+ inload: Intrigue at Warehouse CCLIX – Part III +

+  Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition battle report – part III+

This inload stems from others – Part I of this battle report can be found here [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+], and part II here [+noospheric inloadlink embedded++



With the alarm raised and the sentries concentrating on the Space Marine, Magos Manderghast broke cover on the eastern flank and took the opportunity to dash towards the alehouse.



Atticas, zealot of the Church of the Astral Ascension, peered around the stasis chamber. Keeping his cool, he checked the seals were intact, then made a short dash into cover behind a market stall.



Like Manderghast, Northgrass had broken cover – but in his case he had a target. Old wood spalled off the market stall as he failed to draw a bead on the zealot with his laspistol.



Atticas's lips peeled back – too far, from too many teeth – in a horrific grin as he fired his shotgun one-handed. Despite bucking wildly in his hand, Northgrass crumpled to the ground. Veck cursed – seeking ammo! How had these brigands and criminals sourced Arbites' gear?


+ Shotguns don't get much respect, but they were more than enough to take out Northgrass, who was using an Imperial Guard lieutenant's statline. +
Northgrass' agonised grunt as he hit the floor was all the sound he made. In any case, oddly-shaped silhouettes arriving at the edge of the battle-zone told Veck that the Church had a rather greater presence in the area than he had suspected.


+ The scenario, adapted from Necromunda's The Raid, saw groups of individuals arriving from reserve once the alarm was raised. In order to bring a group on, the player has to roll under the number of individuals in the group. Bob Hunk had wisely decided to play cautiously, with three groups of three (each a mix of one purestrain and two hybrids), and one of two. This meant a steady stream of reinforcements poured on to the battlefield as the game unfolded. +
Urgently contacting his teams, Veck declared, 'There's no chance of retrieval now – whatever's in that stasis chamber is clearly important: destroy it.' Arcimboldo vox-clicked his assent and slammed into it, his power sword raising great cracks across the armoured surface.



The Church wasn't sitting idly by while their prize was destroyed – they beetled forward with pace and firepower, though a combination of the cover provided by the stasis pod and his mighty armour saw the small arms do no damage to the Space Marine.



His presence revealed by the shotgun's blast, Cymgin and Toria took time to aim before using their longer-ranged autoguns to shoot Atticas. He slumped to the ground, his blood painting the monument. He crawled away before the kill could be confirmed.



A purestrain genestealer was simply too dangerous to be ignored. Arcimboldo knew that he alone of the group stood a chance against the bio-engineered terror, and so broke off his attack on the stasis chamber. Robbing the genestealer of the initiative, he charged it. 



Providing cover, Magos Manderghast took a pot shot at the advancing hybrids, planting a las-shot between the eyes of the foremost one.



The genestealer darted forward – but its speed worked against it in the enclosed space. It barrelled into Arcimboldo, who interposed his power sword: the great blade ignited and reduced the alien to a husk.



A minor triumph achieved, but time was running out – more and more cultists were arriving. Ferlinghetti and Sergeant Tempest barked a warning to the other Blenheim troopers: they were being flanked.



Worse, it was clear the Church had excellent supplied. While the first responders were armed with the sort of low calibre pistols and shotguns the Inquisitor might have expected of a backstreet cult, Manderghast reported from his advance vantage that the latest warriors were carrying military grade autorifles and even heavy weapons...



Before Veck could relay the warning, one of the cultists opened up with a Marathon 7 heavy stubber. Most of the heavy lead slugs impacted on the monument with dull clatters of bursting marble, or whined past, but a number hammered into Arcimboldo will dull reverberating clangs – knocking the Space Marine back, battered and bleeding.



Grim-faced, Veck relayed information to the rest of his team at lightning pace, directing his forces across the open ground safely. Ferlinghetti and Tempest sprinted towards the stasis pod, the underscribe briefly pausing to check on the fallen Northgrass.


+ Classic 2nd edition tokens! +

Bleeding and furious, the injured Astartes ducked into cover and drew his boltpistol...



The Church presses in on the battered Inquisitorial team... Can the Hangman's Rope destroy the stasis pod before the scuttling man-monsters close in?


+++
Part IV can be found here + [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] + +

4 comments:

Suber said...

Absolutely spectacular! Looking forward to the rest of it!

Lasgunpacker said...

Exciting installment!

I like how that last picture looks like a there is a giant pool of blood...

Preacher by day said...

Great report. Sounds like a fun game!

Ratmaul said...

Oh, please, we want to see the last part! 😉