Turn One
Blackout
Fed By Comments
- Location
- Who knows?
First Battle of Cygnax
Thought for the Day: "Big guns never tire."
It was in the barren asteroid fields that surrounded the dead planet mankind had named Cygnax that the first great battle of the Badab War would be fought.
The battered Fire Hawks Chapter Fleet had retreated behind the cover of the Rapturous Rex, their mobile fortress monastery, and its heavy guns in the face of the numerical superiority of the Secessionists, growing with every passing moment as reinforcements translated from the Warp.
Outnumbered more than twice over, the Hawks fought furiously but soon enough the Warders had cleared a path through their Escorts and a quartet of Battle-Barges broke through the Imperialist lines at full burn. The Rapturous Rex responded with a thunderous barrage from its massive weapon batteries but though it tore chunks of armour off the approaching ships, not even a vessel such as it could stop four battleship-weight belligerents from closing into boarding range. Bombardment cannons hurled their melta-bomb payloads against the Rex's shields, dropping them just as the Secessionist vessels unleashed a veritable swarm of boarding torpedoes, assault rams, and Thunderhawks. The Battle-Barges continued to harass the fortress, the Lamenters' Daughter of Tempests in particular making a nigh-suicidally close pass to shield the inbound assault force with it's own bulk.
At first the Secessionists cut a blinding pace across the vessel, slaughtering the Serfs and Servitors with impunity and overwhelming isolated Loyalist Marines before they could regroup into an effective defensive line. But the Fire Hawks would not be so easily evicted out of their own Fortress-Monastery. The Hall of Glories was a kilometers-long chamber stretching the length of the massive vessel, containing a memorial to each and every campaign the Chapter had ever taken part in, and it was here that they had chosen to hold the line, and throw the Secessionists back into the void. For the enormous hall served another purpose: a central hub connecting the various sections of the ship. So long as it was held, the various boarding parties could not unite into a single cohesive spearhead, nor claim control over the vessel.
As Terminator squads and boarding teams breached the adamantium doors leading to the Hall of Glories, they came under vicious attack by the Fire Hawks: armoured squadrons drawn from the Rex's vehicle pool blasted apart Secessionists, ill-equipped for open warfare, while Assault Marines used their jump-packs to turn the ornate ceiling architecture into another battlement to rain fire upon the invaders from, and Scout squads hid amongst the varied memorials, harassing Secessionists who sought to take cover from the withering hail of heavy weapons fire.
But no matter how fiercely they fought, they faced none other than the Tyrant of Badab himself. Lugft Huron and his Terminator elite assailed the Fire Hawks armor with single-minded determination, shielding the advancing Secessionists behind their bulk as they maneuvered the enemy tanks into a corner, and soon enough, melee range. They did not last long after.
The ceiling was rent apart by a maelstrom of bolter fire, dropping chunks of the ship itself amongst the defenders and forcing the Assault Squads to rejoin the bulk of their brothers. The displays and exhibits were melted to slag under flamer and melta, while heavy weapons seized from the ship's armouries assailed the Fire Hawks Devastator Squads.
It was then that Knight-Commander Stibor Lazaraek, Lord and Master of the Hawks, entered the battle himself, wielding the relic-chainsword Talons of the Phoenix and surrounded by his Honour Guard, the Chapter Standard hanging proudly in the air as they cut their way towards Huron. The two met as their guards clashed around them, Lazaraek hurling insults and promises of long-awaited vengeance, while the Master of the Astral Claws merely fought with a grin on his face, further infuriating his counterpart.
The Grand Master was a prodigious warrior, but he was old, and wounds from battles long past covered his body, slowing him down as the Ghost Razors tore chunks off of his master-crafted warplate while the teeth of his own weapon seemed to skid off of Huron's Indomitus-Pattern suit. But he was far from done, as he raked the ancient weapon across the Secessionist leader's face. If he could prevail here, then the war itself might be won.
He threw himself upon his foes with renewed vigour, kicking the power axe of his fallen Chapter Champion to his off-hand and hacking at Huron with the fury of a man with no regard to his life. The axe cleaved clean through the Astral Claw's heavy flamer, spilling promethium across the deck as he continued his assault.
