Armiger Helverins

I assembled a couple of Armiger Helverins. Yay. You might be wondering why I'm still up and posting this at 4.45am, but that's because I spent the night rewriting my dissertation and finally made some progress with the latest draft after a while of mulling over it. Well, you are here for Warhammer 40,000 stuff, not graduate school or details pertaining my life, so Armiger Helverins it is.

Yay. They look cool, but I will be mostly running them for Horus Heresy. That's why I was assembling and painting my Imperial Militia over the last few weeks. I wanted to run a full Knight household list, which meant 6 "normal" Armigers as opposed to the Moirax, so that I can bring 3 Knights in a 3,000 point game. So yay. I can do that now, with household militia support. Very fluffy and very thematic. I can't wait for Renegade! But first, I need to paint these guys. I will try to get that done in the next 2 weeks before Renegade.

Fully painted Imperial Militia, Knights and Warlord Titan

Didn't have many people coming today, so I ended up painting instead of playing Crusade. Did meet a group of cool new people playing Matched Play, I think there was one guy with Imperial Fists, a homebrewed Chapter and Tyranids, another with Dark Angels, one with Eldar, one with an unknown Chpater, one with Death Korps of Krieg, and the last guy also had Space Marines but for the life of me, I can't remember what Chapter it was. They were playing against each other, and it seemed fun!

I took the chance to finish painting my Imperial Miltia. The Draconian Grenadiers are completely painted up now, and ready for Renegade! I also quickly finished up the painting for two Cerastus Knight Castigators and two Questoris Knight Styrixes, though I'm not sure if they will be seeing the field in Renegade. Fortunately, I had enough time to paint up my second Warlord Titan, and now he has arrived on the field with his volcano cannon and conversion beam extirpator. No idea how the conversion beam extirpator will work, but looking forward to seeing him in combat! It means the volkite/plasma Warlord Titan might not have a chance to shine, though.

Anyway, I think I only have a couple of Armiger Helverins to assemble and paint before Renegade, and I should try to get my Numerologist Cabal up to 10 men in strength now that I've gotten my hands on the Legiones Astartes Battle Group. I'll use the rest for Dark Angels if I have the time, but I'll take my time with that new project. Not really expecting to field Dark Angels by Renegade, I suspect they'll just be for fun. We'll see! I have no intention of building a full Dark Angels army, just a small allied Detachment for my Knights.

Hopefully, I'll get the Armiger Helverins up and soon! They are my priority.

Conflict of Interests

The Boreal Swords descended upon the forge world Kajiya with typical fury, the Bladeguard Veterans leading the charge. Though the manufactorums were heavily defended by Imperial Guard armor from the Draconian Defenders regiment, the vaunted Adeptus Astartes continued undaunted, braving a volley of plasma fire.

"Archmagos Theta-Rho is right," Colonel Ikeda mused from his seat in the Stormblade super-heavy tank, Tenken. "Why is the Boreal Swords Chapter attacking us?"

"We can't trust the damned cogboys," Major Mizuno muttered darkly. Taiyou was rumbling upward to take aim with its plasma executioner turret. "I have a feeling the Tech-priests have an agenda of their own."

"As is usual with the priesthood of Mars." Ikeda sighed. "Very well. Stand down. If they don't attack, we will not fire. But we will not be the ones to deliver the first shot. Continue contacting them on the vox."

Unfortunately, the Boreal Swords ignored them, with the Gladiator taking potshots and Taiyou. The lastalons and multimeltas didn't do much to the tank, though the plasma macro incinerator from a Redemptor Dreadnought blew holes in the Leman Russ Executioner tank's hull.

"That's their answer," Mizuno said.

"Ugh. Throne damn it. Fire! Fire at will!"

The tanks opened up at once, reducing several Bladeguard Veterans to molten slag under the sheer onslaught of plasma. On one end, an entire Bladeguard Veteran squad was wiped out, leaving just the Captain and his Ancient, but the latter succumbed to a plasma cannon sponson blast. A Lieutenant leading two surviving Bladeguard Veterans had to duck under cover, while the Intercessors limped away with two casualties. Only the Gladiator and Redemptor Dreadnoughts stood strong, weathering lascannon lances, though the former took a hit that left the hovertank fuming at an alarming rate.

Added to the sheer firepower of the Leman Russ tanks and single Rogal Dorn tank was the volley of disciplined fire from the Draconian Grenadiers. Having adopted the revered Kasrkin training and equipment from Cadia, the Draconian Grenadiers had packed similar weaponry, pouring a hail of hot-shot las and plasma into the Bladeguard.

