Federacy come of age at Mimir

Ever since the failed attempt to break into the Foramen Interdictum the Federacy had withdrawn from active warfare. Instead the council of Aleph had decided to remain on the defensive, having lost all their worlds north of the Federal Shield except for Libria.

It was the fate of Libria that spurred the Federacy once more into action. Without a stable path through the Foramen Interdictum, the world would almost certainly become part of the Tau Empire, just as with Tarsis Major and Melberg. While the Federacy remained allied with the Tau as part of the great alliance, many in the Federacy regretted the fact that Libria had declared for the Federacy, not the Tau Empire, and yet they had no wherewithal to exert sovereignty over the strategically vital system and its five populated worlds.

With the opening of the Foramen Ancilla near Hartak, the Federal fleet immediately made the jump into the Hadron Expanse, linking up with Librian regiments which had formed part of the existing Alliance expedition into the Echo Cluster. The arrival of the Federal Vessels met a luke warm reception from the Tau, but the xenos made no objection to the Librian forces being detached from garrison duty at Echo Reach and forming the first truly Federal expedition into unexplored space.

The Federal force now set course for the ancient system of Mimir, a star system which had in ancient times been home to an Imperial Colony. Upon arrival, the Federal fleet found the world of New Titania in surprisingly good condition, with a technology level on a par with the Imperium, although the inhabitants - some seven million - had lost the capability for space travel.

The Federacy were welcomed with open arms by the human inhabitants, who in their isolation had abandoned much of their previous Emperor worship, a fact which pleased the secessionists. However, it soon became apparent that during the isolation from the Imperium, many chaos cults had gone unchecked, and much of the planet was raided on a regular basis by daemonic incursions.

The arrival of the Federacy resulted in the chaos god Slaanesh sending the largest known incursion to the world of New Titania, with a full Slaanesh daemonhost appearing near to the capital of the colony. The Librian force prepared in a defensive posture and waited for the onslaught.

The daemons charged across the ruins of the outer city, long since abandoned by the populous, indicating the predations of the warp had reduced the population of New Titania by at least two-thirds over the last thousand years. Leman Russ battle tanks, hellhounds and artillery pounded the daemonic army, but even so some were able to reach the disciplined lines of guardsmen defending the heavy equipment. Here the fighting turned into a brutal melee, but the Librians fought a fighting retreat, pounding the daemons for every guard life lost.

The appearance of a Keeper of Secrets, known as S'sith'rak, almost caused the Librian general to waver, but the firepower of the Federal tanks banished the greater deamon before the army lost its nerve. Having withstood the inital charge it now became clear that the denizens of Slaanesh, though violent, were no match for the awesome firepower of a Librian armoured division, and the battle moved quickly towards a slaughter. Every single daemonic entity was hunted down and banished without mercy, and Federal agents landed on the world intent on shoring up the planet's psychic stability. Dangerous psykers were interned for treatment and study, while beacons of Tallax were set up to prevent daemonic incursions from happening without warning.

Meanwhile the Emperor's Children made a secret landfall on the outer world known to the God Slaanesh and his followers as !£@?*&:o). S'sith'rak's warhost had done well to distract the armies of the Federacy from the more valuable prize on the outer world, which the traitor legion now began harvesting.