Conversion beam extirpator and Imperial Militia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I, uh, don't know."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Damn it!"

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

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

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

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

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

"That's not good."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

...analyzing current stockpiles...

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

Action: Rejection.

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

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

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

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

Result: Total Annihilation. Complete Boreal Swords victory.

Rectifying...

Pull back Skitarii forces from the border to contain threat.

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

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

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

+We serve the Omnissiah.+

The SpeedWaaagh! descends

The Rokk struck the barren wasteland of Tetsu with apocalyptic impact. The men and women of Argent Armor, as well as the Krieg infantry siege regiment serving alongside them, watched as clouds of dust spiraled upward, blossoming in colossal clouds that blotted out the sun.

Though they had dug in and fired Icarus lascannons and Hydra flak rounds into the skies, shooting down ork fighters and transports, the single Rokk that had landed was too massive to be felled by scores of las and anti-air rounds. Its surface, scarred by both friction from atmospheric entry and powerful weapons, was a pockmarked mess. One side blew out, and guffawing greenskins poured out in vehicles, whooping and cheering as they pushed their yellow buggies to the extreme.

Accompanying the various buggies, ranging from megatrakk scrapjets to kustom boosta-blastas to shokkjump dragstas, were warbikes, a trukk and a battlewagon. Warboss Blitzog bellowed in delight as he clung to the railing of his battlewagon, his boyz laughing in sheer joy from the sheer violence of the journey. The warbikes, led by a defkilla wartrike, zoomed ahead of the other Speed Freeks, letting loose inaccurate volleys of dakka at the distant tanks of the humies.

"Let's giv' them a good krumpin'!" Blitzog roared, much to the approval of his boyz. He smacked the driver with his good hand, careful not to decapitate the moron with his power klaw. "Faster, ya git! Those humies won't be hangin' around fer too long!"

Such was the speed and ferocity of their speedwaaagh! that the orks caught the humans by surprise. Shoota rounds and rokkits detonated in the midst of the infantry, blowing both Argent soldiers and Krieg guardsmen to bloody pieces. Ahead, the Baneblade, Red Herring, loomed, its cannon traversing to fire upon the approaching orks.

A mekboy cackled as he activated the esoteric weapon of his boosta-blasta, and though the exotic beam failed to penetrate the adamantine armor of the Baneblade, it scrambled Red Herring's targeting auspexes. Colonel Adrian Mueller cursed when he saw that his hololith had been fouled.

"Someone get me vision on those greenskin bastards!" He yelled, swinging open the cupola to have a good look. Below, the infantry were being butchered, and one Armored Sentinel was a smoking wreck. The other fought against the warbikers and defkilla wartrike that had slain his comrade, using the chainsaw of his bipedal steed to hack apart the bikers. Plasma erupted from the underslung cannon of the aging walker, bathing one of the warbikers in superheated matter.

The two Leman Russ tanks fired, and one of the Vanquisher rounds punched through the battlewagon. The ramshackle contraption continued to roll forward for another hundred meters or so before it finally halted, its blown structure literally falling apart around its passengers.

"Wat are ya waitin' for, ya gitz? Gorkmas? Get yer arses out! We iz gonna charge those humies on foot!" Blitzog bellowed, smacking one of his bewildered boyz out of the ruined battlewagon. Heavy bolters chattered, reducing the boy next to him to a bloody mess, but the warboss simply wiped the red fluids off his face and hopped off. "Gitz of Yellow Sunz! Do ya wanna live fer'ever or sumtink? Move, ya bloody gitz!"

More of them obeyed, rushing out, even as streams of plasma sang over them to engulf the warbikers. A shell from Red Herring landed right next to a speeding buggy, but the dragstas was able to veer to the side. Shrapnel slammed into its crumbling frame, pelting the grunting ork rider, but the greenskins were a resilient breed, and their machines worked more on their belief than logic. With a whoop, he plunged straight into a reeling squad of Argents, slaughtering the infantry before they knew what hit them.

