landing. Then on 1611.010M42 a shocked Veers learned that the Eldar had repeated their attack of the previous month and raided Aethor themselves once again. The bloody raid, which decimated yet another company of Khorne Marines rendered the base of Aethor useless to the Chaos forces in the Perseus Deeps for several weeks.

Shadow Worlds Influence

Eldar raid on Scallius

With the loss of Aganthus and Cathasaea the Eldar had been forced from their last planetary holdings within the Perseus Deeps in early 010M42, but they were not entirely without presence, and they still had business in the Aleph sector, particularly in hiding their three planets in the Shadow Worlds from the unwelcome view of would be colonisers.

The Shadow Worlds had been relatively peaceful for much of 010M42. The Imperial crusade in the Deeps and the continued campaigns on Tarsis and Betor had meant a distict lack of focus on the Alphe and Shadow Worlds theatres of war. The Orks meanwhile appeared to be spending much of their time fighting among themselves, with both Waagh Snazteef and Waagh Nazghat apparently having both collapsed towards the end of 009M42.

The Eldar remained too weak to restart an all out war in the Shadow Worlds region, so instead used their webway portals to launch a punitive and successful raid against units of the Covenant of Damnation, based on Scallius. The Chaos forces were taken by surprise and the Eldar were able to obtain several important artefacts and deal the traitor units a heavy blow.

Exactly why the Eldar chose 11.010M42 to conduct this raid, and how it would ultimately help their cause remained unknown to outside observers, but the damage to the chaos forces certainly hindered their campaign against the Imperium.

Blood Angels on Mysterious mission

11.010M42 also saw the arrival of a company of Blood Drinkers to the Aleph sector. Without asking permission from the Imperial commander, General Veers, the Blood Drinkers set up a base on Aganthus. This base was set up far from the rest of the Imperial installations and was declared off limits, but the Blood Drinkers did introduce themselves to Veers, explaining that they had a need to conduct operations in the perseus Deeps, but would be available to aid his crusade if the situation warranted it. It was clear the parameters of what would be classified as "warranted", would be decided by the space marines.

Reports of the Blood Drinkers were sparse in early 11.010M42, but it is known that they carried out two raids against chaos forces in the Perseus Deeps. The first raid was costly, and unsuccessful, seeing the Astartes chapter soundly defeated by Catechism forces on Ares, but their second, against the Covenant of Damnation, was more successful.

The Covenant forces were still reeling from the surprise Eldar raid so when the Blood Drinkers appeared on 08011.010M42 the traitor guard units were far from prepared. In an operation conducted with lightning speed the space marines tore the rebel base apart, before withdrawing after just three hours on the planet.

Veers and the rest of the Imperium were unable to say what the Blood Drinkers' mission was, but the space marines were sighted upon their return to Aganthus, carrying with them something concealed in an ornately decorated casket in a procession which included several marines, all of whom had their heads bare and bound. Clearly the artefact concealed within was of great importance to be treated with such reverance by the Gods of humanity,

Necron threat increases

In late 10.010M42, with the situation on Bastien remaining unresolved, both sides of Lord General Veers' crusade suffered raids from alien Necron forces. For months Veers had played down the threat of the Necrons, describing them as "unco-ordinated" and "sporadic", but to senior members of his tacticae it was becoming clear that the Necron raids were centred around Cathasaea, and the activity was increasing.

On 2710.010M42 the garrison on Aganthus was raided by Necrons who appeared from nowehere, destroying a key military base and settlement and defeating the Caldon Guard before disappearing once again. Later in the week Imperial spies heard of a similar raid against Blight, where the Clawes of Lorek took heavy casualties.

Admiral Jellicoe, commander of the Perseus Deeps Crusade fleet, searched in vain for any Necron ships in the vicinity, but General Veers was forced to reinforce his position on Aganthus, robbing the front lines on Bastien. The Necrons had become a serious thorn in the side of both sides contesting the Perseus Deeps. Neither side realised the real threat the Necrons faced however.

