Dreadclaw Rain and Beastmen Charge

Twenty seconds. Twenty seconds separated Xaviera from colliding with yet another battlefield. The priestess' anticipation was tangible inside the confines of the Dreadclaw, her eyes closed inside her helmet as she listened to its warnings, its blares, and the hum of its engines and machinery. Ten seconds. The warped Machine Spirit within the construct was alive. She could sense it at the edge of her perception, even though she was not learned in interacting with such manifestations of the Warp. Its calculations and sheer force of will nonetheless saw them safely deployed down into the warzone. Go.

The lights shifted to green and the Dreadclaw spewed them out into the thick of it. Lord Gallek quickly summoned the champions to him, and Xaviera dashed to join her Apostle's side. "To the Aquila! Death to the Corpse Emperor!" she cried out, her voice empowered by the helm's Vox and rasping through its filters. The priestess thrust her focus into the sky, the dagger flaring with psychic energy as she attempted to cast a Hysterical Frenzy into the Beastmen hordes and aid their initial charge, before she sought the cover of Lord Gallek's flank and carefully advanced beside him.

OOC:

Hysterical Frenzy on Beastmen
Defensive Action on Xaviera

In the cciiiittttyyyy, city of Imperium. (we keep it rocking )


Nero stepped onto the chaos version of the Imperial drop pod, the dreadclaw. He had never stepped inside one before, and to be honest didn't know how to feel about the malevolent spirit within the machine. Still, the Young Wolf showed no sign of fear as the other mortals piled in. Undivided troopers gathered around the much larger astartes in his power armor, all armed with some sort of slug weapon. Nearby, Captain Robb had gathered his forces as well. A wilder, adaptive group of ex-convicts and career criminals to attach to the core of his Nurgle following plague troopers. Where they had flexibility, Nero's main force comprised of discipline and numbers. Two sides of the same coin, the Wolves of Horus and the Lupercal Army.

One by one the dreadclaws fell from the Gloriana Class Battleship, and the forces led by Nero and Captain Robb dropped last. It had been a last minute adjustment by the former Ultramarine. The other forces, the beastmen and the other factions, can soak up most of the anti air defenses for them, and they would ride in the shadows of the main force, landing before the anti air guns could reload or retarget them. Dropping now, the Young Wolf waited patiently within the tense atmosphere of nerves, both from the orbital drop as well as the battle ahead. The dreadclaw containing Captain Robb and his men, on the other hand, incubated like a dirty Petri dish, diseases of all kind swirling in the air around them, released from open orifices gaping on their bodies.

Though it might have seemed longer, only a few seconds later did the dreadclaw land, and the central iris opening widened, dropping its deadly cargo into the Imperial city. Hopping out, Nero took a look around and saw that their forces had landed a bit further than where the main forces had been thrown into the melee. Apparently, their delay had thrown the drop off course slightly, and while there was still fighting around them, it hadn't reached the level of violence closer to the epicenter of the invasion. Pulling out his bolter, the Young Wolf waved for the others to follow him as he spotted a PDF squad approached. "Surrender or die!" he shouted, only to be met by a swarm of lasgun fire. Diving to the side, another undivided trooper behind him couldn't move as fast, and his body blasted apart by the sheer firepower. "Kill them! For Lupercal!" Nero shouted, and spun his bolter around firing on the enemy.

Within minutes the PDF squad, outnumbered and outflanked by the still arriving invaders, got ripped apart. Their sergeant falling last, his torso blasted apart by a bolt round from Nero. The men immediately rushed the enemy position, stripping them for their weapon and any intact gear on the bodies as their leader looking around for the closest of the objectives listed to them. The Wolves of Horus and their auxiliary had no idea where they might land, so they created a list of targets that must fall, so any squad separated from the rest will simply join the nearest force in order to take the objectives. Spotting the fortress-precinct of the Adeptus Arbites nearby, the Young Wolf rallyed the men around them, many of which had been in the process of slaying their prey and looting themselves. "With me! We head to the Arbites Precinct!" A roar returned itself to him, and he headed off to face the enforcers of the Imperium. "For Lupercal! Kill! KILL!"

