Hexos Crisis IC

[Havocfett]

Across the towering spires of the Hexos VII shipyards, alarms flared to life. Drive plumes in their dozens had been sited from the outer system, the assembled crusade fleet had finished their plotting.

The Imperial navy, in all its might, and all its glory, was coming for the Shipyards.

Spoiler: Imperial Shipyard Strike

Shipyards: Imperial Invasion from Out-system! Potential Combatants: Guderian, Crilltic, Mina, Who?, Skippy

Assets Declared
Skippy - Space Marines - Battlecruiser Indefagitable and Complement
Skippy - Navy - 22nd Scout Cruiser Squadron
Skippy - Navy - 10th Escort Squadron
Skippy - Navy - 13th Torpedo Squadron
Crusade Fleet - Navy - Sword-Class Escort Squadron

Declared Effort
Skippy - 5 Effort
Crusade Fleet Pool - 5 Effort

Combat was common in the spires. Skirmishes between arbite squads and the brightly-clad revolutionaries of the civic guard. Horrific brawls between myriad lower-hives Militia and the penitent faithful of the Widow's Guard. Death and desolation an every-day occurrence as staircase-by-staircase, control of the hive ebbed and flowed.

Today was a low tide. Watchpost after watchpost reported clear, that the usual strikes and bombings simply had not occurred. That today, and perhaps for days or weeks to come, there was peace.

But on the horizon, the spires of Hive Heptos could see straight to the sea. Could watch the fleets and their strike groups sail inexorably towards the coast. And in the control hubs for train networks and logistics depots long-since fallen to the rebellion, exhausted overseers noted inflows of materiel not seen since the war's start.

Within hours, the ersatz leaders of the loyalist government knew one thing: The rebels were coming.

Spoiler: Rebel Upper Spires Invasion

Upper Hive: Rebel and Interloper Invasions from the Middle Spire! Potential Combatants: Any Rebel, Deku, Garg, Aleph, Aodyssey

Assets Declared
Wade - Militia - Civic Guards Alicia Brigade

Wade - Militia - Civic Guards Sigismund Brigade

Dash - Military - 1st Surface Fleet Group

Graf - Militia - Star Children

Graf - Militia - Balls of Fire

Declared Effort

Conil: 3 Effort

Wade: 10 Effort

Graf: 4 Effort

The blockade had, at least, managed to set up well. Repurposed Hydras and missile batteries had been towed into position by the ever-zealous soldiers of the Urdu. Disguised under camo nets and blessed in the Blue Angel's name. The first of the regular monthly supply landers, loaded heavy with munitions from hastily-erected asteroid based munition's workshops, had disintegrated in a hail of missile fire.

Unfortunately, the second batch of supply landers was thousands strong, containing regiments of imperial soldiers. And, judging by the ways the skies glistened with drive-torches at night, more were on the way.

The blockade was about to face its first real test since the rebellion took these hills. And if it failed, the Sab'a mines were clearly next on the Invader's agenda.

Spoiler: Rebel Guns Blockade

Defense Guns: Rebel Blockade from the Mines! Potential Combatants: Any Rebel

Assets Declared
Academia - Military - Fochia's Urdu

Gladsome - Military - PDF 23rd Regiment Limitanei

Declared Effort
Academia - 4 Effort
Gladsome - 5 Effort

Spoiler: Tau Guns Skirmish

Defense Guns: Tau Skirmish from Out-system! Potential Combatants: Dekutulla

Assets Declared
Deku - Navy - Spinetail Command

Declared Effort
Deku - 5 Effort

Spoiler: Imperial Mines Invasion

Sab'a Mines: Imperial Invasion from the Guns! Potential Combatants: Guderian, Crilltic, Carol


Assets Declared

• Guderian - I Corps (Elite)
• Guderian - II Corps (Military)
• Guderian - III Corps (Military)
• Crusade Fleet - Sable Swords Demi-Company Caliburn (Elite)
• Crusade Fleet - 3rd Mordian (Military)

Declared Effort

Guderian - 6 Effort

Crilltic - 2 Effort

Across Hexos, in dark corners, dispossessed nobles and brutalized merchant scions huddled in dark corners and prayed for salvation. Their wealth, their prestige, their faith in the emperor had gone but the connections forged by the late governor, his vision of salvation…

That remained.

So they prayed to new gods. Invoked new allies. And, as their dreams and forms twisted, something answered.

Southwest of Hive Heptos, portals tore open in once-pristine glades. Twisted eaves, long-poisoned by hive runoff, were rent asunder as reality broke. Boots in their thousands trampled rotten leaves and long-dead earth. Tanks and demon-engines billowed smoke into the skies and set their sights upon the lower hives and its teeming millions.

And across the planet, as farmers gathered the autumn's harvest in the Asaa valley, the sky grew bright with incoming dropships.

Spoiler: Chaos Valley Invasion

Asaa Valley: Chaos invasion from Orbit! Potential Combatants: Gig Complex, Maugan

Assets Declared
Gig - Space Marines - The Gods-Touched

Gig - Space Marines - 3rd Host

Declared Effort:
Gig - 4 Effort

Spoiler: Chaos Hive Invasion

Lower Hive: Chaos Invasion from the Depths of Hell! Potential Combatants: Average, Maugan
Assets Declared
Average - Mil - The Forgotten Ones

Average - Mil - The Betrayed

Average - Mil - The Abandoned

Declared Effort
Average - 4 Effort

 

[Havocfett]

0216.137, M42

The Imperial reconquest of Hexos began with the relief of its defenders. When the PDF turned, the planet's penal regiments were some of the only ones to remain loyal, damned men selling their lives in their thousands to hold back an unending tide of rebels.

By the time relief had arrived, the surviving penal troopers had been bottled up at the wetland peaks north of the Sab'a mines, turning the mountaintop orbital defense batteries into a sprawling network of fortifications. Their supplies hand dwindled, and they were reliant on periodic drops from the aerostats and mines to keep the guns supplied and themselves fed. New recruits, rare though they were, were shipped directly from still-loyal prisons in a desperate attempt to outpace casualties from onroaching rebel PDF units and the roving warbands of Fochia's Urdu.

Even that status quo had begun to falter. The Urdu had dragged Hydras and Manticores into the mountains, turning any resupply drop, any medical evacation, and any attempt at rapid repositioning into a fateful brush with death. The streak of missiles and distant booms of dueling artillery were constants, while ammunition and food dwindled precipitously.

