A squadron of Manta Missile Destroyers bombard Al’gel III before disembarking Tau Fire Warriors to battle the ork inhabitants.

Tau invade Al’gel III

The Tau invasion of the Al’gel System is continuing, with Tau troops recently landing on the ork-held world of Al’gel III.

Although Imperial authorities offer no official comment on this development, rumors of the Tau’s latest military activities have spread across Nguyen Naval Base, the headquarters of Battlefleet Corvus orbiting Belliose III.

The Tau, which invaded the Al’gel System more than a decade ago, only recently finished their conquest of the two inner planets of the system. This latest planetary assault apparently is designed to destroy the last sizable ork population on the remaining three planets under greenskin control.

Imperial authorities have declined to offer details about the invasion.

“We have little interest in the Tau,” said Captain Jamol Wythe, public liaison officer with the Imperial Navy. “They are a minor xeno species that we recently drove out of several star systems, and we will exterminate those that remain once the developing Tyranid threat is dealt with.”

Yet rumors about the Tau persist. The Imperial Crusade against the Tau faced heavy resistance when it invaded the sept world of Dal’yth, with Imperial troops ultimately withdrawing under an armistice between the Tau and Imperium.

The Tau’s invasion of Al’gel III reportedly began in 747.M41, and the blue-skinned xenos reportedly have enjoyed steady military success against the ork inhabitants. Specific details, however, are not available.

The biomechanical voidcraft of the Tyranids have been seen crossing the void—ever closer to Imperial-held space.

Tyranid ships spotted by naval patrol

An Imperial Navy patrol has reported sighting a number of biomechanical entities that are believed to be of Tyranid origin.

The light cruiser, Litany of Hate, spotted five seemingly organic-based creatures traveling through the void approximately three light years from the Dryillian Quarantine Zone, a distant region of space to the galactic east of Belliose III.

Based on confidential reports provided by Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman, all Imperial Navy warships have been briefed about such massive biomechanical lifeforms, believed to be a bio-engineered voidcraft used by the insectoid species known as Tyranids.

Although the Tyranid attack on Ultramar ultimately was defeated in 745.M41, splinter fleets of the xenos have been reported attacking Imperial worlds across the Segmentum, and it is widely believed that a splinter fleet already has launched an invasion of the former ork empire of Maxmilla on the eastern edge of the Corvus Cluster.

If this recent report is accurate, this recent spotting of Tyranid “ships” represents the closest Tyranid contact in our region. As of yet, there are no reports of a Tyranid attack against any Imperial world within the Corvus Cluster.

[Ed. Note: None are reported, but check out: Horror comes to a backwater world.

The Repository of Imperial Wealth begins a catastrophic descent into the atmosphere of the gas giant Furia.

Giant orbital refinery crashes into Furia

A massive gas-extraction platform above the gas giant Furia has fallen from orbit and been destroyed by the planet’s titanic gravity field.

Although all Imperial workers on the orbital refinery were successfully evacuated, the loss of the 240-cubic-kilometer Repository of Imperial Might is a devastating blow to the economy of the Furia System. The value of the refinery exceeds the annual tithe of a mid-sized civilized planet.

This disaster will ensure the system falls short of its own annual tithe—a grave matter in the eyes of the Adeptus Administratum. What is likely to further infuriate Imperial bureaucrats is the cause of the platform’s destruction: a bizarre infestation of gelatinous xenomorphs.

One of the many gelatinous lifeforms that are plaguing the gas-extraction platforms over Furia.

Trillions of these xeno invertebrates, ranging in size from microscopic to 50 meters across, began infesting the platforms four years ago. Although indigenous to the gas giant’s upper atmosphere, never before in the platforms’ three millennia of service has there been an incident of the creatures interfering in the gas-extraction process.

Yet, for reasons unknown, they suddenly swarmed the platforms, growing in number exponentially and fouling intake valves, clogging mechanical devices, and attaching themselves to plasteel hulls.

“Despite a massive effort to scour the lifeforms, the growing bio-mass kept adding to the platform’s 50-million-plus-ton weight, pulling it deeper into the upper atmosphere,” reported Luther Thaxx, prefectus of the Administratum operation on Furia.

“The deeper the platforms descended toward the planet, the greater the atmospheric drag. the slower the platform’s orbital speed, and the deeper the platform slipped into the atmosphere.”

Eventually, Extraction Platform Repository of Imperial Wealth slipped too deep into the planet’s gravity well and broke apart, he added.

The Adeptus Mechanicus is now working frantically to save the remaining orbital extraction platforms, Thaxx added. “If they fail, entire sectors will face a critical shortage of essential chemicals required for the manufacturing, fuel, and other vital technologies necessary for modern existence.”

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.