2023 Year in Review?

I see the folks at Goonhammer doing this, so I thought it would be fun. However, I don't do New Year Resolutions, and I don't really have hobby goals. I mean, I have plans and an idea of what I want to do, but I don't make them my goals - most of what I want to do are entirely dependent on my finances. For example, if I don't have a job this spring (and that's looking to be the case), obviously, I can't buy much. So it would be pointless having a hobby goal saying I intend to paint x models or whatever, because that's not feasible. Not only that, Games Workshop often announce new releases and new models. I didn't know in Deccember 2022 that they would release the Legiones Astartes Battle Group near the end of 2023, for example. Nor did I know when they would eventually release the PDF for Imperial Militia. I'll just buy and paint whatever and whenever I like, and that's that.

As for games, I usually have no problem getting games because I go to Dreamers Vault every Saturday. So I don't see a point in setting a goal for playing x games this year because...why? I play when I want to, I play to have fun, not to meet...some numerical goal. And I can't be bothered to keep count. Also, I could say I want to do better at Horus Heresy Renegade in 2024, but it's more likely that I'll be back in Singapore in November and thus unable to participate. So yeah. Life happens. So I have no intention of setting hobby goals or New Year resolutions. Instead, what I'm going to do for this article is do a review of what I have done, have fun, and enjoy staring at the armies I did manage to assemble and paint. I might do that next year too.

Ultimately, this is a hobby. I don't want to stress over it or try to meet objectives/goals. I just want to have fun and enjoy myself, then pat myself on the back for whatever I've accomplished, even if I didn't deliberately set out to accomplish those. For now, I'm going to look back and see what I did do over 2023.

First, I assembled and painted new additions to my Imperial Guard army. I believe I added a Rogal Dorn tank, a Death Korps of Krieg platoon, a Commissar, a Cadian Castellan, and several squads of Kasrkins, as well as Armored Sentinels. In addition to the tanks I already have (Leman Russ Executioners, a Carnodon tank and a Stormblade), as well as a Primaris Psyker and a Tech-priest Enginseer, I pretty much have nothing else to add to my Imperial Guard army. I'm satisfied with it, and have no intention of expanding further.

So that's the first thing I did for 2023. Imperial Guard.

I think I gave away 3 Sentinels (the old ones) and 1 Leman Russ tank to my friend, so they have been diminished a bit, but quite frankly, I don't think I need them anyway. So yeah.

I think I added a Warlord Titan, and more Knights (2 Knight Castigators and 2 Knight Styrixes) to my Adeptus Titanicus collection.

Oh, and as you can see, my Imperial Militia are there too. So that's my second army of 2023. Imperial Militia. I say "army" but they really are more of Household Militia for my Questoris Knight Household in Horus Heresy. A tiny Allied Detachment to back up my Knights than an actual army.

Speaking of which, I pretty much completed my Thousand Sons army for Horus Heresy.

Doesn't look that different from my Thousand Sons army from 2022, and that's mostly because the only additions in 2023 are 5 more Cataphractii Terminators and 5 more Life Wards for my Numerologist Cabal. I plan to add the new Librarian Consul for Thousand Sons to my army, but that's something for next year because they'll only ship it next week (January 5th). Oh, well. I *might* get more MKIII Marines and turn them into Thousand Sons Despoilers, depending on whether Games Workshop release melee weapon upgrades in plastic for Horus Heresy, and also depending on whether I can afford it. If I do so, I might just sell the MKVI Marines and go all in on MKIII (plus I think I want to go Pyrae Despoilers instead of Pavoni Tactical squads anyway).

It is also possible I might just sell my Thousand Sons because I need to return to Singapore and I don't know if I can ship all of my stuff home. I know for sure I'm shipping my Knights back.

As for my favorite and first army, Imperial Knights, I added 2 Armiger Helverins. And here they are, along with my Imperial Militia (their Household Militia). I don't know if I plan to add any more Armigers, but chances are, I probably will not. Never mind the lack of money and that they are always out of stock, I won't be using them much unless I get to play massive games, and even then, I'll just proxy my Armiger Moirax as Helverins.

After that, I finished assembling and painting my Dark Angels battle group. Kind of proud of what I did with them. They're missing a Champion Consul (who's still out of stock, infuriatingly enough) and maybe a Rhino, but that's something for next year, I suppose. Again, depending on how much money I have, I might eventually get a Dark Angels Contemptor Dreadnought, but we'll see.

Last of all, I added a bunch of Skitarii to my Skitarii Hunter Cohort so that I can play 3,000 point games. I already have a huge Skitarii force, so...it wasn't that much. And I also got them cheaply because I bought them secondhanded (though I had to assemble and paint them myself). Getting them ready for the Pariah Nexus Crusade next year. Unfortunately, they didn't announce it in this week's preorders today. Yikes. I was so looking forward to it. Sigh. I *might* get a Sydonian Skratos, but again, that depends.

That's all! Again, I don't do hobby goals, but I do have concrete things I need to get done, as well as some ideas. I have a plastic Cerastus Knight Lancer that I plan to assemble and paint this week. Why the rush, you might ask? Well, because I want to play with him. Honestly, the only reason why I assemble and paint models is to field them on the tabletop and watch them wreak havoc on my opponents or withstand blistering volleys from my foes (that's why I play Knights, because I love the durability). Unfortunately, I'll have to tone down on the Knights because they seem...a bit too strong this edition. I don't know why. Aside from the matched play game against Adeptus Custodes, they have been stomping every other opponent in Crusade, and it's not fun for my opponents.

Hence the Skitarii Hunter Cohort. Yeah, I have one Knight, heh, but the point is to have friendlier and less one-sided games. I want my opponents to have fun too.

I *might* get a Cerastus Knight Castigator in the summer, while doing an internship. I don't know. Again, it depends on how much money I have. If I'm broke as feth, then obviously I won't. Probably wait until I get a job in Singapore before I spend some of my first paycheck on a Knight Castigator. Otherwise, yeah. That, along with plastic Solar Auxilia, is what I'll have my eye on for 2024, but again, if I'm broke as a joke, then obviously, I'll prioritize food, rent and bills. Needs must, and all that. I can tell you this for sure: I can't afford Legions Imperialis, and I probably will not be getting Space Marines or Solar Auxilia for Epic scale. Until Games Workshop releases rules for me to use Knights as my primary army, I probably won't play Legions Imperialis...simply because I can't afford it. I would love to play it, but...quite frankly, I don't have the money for it, and it's a bit daunting to assemble and paint an entirely new army. Sigh. That might or might not change, depending on what happens next year. Maybe I might finally get recognized for my efforts and be hired as a professional novelist or something (fat hope, that will never happen - if it does, I promise you I'll spend a significant amount on Legions Imperialis, building an entire armored company of super-heavy tanks, Leman Russ tanks and Heavy Aethon Sentinels). But...yeah.

Whether I get new models or armies or not, I will definitely be playing more games, whether it's Pariah Nexus Crusade, Horus Heresy or even Adeptus Titanicus. Looking forward to expanding more on Crusade next year! Not only am I excited to see the narrative progress, read up on what Belisarius Cawl is up to and join him in his quest to get both blackstone and steal Necron tech, I want to actually field my Skitarii Hunter Cohort against Necrons and see how they fare! If my Skitarii get crushed too many times, I'll switch back to Knights, and we'll see how that goes. If it's still too one-sided, then...we'll adjust accordingly.

I'll also be posting blog articles whenever I can. I have an Excertus Imperialis article planned eventually (more on Imperial Militia than Solar Auxilia, but we'll see). And if I have the time and energy, I'll do a repeat on the article I did for 7th edition Adeptus Mechanicus, but this time on Thousand Sons (Coven). Maybe Imperial Guard (Cadian Battle Group). But I might not bother because I need to rewrite my dissertation, and that takes up a lot of time and energy. We'll see. Like I said, I don't like setting myself "hobby goals" or New Year Resolution. So no promises, but it's fun to entertain ideas, and I enjoy writing them. Besides, nobody reads them (or wants to read them) anyway, so I don't feel any pressure to write them. I'll also throw in spoilers for whatever novels I read, and the next one coming up is Genefather by Guy Haley. That one, I think people read, because I usually post the link on the Warhammer 40,000 Lore thread in Reddit.

Oh, and to cap off what has been a fairly good 2023, here's my crowning glory.