Yet the Captain and Lieutenant survived. Meanwhile, the third squad of Bladeguard, led by a Chaplain, smashed into a platoon of infantry, cutting them down with their crozius and power sword. Even so, led by a Primaris psyker, the guardsmen rallied and weathered the ferocious onslaught, stabbing back with bayonets and even felling one of the Bladeguard despite their casualties.

Despite the titanic toll wreaked upon them, the Boreal Swords were unwavering. A bright flash signaled a teleportation, and a squad of Terminators, led by a second Chaplain, materialized several dozen meters away from the grizzled grenadiers. The Gladiator swerved around to fire its bristling weapons at the Rogal Dorn, obliterating its ablative plating. It was joined by the Redemptor Dreadnought, who fired its plasma macro-incinerator, melting huge sloughs off the frontal armor. Inceptors joined in, liquiefying more of the armor with their plasma weapons.

The Captain then laid into the smoking battle tank and carved it apart with his power sword. The Leman Russ Executioner next to the Rogal Dorn was destroyed by a furious volley of melta from an advancing group of Eradicators.

"This isn't good," Ikeda muttered, trying to rally his falling men. The Chaplain and Bladeguard Veterans failed to annihilate the guardsmen to the east, and lost one, though the platoon was largely decimated despite their efforts. The Terminators continued to assail the grenadiers, reducing one to four or so men. The grenadiers didn't falter, instead turning around and opening fire on the newly arrived Terminators, though despite their best efforts, only two of the walking tanks were brought down by the weight of fire from hot-shot las and plasma. Apparently, they had armor of contempt activated or something.

The Eradicators only lost one of their squad to plasma fire, and Ikeda was frustrated at the ineffectual shooting. He did score a moral victory when the twin heavy bolters on his tank finally obliterated the triumphant captain who was standing atop the wreck of the Rogal Dorn tank. The final Leman Russ tank managed to slay one Inceptor, but that was the best it could do. Meanwhile, the Gladiator and plasma Redemptor Dreadnought continued advancing further. Eventually, the Bladeguard Veterans were able to annihilate the infantry platoon, despite the psychic barrier deflecting most of their attacks earlier. The Marshal was able to slay one more Bladeguard Veteran, being the only survivor left. He faced three Bladeguard Veterans and a Chaplain in combat, but when he desperately broke away, he was cut down.

The Carnodon tank did take out one Bladeguard Veteran with devastating wounds from his volkite weapons, but there wasn't much else they could. Funnily enough, when the Redemptor Dreadnought charged Mizuno's Taiyou, it failed to do anything to the retreating Leman Russ Executioner tank, its fists flailing wildly and missing, or just grazing the thick armor plating of the wounded tank.

The Gladiator turned its attention to the Carnodon, blasting parts of it off with its anti-tank weaponry, and the Redemptor Dreadnought with plasma finally took it out with plasma. On the other side, the Terminators charged in after finishing off the injured grenadier squad with a hail of storm bolter rounds, but their power fists bounced off the carapace armor of the determined grenadiers. The defiant Draconians struck back, their power swords and bayonets slicing into the armor and bringing down one Terminator in return. The Lieutenant charged and slew the Tech-priest Enginseer ministering to Tenken, and though Ikeda tried to run him over with the super-heavy tank, he failed to do anything.

"Our faith in the Emperor will be rewarded!" Major Murakami yelled, leading his surviving grenadiers in a ferocious charge. Even the power fists weren't able to punch holes through their carapace armor, the guardsmen' faith protecting them from the crackling fields.

Armor rolls for Kasrkins/Grenadiers against AP -2 power fists. Needed 6s, and I rolled 5 6s out of 7.

No such miracle protected the final Leman Russ tank, which was eradicated by the Eradicators. He was able to kill a second Inceptor, though, from the resulting explosion.

"Where are my reinforcements?!" Ikeda yelled into his vox. "We're getting slaughtered out here! We need reinforcements!"

To his relief, a fresh squad of grenadiers, and a newly arrived platoon joined the battle from the western garrison, pouring las and plasma into the Terminators. Combined with Murakami's surviving grenadiers, they were able to wipe out all the Terminators, save the Chaplain. The infantry platoon poured fire into the Eradicators, managing to bring down at least two of the heavily armored gravis marines.

