+ Yranus: Birthplace of Mongrels +
Ynwirm. Lost a lot of good men and women there. Lost time, too. By the time we managed to mount an extraction, the Red Hand had bled twelve regiments white, and their fleet had skipped the system. In the aftermath, Lord General Klottin found himself short of a third of his front line forces, and Major-General Jil found himself short a head. Even today I'm not convinced there was a victory to be won there.
– Sen. Opprobius Mazeran.
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| + Yranus + |
+ Twelve Imperial regiments, including three from Ha'qua and two specialist heavy artillery Regiments from Balto, were initially tasked with rendering Ynwirm Compliant. Major General Jil was given operational theatre command. Extremely well-versed and regarded in ground warfare, Jil is now infamous for having been promoted beyond his capabilities. Given void command, Jil struggled to muster his forces effectively; his hesitant commands being further twisted by Hesh's agents. +
+ The result was the infamous Yranus Landings. With the taskforce being made up primarily of bulk transports and escorts, Jil adopted a cautious approach, in order to maximise the ability to bypass minefields and system monitors. The Imperial taskforce thus translated a huge distance out from the System's Mandeville Point, and began the slow burn towards Yranus itself. The strategy seemed solid, and within two weeks the fleet had achieved orbit, with little organised hostile activity, and no casualties. +
+ Pioneer forces from six Regiments – notably the Jedder's Rim Own and Port Bromwic 2219th – were the first to deploy, and moved to secure and control the principal spaceports. Meeting only patchy resistance, the main problem that the Imperials faced were the squally storms that disrupted deployment and movement. In addition to causing a number of shuttle collisions and crashes, contributing to the force's casualties, the storms frequently prevented medical evacuation. +
+ Frustrated with the slow progress, Jil's lieutenants requested an immediate full-scale deployment, eager to catch the seemingly unprepared defenders on the back foot. The Major-General refused; instead insisting on waiting out the storms. As days stretched to weeks, resistance began to stiffen. Worse, orbital defences came back on line in a number of enemy-held batteries, and the mass transports were forced to retreat. +
+ Support for the infantry forces in-field was reduced to orbital bombardment, the accuracy of which was in turn hampered by atmospheric conditions. Indeed, after two weeks, many of the initial urban targets – Ushen Moros, Surimor and the ancient mountainholds of Baraccu were reduced to rubble – and all to apparent little effect on the enemy, whose light infantry guerilla assaults seemed undimmed. Indeed, stinging attacks on Imperial sorties had been mounted near-continuously – and all under the cover of the battering winds and rain. Lamb's World soldiers were called in as unlikely advisors to other Imperial regiments, but even their experience of a rain world home proved less effective than hoped. +
+ With casualties mounting in-field, and little progress, Jil at last gave in to his subordinates requests, and ordered a full-scale deployment. Even here, he sought to minimise Naval losses, and ordered the mass transports held back. The result was a flotilla of dropships being forced to push their fuel reserves while running a gauntlet of orbital fire – effectively giving the Imperial troops a one-way ticket. Only if they were successful on the ground, the troops were told, they could reliably refuel and re-arm. Intended as a call to arms, this had a predictably deleterious effect on morale. +
+ Such was not the case. In a masterstroke, the enemy's commander – the hitherto unknown Cardinal Qi, revealed the full extent of his forces for a brief instant before orbital communication was cut entirely. To the Imperial Command's horror, the entire planetary battlesphere went dark for a crucial fourteen hours, a harrowing period during which the deploying forces were buffetted both by the elements and by a reinvigorated enemy. +
+ In orbit, the Navy frantically fought to re-establish communication, but for three months the only communications that broke through were increasingly desperate requests for aid – or failing that, information. +
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+ Planetfall +
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| + General Jil + Image credit: [Kordhal] |
+ Frustrated with the slow progress, Jil's lieutenants requested an immediate full-scale deployment, eager to catch the seemingly unprepared defenders on the back foot. The Major-General refused; instead insisting on waiting out the storms. As days stretched to weeks, resistance began to stiffen. Worse, orbital defences came back on line in a number of enemy-held batteries, and the mass transports were forced to retreat. +
