Nethamus - The Nethamus Campaign: Having brought the horror of total war to both the Konor System's manufacturing capital at Konor itself and its central source of recruits on Astaramis, the Chaos invasion fleet next sought to deny the Imperial defenders sustenance. By corrupting the breadbasket of Nethamus -- a massive, temperate Agri-World whose enormous crop oceans stretch for thousands upon thousands of miles -- the Forces of Chaos intended to starve their prey. Without Nethamus' vital food supplies, the enormous military engine of the Astra Militarum would grind to a halt. Even more deviously, the Death Guard and their allies could begin the process of distributing tainted produce throughout Ultramar. Once consumed, this plague-ridden foodstuff created an unending hunger that would tempt millions of mortal souls toward embracing the bountiful gifts of Nurgle.Yet the Imperium, by now all too aware of the doom approaching Nethamus, had prepared a doomsday response. Soldiers and agri-workers loaded crop reserves upon vast factory-crawlers, as well as synthesizer silos capable of producing enough food to sustain the ongoing defence of the Konor System. Orbiting Imperial Battleships rained Magmatic Bombs across the planet, incinerating vast swathes of land. As the first Death Guard troops made planetfall, they unleashed their virulent contagions into the atmosphere. The spreading blight was met on all sides by colossal walls of swirling flame, or vast stretches of barren wasteland, where clouds of ash mixed with daemonic spores to create a putrid toxic rain.The corruption of Nethamus was stalled, but if the Imperial defenders could not hold the attackers at bay, all their efforts would be for naught. The Chaos forces' armoured formations launched assault after assault upon the mobile factory-crawlers. The bravery of the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes tank crews held them at bay, but many isolated crawlers were surrounded and blasted apart, or boarded by vengeful Chaos warriors, the agri-workers inside butchered and their precious cargo despoiled. If the Imperial forces continued to lose their factory-crawlers at such a rate, famine would soon spread across the Konor System and the surrounding region in a matter of solar weeks.Yet, in the end, though inferno storms devoured most of Nethamus' southern continent, the Agri-World's precious grain-silos remained in operation. The Konor System did not starve.Fresh from their victory at Konor, the armies of the Imperium made for the Agri-World of Nethamus, the vital food basket of the system. Their numbers were bolstered by reinforcements from the reclaimed Forge World, including legions of Skitarii and rumbling war machines. These troops would be vital in the battle for Nethamus, for the twisted Daemon Engines and corrupted armour of Chaos already stalked the Agri-World's blighted surface. Drukhari Reavers had also been sighted, racing across the vast open plains in their agile skycraft. These sadistic killers revelled in the terror and confusion of the conflict, appearing from nowhere like creatures from some terrible nightmare, snatching unfortunate souls away to serve as slaves and tormented playthings in the Dark City of Commorragh.Some of the fiercest fighting would take place at The Neck, the mountainous valley region that connected the incinerated southern continent to the north, where the few remaining factory-crawlers still carried a precious cargo of produce. The ground was churned to an ashen wasteland beneath torrents of high-explosive shells, as regiments of Imperial tanks formed an impenetrable wall of steel, denying every inch of ground to their hated foes.This heroic defence bought precious time for Convoy Druseus -- the largest gathering of factory-crawlers and its armoured defenders -- to reach a defensible position amidst the northern valleys. As Heretic forces closed in on all fronts, the convoy halted and its defenders hastily established fortifications, trenches and Sentry Gun arrays. In an earth-shaking tank duel, the Imperial forces drove back the assault, blasting apart Daemon Engine and corrupted tank alike, until the field was littered with the smoking wreckage of hundreds of vehicles, and the surviving enemies were forced to retreat.The planetary capital city of Khorsis, for so long the last bastion of Imperial defenders on the planet, was finally retaken several solar days later, though by the time the last pockets of Chaos resistance had been scoured from their lairs, the great agri-hive was little more than a burned-out husk. Nethamus, though riven by firestorms and choked by roiling clouds of smoke, still clung to life. More and more Imperial reinforcements arrived planetside, and soon the factory-crawlers were surrounded by fortifications such as defence lines and Vengeance Weapon Batteries, and guarded by regiments of grim-faced Astra Militarum soldiers. With vital medical supplies and food reserves secured, the defence of the Konor System continued apace on its other worlds.