Chapter Quest Wiki
Register
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 79: Line 79:
 
|-
 
|-
 
|
 
|
Located in the ruined city of Hannigor a few dozen miles north of the centre of the Ramala Mountain Range. that was infested with disorganised but highly numerous ork gangs. Under the advice of Gradburgan General Lazar Grenn, Lord General Militant Xerant decided to avoid close urban combat against the orks with his infantry, instead dispatching all 4 Squadrons of the House Macrae Knights along with 3 Mechanised regiments with large Hellhound complements.
+
Located in the ruined city of Hannigor a few dozen miles north of the centre of the Ramara Mountain Range. that was infested with disorganised but highly numerous ork gangs. Under the advice of Gradburgan General Lazar Grenn, Lord General Militant Xerant decided to avoid close urban combat against the orks with his infantry, instead dispatching all 4 Squadrons of the House Macrae Knights along with 3 Mechanised regiments with large Hellhound complements.
   
 
Street by street the city was methodically cleansed. Purging flame from Hellhounds and the fearsome cannons and chainguns of House Macrae cleansed the orks from Hannigor while leaving most of the infrastructure intact. Meanwhile nimble Knight Armigers countered any orks that tried to flank and bomb the tanks from behind, tearing them to pieces with their chaincleavers. Within a few days Hannigor was cleansed, and any orks that fled the encircled city were met with artillery and lasfire.
 
Street by street the city was methodically cleansed. Purging flame from Hellhounds and the fearsome cannons and chainguns of House Macrae cleansed the orks from Hannigor while leaving most of the infrastructure intact. Meanwhile nimble Knight Armigers countered any orks that tried to flank and bomb the tanks from behind, tearing them to pieces with their chaincleavers. Within a few days Hannigor was cleansed, and any orks that fled the encircled city were met with artillery and lasfire.
Line 90: Line 90:
 
|-
 
|-
 
|
 
|
The ancient Fort Markath is located on a hillock overlooking a major valley on the western edge of the Ramala Mountain Range, a vital chokepoint in any conflict in the region that can serve as a crucial flanking route around any front that forms to the west of the mountain range. Unfortunately even the orks could tell its importance, and Fort Markath was inhabited by a small but very well-equipped ork klan in possession of enough artillery to dominate the valley. However while an orbital bombardment could level the entire structure, Lord General Militant Xerant decided that the Fortress should instead be claimed for the Imperial side to defend against any ork counterattacks through the valley.
+
The ancient Fort Markath is located on a hillock overlooking a major valley on the western edge of the Ramara Mountain Range, a vital chokepoint in any conflict in the region that can serve as a crucial flanking route around any front that forms to the west of the mountain range. Unfortunately even the orks could tell its importance, and Fort Markath was inhabited by a small but very well-equipped ork klan in possession of enough artillery to dominate the valley. However while an orbital bombardment could level the entire structure, Lord General Militant Xerant decided that the Fortress should instead be claimed for the Imperial side to defend against any ork counterattacks through the valley.
   
 
Under severe time constrants as an entire Brigade waited to pass through the valley and flank the ork hordes on the western front, and with the Ghosts of Retribution engaged on the eastern front at the time, Major General Arkus Xerant decided to dispatch 1st Battalion of the 6th Adamantian Grenadier Regiment - the most elite unit under his command - to take the Fortress.
 
Under severe time constrants as an entire Brigade waited to pass through the valley and flank the ork hordes on the western front, and with the Ghosts of Retribution engaged on the eastern front at the time, Major General Arkus Xerant decided to dispatch 1st Battalion of the 6th Adamantian Grenadier Regiment - the most elite unit under his command - to take the Fortress.
Line 105: Line 105:
 
|-
 
|-
 
|
 
|
The vast forest known as Ramswood is located east of Ramala Lake and covered hundreds of square miles. The region was crawling with near-feral greenskins that had an affinity for camouflage and ambush tactics, made apparent when 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, 2041st Gradburgan Infantry Regiment suffered 71% casualties and retreated after pushing just two miles in.
+
The vast forest known as Ramswood is located east of Ramara Lake and covered hundreds of square miles. The region was crawling with near-feral greenskins that had an affinity for camouflage and ambush tactics, made apparent when 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, 2041st Gradburgan Infantry Regiment suffered 71% casualties and retreated after pushing just two miles in.
   
 
The vast forest was far too tight for armour, and strategists were forced to consider a battle of infantry attrition before [[Rampage|Rampagan]] Colonel Garas 'Wildman' Wayde volunteered to take in his own Infantry regtiment. Joined by 30 Scouts from the Ghosts of Retribution, the 60th Rampagan Light Infantry Regiment took to the forest like hunters, daubing themselves in extensive camouflage and utilising suppressed weapon and crossbows. Over the course of two weeks the Rampagans ruthlessly hunted down thousands of orks, while the Astartes Scouts wiped out any larger groups with ferocious ambushes. By the end of the period orks were seen fleeing Ramswood from all sides, screaming about shadows and ghosts before being gunned down in the open.
 
The vast forest was far too tight for armour, and strategists were forced to consider a battle of infantry attrition before [[Rampage|Rampagan]] Colonel Garas 'Wildman' Wayde volunteered to take in his own Infantry regtiment. Joined by 30 Scouts from the Ghosts of Retribution, the 60th Rampagan Light Infantry Regiment took to the forest like hunters, daubing themselves in extensive camouflage and utilising suppressed weapon and crossbows. Over the course of two weeks the Rampagans ruthlessly hunted down thousands of orks, while the Astartes Scouts wiped out any larger groups with ferocious ambushes. By the end of the period orks were seen fleeing Ramswood from all sides, screaming about shadows and ghosts before being gunned down in the open.
Line 140: Line 140:
 
The tide of orks fell upon Camp Dardin like a wave, and while the common greenskins were scythed down in the thousands by the Dorians' signature Heavy Autorifles the orks' ramshackle vehicles rumbled onwards, and each one taken out by an artillery shell or heavy weapon team was immediately replaced by three more. As the first ork tanks got within range the defenders began to take hits. Ork Kannonfire peppered the Camp's walls and bastions, and while each ork tank rarely got more than a single shot off before being destroyed by lascannons and artillery the casualties began mounting on the defenders' side. The Dorians fought fiercely, slaying tens of thousands of orks and destroying hundreds of ork vehicles. Even a pair of stompas were brought down by concentrated artillery fire before they could get in range, and the ork bodies were piled half a dozen high around the walls as shells chewed them up. But as the battle dragged on with no end to the greenskins in sight things took a bad turn for the Imperium as more and more ork vehicles reached weapons range.
 
The tide of orks fell upon Camp Dardin like a wave, and while the common greenskins were scythed down in the thousands by the Dorians' signature Heavy Autorifles the orks' ramshackle vehicles rumbled onwards, and each one taken out by an artillery shell or heavy weapon team was immediately replaced by three more. As the first ork tanks got within range the defenders began to take hits. Ork Kannonfire peppered the Camp's walls and bastions, and while each ork tank rarely got more than a single shot off before being destroyed by lascannons and artillery the casualties began mounting on the defenders' side. The Dorians fought fiercely, slaying tens of thousands of orks and destroying hundreds of ork vehicles. Even a pair of stompas were brought down by concentrated artillery fire before they could get in range, and the ork bodies were piled half a dozen high around the walls as shells chewed them up. But as the battle dragged on with no end to the greenskins in sight things took a bad turn for the Imperium as more and more ork vehicles reached weapons range.
 