At the same time, somewhere else in the city, Captain Robb smiled behind his gas mask as the last of the resistance fell beneath his chainsword. His target had been too busy dealing with the infected mucus filling up his airway to really do anything else but submit to Father Nurgle or die. They had landed next to what appeared to be a rapid transit station in the city, with part of the system both running carts above and below the ground. Lifting his chainsword, the Captain looked to his forces, a plague of pestilence surrounded by scum dressed in uniforms, now armed with their latest victims' weapons, equipment and even armor (one does not simply ask how they acquired the enemy's armored clothing so quickly). "Let us go inside and get our tickets shall we?" he asked merrily to the others, pointing at the station's entrance. "There are many that have not received the love of Father Nurgle and we mustn't keep them waiting." Taking over the central station would allow them to make use of the entire transit hub, those that remained intact after the orbital bombardment anyhow. Still, a great way to spread the blessings of Father Nurgle rapidly throughout the city. So the plague captain marched into the station, followed by his plague troopers and the rest of his strike force, leaving behind rapidly rotting bodies, some even covered with diseased looking fungus already.


Sneaky Swapper Squad


Corbulus remained more or less as quiet as his trip down to the planetside. Compared to the orbital drop invasion happening in the city, this seemed akin to a casual ride to the countryside, rather than a stealth mission. Granted he had no extensive experience on this sort of thing; the last time he had been tasked with something similar had been in the Great Crusade. Usually paired in much more contentious of situations, none the less there should be some work for the dark gods to do down here in this subterranean labyrinth. Following the Alpha Legionnaire and trusting the reputation of the XX legion, they eventually spotted some form of life outside of their own ahead.

The fool Mechancius of Mars had their servants ahead, as servitors, as well as their masters and Skitarri guards, stood at ready, patrolling what logically would be considered a weak point in the enemy's defenses. It had been wise for the local planetary defenses to entrust such tasks to their mechanical allies. Regular humans would tire and their minds grow numb from the constant dullness of patrolling underground, while the machines had no problem with such a thing. On the other hand, this made their mission that much more difficult. Suddenly, the Alpha Legionnaire pointed out an exit to the room and corridors ahead, before indicating that it contained their objective; Of course.

"There's at least 35, wait," Corbulus begun to speak, before the doors open and another force of three Sydonian Dragoons joined the already large patrol. "There are at least 40 enemy targets in front of us, whereas there's six of us. So unless our cousin of Magnus here," he gestured to Ausarius, "can summon a portable storm to kill most of them, or you have some sort of jammer on you, chances are they will raise an alarm even if we strike first and kill as many as we could." His eyes scanned the targets from behind his helmet, wandering from enemy to enemy until they rest upon the tech priests. "I shall engage the enemy leader, maybe you will have some sort of way to utilize the lack of leadership once they're dead to sow some confusion and maybe even conflict into their ranks."

With that Corbulus began to creep forward. He found himself out of elements, more at home with the carnage of a rapid strike, or a forward assault. Stil, the Alpha Wolf did his best to continue moving forward in his large form in order to avoid detection by the scanners and searchlights of the enemy, at least only until he gets within striking distance of the tech priests. Tainted power axe in hand, it had as though the patrons of chaos knew of the need for secrecy at the moment, as the usual light that came from the warp energy wrapped around the weapon disappeared since they arrived planetside, and now he hoped it had been an understanding rather than an abandoment by the dark gods once again of his plight. Once getting in range, Corbulus would summon the energy back into the power axe, before delivering a powerful over the head strike into the nearest tech priest.


OOC: Stealth roll, balanced attack on techpriest, defense on self.

<Generator insertion> @WanderingJester @Jorimel @BuriasDempsey @Colapse

Valu was following at the rear of the group, knowing that in case of combat he really wasn't the most helpful one on the front. Even armed with a chainsword, his primary weapon was the las rifle which he vigilantly held. And besides, he would only stand in the way of Satharn and Corbulus who were melee focused warriors as far as he gathered by now.

