"Always never a dull moment, huh?" Sir Kanda sighed as he leaned in his Throne Mechanicum. His Cerastus Knight Lancer pivoted its torso slightly to face the incoming Drukhari. They were supposed to be Corsairs, but the Aeldari pirates normally didn't ride on spiky Raiders and Ravagers. It was unfortunate, but they didn't have rules for a full Corsair army yet, so they had to make do with the Sky Splinter Assault for the Drukhari.
Not that it would make them any less deadlier.
<Form up! Aggressor Imperative Doctrina!> 29-Tataki ordered. His Skitarii fell into formation, with the Rangers already scouting ahead. At the center of the dig site, a nullification zone enveloped the region, rendering their bionics and Sir Kanda's ion shield useless. <Sir Kanda, if you would skirt around the border of the null field, so that you can deploy your ion gauntlet shield.>
"Way ahead of you," Kanda replied, his Knight suit loping the long way around to meet the first Ravager that had descended upon them, its dark lances firing at him. The strobing black lances splayed across the shimmering field of protective energy, neutralized completely. A Raider dropped off a bunch of Kabalite Warriors, who secured the site ahead before they hopped back into their transport. Meanwhile, the Scourges flitted ahead to fire upon the Sydonian Dragoons with their haywire blasters, but they only reduced one of them to one wound remaining, the Ironstrider engine somehow still standing despite suffering lethal damage.
<Ouch!> The rider complained, only for Delta Yari to hush him.
<Don't be a wuss! Besides, you should have your nerves surgically excised, so you can't feel any pain.>
<Just trying to liven things up, sir.>
<We have the Drukhari for that,> Delta Yari muttered, watching as the Incubi hop out of one of two Venoms and charged the squad of Skitarii Rangers right in front of his Sydnonian Dragoon squadron. They vanished into a maelstrom of blurs and blades, hacking the poor cyborgs down. Incredibly enough, only two Skitarii Rangers fell, with the rest holding strong because of their Bionics. The 5++ invulnerable save that the codex gave them was pretty helpful.
However, that was temporary. Eventually, the leader of the Incubi managed to take down five of the Skitarii Rangers by himself, reducing them to just 3.
The Ravagers' and Raider's Dark Lances weren't very effective, with them missing most their shots against the Dragoons or Sir Kanda's Knight lancer. That gave the Skitarii the chance to move up.
<Disembark! Wipe those Scourges out!> 29-Tataki ordered as his Vanguard poured out of the Skorpius Dunerider and began pummeling the Scourges with their radium carbines. A few of them fell, but the rest were annihilated by a volley from the Skorpius Dunerider's cognis heavy stubbers.
The second Ranger squad, Beta-2, poured their fire into the Venom, damaging it heavily, and it was wrecked by the phosphor serpentas from the Sydonian Dragoons. Delta Yari's squadron then charged into the Incubi and speared them with their taser lances, relieving the beleaguered Skitarii Rangers.
"Thanks!" The Alpha said, heaving as he struggled to rally the tattered remains of his squad together. He nodded in approval when he saw they weren't battle-shocked. That meant they could still secure objectives.
Sir Kanda had to go the long way to hunt down an errant Ravager that was pestering him with its dark lances, which meant he couldn't provide any support...yet.
Unfortunately, the Incubi from the second Venom, led by their Archon, had dropped out to slice into the Skitarii Vanguard. They also locked the Sydonian Dragoons in combat, their blades and glaives twirling to slice into them, and the heavily damaged Sydonian Dragoon finally went down to a blast pistol from the Archon or something. The Mandrakes snuck out of the shadows to grab the site that Beta-2 had left behind to secure the center, firing some balefire thing at them and taking out a huge chunk of the squad.
<We're getting decimated here!> The Alpha cried as his squad struggled to hunker down. Incredibly enough, a good portion of his squad survived the lethal salvos, thanks to their cybernetic armor, which allowed them to hang onto the center objective for a while longer. Meanwhile, Sir Kanda managed to deflect a few more dark lances coming his way, the Ravager's shots not doing much. However, the second Ravager totaled the Skorpius Dunerider with its Dark Lances, skewering it with exotic beams.
<Aw...there goes our ride,> 29-Tataki groaned. But he had more important things to worry about as quite a few of his Vanguard were cut down by the Incubi and the vicious Archon, who was heading straight for him. He squared his shoulders and met the xenos leader blade to blade, cleaving a couple of Incubi heading straight for him. His Vanguard also clubbed a few of them down, leaving just the Archon after a few vicious exchanges.
"...time to go!" Realizing that he was outnumbered, the Archon hopped back into the Venom to escape temporarily.