===<u>'''Combat Shifts Towards the Orks' Favour'''</u>===
 
===<u>'''Combat Shifts Towards the Orks' Favour'''</u>===
 
 
 
3rd Battalion lost its commander when Major Anders' position took a direct hit from an ork kannon, and a massive wave of grot bombs struck the camp's main gate, collapsing both bastions and carpeting the surrounding walls, causing hundreds of serious maiming injuries from shrapnel and explosions. 5th and 6th Companies of 5th Battalion were practically wiped out on Camp Dardin's northwest corner when a squadron of ork flame tanks wreathed the walls in fire, before a manticore missile took them out and Grenadiers plugged the gap in the defences.
 
3rd Battalion lost its commander when Major Anders' position took a direct hit from an ork kannon, and a massive wave of grot bombs struck the camp's main gate, collapsing both bastions and carpeting the surrounding walls, causing hundreds of serious maiming injuries from shrapnel and explosions. 5th and 6th Companies of 5th Battalion were practically wiped out on Camp Dardin's northwest corner when a squadron of ork flame tanks wreathed the walls in fire, before a manticore missile took them out and Grenadiers plugged the gap in the defences.
   
 
To worsen matters, ork kommandos were flanking the camp and scaling less defended parts of the wall, butchering isolated squads before heading into the camp itself. An entire artillery battery was lost when kommandos detonated their ammunition stores, before the orks began to prey on ammunition carriers and stretcher bearers across the camp. Though the kommandos were eventually slain by Major Vasser's Grenadiers, the kommandos' cold-blooded murdering and their mounting losses were decimating the Dorian's morale as defeat began to seem inevitable under the endless tide of greenskins, hideous creatures the likes of which they had never seen before.
 
To worsen matters, ork kommandos were flanking the camp and scaling less defended parts of the wall, butchering isolated squads before heading into the camp itself. An entire artillery battery was lost when kommandos detonated their ammunition stores, before the orks began to prey on ammunition carriers and stretcher bearers across the camp. Though the kommandos were eventually slain by Major Vasser's Grenadiers, the kommandos' cold-blooded murdering and their mounting losses were decimating the Dorian's morale as defeat began to seem inevitable under the endless tide of greenskins, hideous creatures the likes of which they had never seen before.
 
==='''<u>Slaughter of Point Three-Delta</u>'''===
 
==='''<u>Slaughter of Point Three-Delta</u>'''===
 
 
 
The battle's critical juncture came when an entire platoon of ork heavy nobs soared over the most fiercely contested section of the wall - designated Point Three-Delta. Half the nobs were shot down or killed crash-landing, but several dozen of the massive greenskins successfully landed and tore into the defenders from behind. Scores of Dorians were slain or maimed as heavy shells and chainaxe-wielding brutes assaulted them at close range, and the entire walls' defence began to fold as they sought to escape the rampaging nobs.
 
The battle's critical juncture came when an entire platoon of ork heavy nobs soared over the most fiercely contested section of the wall - designated Point Three-Delta. Half the nobs were shot down or killed crash-landing, but several dozen of the massive greenskins successfully landed and tore into the defenders from behind. Scores of Dorians were slain or maimed as heavy shells and chainaxe-wielding brutes assaulted them at close range, and the entire walls' defence began to fold as they sought to escape the rampaging nobs.
   
Line 156: Line 152:
 
Colonel Pryde and Commissar Browz fought side-by-side, the duelling partners fighting skillfully with their powerswords as they parried and broke the clumsy orks weapons before chopping them apart piece by piece. The duo slew five nobs in melee together by taking off their limbs one at a time before finishing the greenskins off, but the commanders suffered grievously in return yet kept fighting with the help of combat stimms. Commissar Browz lost her left arm halfway through the fight, and the last nob gutted her with its jagged knife as she plunged her blade down through its skull. Colonel Pryde had suffered an awful plasma burn to the entire right side of her body and a choppa embedded in her leg had crushed the bone and would require amputation. Despite struggling from the edges of death, Colonel Pryde found the strnegth to raise her sword and proclaim victory to her mangled and retreating command. Stirred by the sight of the imposible victory the Dorians rallied and remounted the walls, pouring fire into the orks to avenge their leaders as the wounded were hastily carried to the Camp's now-packed field hospitals.
 
Colonel Pryde and Commissar Browz fought side-by-side, the duelling partners fighting skillfully with their powerswords as they parried and broke the clumsy orks weapons before chopping them apart piece by piece. The duo slew five nobs in melee together by taking off their limbs one at a time before finishing the greenskins off, but the commanders suffered grievously in return yet kept fighting with the help of combat stimms. Commissar Browz lost her left arm halfway through the fight, and the last nob gutted her with its jagged knife as she plunged her blade down through its skull. Colonel Pryde had suffered an awful plasma burn to the entire right side of her body and a choppa embedded in her leg had crushed the bone and would require amputation. Despite struggling from the edges of death, Colonel Pryde found the strnegth to raise her sword and proclaim victory to her mangled and retreating command. Stirred by the sight of the imposible victory the Dorians rallied and remounted the walls, pouring fire into the orks to avenge their leaders as the wounded were hastily carried to the Camp's now-packed field hospitals.
 
==='''<u>Victory from the Jaws of Defeat</u>'''===
 
==='''<u>Victory from the Jaws of Defeat</u>'''===
 
 
 
The orks had spent many of their commanders on the attempted killing blow, and the horde began falling into disarray as shells and rounds and missiles renewed their fusilade into the ork ranks, and the remaining nobs were simpy unable to roar loud enough to keep their army in position. Seeing the orks' new weakness, Grenadier Captain Kaia Laodicea took a platoon of her best Grenadiers onto a trio of Valkyries and struck out for the hearty of the ork horde. The Valkyries flew east before circling around in a wide arc with all haste, striking the rear of the ork horde where the warboss was preparing to enter the fray.
 
The orks had spent many of their commanders on the attempted killing blow, and the horde began falling into disarray as shells and rounds and missiles renewed their fusilade into the ork ranks, and the remaining nobs were simpy unable to roar loud enough to keep their army in position. Seeing the orks' new weakness, Grenadier Captain Kaia Laodicea took a platoon of her best Grenadiers onto a trio of Valkyries and struck out for the hearty of the ork horde. The Valkyries flew east before circling around in a wide arc with all haste, striking the rear of the ork horde where the warboss was preparing to enter the fray.
   
Line 164: Line 158:
 
These two critical victories broke the orks, with most of their war machines now smouldering and their command structure shattered. The horde started to fracture and the remaining Dorians pressed the advantage, guns blazing at any vestige of ork strength until the rabble were in full retreat.
 
These two critical victories broke the orks, with most of their war machines now smouldering and their command structure shattered. The horde started to fracture and the remaining Dorians pressed the advantage, guns blazing at any vestige of ork strength until the rabble were in full retreat.
 
==='''<u>Aftermath</u>'''===
 
==='''<u>Aftermath</u>'''===
 
 
 
The Dorians had suffered severe casualties. The 7th Heavy Infantry tallied 2,643 dead and 5,105 severely inured including Colonel Pryde & Commissar Browz, while the 6th Battalion 4th Grenadiers had suffered 147 dead and 288 severely injured, including Major Vasser. The other units in the camp had suffered losses as well, mostly from the kommando raid. 64 Medicae staff had been butchered (and many wounded Dorians killed) when the kommandos raided one of the field hospitals, and 217 ammo carriers and stretcher bearers - mostly from the 988th Adamantian Supply Regiment stationed in the camp - had been murdered by kommandos while assisting their defenders. Most grievously was the loss of Colonel Erron Van Der Clief - Chief Staff Officer of the 55th Adamantian Corps - and his entire retinue when ork kommandos raided their bunker; and several Adamantian Nobles were amongst the slain officers. Camp Dardin's medicae staff worked ceaselessly for for long hours until a relief force finally arrived, a full freshly-landed Corps swarming into the camp to secure the region and help deal with the wounded.
 
