Necron gains and losses

Following their invasion of Blight the Necrons continued their aggressive expansionist actions as 02.011M42 progressed. News of their foothold on Aganthus reached the Imperial Crusade HQ on Corticant and the Dark Angels took it upon themselves to rid the Imperial world of their taint, and by 1302.011M42 they had succeeded, the Necrons phasing out and disappearing rather than face annihilation.

Meanwhile on Blight the war had become one of attrition. The Covenant of Damnation, depleted in forces since the Bastien war resorted once again to raising a host of daemons to counter their enemy, but they only barely managed to conatin the Necron advance from their beachhead. The war on Blight would continue for some time yet.

The Necron menace came to the Tau a few days after they had moved against the forces of chaos. It was obvious to all that Skera and Parius were perilously close to the main Necron worlds but the Tau failed to prepare, hoping, rather than expecting that the Necrons would confine their attacks to Imperial and chaos targets. In all honesty the Tau knew they were likely to face the Necrons, but had little in the way of spare resources to protect their new colonies in the Deeps.

On the very edge of the Aleph expansion sphere the thinly spread Tau fleet were unable to defend the smaller colonies, but Skera boasted two full hunter cadres. However the Tau expected, naively, some kind of warning from their sensor drones at the edge of the system, failing to understand the sophistication of Necron technology. On 1002.011M42 the Tau found to their horror that the Necrons had already landed on Skera and advancing on the main settlement.

Commander Fastblade, in command of all forces on the minor colonies of the Deeps, prepared the Skera defence forces to meet the Necrons well away from the main Tau colony, but the battle went badly for the inexperienced Tau. The forces of Fastblade were totally outclassed by the alien invaders and soon the badly battered Tau were in full retreat back to the main compound where preparations were hastily made for a last defence. Meanwhile Fastblade sent out an urgent request for reinforcements.