Orphean War - The Nightmare Awakens: For millions of Terran years, the Maynarkh Dynasty of Necrons had slumbered. During their sleep, aeons passed and the Imperium of Man rose to power in the galaxy. The awakening of the Maynarkh Dynasty is believed to roughly coincide with an unusual stellar phenomena that was consigned to the records of the heavily defended Mechanicum outpost of Harrow Watch in 990.M41 -- the death of the Caracol System.Caracol was a binary star system, yet both its suns rapidly degenerated and went supernova ahead of what the Magi of the Cult Mechanicum expected to be their natural lifespan. The phenomena did not raise further questions but was accompanied by an even more unusual event within the aetheric spheres -- a great bow-wave that rippled through the Warp and entirely snuffed out the Warp turbulences that had been plaguing the Orpheus Sector for several centuries.Only the particularly fierce Warp Storm to the sector's East -- the Howling Vortex -- remained untouched. Throughout the Orpheus Sector, hundreds of Astropaths burned out instantly and thousands of Imperial citizen perished as their voidships were broken in two while still in the Warp. No Magos, savant or Inquisitor could have guessed that these events were in fact connected, and while not intended as a weapon, the Warp-wave had already weakened the sensitive Imperial communication network.When the attack came, it was with a ferocity and swiftness no one expected. Not one, or a dozen, but a score of worlds were targeted simultaneously. The front line of this new attack moved so fast that the only evidence available to those worlds not yet fighting was the utter silence that answered routine communications or scheduled exchanges of information. Many of the worlds assailed by the Necrons did not even have time to send a distress signal, or if they had transmitted one, no message reached the part of the sector still in Imperial hands.The Maynarkh's victory was so swift and complete that even in hindsight nothing can be said for certain on the fate of those border worlds that first fell to the Necron advance. Pallasite, Khatris, Borus Landing, the Feudal World of Ayrith and the old Agri-World of Epirus, all virtually ceased to exist overnight. Even the heavily fortified outpost of Harrow Watch was defeated. All in all, the Orpheus Sector lost nearly sixty inhabited planets, outposts and colonies to the Necrons in the first days of the Orphean War.It was only when the Necron advance reached the Inquisitorial Fortress World of Apollyon, close to the heart of the Orpheus Sector, that the alarm was raised. A single Black Ship, burned from stem to stern, was able to launch and make the perilous voyage to Amarah, surviving long enough to transmit a warning to the sector's capital world. On Amarah, the reaction consisted mainly of shock and disbelief, but the seal of the Ordo Malleus quickly overcame initial doubts on the veracity of the message. Its content and the appended codes were quickly verified by the Inquisitorial representatives on Amarah and declared valid.Almost immediately the general call to arms was issued. Planetary Defence Forces were activated and the Orphean Guard mobilized. The Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Orpheus was tasked with ferrying the mustering Astra Militarum forces already assembling for a renewed assault on the Chemarium System to Amarah. Battlegroup Salvation was also retasked and asked to redeploy in defence of Amarah Prime. As astropathic communications encountered increasing difficulties and were deemed unreliable, Battlefleet Orpheus was called upon to relay the call to arms through fast Warp-capable messenger ships. Only when the first of these ships failed to return did the true extent of the invasion become clear.