The Redemptor Dreadnoughts turned about, pouring fire into the infantry squad and Grenadiers, decimating them. The remaining Intercessors and sole Inceptor also fired into the platoon, reducing them to just three guys. The Grenadiers were slaughtered to a man by the onslaught cannons, leaving Murakami alone. The Chaplain turned and charged the fresh squad of grenadiers, only to be hit by plasma. He made it in and swung his crozius, taking out a few, but he was killed when the sergeant fired his supercharged plasma pistol pointblank range into him during the frantic melee. Not even vaunted Terminator armor could withstand such superheated matter at close range. Though Ikeda fired more plasma, he was unable to kill all of the Eradicators, and one survived. Ikeda finally got rid of the pesky Lieutenant with pointblank twin heavy bolters, though, which was a plus. Unfortunately, the Lieutenant had left deep gouges in the armor, his power sword having penetrating adamantine somehow. The superheavy tank was listing to one side from the ferocious charge.

The Redemptor Dreadnought charged and knocked Murakami out with a single blow from its fist, while the Inceptor actually fell to the Sergeants' power swords in the platoon. The infantry still ended up dying to Intercessors' bolt rifle fire, and were wiped to a man.

The grenadiers took out the last Eradicator with hot-shot las and plasma. Ikeda avenged the platoon by slaughtering the intercessors with twin heavy bolters, and redirected the lascannons at the incoming Gladiator. A penetrating hit tore through the already damaged Gladiator and spun it about, a wreck. Plasma crashed upon the dug in Bladeguard Veterans and their Chaplain, but the esoteric barriers generated by their shields allowed them to withstand the fury of a star, with only one of them succumbing to the heat.

"Time to call for a retreat," Ikeda muttered. Tenken was the only tank left on the field, and a squad of grenadiers were staring down a Redemptor Dreadnought. A second Redemptor Dreadnought hung in the back, its plasma macro incinerator threatening, and just two Bladeguard Veterans and their chaplain remained in the tunnel they had found. Damaged, even the superheavy tank was no match for two Redemptor Dreadnoughts.

It was best to fall back. Ikeda didn't understand why the Adeptus Astartes had attacked them, but he was glad that the Draconians had at least given a good account of themselves. They had not gone down without a fight, and dealt as much damage to the space marines as they suffered. The heavy armor of Draconis III was not to be underestimated.

Unknown to him, the Boreal Swords had already achieved their goals...

While the Stormblade superheavy tank reversed, the chaplain and his two Bladeguard Veterans were staring at the tunnel they had just unearthed.

"Is this the one, brother chaplain?" One of the veterans asked. The skull-masked figure nodded, his silhouette ominous.

"Yes. It will lead us to the relic. The priests of Mars had sought to conceal it from us, but they were too naive. Even their efforts in redirecting an Astra Militarum regiment to stop us were in naught. For we are the wrath of the Emperor made manifest. We are His will."

"This search has cost us much," the other veteran said. Behind him, the thunder of the two lumbering ancients grew in volume as they converged with the only survivors.

"Perhaps, but it will be worth it." The chaplain raised his crozius in zealous triumph. "The prize will allow us to rebuild our chapter...and return stronger than ever."

As for the Imperial Guard, as Ikeda was leading the tattered remains of his regiment back, he received a vox.

"Well, one piece of good news," he told his beleaguered tank crew. "Seems like our comrades in the Argent regiments have beaten back a Drukhari raid. They bagged themselves a few kills, and the Dark Eldar probably wouldn't be showing up for at least a week...until Halloween."

"That's great to hear," his driver muttered. "But I dread to think what those pointy-eared xenos slavers have in mind for Halloween. More Mandrakes showing up from the dark and stabbing us in the back?"

"Hey, at least the Leman Russ tanks the Argent regiment received were put to good use," Ikeda replied. "From what I hear, the armor scored big against those big flying ships of those xenos...and Inari is safe from those raiders! Yay!"

Daemons of the Ruinstorm

The line was failing.

Takahashi panted, ducking under the ruins as he listened to the horrified screams of his fellow soldiers being butchered. Those...extradimensional xenos - entities that he had heard some of his more superstitious platoon mates refer to as "daemons" - had set upon them, warpflames incinerating men he had served alongside for decades.