The Dorians had suffered severe casualties. The 7th Heavy Infantry tallied 2,643 dead and 5,105 severely inured including Colonel Pryde & Commissar Browz, while the 6th Battalion 4th Grenadiers had suffered 147 dead and 288 severely injured, including Major Vasser. The other units in the camp had suffered losses as well, mostly from the kommando raid. 64 Medicae staff had been butchered (and many wounded Dorians killed) when the kommandos raided one of the field hospitals, and 217 ammo carriers and stretcher bearers - mostly from the 988th Adamantian Supply Regiment stationed in the camp - had been murdered by kommandos while assisting their defenders. Most grievously was the loss of Colonel Erron Van Der Clief - Chief Staff Officer of the 55th Adamantian Corps - and his entire retinue when ork kommandos raided their bunker; and several Adamantian Nobles were amongst the slain officers. Camp Dardin's medicae staff worked ceaselessly for for long hours until a relief force finally arrived, a full freshly-landed Corps swarming into the camp to secure the region and help deal with the wounded.
   
 
In the wake of the battle the women of the 7th Heavy Infantry and 6th-of-the-4th Grenadiers were highly commended and decorated by Adamantian and Gradburgan Generals as well as their own. Queen Myra herself presented their medals and comfirmed many promotions, though many had to receive their awards in states of severe injury if not posthumously. The Defence of Camp Dardin was the most significant Dorian involvement in the Triot Campaign where 12,600 women defeated a force of approximately 200,000 orks. Had the camp fallen the orks would not only have butchered almost 85,000 wounded and non-combat personnel, they may well have succeeded in encircling the entire western front, costing hundreds of thousands of lives.
 
In the wake of the battle the women of the 7th Heavy Infantry and 6th-of-the-4th Grenadiers were highly commended and decorated by Adamantian and Gradburgan Generals as well as their own. Queen Myra herself presented their medals and comfirmed many promotions, though many had to receive their awards in states of severe injury if not posthumously. The Defence of Camp Dardin was the most significant Dorian involvement in the Triot Campaign where 12,600 women defeated a force of approximately 200,000 orks. Had the camp fallen the orks would not only have butchered almost 85,000 wounded and non-combat personnel, they may well have succeeded in encircling the entire western front, costing hundreds of thousands of lives.
  +
|}
  +
{| border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" style="width:700px;" class="article-table mw-collapsed mw-collapsible"
  +
|-
  +
! scope="col"|'''Weston's Folly'''
  +
|-
  +
|
  +
While the orks mounted a number of surprise counteroffensives, the main cause for the halt of the Imperial advance was a sudden and dramatic improvement in the greenskins' strategic capabilities. The calamitous Battle of Gallagan Hills was the most severe example, but similar engagements played out on a smaller scale across the entire front.
  +
  +
Major Victor Weston and his command, 1st Battalion of the 302nd Adamantian Armoured Regiment, were at the tip of the Imperial advance, the 42 Leman Russ tanks scattering resistance and claiming many battlewagon and wartrakk kills as they thundered into the shadow of the Ramara Mountain Range. Their success thus far fuelled overconfidence in the tankers and Major Weston was eager for glory.
  +
As they rumbled ahead of the main advance the battalion spotted a prominent hill overlooking a yawning agrarian valley, and a small mob of a hundred or so orks entrenched at the top. Aside from a few rokkit launchers the ork position had no real anti-armour weaponry, but as Major Weston resported his find he was warned by Gradburgan Intelligence officers that orks could be cunning and it was unlike them to entrench in such small numbers.
  +
  +
Unfortunately the Major ignored their warnings, with the wholehearted support of the attached Commissar Kawser, and charged the hill. His battalion's high explosive shells made short work of the ork position, the greenskins burning beneath their tracks as they scoped out the valley from atop the hill. With an earsplitting roar that could be heard at the Imperial lines fifteen miles away, the hill erupted like a volcano as an enormous underground charge detonated. A dozen tanks including the Commissar's were turned inside-out instantly, and fourteen more were wrecked beyond use as hulls split, turrets sheared, and many were thrown onto the sides and backs, hurled metres into the air by the blast.
  +
  +
The shellshocked Weston barely had enough time to count his remaining tanks before swarms of battlewagons emerged from all corners of the valley, discarding the trees and hedges they had covered their vehicles with. The hill was quickly encircled and Weston could scarcely believe the orknoids had been able to plan such a trap, but his training kicked in and he rallied his remaining troops. As the orknoids approached the remnants of the battalion entrenched themselves hull-down at the edges of the enormous crater that now topped the hill, and took aim.
  +
  +
By all accouts the remnants of the battalion put up a fierce fight. The wounded and surviving crew of wrecked tanks fought on the gunline with their personal weapons, and the tanks claimed many ork vehicles as the orks assaulted their position. But the greenskins were far too numerous and lobbed heavy shells from short range into the Imperial position. More Leman Russes were lost as kannonfire struck their turrets and magazines, and tankers were killed by encroaching orks spewing bullets and flame.
  +
  +
By the time relief arrived in the form of the 207th Gradburgan Armoured Regimnet, the 1st-of-the-302nd had been reduced to four functioning tanks and 103 tankers, most badly wounded. Major Weston had survived, and his soldiers attested that he had fought gallantly while under heavy fire. Nevertheless the Major resigned his commission and fell into a deep depression, claiming that he should have died on that hill with his men.
  +
|}
  +
{| border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" style="width:700px;" class="article-table mw-collapsed mw-collapsible"
  +
|-
  +
! scope="col"|'''Battle of Hardyr Strait'''
  +
|-
  +
|
  +
The ork assault that claimed Fort Hardyr was an unprecedented display of ork tactical ability. Greenskin submersibles appeared within the port undetected and disgorged well equipped nobs, stormboyz and flash gitz without warning. Surging over the walls on rokkit packs, thousands of orks conducted a simultaneous assault of Fort Hardyr and stormed the defences with unnerving precision and cohesion. Facing a numerically superior force that had already breached the main defences and taken out their most prominent gun positions, Colonel Yaxen of the 1766th Gradburgan Infantry ordered a full retreat from Fort Hardyr.
  +
  +
Immediately the orks began to consolidate their new position, bolstering the walls with their own heavy weapons. However worse still was the emergence of an entire fleet of ork sea vessels from southern Surim, heading straight for Hardyr with reinforcements aiming to open up another front against Imperial Forces.
  +
  +
Standing in their way was the 398th Deus Naval Aeronautica Wing, a ground support support wing consisting of Thunderbolts, Avengers and Marauder Destroyers. Braving heavy ork AA fire the pilots of the 398th, led personally by Wing Commander Peter Barnard-Howns, struck the ork fleet again and again with heavy ordnance and strafing runs. Okrnoid ships were beset with bombs and missiles as their ramshackle hulls ruptured and sank to the bottom of the oceans, taking thousands of screaming orks with them. But ork flakka turrets reaped a harsh toll on the 398th and sending many craft plunging into the ocean in flames, and while most crew ejected further from the battle many of those who were forced to eject over the ork fleet were captured on landing or simply gunned down in the water.
  +
  +
Undaunted, the 398th conducted ceaseless sorties, returning to their airbase on the coast only to refuel and resupply before taking to the skies once more. Commander Barnard-Howns accounted for the largest ork ship himself, an enormous ramshackle battleship studded with artillery guns that could decimate the imperial coastal defences, when a volley of hellstrike missiles from his Thunderbolt detonated the ship's central magazine and split the ship in two with an enormous explosion. At one point a trio of ork destroyers wiped out an entire flight of Avengers with a fusillade of concentrated AA fire, before the Wing's Marauder Destroyers tore them to pieces with a vicious strafing run that tore apart the orks on deck with autocannon fire before heavy bombs cracked their hulls and sent the wrecked ships to the bottom of the ocean.
  +
  +
Over the course of four hours the 398th accounted for dozens of ork troop ships and destroyers, and almost half the Wing was downed in the process along with the deaths of twenty two pilots and nine other aircrew. However they had decimated the ork reinforcements heading for Hardyr and crippled the orks' ability to open up a new front, forcing the Greenskins to hold position in Fort Hardyr without the numbers to expand outward.
  +
  +
The Wing was commended by Admiral Pelial and many personnel awarded. Lieutenant-Commander Lawson Brigg was awarded the Naval Aviation Cross for destroying five flakka turrets with his nose cannon while his Avenger was showered with heavy fire, allowing his squadron to sink half a dozen ork troop transports though himself suffering extreme shrapnel injuries in the process. Ensign Icarus Nallonium also received the Aviation Cross after taking his Thunderbolt down just feet from the ocean surface in an exceptional display of flying, keeping beneath the ork AA fire to successfully launch missiles into two of the largest AA destroyers near the centre of the fleet. Finally Sublieutenant Myrton Walsc received the Naval Aviation Medal for destroying a fast ork attack boat that was heading for a cluster of downed personnel in the water, taking it out with a precise burst from his Thunderbolts' autocannons with just seconds to spare and saving his fellow pilots despite taking AA fire from the side in the process.
 
