[IRON GAUNTLET] Perseides Misery (Marines vs Nids)

[joschlumpf]

The game was a narrative one for my Astartes Chapter, therefore I had 1500 points while the Tyranids had only 1250, but the swarmlord had double the AoE of the hivemind than normal. Also the Lictor spawned only a charge away from the main bulk of the tactical Marines.

This is my first battlereport so feel free to criticize me

The victory condition was to either kill the Contemptor Dreadnought or the Swarmlord.

 

“I have to go! They need me!”

The metallic voice of brother Perseides echoed through the chamber.

“Brother Bartel, you are not old enough to understand that! If I don´t join the fight today our enemy will crush us!”

The Techmarine raised an eyebrow.

“Brother. I know, I am not as ….. experienced as you, but I am an Astartes since five-thousand years. My duty is to keep you and your dreadnought-body alive.”

“And I am bloody well, so. Let. Me. Go!”

Even without the sarcophagus-attached monitors Bartel knew Perseides was angry.

“In which chassis? Your plasmagun exploded, your stormbolter is jammed and one of your legs is still missing on the battlefield. If I install you in the chassis, what would you do? Crawl to the enemy?”

“If I have to!”

Brother Bartel sighed deeply. For a short time the chamber was quiet, just humming of the live support systems in the background.

Brother Perseides broke the silence,”what´s with the old one?”

“You are joking right? We don´t use it because the machine spirit is at least as stubborn as you, maybe even more. It rejected ever brother since nearly eight-thousand years.”

“Now who is joking? Nobody is as stubborn as me! Give me that body!”

“You know what? Maybe you are right on that part.”

 

Hydraulics screeched and sirens howled as the Sarcophagus entered the old contemptor-chassis. The machine-spirit didn´t liked getting woken up and clearly it didn´t liked to get a new pilot.

The Techmarine and his serfs needed more than an hour to install the Sarcophagus and half an hour to calm down the machine-spirit.

 

With heavy steps the contemptor-dreadnought stomped out of his chamber. Sergeant Irius gave a questioning look to Bartel.

“I go readying my squad, right?”

Bartel looked back and sighed. “Yeah. Let´s go with him.”

 

On the planets surface, Company-Sergeant Ariast was on his way to the imperial outpost command. It was only a matter of hours before his Marines gain victory over the besieged tyranids in the nameless city left of him and he wanted to inform the PDF about it. He looked to the dull sky for no real reason as he sees tyranidspores hitting a black dot in the sky. Something exploded and the dot went down. As the dot closed on him he recognised the object and opened all channels of his intercom.

“Brothers! Ready yourselves for impact! A Thunderhawk is coming down near us!”

Like one man all Astartes crouched.

The Thunderhawk sailed over their heads and a shockwave went through the ground as the flyer crash-landed.

 

Ariast looked up to and saw a dreadnought fighting his way through the ruined aircraft, making the most direct way to the besieged city, followed by some Astartes and an Techmarine. He scanned along the way the flyer took, to see if it missed the command bunker. The Thunderhawk did but the Tyranids not. As he sighted the bunker, the last member of the PDF command was slaugthered by a Lictor. Just seconds later the whole city roared as the stalemated xenos started their last attack on the Space Marines.

 

 

 

 

Deployment:

 

Turn one:

The right flank went very well for the Marines. They killed the Lictor with ease and five Gargoyles too and the rest of them were killed in close combat. Also the Haruspex lost some wounds.

On the left flank the assault Marines tried to interruped the coming Hormagaunt but fall short. The Gaunts ran past them and charged squad Irius, killing two of them. The Toxicrene shot at the assault Marines and fragged/eated seven of them.

 

Turn two:

The left flank was victorious again. the combat squad attacked the Ripper swarms, stomping some of them to the ground. The Centurions charged the Haruspex, eviscerate it completely while only using one brother. The Carnifex charged the Centurions and managed to nearly kill one but therefore gets destroyed.

The right flank was a massacre. While the Gaunts died they managed to destroy five more Marines and the surviving six were removed by a fierce attack of the Toxicrene. Three Raverners came out of the ground behind Perseides but gets nearly completely eliminated by the contemptor.

 

Turn three:

The third round made the game clear. The last ravener died, as well as the Toxicrene. The Termagaunts with the fleshborers soaked most of the fire and only one remained on the battlefield. The Tyranids solemny managed to do some damage but nothing serious.

 

Last turn:

the combined fire of the Marines destroyed every gaunt on the table. only the swarmlord managed to survive with nothing but scratches. We let both of the victory conditions fighting against each other.

 

The swarmlord was very unlucky, not even able to do a single wound. Perseides saw his chance, grabbed the head of the monster and ended its life.

 

 

 

It took some time for the dust to settle. The stalemated Tyranids were killed but so were many Astartes. The Apothecarii ran around caring for their wounded brothers and Techpriests maintained the damaged systems, tanks and fortifications.

 

Company-Sergeant went through the trenches towards the Techmarine and the dreadnought who fell down with the Thunderhawk. They stopped talking as Ariast came closer.

“Don´t get me wrong brothers, but who told you it was a good idea to deploy that close to a siege?”, asked Ariast.

“I am sincerely sorry sir, but we had to test the...”new” chassis for our honoured brother Perseides, in battle conditions. We couldn´t afford to land far away, we don´t know the influence of the contemptor to our brother yet.”

The Company-Sergeant let his view sweep around both of them.

“When you are finished with Brother Perseides I would appreciate it, that you help us with the equipment and machinery, Bartel.”

“Of course, it won´t take long.”

 

As Ariast went away, Perseides glanced down to the Techmarine.

“You could have said him, that it was my fault. I was stubborn and now many of our brothers are dead. I wouldn´t have judged you for that. I would have understand that.”

“But would have helped that anyone? I guess as long as your brain is not completely rotten in this Sarcophagus of yours you will not do something THAT stupid again. Also, these monsters you crushed may have killed even more of us.”

“Nonetheless thank you for that and rest assured I grieve the dead of squad Irius and will give my best to redeem my failure.”

“I ho-”

Bartel was interrupted by the sound of a chainsword cutting through flesh only metres away of them.

They saw the tip of it burst out of the stomach of the Toxicrene. A hand was pushed through the newly made slash, searching for a hold on the ground.

Perseides was there first and teared out a big chunk of xeno meat and revealed an assault marine. Bartel helped him on his feet.

“It´s okay! Help them! There are at least seven inside, not digested yet!”

While working on the dead body of the Toxicrene, Bartel activated the intercomm,”Techmarine Bartel here! Need urgent medical support on the Toxicrene corpse!”

 

In the end nine brothers were rescued from the cadaver, one of them was sergeant Irius. Perseides visited them as often as possible, pledging vows of redemption and revenge as well as promising to help them on the battlefield.

 

After this victory the Astartes of the Genocide Angels were deployed elsewhere on the planet. While the Tyranids have to compute the huge losses dealt to them the nurglish menace in the Worgost hive grew stronger every hour.

 

While the Space Marine force departed a figure in a shadow observed them. After the last of the Astartes went into the transport, it took out a communication device.

“Inquisitor. Unknown Adeptus Astartes Chapter now on the way to Worgost. Until receiving new orders I will make my way to the hive city.”