Company of Martyrs (Warhammer 40K Wargame Quest)

It was close. It was so close! Just a single shattered wall blocked your way to victory. So you decided to go double or nothing. "Affix bayonets!" You howled, raising your power sword to the sky. "Vaulters, affix bayonets! Make ready for close quarters combat.!"

Your cry echoed through the local area and your soldiers listened. Then in a smooth manner, knives were fished from belts with practiced flourish. Clicks sounded as they slid neatly beneath the barrel of their lasgun and readied, each Guardsmen keenly aware of the extra weight that could affect their aim now. Meanwhile Sergeant Trouttet thumbed the activation rune and felt the chainsword rumble in his grip, purring in anticipation of the coming bloodshed. This was to be it, the iconic moment of death or glory in the Imperial Guard.

All they waited for was your command.

One.

There was that dry rattling that tended to happen with heavy stubbers when they neared the bottom of their ammunition box.

Two.

There was the quiet click that announced the heavy stubbers had nothing more in their chambers, following by the frantic clinking of loaders hastily shoving in replacements.

Three.

A deep breath, then you gave the order. "INTO THE ENEMY, VAULTERS!"


Screams and cries left the throats of Fifth Battalion when they left cover and moved up to the enemy emplacement. The air thrummed with another shot fired from the mysterious energy weapon that struck another Valkyrie from the sky, witnessed by those on the ground. However, the explosive sight seemed to only relight the fury in the hearts of the Imperials, determined to avenge those they could not save in time.


Meanwhile, across the battlefield, Burnion watched the glorious charge going on in the middle and cursed. "We missed our shot for glory- hold on." Their eyes narrowed and spied the flanking force. A moment later, a grin sprouted on their face. "No, here's our shot for glory here! Mind your angles and fire away, full-auto!"


The enemy was completely caught off-guard by the volley of lasbolts coming from their rear! What little had survived the initial ambush were reduced even further, and the soldiers started screaming for their officer to think of a plan. But before any could be voiced, there was the distinct whistling of missiles streaking across the air once again.


This time it seemed that Ghost-3 opted to do less, but more controlled shots on account of their faulty targeting systems. The results spoke for themselves, with a missile finally landing a direct hit on the building that the rebel heavy weapons team was situated in. It wasn't much, noisily blowing out a wall and not much else, but it shook them long enough for the others to get into position for what could be the coup de grace.

"Hold fire until my command! Grenadiers, you know what to do!" Your throat was starting to get a little sore from all the yelling, but you didn't let up. Not while they were looking to you for guidance. You caught the eye of Milix, who pulled a frag grenade out from a pouch with one hand. There was a nervous but determined look in her eyes, one wanting to avenge your fallen comrade. A shared nod, then you rose up firing with your laspistol to give her cover to hurl the explosive. "First rank, ready! Fire! Second rank, ready! Fire!"



The grenade landed closer to the outer edge of the enemy squad and exploded, showering a couple of them with shrapnel. This was in conjunction with the precise and focused volleys from Vernau and Croix, both of them making good account for themselves. Almost killing half their squad in one go drew out their officer, rising up to shout something rallying. But she didn't even manage to get her words out before your sharp marksmanship put a neat little hole through the side of her skull, boiling her brain alive.


To your side was another flurry of violence, the veteran squad firing through the newly created hole in the building and into the exposed rebels. At such range and under your direction, none were spared. The heavy weapons team was well and truly silenced, with only the distant crump of a grenade going off to mark their passing.


Now there was only one foe standing in the way to taking full control of the center. And the glory of taking it down would be none other than you! "Into them!" You repeated, swinging your sword forwards to lead the charge. "Into them, for the Emperor!"


Your lifeguards tried to follow, but only Milix was right behind you. The other two had been immediately caught by shots to the upper chest. More and more of your comrades gone, just like that, and it drove you to scream in fury, dropping your laspistol to better hold your power sword with both hands. Perhaps it wasn't a very refined style of fighting, but you didn't care. You were a noble rebel after all.


The inelegant style resulted knocking down a few of them with one swing, then focusing only on the rebel mutant on the ground right in front of you. You stepped over them and held your sword downwards, only to pause when you took in their features. So much like the other penal colonists at the city you had liberated, with just a few harmless mutations that still marked them tainted enough to spend their lives atoning for. A sin of no fault that the Imperium would demand a lifetime of penance for.

Then they ripped the knife from their boot and stuck it in your leg, driving away any further sympathy. With a pained howl, you drove the sword downwards and the energies from the power sword obliterated their chest, rendering flesh and organ into mush. You growled and yanked the knife out your leg, tossing it aside to cast a fierce glare at the rest.



Your charge had the effect of silencing the anti-air emplacement for now, but it wasn't yet firmly in your hands either. It was still a chaotic melee that could swing either way, a delicate balance that could topple at any moment. Hopefully you were still buying enough time for the others to act upon.



