Massen Looked up at the darkening sky and his heart sank. Minutes ago he’d lost contact with the orbital satellites guarding the break in the asteroid belt, and now the planet’s sensor array was detecting ships entering low orbit. What had happened up there? ‘Corporal Steiner, report!’ he growled through the vox comm.
‘Sir our fleet is in disarray, there are reports of massive casualties and it seems all but three ships are lost!’
‘Throne! What of His Glorious Light? Has she been lost to us?’ spoke Massen, the sound of desperation edging his words. ‘No sir’ replied Steiner ‘Admiral Du’Hoc has contacted us, His Glorious Light is unscathed but heavily outnumbered, He is going to regroup and launch another offensive as soon as reinforcements have arrived. Our long range communications array and astropathic cluster managed to get word out and there is a battlegroup enroute from Agripinaa only a week out from us, they have heeded our call for aid and bring regiments of savlar chemdogs with them!’
Relief washed over Massen at the thought that someone had picked up their call, swiftly followed by unease at who that someone was. Chemdogs had a nasty reputation, and truth be told there were few regiments he disliked the thought of marching with more than them. But any reinforcements were a godsend at this point in time, now all they had to do was hold out for a week. All non-military personnel in the city were on lockdown, the invaders had already received enough support taking out the orbital guns, he sure as hell wasn’t going to let them start a revolt within the city walls as well.
‘Ok Corporal, if we have to hold out on our own for a week, lets at least make things difficult for them in the mean time!’
Captain Altis allowed himself a smile inside his helmet, casualties had been lighter than he’d projected so far. The dim-witted imperial admiral had been too slow to react to the Iron Warriors ships and as a result had no option but to withdraw to a safe distance and allow his forces to make planetfall unmolested. As soon as his troops were on the ground he’d given the order to hunt down the admiral and his surviving ships.
Altis’s smile turned to a scowl at the thought of the one part of his plan that had gone awry. That cowardly Tantalus had fled rather than securing the communications array, and he was sure the commander of this planet had called for aid. I’ll be sure to teach that sorcerer a lesson in duty when he dares stick out his head from whatever rock he’s crawled under, thought Altis.
Pindar, squad leader of the chosen, approached the captain and waited to be addressed. ‘Speak Pindar, what do you have to report?’ ‘Captain, the deployment is almost complete. We are ready to begin laying siege to the city. Intelligence gathered suggests the enemy are fortifying their position and have a larger number of armour than anticipated.’
There might be sport on this planet after all, mused Altis with a smile. ‘Prepare the squads for attack, we need to take the city immediately’
Battle 4: City Assault
Defenders have 3000 points, attackers 2500. Defender must set up at least one main fortification/Bunker in their deployment zone.
