Apocalypse "Special Mission" results

Emperors children: Slaanesh’s favour: every game played by the emperors children gains an additional campaign point, regardless of result (applied after). 
Slaanesh rejoices in the bloodshed and pain of Tarlius, and the performance of his favoured sons.

Iron Warriors: Iron Within: if the Iron warriors are defeated they can only ever lose a maximum of 2 campaign points. 
Stahl overlooked the battlefield of Tarlius I. "We must fortify these positions" he bellowed.

Emerald Serpent: Favoured of Tzeentch. Regardless of who wins, the Emerald Serpent always decide how campaign points are spent. 
Pleased with his children's manipulation of the Warp, Tzeentch will now play a larger hand in the unfolding events.

Necrons: ancient artefact: Necrons ignore all modifiers whenever they do not lose their warlord.
Despite their defeat in alliance with chaos, the Necrons had retrieved what they came for, despite the meddling of the Eldar. 

Thousand Sons: Slayer of the Farseer: any game where Thousand sons kill an Eldar warlord automatically counts as a 3pt win (no modifiers)
The Kel Sandros Farseer was dead. Now to complete the "decapitation" of the Eldar intervention.

Grey Knights: Daemonslayer: If the Grey Knights kill a daemon character in a game they automatically inflict a -2 global modifier on their enemy. 
Despite defeat, the Grey Knights had banished a major foe. Now to continue this holy mission against the denizens of the warp.

Crusade Mechanicum: Archeotech: any game where Cybixx is present the crusade count as having a minimum +1 modifier over the enemy. 
Cybbix smiled, as much as a technologically modified being with no real face could. The Crusade had lost Tarlius I, but he had found the lost STC template.

Vostroya: Boots on the Ground: Vostroya Crusade armies count defeats as “one point” defeats (plus modifiers).
Thousands of Vostroyans had died, but their morale was boosted by their stalwart performance in holding their objectives in front of the foe.

Current battle modifiers

Battle for Tarlius: Aftermath

The battle or battles for Tarlius had seen the greatest bloodshed and loss of life by far in the battles for the Foramen Interdictum thus far. Overall the forces of Chaos had been moderately successful, taking the strategic base of Tarlius I and removing most of the Crusade forces from the system. This had come at a price however.

The Imperium still held on to Tarlius II and III (also known as Gregland II), and although these were not heavily fortified, they still posed a significant thorn in the side of the plans of Stahl and the other chaos warlords. They now needed to follow up on this result and remove the remaining Imperial - and now Eldar - presence from the system.

Stahl's fleet could not stay in orbit for long. The use of the Cicatrix had allowed him to circumvent the Imperial blockade, but if his fleet stayed at Tarlius, he knew Jellicoe could bring an overwhelming force to bear, delivering a blow from which he could not recover. The fleet moved back into the shadows once more, playing the by now familiar game of cat and mouse with the Imperial fleet in the outer reaches of the system.

Stahl resolved to fortify, as any good Iron Warrior would, denying a counter offensive and readying his forces for the next strike. Would his brethren listen to him this time? Perhaps not, but for now the factions of chaos were united in their will to claim Tarlius - and the northern end of the Foramen Majoris - for themselves.

For the Imperium the results at Tarlius were almost catastrophic, but Patreus had held on, thanks largely to the timely intervention of the Eldar. Now however they needed to fortify themselves, and it was unclear what the Eldar would do next. Would they remain allies?

The Crusade suffered the most devastating blow, although the Grey Knights had managed to leave somewhat intact, and Cybixx, despite losing half his expeditionary force, was able to return, brooding, to Vandrax. Only the Dark Angels small outpost on Tarlius II remained in Crusade hands on Tarlius, and now Vorushko had to decide her next move. Wage war on the loyalists? Or unite with them at Tarlius to fight her real enemies - the heretics and xenos.

The Necrons meanwhile had suffered a defeat, and the retrieval of the ancient necron artefact - promised to them by Magnus, had been more costly than had been anticipated. Nevertheless the Necron lords now had something with which to protect their dwindling empire that had been shattered and sliced in two by the coming of the Cicatrix.

The massive battles had seen the worst violence at Tarlius, but it would not be the last. The war on Tarlius was far from over.

