Konor Campaign - Battle of Astaramis: Astaramis is a well-ordered and heavily defended Imperial Hive World, the third world of the Konor System, its largest centre of population, and a potent symbol of Imperial dominance.Having gathered significant momentum with their early victories on the outskirts of the Konor System during the Plague Wars, the armies of Chaos spread out across the region like poison seeping into the blood stream of the Imperium.A vast segment of the Chaos armada descended upon Astaramis, the most populous planet in the system. With its teeming cities arranged in vast concentric rings, the well-governed and prosperous Hive World exemplified the grand dream that is Ultramar. However, even Astaramis' formidable orbital defence platforms and veteran garrison were not enough to hold back the oncoming tide.The Chaos armada launched waves of Magmatic Torpedoes, and Macrocannons obliterated planetary fortifications and engulfed entire regiments of defenders in searing firestorms. Heretic Astartes and their allies slammed to earth in blistering Drop Pod assaults, blasting apart anything that moved even as they marched implacably onwards towards targets of strategic value.During the Great Crusade, the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman made landfall upon Astaramis. In the long centuries since, the population of Astaramis has come to regard him as a saint, raising vast statues and temples in his name.Hearts emboldened by the revelation that Guilliman had risen from his millennia-long slumber to defend Humanity once more following the Ultramar Campaign of 999.M41, they fought on bravely in the face of an unceasing onslaught. From the shrines of Saviour's Landing to the vast and imposing Quintus Gate, the streets echoed with the unceasing chatter of las-fire and the dull thud of bolters and high-explosive rounds.Yet for all the tenaciousness and devotion shown by the people of Astaramis, they could not stand alone. With every passing solar hour, the invaders pushed further inward, taking hab-block after hab-block. Xenos forces were also spotted planetside, exploiting the confusion of battle in order to kill, loot or pursue their unknowable ends.Imperial forces were forced back as far as the hive's innermost spires, and the outer districts were little more than a rubble-strewn wasteland. Without reinforcements, Chaos would have gutted the Imperium's greatest source of manpower in the Konor System, and destroyed a potent symbol of Imperial faith.Yet, in the end, Astraramis stood against all that was thrown against it. The forces of Chaos brought terror and death to this gleaming Hive World, but the Imperial Aquila yet flies from its tallest spires.The Chaos troops fell upon Astaramis like slavering wolves, bringing ruin and horror to this once proud monument of Ultramar's glory. Yet, as the smoke cleared and the echo of gunfire ceased, the Hive World remained standing, battered but unbroken.Despite suffering horrific casualties during the early stages of the Chaos onslaught, the armies of the Imperium dug in with rugged determination, hurling back each fresh assault with blistering cascades of las and Bolter fire, turning to knives, makeshift weapons and fists when the slaughter boiled over into hand-to-hand combat.Try as they might, the Chaos invaders could not break the defenders' spirits, nor scour them from their fortifications. Their rage and frustration was only exacerbated by a series of lightning attacks by the Asuryani of the craftworlds, who emerged from the hidden Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway to slice into the rear of the Chaos formations.There was no formal alliance between the Imperium and these deadly raiders, but the Asuryani ever follow their own mysterious whims. Fusillades of shuriken fire and pinpoint lances of searing energy tore through the unsuspecting ranks of the invaders, and even as they regrouped and reformed, the xenos disappeared from whence they came, leaving nothing but the smoking bodies of their victims behind.This flanking assault badly stalled the Chaos advance, buying precious time for Primaris Space Marine reinforcements to arrive on Astaramis. Unable to force a breakthrough at the vital Praxima Skyport, the massed heretical legions could only watch with furious hatred as fresh regiments of grim-faced warriors and columns of heavy armour made planetfall, rushing to shore up gaps in the Imperial line wherever they emerged.Centimetre by bloody centimetre, the Chaos invasion force was pushed back to the outer hab-zones of the hive cities, and the flag of Ultramar was raised proudly upon the highest spire of Saviour's Landing -- a symbol of defiance and Imperial might that girded the heart of every Loyalist warrior.In the wake of this vital victory, Imperial High Command immediately ramped up the production of munitions on Astaramis, and issued a decree requiring every man and woman of fighting age to take up arms in the defence of Ultramar. Such a vast resource of manpower was vital in the battles to come, for the war in the Konor System was far from over.