Following the failed attack by the Angels of Redemption on the loyalist Guard forces stationed along the Hector road, the vital industrial complexes of Hector itself lay open to loyalist assault.
Hectors garrison consisted of elements of the 16th Vannaheim Grenadier Regiment, supported by the 317th Vannaheim Heavy Artillery Brigade. Realising its importance, the Order of the Crimson Veil reinforced the garrison with its Convent of His Mercy, the few squadrons that could be spared from the very understrength 5th Vannaheim Armoured Brigade along with Knight-Warden Adalicia from the ecclesiarchy aligned House Xiphos.
Loyalist HQ wanted to avoid the meatgrinder that Hectors sprawling manufactories could become, knowing that the zealous, battle hardened Crusade forces would be almost impossible to dislodge in an urban battle. They instead sought to use the Crusades zealotry against them, to encourage them to leave the relative safety of Hector to be destroyed in the open by superior loyalist firepower. This difficult task was assigned to the 3rd Company of the Ultramarines, led by their Chief Librarian, Tigurius.
On the morning of 1810.016M42, the loyalist operation began. Tigurius led small detachment of the 3rd Company along with Knight-Crusader Athanaric of House Gladius in a steady advance towards Hector. This force was spotted almost immediately by Crusade scouts, information that was transferred quickly to Hectors defenders. There was initial disagreement between the Crusade command elements about how to counter this threat. Canoness Sevilla of the Convent of His Mercy saw the apparently weak Ultramarine push as an opportunity to counter attack and break though Loyalist lines to retake territory lost earlier that month, whilst avoiding damage to Hectors industrial capacity an urban battle would certainly cause. The Commander of the 16th Vannaheim Grenadiers disagreed, believing that they neither prepared enough or had enough intelligence to attack, and instead should wear the Ultramarines down in urban combat, only attacking once additional forces could be marshalled against the Loyalists. Knight-Warden Adalicia, seeing a chance to test her abilities against another Knight, supported the Canoness, taking it upon herself to execute the Vannaheim Commander for cowardice and insubordination.
With the dissent in the Crusade ranks squashed, their mechanised forces roared from Hectors relative safety, out onto the plains that surrounded the city. Instead of facing the Crusade forces, the Ultramarines instead retreated. The battle turned into a tail chase, with the Ultramarines refusing engagement, drawing the faster Immolators and Chimera’s away from the lumbering Leman Russ’s and Penitent Engines.
Mid-afternoon, satisfied with the situation, Tigurius called in his reinforcements. The rest of the 3rd Company thundered from the clouds borne by drop pod and Thunderhawk. Simultaneously, the Ultramarine ground forces turned and engaged the enemy, catching he crusade force completely by surprise. Immolators and Chimeras were blown apart by the storm of fire from the Devastator Marines that strode from the drop pods, the Sisters and Guardsmen inside hacked apart by Assault Marines that leapt down from the Thunderhawks that swooped overhead. Her communication lines and command structure decimated, Canoness Sevilla attempted to pull her forces back. The 5th Vannaheim Armoured Brigade did not receive this order, and blundered into the chaos. They were quickly turned back by vicious fire from the Ultramarines and Knight-Crusader Athanaric, whose Battle Cannon reaped a heavy toll on the Crusade Armour. Seeing her target reveal himself, Kight-Warden Adalicia charged forward, ignoring Sevilla’s panicked attempts at ordering her to retreat. She cleaved through a squad of Assault Marines and blasted apart a dreadnought in her charge but, bogged down in the carnage, she received Athanarics full attention. Her ion shield was breached by a deluge of bolt cannon fire, exposing her to a series of catastrophic hits from his battle cannon which detonated her Avengers Gatling Cannons ammunition supply. Blown in two by the explosion, the destruction of Adalicia’s Imperial Knight marked the transition of the battle from an ambush to a full rout.
The survivors retreated to Hector in disarray, hounded the entire way by the victorious Ultramarines. The bulk of the crusade force continued straight through the city and out the other side, having lost the will to present any further resistance to the Loyalists. In the chaos, the 317th Heavy Artillery Brigade did not receive any order to retreat, having been left in the city that morning to provide fire support for the Crusade attack. When the Ultramarines arrived at the city outskirts, they were forced into a desperate rear guard action. Resisting the Ultramarine advances for over 24 hours, they bought enough time for Canoness Sevilla to rally her forces and set up a new line of defence protecting Carteret and Kent City, preventing the defeat from turning into a massacre.
