Having returned to Singapore and having nothing to do...I guess I might as well keep track of and summarize the Pariah Nexus Crusade that my Adeptus Mechanicus took part in.
Having answered the call of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, Archmagos Theta-Rho led his Mechanicus fleet aboard his flagship Ark Mechanicus, to the Nephilim Sector. His primary military force is 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort, commanded by Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya. Consisting of legions of Skitarii infantry - mostly Skitarii Rangers, backed by Skitarii Vanguard and Sicarian Ruststalkers - 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort also boasts a formidable armor (or Autokrator), composed of Onager Dunecrawler squadrons, Ironstrider Ballistarii, Sydonian Dragoons, Skorpius Duneriders and even more ancient patterns such as Triaros Armored Conveyors. They are reinforced by Cybernetica Cohorts, including Kastelan robot maniples and the much more ancient and advanced Castellax battle-automata and Thanatar siege-automata, who have been taken out of the vaults in Draconis IV by Theta Rho for this very mission.
Draconis IV have never stopped manufacturing the older patterns of automata, and they still deploy huge numbers of Castellax, Thantar, Domitar and even the rarer Arlatax classes alongside Kastelan robots.
Not only that, Archmagos Theta-Rho has at his disposal the Knights of House Kanda, a branch of House Yato that is entirely subservient to the forge world of Draconis IV. Sir Kanda in his revered Cerastus Knight Lancer and several talons of Armigers - including the more exotic Moirax patterns - have joined Theta Rho's expedition to the Nephilim Sector.
A Mechanicus contingent, they are part of Battle Group Hephaestus, and only joined the war in the Nephilim Sector when Belisarius Cawl answered Roboute Guilliman's commands and was dispatched to the sector.
They deploy first in Kuroishi, a forge world in the Vertigus system and one of the few Imperial bastions remaining in the sector. Theta-Rho's fleet is an accretion fleet as opposed to an aegis fleet, and the archmagos swiftly activated servitors to excavate the blackstone in Kuroishi. 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort and the Knights of House Yato guarded the servitors, which came under brutal assault from a Necron phalanx of the Bertual Dynasty. I think. Anyway, they defeated the Necrons with overwhelming firepower - especially with the presence of a Cerastus Knight Lancer - and the excavation was completed swiftly. However, it came at tremendous cost - the Skitarii Hunter Cohort was decimated and even Marshal 44-Kariya himself was wounded heavily.
Shortly after that, the Mechanicus cohort faced not Necrons but Ork enemies instead. Warboss Blitzog had led his mob to the Nephilim sector somehow, and in search of a good krumpin' and materials for his Waaagh!, he had landed in Kuroishi. Having caught wind of the ferocious combat between Mechanicus and Necron forces, the Orks descended excitedly and launched a speedwaaagh! against the entrenched Skitarii still guarding the excavation site. Archmagos Theta-Rho, despite having collected more than his quota of blackstone, had remained behind to study the conra-immaterial node constructed by the Necrons, so that he can better serve Belisarius Cawl's directives to construct that...uh, liminal thingy that would reverse the effects of the Pariah Nexus.
Once again, the Skitarii Hunter Cohort suffered colossal casualties, 428-Sigma losing a huge chunk of their forces with only Sir Kanda and his Knight Lancer holding the line. Fortunately, right before his Kngiht could be overwhelmed, the Orks abruptly turned away from him to charge a newly manifested phalanx of Necrons, having teemed the "tin men" a worthier opponent than the beleaguered Knight suit and savaged Skitarii.
With that, the Orks achieved all their agendas while Theta-Rho successfully completed his study of the contra-immaterial node.
However, shortly after that, a warband of Renegade Astartes landed on Kuroishi in Dreadtalons and drop pods, barreling out to crush the Mechanicus contingent and harvest noctilith for themselves, apparently for their own nefarious ends - to amplify the warp, as opposed to nullifying it. The first wave was crushed and beaten back, though Sir Kanda's Knight suit was heavily damaged in the first engagement. Fortunately, the Sacristans were able to repair it in time for the second wave a week later, with the more ferocious onslaught from the Renegades overwhelming the dug in Skitarii Hunter Cohort and all but annihilating them, leaving just Sydonian Dragoons and Sir Kanda's newly restored Knight armor.