The tanks pulled back, with the two Hellhounds spitting out armor melting lances from their melta cannons. Another buggy was reduced to smoke, its rider getting too overeager to fire his big shoota at pointblank range. Red Herring bellowed its rage even as Colonel Mueller desperately barked orders, but the targeting auspexes had been scrambled. Mass reactives went wide, striking only a couple of unfortunate boyz too stupid to dodge. The ruby las from its lascannon sponsons grazed the swerving trukk, failing to punch through to its core and obliterate it.

A Leman Russ main battle tank shuddered as it fired its ordnance, but the shells went wide, almost flipping over a buggy that roared past. Its heavy bolters had more success, detonating in one of the warbikers' spluttering vehicles and hurling the rider off. The ork landed face first in the dirt, but picked himself back up a few seconds later. Spitting out broken teeth and cursing, the greenskin straightened his head and continued charging forward on foot, his hardy physiology more annoyed than damaged from the fall.

"Fall back!" Mueller had enough. His infantry had been butchered, and though the durable tanks of the Imperium were withstanding whatever bolts and rokkits the orks were firing at them, the hardy xenos were about to overrun their lines. Wishing to preserve the precious and rare tanks of the Argent Armor, he ordered a retreat. "Argents! Men of Krieg! We are leaving!"

The tanks roared as they reversed, their drivers pushing full throttle as they struggled to escape the desperate melee. The two Hellhounds covered the retreat of Red Herring and its Leman Russ escorts, spitting out thermal lances into the pursuing bikes and buggies. The sole surviving Sentinel hacked another ork apart before whirling around and taking flight, its loping strides allowing it to outpace even the speedy ramshackle vehicles.

With the Imperial Guard retreating in disarray, the orks ran rampant over the surface, overrunning the garrison and gathering whatever scrap they could to construct more bikes and buggies. Before the Imperials knew it, they had already captured three mining outposts and destroyed them, melting most of the ore and metal to slag for their own use.

Tetsu was in danger of falling to the orks...

*

"The loathsome greenskins have already captured and destroyed three mining stations, and are about to capture and overrun the remaining three ones," Lord Takeda said gravely. "If we don't drive them out, the resources and supplies of metals and ore to the Adeptus Mechanicus will be disrupted, and we will be starved of machines, vehicles, weapons and ammunition. As such, it is our utmost priority to defending the last mining outposts and exterminate the vermin."

Easier said than done. I had heard horror stories of how the Astra Militarum forces garrisoned in Tetsu had been routed. Though they had salvaged much of their armor and saved their tanks, their infantry had been massacred. The situation was looking bleak.

"They are coming!" Suzuki warned, his Armiger Warglaive, Hebi, advancing toward a trukk and a couple of buggies that I didn't recognize. Imperial intelligence had identified one of them as a kustom boosta-blasta or something, firing gretchin at the foes for some reason.

I wasn't given time to ponder. The boosta-blasta fired at my Dominus Knight Castellan for some reason. I wasn't worried, trusting in Kazan's venerable armor to withstand it, but my auspexes went haywire the moment the gretchin made contact with my steed, the pathetic little creatures shrieking before they splattered across the adamantine hull and left nothing but bloody smears.

"What the?!"

"Advancing forward to meet them in combat!" Kanda growled, piloting Engetsu forward. The Questoris Knight Errant raised its thermal cannon and reduced a waddling deffdread into molten slag, while the hull mounted meltagun vaporized a charging warbiker. Revving up his reaper chainsword, Kanda scythed through the warbikers, but many of them whooped and circled him, using their speed to evade the deadly weapon. Their warboss, mounted atop the defkilla wartrike, swung his power klaw, which glanced harmlessly off the venerable armor of Engetsu.

