Plan: Defending all
-[X] Send 1st, 2nd & 4th Naval Squadrons + 1st & 2nd Torpedo Squadrons + 1st Support Squadron + 1st Void Infantry Army West (Destroy the Heretics):
--[X] Uniary (40LY): The fallen Hive World is in the grips of a massive three way campaign as Khornate forces attack the Nurgle/Tzeentch "alliance" and Crusade formations alike. Most reports put the number of Khornate ships in the mid double digit range and the combined combat forces landed on world are within shouting distance of the pre-Fall population. Psykers report ill omens here, something that the regular troopers make a mock of when made aware. [Forces Present: 1st Calavar Armored Army + 5th Bailafax Infantry Army + 2nd Calavar Infantry+ 1st & 2nd Crusade Siege Armies + Calavar Holy Shield Army + 2nd Crusade Defense Army ]
The Hives of Uniary were under siege by the forces of Chaos. Surrounded by hordes of cultists and Tzeentchian "beastmen" the lower levels of the Hives and their exteriors were surprisingly peaceful outside of when a major campaign was being launched. Reinforcing troops from Bailafax donned breathing apparatus to creep through the old Underhives in terrain not dissimilar to that which they had grown up in, hunting for infiltrators and anything else that would threaten the integrity of the defense. Sometimes a mine would be detected and teams sent to neutralize it, leading to furious firefights that ebbed and flowed into close quarter brawls. Other times the Chaos sappers succeeded, undermining sections of the walls and sending hundreds of thousands of tons of wreckage collapsing into the Underhive along with the defenders stationed in and on them.
The resulting offensives were pounded by artillery and met with consistently quality infantry forces stiffened by the power armor clad Sisters of Battle and the tanks of the 1st Calavar Armored Army. Leading to the incongruous sight of Demolisher Cannons being used as indirect artillery from layers of the Hive now exposed to the outside air.
Yet this ebb and flow was interrupted by the arrival of a new, yet old, faction. The Admiralty had been keeping an irregular eye on the remaining forces of the Traitor cults in the region and had noticed the consolidation of force to the West, as the roving Khornate fleets were brought to heel under the rule of a new master: a Traitor Astartes from outside the Subsector, identified by vox intercepts and the presence of their personal warship. Now he led the disparate groups of Khorne's warriors for the largest shedding of blood seen by the servants of the Ruinous Powers in this Subsector.
When the unified fleet translated into the system in a single mass it sent visions scrawling across the mind's eye of the psykers within. Even the insensitive shuddered at the brief flicker of malevolence felt across the back of their necks before the sucking portals at the edge of the system closed and the attention of unseen beings faded.
The token Crusade void presence, weakened as it was from cycling out for repairs over Calavar, withdrew from the potential for contact, letting the Traitor forces engage each other. Which occurred with great gusto.
[Combat Initiated: First Phase "Utter Chaos"
Khornates (Under command of "Lord" Tellis):
-14x Captured Freighter Gunships
-19x Captured Freighter
-5x Armed Freighters
-2x Bulk Haulers (CVL)
-2x Claymore Corvette
-4x Incleon Raiders
-1x Idolator Escort
Combined Chaos:
-5x Incleon Raiders
-4x Incleon Flatpack
-1x Firestorm Frigate (Nurglite)
-2x Claymore Corvettes (Nurglite)
-2x Civilian Freighters (Tzeentchian)
-1x Bulk Hauler (Tzeentchian)
Crusade:
-1x Warrior Corvette
-1x Resolute Corvette]
Both sides had availed themselves of the open policy of the Traitor "Forge World" of Incleon, augmenting their numbers with Raiders to stiffen their forces of converted merchant shipping and captured SDF ships. Yet rather than only rush directly to the fight the Khornate vessels formed into vague formations and kept to the speed of their slowest vessels. This left the combined Nurgle and Tzeentch aligned forces to adjust their stance by shuffling their noncombat ships to the rear and away while their combat group condensed into a single mass.
The broad Khornate formation swept down onto the world of Uniary and their targets reacted as they made their insertion burns. If they could just destroy the flagship the rest of the force would fall apart into distinct factions.
It was a strange reversal of the usual way of things to the observing Crusade vessels who kept up updating their incoming reinforcements as the battle progressed.
