Tau forces arrive on Hexis

If their enemies had hoped that the withdrawal of Federal forces on Hexis heralded the imminent defeat of the Alliance they were to be disappointed. A surge by the Eldar had recaptured much lost ground and now Imperial and Chaos forces battling through the war torn ruins of Praxis found themselves confronted by a new and unexpected enemy.

How the Tau had deployed their forces onto Hexis undetected was a mystery, perhaps deployed from orbiting stealth ships or even guided through the Eldar webway. In either case the first the Imperium and Chaos command knew of the newcomers arrival was when their forward most detachments found their paths crossed by cadres of Tau troops. As the Imperium's Sky Lords battled in the north of Praxis the Death Guard allied to Stahl's cause confronted a formation of fire warriors and stealth troops that barred their progress.

Contemptuous of the weakling xenos the Death Guard terminators plodded forward into a storm of pulse fire and superheated fusion blasts. Most of the damage they simply shrugged off but over time their losses slowly mounted even as the their elusive foes proved frustratingly hard to pin down and eliminate.

Despite the mounting losses they were inflicting the Tau knew they were no match for the Death Guard in close quarters and wisely maintained their distance. Keeping the unstoppable terminators at arms length might have been the sensible strategy but it surrendered the field to the forces of chaos who achieved their objectives one after the other, ignoring the cost in dead.

Even the infamous resilience of the Death Guard has its limits. Eventually their losses built to the point they could no longer form a viable battle line and Tau battlesuits began to penetrate the perimeter. As the trickle became a flood the Death Guard found their situation reversed, pinned down amidst ruins as the Tau flooded through the city and pounded their positions with unrelenting fire power.

The Death Guard would not be shifted and the conflict finally ended in a drawn out stalemate with neither side able to make progress. Both sides withdrew to prepared positions and consolidated their own backlines in preparation for future bouts. Meanwhile the Tau fleet made orbit and began the bulk transfer of larger formations and heavy equipment to the surface of Hexis.