Jornath: Recapturing Data-Tether Ignatius

.14 Months Since the Fall of Usmilplatz.

The Mechanicus launches its main thrust towards Usmilplatz from the south, with a diversionary task force striking from the west earlier in the same week to divert Ork warriors away from the main body's axis of advance. Reconnaissance units still present in the wilderness areas around the AO redouble their efforts and attack xenos artillery positions and communications outposts to confound the Ork's (already less than stellar) command and control capabilities. 

The Easternmost column of the main body's advance will be the first to hit a major population center, the town of Korsnokrat. While local partisan and militia forces moved house-to-house clearing out the xenos, and liberating slave encampments, the Skitarii maniples would be moving to one of their first primary objectives of the campaign, a data-tethering compound, in Korsnokrat which houses huge amounts of backup information and ancillary servers for Prima Jama.  

The battle concluded quickly, massed fusillades of high-powered weaponry proved the better of the data-tether's occupiers. The Orks, as is typical of their race gave a hearty effort, but lacking effective armor or transport could not approach the sons of mars to bring their savage strength to bear, and thus before nights end, the street outside the compound was piled with the charred corpses of Ork bully-boys, and the crude sheet metal glyphs and heretical alien technology which had been rammed haphazardly into the priceless equipment within.  A day on and a small army of newly freed lay-adepts and noncombatant mechanicus personnel had brought data-tether Ignatius back into the operational fold of Prima Jama.

The Liberation of Usmilplatz was having good success thus far, but could it be sustained?

-Your Favorite Madman-

Jornath: Skirmish in Anesl Hollow

.13 Months Since the Fall of Usamilplatz.

Operation Gray Jewel was wildly successful, routing Ork forces around Behras and sending the majority of Greenskins in the central combat zone scrambling back north to the safety of the mountain ranges. Its role finished in the larger offensive, the Mechanicus begins to prepare for a campaign of its own, in the mountains around its central operations facility on Jornath, Prima Jama. The Skitarii Cohorts had withdrawn from the mountain towns and villages early in the invasion to protect areas of key infrastructure or spiritual primacy to the Cult Mechanicus, leaving many of its lay-adepts and their families to fend for themselves. After all, the hand that pulls the lever can be replaced, but the machine the lever services may never see its like again.

In some cities, the civilian population had the enormous benefit of the Crater Cohort, a sizeable contingent of Jornathii Mustermen that have sworn fealty to the Magos of Prima Jama, and which benefit from the relationship with more advanced equipment. But the vast majority of towns were forced to rely on a volunteer militia for their defense. 

The Mechanicus began its operation to liberate Usamilplatz, by dispatching units of Sydonian Dragoons and Sicarian Infiltrators to act as forward reconnaissance, scouting out the forests around the major highway's, eliminating Ork encampments as quietly as possible to maximize surprise when the main force began its push towards the city.  

These units met with limited success, the Orks in Usmilplatz had grown large on a steady diet of fighting against the local partisans and had adopted good small-unit tactics to deal with fighting these forces as part of their counter-insurgency. On top of the veteran opposition, Mechanicus' command and control tethers, allowing Dominus' to give real-time orders to units in the field were being disrupted by unusual energy spikes, causing Skitarii assets to disappear from the control auspex entirely. 

Reconnaissance Asset T86-01 was one such unit, a five-man team of  Ruststalkers, tracking north along Ancillary Highway 18-UM, to eliminate a Xenos firebase when they vanished from the Auspex suddenly in Anesl Hollow, a long-abandoned iron minehead. 

Combat Asset C67-02 is dispatched to the location to search for the wayward recon team. When they arrive, their search yields no obvious explanation, about to descend into the mine itself the Skitarii are interrupted by the sudden arrival of an Ork Raiding party.

The Ork raiders, striking with surprise on their side, catch the Skitarii in a state of rare disorganization, forcing the combat unit back off the mountain, leaving the fate of T86-01 still shrouded in mystery for the time being.  

Across the field, much of the early stage objectives for Mechanicus scout teams are not met on schedule. It is of no consequence to the Magos' of Prima Jama, if infiltration and sabotage cannot win the day, then massed superior firepower surely will...

-Your Favorite Madman-

Jornath: The Storming of Eckard Lane

Petyr clutched his lasgun tightly, the sounds of fighting echoed out across the town. The fat forms of xenos aircraft screamed by overhead like revolting bloat flies of scrap. The guild master had to scream over the enormous barrage of noises.

"Keep your heads down lads! The Crater Cohort will be here soon and then we'll retake the city!" 

Petyr peaked up over the lip of the shattered building, another handful of civilian vehicles was rocketing down the body-strewn street. Orks with crude jump packs tailing them closely, they let out perverse jeering calls in their bestial tongue as they fired heavy slugs towards the fleeing cars. 

From the second story of the antique shop, the platoon's heavy bolter kicked into life, barking out a short burst of gunfire...

The Stormboyz, scream forward towards the Imperial lines, seeking to hamper the human's firing to allow for the rest of the force to close. 

Nobz bound from cover to cover to avoid the withering hail of las and bolter fire pouring out from the Imperial blockade

The Orks close and take a considerable few guardsmen before the close of the final turn, curiously the gretchin do a not insignificant amount of damage on their own, firing from cover within the garage, making them particularly hard to hit. 

The Imperial town of Usamilplatz falls to savage Ork raiders, its militia buying precious hours to allow for portions of the civilian population to withdraw into the countryside in an attempt to find refuge from the vengeful aliens. This scrappy militia and their families would go on to form the backbone of the human resistance in the Usamiljen mountains for several months. Called Partisanii, these troops would hold out, striking at the aliens, as they created infrastructure across the region, eventually aiding the Mechanicus' Reconquest Campaign when it began in the weeks after Operation: Gray Jewel.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned as always for more battles from Jornath, particularly from the Mechanicus' push onto the Ork held mountains, and for a major lore update in the next few weeks.

-Your Favorite Madman-