Just as the Imperial forces pushed the front farther into the Damocles Gulf, preparing to launch a full-scale new war against the xenos, they discovered that the region had already descended into chaos.
An awakened Necron Dynasty had appeared in the region.
Night Scythes and Doom Scythes flew unchecked over the planets of the T'au Sept Worlds.
T'au Barracuda fighters and DX-6 Gun Drone stealth fighters fell from the skies under Necron attack.
Enormous explosions erupted across the planetary surfaces.
Necron Locust Destroyers took out Hammerhead tanks with a single shot apiece.
Every shot from a Doomsday Ark blasted an entire line of Fire Caste warriors and auxiliary troops into the air.
Figures in all manner of battlesuits were chased and slashed at by Scarabs everywhere.
Necron armies appeared in orderly ranks on several planets of the Sept Worlds and began purging the T'au and their client species.
Unlike the Imperium, which had extensive experience fighting the Necrons.
The T'au Empire's understanding of the Necrons was extremely limited.
They had encountered the Necrons by accident only once, many years earlier, during the Third Sphere Expansion.
It had happened on an oceanic death world on the Imperium's eastern fringe, a planet called Blackfathom.
The gravitational pull of its moon generated planet-spanning megatsunamis, along with waterspouts and vortices that hurled water straight into the atmosphere.
Yet the Imperium had still settled and colonized it, hollowing out its few mountains to build strongholds within them and installing protective shields.
Then they had begun the same old mining operations.
Until they dug too deep and uncovered something dreadful, after which all contact with them was lost.
At that point, a force from the T'au Empire, still engaged in its Third Sphere Expansion, arrived at the planet, ready to wage war against the Imperials.
Their