"I'll deal with the battlewagon!" Sato offered, already moving Kaen to intercept. The Armiger Warglaive fired its melta weapons, scoring molten holes in the massive vehicle, but the battlewagon continued barreling forward, not at all slowed. Watanabe provided support, Tsurugi following up with another volley of incandescent beams from his thermal spear. This time, he succeeded in blowing up the battlewagon, which careened straight toward Kaen and Lord Takeda's Naginata. A colossal fireball engulfed both Knight suits, the driver eager to drag them to the underworld as well.

Unfortunately for the stricken vehicle and its lamentable driver, the explosion did little more than scorch the hulls of the Armiger Warglaive and Cerastus Knight Lancer. A deffkopta above was winged, but didn't suffer much damage and continued hovering with its two squadron mates. The buggy hurtling forward wasn't as lucky, though, the diver yelping as he was singed by the blast. His machine made ominous noises, but it held.

For now.

"I see the warboss. Blitzog, was it?" Takeda growled, lowering the spear of his Knight Lancer. "He's mine."

"He's all yours, lord," I agreed, but I was firing the twin meltaguns at the Trukk and blowing some parts off. Suzuki had failed to destroy it, and the transport was too far away for Kazan to bring the full power of the twin meltaguns to bear. I had more important things to worry about, though. Turning around, I missed completely with the volcano lance, which sucked. On the other hand, the plasma decimator erupted with superheated fury, decimating half of the warbikers that plagued Engetsu. Above, the siegebreaker cannons boomed, hurling ordnance at the boyz surrounding Blitzog and pulverizing them. Not to be outdone, Sato charged the boyz, clearing the chaff around Blitzog with his whirring reaper chain-cleaver so that our lord would have a clear shot at the warboss, who was gradually being isolated as his minions were cut down around him.

Even the notorious resilience of the greenskins was no match for the formidable firepower that Imperial Knights could bring to bear.

"You're dead," Takeda hissed, Naginata trampling over the broken bodies of the boyz and challenging the warboss. Blitzog looked up, raising his power klaw in a challenge, before he was impaled upon the cerastus shock lance. His body was hurled aside from a tremendous crack, smoking and hissing.

With their leader's death, the mob began to fall apart, but the surviving greenskins began attacking in a frenzy. Disorganized and disunited, their attacks lacked coordination, but they were making near suicidal charges now.

"Damn it!"

Sato was struggling to pull back, Kaen being bombarded by an ork warplane from above. Rokkits and bolts hammered into his flickering ion shield. Already weakened by the onslaught from the hovering deffkoptas, whose pilots recklessly and gleefully swooped in to pummel the Armiger Warglaive with rokkits and experimental weaponry that shouldn't work, yet somehow did, Kaen buckled. The deathblow came when a buggy crashed into him, the rider laughing manically as he brought Kaen down with his power klaw.

"You filthy bastards!" Takeda roared, turning his attention from the limp body of a most likely still alive Blitzog to avenge the fallen Kaen. He heroically intervened, though his assistance was too late. The cerastus shock lance punched through the buggy, obliterating the manically cackling ork rider, which blew up and buffeted the still lurking deffkoptas, sending one spiraling down to its death. Not wasting any time, I fired my plasma decimator at the low flying machines, disintegrating the remaining two in sun-hot fury.

This time, my volcano lance struck true, destroying the Trukk. Dazed greenskins spilled out of the wreckage and began squabbling, only to be smacked around by the big mek with a shokkgun. Watanabe took care of a charging buggy, his melta weapons slicing through the misshapen vehicle and incinerating the rider. To the side, Suzuki had carved apart the boosta-blasta and proceeded to cleave the buggy next to it into two, wrecking it. Kanda's Engetsu was still trying to finish off the last few bikers, which he finally stomped to oblivion, but the defkilla wartrike was a harder opponent. Its existence was ended when Kanda finally put his reaper chainsword through the warboss's head and brought it down to shred the spinning vehicle to pieces.