Boarding craft crossed paths with naval ordnance in the void, the sheer density of both resulting in numerous annihilations of the former. Yet compared to the mass on the move it was as nothing. Naval fighters were flung from the decks of the Tzeentchian cargo ships, the daemons bound into their hulls howling for prey. A bare handful were Daemon Engines proper and together they began carving through the sheeting Khornate boarding craft with cannon and claw.
Yet the troops that spilled onto the decks of the Chaos vessels were not merely uncontrolled madmen. The fodder had been beaten and carved into the shape of mostly trained infantry and had been armed with the results of the plunders of dozens of worlds. Auto and lasguns traded fire on the decks of the corrupt hulls of their targets, daemonically tainted hulls augmenting the desperate efforts of the comparatively few defenders. The gunfire from the Khornate ships was ironically a boon to the security teams of their foes as their own troops were more likely to be hit by the effects of impacting shells. Something that few gunnery officers in the Khornate ranks were more than mildly miffed at. Khorne cared not for where the blood flowed.
Amidst this cacophony of battle cruised a single transport. It watched a lance from the Idolater carve open the decks of one of the Tzeentchian carrier craft and a sorcerous blast from the Tzeentchian flagship do the same to an Armed Freighter, in the process animating the fragments of ruin with daemonic intelligences and cause them to rampage within the vessel. Yet this transport did not care for it had a greater target in mind.
Now known as the Decay's Embrace, the corrupted Claymore from Kandahar had just finished mauling it's fourth sacrificial victim. The converted civilian freighter was breaking up and skipping off of the atmosphere of the world below and it's killer was looking to add to that total as it's captain pointed out it's next victim. The Armed Freighter had many friends, of course, but the converted merchants that surrounded it were finding little purchase on the armored bulk of the corrupt warship as handfuls of ropey tendrils lashed across the holes and dents in her hide.
The first notice that the captain of the ship had that something was dreadfully wrong was when the power from the reactor started dropping. The shields were shut off, as they had been doing little anyway, but the guns took increasingly large bites out of what was still being produced with every volley. Intruder reports were finally logged and troops dispatched from over combats to keep the lucky group from moving any farther into the ship.
It must have come as a shock when the Khornate Raptor blew into the bridge, twin chainswords in hand and flanked by small echelons of similarly equipped mortal warriors. The Plague God gave benefits with regards to durability, but only the most corrupt of mortals registered as a threat to an Astartes blessed by Khorne once they reached close quarters with the foe.
Outgunned and outmassed the Tzeentchian ships turned to sorcerous means to even the odds. Auspex and vox systems among their enemies turned against their masters, garbling and twisting their broadcasts to spitefully turn nominal allies against one another. Ships could no longer pin down the location of their prey as wavering fields refracted visual identification and auspex alike.
Raiders under the banners of all the factions made crazed passes through the battlespace, shredding Khornate ships and the last of the Tzeentchian small carriers; in one notable case ramming through one of the latter due to not being able to see where it was and breaking both ships' spines.
It was to this sight that the combined muster of the Crusade arrived to witness. A full twenty one warships translated into the system in quick succession before forming up as the commodores present debated how to handle the situation ahead of them. As badly battered as the enemy was there were still a goodly number of them and their fratricide was winding down as the introduction of a new force caused the Astarte to reign his slaves in and let the mauled remnants of the defending force escape in favor of consolidating force for the next battle.
Yet this delay proved costly as other reinforcements were arriving...
[Combat Initiated: Second Phase "Wrath of the Holy"
Crusade:
-3x Escort Carrier
-3x Resolute Corvette
-2x Resolute-A Corvette
-1x Warrior Corvette
-1x Indomitable Heavy Frigate
-1x Long Arm Heavy Frigate
-2x Herald Corvette
-4x Castigation Torpedo Corvettes
-4x Lexicalum Escort Carriers
-1x Ferryman-B Transport
-1x Scorn Bombardment Ship
Khornates (Under command of "Lord" Tellis):
-9x Captured Freighter Gunships
-11x Captured Freighter
-2x Armed Freighters
-2x Bulk Haulers (CVL) (One Lightly Damaged)
-2x Claymore Corvette
-3x Incleon Raiders
-1x Idolator Escort
Combined Chaos:
-3x Incleon Raiders
-4x Incleon Flatpack
-1x Firestorm Frigate (Nurglite)(Moderate Damage)
-1x Claymore Corvette (Nurglite)(Moderate Damage)
-1x Sword Frigate (Nurglite)
-1x Cobra Destroyer (Nurglite)
-1x Nurglite Leviathan
-1x Bulk Hauler (Tzeentchian)(Minor Damage)]
Space bubbled and boiled, opening like a sore from the realm beyond as fluids wept from the injury to space itself. A pair of Escorts emerged from the abscess before it closed. To the consternation of the Crusade fleet the masses of filth and wrongness did not disappear with the closure of the portal sustaining them. Instead sheets of writhing wormlike protrusions erupted from the swirling discoloration of space, extending new growths on one side and dying off on the opposite to rot into nothingness.
