Salients of the Prosperitas Crusade

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Salients of the Prosperitas Crusade

While Planetary Defence Forces and Garrisoned Fortress Worlds hold the line, there are four major 'Salients' where the Imperium is currently engaged in active military operations against the forces of the Archenemy and the various disparate Xenos and Human worlds of the Rimward Front. Operations in each Salient are carried out by combined-arms formations of Imperial Navy, Imperial Guard and other Auxiliary and Specialist Forces under the command of the most senior Officers of the Sector.

With the disbandment of multiple battlegroups and the end of certain campaigns, Warmaster Khan has re-organised her battlegroups into three simplified salient commands; Cerastes, Hydros and Jaculus.

Though they have their own commanders, the twin commands of Cerastes and Hydros Salients fall under the oversight of the Head of Crusade Intelligence, Admiral Ridea Holz, who has overall command of the splintered splintered Subsector Secundus front. Both Salients in this region are aided by the mysterious Astartes of the Lions of Nemea who roam between the two Salients striking where their forces matter most.

The wider Secundus front is threatened by insurgent warfare, but most importantly, the resurgent Regency remnant that has risen to face the Imperium.

Cerastes Salient

Cerastes is the central Salient of the Crusade, pushing out into the space around Helaerus III, following the fall and corruption of the tropical world of Olethros Secunda by the forces of the Regency. The Machine War of Henlock falls under this theatre, but, following the pull-back of Imperial forces from the planet in the aftermath of the arrival of Regency fleets from the Rimward marches, has left that a conflict largely prosecuted by the more-than-capable Taghmata Omnissiah of the Three Forges.

Command of the Salient falls to General Adora Astara, who earned her position by her swift actions negotiating Mechanicum aid for the retaking of Henlock. Though she has been pulled from that theatre, she retains the respect of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which has enabled her to better mobilise their technological edge elsewhere in the Salient. Inspiring, young and full of ideas, her good assets are tempered a little by a reputation for being hot-headed and a bit of a technophile - her forces are well-equipped, but some of that technology is untested and dangerous.

General Astara’s command is anchored at Helaerus III, despite the ongoing battles above the planet with the Regency. The Salient’s reserve forces also keep a careful eye on the Strayvian Gateway, where Archenemy forces have previously translated from the Warp to prosecute raids on worlds including the Shrine-World of Nivalis.

Despite her favouring of technological superiority, the planets of Shadowglow and Caracas provide General Astara with a steady flow of abhumans and primitive humans. The human Carachian tribals are not naturally given to technological advancement nor are the abhuman Ekara avian beastmen, who share their world, although the Ekara have been deployed effectively as scouts by Salient forces. The human tribals have been formed into the so-called ‘Reforged’ regiments - where the brutally strong warriors are psycho-indoctrinated and physically-enhanced into heavily muscled brutes under the watchful eye of the Magos Biologis, part of the partnership General Astara enjoys. These shock-troops have proved effective alongside the irregular Fidelis Militia for line-breaking attacks. The Raivans of Shadowglow, on the other hand, have a storied history as commandos and stealth troops, and the contingent that answers to General Astara are potent warriors.

With ongoing Archenemy assaults on Helaerus, most of the fighting on this salient is centered around Helaerus III, as well as fleet skirmishes around Caracas and Macharion, and deeper into the subsector.

Hydros Salient

On the spinward side of the front in Subsector Secundus, the Hydro Salient has yet to really taste the full brunt of the Archenemy forces deployed by the Regency, thanks to the mysterious intervention of unknown forces at Lerwick. Its commanders do their best to prepare for the inevitable assault, with warp-routes to the vital agri-world of Midsummer, and the recovering agri-world of Persephon IV, it is imperative that they do not falter.

Command of the Salient falls to Vice-Admiral Rycus Frolan, a Naval officer of classic breeding, who straddles the line between the Traditionalist factions of the Crusade, and the newer philosophies of officers like Warmaster Khan. Frolan fancies himself a warrior philosopher, and has dedicated his life to revisiting the great works of the Imperial military. Of all the Salient commanders, he is the most ambitious, and would dearly love to be Warmaster one day. By reputation, Frolan favours more traditional troop formations, and his command contains a higher-than-average number of Line Infantry regiments, alongside supporting carrier vessels to give him air superiority above a planet. Because of the higher-than-average occurrence of rebellion in the theatre, and the Rising Flame activity in the region, Frolan has been forced to adopt counter-insurgency forces. He often liaises with the Battle Sisters of the Order of his Sanguine Tears for support.

Hydros’s command is anchored around Persephon IV, slowly stripping Crusade forces off the world as cleanup of the Greenskin invasion rolls to a slow close. The majority of these forces are bound for the fighting at Lerwick, where Rising Flame rebellion and Archenemy forces split the planet - some are sent as expeditionary forces to investigate the space around the frontier worlds of Macharion CDXI and Mawson’s Wake, hunting for pirate fleets that periodically raid other worlds in this sector.

The majority of fighting in this theatre is centered around the ongoing conflict on Lerwick, but its forces still see activity fighting off pirates of human, Ork and other xenos nature, and Persephon IV serves as a perfect testing ground for regiments in supporting the ongoing cleanup of the remnants of the Ork invasion there.

Jaculus Salient

Far to the Trailing side of the Sector in Subsector Tertius, the Jaculus Salient is an independent command, far removed from the front in Subsector Secundus. Here, Imperial forces seek to stem the tide of Warp Barbarian Raiders pouring through the breach created by the fall of Kelper Prime to Archenemy assault. The combined might of the Weeping Eye and Creeping Death - both devoted to the Plague God - and their subject tribes may not be as disciplined as the Regency, but they are savage and just as devoted to their dark gods, even if their motivations are to raid Imperial worlds for the resources their planets lack.

Command of this Salient falls to Commodore Haridax Kirill, the Void Wolf - a former pirate brought under the wing of Warmaster Khan many years ago. Kirill has a dread reputation among Naval Commanders: he is seen as the enforcer of the Warmaster and few dare speak against him, despite his chequered past. Kirill is seen as the long arm of the Warmaster, directing the fighting in the Salient. He favours, as she does, the same unorthodox tactics that saw her rise so meteorically in the ranks of the Crusade. Many irregular and unusual formations operate under his Salient command, and he has no compunction recruiting regiments of newly-freed penal-labourers from Lubyanka to do his dirty work for him. These are not the only non-traditional units, as the Void Wolf has notably bargained several strong regiments of Beastman Auxilla off the flesh-wrights of House Vilas-Lobo.

Kirill keeps his command nomadic, occasionally anchoring at Polarnus Station, where the defenses on the warp lanes into Archenemy-held Kelper Prime are solid enough to deter another assault. Because of the vital nature of Kelper, the Salient's forces are concentrated around Bachian IV, Agrial III and Amenophis IV, where they seek to cordon off the movements of raider vessels leaving the embattled world. It is the Void Wolf’s gift that he knows much of the hidden pirate havens of the region, and many an unusual truce has been bartered here to give his raider-hunting fleets the full run of Pirate regions where the Imperial Navy would otherwise be unwelcome.

The majority of fighting in this region is void-based with the Weeping Eye and Creeping Death having yet to make a significant push following their capture of Kelper Prime. To this end, Imperial strategists are anticipating they are building forces to launch a major offensive and push their realspace territory wider. Commodore Kirill prepares for the inevitable demands from the Warmaster to push back and retake Kelper Prime from the Archenemy.