"Good hunting, Lord Corbulus." Valu whispered towards the Son of Horus as he took off to pick their leader. He was not really surprised that he wanted that glory for himself, rather than leave it to a trained assassin like Satharn. Though if the alien was honest with himself, he wondered how well of a warrior Phocron was. And yet, no matter what he witnessed today - he would not believe that it was his best performance.

Once everyone started to get into motion for the battle, he himself laid down on his belly utilizing as much cover as he could, las rifle drawn and looking around. If he just had a long-las. Hm... Perhaps he really should consider becoming a sniper for this troupe. He shook his head to focus on the situation at hand. He took aim on one of those riding guys, figuring they are going to be very dangerous. But he wouldn't start the fight, he was just going to wait until someone does the first strike, then he would squeeze the trigger and wouldn't stop until either his clip went empty, or someone engaged him in melee.

OOC: Taking Aim on Sydonian Dragoons (whichever is closest / I can see of); All-Out-Attack in case someone starts the fight.

Kombuse was stayed quiet on the way to and through the caves, more to keep an eye on their surrounding and keep silent to not be detected rather than because of company. When Phocron lead them to the deafening room of machines working an excavation site and dozens of servitors with their supervising tech priests, he was actually relieved that they came across oppositions. 'If you're finding enemies, you're usually going the right way' he heard in his mind, an old saying he use to hear in the pact that he thought made a lot of sense. After hearing what the Snake marine said about smashing through the ones infront of their objective, he actually agreed and nodded at the plan. They weren't here for a drag out fight, they came to take down the generator to the city. Which of course is why he rolled his eyes when the marine in black decided to go his own way and go glory seeking rather than doing something sensible. He will always wonder why everyone thought he was the 'simpleton' and other big fancy words he heard before but mean the same thing. Trying to stick to the plan, he quietly moved toward the corridor they needed to break through to while he flicked on the pilot light of the Heavy Flamer. They may be half machine, or more for some of them, but there was still flesh under there and even machines break down when exposed to enough heat.

OOC: Stealthing toward the group of skitarri soldiers lead by the alpha blocking the way, gonna burn them when close enough so full attack!

At the first moments, just like with most massed troop deployments, it wasent pretty, beastmen where surging from dreadclaws and troop transports, only to be cut down in masses, Though soon the tide was turning as they started returning fire themselvs, the first save being mainly ungors and centigors was a smart strategy in this situation, Ungors where cowadly and knew their own fragility and quickly found the best cover they could, they cloven feet carrying the at greater speed than most humans could muster, so soon the firefight could start for real, meanwhile the larger and more ungainly centigors acted as outrighters, not all of them skilled enough with their hands for guns and reloading, so instead carried shields, melee weapons and throwing axes, Though the main strength was their hatefull beastly stupor, carring them through harrying weapons fire, and soon close enough the the first Lines of PDF's though not to imidiate succes as the hellhounds immolated the first to come close, though the imperial line was quickly comming under preasure from the beast tide, witch only grew in ferocity, as an inhumanly loud roaring bray sounded as Gorzkha arived to the battlefield, his beastmen fighting harder under their cheifstans mercyless gaze.
Gorzkha wasted no time himself, seing their arival being met by varying hosts of imperial defenders, what especially cought his eyes where a gaggle of priests wielding chainblades like his own, bursting into a full on charge, he would take great pleasure in killing the priests of the Emperor, as it was almost like great hatred for them where part of his very being, and their deaths would bring him great glory and pleasure.

OOC: all out attack on priests

"Aye, Death to the False Emperor," Satharn nodded back to Corbulus, partly because he was at a loss for what to say, and partly because deployment was imminent. He never knew what to discuss with the actual _followers_ of the Dark Gods. As a Nostraman and a Night Lord, he had not a single shred of desire to actually worship what he saw as a bunch of fickle, self-serving monstrosities. It wasn't an irony totally lost on him. Still, the idea of bowing the knee to anyone but his Primarch made his spine itch.

So he followed mutely, not the best at making sustained conversation anyway, and settled in for the ride to the drop zone, placing his helmet on his head and glad of the relative grace it offered by way of hiding his expression.

