Narrative Battle Report: Imperial Navy Drop Troops Vs. Drukhari 25PL

Narrative Battle Report: Imperial Navy Drop Troops Vs. Drukhari 25PL - Tenebris Crusade Campaign Continues!

Played against Rob over the weekends and boy it was intense. Going against the new Drukhari Codex is no joke. At the end of the battle, he only had his Archon as last man standing while my commander abandon the post with only one Valkyrie left. Rob won with more VP as he managed to capture enough objectives. Great game, super intense and crazy dice rolls!   

The vector engines of the last two Valkyries fires up as they take off from the base after securing the evacuation of all the personnel in the secret Navy base. ‘Not so secret anymore now’, Lt. Comm Kayleigh thinks as she lifts off Hummingbird from the ground. Commander Graft is on board the carrier along with a squad of the Tempestus drop troops, preparing to do a final sweep before joining the rest. -

Earlier, the base’s sensors detected several anomalies indicating void portals appearing 50 clicks southwest from the base. Graft made the decision to evacuate the base as fast as humanly possible and mobilized the entire camp to move to another predesignated location. Majority of central command and the fighting forces has already evacuated with the assistance of some of the local militia attaché. He did not elaborate on what the nature of the threat is. -

The Lt. Comm oversaw the Aeronautica Imperialis division herself before jumping into the cockpit. Relaying the command console to her dashboard, she could continue to monitor the ground convoy’s progress until they reach the destination and provide any aerial support if needed. -

Just when Kayleigh is about to conclude that this will be a smooth operation, several flashes of unnatural beams and light bursts out from a silhouette with sail, moving in an uncanny speed, a reminder of the imminent danger. -

Before the other Valkyrie could use its countermeasures, both its engines and its port are already in flames as it crashes directly onto its launching pad. The Tempestus team inside engages their grav-chute and lands on their feet next to the wreckage. As the five-man team tries to recompose themselves, the dark silhouette emerges from the smoke of the crashed Valkyrie and drives straight into the survivors. Flashes of blades from the passenger of the mysterious hovering craft disembowels one of the trooper almost instantaneously, while a hook pierces straight through the right shoulder of another, pulling him into the hovering craft like a motionless rag doll.  -

Kayleigh recalls some of the briefing from the Tempestus command regarding these Xenos. It was the first time she had seen them striking this hard, this fast and this lethal. No operation manuals can describe what she is witnessing from the cockpit. -

The Lt. Comm glances at her command console with a slight sense of despair as the rest of the convoy has not made enough distance to discourage any pursuit from these assailants. Given their speed and maneuverability, these predators will catch up with them with ease. Commander Graft bellows over the internal vox to make a stand to buy more time for the evacuation. -

The Imperalis pilot hovers around the wreckage and found a vantage point for a counter attack. She could see the remaining three Tempestus drop troop falling back from the Raider as its passengers pours out from the skimmer craft and charges towards the survivors.  She shakes off the thought of ending the miseries of her comrades there and then. ‘For emperor’s sake, I’m a pilot, and we have Commissars for that.’ -

As her quick aim cripples the raiding craft, Kayleigh engages in an evasive maneuver, evading energy weapon assaults from what seemingly a squad of humanoids with wings that appeared on her starboard. At this point, muscle memory takes over and her endless hours of flight and training pays off, avoiding the same fate as the first Valkyrie. There is almost no room in her mind now to think of how unearthly this encounter is becoming. -

Commander Graft along with Sergeant Halkrow and his squad deploys to the ground to add more firepower to the scene only to be scourged by these flying assailants. The combination of what is left of Graft’s team of plasma rifles and lasguns along with the Valkyrie’s heavy bolter crew turns the flying men into puffs of red cloud. -

Kayleigh shifts her focus back to the raider craft. She finishes off the limping vehicle with more hellstrike missiles. The survivors of the crashed Valkyrie is nowhere in sight. In their place, the rest of the passengers of the destroyed skimmer advances towards Graft and his men. The Lt. Comm engages in suppressive fire on the advancing Kabalites, hoping to slow them down. Tempestus Sergeant Halkrow hails for an extraction and Kayleigh lowers the craft. As the signal for the rear hatch turns green, she immediately lifts off with drastic evasive maneuvers to avoid incoming fire. The dark kin reaches firing range at an impressive speed, even without wings. -

The whirling of the vector engines drowns the shouting of Commander Graft on-board. Kayleigh could see Sergeant Halkrow and his handful of men are still on the ground, cutting down the advancing xenos with their hot-shot lasguns and plasma rifles. This sweet revenge and small heroic victory is short lived as she sees more of their dark kin emerges from the covers and charges the Tempestus with two-handed wicked oversized blades. Almost instinctively, she fires at the advancing foes; only to cut down some, while the remainders of these sword-wielding demons overcome the sergeant and his team. She watches the entire act in horror as these xenos kill and maim, not in the quickest and fastest way but prolonging it enough for their victim to feel every possible pain in the slaughter. They skillfully sever limbs, disarm their victims, giving them just enough hope to fight back, and elegantly disembowels them with surgical precision, whilst keeping them alive long enough to savor their agony. These hard-trained Tempestus troops are no ordinary men, but their screams are all the same. -

As blood drips from their wicked blades, the swordsmen looks up to the Valkyrie as if they have fulfilled their purpose, inviting Kayleigh to be their deliverance. The Lt. Comm obliges with lascannon rounds, hellfire missiles and holy bolter fire. -

The smoke of the fire begins to clear as she receives request through the in-flight vox to support the convoy as they are reaching a vulnerable route. They have effectively neutralized the invading force and the convoy is now safe from any pursuit. Commander Graft gives the order to evacuate the site and rejoin the rest of the convoy with haste. As she pulls the yoke and banks the aircraft away from the lost base, she wonders if there is enough ordnance or bolter rounds to erase her vision of Sargent’s Halkrow dismembered head. -

A single lone figure emerges from the ruins, savoring the scent of the blood soaked ground, watching the last Valkyrie disappears into the horizon. As Ezqar licks his blade, he imagines how dreadfully wonderful it is to have the pilot’s head on a pike in his next Raider craft, or better still, he could parade her down the along webways of the Dark City as a prized slave upon his return. -

‘Oh how dreadfully wonderful indeed.’