Fancy manuvuevering and the subtle fencing of small units are replaced by the sledgehammer blows of massive forces. War erupts across the face of the planet and the very elements seem to echo the carnage, as a wave of unseasonably warm weather scorches living and dead alike. Techno-magi, farseers, and adepts are at a loss to explain this while the orks merely revel in the heat.
Sisters of the Revered Martyr
Bock's Journal: Entry 148
The enemy has been engaged on two fronts, and the results are victory for the Emperor!
My own task force encountered the heathen Eldar in Sector 26, and routed them to a man. If indeed one may even call them men. They even went so far as to insult us by only stationing a small squad of their Guardians in the territory. Did they actually think such a force might withstand the fury of the Imperium? I think not. Further action on this side of the mountains may be contemplated, but I may have to withstand the urge to pursue the alien, for it would become easy to become encircled, what with the Orks and the questionable status of the Imperial Guard in this area. Frequent contact with the alien may have tainted them...for they have yet to respond to my initial greeting.
Canoness Dahmnait has reported victory in Sector 65, though it came at a price. They routed the heretic, and forced them from the field, but not before they used some sort of new construct to destroy the mine. Further information and regrouping will be needed before I allow her to proceed...this new development in Chaos forces is strange indeed. Dahmnait herself was badly wounded in the battle, but she expects a full recovery. Sister Rosemary and her squad of Seraphim will not. I personally will enter all their names on the Honour Rolls, so that they will be remembered as the true Martyrs for the Imperial Cause that they are. I have once again had my Astropaths aboard the Battle Barge 'Ulysses' get in contact with Duke von Kohl. He seems to forget that the Steel Talons have been seconded to him only at my sufferance. I am High Inquisitor for his Rogue Trader mission, and I will have to remind him of that. Elias von Kohl is willful and independant, and the Steel Talons have begun to be shaped in his image of the past few decades. I wholly disapprove of his methods for replacing battle losses....recruiting from the criminal and insane is a sure road to heresy, surely. But they are brutally effective at what they do.
But von Kohl continues to insist that he cannot spare the men I need to properly support the Sisters of the Revered Martyr here on Rhandar Minor. He even has the audacity to tell me that his current mission is more important. We will see. The way this campaign is shaping, I shall need the heavy weaponry that the Marines have at their disposal to augment the holy fury of Dahmnait's Sisters. von Kohl will learn that he serves the Emperor first, and I am his representive on this mission.
Addendum: Sister Dialogus Ilyana Petrovich has been reviewing Sacred Scrolls discovered in Vendetium. She claims that they are of utmost importance, and could tip this campaign in my favour for its duration. I do not have time to return to Vendetium, and have sent my aide-de-campe to review the situation and make a decision. He is trustworthy in such matters, as he has learned well at my side, and knows I brook no foolish or fanciful ideas.
High Inquisitor Adolphus Bock
End Log: 148 -0.10001010011- Thought of the Day: It is better to die in sucess than live in failure.
The Chaos Horde of Lord Sherman
Hoark the Demagogue harrangued his followers. "We have to get this barricade built and quickly, before those benighted fools of the false Emperor make their appearance. Ok, all together now, all praise to the Changer of the Ways, the Great Mutator, Master of Fate and his mightiness Lord Tzeent....hey! it's your turn! You're supposed to sing the response...what's wrong...?"
Eventually the look of horror in his followers eyes penetrated the glaze of Hoark's fanaticism. He turned around, to see the horizon obscured behind rising towers of dust. This was no probing attack or even a 'reconisance in force', but rather a full scale assault. The Lions were coming. "Too late..." muttered Hoark. "Forget the whites of their eyes...shoot them now....FIRE!"
Celestial Lions Space Marines
Brother Claudus enhanced the sensor range on the Auspex and scanned the horizon again, the signal was clear: humanoids moving in the outskirts of the sector. He commanded his helm display to magnify his vision and saw in the distance a squad of Orc Kommandos scouting the sectors outlying defenses, one of them looking back with a crude spyglass. "Put all stations on Alert and prepare for attack." he said, and the liberated locals scrambled for their shelters as the Lions took up firewatch positions on the ramparts.
The Rhino bucked and the alarm klaxon blared a damage warning in the Rhinos mustering bay, Brother Davion's hand hovered over the emergency release hatch. His vox recierver crackled to life and Brother Danuub, the Rhino's pilot reported "Calm yourselves Brothers, our Rhino's Machine Spirit is true and it has corrected the malfunction." The crimson lights dimmed and the Rhino sped across the road way of Sector 73.