There were shouts coming from the back of the fortress and through the bodies around you, you could see more enemies surging forth. These must be their second wave, you absently recognized while fending off the remnants of the first. Emperor save you, your forces were truly outnumbered now!



They made rapid pace, the looming threat that would arrive surely or later. Yet the more pressing matter was the flanking squad of rebels that now moved in to join the fight for the center. They mimicked your actions just now, shouting and charging forward with guns blazing in an attempt to drive off the invaders. At least they dared not shoot directly into the melee, too worried about hitting their fellows.



Most of the shots just went wide and there wasn't enough of them in volume to truly concern anybody. But then came their own charge into Imperial lines to well and truly throw the fight into an utter mess. Trouttet was yelling for all to fire into their charging line, to try and drive them back.


Volleys of orange lights stabbed into them, but to the shock and horror of the squad, the rebels just kept coming. Soon, it was a chaotic melee that saw the two groups trying to spear each other with bayonets and whatever else, all sorts of noble conduct be damned. This truly was war came down to the end, clubbing each other with the butts of rifles until they stopped moving.


You snarled and deftly parried an attempted jab at your face, favoring your uninjured leg. Before the rebel could make another attempt, something came out from your blind side to bury itself into their throat. It was Milix, panting in a mix of exertion and adrenaline as she ripped her bloody bayonet from the corpse and readying for another jab. "I'm with you, Major!" She got out, the last of your lifeguards still up. "Until we're before the Throne to face judgment!"

"Then let us make sure we give a good account," you murmured back, feeling for and picking up your laspistol from the ground.



Trouttet slammed his chainsword into the gut of a rebel and pulled the trigger. The weapon's serrated teeth rapidly churned, ripping apart the screaming mutant's insides. The sergeant used the motion to fully saw the body into two halves. His head snapped up when that familiar smell of ozone returned and the anti-air emplacement began to activate once again. "Get them off! Get them off the damn gun!" He shouted and his squad tried, but they simply could not get past the few remaining guards to shut them off.

Were it not for the fact that they were rebel scum, perhaps their valiant and heroic defense of the objective would have been considered like something out of legend. But as it was, being the ones on the opposite side, it was a quite unpleasant feeling.




Through your heavy breaths, you could make out something from your comm-bead. "Major Starcrest, we're here!" Neginol faintly announced. "I hope we're not too late!"

"We're here too, though we almost didn't make it," Pinume chimed in in an even quieter tone. "The Emperor works in mysterious ways."

That He did, but was it enough to still turn the battle around before the 59th Moebian broke?





Issue Commands up to your CP maximum (4)



- The fact that rebel Overwatch worked while yours failed was such dumb luck. Then Squad Tretium failed their melee rolls to a shocking degree where they couldn't even get any rerolls from Inspirational Leadership....this is absolutely the rebels having a grand last stand and you're unfortunately on the other side.
- Even worst is that since they're Troops, they count double for contesting points. Oh dear.
- At the end of Turn 5, it'll be a random roll to determine whether or not the battle continues. It's a 3+ so probably will save that fate reroll for that. But you never know with these accursed dice.
- As for options...you do have some room to play around with what Major Starcrest could order. A unit can safely withdraw from melee by giving up their movement and shooting, but the IG have a special order that lets them shoot while running away. Also thanks to the Scintillia (Vostroyan) doctrine, she could also order guns to fire at point-blank range to just blast away the enemy. Up to you to decide whether to withdraw or press the assault.

"Everybody, forward!"

The order from the Major was simple and easy enough for your reinforcements to handle and follow. The thunder boots were accompanied by the squeak of servos when Ghost-3 moved to join the reinforcing push down the center. It was a veritable wave of flesh and steel, attempting to partake in the battle before it was too late. With any luck, it wasn't with Burnion directing their team to seize control of a minor anti-air emplacement to relieve the pressure.



But they were still some ways off, with the fight being here and now. The sharp throb of your leg injury was a painful reminder of that fact and you stumbled. Your last lifeguard reacted instantly, moving to hold you up with one arm while the other still firmly gripped her lasgun. "Fighting retreat!" You hissed, allowing Milix to half-carry, half-drag your weight. The power sword in your hand deactivated while the other, the free arm, raised the laspistol to crack away at the enemy as you fell back together.



Milix's full-auto hip fire was impressively accurate, able to strongly dissuade the enemy from pursuing too closely. Your contribution was an accurate burst straight into the chest of a rebel soldier, the volley finally enough to put them down for good. You took grim satisfaction and strength from the kill, finding it in yourself to walk unaided after a moment. It still badly ached and the pants you wore definitely needed to be sent to the tailors for cleaning and repair. But those were problems for later, after winning the battle.

Nearby, Trouttet was shouting to his squad. He swiped, then rose his chainsword in a rallying gesture. "Assemble on me! Form squares!" Discipline asserted itself and the Vaulters neatly condensed themselves into a unique formation that had the front rank repelling the assaults with bayonets, while the back ranks readied their lasguns. "Fire when ready!"