Battle for Tarlius II & III (Gregland II)

General Patreus knew there was something afoot on 2203.018M42, as he had reports from his commanders that the forces of chaos were leaving. Contacting his naval attache, Patreus was informed that a large chaos fleet had been detected in the inner worlds, having bypassed the imperial blockade. Patreus was to "expect hostilities", but by 2303.018M42, reports from "New Gregland" suggested that there at least, the chaos forces had completely vanished.

Patreus remained on high alert, but began the process of sending regular patrols against the chaos sector. Finding nothing of note, Patreus readied his Novgorod regiments and began an offensive against the remaining chaos forces, finding little in the way of resistance, save for scattered bands of poorly equipped cultists. Something still didn't feel right, so Patreus requested the support of the Imperial Fists, who agreed to support his offensive. All seemed to be going well, but Patreus had been right. It was a trap.

The Necrons arrived without warning, along with an elite force of Thousand sons led by Magnus. Horrified, Patreus sent distress calls, but then learned of the chaos invasion of Tarlius I. The Grey Knights and their Crusade allies were under massive assault, while Jellicoe's fleet were unable to help, having an entire chaos battlegroup now keeping them out of the inner system. Patreus and the Imperial fists were alone, and desperately outnumbered by their enemies. Then the eldar arrived.

Without communicating with the humans, the aeldari force, accompanied by an avatar of Khaine, appeared behind the embattled imperial lines, having used their knowledge of the web way. Believing this to herald a total defeat, Patreus prepared to end his own life, lest he be captured by the multitude of Xenos now facing him, but to his surprise and the dumbfounded guardsmen, the Eldar force simply pushed passed the imperial lines and headed straight at the Necrons. Patreus didn't need an official invitation, and battle was rejoined with greater fervour with these new found allies.

Despite the arrival of the Aeldari, the battle was far from certain. In the mountainous terrain of the Tarlius II badlands, the fighting became furious and at times brutally bloody. The Imperial Fists held the right flank, but had lost a venerable Fellblade in the initial assault. The Novgorod held the left, but in the centre the Eldar came face to face with the might of the Necrons and Magnus the Red himself... or at least one of his shards. Bitter fighting for the strategically vital mountain summits ensued, and the central peak changed hands over and over. Magnus and the Eldar Autarch died in the fighting, as the battle swung back and forth. Eventually however a concerted push by the Eldar and Novgorod, along with a valiant defence by the Imperial Fists, forced the Necrons and the remaining chaos troops off the commanding summits.

Their position compromised and losing men rapidly as the Imperial Guard dug in and established firebases on every summit, the Necron-Chaos alliance ended. The Necrons, satisfied that they had retrieved their ancient artefact and no longer showing much interest in the fight, disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the chaos force, now leaderless and scattered, to be mopped up by Patreus's forces as the defeat turned into a rout. The eldar however did not leave. Instead they took up positions in the equatorial region of the world following the battle, still remaining silent after preventing Tarlius II from falling to chaos. Wary, Patreus waited for the Xenos to make the first move.

Battle for Tarlius 1

On 2303_018M42 the full force of the Iron Warriors fleet appeared in orbit around Tarlius I. The Imperial Navy considered intervening, but with its fleet scattered on blockade duty, Jellicoe reasoned that any intervention would be too little, too late, and lead to a potentially catastrophic defeat. Once again the forces of chaos had used the Cicatrix Maledictum to escape detection, and deliver a massive force into the heart of the system. The Imperium meanwhile were restricted to travelling the narrow lanes of the Foramen.

The Imperial force had been bolstered by the arrival of the reaver titan, but as the massive chaos force made landfall in front of the Grey Knights base, the mighty titan was still unloading from its drop ship, and would not be available for the start of the battle. Defending the base at the outset was Cybixx and his mechanics along with the Vostroyan Guard. The Grey Knights waited in reserve for an opportune moment to counter strike.

The forces of chaos, led by a mass of cultists, consisted of daemons and marines of the Emperor's Children, a host of daemons from the Emerald Serpent, and might vehicles and war engines led by Stahl himself. Despite fielding significant firepower, the crusade forces were penned back by the chaos horde, and though they cut them down in short order, there were always more to replace them. Very soon the Grey Knights realised they had to intervene, Reaver Titan or not.

The Ordo Malleus Astartes arrived with their customary ferocity, and on the chaos left flank they held, then turned the chaos advance, cutting down swathes of Thousand Sons and tzeentch daemons. However, toward the centre, Cybixx's electro priests were unable to get close enough to engage their enemy in close combat, and were swiftly dispatched by a chaos knight. The Imperial Baneblade of the Vostroyans kept the chaos assault at bay, despite coming under the sights of an Iron Warriors Shadowsword. The traitor super-heavy missed its shot, allowing the Baneblade to reply in kind. The Imperial war engine did not miss, wrecking the Shadowsword and securing the right flank.

