Rifts of Hecate Activity early 022M42

While the Tau tried to secure their bases outside the Rifts of Hecate, the skirmishes within the newly discovered region of space continued apace in early 02.022M42. On the world of Medrus Mundi, the orks became extremely agitated. Having seen their brethren looting and then gaining control of Ferrosium Prime in the face of continued resistance from the main imperial expedition on the second planet, the orks on Mendrus Mundi first gleefully put down a small band of chaos forces, despite the sudden appearance of a daemonic horde, then hunted down and annihilated a Genestealer cult.

Imperial observers now saw Mendrus Mundi as effectively being under ork control, and many began worrying about the strength of the greenskins in the Rifts, as now two worlds had all but become fully ork controlled. If the greenskins could find enough scrap to construct a fleet and/or large war engines, the risk of a full blown Waagh! spilling across the Rifts region, and potentially out of it and into the Hadron Expanse could not be underestimated.

The orks were not the only xenos threat the Imperium and the forces of chaos - still trying to locate arcane and ancient knowledge to further their aims - had to be concerned with. The tyranids were also present in the Rifts of Hecate. Unsurprising given the discovery of the gene strain of "R'Lyeh" on Hexis, that this particular hive fleet was also in the Expanse as a whole. The presence of genestealer cults gave more weight to the theory that this hive fleet had effectively "seeded" many worlds in the region with its genetic code, and the tyranids were acting more like a virus than a conquering army. 

This theory was no comfort to the Thousand Sons on Candic Minor however, who faced the full force of the "virus" in the form of monstrous beasts the size of tanks. Unable to deal with the power of the tyranid bio-engines the Thousand Sons were forced to abandon their investigation of the world after being severely mauled by the stampeeding tyranid beasts.