|}
 
|}
   

Revision as of 20:16, 12 January 2019

Page under construction

The Triot Campaign of 363.M41 was the Imperial military reconquest of Triot - which had been lost to orks in 152.M41. It was waged by the Imperial Guard and Ghosts of Retribution and resulted in the Imperium decisively reclaiming most of Triot's landmass and eradicating an enormous proportion of the Greenskin threat.

Background

Triot map

A map of Triot showing the area controlled by the Triot Reclamation Council. c.350.M41. The western Continent of Surim and the eastern continent of Kalem are separated by the large Enruss Ocean.

Triot - an Imperial Industrial world - fell to greenskins in 152.M41 when a large Waaagh swept into the system from the Sector's edge. While the Waaagh was stalled in orbit it was too powerful to eradicate on the ground without causing irreversible destruction to the world, and so for the next two centuries the ork menace festered while the nearby Fortress World of Gradburg held them at bay and weathered constant probes from ork roks and attack ships.

Meanwhile the humans left on Triot fled to a large mountain range on the western continent of Surim, unifying as the Triot Continuation Council (TCC) and resisting any ork attempts to finish them off.

This would change in 354.M41 when the Xerant Dynasty of Adamant Prime declared that they would pledge troops to reclaim Triot. Gradburg quickly pledged what they could as well, finally seeing their opportunity to end the ork menace that plagued them. Then the Ghosts of Retribution - an Astartes Chapter - also promised to contribute no less than three companies to the Campaign along with the Krieg 128th - a vassal unit. The nearby world of Doria IV also pledged a full Brigade and House Macrae of Fyphe - close allies of the Xerant Dynasty - promised four Squadrons of Knights.

With around 20 million solders and hundreds of Astartes pledged to the reclamation, the year of 361.M41 was marked as the planned start to the operation. However after the chaos caused by the Coup against Larion Ursus in late 359.M41 this date was pushed back to 363.M41. Fortunately no further incidents delayed the invasion, and when 363.M41 arrived all Imperial forces were in place.

The commander of the Imperial Guard forces was Lord General Militant Lucas Xerant, while Admiral Ona Pelial and the Chapter Master of the Ghosts of Retribution commanded their own forces in cooperation. Also playing a significant role was General Herman Dorialis, the leader of the TCCs military forces. While Lord General Militant Xerant was of much higher rank than the Imperial forces warranted, he decided to lead this operation personally in order to cement his position and reputation as the Sector's new Supreme Imperial Guard Commander.

Description

The Imperial invasion force was marshalled in orbit above Gradburg in a large fleet of mostly transport craft. The primary vessels were the Regent-class Orbital Assault Ship Tempest of the Imperial Navy, and the Astartes Battle Barge Aspera Dominus of the Ghosts of Retribution, accompanied by a large Naval transport fleet and several patrol groups. Heavy void combat was not expected so the Imperial warships were mostly escorts & light cruisers to escort the troop transports and chase down any would-be escapees.

Operation Ghostblade

Launched six months prior to the planned invasion, this astartes operation was devoted to intelligence gathering and guerilla activities on Triot to sow discord amongst the orks.

A force of Revenants and Astartes Scouts infiltrated to the surface of Triot, and their activiies were highly successful in locating the largest concentrations of orknoid anti-orbital defences and exposing the orks' power structure and level of unity. This information was invaluable for the Campaign and contributed greatly to its success. This was further corroborated by TCC intelligence provided by General Dorialis.

Operation Ghostblade determined that the orks on Triot were highly fractured and had little widely-spanning infrastructure. However there were pockets of significant strength scattered across the planet. Over the course of the Operation they also marshalled a number of small, scattered groups of several thousand human survivors and banded them into a small resistance. These reinforcements greatly aided the astartes, and were used to enact small distraction offensives with the Astartes Scouts that allowed Geron and his Revenants to assassinate three major warbosses and set charges on a dozen major bridges near the planned Imperial landing zone of the northern reaches. This caused chaos amongst the orks in the northern half of the western continent of Surim in preparation for the invasion.

They also learned - with the help of the TCC - that the largest and strongest of the many ork klans on Triot was the Skullroarz. Spanning both Kalem and Surim, this klan had two primary leaders. The true head Warboss was Brok Racksmasha, a typical orknoid warboss of tremendous size and ferocity, and he commanded the Skullroarz located on the eastern continent of Kalem. His underling - the powerful Weirdboy Tard Powa'ead - commanded the Skullroarz on the western continent of Surim, and Racksmasha ensured the Weirdboyz loyalty by holding his pet squiglet as a hostage.

Transit, Planetfall, and Opening Engagements

The invasion fleet departed from Gradburg just one week after Emperor's Day of 363.M41. They warped into the nearby Triot System just three days later with minimal incidents, with only three Troop Transports experiencing media-level warp phenomena and 37 ships delayed.

The Aspera Dominus led the fleet as it entered orbit around Triot, its bombardment cannons - along with the Tempest's - destroying many of the ork's most important anti-orbital positions and ensuring the void fleet was unmolested as it descended into low orbit.

The Imperial Force made planetfall on the vast tundra of Triot's northern pole, where the sparce and disarrayed ork presence was swiftly eradicated by airstrikes and the Space Marines - who had landed first to secure the landing zones. Within just a few hours hundreds of thousands of Guardsmen were deployed from Citadel-class Landers and Devourer Dropships, quickly establishing a massive perimeter approximately a thousand miles wide along the northern edge of Surim.

As the Imperial Guard assembled and and fortified their beachead, the Ghosts of Retribution kept ahead of the lines and assaulted any roving Ork bands in the area. This kept any potential counter-assault in disarray for several days allowing the Imperial Guard to properly assemble its forces in preparation for the main offensive. After 12 days approximately a million soldiers had landed, and completed construction of major landing pads and facilities that allowed the remaining troops to deploy much more quickly.

Triot - After planetfall

The Imperial held territory (in yellow) held 11 days after the initial planetfall, showing the secure perimeter established by the Imperial Guard almost uncontested.

This phase of the Campaign went well overall for the Imperium. Of the several thousand Imperial landing craft used in the operation a total of 23 were downed - mostly due to accidents. The most grievous was the loss of Devourer 808k, when she landed on thin ice and sank resulting in the loss of the entirety of 3rd Battalion, 291st Adamantian Armoured Regiment.