Then, the Crusade Fleet landed.

Ship after ship dropped from high orbit, carrying with them copious quantities of food and ammunition. Baneblades and Leman Russ and Space Marines stepped off their ships. Warships were visible in low orbit, forcing besieging artillery to hide for fear of bombardment. For the first time in months, full rations were re-instituted and ammunition stores were full.

But among the command staff, things were less jovial. While command among the fleet had been settled by the time they arrived in high Hexos Orbit, the question of the penal legion's officers and their trustworthyness remained in flux. There had been tense moments during the descent, as dropship captains wondered if this would be the moment the guns operators revealed their true colors. As pilots and gunners on the ships above wondered if this or that movement of defenders was the signal, that they needed to start bombing now or risk the bulk of the crusade fleet being caught in a vice. Even when they landed, questions of chain of command, of strategy and planning, swiftly lead to rampant miscommunication between the crusader forces and their local allies.

Within a week, the offensive launched.

The III Corps led the charge, smashing into and through the first lines of bunkers and entrenchments. The beachhead established, the heavy armor of the 2nd corps advanced, relying on the penal regiments to cover their flanks.

Unfortunately, due to rampant miscommunication between the ranks, the penal regiments had not advanced. They were still gathering fuel for their transports, preparing to join the drive on the Sab'a mines after the blockade had been cleared. Hexos' 17th PDF regiment, Pseudocomitatenses, saw the gap before the attackers did, a chimera-led offensive hitting II Corps as it transited a valley in the Jebiri mountains and pinning it in place with high casualties. Airstrikes and stormtrooper deployments from I Corps stabilized, but now the mobile I Corps lacked the mass to clear the Hexos 23rd's anti-aircraft batteries, greatly limiting the air mobile Corps ability to relocate and prosecute the offensive.

The worst was yet to come, overnight Fochia's Urdu used the cover of darkness to bring its eel-horse regiments through the porous front-line of the offensive. As dawn arrived, a full cavalry charge descended upon II Corps headquarters, seeing the destruction of its Command Baneblade *Silver Bayonet*, its colonel only saved by the intervention of the Sable Swords. The Sable Swords were themselves savaged by the attack, losing one battle brother in an ambush, and seeing another four badly injured. True catastrophe was only averted when half a dozen Urdu officers were killed by a Necron teleport-ambush, which brought the Imperials crucial time to redress their lines and recover.

Unsure how many necrons were in the field, uncertain of their ability to punch through the defenders, and worried about the Tau naval detachment that had been quietly stalking high orbit since their arrival, General Lumiere called a withdrawal to friendly lines. The dispirited retreat, and vicious argument with Colonel Hollowshade, were interrupted by a series of brutal explosions across the mountain range.

Someone, or something, had reached the ammunition stockpiles. The ammunition stockpile for the guns, and for the penal legion's abhuman troops, had messily detonated. Only preparations for the ongoing advance had spared the supplies of more units. Resupply would be difficult, as any dropship sent from above risked being shot down by the blockading troops, with both II Corps and the Sable Swords low on munitions. As a small mercy, the Tau flotilla departed in the aftermath. Whatever opening it was looking for had simply failed to appear.

For the Rebels, this was a hard won victory. Severely outnumbered and outgunned, they had held the line and their blockade would surely pay dividends in the months to come. But the sheer scale of the incoming attack ensured that every rebel unit had been brutalized in combat.

Spoiler

Outcome
Rebel Minor Victory downgraded to Stalemate by outside sabotage.

Blockade remains up: Ammunition and resources can't reach the Orbital Guns until it is dealt with. Industry sent to the guns this turn will remain in the location it was sent from.

Imperial Casualties:
Sable Swords Demi-Company and II Corps are Damaged in the fighting.
1st Regiment Militia is Exhausted by damage control post-sabotage
Two Repair actions are pre-queued, no effort expended. Sable Swords and II Corps are repaired but exhausted.
Ammunition for the orbital defense guns destroyed. Will be refilled whenever the guns are successfully resupplied.

Rebel Casualties:
PDF 23rd, PDF 17th, and Fochia's Urdu are all damaged.
Votary chapels repair PDF 17th.

Unknown Faction Mechanic Triggered.

 

[Havocfett]

0118.137 M42

Hundreds of thousands of people stormed the upper hive. A tide of humanity, in half-completed chimeras and sentinels, in appropriated riot gear, in hand-made armor. Armed with clubs and autoguns and lasrifles and simple, bloody fervor.

Facing them, the Imperium's most devout. Two full Commanderies of the Sisters of Battle. The entire remaining force of the Hexos' Arbites. And the Widow's Guard, a legion of the ecclesiarchy's most fanatical. And behind them? A full imperial battle fleet, bombardment cannons and aero-wings trained on the hive below.

Airstrikes sent bridges and towers packed with combatants spiralling into the murk. Traps detonated walkways, fortifications, anything and everything the rebels took as they took it. For a moment, it seemed the Imperials might pull it off. Might simply stall the rebels long enough to manage a clean, orderly withdrawal under the cover of orbital guns.

Then things began to go wrong. Traps failed to go off. Arbites units found their comms going dead, found they were deployed out of position to be flanked and overrun. Glorified gangsters ambushed Sisters of Battle with rail-rifles and seeker drones. Macro-munition deadman's switch after deadman's switch failed to detonate. Bombardment beacons glitched, directing strikes onto the defender's positions instead of the attackers.

Worse, the Eldar arrived. Drukhari raiding ships appeared in low orbit, the artificial sun of orbital bombardment dimming with their approach. Corsair vessels erupted from the ocean, mingling with air-raids from the PDF's First Fleet before re-cloaking and appearing in the Spire itself. The 22nd Cruiser Squadron and, surprisingly, the previously rebel grand cruiser Emperor's Will, broke off to intercept.

This went poorly immediately. Though they managed to disrupt the Drukhari formations, both suffered boarding actions. The Terror would see its engine rooms and guns savaged, and many of its armsmen killed or maimed. The Joyeusgarde would have to abort its own bombing runs to tow its compatriot into high orbit. The Emperor's Will suffered breaches on a dozen decks and the destruction of its secondary bombardment lance before repelling the boarders.

