Battle of Makapula

Following numerous small scale attacks over the course of several standard-months the Orks eventually revealed their true objective when they attacked the fleet carrying the imperial tithe, consisting of several metric tons of ammunition and Promethium produced in Palavo’s factories and refineries.

The fleet, consisting of the Carrack Heavy Transport Corregius and two Sword class frigates, the Arvus and the Lux Imperator, were attacked when they left the planet’s asteroid field. Emerging from the stellar rubble, the Hammer Kroozer Blackmaw and the Kill Kroozer Deffjaw rammed into the frigates with blazing guns. Hit by the Blackmaw, the Arvus was torn apart under the onslaught of the larger ship, while the Lux Imperior was boarded by the Deffjaw’s crew of Ork Boyz who quickly overwhelmed the defense forces and took the bridge.

Having taken care of both frigates, Zirzag redirected his attention towards the original target, the Corregius. While its escorts had barely been able to withstand the onslaught of the Orks, they had nevertheless been able to buy the Transport enough time to get out of reach of the Xenos gun batteries.

Unable to turn his cumbersome vessels in time, Zirzag instead released the Da Meteork Skwadrun, mercenaries under command of Kaptin’ Zhodrukk he had hired in advance of his attack. Equipped with Fighta-Bommers, the Flyboyz quickly caught up to the Corregius and destroyed its shields and engines with repeated salvos of rockets and bombs. The sheer amount of firepower carried by the Orks was enough to cripple the vessel and allow Zirzag’s ships to catch up to it. Carried by Assault Boats, the xeno pirates boarded the Corregius, slaughtered the crew and broke into the cargo holds, expecting a plentiful bounty of ammunition and fuel. Instead however, they found a large quantity of military rations, which had been sent by the planetary governor,Kaisara bin Indera, instead of the usual ammunition  to buy time until his calls for imperial reinforcements could be answered.

Furious, Zirzag killed no less than five of his own Bosses before calming down and leading his forces to a planetary assault. Caring little for reconnaissance, the Orks assaulted the nearest city on the planet, Makapula.

Orks Descending
Breaking through the thinly spread defence monitors, the Orks landed in the outskirts of the city. In advance of the first wave of Landas, the Meteork Skwadrun descended and launched a series of quick raids, inexplicably fooling the imperial defenders about their nature long enough to take out weapon batteries in quick swoops.

The majority of the PDF tasked with guarding the city, hailing from the Binjori tribe were currently engaged in a traditional wargame with the Bu'ulolo tribe and only able to put up minor resistance against the landing Xenos horde. Slaughtering their way through the inadequately armed and below-strength PDF troopers, Zirzag’s Freebootas headed for the warehouses, bent to secure their supposed prey at all costs.

Duel Over The City
Zirzag’s advance came to a grinding halt when several fighter wings of Battlefleet Eressa, most notably the 616th “Ebony Grox” and the 777th “Divine Punishment”, were deployed as a response to Regional Governor Intankan’s call for aid. Carried on the Dominion class Battle Cruiser Fourth Sigil, they proceeded down into Palavo’s atmosphere while the Fourth Sigil and its escorts, the Destroyers Sentinel and Solon’s Wrath engaged the Ork vessels in space.

While the 777th engaged the Ork’s ground forces with their Avengers, the 616th dueled with the pilots of the Meteork Skwadrun between the towers and spires of the city. The Orks’ speed and numbers worked to their disadvantage and the imperial pilots were able to take out several of their craft without suffering any losses of their own.

Enraged by the inefficiency of his troops, Zhodrukk ordered his pilots to tear down the obstructing buildings instead, a task the Xenos approached with great glee. Launching barrages of rokkits and bombs, the Skwadrun brought down towers, spires and funnels one after another. The falling debris and fires resulting from exploding fuel depots caused thousands of civilian casualties, while also severely crippling the efforts of the remaining PDF to relocate to the city and aid in its defense.

With the skies clear, the Xenos reengaged the 616th relentlessly, evening out the kill tally quickly. Reportedly, Kaptin’ Zhodrukk landed several times to retrieve trophies from downed imperial aircraft, many which would decorate his own craft during later encounters.

Slaughter In The Streets
While the Xenos slowly gained the upper hand in the sky, it looked far less favorable for Zirzag’s pirate horde advancing through the streets of Makapula. Initially progressing swiftly as the PDF and civilians had been unable to put up an effective defense against them, the same debris that had freed the Meteorks now blocked the ground forces’ advance.