Davion heard more heavy weapons shells land around the transport and watched the sensor shrine's display count down the distance to target. As the distance closed to 12 meters the Rhino's tracks tore the pavement below as it twisted to a practiced stop and the Squad poured out of the rear hatch to assault the Heretic's bunker-tower. Autopistol and lasgun rounds bounced harmlessly off their power armour as the squad poured from the transport, Brother Idlen brought his Meltagun to bear on the bunkers main support and with a crackle of energy the main support beam was melted to slag and the tower collapsed around the cultists killing most. The few remaining ran for their lives gibbering with terror.
Revered Father Modeus crushed another daemonic horror in his enormours fist, yet another was lost beneath an adamantite foot, all around him the ground was wreathed in the eldritch flames that poured from the creatures arms but his concecrated armour and faith in the Emperor protected him from all harm. The remaining daemon turned and fled with unearthly speed, Modeus followed his metal sinews equal to the task.
As he gave chase Modeus brought his battle display online, auger feeds from the squads under his command flashed to life. His sensoriumn displayed a live feed from Kaeleb's Red Helms, the feed was a whirl of chainswords and blood, a traitor vainly trying to bring his bulky lascannon to bear against a furious melee.
Veriquiox's bodyguard broke their cover, the husk of a traitor Rhino, traitor cultists in a bunker-tower fired furiously with their tainted weapons but their weapons found no purchase against his armour. Veriquiox opened fire with his storm bolter and his veteran brothers followed suit, hewing down several foolish natives that had been swayed by the promises of power. He heard Veteran Brother Diego chant the litany of activation as he powered up his chainfist and carved into the supports of the tower. With an enormous groan the structure buckled and fell, masonry and debris bounced harmlessly from the Vetran's armour but crushed many of the heretics. The survivors turned and fled as soon as they found their feet.
Using the dust plume as cover Veriquiox's veterans marched on a squad of Vetran traitors sheltered in the cover of a stand of trees. With a bellow of rage Veriquiox and his Brothers charged into the assault, the Heretics rained blows upon them from cover, to no avail, not a man fell. The trees behind the veteran traitors burst apart and Revered Father Modeus entered the assault the heretics looked about them seeing only a flurry of golen armour and the huge Dreadnought, a prayer of faith thundering from its Vox, "Vocatus Atque non Vocatus Deus Aderit" and knew that they had met their doom.
The dust finally settled and Father Modeus gathered the Battle Bretheren around him. "Organize the evacuation transports for the local population, put the captives in restraint collars and send them with the prison convoy to Inquisitor Bock, he wishes to interrogate all captives to find his artifact. You do yourselves proud this day, my brothers, Pietas et Honos" With that the Lions dispersed already carrying out their duty.
WAAAAAAGH Hackem
Gringot led his small group of Kommandos to the edge of the swamp.
"Ok lads, keep your heads down, the boss sez we'ze just to reconoiter the area."
"Wot 'appens if we meet any oomies?"
"Don't worry, theyz all too scared to attack, and are all hunkered down in..."
Gringots pep talk was ended abruptly as the stand of trees ahead of his band was knocked over like matchsticks by over 50 tons of ceremite and steel.
"Errr... I could be wrong..."
Imperial Guard
Colonel McKutchin listened to the voice on the comlink, a grim expression on his face. "Stallone’s ‘ere sir. We kicked them Eldar outta da swamp, but theys as got more of us than I liked. Dey’s no one left from A and B squad."
"Understood lieutenant," McKutchin answered. "Have your men stand down and standby for further instructions."
"You got it Colonel. Out."
In the shade of the command tent, McKutchin placed the handset back in its cradle and shifted his attention back to the maps and reports on the table in front of him. "Have these reports been verified, Lieutenant?"
"Yessir," the intelligence officer sitting across from him replied, "two separate battlefleet patrols have made a sweep. Heat blooms in the manufacturing plants in Phelemon indicate their factories are now operating at full capacity. In addition, the activity in the wilderness areas suggests an intensive resource extraction program. In short sir, the Eldar are producing at an incredible rate. If we do not gain new territory or somehow slow down their production, we will be overwhelmed in short order."
The colonel leaned back in his chair and lit a cigar. "Very well. Thank you for the briefing, I’ll issue a new round of orders shortly. You may go. Send in Lieutenant Drake on your way out." The officer nodded and left quietly. A minute later, Drake entered the tent.
"You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yes Drake, come in. Sit, smoke." The corpsman pulled up a chair and lit a cigarette. "I’ve got another difficult choice to make here. The moral component isn’t as important this time, but a man needs someone to discuss things with and you’ve proven yourself a good sounding board."
Drake nodded and smiled. "What’s on your mind?"
"We just got hammered in sector 42. Most of a platoon went down. We can’t take another hit like that and still keep control of the sector. If we sat still for a while we could bring up enough re-enforcements to strengthen the line again, and get enough of a reserve to make a comfortable offensive. Unfortunately, I’ve just been told the Eldar are producing almost twice as fast as we are. If we sit still, we die."