This, more than even the existence as masses of befouled tendrils, caused the designation of Daemon for this monster. Further evidence began to be acknowledged as the rate of sickness and infection among the fleet and ground forces jumped sharply from the simple presence of such a powerful Nurgle Daemon in the same system.
The addition of a third faction and reinforcements for another caused a shift in the void war. A move against another would lead to giving the last a possibly critical weakness to exploit. So the Crusade piled into orbit to support their friendly ground forces and displaced overly eager Khornate vessels in the doing, cutting down a trio of civilian ships and sending the rest scattering for the body of their fleet even as the Wages of Sin began farming mushrooms on the occupied territory below. The Nurglite ships reformed and viewed the battlefield uncomfortably: their heaviest vessels damaged and outnumbered by both groups. Yet simply fleeing to their masters to grovel in failure was an unpleasant option. If they stayed they may yet accomplish something to be spared. And, they now had a monstrous reminder of the might of the Gods with them…
Aggressive skirmishing by the Crusade force, raking small sections of the main Khornate mass by the use of superior warships hugging the atmosphere, finally caused the Astarte in command of them to lose patience and order a full attack against the Loyalists. Something that the Crusade forces welcomed.
Furies and Starhawks clustered in the void to meet the depleted detachments of the Khornate carriers, scything through them with stabbing columns of coherent light before the fighters peeled back to further diminish the wings while the antiship ordnance flew ahead. Torpedoes soared through into the heart of the Khornate formation and turned it from a somewhat ordered formation into a frantically maneuvering mass. Detonations strobed through the fleet ahead of the advancing portion of the Crusade force as unlucky ships attracted the simple minded machine spirits of the Indignant Torpedoes. Two consecutive strikes cored out much of one of the Khornate Bulk Haulers while a small handful were shot down or rammed by strike craft.
A ravening beam snapped out from the Khornate flagship and drove down the nose of the Light of Dawn. The primitive ordnance aboard failed to detonate when damaged yet it still put the vessel's primary weapon out of commission and sent damage control parties scrambling to seal off the breach. A second shot punctured the holds of a Lexicalum carrier, identified only by it's hull number, at the rear of the formation
The remainder of the Khornate attack wave, still beset by entire wings of Fury interceptors, came in for attacks against the Crusade vessels. Lasers flashed and cannons rattled off their magazines but these were meant to destroy single targets and discourage handfuls rather than to beat back a determined attack. Dozens of boarding shuttles started clamping onto their victim hulls and boring into their sometimes armored hides.
The Calavan Scaffold armor provided some measure of protection against these attacks as upon clearing the outer layer there remained another to cut through as well, protected by vacuum and a few meters of dead space. The time bought by this protection was not insignificant as even those attack craft meant to ram their way into the target hull were forced to wait to cut through the next layer of defense and leave themselves hanging off the side of their target for the fighters now streaming back to their carriers after reaping a grievous toll on the enemy.
Yet even on the decks of their prospective victims the cultist infantry found no respite. Nearly every line ship of the Crusade fleet possessed augmented defenses for their decks over and above their organic security teams. Laser bolts were traded down hallways and to frantically try to bring down onrushing murder servitors while other ships relied on the mobile support of the widespread Calavan exoskeletons. Unlike every battle against the Traitors before this the attackers were not madmen with whatever was at hand but rather minimally trained and sufficiently equipped. Sometimes they would reach something of import before sufficient force was brought to bear and destroy it.
The Khornate fleet wavered as losses mounted and the Crusade fleet began to press forward to levy their individual superiority against the mostly ramshackle Khornate fleet despite the troops and Daemons running amok on their decks. A sizable portion took position in stationary orbit to provide ground fire support and protect the bombardment ship while allowing the void troopers tasked to the front to comb their decks for any holdouts and crush any stubborn resistance.
