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For the Imperial defenders, things looked quite grim. First of all, Colonel Mortemar knew that the enemy heavily outnumbered him. If he was caught in the open, his troops would quickly be annihilated. Secondly, the Cadians were only able to field about two hundred aircraft, not enough to deploy the Cadian forces as one, which would mean that his already meagre fighting force would need to be further split up to allow them to reach the designated battlefield. Furthermore, such large landings could only be conducted in the great factory-cities, most of which had already fallen to the enemy. A direct assault on Calder's Ark was deemed too risky, and so Colonel Mortemar settled for the capture of Algrist, the nearest settlement from which he could strike at the capital, break the siege of the Governor's palace and rally enough loyal troops to finally wipe out the rebellion. |
For the Imperial defenders, things looked quite grim. First of all, Colonel Mortemar knew that the enemy heavily outnumbered him. If he was caught in the open, his troops would quickly be annihilated. Secondly, the Cadians were only able to field about two hundred aircraft, not enough to deploy the Cadian forces as one, which would mean that his already meagre fighting force would need to be further split up to allow them to reach the designated battlefield. Furthermore, such large landings could only be conducted in the great factory-cities, most of which had already fallen to the enemy. A direct assault on Calder's Ark was deemed too risky, and so Colonel Mortemar settled for the capture of Algrist, the nearest settlement from which he could strike at the capital, break the siege of the Governor's palace and rally enough loyal troops to finally wipe out the rebellion. |
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| − | In disciplined ranks and files, the brave Cadians boarded what [[Valkyrie]]s were available. A first group would storm the city, dig in and hold out against the enemy until a second wave of Loyalist troops could be ferried from Calnix Island. To improve the chances of the first assault wave, it would be supported by what aircraft the base could muster to serve as fighters and tactical air support. While Mortemar's strategy was sound, on the ground and in the air things looked far more complicated. First of all there was the nature of the terrain. Like many provincial cities within the Imperium, Algrist was no grand planetary capital with wide avenues, grand plazas and elegant official buildings: it was an industrial town at the heart of dense forest. Algrist's streets were narrow and its skyline was dominated by the great bulks of the processing factories and worker habs which would take many hours of fierce street-to-street fighting to seize. The height of the Cholam-trees - some of which can grow to a height of more than 200 feets - also meant that any approaching aircraft could not use the natural terrain to hide from the city's air defenses, which would presumably be well manned by the Charnel Cult. |
+ | In disciplined ranks and files, the brave Cadians boarded what [[Valkyrie]]s were available. A first group would storm the city, dig in and hold out against the enemy until a second wave of Loyalist troops could be ferried from Calnix Island. To improve the chances of the first assault wave, it would be supported by what aircraft the base could muster to serve as fighters and tactical air support. While Mortemar's strategy was sound, on the ground and in the air things looked far more complicated. First of all there was the nature of the terrain. Like many provincial cities within the Imperium, Algrist was no grand planetary capital with wide avenues, grand plazas and elegant official buildings: it was an industrial town at the heart of a dense forest. Algrist's streets were narrow and its skyline was dominated by the great bulks of the processing factories and worker habs which would take many hours of fierce street-to-street fighting to seize. The height of the Cholam-trees - some of which can grow to a height of more than 200 Imperial feets - also meant that any approaching aircraft could not use the natural terrain to hide from the city's air defenses, which would presumably be well manned by the Charnel Cult. Capturing Algrist would make for a dire prospect indeed. |
| − | To make things worse, as soon as the Imperial counterattack was launched, it ran into the enemy. Before even reaching their designated target, the speartip of the Imperial attack, the Lightning Strike Fighters of Leonid Squadron encountered unexpected enemies: defiled Thunderbolts of the Charnel Cult, formerly belonging to Kerrack's Planetary Defence Forces. Heavily loaded with bombs as their prime focus had been Algrist's anti-air guns, the normally nimble Lightnings made for easy targets. Intercepted while still over the Calnix Channel a fierce dogfight erupted from which the Imperial fighters ultimately emerged victorious, but several of their numbers had been damaged or been forced to drop their payload into the sea and thus needed to return to base. The depleted first wave continued their attack, approaching Algrist from the city's seaside. Valiantly, the Lightning-pilots dropped to dangerously low levels, using the city's drainage trenches and channels that diverted the spill-off of the nutrient marshes away from the city as approach vectors |