And yet, despite drawing upon every reserve of power, every scrap of skill his centuries of warfare had granted him, Lazaraek could not prevail against the Tyrant, for his very body betrayed him. His axe lodged deep within Huron's pauldron, he parried the counterblow at slightly less than optimal angle, and a moment's tremor in his swordarm saw the Ghost Razors carve through his chestplate and tear out both of his hearts in one go.
With an anguished cry, Knight-Captain Elam Courbray threw himself at Huron, only to fare little better as Sword Excellus was broken nearly in half the first time it met the Tyrant's claw. However, just as he was about to to relieve the young Captain of his head, the crackle of teleportation filled the hall and the Ghost Razors were intercepted by a Storm Shield interposing itself between the two marines.
All around the beleaguered Fire Hawks, white-clad Terminators appeared out of the Aether to aid them against the Secessionist invaders. And not merely them: an entire fleet of Loyalist ships lead by the Magister Militum himself, Ward-Master Maclair, entered the system, drawn from the Angels of Vengeance, Fire Angels, his own Storm Wardens, and supported by the remnants of the Battlefleet Karthago.
Even as the battle onboard the Rapturous Rex raged, Maclair and Chapter Master Malakim Phoros of the Lamenters led their fleets against one another, the two experienced commanders jousting across the void with feinted retreats and flanking attacks that soon found themselves outmaneuvered in turn. The two came within meters of each other during a diversionary boarding assault on the Tsar, but ultimately missed each other, though the Lord of Ruin would go on to decapitate the 8th Captain of the Storm Wardens with the Glaive Encarmine while the Sanguinary Guard tore through his Command Squad.
Meanwhile, Courbray had managed to recover his Master's body while Huron was occupied with Captain Zurvael, before ordering the retreat. Even with the new arrivals the Rex's defenders were outnumbered three to one, and the Angels had merely given them the opening to extract themselves from their last stand. But he knew that to preserve the Fire Hawks' future, they would need to gather as much of their Chapter's relics, gene-seed, equipment and valuable personnel, which would take time they did not have.
So with a heavy heart, he gave three orders. One to the plasma generatoriums at the very heart of the ship, another to the warp drive assembly, and the final to the plasma bomb racks. Each crew section was to overload the systems they were responsible for, and defend them to the last to prevent the Secessionists from shutting them down.
In the Hall of Glories Huron and Zurvael's duel had continued much more evenly than the one before it, the Ghost Razors finding little purchase against the Angel's Storm Shield, but soon enough the Tyrant began to receive reports of the Fire Hawks' activities, and he knew instantly what it meant. Even with the Mantis Religosa, the invaders would struggle to clear out all three facilities in time, each of which would be sufficient to annihilate the Rex and everyone onboard.
They needed absolute coordination, and there was only one person available who could accomplish that. And he could not do so while engaged in mortal combat.
Thus, the duel ended rather anti-climactically as Huron chose to retreat rather than gamble his overall victory. The Tyrant falling back, their own allies gone and finding themselves heavily outnumbered, the Angels returned to their ships with a bitter taste in their mouths.
As the Secessionists raced to preserve the Rapturous Rex, the Fire Hawks gathered as much as they could before retreating to their remaining fleet and retreating into the Warp. The assault force itself would prove successful, though not without casualties, and the warp coils of the great vessel had been damaged by the overload. Still, although pockets of resistance still clung to life, they held the generatorium and the gun decks, allowing the Secessionists to turn the fortress' guns against the Loyalist fleet.
Though the fleets were roughly equal, they Loyalist Astartes were outnumbered by the Warders almost two to one, a factor that would soon begin to tell in the boarding-focused combat favored by Astartes ships. Worse, the crews of Battlefleet Karthago were on the very edge of breaking after an Astral Claw task force boarded and captured the Lunar-class Cruiser Daughter of Kyrios with seemingly contemptuous ease. With the Rex lost and Fire Hawks falling back, Maclair had little choice but to conduct an orderly retreat from the system.
Casualties:
Fire Hawks: Rapturous Rex, one Battle Barge, two Strike Cruisers, twelve escorts, and three hundred and fifty Marines. Elam Courbray ascends to Chapter Master.
Angels of Vengeance: Ten Terminators, suits recovered. One Strike Cruiser moderately damaged. Grumbling against the Fire Hawks for 'hanging them out to dry' increasing amongst the ranks.
Storm Wardens: Sixty Marines and one Escort, fleet takes minor damage.
