Planetary Defences
Planetary Defences - Installation Delta
This facility in the polar expanses is ideally positioned to cover both the primary spaceport and several lagrange points in system, preventing attacking forces from easily landing troops or providing accurate orbital bombardment.
Should these defences fall, not only would the traitor advance be made much easier but remaining loyalist forces would find their withdrawal from the planet significantly harder.
The facility itself is built around a large lance battery dug into a glacier formation with an attached mechanicum shrine as well as hangars carved out of the ice for suborbital fighter craft.
Phase 1
One of the primary targets in the opening stages of the war, the orbital defenses at installation delta were subjected to heavy bombardment by the traitor fleet. The battery did score several notable kills, including the bombardment barque Interfector Nix but was soon forced to focus its fire on the landing ships putting troops down just outside the void envelope.
Fierce fighting took place on the northern and eastern flanks of the position, with attack and counter attack taking place across the frozen expanse between each trench line. Many astartes forces paid heavily for these assaults and several notable leaders were reported dead or greviously injured in the opening stages of the battle.
Forced into an ever shrinking cordon around the primary lance battery and void generators, by day 19 the battery could no longer reliable target the traitor fleet in orbit, owing to the loss of several key augur stations and the level of atmospheric ash pollution thrown up by the traitor bombardment. High command gave the order to mine the guns and the voids and break out with remaining forces to the south, joining the retreat first to ostland and then hopefully across the poison sea to hive hephestus.
The warmaster's forces, in particular the forces of the Alpha legion and the Son's of Horus, managed to make a number a breakthroughs right as the imperials were pulling out, preventing the sabotage of much of suborbital attack craft and capturing a large number of base personel. The fate of these prisoners is unknown after being handed over to Word Bearer and Emperor's children warbands.
Maps
-
Installation Delta
'All batteries, target those landers! Forget about the fleet, if we don't knock some of those troopships out of the sky we'll be in for one hell of a fight.'
Major Kleonios, Static Defence Battalion, Polar region. [KIA, Day 3]
Comments