The last battle had not proceeded the Adeptus Mechanicus's way, and the Boreal Swords had run all roughshod over the Skitarii. 44-Kariya was determined that the outcome would not be repeated this time, and made all haste to reach the transports waiting for them at the end. They would return to fight another day, this time with Titan Legions and full lances of Knights from their allies, House Yato.
Right now, only Sir Kanda's Cerastus Knight Lancer was present. His steed was loping ahead, scouting for threats, but he was looking in the wrong direction. The Sydonian Dragoons were suddenly blasted apart by melta beams from the rear, as the Boreal Swords Chapter landed in force. The Eradicators had spilled from a Thunderhawk gunship, their melta rifles and multimelta glowing from the heat.
Sigma 44-Kariya cursed. The Sydonian Dragoons had doubled back to serve as a rearguard, to ensure the Skitarii ddin't get caught by surprise, but the Total Obliteration meted out by the Eradicators was absolute. Fortunately, they were the only ones within range, aside from one of two Redemptor Dreadnoughts who lumbered forward to pelt Skitarii with plasma. The Serberys Raiders, led by 72-Kishida, vanished under a cloud of superheated matter, their bionics unable to withstand the plasma macro-incinerator from the Redemptor Dreadnought. Three Inceptors descended, their jumppacks screaming and their gravis armor red-hot from reentry, and their plasma guns spat at the shimmering emanatus force field generated by an Onager Dunecrawler that created a protective bubble around its escorting Skitarii. A few of the cybernetic warriors fell, but since the entire maniple had reached the evacuation zone, the Skitarii Marshal decided that they could turn around and fight.
Calculating vectors and trajectories, and transmitting firing solutions through the noosphere, the Hunter Cohort turned upon their Space Marine hunters. The neutron laser spat, but missed, while a Skitarii Ranger's arc rifle sent convlusions through a Redemptor Dreadnought. Meanwhile, 28-Tetsuo's squadron of Ironstrider Ballistarii, supported by an Onager Dunecrawler, fired into the Terminators who had teleported right on the tail-end of the Serberys Sulfurhounds. The Serberys Sulfurhounds turned around to unleash both phosphor rounds and sulfur breaths onto the Terminators, and the combined firepower was enough to bring a couple of the walking tanks down. Meanwhile, the Inceptors were taken down by an Onager Dunecrawler with Icarus array, along with hard rounds from the Skitarii Rangers, who avenged their fallen with galvanic, plasma and transuranium rounds of their own.
"I'm going back," Skitarii Marshal Rho 29-Tataki said. His Skorpius Dunerider spun around and zoomed back toward the Boreal Swords, the Skitarii Vanguard spilling out. Supported by cognis heavy stubbers from their transport, their radium rounds and plasma smacked into the Eradicators, killing all but two of them. The return fire wrecked their Skorpius Dunerider, and the Bladeguard Veterans charged into them, hacking them apart with their crackling power swords. Despite a valiant defiance, Rho 29-Tataki found himself laid low by the superlative skill of the transhuman warriors, his cybernetically augmented soldiers no match for the Omnissiah's genius.
The Serberys Sulfurhounds charged into the Terminators, and with their bionic resilience, survived the power fists while taking down a few more with their linebreaker charge, trampling them under clawed limbs. By the time the dust settled, five Serberys cavalry were engaging approximately two Terminators and a Chaplain in combat. The Chaplain exhorted his charges in fury, swinging his crozius, but the Alpha parried it with his crackling arc maul.
Despite their losses, the Boreal Swords advanced steadily. The second Redemptor Dreadnought with the onslaught gatling cannons fired upon the Skitarii Rangers and decimated the squad, despite the glowing emanatus force field generated by the Onager Dunecrawler they were escorting. Meanwhile, the Bladeguard Veterans charged into the Serberys Sulfurhounds from behind while they were still busily engaging the Terminators, and wiped them out. Sir Kanda cursed when his Knight Lancer took fire from the Sternguard Veterans, whose bolt rifles were somehow dealing devastating wounds to his Knight, but aside from those, he held strong, even as the first Redemptor Dreadnought assailed his ion shield with flares of plasma.
