Dust and debris kicked up as a strong wind blew over the wastelands of Gallateus LXI, obscuring the already poor visibility offered by its small red sun. At the edge of what was once maybe a lookout point for an Adeptus Mechanicus geological crew stood a small building, half-covered by the dust and filth of this barren world, as well as 3 dried-out thickets. An unusual site to be sure, an imperial remembrancer would write it off as perhaps some arcaheotech relic the Admech were investigating that allowed life to exist once in this place, this being their only explanation for the dried-out husks around it.
As the wind picked up more and more speed the air hummed and crackled around the thickets and tall, lithe humanoids came into shape as if from thin air. What followed was a host of 15 constructs made of alien material. The party was led by a number of robed individuals who, as the grav-tank bearing excavating equipment unloaded and shimmered out of sight, swiftly gave orders to the men and women to set up a perimeter and proceed to hastily dig for something.
-"Why now Elandrin? The spirit stone of Kaithe Llachanri has been lost for a couple thousand years. Why set out to recover it now?" Asked one of the robed figures in a calm, echoing voice.
- "The aftermath of the Brittle Coma has left our seer council depleted Yloen, the stone could be just the catalyst we need to boost the initiates on the Witch-path enough so that we can replenish before the Rhana-Dhandra. More and more of us are seeing portents and omens, ones that no seer can manipulate. The ruinous powers think they have checked us with this plague, we need to be prepared to show otherwise."
-"And you chose this moment because it predates the red-dreams? You think to recover the stone before the followers of the ruinous powers make their move on this world? They are already gathering in orbit, though not far behind them is another mon'keigh fleet."
-"Precisely - and if I have read the skeins of fate correctly then calling in an old favor will be the key turning point."
The orange-armored aeldari did not have to dig for long before they heard the roar of engines. Troop landers, drop pods, and rhinos quickly appeared on both sides. The horizon turned red with the mass of armored bodies. On one side organized and disciplined, on the other war-dogs waiting to be loosed from some invisible chain, howling for blood.
-"Children of The Fallen Suns! Gather together! Form a defensive perimeter around the shrine of the Ancients! May Asuryan guide our shots today, for it will be a day of reckoning! Bonesinger Toruviel, stand at the ready, hold our wraithwall steady! Keep the webway line open, everyone on the path of Isha be prepared for emergency recovery and evac protocol. We take the stone and fall back. Let the mon'keigh tear eachother apart."
A new grav-tank bearing aspect warriors materialized and set up to guard the rear flank of the Lugganath wraith-host.
On the right flank the barbarous world eaters were led by a fearsome demon prince named Azkor Axefist, with a motley crew of underlings with a vicious taste for blood. The champion Orekh Skullfiend and the frenzied Dark Apostle spearhead the assault against the Aeldari with a large number of marines, while Lord Larsakh Rhugor attempts to maintain a semblance of tactics on the central line.
Mirroring the World Eater's deployment was the Blood Angels 2nd company, led by Captain Donatos Aphael and Chief Librarian Mephiston himself. The chapter ancients have been deployed conservatively behind the marines, who were already lining their sights on the Wraithguards
.
-"The red dreams spoke true. We have prepared for this moment. Do not let them have the first salvo! Loose Shurikens!" ordered Elandrin to his small host. As the words barely escaped his lips the wraithguards lurched into motion, moving towards the blood angels. The Wraithblades on the World Eater flank braced for Impact, as a reckless charge would endanger their position. The guardian excavation teams were ordered to locate and retrieve the spirit stone.
Despite the vast psychic mastery of the aeldari, a crucial spell to further harden the wraithblades has been snatched from the warp by Mephiston, an action that would have as a consequence the assistance of the fallen space marines. But that was not all the misfortune that begat the Lugganath host. Be it divine intervention from the ruinous powers or a fluke in the warp, the D-cannons and D-Scythes of the Wraithguards misfired, firing wide and the destructive effect of the distortion not manifesting. The echo of the blast wounded a couple of marines and a dreadnought. The shuriken-wielding infantry fared little better as the red dust storm was still in full effect. Khorne willed blood to be shed in personal combat, and his due would not be denied by alien trickery.
With a bellow the mighty demon prince leaped into combat, barrelling towards the warlock Virnael who was downed by his warp-bolter. As the wraithblades could not protect against a flying opponent, the Demon Prince Azkor decided to take the head of the aeldari leadership, shredding Farseer Yloen to the point that the healers could barely retrieve her Soulstone. His mighty rampage continued into the other seers but High Seer Elandrin and the Spiritseer Arviel held their ground. The situation was grim for the troops as well. In such close quarters the much larger, frenzied marines had a distinct advantage. And without any place to fall back the red butchers quickly reveled in the bloodbath. The Dark Apostle was displeased to bash his Crozius against bloodless constructs, but the wraithguard blunted as much of the World Eater charge as they could, 3 of their number falling to the relentless onslaught.
The Blood Angel 2nd company was determined to eradicate the Xenos threat in front of them, due to the dust storm they could only hear the sounds of combat from the other side of the wind wall, not knowing that their traitorous brethren were already engaging on the other side. The 2nd guardian excavation team was eradicated, but thankfully the Relic Spiritstone, a personal interest of the Lord of Death himself has already been gleamed by the now-dead, first excavation team. He could sense its presence, but knew he had to go through a demon prince first to get to it. After the wraithguard on the Blood Angel flank suffered heavy casualties, Mephiston leapt over them on Crimson wings, determined to clear the field of the demon and the remaining warp-tainted seers.