Naginata slew another buggy, while Suzuki turned Hebi toward the boyz. I joined in, bombarding their position with siegebreaker cannons and twin meltaguns, and Suzuki eventually killed the orks and the accompanying big mek with his reaper chaincleaver. Above, the ork plane continued to fire at Naginata, bringing it down. For some reason, the ion gauntlet shield was failing, and the rokkits and shells were detonating ferociously against Naginata and nearly toppling the venerable Cerastus Knight Lancer.

Takeda was far from being laid low, though. Braving through a fusillade of bolt rounds from a speeding buggy, he waited until it was within range before he thrust his spear. A burst of energy erupted from the esoteric weapon, impaling the buggy and erasing its rider from existence.

Emboldened by our lord's success, I fired the volcano lance once more and destroyed the last buggy on the field. Not even a smoldering wreck remained. With my task done, I turned to face the circling ork jet, whose pilot was determined to at least bring down Naginata. Hefting up the plasma decimator, I triggered the volatile weapon. Heat warnings wailed in my Throne Mechanicum, and I felt the temperature go up. Outside, Kazan stumbled, couplings blowing up as boiling steam burst from ruined cablings. The weapon had gotten hot, proving hazardous to its wielder, and Kazan was paying the price for it.

Nonetheless, I succeeded in directing the superheated stream upward, catching the swooping plane. The midriff softened and melted before the aircraft dipped and crashed into a nearby hab-block, demolishing the structure.

"Excellent work." Even though Naginata was swaying from all the damage it had sustained from the orks' salvos, Takeda sounded pleased. "We've managed to wrest Tetsu back from the vile orks. Let's hunt down any remaining xenos so that the miners can resume operations."

"Yes, lord."

As we piloted our knights about to follow him back toward the rokk where the greenskins had came from, I couldn't help but glance once more at the carnage we had wrought. For a moment, I felt a chill, but I didn't know what went awry until I studied the ruins where Lord Takeda had been fighting in mere moments ago. It took a while, but the nagging feeling finally clicked.

I realized that Blitzog's body was gone.

Crusade Campaign Context

I probably should provide some context behind the stories of the current Crusade campaign. A few games have been played so far. My friend's Imperial Guard army against another friend's Dark Eldar, which ended in a win for the Dark Eldar on the first week...and apparently, the Dark Eldar friend accidentally took one of my young friend's Krieger - a guardsman armed with a plasma gun - and brought him home. He brought the poor guy the next week and forgot to return him, packing him with his Dark Eldar models, and then forgot to bring the entire collection the following week. Finally, he brought the Krieger back last week, and the guardsman was finally reunited with his regiment. Heh.

That's how the previous story about Trooper 451 came about. It was kind of funny, and the whole situation inspired me to conceive how the poor Krieg guardsman was abducted and trapped in Commorragh for three weeks before my friend finally returned him to the other friend. It was very fitting, because the Krieger was put right in the same box as the Drukhari models, so...yeah, Commorragh. Heh. And we all know what happens when you're abducted by the Drukhari. You get brought to Commorragh to serve as a slave or a gladiator. Given that the Krieger eventually made his way back to his owner, I thought a gladiator was more fitting for him, especially since he was wielding a plasma gun. He would have a higher chance of escaping as a gladiator, anyway. I was also tempted to name the Kroot Groot, but...yeah, that wasn't a good idea, and so I shaved off the last two letters and changed his name to Grove instead. Not original, I know.

Shortly after returning to his regiment, my friend played a second game of Imperial Guard against the other friend's Drukhari, and...yeah, he brought a Baneblade. Hence the Baneblade showing up at the end of the story. Their match was cut short, similar to the reason why we had a sudden blackout in my other story about Imperial Guard versus Chaos Space Marines. You remember that the Imperial Guard was winning with their armored might before the surviving Chaos Space Marines - after butchering the mortal infantry - withdrew in the cover of total darkness?

That happened because, heh, there was a power outage in the neighborhood. It affected the friendly local gaming store we were at, the store closed up early. We finished the game early, and as you saw in the previous post, the last couple of photos were taken in darkness, using light from my friend's smartphone. I thought of incorporating that into the narrative of our games.