Fire Angels: Twenty Marines, fleet takes moderate damage.
Battlefleet Karthago: One cruiser and two lights. Morale barely holding, summary executions threatening combat capability.
Astral Claws: Two hundred Marines, one Strike Cruiser and two Escorts lost. Fleet takes minor damage. Fifty Fire Hawks captured, mostly wounded. Rapturous Rex critical systems taken, resistance continues. One Lunar-class captured.
Lamenters: Fifty Marines, fleet takes moderate damage, one Battle Barge takes heavy damage, one enemy Battle Barge captured.
Mantis Warriors: Ten Mantis Religosa.
Sons of Antaeus: Fifty marines.
Errant Rescue
Thought for the day: "Hatred is the Emperor's greatest gift to humanity."
The Marines Errant were heavily engaged with the Secessionists' raiding of the Imperial Convoys traversing the long and sparsely used warp lanes of the Maelstrom Zone, and it was here that the remaining forces of the Chapter fought on despite the inevitability of their defeat by pure numbers alone. And it was here that their faith would be rewarded.
The Carcharodons, the Blood Ravens, and the Raptors separated into a series of flotillas, shadowing the convoys as they made their way through the Zone, ready to strike when the Secessionists presented themselves. But the Secessionist had plans of their own, and it was the Mantis Warriors who were assigned the grim duty of hunting down the Marines Errant. Whole books could be written to detail the numerous engagements between the two forces, as the outnumbered Warders used their superior knowledge of the local astrography and skill to inflict as much damage as possible. The Librarians of the Blood Ravens faced off against the Mantis Warriors, engaging in duels of dazzling complexity as each action was predicted and the prediction immediately predicted and countered. Mirages, decoys, and spy ships were used to ambush and counter-ambush the Loyalists, while efforts by the Loyalists to place trackers upon their ships were dashed and the Warders retreated into the nebulae of the Endymion Cluster whenever faced with a superior force.
But the Loyalists did not sit idly by, for their part. The Carcharodons in particular engaged in boarding actions of utmost savagery, the Nicor's Plasma Destructor hammering the Secessionist void shields down for its prodigious teleporter arrays to take advantage of. Tyberos himself personally led the Red Brethren on a rampage through the cruiser Sylonias and butchered the Captain of the Mantis Warriors 4th Company.
Casualties:
Carcharodons: Fifty Marines, one Strike Cruiser crippled, fleet suffers moderate damage.
Blood Ravens: Forty Marines, one Strike Cruiser and three Escorts lost, fleet suffers minor damage.
Raptors: Twenty Marines, fleet suffers minor damege.
Marines Errant: Fifty Marines, one Strike Cruiser crippled, and seven Escorts lost.
Mantis Warriors: Hundred Marines, one Vanguard Cruiser and three Escorts lost, one Strike Cruiser and six Escorts captured.
First Battle of Vyamiah
Thought for the Day: "No man died in His service that died in vain."
The planet of Vyamiah II was an important gatehouse along the warp-lanes that cut through the Maelstrom Zone, not to mention a developing Hive World. The Loyalist assault came without warning, casting aside the orbital defenses with ease and falling upon the defenders at lightning speed. The world was heavily defended by the mortals of the Tyrant's Legion, and not the conscripts that filled the ranks of the vast force; these were drawn from former Imperial Guard Regiments that had been assimilated by Huron's armies.
Across the plane's equatorial continent and polar ice fields, Minotaur armoured spearheads dueled with the Legion, and paid for their advance in blood, exacted by disciplined squadrons of Leman Russes and Basilisks. But the Salamanders, working alongside the rebellion, rapidly enveloped the Legion positions and cut them off, while heavy bombardment from the Daedalus Krata saw the Minotaurs triumph soon enough.
However, the proto-Hive called Caelian by the locals was a prize too valuable to simply incinerate from orbit, and it was here that the Legion made it's stand. The Minotaurs struck at nearly Chapter-strength against the understrength Company of Astral Claws under Centurion Solomek, but the brutal street-fighting soon saw the Imperials engaged with thousands upon thousands of mortal soldiers the Claws utilized with no small skill, only taking the field when the odds were in their favor. Still, falling back upon their preferred tactics of amassing forces into one large spearhead, the Minotaurs pushed inwards in columns spearheaded by Terminators that forced the Legion to face them head-on lest they breach their lines. Heedless of mortal casualties the Minotaurs utilized chemical weapons to clear out the Legion soldiery and lay onto the badly outnumbered Astral Claws, whose power armour were the only things immune to the toxic clouds the Secessionists had in their arsenal.