Inside, they were soon deep in the darkness of tunnels. The Night Lord smiled. Here was an environment in which he could feel at home. The enemy, once located, were the servants of the Machine God. This could be a problem.

Satharn knew that the Mechanicum - in his estimation - cared not so much which side of the conflict they served so long as it did not interfere with their mechanical obsession. And it was a very, very useful one. If one could attract the Adeptus Mechanicus to serve under one's own banner, they were invaluable. It had happened before. Kelbor Hal, the machine-man's name was, though by the Night Lord's luck this particular bunch of cogheads probably reviled him as a heretic. Still, perhaps it was worth a -

He sighed internally as the Black Legionnaire, sometime Luna Wolf charged off into the foe.

"I'll take the other side," he said, with quiet resignation, slipping into the shadows. He would use stealth while he could, even if the clockwork bastards no longer had a decent adrenal system.



Stealth to attack Sentinels from the opposite side to Wolf Boy as a distraction / attack on two fronts. Attack and defence on self.

<Urban Warfare> @Grall_Stonefist @Vulpas @Taec @Kalle @DeranVendar

"IN THE GLORY OF THE GOD-EMPEROR, YOUR WICKEDNESS SHALL BE CLEANSED UNDER HIS GAZE!" the Priest revved his eviscerator as he charged up the rubble, mad zeal pushing him ever forward. But then his eyes widened as he saw what seemed to be a fallen Sister of Battle speaking up. "WATCH YOUR FORCES BE CUT DOWN BY THE SERVANTS OF WAR" Fera shouted and opened fire with her heavy bolter, the deadly bolts flying straight towards the incoming zealots. Priest jumped to the side and dove for cover however the sheer amount of bolts exploding all around drove shrapnel in his back, having only robes as armor didn't work so great after all. Fanatics running behind him weren't all that lucky and one of them was killed as Fera's fire cut him in half. Their charge was blunted for a moment, giving Gorzkha enough time to activate his own two-handed chainsword and attack the foolish humans.

Pouncing on the Priest bestigor swung his eviscerator on the leader of the enemy, who while managing to spot the danger barely deflected the blow by bringing his own weapon up to clash with Gorzkha's own. They were locked like that for a moment before the unnatural strength of the beastmen began showing, the whirling teeth getting closer to the Priest's head inch by inch. "EVEN IN DEATH I CAN STILL SERVE!" he cried and tried to kick Gorzkha in the knee, but the bestigor was made of sterner stuff and he saw the attack coming, distributing his balance so the Priest's attack failed and the man stumbled forward, right on the haft of Gorzkha's eviscerator which hit him straight in the head and broke his nose in a shower of blood and bone. Death was close now and while Gorzkha felt pain in his back as two fanatics managed to climb to them and stab him in the back with their chainswords, he would soon have the head of their leader mounted on the pile. (OOC @Grall_Stonefist feel free to emote executing Priest with eviscerator with your next post).

Fera was there as well, switching her aims at the Hellhound below she saw the Centigors dying as they charged it, so she added her fire into the mix to try and stop the vehicle and knock out the major enemy. Her shots flew through the air and impacted on the hull of the vehicle, she knew where the fuel tanks were due to her background however while the bolts managed to put some holes in it no explosion happened, the sturdy Hellhound was kept intact so far. The defenders of course saw where the fire was coming from and Fera had to move behind the rubble to evade the hail of lasfire coming from below, but that wasn't the only of her problems. Now that she stopped suppressing them, the fanatics resumed their charge and while Gorzkha was taking out their leader they didn't seem to have any intention of stopping. Couple of them would soon be upon her but then she heard clicks from behind her as the weapon systems aboard Dreadclaw activated, frag launchers spilling out dozen of grenades into the incoming horde. Too late to do anything about it, they tried to scatter but as the grenades went off half of them got obliterated, either ripped to shreds and dead on the spot or dying due to severe bleeding caused by great number of shrapnel creating a mess of their bodies.

