The End of the War

The Arrival of the Inquistion was a fatal moment for the forces on Orion Zeta-69

It was rumoured, by troops who were evacuated from the surface, that the planet was destroyed.

Rumoured image of Orion-Zeta 69 ten years after the Orion Wars, taken by Rogue Trader Trellis Reen, ignoring an Ordo Exclusionatis, on the search for rumoured Xenos artifacts. 

The Third and Last Battle of Charon Hive

Imperial Troops push back into Charon Hive.  The previous Xenos forces had been driven out, and a large percentage of the remaining populations safely evacuated, and taken into the care of the Inquistion who removed those who had been tainted by Xenos contamination.  

Unknown Lord Commissar in ferocious hand to hand fighting with a Xenos Champion.  Reports tell how the Xenos warrior came back to life after being chopped down to the ground.

The once-mighty Charon Hive was reduced to rubble as Xenos aircraft poured in in overwhelming force.  For the first time in the campaign, the Imperial Navy were unable to clear the skies.  Inquisitor Wodin Grime ordered a withdrawal from the planet's surface. 

The Second Battle of Charon Hive

Note from Imperial Archives: While this battle was know as the Second Battle of Charon Hive, it was in fact the third battle that was found by Imperial Forces.  Sources that have been marked at Crimson Level of Secrecy record a number of battles fought between Xenos Forces. 

Lightning Strikes north keep the Xenos foe on the back foot

Commissars keep the troops moving forward into the haunted ruins of Charon Hive

At first no oppostion was encountered.  Soon though, the Imperial Forces were fighting enemies on all sides.

Huge Xenos creatures dropped down amongst the Advance Forces.  These were assumed to be Dark Eldar creations at first, but many men claimed that these creatures were also seen attacking the foe.

Mecharian Cross

Imperial Forces died to the last.  Showing great courage in the face of overwhelming enemies. A number of medals were won in the battle: imcluding the Triple Skull for a number of units who took devastating losses, and three Stars of Terra, awarded postumously.

The second battle for Charon Hive

An armoured column moves deeper into the hive on mine clearance duty but fall foul of a tyranid ambush.

 Dorsal mounted pict feed from vendetta gunship 'Red 5' perfectly capturing the image of a winged hive tyrant and in the background a subspecies of tervigon. Analysis of these images would become vital in the defense of Orion-89 Zeta.

 Trygons and carnifexes rampaging through one of the many town squares of Charon Hive.

Embattled heroic squads of guardsmen, although hopelessly outmatched stand firm in the face of certain death at the scythes and claws of the gargantuan tyranid creatures.

Forces of the dark eldar surrounded by lesser tyranid creatures - believed to be the genus 'termagant'.

Images taken of the hive city 48 hours after the battle showing the transformations already taking place. The flora and fauna undergoing massive accelerated growth. Cleanse and burn protocols are in effect for any subsequent mission to retake Charon Hive.

Three weeks into the Dark Eldar occupation of Charon Hive and Qlashrin Gret was just starting to truly enjoy himself. He stood on an outcropping of ruins that had formed the roof of one of the inner Imperial cathedrals that thousands of the hivers had flocked to before the Dark Eldar came. They were there again now, albeit in an existence they had never expected.

Gazing down at them now, his heart swelled to see the beauty of his new children. Herded by his faithful wracks, he saw a thousand of the experimental test subjects he had worked on the week before. They crawled in the dirt now, oblivious to their beauty. Men and women, old and young, all had received his blessing. Some had been rearranged so that their organs were placed externally, beating hearts and pulsing intestines exposed to the elements. Others who had begged not to be separated from their loved ones by their captors had been granted their wish and grafted together; mouth to sphincter or even by their abdomens being fused together so that they might share their digestive systems. Elsewhere he saw a man who had been crucified and fed growth stimulants  so that now his body was a great bloated mass of flesh and thick veins that hung down to the ground several feet below him and carpeted the floor where some of Gret’s lesser creations sunk teeth into glands and suckled away the bile and juices he produced so that they could later vomit it into Gret’s mixing vials.

The March on Orax Point

[We decided to combine Aeronautica and the 40K battle.  I had 2225 points of IG attacking 1500 points of Dark Eldar for control of Orax Point Star Port.  Caz sacrificed 10% of his points to play an aeronautica game.  We decided on a ground attack mission, with epic tanks representing the tanks in my army.  Each successful hit was a penetrating hit on the vehicle damage table.  Worked OK, as I had such a points advantate to begin with, but ended up loosing all three leman russes before the hydra and the autocanon sabre platforms took the last ground attack craft down and we all bugged out]

Imperial commissars imposed harsh discipline on the TAPs regiments, replacing the hereditary officer class with veteran officers.  Their leadership proved vital in the battles ahead. . 



Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Squadron 4467 shadow the advancing armoured columns as they advance through the night towards Orax Point Starport, where a number of prometheum refineries were still burning.



Attack craft shrug the thunderbolts aside and cause serious havoc on the ground, and some units fell back in confusion.  Only prompt action on behalf of Imperial commissars bolstered the TAPs brigade's courage.

Dawn Breaks at Orax Point: despite loosing a large amount of amour on the march south, the weight of the Imperial Hammer is overwhelming.  Terrified Xenos flee at the sight as Vendetta gunships lead the attack and Lord Commissar Varndt leads from the front. 





TAPs regiments surge forward as the might of the Imperium brushes the Xenos scum aside.

Lord Commissar Varndt led from the front throughout the whole battle, despite taking a poisoned power blade cut to the thigh.  Only after the star port had been securred did he finally relent and allow medics to treat him with anti-toxins.  This pict was taken by a rememberancer at the moment of victory.  it was quickly and widely distributed into loyal Imperial sectors, and caused moral to sore at last.  'That picture was worth 10,000 troops,' Varndt later wrote in his memoires, 'Returning Orion 89-Zeta to Imperial Light, Second Edition'

[thoughts on combining the two games: I'm a big fan of AI and so it was a blast to play a game where I had to defend my ground troops.  I was starting to feel that the scenario was a little skewed against me, as Caz sacrificed 150 points and ended up killing nearly 500 points of leman russes.  But then I took out his last bomber and forced him to bug out.  As I had attacked with two armies, and had 50% extra points it actually evened the follow-up 40K game out a little.  Definately worth trying.  And perhaps rather than a successful wound on a tank being a penetrating hit, perhaps more fair would be following the AI rules - where you need two wounds to kill ground targets.   Though in fairness, I think Caz's Dark Eldar bombers did at least one wound on each tank they hit.  Pulsars and missiles make great ground attack weapons.]

UPDATE



Having reclaimed the starport, and with the southern penninsular highlands fortified with trenches and rapidly reployed bastions, Imperial Commanders now turned their attention to the north, where Xenos scum were tormenting the survivors of Charon Hive. With the subhive zones securely in the hands of the Imperial Forces, Lord Commissar Varndt was confident that he could drive the Xenos forces from Charon Hive.  With Orax Point Starport back in Imperial hands, massive supplies of reserves were shuttled down to the surface and quickly deployed in three massive columns that drove north.  

[Attn: Magos Hoffman]

[Encryption level: Alpha 1++]
[From: Black Ship 709, Ordo Xenos, inbound to Orion 89-Zeta System]

MESSAGE BEGINS:
Image received....
.....urge extreme caution.......
........anticipate my arrival within four solar days.....
....ENDS.

Wodin Grimes
Ordo Xenos

File 97182/b - Xeno dissection report

[Attn: Inquisitor Wodin Grime]

[Encryption level: Alpha 1]

[From: Strategic Intelligence Collective 827/II ]

Following the battle in sector Beta 7 most of the evidence of a battle having occurred was mysteriously absent, however it was possible to recover a few corpses of what can only be described as the lesser xenos creatures. Autopsies and analysis has already begun and all relevant information on the subject creature has been attached to this communique. Your Alpha 1 level clearance will access all information and related links.

File 97182/b [Alpha 1 clearance only] - ACCESS GRANTED

Your humble servant, 

Magos Hoffman

Imperial Reinforcements arrive: commissars conduct mass executions of the institutionally corrupt hereditary leaderships

An advance force of Commisariat officers landed in specially prepared landing zone in the Charon Sub-Hives, and wiped out the failing officer classes of the Charon Guard, and the TAPs brigades.  While some units suffered the indignity of the ancient practice of decimation, where regiments were lined up and every tenth man was executed: in fact the purges had a dramatic effect across the surviving forces.  Commissar General Skyros later said 'To make those armies fight, the men had to fear me and the commissariat more than they feared the enemy.  They were terrified of the enemy.  I put the terror of damnation into them.'  With support from Imperial forces, the hastily reorganised armies struck south into the isthmus to recapture Orax Point Star Port.  It was here that Commissar General Skyros would see if his men feared him more than the foe.

General Blasser's Doom

Aerial picts from Thunderbolt 457 of 1023rd Squardron, Captained by Squadron Leader Toren Blose shows the Eris Hive TAPs as they camped out around Manufacorum VII, in the Charon Subhives.  While the fighters of the Imperial Navy had considerable success in the skies, on the ground poor leadership and sloppy watch pickets led to a disastrous engagement where the Eris TAPs brigade was lucky to survive a ferocious assault from unknown an unknown Xenos species.  General Blasser was wounded in this battle, after bravely engaging the enemy in close combat.  All his command squad were slain about him.