Now, while it was fun to write out the battles of our Crusade matches in prose form, the disadvantage is that - much as Sandy Mitchell did with his Ciaphas Cain series, and Dan Abnett with his Gaunt's Ghosts series - there really isn't much of a context to consolidate the gains or clearly express the flow of the overall campaign. As such, I would have to write "appendix" chapters like both those awesome novelists did to provide the larger strategic picture.

In addition to the two matches of Imperial Guard versus Drukhari, where the Dark Eldar won one decisively and the other was cut short (probably counted as their win because they destroyed the Baneblade), there were four other matches played. More astute readers can figure out what they were. Imperial Knights versus Chaos Space Marines twice, where...let's just say it was a bit one-sided, even after the nerfs to Knights in the balance dataslate. Knights are tough. I fielded my own Imperial Guard after that because it was kind of...you know, rough for my opponents if I continued playing Imperial Knights in what was supposed to be a casual narrative campaign, and my Draconian Defenders won the first game against Dark Eldar by the skin of their teeth, the heroic Commissar Lucius rolling a 6 for his invulnerable save against a dark lance from a Raider to score me the objective on the Spawning Ground mission (I was defender for some reason, so I had the idea that the Imperial Guard were trying to "spawn" void shields for the next match, which was an assault from Chaos Space Marines) by bringing it up to 6 Gestation Tally on the last turn, despite the Dark Eldar slaughtering all the other infantry and destroying my Rogal Dorn tank.

The Draconian Defenders then repelled an assault from the Chaos Space Marine warband featuring Khorne Berzerkers and Plague Marines, relying on an overwhelming barrage of plasma against the mainly infantry force that were running (or shambling) toward them in the open.

What does this mean for the greater strategic picture? Well, the Knights have conquered a new world in the newly explored subsector, christened it Inari, and colonies fleeing the Fourth Tyrannic War in Segmentum Pacificus have settled down in Inari, an agri-world. The subsequent victories by the Imperial Guard and four victories by the Imperium mean we have at least three worlds under our command - Inari, an agri-world. Tetsu, a mining world. Guntai, a garrison world (or hive world).

Dark Eldar had struck at Tetsu and abducted miners and Guardsmen from the reinforcing Argent Armor and Krieg regiments there - hence the story of Trooper 451. The Chaos warbands are not united, launching scattered attacks, and have been repelled thrice, lacking an overall leader and cohesion. For now.

So that's about it, and as we play more games, I'll come up with more overall strategic pictures and context. Till then!

Trooper 451

Trooper 451 awoke in a cold, dark place. He reached up to his face, his gloved fingers coming into contact with his rebreather. The lens of his visor seemed fine, and he could smell the stale scent of recycled oxygen being circulated in his suit. His heavy trenchcoat was battered, but not torn.

Excellent. He was still in optimal condition to continue his fight for the Emperor. The Krieg trooper rose unsteadily, looking around. He was in a cell, surrounded by moist stone walls, and on one side, what served as a door was replaced by a row of spiky bars. On his other side, his plasma gun had been left untouched, lying on the asphalt floor. Whoever had brought him here had generously allowed him to keep his weapon.

Trooper 451 paused and closed his eyes, dredging up memories. If he was to serve the Emperor, he was better off knowing what had transpired. He recalled serving alongside the 6th Argent Armor, with his regiment, the 422nd Krieg Siege Brigade. They had been caught by surprise by a Drukhari raiding party, the sleek, spiky ships sailing in from an unknown webway to abduct the citizens of Tetsu. Along with two Leman Russ tanks of the Argent Armor, the 422nd Siege Brigade had responded instantly, the Krieg infantry moving up to engage the Venoms, Raiders and Ravagers that had erupted from nowhere.

