Blood Rain - Part 1

 "Sir, Lord Helixian is requesting your presence."

Lord Brasalion of the Black Storm turned and followed his subordinate to the comms array. The three dimensional image of Helixian glowered at him from the heavy cruiser in orbit above the planet's surface.  "My lord," he greeted the image.

"Brasalion, Lord Davok has failed to prevent the destruction of the secondary power plany in sector 5. My magos, " he gestured to a cloaked shadowy dark mechanic behind him, "calculates that the main power line to the air defence batteries is sufficiently buried everywhere except in your sector. It appears the Aquilons will be attempting to drop on that location and detonate ordanance to sever the line."

"If its so exposed, why not bombard it?"

"The air defences, obviously," sneered Helixian, "keep their atmospheric craft away, and the might of my ship keeps their void craft at bay. Do I need to explain everything to you?"

"I assumed you retreated to a safe distance as usual, Helixian." 

Helixian's image glowered for a moment then he barked a harsh laugh. "Brasalion, one of these days I'm going to leave on some forsaken planet." 

Brasalion smirked and responded, "You'd be lost without me to do the dirty work." 

The image nodded. "Keep those air defenses up, comrade. Getting the promethium off the planet with the loyalist dogs crawling over every inch of our asses will be much harder."

"Understood, Brasalion out."

The image winked out and the armoured lord turned to the marines arrayed about him. "Bardic," he said to the marine with blue warp fire embers in his eyes, "Take Hallonsak and Mertuw into the building there and give us cover. Kelpor and Welartis move up over to the North." 

He looked to the sky as the sound of a fast approaching drop ship could be heard. "And I'll cover the center. Let's move!"

* * * * * 

My friend Tinqiu and I decided to run a mini campaign from the Hive Storm book, specifically the Airborne Assault Mission Pack. This involves a tree of three mission, the second and third level depending on the results of the previous game.

We prepared for mission 1A, Disable Air Defences with me as defender with my Legionary Kill Team, and Tinqiu the Attacked with his Tempestus Aquilons.

 The board was setup and teams revealed.

I'm defending on the right side, attackers dropping in from the left.

Three Aquilons setup on the board, the other seven in the drop ship.

The Black Storm legionaries make sure to keep their head down to start, careful not to get blinded by the rising sun.

The Annointed hugged the heavy cover bu to no avail as the melta-carbine trooper landed in close range and I could not roll a single 3+ on three tries to stay alive. 

The Aquilons make a push to plant the bomb on point A.

The legionaries setup a heavy firepoint in the stronghold, taking down the Sentry Servo and its deadly double shooting missile launcher.

This little trooper survived lots of fire in turning point 1, but finally falls before activating in turning point 2. 

Lord Brasalion, Chosen of Quintara, opens the door and chops off head of the unprepared grenadier, before slamming the door and firing his plasma pistol to extact revenge on the melta-carbine trooper with searing hot plasma.

The precursor drops into combat seeking to kill the Chosen but only wounds him before the daemon blade cuts him in twain.

The Balefire Acolyte, Plasma Gunner, and Icon bearer ensure that the approach to bomb site 2 is fraught with danger.

The Aquilons pour more firepower into the Chosen before the Tempestor leader finally finds the chink in the armour and slays the enemy.

Looking to sneak out a win a trooper lands and plants the bomb on site 2 at the end of the second turning point, leaving the chaos marines only two activations to defuse it. To make matters worse, the trooper has an amazing round of shooting and the heavy gunners armour failed him, taking ten wounds to kill him.

The icon bearer runs around the trooper to get within control range of the bomb but out of control range of the trooper, and defuses!

The Tempestor tries to kill the icon bearer in a last ditch attempt to plant another bomb but Tinqiu's rolls had abandoned him (black dice) while my dice were getting hot (gold dice).

With the Tempestor dead and three healthy marines ready to kill the last trooper in turning point 4, Tinqiu concedes.

Next time, Mission 2B: Scrambled Drop!