Year of War 40k: Apocalypse Part 2

To be a Hunter in the service of the Ordo Xenos was to know freedom. Oh, certainly you were a weapon, just waiting to be pointed in the right direction, but there was a certain peace to be found in knowing your place in life in such simple terms. Go here, slaughter everything that opposes the Emperor, sometimes collect the shiny alien tech that some lofty Inquisitor coveted- and that was it!

Alexsandr perched on the tower and looked down on his prey. Five marines, armor utterly corrupted and defiled, fired at some target in the distance. The Hunter neither knew nor cared if the explosive bolts hit their mark, he was far more focused upon the barking laughter that bubbled up from warped respirators- at the good humor they were in from the target rich environment seething outside of their walls. Well, fair was fair. Sometimes the Hunter becomes the Hunted- something the closest marine learned as the powered links of a chain-spear suddenly wrapped around his throat.

In a moment, the assassin was on them in a blur of carefully choreographed violence....

Alexsandr jumps into combat, turning the ramparts red.

He clears a swathe, but the heavy flamers on the defiler turn out
to be a good counter to his dodge rolls, taking some wounds from him.

Kill Team Corwyn takes the gatehouse on the Fortresses far flank. 

Watchmaster Pyrannius and Kill Team Arden take a tower, firing
at the heretics on all sides. 

Kill Team Hestios cuts down dozens of cultists even as the
Corvus is shot down by ludicrous amounts of Orcish fire.

The Orks, taking the walls of the fortress as a challenge, blow up one
of the wall sections just to prove that they could- despite the fact that
they were nominally working with the Chaos forces.

The Kill Wagon attempts to charge the Shadowsword to eat its
overwatch for the Meganobz, and ends up taking a direct hit from
the volcanon cannon, incinerating it and most of its occupants.

On the other side you can see that the Orks and guard have practically wiped
each other out, leaving the entire flank fairly open besides from a lone Culexes
on the wall.

The weight in pewter of the Vostroyen dead can barely be imagined.

Walls on the flank practically secured, the Deathwatch find themselves
the target of the brunt of most of the Chaos reinforcements.

Sadly the Meganobz finally get their charge...

... and deal an amazing amount of wounds, slaying the proud war machine
in one round of combat before it even has the chance to swing back.

Luckily the MegaNobz were too overzealous and the Shadowsword
exploded in a fury, killing several Nobz, a Big Mek, and crippling several
other characters (as well as wiping out a Vostroyen Platoon command and
its commissar hiding behind the observatory. 

Armored reinforcements roll on, and begin immediately battering the
walls with long range fire, a punisher sweeping the walls in range.

Two units of lady Rough Riders with melta guns rumble onto the
board, almost managing to take down a wall between their fire
and a charge even while taking withering bolter fire. 

Two Chimeras, one filled with crusaders and a priest the other with
several special weapon toting command squads race for the gap
to reinforce the Deathwatch. 

Captain Raoul Giantkiller arrives, calling in Kill Team Gascoigne with
the Angelis Beacon to likewise bring the fight to Chaos. 

Alexsandr is confronted with a Boss, and promptly turns around to deal with
scouts in the tower instead. Prudence!

The center Gatehouse shakes with the armored might of the Imperial
War Machines, but its invulnerable save and 20 wounds keeps it standing
even as lascannons and krak missiles stream out towards the attackers.

The Deathwatch holding the walls are whittled down from the absolute torrents
of enemy fire even as Pyrannius struggles to deal with a Chaos Warlord on the walls.

Captain Raoul kills two of the scouts, but falls prey to an enemy stratagem
that deals three mortal wounds and kills him outright. 

The Daemon Prince, not to be denied his prey, chases the Culexes
into the tower, bringing him down to exactly one wound just before the end.

Pyrannius sucked in air as the Chaos Lord before him punctured one of his lungs with a vicious forwards thrust that drove the Watch Master to the edge of parapet. The horizon throbbed a dull, corrupted red and he could tell that this assault would be a failure. The reinforcements had been delayed for too long, and with the Imperial Forces so weakened by the sudden Orkish attack... there was no way they could take Valdegard this day.

He parried another thrust, swinging his Glaive down to deal his own crippling injury to his opponent, but already more heretics were pushing their way onto the wall- clearly with no intention on honoring a one on one duel. All around him his brothers were falling. Brother Sergeant Arden still lived, but his Kill Team was down to three effective. Kill Team Hestios was wiped out, Gascoigne under heavy fire and even Captain Raoul was reportedly seen streaming out of one of the towers, his jumppack badly malfunctioning from some sort of booby trap. If things kept up...

"Watch Master. Primary Objective Achieved. Calling for teleportation extraction in 5..."

Pyrannius didn't need to hear the rest of the communication, instead turning and leaping from the wall. The astonished cries and spattering of curses from above did nothing to give him pause, and in seconds the beam of light from his orbiting ship plucked him from midair and delievered him and his surviving brothers to safety. There was a pang of regret as he watched Imperial Guard surge towards the fortress, knowing that there was no way they would succeed in their assault with or without his marines.

An Imperial loss, even a massacre that could cause this campaign to extend for untold weeks- but it wasn't all for nothing. The Deathwatch had what they came for. Surely it would be worth the cost.

Chaos Victory!