With the full onslaught of winter lashing the surface of Megiddo Prime, the war effort on most fronts has come to a virtual standstill. As the snows pile up, it is increasingly difficult to coordinate troop and artillery movements, many platoons getting stranded and unable to offer any sort of coordinated support. As a result, many of the warring factions are fighting hit and run battles with what they have, even as the weather turns even worst. Lord General Isen, of the 27th Reiksverld C.A.D, has requested additional troops and artillery to aid in his push through the towering peaks of Hoarfrost ridge, where his men are under constant bombardment from Zebra Station, still in the vile hands of the Night Lords. Pinpoint shelling has collapsed many of the passable routes under an avalanche of snow and ice. A full squadron of Hellhound tanks has been allocated to General Isen to help melt a path through the mountains through which armored divisions can be brought to bear on the Night Lords position.

In addition, the General has requested, and been given command of, regiments of the Valhallan 1212 “Cold Bloods”. These troops specialize in arctic warfare and their counsel has been of great aid to the 27th’s war effort. Upon entering the valley housing the ruins of the Vigilus Penal colony, the 27th came under attack by a horde of savage Orks! Where the Orks came from is a manner of speculation, but the Xenos scientists attached to Isen’s command believe the Orks arrived on the hulk decades ago and were all but destroyed. Upon death all Orks release a cloud of spores that, given enough time, can gestate into full Ork warriors. The spores were likely hermetically frozen in the global catastrophe that doomed Megiddo Prime, waiting for the return of heat, water, and air. As the planet-wide thaw began two decades ago, it is likely the spores grew new Orks, and these creatures now roam the surface of the planet. Scavenged weapons and the like were noted on the corpses slain by the 27th, who were well prepared when the Orks attacked and repulsed the alien menace with precision firing and faith in the God Emperor himself! Be what it may, there is a definite Ork presence on the planet and Xenos hunters have been requested. 

Reports still continue to trickle in from the western front of massacres of civilians. Discovery of the Orks had many believing that a face had been laced on the perpetrators, but the savagery of the attacks is brutal even by Ork standards and the discovery of strange weapons and armor have left the Xenos advisors shaking their heads. Several Xenos hunter teams have been dispatched to the region with orders to find and root out the source of these attacks, even as more workers flee their Hab blocks. The situation in orbit above the planet has rapidly deteriorated. Little contact with transport ships has been had in the past few months, the Imperial supply lines have been cut off, and garbled communications have been picked up via surface vox casters but of little or no value. It is assumed by ground commanders that the ships were destroyed in low orbit by the asteroid fields. 

These self-same commanders know now that their survival depends on using what ground forces they have until such a time as communications can be re-established and fresh troops brought into the theater of battle. Year Two of the war slowly grinds to a halt in the grasp of winter, even as the war rages on…