Notable Battles:

Battle of Terengath

Located on a large frozen plain known as Terengath, approximately 500 miles south of the Imperial beachead. This battle saw six Predators, the Fortress of Vengeance, and three Thunderhawks of the Ghosts of Retribution face off against an ork column of over 300 Wartrakks.

The Vengeance destroyed half a dozen in its opening salva as Thunderhawks conducted strafing runs that blew apart up to ten of the ramshackle vehicles with each pass, heavy bolter and battle cannon fire tearing the greenskins apart as Hellfury Missiles and Heavy Bombs lit them up in explosive conflagerations. Attempting to counterattack, the orks split into a pincer and attempted to encircle the Vengeance with their superior speed. However the Predatrors countered by moving wide on either side of Vengeance and staggering their formation, forcing the wartrakks to expose weaker armour that allowed the Predators' sponson weapons and autocannons to pick them apart one-by-one while Vengeance and the Thunderhawks destroyed larger clusters with methodical precision.


After forty-five minutes of combat the ork column had been completely destroyed, only succeeding in blowing off the track of one Predator, scarring Vengeance's turret front and damaging the portside engine of one of the Thunderhawks.

Battle of Erhardt's Ford

This small outcrop over an icy cold river's ford was a part of the landing zone perimeter and secured by 1st platoon, 2nd Company, 5th Battalion, 1612th Gradburgan Infantry Regiment under Lieutenant Edmund Erhardt. The river was a part of the northwestern defensive line where little resistance was expected after the orks there were annihilated by orbital bombardments, and only a few regiments were assigned to the region.

The company found the outcrop's hollow inhabited by a tiny group of orks that were quickly eliminated with grenades and flame, before they fortified their position overlooking the ford. But just a few hours later a band of around 300 orks began to approach. These orks are presumed to have been some kind of exile band that wasn't in any of the ork encampments during the orbital bombardments, and while a few hundred orks were insignificant in the scope of the Campaign they had the 33 men of the unfortunate 1st Platoon terribly outnumbered. The platoon's Voxtrooper quickly called for reinforcements, but air units were engaged on the southern front while the nearest ground units were hours away.

The ork assault was fierce, with 1st Platoon afforded only minimal cover as they poured lasfire into the orks. The platoon's heavy bolter took a vicious toll on the charging greenskins, but once the orks reached the opposite bank a volley of rokkits destroyed the gun, killing the gunner and severely wounding the loader as well. While grenade launchers and squad automatic weapons continued to cut down greenskins by the dozens the orks began to make significant gains as they got within shoota range, and 1st platoon losses began to mount.

At one point a small group of orks flanked the ford and swam downriver to attack and close range, leaping from the icy waters into 1st Platoon's gunline. Rushing in to save his men, Lieutenant Erhardt personally slew two with his monosword before being wounded by the third, suffering a broken arm before his loyal Colour Sergeant Jonty Brush skewered the ork on his bayonet to save his Lieutenant. The platoon rallied at their leaders' heroism and pushed the assaulters back with a bayonet charge before unleashing a full volley at close range at the orks on the opposite bank, eliminating many of their heavier weapons and finally breaking the back of the greenskins.

While the orks were no longer on the direct offensive they continued to exchange fire with 1st Platoon until the unit began running low on ammunition and were forced to carefully pick their shots. After a total of three hours since the initial ork assault 1st Platoon was finally relieved as an Armoured Recon Company roared onto the battlefield with all haste, scattering the remaining greenskins and chasing them down until the last were dead and their spores burned.

Erhardt's Ford had held, though 1st Platoon suffered 11 men killed-in-action and 19 wounded-in-action (10 severely), and were the first unit of the Campaign to receive the Triple Skull Medal. For the remainder of the Campaign the 1612th Gradburgan Infantry were stationed in Fort Baygon on the southern perimeter of the Imperial Green Zone - the secure landing zones of the northern poles - alongside the 99th Dorian Heavy Infantry Regiment. By the end of the Campaign Lieutenant Erhardt was engaged to Lieutenant Wilszer of the 99th.

Imperial Offensive

Once the Imperial perimeter had been secured & bolstered, the time had come to launch an offensive into Surim along the entire front. However Imperial intelligence spotted large resource columns heading into a small group of mountains near the enormous Lake Ramara. Before the main advance began the Ghosts of Retribution assaulted the area from Thunderhawks, discovering an enormous orknoid airbase under construction. One Scout - Alorius - was killed during the Battle of Lake Ramara as he spotted targets for strafing thunderhawks, but the Chapter succeeded in destroying 120 ork aircraft and over 6000 orks with no other casualties.

Armoured & Mechanised Regiments then led the enormous push South, closely followed by Infantry and Artillery, which saw over 500 Regiments engage Greenskins in direct battle and 1500 more closely following the front in support. Meanwhile the Ghosts of Retribution constantly deployed and redeployed to wherever the fighting was thickest, shattering greenskin strongpoints and keeping the pace of the advance. The first major Imperial Guard engagement was claimed by the 37th Adamantian Armoured Regiment, where - with the support of the 441st Adamantian Mechanised Regiment - they assaulted a large greenskin-held town and won a decisive victory.

In the space of five weeks the Imperial frontline had moved almost 2000 miles south, with relatively light casualties as the orks struggled to marshal their strength that had already been put into disarray by the efforts of Operation Ghostblade. The opening offensive succeeded in extending Imperial territory into more temperate regions and claimed a large number of scattered Fortresses of Imperial origin that provided the Imperial lines with key strongpoints. One of the most important of these was Fort Hardyr, a large coastal fortress-port located on the southern tip of the Kaddilan Peninsula that serves as a key entry point to the Enruss Ocean.

Notable Battles:

Hannigor Massacre

Located in the ruined city of Hannigor a few dozen miles north of the centre of the Ramara Mountain Range. that was infested with disorganised but highly numerous ork gangs. Under the advice of Gradburgan General Lazar Grenn, Lord General Militant Xerant decided to avoid close urban combat against the orks with his infantry, instead dispatching all 4 Squadrons of the House Macrae Knights along with 3 Mechanised regiments with large Hellhound complements.

Street by street the city was methodically cleansed. Purging flame from Hellhounds and the fearsome cannons and chainguns of House Macrae cleansed the orks from Hannigor while leaving most of the infrastructure intact. Meanwhile nimble Knight Armigers countered any orks that tried to flank and bomb the tanks from behind, tearing them to pieces with their chaincleavers. Within a few days Hannigor was cleansed, and any orks that fled the encircled city were met with artillery and lasfire.

Sir Alastair Darne, Knight Armiger Pilot, received a commendation from House Macrae during this battle for engaging two dozen Ork Stikkbombers attemtping to scale the Knight Questoris of Lord William Macrae. Unable to use his Thermal Spear so close to his Lord, Sir Darne engaged the orks in melee. He succeeded in killing fourteen with his chaincleaver before a stikbomb took off the leg of his Knight, but he had bought enough time for Lord William to bring his own guns to bear and slaughter the remainder. After the battle Sir Darne was quickly repaired and back into combat alongside his Lord.

Battle of Fort Markath

The ancient Fort Markath is located on a hillock overlooking a major valley on the western edge of the Ramara Mountain Range, a vital chokepoint in any conflict in the region that can serve as a crucial flanking route around any front that forms to the west of the mountain range. Unfortunately even the orks could tell its importance, and Fort Markath was inhabited by a small but very well-equipped ork klan in possession of enough artillery to dominate the valley. However while an orbital bombardment could level the entire structure, Lord General Militant Xerant decided that the Fortress should instead be claimed for the Imperial side to defend against any ork counterattacks through the valley.