Destruction was great but so was the target painted on the Dreadclaw. Bloodthirsty machine spirit controlling it made no effort to move away, meaning that it simply had to eat the retaliating fire. Heavy bolters from below on the street started focusing fire on it and chunks of metal flew away, broken and crumpled, revealing the insides of the ancient craft. More of these shots and the Dreadclaw would most likely get obliterated there, if not for Orghast. Plague Marine brought onto himself to spread the gifts of Nurgle and as de facto leader of Grandfather's forces aboard "Nightfall" there was no better person than him to introduce the unbelievers with the true power of Chaos. Advancing like an unstoppable tide, he marched down the rubble simultaneously firing with his bolter on the defenders. Entire gun nest was destroyed as he hit the ammo crates, killing both the gunner and the loader and another two PDF troopers that were caught in the explosion. Lasfire showered him and the familiar stench of burning flesh hit his nostrils but these wounds were a trifle really while he was walking the path to renewed enlightenment. They can fire at him as much as they want, all of it will be restored as the Death Guard reaps the souls in the name of the Plaguefather.

"With me psyker, today we crush the infidels and topple their false idols!" Quor Gallek roared and instead of getting down on the street level, he jumped over the rubble created by the drop pod's impact and straight towards the building from where the PDF were firing on the beastmen below. While he talked, Xaviera weaved her spell, asking for the boon from the other side of the veil. Servants of the Dark Prince heard her and answered in kind, the vile energies spreading both through her and the Ungors below who were up until then hurdled around their transports, taking potshots at the PDF but not trying to advance. This all changed as the Slaaneshi cultist "boosted" their confidence, whatever fear or pain they felt was long gone and it made room for unnatural ecstasy. Jumping from their covers they charged the guards both in the streets and in the buildings, about to turn this part of the city into Dark Prince's playground.

Feeling invigorated by the spell, Xaviera hurried after the Dark Apostle who she caught as he reached the side of the building. Faced with a concrete wall, Quor Gallek did what ever sane Legionary would do and swung his two-handed crozius into the wall, the frail material unable to stand against the might of the warrior priest of Sicarus. Concrete exploded inwards and big chunk of it fell on the foot of a PDF trooper, locking him in place. Man had a surprised look on his face as he definitely didn't expect an attack coming from that direction, but the surprise quickly turned into terror as he saw the monster barging through. "FROM THE FIRES OF BETRAYAL UNTO THE BLOOD OF REVENGE, WE BRING THE WORD OF LORGAR!" Quor Gallek spoke and crushed the man's chest with a powerful kick before walking over him and charging the nearby gun nest. Gunner wielding autocannon who was up until then aiming down at the street also saw the Dark Apostle but was simply too slow to bring the cumbersome weapon around and was rewarded by a backhand swing of the corrupted crozius that sent both him and his gun outside the window and into the ugly death on the street below.

While the Dark Apostle charged another batch of PDF Xaviera entered the hole in the wall behind the Word Bearer and saw an unpleasant sight of a missile launcher about to be fired at her. One of the more courageous defenders managed to bring his weapon to the point and aim at the hole, just in time to see Xaviera moving in. "DIE HERETIC!" he cried and pressed the trigger, the missile flying through the air and impacting couple of meters to the left from where the cultist was standing, throwing her off her feet. Pain, beautiful pain was there, however it quickly turned into pleasure. It didn't bother Xaviera not one bit that her new carapace armor was buckled and blackened, she felt to concussion or anything like it. She was blessed by her God and with his touch upon her, these simpletons would not be able to stand in her way (@Kalle feel free to emote 2-3 kills on the missile launcher team inside the building with your next post).

Finally, just to somehow even the odds with the increasing amount of lasfire being spat in their general direction, Erelak took it upon himself to start culling the meek. Raptor activated his jump pack and launched himself into the street below, straight into the biggest knot of PDF troopers he could find. Managing to dodge most of their shots and land without any injuries, the Black Legionary used his new power sword for the first time and slashed into the surprised defenders, who tried to back away from him but failed miserably. Two of them were cut down on the spot, third one was bisected as Erelak brought his sword around and fourth one was shot in the back as he tried to run. Gunner inside the Hellhound saw the Raptor causing havoc and opened fire with his inferno cannon; Erelak saw the danger and activated his jump pack but the flames still caught up to him and licked his armor, melting the heraldry and burning some of his skin beneath, but nothing too serious compared to what happened to another two PDF troopers who were too slow to move away - they got incinerated on the spot, leaving only charred husks on the ground.

