As a Cadian patrol reach the outskirts of an ork village, Imperial guardsmen are assaulted by a squadron of Deffkoptas.

“Kopta blades! I hear Kopta blades! Combat deployment immediately.  Enemy approaching from the west. I can’t see them, but I can hear them. They’re coming in fast.“—vox broadcast of Patrol Cassius, guarding the flank of the 273rd Cadian Regiment

 * * *

ICONIA (6 457 746.M41)—A rising ork warlord calling himself Gutkrumpa has attacked Imperial troops for the second time in a month—this time slaughtering an Imperial Guard patrol to the last man.

The attack took place to the southwest of the Hobru Jungle, approximately 130 kilometers from a similar xeno attack only weeks ago at a PDF training encampment.

This latest attack saw an ork Warkopta and a squadron of Deffkoptas intercept a platoon-sized patrol of the 273rd Cadian Regiment that was tasked with investigating an apparently  abandoned ork settlement discovered by surveillance drones.

“It appears that the settlement was not abandoned as we originally thought,” Major Luka Horvat, senior military intelligence analyst for the Iconian PDF, stated at a morning press conference.

Ork warriors advance behind the cover of a Mekboy workshop.

Ambushed!

“Given the timing of the attack as the patrol reached the outskirts of the settlement, it seems likely that the orks had observed the Cadians’ approach and prepared an ambush,” he added.

The greenskin attack was short and vicious. The patrol was only 50 meters from the camp perimeter when five Deffkoptas rose from behind an ork structure and targeted an infantry squad on the patrol’s left flank.

Fire from the ork aircraft proved uncharacteristically accurate, dropping half the squad, Horvat said.

“A Chimera transport and an armored Sentinel joined the infantry’s defensive fire, but only one Deffkopta was shot down and one suffered sufficient damage to leave it flying with a thick black cloud in its wake.”

On the patrol’s right flank, guardsmen noted the approach of orks on foot, using the settlement’s buildings as cover. An ork Warkopta also appeared over a nearby ridge and advanced.

The Cadians on this flank responded by opening fire with their lasguns.

This second squad was outgunned, Horvat said. “Once the mob of orks came out of cover, the greenskins opened fire, and the advancing Warkopta added the fire of several large-caliber “big shootas” attached to the Warkopta’s fuselage.

While the patrol’s left flank fights the Deffkoptas, the right flank is overwhelmed by two ork mobs charging simultaneously.

Overwhelmed!

In an unusually coordinated attack, the orks on the right flank charged the Cadians—just as the Warkopta slammed down in a rough landing and disembarked yet another mob of greenskins to the second squad’s front.

“The Cadians met the threat with a series of volleys that devastated one mob,” Vorbat said. “But the second mob suffered few casualties and completed its charge.”

A bitter melee ensued, and the Cadians eventually were overwhelmed.

As the patrol’s numbers shrink against sustained ork attacks, a reserve of veteran guardsmen disembark from a damaged Chimera and confront the greenskins. Alas, the ork numbers are simply too many, and the entire patrol is destroyed.

Forced to react to the collapse of their right flank, the platoon’s Chimera disembarked its reserves—a squad of veteran guardsmen armed with shotguns—and turned its attention to the advancing threat.

Multi-laser and shotgun fire killed many orks, Horvat said,  but sufficient xenos managed to close with the veterans and slaughter them, as well.

With only a single Sentinel in support, the first Cadian squad—already reduced to a handful of men—found itself unable to respond effectively to the Deffkoptas. Xeno fire killed the last of the squad, and then the Deffkoptas swarmed the Sentinel and finally breached its rear armor with their heavy weapons.

“The entire patrol was wiped out,” Horvat concluded. “Reinforcements were sent to the scene, of course, and they found quite a lot of dead greenskins on the battlefield. The Cadians fought well, and now they sit by the side of the Emperor.”

“We will seek vengeance by killing every last xeno menacing our world.”

+ END TRANSMISSION +

TheGM: This was a fun little 500-point game I played with my 7-year-old neighbor. I am slowly “corrupting” him to pleasures of the Grimdark, and I only mention this because it’ll serve as a reminder to myself (years from now) of the fun I had watching this youngster enjoy a well-earned tabletop victory. (I should be so lucky.)

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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.