"Why not press ahead with the raid on the orks as planned sir?" asked Drake.
"I’m wondering the same thing, Drake, except that Phelemon has suddenly become much more desirable real-estate, both to supply us and take away supplies from the Eldar. Plus, if either side of that two pronged attack fails, we’ve had it."
Drake inhaled deeply on his cigarette and looked at the maps in front of the Colonel. "Well sir, if I remember correctly the two squads that got chewed up were chewed up because they got discovered early."
"That’s correct. They were hidden but discovered when the Eldar moved into the area."
"And the engineers cleaned up because they struck from ambush, at full strength from close range?"
"That’s right," answered the Colonel.
"So why not deploy a team of dedicated ambush troops. Deathworld veteran patrols? The chopper could have two, five man squads in place in about 36 hours. Battlefleet’s got room for them on the next supply ship if they leave behind their special weapons."
McKutchin chewed his cigar, "A very good idea. And if the snipers run interference at the edge of the swamp, we should have that much time."
Drake nodded. "If we get the engineers to trap the hell out of that swamp, those assets should be able to hold the line while we continue against the Orks. You’re right though colonel, the offensive is risky without a reserve."
"Mmm," the colonel murmured, "but the time has come to be bold. Lets show the greenskins what we’re made of. Thank you lieutenant You’re dismissed."
Drake saluted and left the tent. The colonel picked up a notebook and began writing.
The colonel finished writing, then called in his com specialist and had the message encoded and transmitted. Then he took a walk, looking out over the village and the fields. "It’s always tough to give that order," he said to no one in particular. "I know darned well half those poor kids won’t come back."
Eldar of Craftworld Zaitor
Fuegan thought about the reports from Hirushin and Bok'tu about the raid on the Imperial Guard. It was unfortunate that they were driven off by the mon-keigh, but it pleased him that so many had perished at the hands of Exarch Hirushin. Fuegan regretted not being able to face the Imperial Guard and personally bring about their destruction, however the desire to hunt down the mon-keigh that had bested him in battle was greater. He would not rest until he saw to that human's destruction.
Suddenly, through his helmet's psy-transmitter, reports were coming in of enemy advances in several sectors. His visor showed him images of Imperial Guard forces from the south, female warriors from the east, and marines to the north, all advancing on eldar positions. Was it coincidence, Fuegan wondered, or were they coordinating their attacks together? The Zaitor Farseers had not predicted these attacks, but instead foresaw that the humans would not move against the eldar forces until later. Fuegan mentally sought the minds of the Farseers through his psy-transmitter, and found them far above his own position in the Zaitor fleet.
Fuegan voice slowly cut into the minds of the Farseers, "Are you listening to the reports of incoming human forces? Your blindness will be the death of Zaitor."
"Impossible!", exclaimed Farseer Sinoa, "How can this be?!"
After a moment of silence, Farseer Taske'rin's voice answered, "Great Fuegan, I feel that something is altering the course of the future on this planet, and I believe that the humans may have come here searching for that power."
Fuegan was pleased that he did not have to point that out to the Farseers at the very least, for he was aware of it since his battle with the Black Guard. "Redirect all of your attention to finding the source of this influence.", commanded Fuegan. If a power that great existed on Rhandar Minor, the Eldar had to find it and seal it away, lest the mon-keigh tamper with forces too great for their comprehension."
Fuegan set his mind to the reports of the advancing human forces. Although the Farseers could not predict these, he was smiling as he relayed orders to counter the humans. He had learned his lesson, and had ignored the Farseers' advice. His final order was for the Dragon's Breath to pick him up, and bring him and the Burning Hearts to face the enemy coming his way. With any luck, that accursed human would be leading them!
Black Guard Space Marines
The time for action was drawing near thought Enoch. Three more marine squads had arrived to reinforce Stutgard, the critical staging point for the chapters campaign to liberate Rhandar. To lose Stutgard now would certainly be a major blow to the Black Guard and his command of the 3rd company which was now in its 52nd year. The Eldar craftworlds rapidly expanding area of influence, not to mention presense on the door steps of Stutgard kept the situation tense. Reports of their atrocities in the south kept pouring in, not to mention Colonol McKutchin's request for assistance as he battled enemies on two fronts. Something had to be done and soon. Enoch gave the orders, it was time to counter-attack and take the battle to the enemy. He would lead squads Xerces, Nova and Torment and attack the fortified Eldar position in the swamps. Sergeant Deviin would take squads Golan, Twilight and Hurricane and attack the Eldar in sector 13. The remaining squads would remain behind and defend the city against any unexpected attack. It was time to show the ancient Phoenix Lord the might of the Emperor and the folly of warring with the defenders of humanity.
+++Battle Report+++