In return, the Mechanicus was able to obliterate the Renegades. Worse, the Renegades found their dark pacts nullified by the Stilling effects of the Pariah Nexus, and unable to call upon blessings from their patrons, they were crushed by the might Knight suits of House Kanda. Worse, several Renegades died from failed rituals, blown up by plasma as their dark gods all but abandoned them in a region inimical to the empyrean.
Archmagos Theta-Rho located a new dig site and directed his army of servitors to excavate more blackstone, for Battle Group Hephaestus's appetite for noctilith could not be sated, and Archmagos Belisarius Cawl required more of the exotic material. Unfortunately, while they began setting up a new excavation site, Aeldari Cosairs and Drukhari raiders attacked. The Drukhari was intent on abducting unfortunate Skitarii for whatever sadistic torture they had back in Commorragh, or perhaps simply for slavery.
The initial skirmish ended in a stalemate, with the Adeptus Mechanicus unable to harvest any noctilith, whereas the Drukhari failed their objective in abducting any surviving Skitarii for slaves or torture. Unable to bear the humiliation of his failure, the Archon launched a second raid shortly, as fresh reserves of Skitarii were deployed to reinforce the battered excavation site while servitors continued to harvest more blackstone. The Sky Splinter Assault Force struck like a needle, intent on pinpoint, lethal damage as revenge for being denied victory previously.
His arrogance proved to be his undoing.
Having learned from the previous assault, Archmagos Theta-Rho had inloaded combat simulations, battle data and merciless calculus into his Skitarii, who responded to the raid with precise calculations and finetuned reflexes designed to perfectly counter the Drukhari and Corsairs. The raging Archon oversaw the annihilation of his forces, with the Mechanicus solidifying their position in Kuroishi and the dig site, and he left, far more humiliated than before. If anything, his overeagerness to launch a second assault had proven his folly far more than the stalemate of the first.
The Archon would get his revenge shortly after, when leading a third raid, he brought an armada of Ravagers with dark lances and more Scourges to blow Sir Kanda's Cerastus Knight Lancer to oblivion and massacred the Skitarii, whose inloaded combat simulations and data were now out of date.
Skitarii Marshal Sigma 44-Kariya was forced to deploy an entirely new maniple in the wake of the extermination of his previous one, for Theta-Rho was determined to hold and secure Kuroishi. Drunk on their victory over the desttruction of both the previous Skitarii maniple and Sir Kanda's Knight Lancer, the Drukhari and Corsairs didn't see the Mechanicus vengeance coming.
With Sir Kanda and his Knight Lancer out of commission, 44-Kariya instead dispatched a talon of Armigers from House Kanda - a Warglaive, piloted by Sato, and a Moirax with a volkite veuglaire and siege claw, piloted by Kaji.
Additionally, the Fabricator-General of Mars, Ou Raskian, had recently transmitted a new decree that improved the Doctrina Imperative of Skitarii, allowing their tech-priest masters to benefit from them too and enhancing the performance of Skitarii on the battlefield to better answer threats, as well as "innovating" the weapons of their vehicles, such as the Onager Dunecrawlers' armaments, the Ironstrider Ballistarii's cannons and the Sicarian Ruststalkers' transonic blades. In exchange for more resources, and the Skitarii becoming more expensive and less of a horde army, but 44-Kariya was willing to accept the trade. Thanking the Omnissiah, he employed his newly improved Skitarii forces and House Kanda Armiger talon against the raiders.
Making use of the newly improved Imperative Doctrinas and enhanced firepower of the Autokrator and forges, 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort and the Armiger Knights of House Kanda were able to annihilate the Drukhari and Corsairs, driving them off Kuroishi and purging the forge world of any trace of the xenos invaders.
The Drukhari returned in force, the Archon once again incensed at the humiliating rout he suffered by the "monkeigh" he thought beneath him and subdued. This time, he brought as many dark lances as he could, packing them into Ravagers, Raiders, Scourages, and even man-portable versions carried by his elite Kabalite Warriors. Melta lances atop Vypers and other anti-tank weapons employed by the Drukhari were also brought along, with the Archon resolving to annihilate the formidable array of armor that the Adeptus Mechanicus had at their disposal.