The Kabalite Warriors leaped out of their Raider gracefully, their splinter rifles and poisoned weapons firing to slice down more of Beta-2, reducing them further, but they remained stalwart and stubborn, with a handful of them surviving. The Alpha shook his head, impressed that his squad had somehow remained battle-unshocked after the massacre.
<We're having some good rolls today...thank the Omnissiah,> he murmured.
The Skitarii fought back as best as they could, but their fire was faltering after so many of their numbers were cut down. Their galvanic rounds, arc rifles and transuranic arquebus were finding little effect against the Venom.
Sir Kanda had more success, though, running his shock lance through a Ravager and hurling the wreckage aside.
"I'm coming!" He growled, his eyes intent on the Kabalite Warriors. The Ravager fired and cored out a segment from his pauldron, causing the Cerastus Knight Lancer to stagger, but the armor's speed remained undiminished. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it in time before the Mandrakes and Kabalite Warriors wiped out the rest of Beta-2, along with the Raider. The Archon jumped out and managed to damage one of the Sydonian Dragoons before it went down to a Dark Lance. With a gleeful laugh, he massacred the remaining Skitarii Vanguard, including 29-Tataki, who cursed as he fell to the Archon's gleeful blades.
That left just 3 Skitarii Rangers and a single Sydonian Dragoon.
Sir Kanda rushed forward, the lightning from his Cerastus shock lance obliterating over half of the Kabalite Warriors before he stomped on them with a devastating charge. The Skitarii Rangers still weren't able to do much, but the Sydonian Dragoon managed to charge the Archon, though he failed to do anything to him.
<Uh oh,> Delta Yari murmured, his bionic heart sinking when his lance stabbed futilely against the alien forcefield that protected the Archon.
The Mandrakes charged and finished off the Rangers, while the Archon finally destroyed the Sydonian Dragoon, who had been struck repeatedly by Dark Lances from the remaining Ravager and Raider.
"...what in Holy Terra...am I the sole survivor?!" Sir Kanda's jaw dropped when he surveyed the battlefield. He narrowed his eyes as he sought a way to salvage the situation. First, he speared the annoying Ravager that blocked his way to the center and tossed its corpse aside. Then he stomped on the Archon who charged him for some reason, the Corsair/Drukhari leader ignoring the negative effects the nullification zone had on his forcefield. With a single stamp, he squashed the filthy xenos into nothing.
That left the Raider, which he smashed aside with his shock lance. Only the Mandrakes and Venom survived, and they wisely stayed out of the way of his rampage.
"Damn it." Kanda sighed as he tried to pick up the pieces. Though he had forced the Drukhari or Corsairs to retreat, with the annihilation of the Skitarii, he could only call this a draw at best.
Well, it was better than losing. Nobody lost, everybody won. The Drukhari wiped out the Skitarii, while the Mechanicus-indentured Knight exterminated the foul xenos. The Mechanicus did not obtain any blackstone fragments this time, while the Drukhari failed to abduct any of the Skitarii for whatever sadistic torture they had in mind, or just for simple slavery. Perhaps the Mandrakes had snuck away with a few blackstone fragments, but Kanda couldn't tell.
"So we're still stuck at the status quo, huh?" He murmured and slumped against his Throne Mechanicum. Thankfully, there would be fresh recruits from orbit, and he was sure 29-Tataki had survived, even if he was severely wounded. Fortunately, the Marshal didn't suffer any battle scars.
However, the Drukhari/Corsairs were far from done.
"Those bloody mon'keigh!" The Archon spat as he was reconstituted back in his Haemonculi's base. "How dare they humiliate me like this? This isn't enough! My warriors, we're going back for another round! This time, we'll make sure to abduct them and make them suffer unimaginable agonies for eternity!"
And so the Sky Splinter Assault Force left Commorragh to strike at Skitarii Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma in Kuroishi again. They brought dread with them as they swooped from the webway once more to descend upon the freshly reinforced and supplied Skitarii forces that had gathered around the recently recovered Rho 29-Tataki.
<Not again!> The Skitarii Marshal whined. <Can't they just leave us in peace?>
"You know what they say," Kanda replied blandly. "In this new, dark age of ours, there is only war."
<C'mon! Anyway, Protector Imperative Doctrina! We'll be more defensive this time!>
The Drukhari struck fast and hard, but they failed to take the Skitarii by surprise. The Dark Lances from the Ravagers missed, but one hit Skorpius Dunerider Gamma-1A. However, thanks to 29-Tataki's Protector protocols. the transport actually tanked the dark lance well and withstood it.
The Scourges, having been annihilated in the earlier expedition, stayed well back, but the other Ravager fired at Kanda's Cerastus Knight Lancer, only to fail to damage him.
"They really need to finetune their weapons," Kanda remarked. "Though I should thank the Omnissiah for His protection."
