Malkaor lands at Mimir

The alliance situation at Mimir was becoming critical as mid 10.018M42 approached. With chaos dominating the worlds around New Titania the federal forces were coming under increasing pressure to do something to defend their new colony. Until the arrival of the alliance chaos had mostly left the colony alone, and some in the New Titania government began to blame the Federacy for the sudden invasion by the forces of ruin.

The Alliance Expansion Council - or AEC, decided to act, sending Malkaor's forces to Mimir in order to halt the encroaching enemy forces. Malkaor had already faced difficulties against the Aether Striders, but this time the Tau would land on the outer worlds and prepare bases before moving onto the the middle worlds where the forces of chaos were already entrenched.

Warsmith Stahl was made aware of the Tau intentions, and while initially reluctant to aid his chaos allies in the Hadron Expanse, he realised that a resurgent Tau Empire in the Expanse would potentially hamper his ambitions in the Foramen Interdictum, not least because it might draw forces away from his theatre to what he regarded as an unecessary conflict in the galactic east. It might be better to finish the war quickly, and deal a rapid defeat to the alliance before the war expanded.

Stahl was only able to send limited forces to the Mimir system, and even this was a struggle. Using the ancient necron "device" or "soul hole" gained from the daemon prince "Moonface", Stahl was able to send some forces to the fourth planet of the Mimir system. Unfortunately the vaguries of the warp were not to favour the Warsmith, and rather than ambush the Tau, Stahl was forced into a pitched battle against the Xenos, who had already created a defensive perimeter. The battle became bloody quickly, and Stahl could sense that the quick victory he craved would not be achievable. The Tau managed to defend their base against the chaos forces, and the Iron Warriors commander was forced to abandon his intervention.

Cursing his allies once more for failing to focus on the Foramen theatre, failing to defend Mordecai and now prosecuting a (as he saw it) pointless war in the Echo Cluster, the Warsmith left, dooming many of his mortal followers to annihilation at the hands of the tau. New Titania was still beseiged by chaos, but now the alliance had operational bases near the system's jump point, and the chaos themselves were now also surrounded by hostile forces.