+ Support for the infantry forces in-field was reduced to orbital bombardment, the accuracy of which was in turn hampered by atmospheric conditions. Indeed, after two weeks, many of the initial urban targets – Ushen Moros, Surimor and the ancient mountainholds of Baraccu were reduced to rubble – and all to apparent little effect on the enemy, whose light infantry guerilla assaults seemed undimmed. Indeed, stinging attacks on Imperial sorties had been mounted near-continuously – and all under the cover of the battering winds and rain. Lamb's World soldiers were called in as unlikely advisors to other Imperial regiments, but even their experience of a rain world home proved less effective than hoped. +
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| Embattled troops of the Lamb's World 88th secure the ruins of Ushen Moros. |
+ With casualties mounting in-field, and little progress, Jil at last gave in to his subordinates requests, and ordered a full-scale deployment. Even here, he sought to minimise Naval losses, and ordered the mass transports held back. The result was a flotilla of dropships being forced to push their fuel reserves while running a gauntlet of orbital fire – effectively giving the Imperial troops a one-way ticket. Only if they were successful on the ground, the troops were told, they could reliably refuel and re-arm. Intended as a call to arms, this had a predictably deleterious effect on morale. +
+ Red Cardinal +
+ Even taking Jil's hesitancy and half-heartedness into account, the sheer scale of the Imperial deployment should have proven successful. While the target-rich nature of the assault meant inevitable casualties to the orbital defences, the forces on-planet had successfully and substantially degraded the defender's emplacements. + |
| + Eve of battle. Lamb's World 88th forces perform another fruitless sweep of the streets of Ushen Moros, prior to the events of Cardinal Qi's Day of Revelation + |
+ Such was not the case. In a masterstroke, the enemy's commander – the hitherto unknown Cardinal Qi, revealed the full extent of his forces for a brief instant before orbital communication was cut entirely. To the Imperial Command's horror, the entire planetary battlesphere went dark for a crucial fourteen hours, a harrowing period during which the deploying forces were buffetted both by the elements and by a reinvigorated enemy. +
+ In orbit, the Navy frantically fought to re-establish communication, but for three months the only communications that broke through were increasingly desperate requests for aid – or failing that, information. +
+ On the ground +
+ Stripped of their communications and support, and frequently scattered across the battle theatre, Imperial forces found their Operational Command became devolved to individual Company – or even Platoon – level. While there were a number of experienced forces in the field, such as the Verringian Warjacks and an Honour Company of the Vanitor 45th, the majority of the forces were relatively raw, and proved easy pickings for the resurgent Red Hand. +
+ Worse was to come, as Cardinal Qi deployed a brigade of the infamous Vrag-Rana in support of the Yranian's native forces. These battle-hardened soldiers, including a number of Armoured Companies, completely changed the texture of the battlescape. Unaffected by the communication breaks caused by the storms – later confirmed to be because Qi's network was heavily based on psykers – the Vrag-Rana tore through their opposition. Over the course of two bloody weeks, two Baltan Artillery regiments were rendered combat ineffective, and a Ha'Quan Regiment was decimated. +
+ As Imperial forces entrenched, the war broke down into a turgid and bloody counter-occupation, with Red Hand forces keeping the Imperials bogged down in the abandoned cities and townships they had fought so hard to claim. Sallies from the seemingly worthless urban areas were brutally beaten back, and the spaceports were reclaimed by the Red Hand. +
+ As weeks turned to months, a number of Imperial forces were rumoured to have surrendered in detail to the Red Hand. Such reports were scrubbed from the official record by Colonel Brasher of the Port Bromwic Mechanised Infantry, who assumed Operational Command over the forces within the city of Surimor. Fortunate enough to have sheltered a potent mix of surviving artillery, heavy infantry and engineers, the city of Surimor and its surroundings became a relatively secure stronghold for the Imperials; a place to weather the storm. Nevertheless, casualties continued to mount, and counter-assaults proved fruitless against the native Yranian forces. +
+ When the storms broke, and communication was re-established, the resolved picture was grim. Wholesale defeat and destruction was on the cards for the Imperial forces, and retreat was the only salient option – further fighting would have further slowed the Fourth Army, and abandoning the forces would have potentially led to mass defection, strengthening the mysterious Cardinal Qi's armies further. Jil's vacillation may have doomed the deployment, but his logistical talents proved to be excellent in retrieving those few who survived. Targetting region after region, a hotch-potch armada of Naval transports ranging from emptied bulk fuel-landers to Arvus lighters settled on the world, and retrieved the grateful soldier, and leaving their abandoned armour and vehicles rendered inoperable or physically destroyed. +