Betor: Nemesis held at Munchefeld

In Munchefeld the bloody fighting continued. Warriors of the Caldon Guard sought to hold onto their recent gains by constructing a series of elaborate fortified positions. Although hurried, these positions incorporated multiple defensive lines with overlapping fields of fire, supported by armoured vehicles and artillery.

The Caldon Guardsmen didn't have to wait long for the inevitable assault. Wave after wave of Tyranids boiled through the narrow streets and headed directly for the defences. Flying and tunnelling bio-constructs ranged ahead of the main assault, seeking to bog down the defenders and reduce the fire power directed at the main swarm. The first defensive line quickly fell, buried beneath a writhing mass of alien killers. But there were two more lines and gradually the Caldon's firepower took its toll on the attackers. When the Tyranids reached the final position the depleted swarms lacked the strength to complete the assault and like a retreating tide the Tyranids withdrew, leaving only the uncountable corpses of their dead and those of the Caldon guardsmen killed in the attack. As the death count mounted for both sides the Caldon Guard grimly continued to build up their position, knowing there would be more carnage to come.

War on Bastien 1810.010M42 - 3010.010M42

Valboris further infested by Tyranids

While Nemesis gradually consumed Betor and the forces of Chaos were locked in battle with the Imperium in the Perseus Deeps, the infestation of Valboris continued. By 2010.010M42 forces loyal to the Claws of Lorek had lost their hold on New Brent City and had been pursued to Inferno by the monstrous swarms of the hive mind.Ten days later another assault by the aliens smashed the Anticross defences in Inferno and began to infest Bartertown. Slowly but surely the Chaos world was falling to the implacable foe.

Bastien Latest

Bastien counter attack: Southern Front

While the Imperium was reeling in the north from the ferocity of the Anticross attack, their prospects in the south were somehwat better. The Chaos counter attack here was to be lead by the Claws of Lorek, with mercenary ork and Covenant support. As in the north the Adeptus Astartes were employed to blunt the attack, with the Space Wolves and Dark Angels working together to stop the Chaos assault in its tracks.

The Imperial pre-emptive strike began well, with the Space Wolves ambushing the Claws of Lorek forces spearheading the drive towards the southern Imperial defence lines. Lorek knew that failure here would mean the loss of Meshuggah and Reaverton, which would be a severe blow. The Space Wolves knew this too, and after dispatching the lead elements of the enemy force, secured a path for the Imperial Guard following up to surround Mesuggah. They held on to this for several days, but due to events in the desert they would be forced to withdraw.

Further south the Dark Angels were looking for the Orks of Thrugnik, a new Ork warlord who had apparently accepted the pay of the "Master of Chaos" in order to secure himself loot, booty, glory and bloodshed. The Dark Angels succeeded in their task but were quickly overwhelmed by greenskin numbers. Imperial intelligence on this had been incorrect and the Space Marines barely managed to extricate themselves from the jaws of the advancing greenskin horde. The Orks then turned north, threatening to cut the Space Wolves off. Amid much acrimonious debate and cries of treachery by both the Dark Angels and Space Wolves, the latter were forced to abandon their forward position.

On 2410.010M42 General Veers took charge in the south, deploying the main force of his army here for a "big push", a war of attrition designed to grind down the Chaos forces in the knowledge that he could replace his losses the faster. Veers also quietly asked for no more help from the Space Wolves and Dark Angels, who were blaming each other for the lack of progress so far. Veers feared they would turn on each other, so it was the Imperial Guard who now moved up to deal what Veers hoped would be the final blow to the Claws of Lorek and their dominion in the south of Bastien.

The broad front advance went well to begin with as Caldon Guard regiments ground down the traitor guard units of the Covenant, opening a gap and allowing the Librian 99th Mechanised and Prozan 3rd Cavalry to push through to Meshuggah. The city fell after a brief battle on 2510.010M42, but the forces of Chaos soon responded. On 2710.010M42 the counter attack came as the Claws elite marine forces, backed up by Covenant reserves moving in from Reaverton, pushed into the city.

