Sergeant Fisk’s fire team is attacked in the rear by a Genestealer.

“If you want to protect a world, you want the Navis Imperialis. When you need the Imperial Guard or Astartes, it’s too late to protect your home from the evils of war.

Only the Imperial Navy can keep the heretic, the traitor, or the xeno at a safe distance–can leave your world untouched by the horrors of the galaxy.”—Admiral Hausu Dinola, senior naval commander in the Corvus Cluster and admiral-in-command of Battlefleet Beilliose.

* * *

Continued from Part 2 . . .

A standard Navis Shotgun can fire buckshot to a range of 30 meters and bring down a man, or it can fire a solid shot shell at a range of 10 meters and put a 15-centimeter-in-diameter hole in a man’s chest or blow away half a man’s skull.

Both kinds of rounds peppered the cargo bay as the Breachers advanced. Fisk’s men held their fire until within 10 meters of the enemy gun line, and their volley of solid shot  killed three men despite the targets using cargo crates as cover.

Most of Gadden’s fire team opted for buckshot. There were more enemy gunmen facing them, and they were spread out.

The buckshot was less likely to kill, but with a spread of one to three meters at a distance, a lot more gunmen were hit or, at least temporarily, forced to duck for cover. It was the only way to cut back the number of guns firing at the fire team; the only way the Breachers had a chance to advance.

Still, at least half a dozen men were still shooting, and two of Gaden’s Breachers were hit by grazing shots.

“Grenades again,” Gadden ordered.

The men with the slab shields stopped, and the two Breachers behind pulled out and primed their grenades. “Grenades away!” they shouted as they threw them.

* * *

The honorable icon of the Navis Imperialis.

“At them boys!” Fisk yelled, raising his laspistol and blasting open the skull of one of the opposing gunmen.

His men were close enough for a charge, and they raced forward. One Breacher fell as a gun blast hit him in the chest and managed to penetrate his armor.

The fire of the other gunmen was hasty, and most shots missed. The Breachers slammed into the enemy and began beating them with the butts of their shotguns.

Fisk had put away his shotgun and drawn his Navis Axe. The heavy weapon had a sharp blade, and he swung it down at the shoulder of one gunman in front of him. The man screamed as his arm separated from his body.

Another man charged screaming at him. But this one looked odd. His men was strangely elongated, and his skin had a purplish tone to it.

Mutants, Fisk thought. The blast of a nearby shotgun roared, and the odd-looking man fell as his face exploded in a bloody mist.

* * *

Seemingly out of nowhere, a man wielding a makeshift mace came out of the shadows and slammed into the tightly packed Breachers surrounding Gadden.

The mace was glowing—clearly some sort of power weapon—and its wielder managed to slam the weapon into the nearest of Gadden’s men. The man screamed and fell, but the Breacher still managed to swing his shotgun around and fire point-blank into his attacker’s chest.

The man’s chest exploded in blood and gore as he was thrown back by the force of the shot. The Breacher hit the ground without a sound—his eyes just staring unseeing at the ceiling.

* * *

Another Breacher fell by his side, and Lt. Gadden felt something hit his chest hard. It knocked the breath out of him, but he thought his  armor had held—until he looked down and saw blood flowing. He suddenly felt faint and fell to the deck.

Not far away, Fisk hears a piercing scream behind him. He turns, and his blood turns cold.

Standing over the shredded body of one of his men is a hideous, two-meter-tall monster—slightly insectoid in form but with six arms ending in blood-slaked claws.

The NCO knows what he’s facing. He alsorealizes the significance of the crewman with the elongated skull and purplish skin. There is a xeno taint to this research station.

The monster tenses for his next attack. Fisk has just enough time to activate his vox and scream: “Genestealer!”

* * *

Captain’s Log
6 941 744.M41
Stellar Sword
Captain Husea Truxton

After learning of a xeno infestation aboard the research base—and the near certainty of the base staff’s taint—I ordered a withdrawal of our landing party.

Only three men were recovered: Two Breachers managed to carry Lt. Gadden back to the landing shuttle. The rest of Gadden’s squad, including Sergeant-at-Arms Hugo Fisk, are presumed dead—or worse.

We lost all communications with the other squad, which had secured the base’s power plant, at about the same time as Gadden’s men ran into opposition. There has been no answer to our hails, and it can only be assumed that anyone left behind is dead—or worse.

Under General Order GS-172.544.41, I am required to ensure the safety of my ship from the Genestealer taint above all else. For that reason, I will not send a larger force to deal with the few dozen tainted souls on the station.

Instead, I have ordered all weapons batteries to bombard the base until nothing is left but molten metal and sand fused into glass.

All three men who survived were quarantined and underwent a full examination. The ship’s surgeon spent days on tests before declaring the men free of taint. The wounds of Lt. Gadden are no longer life-threatening, but he will be on restricted duty for several months until his wounds heal.

Well aware of the cunning of the Genestealer, the shuttle was isolated in a landing bay and practically torn apart in search of an infiltrating xeno or another signs of taint. Drones also were sent to examine the Stellar Sword’s outer hull. There is no evidence of xeno taint aboard my ship.

A brief astropathic message has been sent to Belliose III, warning the Naval High Command of what we found. A more detailed written report also has been prepared, but it will be many months yet before our patrol takes us to a naval base and we can send our report by courier ship.

+ + END ENTRY + +

TheGM: This scenario was played at the 2024 Shorehammer Convention. The commander of the xeno-tainted crew did very well in defending his ship. In earlier playtesting of the scenario, the Breachers always managed to take the cargo bay—and the research base’s defenders only won when it used a strategy of fighting withdrawals punctuated by occasional ambushes.

But at the convention, the base staff stood resolute. The Breachers simply could not get a foothold in the cargo bay and, once the Genestealer showed up behind one of the boarding parties (random event), it was all over.

For fun, we rolled a die after the battle. On a 1 or 2, I declared, the Genestealer managed to give one of the surviving Breachers the “Genestealer’s Kiss,” ensuring the xeno taint would spread to the Stellar Sword’s crew.

Fortunately for the Corvus Cluster (and the Stellar Sword), the Breachers returned to their ship without taint.

As for the research base’s staff, there never was any hope. But they won the battle (at least a “morale victory”) before they and the base were utterly destroyed.

Click here to return to Part 1 of this story.

Click here to return to Part 2.

—

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