Then, the defense buckled. The chokepoints fell, and tens of thousands of militia pored across the Upper Spires. Noble palaces were ransacked by Corsairs looking for records of some ancient aeldari artifact. Less fortunate ones were targetted by the Drukhari, entire noble families and their staff kidnapped into the stars, occasionally in running battles with rebel PDF units or loyalist defenders opposed to piracy.

It was a slaughter, poised to be one of the bloodiest days in the planet's history. Millions upon millions of lives at risk.

Fortunately, it was not to be. Lord High Marshall Isabella of the Imperial Crusade Fleet, and Admiral Theah of the planetary PDF, had come to an arrangement. With a good amount of cajoling, it was an arrangement that Duke Despyre and Cardinal Pius had, reluctantly, agreed to. Many civilian areas, especially evacuation corridors, were let be and actively protected by the fighting parties. Hundreds of thousands fled down to the lower levels, or boarded valkyries and repurposed cargo shuttles off the hive entirely, to survive the chaos.

Millions more sheltered in place, hidden and sheltered in the vast public-works facilities of the Nine Aeon Salon. Many would emerge to find their homes and their lives ruined, but they had survived and in comfort on the largesse of strangers. The salon's popularity would reach near cultlike levels in the immediate aftermath of the battle.

The Imperial defenders, attempting to hold long enough for a dignified evacuation, would be less lucky.

The arbites were overwhelmed. The last of its pre-war formations overrun by wounded underhive militias. The Sacred Rose found themselves pressed on all sides, their evacuation shuttles swarmed by genestealers and pressed on all sides by the Civic Guards. In the chaos of the fighting, they would find themselves shuttling Cardinal Pius onto a shuttle as rounds pinged off his rosarius.

In the months to come, both he and Duke Despyre would claim the duke himself fired the sniper rounds pinging from his rosarius as he evacuated.

As to the Widow's Guard, they fought valiantly. They fought nobly. They fought against overwhelming odds, refusing to surrender even as the 1st Fleets drop-commandos stormed their shuttle bays.

But they died. Outgunned, outclassed, their attempts to take their enemies with them thwarted by sabotaged targetting flares and drukhari jamming.

As the last of them fell, as the survivors retreated to high orbit, as Duke Despyre stepped into the governor's mansion, Cardinal Pius revealed his last trick. Nuclear macro-charges, strewn across the upper spires, set to drop the hive upon itself. The largest, most impressive, replacing the governor's throne.

(The throne itself, of course, was secreted safely away aboard the Vow of Sacrifice)

Duke Despyre's eyes went wide as he saw the bomb. Far above, Cardinal Pius depressed a detonator.

Nothing happened.

And a Necron Cryptek stepped around the side of the enormous warhead, with pointed questions on her mind.

Spoiler

Outcome:
The rebels take the Upper Hive but the Ecclesiarchy manages an evacuation of its most important assets.

Imperial Casualties:
Widow's Guard - Cornuthaum - Destroyed!
Sacred Rose Commandery VII - Crilltic - Damaged
Sacred Rose Commandery VI - Crilltic - Damaged
22nd Scout Cruiser Squadron - Skippers - Damaged
The Emperor's Will - Zokarov - Damaged

Rebel Casualties:
"Balls of Fire" Militia - Graf Tzarogy - Destroyed!
Civic Guards Sigismund - Wade - Destroyed!
1st Surface Fleet - Dash - Damaged, then Repaired.

Drukhari Casualties:
Circle of Graceful Frenzy - Aleph - Damaged

Other Casualties:
Autonomous Genestealers - No-one - Destroyed
Upper Hive - Damaged - Captured by Wade Garrett

Rebel Other Changes:
"Starchildren" Militia - Graf Tzarogy - Gain Well Armed.

0190.137 M42

Southwest of the Hive, in dying towns and poisoned villages that were once thriving communities, chaos marched.

A hundred thousand boots stepped from the depths of hell itself, daemon-engines and unfathomable horrors backstopping the grim parade. Those who could not outrun them were taken, fitted with grim masks as the Faceless came for Hexos. The only interruption to their relentless advance, the endless detachment of engineering teams to dig, dig, dig.

Ahead of them, an improvised defensive strategy was underway. Militias and half-formed governmental agencies evacuated hundreds of thousands from the path of advance, many headed to refugee camps set up for the Upper Hive offensive, others to the mid hive. Bombing runs from the 4th Atmobile and orbital bombardment from the Tau Spinetail flotilla disrupted attempts to harry the refugee columns, while more subtle cult infiltration attempts ran into the twin right-hooks of a surprisingly effective humanitarian relief program and the Mid Spires Intramural Targeball Team.

There were successes, of course. Masked children suicide-bombed food distribution centers, cults attacked supplies, summoned demons, and kidnapped the vulnerable. But these were small, scattered things.

By 0210, the myriad attempts at subversion had dissipated. Instead, the Faceless redoubled their march. They were slowed by unrestricted orbital bombardment from the Spinetail flotilla, bombing runs from the 4th Atmobile, and an inability to capture enough people to replace their losses. Still, their march was inexorable. They shelled, then overran, an Atmobile airbase and, soon, hit the outer reaches of the lower hive.

And there, they met their match. Local militias fought them door to door. The Atmobile dropped entire formations into blocking positions. And, as they built up actual momentum, the Tau revealed their full might. The 712th Auxiliaries, a unit of kroot, gue'vesa, nicassar, vespid took the field. They held the center against all comers, stopping the chaos advance cold. Artillery and orbital strikes wreaked a terrible toll across the lower spire, but once again the humanitarian corridors proved their worth and the bloodletting was far less than it might have been.

By the year's halfway mark, the chaos forces were in full retreat. None of their formations were truly intact, and they were forced back to their entrenchments to recuperate and plot their next move. The hive had been saved, but it was still besieged.

Spoiler

Outcome:
Chaos forces are repelled from the Lower Hive. The evacuation route was leaked to chaos forces, but attempts to intercept refugees failed decisively.

Chaos Casualties:
Average - Mil - The Forgotten Ones - Damaged
Average - Mil - The Betrayed - Damaged
Average - Mil - The Abandoned - Damaged
Psyker Coterie - Maugan Ra - Exhausted

Rebel Casualties:
Dash - Military - 4th Atmobile Corps - Damaged

Tau Casualties
Tenfold - Military - 712th Auxiliaries Brigade "Lea'weo" - Damaged

Rebel Other Changes:
Lower Hive is Damaged and Fortified
Siete Coast is Fortified

Chaos Other Changes:
Entrenched fighting positions have been dug south-west of the Hive.

