Some time has passed, and we are now in mid-june. It's been mostly uneventful, save for shooting down a ship full of tzeentch cultists. I didn't grab any screenshots, but our only casualty was Mr. Queeba who I had been grooming to be an assault marine because of his high melee skill. He sprinted towards the entrance of the ship with supporting fire from his team keeping the enemy's heads down. Unfortunately when he made it inside, he came face to face with a vile sorcerer whose flickering flames melted through his power armor as well as the floor of the ship. Night Fox heroically punched the sorcerer in the face and pulled Mr Queeba out of the fire, bringing him to the Apothecary, Dr. Block. But try as he might, Dr. Block was unable to fully cleanse the corruption before it took over Queeba, and he was forced to grant him The Emperor's Mercy (shooting him in the face with a bolt pistol before he causes problems).
In this episode, we look to the north. The genestealer cult that we haven't dealt with yet has metastasized, creating a new cell that we have to deal with.
Deploying to this mission will be our most expendable troops, because I do NOT want to lose more marines to genestealer ambushes. In our Razorback Transport, we have 3 scout marines, 6 Storm Troopers, as well as Night Fox and Greek2Me, a pair of Tactical Marines.
We arrive at the purported location of the cult. A stinking lair hidden within the sewage networks of the nearby hive city. Already, we are beset by xeno cultists wearing the armor of enforcers and law-bringers.
Worse than the xenos in carapace armor is the presence of civilians. The xenos make sport of hunting them during our battle, but these too present a threat to our operation. Left unchecked, they will pilfer our Razorback of any weapons to 'defend themselves.' But also, they can be tainted by the genestealers, revealing themselves as predatory monsters when they have already broken our lines. We will leave them be for the moment, so that they can draw fire away from our troops.
A genestealer! It makes use of its preternatural, lightning-fast reflexes to DODGE the reaction fire from Greek2Me and his supporting units. He's tagged and slowed down, and eventually shot to death by a storm trooper, but not before skewering one and injecting him full of corruptive eggs. Now the medic has to deal with this quickly, or else he will give rise to another xeno monstrosity!
The next turn, that trooper is saved while another is slain on the other side of the tank. Greek2Me and Night Fox's squads both have the unsavory task of clearing out the habitation-blocks, room to room. As Night Fox opens his door, it reveals a grisly sight of several civilians left bleeding to death at the stairs. There's no time to stop and care for them, not while their killer is still nearby.
After clearing the buildings, Greek2Me, Night Fox and their squads close in on the last pocket of resistance. A few brood brothers rallying around a stolen Arbites Motorcycle. Greek and Fox both spring out of cover, spraying the motorcycle with bolts. Night Fox gets a few wounds to his chest in return, but the attack is successful and the cult is destroyed. The only casualty was a storm trooper.
It is now July, with that cult (and another offcamera) dealt with, our first operation is against a landed Medium ship. It was able to out-gun and out-run our Stormhawk Interceptors. Thankfully, it stuck around long enough for our better-gunned and more secure Razorback Tanks to catch up with it.
The Razorback arrives. The Marines inside wait with anticipation to meet their foe. What new hell has been spewed by the warp storm overhead? With a metallic whine, the doors open and crash into the ground. The cobalt blue of a familiar foe greets our men. Rubric Marines! The accursed of Tzeentch! This will be a hard battle indeed.
The Twin Heavy Bolters of the Razorbacks open up, ripping holes into the foe. But they are not made of flesh in blood, merely dust animating empty suits of armor, so our weapons aren't as effective. The turrets draw some of their return fire, but not all of it as Soukuw finds out. He's the first to step out of the tank, and is torn to shreds by a Reaper Autocannon. Even Dr. Block can't save him, his very essence incinerated by the gun's sorcerous ammunition. His brothers will avenge him, and then take positions outside of the ship's door.
An old man in a robe steps out of the ship. He gets turned into paste by the marines waiting outside. Brickitect takes a plasma shot to the face, but Dr. Block is able to stabilize him while Lady Sevacre and her
orbiters squad advance to find them. Flatflyer takes the initiative to breach the ship but finds no enemies, while Mr. Nobody circles around the side and blasts someone with his Lascannon.
"For
Netanyahu! The God Emperor!" Ladios yells defiantly, as he shields himself from another burst of plasma fire. Conan is able to follow the burning trail left by the weapon to its source, a cultist in infiltrator gear. Without a word, he levels his heavy bolter and pulls the trigger. The cacti of the desert are poor cover against .980 caliber explosive bolts, and she bites the dust. The ship is recovered, and Soukuw is memorialized for his service.
A Spacehulk has appeared out of the Warp Storm above our planet, and it broke into pieces as soon as it arrived. Now those pieces are raining across the world, and we have to deal with the inhabitants. One such hunk of hulk landed just north of our base, and so we deploy to deal with it. Now, these are
usually crawling with genestealers. And while I'd rather deal with this with minimal marines like I do their bases, I'm forced to bring out my heavy hitters because I only get one shot at this.
Upon landing, we're assaulted not just by brainwashed humans and genestealers, but full-blown Tyranids! A pair of hormagaunts wave their piddly bio-guns at my men before they get punched in the face. As they disembark and form up, Lady Sevacre gets jumped by a Purestrain and corrupted. But thanks to the quick work of Flatflyer who transported her, and Goth77 and Dr. Block who pumped her full of drugs, she survived the ordeal! Now two fireteams, one led by Lord Tony and the other by Masterlegodude, prepare to make entry into the structure.
Masterlegodude's squad is the first to reach the elevator to the next section, with Lord Tony's squad lagging behind. This part of the spacehulk was mostly uneventful, and we got through with no deaths. Lord Tony will have a few more scars from his close encounter with a Hormigaunt, though.
The mission objective is clear. We must destroy the space hulk. In the first half, Conan killed a genestealer with an impressively heavy gun. He's decided that he will use it himself for the remainder of the mission.
It's dark and cramped down here, perfect place for an ambush...
Passing through a narrow passage, Dr. Block and Master Matthew are attacked by a trio of cultists, one of which wields a dangerous Plasma Pistol. But with a few well-placed shots, they were able to fight past them.
After which they found the control center and destroyed it. The whole mission netted us a very nice 5.5M requisition points. Time to get some better equipment!