All around them, with the spell pushing them onward, the beastmen surged like a tide and forced the PDF troopers on the defense, now brave Ungors mixed with fast-moving Centigors and backed with the team members taking out more serious threats and lowering the number of kill zones created enough of an advantage for the attackers to push in and force the PDF to start backing. Of course, the cloven ones died in their droves but there was quite enough of them to fill the gaps, especially as another transport just landed nearby spilling newly formed Pestigors into the field, who started lumbering forward down the main street, soaking up the lasfire and shrugging it off as if it was nothing.



PDF Defenders:

PDF troops: 22 (las-rifles), Hellhound:6 Priest with eviscerator:2 PDF fanatics:5 Special weapons teams: 7(ML)/4(HB)/5(AC)

Gorzkha:10 Orghast:14 Xaviera:12 Fera:12 Erelak:13 Dreadclaw pod:5 Quor Gallek:20

Conditions: Due to the effects of Hysterical Frenzy, Xaviera has FNP+70 roll and a bonus attack for 2 turns. Due to Beastmen advantage every defender has to re-roll their defense successes during the next round.

Tides of War (Beastmen vs PDF defenders): Beastmen Advantage.

I have been granted a flock. Deserving or not it is my duty to Grandfather that it grows strong. It must be nurtured and pruned, encouraged and left to blossom into rot. Their fate will not be ignored. Even if I must die, his blessings shall take root and flourish. As death is eternal and inevitable, so is life, and Nurgle is all these things.

"Hestorious, bring forth the tenders. It is time they learn a lesson in furthering the grand purpose."

"I shall try Orghast, they are currently locked around our Honored Guest." Hestorious, most faithful and veteran of the Death Guard's new flock, sounded distracted himself. This brought a genuine mirthful chuckle from the legionary's lips.

"Just get them here when the trees have been plucked of ripe fruits. Bring plague canisters, I would like to see if you can convert this accursed Hellhound into something that leaves its meat less cooked." Like that Orghast was off, belting across the battlefield with all his trans-human gifted speed. Agility was something that had been admittedly alien to him after millennia bloated with Nurgle's many gifts. The engagement in the asteroid prison had been a fine warm up though, and no space marine ever truly forgot their gifts and how to use them. Orghast would be no exception and Death Guard tore across rubble strewn field with chainsword drawn. Plan was simple enough: Keep ignoring all that pesky las-fire, get to the vehicle, hop aboard and tear off its top, then go to down.

OOC: One Boarding + Chainsword attack on Hellhound, One Defense on self.

As he beat back the priest who saw himself completely outclassed by the bestigor chiefstan, Gorzkha just manged a short bestial smile as he broke the priest nose upon his hilt, barely registering the attempt to knock his feet out below him, instead Ghorzkha drove forwards, just as a pair of chainswords streaked over his back, earning a grunt of pain, but doin nothing to stop the warcheif as he knocked the priest on his back, and stamped a heavy hoof through his chest, though the priest died then and there to Gorzkhas great pleasure, it wasent enough to kill him, as he grapped the priests head in one hand, and ripped in from it neck in a quick motion, as he quickly turned around with a wide onehanded swing at the PDF fanatics to either kill or create distance between them, as he jammed the priests head upon a spike on his belt, with his new grisly throphy as a reminder that their god failed them, Ghorzkha brayed loudly as he laid into the PDF fanatics and beyond with the same reckless abandon as before, in these opening moments, it was all about brutal effectiveness and savage speed, especvially now that his beastman herd where driving back the defenders, Gorzkha had to lead by the front, and kill all the Imperial champions.