A chance photo shows possible identification of unknown Xenos as they rampaged through the Charon Subhives.  Despite chaos on the ground, these picts were quickly sent up through Imperial Navy command to the attention of the Ordo Xenos.  It appeared that they already had advanced warning, and a member of the Ordo was already on their way to Orion-89 Zeta.  

The Wych Cult of the Frozen Blood Defend Ynorrta Settlement Against the Necrons!

Xwe Kallathrax revelled in the sensation of the wind whipping through her hair as the raider sped at breakneck speeds through the winding ruins of Ynorrta Settlement. Moments before the raider’s pilot signalled that she had enemy targets on her scanner, Xwe had already spotted the shining figures in the distance. Necrons! Ancient enemies of the Eldar and foes truly worthy of the wyches’ close combat skills.

“Ready yourselves for the bloodletting,” she called out to her brothers and sisters on the raider and to those on the other two raiders who heard her over the communications relay.

As one, the horde of wyches drew syringes from leather belts and stabbed them into thighs and forearms. They simultaneously shuddered as the Hypex adrenaline flooded through them. Xwe herself noticed a sudden sharpening of her vision as if every edge of every shape she saw were outlined by a manic artist.

This zone of the small temporary empire the Dark Eldar had carved out was the site of a power generator that the warlord Desiato had been counting on to fuel the warhost’s transports and it could not be allowed to fall. Even now Xwe could see the Necrons syphoning power from the large structure.

The raiders slowed slightly and snapped off a volley of dark lance shots at the spider-like walkers that formed the frontline of the Necrons’ defences. Their aim was true but the lances of darklight were mostly deflected by shimmering shielding that surrounded the walkers. The only successful hit sheared one of its legs away and it steadied itself against a boulder, unable to move but still tracking the Eldar with its guns.

Then came the return fire; a brutal fusillade of lightning which wrapped around the raiders’ hulls, throttling them. Two of the three transports crashed to the ground and Xwe and her wyches leapt deftly from the skimmers’ decks moments before they impacted on the ashen ground. Ahead of her, the haemonculus, Gret, had summoned a webway portal and through it she could see nostalgic glimpses of the dark city where she was born.

The Battle for Eris Hive

Men of the the Command squad of Platoon 214, on dawn patrol, were the first to encounter Xenos forces and successfully raied the alarm.  Here they are shown scrambling back to the Hive.  It is thought that they were all killed before they could make it back safely.

While the manufactorums outside Charon Hive remained in Imperial hands, after Charos Hive fell, and the Charon 7th were scattered, the leaders of Charon Guard fell back in good order to Eric Hive in order to secure a home base for the expected Imperial support.  Their arrival came too late, however, as Xenos forces had already begun their attack -  Dreen Charon prooved too inexperienced for the task at hand, and the armies were temporarily scattered.  With two of the PDF armies in tatters, attention now fell on the commanders of the two army units still funcitonal.  The TAPs,Bridage, mainly of 2nd and 3rd Phase conscripts, who had been repelled by a screening force of Eldar warriors around a manufactorum, had so far managed to avoid major conflict.  The Eris Hive TAPs retreated up the Charon Isthmus, hoping to meet up with Charon Hive forces, but instead they ran into the most terrible of the Xenos threats to their planet: Tyranid infestation. 

The Gates of Charon Hive

Lord Marshal Uter Charon personally leads the defence of the Hive Gates

Ogryn mine-slaves form the vanguard

Uter Charon, Lord Marshal of Charon Hive, surveyed the pride of the planet's podf lined up before the gates of Charon Hive.  At the fore were the massed slave units of ogryns, who had been slated for the mines, before war came to Orion-89 Zeta.  Now they were slated to be the vanguard of the forces of Charon that day.

Uter Charon slipped a finger under his collar.  Too much starch, he thought.  Either that or he had put on weight.  He sniffed and spat and looked suitably confident.  The stink from the ogryns was stronger even than the stink of prometheum fumes that the chineras and russes gave off, as their engines idled and the gun crews practiced feeding amo through the slots.

A damned bunch of novices, Uter Charon told himself.  Fine for parades and turning back thewarhosts of the other hives cities: but this.  A Xenos invasion.  He did not know if his men could turn this wave back to the sea. 

A dull blare of mechanical horns made the ogryns uneasy.  Uter's nephew was supposed to be encircling the city with his armoured regiments, but they were no where to be seen.  Uter felt like the grox heads hanging over the ceremonial dinner tables of the Charon 7th's offcer's mess: a life form about to be made extinct, by whatever it was coming up the hill towards him.

A commissar watches as the invaders overwhelm Uter Charon's forces

Sector Delta 04 and 12

The figure who sat before the data-screen had no face.  No face that anyone could see at least. 

