Difference between revisions of "Inferno Campaign~Battle at Autur"

Revision as of 09:47, 7 March 2015

Battle Details

Type: Battle
Date: 047.007.M31
Sub-Sector:Cambrius
System: Inferno
Planet: Inferno
Victor: Unresolved
Draw: y
Influence: 5

Forces:

Battle Summary

Felix Salvius Otho, 13th Company Praetor, gives orders to his men during the counter-ambush.

During the opening conflicts between loyalist and traitors on the planet Inferno, loyalist and traitor forces alike focused their initial battle plans on holding or capturing (respectively) the vital spaceports dotted across the main continent. One such spaceport, the northern "Auturaxis" spaceport, was one of many that came into direct conflict during the very first conflicts soon to engulf the entire world. Its location however meant rapid and direct paths of attack by traitor forces could only be undertaken from large plateaus to the east, limiting the number of forces the traitors could bring to bear, quickly, against the Loyalists defending the port. The strength of the loyalist defenders requires a join assault on two fronts against the spaceport, however due to the limitation imposed by the terrain, reinforcements to the main eastern assault had to pass through the immense ruins of the hive city Autur from the south.

It is in the ruins of Autur that one of the very first battles of the Inferno Campaign took place.

Having intercepted the traitor plans to send forces from the south, elements of L-XIII-1313 were dispatched under cover of night to ambush the Death Guard detachment travelling via ground to aid their fellow traitors in the Auturaxis assault.

The opening shots were fired during the early minutes of dawn, as the Death Guard launched a surprise counter ambush on the dug-in Ultramarines. --Later intelligence would reveal that the traitor forces had deliberately leaked information of their movements to draw forces away from the spaceport, into the ruins, where they could be divided and crushed.--

The surprise attack on the Ultramarines inflicted severe casualties, halving the defender's strength almost instantly. Capitalising on this, Death Guard forces lead by the traitor Morturg, surged quickly, surrounding the surviving XIIIth in the ruins of the Tartacio Administratum building. Punishing fire inflicted greater losses on the Loyalists, largely preventing any meaningful response in kind.

It was a second push by units of Death Guard terminators that, through a mixture of luck and the careful direction of Praetor Felix Otho, the Death Guard assault stalled. As the remains of Tactical Squad Cobalt Triarii engaged in a strategic redeploy, harrying the terminators inside the building, Otho lead a meagre force of assault marines in a counter charge on the northern edge of the encirclement. Despite their advantage, the Death Guard terminators struggled to displace the remaining tacticals, while the northern assault succeeded in breaking through the Death Guard line.

Regardless of the brief reprieve, only a handful of the XIIIth would have managed to retreat through the temporary gap before the numerically superior Death Guard closed in for the killing blow. During the precious few moments as Cobalt Triarii fell back from the ruined building towards the escape route, Loyalist Armour --REF: Sicaran; Invictus ++ Spartan; Daelus--arrived in support. The timely arrival of the Utramarine armour blunted the Death Guard attack and the traitor forces fell back rather than chase a Pyrrhic victory.

The loyalists, too crippled to continue the battle and pursue the retreating Death Guard, also retreated, back towards Auturaxis Spaceport, leaving the Hive City Autur uncontested and uncontrolled land. Despite the cunning ploy of the traitors to lure loyalist forces to the ruins, the eastward assault on the spaceport failed shortly after the counter ambush, though arguably causing comparable damage in kind to the XIII legion's strength through the rest of the Inferno Campaign.

The 13th defend against the Deathgaurd forces during the Battle at Autur.

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