Port Maw - Enemies Unlooked For: Amongst the multiple unpredictable threats that can emerge suddenly and ravage worlds and entire star systems, few are so dreaded as the appearance of a space hulk.These conglomerates of trapped asteroids, planetary debris and wrecks of long-lost starships randomly emerging from the Warp are often populated by hostile xenos lifeforms, most notoriously the savage species of the Orks.Drawn perhaps by the strong astrotelepathic signal of the Commonwealth's principal astropathic relay -- the relay at Vlorlath Srader -- or perhaps simply thrown off-course by an unfortunate Warp Storm, a vast space hulk carrying with it its own fleet of ramshackle voidships emerged in the Vlorlath Srader System, on the ill-defended Commonwealth's eastern flank.In accordance with the principle of the Coda Navis, this new threat was baptised by the name of Red Polyphemus.Although far from unknown, the Orks posed at best a seasonal nuisance in the Coronid Deeps, their true strength broken in the days of the Great Crusade, yet the Red Polyphemus and the uncounted Greenskin multitudes it harboured constituted the most sizeable migration of Orks for nearly thirty Terran years.Tens of thousands of mutated Orks and gyre-worms had already laid waste to the vital astropathic relay, meaning that the Commonwealth and Port Maw were now cut-off from communications with the Segmentum Solar.Worse yet, the Orks were now scrambling over Vlorlath Srader whilst the space hulk itself inexorably ploughed deeper into the system. Nobody could have foreseen this turn of events, but it was soon whispered that a terrible yet brief Warp Storm had been witnessed shortly beforehand which may have altered the course of the Hulk.Unable to simply ignore a threat such as an entire space hulk sprawling with Orks going on a rampage within the star systems they were sworn to protect, the Port Maw Armada despatched a sizable portion of its strength, both in ships and in men, to the Vlorlath Srader System.The relay was undoubtedly gone, but the planet could still be reconquered, for letting the Orks gain a foothold in the Manachean Commonwealth would only bring about future calamities.Standard procedures in dealing with a space hulk dictate the Hulk being boarded, preferably by Astartes troops, and destroyed by the planting of seismic charges which would then be detonated from afar, thus ripping apart the Hulk from the inside.This option was, however, not available to the battlegroup despatched from Port Maw, firstly due to its lack of Legiones Astartes assistance, and secondly because while the Solar Auxilia were fully equipped and trained for such operations, their firing discipline and superior coordination would count for nothing inside the meandering and tight corridors of a floating wreck like the Red Polyphemus.Lastly, the Solar Auxilia would be direly needed to fight against the Warmaster's forces once the threat of the Orks had been neutralised, and could therefore not be sacrificed in a desperate gambit.The Red Polyphemus would thus need to be destroyed at gun-point, the Armada Imperialis vessels having to get in perilously close before unleashing close-range bombardments to rip apart the shattered planetary rocks and derelict ancient shipwrecks that made up the space hulk.This was inherently dangerous as the Imperial ships exposed themselves not only to the long- and short-distance fire from the Orks manning the space hulk's guns, but also because they offered easy targets for Ork suicide-runs and boarding assaults led by the barbaric xenos that infested it like vermin and whose ships -- despite looking like heaps of junk -- were utterly lethal.Without the elite Solar Auxilia Cohorts of the Port Maw Exercitus, dealing with the catastrophe at Vlorlath Srader would simply not have been possible, both in terms of counter-invasion of the star system's colony worlds, and the defence of the taskforce attacking the Ork hulk.The campaign to stop the Red Polyphemus would, however, be far longer than anticipated, the Hulk's fabric being unusually resistant to the fleet's bombardment.It wasn't until the closing days of 007.M31 that the space hulk finally began to fragment and victory was assured. However, this victory had entailed a butcher's bill in Imperial lives and ships, all that the Commonwealth's defence against the Traitors would subsequently lack.Worse yet, the battlegroup had used up nearly all of its complement of macro-ammunition which would now be nearly impossible to refurbish as the main provider of these goods, Mezoa, was still blockaded.As a result, fresh troops intended to face Horus' forces were now worn-out or missing. Many warships would need extensive repair before returning to battle, and when news of the fate of Lascal and Dominica Minor reached Manachea and Port Maw, the defenders' morale dwindled still further.Isolated from the Segmentum Solar through the loss of the Vlorlath Srader relay and in no shape to come to the aid of Mezoa, the Port Maw authorities turned to those allies it still could readily reach, those worlds like Numinal and Agathon in the Coronid Reach.Even the insular Mechanicum of Cyclothrathe declared ready to send troops and vessels to the grand muster of Imperial forces Grand Admiral LaBray had called.All the while the Port Maw Armada had fought the Red Polyphemus, fugitive ships from the Cyclops Cluster had reached the Commonwealth, telling grim tales of their worlds' demise before slowly ebbing away.This could only mean that an attack on the Commonwealth was imminent. Grudgingly the Imperial Commanders of Numinal and Agathon were made to agree to despatch many of their ships to Port Maw, fully aware that if Port Maw and the Commonwealth fell, they stood little chance in turn.Orders for general mobilisation were issued, the final stages of emergency plans enacted, defences on the eastern border heavily reinforced and known stable termini of Warp routes to the Cyclops Cluster heavily trapped with Void Mines.Control frequencies that had been proofed against treachery were completely replaced by new ciphers and encryption djinns (artificially intelligent encryption programs).With much of the Armada's strength still mobilised in the Vlorlath Srader System, patrol ships were recalled and assembled at Port Maw, readying themselves to face what would have once been an unthinkable threat: the massed attack of the Death Guard from the dead silence that now reigned in the Cyclops Cluster.It was, unfortunately, exactly as Horus had planned.