Sunday 28 April 2013

Faststrike Returns in Double engagement

An account from Tau sources of a double battle session, for the imperial "Truth" see

www.corbaniaprime.blogspot.co.uk

A heavy engagement occured last night in a wooded valley south east of capital city on Charybdis.

Atmospheric flares lit the sky as Tau interceptors tried unsuccesfully to anhihilate the Guard units before they could land, one heavy lifter attracted much attention as scans showed it carried a Guard Super heavy tank, the lifter was damaged and crash landed but when Tau Ground forces moved in to secure the wreck they found the hold empty, heavy securing chains snapped and tracks almost 5ft wide and a foot deep heading towards a Guard rally point, the hunt was on!

Guard Elements and Tau forces rushed piecemeal to secure and kill the Super heavy respectively.

The steel behemoth made steady progress towards its lines brushing aside a hasty Tau blocking force and forging on towards a shallow valley that wound towards Guard lines, here Tau Forces managed to converge in force desperate to destroy a major strategic threat and aware that heavy Guard armour was moving in and time was short.

At this point Faststrike, missing for several hours reappeared in a new XV8 variant and took charge of the battle. Initially the super heavy Hellhammer pulverised several Tau suits before a Hammerhead joined the fray and the Hellhammer turned at bay in the valley to fight, at this point a new Riptide Pattern Heavy Battle suit arrived, the hellhammer was doomed, surrounded, cut off and alone it took repeated railgun hits, missile hits, and was finally stopped by a rear shot from a surviving XV8's Fusion blaster. This slowed its inexorable advance long enough for Faststrike to order the Riptide to power down its malfunctioning Nova Generator and go in to manually tear the Super Heavy appart, reluctantly the XV104 pilot obeyed, the Riptide leaping onto the front glacis plate and literally tearing the armour plates apart, this caused a chain reaction, the drive stalled and powered down and an ammunition cache detonated throwing the Riptide off but not damaging it, the super heavy was destroyed.

Here an unfortunate incident occured. The Fusion Blaster armed XV8 powered down and its pilot dismounted and entered the burning wreck to recover wounded guard tankers, he pulled three from the crew compartment at great personal risk and summoned a devilfish ambulance. He believed that in the spirit of the Tau'Va the guard where merely misguided and needed help to see the light of the greater good. Meanwhile Faststrike was conversing with the Ripitide pilot and sensor drones reported the approach of more Guard heavy armour, when he noticed the Devilfish Field Ambulance glide to the rear of the wreck he went over to see which of his firewarriors was injured.

When he saw the three guard wounded on litters receiving medical aid from Tau medtechs he immediately drew his pulse pistol and headshot all three in quick succession. This horrified the tau medical techs and the XV8 pilot........

Faststrike then withdrew to regroup and take command of the Tau invasion among nearby hills. leaving spy drones to monitor the situation he set up a command post. Quickly Guard mechanics arrived on the scene of the wreck and began working furiously to restart the Super heavy, an armoured company of 6 Leman Russ approached to screen the recovery.

Faststrike had miscalculated, he was out of position and too far out to intervene in time, distracted by the Guard wounded and his subsequent furious tirade he had not checked the super heavy was totally destroyed, it was merely stalled and heavily damaged.

A hasty assault was launched by Faststrike and all available Tau forces, he did not want to face the Hellhammer again especially if it was supported.

A fast and furious moving engagement followed, guard mechanics, under heavy fire, and aware of the litter borne dead tankers laid out at the rear of the Super Heavy worked desperately to appease the angry machine spirit of the apparently undamaged power plant.

Tau forces advanced unleashing heavy fire, A Hammerhead swapped shots with a vanquisher tank hunter, XV8's rushed forward and where cut down. The Riptide unleashed blasts from its Nova Charged Ion Accelerator and faststrike made a near suicidal charge up the right flank destroying a Leman Russ with a rear Radiator missile shot, but, the Tau assault was in vain.

The Hellhammer started up, and slowly, steadily withdrew, surviving Leman Russ tanks formed a three tank wide shield and unleashed furious cannon, heavy bolter and lascannon fire on the advancing riptide but it was barely slowed, despite chunks of armour spalling off and some electrics shorting the Riptide came through the barrage of heavy fire, damaged but intact, it raised the nova charged Ion accelerator for a last shot at the reversing Hellhammer.........

The Nova Generator charged, the valley filled with the subsonic whine of overheating capacitors...........

The riptide raised the ion accelerator, mud and sods of earth flew from the tracks of the reversing Hellhammer, ammo cooked off in the turrets of nearby burning Leman Russ tanks, the Riptide fired!

The supercharged burst of Ion particles flew accross the valley igniting grass and small shrubs as it passed.....

The shot went wide, blowing a deep crater in a hill at the head of the valley, faststrike roared in fury.......

When the smoke cleared the Hellhammer was gone and sensor reports showed a huge Guard task force less than a quarter mile from the valley, and a ranting Faststrike struck camp, fast........











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