“The Gue’ron’sha are hesitant. They do not understand the tactics of the Mont’ka and Kauyon. This gives us an advantage over them, even if they are genetically engineered to be physically superior. Our ways of war are better than theirs. We shall show them.“—Commander Strongblade, Battle of the Highland Rim

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Continued from Page 1 . . .

The battle heats up

It wasn’t until an hour later that Strongblade decided to commit her reserve. The Hammerheads and Fire Warriors on the west flank were getting close to the Marine lines, and she and her bodyguard of Stealth Suits leapt from their overhead aircraft and attempted to support the upcoming attack.

An unanticipated gust of of heavy winds thwarted her plan. She and her bodyguard were pushed off course and landed in the same woods where a Space Marine squad earlier had fled to avoid the Riptide’s deadly fire.

This could have been a disaster, but neither she nor her bodyguards were injured as they fell through the tree canopy. They came down almost atop the Marines’ position, but the Marines’ boltgun fire was largely ineffective given the cover of trees.

At first, Strongblade was forced to engage the Marines without the support of her advancing Fire Warriors. She did not hesitate, however, and opened fire with her two fusion blasters. Her bodyguard followed her example, and the powerful blasts of their weapons quickly thinned out the contingent of Marines.

Soon after, the advancing Fire Warriors arrived to join the fight, as did the gun drone team that risked another jet-pack jump through the woods. The AI-controlled drones suffered severe losses with this advance, but the few survivors dropped behind the Marines and added their fire to the skirmish.

In the end, the Marines were brought down, and Tau casualties were light. What looked to have been a disastrous aerial drop actually proved to be fortuitously successful. What’s more, with the loss of its infantry support, the Vindicator squadron was now outflanked and vulnerable.

Marines advance

Confident that the Tau had committed its reserves, Vivant finally gave the order for his armored column to advance. His mix of Predator tanks and Rhino transports raced at full speed up the east flank, surrendering any use of weapons in an attempt to close with the Tau lines and force the xenos into hand-to-hand combat.

All of this was anticipated by Strongblade. In the center, the Tau Riptide broke off its long-range fire support of the west flank and re-positioned itself to strike at the target of Vivant’s column. The Riptide fired its railgun at the closest passing Rhino, and it burst into flame. Soon after, a Predator tank also was destroyed.

The Marines hurriedly escaped out of the burning vehicle, only to come under fire from the Fire Warriors that had entrenched themselves into the ruined building. Emboldened by the destruction of the enemy vehicles, the xeno infantry poured heavy fire on the Marines and brought one Astartes down.

Thankfully, the power armor of the Space Marines proved its worth despite the xenos’ powerful pulse rifles, and the Marines didn’t hesitate to charge the Fire Warriors and drive them out of the ruins.

Yet, this minor victory for the Marines was tactically irrelevant, as the Astartes now were on foot and found themselves engaged with the enemy and left behind as Vivant’s forces moved forward.

Hard fighting

For Vivant, the key to victory would be found on the east flank. When his armored column reached the enemy position, he ordered his Marines to disembark and charge the copse of woods defended by squads of Fire Warriors. If captured, the Marines would advance through the woods, turn the enemy flank, and sweep the xenos from the field.

Their attack was overwhelming. Several tactical squads charged forward, while an Assault Squad rose up on their jetpacks and slammed down hard onto the enemy position. Dozens of xenos died within the first minutes of fighting, but the rest skillfully if desperately withdrew while still shooting.

Not far away, a Predator tank fired at the nearby shanty town, targeting a position that Tau Pathfinders were using to guide xeno fire. The closest shanties were torn apart, and Vivant personally led his bodyguard into the town and slaughtered every remaining xeno in sight.

The Marines were sweeping aside all opposition—until the arrival of a squadron of Devilfish armed with a burst cannons.

Several Marines were downed by the powerful xeno weapons, but the Assault Squad rose up and then came down on the vehicles’ flanks. Slashing with chainswords and stuffing krak grenades into vulnerable engine intake mounts, the xeno transports was quickly immobilized.

As the xeno transports dropped to the ground, however, their rear hatches opened and several Breacher Teams, elite Tau troops, disembarked and began firing power Pulse Blasters with plasma-based ammunition.

Click here to read the conclusion of this battle.

Click here to return to Part 1.

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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.