Under severe time constrants as an entire Brigade waited to pass through the valley and flank the ork hordes on the western front, and with the Ghosts of Retribution engaged on the eastern front at the time, Major General Arkus Xerant decided to dispatch 1st Battalion of the 6th Adamantian Grenadier Regiment - the most elite unit under his command - to take the Fortress.

Deploying from Valkyrie Assault Carriers as several flights of Vulture Gunships suppressed the ork guns, the Grenadiers swept the fortress clean with flame and plasma. The close quarters fighting was fierce and the Fort's large courtyard was the site of heavy exchanges of fire as missiles and shells arced across the walls and keep, while roving Vultures struck ork positions with volleys of rockets and cannon fire. The most brutal combat was in the Fort's chapel where the klan's Nobs and Warboss had gathered, and the Grenadier's assault quickly descended into a messy melee as they contested with orks between the shattered pews and altars. Bayonets stabbed, swords hacked, plasma guns howled and hellguns cracked as the Grenadiers cut down the rampaging Nobs one by one.

1st Battalion suffered significant casualties in the operation. They were effectively spent and would be stood down for the remainder of the Campaign. But they successfully killed every greenskin within Forth Markath's walls within 18 minutes of insertion and allowed the 55th Adamantian Brigade to flank and annihilate a force of around 250,000 orks on the western front.

During the Battle Grenadier Sergeant Milu Vrask killed the Fort's Warboss with a well-placed Krak grenade and a trio of Hellgun shots to the head, ending the 'Chapel Slaughter' as it became known and earning him a promotion to Colour Sergeant along with the Adamant Star. Medic Corporal Samuel Thorne was awarded the Adamant Cross for carrying six wounded - including an officer - out of the Fort's courtyard to cover before treating them while under heavy fire. Finally Warrant Officer Bryant Gollins was awarded the Adamantian Aviation Medal for interposing his Vulture between newly revealed ork AA gun and a stationary Valkyrie offloading troops. Gollins destroyed the gun with rockets but suffered a wounded leg from shrapnel as heavy calibre shells struck his craft's fueslage.

Battle of Ramswood

The vast forest known as Ramswood is located east of Ramara Lake and covered hundreds of square miles. The region was crawling with near-feral greenskins that had an affinity for camouflage and ambush tactics, made apparent when 1st Company, 2nd Battalion, 2041st Gradburgan Infantry Regiment suffered 71% casualties and retreated after pushing just two miles in.

The vast forest was far too tight for armour, and strategists were forced to consider a battle of infantry attrition before Rampagan Colonel Garas 'Wildman' Wayde volunteered to take in his own Infantry regtiment. Joined by 30 Scouts from the Ghosts of Retribution, the 60th Rampagan Light Infantry Regiment took to the forest like hunters, daubing themselves in extensive camouflage and utilising suppressed weapon and crossbows. Over the course of two weeks the Rampagans ruthlessly hunted down thousands of orks, while the Astartes Scouts wiped out any larger groups with ferocious ambushes. By the end of the period orks were seen fleeing Ramswood from all sides, screaming about shadows and ghosts before being gunned down in the open.

Lieutenant Fennis Rawn earned promotion to Captain after emerging from the battle with 100 ork tusks, while Staff Sergeant Lias Degarro and Private Vlador Pugh received Adamantian Medals for taking down an entire squad with a single two-man ambush, skewering the Nob on a pitfall before gunning seven down and killing the last three with a grenade tripwire as they fled.

Organised Ork Resistance

Unfortunately after these five weeks the orknoids gained enough traction to start mounting a serious, organised defence around the 15th Parallel North, slowing the Imperial advance as larger ork hordes were encountered along with more dangerous war machines such a Stompas and looted tanks. The main cause of this was a major concentration of Skullroarz orks that had gathered to the eest of the Ramara Mountain Range, and their superior numbers and technology stalled the Imperial advance. In the Battle of Gallagen Hills a massive band of Skullroarz including a large number of Meganobz and well-made ork tanks engaged the 642nd Adamantian Infantry Regiment of 20,000 men, catching the regiment off-guard. As the regiment attempts to retreat they find the hills behind them have been flanked by a large number of ork Kommandos. Trapped between two ork forces the 642nd ended up suffering 92% casualties (including 44% KIA) before the Ghosts of Retribution and Imperial Guard reinforments arrived and eradicated the ork force. The remnants of the 642nd were stationed in recovery until the end of the Campaign.

Another setback on the western front struck when a large unit of 50,000 elite Skullroarz orks led by a mid-level warboss conducted a surprise amphibious assault on Fort Hardyr, forcing the small garrison of the 1766th Gradburgan Infantry Regiment to retreat in the face of the well-equipped Nobs and Kommandos. This gave the orks a stronghold behind the Imperial front lines that could not be allowed to endure and expand.

The last event that put a halt to the Imperial advance was the unexpected strength of the Straitshootaz clan to the west of the Ramara Mountain Range. Thought to be a minor klan, the Straightshootaz had unfortunately consolidated control over a large number of disparate orks in the first weeks of the invasion thanks to an unusually capable Warboss. The Straitshootaz managed to break through the Imperial lines with a phalanx of Stompas and soon threatened to encircle eleven entire Imperial Guard regiments as they headed towards the northwestern coastline. Fortunately the Straitshootaz' breakthrough northward was stopped by the 7th Dorian Heavy Infantry Regiment, who successfully defended a large forward operating base near the city of Dardin and effectively saved over a dozen support regiments from destruction.

Notable Battles:

Defence of Camp Dardin

Opening Engagement

Camp Dardin was a large forward operations base on the western front of the Imperial lines, near the old city of Dardin. Constructed during the initial advances, Camp Dardin was an enormous barracks and command centre for the 44th Adamantian Corps, akin to a small military city surrounded by a large perimeter of sandbag & razorwire walls, Aegis lines, and gun towers.

Most of the camp's inhabitants were command & support personnel and wounded, but assigned to the camp's defence was the 7th Dorian Heavy Infantry Regiment, a force of 12,000 women armed with a large amount of heavy defensive equipment, under the command of Colonel Janissa Pryde.

When the Straitshootaz broke through the western Imperial front they surged almost a hundred miles into Imperial territory, caussing severe casualties to the 1950th Adamantian Supply Regiment and the 412th Gradburgan Engineering Regiment while also scattering a dozen more support regiments. After around 100 miles the ork force split into two. One half headed northwest towards the coast, compelled by their warboss to act strategically and encircle a large portion of the Imperial western front. The other half however was too tempted by the prospect of pillaging the rearline Imperial positions and headed northeast, straight for Camp Dardin.

The Dorians of the 7th were highly trained, and many of them had some minor combat experience in the civil conflicts of their homeworld, but none had faced orks in battle before this day that marked Doria IV's first major contribution to the Campaign.

The ork horde was sighted well in advance of their arrival at Camp Dardin, but were too close to allies to bombard from orbit and were accompanied by a large number of anti-air vehicles that limited the effectiveness of airstrikes. Colonel Pryde deployed her women to the Camp's walls as the regiment's large artillery companies heaved their guns into position. Also stationed in Camp Dardin at the time was 6th Battalion of the 4th Dorian Grenadier Regiment, consisting of almost 600 elite infantry mounted in Valkyries. The units' commander, Major Ani Vasser, had her battalion mount up and remain mobile throughout the camp, to reinforce the walls where needed.

The ork horde crested the horizon and with a thundering roar hundreds of earthshaker shells and manticore missiles surged into the air, landing amongst the orks and tearing countless greenskins apart. But the orks were undaunted and charged at all speed. As they got within hundreds of metres they swung aloft enormous poles and banners splayed with the tortured, mangled, and crucified remains of various captives taken from the 1950th and 412th. Then they released more prisoners and let them run for the Camp before gunning them down mercilessly from behind, laughing as they massacred their captives with shells and flame. The Dorians were shaken by their first encounter with the orknoid savagery, but the watchful eyes of regimental Commissar Milla Browz kept them at their posts as the orks began to charge.