There was fierce fighting. Trooper 451 wasn't sure of the details, but he recalled firing at a group of Kabalite Warriors, trading las-fire against their splinter rifles. The men around him had fallen, going a small way in repaying Krieg's eternal debt to the God-Emperor as penance for their great betrayal a millennia past, but they had wreaked a toll on the Drukhari raiders.

But then the Incubi came. Weaving through the net of ruby red las-fire, they were suddenly in the midst of the Kriegers, cleaving them apart with glaives and cruelly carved blades. Trooper 451 had turned to aim at them, undaunted by the carnage and loss of his squadmates, but...that was the last thing he remembered. A burst of pain had exploded in his mind, causing him to black out...

...and now he was here, trapped in a cell. No doubt abducted by the sadistic Drukhari.

Trooper 451 felt neither fear nor despair. He was one of many cloned troopers from the vats of the subterranean facilities in radioactive Krieg, indoctrinated to serve the God-Emperor and continue paying the price for his world's unforgivable betrayal. He was more than happy to sacrifice his life for the Imperium.

However, he was no fool. Simply dying was of no benefit to the Imperium. So he shall bid his time and wait for an opportunity, and in doing so, maximize the chances of dealing maximum damage to the enemies of the God-Emperor.

His first opportunity came when the Drukhari slave owners came for him. Opening the gates, they shepherded him out, along with the other prisoners. Trooper 451 did not recognize any of them, but they ranged from captured Kroot mercenaries, a brutish Ork with a power klaw and a big shoota, to a xenos he was unable to identify. There were few, if any, humans among the gladiators. The Ork was guffawing in relish, clacking his power claw and even attempted to eviscerate the dark Eldar slaver, but she swiftly punished him with her thorny whip. The weapon might be slender, but evidently it had been coated in toxins, for the Ork roared in agony and was brought down to his knees from a single cut.

"Go," the Drukhari slaver hissed in low Gothic and gestured toward the arena. She smiled wickedly. "Fight for your pathetic lives. The best gladiator will receive a bigger meal than the others."

The Kroot chuckled and was the first one out, his feathers rustling in the wind. Trooper 451 didn't share the enthusiam of the other races and patiently followed behind. He checked the power levels of his plasma gun, noting that the Drukhari were generous enough to provide him ammunition. Plasma flasks, scavenged from other fallen Imperial soldiers, had been presented to him.

All they wanted in return was entertainment. Trooper 451 would give them that for now, and then further punishment later. When he met up with his fellow Guardsmen. For Krieg and the God-Emperor, he would return to this place - which the slaver had called Commorragh - and claim it for the Imperium.

But he couldn't do anything when he was on his own.

The first opponent was a Talos pain engine, the floating abomination's claws snapping threateningly. It was accompanied by its brethren, the trio of them drifting into the coliseum. The spectators roared from where they watched, throngs of Drukhari, other Aeldari and various citizens of Commorragh gathered for a bloody spectacle.

Trooper 451 ignored them for now, charging up his humming plasma gun as he focused on the Talos. Already, the Kroot and the Ork were charging forward, one clicking with avian caws and the other loosing a guttural bellow of delight, and fell upon the Talos Engine. The other gladiators joined them too, but one was eviscerated, its blue blood spilling across the stone floor. A third goat-shaped xenos was impaled in the chest by the Talos's tail, braying as it attempted to hack away with curved blades. The Tzaangor fell away, its eyes lifeless.

All this while, Trooper 451 hurried forward, lining up a shot. He supercharged the plasma gun, feeling the heat build up to dangerous levels, and unleashed the fury of a sun. The stream of starstuff struck the Talos in dead center, melting its armored shell and causing it to thrash in agony. With a snarl, the Talos turned on him, slashing with its claws.

Trooper 451 hit the ground and rolled, feeling a shower of debris on his back. He rose shakily and got off another shot before the Talos seized him. His breath knocked out of him, the Krieger felt his plasma gun fall from his slack hands, but he wriggled his arms free of the abomination's grip. Feeling its claws digging through his flak vest and into his flesh, he flailed about and drew his shovel from his backpack as the Talos brought him closer to its sucking mandibles.

