Week 2 Epilogue - Chaos and Necrons vs Imperial - Bastion

Chaos Lord Dreagher watched as his minions pushed forward, always eager to make contact with the Imperial lines.  He was not uncomfortable about his men dying in droves to the controlled fusillade of the Exorcists manning the Bastion.  It was just a distraction for a squad of Tormentors to plant a melta charges to gain ingress into the Central Bastion.  Strom knew felt confident that he would be facing off an age old nemesis shortly.

As all Slannesh inclined warriors, there was never such a thing as enough.  The melta charges did their job spectacularly, and more.  The entire superstructure shook and collapsed in a large cloud of dust and debris, crushing the marines within.  Not even their superhuman physique or power armour could save them from tons of plasteel and ferrocrete crashing down on them.

The dust was not an obstacle for a close combat monster such as the Maulerfiend.  Using its daemonic senses, it charged through the dust cloud towards the Exorcist’s Command Land Raider.  It didn’t even bother to slow down and barrelled into the side glacis of the land raider.  The impact shook the land raider, tipping it over. It used its melta cutters to great effect, eager to get into the softer squishier marines inside.

‘You will be avenged, ' muttered Chapter Master Jerith Hyrcanus, as the Land Raider’s Machine Spirit droned its last.  Together with his retinue, he charged into the Maulerfiend and the Tormentors marines.  The marines were not a match for the Hyrcanus and his Honour Guard.  The Maulerfiend was harder to deal with as it refused to die despite the scores of blade and bolter wounds.

Astra Militarum reinforcements fired into the ever approaching chaos horde, but such firepower was insignificant to one blessed by the Slannesh. Lord Demanex and his retinue revelled in the cacophony of battle, shrapnel piercing armour.  They screamed in ecstasy as they ploughed into the Exorcists, not caring as their bikes folded into the slab-like form of Hyrcanus’ terminator armour.  Artificer armour and terminator armour are amongst the best armour you can get, but between the Maulerfiend and chaos champions, such protection was futile.  His men wounded, his armour cracked, Hyrcanus was but still a force to be reckoned with and he answered Demanex’s.  Titanic blows rang, and with each blow, Demanex grew stronger and more frenzied in his ecstasy.  Finally Hyrcanus’ wounds took their toll, taking blows meant for lesser men. Wounds grave, he fell at the feet of his assaulter.

The battle ended, Demanex scorned at the end of such a wild rush of emotions.  Looking around, Demanex and his remaining retinue gleefully revved their bikes and gunned towards a nearby Skitarii Squad, with the Maulerfiend in tow.

‘Pity,’ thought Dreagher, as he spied the prone from of Hyrcanus when he teleported in while, casually destroying a Predator tank.  He turned his attention to some of the surviving Imperials escaped into a hatch in the destroyed bunker.  ‘My my, now what do we have here?’

‘The reports were true.  They do have the Necrons under their thrall,’ voxed the Vindicare.

‘You doubt me, Vindicare?’ came the Callidus’ reply, with a hint of irritation lining her voice.

‘Stop your bickering and stick to the plan.  We have to take the Sorcerer out before anything more transpires.  Callidus, maintain your position.  Vindicare, keep your eye on for the Sorcerer.  He will reveal himself soon.  I can feel him.’

2 sharp clicks acknowledged his commands.  The Culexus made an unlikely leader in this Kill Team, but it was his expertise that they needed to pull this through properly.  There was only so long they could stay hidden in the din of battle.  Time was the essence and they needed to strike hard, fast, and extract themselves quickly, preferable before the Necron forces arrived.

Heavy breathing voxed across their comms.  The Evesor was getting excited. 

‘They are here.  We need to take him out now!’ 

The assassins revealed but it was too late.  They were out of position.  The Necrons had phased in faster than they had expected. Desperate, they threw themselves at the Sorcerer, but to their surprise, he was prepared.

The Callidus threw off her polymorphine disguise and blasted him with her neural shredder. ‘I was waiting for you,’ he grinned through his mask, his voice amplified by the vox of his helmet as the psychic flames washed over him.  He had armoured himself with foul magicks.  The Vindicare’s shots hit true, but the magicks made him immune to the attacks.

The Vindicated watched the staccato of gauss fire blazing through the bodies of the Callidus, Eversor, flaying them into nothing.  The Culexus faced off the Praetorians, guardians of the Tomb World.  These guardians were soulless and mechanical and it unnerved even him.  Skilled as they were, they were no match for him in speed, but their resilience was legendary.  Blow after blow, blast after blast he threw at them but they just stood firm.  At the end only one fell, but the Culexus was no more.

The Vindicare could get no more shots off as he fought for his life as Necron Scarabs bore down on his position.  Pistol and rifle shots rang through as he fell back, taking out much of their number, but their number was endless.  Some managed to get to him, tearing at his flesh but he managed to shake them off, and disappeared into the shadows.

The Skitarii’s commands were clear.  Kill.

 

Shot after shot they poured into the Chaos warriors racing into their position.  The chaos warriors screamed in ecstasy and accelerated.  The Skitarii cared not.  They just fired controlled bursts of radium carbine, plasma and arc shots into their quarry, until they smashed into their lines.

With mechanical precision, the Skitarii fought back.  Getting into close combat was the chaos marines’ mistake as radiation leaked from the bodies of the Skitarii, slowly but surely poisoning even the superhuman bodies of the marines.  They slowed.  And that was enough.  Even though the Skitarii Alphas were taken down at the start, the remaining Skitarii troops endured, throwing blow after blow, butt stroke after butt stroke into the weakened marines, until they lay as crumpled heaps at their feet.

The Onager Dunewalker engaged the approaching Necron reinforcements in a fusillade of shots, and entered combat with them, sacrificing itself, keeping them from the Bastions, buying time for further Imperial reinforcements. 

Astra Millitarum bodies littered the field, as the Necrons made their advance into the Imperium lines.  The Necrons destroyed everything that stood their way, their gauss making light work of the armour of the Bastions.

The Bastions were breached, and their secrets were laid bare to the world.  These weren’t merely just some lone outpost.  They had their secrets, and Chaos Lord Dreagher was determined to find out.