Horus Heresy Campaign Phase 3 - Battle 2: The Boarding of The KVS Defiant

"We are going in to disable that ship, and we are going to kill anyone who stands in our way. Prepare the Butchers."

 - Praetor Helmuth,
Death Guard Legion

Campaign To Date:

It has been about 40 years since a combined force of Sons of Horus, Death Guard, and White Scars brought the Xhorik System into compliance during the Great Crusade. The major population centers of the largest continent were quickly brought under Imperial control in the typical fashion: a series of pinpoint attacks of overwhelming force by the Legions against the enemy's strong points, followed by rapid surrender. Due to the richness of the primary planet and the strategic location of the system on a sort of crossroads of warp currents, small garrisons of the Death Guard and White Scars legions were left on the planet to oversee the tithes of men and material to the Great Crusade and to help eradicate the threat of large ork populations in the eastern wastes.

With the advent of the Horus Heresy, the Warmaster ordered that the Xhorik System be taken to act as a way station for resupply on his long march to Terra. The Death Guard and their human allies on Xhorik Prime launched an attack on the White Scars and their allies, the Stratocracy of Kozar.

In Phase 1 of the campaign, the Traitors pushed the Loyalists from the war-torn border city of Bielyr in a series of bloody streetfighting.

In Phase 2, the war escalated across the badlands of the Valbaara Plateau in several pitched battles. In the end, the Brotherhood of the Wind was defeated and their leader Praetor Zherdan was killed by the Death Guard.

Phase 3 of the Campaign for Xhorik Prime finds the battered Loyalists unable to stand against the Death Guard heavy armor and so they are resorting to guerrilla tactics as the Traitor army advances north toward the major cities of Kozar. This phase will culminate with a large Traitor assault on a fortified Loyalist city. There will be four missions that will impact the deciding battle of the phase.

PRE-GAME AND MISSION:

The second battle of the phase takes place in orbit over the Loyalist Kozar city of Berat. We elected to use the Zone Mortalis mission Force the Breach! to represent a Traitor boarding party trying to capture a Loyalist ship, the Kozar Void Ship Defiant. The setup is simple: three objectives (one in the Defender's deployment quadrant and one in each neutral quadrant) and whoever controls more of them at the end of the game wins.

ARMY SELECTION:  1000 Points

Traitors - Pete

Death Guard

• Praetor Helmuth: Terminator armor, Paragon Blade, volkite charger, digilasers
• Tactical Squad Hammer Streik: 12 marines with close combat weapons, sergeant with power fist and artificer armor and Apothecary Holtzendorff

World Eaters

• The Red Butchers: 5 marines with power axes plus Devoured Argore with two chain fists
• Contemptor Dreadnought Fellblood: twin-linked lascannon, melta gun and chain fist

Loyalists - Phil

Ship's Crew of the Kozar Battlecruiser KVS Defiance

• Commander Kazchian with plasma pistol
• Infantry squad with lasguns and medicae
• Grenadiers with one missile launcher and medicae
• 2 Sentinels with lascannons
• 3 Tarantulas with twin-linked lascannons

White Scars Brotherhood of the Wind 

• Consul Barikh with power glaive and refractor field
• Veteran Tactical Squad Zurgaa: 10 veteran marines, sergeant with power glaive and artificer armor
• Veteran Tactical Support Squad Khoyor: 7 veteran marines with combi-plasmas, and 1 with plasma gun

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kohrin gripped his lasgun tightly as the ship shuddered and groaned around him.  The lights flickered out momentarily, casting him and his squad mates into utter blackness. He knew that meant that all available power was being diverted, likely to the shield systems. The lights sputtered back to life, but weaker now, and some not at all. 

Again, the walls shook and the floor rocked and swayed under his feet, as the artificial gravity generators struggled to keep up with the pitching of the ship as it recoiled from the impacts. Kohrin swallowed and glanced around. His squad mates were quietly lost in their own thoughts, some mumbling the now-forbidden, but not forgotten, prayers of Kozar, their ancient homeland. Prayers that pre-dated their assimilation into the Empire of Man and the administration of His Imperial Truth. 

The ship jolted harder than before and Kohrin staggered, but this time instead of the dull, echoing rumble and groans of previous hits, the sounds were immediate and intense: an eruption, the screaming whine of metals failing, a hissing roar like a windstorm. 

“Rifles up, lads. That’s a boarding party.” the Lieutenant barked. “And nearby, from the feel of it.”

The men around Kohrin tensed. The praying from some intensified. 

He heard the hard pounding echoes of metal on metal. Then the distant sound of men screaming, dying, muffled by the doors and yet unmistakable. Kohrin’s stomach twisted and his hands felt numb. He looked down to check that he was still holding his lasgun. 

The metal pounding got louder. Then an angry roar split the air, sounding only half-human. 

From behind him, Kohrin heard the metallic footsteps of power armor and whipped around only to see the massive bodies were clad in the stark white of the White Scars. He trembled at the sight of the superhumans.  Even knowing they were on his side, he couldn’t forget the things he had seen them do. 

The White Scars moved wordlessly through the Kozar troopers to stand ahead of them, shoulder to shoulder in the narrow hallway. 

The clanging of the approaching enemy grew louder. The bellows of rage reverberating through the halls made Kohrin squeeze his eyes shut. The men around him murmured and glanced sideways at each other, as if each was checking to confirm his squad mates were still there. 

“You are soldiers of Kozar! Whatever comes down that hallway, you will hold your ground!” The lieutenant’s voice was firm and clear, practiced in command. 

In the dim light, Kohrin could just make out the massive silhouettes at the other end of the hall and his heart sank. Whatever they were, they made the giant power-armored marines in front of him look small. Their weapons alone were nearly the size of a man. The flickering lights gleaned off the splatters of slick, fresh blood that covered them. 

Once again, that horrible, twisted roar that seethed with hatred. This time louder and clearly coming from those huge and horrible metal shapes. Kohrin found himself screaming too, whether to drown out the terrifying sound or to steel his nerves or just out of sheer terror, he did not know...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



BATTLE:

Map overview with objectives highlighted and deployment zones designated.

The near side of this board represents the entrance to the engine room. If the Traitors gain control of this vital area, they can disable the ship from the inside, taking her out of action and swinging the void battle in their favor. The objectives represent vital ship's controls.