Lance fire from the Idolater proved to be the forefront of what resistance was left. The energy beams may have proven to be untainted but the damage the weapon could do through the standard shielding of the fleet proved to be considerable while the powerful engines sent it gliding away from the Herald Corvettes when they attempted to bring it to battle.
With both Chaos factions in disarray and in the process of being hunted down the campaign was deemed a success. It was just a matter of ensuring few enemies escaped, something that was at least possible thanks to the heavy ordnance presence in the fleet.
And then Ork "stelf" craft seeded into rocks slung inwards towards the battle from the outside of the system ripped free of their confinement and drove their serrated prows into the flatfooted craft nearby. What ready fighters were available were scrambled from the carriers but assault shuttles were already stabbing into Crusade ships to disgorge burly Orks onto Human decks.
Later review would clear the Calavan commanders of any wrongdoing. To this point the primary point of contact with Orks had been Jawbreaka's forces and the "runty" raiders spilling out of Gunbreaka territory looking to make a name for themselves. Neither of which had been overly concerned with subtlety or the use thereof.
Legcutta was not the typical breed of Ork and his carefully cultivated Kommandos and Nobs knew enough to not get beaten to a pulp by his enforcer or receive a casual explanation on forces and leverage from their Kommando Boss. While the muscle roared with glee as they fell upon screaming crewmen the operations teams inserted with them creeped off into the underbellies of ships as battles swelled between mobs of handpicked Ork veterans and the gamefully rallying defenders.
The results of these infiltrators were varied. Some were caught and killed by luck or alerted engineers reporting minor fluctuations due to their actions. More casually cut down duty crews from ambush and chortled as they went about their business. One of the Indomitable's turrets was sent spinning away by the detonation of readied plasma shells that damaged adjacent weapon mounts while the Long Arm punched a pair of shots into the nearest thing she could call a sister ship. Fugax Cymba had a number of Starhawks hijacked in their bays and flown inside the hangar cell before their nuclear ordnance was fired to the rear and interior. Her sides burst, spraying atmosphere, fuel, and flames, as the all important evasion of an escort carrier to escape a sudden threat cracked her spine and sent fragments of debris fanning out between the two pieces of hull before automated safeties cut reactor power as broken fuel lines were registered. The garrisons of the two Heralds nearby were quick to mobilize to clamp down on their sudden infestations, exoskeletons wrestling with Boys and teaming up to give Nobs pause while the numbers of Orks were whittled down by gunfire from the rest of the crew.
Warp translations began at the edge of the system even as these attacks were winding down, unleashing a torrent of barbarian scrapships back into real space. Seemingly animated by mechanical necromancy and crewed by cheering greenskins the armada was lead by the chilling visage of a mechanical monstrosity. The Chaos bulk haulers were one thing to see and fight as they were mostly empty space with minor gun mounts to the fore. This, though, was a warship on the same scale as those craft. Thick clusters of heavy guns lined it's side while re-recombined turrets on the prow swivelled in eager anticipation as the mass of Ork ships accelerated into the system.
Legcutta himself had arrived.
"An' dats da last time Ah 'spekt da Smartboyz to be roight." The mastermind himself picked at a nostril with a looted bayonet as he looked over the Human and Chaos gits in the system. "Dey'z already beat each uvver down, afore we could re-home dere ships! Makes me roight sad dat does."
"Still more eck-sitin' den beatin' up on da Yoofs and grots, right Boss?" Wickensnick offered with an outstretched hand and a shrug.
"Well… True, dat." Legcutta admitted. "Guess we betta start workin' or-time ta proppa-loik steal all dem sad lookin' gubbins."
"Or-time? Or wot?" A lesser Nob asked hesitantly as Legcutta turned to leave the bridge.
"Et's sumfin' Ah looted frum wun uv dem Humie gits." Legcutta confided, taking the chance to lecture. "See, Humies 'ave gots loadz uv rools 'bout 'ow dere gits're sposed to work. Dey don' get teef, right, so dey 'ave to make up all sortsa ways ta decide 'oo owns wot. Dey does work, ey, an' get fings wot dey can give ta uvvers fer gubbins an' bits. 'Cept, 'arf o' 'em believe in et and da uvver 'alf dun fink so, so da wunz wot do gots ta hit da uvvers till dey agree!"