Even the vaunted Legiones Astartes were no match for them. The Space Marines of the Imperial Fists Legion, the stalwart VIIth, had marshaled in strength to defend the wall, but they had been slaughtered. The last Takahashi had seen of the yellow armored warriors was a single Breacher Sergeant, set upon all sides by the Horrors and a monstrous fiend.

Takahashi squeezed his eyes shut, trembling uncontrollably. The Imperial Fists had sallied out to meet the extradimensional entities, their boltguns firing ceaselessly. A Spartan assault tank had lumbered, its lascannons firing at the monstrous creature, only for the beams to be deflected by shimmering fields of empyric energies. It had bellowed and carved apart the Spartan with its daemonic axe, blowing it up into a colossal fireball that had incinerated Nijima.

The other squads had followed in the wake of the Imperial Fists, their volkite weapons laying down incendiary beams at the creatures. Red, hooved fiends with crude yellow swords had been incinerated, along with swarms of...diseased little creatures, burned to ash by the volkite culverins of squads 1 and 2. Takahashi's squad had also laid down a volley of las-fire with their blast chargers activated, annihilating a shrieking flock of winged creatures that rained down flickering flames upon them.

A Rhino was smashed aside, even as the Phalanx Warders within were carved apart by the red-skinned creatures and shambling, rotting humanoids that were then wiped out by the Breachers' fusillade, supported by more volkite fire from squads 1 and 2. Sergeant Sato and Sergeant Sasaki were directing their units to fire lances after lances of ruby beams, deflagrating the hooved and rotting creatures alike. The second unit of Phalanx Warders were ambushed by cavalry, similar red-skinned and horned creatures riding bullish monstrosities and slaughtering the venerable warriors. Sato and Sasaki redirected their squads' firepower, the volkite culverins humming as they blasted apart the cavalry, supplemented by a hail of burning beams from the volkite chargers.

To the side, the Marshal who led his Tartaros Terminator command squad to the front were butchered by brutes and fiends alike, while the Cataphractii Terminator squad from within the Spartan weathered their assault, wiping out the Brutes in return while also killing a cackling priest-like creature surrounded by its attendants. But even the heavily armored Space Marines could not withstand the might of the towering winged monstrosity, whose axe cleaved through their terminator armor brutally, as if the layers of ceramite and adamantium were nothing more than paper.

The Leman Russ Executioner tank, Tallarn's Woe, was destroyed by a second winged monstrosity, who set upon Sato's squad. Sasaki's squad was tied up with the stragglers of the horrifying, fleshy creatures that spat fire, before being wiped out in combat, leaving just the Breacher Sergeant.

In a matter of hours, the defensive force was annihilated. The remnants of Takahashi's squad were all that remained, cowering behind the ruined fortress walls and awaiting death while their comrades were butchered to a man.

"It's over," Takahashi whispered. For all the advanced technological weapons they had talen from the Armory of Old Night, even the Draconians were no match for these...these daemons. Never mind the mortals, the vaunted Astartes were exterminated so easily it almost seemed like they were nothing more than vermin. The two Contemptor Dreadnoughts had also been wrecked by the winged monstrosity, leaving smoking metallic hulks in the battlefield.

Holy Terra was going to fall. Takahashi could feel tears leaking from his eyes. There was talk that the Emperor's protection was fading, which was why these extradimensional xenos could manifest so close to the holy palace. The walls had fallen to the guns of Legio Mortis, and the Eternity Gate had been shut by Lord Sanguinius himself, leaving the tattered survivors of retreating units abandoned outside.

Units like his.

Takahashi gripped his lasrifle tightly and gestured to his surviving men.

"Let's go," he said. "There's not much more we can do here. Let's fall back and regroup with other units. Perhaps we can do more good elsewhere."

"Hit and run?" Harima asked. Takahashi nodded.

"Yeah. Hit and run. We've tried hitting these...these things, but it takes a lot to kill them. I suggest we pull back for now. Maybe we can salvage something."

No one argued. Nobody wanted to stay behind for a lost cause. They were aware that they were dead, that it was only a matter of time before the enemy found them and killed them.

But by the Emperor, they were going to sell their lives dearly.

Leaving the valiant Breacher sergeant to his fate, the four men of squad 3 quietly slipped away from the carnage, vowing to strike elsewhere to deal as much damage to the archtraitor Horus Lupercal's forces as they could before their threads expired.

As long as there was still breath in them, they would delay Terra's fall by even a second longer. Until the XIIIth and Ist Legion arrived to relieve the siege.

Until then, they would continue fighting to their last.