The duel was a veritable clash of the titans. Mephiston skewered Azkor Axefist in the chest with his sword, but the eponymous axe-fist returned the favor as a parting blow and hurled the Chief Librarian on his last gasp, sword extended towards the still engaged Farseer. This was not the seer's moment of demise as his runesuit kept him on his feat as both colossal fighters disengaged. Mephiston was emergency-teleported aboard their battle-barge in orbit, and Azkor, attempting to find a new target from the air was pulled back into the warp screaming by a clawed hand.
Elandrin quickly ordered his wraiths, avengers and wave serpent back into a defensible position around the dried-out thicket. Their concealed webway gate to make a stand. And no sooner had they regrouped that his ace in this losing hand appeared. The Harlequins of the Midnight Sorrow leaped out from the labyrinth dimension and fell upon the Blood Angels back flank. They brought with them a group of exodite archers, sensing that the purity of this maiden world was being disturbed. The world spirit's restorative powers were slowly being awakened by the amount of aeldari blood spilled around the shrine.
-"Excellent. Now that you're here we can clear this area and make a push for the artifact." was the message Elandrin transmitted to the Shadowseer, he was weakened from his wounds,only held up by his witchstaff.
-"You mean to leave son of dying light, but your role here is beyond the Spiritstone, the mon'keigh have ignored it so far but the key to this battle is the Shrine to the Ancients. It must not fall under any circumstances. The great game is being played out as we speak, and we must be the rock on which the ruinous powers' wheel breaks."
Elandrin sighed and steadied himself, knowing all too well that defying a servant of the Laughing God, especially one bringing their salvation is to invite ruin. A new defensive perimeter was set up behind the webway and from here the increasingly savage mon'keigh would be driven back with sword and sorcery.
As the dust storm settled the rest of the world eater horde came into view to the horror of both imperial and xeno combatants. A tide of sharp weapons wielded by beings who are more akin to a walking abattoir than people.
The Blood Angels 2nd company was now the main focus of both the armies as they were pincered between the flanking harlequins, the horde up ahead and the newly set up defensive position near the southern webway. They fought back hard, but their dreadnoughts were collapsing one by one. For every traitor slain, at least a couple Angels went to meet their Primarch. The battle turned into a grinding battle of attrition, but the Shadowseer smiled crookedly under his mask as the Shrine was completely ignored during the massacre.
The World Eaters' initial assault point now only had a remnant of units whipped by Orekh and the Apostle. The obstinate wraithguards were finally eliminated however - the troupe master of the Midnight Sorrow as well as a Solitaire engaged them from behind to eradicate their presence on what was now supposed to be newly safe ground, away from the main battle on the new front. But it would not be like that for long as the Blood Angel Assault marines descended on the embattled harlequins who have suffered wounds from their clash with the followers of Khorne.
The backline assault of the Blood Angels reduced the forces of the Aeldari to but 2 wandering wraith constructs and the dramatis personae fighting tooth and nail for the protection of a shrine which up to this point has been unharmed, as all the fighting forces were becoming dangerously depleted.
...............................................................................................................................................................
....then the tides of fate took a turn for the most dire. The Chaos Lord Larsakh Rhugor has used the mayhem caused by his warriors to retrieve the spirit stone of Kaithe Llachanri...and promptly offered it up to the Blood God as sacrifice, destroying the stone in the process, and the potent psychic spirit inside it. This heinous act has earned him an immediate boon, but unlike his brothers he decided not to test his newly gained blessing on the bitterly embattled Angels and Harlequins. Instead he started sprinting towards his original central deployment, while ordering his remaining men who were not engaged to proceed to pillage the shrine of the Ancients.
They have done sizeable damage to the shrine, but one statue in particular, the statue of the Trickster God Cegorach was proving increasingly difficult to destroy with every new attempt at its integrity. Melta shots were fired, power fists have been smahed into it, even the unbound physical savagery of the World Eaters could not crumble it. As the Harlequins rushed to defend the Shrine, another catastrophe occurred. The remainder of the Blood Angels' 2nd company fell to the black rage and in their unbound frenzy started shooting the first and largest things in view.
With the Chaos marines immediately attacking the shrine vanquished, the trio of harlequins called for a ceasefire, but the only answer they received in the vox was gurgled screams from the Imperial comms and taunts to come claim Lord Larsakh's head from the conniving Khornate himself. The head of the desecrator soon lay at the feet of the Troupe master, chopped by the Storied Sword, but caught in what seemed like a victory rush and the chain of orders stopping on the Aeldari side, 2 chaos marines made a new attempt on the shrine. Cegorach, possibly pleased by the grand spectacle put on by his perfomers, maintained his blessings on the shrine.
What seemed like sweet victory turned into bitter defeat however as a stray lascannon shot from the last Blood Angel dreadnought, now caught in the black rage penetrated the shrine and broke the statue of the Trickster. The enchanted wraithbone barely hit the ground as the warp engulfed the shrine and a mighty Greater Demon of Khorne emerged from the warp portal that swallowed the remains of the shrine, immediately draining the blood of the dead around him.
The aeldari immediately retreated with all due haste to their webway portals and collapsed this tunnel, knowing full well that this manifestation means that the world spirit has been corrupted, devoured and the world itself will now become a daemon-world, a staging point for the Khornate hordes.
The black-raged Blood Angels knew no fear and attempted to engage the demon in a last attempt to purge this battlefield...however Khorne willed blood...and was not denied.
In the end, no amount of alien trickery or human courage could stand in front of the corrupting force of Chaos, a decisive, brutal victory achieved in no small part to Lord Larsakh Rhugor, a name surely to be howled again by the viscous servants of Khorne in remembrance of this triumph.