I actually won a tournament. Heh. Yeah, it says Adeptus Titanicus, but I'm not the best Princeps. I'm the best Daimyo (basically the equivalent of Baron for my Knight House) because I fielded a Knight Household Army for the tournament. I basically went all Knights (or Knight Lances with a single supporting Warlord Titan). Yay! I guess this pretty much sums up my year. Great fun with my Knights, whether it's 28mm scale or Adeptus Titanicus. Knights of House Yato, we march!

Painted Skitarii

I finally finished painting my Skitarii. Well, the Skitarii reinforcements, anyway. So now I can field a 3,000 point army for my Skitarii Hunter Cohort for Crusade! Yay!

This is my last project for the year. I'm pretty much done! Aside from my plastic Cerastus Knight Lancer, I have completed all my projects, whether it's assembling or painting. The only model left is my Knight Lancer and I'm saving him for next year, which is in a couple of days. Heh.

As for my Skitarii, I think that's all. I might get a Sydonian Skratos at some point, but I do not know. We will see! I will think more about next year tomorrow (article planned for that), but for now, I'm just happy that I have no more pile of shame! Yay!

The Fall of Cadia and Ashes of Cadia

I've read both The Fall of Cadia and Ashes of Cadia, and I thought I should do a brief writeup. I think there are already a bunch of spoilers on Reddit, so I won't go into too much detail. Just a "brief" summary of what I thought was most interesting or whatever.

Anyway, the important points of The Fall of Cadia are...well, everyone should probably know what it's about.

First, Trazyn the Infinite's Necron base gets ruined when some holy bell in his collection, which was supposed to toll when Cadia is in danger, starts ringing.

Secondly, Belisarius Cawl is told to go to Cadia after clearing out an Ork infestation and collecting Noctlith or blackstone and studying pylons on some world.

Battlefleet Cadia has just beaten back the traitor fleet, only for a new wave of Traitor fleet to emerge, and this time, Abaddon aboard the Blackstone Fortress, The Will of Eternity, emerges, and basically destroys the Loyalist fleet. Ugh. Interestingly, Abaddon has some daughter who controls the Blackstone Fortress for him. Or tries to, but The Will of Eternity has a will of its own (hah! Get it?), and Dravura Morkath (which apparently means Child of the Fortress) has limited control. Still enough to fire the warp cannon at Cadia, but Magos Klarn with the help of Trazyn succeeds in activating the null field to nullify it.

Oh, before that, we have Urkanthos, the ex-Lord Ravager of Khorne. Now, the four representatives of the Chaos Gods (basically, Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch) are always competing to sway Abaddon toward a single god, so the success of one would give him more influence than the others. So Urkanthos is en route to making Khorne the dominant god in the Black Legion if he ascends to become a Daemon Prince.

So you have a bunch of politics where he's competing against Devram Korda, the Slaanesh dude, and his ship detects Trazyn's ship and recognizes it as Necron. But instead of shooting it down, he orders them to "focus on" Cadia, hoping they save Cadia from being blasted by the warp cannon of The Will of Eternity. Reason being so that he has a chance to descend on the surface of Cadia and slaughter, and with the amount of blood spilt, he can ascend to a Daemon Prince.

He's on his way to ascendancy when slaughtering his way in the orbital defense platforms above Cadia, but gets shot upon by one of Korda's ships and gets interrupted, so he becomes Half-Prince. Heh. Hilarious. He gets furious and confronts Korda, only for Abaddon to step in before the two can kill each other. Turns out Abaddon ordered Korda to fire upon Urkanthos (obviously he doesn't tell the poor dude) because he knows of Khorne's plans to sway him toward him by making his represented Chosen a Daemon Prince and disrupt the balance of power. Abaddon isn't to be played around by the gods and doesn't want to disrupt the balance of power.

Anyway, Urkanthos gets onto the surface of Cadia, gets his wish, and slaughters a bunch of Sisters. There, he finally completes his ascension and becomes a full daemon prince. Congrats, I guess?

There's also a bunch of other Loyalist, including Black Templars, where one guy fakes being the Champion, only to become a real Champion when he gets brutalized by Urkanthos, and finally sees a vision for real. This calls upon Celestine, and transforms the two twin sisters into her Geminae Superiors (they were also killed by Urkanthos, but were revived when Celestine descends). Meanwhile, Urkanthos butchers his way into the null array machine, kills Klarn and the Skitarii in there, and destroys the machine, disabling it. Fortunately for Cadia, the blackstone fortress has to recharge before it can fire the warp cannon again.

I shouldn't forget about our main boy, Ursarkar Creed. He's a strategic genius (or tactical genius - a callback to the old Warlord Trait), but he also has his flaws, where he doesn't consult the air marshal and basically sacrifices their air power when trying to stop the Black Legion's landings on Cadia. Whoops. Creed's speeches are also mainly written by Jarran Kell, and since he isn't highborn, they play the "common soldier" card, where Creed relates more to the soldiers on the ground than the highborn officers. It raises morale.

The Kasrkins are awesome. They basically destroy the Hounds of Abaddon, led by Urkanthos. They are recognized as beyond anything the Black Legion has faced, save the Astartes, far above the common soldier, and with plasma and melta, as well as turning one of the kasrs into a kill zone, wreak an awesome kill tally on the Khorne Berzerkers.

Iron Wolves under the command of Orven Highfell destroy the Iron Warriors in a tank battle. Huh. The Black Templars defend the Martyr's Pass even though they didn't have to, and Mordlied had to lie to Marshal Amalrich, pretending to be the Champion (I mentioned this above), to force him to abandon the pointless defense and return to Kasr Kraf to help the Cadians. The Dark Angels do Dark Angels things and fight on their own. Ugh. The Sisters almost get wiped out by Urkanthos. The Knights of House Raven are the only ones who actually listen to and respect Creed, and they're off holding Legio Vulcanum.

There's also this small part where Marda Hellsker is sent to hold a place in the mountains where Creed has placed aside as a secret evacuation place for when all things go to hell. And yes, you should remember the name Hellsker because she's mentioned again in Ashes of Cadia.

Creed also has problems trying to unite the disparate Imperium forces fighting on Cadia. The Space Marines tend to want to do whatever they want to do, with Sven Bloodhowl taking a regiment from Creed to board the Blackstone Fortress in an attempt to cripple it. Abaddon teleports on their ship and slaughters a lot of the boarding forces, but a few make it - especially the Space Wolves and a bunch of Cadians, and though Morkath is tasked to track them and eliminate them, the Will of Eternity has a will of its own and helps the Imperial Forces to the center, where they disable the shields.

Enter the Phalanx. The Imperial Fists arrive to reinforce Battlefleet Cadia and cripples the Will of Eternity just as Abaddon and his Black Legion elite ambush the Space Wolves, but are unable to stop them from destroying the shield generator capacitators or cables or something. The Space Wolves get slain to a man, including Sven Bloodhowl, who died at Abaddon's claws, but hey, they go out like the badasses they are. Before the Phalanx fires upon the Will of Eternity, Abaddon and friends teleport out, but abandoning poor Morkath, who despites her father's betrayal, remains loyal to him until the end.

Meanwhile, back on Cadia, Celestine descends and turns the tide, and slays Urkanthos. The poor dude is sent to the warp screaming for eternity, realizing that he was abandoned by Abaddon. The Warmaster had never intended to let him live, and sent him into a trap, scheming to kill him alongside the Cadians. Celestine sort of spoiled things for him, but at least he is rid of a political threat that might sway him toward Khorne. Anyway, the Cadians wipe out the Hounds of Abaddon after Urkanthos's death. Though much of Kasr Kraf that Creed made his base is destroyed, they hold. For now.

A Mechanicus fleet translates in, and Belisarius Cawl appears to reinforce them with more Skitarii and robots and Knights of House Taranis! Yay! Baron Ryevan from House Taranis is the leader of the Knights, and he speaks binharic.

Belisarius Cawl shows up and tells them Abaddon's objective - to destroy the pylons. Therefore, the Imperium must defend Elysion Fields, because that's Abaddon's goal.

In the meantime, Marda Hellsker defends the mountain pass successfully, and Kell hands her Creed's diary, which she is to hand to Ursula Creed in Ashes of Cadia later. Yes, spoilers, which is why I'm discussing both books here. She's also given command of a new regiment because her poor troops got wrecked defending the mountain pass from the traitorous Volscani (if I spelled that right). And promoted to colonel.