Meanwhile, the Salamanders finished off the pockets of resistance that remained, often offering them surrender and if refused, falling under Mir'san and his Firedrake spearhead's blades. Their flamers and meltas made them ideal fighters in the tight confines of the Caelian, and they were responsible for taking the majority of the Hive whilst the Minotaurs chased the Astral Claws in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Fighting remains ongoing in the Hive, though the Imperialist numbers have begun to tell.
Casualties:
Minotaurs: Eighty Marines, vehicle pool takes moderate damage. Thousands of mortals captured, Astral Claw equipment looted in small numbers.
Salamanders: Thirty Marines.
Tyrant's Legion: Forty Marines, heavy losses amongst Mortals, morale fraying.
First Battle of Surngraad
Thought for the day: "Losses are acceptable. Failure is not."
In contrast to the heavy fighting in the rest of the Maelstrom Zone, the Siege of Surngraad was broken with but a whimper. The Space Wolves and Black Dragons burst out of the Warp to find a small detachment of Tyrant's Legion blockading the system, which immediately began a retreat in the face of the superior Imperial force.
Still, the Astartes gave chase and as the Ashen Wings entered the system, they found several armed merchantmen captured and the Tyrant's Legion surrendered in record time.
Casualties:
Space Wolves: One Blood Claw tripped and hit his head.
Black Dragons: Battle-Barge has slightly scratched it's paint.
Ashen Wings: Enthusiasm.
Tyrant's Legion: Dignity.
Other News:
-Angstrom's tri-year supply tithe has been gathered. Once in transit the flotilla came under attack by Ork raiders, but the size of the fleet saw them be dispatched with negligible losses.
--Mantis Warrior Librarians have reported being plagued by visions of unknown providence, featuring a great baleful sun gazing down upon them. The Tarot is as vague as ever, but inverted Galaxy followed by inverted Assassin seems to feature prominently.
Thought for the Day: "Big guns never tire."
It was in the barren asteroid fields that surrounded the dead planet mankind had named Cygnax that the first great battle of the Badab War would be fought.
The battered Fire Hawks Chapter Fleet had retreated behind the cover of the Rapturous Rex, their mobile fortress monastery, and its heavy guns in the face of the numerical superiority of the Secessionists, growing with every passing moment as reinforcements translated from the Warp.
Outnumbered more than twice over, the Hawks fought furiously but soon enough the Warders had cleared a path through their Escorts and a quartet of Battle-Barges broke through the Imperialist lines at full burn. The Rapturous Rex responded with a thunderous barrage from its massive weapon batteries but though it tore chunks of armour off the approaching ships, not even a vessel such as it could stop four battleship-weight belligerents from closing into boarding range. Bombardment cannons hurled their melta-bomb payloads against the Rex's shields, dropping them just as the Secessionist vessels unleashed a veritable swarm of boarding torpedoes, assault rams, and Thunderhawks. The Battle-Barges continued to harass the fortress, the Lamenters' Daughter of Tempests in particular making a nigh-suicidally close pass to shield the inbound assault force with it's own bulk.
At first the Secessionists cut a blinding pace across the vessel, slaughtering the Serfs and Servitors with impunity and overwhelming isolated Loyalist Marines before they could regroup into an effective defensive line. But the Fire Hawks would not be so easily evicted out of their own Fortress-Monastery. The Hall of Glories was a kilometers-long chamber stretching the length of the massive vessel, containing a memorial to each and every campaign the Chapter had ever taken part in, and it was here that they had chosen to hold the line, and throw the Secessionists back into the void. For the enormous hall served another purpose: a central hub connecting the various sections of the ship. So long as it was held, the various boarding parties could not unite into a single cohesive spearhead, nor claim control over the vessel.
As Terminator squads and boarding teams breached the adamantium doors leading to the Hall of Glories, they came under vicious attack by the Fire Hawks: armoured squadrons drawn from the Rex's vehicle pool blasted apart Secessionists, ill-equipped for open warfare, while Assault Marines used their jump-packs to turn the ornate ceiling architecture into another battlement to rain fire upon the invaders from, and Scout squads hid amongst the varied memorials, harassing Secessionists who sought to take cover from the withering hail of heavy weapons fire.
