The battles for Saios had been growing in intensity. The siege at the Black Templar fortress had drawn the occupation forces to it in great waves. As the battle intensified the Orks came like moths to a flame, hurling themselves against the Imperium forces in an unending green tide. The bellowing howls of war cries, the endless chatter of their guns, and the steaming and smoke belching war machines of their race filling the mountains with an unearthly tumult. Into this meat grinder came the forces of the Imperial Guard, the levies of the 1st Allied Mechanicus leading the way, forming a battle line that stretched over eight hundred miles as they attempted to preserve the Imperial gains.

The forces of the Daemon Prince, Gentukama, came as well, marching slowly on scabrous feet in slow and plodding advances, trudging under the doleful beating of vast war drums and the ponderous shadows of their intact plague towers. Swarms of cultists circled these war hosts like flies to a corpse, wailing out invocations to their dark lord as they scourged themselves and attacked anything that crossed their path, be it small animals, Imperial patrols, or even their Orkish allies.

The Orks considered this rather sporting of the moldy boyz.

However, in the history of the war, amongst these vast troop movements and titanic battles that had death tolls in the millions on a daily basis, there was another battle that was generally accepted as one of the most vital of the war.
A small skirmish that took place in the ruins of the Hive City of Sancisto – a once teeming metropolis that had been crushed in the initial Chaos invasion, infested with countless horrible plagues, and then left over as nothing more than a war camp for the Orks when no one else could see value in fighting for its dead population.
A small battle with far reaching implications.

The Killswitch for the Iunden Defense Network – the device that could shut down the automated defenses and leave the Forge World open to attack from the rapacious Ork looters and vile Chaos plague, had been located.

It is accepted that the start of the matter came due to the activities of Lachlann’s Unkindness, the Raven Guard having still been operating behind enemy lines since even before the onset of the Imperium counter attack. Within the infested warrens of the Ork held Hive City, while being hunted by roving Chaos warbands, the Raven Guard had done the impossible and the demanded, they had located and secured the Killswitch, but now came the question of if they could hold it long enough to have it, and themselves, extracted.

The fate of a Forge World and untold billions of Imperial lives would hang in the balance.

=======================================

Shadow Captain Bran Lachlann waited quietly in the shadows as the Ork patrol moved past. Like most Ork patrols they seemed to believe the best way to root out intruders was to drive around at breakneck speeds in ramshackle vehicles while firing their weapons in the air and demanding and ‘hidin’ gitz’ to step out into the open to be ‘stomped propah’.

Their patrols had not had much luck finding him or his men yet… A small smile traced over his features.

Still, it would do well not to underestimate them. Many were the skilled warriors who had foolishly mistaken the Ork’s brash and simplistic natures with them being simpletons and undeserving of respect as foes. The Greenskins had a dangerous low cunning, and seemed to have a strangely acute grasp of many basic tactics and even strategies. Indeed, they seemed to almost stumble into them through some sort of idiot savant internal ability. No, he would do well not to underestimate them.

With the Orks clear of the street he nodded to Sergeant Osgar and he and the Assault Wing trotted quickly across the open gap, heading for the nearby building. Immediately upon entering Lachlann felt a tension in his back and dove for cover, feeling rather than seeing the guns trained on him. It turned out to be Sergeant Earnan and his scout squad however. The quiet young recruits returned their rifles to rest positions as Earnan walked forward, touching a finger to his forelock as a manner of greeting.

“Shadow Captain.”

“Sergeant.” Lachlann allowed a small nod of his head in greeting to the man who had also trained him as a raw recruit. Sergeant Earnan was a good soldier, and a formidable training instructor. He was glad to have him here on the front lines. “Have you managed to find any other civilians in need of extraction? We almost have a hundred this time.”

“If there are any men left here, they have buried themselves deep to try to avoid the greenskins, Captain, I hold out little hope for finding any more of them unless we’re approved to start searching down by the sump. We…” Earnan’s normally calm and modulated voice paused as he considered his next words carefully, “…I think we have found something more important though.”

“Report.”

“The Killswitch.”

“It was supposed to have been destroyed during the evacuation.”

“The civilian population was supposed to have been extracted during the evacuation too, I daresay a number of things fell through the cracks.”

