The Hammer of the Imperium

Honoured Council,

The rout of our force in the Charadon sector has begun, your refusal to satisfy my requests for aid have allowed the forces of the Imperium of Man to establish a foothold on Mien Zatar. If they are not checked and expelled from the planet’s surface, we can expect them to overrun our stronghold and force us to retreat within the Webway in a shockingly short space of time. My report from the battle follows.

The Imperial forces made planetfall late in the day, their landing craft nimbly evading our automated anti-aircraft batteries. Wild Rider squadrons raced to the site and myself and Elemenath mounted quickly, heading out to their landing site, a Vyper from each of the Hag’s Gaze and Isha’s Mantle Clans joining us just outside of the compound. As we arrived at the site of the Imperials’ landing I got my first real look at the forces arrayed against us. Wearing strange fur hats and heavy-looking, red coats, they are a well regimented force, fielding multiple heavy weapons and a trio of awkward walkers that I believe they call Sentinels or Guardians perhaps, their thoughts are as difficult to translate as their language, I swiftly ordered our Wild Riders into action, Isha’s Mantle with me on the right hand side as we approached the ruined town where we were to do battle and the Hag’s Gaze to the left, with Elemenath. The opening volley of fire felled four Wild Riders, two from each squadron, a hulking war machine of the “Leman Russ” pattern pounding shells into our ranks, the Wild Rider host advanced, scything into their lines, Isha’s Mantle eliminated a Heavy Weapon team, cutting down the last humans in frenzied hand-to-hand combat, the Vypers alternated between firing Shuriken Cannons into the strangely garbed Infantry and Starshot Missiles into the Leman Russ, Elemenath held a vital point on the right side, while I took cover in a blasted building so as to better direct the flow of battle.

During the fighting, I attuned my senses to the minds of the humans, they hail from a frozen planet of ice and ash, gargantuan cities housing millions upon millions of humans, rife with poverty and suffering, and overlaying all of this, a sense of duty and a collective shame, ancient but never atoned.

After the brutality of close combat, the Imperials once again demonstrated their uncanny, for a human anyway, training and fell back from our forces, firing as they went, more Wild Riders fell to the fury of the fusillade and the Vyper from Isha’s Mantle was severely damaged, on the right flank, the Hag’s Gaze Wild Riders were decimated and the lone survivor retreated as per my orders.

Our firepower greatly reduced, I began to bring my force back together to attempt a more solid front, at this point the Hag’s Gaze’s Vyper was destroyed outright, swiftly followed by its twin from Isha’s Mantle, the two survivors from Isha’s Mantle joined me in the ruins but were swiftly gunned down by the advancing humans, Elemenath and I held our positions to give our reinforcements time to arrive, but we both were forced to flee lest we be destroyed, even as I turned to flee, Skeinstorm was hit by a devastating volley from the Leman Russ and I barely made it out alive.

In the aftermath of the battle, our scouts reported the Imperial forces establishing their foothold upon the planet.

Once again, I urge you to gaze upon the skein, see the doom that awaits not just Nai’Tzeleth, but all the galaxy if this sector is not secured, send me more forces, our enemies must be halted here.

Farseer Miranel.

Pax’nera, a Meeting.

Honoured Council,

This past evening I met with the leader of the Pax’nera Sept, a group of warriors from the Tau Empire that we worked with previously, against the Canis Aureus. Their Commander, Steadstrike, agreed to meet with me at our base on Mien Zatar. In preparation for his arrival, I had our Seers weave a cloud of illusion around our base, masking it’s true appearance and size, if only the Tau Commander knew that the majestic trees bending in the wind were in fact anti-aircraft emplacements and sensor arrays, truly the minds of these aliens are easily deceived.

Once their ship appeared on our sensors, a great deal closer than I had anticipated, I began to seek the Tau Commander’s mind, I sensed a great deal of fear and anticipation and realised that my would be ally was nervous, layered over this more immediate emotion was a strong sense of duty and honour and concern for those under his command, personality traits that can be easily subverted in our own interests. Glad now that I had chosen to hide our true strength, I had the wing of Crimson Hunters I had sent to escort them peel away and return to our landing pads, not wishing to spook our guests any further.

When the ship came into sight, the only forces visible on the ground were myself and Lieulia, two squads of Guardians, including Makto, and a squad from the Whispering Star. I felt something from the Tau Commander then, which I did not expect, he had commanded his forces not to fire upon us for any reason, a curious command to issue within what he must assume is enemy territory.

