Shattering of the Plains of Tranquillity

In 31107009.M41, the decisive battle in the Anchorage Annexation was finally played out on Monstrous' Plains of Tranquillity. The massive mobile court of Snazgutz and his lieutenants was finally tracked down and engaged by mounted armour elements of the Emperor's Hawks and 3rd Lastrati Rifles, including the venerable Baneblade Righteous Indignation. Once battle was joined the Imperials were quickly reinforced by a Living-Saga strength combat drop of Space Wolves. They arrived just in time to counter the Ork's opening gambit, a mass teleport attack led by Badmoon Weirdboyz into the rear echelons of the Imperial army. Unfortunately for the Orks, the Wolf Guard were ready for them, and the disruption caused by this attack was minimal.

Their rear lines relatively secured, the Imperial mission prority became the destruction of Snazgutz and his retinue, followed by the elimination of the most highly destructive elements of the Ork warband, namely the Stompas. However, as these metallic behemoths were at the forefront of the Ork vanguard, they forces of the Emperor had no choice but to engage them first, forcing the armoured might of Task Force Warhound to become bogged down in an exchange of firepower that they could not realistically hope to win. The Imperial ability to counter the Ork superheavies was further hampered by 'Arf Toof the Dread of Waa-Gogwort and his Big Kan Mob crashing into the line of human armour with unstoppable force. Despite the canny human commanders managing to bribe some of the Kans to switch sides mid battle, they Orky walkers still manage to reap a bloody toll.

As the battle progressed, the aeronautical superiority of the Orks - both inside and above the atmosphere - soon became worryingly clear to the Astartes and their Guard allies. Squiggles and squadrons of Fighta-Bombas and Deffkoptas kept the sky above the battlefield clear of Imperial aircraft, while in the cold black above crude Ork Kruisers drove away the under strength Imperial coalition fleet - severly crippled by the absent Stars of Dorn - as they prepared to use their 'traktor beam' technology to hurl meteors into the swirling meleé below.

Far below, the battle reached new peaks of ferociousness as the Big Mek Stompa Dakkaboss was finally destroyed, collapsing in on itself in an anti-climatic manner under the sheer weight of firepower directed towards it. Despite the untimely destruction of its sibling, Stompy continued to fight on resolutely. Around the crashing feet and smoldering wreckage of the giant war machines, Reesius Kyle and his command squad led a desperate attack, forced to advance into the teeth of the Ork guns on foot after their convoy's Rhino transports were destroyed. Kyle was a combat powerhouse, cutting down hordes of Orks and cheating death time and again, as he engaged some of Nuzzgrond's most notorious Nobz in one-on-one combat, including seasoned war leader Grimtuff and Kommando Kaptain Gron. However there was little he could do against the towering Ork constructs that towered all around him. The intervention of trukk convoy outriders from the vanguard of Waa-Gogwort finally forced him to lead the surviving members of the second company in a fighting widthdrawal back to the Imperial lines.

On the opposite flank, Snazzgutz and Nuzzgrond led a convoy of battlewagons, buggies and looted vehicles towards the Imperial lines. Opposing them were Space Wolves dreadnoughts, along with the entire command pack of the Living-Saga force, redirected there by the Blood Axe mek's kunnin' hacked locator beacon signal. Before battle could be joined by the two opposing headquarters, the Ork Fleet finally bought their traktor beams to bear, raining down firey destruction all across the battlefield. Several Ork vehicles and nearly half of the Snazzgutz and Nuzzgrond's retinues were destroyed in the apocalyptic firestorm, but when the smoke and scalding dust had cleared, it soon became clear that the Wolves' had paid a much higher price. The handful of pitiful command survivors who crawled from the blazing crater were gunned down by the gleeful Orks. The Wolf Lord and his retinue had been killed to a man.

In the wake of this disaster, with the situation starting to look grim for the forces of Humanity, Chapter Master Marcus Kanati commited his last reserves and led his Emperor's Hawks jump pack veterans in to encircle Snazzgutz and Nuzzgrond. But the Orks were prepared for such an eventuality, and Stormboy reserves intercepted the Marines as they touched down in amongst the rocky spires of the plains. Kaptain Nuzzgrond turned back from his advance, leaving Snazzgutz and his boyz to advance deep into Imperial territory on their own. Fighting his way through the press of bodies, the Blood Axe warboss finally came face to face with the Master of the Emperor's Hawks. Marcus Kanati was the swifter fighter, but the massive Ork had a staying power that even his superhuman body couldn't match. He was finally forced to widthdraw, leaving the entire flank firmly in the hands of the Orks.

With the failure of this last ditched effort to seize the initative from the greenskins, the Imperials realised that their situation was rapidly becoming untenible. The order was reluctantly given to widthdraw, which most of the Astartes and Guard managed to do in good order. The survivors of the Imperial army made it to safety off world, but now there was no one left to oppose the Ork army. Monstrous – and the entire star system – belonged to the greenskins...

[Ork Victory]