 

[Havocfett]

0250.137 M42

Death came to the Asaa Valley, heralded by fire from the skies.

The jagged silhouette of the battleship Pinnacle of Spite descended upon Hexos. Futile fire from the planetary defense guns flickered against its shields as the open maws of demon-possessed bombardment guns turned on the world below. Sheets of flame and plasma tore through the atmosphere and into the Asaa valley, vaporizing towns and farms and forests alike as they cleared a landing area.

Then, the chaos force landed. At its head, Lord Wyrmwood, resplendent in power armor dedicated to the Dark Gods. At his back, an enormous force of mortal soldiers and possessed daemonhosts, including a full regiment of Black Legion cultists and traitors. The initial force arrayed against them, a spread of Stormwind Host militias, were swiftly pushed back from the landing site, orbital bombardment and relentless onslaught killing thousands.

The defenders swiftly rallied, joined by the 1st Shichi People's Free Corps and armed by mysterious donations of advanced military equipment from the upper hive. The invading forces won many battles, but were increasingly stymied by armored columns, advanced weaponry, and sheer numbers. Township after township burned rather than submit to the chaos advance, the defenders trading people and space for the time they needed. The Pinnacle of Spite wiped entire formations from the field with its bombardment gun, daemonhosts slaughtered thousands in displays of psychic might, and yet again and again they found their subordinates overwhelmed by numbers, outmaneuvered by swift cavalry and rolling chimeras, and picked apart by revolutionary pseudo-skitarii.

Eventually, Lord Wyrmwood aimed to leverage this concentration of force to his advantage. He would meet the defenders in open battle, then use orbital superiority and psychic might to open a daemonic rift, burning out the primitive psykers defending the valley and overwhelming their forces with the might of the dark gods. But when the time for battle came, the rift refused to open.

Instead, the sun turned black, orbital fire withered to nothing, and a necron monolith appeared on the chaos flank. Rank after rank of immortals poured forth, pouring withering gauss fire into the chaos flank. Eight Thousand Screaming Souls, a Tzeentchian daemonhost, was wrenched in half by the onslaught, the daemon within dissipated by necron technologies, and Wyrmwood sounded the retreat.

Spoiler

Outcomes:
Chaos forces are repelled from the Asaa valley, but the valley itself is badly damaged.

Chaos Casualties:
Gig - Space Marines - 3rd Host - Damaged
Maugan - Military - Levied Troops - Damaged

Rebel Casualties:
EarthScorpion - Military - 1st Shichi People's Free Corps - Damaged, then repaired.
Academia - Militia - Stormwind Banner Notus - Destroyed
Academia - Zealots - Stormwind Seers - Exhausted
Academia - Location - Asaa Valley - Damaged and Exhausted

 

[Havocfett]

0057.137, M42

Above Hexos, the full might of the Imperial battlefleet burned towards the Spaceyards. The Midnight Patrol in all its glory lead the approach, weapons hot, but vox arrays trusted to do most of the work. In the days, even hours, leading up to the assault negotiations were rife between the Imperial host and their nominal enemies.

When, finally, the fleet entered weapons range, there was an exchange not of fire but of shuttles. A deal was struck, and less than a week into the campaign Lord High Marshall Isabella Corner won the first great victory of the Imperial Crusade fleet without a shot fired.

The Dockyards had not merely surrendered, it had flipped. Pardons were handed out, promises given. A dead inquisitor, simply forgotten. Some fled, certain that their crimes would not truly be forgiven, but most were willing to trust rather than fight the assembled fleet. The promises made were lavish: Restorations of lost privileges, continuation of interrupted privileges, charters and pardons and more.

But what are such promises in light of what was gained? Access to Hexos' grand shipyards, full orbital superiority, and an assurance for safety of all loyalist assets no longer on the planet.

Or at least, an assumption of safety. For fortification efforts continued, publicly in the aerostats, where the Mechanicum redoubled its security protocols in expectation of xenos biological samples. Less so in the asteroids, where pirate and smuggler captains found themselves given offers they did not want to refuse, minelaying efforts redoubled, and treasure hunters began to flood the old rocks, searching for rumors of an ancient aeldari superweapon that might change the course of the war on its own.

Spoiler

Zorakov joins the Imperium with significant concessions. The Spaceyards fall to Imperial control without a fight.

Treasure hunters and pirates begin swarming the asteroids, looking for an ancient aeldari superweapon.

The aerostats fortify and take surface scans of the Siete Coast in order to prepare for the conflict to come.

 

[Havocfett]

0500.137 M42

The first half of the year had been marked by adaptations to the war entering a new front. With a crusade fleet in theater, and with murder rather than negotiation on the mind, defense suddenly rose to the top of many's priority list.

Enormous entrenchment projects sprung up across the planet. Fortified warehouses on the Siete Coast, bunker-lines across the lower hives, tunnel networks through the Shichi Metroplex, and hidden redoubts around the Sab'a Mines and Yedi Wastes. Nevermind the self-perpetuating chaos trenchlines south of the hive. The planet had weathered its first strikes, and would only grow more difficult to take as time went on.

But these were the least of the changes coming to the planet.

The Siete Coast had spun up an Official Revolutionary Mint. Their new Hexos Sevenpence were backed by the enormous quantities of food being delivered to the needy across the planet, and the supply packets being given to refugees fleeing the fighting. It was also, very clearly, being accepted and used by some of the many aliens on the planet. Though adoption was not centralized, with most of the revolutionary governments fully unaware of the currency's creation until it was announced, the reliability of being able to buy food from refugee services (Or a favor from myriad xenos) saw it being adopted very widely.

News of the currency, however, was rather overshadowed by news of Governor Despyre's treason against mankind. Evidence reached newscasters that the self-proclaimed Governor had been collaborating with Xenos. At first speculative and clearly Imperial in nature, holo-picts of the Governor treating with a necron cryptek in front of a disarmed macro-charge swiftly spread across the system. Then rumors of him speaking with stranger things yet in the mid-hive. Protests demanded the Governor's head across the planet. An embassy of Tau aid workers in the mid-hive was besieged by a lynch mob, and would have been torn apart if their escort hadn't fired upon the crowd.