Lachlann went quiet for a moment, considering things. The Killswitch was an item of unquestionable importance to the defense of the system. Indeed, the entirety of the base operations for the counter assault and the only safe haven in the entire system was Iunden. If the Orks, or even worse, Chaos, were to get ahold of it…

“Break radio silence,” he ordered, the answer obvious, “we should have part of The Immortal Host’s fleet overhead. Order an emergency evac, priority black-seven-nine-twenty.” He glanced over his shoulder at Sergeant Osgar. “Prepare the men for a holding action and plot out our best fighting withdrawl to the nearest landing site. We’re going to secure and extract the Killswitch.”

=======================================


On a throne formed of rusting metal, yellowing bones, and rotting wood sat the bloated figure of Gentukama. He waited quietly, happily listening to the sounds of the blood flies swirling about his head. His adjutants arrayed themselves before his throne, shouting out information for him about troop movements, and the onslaught of the Imperium.

It was all meaningless though, the Eldar witch hadn’t made another move yet, and that was what concerned him. She had to be out there, plotting, preparing. She knew what he was really here for and she was the only danger to his eventual success.

Then his yellow-rimmed eyes creaked open as he snorted, a viscous bulb of snot popping out of his nose as he glared at one of the adjutants below.

“What was that, my son?”

The corrupted officer paused in uncertainty, glancing at his fellows, but Gentukama smiled broadly, his green-tinged fangs glistening as he offered a friendly grin. “We have reports of unusual attacks, it looks like a few squads of Raven Guard are attacking the Orks in Sancisto, it looks like they’re trying to draw them out of the city centre…but there is no discernible military gain to the operation.”

“No gain…” Gentukama took a deep breath, his phlegmy chest shuddering slightly as he chewed on his tongue thoughtfully. “They have found…something.” He opened his eyes and grinned again. “Send in some of the lads to the city center, the Imperium will be there soon enough, whatever they want…I want more, bring it back to me like a good lad.”

The cultist’s face erupted in waves of bloody pustules as he writhed under the benevolent attention of Gentukama and cried out joyously that he would do as he was told.

The Daemon Prince smiled as he slipped back into his half-awake slump to listen to the reports anew. Yes, things were going as planned, and Papa Nurgle would soon have love for the entire system, oh yes, sweet, sticky, eternal, inescapable love…

Round 4 – Welcome to Sancisto
The Killswitch which operates the Iunden defense network has been located. With it in hand the Imperium could rest much safer and know that their support from the Mechanicum would flow unimpeded. Without it…the forces of the Forge World would be at risk, and the last bastion of Imperial strength could well crumble.

Rules –
City Fight, 2,500 per side. Each side gets only one Warlord. The Killswitch is the only objective and is worth 3 points, other than that Kill the Warlord, Linebreaker, and Killpoints are in effect as normal.

Special Rules –
Final Mission Bonuses –
• If Chaos wins free orbital bombardment as they turn the defense system on the Imperials
• Imperial control of the defense network allows the Mechanicum to operate with more security, they will grant the Imperium with one of their Force Field Generators (per Apoc. Rules)

Forces of the Imperium - The Retrieval Force

The 1st Allied Mechanicus - Dispensations in Service to Mars, Defenders of Forge World Iunden.

Platoon Command Squad (Captain Harry Paget)
w. attached Techpriest Engineseer
w. Plasma Rifle
2 Blobbed - 10 man Infantry Squads, flamers, Sarges w. Power Axes.
5 Ratlings




Raven Guard 6th Company - Lachlann's Unkindness

Shadow Captain Bran Lachlann (Shrike)
2 ten man assault squads - lightning claws and melta bombs on the Sarges.
10 man Scout Squad w. Combat Blades and Power Sword on the Sarge
5 man Scout Squad w. Sniper Rifles and Heavy Bolter.

The Immortal Host - In Shadowy Service to the Inquisition (Blood Angels/Vanilla)

Squad Commander Hami – counts as Lysander
Seeker Hesan - Librarian
2x 10 man Sternguard
10 man Tactical Squad w. Rocket Launcher
5 man Assault squad (will get Black Rage) w. Powerfist
5 man Scout Squad w. Sniper Rifles

Forces of Papa Nurgle - The Party Poopers



The Slow Rot - Nurgle CSM

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor w. Powerfist
2x 3 man Obliterator Squads.
4x 10 man Plague Marine squad (1 w. Plasma and 3 w. flamers)
2x 5 man Chaos Spawn
2x 5 man Chaos Raptors w. Flamers and Lightning Claws

The ruins of Sancisto are the chosen battleground for the day.



