Mendrus Mundi captured by orks, Genestealers encounter daemons

As 02.022M42 drew to a close, the xenos activity in the Rifts of Hecate continued to increase. By now the Imperial expedition had bogged down at Ferrosiun, and although Ferrosiun 2 had been secured the orks had total control of the inner world. With General Percival facing a Tau invasion of Tanis, many of the forces destined for the Rifts had to be rerouted there, allowing xenos elements to profit while the Imperium stalled.

On Mendrus Mundi, the Imperium had been looking to establish a base, and a lance of Knights had been deployed to protect the initial construction of a base. However, the Bloodfang tribe of orks, already now dominating Ferrosiun I, had managed to reach the adjacent world and were now expanding. The orks had progressed from disorganised mobs to more disciplined armies and now had the capacity to deploy several of the larger ork war engines, including Stompas. This had terrible consequences for the Knights on Mendrus Mundi, who were unable to counter the firepower of these behemoths. By the end of 02.022M42 the Imperium was forced to concede that Mendrus Mundi was now fully under the control of the greenskins, and worries of an incipient Waagh! preyed on the imperial commander's mind.

On Helos Major the Imperium had established a presence, but they were not alone. On the other side of the world from the imperial base, chaos light forces had been searching the world for ancient artefacts, when they were set upon by a genestealer cult. The worlds of the Rifts of Hecate often had nomadic or primitive human settlements as many of the worlds had been settled in the time before the Imperium, but it became apparent that some of these human populations had turned to the worship of the tyranids as gods. Likely as part of the vanguard of an as yet unknown hive fleet, the cults on Helos Major saw the chaos worshipers as invaders, and sent a force against them. 

The cultists however were not without their own mechanism of reinforcement, and turned to the dark gods for aid. Summoning a substantial force of daemons the chaos force was able to extricate itself from the situation and defeat the genestealer cult attack, gaining significant intelligence for their own aims in the process. The chaos forces were not particularly interested in establishing colonies or bases, but did have a base on Calthingum and were particularly interested in finding artefacts of power, rumoured to have been left here following the Horus Heresy.