Their ship touched down and the boarding ramp extended, the Commander himself is an impressive member of his race, moving with the fluid grace of those forged in combat, as he approached I got a sense of nerves and used my arts to subtly reinforce his feelings of safety.

I stepped forward and greeted him in the correct manner, as I had when we worked together previously, we exchanged pleasantries and as he mentioned an uneventful trip, I knew our attempts at remaining unseen had been successful.

We moved inside a structure raised specifically for this meeting and negotiations began in earnest.

I will report again once an accord has been reached.

Cult of the Machine God

Honoured Council,

This past week we began scouting the territory of the Adeptus Mechanicus and planned a strike to conquer one of the moons which they currently, still, hold.

My forces were dispatched to the moon of Marqin Medel, targeting the main encampment of the deluded humans, we moved in to strike. My warriors acquitted themselves remarkably well, laying down a furious storm of fire upon the unsuspecting humans, despite this perfectly timed attack, the arcane ministrations of their tech-priests allowed the enemy warriors to shrug off all but the mightiest of blows. Our weapons unable to penetrate their defences effectively, I should have fallen back and re-evaluated the situation, however I was hesitant to give up the element of surprise. I pressed the attack, maneuvering my guardians into the best positions to cut down the human warriors who were now joined by a unit of Space Marines.

My force of Guardians was engaged in hand to hand fighting and killed one of the enemy before suffering unrecoverable losses from the Space Marines. I made an attempt at driving them back on my left flank, but by this time my numbers were too few and I was forced to withdraw to our nearby base on Magra Tuthon IV.

We had barely recovered from our failed invasion when Space Marine drop pods began smashing into the ground around our base of operations, the battle was swift and bloody, with very little cover for my already disheartened forces and I was eventually forced to abandon our outpost and return to Mien Zatar, despite nearly my entire force giving their lives to hold our ground.

Once again I ask you for reinforcement, my force has been all but bled dry. I beg you to gaze upon the Skein to see what I have seen. Send the Clans with their Wildriders, a squadron of Falcons, anything… If we do not receive reinforcement soon, we may lose our foothold in this sector and the forces of our enemies will control the Mad One’s machines, making any attempted liberation of this sector an onerous task, surely doomed to failure.

Twin Fangs of the Wolf Mother

Honoured Council,

This past week, as planned, I began our expansion onto nearby moons, starting with the moon to the galactic North of Mien Zatar.

Upon exiting the webway in orbit around this moon, named Hewl Grewv we detected signs of recent occupation by the forces of the Wolf Mother, the “Canis Aureus”. A small force of these renegades were established upon the moon’s surface.

Autarch Ethaniel led a squad of Swooping Hawks from the Eagle’s Cry shrine, a unit of Dire Avengers from the Whispering Star and six Rangers who had recently returned from scouting a nearby planet for possible ingress points.

Our fleet positioned itself over the battle, remaining hidden from the Wolf Mother’s own fleet by grace of our Holo-fields. As we observed a warp-storm of unprecedented ferocity gathered above the site of the battle, leading me to believe it was no freak occurrence, but was by design, either of our enemies or for the sport of the denizens of warp space.

Communications via mind-link were fragmented thanks to the interference of the warp-storm, the Captain of the Nightwind received a request for orbital bombardment at a specified location and so I ordered our batteries to fire, praying that the instructions had been accurate. Moments later Ethaniel expressed his gratitude and so I knew our strike had been successful.

What follows is Ethaniel’s report of the battle.

 

Farseer Miranel,

After your orbital bombardment which heavily damaged an enemy transport, I bade the Whispering Star to hold their position, protecting our tenuous hold on the moon’s surface, our Ranger compatriots opened fire upon a squad of vile cultists approaching our position, eliminating three of their number outright, seconds later the Enemy’s answer came in a blinding flash of energy and the Rangers were erased from existence.

The forces of the Wolf Mother advanced and opened fire upon the Dire Avengers, seeing their predicament I called the Eagle’s Cry to action and landed to the rear of their lines, hoping to break their hold before it had been reinforced, we opened fire upon the daemons holding this position but our firepower was repelled by whatever warp-spawned sorcery protects them, in return two of the Swooping Hawks were torn apart by a corrupted Dreadnought and so once again we took to the skies, seeking to cut the head from the snake.

The Dire Avengers destroyed the enemy Transport and as I rushed toward the ground I saw the resulting explosion kill at least one of the occupants. The Eagle’s Cry and I landed close to the enemy commander and opened fire, our weapons failing to punch through his armour, and seeing the Whispering Star beginning to fragment, I called the retreat, but not before six more of our kin were felled by the enemy’s fire.