A glimpse down one of the roadways – the griffon statue on the left is where the Killswitch is located, within a sealed vault hidden in the Mechanicum symbol on the front. So close…yet so very far away.
The Imperium wins side selection and will place their forces along Angel Street.



The forces of the 1st Allied Mechanicus (led by the rather disquieted Capt. Paget) and the Immortal Host entered the city, Capt. Paget makes the rather shrewd observation that he and his command staff might be best served by staying within this Imperial Sanctum…you know, to better ‘observe the flow of the battle’


Squad Commander Hami takes charge of some Sternguard and anchors the right flank.


The Immortal Host also secures the rooftop of the Sanctum, giving them a commanding arc of fire into the plaza below.

The left flank holds the assault marines, they will attempt to secure the four story building next to the Killswitch and hold it against Chaos attack.


Through the pre-dawn mist, the forces of Papa Nurgle appear, chanting Gentukama’s name they begin a slow and inevitable seeming march towards the Killswitch.


Not intimidated by 25 assault marines, 10 Chaos Raptors are also upon the field.


Inevitable matchup…?


Chaos Obliterators lumber into view atop one of the ruins, prepared to lay down withering fire on the sigil that hides the Killswitch vault.


Chaos Spawn, Raptors, and Plague Marines, oh my!


The battle lines are arrayed.


But wait! Sergeant Earnan and his snipers are on the field as well, they have infiltrated into the tall spire and plan to be a thorn in the side of the Chaos advance.


Apparently expecting this, Gentukama sent one of his Chaos Lords and a contingent of Plague Marines to infest the lower levels of the spire.


Not to be outdone, the Immortal Host also has a squad of snipers in play, working their way in deep on the left flank of Chaos.


Also – Ratlings!



Chaos’ left flank got a whole lot pricklier.


So sad, too bad, Chaos fails to seize the initiative.


“Death to the enemies of the Machine God!”
The 1st Allied Mechanicus rush forward, their plan to hold the Killswitch location with their lives.


Capt. Harry Paget wishes them well in that endeavor…


Commander Hami and his Sternguard slog forward.


Lachlann leads his wing of assault marines forward.


Their hope is to hit the Plague command squad with 20 assault marines and overpower it now. The Immortal Host’s assault marines move up to help as well.


“Pick a target, verify it, don’t double target, squeeze the trigger, don’t pull it…”
Sergeant Earnan’s snipers extract a deadly toll on Chaos, as they gun down an entire Raptor squad before the vile marines even know what is happening. (they also wound a spawn via the hellfire round)


One of the Raven Guard assault squads fails to move far enough to assault, and the Immortal Host can’t draw LoS to the Chaos squad.
Lachlann’s wing gives it a go anyway, and charges in to try to hold the Chaos Lord at bay.
“Victorus aut Mortis!”


They rush in, using their jump packs, and their chainswords snarl to life as they engage the forces of Chaos.


When all is said and done. Some Plauge Marines go down, but the Chaos Lord smashes the sergeant, and the Plague Marines hold firm.


Chaos Raptors rush forward, eager to bring aid to their Lord.


As do the spawn.


Actually, that’s looking pretty dicey for the Raven Guard…


The main causeway fills with gibbering Spawn and plodding Plaguers as the Immortal Host watches doom approach them.


Luckily they are in the Black Rage, so fully believe they can win this.


The Immortal Host Sternguard watch the coming of Chaos from their entrenched positions.


“We have these fools delt with, bring Nurgle’s kiss to the others!”
The Lord orders his Raptors to deal with the Raven Guard backup, and they begin by firing their flamers into the squad.


Then the assault!


“Come to me, servant of the False Emperor!”
“You’ll regret those words, traitor!” Sergenat Osgar activates his lightning claws and flies into battle with the Raptor Champion.


“Garblgrukhbiddlepoop!”
Offering some thoughtful insights to the paucity of Man’s nature in the universe, the Chaos Spawn attack!


Osgar goes down, too wounded to continue the fight, and his battle brothers form up to try to deal with the Raptors.


“Taste the fury of Chaos!”
Ignoring the minor cuts caused by Lachlann’s lightning claws, the Chaos Lord batters the Shadow Captain with his power fist. Lachlann falls, unable to continue as his squad is tossed about like playthings for the Chaos Spawn.


Hami and his squad creep forward, taking cover from the abundant Chaos shooting.