While rushing to the Libria system to reinforce the Loyalist forces pushing against the weakened Crusade, Chief Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines received a distress call from the Imperial defenders of Corticant. There had been sightings and raids by an unknown force of Astates, led by a brutal giant of a man. Disturbed by this news, Tigurius changed course and set forth to identify and remove this new threat.
Thanks to his powerful psychic prescience, Tigurius had a shrewd idea of whom the mysterious Astates were and where he should deploy his forces for maximum effect when the 3rd Company strikeforce landed on Corticant. Swiftly moving into action, Tigurius deployed his forces on the edge of an old Imperial base, the valiant Knight-Crusader Athanaric of the House Gladius, oath-sworn to the Ultramarines 3rd Company, forming the anvil onto which Tigurius' hammer would fall.
As predicted, figures clad in the white-and-blue of the Heresy-era World Eaters stormed forth from the warp, intent on killing all that lay in their way. Screaming cries of hate and heresy, they set upon the unexpected Ultramarine defenders with a viciousness unmatched. Before their attack could make any real headway, however, Ultramarine drop pods slammed in from orbit, delivering Devastators bearing Graviton weaponry. Tigurius' hammer had arrived.
The Devastators made short work of the elite Terminators of the World Eaters, their heavy armour crushing them as its weight was exponentially increased by localised gravity fields. Knight-Crusader Athanaric went to work on the rest of the heretics, his Avenger Gatling Cannon and Battle Cannon showing their worth time and time again. Reinforcements arrived for the World Eaters, but too late. With the main force crushed, the Ultramarines could destroy the treacherous Dreadnoughts as they arrived by drop pod, one by one. The battle seemed to be won.
However, unforeseen by Tigurius, the warp shimmered once again and more World Eaters came through, led by an enormous man. Tigurius recognised him as the immortal form of Angron, somehow before his ascension to daemonhood. In the surprise of this vicious counter-attack, Angron threw Tigurius to the ground and proceeded to rampage towards the Ultramarine strike force. Thankfully for the Imperial forces, Athanaric merely saw Angron as another heretic to be slain in contempt, and laid waste to the assault, the force of his battle cannon throwing Angron to the ground as the earth beneath his feet exploded. As the dust cleared, he was nowhere to be seen and not one of the traitors still polluted Imperial air with their breath. The Ultramarines had taken minimal casualties, and the day was theirs.
The raid on Corticant also ended in failure, but here a much larger force of Iron Warriors faced determined resistance from the Lycaon Guard and Cadians. The raid soon turned into a slog, as the Iron Warriors, while not supporting the raid at all, carried out their task with grim determination. Fortunately the Cadians and Lycaons prevented the Iron Warriors from entering Fort Bastion, and the imperial complex was saved from destruction.
Meanwhile a force of marines dedicated to Khorne joined the Iron Warriors in the raid on Corticant. There was no planning or strategy involved in this however, and after the devotees of khorne had wiped out several unimportant small communities, the Angels Repentent fell upon them in the ruins of one such town. Unprepared for such an assault and recieving no help from the Iron Warriors (who couldn't care less) the Khorne force suffered heavy casualties and was forced to flee.
The raids on the alliance and the imperium had been a complete flop, and had only served to prove how weak the forces of chaos were in the Perseus Deeps, something the Iron Warriors under Stahl had been slowly and painfully trying to reverse. Now new and arrogant chaos leaders had arrived in the region, potentially undoing his patient hard work and causing the retreat of the ruinous powers as with Moonface, Lorek and the Arch Cleric. These three had appeared, made brief gains for themselves, ascended, and left chaos worse off. Stahl was not content to see this pattern endlessly repeat.
The raid on the alliance world of Myrentas II was conducted by the World eaters. This raid Stahl certainly wanted nothing to do with, and the World Eaters, expecting an easy vicotry, were shocked to find the Ultramarines Legion from their own era fighting in the name of the Federacy. Both sides hurled abuse at one another as they closed, blaming each other for events which had long since fallen into legend.
The battle itself was a bloody affair which ended with the World Eaters aborting their raid on Myrentas' installations. The raid achieved nothing, but the Ultramarines Legion realised that the warp anomaly which had seen them jumpt 10,000 years into the future had affected not only themselves, but the very force they had been hunting all those millenia ago.