On the left, the situation was well under control, until the arrival of a chaos Warhound titan. Now the forces of chaos had a towering war engine, and the Warhound soon made its presence felt, causing significant damage to the Adeptus Mechanicus forces. With the Imperial left flank in danger of total collapse, the timely intervention of the Reaver Titan was welcomed by the Imperial force. The giant war engine unleashed a devastating volley of fire just as the Vostroyans landed their Scions in the midst of the chaos lines. The Warhound however was not bowed, and the huge energies of the Reaver Titan's weapons were deflected by its void shields. In response, the Warhound levelled its turbo-lasers at the Reaver, but again titanic void shield held in the face of this violent onslaught. The titans had cancelled each other out.

While the Titans duelled, the Grey Knights realised that if the centre of the battlefield remained in chaos control, the battle would be lost. All available firepower was levelled at the cultists swarming over the front gates to the compound, but despite the carnage wrought, the traitor forces did not waver. In desperation the Grey Knights launched their assault, but despite heroic bravery their charge proved in vain. By late 2403.018M42 after a day of non stop bloodshed, it was clear the chaos invasion could not be stopped.

The Reaver and the Adeptus Mechanicus made an ordered retreat back to the space port, holding one area of the base long enough for Cybixx's forces to retrieve an item of significance; his experiments and research on a suspected STC. The Vostroyans too fought bravely, coming dangerously close to the Warhound titan and distracting it long enough for the Reaver to land some telling shots. However, neither Titan was put out of action.

On 2803.018M42 the Imperial rear guard action reached the spaceport, allowing the Crusade's important assets - the Mechanicum and Grey Knights, to escape into orbit, where a Mechanicum cruiser and the Grey Knights fleet were anxious to leave orbit before the invasion fleet detected them. Tarlius I had been lost, and Stahl with his allies had achieved an important victory. The Iron Warriors began fortifying their new base, while the daemons of Slaanesh enjoyed some "sport" with the remaining Vostroyans.

Battle of Tarlius: Prelude

At the end of 03.018M42 the war on Tarlius intensified with massive battles occuring across the system. By now, Warsmith Stahl had completed his fortifications on the outer two worlds and was watching with some dismay at the failure of his Chaos "brethren" to inflict a decisive blow on the Imperium. He identified the Grey Knights' base on Tarlius 1 a key target for assault, but even with his fleet and manpower the other forces of chaos were unwilling to aid him, given they were still bogged down in wars of attrition on Tarlius II and III. Stahl needed more men.

Stahl however had contacts. Ever since his humiliating defeat at Calliden the Warsmith had known of the necrons and their plans for the sector. Following the coming of the Cicatrix the Harakhty Dynasty had been shattered, and now Stahl decided to send an olive branch to his enemies. Contacting the emissaries of the Harakhty and Charnovokh dynasties, one of his messengers finally met a receptive ear in the necron court. The necrons were aware of the wars in the Foramen, but lacked the manpower to intervene. Here however there was an opportunity. In exchange for their aid to Warsmith Stahl's campaign, the Necrons merely requested that they be allowed to retrieve something from Tarlius II. His extra forces secured, Stahl began planning the major assault on the heavily defended Imperial base on Tarlius I.

The eldar of the Kel Sandros interpreted the skeins of fate with dismay. Stahl would probably achieve his goal and the Tarlius system would be added to the chaos empire, cutting off the Imperium from their bases in the Perseus Deeps, and almost certainly setting in motion a wave of chaos assaults on all the worlds in the Imperium Nihilis. Worse, the Necrons were interfering, which could only mean they had something to gain. Farseer Tarquil once again readied his warhost. They would go to battle, this time alongside the Mon'Keigh.

The Crusade had expected such an assault on the base at Tarlius I, and Cybixx and Vorushko had reinforced the base itself with Vostroyan Guard and Cybixx's Adeptus Mechanicus forces. More however would be needed, so the Grey Knights sent a distress call as far as they could. With barely hours to spare before imminent invasion, the Legio Ultima agreed to lend one Reaver titan. Only one, but its power was immense. All sides prepared for war.