<Mechanicus aparatus battleus> @WanderingJester @Jorimel @BuriasDempsey @Uriel1339

"I don't have any jamming tech on me but it won't matter, they won't be able to raise an alarm," Phocron replied to Corbulus and slightly nodded above himself towards the cave's ceiling. "Other than being a perfect source of fuel for the space-faring ships, the rocks which make the foundation of Ponus are also famous for their interesting chemical composition that in its natural form prevents radio waves from moving through and around it. That was discovered during one unfortunate meeting of a Mechanicus representative with the Governor of this sector, a man of peculiar taste who loved strange jewelry among other things. He had an obsidian necklace filled with stones mined in a quarry couple of miles south of our location which almost completely annihilated Magos' in-built communication array. Some called it an open act of hostility and wars have been waged over lesser insults, however the Cult eventually settled for a compromise. In exchange of forgiving the Governor his obvious ignorance and not withdrawing their support of the subsector which could prove to be fatal in times like these, they were allowed to set up a mining operation on this planet and take 80% of everything they mine for themselves, while the Governor and his apparatus get the remainder."

"Long story short, if you try to contact ground forces you will most likely fry your armor's vox system. Communication works only on short distances of 10-15 feet, other than that any attempt at signaling your distant friends will end up in failure. That's why the defenders are so densely packed here, they had to prepare in case they get attacked from this side knowing that they cannot summon reinforcements. So, our best bet is to kill them all as quickly as possible and move on before another patrol arrives after these Dragoons fail to return to their HQ. The only thing that matters is for the Generator to fall, when that happens the city's fate will be sealed."

However now the time for talking was over and as Satharn, Corbulus and Kombuse crept towards the unsuspecting defenders, Valu and Phocron remained near on the outcrop near the entrance, taking aims with the lasgun and stalker bolter respectively, while Ausarius dropped down on the ground and took cover behind one of the drills, his force spear wasn't exactly a perfect weapon for tunnel fighting but it was far from the only weapon in the Sorcerer's arsenal.

In the aftermath, it would seem as if Satharn, Corbulus and Kombuse attacked simultaneously but in truth, it was the Wolves of Horus leader who swung his weapon and drew the first blood. Pouncing from the darkness of one of the drilling rigs and right into the Tech Priest that was busying himself configuring the code of one of the heavy servitors, Corbulus' axe flashed with tainted energy of the warp and before he even realized, the servant of the Omnissiah was missing an arm with the better part of his shoulder. Falling backward and helpless, he tried to defend himself with the mechadendrites that came to his aid but the Wolf of Horus was faster, pushing the mechanical array aside and moving in for the killing blow (OOC @WanderingJester emote killing the Tech Priest with your next posts). Understanding what happened to its master, the heavy combat servitor whirled its fist around, its power field activating in a shower of blue sparks. Swinging it at Corbulus the servitor missed the center mass and merely glanced the Alpha Wolf, but it was enough to drive him backwards into the nearby machinery.

On the opposite side of Corbulus, Satharn dropped from the shadows onto the unsuspecting combat servitors that were slowly turning to face the threat in form of golden-clad Astartes. Power chain glaive was activated and the Night Lord swung it with deadly precision, destroying three of the lobotomized servants with the initial sweep and slaying another trio with the circular move that cleared the room around him. They started retaliating now but simple lasfire was not enough to hurt Satharn this time around, like during the last mission these servitors were hardly capable of surviving his onslaught and providing much else than being meat shield infantry.

However his luck turned its back on the son of Nostramo as two Sydonian Dragoons charged him from two sides, trying to run him down with their lances. First Dragoon however found itself under fire and half of the armor protecting its rider melted under Valu's fire, who paid attention to the fighting and the moment he saw his lord in possible danger he lent a helping hand. But the second Dragoon continued its charge and hit Satharn straight in the chest as it passed him, swinging him around and throwing him on the ground. There was a wide gap in his armor now from which the blood flowed freely and he felt the electric shock of the strange weapon gripping his body, the armor refusing the properly work as its machine spirit fought to regain control.