Following the successful invasion of Minos Warsmith Stahl of the Iron Warriors had been quietly and patiently preparing for the nextg assault. His plan was the long game, as for too long he had seen success squandered with over zealous attacks. Chaos was no longer strong in the Perseus Deeps and it would take patience to rebuild the empire.
However in 10.016M42 the ever more reclusive Lord Tragean of Kendrenec became superceded in power by the arrival of the World Eaters legion from the warp. Led by a manifestation of Angron himself, or so he claimed, the World Eaters quickly became the pre-eminent power over chaotic forces in the sector. Rather than pursue Stahl's patient preparations Angron demanded an immediate set of terror attacks against the Imperium and Federal forces in the Perseus Deeps.
Stahl did not like this, but none the less he agreed to provide troops for the missions. Stahl couldn't afford to appear "cowardly" in the face of an alleged Primarch.
The rise of Nemesis, or at least its insidious Genestealer cults had spread further than the Harakhty Dynasty. On 1810.016M42 reports of rebellion on Hemera resulted in a significant force of Novgorod and Lycaon Guard being deployed to the Imperial outpost of Hemera. There the arrival of Imperial forces, far from settling the situation down, led to the "rebels" attacking in force.
Instead of alliance or Federal backed insurgency, the imperium were deeply concerned to discover a genestealer cult on the world. THis the Novgorod guard managed to surpress thanks to overwhelming manpower, but the news made its way to Inquisitor Huron, who abandoned his mission in the Valitane subsector to return to the investigation of Xenos threats in the Aleph Sector
On Libria IV as 10.016M42 progressed, the alliance council bolstered their holdings in Porthaven by sending in a large contingent of the Ultramarines Legion, fresh from their successful talks with Admiral Haskell. Now a full backer of the "Imperium 2.0" project in the Federacy, the Ultramarines legion deployed on Libria IV and immediately found themselves in the thick of the fighting. After being narrowly defeated by the Novogorod Guard, the Ultramarines now faced the Librians in the south, who were now supported by a Warhound Titan, who had decimated the alliance Librian forces in the Commercia district.
Fortunately for the alliance, the ultramarines had brought with them a venerable Falchion super heavy battle tank, and shortly after contact was made with the Librian guard forces, the Warhound was spotted. The Ultramarines quickly took down the Warhound's void shields with accurate Sicaran fire, and the Falchion opened up with devastating firepower. The Warhound's cockpit and rear canopy were vapourised and the mighty war machine toppled forward with a rending crash.
With the heart of the loyalist army dealt with, the Ultramarines moved forward. Even so the Librians now put up a tough fight, charging the alliance force with plasma and melta veterans, but eventually the superior alliance force carried the objectives forcing the loyalists back on a broad front, trapping some loyalist forces in isolated pockets in the southern East Commercia district.
With the invasion a success the loyalists pressed their advantage, quickly pushing through the cities of Gratiot and Derwood and forging ahead towards the eastern cities. To assault these, the loyalists first needed to secure the Hector road, and while the Novgorod Guard protected the flanks from the northern strongholds, the Lycaon Guard deployed along the Hector road. Inevitably this meant coming under crusade attack, and once again it was the Angels of Redemption who led the crusade charge.
Lacking any real support in the way of organised guard manpower, the Angels struggled to dislodge the Lycaon, and suffered heavy casualties. The loyalists took the road and began their preparations for an assault on the eastern cities, but it was noted that ther were a number of Volscian guard units supporting the Angels of Redemption, although not in strength. Had Vorushko found another source of manpower?
