Ghaz Tak, a Death Guard warlord, seeks to open a portal to the Warp and destroy Dozaria.

“The fate of Dozaria hangs in the balance. If Necrosius, this sorcerer of Nurgle, opens a portal to the Warp, then a horde of daemons will sweep across this world and turn it into a nightmare of disease, corruption, and rot. He must be stopped.”—Captain Alaric Galba, 3rd Company, Knights of Altair.

Background

In 737.M41, the Chaos lord Typhus and the sorcerer Voloh Gudag appeared in orbit over the industrial world of Dozaria and unleashed the Kassig Plague, which quickly spread across the planet.

The most advanced medical treatment had no impact on the progress of the disease and, within three weeks, approximately 40 percent of the planetary population was affected. Half of these casualties died; the remainder suffered a near-total loss of cognitive abilities, loss of personal awareness, a significant degradation in physical health, and the development of extreme violent behavior toward any uninfected individual.

They were essentially brain dead—or, as the planet’s survivors described them: zombies.

The Death Guard invaded Dozaria two years ago but have been unable to conquer the planet in the face of fierce Imperial resistance.

Six months later, a fleet of traitor warships arrived to invade with a force of Death Guard traitor marines and a vast number of cultists and traitor regiments. This force quickly seized a sizable portion of the world.

Despite horrendous losses from the plague, as well as the mutiny of several cultist-infiltrated regiments of the Planetary Defense Force (PDF), loyal PDF regiments managed a fighting withdrawal, holding key hive cities until reinforcements arrived. These reinforcements included two companies of the Blood Ravens, one company each of the Blood Angels and Knights of Altair, and an undetermined number of Space Wolves.

These additional resources have stymied the Death Guard invasion, and the fate of the planet is unclear. But a new danger soon arose. The Chaos lord known as Ghaz Tak, with the help of the sorcerer Necrosius, built a heretical portal that, with the appropriate sacrifice, would open a gateway into the Warp and allow untold thousands of Nurgle daemons to materialize on Dozaria.

Such an evil deed left its impact on the Warp, even before the ritual began, and the Emperor’s Tarot warned the Imperial high command. With no time to gather sizable forces, the task of stopping the vile ritual was given to Alaric Galba, captain of the 1st Company, Knights of Altair.

This noble warrior gathered a small number of available Space Marines and scouts and rushed to the portal. His mission: Save Dozaria from being overrun.

Forces Involved

Imperial:

• Captain Alaric Galba
• Space Marines x 4 (one with meltagun)
• Veteran Marines x 2 (terminator armor and stormbolters)
• Marine Scout sergeant
• Marine Scouts x 8 (one with heavy bolter, one with sniper rifle)

Traitors:

• Chaos Lord Ghaz Tak
• Sorcerer Necrosius
• Bhal Gaz (terminator armor, plague bolter)
• Death Guard Marines x 4
• Cultist Leader (with plasma gun)
• Cultists x 24

The sorcerer, Necrosius, casts Plague Fog at Captain Galba and his Space Marines.

Initial Attack

As Captain Galba’s force arrived by gunship, it was clear that the heretical ritual of Necrosius was close to completion. Warp lightning filled the sky over the portal, and every space marine aboard the gun ship could feel the stomach-churning “wrongness” of the air around them.

Dropping as close to the portal as possible, the marines encircled the portal quickly and launched their attack. Time was of the essence.

One scout, with a heavy bolter, opened fire on two cultists, ripping them to shreds with bolt rounds. Alas, his weapon jammed, cutting short the deadly fire of the heavy weapon.

Bad luck continued. As the scout sniper ran to a vantage point where he could bring his weapon to bear, a lucky shot from a cultist took him out of action.

The battlefield was part of a ruined city in the desert.

Galba and one veteran in terminator armor, accompanied by scouts, attempted to advance on the portal using the cover of a small shanty town. This was meant to be a very obvious attack, designed to draw the majority of enemy troops toward Galba’s force. Another veteran, backed by scouts, sought to approach the portal stealthily from another group of shanties.

The main advance was slowed by intense traitor fire, forcing the space marines to slow the attack and use cover as much as possible.

The Death Guard warrior known as Bhal Gaz, made insane by the diseases that rotted his brain, charged toward Galba. Intense ranged fire brought the traitor marine to a halt, despite his Terminator Armor. To save this valued warrior, Necrosius cast a Plague Fog that descended upon Gaz and concealed him from enemy fire—at the same time threatening the advancing Marine scouts, as even their heightened physical physiques was susceptible to the Warp-tainted cloud of poison.

(The Terminators were protected by their armor.)

Click here to read Part 2 of this battle.

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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.