But no matter how fiercely they fought, they faced none other than the Tyrant of Badab himself. Lugft Huron and his Terminator elite assailed the Fire Hawks armor with single-minded determination, shielding the advancing Secessionists behind their bulk as they maneuvered the enemy tanks into a corner, and soon enough, melee range. They did not last long after.
The ceiling was rent apart by a maelstrom of bolter fire, dropping chunks of the ship itself amongst the defenders and forcing the Assault Squads to rejoin the bulk of their brothers. The displays and exhibits were melted to slag under flamer and melta, while heavy weapons seized from the ship's armouries assailed the Fire Hawks Devastator Squads.
It was then that Knight-Commander Stibor Lazaraek, Lord and Master of the Hawks, entered the battle himself, wielding the relic-chainsword Talons of the Phoenix and surrounded by his Honour Guard, the Chapter Standard hanging proudly in the air as they cut their way towards Huron. The two met as their guards clashed around them, Lazaraek hurling insults and promises of long-awaited vengeance, while the Master of the Astral Claws merely fought with a grin on his face, further infuriating his counterpart.
The Grand Master was a prodigious warrior, but he was old, and wounds from battles long past covered his body, slowing him down as the Ghost Razors tore chunks off of his master-crafted warplate while the teeth of his own weapon seemed to skid off of Huron's Indomitus-Pattern suit. But he was far from done, as he raked the ancient weapon across the Secessionist leader's face. If he could prevail here, then the war itself might be won.
He threw himself upon his foes with renewed vigour, kicking the power axe of his fallen Chapter Champion to his off-hand and hacking at Huron with the fury of a man with no regard to his life. The axe cleaved clean through the Astral Claw's heavy flamer, spilling promethium across the deck as he continued his assault.
And yet, despite drawing upon every reserve of power, every scrap of skill his centuries of warfare had granted him, Lazaraek could not prevail against the Tyrant, for his very body betrayed him. His axe lodged deep within Huron's pauldron, he parried the counterblow at slightly less than optimal angle, and a moment's tremor in his swordarm saw the Ghost Razors carve through his chestplate and tear out both of his hearts in one go.
With an anguished cry, Knight-Captain Elam Courbray threw himself at Huron, only to fare little better as Sword Excellus was broken nearly in half the first time it met the Tyrant's claw. However, just as he was about to to relieve the young Captain of his head, the crackle of teleportation filled the hall and the Ghost Razors were intercepted by a Storm Shield interposing itself between the two marines.
All around the beleaguered Fire Hawks, white-clad Terminators appeared out of the Aether to aid them against the Secessionist invaders. And not merely them: an entire fleet of Loyalist ships lead by the Magister Militum himself, Ward-Master Maclair, entered the system, drawn from the Angels of Vengeance, Fire Angels, his own Storm Wardens, and supported by the remnants of the Battlefleet Karthago.
Even as the battle onboard the Rapturous Rex raged, Maclair and Chapter Master Malakim Phoros of the Lamenters led their fleets against one another, the two experienced commanders jousting across the void with feinted retreats and flanking attacks that soon found themselves outmaneuvered in turn. The two came within meters of each other during a diversionary boarding assault on the Tsar, but ultimately missed each other, though the Lord of Ruin would go on to decapitate the 8th Captain of the Storm Wardens with the Glaive Encarmine while the Sanguinary Guard tore through his Command Squad.
Meanwhile, Courbray had managed to recover his Master's body while Huron was occupied with Captain Zurvael, before ordering the retreat. Even with the new arrivals the Rex's defenders were outnumbered three to one, and the Angels had merely given them the opening to extract themselves from their last stand. But he knew that to preserve the Fire Hawks' future, they would need to gather as much of their Chapter's relics, gene-seed, equipment and valuable personnel, which would take time they did not have.
So with a heavy heart, he gave three orders. One to the plasma generatoriums at the very heart of the ship, another to the warp drive assembly, and the final to the plasma bomb racks. Each crew section was to overload the systems they were responsible for, and defend them to the last to prevent the Secessionists from shutting them down.
