Chetis 4 - Ongoing

   It was expected, by Imperial Tacticians, that a full counter attack would be launched by the forces of the foul Gods within 24 hours of taking Zul’Dar, but no full scale response came. The work had began to fortify the foothold on Chetis 4, land as much materiel and troops as quickly as possible, with the aim of starting the push towards the capital city, Qalb al-Bhaal and keeping the momentum of the assault going.

   The Imperial forces made good headway in this push over the next few days encountering only piecemeal resistance but at no where near the pace projected in the preinvasion planning. Partly this was due to the the second division, which was supposed to drop in the day or so after the initial beach head assault, being delayed in the warp but also reports of a increased Ork Waaagh developing on Chetis 5 meaning regiments had to be held back in case this threat became too big to contain.

   It has to be noted that less Astartes chapters had responded to the call for aid in this crusade than was also hoped, with the Ossuary Brotherhood being the only known chapter on the planet at this point. But warp signatures thought to match at least two Strike Cruisers had now been spotted by astropaths in the fleet.

   The Traitors, however, were not giving the planet up without a fight. Their nose had been blooded in the first strikes, their organisation was terrible with each warband working towards their own aims and not willing to sacrifice any gains or blood for others, but this did not mean they couldn't stop the Imperials. A combined force of World Eaters, Renegade Marines, The Sacrificed Sons, Thousand Sons, Iron Warriors, Chaos Knights, Daemons and assorted mortals stood in the path of the advance to Qalb al-Bhaal.

   There was one incident perpetrated by the World Eaters that mystified the Imperial Tacticians. A small warband of chaos marines and human cultists attacked an advance party of armoured vehicles made up of tanks from two different Adepta Sororitas sisterhoods, sacrificing themselves under the big guns and tracks with very little damage to the machines of the God-Emperor. It was only later that this was found to be the final piece of a blood ritual to their God, one that drastically weakened the veil to the warp and allowed daemons to manifest across the planet far more freely.

   With Chaos fully on the offensive and achieving more of their objectives more the Imperial armies, can the Imperium hold for long enough to change their fortunes?

Thanks for reading