Braxxis Campaign

[Caladai Doomblade]

Chapter 3

3.1 To snare a serpent

The Eldar of Shai Tan reached the foothills of the Daikiri mountain range with much delay after waiting for the Ork Whaaagh to pass north. Without delay they entered the passes of the mountain range, splitting their force up into 3 part following different routes to prevent the small canyons slowing down a large force. Unknown to the Eldar, the Braxxin Stormguard lay in ambush along one of the routes. The Eldar were passing the Imperial ambush at speed when the Stormguard struck. Laser fire, rockits and heavy bolter shells suddenly rained out of the rock formations to the Eldars flank, catching the Eldar off guard. The Eldar quickly gathered their wits though, and the Imperials learned that ambushing Eldar is like wrestling an octopus, and while they kept sniping away at the Eldars many attacks, they could not prevent suffering major losses themselves. One of the Eldars forces was heavilly reduced, but at a great cost to the Stormguard as well.

Aftermath

After heavy fighting, both sides retreated. The Stormguard were quickly airlifted out and returned to Daikiri hive to treat their wounded and resupply. The surviving parts of the 306th were stationed as a guard force around the Daikiri military airfield, relieving a regiment of PDF troops sent north to reinforce the Katana bunker line in case the Orks tried to break through there. They were unaware however that Daikiri military airfield was about to come under attack from the Iron Warriors.

The Eldar gathered their wounded and dead and continued their journey west, rejoining with the other parts of their forces on the west side of the mountain range, at the edge of the Gei Han desert. Realising that if they continued towards their objective in a straight line the Imperial forces would prepare their defences, they headed more to the south. Their worked partially. The defences around the complex where the spirit stone was located were not reinforced, but their route across the desert did not go unnoticed and the Salamanders gathered a force and sent them out in thunderhawks to finally stop the Eldar dead in their tracks.

3.2 The greater of two goods

Once on board the Just Vengeance, the Dark Angels headed straight for the lance control room used to bombard the Iron Warriors. Once they reached the contol section of the ship, they sealed the doors behind them and deployed a radio jamming device to prevent any of the Salamanders warning the outside. Loading weapons and switching on power swords, they set off on their grim mission; kill all Salamander marines and stop their bombardment of the Iron Warriors.

The Salamanders were completely unaware of the Dark Angels treachery, but they were space marines and after the first Dark Angel fired his bolter at them, it took them only seconds to switch off their safeties and return fire. A brutal close-range firefight erupted in the bowels of the Just Vengeance, and the walls were quickly scored with bolt-impacts. Several Dark Angels fell in the initial firefight, but then the powersword armed veterans charged their brother-marines and quickly decided the fight. The bombardment continued for some minutes after the start of the fight, but in the end no Salamanders survived the traitorous attack of the Dark Angels.

Aftermath

Eventually, the doors towards the lance controls were opened, and the remaining Dark Angels walked out, their faces grim. What happened was never put on record, but one of the Dark Angel veterans travelled to the Salamanders strike cruiser Hammer of Wrath and spoke to captain Kabor in a private audience. He told Kabor of how the Dark Angels had walked into the control room only to find over half of the Salamanders dead. He told Kabor how a few Salamander had apparently turned traitor and were about to use the Lances on the Just Vengeance to blast the bridge of the Salamanders strike cruiser. Only the intervention of the Dark Angels had stopped their treachery. The veteran offered his sincerest apologies for killing those Salamanders, and then quickly left.

Kabor never believed the Dark Angels, but while his heart told him to retaliate against the Dark Angels, there was no proof that they were lying. Kabor vowed to find out the truth, but first they had an alien invasion to stop. Wishing to vent his anger, Kabor readied a strike force to stop the advancing Eldar once and for all. If they could eliminate the Eldar they would have one less opponent to worry about. Soon a squardron of Thunderhawks launched from the Hammer of Wrath and swooped towards Gei Han desert to draw a line in the sand. A line Kabor swore the Eldar would not cross alive.