Lasfire lit up the few enemies still defending the anti-air emplacement, multiple beams stabbing into them. To the shock of the troopers, those mutants still roared in defiance even with gaping holes in their abdomens and tried to continue fighting. An entire second volley was required to finally put them down, along with some of the more paranoid Vaulters unloading the remainder of the power cell into them, overkill be damned. These foes were tough enough to warrant this morbid form of respect.


Corporal Seltz watched impassively when the final rebel defending the center was finally cut down by flickering pulses of lasfire, the bolts nearly running out of energy from the vast distance they were fired upon. But it worked, and more importantly, the central anti-air emplacement was cleared of enemies- he could now focus on different targets without worrying about friendly fire. So he returned back to volley fire with his missile launchers, focusing all of them into the enemy reinforcements lugging heavy weapons to the front.

His fist smashed and cracked the screen of his targeting cogitator at the result. He didn't care if the Enginseers screamed at him in binary later, they clearly weren't doing their damned jobs in appeasing the machine spirit! "Maybe I should rip this entire damn unit out and replace it with something like a mutli-laser!"


Despite the continued woes of Ghost Squadron, overall, it seemed like your effort to flush the center position of the enemy position had borne fruit. With both the center and right positions taken, the pressured upon the 59th Moebian surely must have lessened to allow their assault to continue on. You just had to hold out as long as you could, and refuse to yield the position to the last of the rebel waves! A little bit more, that was it.



You should've known better than to hope that was all.

"Major?" Milix's voice faintly called out with a quiver. "Major, what's that?"

'That' being a set of black dots now clouding the air from the rear of the enemy's lines, one that was now drawing close. When they got nearer, you could make out the faint orange glow on metal carapaces and your vision swam. Then your eyes fell upon the faint markings on the fortress all about and you wanted to scream.

You settled for violently cursing instead. "Merde! All units, pass it on until the Lieutenant General is told! We're not just dealing with an uprising!" A thought struck you and you kicked over one of the rebel corpses to expose the back of their heads. The glint of metal was enough confirm your suspicions. "NECRONS! I repeat, we have Necrons on Otra Prime!"

"Then those are-!"

"Scarabs, don't let them get close!"



Unfortunately, that very well might not be something your soldiers could prevent. The Scarabs flew swiftly across the battlefield, crossing a great distance in a blink of an eye to move in. Alongside advanced the rebel soldiers, who seemed to not care or mind their strange and unusual allies. You growled and wondered if you could have a talk with the Arbites later about upgrading the possible severity of the captured rebels if they truly had known they were consorting with such a foul alien opponent.


Concentrated fire soon fell upon the Vaulters holding the center, the rebels focusing all their fire in an attempt to cut down as many Imperials as possible. You were relatively safe from it, being some distance away, but it meant you could only watch Squad Tretium take all the fire. By some dark blessing, only one among them was caught by the gunfire, Philau whose arm was blown entirely away by a piercing round from their heavy weapons.

Trouttet kept the others cool throughout, coaching them in a low voice to keep their heads down and hold their fire. He knew that this was only the prelude to the charge to follow, and wanted to preserve as many shots as possible for it. You could only hope he was ready for it.



Trouttet waited a moment longer, then gave the order. "Open fire!" The metal beetles scattered immediately at the flurry of lasguns that opened in their direction. Few actually connected and none actually brought any of them down, but it was enough to disrupt their formation and send them spinning about uselessly. Once he was satisfied, the Sergeant ordered the troopers to swap fire on the rebel soldiers sprinting at them.


The crack of lasguns filled your ears with just how often they fired this battle, a sharp and brittle sound like dry sticks merrily cackling in a fireplace back home on Scintillia. Perhaps the others shared the same warm memories and took strength in it, fighting on with clenched teeth in an effort to force the enemies to give up. The charging foes faltered in the wake of this firepower coming from the determined defenders, then one was cooked alive by lasfire to remind the others to not stand out in open.

They fell back and you let out a pent-up breath. Tretium did it. They held!




(Battle Continues (Turn 6): 4)

"We have the edge now!" You urged through your comm-bead. "Everybody, just hold on. Every moment we hold on is another moment we give to our comrades to break through. They dig up the worst to throw at us, but still we proudly stand! So hold on, and show them that the Imperial Guard does not take one step back!"





Issue Commands up to your CP maximum (4)



- Technically, I imagine that you could ask to end the battle now by just fate rerolling to try and fail that battle continuation check. But I also imagine you would like a victory lap to farm more victory points- which translates into more shiny requisition points!
- That final charge by the way was the real nail biter- if the rebel troops had gotten into melee and survived, they would win in contesting the point. Terrain absolutely mattered in stopping that. The Scarabs would only make it a draw contested, but they are nasty in their own way.