Alliance secure Hexis presence

The alliance became the second power on Hexis to establish a presence within the city of Praxis itself in early 011.018M42, as more forces entered the system using the webway portal revealed to the Kel Sandros Eldar by their rillietan brethren. The Harlequins, most notably the Sisters of Quartz, had agreed that the tau and federal forces would be allowed to conquer the world and be allowed to use the necron device, but only under aeldari direction. Some mistrust still existed, but the alliance was now strong enough for the eldar to willingly allow both tau and federal forces to utilise the webway in order to traverse the galaxy from their bases to Hexis. The federal and tau fleets were some weeks away, and could not yet locate the system in the roiling warp storms of the Cicatrix, so the first order of the day for the arriving tau and federal forces was to establish a warp beacon and then move on the city itself.

 

The 76th Hartak Mountain Rangers set up the warp beacon on the Haknur plateau, but their activity was soon notice by imperial patrols. In order to disrupt federal activities the Novgorod Guard sent a patrol to the Squat positions, but the Hartak elite forces had the better position and fought off the imperial force, with the beacon beginning to transmit on 0111.018M42. Meanwhile the Sisters of Quartz took the time to recover intelligence around the imperial positions in the city itself. While investigating several areas around the Hakhor gate, the Sisters caught the Novgorod while they were returning from the plateau. The Novgorod attempted to defend themselves from the eldar, but unfortunately once again the plasma curse of Hexis returned, with two guardsmen slain by their own overloading weapons. This allowed the Sisters to claim key objectives and forcing the Guard back through the gate and to the northern end of the city. Now the alliance had one of the eight mighty gates of Praxis, and the Tau followed up into the south western region of Hakhor itself.

 

In the Hakhor ruins, the tau faced the first recorded encounter with the tyranid xenos as they explored the ruins of the vast section of the once mighty metropolis. Beneath the city in old dried up sewers the alien threat lurked, and eventually ambushed the tau with a genestealer attack. The tau, with their superior ranged weaponry were able to cut down the monstrous killing beasts without having to evacuate the city, and the alliance soon established a perimeter around the maze of shattered buildings that once houses millions. The encounter with the tyranids - this time genestealers - was cause for concern however, as none of the three major powers wanted another enemy to fight on Hexis.