Brother Cassiel guards the supply cache of the Space Marines.

On the world of Dozaria, the 3rd Company of the Space Marine Chapter known as the Knights of Altair have joined the Blood Angels and Blood Ravens in their fight to stymie the Death Guard’s attempts to seize the planet.

 In an inconsequential corner of this planet-wide war, a squad of scouts have set up a supply cache in contested territory—a move that will allow them to observe enemy troop movements and engage in disruptive raids and sabotage.

 Alas, as circumspect as the squad attempts to be, their presence is discovered by a small patrol of heretics and renegades. In the aftermath of this fight, Brother-Sergeant Julius Folkert submits his post-battle report.

Priority Level: Sigma Ceti-Low
Recipient: Captain Rafael Belloch, 3rd Company
Author: Brother-Sergeant Julius Folkert, 10th Company (attached)
Subject: Minor skirmish, location 84.19.39.371
Thought of the Day: Sorrow awaits the foolhardy

+ Report Begins +

An overview of our battle at our local hobby store.

On 3 165 739.M41, Squad Folkert was operating in the contested suburbs of Hive City Xanthi. Our base of operations was a Dark Age-era pyramid ruin, coordinates: 84.19.39.371.

Most of the squad was engaged in reconnaissance operations, while Brothers Cassiel and Tror stood guard over our supply cache and used the 24-meter-tall pyramid as an observation tower.

At 13:04, Brother Cassiel, surveying the surrounding area from the top of the pyramid, reported the approach of an enemy force of 10 heretics. To avoid being seen, he withdrew to the pyramid’s base in order to defend our cache of supplies.

Within minutes, the enemy had reached the pyramid and began circling it, with one fighter—armed with what appeared to be a sniper rifle—seeking to take a position on an upper level of the structure.

The cache is captured by a heretic after the fall of Brother Cassiel.

Brothers Cassiel and Tror opened fire, killing one heretic immediately and forcing the remaining enemy troops to go into cover. Brothers Virious and Daray soon arrived, adding their fire to the fight.

Having discerned the location of our supply cache, however, the heretics made a suicidal charge to seize it.  Although Brother Cassiel killed one heretic with bolter fire, the other charging heretics targeted all their fire at Cassiel—and he fell from his wounds.

The heretics subsequently seized the cache and attempted to carry it from the field. They faced intense fire from the remaining brothers on the scene, but by careful use of cover, the majority of heretics continued to withdraw.

The rest of the squad finally arrived and, with sufficient numbers now available, the squad was in a position to take the initiative. I ordered a general advance on the enemy.

Two Space Marine scouts race after the heretics in an attempt to bring them the Emperor’s Justice.

The heretics quickly retreated back the way they had come. As my squad pursued, Brothers Aradiel and Kauth clambered up the pyramid where they could use the height advantage to pummel the heretics with heavy bolter and missile fire.

Within a minute, the heretics carrying our supply cache were shot down.

With the safety of our supplies secured, I ordered a charge. All enemy units were killed or driven away.

As noted before, this was an inconsequential skirmish. Brother Cassiel survived his wounds, and the Brother-Apothecary Strosius reports he will return to duty in two days.

As per Codex-approved protocols, Squad Folkert moved its base of operations to pre-authorized coordinates: 84.19.39.499 later that day.

+ End report +

TheGM: A short report for a short fight. Tens of millions are dying on war-torn Dozaria, so the fate of a handful of heretic scum is hardly worth reporting.

 Indeed, I suspect Brother-Sergeant Folkert’s report will never be read. (But it will be properly filed in the records . . . in triplicate.

 Still, it was a fun fight. The Gaffer and I played at our local hobby shop—then went and got a beer. That wasn’t a bad use of time, either.

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.