Grenadier squads

I did it! I assembled my second squad of Grenadiers! Now I have two squads of Grenadiers. With the Warrior Elite and Armory of Old Night provenances, I have both Compulsory Troops options done, along with the Force Commander for the mandatory HQ slot. This will be my Imperial Knights' Household Militia, fighting alongside the Knights.

As you can see, each squad has 8 volkite chargers and 2 volkite culverins, having spent the 30 points to upgrade themselves using weapons from the Armory of Old Night. Yay! They have an advanced arsenal, but they aren't as well trained as those who have inherited the Legacy of the Great Crusade. So they're missing half their shots at BS3. Yikes. Well, it is what it is.

For now, I'll field them alongside my Imperial Knights. I'll have to paint them, but I'll be playing Horus Heresy this Saturday, and I can't wait to see how they'll do alongside my Knights! Imperial Knights and Imperial Militia of Draconis III, the Knights of House Yato and their Draconian Household Militia marching out! Only thing missing now is probably tanks, but...well, that's fine. Anyway, we'll see!

Conversion beam extirpator and Imperial Militia

I managed to assemble a conversion beam extirpator for one of my Warlord Titans. Can't wait to try it out in Adeptus Titanicus. That Strength 10 going up to Strength 12 if I drain and maximal fire it is going to be tasty.

I also assembled a squad of Imperial Militia. I'll write more about them in the future, but as you can see, I used Kasrkins for my Imperial Militia. They are Grenadiers. Let's just say the Kasrkins took inspiration from my Draconians when manufacturing their environmental hazard suits if you really want to justify the armor. Anyway, you can probably also see that they are armed with volkite weapons. The Force Commander is armed with an archeotech pistol and paragon blade, and the Draconian Grenadiers are armed with volkite weapons, mostly volkite chargers. Two of them even have volkite culverins.

That's right. They are taking the Armory of Old Night provenance, along with Warrior Elite so that I can take Grenadier squads as compulsory Troops. These Draconian Grenadiers are Household Militia regiments that serve alongside my Knight House - House Yato. As such, they have better armor and weapons, and since Knight worlds have survived Old Night, they also have access to the far superior weapons from the Dark Age of Technology. In other words, volkite. Hence the volkite chargers and even volkite culverins, and the archeotech pistol for my Force Commander.

I plan to assemble a second squad of Grenadiers soon, and it'll be fun to field them alongside my Imperial Knights. Horus Heresy awaits! Hopefully, I can get them assembled and painted in time for Renegade next month.

Archeotech Vaults, and the Boreal Swords' Conquest of a Forge World

"Those guys in red power armor over there look suspiciously like Blood Angels," I remarked, studying the approaching silhouettes through the holo-pict in my Throne Mechanicum.

"Um, so why are they attacking us?" Suzuki asked from his Helm Mechanicum in Hebi. The Armiger Warglaive tracked the approaching Space Marines with his thermal spear.

"I, uh, don't know."

"It doesn't matter. Archmagos Theta-Rho has charged us with the protection of the archeotech vaults, and it matters not who the enemy is...even if they are the vaunted Adeptus Astartes." Lord Takeda sounded determined, even as he piloted his Cerastus Knight Lancer, Naginata, forward.

"Let's fire some warning shots first," Kanda suggested, maneuvering his Questoris Knight Errant, Engetsu, forward. "It's a good thing that they are out of range of most of our weapons."

"They aren't responding to our hails on the vox," I reported, listening in. Nothing, despite transmitting messages to the Space Marines to stop. They didn't come to a halt, and were instead advancing aggressively. I frowned, but decided that we didn't have a choice. Leveling my siegebreaker cannons, I fired, deliberately missing.

They fired back, bolt shells expiring before they could reach us. However, their intent was clear. They wanted to break into the archeotech vaults we were guarding, and...we were in the way. Their schemes became evident when the Devastator squad took aim and fired a lascannon shot that glanced off the ion shield shrouding my Dominus Knight Castellan, Kazan.

"Ah, screw this." I leveled Kazan's plasma decimator and wiped the Devastators out, save for one. The volcano lance disintegrated a few of the golden, winged Space Marines that I later learned were Sanguinary Guard, while the siegebreaker cannons ineffectively glanced off their armor. A shieldbreaker missile pierced through one of their artificer armor and blew him up, though.