The Necrons were defending a run down city with a manufacturing facility which they hope to convert to their own use against a genestealer insurgence. Waves of humanoids akin to guardsmen broke out of the cover of the jungle, supported by a Chimera transport and a mighty Leman Russ tank. Identifying the Tyranid mutation instantly the Charnovokh were nontheless taken aback by the creatures' ability to pilot vehicles and Overlord Arakamen soon realised that his garrison of warriors and immortals was not enough to handle a threat of this scale. Reinforcement protocols set in effect as the eradicator cannon of the Russ laid down it's deadly salvo, blasting the Immortal phalanx. The Necrons relentlessly marched forwards, the teal of their Charnovokh pattern gauss weaponry lighting up the smoke, thudding metal feet rhythmically shaking the ground. With a soul wrenching screech a shadow flared over the war torn terrain and lightning lit up the Leman Russ as a Doom scythe ripped across the sky. Arcs of blue-green danced across the flank of the Chimera as Destroyers descended down on their displacement platforms - the reinforcements had arrived. Disoriented neophytes scrabbled out of the smoking transport and beheld what was left of their battle tank. Losing morale, the humanoids threw themselves at the advancing Necron gun line, falling prey to the flesh rending shots. Yet the Cult had one last trick to play. The Patriarch, a mighty sinewy beast with a pack of purestrain genestealers rose up from the shadows and threw himself at the vulnerable Overlord of the Necron armies. The genestealer knew that while victory was out of reach it could still severely cripple the Necrons by taking out their chief in command.
Letting out a terrible shriek the beast bashed against the machine, flesh and claws colliding with hardened Necrodermis - living metal. Razor sharp talons flashed and tore across the chest of the ancient being, spewing metallic tendrils and tubes across the ground. The necron took a step back. The Overlord shuddered and seemed to fail yet even as its machine brain was whirring the advanced self repair mechanisms were already working. Liquid metal pooled and restored fractured surfaces and all the while the scythe of darkest black gleamed in a circle of death. Once, twice the blade whirled, the machine tirelessly executing complex manoeuvres, going through routine protocols of annihilation. The beast stretched and went for another strike but came to a halting stop as a clean, calculated blow separated its head from its body. Arakamen glared at the carcass of his enemy before wrenching its spine from its torso, kicking away the dead meat. Many warriors had challenged him in the past, some even coming close to claiming his soulless life yet this beast was not one of them. He did not cast a backwards glance at the pile of flesh as he raised his arm and decided the fate of the rest of the vile beings.
In mid 10.016M42 the battle on Libria IV for the capital Porthaven, began to swing decisively in favour of the loyalists. The arrival of the Space Wolves gave the imperial commanders in the city a much needed boost, both to morale and actual fighting force. It was the Wolves who led the assault on 0910.016M42, attacking the newly deployed alliance Ultramarine Legion, relishing punishing their ancient brethren who in their mind had now turned against the Emperor. The battle was bloody, with neither side willing to give ground, but the Space Wolves overcame their opponent's material advantage, destroying their equipment and taking back the Imperial HQ for the loyalists.
Further south the Novgorod Guard pushed forward towards South Park, battering their way though the Federal defences. The Librians counter attacked, using their elite mechanised infantry divisions, but the Novgorod were waiting. An expertly timed flanking move by the elite of the Novgorod Guard turned the tide, although thousands of conscripts died defending against the initial Librian assault.
By 1510.016M42 pockets of the alliance army had been surrounded in the Commercia district and the loyalists looked likely to continue pushing back the federal forces. With no Tau reinforcements expected for several weeks, the alliance was now in a precarious position on Libria IV
The loyalists, now composed of the Imperial guard unified under general Zhukov as well as the Ultramarines and Space Wolves in force, wasted no time in making use of the Crusade's weakness following their disastrous invasion attempt of Libria II. Utilising their superiority in space, the loyalists quickly prepared an invasion of the neighbouring Libria I. With the loss of the Carcharadons and their allies, and following the catastrophic losses in the Librian theatre, the defences on Libria I were particularly thin, comprising of some Vannaheim regiments and their Sisters of Battle allies, as well as the recent addition of the Angels Repentent chapter of space marines. The rest of the Crusade force on Libria I consisted largely of religious zealot ad hoc militia.
THe loyalist strike was precise and devastating. Concentrating in the north east of the world, the Ultramarines paved the way with an orbital strike against the defences of Freeburg. The Sisters of Battle rallied in force, but were cut down by the Ultramarines firepower. THis action was followed by the Space Wolves, who landed and pushed east into Selmer, while the main force of Novgorod guard pushed south into the heart of the planet. In the north, the Space Wolves easily dispatched the Angels Repentent, securing the loyalist flank, while further south the Angels 2nd company suffered a major defeat at the hands of the loyalist infantry, whose artillery barrage made the ground shake under near continuous ordnance impacts.