Both sides used heavy artillery extensively, levelling the settlement and creating a hellish battlefield of stray rounds and deafening explosions. The Librians, furthest forward, though supported by Prozan Stormtroopers, weathered the initial onslaught, causing carnage in the Covenant ranks. The Prozan Stormtroopers excelled too, charging enemy rhinos armed only with krak grenades, often destroying the transports heroically before being wiped out. One day into the fighting Veers ordered in the Prozan airborne units to bolster the line.

The air cavalry assault was less than successful as the Covenant and traitor astartes units were suddenly reinforced, at exactly the right moment, by deep striking obliterators which made light work of the thinly armoured vendettas and valkyries. Most were downed upon arrival and the obvious losses being taken by their comrades seemed to have an effect on the Librian veterans holding the Imperial right flank. Firing wildly at the approach of a force of land raiders, hitting nothing, the Imperial right flank wavered, then broke, allowing the chaos forces a foothold in the east of the city.

The battle to the west and in the outskirts of Meshuggah was no less brutal, and here the loss of the airborne cavalry was felt the hardest. Although by 2810.010M42 the Imperial right flank had stopped running, it was clear to Veers that to stay defending Meshuggah meant being surrounded. The next day a bitterly disappointed Lord General ordered the retreat.

In the south the Imperium had lost thousands of men and hundreds of tanks and airborne carriers. The Dark Angels had lost a quarter of a chapter and the Imperium had taken just a few hundred miles of worthless desert. Even so, the Chaos counter attack had not been a spectacular success, and in fact the enemy had lost more ground than it had taken, and Lorek himself had lost some prestige amongst his fellow Chaos commanders. The war on Bastien would go on...

Bastien counter attack: Northern Front

After months of inactivity the war on Bastien heated up once more in the second half of 10.010M42 as the forces of chaos launched a counter attack in the north and south of the planet, at either end of the barren acidic sea which dominated much of the western hempsiphere. The build up was not subtle behind the traitor lines and Imperial Intelligence knew full well that an assault was coming. To head this off General Veers received aid from no fewer than three space marine chapters, the Dark Angels, Space Wolves and Lamenters all sending a company of astartes warriors and support.

In the north the Lamenters attacked just at the time the forces of Chaos, led here by the Anticross, were about to launch their own offensive. The astartes forces ploughed into the cultist forces supporting the attack and made their way to the centre of the Anticross elite forces. However at that moment on 1810.010M42 the leaders of that chaos faction summoned a host of daemons which immediately fell upon the Lamenters. Outnumbered and cut off from supply, the brave if rash marines were cut down one by one in a costly action which allowed Chaos forces to surround and quickly take the city of Imperious.

By 2110.010M42 the Imperial line in the north, weakened by the loss of several front line units since 05.010M42, began to crumble. Soon cultist and Anticross forces had bypassed and cutoff a regiment of Praetorians at the original landing grounds of the Imperial HQ. Daemons were once again summoned and most of the Praetorians were butchered. The landing base was destroyed utterly and by 2610.010M42 the momentum of the advance was well and truly with Chaos.

The Lamenters however refused to admit defeat and devised a clever strategy to reverse the dwindling Imperial fortunes. On 2710.010M42 a small force of Lamenters assaulted Imperious from the air. Well behind the front lines by now, the city was defended by Covenant of Damnation traitor guard forces, no match for the Adeptus Astartes. The Space Marines tore into their lines and seized all the key installations in the city, allowing Imperial Guard regiments to land via specially modified barges. This flanking action undermined the Anticross advance and astutely they withdrew, abandoning most of their games in their haste to avoid being surrounded.

By the end of 10.010M42 the action had petered out and the lines returned to a more static affair. The assault had been costly for both sides and it had looked likely that the Imperium would lose control of the north. However, the timely actions of the Lamenters more than made up for their earlier errors, preventing the north and the city of Imperious from falling back into Chaos hands.

