Admiral Swiftstar had been monitoring fleet activity in the Lysis System for some time. With chaos and imperial fleets in the system the tau commander had been unwilling to risk a set piece battle, and had concentrated on maintaining supply lines to the planet’s surface.
With Stahl’s battlegroup forced out of the Lysis system, the alliance were reasonably confident that the status quo could be maintained. However in mid 01.019M42 the alignment of the Foramen changed, allowing a new battlegroup to rapidly arrive from Ultramar.
The new arrival was not a fleet of astartes, but a fleet of warships led by rear admiral Vasily Kanin. Kanin had been put in command of one of Enkvist’s battle groups before the admiral has set off on his ill fated expedition to the Hadron Expanse, and had raised his flag aboard the Emperor class Leipzig in mid 018M42. Kanin was ordered to the galactic rim to aid in the wars around Ultramar, but when the Foramen realigned he suddenly found himself the closest imperial division able to reinforce at Hexis.
Rear admiral Kanin was pleased to see action in a decisive theatre. Reasoning that with Enkvist’s disappearance he would be adding the rest of the admirals forces to his command the mood was upbeat for the short warp jump to the Lysis system. Not only had the realignment of the Foramen allowed the crossing of the Cicatrix, but warp travel times had been accelerated by an order of magnitude for the region of space over which the necron technology held sway.
Kanin was deep in the middle of arranging his plans for the execution of his naval strategy when he arrived in the system on 2302.019M42. However news of Stark’s promotion to full admiral after his decisive victory over the iron warriors fleet only reached him as his fleet materialised into real space at Lysis. Kanin was appalled. To him, Stark was as reckless as Enkvist, who’s tactics had lost an entire imperial division and got the admiral himself killed.
Just as Kanin was adjusting to this new state of affairs, and before the rear admiral could discuss the imperial strategy with Stark, he was given immediate orders to attack Hexis in order to bring the Tau to battle. Kanin protested, arguing that a more conservative strategy would be more prudent, but Stark would not be swayed. To him, the only way to bring Swiftstar to battle was to threaten alliance assets on the surface of the planet. The attack would go ahead, and soon.
Kanin didn’t understand why Stark was so keen to bring the Tau to battle. A slower strangling of the alliance forces - and those of chaos - would surely bring results in time, and at less risk. However, Stark was concerned that unless Swiftstar was dealt with soon, and decisively, the eldar or their dark kin might involve themselves in order to frustrate the plans of the imperium. Stark wanted a decisive victory, to demoralise the tau and perhaps break the alliance.
Stark was correct in his assumption that Swiftstar would be forced to take action if the imperial fleet threatened tau ground forces. Despite his own reservations about the risk of opposing a full fleet potentially in the atmosphere of a planet, the tau commander could not stand idle while his brethren were bombarded from space. As soon as data from tau sensor drones indicated that a new imperial fleet was on a direct course for the inner biosphere, Swiftstar began shadowing the enemy vessels. The scene for the battle of Hexis was set.
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