They advanced forward, an Impulsor racing forward and spitting plasma at Sato's Kaen. The Armiger Warglaive staggered, the ion shield fizzling out from the superheated rage. The sole surviving Devastator retaliated with his lascannon once more, but the ruby beam failed to make even a mark on the adamantine armor of Kazan.

The Sanguinary Guard flew over the structures that reared over the archeotech, their power weapons flaring to life. They were escorted by a single Dreadnought that lumbered slowly behind them. The Assault Intercessors, led by a Librarian, sprinted into the cover of a ruin, sliding into the entrance of the archeotech vault. The Eradicators moved forward, their melta rifles just out of range of Sato's Kaen.

Kanda's thermal cannon bellowed and destroyed the Impulsor in a concentrated melta lance, while the missile streaked forward, though only one managed to kill an Eradicator. Meanwhile, Kaen moved forward, taking fire from plasma. Suzuki managed to melt one of the Hellblasters with his thermal spear, while I targeted them with the twin meltaguns built into Kazan's hull. The volcano lance spoke, and the Dreadnought ceased to exist. The plasma decimator continued incinerating more of the Sanguinary Guard, but still, so many of them remained.

Sato charged the Eradicators, but they fired overwatch, their melta rifles penetrating the faltering ion shield and punching right through his Armiger Warglaive. Kaen toppled as a smoking wreck, stopped just meters away from the firing Eradicators.

"Damn it!"

Kanda was frustrated by the demise of his retainer, but he was currently occupied by the Hellblasters. Engetsu scythed them down with his reaper chainsword, cleaving the Lieutenant that tried to rally his fallen men and tossing his broken body atop the heap of corpses that were the Hellblasters. Takeda charged the remnants of the Sanguinary Guard and smashed them with a devastating thrust of his lance, before he finished off their golden warlord with a sweep of his crackling spear.

"That should teach them!" He snarled triumphantly, consolidating into the sole surviving Devastator.

The Blood Angels were not amused. The Devastator flailed ineffectually against the towering Knight Lancer, but he was joined by the Librarian and the Assault Intercessors, who proceeded to slice away at the servos and vulnerable joints in Naginata's loping legs. Takeda cursed and swung his shock lance, but only a couple of Assault Intercessors were slain in return. The rest deftly dodged, led by the stalwart Librarian, who continued to assail the staggering Naginata with his psychic powers.

On the opposite side, a flash blinded my auspexes for a moment, and I saw that a squad of Terminators had teleported right behind Hebi. Suzuki swore and spun around to confront this threat, his ion shield sparkling as bolts and assault cannon shells detonated against the protective screen. Across from him, Watanabe found himself facing down a squad of black armored assault marines, clad in the colors of the infamous Death Company. Berserk with rage, they swooped down on him, even as he managed to kill a couple of them with melta blasts from Tsurugi's thermal spear.

While Takeda dueled with the Librarian and Assault Intercessors, as well as the lone surviving Devastator, I pulled back to help Suzuki and Watanabe. Suzuki had managed to take out a couple of Terminators with well-placed melta shots, and I wiped out the rest with my plasma decimator. Swiveling the siegebreaker cannons about, I managed to kill one more Death Company Marines, but the rest descended upon Tsurugi and tore the hapless Watanabe's Armiger Warglaive apart with power weapons and thunder hammers. The Chaplain leading them exhorted them to extreme aggression, allowing them to hack apart even an adamantine constructed bipedal walker with power weapons and thunder hammers.

"That's not good."

Behind us, Kanda took out one more Eradicator despite leveling the structure they were seeking shelter in with melta. Frustrated, he charged them and hacked apart the final remaining two Eradicators with his reaper chainsword. Buoyed by Kanda's victory, Lord Takeda fought with renewed ferocity, felling the last of the assault intercessors with his spear and even running the Librarian through. The space marine gritted his teeth, blood pouring from his mouth, as he conjured one final psychic blast that rocked the stumbling Naginata, who accidentally crushed the poor Devastator.

Suzuki and I attempted to finish off the Death Company marines, with melta, plasma, siegebreaker rounds and even a volcano lance all but annihilating them. To my surprise, the Chaplain survived and rocketed forward to strike Kazan with his crozius, screaming platitudes to the God-Emperor from behind his skull-mask. I was unable to finish him off with a stomp, but that was fine. I decided to retreat from the madman, but he continued to pursue me, bashing and whacking the towering legs of Kazan, to no avail.

Then, as if he had just received a message from a private channel, he ceased his aggression, activated his jump pack, and rocketed away.

