Ancient necron ruins found at Vespae

Admiral Enkvist had been unable to find Barham's fleet because the loyalist forces had now pushed into the very heart of the Hadron Expanse, beyond the range of astropathic communication. Alarmed by this, many of the senior staff in the expedition now felt it was time to turn back. Palantir had been lost, and the Crusade still had grudges to bear against the Novgorod Guard which made up the bulk of the imperial ground forces.

Lacking astartes support a meeting was called while the fleet sailed through the warp. However, eventually the expedition decided to press on, influenced by a group of shadowy individuals who revealed their inquisitorial seal to the admiral and ground commanders. The expedition would go on.

The next system the imperial fleet encountered appeared to be a dead system. There were many worlds capable of supporting life, but all the augur arrays detected were dust covered ruins. Landing a small party on the outer ice world to investigate anomalous readings, the rest of the fleet pushed on to the innermost terrestrial world, known as Vespae according to ancient star charts.

The planet itself appeared lush and verdant, ideal for colonisation, but no intelligent life was found. However, the Inquisition party directed the fleet to the outer moon, where extensive ruins of a past civilisation were evident. Landing a large force of Novgorod Guard on the moon, the Inquisition and their Adeptus Mechanicus team began searching and exploring the ruins, which were clearly necron in origin. 

After  several days of exploration, the imperial perimeter suddenly and unexpectedly came under assault by Xenos forces. Recognising them as Drukhari - of the Crimson Blade Kabal, the inquisiton ordered the Novgorod to make a fighting withdrawal while trying to gather as much information as possible. The expansive ruins made ambushes and lightning assaults all the more easy for the Dark Eldar, who systematically tore the Novgorod Guard apart in the shadow of the necron structures.

On 0606.018M42 the inquisition ordered the remaining members of the landing force to evacuate, leaving Vlokarion to exploit the ruins for his own ends. Declaring the inner worlds Perdita, the Inquisiton force took Barham's fleet back to the outer reaches to consolidate and regroup. Meanwhile they urgently tried to get a message through to their patron, Inquisitor Huron of the Ordo Xenos.