Then, as chaos attacked the lower hive, an entire legion of xenos appeared to defend it. Nicassar, traitor humans, demiurg (Which most on Hexos assumed were merely well-fed traitor ratlings), kroot, and vespid stood against the most hated enemies of mankind and saved millions from their depradations. In the Asaa valley, a necron monolith turned back the Profane Host. In the upper hive, rumors persisted of strange mutants sheltering hundreds of thousands from orbital bombardment.

And, suddenly, the governor's position began to grow more understandable.

He was still a divisive figure: Millions of civilians across the system wanted him dead. But if these strange aliens hated Horus as much as any good, emperor-fearing citizen of the Imperium, were they really worse than, say, the now-deceased arbites?

The jury was still out, but that was a significant improvement from the year's start.

Both of these developments were watched with keen eyes by the rising revolutionary government. The Middle Hive had turned into an impromptu center of power, as nearly half the remaining revolutionary governments discussed the path forwards. Though Tau diplomats formed an essential part of making the government work, the real winners were the Levellers, whose ideology of equality, legal emigration from the spire, and being allowed to see sunlight more than once a week quickly won billions of supporters.

By the year's mid-point, The Revolutionary Government for the Liberation of the Hexos System in General, and Hexos VII in particular, had been established and the Levellers were enjoying a surge of support the likes of which they'd never seen.

Spoiler

Outcome:
Sab'a Mine, Lower Hive, Yedi Wastes, Siete Coast, and Shichi Metroplex all fortify.

Self-declared Governor Despyre is tarred as a xeno-collaborator to the entire system. Incredibly obvious proof of this, and the vaporization of a lynch mob by a Tau security detail, solidify this image in the public mind.

Xenos saving the lives of millions of civilians from chaos, along with concerted public relations campaigns, results in a significant increase in popularity for xeno-collaboration.

A strong political campaign sees Levellism enjoy a surge of popularity planet wide, especially in the Mid Spire.

The Hexos Sevenpence enjoys widespread adoption as a currency due to its reliable exchange rate with food and use by various xeno parties.

End Of Turn One

 

[Havocfett]

In the Shipyards, harried, overworked repair labor shifts scrambled to restart production. Their overseers were keen to meet the new quotas, but swiftly found themselves with a new anxiety.

Sensor ghosts played across their radars. Workers complained of things watching them in the dark. Shipments arrived late, speaking of ships stalking them in the dark, and the captains of damaged warships spoke of nightmares and screaming suns.

But nothing, truly, had happened. Yet.

Spoiler: Drukhari Shipyard Raid

Shipyards: Drukhari Raid from ???? - Possible Players: Aleph

Assets Declared
None

Declared Effort
Aleph - 2 Effort

Spoiler: Covert Actions

Covert actions at Shipyard declared.

The Faceless had dug into the countryside around the lower hive in the first months of the year, digging vast trench networks and possessing every civilian they could get their hands on. While their advance into the hive proper had been thwarted, that was not good enough for the Hive's defenders. To remove the chaos army from their facility, the 1st Surface Fleet Group sallied forth, beginning a preparatory bombardment as the Hive's myriad militias chose their targets.

As the fighting continued, developments in the Hive continued at a rapid pace. Tau trainers continued to drill the Hive's myriad militias, providing disciplined cores that would hold when the fighting went sour. Strange worker cadres began to appear in the lower hive, communal mutant work-gangs volunteering to repair damaged infrastructure at the behest of the Lady Dulcinea. Impoverished workers leaving the hive, given the means to homestead the surrounding area, to channel radiation into fertile gardens and purify toxic runoff into drinkable water by Gullian's many subordinates.

Stranger, though, were the religious developments. Pilgrims, impoverished strivers, and the truly devout alike had begun a search for hidden truths in the lower hive. Rumors abounded of a Great Church in its depths, one that would replace the grand cathedral in the upper hive. Remaining priests damned the movement as heretical, but it had begun to grow at a fever pitch.

Spoiler: Rebel Lower Hive Raid

Lower Hive: Rebel raids against Chaos from Lower Hive. Potential Players: Wade, Graf, Dash, Tenfold, Deku, Aodyssey, Joergen

Assets Declared
Wade - Militia - Civic Guards Alicia Brigade
Dash - Military - 1st Surface Fleet Group
Declared Effort
Conil: 3 Effort
Wade: 3 Effort

Spoiler: Hive Infrastructure Week

Faction mechanic repairs the 4th Atmobile Corps during the Declaration Phase.
Lower Hive Activated! Lower Hive and 712th Auxiliaries Brigade will be repaired.
Genestealer Cults (Sirrocco) are repairing the Upper Hive
Infrastructure Improvement in the lower hive! - 3 Effort, 1 Asset from Graf Tzarogy.
Infrastructure/Political Improvement in the lower hive! - 3 Effort, 1 Asset from Graf Tzarogy
Tau training cadres instil Discipline in Civics Guards Alicia - Tenfold Shields
Tau training cadres instil Discipline in the Starchildren Militia - Dekutulla

In the shadows, things at the hive were…perhaps not worse, but certainly different. Shadows flitted across the battle-scarred grand cathedral in the upper hive. Repair crews screamed of things in the dark, and patrols in the dead zone between faceless and hive reported eyes, endless eyes, watching them from the shadows.

Spoiler: Covert Actions

Covert actions at Lower Hive declared.
Covert Actions at Upper Hive declared.

As the months ticked on, time accomplished what the Imperial strike could not. The rebel blockade, damaged and brutalized, broke positions and retreated, leaving decoys, wounded pickets, and landmines behind. It would take days for the Imperials to realize what had happened, as the first scouts for the next offensive found themselves not marking defensive lines, but punching through suicidally determined pickets.

Instead, as the Imperial invasion force mustered every asset at its disposal, they found themselves with a clear, thousand mile march to their next target. Finally, after months on planet, the Imperial Army would march upon the Sab'a Mines.

Spoiler: Imperial Mines Invasion

Sab'a Mines: Imperial Invasion from the Guns! Potential Combatants: All Imperial

Declared Assets
7 Assets Total
1 Military (Guderian)
1 Military (Crusade Fleet)
1 Military (Carol)
1 Military (Mina)
1 Military (Zorakov)
1 Navy (Guderian)
1 Navy (Crilltic)

Declared Effort
20 Effort Total
5 Effort from Guderian
5 Effort from Carol
5 Effort from Mina
5 Effort from Zorakov

The ever-riotous asteroid Mines had not calmed down over the first months of the war. Pirate attacks on shipping had increased, brawls in bars and speakeasies had become a daily occurrence as treasure hunters flooded the belt, and there were rumors of darker things yet stalking the asteroids.