Betor Latest

Tyranids progress on Betor

During 10.010M42 the situation in the south of Betor continued to deteriorate as wave after wave of Tyranids swarmed across the southern deserts towards Munchefeld. The city was defended by a company of the Caldon Guard, a regiment newly arrived in the Aleph sector and posted to Betor in the hopes of shoring up the Imperium's crumbling defences there. Although fresh and well equipped the men of the Caldon Guard were unprepared for the mind numbing horror and scale of the Tyranid attack. Their prepared positions were quickly swamped by the tide of writhing alien bodies.

Munchefeld was packed with desperate refugees from the destroyed north eastern provinces. They had nowhere left to flee and the Tyranids marauded through the streets, slaughtering the populous and preparing them for absorption into the hive. As the feeding frenzy neared its height the surviving civilians barricaded themselves into the buildings of the central administratum district and Arbites courthouse. There they prayed to the Emperor for salvation and to their wonder and awe they were answered!

Descending on pillars of fire, angelic warriors of the Emperor's Space Marines dropped directly into the writhing masses of bio-engineered killing machines. There they set about clearing the infestation with bolter and power sword. In some of the most brutal close quarter fighting yet seen on Betor they cleansed the central districts one street at a time, leaving them piled high with xenos corpses. Then, as suddenly as they had arrived they departed, vanishing without comment and seemingly uncaring of the joyous citations of the grateful populous. Their unlooked for intervention gave the remnants of the Caldon Guard the opening they needed and they quickly moved to retake the city. Nemesis was still disrupted and confused from the brutality of the marine assault but even so it was hard going. Casualties mounted and slowly the guardsmen re-asserted their control on the cities central districts.


In an effort to sustain the counter attack a task force of Astartes of the Red Angels chapter arrived to continue the offensive. Their recklessness proved to be ill judged however when Nemesis proved to be less weakened than intelligence suggested. A forward reconnaissance patrol was ambushed and butchered by waves of Tyranids as they moved through one of the cities central parks leaving only a single survivor. Realising the danger of a break through the lone marine called in an air strike from the chapter's Thunderhawk gunships to contain the outbreak. Hundreds of Tyranids were obliterated in the bombing run but so to was the valuable gene-seed of the chapter's fallen.

The brutal fighting continued with the fate of Munchefeld held in the balance. There could be no retreat for the Imperial forces stationed there. There was nowhere left to retreat to. They would win or they would die.

Chaos Intrigue and Plot

With the Imperium hampered by Necron incursions and making little if any headway on Bastien, the forces of Chaos continued their efforts to consolidate their hold over their own forces and, if possible, secure new allies in their war against mankind.

The Claws of Lorek had already unsuccessfully attempted to bully the Dark Eldar in the region into joining forces with them, and the result was an angry Dark Eldar warband on the loose in the Perseus Deeps. Eventually however the forces of the Anticross caught up with them when they tried to raid Blight, inflicting a heavy defeat on the aliens.

Meanwhile the Claws of Lorek had troubles closer to home on Bastien itself. Millions of cultists, bandits and general outlaws had joined the crusade against the Imperium and the defence of Bastien. Now however some Guard units were getting out of control. Lorek decided to intervene, raising a host of daemons with the intention of putting down any rebellion before it could begin. He was disappointed however when the daemons he summoned were swiftly banished back to their non corporeal realm.

The Traitor Guard units on and around Bastien became less and less manageable in early 10.010M42 and many felt that the Claws were beginning to lose control over their forces. A potential pact between the forces of Chaos and the Orks was ruined on 1310.010M42 when traitor Guard units attacked the force of Orks Lorek was trying to engage with. The Guard regiment in question was defeated and an ork raiding party with its blood up was added to the woes of the Master of Chaos. The Imperium meanwhile continued to step up preparation for a new offensive on Bastien with extensive manoeuvres involving the Caldon Guard and Space Wolves.