Hadron expanse engagements widen

In the Hadron Expanse, while the eldar and necron forces continued their war to locate and obtain the necron artefacts on the tombworld of Hexis, other forces were active in the wider expanse. Since 020M42 the warp storms that once veiled the region known as the Rifts of Hecate had become increasingly becalmed, and the first tales of strange artefacts and exotic planets were beginning to emerge from those brave enough to make the crossing into an area that still posed a serious danger to anyone who entered. Many expeditions of all races did not return, but by late 10.021M42 it was becoming clear that the Rifts of Hecate may contain sufficient resources and wonders to make control over them, and access to them, strategically significant.

To access the Rifts of Hecate it was necessary to have a jumping off point in the Hadron Expanse. The Dark Eldar had several bases, but were increasingly aware of the threat posed to their favourable position in dominating the space lanes to the Hecate gap, by the Imperial presence on Vanir. This gap was the one navigable pathway into the Expanse, and the Drukhari saw an opportunity to both set back the Imperial encroachment on their access to the Rifts, and to harvest valuable slaves and engage in some wanton acts of savage violence at the same time.

The Dark Eldar raid was brutal and effective. The Adeptus Mechanicus forces had deployed expecting such a raid, but were taken by surprise following a deployment that was particularly vulnerable to a sneak attack. It is likely that the worshippers of the Machine God had put too much trust in their intelligence gathering capability and had relied on being able to react first to the appearance of the Drukhari, but this did not come to pass. The xenos struck first, and managed to enter devastating close combat and destroy vitally important tactical assets before the Mechanicum were able to respond. 

The battle soon became a massacre, and while the Mechanicum forces were able to disengage from the attack, the colonists and Administratum forces on Vanir I were not so fortunate. Fear gripped the more populous world of Vani, as the Drukhari slaughtered and enslaved thousands on the inner planet, destroying infrastructure and threatening Imperial control of the system, before melting back into the webway with the profits of their raid.

Further towards the unexplored Eastern Fringe and closer to the Hecate Gap itself, the Tau were continuing the creation of their own base on Tanis. Having secured a foothold, the Tau, lead by a force not part of the command structure involved with the Hadron Expansion sphere, had established a base. In reality these Tau had no links with Malkaor or the Expansion plans of the Tau Empire, and were acting in partnership with the Federacy, as the leaders of the technically advanced world of Tallax had been energised with the rediscovery of the Rifts of Hecate, and had sponsored an investigation of the region.

The Death Guard, continuing to establish their own presence in the area, and working hard to create the daemonworld of Fecus Major, also recognised the opportunities within the rifts of Hecate and the threat posed by a Tau/Federacy base so close to their own. In late 10.021M42 the forces of nurgle launched a raid to the Tanis system in order to disrupt the Tau operations there and gather more resources for their project in the Lysis system. The Tau deployed considerable forces to meet the chaos threat, but found their firepower severely lacking as the nurgle horde pushed inexorably towards the Tau base on Tanis III. Poxwalkers shambled into the Tau lines on the right flank while Blight Lord Terminators intervened supporting a daemon prince of nurgle in the centre. On the left flank of the engagement an elite force of crisis suits tried to push home a counter attack, but even with their advanced technology were unable to remove the ancient astartes warriors from key objectives. In response, mass Plagueburst Crawler mortar fire and entropy cannons made a mess of the suited Tau warriors, and even the mighty Riptide was taken down after being assaulted on all sides by the slow moving but relentless advance of the House of Eschar Death Guard force.

The Tau lost significant forces and their plans to create a base as a jumping off point to explore the rifts was severely disrupted, while the Death Guard continued to progress their efforts on the moon of Hexis. Soon a new plague planet would be born and the forces of chaos would have an ideal vantage point to further their plague spreading aims in the Hardon Expanse.