It was therefore a matter of considerable comfort that the Imperial Navy had arrived. The 10th Escort Squadron had arrived to back Brunern Security in a hunt for chaos-aligned pirates in the belt. Their aeldari allies were…rather more controversial, promoting some hushed discussions between Brunern Security and Marshall Isabella, as well as rumors that the Belt had sold out to pirates.

But, ultimately, rumors of chaos won out and the assembled flotilla began its hunt within the narrow confines of the asteroid belt.

Spoiler: Imperial-Aeldari Asteroid Mines Hunt

Asteroid Mines: Imperial-Aeldari Attack on the Asteroid Mines. Potential Players: Garg, Skippy, Who, Crusade Fleet

Assets Declared
Garg - Navy - Mythwright and escorts
Garg - Navy - Destroyer squadron
Who? - Navy - Brunern Security
Skippy - Navy - 10th Escort Squadron
Declared Effort:
11 Effort Total
4 Effort from Garg
5 Effort from Who?
2 Effort from Skippy

Spoiler: Covert Actions

Multiple covert actions in the Asteroid Mines

As chaos forces retreated from the Asaa Valley to parts unknown, locals found themselves mired in rebuilding. Entire orchards and vast pastureland had been nuked to glass or tainted by chaos in the fighting, necessitating vast rebuilding efforts.

Fortunately, the rebel government was more than willing to assist. Volunteers from various labor unions and governmental assessors arrived with building materials, fertilizers, and strange geneaugmented crops that could survive the blasted lands.

Many of the laborers were obvious mutants, oft with four arms or strange ridges, but in light of combat against the foul forces of chaos, and a general agreement that they were simply blessed by the Green Angel, Vulcan, the horrendous violence that would not ally often greet such mutants was put off for another day.

There were, after all, more deserving targets for such violence. Levelist commissars spent day after day dragging suspected cultists, hierarchists, and collaborators from the darkness. Attempts to corrupt the sacred rituals of the Stormwind host, or to spread Chaotic tendencies among the ranks of Shichi Soldiers were rooted out day by day, while the Metroplex's zealots insisted to every shaman that would listen that a greater threat yet remained in the region.

Spoiler: Asaa Spire Technothriller Day

Political Purge by Earthscorpion in the Asaa Valley: 1 Asset and 2 Effort declared.
Covert Action Asaa Valley
Genestealer Cults (Sirrocco) are repairing the Asaa Valley?

Even as the purges kicked off, celebrations ripped through the Asaa Valley and Yedi Wastes. The Grand Revolutionary Council had made it's first pronouncement.

The Asaa Valley tribes folk had long had their religious and cultural practices brutally repressed, tolerated only to the minimum necessary to meet the tithes and supply the Hive with cheap labor. They had never reaped the benefits of citizenship, merely born it's costs.

The Yedi Wastes had it worse. Damned for some rebellion forgotten even by record, they had been deemed living target practice. To suppress them, to hunt them, impress them as cheap labor, and rob their settlements, was considered good practice for the PDF. More than two billion people, reduced to target practice, slave labor, and periodic research papers on their inexplicable ability to acquire weapons while under interdiction.

No longer. With a stroke of a pen (and millions of man hours in enforcement and bureaucracy), the grand revolutionary council of Hexos VII signed it's first United revolutionary pronouncement. The people of the Yedi Wastes and Asaa Valley were now full and equal citizens.

The celebrations could be seen from orbit, wastelanders emerging from their hidden creches in the millions to belt praises to the emperor. The Asaa Valley underwent weeks of successive feasting.

And as news left Hexos and reached Sector Command, Lord High Marshall Isabella was told in no uncertain terms that the previous status quo must be restored for the good of the imperium.

Spoiler: rebel politics

Asaa Valley and Yedi Wastes tribespeople unanimously declared free and equal citizens of Hexos VII.


All rebel players lose one effort this turn (and so have 9 to spend).

Effects unknown. Sector command scandalized.

 

[Havocfett]

0501.137 M42

For months, the armies of chaos had besieged the hive. Children woke screaming, the sound of artillery in their ears. Villages were torn apart, all too slow to flee fitted with the horrendous gas masks of the invading army. They had been stopped from entering the hive, at ruinous cost, but every day that passed was another day for them to dig in. To threaten the hive.

This was unacceptable. Once lines had stabilized, the Siete Coast navy began a comprehensive bombing campaign aimed at breaking the spine of the damaged attackers. Chanted prayers echoed from the lower hive's grand loudspeakers, heralding dawn raids from the Civic Guards, and borrowed markerlights called in strike from the Tau Navy above.

The Faceless attempted an organized retreat. Layered fallback positions, daemonic minefields, and hosts of swiftly summoned plaguebearers were thrown against the rebel positions, buying precious days. Their local allies revealed themselves as cultists, enacting grand rituals to spread cursed plagues among the attackers and opening portals to some hidden redoubt in an attempted retreat.

But even here, they were frustrated. Shadows in the dark assassinated cultists and defensive commanders. Rituals fell apart in brutal displays of sorcerous backlash as head cultists disappeared in flashes of green light. Combat exorcisms ripped gasmasks from tortured heads and cured magical plagues. Shadowy visages of hooded angels, never confirmed, stalked most covered battlefields.

The Faceless defense was determined, dogged, and then for the second time in a year the Necron host arrived.

As the Civic Guard began another push, an obelisk of black metal appeared in the southeastern front. Particle whips lashed out in every direction as rank after rank of immortals stepped into the fray. Daemon engines were ripped to pieces by airstrike, naval bombardment, gauss cannons, and waves of armed militia.

And, as the ritual that would allow the chaos army to flee was in its last steps, the ranks broke. Daemon engines vanished into the warp, soldiers were surrounded by the advancd, spells began to snap and shatter across the front line.

And from ten thousand lips, dying gasps exhorted prayers to Slaanesh.

Only the cult would escape, disappearing through portals even as the last of their defenders were ripped to pieces.

