TURN 1
"So the Sororitas are here."
Initially, Captain Crichton of the Vulpine Rangers didn't respond as he stared at across the field with his viewfinder, picking out the white-armoured Sisters as they advanced into view. There was a sizeable number of them, advancing on foot as a slew of armoured vehicles advanced behind them, all bearing plenty of holy iconography and pages of script. They were singing as they advanced, all chanting in a single clear, choral voice that could be heard all the way across the field. Crichton recognized the hymn from all the masses he had attended as a boy-- Psalm XVIII, "The Emperor Is My Shield."
"Looks like," Crichton muttered back to the Wulfen Shamaness. Natalia. He hated the prospect of having to fight soldiers as faithful and loyal as the Sororitas, but it had to be done. The Rangers had to repulse the brunt of the Imperial offensive before they reached the main settlement-- otherwise, all of those civilians would be sent to gulags, if not worse. He'd made a choice when he'd followed Colonel Glaive in the regiment's seccession from the Imperium all those years ago, and he stuck to that choice, no matter what the moral consequences. He lowered his rangefinder and picked up a nearby vox. "All units, prepare to fire to full effect on my order. Target their main infantry units."
Acknowledgements buzzed back on the vox, and Crichton turned to Natalia. The sleek alien was crouched near the front of the undergrowth, eying the Sororitas with predatory intent. "You sure you can handle them?" he asked. "These aren't Orks or Tau, you know. These ladies are trained fighters."
The cat-like alien made a sound akin to that of a grunt. "They will fall, all the same," she said, flexing her diamond-hard claws. And without a further word, she suddenly burst forward in a burst of speed, running on all fours towards the Sisters lines like a lunging cheetah.
Crichton nearly jumped at Natalia's headlong charge, and swore under his breath. Like it or not, Natalia had just started the battle for him. He was about to shout for her to come back when he caught sight of the Shamaness, who simply shook her head at him. Holding his tongue, Crichton turned around and snatched up the vox-set. "All units, FIRE AT WILL!" he shouted.
Then, as one, the guns of the Vulpine Rangers roared to life.
On the right flank, 2nd Armoured Cav's battlecannon boomed, and a shell exploded near the Seraphim of Squad Fatima, hurling them in all directions. Although the Seraphim had been praying for the Spirit of the Martyr, two of the Sisters were still shredded by the blast, while the autocannons of the Fire Support Team added their fire and pulverized a third.
Meanwhile, the central Leman Russ, Kill Blade, spotted the Sisters of Squad Arias huddling behind the bunker and fired. For Squad Arias, their prayers for Spirit of the Martyr failed outright, and three Sister were ripped apart as the tank shell exploded near them and hit them with shrapnel. The Chimera "Helldriver" turned its guns on Squad Arias as well, bringing down a fourth Sister through sheer weight of fire.
On the left flank, meanwhile, Squad Esperanza, in the cover of the bunker complex, came under fire from 1st Armoured Cav, and an accurate shell obliterated the centre of the bunker complex and sent the shorn bodies of three Battle Sisters flying upwards.
As the smoke from the shell-blasts began to lift, the battered Sisters began to pull themselves back up. To the consternation of the Vulpine Rangers, they began to sing hymns in unison, their voices reaching out across the battlefield and making the human and alien troopers alike shift uneasily. Despite taking significant casualties from a heavy ordnance bombardment, the Sisters were not only holding their ground, but even now were preparing to advance though the teeth of that firestorm. This wasn't bravery: this was faith at its strongest. Crichton's face turned white. The Wulfen Shamaness accompanying his squad merely stared out at them, her expression unreadable.
