Welcome to game 9 in our ongoing campaign – this time a double-header report. As the Imperial forces battle the Chaos uprising, an alien race seeks out those who may hold the key to ancient secrets…
As always, the previous games can be found here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Gordy2000%27s_Battle_Reports
The situation – The Eldar have arrived on Triskelion V. Against a backdrop of civil war, they hunt through the ruined outskirts of Ameti Hive. Hidden from sight, the enigmatic xenos close on their quarry – Mon’Keigh psykers whose feeble minds can be scoured for clues to lost treasures of their race, hidden for millennia below the soil of Triskelion V….
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Inquisitor Charon stamped down the rear ramp of the Arbiters Repressor and sought out the reason for the delay. His entourage hurried after him, unwilling to risk his ire. In front of the idling vehicle, a squad of Arbiters cleared away fallen rubble that had blocked the narrow roadway.
“What is the holdup now sergeant?” Charon’s voice was amplified to ear shattering levels by the vox-caster built into his artificer armour. Charon held to the belief that if something was worth saying, it was worth shouting loudly. The Emperor’s will was not something to be whispered, like some mewling heretic.
The Arbites sergeant turned from his men and snapped out a salute.
“My apologies lord – we’re almost though here. The fighting came through this zone recently and the work crews have yet to clear the road”
“Too slow! Too slow you hear!” Charon huffed and started forward. “I’ll damned well walk to the command post where the Governor is squatting. Justice and the will of the Imperium wait for no man!”
The Arbites on the road had by now cleared away most of the obstruction, but Charon was not in the mood to wait. He set off down the road, bionic leg clacking on the ferrocrete surface as his acolytes scurried after him. The Arbites sergeant hurriedly organised his men into squads and set off after the muttering inquisitor. The two Repressors escorting them rumbled to life and began to grind forward.
Charon kept up his stream of complaints as he walked
“Whole damned hive has turned to heresy! What was that fool Phineas doing? Too soft! Too soft by half! Wait until I catch up with him - justice delayed is a burning at the stake denied! He’ll wish he’d never…wait – what was that? Did you see…”
Charon had barely begun to turn towards a burned out hab when flickering figures danced out of the shadows, followed by a whickering hail of shuriken discs….
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The convoy moves through the bombed-out hab block
Inquisitor Charon and his acolytes march forward
Escorted by the Arbites squads and the Repressors
But in the shadows, alien eyes watch…
From out of nowhere, colourfully attired Eldar burst onto the road, scything down Arbiters with Xenos weaponry
The lead squad of Arbites are overwhelmed before the rest of the force can even react
More Arbites deploy from the lead Repressor, only to find themselves assailed by the dancing aliens as well
Having dispatched the first squad, the Eldar turn their attention to Charon
The Inquisitor however, is a more formidable target. His acolytes open fire at short range as Charon unleashes various arcane weapons
Soon, only the Eldar witch remains, twirling in dazzling arcs as it carves apart the acolytes
The deployed Arbites squad opens up on the Eldar with a ferocious volley from their shotguns. Only the Shadowseer survives, but quickly turns the tables, cutting down several of the lawmen and sending the rest fleeing!
Meanwhile, Charon tires of the xenos witch and landing a dolorous blow with his power gauntlet, crushes the alien
More xenos come tumbling out of the ruins
“Forward damn you! Nothing like shooting a few filthy xenos before breakfast!”
Another troupe of Eldar attack the lead Repressor, but are driven off by its weaponry
To the dismay of the Imperials, a glowing portal opens in their midst – out of which leaps yet another xenos assault force
Hovering on humming engines, two skimmers engage the lead Repressor
With predictable results
His acolytes dead, the Arbites scattered and wounded himself, Charon fights on surrounded on all sides
He cannot prevail against such odds. Charon is overwhelmed and spirited away. The Eldar melt into the shadows with their prize, leaving only the Imperial dead and burning vehicles
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Interlude
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the battle lines, another convoy winds its way through the ruined streets of a manufactorum. Chaos Renegades escort an unbound psyker towards the front, where the fell creature can wreak havoc on the Imperial defenders.
However, they do not pass unseen….
The ruins of the manufacturing sector
The Chaos convoy winds its way through the rubble
The psyker is guarded by Gorosh and his command squad
All is quiet..
“Wait…did you see that?”
From the Shadows, alien eyes watch
With a shriek the Eldar attack
One squad of cultists is decimated by shuriken fire – the remainder flee into the ruins
The lead militia squad loses 70% of its troopers before they even know what’s hit them
“Get into cover you fools! Protect the witch!”
The rear militia and cultist squads pour fire into the ruins, hoping to hit the agile xenos
Even the mutant rabble gets in on the act – with surprising accuracy
The command squad is whittled down by shuriken fire
Combined fire cuts through the Harlequins, downing several
Revenge is swift – the troupe leader slicing apart the hapless militia
The lone survivor of the lead squad takes up an overwatch position
The Exarch charges into the remaining mutants. The end is swift for the twisted creatures
Gorosh drags the terrified witch deeper into cover
“Quickly – across the road and into the sewers. We’ll lose these scum in the darkness below”
But the Eldar are not so easily denied. Fast skimmers cut off the retreat
Caught in the crossfire, the command squad is torn apart. Gorosh leaves the wounded psyker behind and flees into the sewers
The Eldar seize the wounded witch and vanish as swiftly as they came…
Eldar victory!
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Farseer Teanar Asurtelar steepled his long fingers as he looked out the curving window at the planet turning slowly below. His ship, The Light of Altensaar, hung hidden in high orbit above the world named Triskelion V in the tongue of the Mon’Keigh. An ugly name for an ugly race he mused. The true name of the world was known to only a few of the Eldar, as were its ancient secrets.
A discrete chime announced the arrival of his seneschal to the command chamber. Asurtlelar turned in his wraithbone chair as his second in command walked into the room and sketched a slight but elegant bow.
“My Lord, we have completed the scrying of the two captured Mon’Keigh witches as per your command. Neither have the knowledge we seek”
Asurtelar let out a low sigh. It seemed his duty here was not coming to an early conclusion as he had hoped. He had known the search for the artefact would not be an easy one, but he had believed taking the psykers and ransacking their minds for clues may have provided a head start against the ruinous powers. In this it seemed, he was to be disappointed.
Standing he strode over to the window framing the void outside.
“Dispose of the slave to the Dark Powers. His very presence pollutes this ship. The airlock will do”
His second nodded. “And the other my Lord? He has barely stopped shouting since we brought him aboard”
Asurtelar narrowed his eyes as the skeins of fate unravelled before him. “No, that one has another role to play in this dance - and I have just the stage for him to start it on……”
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Inquisitor Charon came to with a start. He blinked at the sudden light and the shock of consciousness.
He was standing up, in his armour with all his weapons, on a low plain of gravel and small stones. He slowly turned in a full circle. Of the Xenos who had taken him from the Hive of Triskelion V, there was no sign. Nor was there any indication of how he had come to this place or when. His memories of the moments in between his abduction and now were…indistinct.
Charon consulting the auspex mounted on his wrist greave. After a few moments of cogitating, it announced its findings with a small chime. He was, against all probability, standing on the moon of Triskelion III, so recently the site of an Inquisitorial action against the traitors. He gave a snort and consulted the map on the auspex display for the nearest habitation. It was a good three-day hike to the promethium plant now firmly in the hands of the Holy Ordos and his short range comms meant he would need to walk every step of the way.
Muttering under his breath about the perfidy of the alien, the poor design of his comms rig and the general unsatisfactory nature of the galaxy, the inquisitor set off towards the horizon.
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