The loyalists pushed south, realising that nothing now stood in their way. By 1510.016M42 much of the southern Tundra region was under loyalist control, and the crusade were desperately trying to gather a coherent defence.
While the Imperium self destructed over Libria, there were unsettling rumblings in the Perseus Deeps. Since their arrival the Necrons of the Charnovokh Dynasty had been introducing themselves (and trying - successfully - to establish hegemony over) to the lords of the necron empire ruled by the fading Harakhty dynasty. On Gamordal the new arrivals were greeted warmly, as the local lord had already lost more than two-thirds of his fighting forces to the strange reanimation protocol virus, and his "cattle" were showing some disturbing signs.
The cattle were of course the former human population of the world, forced into slavery and daily worship of the Harakhty lords. Recently however, the humans had started rebelling, and the Charnovokh agreed to put down the revolt, and add the world of Gamordal to their own dominion.
What the Charnovokh found deeply disturbed them, as not only were the "cattle" revolting, but they had themselves been infected by the insidious Xenos of the tyranids, in the form of a genestealer cult, something the Harakhty had overlooked, or misunderstood. The Charnovokh were used to tyranids, and had faced them before, almost to their own doom. They assaulted the genestealer cult with a cold thirst for revenge only the soulless can understand, and the lord of the necron force personally destroyed the genestealer magos in one on one combat. With the cult destroyed the necrons then set about a "cleanse" of the native population, and the great cull began.
In early 10.016M42 the Perseus Deeps flared up once again into bloodshed. The Charnovokh Dynasty had arrived in the sector and had begun re-invigorating the necron empire in the Deeps. This the eldar of the Disciples of Y'nead could not tolerate, and they began their long slow campaign against the necrons once again, raiding the former ork world of "Zog" on 0210.016M42. The raid was over a key portion of the webway the eldar hoped to close off in order to prevent necron access to a number of eldar worlds, including Sentinel and Ares. After a long and bloody encounter, the eldar were successful, but at a grim cost in precious eldar lives.
Meanwhil Inquisitor Huron found some alarming signs of genestealer and tyranid activity in the Deeps. Fearing a return of Hive fleet Nemesis Huron dispatched agents, including Deathwatch marines to a number of uninhabited and remote outposts. On one world the tyranids were found, narrowly defeated in a lighting recon operation, giving the Deathwatch enough time to gather vital Bio-intel about the Xenos. Huron was able to confirm the Nemesis genetic markers and quietly informed key Inquisition agents. Nemesis had returned.
The Crusade attack, dubbed operation Sledgehammer came on 0110.016M42. Transported by the rag tag Crusade fleet, the usual element of surprise utilised by the Crusade was lost, as were the critical airborne capabilities of the Charcaradons and Minotaurs. Instead the Crusade landed in the desert, unopposed, then raced for their three key objectives.
The crusade had targetted the three main northern cities of Whitaker (the capital), Kaplinski and Wilhoughby. Taking these rapidly, the crusade reasoned, would quickly lead to the capitulation of loyalist resistance on the planet. To take the capital, the Cadian 9th regiment, supported by a small detachment of Grey Knights, would surround and cut off the city itself, which the crusade thought would be only weakly defended. Further west, the Cadians would be joined by the Sky Lords, in order to deliver a precision strike against the refineries of Kaplinksi, while in the east, Whiloughby was the target of the Vannaheim guard regiments.
The assault on Whitaker soon hit problems, with the Space Wolves and Ultramarines already in position to defend against an assault. The Space Wolves soon battered the initial Cadian thrusts into the city, and the arrival of the Ultramarines wrecked the Cadian equipment and quickly discouraged the Grey Knights from intervening by neutralising and capturing their initial recon forces. The Grey Knights, shocked by the astartes defending a supposedly seditious world, soon began to lose faith in Vorushko's crusade. The Cadians meanwhile followed their orders, but after the battle many Cadian survivors, especially officers, were handed over to Inquisitor Hathek's "re-education" units. By 0410.016M42 the crusade attack on Whitaker had been completely wiped out.