For the first time since the war started, Hive Heptos was safe.

Spoiler: Results

Rebels raid the Faceless host, which attempts to evacuate. -2 damage.

3 assets + 1 navy for rebels, 3 assets for Faceless. Both are 1 Mass down to 0 mass. -1 damage from success.

10 successes v 2 successes. 8 net successes. 5 damage Major Success, -1 from Evac. 4 damage major success. 2 successful raid-aligned sabotages, one rebel counterespionage, one Chaos sabotage. There are no further degrees of success to reach.

Damage allocation:
Chaos fortifications - Destroyed
Average - Mil - The Forgotten Ones - Destroyed

Average - Mil - The Betrayed - Destroyed

Average - Mil - The Abandoned - Destroyed

Average - Cult - The Straight Path - Extracts to Unknown.

Averagename has been destroyed as a fighting force. With their last breath, they commit themselves to the cause of chaos to aid their allies in their next fight.

Repair actions transfer to other allied units.

 

[Havocfett]

0630.137 M42

The people of the Asaa Valley sprang back quickly from the chaos assault. Their mysterious helpers gone, their time was now spent rebuilding and managing the consequences of the attack.

And for weeks, those consequences had been LEVACOM. The Committee had sent its most fanatical to examine its own soldiers, pulling out entire clusters of support personnel for summary executions. Chaos paraphernalia, materials, and communications were discovered and after the recent attack even the most heterodox tribesman was unwilling to hear excuses.

The executions continued, eventually finding cultists seeded among those who fled the chaos attacks. The people of the valley were whipped into a frenzy, redoubling repair and fortification efforts and welcoming the strange Spire laborers with open arms.

Alas, they did not see the true threat until it was too late.

As the last of the local cults were hunted down, LEVACOM investigators began to connect the dots. Began to realize that the greatest of the human sacrifices they'd uncovered, the most brutal gunfights against hardline cultists they'd suffered, were not spaced randomly.

They were a sigil to Khorne, hundreds of kilometers wide.

They rushed to inform the others, to begin prayers and rites and reconsecrations that would stop the ritual.

Alas, they too were too late.

At midnight before the autumnal equinox, the sky above the Asaa valley turned bone-white, blood flowed through its rivers, and all hell broke loose.

Graveyards ripped asunder, trees were impaled on spires of bone, and the sky itself wept burning bronze. Portals tore themselves open across the region, a legion of bloodletters and violent dreams unleashing themselves upon the populace as chaos rifts burst into being. Tribes and cities were wiped out in hours, and one in two farms across the entire valley burned before its defenders could mount a coherent response. Had the initial battle for the valley been less devastating, perhaps it would have been enough.

As it was, when the bloodletters fled west over the seas, when the greatest portals were destroyed, when the Urdu wiped the last cultist's blood from their spears...

The Asaa Valley was no more. Its orchards destroyed, its herds and people scattered. Even were the last rifts sealed, it would take years, decades to bring it to its former glory. If such a thing ever occurred.

And deep in the void, aboard the bridge of the Pinnacle of Spite, the gods laughed and a twelve-armed bloodthirster joined Lord Wyrmwood to survey what he had wrought.

Spoiler: Results

Chaos Cults in 1st Shichi People's Free Corps and Asaa Valley destroyed. The Penitents, a econ asset belonging to the Profane, are revealed as Cults and damaged.

Apocalypse Invoked in Asaa Valley: Asaa Valley takes 1 damage and is destroyed. Becomes Asaa Valley [Ruins]. Chaos Rift and a Chaos Demon army are created on site. Fortification efforts succeed, the Ruins become Fortified 1.

Approximate civilian casualties: 23 million [Including previous turn]

Reflexive Combat: Shichi People's Free Corps, Stormwind Banner Boreas, and Fochia's Urdu fight Chaos Demons. Chaos Demons flee to parts unknown. Chaos Rift is contained and Damaged.

Repair action at the Asaa Valley will be redirected.

Shichi Metroplex provides a new Militia to @Academia Nut

Gig - Econ - Penitents - Damaged

23 Million is going to be the largest chaos death toll this turn! @Gig_Complex gains Vordrai Twelve-Armed [Bloodthirster Military Asset]!

 

[Havocfett]

0567.137 M42

The combined fleet snaking through Hexos' massive asteroid belt, the remains of a jovian system that had torn itself apart more than a million years ago, was a strange thing. Imperial warships, armed merchantmen, and local pirates stalked the most dangerous prey in the system.

Neither the merchants nor the pirates knew how the High Marshall had gotten her information, merely that she had told them that there was a chaos fleet to hunt, and strange allies would be needed to hunt them. They had spent days approaching their destination, their admiral hoping that her chosen friends would come to her aid as they neared a cluster of asteroids surrounding a titanic, jagged dwarf planet.

Then, holo-fields rippling, the allies arrived. The sleek hull of the Mythwright and her multifarious escorts, arriving at flank speed with an offering of fresh sensor data and minefields laid around the Chaos base. There was confusion, yelling over the comms, and more than a few threats, but after several minutes the fleet formed up and advanced upon the planetoid.

As they did, drive flares lit within, a chaos flotilla rising up from the planet's surface. Void shields and holo-fields flared to life, weapon bays primed

As the combined fleet moved to strike, a voice echoed across all channels. "Lord High Marshal," intoned Hexaros, "I've been expecting you."

As one, the pirates in the Imperial fleet turned upon their masters, screaming death to xenos and accusing the High Marshall of treason as their boarding crews launched. Engines hastily attached to several smaller asteroids flared to life, on a collision course with the Imperial fleet, and the still-outnumbered chaos flotilla gunned its engines.

The Imperials had not merely been expected, they had been betrayed. Not by the aliens, but by one within their own ranks. And now they were in the jaws of a trap.

Still, High Marshall Isabella was a peerless naval officer. The Indefagitable barked orders in every direction, scattering her escorts and counter-attacking in the same motion.

Within minutes, the ambush had fallen apart. The frigate Rhadamanthine had been stricken, engines disabled by an asteroid strike and bridge crushed by a lucky strike, and the carrier Redoubtable was bleeding atmosphere, but the Imperials had held and, more than that, crossed the T of the chaos formation.

