The Death Guard marched resolute despite taking casualties from Imperial artillery and heavy weapons fire.

“Ghaz Tak. I know you. I know you aspire to greatness. You lust for the Grandfather’s favor. But I doubt your strength. Prove me wrong. Lead my troops to the objective. Break into the city. Only then will you have any chance to achieve that which you desire.“—Typhus, Herald of Nurgle, to the aspiring champion Ghaz Tak before the battle for Maintenance Hatch 179-B

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IMPERIAL VOXCAST (PLANET OF DOZARIA)—Traitor forces attempted to storm a maintenance hatch leading into the hive city of Mygor yesterday, advancing to within 50 meters of the entrance before Imperial reinforcements arrived to hold the line.

High Marshal Mikhail Botha gave credit for the successful defense to the 1st and 2nd companies of the Knights of Altair Space Marine Chapter, which shouldered the worst of the fighting.

“Our glorious Astartes, the Emperor’s devoted champions, stood firm against the traitors and denied them their prize,” said the high marshal, supreme commander of Imperial ground forces on the war-torn planet.

More than 200 traitor Astartes, accompanied by thousands of insane heretics, advanced on Maintenance Hatch 179-B in the early hours of 6 541 747.M41. Their advance was met by a powerful Imperial artillery barrage, but visibility was limited by the pre-dawn darkness and a greenish miasma that often surrounds the traitorous Death Guard.

Although few in numbers, the Knights of Altair were tasked by the Dozarian High Command with holding the Iimperial defenses until reinforcements could arrive.

Seemingly unstoppable

Loyalist Marines responded to the advance with a hail of boltgun fire.  Forward observers reported heavy casualties among the cultist horde but warned that even heavy weapons fire appeared ineffective against the Death Guard warriors.

“I watched part of the battle through a magnocular,” reported Colonel Ionut Barbu, commander of the 8th Xandarian Regiment that was deployed nearby. “I saw one traitor Astartes hit by multiple heavy bolter shells. I saw some shells penetrate his armor. He never slowed his advance.”

The traitors suffered the first serious reverse in the fighting about an hour into the battle. A squadron of Imperial Land Speeders appeared out of the ruins behind the traitors, fired upon an advancing daemon-engine (Classification: Maulerfiend), and destroyed it with heavy bolter and meltagun rounds into the abomination’s thin rear armor.

“Two heretical war machines were advancing on the traitors’ west flank and, with the loss of the Maulerfiend, the threat on this flank was halved immediately,” Botha said.

The Knights’ rear attack brought the traitor advance on the flank to a halt, as the surviving Defiler walker and accompanying Death Guard infantry were forced to turn back to deal with the Imperial threat. Both loyalists and traitors traded fire, but the skimmers eventually raced away, turning east to harass the rest of the traitor rear.

Early in the battle, a surprise attack by Imperial Landspeeders destroyed an enemy Maulerfiend and left the Death Guard’s west flank in disarray.

A stalwart defense

The Land Speeders’ next target was a larger traitor force—the main enemy thrust—marching directly at the relatively modest entrance to the underhive of Mygor.

Imperial strategists say preventing the traitors from entering the lower levels of this strategically important city was essential, as enemy troops entering the underhive could infiltrate across thousands of cubic kilometers of corridors and chambers without serious opposition.

In their estimation, this enemy presence would draw hundreds of thousands of Imperial troops into a difficult and likely unending battle of attrition.

To stop this unthinkable disaster, High Command relied on Captain Alaric Galba, commander of the elite 1st Company of the Knights of Altair and senior representative of his chapter on the planet. His forces were assigned to a position directly in front of the enemy’s target.

A highly decorated commander, Galba recognized that he was outnumbered, Botha said. Thus, he arranged his Astartes in a firing line that slowly gave ground.

“When it appeared the traitors were concentrating for an assault, Galba would fall back to a new, predetermined line,” the high marshal said. “And Galba had another trick up his sleeve: he was drawing the enemy into a choke point that limited their ability to bring their greater numbers to bear.”

This fighting withdrawal proved highly successful, military observers noted. The Knights were able to fire until the Death Guard were nearly upon them, then scramble away down previously planned paths through the rubble.

As loyalist troops retreated, and the Death Guard were forced to stumbled in pursuit, just as gaps and pre-planned openings in the Imperial lines allowed Imperial heavy weapons squads to rake the traitors with fire and whittle down their numbers.

Click here to read Part 2 of this battle report.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.