"Woah… So dat's why Humies iz always muckin' about?" The Nob slowly nodded in awe at the ever decreasing intelligence of Humans.
"Dat's a big part uv et, yeah." Legcutta shrugged nonchalantly. "So since dey limit da amount uv time dat Humie grots ken work, dey gots ta give 'em extra fer when dey work over dat limit."
Every Ork gawked at this, some of them going cross eyed as their brains strained at the concept. The Humies… Wanted their workers, to work LESS?
With repairs interrupted by the sudden arrival of the new greenskin fleet the Crusade flotilla called back it's components back into the central formation. Despite complications stemming from hijacked gun decks repair parties typically managed to disable the power to those areas and combat groups moved in to purge the infiltrators within. They died hard and with a laugh on their lips, but die they did.
[Combat Initiated: Third Phase "Wot A Zoggin' Mess"
Crusade:
-2x Escort Carrier
-3x Resolute Corvette (One Heavily, One Moderately Damaged)
-2x Resolute-A Corvette (One Moderately Damaged)
-1x Warrior Corvette
-1x Indomitable Heavy Frigate (Moderate Damage)
-1x Long Arm Heavy Frigate (Light Damage)
-2x Herald Corvette
-4x Castigation Torpedo Corvettes (One Moderately Damaged)
-4x Lexicalum Escort Carriers (One Crippled)
-1x Ferryman-B Transport
-1x Scorn Bombardment Ship
Khornates (Under command of "Lord" Tellis):
-5x Captured Freighter Gunships
-3x Captured Freighter
-2x Armed Freighters
-1x Bulk Haulers (CVL) (Heavily Damaged)
-2x Claymore Corvette
-2x Incleon Raiders
-1x Idolator Escort
Combined Chaos:
-2x Incleon Raiders
-4x Incleon Flatpack
-1x Firestorm Frigate (Nurglite)(Moderate Damage)
-1x Claymore Corvette (Nurglite)(Moderate Damage)
-1x Sword Frigate (Nurglite)
-1x Cobra Destroyer (Nurglite)
-1x Nurglite Leviathan
-1x Bulk Hauler (Tzeentchian)(Minor Damage)
Legcutta
-1x Ended-Effort Lite Krooza
-2x Bigzzappa Attakk Ship
-1x Choppa Attakk Ship
-9x Onslaught Frigate
-4x Ravager Frigate
-15x Attakk Ship]
There were no maneuvers to make beyond regrouping and trying to put the planet between the two main combatants. The Orks knew what they wanted and the Humans knew what was coming. Except the remaining Chaos forces wished to interfere and so began nipping at the rear of the Crusade formation to try and secure kills on the damaged ships there.
Unfortunately for everyone the Orks did not discriminate in their targets. A small cloud of ordnance was lofted by the incoming force. Consisting of numerous Torpedoes of questionable quality, a small number of fighters, and wings of assault shuttles. The Human answer was small in comparison but suffered far less from accidents, "accidents", and outright failures. The remaining bombers and Indignant Torpedoes cut into the fore of the oncoming formation of Ork ships and began taking fire from the thick screen of light vessels. Starhawk pilots made runs on the first targets available and turned back to friendly lines, sending fires racing through roughly made hulls and outright blowing apart two Ravagers by igniting their own reloading Torpedoes.
The Ork attack fell on Crusade and Chaos ships alike, chased by the Crusade Furies and Starhawks returning after them. Again ships were subjected to attack but the battleworn hulls were much easier prey for boarders. Craters and tears in armor plating were inviting targets for the unruly mobs and fierce battles began erupting where mobs of Orks pressed against depleted complements while Kommandos slithered through unmanned areas to find things that would make for interesting explosions.
A dozen corroded wrecks of Ork Torpedoes were subsumed by the reincarnating mass of the Nurglish Leviathan as it sedately "moved" towards the now joined battle. An aura of pestilence and decay cloaked it with the protections of it's "God" and the nearby Nurgle ships noticeably increased in corruption the longer they were in close proximity to the Thing. Battle damage was quickly covered up like it never existed and it's prey, the crippled Lexicalum carrier, was engulfed and pried apart in showers of rusted flakes and greasy smoke as the pinned Crusade formation became increasingly frantic in their defense.
