I decided to just post the battle rep.
It is quite long, but I hope you will find it worth the read.
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Chapter Five, Epistolus Secundus. “Standoff in Stack 34”
Sigismund and his crew have deducted, that the answer to this plague must be found on the Ranus XVI Facility, orbiting the second moon of planet Tomish, close to the galactic edge. Here they hope to find Tech Magos Tchanus.
While preparing to leave, they suddenly run into the forces of Brother Marine Grimaldus! A shoot out erupts, even as the city is being torn apart by zombie mobs. They must escape to the landing gantries, where an air lifter is en route, to transport them off planet.
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This mission is a shootout, following the standard rules from the necromunda rulebook. The only additions are possible arriving zombie mobs, and the rules for escaping the battlefield.
Zombie Mobs: Zombie mobs may show up on any turn after the shootout erupts. Do not roll for them during the build-up, but after the shootout starts, roll a
D6 every turn, and they appear on a 4+.
Escape: The gangs can escape only one way. By being airlifted out. Every turn after the Zombies arrive, roll a
D6. On a 5+, your lifter has arrived, on top of a random highrise.
After rolling the dice, it turned out that two members of the inquisitors mission team would square off against three from the Astartes group. Some more rolls, and we saw that the Voidborn and the pilot would be the Inquisitor´s men. And on the marine side, two scouts, one with a pistol and one with a lasgun, would be joined by the local tracker.
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”Look, we can´t leave here without a set, there´s no way I´ll find one out there.” Ronson, pilot for inquisitor Sigismund was getting angry. He´d been looking most of the morning, and still hadn´t found a merchant who traded in electronics of high enough quality.
”We can´t waste more time here, we´re already running late for the lifter and I don´t think Sigismund will hold off evac long for the two of us” came the stiff reply from
De´Norio, long time spacer, and one of the most experienced members of the group.
They were slowly making their way through the streets of the upscale Delkins Heights, one of the few districts still not affected by the plague. Most of the people here were still going about their daily business, shopping, working, living.
But it wouldn´t last long, and
De´Norio knew it. These were the last days for this continent, it would likely be purged in less than a week. The plague had gone so far, and moved so fast, that the only option left was that of evacuating and purging the entire western continent of Sarum Prime.
Ronson, seeing another electronics shop, moved through the crowd towards it. It was a small, unassuming shop, and he had low hopes of finding what he sought, but he would ask anyway.
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”Targets sighted, they are unaware. Your orders mylord?” asked the novitiate. He was, along with one of his brother initiates and the local guide they had hired, shadowing the two henchmen of Inquisitor Sigismund, or Gamma Three as he was codenamed in their mission statement.
”Stay on them, do not let them know you are following”, came the order from Brother Sergeant Grimaldus. For three days now, they had trawled the district with sniffer drones, looking for the geno signatures of Sigismund and his crew. And now they had a confirmed sighting, they wanted to make damned sure they did not lose them again. They needed to find the hideout of the Inquisitor, and somehow gain access to his cache of information.
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The merchant shook his head, and drummed his fingers on the table. ”Ain´t seen a proper infra-sight with magnification in years son.”
Ronson turned to leave, but the merchant called him back. ”I do have something that might interest you, a set of Khael Pattern Infrared goggles, as worn by the Sarum Third in their conquest of the night-moons of Khallidus. Will they do?”
Some fifteen minutes later, they were back on the street, with a set of Infragoggles and quite a bit less coin than before. The salesman had haggled well, almost as if he knew time was running out and he´d need the money.
As they headed for the rail terminal a trio of valkyries slowly passed by overhead. They were dropping flyers, that fell like leaves to the streets.
De´Norio picked one up.
!!!General Evacuation Notice!!!
Attention citizens!
An order of general evacuation has been issued.
Please proceed immediately to the landing fields north of the city.
Do not bring belongings, they will not be allowed aboard the transports!
Do not attempt to leave the city by any other route than the northern viaducts.
Any person found in the southern frontier zone after 1800
SST will be fired upon.
!!!General Evacuation Notice!!!