In the Hall of Glories Huron and Zurvael's duel had continued much more evenly than the one before it, the Ghost Razors finding little purchase against the Angel's Storm Shield, but soon enough the Tyrant began to receive reports of the Fire Hawks' activities, and he knew instantly what it meant. Even with the Mantis Religosa, the invaders would struggle to clear out all three facilities in time, each of which would be sufficient to annihilate the Rex and everyone onboard.
They needed absolute coordination, and there was only one person available who could accomplish that. And he could not do so while engaged in mortal combat.
Thus, the duel ended rather anti-climactically as Huron chose to retreat rather than gamble his overall victory. The Tyrant falling back, their own allies gone and finding themselves heavily outnumbered, the Angels returned to their ships with a bitter taste in their mouths.
As the Secessionists raced to preserve the Rapturous Rex, the Fire Hawks gathered as much as they could before retreating to their remaining fleet and retreating into the Warp. The assault force itself would prove successful, though not without casualties, and the warp coils of the great vessel had been damaged by the overload. Still, although pockets of resistance still clung to life, they held the generatorium and the gun decks, allowing the Secessionists to turn the fortress' guns against the Loyalist fleet.
Though the fleets were roughly equal, they Loyalist Astartes were outnumbered by the Warders almost two to one, a factor that would soon begin to tell in the boarding-focused combat favored by Astartes ships. Worse, the crews of Battlefleet Karthago were on the very edge of breaking after an Astral Claw task force boarded and captured the Lunar-class Cruiser Daughter of Kyrios with seemingly contemptuous ease. With the Rex lost and Fire Hawks falling back, Maclair had little choice but to conduct an orderly retreat from the system.
Casualties:
Fire Hawks: Rapturous Rex, one Battle Barge, two Strike Cruisers, twelve escorts, and three hundred and fifty Marines. Elam Courbray ascends to Chapter Master.
Angels of Vengeance: Ten Terminators, suits recovered. One Strike Cruiser moderately damaged. Grumbling against the Fire Hawks for 'hanging them out to dry' increasing amongst the ranks.
Storm Wardens: Sixty Marines and one Escort, fleet takes minor damage.
Fire Angels: Twenty Marines, fleet takes moderate damage.
Battlefleet Karthago: One cruiser and two lights. Morale barely holding, summary executions threatening combat capability.
Astral Claws: Two hundred Marines, one Strike Cruiser and two Escorts lost. Fleet takes minor damage. Fifty Fire Hawks captured, mostly wounded. Rapturous Rex critical systems taken, resistance continues. One Lunar-class captured.
Lamenters: Fifty Marines, fleet takes moderate damage, one Battle Barge takes heavy damage, one enemy Battle Barge captured.
Mantis Warriors: Ten Mantis Religosa.
Sons of Antaeus: Fifty marines.
Errant Rescue
Thought for the day: "Hatred is the Emperor's greatest gift to humanity."
The Marines Errant were heavily engaged with the Secessionists' raiding of the Imperial Convoys traversing the long and sparsely used warp lanes of the Maelstrom Zone, and it was here that the remaining forces of the Chapter fought on despite the inevitability of their defeat by pure numbers alone. And it was here that their faith would be rewarded.
The Carcharodons, the Blood Ravens, and the Raptors separated into a series of flotillas, shadowing the convoys as they made their way through the Zone, ready to strike when the Secessionists presented themselves. But the Secessionist had plans of their own, and it was the Mantis Warriors who were assigned the grim duty of hunting down the Marines Errant. Whole books could be written to detail the numerous engagements between the two forces, as the outnumbered Warders used their superior knowledge of the local astrography and skill to inflict as much damage as possible. The Librarians of the Blood Ravens faced off against the Mantis Warriors, engaging in duels of dazzling complexity as each action was predicted and the prediction immediately predicted and countered. Mirages, decoys, and spy ships were used to ambush and counter-ambush the Loyalists, while efforts by the Loyalists to place trackers upon their ships were dashed and the Warders retreated into the nebulae of the Endymion Cluster whenever faced with a superior force.
But the Loyalists did not sit idly by, for their part. The Carcharodons in particular engaged in boarding actions of utmost savagery, the Nicor's Plasma Destructor hammering the Secessionist void shields down for its prodigious teleporter arrays to take advantage of. Tyberos himself personally led the Red Brethren on a rampage through the cruiser Sylonias and butchered the Captain of the Mantis Warriors 4th Company.