Tarlius Strategic

Mabb Nebula & Tyndareous

Tyndareous Invasion: Lycaon Guard make landing but Sky Lords suffer embarrassing defeat

In the Zadoc subsector General Van Dorn was keen to build on the success of Hylas and start taking the war to the Imperium's enemies. With a fresh fleet, reinforcements from the Lycaon Guard and Sky Lords chapter of space marines, Van Dorn proposed a plan to attack the Tau, who effectively surrounded the Imperium's two worlds in the Mabb Nebula, blockading them from easy contact with Caitlen station and the Imperial bases in the Perseus Deeps.

The Sky Lords agreed, as Vorushko was keen to prevent the Aleph Expansion Sphere Tau enclave from overwhelming the Imperial bases and establishing contact with the Federacy and the rest of the Tau empire. In the Imperium Nihilus, there was no "crusade" and "loyalist" argument, as both forces were acting together as the Imperium of Mankind. Vorushko was keen however to prevent the situation arising where she had to expend forces defending her right flank from Xenos threats while prosecuting her more important goals against Hathek in the Foramen. Taking the fight to the enemy served this purpose well.

The plan was drawn up by mid 03.018M42, and a battlegroup supported by Admiral Dreyer's fleet left for the Tau holdings in the Mabb Nebula. The Tau world of Tyndareous would be invaded, while the Sky Lords conducted raids against tau infrastructure across the region of space.

The invasion of Tyndareous by the Lycaon went well. The tau were taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of an Imperial battlegroup and despite offering significant resistance, the Lycaon Guard were able to land and establish a perimeter in the mountainous terrain to the west of the inhabited zone. From there they pushed the front line forward, taking Ranier pass and the settlement of Burbeck bay, reaching the sea and cutting the Tau defences in two.

The Sky Lords however had more significant problems as they attempted to put a nearby Waystation out of action. The station, designated 233 by the Imperium, was protected by significant ground defences installed on the planet around which it orbitted. To strike the Waystation, these protective defences, including high powered railguns and a defence shield, would need to be put out of action.

The Sky Lords landed without incident, but the Tau had detected their landing and immediately took up defensive positions around their key installations. The Sky Lords advanced, causing significant damage and losses against their enemies, as the Tau found the heavily armoured land raider force difficult to deal with.

However, just as the fighting was reaching a climax and the result hung in the balance, an unfortunate event occurred. With a blinding flash the lead Sky Lords land raider detonated in an enormous fireball, throwing superheated metal and volatile chemicals over a wide area. The initial explosion crushed the Sky Lords' commander and lieutenant before the blast wave crashed into the ruins of a Tau installation. This proceeded to collapse, wiping out the Sky Lords' elite force of Stern Guard.

Amazingly the occupants of the Land Raider managed to crawl from the wreckage, but the dramatic spectacle had severely neutered the elite force, and the Tau counter attacked in force. Although the Sky Lords hung on for some time, the raid was a failure and the remaining astartes were forced to abandon the bodies of their fallen and evacuate the planet.

It is unclear how an astartes Land Raider could have exploded so spectacularly, and the Sky Lords are unlikely to ever comment on the matter. However the Tau noted that minutes before the detonation, a tech priest within the Sky Lords retinue was seen "fixing something" on the vehicle. The fact that this priest was not a true techmarine may have some link with the devastating mishap that cost the Sky Lords several of their finest warriors and doomed the raid on Waystation 233.

Tarlius II: Three way war

The war on Tarlius continued with unparalleled fury as the end of 03.018M42 approached. In the southern hemisphere a landing by the Dark Angels quickly dealt with a significant force of Thousand Sons, establishing a beach head, but it was clear that there would be no thawing of relations between the loyalists and the Dark Angels. General Patreus was called on to surrender to the Astartes, to answer for the Novgorod Guard's previous engagement which saw several Dark Angels killed. Instead, Patreus dispatched a force of Novgorod to remove the Space Marine force, having been explicitly told by Hathek that they were now in league with the heretical Inquisitor Vorushko.

The Novgorod force sent out patrols into the southern wastelands, but found it hard to pin down the Dark Angels force. Eventually contact was made, but the Novgorod force was significantly split, and the more flexible astartes doctrines played a heavy hand in the following engagement, with the Novgorod sending in their forces peace meal. Facing heavy casualties and unable to combine their superior numbers against the Space Marine force, the Novgorod were forced to retreat, and the entire southern polar region was abandoned by Patreus, allowing the Dark Angels to secure a foothold once again on Tarlius II for the Crusade.