Unfortunately, despite all his anti-tank firepower, he failed. While succeeding in laying low both Armiger suits, the Knights of House Kanda succeeded in diverting the Drukhari's attention toward them long enough for 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort to calculate optimal firing solutions and obliterate the Sky Splinter Assault Force from Commorragh. The Onager Dunecrawlers, Ironstrider Ballistarii, and even the Skitarii Rangers were able to blast apart the fragile Drukhari raiders, splattering their corpses across the ruined surface of Kuroishi. With his raiding fleet massacred by cold, precise volleys of neutron lasers, lascannons, Icarus missiles, plasma and arc rounds, the Archon was left seething as he withdrew back to the webway, his already bruised ego suffering yet another crushing blow.
After their utter and complete victory, the Adeptus Mechanicus further solidifed their foothold on Kuroishi, fortifying (like Imperial Fists) and constructing new fortresses, manufactorums and bases. In the midst of building a forge complex, Theta-Rho and his servitor teams discovered a Necron pylon beneath one of the many dig sites he was supervising. An immense xenos construct, Theta-Rho studied it and concluded that it was one of the conduits for the Necrons' contra-immaterial nodal matrix that stretched across the Nephilim sub-sector, and he resolved to destroy it with an archeotech weapon he had brought with him from Draconis IV.
Fortunately, the Necrons remained asleep and in stasis, unmoving in their tombs while the Mechanicus teams hurriedly got into positions. Despite a few stray Warriors or Canoptek constructs awakening while 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort secured the pylon, the latter was able to destroy them with esoteric weaponry.
Unfortunately, before Theta-Rho could activate the ancient weapon, the Drukhari returned once more, the Archon vowing to avenge his previous humiliations for the last time. The Corsairs and Drukhari raiders inadvertently disrupted the Mechanicus's plans, though Sigma 44-Kariya had already prepared for this eventuality, always vigilant for when the Drukhari inevitably returned. The Drukhari attempted to take advantage of the overlapping dimensional oubliettes and localized teleporation corridors around the Necron pylon, using the dimensional passages to slip out of the Webway and assault the humans, but found their emergence points already covered by overlapping fields of fire from the stealthy Skitarii.
Despite devastating losses, 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort prevailed eventually, even succeeding in slaying the Archon and putting him down for the final time to ensure that no future raids would ever occur. Having exterminated the Drukhari and Corsair Sky Splinter Assault force, the Skitarii covered their Archmagos as he activated his archeotech weapon that he took from the vaults of his Ark Mechanicus - the empyric temporal dissonance disassembler.
Basically, it reverts the Necron pylon to a state of time before it ever existed, thus unmaking it temporally.
Anyway, that's the current state of affairs of Archmagos Theta-Rho and his 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort. We remain victorious in Kuroishi, having reinforced the Vertigus system, acquired a lot of blackstone (and I really mean a lot), and driven out both xenos and Chaos incursions alike. Necrons, Orks, Renegade Astartes and Drukhari - none of them stood a chance against the might of the Adeptus Mechnanicus!
Now we wait and see what happens in the Skahren system, with Vashtorr the Arkifane and Wyrmwood's emergence in the Nephilim sub-sector, await Roboute Guilliman's arrival, and hold the line until the next stage of the story. I don't know what's going to happen next, but whatever occurs, 428-Sigma Cohort and the Knights of House Kanda will stand firm and hold the line against xenos and Chaos!
There are a few more things I would like to take note of. In addition to the empyric temporal dissonance disassembler, Theta-Rho also has a contingent of ancient Legio Cybernetica automata stored within the vaults of his Ark Mechanicus that he has yet to employ. Castellax battle-automata, Domitar battle-automata, Arlatax battle-automata and Thanatar siege-automata, beside the more common Kastelan robots. If the need arises, Theta-Rho will unleash them upon the enemy, Necrons and Dark Mechanicum alike, or whoever the foe who attacks him are. For now, though, our campaign comes to a hiatus now as we await the next Crusade narrative book, which will hopefully tie up loose ends and bring a conclusion to the Pariah Nexus storyline once and for all.
Will Roboute Guilliman ever meet up with Lion el'Jonson as he faces off against both the Silent King and Vashtorr the Arkifane, or will that plot point drago on indefinitely?