At Kaplinski, the Lycaon guard were ready and waiting for the crusade attack. First the Sky Lords' armoured push into the centre of the settlement was rapidly neutralised by overwhelming and frighteningly accurate firepower, supported by a particularly fired up Imperial Psyker. The Sky Lords took heavy casualties and lost all their vehicles as imperial artillery and tank fire took its toll. With no air support, the Sky Lords were pinned down and within 24 hours had begun to withdraw what little forces they had left. The Cadians, following up, soon faced the full might of the Lycaon forces, and despite being well equipped and highly mechanised, once again the Lycaon firepower had the desired effect, and the assault on Kaplinksi collapsed. The remaining Cadians surrendered to the loyalist forces, and Vorushko lost all the Cadian forces deployed on Libria I.
Willoughby, assaulted by the Vannaheim Guard, was similarly a disaster for the crusade, as despite making initial gains on the city, the Vannaheim soldiers could not do enough damage quickly enough against the numerically superior Novgorod forces. Again well entrenched artillery proved decisive, and the Vannaheim attack floundered. The crusade forces began an orderly retreat, as Vorushko ordered an evacuation, but a flanking attack from the Dark Angels delivered the coup-de-grace for the final crusade forces left on the planet. By 0610.016M42 the entire Libria II assault force had been wiped out, and the Crusade had lost nearly a third of its fighting force. In this one catastrophic invasion attempt, the Crusade found itself on the verge of collapse.
Following on from the failed attempt to secure Libria II Inquisitor Vorushko called a meeting of her Crusade council. The Raven Guard refused to attend, stating only that they did not want to participate in any actions which could lead to more conflict with their "brothers", referring to their battle against the Space Wolves chapter. However, Vorushko realised she badly needed to shore up her Astartes support for the crusade. It was clear now that Inquisitor Hathek and the loyalist faction had secured the ongoing support of the Ultramarines and Space Wolf chapters of space marines, and she had intercepted a worrying transmission which indicated the Dark Angels had similarly sent forces to the system.
Vorushko could count on the support of the Sky Lords, a young chapter keen to prove themselves in the service of the emperor, but the Minotaurs and Apocalypse riders had withdrawn without communication, and the Carcharadons had notified Vorushko that following their encounter with the Space Wolves, who they did not believe were traitors, the chapter would no longer be participating in the "crusade". This was now an internal Inquisitorial affair and had nothing to do with them.
Lacking such powerful Astartes support, Vorushko had managed to secure additional forces however. Upon her request, she had managed to add several regiments of Vannaheim and now Cadian guard to her armed forces, and a small detachment of Grey Knights, fearful (incorrectly) that the "insurgence" on Libria was chaotic in origin, had joined her side. With these new forces at her disposal, Vorushko decided to invade Libria II.
Libria II is a desert world with eight major large cities, dispersed around the planet at the sites of the best ore deposits. Marshall Zhukov of the Novgorod Guard was appointed in overall command of the defence of the world, and unbeknown to the crusade he recieved significant reinforcements prior to the invasion. For a start the Ultramarines and Space Wolves had agreed Vorushko was in the wrong, and that Libria needed to be defended from the crusade, even if that meant fighting their own astartes brethren. They had tried communicating with the crusade astartes, and this had yielded the removal of the Raven Guard, Carcharadons, Apocalypse Riders and Minotaurs, at least apparently. In addition to the astartes Zhukov was able to deploy Lycaon and Novgorod forces to many of the major cities, where he knew the crusade would attempt to land and launch lightning strikes. Then on the eve of the invasion, the Dark Angels arrived, pledging their support and declaring the Sky Lords a rogue chapter.
Libria II, although officially "neutral" in the Librian war between the crusade and loyalists, became a target for both sides in the second half of 016M42. The loyalists had lost Libria V and Libria I to the crusade, and had been forced off Libria III. Libria IV was beseiged by the alliance, so without Libria II, the loyalist cause was all but over in the system. Inquisitor Vorushko knew this too, and on 1509.016M42 landed a significant force of Raven Guard on the planet, and "visited" the imperial governor in Whittaker.
Realising this coup would effectively end the loyalists control of the Libria system, loyalist Inquisitor Hathek appealled for anyone holding to the Imperial creed to remove the illegitimate invaders from the world. The Space wolves responded, and in a savage assault obliterated the Raven Guard force encircling Whittaker and "freed" the imperial governor. By 0110.016M42 the world was staunchly loyalist, and Hathek appointed General Zhukov to defend the world from any who would stand against his vision of Imperial law. Vorushko began planning her next move.
