Necron implacable advance

The Necron threat in the perseus Deeps increased in magnitude as 10.011M42 drew to a close with increased activity on two worlds. The first, Blight, a chaos daemonworld once called Sullidaan, saw an upsurge in fighting as Necrons began to advance ever closer to the world's capital on the western hemisphere. The Necrons were determined to retake their old empire, and this world they considered their own, no matter what daemonic entity now claimed it.

The Necrons faced mostly daemonic armies loyal to the faction known as the Covenant of Damnation, but some astartes warbands were also present. After initial gains the Necrons suffered a determined counter attack, buying the forces of Chaos at least time to deal with the threat, but with Chaos on the back-foot on all fronts across the region, losses in men and equipment were hard to replace. Again and again they were forced to rely on daemonic summonings to do their bidding, and these were often risky and capricious, and couldn't hold territory for long. This was made worse as the Necrons advanced, the daemonic grip on Blight loosening with every Necron gain.

While events played out on Blight, the weakened tau colony of Skera soon came under unexpected attack. Only weeks before the Tau had suffered at the hands of Dark Eldar raiders, and were ill-prepared to meet this latest invasion, which came in great strength. Bravely the Tau sacrificed themselves for the greater good, giving ground where they could and attacking ferociously where they could not. However the Tau found the Necrons particularly hard to deal with, noting in horror how the mechanoid race simply withstood firepower which would shatter the advance of other races.

Reading the transcripts of the commander of Skera's call for aid, Commander Shadowstrike realised that the commander with responsibility for the Tau colony world was out of his depth. Shadowstrike immediately dispatched a veteran commander and his hunter cadre to deal with the situation, but when they arrived the situation was dire. The Tau landed their forces amidst scenes of near panic as the colonists of Skera scrambled to get off-world as soon as possible. Advancing straight into battle Shadowstrike's cadre soon found itself on the end of withering firepower from the Necron invaders, and could do no more than delay the inevitable. They held on long enough for the colonists to escape, then enacted a fighting withdrawal, engaging in desperate firefights as the last of the Tau dropships made for orbit. Skera was beyond hope. Which world would be next?