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| + Vrag-Rana infiltrators terminate a rare on-field Astropath. Imperial communication came to rely heavily on psychic augmentation, but the Red Hand was clearly dominant in this area; and sent kill teams to investigate and destroy any detected psychic activity. + |
+ Worse was to come, as Cardinal Qi deployed a brigade of the infamous Vrag-Rana in support of the Yranian's native forces. These battle-hardened soldiers, including a number of Armoured Companies, completely changed the texture of the battlescape. Unaffected by the communication breaks caused by the storms – later confirmed to be because Qi's network was heavily based on psykers – the Vrag-Rana tore through their opposition. Over the course of two bloody weeks, two Baltan Artillery regiments were rendered combat ineffective, and a Ha'Quan Regiment was decimated. +
+ As Imperial forces entrenched, the war broke down into a turgid and bloody counter-occupation, with Red Hand forces keeping the Imperials bogged down in the abandoned cities and townships they had fought so hard to claim. Sallies from the seemingly worthless urban areas were brutally beaten back, and the spaceports were reclaimed by the Red Hand. +
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| Lamb's World survivors retreat, sheltered by Armour from the Port Bromwic 2219th. |
+ As weeks turned to months, a number of Imperial forces were rumoured to have surrendered in detail to the Red Hand. Such reports were scrubbed from the official record by Colonel Brasher of the Port Bromwic Mechanised Infantry, who assumed Operational Command over the forces within the city of Surimor. Fortunate enough to have sheltered a potent mix of surviving artillery, heavy infantry and engineers, the city of Surimor and its surroundings became a relatively secure stronghold for the Imperials; a place to weather the storm. Nevertheless, casualties continued to mount, and counter-assaults proved fruitless against the native Yranian forces. +
+ When the storms broke, and communication was re-established, the resolved picture was grim. Wholesale defeat and destruction was on the cards for the Imperial forces, and retreat was the only salient option – further fighting would have further slowed the Fourth Army, and abandoning the forces would have potentially led to mass defection, strengthening the mysterious Cardinal Qi's armies further. Jil's vacillation may have doomed the deployment, but his logistical talents proved to be excellent in retrieving those few who survived. Targetting region after region, a hotch-potch armada of Naval transports ranging from emptied bulk fuel-landers to Arvus lighters settled on the world, and retrieved the grateful soldier, and leaving their abandoned armour and vehicles rendered inoperable or physically destroyed. +
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| + Retreat from Yranus + |
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+ New beginnings: Klottin's Mongrels +
+ In the wake of the order to retreat, battered and shell-shocked survivors were gradually retrieved and withdrawn from the wartorn world and returned to the Crusade's staging post worlds of Mu-Scorpii and Slav-Mundi, where they were temporarily tasked with patrolling and monitoring the Compliant regions of the planets – far from onerous duties that were seen as a tacit reward from the Lord General by the Guard. +
+ In the wake of the Battle of Buir's Reach, however, Third Army Reserves were growing scant. To request transfers from the unbattered Fourth Army Group would have been seen as a humiliation that even the sanguine and pragmatic Lord General Klottin – Master of the Third – could not reasonably endure for fear of losing his immediate underlings' respect. Instead, he called for a Regimental re-founding, combining the elements of the Yranus veterans with newly-arrived soldiers from Sector Cetus-Scorpii. +
+ This met with mixed results. The Galvinax/Elirian Combined proved to be a surprisingly well-mettled alloy; while the newly-created Mu-Scorpii 149ers (made up of elements of the Termeran IVth, Jedder's Rim Own, and Baltan 9th Artillery) nearly tore itself apart in its first deployment as the Jedders common soldiery jealously refused to acknowledge orders from anyone other than their own – comparatively junior – surviving Command Corps. +
+ The 88/2219th – the War-Orphans [RECORDS FRAGMENTED]
[SPOOLING]
+ The delay led to the events of Priad's Folly +
[SPOOLING]
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| + PICTCAPT IMAGE CAPT NOT INLOADED + |
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| + HAILHESHHONOURTOHESH + |
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| + PICTCAPT IMAGE CAPT NOT INLOADED + |
[SPOOLING]
[SPOOLING]
[HAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESHHAILHESHHONOURTOHESH]
3 comments:
Farnsworth: I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Yranus in M35 to end that stupid joke once and for all..
Fry: Oh. What's it called now?
Farnsworth: Yrectum.
Glorious fluff, so much gritty background and care put into this post! I really want my Flexberg to join the crusade so I can contribute on Insta- this stuff is just great so far!
Fantastic post!
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