We led the Canis Aureus to a location of our choosing where my reinforcements were waiting to turn a retreat into the elimination of our foes.

Reinforcements from the Eagle’s Cry joined us as did a group of Warp Spiders from the Skein’s Resurgence shrine as well as a squadron of Windriders who had only just arrived in system, escorting a unit of hallowed Wraithguard.

As I arrived on the scene, the leader of the Windriders informed me that the Wraithguard were unresponsive and had been since the arrival of the warp-storm over our previous battle.

I directed the Windriders to attack the daemons who once again accompanied the Canis Aureus and were dangerously close to the immobile Wraithguard, their shuriken catapults tore into the diminutive flame daemons while the Warp Spiders engaged more of the foul cultists on our right flank.

The Combat was swift and brutal and saw most of the Warp Spiders destroyed, the Wraithguard remained unresponsive, though they defended themselves against the daemon pack, and the Windriders were eliminated to a man. The Swooping Hawks and I escaped mostly unharmed and victory was awarded to the foul worshippers of the Warp.

As you can see from Ethaniel’s report, these foul beings are not to be underestimated, perhaps if I attempt to direct them in some subtle way rather than meet them head on, even when I have the seeming advantage of surprise.

Warriors of the Carrion Lord.

Honoured Council,

I hereby submit the report of Farseer Aurelion, one of my team operating in a nearby sector to determine the extent of the forces arrayed against us in the Charadon Sector, I sent him to an old Imperial Moon base on Klassius to gather cyphers and clearance codes from the humans’ computers there.

Esteemed Farseer,

During my recent reconnaissance mission to the ruins of the Imperial Moon Base on Klaissus, I encountered a force made up of human Space Marines, though they were few in number, they were clad in their heavy armour, so-called “Terminators”. I passed the information we had gathered to my swiftest rider and bid him remain out of sight until an opportunity to escape presented itself. My warriors moved into position and as they did so, I felt the psychic presence of a powerful human mind. Girding my warriors we moved in to attack.

Initial contact was both awesome and ineffective, two Windrider Squadrons and a wing of Vypers let loose their weapons against the enemy, shuriken fire lacerated everything in sight but, alas, the Terminators of the Imperium survived unscathed, it was after this brief and disappointing volley of fire that I discerned one of the enemy warrior’s thoughts regarding a package he had been entrusted with. Bending my forces to the task we pursued this warrior, intent on obtaining that which he wished to hide. In answer to my force’s attack the Imperial warriors charged, the withering fire from not one but two walking war-machines and a crude three-wheeled bike tore into our forces. Casualties included two Vypers and one of the Windriders, though our return fire decimated the enemy, destroying the bike and eliminating a squad of terminators that were advancing through some nearby ruins.

The enemy Psyker caught a passing Vyper with a swing of his sword and knocked it from the air, the ruined vehicle shedding wraithbone and pilots alike as it tumbled away.

When the Dreadnought assaulting my infantry fired again I got reports that the squadron protecting our courier had been reduced to one Windrider, the rider holding the information we had gathered. Swiftly redirecting our remaining Windriders we moved to protect the valuable courier as the Dreadnought clanked in pursuit, our warriors swiftly surrounded the Dreadnought and with a truly incredible display of firepower, erased it from existence.

Our Courier safely away, I bid my warriors retreat and left the Terminator force to the ruins of their base.

The intelligence recovered is enclosed and uses our standard encoding method.

Farseer Aurelion.

While Aurelion made good his escape with the information gathered, it is unfortunate that he was discovered while undertaking this duty, the codes he gathered are likely worthless now, and without securing the package held by the Space Marine force we cannot know what the humans sought or what information they have gleaned.

Movement in the Shadows

Honoured Council,

The time since my last report has been uneventful, my forces have consolidated our position on Mien Zatar and made surreptitious expansion onto the fourth moon of Magra Tuthon, the system’s largest planet. I have instructed our forces there to remain undetected as long as is possible, our early defeats here have taught me not to underestimate our enemies.

The search continues unabated for information regarding the machines of Yren Hisleth and a squadron of Windriders made a discovery upon Mien Zatar, large crystal structures, not unlike those observed from orbit on Yren Hisleth, this leads me to believe that the machines we have discovered upon Yren Hisleth may be part of a yet larger network, perhaps extending to every planet in the system or even the sector. This bears further examination and thus expansion to nearby planets is planned for the near future.