Cawl also tells them he has a way to seal the Eye of Terror forever. So they are to defend him while he works on that. While he does, he meets Trazyn, who actually likes Cawl and respects him. They are both innovative, humorous and strike up an odd friendship. Trazyn plans to add Cawl to his collection, and as a conversation partner because their conversations are fun. They have good banter.

Creed finally unites all the Imperial forces under his command. The whole "Cadia Stands" slogan is revealed to actually be "Cadia Stands United." But the vox got cut off before he could finish his sentence, and now everyone shouts Cadia Stands. But it's more of a funny accident than intentional.

He gets influenced by Salvar Ghent, who's a crime lord and played an influential role in stopping the artillery spotters for Chaos, and he promotes to colonel of logistics so that the guy can help supply the Cadian regiments with weapons from the black market. Ghent tells him about a metaphor on how he united the gangs in the underworld of Cadia. Basically, if you hit with one finger, you break it. But if you ball them into a fist, or slap (he slaps Creed to illustrate his point), all five fingers together do a lot of damage, and don't break. Creed then uses this metaphor to persuade all Imperial forces - Adepta Sororitas, Adeptus Astartes - to work together with the Imperial Guard, Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus (the Knights and Tech-priests have been very cooperative with the Cadians, unlike the errant Space Marines and overly pious Sisters). They finally see the light and cooperate with him in the final battle.

So while they do so, Abaddon lands at the Elysion Fields and launches his final attack. One Cadian regiment is routed. House Raven and House Taranis hold off Legio Vulcanum, but at the cost of Baroness Vardus's life. The Black Legion makes it to the Cadian 8th, where Creed does his last stand. Kell sacrifices his life to send Creed to safety, with the Kasrkins dragging him to a Valkyrie. And Kell is a badass who faces Abaddon in a one-on-one duel and fights his Talons with a power fist and a sword. Awesome. Remember Sigismund's "You will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honorless. Weeping, ashamed."? Kell has something similar.

He locked his power fist around the battle standard, refused to let it drop.

‘Cadia stands.’

‘But you can’t. And I will kill him,’ the Despoiler said. His voice was deep and rich, laden with a passion Kell did not expect. ‘In the meantime, he will watch you die as he runs. And your death will be a dishonour.’

Kell could feel his ribs creaking under the pressure. Blood was in his mouth. It was hard to get breath.

‘You’re slaying me with the same gauntlet that killed an angel and touched the Emperor,’ he choked. ‘How is that a dishonour?’

The noble face turned down in fury. ‘I am no failure like Horus.’

‘If he’s such a failure, why do you dress like him, eh? Tell me th– Ccccchhhhhkkk…’

BURN.

Anyway, Creed survives, and Abaddon and the Black Legion fight their way through the subterranean tunnels where Cawl is. Trazyn does Trazyn things and unleashes several pocket dimensions, including Vostroyans, Heresy-era Ultramarines (complete with Contemptor Dreadnoughts!) and a Custodes Blade Champion. Oh, and Greyfax and her Kappic Eagles stormtroopers. They buy Cawl time to finish the null array or whatever, but they still get wiped out (except Greyfax and the Kappic Eagles, who only join the battle at the last moment). Ouch. Even the Blade Champion got beheaded in a single stroke by Abaddon. Highfell...fell in battle at some point, but Wulfen show up to help the Cadians fight off the Black Legion, but most of them die. At that moment, Celestine descends to help Creed fight against Abaddon. Anyway...

‘Archmagos.’ Trazyn juggled chrysoprase tablets, reading alignment grids and dimensional fissures. ‘We have reached the critical stage. Either unleash the pariah matrix, or the planet shakes itself apart.’

‘Then we activate!’

Cawl scuttled to a bank of cogitators and logic-banks at the centre of a cabling nest. Tapped out a consecrated cypher-mantra on a clackboard.

‘Oh Omnissiah, one who brings us function, please bless and sanctify this befouled marriage of xenos architecture and sacred Mechanicus input devices. Judge us not for our trespasses into the labyrinth of forbidden knowl–’

‘Archmagos!’

‘Please just let the damn thing work,’ he said, and pressed the ACTIVATE key.

You got to love Robert Rath's humor. And it works because Trazyn and Cawl are amazing characters with a great sense of humor. No wonder they make a great pair.

Anyway, it works, and the Eye of Terror begins to be sealed. Unfortunately, this means Celestine loses her powers and she's defeated by Abaddon. The bright side is that the daemons get extinguished. Creed and the Kasrkins get desperate and try to save Celestine. Greyfax does some psychic thing to distract Abaddon, and he returns to killing Creed. Creed lost a few of his fingers when trying to shoot Abaddon, but Celestine stabs him in the back. Apparently, Abaddon teleports out of there, and in a rage, hurls the Will of Eternity at Cadia.

Morkath is still on the blackstone fortress, and he apologizes to her.

‘Father!’

He leaned backwards, as if struck. The word had touched some pain in him she did not realise existed, but she didn’t care. If she hurt him, so be it. He was not the one hurtling towards terminal orbit.

‘I am sorry, Morkath,’ he said. ‘I have disappointed you.’

Morkath blinked. She had never heard the Warmaster apologise – for anything. Within, she felt an old hope bloom. A moment bathed in his light.

‘But in my experience, that’s what fathers do.’

He cut the transmission, and her further hails were not answered.

And so it ends. Cadia falls.

Fortunately, the evacuation site that Hellsker defended is intact and they evacuate from there. Creed and some of the eighth stay behind as a rearguard, and everyone else gets off the planet. It's chaos, but hey, at least there are lots of survivors.

Trazyn wants to grab Cawl for his collection, but Cawl talks him out of it, even providing info about the Primaris Marines, and convinces him that there's someone better for his collection.

Yup...Creed. He and the remnants of Eighth, defiant to the last and shooting at the daemons that encroached upon their position. Trazyn sees it and thinks it'll make a magnificent centerpiece for his collection. So...yeah.

The Great Rift opens. And thus the stage for 8th edition (now 10th), the Dark Imperium, and the Indomitus Crusade is set.

Enter Ashes of Cadia.

It was okay. I can't say I like it as much as The Fall of Cadia, but there are interesting parts.

Basically, Roboute Guilliman pulls Ursula out of a campaign to send her to the remnants of Cadia to get some secret thing that her father, Ursarkar Creed, left behind. Not Guilliman necessarily, but the Adminstratum, a Rogue Trader and a bunch of higher ups think it'll be great propaganda for the daughter of Creed to sucessfully retrieve his legacy. Unfortunately, apart from plot, none of this is practical or makes any sense.

Without a proper regiment, they think sending penal legions to distract the daemons and Heretic Astartes roaming the surface of the biggest fragment of Cadia after it exploded is a good idea. And Ursula is sent with a relatively small team (think Kill Team) to brave the ruins of Cadia. I can't tell you how horrible of an idea this is, but...I guess the story needs to happen. The team is made of Cadians, with one exception - a Catachan, who is later hinted to be an Inquisitorial agent implanted into the team to keep Ursula alive with his Mary Sue Sly Marbo Godlike repertoire of skills, which includes fixing equipment, rudimentary first aid and a bunch of other Deus ex Machina stuff in addition to his experience with death worlds. Well, that's fine in itself, I suppose, and I thought he was an interesting character, especially if the Inquisitorial background explains all his skills.

The rest are all Cadians, including an old man who served with Creed. He passes Ursula a diary from her father, which Hellsker passed to him (I don't know why she didn't show up, she gets a mention here, but no more than that). At first, Ursula wants nothing to do with the diary, so the sergeant passes it to Mac Ossian, a penal legionnaire who's also a Cadian. Who later passes it to Ursula after the sergeant dies, and that's when she finally accepts it. Anyway, Marda Hellsker - that's the one connection between The Fall of Cadia and Ashes of Cadia. Nice.

Ossian is a penal legionnaire because he killed his commanding officer for murdering his patients with an artillery strike. Apparently, the asshole colonel used the injured to lure the enemy into position before obliterating both the traitors and the patients of his own regiment with artillery strikes, and then went bragging about it. Ossian got mad and shot the bastard in the face. Then got court martialed and placed in the penal legions. Anyway, they meet him and another lady when they are running away from Poxwalkers, and they become part of the group. Unfortunately, prior to that, one of the Whiteshield snipers accidentally shot the ogryn friend that was accompanying those two, and the lady penal legionnaire is pissed at that. No surprise there.