+ | To make things worse, as soon as the Imperial counterattack was launched, it ran into the enemy. Before even reaching their designated target, the speartip of the Imperial attack, the Lightning Strike Fighters of Leonid Squadron encountered unexpected enemies: defiled Thunderbolts of the Charnel Cult, formerly belonging to Kerrack's Planetary Defence Forces. Heavily loaded with bombs as their prime focus had been Algrist's anti-air guns, the normally nimble Lightnings made for easy targets. Intercepted while still over the Calnix Channel a fierce dogfight erupted from which the Imperial fighters ultimately emerged victorious, but several of their numbers had been damaged or been forced to drop their payload into the sea and thus needed to return to base. The depleted first wave continued their attack, approaching Algrist from the city's seaside. Valiantly, the Lightning-pilots dropped to dangerously low levels, using the city's drainage trenches and channels that diverted the spill-off of the nutrient marshes away from the city as approach vectors to their target. This would allow the Imperial pilots to close in with their target while limiting their exposeure to enemy fire, but this tactic also required the pilots to level out at the last possible moment, only narrowly avoiding crashing into the city's towering nutrient processing facilities. One pilot miscalculated his approach, pulling up too late and crashed at full speed into the city's ferrocrete flood walls. Forewarned of their approach, the Lightnings were welcomed by enemy manned Autocanon and [[Manticore]]-platforms that spit fire from the ground. |
| − | Having been delayed by their unexpected skirmish above the Calnix Channel, the first wave of Imperial aircraft was still dealing with Algrist's air defenses when the first wave of Mortemar's troop were inbound, further crowding the airspace. The Thunderbolts that made up the wave's fighter-escort soon gained altitude to engage their renegade counterparts, while the infantry-laden Valkyries rushed on. On the last kilometers, the heavier[[ Vulture]]-gunships outpaced the vulnerable transports, blasting at those buildings surrounding the landing zones to keep the enemy occupied or being occasionally called in to destroy an enemy position previously missed by the Lightnings of Leonid Squadron. With typical diligence and the routine born of many battles, the Cadians quickly rappelled down their transports' lines and immediately rushed into buildings, clearing out the enemy to secure a proper beachhead. Soon, fierce firefights and heavy fighting erupted into the city's Eastern quarters. Under the watchful eyes of their escorts, as soon as they had offloaded their human cargo, the Valkyries turned around and raced back to Calnix Island were the second wave of Imperial troops already waited to be ferried to the mainland. The Lightnings and Vultures remained on station, the Cadians ordering precision strikes where-ever the enemy's resistance was too tough to break, but their fuel was limited and soon they too would need to pull back. The enemy would doubtlessly counterattack once Imperial air support was forced to |
+ | Having been delayed by their unexpected skirmish above the Calnix Channel, the first wave of Imperial aircraft was still dealing with Algrist's air defenses when the first wave of Mortemar's troop were inbound, further crowding the airspace. The Thunderbolts that made up the wave's fighter-escort soon gained altitude to engage their renegade counterparts, while the infantry-laden Valkyries rushed on. On the last kilometers, the heavier[[ Vulture]]-gunships outpaced the vulnerable transports, blasting at those buildings surrounding the landing zones to keep the enemy occupied or being occasionally called in to destroy an enemy position previously missed by the Lightnings of Leonid Squadron. With typical diligence and the routine born of many battles, the Cadians quickly rappelled down their transports' lines and immediately rushed into buildings, clearing out the enemy to secure a proper beachhead. Soon, fierce firefights and heavy fighting erupted into the city's Eastern quarters. Under the watchful eyes of their escorts, as soon as they had offloaded their human cargo, the Valkyries turned around and raced back to Calnix Island were the second wave of Imperial troops already waited to be ferried to the mainland. The Lightnings and Vultures remained on station, the Cadians ordering precision strikes where-ever the enemy's resistance was too tough to break, but their fuel was limited and soon they too would need to pull back. The enemy would doubtlessly counterattack once Imperial air support was forced to quit the battlefield, therefor the Cadians did not heedlessly rush in but fortified their landing zones as best as they could, waiting for the arrival of their reinforcements to properly take control of the city. As predicted, the Charnel Cult launched themselves at the Imperial attackers with great savagery, but the Cadians firmly held their positions until the arrival of the refuelled Valkyries and Thunderbolts heralded the cultists' defeat. By the end of the day, Algrist was again in Imperial hands. |
==Attack on Fortress Calnix== |
==Attack on Fortress Calnix== |
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Revision as of 23:10, 23 July 2017
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The Scourging of Kerrack was an Imperial campaign conducted on the Agri-world of Kerrack to rid it of the Chaos taint that had befallen it. What started as a mere worker's riot soon evolved into a planetary insurrection. Led by one of the dreaded Chaos Space Marines, Mahaur the Harvester, the Chaos Cultists of the Charnel Cult almost succeeded in vanquishing the Imperial defenders and seizing the weapons stockpile established by the Adeptus Administratum. Fortunately for the Imperium, the arrival of unexpected Imperial reinforcements helped to turn the tide and secure victory for the servants of the Emperor. In recent years, the Scouring of Kerrack has increasingly become required reading for Imperial tacticians and officers because of the paramount importance air power played in the successful outcome of this conflict.