Valu on the other hand, found himself in a whole lot of trouble now when the Night Lord dropped to the ground, the Lacrymole was wide open for the enemy retaliation. Mix of combat servitors and one of the heavier ones began firing in his direction, both the lasrounds and heavy bolter shots started exploding all around him and his cover collapsed alongside himself, falling down from the outcrop and into the "ground floor" below, his armor burned from the various shots that found the mark. Luckily, he ended up falling behind couple of ore carts that soaked the followup fire and while getting hit in the head by rubble of various shapes and sizes, it was still much better than eating a full on heavy bolter round.

Although the firing didn't stop there as there was still the issue of Phocron remaining up near the entrance, his armor protecting him from most of the damage but not entirely; the turquoise power armor was stained by lasburns and dirt, the Alpha Legionary grunting in pain as some of those shots managed to find the weak spot and damage the joints, not to mention a heavy bolter salvo that clipped his shoulder guard and stained the many-headed snake symbol on it. Other than that, he didn't show any other emotions as he moved back into the tunnel behind, popping shots from a safe distance and preventing the servitors from reaching him unless they all moved forward. Three of the regular ones fell while the heavy combat servitor suffered significant damage as his heavy bolter blew up after Phocron scored the hit on the ammo feed, blowing up its arm and a chunk of its chest, preventing any more of the serious fire coming from that direction.

This left the matter of resolving the Skitarii problem, which fell on Kombuse. Too busy with the stuff happening they were too slow to spot the Pact Trooper and as he jumped from behind a large pump, he flanked the troopers with good old fashioned wave of burning promethium. Two he incinerated on the spot while setting fire on two more, which fell on the sides and died couple of seconds later. The flames also managed to graze the Alpha itself and set it on fire, but the enhanced soldier didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. It blurted something in machine code and the Skitarii retreated a bit while firing on Kombuse, but other than feeling some of the heat the lasrounds did no damage to his carapace armor - good choice on the reward after that prison break.

Then he figured out that they weren't fleeing, they were gathering around the one remaining Tech Priest who started interacting with each of them via his neural link, making them much more organized than they should be, or at least that's what it looked like. Before he could see more the Alpha itself went after him, charging into melee. Soldier fired its plasma pistol but the shot went wide, melting the metal panel behind Kombuse's head. However the power sword which it carried in its other hand turned out to be much deadlier as it stabbed forward and slashed through Pact Trooper's hip despite the flames coming from his weapon, causing him to feel suddenly feel weaker as his flesh was ruined and he started bleeding profoundly.

To make matters worse there was there was that issue of the last Sydonian Dragoon which seemed to be free to charge whoever it wanted. Alas, Ausarius stepped from the shadows as well, pointing his spear in sort of a mocking invitation for the strange machine to go after him. Interestingly enough, the rider did just that deducing that leaving an enemy Astartes open to do whatever he wanted would be much worse than trying to attack him. However as it charged towards him the Sorcerer brought up his spear like some pikeman hero of old, awaiting the cavalry attack. Both long weapons hit at the same time, Ausarius attempting to sidestep the Dragoon at the last possible moment but not pulling it out quickly enough which rewarded him with a smash against his helmet that broke its eye lens and stabbed through his cheek, narrowly missing his eye. In return, he brought the spear into the machine and destroyed half of its rider as well as a big chunk of its lower torso, however despite all odds the thing just kept on moving, ending its charge bit further away and turning around for another go.


Forces of Adeptus Mechanicus:

Combat servitors:14 Heavy combat servitors (HB+PF):7/4 (this one lost its HB) Tech Priests:2/6 Skitarii Troopers:11 Alpha:5(Burning) Sydonian Dragoons (taser lances):3/5/2

Corbulus:14 Satharn:12 (Dazed 1T) Ausarius:12 Valu:8 Kombuse:9 Phocron:17

Conditions: Corbulus, Satharn and Kombuse have bonus attack during the next turn. Second (the one remaining) Tech priest is buffing the Skitarii and the Alpha, giving them +2 on all defensive rolls. As a reminder, Valu can heal himself and Kombuse 4 times during this mission for d3 HP, healing move takes up one of the actions during a turn. Number of the healing cannot go over the initial number of your HP.