We have finished the first two weeks of our three week AT campaign.
Here is the back ground:
Zhao-Eminarii is, if not unique, then very different from most other Forge Worlds.
The industrial heart existed on the Southern continent and its tendril of mechanization only extended to the island chains leading away to the North-East and North-West.
Much of the rest of the planet was covered in green swaths of forest and it was only in the extremely dry areas in the center of the largest continent that any industrial activity of note took place.
The rolling green hills of the continent were home to a population of hundreds of millions instead of the billions on most imperial world. They were left mostly to their own devices by the devotees of the Machine God. The population was viewed by the mechanicum not as a resource to produce workers but as one to produce subjects. The higher percentage of psykers that Zhao-Eminarii developed among its populace more than offset their lower numbers. Not knowing why the population expressed this mutation in such numbers the Forge Domini of the world wanted to leave as much of the planet undisturbed as possible.
Having lost contact with most other colonies of Zhao-Arkhad as well as with the Forge World itself, Zhao-Eminarii was surprised to see a small Imperial fleet enter the system with several titan transports. Aware of the current civil war tearing the Imperium apart but unsure of where individual loyalties lay, they made hesitant contact with the potential invaders. It was soon established that the Legio wanted nothing more than a place to rest and refit after a brutal running battle away.
Cautiously the Forge Domini allowed the Legio to land their titans at the repair facilities in the center of the largest continent. The Iron Vigil kept many of their titans on this world at that station and so the two forces formed a hesitant understanding.
Questions were not asked and information was not volunteered. The new comers agreed to move on when their titans and ships were once again fully functional.
Thus began an uninterrupted six solar months of repair work both in the orbital docks above the planet's surface and in the repair cradles beneath.
It was then that a second fleet translated into the system at the Mandeville point.
The new fleet was made up of fragments of the fleets of Legio Astorum and Legio Atarus. Immediately the ships of the previous invaders not under repair moved to defensive stations around Zhao-Eminarii.
As the massive engines of the allied fleet burned pushing the ships towards the center of the system, a message flashed out to them from the Forge Domini asking what it was that brought the Warp Runners and the Firebrands in system.
Their reply indicated that their quarry was the Legio that had first come to Zhao-Eminarii for help. They were here to destroy them. A response requesting mediation between the two factions was ignored and no other communication was accepted by the allied fleet. With little choice in the matter the Forge World prepared for war. The few Legio Xestobiax that garrisoned the world were moved to strategic locations while the enemy moved closer. A request by their guests to provide assistance could not tactically be refused and so the two titan forces entered into an uneasy alliance for their mutual survival.The titans of Legio Astorum have been sent to attack a force field generating station hidden in the wooded hills East of the great desert in the large continent. The station provides a defensive field that is projected over one of the orbital platforms. If it is destroyed it will make the task of attacking the platform by the allied fleet much easier. This platform can keep the allied fleet at bay but can also provide powerful ground support to repel the invasion.
Things did not go well for Astorum despite having a bright outlook at the beginning. The traitors were unable to effect much in the way of damage at first but then their infantry and the the range of the enemy took a toll on the advancing loyalists. When everything was said and done the loyalists just couldn't get to the shield generating station in time.
The loyalists had to pull back, leaving the orbital platform protected from the fleet. They left some burning titans in their wake but were able to salvage some of the damaged engines.
Legio Atarus has landed in just off the coast of the Southern continent and is attempting to force their way into the main Forge Fane of the planet.
Legio Xestobiax was able to tie up the loyalists as they made their way towards the central manufacturing areas of Zhao Eminarii Prime.
With the density of the urban landscape both sides escaped with minimal loses.
After learning that the orbital station was still functioning and protected Atarus decided to make another push to end the campaign in the heart of the city while Legio Astorum pulled back from the planet to make a desperate assault on the defense platform itself.
Neither attack went well.
The traitors pulled out the big guns to limit the penetration of the Firebrands into the city. The two might Warmaster titans clashed in the ruins of the battlefield. Only one emerged from the wreckage.
With support from the orbital platform the traitors managed to get through the defenses of the loyalist machines.
The warlords on both sides fell quickly in the massive conflagration. They were soon joined by many of their fellow titans in short order.
Atarus pushed on and things could have gone either way when an orbital strike took out the shields of their Warmaster.
That was when things went decided south for the Loyalists. The full fury of the traitor Warmaster was turned on the Atarus Warmaster and reduced the engine to a pile of smoking debris.
The few remaining titans tried to extricate themselves from the situation but only two Warhounds made their escape and not without damage.
The situation was not much better for the loyalists in their attack on the Orbital platform.
While the Warp Runners managed to penetrate deep into the workings the force of legio Xestobiax.
With a substantial force in place the Loyalists faced off against the Iron Vigil as they moved to destroy the invaders before the Warp Runners could do significant harm to the stations defenses.
Soon the defenders were able to mass fire on several of the invaders titans, killing them. The two Iron Vigil Warlords had merged their void shields to stand in defiance against the massed fire of all the enemy war machines.
They were not prepared for a charge by a unit of knight lancers.
Even as multiple titans burned behind them, the Cerastus knights charged into the titans that towered over them. Their ferocious charge carried away one of the legs of the Warlord and caused it to topple into the other Warlord, smashing it's torso and causing extensive engine damage resulting in the collapse of its shield.
Concentrated fire from the Warp Runner Warlord destroyed the second Xestobiax Warlord and the resultant explosion killed the remaining loyalist knights.
Even with this victory the Warp Runners saw their chances of maintaining their station limited and as more traitor engines appeared they effected their escape.