On the Dark Angels ship Captain Gabriel also gathered a strike force. They would reinforce the Jantine Patricians that were mobilising from Somu Hive to defend the beaches of Takare from the Ork horde that would be landing there in a few days time.

3.3 The greater of two goods

In Kun Sai, two great armies clashed. The Iron Warriors and the Orks met each other on the plains, and slaughtered each other. The Orks wanted to go north, and the Iron Warriors were heading south, and neither was willing to avoid the other. A brutal battle followed, and both armies were severely mauled before both retreated. The Iron Warriors left the Claw and champion Skulltaker dead on the battlefield, while the Orks lost both their Warboss and his favorite Nob Stompa on the field of battle. Stompa eventually recovered from the loss of his lower body, but by then another Nob had knocked a few heads together and claimed leadership of the Whaaagh. In the Iron Warriors camp, The Rule didn't regret the loss of Claw for a moment. There were always other lieutenants and champions to be found.

Aftermath

After the first battle, The Rule decided that daemonhood was the better part of evil, and he couln’t afford to lose any more men fighting an enemy he didn’t need to defeat. Besides, his ships had identified the position of the Eldar and The Rule realised he needed to take desperate measures if was going to get to the spirit stone before the Eldar. He ordered his remaining army to head west and south around the Orks, and towards Daikiri Hive. His plan was to launch an attack on a militay airport on the edge of the Hive and steal as many transports as possible, then load up those transports with all the troops he could and fly to Gei Han in order to catch up to the Eldar.

The Orks, bereft of any enemies to fight and in turmoil because of the death of their leaders, were milling around in chaos. Eventually when in became clear that Warboss Bullit was really dead, the remaining Nobs burst into fighting for leadership of the clan. One Nob managed to emerge as the leader, after stabbing two other Nobs in the eyes and then banging their heads together untill their skulls cracked. His name was Stabba, and he crowned himself warboss of the Krusha Whaaagh afterwards. Gathering the Imperial maps they still had, he made a plan. The Whaaagh would head straigh for Somu Hive by the most direct route possible. They would head north-west towards the coast, build or steal some boats and cross the Takare fjord, landing on the Takare beaches and then racing on towards Somu. The only thing in their way was a small force of Jantine Patricians and Dark Angels sent out to stop them from landing on those beaches.

[Caladai Doomblade]

Chapter 4

The Orks cross the Takare fjord and land on the Takare beaches, quickly heading inland. The Jantine Patricians are waiting for them behind their barricades, and Dark Angels are racing down in support. The Iron Warriors attack Daikiri Airport to steal transports in an attempt to catch up to the Eldar. The Eldar are racing across the desert, but the Salamanders have drawn a line in the sand ahead of them with intentions to wipe them out.

[Caladai Doomblade]

Chapter 4

4.1 Assault on Daikiri Airport

Daikiri Airport was quiet at night, and it’s guards were almost asleep on their feet after their punishing fight ambushing the Eldar in the mountains. They still detected the Iron Warriors aproach to the airfield quickly, the throaty roar of the 3 rhino’s alerting them to the threat. The Stormguard quickly took up defensive positions to repel the attack, and the Iron Warriors stormed from the edge of the forest only to be greeted by massed fire from the defenders. The fire drills of the stormguard were impeccable, but the Rule had deployed his rhino’s well and the speed they granted the attack overwhelmed the defenders before they could cause enough damage to stop the chaos marines. After a small hour, most of the defenders lay dead, the remaining few retreating towards the city limits. The Iron Warriors had managed to capture three transport planes intact, and quickly began to board them.

Aftermath

Other attacks on different sections of the airfield met with similar successes, except for the attack on hangar 12, where the guard managed to power up the 2 valkyries parked there and used their guns and rockets to wreak havoc amongst the chaos marines attacking there. A total of 13 transporters of varying sizes were captured, boarded and lifted off before Stormguard reinforcements could arrive. The Rule’s plan had worked perfectly.