In addition to the Cadians, who make up about 10, including two whiteshield snipers who are no longer whiteshields, they have small fireteams of Tempestus Scions scattered about. The fireteam of stormtroopers with Creed and friends get wiped out, but they manage to group up with another 2 survivors from another fireteam that had dropped nearby.

They explore the whole place, and get into one place that's sealed by a Sister of Battle. Unfortunately, the place is keeping in Karnak and Flesh Hounds, and when they inadvertently break the seal, Karnak gets released. Whoops. Oh, and the two Tempestus Scions they found die here. C'mon.

There's also a Death Guard dude who's pursuing them, while leading an army of Poxwalkers and Nurgle Daemons. The lady penal legionnaire leaves the group and joins the Death Guard dude to become his servant, in exchange for survival (and because she thinks she won't survive with the Imperials). Also, because she has a grudge when her ogryn friend gets shot earlier, and she believes the Imperium doesn't value their lives. As if the Death Guard dude does...but how else are we gonna get tragic irony?

After the debacle with Karnak, they run away and finally run into surviving Cadians on the fragment of Cadia. What? How did they survive?! Doesn't matter, they are slowly being corrupted by the taint of Chaos that permeates the place and turned the fragment into a daemon world. Anyway, they are loyal, having been assigned to a bunker to guard the secret that Ursarkar Creed left for them and entrusted them to pass it to his daughter. They...have been there for years, and had to breed, but they weren't able to produce new children after a while, so there's only a couple of kids left. They all die anyway, including the untainted one. What the hell...

Turns out that the thing was data of planets. I'm sure you guys read this on Reddit with spoilers and stuff, so...I won't elaborate other than confirm that it's a bunch of unexplored systems for Ursula to found new Cadias. Again, Guilliman thinks this is more potent than any weapons. There's also information on the data stick where Creed tells his daughters that there are connections and she can call in for favors. Allied Imperial Guard regiments or Adeptus Mechanicus forge worlds that owe him favors, and will lend their aid to colonization of these new systems if she asks.

They make it out in the end, even with the Death Guard dude hot on their tails. The surviving Cadians of that world are wiped out, leaving just the Cadian Kill team (who by that point has been decimated, with the Catachan, one whiteshield sniper, one highborn Colonel officer, a longtime friend and aide, Ossian and Ursula left). Even the last untainted child was killed, despite the sniper's efforts to save her. Damn.

The Death Guard dude ascends to a daemon prince in the midst of his pursuit, but Karnak fights with him, only to be defeated. Fortunately, a Valkyrie arrives and blasts the ground beneath the daemon prince to oblivion, which leads to him sinking into the molten magma and dying. You won't be missed, you Nurgle worshipper. His servant, the traitor penal legionnaire, also dies, despite trying to persuade Ossian to join her (and fails). Let's just say her death was ironic because she got killed by an ogryn friend who was Nurgled into a Poxwalker.

There's also this silly plot device where Ursula's closest aide begs her to bring him along, and it's so obvious he's the traitor that I was rolling my eyes. He tries to steal the stick and...kill Ursula at the very end to steal credit for retrieving Creed's legacy (like, why? His motives make no sense, other than to make him a villain). Look at it this way, killing Creed will deal a crippling blow to Cadian morale and deprive them of a brilliant strategist. But nope, he's sick of being in her shadow and wants glory because, uh...I dunno. Has he not considered the consequences of his actions? Does he really think they'll appoint him as Lord Castellan just because he brought back Creed's legacy and the previous Lord Castellan died? Nah, even if they don't blame him for failing to protect the Lord Castellan, he doesn't have the tactical nous or strategic brilliance to succeed her. Like, it's so...incredibly shortsighted and ridiculous. A twist thrown in there for the sake of it, and worse, it's predictable as feth because there is no one else who could possibly be the traitor, and we all know Ossian isn't one.

The kicker is that this is the very same aide who attempts to persuade Ursula not to agree to this suicidal mission in the first place, because he knows there's very little chance of success. And somehow we're supposed to believe he suddenly has a change of heart, thinks they'll be able to walk away with the legacy thing, and that he'll somehow have the chance to kill Ursula right before they evacuate? That he has been scheming this from the very start, despite being fully aware of how unlikely Ursula would survive or succeed in this mission? Really?

Anyway, the sniper kills the traitor, and they drag his body back to cut it open because he swallowed the data stick. Dumbass.

Guilliman is impressed, as I said earlier, but when Ursula asks him for permission to withdraw Cadian regiments to found a new world on these systems, he hesitates and says he'll consider it. I think this is where all these favors are going to come in useful - I'll speak more about this later.

For now, I'll have to say - while Jude Reid is a competent writer, there are some...uh, oddly Harlequin romance moments where Ossian wonders how it would feel to brush his lips against Ursula, and Ursula boldly kissing him near the end while they need to evacuate (and being hounded by daemons)...for no reason. Like, why are they attracted to each other? That makes no sense. They've known each other for...like a couple of days, meeting for the first time on the planet. They're in danger, fighting off crisis after crisis, and somehow...they want to kiss? That was so out of place. I'm not saying there can't be romance, but you have to develop it right. Like Dan Abnett, for example. Ibram Gaunt's relationship with, say, Merity Chass, or Ana Curth. Merity doesn't really "love" Gaunt in the romantic sense, but sleeps with him because she's more in love with the idea of a soldier than because she loves him. As for Curth, she had several books to slowly develop her relationship with Gaunt. And even then, while there are intimate moments, there are no awkward scenes where they think of brushing their lips against the other, or kissing right in the middle of a battle. Any intimate moments are done after the heat of battle. Like Gaunt and Chass, for example.

Jude Reid apparently is a surgeon, and it shows - her description of anatomy and surgical procedures are accurate and detailed, and I think Ossian is an amazing character - the best character in this book, in fact. Everyone else sort of falls flat. The Catachan is a bit too...uh, Mary Sue-ish or Sly Marbo-ish (as much as he's beloved, there's a reason why he's pretty much a meme). The whiteshield sniper is okay. The highborn colonel is an asshole for much of the book. The aide is...dumb, and feels like he's put there for the obligatory twist. Ursula herself is not very likable. She's a bit boring as a character, but gosh, she's arrogant and condescending. She looks down on her subordinates, thinks they are incompetent, and I remember thinking to myself that she has to chill, especially in the beginning. She's just...unpleasant to read. She gets better as the book progresses, thankfully, being humbled in a terrible situation (if I were to be honest, though, there was absolutely no reason for her to be put in such a situation in the first place, but I suppose plot?), she mellows and even comes to trust Ossian. She still comes across as flat, and the weird Harlequin romance moments didn't help. Like, finally there's one subordinate she learns to trust, and it's because she's having a crush on him? What?

There's a bit of LGBT representation, but before you start shouting woke, it's neither overbearing nor intrusive. The highborn colonel has a husband, and Ossian has two mothers, and that's about it. Brief, one-sentence mentions. Okay, the husband gets more because he committed suicide after killing all the Cadians when they were trapped inside the family fortress and realized they have no hope of surviving, with the daemons surrounding the fortress and Cadia being broken apart, but seriously, his gender doesn't matter overall, and there's no agenda being pushed. I mean, we have a callous commander who is condescending toward her subordinates, moronic political agendas that put the Lord Castellan - of all people - in mortal danger because...propaganda or some dumb nonsense, a Death Guard dude turning Cadians into Poxwalker zombies, an evil aide who backstabbed his longtime friend just because he's sick of being in her shadow (quite literally, he tried to murder her and steal credit for the mission), a good guy being sentenced to the penal legions when his commanding officer was the real bastard, and a lady who decides to throw her lot with the Death Guard dude because she's delusional about her chances of survival (not that the Imperium is much better, given that she effectively has a collar on her neck that's rigged to blow off her head if she does anything remotely untoward), and you have an issue with a male highborn colonel being married to another man? I think that's the least of our problems here.

I do like the revelation of unexplored systems because this opens up possibilities in both the narrative sandbox and Crusade. If you have an Imperial Guard army, for example, and want to do Crusade - we can do that. In fact, the Crusade my friends and I are doing are pretty much something similar! The colonization of an unexplored system (or systems). Whoa. Founding of Cadia. You can say that even with Guilliman's hands tied, Ursula is able to call upon favors from other Guard regiments, from forge worlds and even Knight Houses to help found new Cadias in these systems. And I think I might go with that narrative for Crusade. Yay!