Casualties:
Carcharodons: Fifty Marines, one Strike Cruiser crippled, fleet suffers moderate damage.
Blood Ravens: Forty Marines, one Strike Cruiser and three Escorts lost, fleet suffers minor damage.
Raptors: Twenty Marines, fleet suffers minor damege.
Marines Errant: Fifty Marines, one Strike Cruiser crippled, and seven Escorts lost.
Mantis Warriors: Hundred Marines, one Vanguard Cruiser and three Escorts lost, one Strike Cruiser and six Escorts captured.
First Battle of Vyamiah
Thought for the Day: "No man died in His service that died in vain."
The planet of Vyamiah II was an important gatehouse along the warp-lanes that cut through the Maelstrom Zone, not to mention a developing Hive World. The Loyalist assault came without warning, casting aside the orbital defenses with ease and falling upon the defenders at lightning speed. The world was heavily defended by the mortals of the Tyrant's Legion, and not the conscripts that filled the ranks of the vast force; these were drawn from former Imperial Guard Regiments that had been assimilated by Huron's armies.
Across the plane's equatorial continent and polar ice fields, Minotaur armoured spearheads dueled with the Legion, and paid for their advance in blood, exacted by disciplined squadrons of Leman Russes and Basilisks. But the Salamanders, working alongside the rebellion, rapidly enveloped the Legion positions and cut them off, while heavy bombardment from the Daedalus Krata saw the Minotaurs triumph soon enough.
However, the proto-Hive called Caelian by the locals was a prize too valuable to simply incinerate from orbit, and it was here that the Legion made it's stand. The Minotaurs struck at nearly Chapter-strength against the understrength Company of Astral Claws under Centurion Solomek, but the brutal street-fighting soon saw the Imperials engaged with thousands upon thousands of mortal soldiers the Claws utilized with no small skill, only taking the field when the odds were in their favor. Still, falling back upon their preferred tactics of amassing forces into one large spearhead, the Minotaurs pushed inwards in columns spearheaded by Terminators that forced the Legion to face them head-on lest they breach their lines. Heedless of mortal casualties the Minotaurs utilized chemical weapons to clear out the Legion soldiery and lay onto the badly outnumbered Astral Claws, whose power armour were the only things immune to the toxic clouds the Secessionists had in their arsenal.
Meanwhile, the Salamanders finished off the pockets of resistance that remained, often offering them surrender and if refused, falling under Mir'san and his Firedrake spearhead's blades. Their flamers and meltas made them ideal fighters in the tight confines of the Caelian, and they were responsible for taking the majority of the Hive whilst the Minotaurs chased the Astral Claws in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Fighting remains ongoing in the Hive, though the Imperialist numbers have begun to tell.
Casualties:
Minotaurs: Eighty Marines, vehicle pool takes moderate damage. Thousands of mortals captured, Astral Claw equipment looted in small numbers.
Salamanders: Thirty Marines.
Tyrant's Legion: Forty Marines, heavy losses amongst Mortals, morale fraying.
First Battle of Surngraad
Thought for the day: "Losses are acceptable. Failure is not."
In contrast to the heavy fighting in the rest of the Maelstrom Zone, the Siege of Surngraad was broken with but a whimper. The Space Wolves and Black Dragons burst out of the Warp to find a small detachment of Tyrant's Legion blockading the system, which immediately began a retreat in the face of the superior Imperial force.
Still, the Astartes gave chase and as the Ashen Wings entered the system, they found several armed merchantmen captured and the Tyrant's Legion surrendered in record time.
Casualties:
Space Wolves: One Blood Claw tripped and hit his head.
Black Dragons: Battle-Barge has slightly scratched it's paint.
Ashen Wings: Enthusiasm.
Tyrant's Legion: Dignity.
Other News:
-Angstrom's tri-year supply tithe has been gathered. Once in transit the flotilla came under attack by Ork raiders, but the size of the fleet saw them be dispatched with negligible losses.
--Mantis Warrior Librarians have reported being plagued by visions of unknown providence, featuring a great baleful sun gazing down upon them. The Tarot is as vague as ever, but inverted Galaxy followed by inverted Assassin seems to feature prominently.
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