After liftoff, the new chaos airfleet banked west at full speed, heading for the north off Gei Han in an attempt to beat the Eldar to the prize, the Spirit stone. Fifteen minutes after their liftoff two emergency patrols of thunderbolts lifted off to intercept the chaos aircraft. After pursuing for almost an hour they caught up with their prey, and attack at dark they managed to surprise the chaos transports and blast three of them out of the sky before the other transports could respond. Then, the transports defence guns opened up and attacking the grouped transports became extremely dangerous. Two more transports were shot down for the cost of two thunderbolts, and the remaining thunderbolts were forced to retreat or be shot down.

Meanwhile, a warning was sent out to the adamantium mine Complex AX-12 in Gei Han, one of the few possible targets in the large desert. Both the remaining Eldar and the Iron Warrior transport fleet were heading in that direction. The permanent garrison of Stormguard guarding the mine was put of full alert, and they began all preparations for the coming storm.

4.2 Desert Games

The remaining Eldar of Shai Tan are racing across the desert of Gei Han, closing quickly on their objective. They are spread out in a long column to eliminate the possibility of being bombarded from space and lessen the chance of detection. But the Salamanders are lying in wait for them. The Salamanders have deployed a strike force in the desert a few hours in front of the Eldar, and they are settling in to stop the Eldar. As soon as the leading elements of the Eldar column come within range of their guns the Salamanders open fire. Their opening salvo’s are less than effective, the heat distortion making their long-range shots less accurate, and they have to hurry as the rest of the Eldar are quickly closing in. A furious battle erupts amongst the sand dunes, smoke and blown-up sand obscuring entire units, but eventually the remaining eldar have to retreat before the Salamanders. Both sides have suffered heavy losses, and the Salamanders are in no condition to chase the few remaining Eldar escaping to the north.

Aftermath

The remaining Eldar escape the Salamanders trap and head north, only a few hundred miles away from their goal. The chances of achieving their objective have become very slim with the losses they have suffered, but they have to try nonetheless. The Salamanders meanwhile retreat towards their ship, carrying the bodies of their dead with them. Their forces have also suffered heavy losses, but they have to concentrate of other matters now. The Ork Whaaagh was closing of Somu hive, and protecting the citizens of that city was more important than stopping the Eldar on whatever mission they were on. Soon, thunderhawks were soaring towards Somu hive to begin its defence against the green tide.

4.3 Storm the Beaches

The Ork Whaaagh landed on the beaches of Takare like a battering ram. Their stolen and makeshift boats just crashed into the beaches or ran aground on the coast, the orks and their vehicles rushing ashore in a great green tide covered in black smoke. Two miles to the north-west, the Jantine Patricians heard the landing as though it was just metres away, and it filled them with fear. The Ork horde took two hours to amass on the coast and fill the beach and the shallow water with their boats before the Whaaagh began to move. At the same time, almost two dozen Dark Angel space marines arrived to bolster the positions of the Jantine. In the two days before a killing field had been created. Trenches had been dug, minefields planted and almost a hundred metres of vegetation had been cleared away to provide optimum fire arcs on the advancing horde. The Dark Angels quicky took position and their arrival bolstered the morale of the guardsmen around them.

Then, the Orks appeared. Hundreds of them, speeding from the treeline in their trucks, their battlewagons spewing great columns of smoke into the air. They even had some helicopter-like contraptions flying ahead of them. The Dark Angels and the guardsmen opened fire as soon as the horde emerged, and the carnage they caused in the first ten minutes was great. Trucks exploded, killing their passengers, whole mobs were slaughtered by the Dark Angels assault marines, battlecannon shells and mortar rounds rained down on the greenskins while lasfire and heavy bolters blasted into them, but for every greenskin that dropped there seemed to be three more to take its place. Then, the horde hit the trenches, and a bloody melee erupted across the lines. The tables had turned. While every man and marine fought valiantly and sold their lives dearly, the Orks were unstoppable. Guardsmen were slaughtered by the dozens, and the few marines could not fill the gaps and were driven back before the fury of the Whaaagh. Just forty minutes after the first shot was fired, there was not a man or marine alive on the battlefield and the Whaaagh thundered north without losing speed. North, towards Somu Hive.

