A horde of goblins are discovered advancing deeper into Hegira’s Sea of Dust, and the 5th Mechanized Company are quick to challenge their presence in Imperial territory.

“Grots are useful. You can boss ’em around, beat ’em up, and even eat ’em. But they’re bloody worthless when it comes to to a fight.“—Ork Warlord Grodd ‘Eadbasher

* * *

The greenskin horde outnumbered the 5th Mechanized Company by a 5-to-1 margin–steep odds even for veteran Cadian troops.

Imperial Voxcast (3 392 744.M41)—An ork effort to slip past Imperial defenses and infiltrate deeper into Hegira’s Sea of Dust was rebuffed at great cost by a mechanized company of the 728th Cadian Regiment.

A large horde of orks and grots took advantage of the fall of Redoubt #13-A—overcome by the xenos some months ago—to advance northward through the Sea of Dust, perhaps the most barren and treacherous terrain of the desert moon of Hegira.

Nearly 1,000 xenos—all on foot—sought to cross the open desert. The direction of their advance suggests they were headed to the Monastery of the Emperor’s Light, an isolated stronghold of the  Lethean Revelation sect—an obscure and radical branch of the Ecclesiarchy.

The orks might well have reached the monastery undetected except for the fortuitous passage of the 5th Mechanized Company of the 7th Battalion of the 728th Cadian Regiment.

“A reconnaissance squad of the 5th Mechanized Company spotted a cloud of dust on the horizon, and the company commander decided to investigate,” Colonel August Klein, commander of the 728th, said at an evening press briefing today.

Despite their lack of anti-armor weaponry, the diminutive greenskins charged the 5th Mechanized Company’s armored transports. The result was, of course, carnage for the xenos.

‘It’s Just Grots’

Initiate reports indicated a xeno presence ahead, but the commander was informed that the enemy consisted entirely of grots, the diminutive and less-dangerous subspecies of the greenskins, Klein said.

“The company, consisting of veteran guardsmen in Chimera armored transports, felt confident that they could tackle the xeno threat. And, at first, the attack went well. Many of the Chimeras were equipped with flamers and heavy flamers, and these weapons easily wiped out the front rank of the greenskins.”

The company followed up by driving deep into the grot mob, crushing many under the tracks of the Chimeras and forcing the xenos to scuttle backward to avoid a horrible death.

But, as the mechanized force began to push back the xenos, a huge mob of orks appeared over a low rise and raced to the fighting.

A small mechanized platoon begins to advance on what appears to be an all-Grot force.

Overrun

“Suddenly finding themselves vastly outnumbered—and with more dangerous opponents to their front—the company’s senior officer did not hesitate to keep the pressure on the xenos,” Klein said.

“The command had high hopes that the grots would rout at any moment, so he continued to slaughter the smaller greenskins to drive them from the field before the larger orks closed.”

Alas, the grots uncharacteristically fought without regard for their survival, bogging down the 5th Company at a point in the fighting when the company commander had hoped he would be free to maneuver without opposition.

“Unable to maneuver into the orks’ flank, the company was forced to ignore the grots and turn to face the closing ork force,” Klein said. “The company attempted to run down the orks with their armored transports, but the orks ignored the threat and charged without regard to the risks.”

Several Chimeras found themselves surrounded by the orks, who attacked the vehicles with abandon. A number of the larger orks in the mob were armed with power weapons, and they were able to attack the transports’ weaker rear armor and treads.

Eventually, the Chimeras were immobilized, and the orks managed to smash open the vehicles’ rear hatches and attack the crews and the embarked veteran infantry.

Outmaneuvered

At this point the fighting became chaotic, Klein said. “Guardsmen were abandoning their overwhelmed transports, fighting through the orks to break out of the trap in which they found themselves.”

Much of their success in doing so is attributed to the veterans being equipped with an unusual number of flamers, which they used to great effect—incinerating scores of the xenos and driving back hundreds who moments before were in a murderous rage.

Those guardsmen who fought on foot were eventually overwhelmed, a sacrifice the God-Emperor of Man will surely recognize in the afterlife, Klein said. “May they find a place in His celestial army.”

The rest of the company, still mounted in the safety of their Chimeras, managed to break free of the orks, Klein said. Led by an accompanying commissar, Commissar-Lieutenant Konrad Valvin, these transports raced around the flanks of the greenskins, using their flamers to great effect, and sought out the supply train of the xenos.

“In the rush to attack our troops, the xenos outran their supply trucks and wagons, leaving them defenseless. These were destroyed by the 5th Company, which then withdrew but stayed within sight of the orks. Of course, the greenskins continued to follow our troops—and were led deeper into the barren wastes.”

The Cadian’s initial success against the xenos began to turn bleak once a large ork mob reached the fighting. By brute force, the greenskins managed to tear apart several Chimera transports, forcing the veteran troops within to disembark and fight the xenos in hand-to-hand combat.

Dehydration and Death

Taking advantage of the greenskins’ mindless ferocity, 5th Company refused to be re-engaged in battle. Instead, they maintained their position just far enough away from the xenos that the blood-thirsty greenskins pursued—but never caught up with—the now exhausted guardsmen.

With their supply train destroyed, and their water reserves lost, the orks’ aggressive pursuit finally faltered, and the xeno column turned back toward their own lines, Klein said.

“It was too late,” the regimental commander noted with satisfaction. “They were too deep into the desert, and even the robust constitution of the orks began to fail as dehydration took hold. The green beasts began to fall, and the 5th Company finished them off.”

By this point, Imperial gunships had been called in, and squadrons of Valkyries and Vendetta gunships arrived to strafe the straggling xeno survivors.

“Not a single ork is believed to have made the journey back to an ork encampment,” Klein said. “The 5th Mechanized Company paid a high cost for their victory, but it was an impressive victory none the less.”

TheGM: They say the victors write the history, so I’m going to have fun with this editorial comment: I whupped The Gaffer’s ass.

Now, to be fair, he largely wiped out my troops. I had only about 14 guardsmen left on the table. But he’d super-blobbed his grots and orks, so he could take huge casualties and stay on the table. And he never failed a Leadership check (and I made him roll a lot of those).

But, I saw it coming and focused on objectives. At the end of the game, I had a Lord Commissar holding an objective in the greenskin deployment zone, a Sentinel holding another objective in my deployment zone, and a squad of veterans—with 50-percent casualties—holding  a third.

The final score: a 10-to-1 Imperial victory.

So, although a Pyrrhic victory  I still won with a massive point lead.

I’ll take what I can get. Victory is sweet.

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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.