+ + + TRANSMITTED: Ootheca
+ + + RECEIVED: Badab Primaris
+ + + DESTINATION: CLASSIFIED
+ + + DATE: ERROR. Ref. 00-00-0-CHRN/1
+ + + TELEPATHIC DUCT: Zechariah-n008808
+ + + REF: Inq/06048102||0891-40-42/MNRN
+ + + AUTHOR: CLASSIFIED
+ + + SUBJECT: Qyzylqum XLII, Skirmish, 880.41
+ + + METADATA: Mantis Warriors; engagements; Malachi; heretic astartes; renegade astartes...
Cross-ref extended metadata file 0891-40-42/MNRN-α
+ + + ACCESS GRADE: Sangria
+ + + Thought for the Day: Non vi, sed verbo + + +
+ + + ACCESSING + + +
c.880.M41, the Maelstrom. Nomadic space pirates which had been using the Sinistral Gate to launch raids on Imperial shipping were growing bolder and more savage in their attacks. Intelligence from Ordo Hereticus quisling units among pirate factions report the growing spread of Chaotic influence. Several bands of human and sub-human renegades had fallen under the sway of demagogues spreading the worship of Malachi the Surly, a Daemon Prince of Khorne and Wielder of theBanesword (cf the Cruor Event; the Caedis Incident; Sanguis VII; the Neco City Massacre;
+ + + ERROR: REFERENCE FILE IN EXCESS OF MEMORY
+ + + TERMINATE SERVITOR AND RE-ACCESS + + +
+ + + ACCESSING + + +
A Mantis Warrior strikeforce is mustered and begins a prolonged campaign against the pirates, striking at their crumbling star-fortresses along the Bissekty Formation and upon the Hans-Dieter comet. During initial engagements, it became clear that the pirate-cultists had either acquired renegade Astartes support or become enslaved by the heretic post-humans. The Mantis Warriors accordingly escalated their efforts to isolate and annihilate Malachi’s warhosts.
During a minor skirmish on the barely habitable desert moon of Qyzylqum XLII, strikeforce elements stumbled upon the Prince himself, stalking through the ruins of some thousand-year-abandoned rad-mutant settlement (cf. The Fall of R’abu; the Ranoo Fi’enn; Old Mirai). What had initially been a minor patrol-and-secure mission rapidly escalated into a bloody confrontation that would end with Malachi banished, the Banesword captured by the Imperium, and the deaths of several senior officers of the Third Company.
Surviving pict-captures of the battle on on Qyzylqum XLII are badly affected by the harsh light bathing the moon. Pinned beneath the glare of the system’s sun and the smouldering radiation of its enormous planetary mother, Qyzylqum XLII is inimical to all human and near-human life. Infographers are no exception.
From what can be reconstructed, Lieutenant Khan Nguyen Thi Kim divided her two Tactical squads into combat squads. One she led personally in the centre of the field, intending to take a central ruined building. Another captured a smaller collapsed structure marked as having significant to the Malachi cult. The other two demi-squads positioned themselves on rocky structures with a commanding view of a second important site. Lieutenant Commander Gwak Chae'u led his command squad to support the combat squad on the right flank, while Chaplain Inseon supported those on the left.
Malachi the Surly all but ignored the Chaplain and his two demi-squads, instead concentrating his devoted cultists in masses on the marines’ right flanks. It was clear he intended to swamp the sons of Jaghatai and capture his sacred sites. The Red Ravager, a forgefiend summoned from some dark pit inhabited by dead gods, held a blood-soaked field of alien cacti-analogues in the rear of the field.
After the marines had prepared themselves for the onslaught, Malachi released his trap. Two squads of hulking, once-Astartes armour materialised, having teleported from a location surmised to be on the other side of the wasteland moon. The Committee for Destruction (cf. Obliterator Sub-cult) and a squad of renegade terminators, their once-noble forms half-melted and emblazoned with eye-burning sigils, levelled deadly weapons…
A torrent of firepower poured into the ruins. The combat squad was reduced to two men; Brother-Sergeant Tadoka and Brother Tong, while Brother-Swordmaster Mifune, the Company Champion stepped forward, shield held high, to take the fire of the Obliterator cultists. He survived, his shield half-melted and his armour blackened, bubbling.
