Editing Al-Sherar Sector War (section)

==The Strymon Offensive==
''Why are you taking prisoners?  These aliens just attempted to conquer our homeworld - to add Ciban IV's billions to their slave pens!  If you lack the stomach to execute these vermin, hand them over to the people you've just liberated.''

- Rani Stolarz, as reported in ''New World''


Gaspard Lumey was disappointed by Al-Farsi's decision but he still deemed the timing too good not to counter-attack.  Fifth Legion's planners had spent considerable time identifying the Amatteir's holdings and building up a picture of their defences based on the reports of Rogue Traders in the Al-Sherar Sector.  Although Lumey had planned to await further classes of Astartes before starting a war with the Xenos, the Amatteir's losses on Ciban IV had been severe - and revealing.  The new Imperial plan aimed to use the same tactics of guerilla and insurrection that had shattered the Amatteir invasion to wrest the entire sector from them, gambling that the many human slaves on the Xenos worlds could be brought into the fight.

Fifth Legion's counter-offensive started immediately, but almost silently.  Teams of Astartes, mainly the "graduates" of the fighting on Ciban IV led by Terran-born veterans, were delivered to the first-wave targets by the Warp Runner ''Aventurier''.  Once the infiltrators had verified their intelligence, they sought out labour camps and began freeing enslaved humans.  Although arms for the liberated slaves were in short supply, the Space Marines found no shortage of would-be warriors - especially with the Amatteir warrior caste increasingly unstable.

Perhaps surprisingly, Fabrice Diallo was chosen for overall command of the operation.  Antoine Antonelle's absence was no mystery.  He had departed for the worlds of [[the Markian Pact]], intent on summoning fresh hosts to the battle.  But the Primarch Gaspard Lumey was on a secret mission.  Astropaths aboard ''Aventurier'' had sensed a great accumulation of human thought behind Amatteir space.  The character of the thoughts suggested that these men and women were not slaves, but ruled themselves.  Reasoning that any heavily-populated planet would be technologically advanced, Lumey set out to make contact in the hopes of finding allies against the Amatteir - or failing that, discovering people who would need the Fifth Legion's protection against the Xenos.

'''Initial Strikes'''

Diallo's offensive was delivered by mixed forces of Ciban Chasseurs and Astartes, backed up by the Fifth Legion's warships and strike fighters.  On the worlds of Egaleco, Fratecon, and Libero, Space Marines spearheaded the landings but they were too few to carry the weight of the fighting.  Once landing zones were secured, the Chasseurs rolled out.  Unlike the miserable campaign on their homeworld, the sons and daughters of Ciban now enjoyed air superiority.  They were also able to link up with liberated slaves prepared and led by Fifth Legion infiltrators, creating a curious image of high-tech mechanized soldiers fighting shoulder to shoulder with half-naked warriors clutching cold steel.

The fighting on Libero went well for the Cibanese.  Rani Stolarz's battle-hardened IV Corps was at the centre of the Chasseurs' force and the demoralised Amatteir warriors facing them were a poor match.  When second-line Ciban Fusiliers arrived as reinforcements one month after the initial landings, there were only a handful of Amatteir left alive on the planet.  Unwilling to have her men idle, Stolarz commandeered the Fusiliers' transports and shipped IV Corps out.

Based on reports from infiltrators, Fratecon was judged a tougher nut to crack.  The slave rebellions there were met with a co-ordinated and efficient response, led by the revitalised Amatteir nobility.  Fabrice Diallo chose to lead in person, showing his trademark boldness by being the first warrior of the invasion force to set foot on the planet.  Perhaps due to the commander's presence, the fighting on Fratecon was more dominated by the Astartes than the other two targets.  A precision strike by teams of Marines borne on mighty ''Storm Eagle'' gunships eliminated the Amatteir headquarters, turning a previously motivated and organised force into an increasingly desperate rabble.  Not for the last time, vid-caps of Diallo hewing the enemy with his chainsword became the fearsome image of the Fifth Legion at war.

