Taros Campaign - The Evacuation: The defeat of Operation Comet sent Lord Commander Gustavus' High Command into a fury of distressed action. The war on Taros had taken a turn for the worse, perhaps a fatal tum. The failure of the airborne operation had wide-reaching effects, most immediately within the command structure of the 4621st Army. On board the Righteous Power, Commissar-General Mordred Van Horcic arrived to see Gustavus, interrupting a Navy briefing meeting with his insistent demands to be allowed to see the Lord Commander immediately. The sentries on the door tried to bar his path, but the Commissar would not be delayed. Threatening to have any man who got in his way arrested, Van Horcic barged in. The briefing was suspended. Imperial Navy officers scurried from the room to avoid the Commissar-General's wrath. Gustavus sat impassively whilst the Commissar-General delivered instructions for the removal of the staff of the 4621st army. They had failed in their duty to the Emperor, and whilst losses were acceptable, failure was not. The surface campaign had become a shambles and Taros was slipping from the Emperor's grasp. Lord Marshal De Stael was to be replaced, by the Commissar-General himself. Unknown to the Commissar-General, Gustavus had been well aware of the situation long before Van Horcic made his dramatic entrance. One of Colonel Scheja's informers had leaked the news of Van Horcic's intentions, and the Lord Commander was prepared. Gustavus knew that Commissar Van Horcic was well within his rights to take command of the failing operation, but Marshal De Stael had been a loyal and dutiful servant of the Imperial Guard and deserved better than the summary execution that now awaited him at the hands of Van Horcic.That morning, Colonel Scheja had been dispatched to the surface with secret orders for De Stael. It informed the Lord Marshal that he faced two stark choices. Turn himself over as a prisoner to Colonel Scheja, who would accompany him to the brig aboard the Righteous Power to await trial, or take command of a frontline platoon and lead an immediate counter-attack against the Tau, from which he should not return. Exhausted from his work and stung by the defeat of Operation Comet, De Stael removed his spectacles and asked Colonel Scheja to await his decision outside. In the cramped corridor of the Leviathan command vehicle Scheja waited patiently. The dim hum of the Leviathan’s generators was broken by the sudden discharge of a Laspistol from within the office. Rather than face execution or be disgraced and condemned to a Penal Regiment, Lord Marshal De Stael had found his own solution and taken the only way out which kept his martial honour intact.The arrival of Commissar-General Van Horcic and his aides saw much of the other top brass of the 4621st Army arrested. In a day of turmoil and confusion, six officers were executed after resisting arrest. 62 other officers and aides would be given a chance to die well in the service of the Emperor, after being transported to a Penal regiment. After his purge, Commissar-General Van Horcic was now in supreme command of all Imperial Guard and Departmento Munitorum operations on Taros. It was his task to salvage something from the faltering campaign, if only as many men and as much material as possible.The turmoil amongst the High Command did little to help the fighting men on the ground. The supply situation was critical. Losses to dehydration were now far exceeding those in combat. Without new water supplies fast, the remaining regiments would soon disintegrate. When Van Horcic oversaw his first briefing, reports form all regimental commanders stressed that without new supplies their regiments could not last more than another week, ten days at the most. Any sudden Tau attack might shatter them completely. As a result of this, Van Horcic's first order was to shorten the over-stretched supply lines. It would mean a retreat, but better that than total destruction. At the moment it was taking a Trojan and its fuel trailer three days on average to reach the frontline, all the time risking a gauntlet of roving Stealth teams and strafing Barracudas. The trails worn through the desert that passed as supply routes were now lined with the burnt-out and rusting hulks of Trojans and trailers: evidence of the Tau’s strategy of attacking the support elements.All regimental commanders were given licence to withdraw back towards the landing zone. Equipment that could not be moved must be abandoned or destroyed. Rough Rider squadrons were ordered to slaughter their animals to conserve water. Next, Van Horcic summoned Fleet Admiral Kotto and informed him that his fleet would be required to find new transports and escort a new series of convoys into the Taros system, carrying more water, fuel and new replacement equipment; especially aircraft for the fighter squadrons. Should these fail to arrive, the Admiral would also be replaced. The ultimatum was simple: break the Tau blockade or face a firing squad.