Editing Quest:The Long Night:Sparks at Midnight (section)

==The Iron War==
You've been preparing a lot for this. Fleets training, armies training, Psykers training, factories working overtime... and now, the hour has come.

Perturabo has decided to make the main strike at the Trust's shipbuilding capacity. While there are sizable secondary attacks, the main assault is headed for the shipyards of Vanaheim.

The Primarch's fleet comes out of the Warp. To think of the time when a dozen ships on each side were a war...

The main force consists of over three hundred thousand ships. Forty thousand of these are capitals. Proudly leading the fleets are thirty [[Gloriana-class Battleship|Glorianas]]. Yet all that is dwarfed by Primarch Perturabo's trophy flagship.

[[The Phalanx]].

What Perturabo sees before him is about what he expected. About a hundred thousand Trust ships, a hopelessly minor force for him. Around them, the much larger forces of Eldar. And in the midst of those, brought to combat the Phalanx, is the Craftworld of [[Biel-Tan]].

Once he approaches, however, two huge surprises are revealed. First, all those Trust factories working overtime were producing Dark Matter and Vortex weapons, making your ships a killer against Pert's heavies. Second, the Eldar did a bit of cultural exchange lately. Biel-Tan is there, all right, but the rest of the fleets are Krork. Different tactics needed, and the Iron Warriors aren't prepared.

The advantage is exploited to its fullest. Before you know it, the Phalanx loses all its escorts and weapons, along with the emergency Warp-Out system. Furious, Perturabo orders the forces outside Vanaheim to wreck all the shipyards they can, and the forces inside to cover the Phalanx as he tries to limp out of the system, your Gravatic Array ship doing its best to drag it down.

While fighting tooth and nail, the Iron Warriors' fleet dwindles rapidly. However, Perturabo is almost in position for regular Warp jump now. But then he sees...

Six Eldar Wraithships on a collision course with the Phalanx.

Realizing what it means, Perturabo calls upon his powers to destroy the ships. The Phalanx has no weapons left, but the abilities of a Daemon Primarch are sufficient. Two ships are crushed out of the Void. The other four reach their target.

And so do the Cyclonic Warheads onboard.

The wrecked Phalanx stops. Perturabo escapes into the Warp, knowing his now weakened realm will need a lot of personal attention. You are left with a heavily infested moon-sized station and a lot of war damage to repair.

In Vanaheim system, the shipyards are untouched, but the six secondary targets are mostly badly mauled. One attacking force was destroyed by Biel-Tan arriving ([[Honsou]] was the one in charge, now he's dead), two more by defenders and regular reinforcements, the rest managed to withdraw or flee with heavy casualties.

So, in total, Perturabo lost over a quarter of his forces, including the irreplaceable flagship, one of his best and sanest commanders, a lot of reputation and sanity, and is now facing a lot of greedy neighbours, along with a Waaagh! the Eldar have directed at him. For the next century at least, he won't be in any position to attack.

Now that you have the Phalanx, it is decided that you are to clear out and purify it (with Eldar aid), and then sell it to Imperium Quartus in return for replacement shipyards. Hopefully, Vulkan will think up some proper upgrades for the ship. And, now that the surrounding Chaos is largely leaderless, the Trust launches an expansion campaign.

Cleaning up the Phalanx cost the Trust a hundred billion soldiers. Hopefully, it was worth it.

As a minor sidenote, during the battle, survivors from the [[Iron Knights]] Chapter have arrived in your system. They were forced into an exodus due to the Black Imperium , and now, after centuries, are hoping they found a place to settle in. Well, who are you to deny them?