Anyway, that's about it, and I hope you enjoyed the spoilers!

Dark Angels battle group

I have finally finished painting my Dark Angels battle group! Yay! As you can see, they compose of a Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator armor, 5 Cataphractii Terminators, 5 Veterans, 5 Interemptors, 5 guys in a plasma repeaters tactical support squad, and 10 Inductii. The Terminators have a Land Raider Proteus as a dedicated support, and rounding them out is a Deredeo Dreadnought talon of 2. By the way, one of the Dreadnoughts was painted by my friend. He was kind enough to offer and paint one for me, and I'm sure you can tell which was painted by me and which was painted by him.

I just realized they are armed entirely with energy weapons. Volkite and plasma. With the exception of the Dreadnoughts and their heavy bolters, nobody has any bolt or auto weapons. Everyone has plasma and volkite. Veterans have volkite serpenta and plasma weapons (apistol and a repeater). Even the Land Raider has 6 lascannons. Yay! Dark Angels with their exotic weapons from the Dark Age of Technology. Who needs crude bolt weapons when you have plasma and death rays? Hah!

Also, as you can see from the composition, this is the Unbroken Vow Rite of War, which is the Deathwing one. Where I take Terminators and Veterans as troops.

I guess the only thing I have left to add is a Rhino and a Champion consul. Unfortunately, the Champion consul is out of stock for a while now. Hopefully, he gets back in stock soon.

Skitarii Hunter Cohort reinforcements

I assembled more Skitarii infantry. A mix of Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard, because I already have a bunch, and I just needed like 3 more for my Skitarii Rangers, to field 4 10-men squads. As for the Skitarii Vanguard, I thought I needed like 7 more for a second squad. And now I can field a total of 6 Skitarii infantry squads - 4 Ranger squads and 2 Vanguard squads. Nice.

Yay. I also assembled three more Ironstrider Ballistarii/Sydonian Dragoons. As always, I left the riders detached so that I can swap them out, and I'm trying to get Ironstrider rider bits, but...no luck so far. Maybe in the future. But I can certainly field 3 Sydonian Dragoons and 2x2 Ironstrider Ballistarii now. Probably would be just 3 Sydonian Dragoons and 2 Ironstrider Ballistarii, with the second squadron waiting in the wings for bigger games like Onslaught.

Actually, that's why I got these guys. I plan to eventually field a 3,000 point army of Skitarii Hunter Cohort, and now I can! Before, I didn't have the points to field a 3,000 point army, but now I do. Yay!

Oh, and I also painted a bunch of Dark Angels. Not complete yet, but hopefully I can finish painting them tomorrow. Once I've painted them, I'll proceeed to painting my Skitarii. Till then!

Amazon Contracts

Do you guys remember the video that Chapter Master Valrak made last week?

Yeah. Me too. Looks like these rumors have been...exaggerated or something, and it's a false alarm. Because Amazon and Games Workshop have signed the full agreement and are proceeding to the next stage. Check out the Warhammer Community article for more details!

Yay! So that email that Valrak received from his source...I dunno if it's true, or if there's been a sudden, 180 degree change somewhere, but you can all put your worries to rest.

To be fair, as Valrak always says, rumors are rumors, and he has always consistently pleaded with his viewers to take it with copious amounts of salt. So don't be too hard on him, yeah?

Planetary Evacuation

The Bastior Sub-sector had been overrun with Tyranids, but the Knights of House Yato shall not falter! We shall drive the xenos back and reclaim these worlds for the Imperium!

...at least, that was what I wanted to say, but when I saw the endless swarm of Tyranids with my own eyes, whatever resolve I had faltered. Well, I actually saw it through the holo-picts floating around in Throne Mechanicum, along with the visual auspexes, but you know what I mean. Nonetheless, I knew we couldn't retreat, for if we did, the world of Shieldon would be doomed.

"We need to hold out long enough for Lord Militant Macharius Leontus to escape," Lord Takeda ordered, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping forward. Naginata was charging right toward the Norn Emissary that had dropped into our midst, the newly evolved beast designed to take out leaders and generals. Well, Lord Takeda - the commander of our Knight Lance - was no slouch, and intended to face the Norn Emissary head on with his Lance. He would slay the mighty beast in combat and save Leontus from assassination.

Apparently, Lord Militant Leontus was a relative of Lord Commander Solar Arcadian Leontus, which made him like...super important. As such, the Knights of House Yato had been...uh, strongly requested to protect him.

...in other words, we had to defend the Skyshield Landing Pad while his personal Valkyrie was preparing to take off. Essentially, abandoning the Imperial citizens of this world to the Tyranids while the Lord Militant and Planetary Governor fled for his pathetic life on his own. Very honorable. However, as a relative of a High Lord of Terra, we couldn't disobey...nor could we simply leave him to die. As such, our Knights formed a wall of adamantium as the Tyranids closed in on us. The fact that the Hive Mind dispatched a Norn Emissary to eliminate Leontus of all people indicated his importance.

Grudges aside, I had to admit that Macharius Leontus was a brilliant strategist. He had claimed that his evacuation wasn't fleeing, but a "tactical withdrawal to a defensible position where the revered Knights of House Yato may make maximum use of their strengths" or some groxshit like that. Whatever. Lord Takeda had consented, and so I had no choice but to obey.

Still, I shuddered at the sight of the Norn Emissary charging forward. It was accompanied by a Screamer Killer, who unleashed bio-plasma at Minamoto's Questoris Knight Crusader. Yoichi deflected the bio-plasma with his ion shields, thankfully, while Naginata deflected the Norn Emisssary's psychic scream with his ion gauntlet shield. The Norn Emissary and Screamer Killer were escorted by bounding Hormagaunts on one side, and loping Termagaunts on the other. Tyranid Warriors rose, their venom cannon and devourers spitting at Yoichi's flickering ion shield, but Minamoto was equal to the task, training his guns on them. Unfortunately, the Tyrannofex's cannon blasted a chunk of adamantium from Yoichi, causing the Knight Crusader to stagger. Genestealers sprinted forward, their rending claws gleaming in the sunlight as they crawled acrobatically along pipes. Barbagaunts launched volleys of barbs from somewhere unseen, staying safe as they relied on indirect fire.

That wasn't all. On the opposite side of the Skyshield landing pad, a Psychophage skittered about, Neurogaunts and other nasty creatures joining it. Two Carnifexes lumbered, their venom cannons assailing Sato's Kaen. Watanabe's Tsurugi moved up to support Sato as the Carnifexes approached, but Kaen was intercepted by charging Hormagaunts first. Some distance from them, Kanda and his Questoris Knight Errant, Engetsu, approached the charging Hive Tyrant, Genestealers and other creatures, while Suzuki's Hebi and a fourth Armiger Warglaive, Kame, piloted by Iwatani, were ambushed by Von Ryan's Leapers.

Suzuki piloted Hebi deftly, the Armiger Warglaive striking with its whirring reaper chain-cleaver and cleaving the Von Ryan's Leapers apart, along with Iwatani's Kame, cut them into pieces without much difficulty.

Then we launched our counterattack.

The cerastus shock lance spat out exotic energies that fried the Hormagaunts bounding forward, and Sendo joined the fray, the lightning locks of his Armiger Moirax electrocuting more of the scythe bearing 'gaunts. On the other side, Chiba's Armiger Moirax incinerated the running Termagaunts, taking out a huge chunk of them and sending smoldering carcasses toppling. Minamoto unleashed a hail of devastating fire, his rapid-fire battle cannon pulverizing the Tyranid Warriors as revenge for shooting Yoichi earlier, while his Ironstorm missile pod loosed volleys of missiles that detonated amongst the running Hormagaunts. His Avenger gatling cannon spun, bellowing thunderously as thousands of depleted uranium shells tore into the crawling Genestealers, annihilating them in a single blast. The heavy stubbers rotated about and continued to assault the Termagaunts, the survivors taking cover.

I tried to fire the volcano lance into the Norn Emissary, but I missed, its psychic shield obscuring my auspexes. On the other hand, my plasma decimator found more success, slaying the Neurophage on the other side, which had already taken some damage from Kanda's hull meltagun. The siegebreaker cannons bombarded the Hormagaunts, further decimating the horde, but my twin meltaguns missed the Norn Emissary, which was out of melta range, anyway.