The tide of orks fell upon Camp Dardin like a wave, and while the common greenskins were scythed down in the thousands by the Dorians' signature Heavy Autorifles the orks' ramshackle vehicles rumbled onwards, and each one taken out by an artillery shell or heavy weapon team was immediately replaced by three more. As the first ork tanks got within range the defenders began to take hits. Ork Kannonfire peppered the Camp's walls and bastions, and while each ork tank rarely got more than a single shot off before being destroyed by lascannons and artillery the casualties began mounting on the defenders' side. The Dorians fought fiercely, slaying tens of thousands of orks and destroying hundreds of ork vehicles. Even a pair of stompas were brought down by concentrated artillery fire before they could get in range, and the ork bodies were piled half a dozen high around the walls as shells chewed them up. But as the battle dragged on with no end to the greenskins in sight things took a bad turn for the Imperium as more and more ork vehicles reached weapons range.

Combat Shifts Towards the Orks' Favour

3rd Battalion lost its commander when Major Anders' position took a direct hit from an ork kannon, and a massive wave of grot bombs struck the camp's main gate, collapsing both bastions and carpeting the surrounding walls, causing hundreds of serious maiming injuries from shrapnel and explosions. 5th and 6th Companies of 5th Battalion were practically wiped out on Camp Dardin's northwest corner when a squadron of ork flame tanks wreathed the walls in fire, before a manticore missile took them out and Grenadiers plugged the gap in the defences.

To worsen matters, ork kommandos were flanking the camp and scaling less defended parts of the wall, butchering isolated squads before heading into the camp itself. An entire artillery battery was lost when kommandos detonated their ammunition stores, before the orks began to prey on ammunition carriers and stretcher bearers across the camp. Though the kommandos were eventually slain by Major Vasser's Grenadiers, the kommandos' cold-blooded murdering and their mounting losses were decimating the Dorian's morale as defeat began to seem inevitable under the endless tide of greenskins, hideous creatures the likes of which they had never seen before.

Slaughter of Point Three-Delta

The battle's critical juncture came when an entire platoon of ork heavy nobs soared over the most fiercely contested section of the wall - designated Point Three-Delta. Half the nobs were shot down or killed crash-landing, but several dozen of the massive greenskins successfully landed and tore into the defenders from behind. Scores of Dorians were slain or maimed as heavy shells and chainaxe-wielding brutes assaulted them at close range, and the entire walls' defence began to fold as they sought to escape the rampaging nobs.

Refusing to accept defeat Colonel Pryde charged into the fray herself with some of her most loyal women, including Commissar Browz, determined to push back this climactic offensive or die trying. Tipping the scales in the Dorian's favour was Major Vasser and some of her best, arriving from the skies as they deployed straight to the wall on grav chutes, and Vasser herself turned a nob to ash with her plasma pistol before landing on a second and smashing her power axe into its chest. The combat was vicious as thirty or so Dorians faced almost two dozen nobs in close battle, their grim odds helped bit by bit as more Dorians found their courage and joined the fray.

Dorians stabbed, shot and hacked furiously while orks crushed and dismembered with each swing of their enormous chainblades. A pair of missile launcher teams killed a handful with krak missiles, but evaporated in a thick red mist as several dakkagun wielding nobs caught them from the side. Grenadier Staff Sergeant Megane Selle - bereft of most of her lower body - killed one of the larger nobs by ramming her knife through its eye before detonating a melta bomb, slaying two more as she disappeared into ash. Major Vasser killed another nob with her plasma pistol and cleaved yet another's skull in two with a swing of her axe, before a heavy club struck her head and sent her flying off the wall to the interior below, barely alive with a severaly fractured skull and broken limbs. Regimental Sergeant Major Felicia Augusta used her meltagun to great effect, killing three nobs up close before a flaming nob cleaved most of her limbs off. Corporal Ris Urron - a sniper - killed four of the dakkagun wielding nobs with her heavy sniper rifle before a volley of rockets reduced her shooting nest to a mess of crimson shreds.

Colonel Pryde and Commissar Browz fought side-by-side, the duelling partners fighting skillfully with their powerswords as they parried and broke the clumsy orks weapons before chopping them apart piece by piece. The duo slew five nobs in melee together by taking off their limbs one at a time before finishing the greenskins off, but the commanders suffered grievously in return yet kept fighting with the help of combat stimms. Commissar Browz lost her left arm halfway through the fight, and the last nob gutted her with its jagged knife as she plunged her blade down through its skull. Colonel Pryde had suffered an awful plasma burn to the entire right side of her body and a choppa embedded in her leg had crushed the bone and would require amputation. Despite struggling from the edges of death, Colonel Pryde found the strnegth to raise her sword and proclaim victory to her mangled and retreating command. Stirred by the sight of the imposible victory the Dorians rallied and remounted the walls, pouring fire into the orks to avenge their leaders as the wounded were hastily carried to the Camp's now-packed field hospitals.

Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

The orks had spent many of their commanders on the attempted killing blow, and the horde began falling into disarray as shells and rounds and missiles renewed their fusilade into the ork ranks, and the remaining nobs were simpy unable to roar loud enough to keep their army in position. Seeing the orks' new weakness, Grenadier Captain Kaia Laodicea took a platoon of her best Grenadiers onto a trio of Valkyries and struck out for the hearty of the ork horde. The Valkyries flew east before circling around in a wide arc with all haste, striking the rear of the ork horde where the warboss was preparing to enter the fray.

The Valkyries struck with rockets before making a daring skidding landing, crushing dozens of orks before the Grenadiers dismounted, guns blazing. The Valkyrie door gunners chewed up the nearest orks as the Grenadiers encircled the warboss and its retinue, but even as plasma and hellgun fire seared his flesh the warboss was lethal and rampaged through the Grenadiers. Half the platoon was killed and one of the Valkyries destroyed when the warboss cleaved the cockpit in two, but the warboss was finally brought down by Grenadier First Sergeants Tess Lirima & Morgan Koriss, when the latter took out its legs with an overcharged plasma shot allowing the former to mount the beasts' back and fire her hellgun straight down the back of the beasts' unarmoured neck, before jamming a krak grenade into its metal collar for good measure. The First Sergeants were severely wounded in the beasts' death throes and Captain Laodicea hastily ordered a retreat, the bloodied Grenadiers dragging their wounded into the Valkyries moments before an ork horde finally realised what had happened and turned to attack.

These two critical victories broke the orks, with most of their war machines now smouldering and their command structure shattered. The horde started to fracture and the remaining Dorians pressed the advantage, guns blazing at any vestige of ork strength until the rabble were in full retreat.

Aftermath

The Dorians had suffered severe casualties. The 7th Heavy Infantry tallied 2,643 dead and 5,105 severely inured including Colonel Pryde & Commissar Browz, while the 6th Battalion 4th Grenadiers had suffered 147 dead and 288 severely injured, including Major Vasser. The other units in the camp had suffered losses as well, mostly from the kommando raid. 64 Medicae staff had been butchered (and many wounded Dorians killed) when the kommandos raided one of the field hospitals, and 217 ammo carriers and stretcher bearers - mostly from the 988th Adamantian Supply Regiment stationed in the camp - had been murdered by kommandos while assisting their defenders. Most grievously was the loss of Colonel Erron Van Der Clief - Chief Staff Officer of the 55th Adamantian Corps - and his entire retinue when ork kommandos raided their bunker; and several Adamantian Nobles were amongst the slain officers. Camp Dardin's medicae staff worked ceaselessly for for long hours until a relief force finally arrived, a full freshly-landed Corps swarming into the camp to secure the region and help deal with the wounded.

