Darnath Lysander - The Crusade Continues: During the assault on Kalin Rho, Garadon's strike force had rescued a handful of human slaves. They had been pressed into service in the workshops, performing tasks too delicate for Orks and too important to be entrusted to unreliable Grots. Less than half of the slaves were of Kalinese stock. The others had been brought from the Hive World of Viashan. Some of the Kalinese distantly recalled they had provided supplies to Viashan some forty Terran years previously, before the Warp Storm had severed all contact. With the presence of the Viashan slaves on Kalin -- none of whom were past their thirtieth standard year -- that Warp Storm had clearly ceased, and the 3rd Company's next destination was clear. Leaving Kalin's fate in the hands of the surviving Imperial Guardsmen and the Nemean blockade fleet, the Storm of Wrath left orbit, and set course for Viashan.As the Battle Barge hurtled through the Warp, Lysander took stock of his casualties. At his order, Scout Squad Banna was dissolved, and the composition of the remaining squads reordered. Eight Neophytes who had already received the Black Carapace were granted the Power Armour and roles of fallen Battle-Brothers. Sergeant Banna himself assumed the late Sergeant Odan's command over Squad Secundus. Five of the Centurion warsuits had sustained heavy damage during the factory assaults. Of these, only three could be brought to reliable function, no matter how diligently the Techmarines performed the Rites of Repair, so Lysander ordered these suits sealed in the warship's armoury until such time as they could be returned to Phalanx.With no information concerning the forces awaiting them at Viashan, Lysander had ordered the Storm of Wrath to re-enter realspace beyond the system's edge, past the range of whatever detectors the Orks might have constructed. This quickly proved to be a prescient choice. No sooner had the Battle Barge arrived at Viashan than its Auspex arrays lit up with Greenskin vessels. A massive hulk hung in orbit around Viashan’s innermost planet, andscores of other warships were scattered throughout the system. These ranged in size from Kroozers similar to those that the Imperial Fists had witnessed in action at Kalin, all the way up to slab-sided Battleships. Stormraven reconnaissance flights later confirmed that seven of the eight worlds were airless and uninhabitable rocks. Viashan I, on the other hand, swarmed with Greenskins. Indeed, there were easily enough Orks on its surface to challenge a task force of the Crusade of Thunder's size; challenge, but not defeat -- at least if all other things were equal. Sadly, this was not the case.The Orks had not sat idle during their solar decades of enforced isolation. After crushing Viashan I's defences, they had ransacked the world of its mineral resources, causing such tectonic instability that the hive cities had long ago been consumed by angry seas of lava. However, in as close to geosynchronous orbit as the Orks could achieve, was a space station of vast size. Once the docking port for supply freighters carrying Viashan's ores to distant manufactoria worlds, it had now blossomed into a star fort bristling with orbital shipyards and docking bays, andmade planetary assault entirely impossible. Kroozers streamed to and fro between the system’s outer edge and the star fort, returning with plunder from distant worlds. Clearly Kalin was not the only planet to have suffered the predations of Viashan's Orks.As Lysander ordered the Storm of Wrath’s fleet into concealment orbit behind the meteor-battered ruin of Viashan VIII, Sergeant Garadon saw his own irritation mirrored in the Captain’s face. Operating alone, the Sentinels of Terra had little chance of driving the Orks from the Viashan System entirely, but it would take time for other forces to assemble, and in that time, the Ork fleet would continue to wreak havoc across the sector. Yet as Lysander ordered Epistolary Darsway to request assistance from the Nemean fleet still in blockade position around Kalin, Garadon had an idea.Some time later, three Caestus Assault Rams departed the Storm of Wrath’s bays under Thunderhawk gunship escort and bore down on a lone Ork vessel. It had taken several solar days -- and much of Lysander's patience -- before a suitable ship arrived. From its appearance, the Kroozer was built around the hull of a captured Luxor-class freighter, and it was Garadon's hope that the vessel's original Imperial systems and engines would be intact. However, it was the vessel's comparative isolation that made it a viable target. Approaching the Kroozer frombehind the sensor-shadow cast by Viashan VIII's moon, Garadon launched his attack. The Assault Rams struck the vessel amidships, and Garadon's breaching force charged forth to claim the ship. At the same time, the Thunderhawk escort soared ahead, their sensors reconfigured to jam any distress call sent from the beleaguered Kroozer. In the end, suchprecautions proved unnecessary. The Kroozer’s kaptin, overestimating the tenacity of his crew, thought a mere thirty assailants could be easily overwhelmed, but was sorely disappointed. After a short but bloody fight, the Kroozer was in Garadon's hands.