Chapter 2: Demon Within
Imperial Guard, Catachan Jungle Fighters (The Eye Pokers) vs Chaos Cultists (Tzseench)

After few minutes, Captain Lance arrived to the courtyard. He was shocked. There were barely enough men to put together a couple of squads. How was he defend Outpost XXXII? Most of the men here were barely out of basic training, and by the look of the Logistics Officer there was not much equipment available. Lance picked up the datapad from his hand. The situation was worse than he imagined.

- Is this all?
He realized too late the demoralizing error of asking such a question.

- Emperor Protects. We will have to trust on His Grace and your ability to pray the correct Litanies. We are short on time, fix whatever you can as fast as you can. Lieutenant Marsellas... please witness, and once I finish organize my Squad. Sergeant Ochoa... ON THE DOUBLE!
A superbly well built man, even by Catachan standards quickly stepped up. He bared scars from battles long gone, and exhibited the wrinkles of middle age well.

- By the power invested in me by The Holy Emperor of Mankind and my rank among 573rd Catachan Regiment, The Eye Pokers, I confer to you the Field Promotion to Lieutenant. May all its duties and privileges serve you well. You are to keep Outpost XXXII safe at all costs. I have reason to believe that the filthy heretics are scheming to take over this place. We will divide the men in two Squads. I will take command of Squad Alpha and you of Squad Omega. I will take my men hunting for some heretical eyes while you are to remain on the outpost and defend it. It must NOT fall... no matter the cost.

- I understand Sir. I will make preparations to rig the place for detonation. Comes to worse, if the Emperor's Aquila may not shine on this place... nothing will.

- Squad Alpha, gather on the Depot. Take the Logistic Officer with you.

The men gathered as ordered. The shelves were empty and the place felt like a ghost town. Looking at the available resources, Captain Lance took requisition of the only available combat helmet, shotgun and the last Golden Aquila. His faith on the Emperor would protect him. He spread the goods and instructed the junior Tech-Priest to commence the Litanies of Renovo Machina.

- Lieutenant Barrent, get me my Squad ready. Its time to go to The Green and poke us some eyes.



Based on gathered intelligence from the holo-scans collected few days back, Captain Lance traced a path south of the ruined Manofactorium on sector 45-Epsilon-3. His plan was to set base camp there to launch guerrilla warfare to the heretics on the south. The objective was to buy time until the rest of The Eye Pokers returned from Baddur Prime. Upon arrival, he ordered the Demolition Expert Specialist, Dlown Tobits, to setup a secure perimeter with mines and booby traps. Upon placing some charges on an abandoned building, he noticed some movement on the second floor... the heretics were here! Calling the alert, The Eye Pokers rushed to positions. Again, Captain Lance cursed his bad luck.



Observations determined that the heretics bared the marks of the Tzseench rather than Nurgle. The group of ruffians were led by a Sorcerer. As the members of The Eye Pokers gather inner strength to face their foes by laying eyes on a statue honoring an unknown Space Marine, the Lord of Change decided to make his presence known by transmuting the monument to his image. Foul creatures! Defiling the images of those who serve the Emperor is punishable by death... soon they would feel His Wrath!



The Guardsmen split in the groups, attempting to rush forward between the heavy foliage and ruined structures to engage the enemy. Lieutenant Marsellas took two recruits with him on the far west, attempting to outflank the enemy. From a high building, two snipers started shooting, pinning the men behind an isolated building. Although no damage was done, this move neutralized the Catachans attempt to outflank the heretics, which would prove to be a critical outcome of the conflict.

Lieutenant Barrent, or as his veteran companions still called him Sarge Barrel, took the twins Sergeant Salt and Sergeant Pepper, as well as two recruits with him towards the east. The managed to move in a secure position, on the safety of a makeshift bunker made from some ruined walls. Barrel moved his men in position for cross fire.

Captain Lance took his Ogryn bodyguard (Private First Class George Dush), the standard bearer, the Medic (Jack "Speckles" Kevorkian) as well as two other recruits to make the blunt of the attack. They quickly moved forward, dodging enemy fire. Upon a small platform, George attempted to throw (once again) his Ripper Gun at an incoming heretic carrying a savagely looking sword. Luckily for everyone, Marsellas had tied the weapon to the Ogryn's arm. Instead of flying away, the weapon spat a volley of bullets at him, dropping him flat to the ground. George seemed very please with his new found ability to throw his gun's bullets. Support fire from the recruits pinned some of the Cultists to the heavy foliage.

This was the opening that they needed. Barrel order his men to open fire! First, the advanced scout took a heavy hit, suddenly laying on the floor moaning in agony. His sudden disappearance allowed the Lieutenant to see the Sorcerer's bodyguard. Taking careful aim, he fired his weapon. A blue malignant field surrounded the man. He dropped to one knee, clearly the psychic shield from his Master had saved him from certain death. The Sorcerer pointed his Bolter at Barrel, and surgical precision he fired twice. The first shot ripped apart the Lieutenant's prosthetic foot and the second one hit him on the left shoulder. This cause the heavy man to spin out of control, incapacitated him for what it seemed like a lifetime.

In the excitement, Ogryn decided to charge. Belligerent orders from Captain Lance to stand his ground were either unheard, ignored or (more likely) to complicated for the ab-human to understand. He charged carelessly at the first enemy he say, rather than maximizing the effort and take out another Officer. His charge launched the Cultist at the wrong end of his fist several meters above the ground. The landing made a very satisfying crunching sound, but left the Ogryn fully exposed. Captain Lance order his men to move close to provide support fire, but all the heretics had been pinned to secure locations, so all efforts were in vain.

