Battle for Xilos

Karyle’s military contingent had been assigned by his Mistress to oversee the protection of a makeshift generator at a Freeborn company’s campsite. They had been hired some time ago and traveling in the stuffy holds of a space cruiser until only recently, and were now taking shifts at various control points on the ground of the too-green Xilos. The Freeborn themselves had left on patrol, as they often did, having told the Boromites little before their departure. In fact, they rarely told the Boromites anything at all; the relations had been tense during the journey, and only their relative privacy from one another at the campsite seemed to make it any better. These particular Freeborn, along with Karyle’s small squad of Boromites, had been sent ahead of the main ship to set up a forward contact point, having slipped inside the planet’s atmosphere with a low profile as though they were hiding. All that the Boromites knew (at least at Karyle’s rank, anyway), was that they’d been hired to accompany these Freeborn after an anonymous tip had pointed the mercenary companies in the direction of Xilos. Karyle knew little of their mission, but he liked it that way. Simplicity, like many Boromites, was Karyle’s favoured state of affairs.

Hearing the distant whine and airborne cracking, at first Karyle and his token squad assumed it was the carefree Freeborn sky riders zooming back across the jungles towards the barren land they’d chosen to make camp. But, as the whining grew louder and more fierce, the alarm began to sound across the communications systems. It wasn’t their Freeborn at all.

The Algoryn assault company’s capsules struck down in the ground around the immediate vicinity of the base, and the alien bastards wasted no time. Their forward momentum established, the Algoryn surged forward as Karyle’s forces came to attention. Looking across the battlefield, Karyle spotted the infamous Kurar, an Algoryn assault commander he had heard of on the ship in the months before setting up camp.

The defending Boromites only consisted of a a couple of small work gangs, the simple-minded Leroy and his Lavamites, and the Mistress’s own sons, who had been practicing their skills with an X-Launcher.

The aforementioned weapon crew put their practice with the X-Launcher to work immediately, dropping a critical hit on top of the forward-most Algoryn squad, devastating it into inaction. In the return fire, however, Leroy’s lavamites weren’t as lucky, and in their rush to the generator were struck by an enemy overhead blast killing two of Leroy’s prized pets. Calling to the worker gang sporting Mass Compactors for aid, Leroy and his lone remaining mite surged around the generator, meeting the Algoryn assault squad head on.

Pushing to the right side of the generator, Karyle and his bodyguards came around the side of the building in enough time to witness the horror of an Algoryn assault squad at work, and saw Leroy’s lavamite fighting bravely while the work gang was cut down to shreds, with the other work gang further back being simultaneously blasted away by the enemy’s artillery. Knowing that the day was lost, Karyle called to the young Boromite weaopn crew to head for the shuttlecraft and escape, meanwhile heading into combat with the assault squads hoping to buy enough time for the others.

The combat was an intense, back-and-forth melee that saw every single man in both sides cut down until only Karyle and the assault squad leader remained. Kurar and his bodyguards watched from a distance, honoring the combatants by not interfering. The Algoryn commander knew the Boromites were finished, and had intercepted the transmissions of the Boromite leader; he would allow him the honor to finish his duel.

The assault squad leader at last dealt a critical blow to Karyle, taking him down and out of the fight, though leaving him breathing. Glancing to his commander, the leader saw Kurar’s subtle nod, and stepped away leaving the Boromite broken upon the bloodied earth. Kurar made a gesture to his weapon team, and watched as the young Boromite weapon crew were shot down only a few steps away from the escape shuttle.

Kurar walked to Karyle’s side, watching with his arms crossed across his chest as his assault squads set charges on the generator and then cleared the field of their dead. Glancing down and seeing the Boromite’s remaining good eye open, he said, “And now only you shall remain to speak of what happened here. You do not know that which you have stumbled upon, mercenary. Should we meet again… Know that the extent of my courtesy has been reached.” With that, Kurar signaled their homer drones, and began to walk from the field with his troopers.

The Freeborn saw the explosion from a significant distance, on their return finding only the lone Boromite commander alive beneath a pile of debris.