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The tracker looked at the two novice brothers. ”Oh damn, this certainly changes our priorities, now what?”
”Now, we get on with the mission, and follow our orders” replied the scout, seeming as confident as ever. Even as people around them were rushing away, trampling each other in their hurry to get away, the scouts moved down the streets.
They spotted their targets further down the street, apparently deep in discussion. Voxing brother sergeant Grimaldus, they requested further orders. ”Sir, we have them in sight, but the Evac order has gone public. Your command?”
”Do not let them escape, we need those data logs.”
”Aye sir´, replied the novitiate, ´we´ll detain them if they attempt to escape.”
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”Uh oh... That looks like trouble.” Ronson pointed down the street, looking grim. He had spotted a small group of people who weren´t running, looking their way. ”We have to face this, can´t let them follow us, you know the old man will have our hides if we do.”
They turned to face their stalkers, hands on their holsters. If at all possible, they weren´t going to be the first to open fire.
The streets of the shopping arcade were clearing, and there was no doubt that they were in trouble.
Not only were they outnumbered, they were also outgunned, and to make matters worse, the heavy void armor that
De´Norio was wearing would slow them down in case they needed to run for it.
The two groups slowly closed in on each other, staying close to cover. As they closed, he started noting details about these troublemakers that seemed strange for gangers or even a hammer muscle squad.
Firstly, the armor and gear worn by two of the guys was exquisite, far beyond the means of a regular muscle jock.
Secondly, all three of the goons were hefting las weapons of imperial make.
That in itself was not unusual, but the fact that they seemed to be offworld make, not the standard 12-77 type las weapons, was also alarming.
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The two scouts stalked closer, followed by the grizzled tracker they had hired for their stint on Sarum. He seemed worried, but as far as the scouts were considerd, the odds were with them. They had numbers, and more firepower.
The inquisitorial agents looked twitchy. The younger one in the flight jacket seemed ready to snap at any moment. ”Keep an eye on that one, Novitiate. If he makes a move, take him out.”
One of their adversaries was wearing a heavy void suit. That was the only thing worrying Initiate Jones. Everything else was in their favor, but they had nothing that was certain to deal with the heavy armored carapace of the suit.
Charging their las weapons, they covered the two operatives facing them, and prepared to lay them out.
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”Oh frack, this is it!” Cried Ronson. Stil a flyboy at heart, he had no wish to be involved in another gunfight, he was much more at home behind the stick of a antigrav fighter or dropship. He saw one of the adeptus scouts move into a firing stance and brought his pistol up, lightning fast.
Squeezing of a tight burst of shots, he broke into a run, heading towards the nearest cover, a storage container in front of a junker shop. As he ran, he saw
De´Norio aim his hefty shotgun and loading one of his special ”Zapper” rounds.
The scouts were all over him. Not having the speed of his comrade at arms, he braced himself and lcoked the protective plating for combat. He than loaded a Zapper round, high power and armor penetrating, and aimed for the nearest target, the local tracker that the astartes had hired as support.
He fired the round, feeling the kick of his oversized breaching shotgun as it fired the huge charge. The tracker threw himself to the side, but the shot blew his pistol out of his hand, and the laspistol lay on the street, fizzing. One less to worry about.
The two scouts were putting an impressive amount of lasfire his way, but so far his armor was taking the few shots that hit him.
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A signal came through on the radio, from the marine assault ship in low orbit. ”Sir, I have multiple targets closing in from the south sir. They´re not pinging on my FF seeker, so they are likely to be hostiles. Possibly zombies.”
The two novices looked at each other. This was not good at all. The movement of these new targets indicated that they were moving to encircle them. They had forced the two inquisition agents to take cover, but the fight was degenerating into a shootout, with no clear way to take the initiative from their foes.
If they didn´t start moving, they´d be encircled in less than ten minutes. And from their briefs of the zombies, they did not have enough firepower to take them out. They needed to change tactics drastically.
”I´ve got a plan, but you´re not gonna like it boy.” He shouted across the street to his brother initiate. ”We need to ally with these bastards, at least until the dust settles!”
