Rifts of Hecate activity late 02.022M42

 By the end of 02.022M42 the activity in the Rifts of Hecate was escalating. The orks were making the most progress. Having secured Ferrosiun Prime, a key source of resources, and populated a number of asteroids allowing them to hop between systems in the Rifts, the orks had followed this on by capturing Mendrus Mundi - another metal rich world, where the Bloodfang tribe had begun to churn out various ork war machines and equipment for the greenskin army, which seemed to be rapidly growing in both size and capability.

The next world to be targeted was Mendesum, which had already seen a small force of Death Guard land on the main inhabitable world in order to bring plague to the population. Seeing the chaos force as the most challenging foe, and also just because they were there, the orks dropped almost directly on top of them, spewing out hordes of greenskins accompanied by yet another Stompa. The Death Guard took heavy casualties to the reckless yet effective ork assault, shattering their resistance and removing the chaos presence from the world. Suitably pleased with this outcome, the orks set about enslaving the primative human populace and turning the resources of the world to the production of more weapons. The "plan" for the orks at least, was going well.

The forces of chaos suffered more setbacks in late 02.022M42 as more of their small expeditions were overrun by larger xenos forces. this time it was a band of cultists on Candic Minor, seeking artefacts and knowledge that fell foul of the hive fleet once more. It seemed as if the tyranids had a particular dislike for the chaos interlopers, and again the cultist force summoned a host of daemons in an attempt to protect themselves. This time however it was not merely a genestealer cult - the world of Candic Minor not having a native population. Instead huge tyranid beasts fell upon the deamons, banishing the host back to the warp, although the battle was hard fought. Realising the tyranid threat was too strong for their limited force, the chaos warband retreated. If the forces of chaos wanted to find any of the artefacts it appeared they would need significantly stronger forces than those they currently had available.

In addition to fighting on Candic Minor, the tyranids had been identified as present on Helos Majoris as well. Here, the Sisters of Battle had arrived, deploying a small force of the Order of the Sacred Truth. Only small in number, the main focus of their deployment to the Rifts of Hecate was to identify human populations and bring them into the light of the emperor, and if that failed, cleanse them with the fire of the emperor. On Candic Minor, the small force of Adeptus Sororitas had been made aware of the genestealer cult infestation, and desired to establish whether the entire population was beyond redemption. Patrolling outside of the Imperium held territory, the Sisters soon encountered more than just cultists, being ambushed by fully tyranid forces in a ruined encampment. The Order of the Sacred Truth saw off this threat, but were forced to report their findings to the commander of the Helos Majoris garrison. A full purge of the system could not be ruled out as an option.