In the ensuing bloodbath, the Indefagitable had torn the pirates to pieces, the Mythwright had stripped shields from the Pinnacle of Spite, while Isabella's destroyers had sunk three torpedoes into Hexaros' battle barge and even Brunern Security's glorified merchantmen had landed commandos on the surface, engaging in heated gunfights with surviving Straight Path cultists.

The flotillas broke from each other, the Imperial-aeldari fleet regrouping, the Chaos fleet praying for any last advantage as they drifted towards each other once more.

Guns cycled, engines cooled, trajectories calculated as the inexorable grip of physics propelled warships onwards. An inescapable tension as the next moments would seal the fate of thousands, would see the chaos warfleet and the troops aboard its asteroid bases torn to pieces by the combined fleet.

But his prayers were answered, for Lord Hexaros witnessed a miracle.

Hessarai of the Horns, the loudest of Slaanesh' keeper of secrets, ripped her way out of the throats of a dozen cultist psykers aboard Hexaros' flagship. Sacred cacophony blaring from her chest, hands raised in holy symbols, she bound herself into the flagship. Lance batteries awrped into amps, macro-cannons into synthesizers, and the six sacred strings of Slaanesh ran across her hull.

There can be no sound in space. Its addition is a trick of the mind, an aid by ancient, straining circuitry to render war in the void legible to human commanders. But such trivialities of physical reality are no object to those with true power. Lord Hexaros raised an arm and commanded his flagship into the fray, and the void sang.

Sound buffeted the Imperial fleet, giving the chaos flotilla the opening it needed to attack. The Whip was shaken to pieces by the daemonic music, the 10th escort squadron so battered that it pivoted away from the line, retreating to relative safety.

Alas, this was the last mistake it would make. Drukhari mimic engines flickered off, revealing the Skinless Skull Armada disguised as stricken pirate vessels. The Drukhari ripped the damaged escort squadron to pieces, and would have fallen upon the flank of the Imperial fleet had the Mythwright and its escort not leapt upon them. Holo-fields and shadowfields flickered, Bright and Dark lances tearing through the void as the hated enemies danced among the stars.

But the battle had been lost, and Isabella would not throw away the lives of her sailors in a failed fight. The Imperial fleet disengaged, towing their ships to the relative safety of aeldari minefields, as Lords Hexaros and Wyrmwood assessed their wounds and surveyed their salvage.

Spoiler: Results

Aeldari-Imperial taskforce attacks the Chaos asteroid base, Imperial fleet elements stumble into a trap! Drukhari raiders come to Chaos' aid.

A triple-tasked asset is unable to join the fight!

Allied fortifications are denied to the Imperial side by sabotage!

Hidden Aeldari fortifications assist the Imperial side.

Hidden Chaos fortifications assist Chaos.

Slaanesh is pleased! Slaanesh assists Chaos.

7 assets on each side. Both are 3 Mass.

17 successes v 11 successes. Slaanesh assesses that this is chaos' darkest hour, and provides a pooled 7 successes. 17 successes v 18 successes. Chaos minor victory. Sabotage bumps to normal victory. Imperial-aeldari take 2, chaos takes 1.

Total: 5 damage to Imperium and Aeldari, 4 to Chaos and Drukhari.

Damage Allocation:

3 Imperial repairs (No successes) and 4 chaos repairs (1 with successes) resolve:

Skippy - Space Marines - Battlecruiser Indefagitable and Complement - Damaged - Repaired but Exhausted.

Skippy - Navy - 10th Escort Squadron - Destroyed

Skippy - Navy - 13th Torpedo Squadron - Damaged. Repaired but Exhausted.

Who? - Navy - Brunern Security - Damaged - Repaired but Exhausted.

Average - Cult - The Straight Path - Destroyed

Gig - Space Marines - The Gods-Touched - Damaged - Repaired

Chaos Asteroid Base - Destroyed

Maugan - Navy - Slaughter-Class - Damaged - Repaired but Exhausted.

Maugan - Military - Levied Troops [Damaged last turn] - Repaired but Exhausted

Gig - Space Marines - 3rd Host [Damaged last turn] - Repaired but Exhausted

The defeat of the imperial flotilla left the mines defenseless against hostile action, with immediate negative consequences for the Brunern Concern. Pirate grew bold, ignoring their deals struck with the loyalist government to pillage shipping across the space lanes.

Brutalized by the battle against Lord Hexaros, the Brunern Concern could do little but watch as shipment after shipment of vital war materiel disappeared into the ether and profit lines trended inexorably downwards.

The pirates, however, would swiftly find each other their largest problem.

Gunfights between pulse-carbine wielding raiders and multi-armed archaeologists would see auction houses full of xenos relics detonated or ransacked. The resulting violence resulted in a wave of archaeologists, bounty hunters, and fanatical anti-xenos mobs swarming the mines in search of aeldari ruins. Several ships full of pilgrims were taken by Drukhari raiders, and several profitable asteroid mines filled with horrific, screaming explosives by the same.

Pirates slid into port, swishing handfuls of Hexos Sevenpence and getting into brawls with mutant miners. Rumors swirled of worse fights, miners ripping each other to pieces in the shadows and unleashing strange, drugged up horrors into sleeping quarters and maintenance tunnels.

At one point, a four-way brawl between rival factions erupted into the Cardinal Pius' cathedral. Several priests were saved from the crossfire by apologetic mutants, and the Cardinal's holy mitre was stolen by Captain Jea'ni herself before the pirates escaped the onrushing arbites.

Then, as the year came to a close, a psychic shockwave tore through the asteroid mines. Sanctioned psykers writhed in pain, as dozens of astropaths relayed a single, crystal clear message:

Father Xavier must die, and the creature claiming the mines would do anything to make that happen.

Spoiler: Results

Simultaneous attacks on mysterious locations in the mines, the mines, the cathedral and cardinal, and the asteroid habitats in general all run into each other.

It is not entirely clear what occurred, but the Asteroid Mine's shipments to the rest of the system are some combination of destroyed, stolen, and misappropriated, as well as a suspicious amount of Hexos Sevenpence and the Cardinal's hat.

An outright feeding frenzy of speculators, bounty hunters, and archaeologists swarm the asteroid mines in search of xenos artifacts

The Hexos Sevenpence begins to destabilize due to rampant pirate counterfeiting.

The Asteroid Mines lose Imperial Fortification.

A Broodlord appears in the Asteroid Mines and declares war upon all extant genestealer players.

Several assets exhausted by the confusion.