Mission:
Slay the Cultists
Deployment:
Dawn of War
Planet: Gallesti
Black Templar vs. Bork’An Sept Tau – 1500 pts
Tau Mission Briefing:
Incoming Message to Tau Manta in high
orbit, Ethereal’s Will:
Shas O’Yunt, for your eyes only. Tau forward teams have been encountering
unexpected difficulty navigating the heavily forested regions of the planet
identified as “Gallesti” but the gue’la.
This has been identified as a significant strategic venerability in our
efforts to gain territory on the planet.
Pathfinder teams have noticed that the gue’la inhabiting the area seem
to have no such difficulty and it is theorized that they can provide
intelligence to deploy our forces to maximum effect.
Her Ethereal Majesty Aun’Li Ta has respectfully requested
that you enter the region to persuade several of the gue’la to join us. Preliminary reports indicate that there may
be opposition forces active in this area, so caution is recommended. For the greater good!
Black Templar Mission Briefing:
Neophite:
My Lord Castellan, we have received reports from the surface of Gallesti
that there seems to be a pernicious chaos threat that has begun to influence
the natives. Now that they have fallen
under the influence of chaos they must be eliminated before the taint can
spread any further. It also seems that
the foul Xenos “Tau” are attempting to communicate with those under the
influence of chaos, to what end we cannot begin to speculate.
Lord Castellan:
This threat must be eliminated. We
will deploy a strike force to the surface to burn out this Chaos threat. Should the Xenos take the field against us,
they will be dealt with as well. Proceed
with caution, but our first priority is the elimination of those heretics!
----- +++ Dawn +++ -----
Shas’la Tiv swatted irritably at one of the
buzzing insects that seemed to delight in swarming about his head, earning him
a stern frown from the forbidding figure of Shas’Nel Vas who had been
cautiously leading a squad of firewarriors through the heavily forested
lowlands. Tiv lowered his head and
quickly replaced his helmet to hide his face.
It was a great honor to have been selected to join this team and the
Grizzled Fireblade seemed to never even notice the persistent buzzing of the
swarm that darted in and out of the trees.
Not far ahead, he
could see the stirring of the gue’la who inhabited this terrible planet, just
beginning to rise from their slumbers to forage or whatever else it was that
they did in the stinking heat. Not far
to his right Tiv’s coms display indicated the invisible presence of a
pathfinder squadron while somewhere in the trees to his left he knew there was
the cloaked stealth squads of Shas’El Gast, commanded from one of the newly
deployed Ghostkeel battlesuits. Tiv also
knew that two full squads of Kroot had been dropped off hours earlier to work
their way into advance positions, should this carefully constructed net turn
out to be a trap. In that eventuality he
was deeply reassured to know that the heavy guns of the force, a Hammerhead and
a Riptide were approaching his location with speed from either flank. Holding a
position to the far left and hidden by the intervening trees, was Commander
Yunt himself, readying himself to open communications with the gue’la shaman,
exposing himself to potential danger in the process.
Tiv gripped his pulse rifle tighter to his
shoulder, carefully drawing a bead on the oddly shaped head of one of the
natives. Should this turn out to be a
trap, these filthy creatures would be the first to perish. At that moment his visor display flared red
and in his ear came the voice of his Commander, “Firewarriors come to full
alert. Advance squads have identified a
heavily armored force approaching from the north. An air caste reconnaissance drone has
determined these black and white clad warriors to be the forces of the Gue'ron'sha.”
The Commander’s voice deep and he spoke with the calm certainty of one who had
witnessed the changing tides of hundreds of battlefields. “We will engage at extreme range and with
maximum prejudice. Command indicates
that they believe that these savages have come to murder their own to prevent
us from establishing contact. This
outcome is unacceptable. Pathfinders,
find your marks and prepare to engage for the Greater Good.”
Shas’la Tiv tried to blink sweat from his eyes as
he heard the distinctive whirring of a nova reactor charging up in the ruins to
his right. At that moment his HUD came
alive with information marking the position of the enemy, currently making
their way forward well out of effective pulse rifle range. A glyph flashed blue in his peripheral vision
relaying a command from the Shas’Nel.
They would hold this position and destroy any threat that came within
range.
----- +++ First Light +++ -----
Deep within the sanctified hull of a mighty
Landraider Crusader Brother Betuheil, the newly appointed Emperor’s Champion,
reviewed his battleplan with grim satisfaction.
He had deployed two Razorbacks, on to the left flank and one to the
center. He was arriving himself on the
left flank of the field with venerable brother Gerhart, long since entombed
into the iron walls of a Dreadnaught, pacing stolidly beside him. On the right he had deployed three small
squads of space marines, and a five man company of brothers in Terminator
armor, all backed up by a unit of landspeeders who were cautiously flitting
through the dense undergrowth. This
deployment tactic should allow them to destroy the chaos threat and prevent any
from slipping through gaps in their line.
Should the Xenos actually make an appearance, he was confident that he
had sufficient strength to deal with the threat in short order.
Peering through a view port he saw a clearing in
front of his Landraider and noticed with satisfaction the scurrying forms of
the natives, who had obviously been alerted to his presence by the grinding of
his treads through the trees. He clicked
open a comms channel to his force, “Men of the Emperor, the work we do this day
is a holy task entrusted to us by the Lord Castellan himself. The people of this world have grown weak,
renouncing the protection of the God Emperor and falling under the sway of both
Chaos and Xenos. They must be destroyed
at all costs lest such treason spread.
Forward, for the Emperor!”
The Landraider’s
engines coughed loudly and the hull shuddered as it crashed violently forward
through the trees, targeting servitors coming online to begin their holy
work. Before the bolters had a chance to
fire, the entire forest was brightly lit up with a blue white glare flashing
three times in rapid succession as great balls of energy burst from three
separate points amidst the trees ahead.
One struck the Razorback to the left, immobilizing it immediately and
causing the targeting servitors to burst into flames. Another struck Venerable Brother Gerhart,
causing some minor damage but certainly not taking him out of the fight, while
the final one burst with devastating effect amongst the heavily armored forms
of the Terminator squadron, slaying three outright.
Gritting his teeth in fury, Brother Betuheil
snarled into his comms relay, “Hold to your targets brothers! First we must remove the threat of chaos from
this world and then we will take vengeance upon these foul Xenos!” Through the armored hull he heard the
distinctive bark of bolter fire and the explosive burst of a missile launcher
as his squads opened fire, driving the natives for any cover they could find.
To Be Continued....