Across the field, Isobel saw smoke drifting from the craters, and the shorn bodies of her Sisters littering the ground. Cursing the Rangers, she switched on her comms. "Advance!" she commanded. In unison, Squads Arias, Solemnas, Celeste and Esperanza all mounted their Rhinos and began to drive towards the enemy, with Arias and Solemnas' Rhinos taking the right flank and Celeste and Esperanza's Rhinos taking the left. All of the Rhinos engaged their smoke launchers as they trundled onwards, concealing themselves in clouds of thick smoke to confuse the enemy gunners. On the right flank, Squad Fatima, shaking off their losses, jetted towards the enemy, while on the left flank, Seraphim Squad Perpetua also jetted forwards, eager to bring their inferno pistols to bear against the enemy armour. In the centre, Isobel herself flew forwards, swooping through the low cover of the woods in the middle of the field to avoid being spotted by enemy gunners.
At the back of the Sisters' lines, the two Exorcists, Divine Judgement and Wrath of the Faithful, swivelled their ancient missile launchers and opened fire on the enemy tanks. The God-Emperor clearly was not guiding their aim today, however, as Wrath of the Faithful only fired a handful of missiles that exploded harmlessly against the frontal armour of 2nd Armoured Cav. Divine Judgement fared little better, the single missile that it fired doing little more than scratching the paint of Kill Blade. The Exorcist crews shook their heads, thinking that the Emperor must be punishing them for some fault that they had committed.
Seeing the lone xeno creature running out from the Traitors' lines, the Seraphim of Squad Fatima forwent shooting as they swooped down to engage the creature, once again praying for the Spirit of the Martyr as they did so. As they swooped low to attack, however, Natalia exploded into a blur of movement, burying her claws into the throat of one Sister before she could even strike. Reversing her weight, Natalia flipped away from the still-cooling corpse and lithely spun and danced across the ground, almost playfully avoiding the swinging pistols and snarling eviscerator of the Seraphim. Enraged by this alien's mockery, the Seraphim fought harder, flying around to surround the xeno and purge her with righteous fury.
TURN 2
Crichton cursed as he saw the smoke-shrouded Sororitas Rhinos bearing down on them, already having made it halfway across the field. This was not good: although the Rangers' initial volley had definitely hurt the Sisters, it hadn't been nearly enough to deter them. They had to stop those Rhinos now before they got into disembarkation range.
He turned to his vox-operator. "How long before our Storm Trooper teams arrive?"
"They're still out of drop range," the operator responded. "ETA ten minutes."
The Guard captain swore and switched on the main vox. "All units, concentrate fire!" he shouted. "I want those Rhinos stopped!"
The Ranger's battleline answered in unison as great guns roared into action. The 2nd AC fired its battlecannon at Squad Arias's Rhino. The shot was a little off, with the shell narrowly missing the personnell carrier and detonating right next to it. To Crichton's satisfaction, however, the explosion hurtled the Rhino to the side and tore off its right tread, immobilizing it.
Kill Blade, meanwhile, fired its own battlecannon at Squad Solemnas' Rhino, and, like the 2nd AC, missed, though the shrapnel of the explosion tore off the tank's storm bolter. The autocannon team added their fire, sending shot after shot thudding against the Rhino's armour. One high-calibre shell finally scored a telling hit, ripping through the Rhino's frontal armour and shattering its engine axles, causing the immobilized tank to judder to a halt.
The rest of the Rangers, however, were having less luck, as battlecannon shots scattered off their marks, and heavy bolter and lascannon rounds either missed or pinged off heavy armour. The Chimera "Warhound," transporting the 701st Armoured Knights, turned its guns on the incoming Seraphim of Squad Perpetua. Crichton watched as tracer fire slashed past the fast-moving Seraphim or bounced off their power armour, though one Seraphim fell to a direct hit from a heavy stubber round. The rest of the Seraphim, however, simply kept coming, chanting hymns of vengeance as they did so...
In the swirling melee on the right flank, the Seraphim of Squad Fatima once again prayed for the Spirit of the Martyr as they attacked the fast-moving Natalia. The xenos creature, however, effortlessly evaded the Sister's strikes, ripping open the armoured chest of one Sister with a clawed hand before turning and impaling another with her tail-blade. Enraged, Sister Fatima lunged at the creature with her eviscerator, but Natalia easily backflipped over the blow, landing in a teasing crouch a few metres away from her. Cursing, Fatima engaged her jump pack, jetting away just in time to avoid Natalia's snarling counter-charge.
