Massen surveyed the field through his macro binoculars, looking at the devastation. He’d lost some good troops, but the line held resolute. The sudden deepstrike by some foul chaos terminators had had him worried, but the combined firepower of his tanks and men had reduced them to molten slag. Seeing the enemy force picked apart so easily and driven off had increased morale enormously, but Massen knew it was far from over. Still he had to keep his men busy, time to improve the defences and pray that off world help was close at hand.
Altis was furious! What had gone wrong? There had to have been a miscalculation somewhere, someone had to have given him the wrong information….someone…..OF COURSE! That accursed sorcerer, Tantalus! He’d been slowly subverting this mission from the start. Skulking around, deliberately failing in his tasks. Altis recalled that in this failed attempt to breach the city Tantalus had also been suspiciously absent from the front lines, directing his squad from the back, behind the rampaging forms of the dreadnoughts.
‘He plans on making it look like I will fail, then step in to deliver what I could not!’ exclaimed Altis. ‘Well if Tantalus wishes to lead and claim the glory, who am I to stop him?’ thought Altis with a wry grin creeping across his face. ‘I know how to ensure he gets exactly what is coming to him.’
‘Sir, encoded message received, top priority’ Admiral Du’Hoc glanced up at the young ensign who looked absolutely petrified of the Admiral. ‘So why has the message not been routed to my screen?’ growled Du’Hoc. It was all bluster, the Admiral felt no ill will against the ensign, but it doesn’t hurt to keep them in line, besides, it felt good to let out some of his growing frustration.
It had been nearly a week since the invasion of Arkais Prime. A week since his fleet had been ripped apart. A week of skulking in the asteroid belt with the two other ships that had survived the savage onslaught. He hoped that vengeance would soon be upon him. He read the message and realised he would not have to wait long. It read simply, rendezvous at sector 49 in 22 hours, ensure the enemy gain sight of you and follow, we’ll be waiting…….
Battle 5: The Bait
Chaos are the pursuers and have the same ships as last time, up to 1750.
Imperial have the 3 surviving ships as a squadron initially, with the rest of the fleet as reinforcements, up to a total of 2000pts.