That wasn't a good round of shooting from the Dominus Knight Castellan, Kazan. I guess the machine spirit was having an off day or something. Whatever.

On the other side, one of the Carnifexes was vaporized by the thermal cannon from Kanda's Engetsu. Meanwhile, Watanabe's Tsurugi and Sato's Kaen finished off the Hormagaunts nibbling at their Armiger Warglaives' legs. Hebi's meltagun and thermal spear didn't do much to the Hive Tyrant, and neither did Kame, but Iwatani was eager to prove himself and he charged Kame right into the Hive Tyrant, cleaving a good chunk of chitin out of the roaring beast, and parrying its return strike.

Lord Takeda was not to be outdone, and Naginata collided against the Norn Emissary, the shock lance impaling the writhing beast and slaying it outright. Kicking the corpse off Naginata's lance, Takeda turned his knight armor toward the approaching Screamer Killer and the approaching Hormagaunts and Termagaunts.

Though we had reduced the forces on the ground, Gargoyles and a winged Hive Tyrant swooped down from above, assaulting Chiba's Armiger Moirax, but his ion shield deflected the leeches that their devourers spat at him. Iwatani continued to engage the wingless Hive Tyrant in combat, but he also found himself beset by Genestealers. Despite his best attempts to assist Iwatani, Kanda found his Engetsu swarmed by Ripper swarms and the Neurogaunts. I wanted to help, but Kazan was knocked off its footing when a Trygon Prime erupted from beneath my feet, surfacing and latching onto the heavy adamantium armor with its scythes.

Uh oh.

A swarm of Termagaunts followed the Trygon Prime out of the tunnel it had just emerged from, spitting leeches at Sendo's Armiger Moirax, but they were slower than the Trygon Prime and failed to make the charge. The Hunter Screamer crashed into Lord Takeda's Naginata, furiously seeking revenge, only to be impaled upon the crackling Cerastus shock lance and torn apart by the volatile energies.

"Foul beast," Takeda spat.

Kanda managed to slay the lead psychophage beast that was leading the neurogaunts with a strike of his reaper chainsword, but the ripper swarms and neurogaunts continued to assail him.

On the other side, the Tyranofex had obliterated the ion shields of Yoichi in violent fashion, and Minamoto struggled to keep his reeling Knight Crusader standing. The Barbagaunts continued to bombard from afar, but those did very little damage, thankfully. Meanwhile, the Gargoyles descended upon Chiba's Armiger Moirax, attempting to drown him in a tide of beating wings and gnashing teeth.

The sole surviving Carnifex charged Sato, hitting Kaen like a manufactorum truck running over a servitor. Though the adamantine armor buckled, Kaen endured, and Sato countered with a strike that eviscerated the Carnifex. Nonetheless, it remained standing, snarling furiously as ichor poured out of its ruined exoskeleton.

Iwatani succeeded in slaying the Hive Tyrant by blasting it pointblank with his meltagun and thermal spear, ramming the barrels into its jaw and gut and unleashing superheated rays into the shrieking creature. Molten chitin flowed and the Hive Tyrant's ruined body slumped over. Turning around, Kame gutted a couple of Genestealers, but the rest tore the poor Armiger Warglaive apart, dismantling it joint from joint, bolt from bolt.

"Damn it!" Kanda cursed, swinging his reaper chainsword and taking out all of the neurogaunts, helped by pointblank meltagun and Stormspear rockets that blew holes in the carpet of ripper swarms that were crawling up at his legs and nibbling at cables.

Meanwhile, Watanabe assisted Sato, Tsurugi blowing holes in the Carnifex's back with meltagun and thermal ray, leaving Sato free to disengage from the dying beast and firing at the Hive Tyrant. With a determined yell, Sato charged the winged Hive Tyrant, Kaen stabbing the beast in the chest with a raging reaper chain-cleaver. Snarling, the Hive Tyrant fought back, tearing at Kaen's pauldron, but Sato maneuvered his Armiger Warglaive to avoid a critical hit.

I was still stuck in combat with the Trygon Prime, which grappled with my stumbling Kazan. Despite firing the twin meltaguns pointblank, they did nothing, while the shieldbreaker missile went wide. So much for the new twin-linked rule...plus melta was now Strength 9 and did nothing to Toughness 10 and above monsters and vehicles. Ugh.

Lord Takeda took out the Hormagaunts with a pointblank blast from his Cerastus shock lance, leaving just one survival. Sweeping the lance, he cut down the Termagaunts, which again also left only one survivor, both of which continued to harry at his flanks. Minamoto focused Yoichi's immense firepower on the Tyrannofex, but failed to do much damage against its resilient body. On the other hand, his Avenger gatling cannon annihilated the Termagaunts that had followed the Trygon Prime out of its tunnel. Inspired by his lord's example, Chiba fried the Gargoyles with a good number of lightning locks' arcs, leaving a handful that slowly chipped away at him.

The Genestealers pounced on Suzuki's Hebi, eager to add to their tally after Kame's demise. However, Hebi endured their onslaught, and Suzuki retaliated with a cleave, cutting down another couple of them. He didn't escape unscathed, though, and Hebi's armor was buckling and falling apart under the relentless assault. Fortunately, Engetsu had crushed the remnants of the Ripper swarms, and Kanda could finally turn his attention around to assist him.

Meanwhile, the Tyranofex further reduced Minamoto's Yoichi into a smoldering wreck, though somehow the Knight Cruasder just barely survived that last salvo. Even so, I could see that Yoichi was on his last legs, with Minamoto fighting to keep the staggering Knight armor upright. Fortunately, the followup barbs from the Barbagaunts had little effect. The Gargoyles continued to harry at Chiba, but the Armiger Moirax withstood their blows while kicking one of them to death. The Trygon Prime continued to tear at Kazan, but the adamantium armor held...for now. I kicked it back, but did little damage, except maybe chip away at its chitin.

The Hive Tyrant and Sato continued to duel, trading more blows. By now, Watanabe had moved up, and their combined melta beams finally incinerated the winged Hive Tyrant before it could finish the grievously damaged Kaen off. Meanwhile, Kanda charged in, and Engetsu's reaper chainsword reaped a harvest on the Genestealers swarming over Suzuki's Hebi, annihilating them. Unfortunately, we weren't able to replicate the success on the other side, and though I finally blew a hole in the Trygon Prime's carapace with a shieldbreaker missile, the twin meltaguns still failed to burn through its exoskeleton. Minamoto wasn't having a good time either, his battle cannons inflicting little damage on the Tyranofex, and even as Sendo's Armiger Moirax lightning locks and Lord Takeda's Naginata Cerastus shock lance added to his firepower, the Tyrannofex remained unmoved. It was also too far for Naginata to charge it. Yet. At least Chiba was able to wipe out the Gargoyles with another barrage of lightning locks.

To my surprise, the Trygon Prime disengaged from combat suddenly, instead coiling around the Valkyrie that I was supposed to protect. Lord Militant Leontus! He was in trouble! The Valkyrie had yet to take off, and already the Trygon Prime had ensnared it. It was slowly crushing the aircraft with its coils. I turned to fire, but was rocked when a devasting salvo from the Tyranofex hit Kazan, piercing the ion shields and dealing significant damage. That brought my Dominus Knight Castellan down a bracket. Ouch.

"Oh no...!"

Minamoto wasn't in great shape either. Yoichi was listing, having endured another barrage from the Barbagaunts and spines from the Tyranofex, but he was still hanging in there somehow, against all odds.

"I won't let you!" He yelled.

"Focus fire on the Trygon Prime!" Lord Takeda ordered. "I'll take care of the Tyrannofex! We must protect the Lord Militant at all costs! Don't let it destroy the Valkyrie!"

"Yes, my lord!"

The three remaining Armiger Warglaives and Kanda's Engetsu converged on the Trygon Prime. Unfortunately, due to damaged servos and auspexes thanks to the Tyranofex's bombardment, I missed all of my shots, my volcano lance going wide, and my plasma decimator failing to wound the damned thing. Even the shieldbreaker missile wasn't able to destroy the Trygon Prime.

Fortunately, the melta beams from the thermal spears of Hebi, Tsurugi and Kaen combined into a devastating lance that melted the chitin off the roaring Trygon Prime and sliced it into two, its bisected halves toppling over even as its stumps were cauterized by the incredible heat. The three retainers continued to direct their thermal rays along both halves of the Trygon Prime, ensuring its death.