Far above the xeno, Fatima stared back down at it, watching as it sprinted away from the shorn bodies of her Sisters. She fought the urge to charge back down at it and slay it, but she knew that she had an objective to fulfill, and she would rather take the Penitent Oath than forsake her duty. Angling around, Fatima flew towards the rightmost 2nd AC, readying her eviscerator and praying for the Emperor to watch over her...
Meanwhile, the Rhinos that were still mobile continued their advance. Squad Esperanza's Rhino trundled up next to the 1st AC, disgorging its passengers just as Isobel flew up and landed next to them. Squad Celeste also drove up near Helldiver, disembarking to gain firing angles on its weak side armour. The Seraphim of Squad Perpetua, shouting prayers of rage for their fallen Sister, jetted forwards, descending on Warhound like wrathful angels, and on the right flank, Squads Solemnas and Arias bailed out of their immobilized Rhinos, with Arias and her squad heading up towards the distant autocannon team and Squad Solemnas fanning out to catch Natalia in their gunsights.
The Exorcists, meanwhile, once again unleashed their missiles against the heretics' tanks. Once again, however, their efforts were in vain, as Wrath of the Faithful's missiles detonated harmlessly against the frontal armour of 2nd AC, while Divine Judgement's own volley against 1st AC was similarly ineffective. The armour-piercing missiles of the Exorcists were, in this battle, piercing very little armour.
A second later, however, Isobel trained her inferno pistol on 1st AC's side armour as she descended, turning the vehicle's treads and wheels into a molten mess and leaving it immobile and vulnerable. Squad Esperanza tried to finish the tank off, but their own melta did little but scorch the paint of the Russ' frontal armour.
Further to the right, Squad Celeste opened fire on the Chimera, and met with success as their meltagun's quickly turned their tank's treads into bubbling slag. The armour of the Chimera went red-hot from the hit, and a second later the Grenadiers inside the tank began to bail out the back hatch as the inside of "Warhound" caught fire.
Screaming the Emperor's name, the Seraphim of Squad Perpetua swooped down on the left-flank Chimera, "Helldriver," and fired their inferno pistols as they descended. Their shots must have been blessed by the Emperor himself, as the lancing beams of light burned through the tank's frontal hull and turret, atomizing the crew and driver before piercing the fuel tanks. The Chimera erupted in a massive ball of flame, sending fiery debris scattering everywhere. One Seraphim was struck by a burning bulkhead and died instantly as her spine was shattered, and the rest of the Seraphim pulled back slightly to avoid being hit by more shrapnel. Scanning the wreckage, Sister Perpetua cursed as she saw the Chimera's battered Grenadier passengers pulling themselves from the wreckage. To her chagrin, not one of the squad had been killed in the explosion...
On the right flank, Squad Solemnas opened fire on Natalia. There was a small burst of blood as a bolter round grazed Natalia's side, but the rest of the shots only found empty air as Natalia suddenly leapt upwards. The Vulpine assassin spun in midair, falling back down towards the Sisters with her claws outstretched...
Elsewhere, Sister Fatima flew over 2nd AC, flying far too quickly for the gunner of the pintle-mounted heavy stubber to track her. Diving down, she landed behind the tank in a crouch, before spinning around into a standing position. With a yell, she lunged and drove her snarling eviscerator into the rear armour of the tank, watching as sheets of reinforced metal tore and crumpled as the eviscerator ripped into them. Gritting her teeth, Fatima twisted the eviscerator to the side, tearing the rear hatch off completely. She saw the startled crew inside the tank start fumbling for their pistols, but they were too slow. Pulling a grenade from her belt, Fatima tossed it into the tank and jetted backwards. A fireball erupted inside the Russ, and the Sister watched in satisfaction as the heretic tank was reduced to a smoking wreck.