With the loss of their last forward logistical base in the sector, the Tau appeared to fall back to protect more secure territory within their borders, apparently bringing their Third Sphere Expansion to a close. Augura's fortresses, shipyards and weapons factories were either badly damaged or destroyed by the Space Marines's offensive. Despite their advanced technology, Battlesuits and plasma weaponry, the Tau had no hope for defeating such a large combined force of Space Marines. Warriors from the Night Watch, Halo Dragons, Silver Skulls, Sable Swords, Crimson Fists, Iron Lords, Aurora Chapter, Eagle Warriors and the Knights of the Raven, as well as many others, had all joined the Ultramarines in the attack on Augura. Eventually, only the world of Augura, in the Zeist Sector, remained in Tau hands, as their only remaining logistical and repair source in the area.īy this time, the Ultramarines were no longer the only Space Marine forces involved in the assault. Due to the Ultramarines's efforts, the Tau expansion slowed and then stopped under the Imperial assaults. Captain Sicarius used the same tactics as the Tau, which were ideal for a relatively small force of Space Marines, including rapid lightning strikes on weak positions to destabilize more heavily defended ones. Captain Cato Sicarius, commander of the Ultramarines' 2nd Company, attacked the Forge World of Praetonis V to break the ongoing Tau assault on that planet and used this momentum to begin pushing the Tau offensive back. When the Ultramarines arrived in the Zeist Sector, they found numerous Imperial worlds abandoned to the Tau and others heavily fortified to defend against the Tau's lightning raids. Calgar also sent requests to other nearby Space Marine Chapters for further assistance. He dispatched the Ultramarines' famous 2nd Company to the Zeist Sector to draw a defensive line through which the Tau would not be able to pass. One Imperial defender who could, however, was the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar and his Space Marines.
By 999.M41, Imperial planetary governors in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy were calling for massive reinforcements to push back the Tau forces, but with the constant attacks on Imperial space by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan and an increase in attacks by the Chaos renegades from the Maelstrom Warp rift, few Imperial defence forces were able to respond to the call. This Expansion was notable in that the Tau Empire resorted on occasion to annexing Imperial planets by military force, rather than the seemingly more common approach of cultural subversion.
The Tau showed no sign of stopping their aggressive expansion in the Eastern Fringes despite their losses in the Zeist Campaign.īy the year 997.M41, Tau expansionist activities encroached upon Imperial worlds with the initiation of the Tau Empire's Third Sphere Expansion. Despite victory belonging to the Imperium, the Zeist Campaign merely allowed the shrewd Tau Commander Shadowsun to rapidly strike deeply into more valuable Imperial space elsewhere.īy the time the Zeist Campaign ended, the Tau's Third Sphere Expansion had already enlarged the Tau Empire by 133% of its prior size. Taking place in 41, during the Tau Empire's Third Sphere Expansion, it ran concurrently with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade and the assault on Imperial space by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan.Īs the Imperium's military was heavily involved with preventing the breakout of the Forces of Chaos from the Cadian Gate on the other side of Imperial space, the Tau took advantage of this distraction to rapidly expand their territory. The Zeist Campaign was a military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire, in the Zeist Sector of the Ultima Segmentum.