The Ratlings continue to plink away at one of the Plague squads, claiming yet another victim from their well placed headshots. Though they do keep screaming ‘aim for the nards’ as an intimidation tactic.
We will admit the fluff continues to be debatable about the ability to even hit Space marine nards.
But it’s the thought that counts.


The Immortal Host Sternguard requests the that IG platoon move into the street to slow the Chaos advance.
“Sounds great to me, the boys will do you proud,” announces Capt. Paget as he orders it so.


Meanwhile, me and the lads here will secure this firing port, sounds *brilliant!*
The Techpriest begins to question Capt. Paget’s adherence to the course of the mission.


The IG in the street see the approaching Chaos Spawn and decide ‘Do not want!’ so promptly blaze away with their lasrifles, managing to fell two of the vile beasts.


The Plague Guard enter the square, accompanied by ravening mounds of Chaos Spawn. Sergeant Osgar’s Wing is soon engulfed, and the Sternguard of the Immortal Host look to be next in line to fall.


An overhead view of the onrushing hordes of Chaos.


With the aid of some Obliterators the Plague Marines begin firing upon the exposed Imperial Guard, wrecking great havoc in their ranks as they are blasted to pieces.


Their morale shattered, the Imperial Guard flee from the carnage, leaving Chaos in control of the plaza square.




The Sternguard feel a little outnumbered…


“Blarbble!”
The gibbering gribblies of the Spawn lurch forward to test their mettle against the Raven Guard.


“Flesh rots!”
The Plague Marines storm forward, engaging the Immortal Host. The thin purple line tries to hold.


“Stand at the window, let them see that the colors still stand!”
“But, Captain, how will that help?”
It will help them not ask too many questions later about where I was during the battle…


Sergeant Earnan’s squad holds lonely vigil over the battlefield that is like an ocean of Chaos.


Lifting from the shadows, the Raven Guard turn their full attention on the Raptors, cutting down their false brothers. The Chaos Spawn hiss and snarl and grab at them, but the Guard holds firm yet.


A crack of laser muskets fills the air, and more Plague Marines fall – the Ratlings chortle in glee.


Unimpressed, the Plague Marines focus on the Immortal Host snipers, blasting down a few of the intrepid warriors as they duck for cover amidst the ruins.


Things look grim for the Raven Guard as well…


“Already broke your little black bird,” chortled the Chaos Lord as he stormed out of the spire and headed for the Sternguard, clashing the energized blades of his powerclaw together, “now I want to break you.”

A squad of scouts secured the cathedral, but the Death Guard Obliterators turned and fired their melta guns into it, severely damaging the structure and leveling the squad inside.


Oh, does my flamer ignore your armor and cover saves? Har!


Seeker Hesan of the Immortal Host faced the charge of the Chaos Lord next.
“Thoughts decay the same as everything else!”
“We shall see,” offered Hesan quietly as he readied his blade.
But, the ancient and rusting Terminator armor still seemed to be as durable as ever, and Hesan’s blows were turned aside. He received a punishing blow to his side and went down from his injuries as the Death Guard gloated.


Amidst clouds of flies and putrid rotting stench the Death Guard advances slowly and surely.


Sergeant Earnan has lost his brother snipers to wounds or death, and has just watched another squad of novices cut down by the Obliterators on the street. He frowned as he lined up his shot.


*Crack*
One of the Obliterators drops to the ground, his head now in the shape of a canoe.


Another Plague Marine falls, their unearthly toughness doing them little good versus the pinpoint accuracy of the Ratling Snipers.


The weakened squad still threatens the beleaguered Immortal Host snipers.


The Immortal Host moves forward under the grav-rail tracks towards the vault, which the Death Guard stand in possession of.


The Killswitch is in Chaos’ hands!


The Immortal Host Sternguard are brought to the Death Guard’s attention and assaulted.


“You are a coward, sir,” announced the Techpriest as the PCS came under fire. I shall be reporting your dereliction to the Commissariat!”
“We have bigger issues right now,” Paget pointed over the priest’s shoulder as the Death Guard Lord burst through the ruins with a Champion of Chaos in tow. “Quick, you lead, I’ll follow!”

Harry promptly kicked the Techpriest forward, the shocked priest stumbled into the Chaos Lord and was torn to pieces. Harry meanwhile turned and ran for it, leaping off the balcony to escape as the Chaos Champion lumbered after him laughing horrifically.