Plasma shells were loaded and fired into the growing mass of corruption as a brutal slugging match began on the other side of the formation as Attakk Ships burned in the endless day of space under the attention of more capable and coordinated ships. The Long Arm volleyed into the Looted Firestorms, using it's bulk to match the fact that there were two of the Escorts. The remaining Looted ship, a Sword Frigate, took two simultaneous Torpedoes from a Castigation at close range and sailed on with fire and gasses streaming from every imperfection in the outer hull before blowing apart with abrupt finality.
"Zog me, dese gits're akshually fightin' den." Wickensnick noted with faint disbelief, getting a round of mumbled agreement before the door to the bridge blew inward. The first three Orks were cut down even before the warcry could leave the vox grill of the new arrival.
"Blood for the Blood God!" Astarte and Underboss clashed in a steam of spark as high speed teeth bit into each other and armored plate before the corrupted post-human's jump pack lit once more and sent him bouncing off the ceiling. Wickensnick lunged, missing the red streak and splitting an enraptured Ork and the command console he stood behind before turning the move into a spinning attack to counter the incoming thrust at his back. Like a comet the Astartes cratered the decking of the bridge before outracing the jet wash of the then idling engines with another assisted lunge at his target.
Even with the bridge the arena for a duel between leaders the Looted Endeavor Light Cruiser fought with nearly the same level of disorganization that it would have had with no distractions. A pair of volleys left a Crusade corvette tumbling away from the battle. The Wage of Dissent had had a long history with the Crusade but simple scale left her weak in comparison. With the nearest target smashed the broadsides turned to wildly varying targets with bellows of laughter as the Krooza shuddered with the recoil of all guns firing as it carved through the battle space.
Torpedoes and naval gunfire were rapidly leveled at the target as the Ork lances cut into The Causeway, irregular volleys from the Heavy Frigates being degraded by point defenses and laboring shields from when the ship was under Human command. Yet the Ork additions to the gun decks made the plasma shells from the Indomitable much more effective as haphazardly piled ordnance combusted at the touch of blue plasma and the flare of atomic detonations as Starhawks were tasked with reducing the largest threat to the fleet by pulling it's teeth even in the face of withering gun fire from point defense blisters, randomly added gun ports, and passing Ork strike craft.
Harbinger Transports crossed the battle space in great formations to relieve those ships in the greatest danger of falling to alien control. A trio of Ork Onslaughts plowed into the somewhat orderly Khornate fleet nipping at the Crusade force and gleefully set about hammering everything in range with whatever shells were at hand.
The main mass of the Ork fleet interpenetrated and then passed the Crusade force, both sides trading point blank broadsides. Something the Orks felt more than the Human ships as their armored prows turned away from the larger threats and towards the Chaos vessels that represented much softer targets.
"My Lord!" A mortal soldier exclaimed as Tellis stalked back towards his transport in battered armor.
"Get us underway. We are withdrawing from this battle." The Astartes ordered. "The greenskin commander is defeated though he still lives. We will make course for the homeworlds of those who should be our allies and enforce their compliance at the point of a sword."
"Yes milord." The soldier bowed, before hastening to relay the orders of his master.
The various forces were separating now. Ork ships were collecting the remains of a decade of war from orbit and taking them under tow for inclusion as new scrapships while the Khornates were "attacking in the other direction" now that they had lost much of their chaff. The Nurglite Leviathan formed the heart of a darkly humorous sight as Orks and Humans "cooperated" in fighting the threat it presented as plasma shells from naval guns smeared it's form in searing gas as Ork fighters incidentally screened the similarly burning Indignant Torpedoes. An Onslaught and the Sharp Retort alike were caught here, trying to secure the kill, and reduced to frayed tatters of corroded metal before the space faring Daemon imploded into unreality. Defeated or merely gone it could not be said lest the psyker in question risk inviting one of the innumerable lesser Daemons that had surrounded the entity into their souls.
With the defeat of their champion and flagship the remaining assets of the Nurgle fleet turned and fled. Now, the commodores hesitantly declared victory once again.
Uniary had been relieved.
[Combat Results: Victory
Crusade Losses:
KV-2 Wage of Dissent: Total loss, wreck recovered by Orks.
CVL-3 Fugax Cymba: Fit for salvage rather than repair.
KV-9 Sharp Retort: Turned unrecoverable by Nurglish Warp attack.