For years the Necron threat had been contained on Corticant, at least according to the Imperium. In fact, the Harakhty Dynasty as a whole had been suffering problems with its reannimation protocols, and since 011.M42 their armies had been gradually falling back into hibernation. Realising the dire thresat to there empire, the lords of the dynasty went over to the defensive, and appealled to help from any necrons able and willing.
Meanwhile the alliance, having become bogged down on Libria IV thanks to the overwhelming numbers of the Imperial fleet, had for many months planned to cut the loyalist supply lines by attacking the space lanes linking Libria to the rest of the Imperium. One such lynchpin in this supply line was Corticant, and the imperial base was within striking range of Federal and tau forces based in the Perseus Deeps.
On 2209.016M42 a large alliance force landed on Corticant, made up of Skyfall's tau cadres and recent additions to the Federacy, Ultramarines from the time of the Horus Heresy who had once again fallen victim to the strange warp anomaly which had trapped first Haskell then Appollo's Iron Warriors. However the first contact made by the alliance was not with the Imperium at all. Insteads, while the imperial forces, alerted to the invasion, prepared for the alliance assault, the alliance were contacted by a strange alien emmisary.
The necrons had reinforcements, and after a long and tense negotiation both the alliance and necrons agreed that their common enemy was the imperial presence on Corticant. They could no agree however the terms of a settlement after the imperial forces had been defeated, and this forced both parts of the "coalition", to keep significant forces in reserve, watching each other. This would prove to be a significant problem as the assault on the Fort Bastion commenced.
In defence, General Veers, still in charge of the Perseus theatre but losing prestige following the loss of Minos, had regiments of the Lycaon, Volscian and Novgorod Guard. In addition a knight detachment significantly bolstered the imperial fighting ability, and as the coalition forces attacked the battle soon became a vicious firefight in front of the fort proper. Far from sitting behind their defences the imperium had come out to fight.
The battle continued for some time, but eventually imperial numbers told, and the coalition forces were unable to take key objectives. By 0110.016M42 the tau were in retreat, and the necrons abandoned their attempt to retake Corticant, for now. Frustrated the alliance similarly cancelled the invasion of Corticant, seeking alternative strategies to disrupt the war on Libria. The battle resulted in a badly needed win for the Loyalist Imperium.
Aleph Sector Background
The Aleph sector lies on the eastern edge of the galaxy in the Perseus spiral arm. It is in the Ultima segmentum and is close to the Tau empire. Until recently the sector was one of relative peace where Imperial citizens went about their daily lives earning a living and paying their taxes to the Emperor of Mankind on ancient Terra. Then war came. First it started sporadically with incursions by Chaos raiders and Ork pirates. Very little out of the ordinary.
Then with the Chaos crusade of 003.M42 and the establishment of the sepratist Federacy the stability of the region collapsed. Gradually the violence swept from the capital subsector of Aleph itself, into the Sadoc subsector, as the Federacy and tau vied with the forces of chaos, necrons and tyranids to overrun the imperial rule of the region.
The sector is made up of the Aleph, Zadoc, Vastrid, Valitane and Charybdis subsectors. Charybdis has not been part of the imperium for centuries, while the Aleph subsector itself is now the home of the tau allied Federacy. For now Valitane and Vastrid remain largely under Imperial control but Zadoc is falling into anarchy. In addition the lawless depths between subsectors contain their own hazards, the chief of these being the Perseus Deeps.
Major Factions
- Loyalist Imperium
The loyalist forces are those imperial forces specifically engaged by Inquisitor Hathek against both the alliance and the crusade forces of Natalia Vorushko in the Librian campaign. They are largely imperial guard formations, although a number of astartes chapters including the Crimsons Fists and Blood Martyrs do not accept the edicts of Vorushko, as they largely overrule and contradict what had already been established by another Inquisitor Lord - Hathek himself. Largely suffering defeats, having been removed from Libria III, the loyalists are none the less supplied by the imperial fleet, who in 016M42 finally "declared" for the loyalist faction, while the crusade managed to acquire a significant portion of the fleet for their own usage.