"Excellent work!" Lord Takeda said, even as his Knight Lancer pierced the Tyrannofex with the Cerastus shock lance and pulverized it. The Barnagaunts were pulped by the Ironstorm missiles and battle cannon shells that Minamoto unleashed upon them in revenge for harming Yoichi, and for a long while, silence reigned.

Then the Valkyrie rose in a shriek, the assault carrier spiraling upward and surging toward the heavens, probably to take shelter within a waiting Imperial navy vessel in orbit.

As for us, we were resigned to our fates...only to realize that we had annihilated the enemy. The Endless Swarm was destroyed so completely that there wasn't a single living Tyranid in sight.

"What the...the Lord Militant was right, after all." Kanda shook his head in amazement. "This really is a defensible position."

"We actually won!" Suzuki cheered, raising Hebi's reaper chain-cleaver triumphantly.

"We have indeed," Lord Takeda agreed, holding up Naginata's shock lance. "Now, allow us to drive the filthy xenos off the world of Shieldon and reclaim it for the Imperium. If we are able to score a great and decisive victory here today, then there is no reason we cannot destroy the Tyranids teeming in this world. Let us charge forth and finish them off!"

Shouting our approval, we moved our heavily damaged Knights out, seeking fresh prey to hunt. But first, we needed to locate our sacristans to effect some hasty repairs. Only then would we be able to forge our victory in this Fourth Tyrannic War.

Sub-sector Bastior will not fall!

Acquiring Archeotech on Kajiya

Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya glanced around the surrounding ruins, his occular augmetics scanning the vicinity for any sign of archeotech. According to Archmagos Theta-Rho, there were ancient relics to be found here. A rogue trader had claimed he saw signs of a STC, and the Draconian Archmagos had dispatched a Hunter Cohort to recover it. As Alpha Primus of Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma, Kariya had been left in charge.

His Skitarii Rangers marched stealthily, scouting ahead under the cover of shimmering emanatus force fields of the Onager Dunecrawlers, which provided armored support. A maniple of Sydonian Dragoons foraged ahead, their taser lances crackling with esoteric energies, while the Serberys cavalry loped ahead, the cyber-canids covering huge distances with graceful strides. At the back, a single Ironstrider Ballistarius stood, its rider tracking the area with his twin cognis lascannons.

"I can't believe we're back to one shot again...and the new twin-linked rules mean we re-roll wound rolls instead of hit rolls."

44-Kariya ignored 28-Tetsuo's remark. The Ironstrider Ballistarius pilot was grumpy because his squadron was short of 1 more rider that Archmagos Theta-Rho had promised.

"Adeptus Astartes presence detected," 72-Kishida reported from ahead. The alpha of the Serberys Raider squadron had proceeded the fastest, forging ahead of all the other forces. The Skorpius Dunerider carrying the second Alpha Primus of Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma, Skitarii Marshal Rho 29-Tataki, and his escort of Skitarii Vanguard, was just barely behind them. Already, they could see armored vehicles bearing red livery. 72-Kishida continued. "Red colorings and heraldry indicate the Blood Angels Chapter."

"What are they doing here?" 29-Tataki asked through the noosphere. "Are they here to invade Kajiya once more, like the Boreal Swords Chapter?"

44-Kariya had no idea. Kariya was a newly founded forge world in a recently explored sector, with Tech-priests and their accompanying retinues of Servitors descending upon the virgin planet to mine it of its resources and build new manufactorums. Unfortunately, the Boreal Swords had attacked them when the Tech-priests refused their demands of supplies and ammunition. In response, Archmagos Theta-Rho had requested for macroclades of Skitarii from their primary forge world of Draconis IV, while using the unfortunate Imperial Guardsmen of the Draconian Defenders regiment to buy the Mechanicus priesthood time against the Boreal Swords.

And now, the Skitarii macroclades had finally made landfall in force. Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma's first mission was to recover any archeotech that might be buried in the newly founded forge world of Kariya, and hopefully ship it back to their parent forge world of Draconis IV. They had been expecting another raid from the Boreal Swords, but why were there Blood Angels here?

"It matters not," Archmagos Theta-Rho blurted in binharic through the noosphere. "Whoever the enemy is, Astartes or not, eliminate them."

"Understood, sir." 44-Kariya had no hesitation. The Skitarii Marshal, while retaining independent thought and autonomous free will in order to carry out combat maneuvers optimally, was completely obedient to the priesthood of Draconis IV. He sent out data-streams to his accompanying Cohort, and they moved out. Towering over them loped a single Cerastus Knight Lancer from the Mechanicus-indentured House Kanda, a branch of the venerable House Yato. Sir Kanda and his fellow Knights from House Kanda normally served as escorts for the Titans of Legio Draconis, but the Dark Dragons had not been deployed upon Kariya. Yet.

"I'll go ahead," Sir Kanda said through the vox. Unlike the cyborg Skitarii soldiery under 44-Kariya's command, the noble had not undergone extensive bionics surgery. The nobles of the Knight Houses remained mostly flesh and blood.

The Blood Angels apparently had been searching for archeotech of their own, and there was a high probability of them seeking a cure for the curse that plagued those of their gene-seed. Sigma 44-Kariya had heard rumors, but he felt little sympathy for them, for emotions and other human weaknesses had been excised from his cybernetically modified brain. Instead, he issued orders.

29-Tataki and his Skitarii Vanguard disembarked from their Skorpius Dunerider, which had skidded to a stop in the center of the ruins. A single Baal Predator fired the first shot, immediately incinerating three of the Skitarii Vanguard with its hellstorm cannon. Despite their bionics protecting them, the trio fell, their bodies set ablaze by the ferocious torrent of burning promethium.

44-Kariya noted dispassionately that the Blood Angels had fired the first shot, which meant that they were confirmed to be hostile. Whatever they were looking for here, they wish to keep it a secret from the rest of the Imperium, even if it meant eliminating any weaknesses.

Despite their casualties, the Skitarii Vanguard under 29-Tataki ignored their fallen and aimed their radium carbines and plasma caliver, following calculated trajectories and adhering to pre-simulated plans. Radioactive rounds and plasma globes hammered a Devastator squad that was busily setting up atop a wrecked hab-block, and even with the protection of their power armor, they succumbed to such potent weaponry. The omnispex held by the squad had highlighted the enemy's positions through the noosphere, allowing the Vanguard to strike with impeccable accuracy.

At the back, the three Onager Dunecrawlers fired. Two neutron laser shots scorched the hull of a Repulsor that had turned and zoomed forward, while the Icarus array of the third lowered and pummeled its armored hull, crumpling the adamantium plates.

The Blood Angels fought back, with the Eradicators dropping from high above and blasting the rear of Sir Kanda's Knight Lancer. He reacted quickly, spinning around to block their devastating melta beams with his ion shield, which absorbed the thermal rays and dissipated them harmlessly. Even so, a few punched through the lanky frame of the Knight armor, leaving molten metal dripping from sputtering servos. On the opposite side, an Impulsor roared ahead, its cargo of Hellblasters firing their plasma incinerators at the Sydonian Dragoons. Fortunately, the incense produced by the striding war machines obscured the sight of even the normally unerring accuracy of the Adeptus Astartes, and the Sydonian Dragoons dodged the devastating volleys of plasma.

However, the Baal Predator ignored the muffled auspexes and confused sensor auguries, its flamers engulfing the Skitarii Vanguard and wiping them out to a man, leaving just 29-Tataki the sole survivor in a smoldering crater.

The sole surviving Devastator and the listing Repulsor fired at Sir Kanda's Knight Lancer, searing even more holes through the stumbling war engine, but somehow the Knight suit managed to withstand the blasts and continued sprinting forward. However, the Death Company descended from the skies, their jump packs leaving fiery contrails, as they crashed into 72-Kishida's Serberys Raiders and wiped them out with crackling thunder hammers and power fists. They were led by a legendary Chaplain, who bellowed litanies of hate as he swung his crozius about and laid into the routed Serberys Raiders.