Further north, the loyalists under General Patreus had more success. A new offensive with fresh Lycaon forces initially got into difficulties against the Emerald Serpent and a shard of the daemon prince of Magnus himself. However, stubborn resistance and overwhelming firepower eventually told against the forces of chaos, and by 2303.018M42 the forces of chaos had been confined to a single region of the eastern hemisphere of the barren and now shattered world.

Zadoc Subsector current

Chaos make gains on Tarlius

With the war on Tarlius II bogged down in a stalemate between the forces of chaos and General Patreus' well organised loyalists, the Death Guard and Emerald serpent turned their eyes to the third world of the system, named "Greggland II" by the loyalist commander who had started the creation of a base there.

However, the Crusade also had their eyes on the third planet, following their disastrous encounter with chaos on the more habitable world of Tarlius II. In the end, both chaos forces and those of the crusade arrived at Greggland at roughly the same time, much to the surprise and annoyance of both sides.

Rather than engage the small loyalist outpost, the two invading armies soon became involved in a life or death struggle against each other. The Volscian Guard were set upon by the Emerald Serpent who summoned a host of daemons along with their regular forces. The fighting was hard and bloody, but in the end despite the Crusade force being able to inflict horrendous casualties, the Emerald Serpent stalled the Volscian advance, allowing the Death Guard an effective free hand against the Crusade elite forces on their left flank.

The Death Guard 1st Company assaulted the Crusade Ad Mech and Astartes forces just days after the Volscians had been locked in combat by the Emerald Serpent. For now Magnus was content to allow his brother the glory, if it served both their purposes, and the chosen of Nurgle's forces ripped into the Adeptus Mechanicus forces, destroying the crusade landing force and condemning the remaining Volscians to certain death at the hands of their enemies. There would be no rescue for the Crusade at Greggland, and now the loyalists found themselves facing off against chaos on two worlds in the system of Tarlius, with almost no logistical support...

War on Hylas ends with Imperial Victory

The long war on Hylas finally came to an end in 03.018M42, after continuing on and off since the ork invasion of 012M42. The war had been long and hard for both sides, and the orks had come close to total victory, prior to the coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum. With the catastrophe of the warp bringing unending war to the Vork Ork Expanse, much of the greenskin interest in Hylas waned, allowing General Van Dorn to dig in and begin to retake much of the lost territory.

However, Van Dorn was similarly cut off from the Imperium, but the arrival of Crusade forces from and re-establishment of contact with the Imperial base at Bastien allowed the Imperium to shuttle fresh reinforcements to the Hylas battlezone.

The Sky Lords arrived in early 03.018M42, and with Van Dorn planned the final stages of the total annihilation of the Orks on Hylas. Assaulting Tennyson, the Sky Lords managed to ambush the Orks as they came out to fight, and despite aggressive assaults by the greenskins, the Sky Lords' heavy armour and air superiority ensured that there was no real hope of an Ork victory.

Tennyson fell on 1003.018M42, with the Imperial Guard mopping up the rest of the greenskins in the subsequent months. Hylas would take years to recover from the long war, perhaps decades, but the Imperium had managed to hold on to their last few possessions in the Zadoc subsector, a tenuous Imperial possession surrounded on all sides by hostile forces.

Strategic Modifiers

Overall Strategic Modifiers

Imperium Nihilis Modifiers

Destino: Death Guard surprised by Orks

While the hellish war on Tarlius continued, the forces of chaos, most notably Mortarion of the Death Guard, were considering their wider strategy. Control of Tarlius was needed, but so would the systems of at least Destino and Paradorn to further their aims. Paradorn would follow after Tarlius, but Chaos desperately needed a foothold in the Foramen Minoris in order to link up with larger chaos forces moving up from the galactic south via the Enceladus Subsector.

Mortarion selected the outermost world of Destino, which was apparently uninhabited, sending a significant force to the world via the Cicatrix, his plagueships arriving all but unseen around the distant world on 0103.018M42. His force landed on the barren and freezing world, but the Death Guard were soon in for an unwelcome shock. The orks of Von Bismork had apparently arrived at Destino - somehow - before anyone else.

