Skirmishes in the Rifts of Hecate

As 11.021M42 began, the Imperium continued to establish their base at Ferrosium, naming it Ferrosium Secundus and beginning to build up a significant installation on the second inhabitable world of the system. Largely driven by the agenda of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Stygies Forgeworld continued to send small but agile raiding forces to the larger world that was infested with the greenskins, in order to liberate as many resources they could while dealing with the "Hobgobbos" and preventing them from becoming a full blown "Waagh!"

Several expeditions to the inner planet were conducted by the Mechanicum, and there were a few skirmishes which finally led to a pitched battle on 0311.021M42. In this engagement, the skill and discipline of the machine god worshippers proved superior to the raw aggression of the orks, and the "great green gobbo" was himself taken down in the engagement. It was uncertain whether the great ork had actually been killed, but his incapacitation ensured the orks were driven off, and the Stygies Forgeworld uncovered several interesting ancient human artefacts for their efforts.

Further into the Rifts, another Mechanicum force made planetfall on the only habitable planet of the Helios Majoris system. Finding another resource rich world the imperial force set up a base, before being attacked by a xenos threat identified as tyranid in origin. Although the Adeptus Mechanicus force were able to deal with this threat, killing the tyranid hive node creature and scattering the smaller beasts, the appearance of the tyranid threat in the Rifts of Hecate was disturbing. This was further heightened by the discovery of a genestealer cult on Ferosium Prime, as the Imperium observed an inconclusive engagement between the orks and these cultists on 0511.021M42.

It appeared that the human civilisation on Ferrosium, and perhaps more widely, may have succumbed to the tyranid threat. This was not certain however, as no hive fleet had been detected and the biomass had not been consumed. The appearance of the tyranid xenos raised many questions, and work began attempting to trace and link the genetic heritage of these xenos creatures, to see if they were related to the identified strains of tyranids in the sector.

Rifts of Hecate strategic view