Aftermath

In Hive Somu, preparations were being made to defend the city against the green tide. Ancient shield generators were started up, Stormguard, Patricians and security forces were put on full alert and were dispatched to defend their assigned sections, and amongst all this the Salamander space marines arrived in their thunderhawks to form a mobile reserve, ready to strike where the lines were pressed hardest.

[Caladai Doomblade]

Chapter 5

The Iron Warriors have landed just miles away from Complex AX-12 and its military base, Gei Gaki. Deep inside this Adamantium mine lies the Spirit Stone of Ka'haine, and The Rule needs it to achieve daemonhood. The Eldar are closing in from the south, sneaking amongst the sand dunes. They need the spirit stone to save their craftworld from extremination. The Braxxin Stormguard defending the mine know nothing of this spirit stone, but they know that enemies are coming and they are waiting for them!

In the North, Whaaagh Krusha is closing on Somu Hive, and it's defenders are scrambling to prepare for the inevitable assault. Guardsmen en Salamander space marines are preparing to sell their lives dearly to protect the innocent civilians behind them.

[Zandor]

Vet! Kan niet wachten tot het gaat gebeuren!

[Zandor]

Neem aan dat we de battle doen van orks tegen IG en salamanders?

[Caladai Doomblade]

Chapter 5

5.1 The Prize

Farseer Ke’sar and her remaining Eldar were lying in wait behind a row of sanddunes in the Gei Han desert. A mile away they could see the outlines of the Imperial mining base. There was their target. The spirit stone was located somewhere inside the mine. Unfortunately the entire base seemed to be on full alert, tanks rolling into position behind defended obstacles. The plan to sneak into the base at night was ruined, and Ke’sar had so few warriors left that a direct assault was impossible.

Meanwhile a few miles east Iron Warrior sorcerer Melchior was receiving his briefing from the Rule inside his personal land raider. Melchior was to take all the remaining Iron Warrior forces and crush the Imperial defenders of the mining base and secure the mine for the Rule’s arrival. Melchior quickly deployed his forces out of sight of the base and then gave the order to move.

In the mining base commander Gravor of the Braxxin Stormguard had just finished deploying his forces. He knew fairly certain that Iron Warriors were approaching from the east and Eldar from the South. What he did not know was the size of either force and the time they would attack. He had devided his troops as best he could to defend the mine, now they could only wait.

The final battle

The first sign of the enemy was a great dustcloud from the east. Still, it took over 20 minutes for the enemy to appear over the desert dunes. The Iron Warriors had come in force, some running, some mounted in transports. They even had a defiler with them. Commander Gravor gave the order to fire at will, and the heavy weapons opened up at the Iron Warriors. Soon after, spotters on the southern perimiter reported movements in the south. Apparently the Eldar were going to strike at the same time.

The fight was brutal. The Iron Warriors suffered heavy losses to the firepower of the defenders, but Melchior and some other chaos warriors managed to reach the mine entrance and hide inside. The Eldar tried to use the distraction provided by the Iron Warriors to make their own assault, but their troops were cut down by Imperial fire mere metres from the mine. Ke’sar fought the chaos defiler and managed to escape with her life. The Stormguard had assumed the Iron Warriors and the Eldar to be in league with each other, but this was proven wrong when Eldar warriors started firing on the chaos warriors.

After the Eldar threat was annihilated Gravor sent his men into the mine to deal with the two Iron Warriors inside. A brutal combat erupted in the confines of the mine, but in the end even the mighty chaos sorcerer was taken down the sheer number of enemies.