Basically everything is damaged: 64M in ship repair costs, 13M in strike craft, 14M in Ordnance
Enemy Losses:
Khornate
10 Captured Freighter Gunships
19 Captured Freighter
3 Armed Freighters
2 Bulk Haulers
1 Claymore Corvette
3 Incleon Raiders
Chaos Undivided
3 Incleon Raiders
1 Claymore Corvette
Nurgle Leviathan?
2 Captured Freighter
5 Civilian Freighters
Legcutta
1x Bigzzappa Attakk Ship
1x Choppa Attakk Ship
5x Onslaught Frigate
3x Ravager Frigate
12x Attakk Ship]
-[X] Send 3rd Naval Squadron + 2nd Support Squadron North (Continue the campaign):
--[X] Homna String Defense League (20LY): A defensive pact once stood among these worlds. Now it is broken between differing interests, from Traitor splinter forces to the leftovers of the repulsed WAAAGH!! Jawbreaka. [Ongoing Campaign] [Forces Present: 6th Crusade Infantry Army & 1st Calavar Infantry Army + 1st & 2nd Bridgehead Armies + 3rd Calavar Infantry Army + 1st Crusade Defense Army] [Dark Star forces present, including superheavy armor]
At last, it is done. The Homnan zone has been culled of the greenskins that invaded. New growths continue to emerge but the righteous defenders have, with the support of the Crusade forces, held their worlds. What leadership was left was in no position to accept the burden of administering to the region and so by authority of the Crusade, the Imperium, and Calavar the region has been declared a military regency until local populations and industry recovered enough to be released as autonomous units of Mankind's domain.
To the North foul tidings emerged as probing attacks met the modernized Armed Merchants. Heavy warships of the same class as those seen in Legcutta's forces exchanged fire with Crusade ships and strike craft larger than even the Harbinger heavy transports spat missiles while blazing fire from turrets at the times when Savior Multiroles sought to bring them down.
Campaign Results: Area Pacified
4M in ship repairs
3M in army repairs
-[X] Send a resolute and a modernized carrier from the 3th naval squadron(name them the 4th patrol squadron) + the auxiliary squadron (Continue the campaign):
--[X]Shrine World Lativa (60LY): Remembered as the first world colonized by Imperial citizens in the region this is the center of worship for the southern half of the Subsector. It's Adeptus Sororitas have held back any Ork forces that made landfall but all worlds nearby have been overrun by leaderless Ork hordes. Should a new Warboss arise... [Crusade][Forces Present: 1st Auxiliary Squadron + 1st & 2nd Crusade Assault Armies + 7th & 8th Crusade Guard Infantry Armies + 1st Aerial Combat Army][Ongoing Campaign: Regional Pacification]
Suppression of greenskin populations continues, as particularly dangerous concentrations are purged to keep the rate of emergence from increasing. There is little to report, other than intermittent attacks from the North from amidst the Core Worlds and the sea of greenskins in and around them as well as the two nascent WAAAGH!!s from the ruins of WAAAGH!! Jawbreaka.
A small development in its early stages is the question of the families of the troops stationed here. After a decade of campaigning out of the bases of Lativa the originally young troops have commonly made personal connections and now have children. Some of these family units join the troops on campaign as camp followers but most remain in encampments. A handful of recruits have lobbied and joined the Adepta Sororitas (typically after losing most of their extended family while they were on campaign) which has raised a few political concerns. The Ecclesiarchy is not allowed to field regular armies and the power armor of the Sisters of Battle are not cheap… But people will do what they will.
While Calavar does not have a history of warring across interstellar distances the likely result will be relaxed requirements for soldiers so that these youths can be raised on campaign as dutiful soldiers of Mankind, "apprenticing" until their bodies have developed enough to take on the strain of regular soldiers. For now, the losses and requirements of staffing the Crusade with new Famulous, Dialogous, and Hospitaller Sisters is planned to take advantage of the swell of war orphans on their doorstep.
[GM Notes: My lack of Ossum strikes again. Still an interesting battle with how everyone kept showing up, and the Kommando Boss showing why he exists and why you should be scared. Though, now Legcutta has a bunch of hulks looted from Uniary orbit...
Small bits will be done as I do them. Design phase Soon(TM), with a few diplomacy options.
Thermo-Cav shells were of use, especially against the Nurgle Leviathan (because fire-ish).]
