Jennika Tan Draconis - The High King Marches To War: As High King Danial remained silent, many other Knights voiced their concerns. The second ambush had sapped the Knights of their strength, they argued, and the safest course of action was now to retreat to the Pentakhost Peninsula in an attempt to maintain a foothold on the planet.Jennika stepped forward to halt the calls for retreat. Access to the planetary Vox-network had confirmed that while it still was under Imperial control, the Pentakhost Bridgehead was increasingly under pressure and would likely fall before the last Loyalist Imperial Knights would be able to reach it, a course of action which would see them trapped on Donatos Primus.The new losses sparked the fires of vengeance in many a heart and those Knights argued that retreat was unthinkable and that they should be taking the fight to the enemy, even if they forfeited their lives in the process. Again Jennika refused to consider such a suicidal course of action. The discussion was abruptly cut short by the High King.Danial would not countenance any actions that led to retreat. The enemy was scattered on many fronts and believed the Knights slain, which created the perfect conditions for a surprise attack on the Valle Electrum. Danial argued that they stood at the crux of a simple choice whose ramifications would lead either to the loss of Donatos or the victory of the Imperial forces.Jennika was the first to support her brother, which cemented his authority. With the Herald Markos also throwing his support behind the new High King, no other Knights dared to go against the decision. There would be no retreat for the Scions of Adrastapol.While a second attack on the Pass Primus was deemed out of the question, having overheard scraps of Vox-traffic between Imperial Navy bomber wings and their carriers, Jennika was able to provide the remaining Imperial Knights with a viable target: the Nortus Maximal, a secondary entry to the heavily fortified Pass Primus where their first attack had failed.As soon as the Sacristans had finished what repairs they could, High King Danial led his remaining 26 survivors through the war torn industrial landscape to their final objective.Upon their arrival, the Adrastapolians discovered that they were not the only army still opposing the Chaos hordes. Sheik Halna'sir of the Mubraxis Dustdogs was laying siege to the Nortus Maximal. Guided by the formerly disgraced Commander Korgh of the Donatosian Planetary Defence Forces, the Sheik had rallied several armoured companies of the 454th Cadian and the remnants of the 601st Tanhollis regiment around him and captured a hardened Vox-relay bunker powerful enough to reach the vessels of the Imperial Navy in high orbit.From there, the Sheik had coordinated a massive bombing campaign on the Nortus Maximal which had severely weakened the enemy's defences. However, as they lacked the protection offered by Sacristan Polluxis' datawards, the Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy had been unable to penetrate the Valle Electrum proper.Orbital scans indicated that the Renegade Knights of House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn had apparently betrayed their allies, fighting the Word Bearers for control over the large concentrations of mortal troops that made up the majority of Varakh'Lorr's armies. Against a united Chaos force, the Adrastapolian Knights would probably have faced defeat, but against an enemy in such disarray, Danial still believed they could triumph.