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Inspired by a game played yesterday:

Nifelheim 4 was but a small planetoid in the system around the star Nifelheim, barely larger than the Sol system's Luna, yet to the Necrons it served as a crucial outpost to the system. As the furthest planet from that star, it was an important line of defense against any who would threaten the inner planets. The Overlord in charge of the defense of the planet had barely repelled an attack by a Tyranid vanguard fleet. Only but a month later, while the Necrons were restoring the defense systems around this satellite, it had reached the furthest point of its orbit from the star and passed dangerously close to the Warp Storm known as Crowley's Gaze named after the infamous Aleister Crowley, former Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Space Marine traitor legion who since ascended to Daemonhood.

As soon as Nifelheim 4 passed through a single cloud of the Warp Storm, the Chaos gods knew right away of the new arrival to their domain and set out to remove the planet from its natural orbit and pull it into the eye of the Warp Storm. Timing was crucial however, for the planet's orbit was noticeably faster than most of the other planets in the system and would take it out of their grasp if they didn't completely dominate it. Furthermore, the Necrons had an array of artifacts scattered around the planetoid that, if activated, were able to repel the Warp and be unaffected by the Gods' grasp for a long enough time to pass through the outer part of the Storm unscathed.

The element of surprise was on the side of Chaos however. The Necrons had barely a few soldiers repairing a relatively remote part of the satellite's facilities when Daemons began to breach realspace, catching them unaware. Nurgle was the first god to respond sending in the Greater Daemon Korgonthurus, the Fetid through to command his forces. Korgonthurus had taken a great interest in the Necrons, particularly their attempt at immortality by encasing themselves in metallic bodies. Nurgle, however, does not look kindly on those who would cheat decay without his permission, thus Korgonthurus laughed with a booming laughter as he came into realspace, for he could not wait to prove how futile the Necrons' attempt at longevity was. He emerged brandishing a lethal Balesword, dripping with many kinds of corrosive fluids planning to make sure that the metal bodies of the Necrons would melt.

Along with him emerged the Daemon Prince Iblis, a former Word Bearers champion and part of a detachment sent to a developing Tau colony. Though the Tau had wiped out the majority of his brothers, Iblis made his way to a mass crop fertilizing station at the peak of the planet and altered the fertilizer into a chemical weapon lethal to all life on the world. Iblis would have succumbed to the chemicals as well had Nurgle not saved him from the brink of death and rewarded him with Daemonhood for his actions on that world. Iblis now stood as a decaying hulk Daemonic muscle in rusted power armor, a functional pair of wings, and an eyeless horned skull as a head. He too carried a Balesword to sow decay among the metallic horde.

As a favor to the Forge of Souls, Nurgle had allowed a Soul Grinder aligned to him to breach the multiverse and harvest some of the metal from the metallic forces.
Slaanesh was the second to act on the incursion. The Dark Prince had fancied some of the Necrons' artifacts and wished to claim some before Nurgle had corroded them all away. He appointed Esmeralda, one of his most exalted Heralds to jump into realspace for his task. Esmeralda was accompanied by many of her handmaidens, five of which rode mounted on the nimble Steeds of Slaanesh. She had planned to make a surprise entry using the cavalry's Icon as a beacon for accuracy.

Tzeentch was the last to respond and was only able to send two small groups of Pink Horrors onto Nifelheim 4. The Horrors however wasted no time as they emerged, immediately commandeering an abandoned anti-aircraft turret and one of the Warp neutralizing artifacts.

The Necron Overlord knew his forces in the shape they were in could not survive a Daemonic incursion through war of attrition, therefore activating those artifacts was crucial to the defense of the planetoid. Quickly he assembled a defensive line of Warriors. Two units of Deathmarks, one accompanied by a Cryptek Psychomancer, also took up defensive positions. One squad of Deathmarks set their eyes on Korgonthurus, the other on Iblis.

Iblis recognized the Overlord and immediately took off toward him. Korgonthurus lumbered forward taking shots from the Deathmarks but shrugging off the majority of the shot that penetrated his fetid Daemonic form. The Slaanesh steed riders galloped forward attempting to dodge incoming fire from the Warrior gunline, but four of the five were cut down. As a result, Slaanesh's connection to this world weakened and Esmeralda and her reinforcements were cut off.

The Warp ebbed as Nurgle began spreading his corrosive miasma across the world, inadvertently afflicting a small number of Pink Horrors. Iblis channeled his psychic energy onto the Warrior gunline, rusting their metal forms while fortifying his own form. The Soul Grinder vomitted forth a tremendous ball of energized phlegm at the Deathmarks, killing three and sending the squad into a self-preservation protocol. Meanwhile, Iblis slammed into the Warrior gunline in an attempt to strike down the Overlord, but the Overlord simply threw Warriors in his way to stop him. Many Warriors were cleaved into pieces, their metallic forms dissolving in the acid of the Balesword before the Overlord fell back to his personal bunker that took him deeper into the planetoid. Though he could no longer participate in the battle directly, he retained full command over his forces.

From his command post, he first overrode the Deathmarks' self-preservation protocol and returned them to the front lines. He then deployed three Night Scythe aircraft in order to dominate the skies and beam reinforcements onto the Warp neutralizing artifacts. The aircraft turned their fire on the Greater Daemon and Daemon Prince, but their firepower proved ineffective against both. In the hail of gauss and tesla fire, Korgonthurus scaled a fortification and assaulted what remained of the Warrior gunline dissolving many in the caustic liquid of his blade before they broke formation and fell back.

The Pink Horrors controlling the anti-air turret fired at the Nightscythes, but in the midst of their bickering over control of the cannon most of the shots failed to hit. The Soul Grinder took several pot shots at the aircraft as well with its Harvester Cannon, but did minimal damage.

Even so, things were looking more and more grim for the Necron defenders. Iblis had cornered his Deathmark hunters and pulverized them without effort while Esmeralda's reinforcements finally breached realspace and commandeered an artifact hoping to dismantle it and take it back to Slaanesh. The Horrors, wanting a better view of the carnage ensuing on the front line, abandoned their position around their artifact and ran toward another on top of a hill. The Horrors manning the flak gun, seeing their comrades abandon their artifact, quickly ran over to steal their former position.

It was at this point that the Overlord sprung his trap. In several quick swoops, the Nightscythes deployed their passengers onto two unoccupied artifacts while the third dropped right in the path of rear-most Pink Horrors. At the same time, the Cryptek and his Deathmarks phased out of reality to re-appear atop the hill the other unit of Horrors were still ascending. In a hail of tesla and gauss fire, the Horrors were subdued and exiled back to the Warp. Right on cue, the Necron forces activated the artifacts which projected a beams of light up to the top of the hill where the crown artifact lay. As the Cryptek activated this artifact, the Daemons began to slip out of realspace. As they were pulled back into the Warp, the Necrons were able to advance once more to activate the rest of the artifacts, banishing all the Daemons on and around Nifelheim 4. Korgonthurus and Iblis looked upon the triumphant Necrons with scorn as they were dragged back into the Realm of Chaos. They vowed to return to reap their vengeance.

The Necrons won the day, but at a high price. Nifelheim 4 finally passed out of Crowley's Gaze's event horizon within the week and re-established communication with the rest of the system. The artifacts would not remain active forever, so they needed reinforcements to refortify the planet in case such an invasion happened again.