In the wake of the battle the women of the 7th Heavy Infantry and 6th-of-the-4th Grenadiers were highly commended and decorated by Adamantian and Gradburgan Generals as well as their own. Queen Myra herself presented their medals and comfirmed many promotions, though many had to receive their awards in states of severe injury if not posthumously. The Defence of Camp Dardin was the most significant Dorian involvement in the Triot Campaign where 12,600 women defeated a force of approximately 200,000 orks. Had the camp fallen the orks would not only have butchered almost 85,000 wounded and non-combat personnel, they may well have succeeded in encircling the entire western front, costing hundreds of thousands of lives.

Weston's Folly

While the orks mounted a number of surprise counteroffensives, the main cause for the halt of the Imperial advance was a sudden and dramatic improvement in the greenskins' strategic capabilities. The calamitous Battle of Gallagan Hills was the most severe example, but similar engagements played out on a smaller scale across the entire front.

Major Victor Weston and his command, 1st Battalion of the 302nd Adamantian Armoured Regiment, were at the tip of the Imperial advance, the 42 Leman Russ tanks scattering resistance and claiming many battlewagon and wartrakk kills as they thundered into the shadow of the Ramara Mountain Range. Their success thus far fuelled overconfidence in the tankers and Major Weston was eager for glory. As they rumbled ahead of the main advance the battalion spotted a prominent hill overlooking a yawning agrarian valley, and a small mob of a hundred or so orks entrenched at the top. Aside from a few rokkit launchers the ork position had no real anti-armour weaponry, but as Major Weston resported his find he was warned by Gradburgan Intelligence officers that orks could be cunning and it was unlike them to entrench in such small numbers.

Unfortunately the Major ignored their warnings, with the wholehearted support of the attached Commissar Kawser, and charged the hill. His battalion's high explosive shells made short work of the ork position, the greenskins burning beneath their tracks as they scoped out the valley from atop the hill. With an earsplitting roar that could be heard at the Imperial lines fifteen miles away, the hill erupted like a volcano as an enormous underground charge detonated. A dozen tanks including the Commissar's were turned inside-out instantly, and fourteen more were wrecked beyond use as hulls split, turrets sheared, and many were thrown onto the sides and backs, hurled metres into the air by the blast.

The shellshocked Weston barely had enough time to count his remaining tanks before swarms of battlewagons emerged from all corners of the valley, discarding the trees and hedges they had covered their vehicles with. The hill was quickly encircled and Weston could scarcely believe the orknoids had been able to plan such a trap, but his training kicked in and he rallied his remaining troops. As the orknoids approached the remnants of the battalion entrenched themselves hull-down at the edges of the enormous crater that now topped the hill, and took aim.

By all accouts the remnants of the battalion put up a fierce fight. The wounded and surviving crew of wrecked tanks fought on the gunline with their personal weapons, and the tanks claimed many ork vehicles as the orks assaulted their position. But the greenskins were far too numerous and lobbed heavy shells from short range into the Imperial position. More Leman Russes were lost as kannonfire struck their turrets and magazines, and tankers were killed by encroaching orks spewing bullets and flame.

By the time relief arrived in the form of the 207th Gradburgan Armoured Regimnet, the 1st-of-the-302nd had been reduced to four functioning tanks and 103 tankers, most badly wounded. Major Weston had survived, and his soldiers attested that he had fought gallantly while under heavy fire. Nevertheless the Major resigned his commission and fell into a deep depression, claiming that he should have died on that hill with his men.

Battle of Hardyr Strait

The ork assault that claimed Fort Hardyr was an unprecedented display of ork tactical ability. Greenskin submersibles appeared within the port undetected and disgorged well equipped nobs, stormboyz and flash gitz without warning. Surging over the walls on rokkit packs, thousands of orks conducted a simultaneous assault of Fort Hardyr and stormed the defences with unnerving precision and cohesion. Facing a numerically superior force that had already breached the main defences and taken out their most prominent gun positions, Colonel Yaxen of the 1766th Gradburgan Infantry ordered a full retreat from Fort Hardyr.

Immediately the orks began to consolidate their new position, bolstering the walls with their own heavy weapons. However worse still was the emergence of an entire fleet of ork sea vessels from southern Surim, heading straight for Hardyr with reinforcements aiming to open up another front against Imperial Forces.

Standing in their way was the 398th Deus Naval Aeronautica Wing, a ground support support wing consisting of Thunderbolts, Avengers and Marauder Destroyers. Braving heavy ork AA fire the pilots of the 398th, led personally by Wing Commander Peter Barnard-Howns, struck the ork fleet again and again with heavy ordnance and strafing runs. Okrnoid ships were beset with bombs and missiles as their ramshackle hulls ruptured and sank to the bottom of the oceans, taking thousands of screaming orks with them. But ork flakka turrets reaped a harsh toll on the 398th and sending many craft plunging into the ocean in flames, and while most crew ejected further from the battle many of those who were forced to eject over the ork fleet were captured on landing or simply gunned down in the water.

Undaunted, the 398th conducted ceaseless sorties, returning to their airbase on the coast only to refuel and resupply before taking to the skies once more. Commander Barnard-Howns accounted for the largest ork ship himself, an enormous ramshackle battleship studded with artillery guns that could decimate the imperial coastal defences, when a volley of hellstrike missiles from his Thunderbolt detonated the ship's central magazine and split the ship in two with an enormous explosion. At one point a trio of ork destroyers wiped out an entire flight of Avengers with a fusillade of concentrated AA fire, before the Wing's Marauder Destroyers tore them to pieces with a vicious strafing run that tore apart the orks on deck with autocannon fire before heavy bombs cracked their hulls and sent the wrecked ships to the bottom of the ocean.

Over the course of four hours the 398th accounted for dozens of ork troop ships and destroyers, and almost half the Wing was downed in the process along with the deaths of twenty two pilots and nine other aircrew. However they had decimated the ork reinforcements heading for Hardyr and crippled the orks' ability to open up a new front, forcing the Greenskins to hold position in Fort Hardyr without the numbers to expand outward.

The Wing was commended by Admiral Pelial and many personnel awarded. Lieutenant-Commander Lawson Brigg was awarded the Naval Aviation Cross for destroying five flakka turrets with his nose cannon while his Avenger was showered with heavy fire, allowing his squadron to sink half a dozen ork troop transports though himself suffering extreme shrapnel injuries in the process. Ensign Icarus Nallonium also received the Aviation Cross after taking his Thunderbolt down just feet from the ocean surface in an exceptional display of flying, keeping beneath the ork AA fire to successfully launch missiles into two of the largest AA destroyers near the centre of the fleet. Finally Sublieutenant Myrton Walsc received the Naval Aviation Medal for destroying a fast ork attack boat that was heading for a cluster of downed personnel in the water, taking it out with a precise burst from his Thunderbolts' autocannons with just seconds to spare and saving his fellow pilots despite taking AA fire from the side in the process.


Ghosts of Retribution Triot Campaign Losses

1 Scout - Alorius

3 Sternguard Veterans -  Altir - Memerius - Hamagon -

Operation Earthshatter

6th Company - 11 Marines

1st Company - 19 Veterans

8th Company - 4 Marines

Krieg 128th - KIA: 11,236 Guardsmen; 116 Officers; Colonel Von Strahl


Clean-up Operations

8th Company - 4 marines (Remus, Arortion, Remercius, Larkon)

6 Scouts (Hidar, Belkon, Milikar, Azerius, Velmacht, Miriamon)