Uppsala Grimdark: Battle 8: Connection Lost

Still on vacation battling mosquitoes instead of the opressive Imperium, so no retouched images.

The Dark Angels are on Cerberus XIII battling Chaos that has fallen back into the deep culverts below Tartarus. They are recently being hard pressed by the greenskins, which have launched attacks from several Rust Ships. But before the greenskin attack, the Dark Angels ran into another enigmatic enemy.

- Location: the desert city of Tartarus, Cerberus XIII.
- Imperial Forces: Dark Angels
- Chaos Forces: Harlequins
- Points value: 600 points on each side

[Author: Jocke B]

Dark Angels vs. Harlequins 600pts Connection Lost
Brother captain Demetrious stepped out of his command rhino onto the silent, eerie streets of Tartarus. Something was wrong. All comms had stopped working just a minute before and showed no sign of returning to working order. With hand signals he despatched battlesquads Ashkalon and Galdor into the buildings on either side of the street while he slowly advanced with squads Absalom and Lasius on foot, rhinos following close behind.

Ancient brother Hulud moved off to the right, heading for a relay, hoping to reestablish commuications with base.
"Movement ahead, brother captain" his echoing voice boomed from a vox on his sarcofagus. Demitrious took position at a corner and surveyed the area ahead. Movement alright. Colourful holofields, smoke and the occasional shadow. With surprise the captain whispered in the group channel "Harlequins ahead, hundred meters and closing, take firing positions sectors beta and delta".

His troops moved as one in facing the threat, taking what cover was to be found behind rhinos and rubble, squad Absalom unwittingly moved into a minefield placed around a fusebox shooting sparks.
A pair of jetbikes zoomed into view, their cannons opening up on brother Hulud who staggered from repeated hits from emp charged ammunition. Demetrious gave the order and no fewer than twenty weapons opened fire on the jetbikes in response. Squad Absalom´s plasmagunner suffered a misfire and fell screaming but the jetbikes spiraled out of control, spilling mortally wounded harlequins and fire as they blew up. A sinister shape in a window from across the street opened fire on squad Ashkalon, killing a marine with his huge shuriken cannon. Squad Ashkelon, however, stood fast under the stern gaze of their captain.

What followed was a running firefight between a recently popped up vyper jetbike, brother Hulud, the deathjester and the combat squads of marines. That is, until a troupe of harlequins jumped out of a ruined window to pounce and dance in among squad Absolom and slaying them to a man. Counterfire detroyed the troupe, leaving only a slightly stunned lord of the eldar performers to the tender mercies of captain Demetrious, who slew him with his chainsword.
At this moment a horned harlequin appeared out of nowhere close to ancient brother Hulud and in a flurry of blows and thrusts, laid the reamins of the old marine open to the air of Tartarus. Hulud roared a final time in his impotent rage and went offline.

Demetrious shook the blood off his blade and looked around

with cold determination. He saw a harlequin with a mirrored face - a blank mask that reflected nothing. At that instant the captain felt his mind invaded by slivers of glass and mirrors but he shook his heaad, clearing it, and swore over the witch. His fast movements took him straight to the psyker and slew it.
Shaking the blood from the chainswordblade again he slowly turned to the sound of battle slackening as squad Lasius fire stopped. As he turned around to see what was amiss, he felt a stinging pain in his abdomen and he looked down to see a blade protruding from his sternum. The biodata in his helmet declared that one of his hearts was pierced, together with a lung and several other organs. Demetrious blacked out.

As Demetrious came to, what must have been hours later, a tech adept was kneeling before him.One of the drivers of the rhinos. From what the marine had to tell him, it showed that he battle was pretty much over by the time Demtrious was struck down by the horned harlequin. Of the imperials, only the rhinos remained on the battlefield, gathering the wounded and the slain. They had seen two harleqins,one was the horned one and the other wore a grinning skull mask. They had let the imperials regroup and gather for a retreat. Why? Demetrious could not say, it was typical of the eldar, mysterious and sanctimonious. First cutting the communications, ambushing the dark angels and then just leaving without a reason. They can impossibly win a war, Demetrious thought. Next time...