"For Krieg and the God-Emperor!" He yelled and stabbed the shovel down with both hands. He had chosen the spot where his plasma gun had scorched the creature's flesh, a grotesque amalgamation of burned organic tissue and molten black metal. It sank deep into the wounded skin, which had been softened by the superheated matter from earlier, and hit bone.

The Talos wailed and dropped him, thrashing wildly to dig the shovel out of its messy collarbone. Trooper 451 was dazed for a second, but he spotted his plasma gun just inches away. Scrambling for his weapon, he picked it up and aimed just when the Talos plucked out his shovel and hurled it. Without flinching as his shovel missed him by centimeters, impaling another unfortunate xenos to the wall behind, he squeezed the trigger.

The stream of plasma hit the bleeding area that he had dug open with his shovel. The Talos shrieked once more, smoke billowing from its wound, and its organic components vaporizing from the sheer heat. A few seconds later, the monstrosity toppled, its fleshy parts melted and its now hollow shell steaming.

At the side, the Kroot and Ork had finished off their opponents. There were cheers and boos from the crowd, but Trooper 451 ignored them all, instead checking on his weapon and swapping out the now empty plasma flask for a new one. The weapon felt hot to the touch, and he realized he had pushed his luck by supercharging the hazardous weapon three times in succession.

Fortunately, the Emperor protects.

Over the next course of three weeks, Trooper 451 and his companions, which he outright ignored - the Kroot, who had introduced himself as Grove, and the Ork who bragged about being Warboss Gutbusta - were thrown into the gladiatorial pits again and again. Each time, Trooper 451 survived with his trust plasma gun, the Drukhari supplying him with plasma flasks every time he was about to run out of ammunition. His shovel, though, remained as trusty as ever, a stabbing weapon that would make the Emperor proud.

He had yet to see an opportunity, but he continued to bide his time.

His patience was rewarded three weeks after his capture. After bringing down a massive, tentacled xenos that looked more like a plant than a beast, he and his companions were about to return to their cells when screams erupted from the spectator stand.

Daemons.

Ever since the fall of Biel-Tan, Commorragh had constantly been invaded by pockets of daemonic incursions here and there. Not that Trooper 451 was aware of that. The only thing that mattered to him was that it was an opportunity.

The Slavers and Drukhari gladiators - mostly consisting of Wyches and their commanding Succubi - had moved to engage the red-skinned and hooved daemons that were cutting through the spectators with flaming blades and spiky chains. The nobles, protected by elite Kabalite warriors, fired whatever exotic weapons they had while their bodyguards formed precise ranks, shouldering their splinter rifles and portable dark lances.

A bestial bellow thundered through the arena, and a titanic Bloodthirster burst through the side of the arena, cleaving through rock and concrete with its axe. Several Kabalite warriors simply ceased to exist, with nothing but a mist of blood that remained. The Archon to whom they were sworn in service to, turned to flee, but the Bloodthirster snatched him up and crushed him in its hand.

The coliseum was consumed by chaos.

"Now's our chance!" Grove chripped, twirling his bladed staff. At least Trooper 451 thought it was a staff, though he had seen the Kroot fire rounds from its barreled end like a rifle before. He hopped onto the ledges that made up the spectator seats. "Should we not use this opportunity to escape?"

"Now there's a good krumpin'!" Gutbusta cheered heartily, and instead moved in the direction of the red-skinned daemons. He was eying the Bloodthirster in particular. "I wanna that fink's teeth!"

Trooper 451 ignored the Ork Warboss and instead followed Grove. His plasma gun glowed as he unleashed volleys at Wyches and slavers that had turned to corral the gladiatorial slaves and send them back to their cells. He took particular satisfaction when he incinerated the female slaver that had been put in charge of them, striking her in the back when she lashed her envenomed whip at Grove.