Aftermath

Melchior died with a curse on his lips. His plan to reach the spiritstone and steal it away before the Rule could get his hands on it had failed. In his transport, surrounded by only his bodyguard, The Rule watched through a video link as Melchior died. He should have known that if you wanted something done…. But first, he had to get off Braxxis before the Imperials could locate him and bring him to battle. The transports they had ‘aquired’ were still where he had left them. A single small transport might just make it through the Imperial blockade. Especially if his bodyguard would launch a diversionary attack on the Imperial ships. And so The Rule managed to escape Braxxis and return to his fleet. His warband had been descimated. He would need to recruit new warriors and rebuild his forces, but he had time. And when he had rebuild those forces, he would be back for that spirit stone!

Farseer Ke’sar and her three remaining warriors fled the field of battle after watching the howling banshees and jetbikes die in a storm of Imperial firepower. The four of them tracked through the desert and eventually back towards their webway gate and back to Shai Tan. The future of their craftworld looked bleak indeed, but Ke’sar knew like no other that the future always had many paths.

The Imperial Mining base was searched toroughly by the Inquisition to try to find out what chaos had wanted, but nothing was found. The Braxxin stormguard were extatic. They had finally defeated their enemies. However, their victorious mood was quickly dampened when they heard of the desperate battle for Somu Hive.

5.2 Somu Hive

The Ork Whaaagh hit the city walls like a wave. Everywhere along the south and east of the city the defenders were sorely pressed, but with the help of the Salamanders they held out and the assault turned into a siege. The Orks attacked the walls twelve times in the first two days of the battle, but they failed to achieve any major breakthroughs. On day three the Dark Angels started fighting a guerilla war behind the Ork lines, destroying supplies and boobytrapping vehicles at night. On day three and four 3 more assaults were made and the Orks managed to get a foothold inside the outer regions of the city and a brutal streetfight started. However, the Orks had lost their momentum, and they knew that the Imperials would soon bring in more forces and then in would all be over.

On day five the Ork Warboss made bold decision. During their next assault he would lead a large force in a great assault on the spaceport. If they could capture it, the Imperial reinforcements would be stemmed and, more importantly, he could take his Whaaaagh off planet. They would take the spaceport and take use the ships there to assault the Imperial ships in orbit, capture them and spread the Whaaaagh throughout this sector.

The final battle

The Ork attack came like green storm. The Imperials were lying in wait for the Orks, but the size and speed of the Ork attack was nothing like what they had seen in the previous days. The Orks had massed most of their trucks together to create a force that raced across the city with incredible speed. Some of the Imperial defenders didn’t even have a chance to grab their rifles before the Orks leapt the barricades, howling of pure joy.

The Salamanders responded quickly by teleporting their veteran terminators directly onto the battlefield, but by that time the defences were already overrun and even these most deadly of space marines could only die with honour as the Whaaagh engulfed them. After only an hour the defenders were entirely overrun, and the Orks were pouring through the gap in the defences to occupy the entire spaceport.

Aftermath

The Orks launched their attack into space two days after the spaceport fell. The Imperials were totally unprepared for it, not expecting the Orks to plan going off planet. The Imperial guns took a heavy toll on the Ork ships, but it was not enough. The Salamander ship ‘Vulcan’s Anvil’ and the Imperial cruiser ‘Just Vengeance’ were both captured by the Orks and piloted away from Braxxis before other fleet elements could do significant damage.

The Ork force had been severely damaged, but they were now in the warp, and noone knew where they would go. The Imperials didn’t have time to pursue them either, for a sizeable Ork force still remained in Somu. If they were not taken care of quickly they could do even more damage, even breaking out of the city and hiding out in the hills. Then they would never be rid of the Orks on Braxxis.

The Dark Angels left Braxxis to pursue the Ork Warboss into the warp. Meanwhile the Salamanders sent their remaining warriors down to the planet to assist the Braxxin Stormguard in exterminating the remaining Orks. Somu hive lay in ruines, the spaceport would take years to repair and ten veteran warriors of the Salamanders lay dead in the rubble. Braxxin would not forget Whaaagh Crusha any time soon.