Orphean War - The Black Fleet: With Sector Governor Calibron Laan and Inquisitor Ntshona stalling every offensive action, Grand Admiral Carew's Battlefleet Orpheus had looked after its defences and moulded the battlefield to its liking. In the star system's outer reaches, the battlefleet had deployed an extensive net of minefields around Amarah's Mandeville Point, the most likely place for a Warp / realspace translation into the system that was safe and could not be interfered with by its primary's gravity.Orbiting Amarah's third planet -- locally referred to as Laymon -- lay the Imperial fleet proper, ready to intercept any formation breaking through the minefield and heading in-system to try and land troops on Amarah Prime. If the enemy proved too powerful, Battlefleet Orpheus and its allies could still fall back and anchor their second line on Amarah's orbital defence platforms. This battle plan was sound according to standard Imperial tactics, and Grand Admiral Carew and his crew on board the Arica Dominus believed that the battle against this mysterious foe could be won in space alone.When the attack came, it came suddenly, with no preamble or warning. No auguries or deep-space scan warned the Imperials of the Necrons' arrival, nor had the attack been predicted by the visions of an astropath, Seer or Librarian of the Adeptus Astartes. The Necrons used an unknown technology to disorient, weaken and disorganise their foes. At 1534202 local time on 3970.992.M41, auspex readings and other sensoria registered a gravitational anomaly in close orbit to Amarah's sun, destabilizing the star's fiery corona. The star began to expel large amounts of plasma and radiation in the form of gigantic solar flares.The star's emissions were so massive that on Aurici, the innermost planet of the Amarah System, the flares reached the surface, flash-incinerating everything on its dayside. The flares blinded the augurs of both the fleet and the orbital defence grid and caused a major breakdown in communications. Blinded and reeling from this unexpected turn of events, Battlefleet Orpheus did not detect the enemy fleet emerge within the system.By unknown means, the Necron fleet entirely bypassed the Imperial minefields and manifested out of the void well within the system. Blacker than the black of the void, the strange shapes of the Necron vessels headed straight for Amarah. It was only when battle station Sentinel 4 in deep orbit around Amarah Prime exploded that the Imperial fleet truly realised that battle had been joined. Still at anchor, the fleet could only watch helplessly as the black ships of the enemy passed them by, utterly ignoring them and heading for the system's primary world whilst moving at a speed no Imperial vessel could hope to match.Grand Admiral Carew watched impotently as the strange silhouettes of the enemy ships headed to the world he had sworn to protect. Ordering the fleet to mobilise and the Arica Dominus to engage its engines, the armada of Imperial Battleships began to stir. But for Amarah Prime it was already too late. By the time a warning could be send, the Necron ships had already obliterated the interior minefields and destroyed first Sentinel 2, and then Sentinel 1, each station harbouring the firepower of an entire Cruiser squadron. Amarah was systematically stripped of the defences that had been so painstakingly assembled. The orbital battle stations fiery demise illuminated the night sky above Amarah, stirring the ground-based defenders into action.