Perturbed Blood Angel Tactical Marine
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Report of the Skirmish at Shimmering Ridge.
From: Shas’El Sa’Cea Vita
To: Shas’O Sa’Cea Myar
Hail Shas’O! The following is a transcript of the events against the Gue’Las”Adeptus Astartes” and the vile Orks at Shimmering Ridge.
We were out on reconnaissance around the city of Vio’Te when we got the order to retrieve a defect stealth drone that had been gathering intelligence on the Ork settlements in the northern areas of the region. The drone had for unknown reasons gone down in the craggy areas around the Uriah stretch.
My force was just myself, Shas’Ui Sa’Cea Yriel and the Hammerhead 388. We contacted the local Fio’Vre mining overseer and requested some of the Shas’La defenders charged with their defense. The Fio’Vre gave his assent and their Shas’Ui sent me 18 of his finest Shas’Las (a list of commendations will be filed together with this report). Both I and Ui’Yriel were in XV8’s with a load out of Missile pods, Plasma rifles and Multitrackers, our Hammerhead was equipped with a rail gun and a smart missile system. With the fire warriors already on the way to the crash site we decided to make haste there. The XV8 suit made good speed over the rocky ground and it took us around 2 decs to get to our rendezvous. We met up with the fire warriors and started to scan the terrain for the lost drone. All we knew was that it were somewhere within a few miles from us.
When we had scanned for a short while we detected an inbound force of unknown origin, I sent Ui’Yriel to evaluate the situation. I followed his progress on a part of my screen as I kept up searching for the drone. I got a signal a few minutes later and sped towards it, hoping to extract it before our yet unseen foe could detect our presence. However a few hundred feet short of my goal I came under attack by a force we had not yet detected and I had to fall back.
At about the same time Ui’Yriel found his pray, an Ork warband, it was relatively small compared to most other patrols we’ve seen. It had a large ork with extensive bionic surgery, if you can call the crude metal limbs “bionic” (see attached pictframe) nothing close to the grace of our counterparts. Along with this “Bigmek” were several heavily armed Orks, this as well is rather uncommon (not to find armed orks, but that they were mainly armed with ranged weaponry) along was also a very large group of what we have come to know as “grots” or “gretchin” armed with small arms.
But most notable was that they had a brought a large walking contraption, slightly similar to our own battlesuits in idea but far off in execution. This was a lumbering hulk of metal with crude buzz saws or claws on the end of each arm a thin slit in the visor instead of our sensor systems and a total lack of ranged firepower. It also stood several feet taller than even a broadside fully armed and equipped. Ui’Yriel managed to get close enough go get auditory information without these orks noticing him (Personal Note: Ui’Yriel might be suitable for a trial in an XV25 battlesuit), he heard them refer to the machine as a “Deff Dread”.
Knowing that at least two other forces were closing in on the objective I saw no other option than to prepare for battle, I placed the forces at my disposal in a firing line covering as much of the rocky valley floor as possible, we know from where the orks were coming so we managed to set up in a way that covered ourselves but left them at our rifles mercy. Myself and Ui’Yriel setup covering against our hereto unknown assailant with 388 setting up behind our forces.
As we lay there waiting for our foes to make it to the battle field, I sent out a small scout drone to find out more about the other force. I took some time to get there and the signal was not all that good in-between the rocky outcrops. What it found was the “Adeptus Astartes” or “Space Marines” as the Gue’La call them. They had red armor with black trimming (note: this has been found to belong to the Blood Angel sept, or “chapter” as the Gue’La say). There were around 15 of them; one of them had an entirely black armor. They also had a similar machine to the orks, But this one was armed with the ranged weaponry they call a “Heavy Bolter”.
I had the drone return and waited for the battle to commence, I had already decided that it would be easier to stay out of sight until the orks and space marines had battled themselves, and then clear the remainders. I hoped that the Gue’La thought that I was just a scout, and so would pay us little heed faced with the ork threat.
I had thought that they were just out on routine patrols but they seemed to move right towards the drone with too much accuracy. I know full well that we cannot let such advanced technology fall into neither Ork nor Gue’La hands, so I understood that we could not just let the enemy move unopposed to our drone. With a signal through the comm-net I had 388 fire a solid shot right into the Deff Dread, assuming the tank could handle it I and Ui’Yriel pumped plasma shots and missiles into the Dreadnought. All the fire warriors were told to open fire into the long ranged orks.