- Crusade
The Crusade is led by the powerful Inquisitor Lord Natalia Vorushko. She has judged the sector, particularly the system of Libria as guilty of treason. She has observed the decline of the imperium to the alliance, as world after world has fallen to the encroaching tau and federal territories. To counter this unstoppable momentum Vorushko has enlisted the help of some of the more ruthless and single minded astartes, including the Apocalypse Riders, Sky Lords and Minotaurs. With these chapters at her disposal she intends to exploit then raze Libria - and any other system in the path of the tau advance - enslaving the population and denying the world's resources to the alliance. Inquisitor Hathek is diametrically opposed to this scorched earth policy, and his opposition has directly led to the three faction war in the Libria system.
- The Alliance (Tau & Federacy)
The Alliance is made up primarily of the Federacy, an empire created from the imperial worlds of the Aleph subsector by Admiral Haskell, an advocate of the original imperial creed lost in the warp since the Horus Heresy. Now the Federacy have been joined by their own astartes, original Iron Warriors similarly trapped in the warp then released some ten thousand years later. Still loyal to the emperor but not regarding him a god, legion commander Apollo now leads his marines in the name of an organisation of a dozen worlds committed to the heretical ideas of democracy, learning and progress.. Allied to this human empire is the tau, although the xenos would much rather incorporate the federacy into their empire. The eldar were committed to the alliance cause, but tensions over the dark eldar and internal factionalism saw the eldar split from the alliance in 016M42.
- Chaos
Led by Warsmith Stahl of the Iron Warriors the forces of chaos are actively engaged on a number of worlds. Over the years many forces and leaders have come and gone, with the position of "Master of Chaos" in the sector changing hands many times. Moonface, Shaidar Haran, Lorek, The Arch Cleric the Anticross and Warsmith Gallowfen have held the title, but now it is Stahl who looks on in dismay as the power of chaos once more enters a decline. Years of campaigning have taken their toll on the forces of chaos, but Stahl has built great defences on Zadoc and Minos, and his forces are well dug in. Now he seeks reinforcements to continue his campaign to retake the once vast chaos realm, which he has begun with the securing of Minos in 016M42.
Minor Forces
The Eldar, having left the alliance, are now solely interested in their own affairs. They have several craftworlds and other holdings such as maiden worlds in the Aleph sector, and will intervene whenever they feel events are moving in such a way to threaten their own small "empire". Meanwhile the Kel Sandros Eldar continue to manipulate events to promote the eventual Eldar supremacy in the galaxy, their own private goal.
The Orks remain an ever present threat in the Aleph Sector, but have never been numerous enough or united enough to pose a real threat. At present their wars on Hylas and Fort Sparcos provide the greenskins with enough sport, and the chances of a significant Waagh! at present seem remote.
Hive fleet Nemesis, once a potent threat which ravaged the Rim Worlds and annihilated three major systems in the Zadoc subsector, has apparently disappeared, the hive mind having moved away from the sector into the vast inter-sector space. However recent expeditions to supposedly dead worlds in the wake of Nemesis have discovered still living remnants of the hive fleet.
The Necrons, having re-established the Harakhty Dynasty in the Perseus Deeps, are now inward looking and fighting amongst themselves.
Major Warzones
Libria & the Zadoc Subsector
The Zadoc subsector, closest to the Tau empire, remains at war. Zadoc itself is a long drawn out ground war between Stahl's dug in forces of chaos and the Tau-Federal Alliance. In the Mabb Nebula there are frequent conflicts between the orks, Imperium and tau, including the four year long grionding campaign on Hylas between the Greenskins and General Van Dorn, while in space the Imperial navy attempts to keep supplies to New Cerberex and Hylas open.
In the Libria System itself a three way conflict between the loyalists, crusade and alliance continues. The Crusade hold the innermost and outermost planets, Libria I and V, while the most important, Libria III, is contested by the alliance. The loyalists are on the back foot. They control the unimportant world of Libria II but are rapidly losing the ocean-world of Libria IV.
In space, the loyalist and alliance fleets are the largest, but Inquisitor Vorushko has secured a small battlegroup. In addition the strike cruisers of the astartes loyal to her can be called upon for lightning strikes. The crusade does not have a large enough fleet to compete with the other two factions just yet, but the growing religious fanatacism behind the crusade has led to the formation of the rag tag "pilgrim fleet".
Persues Deeps
The Perseus Deeps remain the front line between the young civilisations of the alliance, the established Imperium and ancient enemies. The Necrons dominate much of the Deeps, but around the edges the forces of chaos are rising once more, and the eldar are securing world after world.