"As expected of the vaunted Adeptus Astartes," he muttered. He spun his armored steed around and charged straight at the Bladeguard Veterans and Sternguard, determined to take revenge on them.
The Onager Dunecrawlers and Ironstrider Ballisatrii continued to fire upon the Redemptor Dreadnoughts, but though they did some damage, they failed to completely destroy the adamantium hulls of the walking ancients, despite neutron lasers, cognis twin lascannons and even arc rifles hitting home. The Knight Lancer's spear sent out an arc of esoteric energies that wounded a Bladeguard Veteran, but the following tank shock took out two of them, his feet trampling them and crushing them into oblivion. The following sweep wiped out the Bladeguard Veterans despite their fortitude, leaving just an injured captain who fought back and left the Lancer heavily damaged. Deciding that the Lancer was an Extremis level threat, the Sternguard Veterans unloaded everything they had into him, dealing more devastating wounds, and even the Dreadnought lumbered toward him, spitting more plasma and finally destroying him. Sir Kanda shut his eyes and whispered a prayer to the Omnissiah.
As he was ejected, his Throne Mechanicum launched out of the shuddering Knight suit, the Lancer exploded. The Bladeguard Captain disintegrated from the sheer force of the detonation, the plasma rolling outward to consume a single Terminator, finally destroy the Redemptor Dreadnought, and took a couple of Sternguard Veterans.
"A noble sacrifice, indeed," Sigma 44-Kariya murmured, and directed his Skitarii to continue firing. The Onager Dunecrawler took out the last surviving Terminator, leaving just the Chaplain. Meanwhile, the rest of the Skitarii retreated, heading straight for the transports that had landed, and completing the evacuation process. The Boreal Swords furiously pursued, refusing to allow their prey to escape, but despite their best efforts and transhuman physiology, only a single squad of Bladeguard Veterans succeeded in reaching an Onager Dunecrawler. More Skitarii Rangers fell to weight of fire from the Sternguard Veterans, whose deadly precision wiped out an entire squad with devastating wounds and volume of fire, but a single full squad was able to escape, along with three from the second one who had been decimated by the still surviving Redemptor Dreadnought.
"You're not getting away, you heretek fools!" The chaplain growled, but despite his and his Bladeguard Veterans' fury, their power swords and crozius were deflected by the sturdy emanatus force field of the Onager Dunecrawler. The Skitarii driver simply stared at them from within his armored cockpit, laughed in binharic, and proceeded to fall back, the walker ascending a ramp of a transport. The Bladeguard Veterans were forced to fall back when the still full squad of Skitarii Rangers provided covering fire, and a Tech-priest Enginseer, Magos Epsilon Muguruma, waved goodbye before checking the Onager Dunecrawler for damage. Nope. Not even a scratch. Whoa. That was...sad, for the vaunted Astartes to fail so badly.
44-Kariya sighed in relief as he counted his forces. Less than half had gotten away, but he had retained 3 Onager Dunecrawlers, 2 Ironstrider Ballistarii, a full squad of Skitarii Rangers, himself, and two Tech-priest Enginseers and their expertise. In other words, about 735 points of units above half-strength had survived the full battle, rendering the so-called rout a draw. Both the Skitarii Hunter Cohort 428-Sigma and the Boreal Swords First Company Veterans had scored 45 victory points each.
"Hey, I'll take that," the Skitarii Marshal muttered under his breath. The Tech-priests had estimated catastrophic losses and probably even a full rout, but he had managed to avoid it and even retrieved valuable armor and vehicles. He glared at the raging Boreal Swords below through the porthole, his occular augments allowing him to see them even from so high up. "We'll meet again...and Kajiya will not bow to the unreasonable demands of the Boreal Swords. The might of the Mechanicus will fall upon your chapter."
With that, the transports screamed toward the safety of the closest forge temples, leaving the bitter Boreal Swords behind.
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