How the Ork warboss had managed to end up at Destino, having travelled half the sector from Hylas then the war against chaos, remained a mystery, but Von Bismork's Waagh! although now diminished, always seemd to have a habbit of turning up where fighting was heaviest. Perhaps Tzeentch himself had decided to set this train of events in motion, knowing that the Emerald Serpent would need help to avoid being dominated by Mortarion's plague god followers. Whatever the reason, the Death Guard were ill prepared for the sudden and violent assault by ove excited ork boyz spoiling for a fight. After only a few hours the greenskins had caused such carnage that the invasion of the world was called off, with the outermost world of Destino officially designated "ork infested".

Tarlius II: Chaos smash Crusade

Having opened up a front against chaos and the loyalists on Tarlius III, the Grey Knights were far too small and valuable a force to be spent on garrison duty. In order to maintain the Crusade presence on the world the Sky Lords also sent a company, to act as a rapid reaction force, while Cybixx sent a small but effective force of Mechanicum and Skitarri. Crucially however the Crusade were unable to call on their Guardsmen regiments to hold a wide front, as the Volscians were still en route from Vandrax.

Having only elite forces defending their bridgehead on Tarlius II, the Crusade were vulnerable, and the forces of Chaos took advantage of this weakness with devastating results in late 02.018M42 into early 03.018M42. Using weight of numbers, the forces of chaos attacked on two fronts, with the forces of the Death Guard and those of Magnus joining forces in a concerted effort against the dangerous crusade.

Mortarion himself architected the assault by the 1st Plague Company, targetting the strong Adeptus Mechanicus forces near the landing area controlled by the crusade. Meanwhile the Emerald Serpent, led by a shard of the daemonic entity known as "Magnus the Red" fell upon the Sky Lords.

The Death Guard found the going tough against the Mechanicum, but heavy fighting led to the plague God's victory, as the traitor marines and pox walkers wore down even the toughest machines as well as the flesh. Meanwhile against the Sky Lords, although Magnus was all but executed early on by massed lascannon fire, confused communications between Cybixx, the Sky Lords and other Crusade factions led to a fiasco of orders for the astartes on the ground. First the Sky Lords were ordered to simultaneously hold the line and advance on the enemy, and later, while the thousand sons were hunkered down in the ruins of an Imperial base, the Crusade force was ordered to pointlessly launch wave after wave of their own men against the fortification, whereas simply cutting the chaos force off would have won the battle.

The result of the poor comms and negative outcomes of both engagements led to the crusade finding themselves in an untenable position. The crusade base on Tarlius II was evacuated on 0703.018M42, leaving the loyalists and chaos forces to fight it out.

To prevent any union of Imperial force on Tarlius II, the Emerald serpent also launched an assault lasting many days against Patreus' Novgorod army in the southern wastes. However the results of the engagement were inconclusive, as winter storms in the southern hemisphere called a premature end to the fighting. By mid 03.018M42 however, control of the vast plains of Tarlius II was roughly evenly split between loyalist and chaos forces.

Eldar continue search

Deep within the hellish interior of the Cicatrix Maledictum the Aeldari continued their relentless search of Einmyrria's frozen wastes. Whilst every valley and crevice was systematically explored sure eyed rangers watched from the mountain peaks for any sign of movement.

Once more the host of Kel Sandros was interrupted in its task, challenged this time by the mutated and corpulent servants of the god of decay. At first the cunning Aeldari simply allowed the diseased warband to approach, feigning ignorance of their presence to draw them in. Then, when the moment was right they sprang their ambush with customary speed and ferocity.

With surprise achieved Autarch Alarielle was supremely confident that the warhost's overwhelming firepower would cut down the slowly shambling horde of corrupted humanity before it could reach the Aeldari's positions. This overconfidence was almost the Aeldari's undoing. Shrugging off the dazzling storm of energy weaponry and shuriken discs with disgusting resilience fuelled by the closeness of the warp the servants of decay strode forward.

As the warrior aspects that formed the spearhead of the warhost were consumed by billowing clouds of pestilence Alarielle realised they had severely underestimated their foe. Eventually the servants of decay began to drop one by one as the Aeldari focused their fire and successively fell back to fresh positions. Each time the Aeldari fell back they left behind them the bodies of their dead but slowly the strength of the chaos warband was sapped. When there was no more ground left to give Alarielle lead the hoste's warlocks in a final counter attack that cut through the shambling hordes of plague zombies and finally broke the warband's strength.

Victory had been won, but the price had been high and Alarielle wept to see so many Aeldari lying broken on the frozen land of this forsaken world. They would honour their sacrifice by achieving their mission. The search would continue.

Image: https://r7ll.deviantart.com/art/Eldar-Autarch-47997392