Knights overrun at Blackhollow

The next move by the Aeldari on Corticant was at Blackhollow. The Ynnari were becoming frustrated with the failure of their craftworld allies to secure the initial breakthroughs their elite forces made, and were forced once again to use their highly mobile forces to probe the imperial defences. The loss of the Bymarsh webway portal was a setback, but the Ynnari, led by Yvraine and the avatar of the dead - the Yncarne, were sent into battle once again this time at Blackhollow, the next nearest settlement to the device chamber on the surface of the planet.

Defending Blackhollow was a detachment of knights from house Corvus, who were attached to the Adeptus Mechanicus mission on Corticant. General Veers had confidence in the knights, as the powerful war machines had bested a number of foes including the heretek mechanicus of Cybixx. However, the knights had never faced the Ynnari before, and the speed and durability of this new foe came as quite a shock.

The knight's firepower, awesome as it was, was found wanting against the fast moving and agile jetbikes, while the flocks of razorwings clouded the skies and were almost impossible to deal with. Although the knights stood firm and tried to give ground in order to bring their firepower to bear for longer, the Ynnari were too fast. Despite taking a shieldbreaker missile to the head, somehow Yvraine was able to rejoin the fight, and while the jetbikes were slowly whittled down by the massed guns of helverins and the knight Castellan, the imperial lines were soon overrun.

The appearance of the Yncarne in the middle of the imperial lines soon brought low the knight errant, and although the Mechanicum Skitarii put up a spirited defence of the buildings they had turned into fortresses, eventually they and their great war machines were smashed to pieces by the rampaging Aeldari. Blackhollow fell, and Veers was forced to move his reserves from fort Bastion, including the astartes from the Hammers of the Emperor chapter, who now took up positions north of Bymarsh to stop the inevitable move south by the eldar.