Additional pressure came in form of the 777th Fighter Wing, who ran one devastating ground attack after the other, ripping through the tightly packed Ork formations with their Avenger Gatling Cannons. Lacking the necessary artillery to engage the aircraft, Zirzag instead had his troops advance through the houses and underground facilities, forcing the 777th to exact caution with their attacks, as they would otherwise target the city’s population. Under the cover of the hab-blocks, Zirzag’s pirates steadily advanced through the city and raided several depots and fuel stations on their erratic course of destruction.

Turning Point
As it looked like the city was about to be overrun and the further spreading of the Orks would have to be prevented with large scale orbital bombardment, the native PDF was finally able to find their way into the city and bring their heavy artillery into play. Specifically against the Meteork Skwadrun, their Hydra and Manticore platforms proved terribly effective and quickly turned the tide of the battle.

Finding themselves between hammer and anvil, Zhodrukk ordered the retreat of his Flyboyz. Coordinating it with the core forces of Zirzag, who left the broad majority of his grunts behind in order to occupy imperial forces, the Orks made a hasty retreat for their Landas. Those unable to escape took to the jungle and continued to plague the region for months before the PDF was able to catch up with them and finish them off.

The Meteorks were able to regroup with the surviving Croozer and retreat. Zhodrukk swore revenge and he would make an effort to carry it out a few months later Survivors from the destroyed Croozer escaped aboard assault boats and captured several decks of Senelak Station- forcing Station Security, PDF and navy armsmen to clear them out over the course of several days of intense fighting. Parts of the station have yet to reopen as repairs are still ongoing.

Battle at the Grox Pen
Zirzag and The Meteorks made an attempt to burn down their airfield a few months later, taking advantage of the storm season,Information they obtained from prisoners taken on other raids far from Palavo. This time despite using the bad weather to get close the Grox see the Orks coming coming, and they get as many Kestrels into the air as possible- not all of them are working due to damage sustained in recent campaigns against pirates.

One of the new arrivals, Meyek Harlan, was shot down moments after making ace, but continued the fight on the ground, still bleeding from a serious head injury. Gregory Konrade added three more victories to his already considerable tally but this was not enough to slow the assault The Nob Wighaz, a boss under Zirzag landed his boyz on the island while the battle raged above, catching the ground crew completely off guard and forcing them to fight.

In an effort to sow further chaos the Orks dropped hollow casings full of angry, hungry Squigs.

One of them knocked over a barrel of engine lubricant and thinking quickly one of the ground crew threw a lit Iho stick into the pool of flammable liquid but while the Squigs were set aflame, their rampage across the base set multiple buildings on fire, causing even further damage. PDF units assigned to the base moved their Hydras to the beaches and turned their weapons on the invaders, but the Orks, including a few Kommandos find a weak point in the line and pushed them back.

Titus Jovinus, unable to fly because of injury, nonetheless fights on the ground, putting his well known abilities as a marksman to good use, targeting unthrown stikkbombs and killing multiple Orks at a time with the blasts. While Tonie Herran climbed into a Kestrel, with its engines down- firing at any Orks to enter the hangar- easily shredding approximately thirty Ork Boyz.

Zhoddruk again fell back as the Palavo Squadron launched its own fighters, content with the damage they caused, but took great care to collect trophies from the mess hall, including a priceless barrel of hundred year old Amasec and a matching collection of tankards, while the kitchen staff was doing their part to put out the still burning fires.

Without air support the Kommandos were easy targets for Imperial Pilots and without their Landas, they were trapped between the rising tide and the reorganized PDF. Neither Wighaz nor his immediate subordinates survived the final encounter, nor did more than three dozen lesser Orks.

Aftermath
One of the crippled Landas was carried out to sea, and in the following weeks its crew convert it into a boat and become pirates of a different kind, harassing local fishermen and coastal villages, the local PDF used these encounters as training exercises before they grew too strong, forcing The Ebony Grox to finish the job.

as soon as the battle ended all of the Ork bodies were piled on the beach doused in fuel and set alight. Tonie Herran salvaged a pair of Choppas and hung them above her bed as trophies. The Ebony Grox pilots were forced to land at Senelak until repairs on the runways were finished some days later. Harlan’s injury required twenty- three stitches, leaving him with a large scar, further fueling his hatred toward Greenskins.

Upon their return the exiled Grox pilots traded war stories with their comrades on the ground one of the PDF troopers, smitten with Tonie Herran upon hearing her story, immediately asked her to dinner, her only answer was a hard eyed stare.