While I trust in the wargear that the Fio supplies us with I could not other than be disappointed even though between us we scored several hits on the Dreadnought all of them failed to even slow the beast. 388 did not fare much better, the slug hit solidly but the ammunition must have been defective because when the cloud of the hit evaporated, the ork inside the Deff Dread was clearly laughing! Either it had gone mad, or it felt all strong, having just stood against one of the strongest weapons in our arsenal. So not only had we completely failed to damage our opponents, we had made them notice us as a part of the battle. However the Shas’La truly proved their worth, slaying one of the orks and wounding the others badly. Even though their shots seemed to be halted and deflected by some strange force.
Both the Dreadnought and the Deff Dread decided that even though we might not have killed them yet, it was not a chance to be taken again both of them started heading towards our lines and I knew that we were going to have to stop them before they hit us. The enemies’ infantry seemed less interested in us and started shooting at each other, both forces heading towards the other.
The Dreadnought however fired into the Shas’La killing one and taking of the leg of one more, shame on the brave. Sadly, this was not the end of our casualties this bad day.
Having relocated me and Ui’Yriel once more fired into the Dreadnought this time being close enough to pelt several shots into it, I saw all my shots hit it in the side, Ui’Yriel had some luck, hitting with his missiles but missing with the plasma rifle, again not one of our shots managed to cause any harm to the thing. The same scenario played out against the Deff Dread, I was starting to worry the Hammerhead was loaded with practice ammunition. The Shas’La once more fired into the orks, hoping to wither down their number, their shooting led to another downed ork and the mek cursing about some injury wrought to his arm.
The Shas’La took some heavy losses against the Gue’Las infantry as they unleashed their bolters and Heavy bolters upon the lines, three more felled from the enemy fire.
As the Dreadnought came close to our lines the Deff Dread decided to head back and engage the space marines heading towards it’s lines, our experience with the orks tell us that whilst this might not have been all correct tactically it’s most likely the ork inside thought that the space marines was more fun to fight against (personal note: I’ll never understand the brutes savage ways)
This was most fortunate for us as we could now concentrate all our shooting on the Dreadnought, Ui’Yriel actually managed to get in behind it and fire a salvo, but again our weapons were ineffective against it, the hammerhead missed the Dreadnoughts vital parts, only managing to chip off some of the paint from it.
The Shas’La decided to make the Gue’La think twice before attacking them again and so lay down a horrid fusillade killing 3 of the marines, I told Ui’Yriel to assist them and he managed to fell the last Space Marine with a well placed plasma shot.
Again my and 388’s attempts were useless in bringing down the Dreadnought and I realized that it was going to ram into one of the teams of Shas’La, I tried to issue a warning over the comm-net, but they were to intent on getting revenge for their downed kin (Note: While I highly respect the Shas from Vior’La they are at times out of control)
As the Dreadnought charged into them I saw with my mind’s eye how they would get torn apart but they managed very well so stay out of the behemoths reach, flailing and hitting as it was.
While this was happening the enemies lines had closed and a whirring melee was making things difficult to supervise, we did not dare fire at the Dreadnought for fear of hurting our own troops and so we diverted our fire to the Deff Dread, knowing full well that if it killed the Space Marines it would be coming for us next. This merely distracted it, but it gave the space marine commander enough time to place some sort of explosive on the Dredd, blowing off some of the tubing and cables running to the leg units, immobilizing it. However even as this happened I saw small gretchin climb out of crevices in the Dredd and start to do battlefield repairs (Note: This pictvid might be worth sending to the Fio, we could possibly make drones for a similar purpose?)
The Dreadnought amongst our fire warriors started to take it’s toll as it picked up a Shas’La by the leg and incinerated it with it’s flamer, the others saw the futility of fighting this beast and backed of, this gave the hammerhead a clear shot and it blew of the motivator, immobilizing the Dreadnought, I used this to my favour, jumping up on top of it, pressing my plasma rifle against it’s reactor and fired. I quickly jumped off as the monstrosity shuddered then blew up in a gout of flame. After this the field belonged to us, we had cleared the Gue’Las firebase, the gretchin was in wild panic from the bloody melee with the Space Marines, only two were still standing from that squad. The Deff Dread killed all but their leader in the other, The 388 fired into the melee clipping the Chaplain in two and killing the ork inside the Dredd, making up for all the other failures. I and Ui’Yriel finished off the last of the Gue’La while the Shas’La hammered into the few remaining orks with volley after volley. Destroying their spirits and making them run.
We retrieved the drone and the intel is being sorted through now by my commandstaff. We will have scoured the hills of the ork infestations before long. Then the Gue’La will be forced off our planet, hopefully they will see their folly and leave of their own accord.
With high regard: Shas’El Sa’Cea Vita
(3 armies, 500pts, 1 objective in the middle 1 in each deployment zone)
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