The Roots of Heresy
"The enemies of the Emperor will show us no mercy. We intend to extend to them the same courtesy!"
- — Group Captain Ardas Quinn, Kerrack Tactical Air Command
Kerrack is a peculiar world where life has always been harsh. The planet fields a single great continent where the human population has naturally concentrated. This vast continent harbours Kerrack's single and most valuable resource: the great forests of mighty Cholam trees, some of them towering more than 200 Terran feet in height. Cholam roots only grow in humid environments, which means that beneath the canopy much of Kerrack's continent resembles a gigantic swamp. Although filtered through ancient technological artefacts that likely predate the birth of the Imperium, the water used to irrigate these forests is highly toxic. The Imperial presence on Kerrack is concentrated in a few factory-cities located on the shorelines. The harvested Cholam roots are processed there into a barely palatable but nutrient-rich grey gruel, before being shipped to Kerrack's single spaceport at Ven Nys and from there to the overpopulated Hive Worlds across the Imperium.
Since its establishment as an Imperial Agri-world, Kerrack's native population has deliberately been kept in a state of servitude and held to a lower technological standard than that of the wider Imperium. Organised in great family-groups, the men and women of the so-called Harvester Clans have toiled under the stern gaze of their Imperial overseers, hacking at the tough, fibrous roots of the Cholam trees. So thick were these forests that only travel on foot was possible, thus severely hindering quick transport of goods and personnel on Kerrack. Clansmen riots and insurrections were few and far in between, though not unheard of. So when in 926.M41 the first clansmen rose against the Imperium, none could have foreseen the dramatic turn that events would take.
Upon learning of the first uprisings, Kerrack's Planetary Governor Vortgern Strick immediately ordered the Planetary Defence Forces to mobilise. His intent was to quickly smash these riots, but like a brush-fire these revolts spread quickly, including amongst the PDF. All across the northern shore, from Algrist in the west to the Ven Nys spaceport in the east, all Imperial settlements came under attack, be it from the great mobs of Harvester Clans, now openly declaring themselves the "Charnel Cult," or insurrectionist elements of the Kerrack PDF. In the planetary capital of Calder's Ark, Governor Strick quickly found himself besieged in his own palace. Fortunately for the Governor, a sizable Imperial Guard garrison had been stationed at Calnix Island, to defend the Adeptus Administratum weapons and munition depot. There on "Fortress Calnix", Colonel Mortemar and his three thousand Cadian Shock Troops readied themselves for their decisive counterattack.
For the Imperial defenders, things looked quite grim. First of all, Colonel Mortemar knew that the enemy heavily outnumbered him. If he was caught in the open, his troops would quickly be annihilated. Secondly, the Cadians were only able to field about two hundred aircraft, not enough to deploy the Cadian forces as one, which would mean that his already meagre fighting force would need to be further split up to allow them to reach the designated battlefield. Furthermore, such large landings could only be conducted in the great factory-cities, most of which had already fallen to the enemy. A direct assault on Calder's Ark was deemed too risky, and so Colonel Mortemar settled for the capture of Algrist, the nearest settlement from which he could strike at the capital, break the siege of the Governor's palace and rally enough loyal troops to finally wipe out the rebellion.
