Taros Campaign - Storming the Phyyra Heights: The established pattern of the campaign continued as the Imperial Guard moved northwards, but within the first weeks the pace of the advance started to slacken. After twenty days they had covered approximately three hundred kms. All regiments were reporting problems with their supply lines. Convoys were not making it to the front line. Days passed whilst there was not enough fuel for all the vehicles. Only when they arrived could the regiment push on and attempt to make up for lost time. Water rationing was having to be strictly enforced by Commissars. This made offensive operations increasingly difficult and slow. On the left flank of the broad front, the Tallarn 17th was approaching an upland area known as the Phyyra Heights. These rugged escarpments scarred the distant horizon with their steep slopes. Orders from De Stael's headquarters were for the regiment to swing slightly westwards and capture the high ground, hopefully outflanking the majority of the Tau defenders and opening a clearer path to the lracunda Isthmus.For seven days the 17th Tallarn regiment’s advance towards the Phyyra Heights had gone without incident. The Tau had left the regiment to its slow flank march, and twenty five days since the offensive began the lead platoons found themselves at the foot of a steep, rocky climb into the highlands. The regiment's reconnaissance squads had arrived several days before the main body, moving on foot up the slopes at night. The scouts had begun to seek the best routes through the rocky terrain. Several prospective routes had been identified, and the first probe by Sentinel units had not been attacked. The versatile walkers fared well on the steep hillsides, but it was terrain the regiment's supporting tanks would find highly restricting. Since arriving, the recon squads had spotted a few enemy tracks, but in the process several men had been injured by rockfalls (at the time,these were put down to unfortunate accidents). Amongst the lower slopes they had no confirmed sightings of the enemy, and had not found any indication of an enemy force present in large enough strength to threaten the continued advance.Meanwhile, unknown to the Imperial forces below, the Tau’s savage allies, the Kroot, were hiding and waiting on the high ground. A few Kroot trackers had ventured out to keep an eye on the humans and set rockslide booby traps, but the main forces kept to the high ground, never exposing themselves to the human scouts. If they were spotted, then it would bring heavy artillery on their heads. The Master Shaper was clever enough to know that in the dense and rocky terrain his ferocious kindreds and Kroot Hounds would be at an advantage. Once spotted, his forces would become the targets of heavy shelling and this might force him to withdraw. Out of the hills in the open desert, his forces would stand little chance against the enemy’s firepower. If the Tallarn advance was to be stopped, it would have to be here.General Barim-Abas issued his orders to capture the high ground. In scorching heat, the lead companies and platoons set off on the arduous climb. Scout squads and Sentinels showed them the way. From their caves and rocky hiding places the Kroot emerged, hungry and ready to fight. They scurried downhill to hide behind the first ridgeline. On each Shaper’s command, the warbands rose as one, suddenly appearing on the ridgeline above the Guardsmen as a long howling line. With Hounds baying and Knarlocs shrieking the Kroot charged headlong downhill. Leaping from rock to rock, their momentum carried them into the Imperial Guardsmen below. Suddenly, it was a desperate fight. Some Tallarn units fled rather than face the bloodthirsty savages. Other squads sought cover, stood, fought, and died on the Kroot’s blades or savaged by wild alien beasts.With his vanguard platoons under sudden and heavy enemy counter-attacks, General Barim-Abas ordered his artillery to open fire on the first ridgeline. Directed by forwards observer teams on the hillside, Mortars and Earthshaker Cannons launched repeated barrages up the hillside. Fire, smoke and dust engulfed the ridge. The heavy fire gave the lead platoons enough time to withdraw, and mercifully the Kroot did not follow, preferring to remain amongst the dense cover on the high ground. Bloodied and weary the Tallarn Guardsmen had been repulsed, but the fighting to climb the Phyyra Heights was just beginning. Over the next ten days, three more attempts to storm the treacherous slopes each ended with the regiment being thrown back with heavy losses. A fourth attack, led personally by General Barim-Abas, did capture the first ridgeline. However, the 17th regiment’s offensive had stalled. The only reserve force available to lend them aid was the Tallarn 3rd Armoured regiment, but their Leman Russes and Chimeras could not operate effectively in the highlands. De Stael wisely refused to commit them. He would seek a breakthrough elsewhere whilst the 17th skirmished with the Kroot for possession of a barren rocky wilderness of little use to either side. For the 17th, it was the higher water mark of their advance on Tarokeen. They had captured three hundred and fifty kilometres of desert.