The Kabalite Warriors had split into 2 squads of 5 this time, riding in the Venoms. Meanwhile, the Archon and his Incubi hopped into the Raider to ready a charge, but they were still pretty far from any of the Skitarii.
The cyborg soldiers were ready for them this time, though.
The Skorpius Dunerider zoomed forward to unload its cargo of Vanguard passengers, and they proceeded to erase one of the Kabalite Warrior squads from existence with their radium carbines and plasma caliver. The Skorpius Dunerider pounded the Venom they disembarked from with cognis heavy stubbers and reduced it to a perforated wreck.
Delta Yari, atop his newly repaired Sydonian Dragoon, led his squadron in an advance, but they couldn't reach anything...yet. Instead, Kanda's Knight Lancer fried a bunch of Kabalite Warriors before he charged into them, stomping them into oblivion. Meanwhile, between the two squads of Skitarii Rangers, they managed to take out the second Incubi squad and damaged the Venom. However, it came at a cost, for the hazardous plasma caliver blew up its wielder when it uncontrollably vented superheated gases, cooking the poor guy alive.
"You think you can stop us!?" The Archon roared. "We're taking you back to Commorragh! You shall suffer for this insult!"
He and his Incubi leaped out to carve apart the Vanguard, six of the cyborgs falling to their blades. The Venom also charged the Skorpius Dunerider for some reason, ramming it and doing no damage to its armored hull.
Somehow, 29-Tataki and his Vanguard rallied, and they pretty much overwhelmed the Incubi through sheer force with arc maul and control stave, and the Archon found himself suddenly isolated.
"How?!" He shook his fist at the heavens. "Have we been forsaken?! Are my rolls really that terrible, for Ynnead's sake?!"
To make matters worse, the Scourges had soared to the top of a ruined hab block to rain their haywire blasters down on the Sydonian Dragoons...only to completely whiff. Whether it was because of the cloud of incense that made the Stealthy Dragoons harder to hit, or because they were just plain unlucky, only the Emperor would know.
"You've got to be kidding me! That's it! You're all on the chopping block when we return to Commorragh!" The Archon raged.
The Mandrakes fared a bit better, dropping out of the shadows and burning a couple of Skitarii Rangers with their baleflamer things. However, both squads of Skitarii Rangers promptly turned around and hammered them with galvanic rounds, plasma and transuranic rounds. The arc rounds ineffectively plinked away at the Raider and did f all, though, but the Mandrakes were eliminated this time.
Kanda urged his Knight forward, but he inadvertently wiped the Scourges out with his Cerastus shock lance's lightning before he could charge them, so he braked his suit and turned around to look for new targets. Meanwhile, the Skorpius Dunerider pummeled the offending Venom at pointblank range, the cognis heavy stubbers reducing it to a punctured wreckage.
"..."
The Archon was speechless. At this point, there wasn't anything he could do. He only had a single Raider and 2 Ravagers left on the battlefield, and even his 2++ invulnerable save wasn't going to keep him alive under weight of attacks for much longer. Meanwhile, despite slaughtering several Skitarii infantry, his Corsairs/Drukhari had failed to wipe out even a single whole unit.
His supposed prey still had 3 Sydonian Dragoons, a single ravaged Vanguard squad, and 2 relatively healthy Skitarii Ranger squads all securing the objectives in the zone, allowing the servitors time to gather blackstone. There was no way he could stop them from excavating the noctlith, nor did he have the numbers to abduct the Skitarii. Furthermore, the looming threat of the Titanic Knight bipedal walker that the humans possessed remained, and would slowly take out the remaining Ravagers when given time.
It was time to cut his losses and quit the battlefield.
"I'll be back!" He vowed. Ignoring the vengeful Skitarii and 29-Tataki, he turned tail and fled, hopping onto the Raider and sailing out of there. The Ravagers too spun around to retreat with their dark lances between their proverbial legs, not even bothering to take a potshot at the pursuing Knight.
Kanda stopped, seeing no reason to chase. The Mechanicus's priority was to secure the excavation site and secure more blackstone. There was absolutely no reason for him to annihilate the enemy, even if they were hated xenos. The Necrons were the larger threat, as was the Traitors - apparently, there were news through the noosphere that some planetoid had warped into the Nephilim Sector, bearing legions of Chaos Space Marines and Dark Mechanicum monstrosities.
There was no reason to waste time and resources on hunting down the Drukhari at the moment. Instead, the Mechanicus had achieved their objective - the servitors were busily mining out the blackstone in the sector and filling the Ark Mechanicus's coffers with the precious minerals.
<Honestly, that went a lot better than expected,> Skitarii Marshal Rho 29-Tataki declared, watching the withdrawing Corsairs/Drukhari. He smirked. <They thought the first time wasn't enough, despite you bloodying their noses, so they came for a second round, only to get crushed. I guess the Drukhari really are gluttons for punishment.>
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