Despite the severe losses, 44-Kariya continued to run combat simulations and transmit data to his faltering forces. One neutron laser Onager Dunecrawler fired at the Repulsor, but it managed to dodge the shot, taking cover behind a building, which was demolished by the esoteric energies. However, a single Skitarii Ranger took aim with his arc rifle and dealt devastating wounds to the Repulsor with arcs of electricity, finally destroying it, but three Bladeguard Veterans forced their way out of the wreck, their storm shields glimmering with protective fields. The Death Company Marines continued to charge forward, but despite their ferocity, they were hammered by anti-air fire that the third Onager Dunecraler stitched into the skies with his Icarus array, the Skitarii Ranger calmly taking aim and filling the heavens with explosive shells and missiles. The Serberys Sulfurhounds loped forward, filling the entire area with phosphor and sulfur, the flames burning the paint from the Death Company and boiling the Astartes alive within their power armor. Even so, the incredibly resilient and berserk Death Company threw themselves forward, utterly heedless of their grievous wounds, even as their flesh blackened within superheated shells and failing armor, and their organs liquefied from the sheer heat. The Ironstrider Ballistarius and the second neutron laser Onager Dunecrawler destroyed the Impulsor, forcing the Hellblasters within to jump out of the burning wreck.

The Baal Predator continued to provide them support, incinerating the scattered Serberys Sulfurhounds when they attempted to charge the remains of the Death Company, and wiping out the cavalry. On the other hand, the Sydonian Dragoons had better luck, their taser lances stabbing into a Librarian Dreadnought that was hidden behind a ruin, but its armor held thick and the venerable ancient retaliated, almost crumpling one of them. If not for their bionic enhancement, the third one would have been destroyed.

Sir Kanda crushed the Eradicators with a sweep of his cerastus shock lance, flinging the broken bodies aside. At that moment, the Sanguinor appeared out of nowhere, his flaming sword striking the towering Cerastus Knight and doing little damage. Sir Kanda swung his shock lance about, almost slaying the Sanguinor in one blow, but the winged figure managed to flee to safety despite sustaining grievous wounds.

The Hellblasters teleported, using wings of fire to launch themselves across the battlefield, and landed right behind the beleageuered Cerastus Knight Lancer, even as Sir Kanda struggled to finish off the grievously wounded Sanguinor. An Ironclad Dreadnought approached, its power talons crackling with disruption fields, while Inceptors swooped from above to bath the Knight in superheated plasma. They were aided by the flying Hellblasters, who joined in the fray with plasma torrents of their own. The ion shield flickered, but held, and though the Knight armor faltered as more damage accumulated across its overstressed frame, Sir Kanda knew he wouldn't be able to take much more, especially when the Dreadnought grabbed onto him with its power talons. With a determined bellow, he punctured its sacrophagus with the shock lance, slaying the war engine while taking grievous damage, and his back swing obliterated the Sanguinor.

There was a bright flash as a squad of First Company Terminators arrived to stem the tide, their storm bolters and assault cannon spitting a lethal stream at the Sydonian Dragoons and finally felling one of them through devastating wounds. The Baal Predator continued to do more work, killing nine more Skitarii Rangers, despite their stealthy approach. Only the Alpha was left. The Blade Guard Veterans sprinted across the battlefield from the ruined Repulsor, reaching a second squad of Skitarii Rangers and sending them reeling with a bunch of power swords...that somehow missed on the charge and only killed the front two or three, leaving the rest out of engagement range when the dust settled.

Meanwhile, the Librarian Dreadnought continued to pummel the two surviving Sydonian Dragoons, though their bionic endurance held up against the onslaught, and they finally ripped it apart with their taser lances. The Terminators were too slow and cumbersome to make the charge, and they could only watch in dismay as the second of their venerable ancients was slain right in front of them.

The Death Company continued to whittle away at the Skorpius Dunerider, now that the infantry surrounding it had been decimated, but somehow their inferno pistols failed against the protection of the Omnissiah, the tough Skorpius transport holding strong despite the superheated beams. They charged and began smashing the hull to bits with their power fists, too caught up in their black rage to heed any warnings.

44-Kariya dismissed the red noospheric warnings about mounting casualties and how a battle of attrition would see his cohort annihilated, and plotted new stratagems. Against all odds, Sir Kanda's Knight suit was still standing and wreaking havoc behind enemy lines, but he couldn't factor the noble's survival into his calculations. Too unreliable. Espescially when he was surrounded by plasma. Meanwhile, his troops were getting whittling down, and he had lost two full squads, with a single Alpha left in one of them. He instantly transmitted more combat protocols, having decided to stay in Protector Doctrina to maximize firepower.

His decision was validated later when the first Onager Dunecrawler and Ironstrider Ballistarius destroyed the Baal Predator with their neutron laser and cognis twin lascannon. The second Onager Dunecrawler managed to kill two more Hellblasters with its neutron laser, but they fired on death, splashing more plasma against Sir Kanda's ailing Knight armor. He fired back with the shock lance, killing another, but focused his attention on wiping out the Inceptors, killing two of them outright with Tank Shock mortal wounds and running through the third with his lance despite the battered war engine being slowed by the damage it had sustained. The Skorpius Dunerider continued to fire its cognis heavy stubbers pointblank into the Death Company, whittling down more of them, while the two surviving Sydonian Dragoons turned around and advanced toward the Death Company, charging them and spearing them with their taser lances, leaving just the bellowing Chaplain.

On the other side, the other Skitarii Ranger squad fired everything they had onto the Bladeguard Veterans, and through sheer luck, and also the cognis heavy stubber support from their escorting Onager Dunecrawler, they succeeded in wiping out the squad. All three Bladeguard Veterans went down, despite their stormshields, their power armor punched through by hundreds of galvanic shots or solid rounds, as well as plasma and lethal arc energies.

Meanwhile, the other Onager Dunecrawler had nothing to shoot at, with the Hellblasters taking cover and remaining out of line of sight, and the third...could only watch while the Chaplain raged and fought against the Sydonian Dragoons...who finally slew him with their relentless taser lance thrusts.

The Terminators advanced forward, and though they took heavy fire that saw their number reduced to two, they eventually reached the center of the battlefield and destroyed the two Sydonian Dragoons with their power fists. However, the Hellblasters and Devastator weren't as lucky. Though they continued to snipe away at the faltering Knight Lancer with their plasma and las-shots, Sir Kanda focused everything onto the defensive, bringing up his ion gauntlet shield to deflect the devastating volleys. He retaliated, slaying the Hellblasters, while the Skorpius Dunerider, freed from engaging the Chaplain, could finally kill the last Devastator by filling his position with hundreds of metallic slugs. Even the transhuman Astartes couldn't withstand so many rounds, and he fell, his power armor buckling under the numerous impacts.

That left the Terminators. Not only did they destroy the two Sydonian Dragoons, they were able to snipe the sole surviving Skitarii Alpha with well-placed storm bolter shots. Even so, they realized just how...dire their situation was. With only two Terminators surviving, they had to face a heavily damaged Knight Lancer, three Onager Dunecrawlers and two Skitarii Ranger squads. Even Terminator armor would not be proof against the neutron lasers.

"We...call for a truce," one of the Terminators said, raising his assault cannon. Sigma 44-Kariya signaled to his Hunter Cohort to stop. There was no reason to continue the needless bloodshed. If the Astartes wanted to leave, they would not pursue. Understanding that, the remaining two Terminators turned to depart the field, leaving the ruins to the beleaguered Skitarii.

"Holy Terra..." Sir Kanda breathed, slumping against his Throne Mechanicum. He noticed the smoldering joints, smoke rising from overstressed servos, and accumulated damage. "My Knight armor is about to fall apart. I don't know how much longer I can hang in there."

"We have a couple of Tech-priest Enginseers on standby to repair your Knight," 44-Kariya assured him. The two Tech-priest Enginseers had been ministering to the two neutron laser Onager Dunecrawlers all battle, providing them a 5+++ Feel No Pain, but...funnily enough, the Blood Angels had not taken a single shot at any of the three Onager Dunecrawlers at all.

"Great...because I see a bunch of archeotech we can recover." Sir Kanda gestured to the wrecked Repulsor. "Seems like the Blood Angels left something behind."

"A power source," said one of the Tech-priest Enginseers who was coming forward to repair his Knight armor. Magos Epsilon Muguruma, if Sir Kanda remembered correctly. "And seems like we also found a second Archeotech part, thanks to our agenda. The rogue trader's information was right on the money."

"What do you think we found?" Sir Kanda asked.

"Who knows?" Sigma 44-Kariya shrugged his augmetic shoulders. "I guess we'll have to roll for it later. The precise details will be available another day. Such is the Crusade of the Legions of the Omnissiah."