Imperium draw up new strategic plan

Justinian Flavius Maximus was at Vastrid when the news broke of the collapse of the Foramen Interdictum. Although this was a devastating blow, the Lord General Militant quickly established that astropathic communication across the rift was still possible, although at least for now, travel was not. Maximus contacted General Veers and Percival, confirming Veers in command of all forces in the Perseus Deeps and Percival in command of the Hadron Expanse. He ordered both to go over to the defensive until "the strategic situation improved" but ordered no evacuations or any withdrawals. The Imperium would fight for every last scrap of soil they held, to the last man if necessary. At Mordecai, Kutuzov continued to dig in, while Percival made provisions to defend Dnatha from the Tau and Konev from his myriad threats at Hexis.

Bova Magnus, his fleets now split on either side of the rift, pulled his fleets together to defend his most important assets. The fleets concentrated at Mordecai and in the Hadron Expanse at Awarath, to prevent a sudden and devastating invasion of the Imperial HQ in the subsection. General Konev, who had prosecuted the bloody campaign at Hexis for so long, was informed he would no longer have fleet support.

While the Imperium dug in in the Imperium Nihilis, the astartes were urged to seek and secure the one remaining necron device not accounted for. Lost by the inquisition while fleeing from the Emerald Serpent, the device was known to have phased out to its homeworld. Unfortunately, no one had a clue where that was. If it was in the Aleph Sector it needed to be found, installed and used to open a new Foramen through the Cicatrix, regardless of the "heresy" this would entail.

Lord General Maximus also ordered up plans to take the Hellheim system, consisting of the inhabited worlds of Donar, Cernunnos and Einmyrria, where the necron device holding open the Foramen Ancilla was located. Held be the Tau and Eldar forces, this would be challenging, and an advance from the Vastrid or Valitane subsectors would mean all out war with the Federacy, which the Imperium could ill afford on top of all its other woes. Instead, a plan to pacify the Tau at Parius then invading from the Nihilis side was drawn up. However, this would only be successful once the Bastien and Parthenope systems were hastily converted into fleet bases and supply centres, a project that could take months or even years.