“I LIVE!” A Chaos Champion taking down the Sternguard Sergeant undergoes ascension to Daemon Princedom.


“The cause is lost. The Killswitch doesn’t matter, and the energies we detected here are not what we thought them to be.”
Commander Hami lay about him with great sweeps of his thunder hammer to clear a path as he shouted orders to his remaining battle brothers.
“Withdraw, withdraw immediately!”
He fought his way over to his fallen battle brother, Seeker Hesan, scooping up the injured Librarian as easily as one might lift a satchel of groceries.
“The energy signatures…”
“T’was only a Champion due for ascension, it is not important.”
Hesan nodded softly as he agreed that the cause was lost. The Immortal Host retreated, firing at the approaching Death Guard lines as they did, though the fearsome shambling creatures that formed the battle line appeared as unaffected by that as anything else.

Harry Paget sat with some of his men/ The Ratlings had been nice enough to retreat along the same side alley Harry had chosen so he had joined up with them for the ‘ordered withdrawl’ and fell back surrounded by armed men…well, or at least armed half-men. Whichever they were, a few extra guns between him and the foe was a good thing in his opinion.

The Immortal Host had already fallen back to the pickup zone, and had secured it, a rather pleasing development all told.

The Raven Guard were the last to arrive. A blood and dust covered Sergeant holding a sniper rifle in one hand and supporting the severely injured Shadow Captain with his other. Of the fearsome numbers they had brought into the battle zone, only a small handful had managed to escape.

The bloody faced Shadow Captain exchanged some choice words with the Iron-jawed leader of the Immortal Host battlegroup. Apparently he was angered that a withdrawl had been called instead of…what, dying trying to get that stupid Killswitch? Harry figured the Immortal’s had made the right call, frankly. The Shadow Captain seemed to think an additional strike could help them recover more wounded civilians and soldiers, and basically wanted to go again.

The Immortal seemed to suggest that this idea was one of the dumbest things he’d ever heard, and basically said as much.

Some terse and tense words were exchanged, and for a moment Harry feared he was about to see the Marines begin killing each other. Thankfully calm was restored by the Shadow Captain, though whether he did so from realizing this was silly, or simply because he noted the relative strength of his detachment versus the rather intact Immortal Host forces was another matter.

Harry sighed, the sad part of the whole affair was, he was pretty sure there were no more rear guard positions likely to be had in this combat theatre…

==============================================

Gentukama belched happily as the Killswitch was placed in front of him.

“Not what I wanted, my sons, not what I wanted at all. But,” he laughed, “it is still a pleasing gift. Now we can bring all the postulant pleasures of Grandfather Nurgle all the way to the Forge World too, that should help keep these poor Corpse Worshippers distracted.”

He laughed, and they all laughed with him.

Life was good.

Imperium MVP

Chaos officially called this one for us – Sergeant Earnan’s snipers did the number. On Turn 1 they earned us 2 victory points off First Blood and also wiping a squad of Raptors before they could even move. After that they whethered multiple rounds of shooting from Obliterator squads and the Plague Marines below. Indeed, at game end one of the Chaos Spawn Squads was lumbering up the stairs to try to oust them via brute force assaults.

Imperium WTF

We had a couple of foibles. Probably a big one was the failure of the Assault Squads to manage a combo assault on the Chaos Lord Turn 1, which thus left them open to being picked apart piecemeal and allowed the Chaos Lord to rampage along and roll the entire left flank.

Lysander/Hami also spent a lot of the game wandering around and not really getting either his shooting power or assault power brought to bear in a meaningful way.

Chaos MVP

Probably a toss up between the Chaos Lord or the Chaos Spawn. I personally tend to hand it to the Lord – him and his squad dealt with Shrike, 10 Assault Marines, 10 Sternguard, the IG PCS, and were likely on their way to help finish off Lysander by the time everything was said and done. Just an unstoppable force for them.

Chaos WTF

I’d have to say The Raptors. One squad was cut apart before they could move. The other squad jumped into a favorable assault (hitting an assault squad with flamers, and then eating the Sarge leaving equal numbers of Raptors vs. Assault Marines…but the Raptors had a sarge with claws). Then…they just kind of whiffed all their claw attempts and had their faces stomped in, even with Chaos Spawn rushing in to try to save them.

Raven Guard – 2
Raptors – 0

Is mostly what I’m saying
And Raven Guard suffer in 6th edition thanks to the lightning claw nerf.