In disciplined ranks and files, the brave Cadians boarded what Valkyries were available. A first group would storm the city, dig in and hold out against the enemy until a second wave of Loyalist troops could be ferried from Calnix Island. To improve the chances of the first assault wave, it would be supported by what aircraft the base could muster to serve as fighters and tactical air support. While Mortemar's strategy was sound, on the ground and in the air things looked far more complicated. First of all there was the nature of the terrain. Like many provincial cities within the Imperium, Algrist was no grand planetary capital with wide avenues, grand plazas and elegant official buildings: it was an industrial town at the heart of a dense forest. Algrist's streets were narrow and its skyline was dominated by the great bulks of the processing factories and worker habs which would take many hours of fierce street-to-street fighting to seize. The height of the Cholam-trees - some of which can grow to a height of more than 200 Imperial feets - also meant that any approaching aircraft could not use the natural terrain to hide from the city's air defenses, which would presumably be well manned by the Charnel Cult. Capturing Algrist would make for a dire prospect indeed.
To make things worse, as soon as the Imperial counterattack was launched, it ran into the enemy. Before even reaching their designated target, the speartip of the Imperial attack, the Lightning Strike Fighters of Leonid Squadron encountered unexpected enemies: defiled Thunderbolts of the Charnel Cult, formerly belonging to Kerrack's Planetary Defence Forces. Heavily loaded with bombs as their prime focus had been Algrist's anti-air guns, the normally nimble Lightnings made for easy targets. Intercepted while still over the Calnix Channel a fierce dogfight erupted from which the Imperial fighters ultimately emerged victorious, but several of their numbers had been damaged or been forced to drop their payload into the sea and thus needed to return to base. The depleted first wave continued their attack, approaching Algrist from the city's seaside. Valiantly, the Lightning-pilots dropped to dangerously low levels, using the city's drainage trenches and channels that diverted the spill-off of the nutrient marshes away from the city as approach vectors to their target. This would allow the Imperial pilots to close in with their target while limiting their exposeure to enemy fire, but this tactic also required the pilots to level out at the last possible moment, only narrowly avoiding crashing into the city's towering nutrient processing facilities. One pilot miscalculated his approach, pulling up too late and crashed at full speed into the city's ferrocrete flood walls. Forewarned of their approach, the Lightnings were welcomed by enemy manned Autocanon and Manticore-platforms that spit fire from the ground.
Having been delayed by their unexpected skirmish above the Calnix Channel, the first wave of Imperial aircraft was still dealing with Algrist's air defenses when the first wave of Mortemar's troop were inbound, further crowding the airspace. The Thunderbolts that made up the wave's fighter-escort soon gained altitude to engage their renegade counterparts, while the infantry-laden Valkyries rushed on. On the last kilometers, the heavierVulture-gunships outpaced the vulnerable transports, blasting at those buildings surrounding the landing zones to keep the enemy occupied or being occasionally called in to destroy an enemy position previously missed by the Lightnings of Leonid Squadron. With typical diligence and the routine born of many battles, the Cadians quickly rappelled down their transports' lines and immediately rushed into buildings, clearing out the enemy to secure a proper beachhead. Soon, fierce firefights and heavy fighting erupted into the city's Eastern quarters. Under the watchful eyes of their escorts, as soon as they had offloaded their human cargo, the Valkyries turned around and raced back to Calnix Island were the second wave of Imperial troops already waited to be ferried to the mainland. The Lightnings and Vultures remained on station, the Cadians ordering precision strikes where-ever the enemy's resistance was too tough to break, but their fuel was limited and soon they too would need to pull back. The enemy would doubtlessly counterattack once Imperial air support was forced to quit the battlefield, therefor the Cadians did not heedlessly rush in but fortified their landing zones as best as they could, waiting for the arrival of their reinforcements to properly take control of the city. As predicted, the Charnel Cult launched themselves at the Imperial attackers with great savagery, but the Cadians firmly held their positions until the arrival of the refuelled Valkyries and Thunderbolts heralded the cultists' defeat. By the end of the day, Algrist was again in Imperial hands.
Attack on Fortress Calnix
Aid Unlooked For
The Harvester's Doom
Sources
- Imperial Armour Aeronautica, pp.76-84