The red hood hung so low, all that could be seen was two points of light - the green reflections of the data-pict lights.  His eyes had been optically enhanced and they scrolled along the data-streams that poured down the left side of the screen.

Xenos incursion. 

Inquistor Wodin Grime had spent his life fighting on the front line of humanity's war against the Xenos.  The ineffectual; the corrupt; the diseased; the mechanical; the obscene; the truly dangerous foes of human kind.  He had known fear many times, and yet the data he saw chilled him almost like nothing else he had seen. 

Xenos incursion: many types of Xenos incursion. 

He touched the hilt of his power sword, Barbarvenga, for comfort, and typed in his instructions. 

Across the ship his orders were read throughout: and silence greeted them.  Silence, except for the sound of his retainers taking down their guns and weapons, and the dull hiss as the adeptus mechanicus adepts unlocked the sacred hellfire rounds. 

In a black room with a dull red light, a shadow saw the news of the expected arrival on Orion 89-Zeta, and the vindicare assassin, that went by the name of Code IV, dropped from his ceiling perch, and landed soundlessly on the metal flooring.  He would not land with the others, but a landing pod would air-drop him in behind enemy lines to seek out the lynch pin of the foe. 

The head of the snake.  Which, when you cut it off - or put a hellfire round between it's eyeballs - destroyed the beast. 

Aerial recon image of Sector Beta 012

[Attn: Inquisitor Wodin Grime]

[Encryption level: Alpha 1]

[From: Strategic Intelligence Collective 827/II ]

Lord Inquisitor, another reconnaissance image has been brought to my attention taken by another squadron returning to Orax Point spaceport from a mission over Eris Hive. Yet again it seems to be the aftermath of a skirmish between Necron forces and this, as yet, unknown enemy. 

It is very clear that the Necron forces have been destroyed, which on one hand can only be a positive outcome. However, what is worrying is that we have no idea what has routed them.

It is important to draw your attention to the top right hand section of the image. This is neither battle smoke nor natural cloud and there are those in my department that have started drawing parallels with other forms of xeno parasites and rumours are circulating of a very disturbing nature. I pray to the almighty Emperor that these rumours are not true because if so we are truly lost.

Your humble servant, 

Magos Hoffman

Aerial recon image of Sector Delta 04

[Attn: Inquisitor Wodin Grime]

[Encryption level: Alpha 1]

[From: Strategic Intelligence Collective 827/II ]

 

 

Image taken by an aircraft of Thunderbolt Squadron 55a over Sector Delta 04 shortly after what is believed to have been a battle between recently awakened Necron forces and some as yet unknown assailant. Further analysis of the image is required before a more accurate picture of the situation can be drawn. Ideally, a ground level investigation should be performed but as yet the sector and indeed the entire region is considered too hazardous for any Imperial personnel.

Necron tech can clearly be seen in the top left hand and middle portions of the image but I can barely begin to make a guess as to what are the dark patches covering nearly the entire surface. If I had to make a guess I would say that it most certainly is not of any human origin.

We desperately need your assistance here on Orion 89-Zeta, the situation is rapidly growing out of control.

Your humble servant, 

Magos Hoffman

Tactical Map of Orion 89-Zeta

[Authorization Confirmed]

[Psy-conduit Gamma 12 Primaris opened]

[Accessing File 88713/A11]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

 

 

>Request tactical information

>Loading...

>Planetary Defense Force Tactical Map of Orion 89-Zeta in the opening stages of invasion

>Force strengths and deployments are approx. 3 hours out of date and only estimated at an accuracy of 43%

>Total forces present are not fully known. Estimated accuracy is 67%

>Request tactical update

>Stand by...

File - Ref: 1739A001

[Authorization Confirmed]

[Psy-conduit Theta 71 Tertius opened]

[Accessing File 1739A001]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

>Last pict received from monitor station Kilo 55 before ceasing transmissions at 08:44:12M41998

>Request analysis.

>Awaiting instruction...

>...|

 

[Psy-conduit Theta 71 Tertius Closed]

[User interface disconnecting…]

[Session terminated]

Battle for Orax Point: Eris Hive TAPs vs Vaetrex Desiato Round 1

Valkyries scramble as pilots from the Elysian 1042nd Squardron fight off a vicious raid from Xenos ships

As fighters streak across the sky, ferocious fighting amongst the starport

[Attn: Arbite Lokran Xe]                                                                          [Encryption level: Alpha 1++]

[From: Black Ship VII ]

Respond to this message with utmost urgency, secrecy and do my bidding with expediant use of violence! 

Zafar Da'chell must be detained, awaiting my arrival. I fear Xenos taint on Orion 89-Zeta.  

I am already on my way to deal with this matter.  Forward any more information to me.

Faith is our Shield

Inquisitor Wodin Grimes