With our forces dug in upon Mien Zatar and our forward observation post on Magra Tuthon IV, I believe we are in a strong enough position to oust the occupants of a surrounding world and learn more of these mysterious crystals and machines.

A World Dies

Honoured Council,

I send my apologies for not reporting to you sooner with this news, the psychic backlash of such an event near incapacitated me for a time, as it did with many of our Seers in the Charadon Sector. A planet has been destroyed. The world occupied by the forces of the “God-Emperor”‘s Space Marines, whom I had sought an alliance with, have razed the surface of Lien Teranthin and departed the sector. I have no explanation for this shocking and inexplicable turn of events, the loss of life, human though it may have been, was… horrific, an entire planet’s fear and panic caused a swelling in the Immaterium that will shake the skeins of fate for many cycles to come. I sent a single ship to investigate the event with strict orders not to engage in battle, the captain, Aedril reported signs of several other races in the area.

The presence of these other races began the blossoming of an idea in my mind, rather than chain ourselves to one of the lesser races as allies, why not all of them? I am not suggesting an open alliance with all, but subtle manipulation of their inferior minds through dreams and enigmatic visions may yield significant results. With the correct application of such motivations, our forces may be spared the brunt of combat altogether.

Revenge Denied

Honoured Council,

I send my gratitude for your swift reply to my request for reinforcement, even if, in your esteemed wisdom, you saw fit to deny my request. Here follows my report on the second action against the forces of Chaos since I arrived in the Charadon Sector.

We traveled via starship to the Imperial World of Angelus Sanctum, an ostentatious name for a sparsely populated world made up of muddy ground and stunted tree growth, but it is nonetheless where my investigations led me. Once again we faced the servants of the Dark Gods, this time the pestilent forces of Nurgle, in the ruins of a recently destroyed Imperial outpost. Seeking revenge for her previous losses Farseer Lieulia led her warriors, ordering them to scour the planet of the Plague Lord’s disciples. As they moved to engage the enemy Squad Fireax of the Dragon’s Fury Shrine were struck by a Psychic invasion that even I felt aboard the Tzeleth’roo in orbit. They broke ranks and turned their weapons upon Lieulia’s forces, forcing the Whispering Star to cut them down in a hail of shuriken fire. The loss of their fusion guns no doubt contributed to the following events.

A pustule encrusted war-machine pounded Makto’s position from afar, tearing them to shreds in one brief volley of fire, Lieulia advanced the rest of her force while Makto regrouped in cover. The Whispering Star pushed forward to recover the soulstones from the fallen Fire Dragons and fired upon the advancing Chaos forces while Squad Frun took cover behind a rocky outcropping. With the fell disciples of Chaos moving to better positions, I signalled Lieulia to begin her preparations for leaving, and once the return fire from two squads of plague-ridden marines and the brutal war machine had all but obliterated the Dire Avengers, I had Lieulia withdraw, saving the forces she had remaining to fight again once more.

An Enemy Identified

 

Honoured Council,

Our first action in this sector proved disastrous, we met the forces of the demi-Daemon “The Wolf Mother” while searching for information on the power relay crystals that are supposedly scattered throughout the sector. It seems to barbaric legions of the “Canis Aureus” have been searching for the same thing, no doubt to desecrate the ancient machine for their foul god.

Our forces brought battle upon the enemy and easily overcame their advance forces before Squad Nimren was torn asunder by diseased creatures, who refused to die even when cut down by shuriken fire, and Squad Makto and the Whispering Star were decimated by waves of sonic energy fired from the servants of She Who Thirsts, Farseer Lieulia and the ragged remnants of Squad Makto left via a hastily summoned webway portal, leaving our fallen to the ministrations of the Great Enemy’s minions.

The failure to obtain the information and the loss of not only our fighting strength, but of their soulstones as well, has been cause for great lament among the members of my taskforce. I request reinforcement from Craftworld Nai’Tzeleth to continue our campaign here.

 

A Vision of War

Honoured Council,

This past evening I was visited by a vision, a world in flames, the blaze set by the wings of the phoenix, as I watch the conflagration spreads, stretching its arms to the stars, embracing the celestial bodies that cower in its shadow. In the distance a keening cry can be heard, the note changes and resonates deep within me, becoming a low throb as a star system burns, I have visions of death, Eldar corpses lying amidst those of humans and other alien races, above all a shadowy raven soars, all fades to black until at last, as my vision fades, a light shines through…

That it speaks of war is clear and the phoenix represents new life, that it becomes before the spectre of death is troubling, but with the light, came hope.
I submit this to your wisdom, that you may help me to divine its meaning.