"Thank you," the Kroot said, glancing at Trooper 451. He said nothing and pushed forward, scanning the area outside the gladiatorial pits for a route of escape. Even if they left the coliseum and entered the city, what then? There was nowhere in Commorragh that they could take shelter in. But Grove had come prepared and he pointed with his staff. "There, we can use their ships."

Trooper 451 spotted the Raiders that Grove was pointing toward and he nodded silently. Careful not to supercharge his plasma gun, he unleashed another volley at the Wyches that were bounding toward them. A few of them were picked off by Grove's subtler Kroot rifle while they were focusing on Trooper 451, who they had deemed to be the bigger threat. Exchanging nods, the human and the Kroot made for the Raiders.

In the midst of the chaos wrought by the incursion of Bloodletters and Bloodthirsters, the fleeing citizenry and hardpressed Kabalite Warriors paid no attention to the two racing down the streets. Commorragh was populated not only by Drukhari, but also a myriad of xenos species, including countless captured human slaves. They weren't too out of place in the streets.

Therefore, it wasn't too difficult for them to climb aboard the Raiders. While the Kabalite Warriors - those of the Black Heart - were occupied with firing at Bloodletters, Grove leaped onboard the closest one, and then extended a talon to help Trooper 451 up.

"We should keep a low profile," the Kroot said. "And when they leave the webway, we'll slip away quietly and escape to whatever world unfortunate enough to draw their predations."

Trooper 451 nooded. By the Emperor's providence, it would be an Imperial world. The Drukhari was known for raiding the planets of the Imperium and abducting countless of their citizens. From there, if he could link up with the Planetary Defense Force and arrange to be reunited with his regiment...no, even if it was impossible for them to send him back, he could organize the garrisons to pay the Drukhari back. By himself, it was fooldhardy and reckless, but with an army at his back, he was confident that he could achieve victory and crush the vicious xenos raiders.

He didn't have to wait long. A few hours later, the Kabalite warriors filled the holds of the Raider, battered and bleeding from their tussle with the daemons. Their commanding Archon marched up, spitting venomously.

"Leave these...lowly creatures to the fool Vect to take care of. We'll depart immediately. Hopefully, those foul beasts were be gone by the time we return."

"Right away, my lord." The Kabalite warrior who served as the pilot saluted and took the helm. Silently and smoothly, the Raider sailed toward the passages of the webway, the head of a dark, shadowy armada.

The Drukarhi hit the planet of Tetsu hard, eager to spirit away the citizens. They almost did not account for the local regiment to field a Baneblade, which absorbed volleys from several Ravagers before its adamantium hull was cored open by the exotic dark lances. Meanwhile, Trooper 451 managed to disembark from the Ravager after burying his shovel in the back of a Kabalite warrior and erasing another with his plasma gun. Beside him, Grove stealthily cut apart an unsupsecting Kabalite warrior and sniped the other before she realized her companion was dead. The two of them snuck to the edge of the razor-shaped ship, which was hovering no more than ten meters from the ground to disgorge its complement of Wracks. Dropping to the ground, he fired his plasma gun once more at the Wracks that had dropped into the midst of Imperial Guardsmen that had arrived to engage the Raider, saving them from a rout.

"W...what? You...?" The planetary defense force sergeant stared at the approaching guardsman in bafflement. He wasted no time in coming to a stop and saluting.

"Trooper 451-6711-2900 of the 422nd Krieg Siege Brigade," he said, his voice ringing hollowly from beneath his rebreather. "If possible, I would like to see your commander. I have experience in fighting against the Drukhari...and if you will permit me, I can assist in formulating a strategy to drive these raiders back."

While he spoke, he realized that Grove was missing. No matter. The Kroot must have slipped away into the shadows, hiding from both Imperials and Drukhari alike. The next time they met, they would be enemies, and Trooper 451 felt no reservations in slaying a companion he had fought beside for the last couple of weeks, even if he had aided him in his escape.

For the men of Krieg existed solely to serve the Emperor. And right now, he had a war to win.