The Sorcerer ordered two of his men out of the heavy foliage. Carrying Flamers, they moved closer and opened their Promethium Gel tanks at Lieutenant Barrent and his men. Flames engulfed everything on their path. Their position provided excellent safety against slugs, las and bolt fire... but allowed no room to move out from the path of the flames. The surprise attack was the doom of the Catachans. The twins took the blunt of the attack; without room to dodge, the flames consumed their flesh. Lieutenant Barrent, who was attempting to get up got severely burned on the attack. In a single sweep, the servants of Tzseench had changed the tide of the battle on the eastern front.



The Sorcerer maniacally laughed and ordered his other Officer to join him to assault the Ogryn. Armed with their poisonous weapons, the Sorcerer led the assault. His attacks found critical weak points on the giant, but it was his Officer who managed to dispatch George with a bullet to the Ogryn's unprotected head. With the living wall removed, the Sorcerer looked directly at Captain Lance while mumbling devilish incantations. Eerie red light seems to drip from his hands, resembling blood.

The Eye Pokers moved closer and opened fire. Every single bullet seemed deviated by the accursed Sorcerer's manipulation of the Warp. The Cultists shot at the Standard Bearer, and his fall seemed to symbolize the defeat of the Catachans. With great calm, almost as if he had no care on the world, the Sorcerer took a single bolt round. To Captain Lance the ammunition seemed to to have red swirling paint. The Sorcerer loaded it to the chamber of his defiled Bolter, aimed at the Captain and fired a single shot. Time lapsed for the Catachan's commander; he could see the demonic bolt round traveling through the air and how his attempts to dodge it seemed to be matched by the bullet itself. The bullet seemed to have missed the left side of his face and when he thought he was out of danger, the round exploded. Not only the sound was deafening, but what seemed to be an unholy spirit took over the Captain's left side of his body. Lance screamed in agony as his body plummeted lifeless to the blood soaked battleground.

From a higher elevation, Speckles saw the incident and attempted to moved to the rescue of his commanding officer. A Chaos Aspiring Champion would deny him. After the Captain fell, all Cultists eye's immediately shift towards the Field Medic; he was obviously the secondary priority target. The Champion grabbed his weapon and opened fire. While he hit his mark, the damage was superficial. To Speckles bad luck, he lost his balance and fell from the 3rd floor on his head. The immediate aid to the Captain was denied.



The Eye Pokers entrenched on their positions, and opened fire in a desperate attempt to pick the wounded. The Sorcerer, nonchalantly walked away and allowed The Eye Pokers to barely escape with their hides. Picking up some of the wounded, the Catachans left the area wondering why the Lord of Change has spared them... Tzseench had a more nefarious plan or was this yet another schizophrenic episode?

Only time would tell...


EPILOGUE
It took some time for Speckles to recover. By the time he opened his eyes, George was sitting down licking (literally) his wounds. There was no sign of the Twins, their charred bodies had to be left on the battlefield. On that time, the Captain was turning from bad to worse. Loss of blood and infection was the least of the concerns. Somehow, the demonic entity was fighting to possess Captain Lance. It seemed a titanic battle; the demon attempted to escape the man's body, stretching his skin like rubber allowing the visualization of his true form. It was the Golden Aquila that saved Lance from a Field Execution. The holy item glowed intensely every time the demonic spirit attempted to escape, seemingly pulling it back inside, not without leaving serious scars evidence if he struggle.

Obviously, Captain Lance was now in holy war against Tzseench's gift... a demon within his flesh. While the Lance fought for his life against the demonic entity, the Golden Aquila fought for Lance's immortal soul against the Dark Gods.





Defeat for The Eye Pokers!

THE TWINS!!! Burn to a crisp! Damn... at least I did not painted the models! Was a great game! Like always, jd3 game me a master class thrashing. At first, we were fairly even, but just after replacing the Space Marine statue of the Hall of Valerium with his (awesome) model of Tzseench as a joke... he started rolling critical hits! By the Emperor's Mummified Foreskin... I have never seen so many critical hits!

But no excuses... as we discussed, I screwed myself up on the booby trap placement; I basically divided my forces. Sending George to assault was suicide and I did not managed to get the Catachans into close combat (where they are kings.) I definitely need to 'learn' how to play Catachans if I am to make something happen for them. This is a hard Squad to play... GREAT!!!

For the record, I continue my undisputed record of NEVER routing on purpose. Unlike all you chickens (yes... because that is what you are... a GIANT CHICKEN!!!) I have never called it quits. I stay until the dice gods decide for me to stay... and suffer the consequences of their Tzseench-onian tantrums. For the first time I wanted to rout... thankfully I failed the Rout Test (with an 11!), so my record still intact!

On an incredible note... I rolled THREE consecutive result of "12" ( Death!!! )on the Serious Injury Chart for my three Officers. With the medic out of commission, all three died. After laughing about my 'incredible' luck, it was decided by all people present to allow the Captain to re-roll his miserable the result. While I was OK with him dying (I was the only one opposed to changing his fate), this was done primarily for James's mental health. He looked like he had ran over my dog with his car... THREE TIMES! No problem man! You know me... I'm cool. Loosing is part of the game too! We rolled Horrible Scars, so now Captain Lance causes Fear. I guess now I have to build a new model for him!

Anyone got a mutated human head?

Wow you suck! This is a good time to say "I told you to get better stuff" I mean do you even have lasguns yet?
That battle was a sad loss for you I could tell did your dumb ab-human meat shield live?

dwi

LOL! Fun game... close one too, at least until half of it. Basically the stuff I got from previous game made no difference... as my dice were horrible! I got very little money... so I may get some armor. HA!


George did survived!

Updated with pictures, courtesy of Dozer! I also added a line to make sure people know about George being alive, and the loss of the Twins. Thanks dwi!

Enjoy the pics!