He ran further up the street, ducking into cover from the fire coming his way. ”Have you boys heard what´s coming? We need to pool our resources right now if we want to get out!”
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”How do I know you will honour such an arrangement?” Shouted
De´Norio.
As he looked on, the marine scout walked out into the street with his lasgun held low. ”If you feel you can´t trust us, now is your chance to get me.”
And as if on cue, the first zombies came into view.
Shambling towards the five warriors, they looked for all the world like something out of a cheap fiction-slate, but they were moving with a coordination that showed more foresight than the briefing had suggested was possible. And there were many of them.
”Move towards that highrise, I´ll call in our lander! Shouted
De´Norio.
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You had to hand it to these astartes, they were extremely well trained. And if only they had something with a higher caliber, they might have a hope of holding these zombies back. As it was, they were low on ammo, and there were too many of these reanimated bodies for them to handle. Far too many.
The zombies were closing in, even through the wall of fire that the five men were putting up, they were coming on. And the horrifying thing was, that most of them were getting back up, mere seconds after being shot down.
With the scouts covering his back, and
De´Norio and the old tracker acting as the vanguard, Ronson was trying to reach the Inquisitor and request an emergency evac. But the radio frequencies were buzzing with thousands of orders and countermands, demanding withdrawal and ordering lines to be held, even as the city was burning around them. In the end, he set his short range radio to repeat, and hoped that his message would get through.
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They had reached the second floor, and were still going up. But the zombies were still on them, climbing slowly but steadily up the ladders, and up the sides of the buildings, crawling across gangways. ”Grenade!” Shouted
De´Norio, and armed his last frag.
He threw it across the decking, and it skittered to a halt at the top of the stairs they had come up. The zombies were packed in thick here, coming up the stairs to finish them. The grenade took out at least five, and threw the rest of them down the stairs. But the tracker suddenly shouted from up ahead.
Another group of zombies had moved up to flank them, and was crossing a gangway to box them in. ”I´ll hold them, you keep moving!” shouted the old man, brandishing his sword and grinning madly. He started walking onto the gangway, and drew a large woodsmans knife in his other hand. Swinging the sword, he chopped the first zombies leg off, and it fell over the side, smashing into the street below.
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They were running now, moving towards the top of the roof on the highrise. The tracker was falling back, chopping at the zombies that were nearest as he backed towards the ladder. The inquisitors lander was zooming towards them at high speed, and they had lit a pair of rad-flares to guide the large ship in.
Below them, a shadow fell on the tracker from behind. A zombie launched itself at the old man from behind, taking a chunk out of his arm. He screamed as he was dragged down, but even as the dead ones were taking his life, he got even. Pulling out the primer cord on a tube charge in his belt, he muttered a line from the prayer ”Dei Imperii”. A huge explosion rocked the tower, sending the gangway and all the zombies on it to their doom.
The remaining four jumped onto the landing ramp of the bulky flyer, and they left the miserable scene behind them. This city was consigned to destructiom by cyclonic thermal bombs, and would be uninhabitable for a generation.
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Aboard the old freighter, a short service was held. The hulking form of the black clad marine seemed even larger in the ships chapel, but his head was bowed. Even though the old man had not been a marine, he had served honorably, and had died a hero.
”We will of course share our knowledge with the honoured brothers of the Astartes” said inquisitor Sigismund. ”You will be granted access to our databanks, in return for the information you have gathered in your search for this evil.”
”The Black Templars thank you for your cooperation honored friend” growled the marine, looking down at the much shorter inquisitor. ”This fight is not over yet, we will seek those who caused this misery, and bring them to justice.”
”My next port of call will be the Inquisitorial conclave at Thracian Primaris, I must gather support for our endeavours here. My agents will head to the Tomish system, on the edge of the subsector. There they will seek the techpriest magos, and find his part in all of this.”
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And that´s it! The first half of this campaign is now done, and all the battle reps are posted. Now to prepare for the second half.
But first, I imagine some players will feel a need to modify their lineup, and prepare for the coming storm. I have a funny feeling that flame weapons will see a lot of action this summer...