Results of the Aeyrgaard Campaign

[Authorization Confirmed]

[Psy-conduit Gamma 32 Primaris opened]

[Accessing File L89/05769VII – Aeyrgaard System]

[Incoming data…]

[Data Received]

This is initial report of the war on Aeyrgaard. As transcribed by Prefectus Primus Loth.

Reacting swiftly to the crisis in the Aeyrgaard System the astartes of the Blood Angels chapter under the command of Chapter Master Dante arrived with a force comprising elements of 5 companies. Also in support was a contingent of Space Wolves led by Ragnar Blackmane and a strike force of Imperial Fist first company veterans.

Within hours of translating in system the astartes fleet had crushed the traitor ships defending Aeyrgaard and achieved total orbital dominance. Thunderhawks began making a series of surgical bombing runs to knock out the handful of ground defenses protecting the key landing zones and within the hour all aerial resistance had been annihilated.

While the war in space and the battle for the skies raged, strike teams of space marines undertook missions to assassinate enemy commanders or to disable communications arrays in preparation for the planetfall of the rest of their companies. However, while a great deal of these operations was successful the traitor guard forces had begun to mobilize, resistance grew strong and the element of surprise was lost.

The key objective in the opening phase of the battle was the traitors’ long range artillery positions in the frozen wastes situated in the northern polar region. These needed to be knocked out so that Dante and his 1^st company could move on and crush another large force of corrupted guardsmen. To ensure success a massive strike force of Blood Angels was sent in using Storm Ravens and even Death Company. Against all the odds and surely with the powers of chaos behind them the traitor’s forces managed to hold off the astartes and defend the guns.

As a result, Dante’s forces endured intense and constant artillery bombardment as they assaulted their objective. But despite this, and befitting the commander of the Blood Angels chapter, Dante secured the enemy command position and pushed the corrupt Blood Pact forces back.

Elsewhere a massive column of guard infantry was spotted moving to the front in support of beleaguered forces suffering at the hands of the Space Wolves and Ragnar’s assault. Quickly and decisively Blood Angels under the command of Captain Ashencaen ambushed the column and inflicted horrendous casualties on the enemy. Had anymore been allowed to reinforce the front line positions then it was quite possible Ragnar’s forces would have become overwhelmed and forced to give ground. As it was, the swift reactions of the Blood Angels allowed the Space Wolves to press their advantage and clear their objective.

However, in a brutal and drawn out engagement through the city streets of Aeyrgaard’s capital city of Fraxis, while debris from the void war rained down, joint astartes forces were isolated and systematically wiped out by what appeared to be another unknown astartes force. The exact identity of these traitor marines could only be guessed at but initial intel believes them to be marines of the fallen Dark Angels; as to the reason for them being on Aeyrgaard; that for the moment is unclear.

As war raged on the surface of Aeyrgaard the astartes gradually gained ground and forced the traitors into every decreasing pockets of resistance. In the jungles of the equatorial regions the Imperial Fists engaged the maddened hordes of the Blood Pact. It is believed that these units were the first to fall under the sway of chaos and were originally the governor’s elite praetorian-guard. Though all traces of their illustrious heritage had been obliterated by the time the space marines arrived on Aeyrgaard. All contact was lost with the Imperial Fist contingent 3 hours after initial contact with the enemy.

Blood Angels and guard battled to a brutal stalemate in the frozen wastes of the north while yet another attempt to retake the capital of Fraxis this time undertaken by Ragnar and his wolves was ultimately unsuccessful. However, such was the ferocity of their assault it left the capital a blasted ruin and an untenable defensive position for the garrisoned traitor guard.

Cut off from the rest of the main guard army a pocket of traitor armour was isolated and all but annihilated by loyalist forces. However the battle was at such a cost that the astartes had to withdraw.

With the planetary forces fighting feverously and desperately to drive back the astartes the tide began to turn in their favour. Despite the initial success of the shock and awe invasion the traitors were gaining strength every hour and were gaining reinforcements via the daemonic pacts their commander was forming. A quick decisive strike into the heart of the enemy forces was needed to break the enemy morale and bring a swift end to the conflict before it could spiral out of control into another endless and bloody war that would threaten to engulf the entire system and potentially beyond.

With this in mind Dante himself opened up temporary and potentially unstable teleport rift deep into enemy held territory and personally led the attack to seek out and kill the traitor commander.

Assault squads charged through the gateway and tore into the unsuspecting infantry platoons. With Dante at the forefront of the strike they cut deep but quickly the traitor guard began to respond and the battle started to become too protracted for Dante’s liking. More and more forces began to swamp the relatively few Blood Angels and while the guardsmen were dying in droves it seemed little headway was being made. With the temporary gateway about to collapse and much to Dante’s chagrin the Blood Angels were forced to withdraw allowing the enemy commander to slip away.

For the astartes the battle for Aeyrgaard was far from lost, however the swift end to the rebellion could not be brought about as had been hoped and the planet descended into a bloody stalemate. The time bought by the governor and his traitorous forces allowed for reinforcements to arrive from elsewhere and even rumours abound that the conflict has attracted the attentions of marines from the chaos legions.

In response a massive contingent of the Imperial Navy has been diverted to the system, accompanied by Mechanicum forces and the Imperial Army. With these reinforcements the majority of the astartes has departed leaving a token force behind to oversee the campaign. It is yet another fire in the heart of the Imperium, in a galaxy that is already burning.

I will endeavor to improve upon this account in the weeks and months ahead as further information filters in.

Ave Imperator.

[End of Data File]

[Psy-conduit Gamma 32 Primaris Closed]

[User interface disconnecting…]

[Session terminated]