Hadron Expanse Activity

Mid 03.022M42 saw continued activity and skirmishes of varying size in the Rifts of Hecate. While the eldar had by now intervened in an attempt to slow the progress of the other races, they had only met with limited success. Having secured their base on Ferrosiun Secundus the Imperium had made gains on Helos Majoris, but now expanded their efforts to the system of Lodax, a particularly resource rich system with two habitable, and more importantly exploitable worlds.

The Imperium already had a small foothold on the inner world, but were aware that ork forces were also prowling the system. Deciding to commit a regiment of Novgorod Guard proved prudent, as on 1203.022M42 a major ork attack took place against the imperial base. The orks were defeated by disciplined ranks of the imperial army, and the construction of mining complexes continued.

Meanwhile on Pyrrho Zeta the forces of chaos were gaining the upper hand despite some bizarre encounters with alien forces and infighting between chaos factions. On one continent, small warbands of chaos cultists investigated an ancient alien tomb, but not before they inadvertently triggered the awakening of the necrons who slumbered beneath the ground, necessitating the summoning of a demon horde to suppress them. In this engagement the daemons were wiped out, but being incorporeal this was of no consequence to the chaos mortals. The daemon host had bought enough time for the cultists to enter the tomb, pillage its contents and leave the surviving necrons with no base from which to operate.

On the other side of the planet the tyranid threat was present, but here various factions of traitor guard and chaos forces also clashed with the Iron Warriors. Seeing an opportunity, the Iron Warriors took advantage of a battle between a disconnected splinter of the hive mind and worshippers of slaanesh they did not wish to have gain control of the world. In a cold and calculating move, the followers of Perturabo opened fire on the Slaanesh force and their traitor guard support while they were engaged with the hive tyrant coordinating the tyranid attack. The hive tyrant was eventually killed by mass deployment of deathstrike missiles, but the Iron Warriors were succesful in driving off the Slaanesh force from where they were constructing their own base of operations.

From the outside, the world of Pyrrho Zeta was now for all intents and purposes "controlled by chaos", but the factional infighting for control *within* the forces of chaos would continue.