Only on Egaleco did the Imperial forces stumble.  A zealous Amatteir commander immediately counter-attacked the landing zones, killing the Space Marine commander Unai Garrastazu and capturing a whole Corps of Ciban Chasseurs in their landing ships.  The campaign was only salvaged by the intervention of the young Marine '''Mai Dac Kien''', who had infiltrated the world weeks ahead of the main operation.  He led a force of freed slaves in a night attack on the prison-camp holding the Chasseurs and succeeded in liberating the Cibanese soldiers.  Despite his youth and inexperience, Mai Dac Kien led his ad-hoc command superbly, linking up with other Imperial forces and establishing a beach-head for reinforcements.  Following the transfer of Rani Stolarz and IV Corps from Libero, Amatteir resistance on Egaleco was put to an end.

'''Al-Sherar'''

While his subordinates waged war against the Amatteir, Gaspard Lumey had travelled through the Warp to the Al-Sherar system.  ''Aventurier'' glided through space towards the Forge World, all but invisible even to the most sophisticated sensor arrays.  As the Primarch's ship neared its destination, analysis of communications traffic confirmed the astropathic prediction: Al-Sherar was home to billions of humans.  But more than that, the binary cant used in these data transfers was recognised by ''Aventurier's'' Transmechanics as a variant of the language of Mars.  The world they were approaching was a lost Forge World, and judging by its population and the space vessels present in system it was a mighty one.

Lest their actions be interpreted as hostile by the secretive tech priests, Lumey ordered his ship to withdraw to the edge of the system and begin a broadcast of friendly greetings.  After some wrangling to find a common metric for discussion, ''Aventurier'' began to exchange signals with the Forge World Al-Sherar, explaining the possibilities of the Great Crusade and offering the tech priests a place in the community of mankind.  For the Kazi who made up Al-Sherar's ruling Diyanet, the most important question was warp travel.  Would the Imperium grant them warp ships, navigators, access to the galaxy?  Translators aboard ''Aventurier'' made it clear to Lumey that that Forge World asked nothing else and expected no less in return for even a temporary pact.  Although alarmed by the apparent ambitions of the Kazi, the Primarch exercised his authority and made a pact in the Emperor's name.  This decision would greatly complicate future relations between Al-Sherar and [[Mars (Hektor Heresy)|Mars]] in the long term, but in the short term it gave the Fifth Legion an ally with enormous resources.

'''War to the End'''

While Fifth Legion seized their first-wave targets and made contact with Al-Sherar, the Council of Primates drew up hasty plans for an all-out war.  Many colonies were abandoned, the largest concentrations of human slaves were slaughtered, and booby traps were left behind for the invading Imperials.  The Xenos' main strength was concentrated at their homeworld, ''Llysfam Annuwiol''.  Consequently, when Space Marines began infiltrating ahead of the Ciban Chasseurs, they found no resistance, only human abattoirs and scattered bands of terrified survivors.  In response to these reports, Fabrice Diallo moved up the timetable of landings and set the Legion's auxilia to the task of providing civilians with aid and shelter.

Occupying the Amatteir colonies ahead of schedule cost Fifth Legion some small casualties, but these were more than made good by reinforcements from Al-Sherar.  Even though the Forge World's mighty Titan Legion could not be transported on the Fifth's cruisers, detachments of Taghmata began to relieve the Ciban Chasseurs from front-line service.  The initial assault of Llysfam Annuwiol would be composed of roughly equal forces from Ciban and Al-Sherar, with subsequent waves tipping the balance in favour of the Tech Priests.

And of course, in favour of the Imperium.  Though the Amatteir defended their homeworld with a fanatical devotion, the scales had tipped decisively against them.  As the great cities of Llysfam Annuwiol began to fall, many of the warrior caste fell into despair or madness, dissolving as a fighting force.  Others fled the system, dissipating into pirate bands.  For the majority, however, their fate was to be slain by vengeful Cibanese or pitiless tech priests.