Immediately, a squad of Terminators that Lieutenant Khan Nguyen’s patrol had been assigned as reserves teleported in. They immediately opened fire on the renegades, plasteel armour tearing off the mutant astartes in chunks. Next to them, the command squad roared into a fierce charge against the Committee - Brother-Apothecary Jiyuna and Brother-Swordmaster Mifune both falling to the cultists’ hell-forged weaponfire.
Their sacrifices were not in vain, as Lt. Comm. Gwak Chae'u led his men against the fiends, butchering them without mercy. The surviving mutant, his fleshsteel armour rent and melting blood, teleported back into the hellish sub-dimension whence he came.
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The revenge of the heretics was to be swift. The surviving renegade terminators, led by Malachi the Surly Himself, hurled themselves into combat. Brother-Sergeant Tadoka was brutally cut down, while the others were barely able to hold off the onslaught…
In the centre of the field, a swarm of cultist-pirates, led by Quno the Flatulent (cf. Raid on Setlik III-γ; Slaughters at Red Gully, Seven Sisters; the Triune Skull Cult) hurled themselves against Lieutenant Khan Nguyen and her combat squad.
Unfortnately for Malachi the Surly, the Lord of Battle was not favouring his daemonic talons this day…
Without the favour of the gods of blood and honour, the swirling melee across the unholy ruins dragged on long enough for Lt. Comm. Gwak to lead his bodyguard back into the fight against the Prince of Pain.
In the meantime, the pirate-cultists and Mantis marines continued to hack at each other. Many of the pirates fled, their companions’ faces smashed and chests ruined, but the frenzied attacks were beginning to chip at the marine armour…
Meanwhile, on the far left flank, the other combat squads continued to exchange fire with the Red Ravager, to limited effect. Both sides preferred to hold their objective markers, while Chaplain-Brother Ilseon began to attempt to outflank the monster on his own. While no pict-captures survive of his efforts, it is understood that he took too long to move through the ruins of Imperial settlements on the western flank of the battlefield, and effectively took no part in the extended action.
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Bloody combat raged across the field….
..but not enough to placate the frustrated fury of the Skull God. Malachi the Surly roused himself to wrath and plunged the nightmare-forged Banesword, Eldarruin, the Serpent of Seventeen Skies, the Eight-edges of Hate, straight into Lt. Comm. Gwak’s geneforged chest. For any human, it would have been a mortal blow, but the officer was a Space Marine. They are crafted by archaeotech and the prayers of all mankind, and so cannot be felled by mere daemonic blacksmithy. Lt. Comm. Gwak grasped the Banesword with the Scorpion’s Talon and snapped it off in his chest. His men surged around the Daemon Prince, thunder hammers swinging and power gloves crackling.
..and the fiend fell.
With the banishment of Malachi the Surly, the heart went out of the pirate-cultists. The remaining actions of the skirmish were largely a mopping-up action as the marines pressed their advantage into the cults.
There is one final note. Matthias the Vicious (cf. The Nužudymas Nightmare; Sultys IV arbite casefile 0.0062.88.17.44-serials), even as his cultists fell around him, their corpses wracked with mutation and their blood spattering green-and-yellow ceramite plate, was able to pierce the throat of Brother-Veteran Hitoshi, felling a veteran of four decades’ service to the Emperor.
Without loss, there can be no victory.
+ + + Thought for the Day: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for the Emperor. + + +
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A cross-post from my old hobby tumblr, dating from 2018 - I've been 'back' in this hobby for a long time - with one of my games against Mangs of War. Back then, I had a bit more energy to write fluffy, in-universe battle reports. I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane.
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