Kappa Mortis Incident

On the far-flung world of Kappa Mortis, the Damocles Gulf Crusade had ground to a halt. The Imperium had made a major incursion into the newly discovered Tau Empire, but was forced to pull its forces out of Tau space in response to the far greater threat posed by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth, which had begun devouring entire sectors on the nearby Eastern Rim. Kappa Mortis had been evacuated, and the Tau, rapidly consolidating their grip on those worlds capture by the Imperium during the first stages of the crusade, moved in to reclaim it.

One of the last vessels to leave was an Aquila Lander, a messenger ship bearing captured Tau technology bound for the labs of the Ordo Xenos. But before it could reach orbit, the shuttle was engaged by Tau flyers and was shot down. The shuttle crashed amongst the buildings of the now deserted Imperial outpost Theta Seven, its pilot activating his emergency beacon as he attempted to bring his ship in. Although the Aquila was wrecked, its beacon survived. During its brief battle with the Tau interceptors though, the Aquila sustained serious damage to its reactor system. Although the pilot managed to eject one reactor core, the second failed to release and went down with the shuttle. Both of these cores were unstable and gave off dangerous radiation. This would add a extra layer of danger later on to both forces involved in the incident.

Captain Agemman of the Ultramarines, en route to Ultramar in response to the threat of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth, received the distress message. He realised instantly that the captured Tau technology might prove valuable to the Imperium, but he could spare few warriors from the coming battles. He led a small detachment to investigate, while the remainder of his force hurried on to face the Tyranids at Ultramar. The battle that followed was short but extremely bloody. The Tau ambushed Agemman's forces as he directed the search of the crash site. The Utlramarines repulsed the Tau attack, though the Captain was wounded during the action. Crucially, Agemman's force recovered a single item of Tau technology, the helmet from an XV15 Stealthsuit. This forced the Tau Earth Caste to accelerate the development of a new stealth suit as a result, rushing the single-weapon XV25 Stealthsuit into service ahead of the harder-to-produce XV22 Stealthsuit they had hoped to introduce en masse.

Force Agemman
The Ultramarines selected to take part in the operation were from the Second Company, which consists of a balanced mix of the various squads available to a Space Marine commander. Agemman had no time to gather intelligence on his foe and could spare precious few warriors for this mission. Therefore, he hand-picked a small but well-rounded force, one capable of performing a fast search and destroy operation before withdrawing once more.

Force Agemman was based around a core of fifteen Tactical Marines, organised into a full strength, ten-man squad and a smaller, 'combat squad' of five men. These were supported by a Scout sniper squad, who were tasked with performing an initial sweep of the crash site before spreading out to act as sentries once the search of the wreckage was underway. Captain Agemman, accompanied by his command squad, directed the search operation, whilst Dreadnought Ferrous, Assault Squad Venio, and the Predator acted as a mobile reserve, holding station nearby to counter any move made against this search force.

Agemann's plan during the Kappa Mortis Incident followed tried and tested methods laid down millennia ago in the Codex Astartes - the great book of tactics, organisation and collected military wisdom penned by the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Gulliman. He ordered his core force, centred on two Tactical Squads, to perform the search of the crash site. Meanwhile, the Scouts would seek high ground from which to maintain a watch on the surrounding area, and to engage any enemy that approached, pinning them while the mobile reserve element of the force deployed to block their assault.

Detachment Nightwind
Facing Force Agemman was a small detachment of Tau, drawn from the race's home Sept world of T'au. Their Commander was a newly promoted Shas'el by the name of Nightwind. His orders were simple - recover the items stolen by the Humans or, at the very least, deny the warlike Imperium its prize at all costs. Nightwind's compact force, led by Nightwind himself, was perfectly placed to intercept the enemy at the site of the shuttle crash.

Detachment Nightwind comprised of a twelve-strong team of Devilfish-mounted Fire Warriors, with a second six-strong unit in support. Additional mobile firepower was provided by a Hammerhead gunship and three Piranha light skimmers. The force was led by Commander Nightwind and his adjutant, Shas'Vre Ka'eldi. Lastly, a XV25 Stealthsuit team led by Shas'Vre Kai'leath provided the detachment's reconnaissance. It was they who located the crash site first and directed the rest of Detachment Nightwind to their objective. During the confrontation, Commander Nightwing made use of a sophisticated sensor array issued by the Earth Caste and built into his battlesuit's 'head' to help him locate the stolen Tau technology.

Commander Nightwind's orders were dictated by the disposition of his forces at the time the crashed shuttle was located. His Hunter Cadre was scattered throughout the region, his Stealth teams, equipped with the new XV25 Stealthsuits, ranged far and wide. When Stealth team Kai'leath reported the crash site found, Nightwind ordered them to engage them to engage targets of opportunity whilst his forces raced to the scene. Nightwind knew that he was asking Kai'leath's warriors to tackle a larger and more powerful foe, but he could not risk the enemy escaping. Such is the way of the Greater Good.