"What was that about?" I asked, watching the chaplain leave, and feeling no desire to shoot at his fleeing back. Enough blood had been spilled this day, and dealing so much damage to a platoon of the vaunted Adeptus Astartes was painful. Even though they were attacking us, it still hurt - for every marine lost was a blow to the Imperium.

"No idea." Takeda had swung Naginata about to charge at the chaplain, but he didn't make it in time before the latter had escaped. The Daimyo sounded grim. "But make no mistake...I'm going to have a good, long talk with sector command later."

************

Sector command was kind of...messed up, right now. The Boreal Swords Chapter, a successor of a Loyalist Death Guard company (perhaps with links to the heroic Nathaniel Garro), had launched a raid on the newly founded forge world, Kajiya.

Led by Archmagos Theta-Rho, a contingent from the Explorator fleet dispatched by the forge world of Draconis IV had identified Kajiya as an inhabitable world full of resources, ripe for exploitation. Settling down on the surface of the airless world, the tech-priests and servitors of the Adeptus Mechanicus had proceeded to build manufactorums and void-sealed habitats, along with terraforming devices.

A few months after their efforts, a battered fleet from the Boreal Swords Chapter arrived in orbit, requesting ammunition, supplies and vehicles to replenish their exhausted reserves. Logged reports of exchanged communiques indicate that the Boreal Swords Chapter had just escaped from a clash with the Chaos Warband known as the Edgelords. Though the Captain of the Boreal Swords Chapter had slain the Chaos Lord of the Edgelords in combat, and the Boreal Swords had emerged victorious, they had elected to pull their vastly outnumbered fleet out when a massive Chaos armada arrived over the world of Borealis.

In preparation for retaliation, the Boreal Swords expressed the need for fresh supplies of ammunition and vehicles.

...analyzing current stockpiles...

Conclusion: The 7 manufactorums of Kajiya do not possess enough materiel to supply the Boreal Swords' needs.

Action: Rejection.

Consequence: Boreal Swords launched an attack on our woefully prepared and lightly defended forge world.

Standing forces: Newly assembled vehicles, including 2 Skorpius Disintegrators and 2 Onager Dunecrawlers, as well as 4 Kastelan Robots, assigned to the Cybernetica Datasmith, Magos Sigma-Milru. 2 contigents of Serberys Sulfurhounds, and 3 recently constructed Sydonian Dragoons. All led by supervising Tech-priest Enginseer, Magos Phi-Cephas, who has no prior combat experience. Reinforced by Dominus class Knight Castellan, Fury Unbridled, piloted by Mechanicus indentured scion, Aaron Theniel.

Battle Report: Fury Unbridled destroyed in first armor exchange, Mechanicus forces taken completely by surprise by the ferocity of Boreal Swords' alpha strike. Gladiator tank eventually destroyed by combined firepower from Onager Dunecrawlers and Skorpius Disintegrators, while Sydonian Dragoons conducted a delaying action against Redemptor Dreadnoughts before being destroyed. Serberys Sulfurhounds and Kasetlan Robots succeeded in incinerating a squad of Infiltrators before they annihilated a squad of Bladeguard Veterans. Relentless hails of cognis heavy stubbers gradually whittled second unit of Bladeguard Veterans down until Chaplain remains. Redemptor Dreadnoughts eventually obliterated by Onager Dunecrawlers, who were in turn destroyed by previously mentioned Bladeguard Veterans, led by the Chaplain, and Eradicators.

Kastelan Robots eliminated by Bladeguard Captain, Ancient and Bladeguard Veterans. Serberys Sulfurhounds slain by Interecessors and Chaplain-led Bladeguard Veterans. Inceptors descended upon Magos Phi-Cephas and assassinated him with plasma before they were annihilated by the Skorpius Disintegators - though one was destroyed by Eradicators, and second was wrecked by Bladeguard Captain and his entourage.

Result: Total Annihilation. Complete Boreal Swords victory.

Rectifying...

Pull back Skitarii forces from the border to contain threat.

...ultimatum issued by Boreal Swords. Change of leadership required.

Request denied. Archmagos Theta-Rho to remain in command.

More variables increase along with temporal passage. For now, wait and watch. Skitarii reinforcements will be arriving, along with an Imperial Guard armored brigade. If necessary, manipulate Astra Militarum Armor into conflict against Boreal Swords Adeptus Astartes Chapter.

+We serve the Omnissiah.+