Skirmishes continue on Hexis

The front lines on Hexis had gone quiet following the recent imperial advance, at least from a strategic perspective, but all sides continued to conduct smaller scale operations as 0410.019M42 began. 

The largest engagement occurred in the blasted wastelands south of the ruins of Menthoteph as a squad of Ashen Suns astartes - new to the sector - began a sweep into the no mans land between the imperial and chaos front lines. South of Menthoteph, the orks - allied to chaos - still remained, and the space marines soon ran into mobs of roving greenskins. The orks weren’t alone however, as it soon became apparent that other creatures were lurking amongst the ruins. With lightning speed the xenos attacked, horrific hybrid creatures part Tyranid part human. Clearly the genetics of hive fleet R’lyeh had now mixed with those of man, producing a genestealer cult which the Ashen Suns had now discovered. In truth, for months the stream of deserters on both sides of the front line had been seduced by their new deity - R’lyeh - and now the Tyranids had found a more insidious way to spread their tendrils across the battered world. 

The genestealers were quickly dealt with, caught in the crossfire between the space marines and orks, but the marines in particular struggled to hit their marks, and once the genestealers had withdrawn, they entered into a protracted and ineffective firefight with the greenskins. Then the tau struck. 

The appearance of alliance forces on the battlefield was a surprise, as the imperium had mistakenly believed that all tau and eldar forces had withdrawn with the federacy, but in reality small teams of tau and eldar had remained behind, intent on harassing their enemies and causing destruction out of proportion to their force commitment to Hexis - a world the alliance no longer had interest in. 

The tau attack swiftly dealt with the orks, clearing them from the field, before turning their attention to the remaining imperial forces. The astartes found themselves no match for the xenos special forces, much to the despair of their commander, and despite taking down the tau crisis suit, the tau forced the astartes in turn to retreat northward. 

The tau didn’t remain in place however. Satisfied at the disruption caused, the alliance force left, and the Grey Knights found no trace of the enemy as they followed up behind the Ashen Suns. Penetrating deeper, and cutting off a portion of the chaos forces near the old fort, the Ordo Malleus astartes did come into contact with a small team of heretic mechanicum, blasting them apart and securing general Konev’s southern front.

Further west, imperial intelligence suggested that the chaos forces were rebuilding their bases on the Haknur plateau, out of range of Konev’s nuclear artillery. Concerned at these reports, the mechanicum sent a force in order to investigate. However, the Death Guard responsed robustly to the infiltration by imperial forces, wiping out the scouting group. General Konev would have to find other methods to find out the extent of the new base being constructed by the enemy.