Battle for Xilos

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 1, please see this battle report from Week 1: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1466969458

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 2, please see this battle report from Week 2: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1467594757

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 2.1, please see this battle report from Week 2: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1467807985

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 3, please see this battle report from Week 3: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1468169482

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 4, please see this battle report from Week 4: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1468790273

*** to read The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 5, please see this battle report from Week 5: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1469300182

*** to read an alternate course of events for The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 5, please see the GAME A battle report from Week 6 here: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1469851045

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The very ground itself was crumbling, shattering, being pulled towards the swirling rift with force of a million mag rounds.

With blood in his eyes, Karyle risked a glance back at the horrific rift expanding towards them, pausing for a brief moment in his slaughter. An expanding wall of energy filled the far end of the massive tunnel, violent tendrils of energy whipping out and seeming to pull it along ever closer, as though it were scaling along the walls instead of merely eradicating them. Sections of rock formations, equipment, even the very ground itself: all were destroyed in its wake, disappearing into the rift and adding to its expanding energy.

The fire all throughout the tunnel had ceased, their Algoryn adversaries having also stopped to view the encroaching wall of death.

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SCENARIO EXPLANATION:

This scenario was played using the rules out of the Xilos supplement book primarily, but because there were only two of us, we modified the scenario to work on a smaller scale and fit within the typical 6 turn limit. Playing on a normal 4’x6′ table, we sectioned off the table as A, B, and C for each 2′ section. Our forces were deployed in C, and needed to make it across the table laterally to the dropships sitting in A in order to escape. We deployed a full 15″ into the table instead of the normal 5″, deciding that for our narrative the two sides had already been fighting, and the game itself begins just as the rift begins to move and they are all forced to make a fighting retreat.

The rift began moving at the beginning of turn 1, 2d6+1 while inside of section C, and 3D6+1 once reaching B. Scoring was simply 2 VP for each unit to “escape” by reaching a dropship, and 1 VP for each unit sitting in Section A at the end of turn 6.

And yes, GAME A was for the Algoryn… but GAME B is for BOROMITE!

END SCENARIO EXPLANATION

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The Algoryn had followed the train back into the tunnels after their initial attack during its journey across the surface of Xilos (see Ch. 5), waiting to attack until they’d reached the inside of the tunnels. There had been no time for formal planning or strategies. Karyle and his men were forced to fight, with no ground to fall back towards. Their Guildess had traveled deep within the tunnels with several teams and sealed the entrances. Any remaining Overseers on the surface of Xilos had lost communication several standard hours previously.

The rift had appeared like a storm deeper inside the tunnel, seizing up Boromite and Algoryn fighters with fear and swallowing them alongside their horrific screams as it spread outward from the core of Xilos. The only logical objective for Boromite and Algoryn alike was to retreat to the dropships stationed at the tunnel entrance, but the hatred between them was so powerful that they would each risk certain death to see the other destroyed.

Karyle had made an early push against the retreating Algoryn, and it proved successful. Rather than rushing directly for the dropships, he had led his brave few directly across the tunnel into the AI, using the close-quarters of the tunnel to his benefit. The AI were fierce warriors, perhaps unmatched, but against the lavamites they stood little chance of survival. Wading through bodies, the pack of lavamites led the way through the back ranks of the Algoryn, Karyle roaring in fury.

The Algoryn Command Squad, seeing their opportunity, cut back across the tunnel to block off the path to the Boromite dropship. The AI Assault Squad had sacrificed itself in a battle with the Rock Riders, buying the Infiltrators the time they’d needed to successfully kill the remaining Rock Riders with Solar Charges before escaping to their own dropship.

As the final AI Squad neared their dropship, the rift having rapidly spread up the tunnel, Karyle’s loyalist soldiers knew they wouldn’t make it out of the rifts path. The X-Launcher team that had served as their Overseer’s most reliable squad, knew they would not make it out of the tunnel alive while weighed down with their equipment. If they stripped themselves of it to make a run for it, the AI Squad would have time to set up a defensive position and shoot them down. There was only one option.

Karyle stopped cold as the blip on his feed for the X-Launcher turned green, signaling their readiness to fire. Turning back towards the rift, he saw them there, outlined starkly by the massive wall of energy behind them, calmly setting their equipment for one final shot. Loyal to the last, the X-Launcher squad fired their final round of Grip ammunition at their AI mirror, the shot hitting directly on top of them. The enemy X-Launcher squad was held fast to the floor of the tunnel. Standing and lifting their visors, the Boromite X-Launcher crew slammed their fists to their chests in salute as the rift reached them, swallowing them in an instant. Karyle stood straight amidst the enemy fire, himself saluting his faithful crew. “I will not let your death be in vain. Thank you, my brothers.”

Looking back towards the dropships, the blips on his feed dropping off consistently as his brothers fought to their end in the tunnel, Karyle locked eyes with the despicable Commander Kurar. In locked step with his bodyguards, the Overseer surged forward, his Tractor Maul spinning violently in thirst for the blood it would soon draw. The Boromites climbed and leaped over the barricade at a run. The AI Commander’s guards were shot down in a storm of plasma, while Karyle locked weapons with Kurar. The two were evenly matched, the tall Algoryn’s weapon meeting the Tractor Maul at each deadly swipe, the Boromite shrugging away from Kurar’s vicious jabs. Finally, getting a foothold inside the Algoryn’s guard after an overextended feint, Karyle rammed his rocky brow into the Algoryn’s unguarded face with enough force to send him backwards a step. Following with the killing blow, Karyle drove the Tractor Maul through Kurar’s chestplate with enough force to come out the other side of the AI Commander in a spray of glistening gore.

All fire within the tunnel ceased as though a bell had rung, the remaining Algoryn and Boromites watching as the AI Commander bounced onto the rocky soil.

The rift was upon them; their time was up. The remaining Boromites ran for their dropship, the bloodied Karyle waving them into the hold as he watched the few surviving Algoryn collect Kurar from the tunnel floor and rush for their dropship. Unfamiliar with the extent of Algoryn medical technology, Karyle couldn’t be certain that he’d seen the last of Kurar.

He only knew that the debt had been paid. Future scores would have to wait.

“Sir!” the Boromite pilot signaled to Karyle. “It’s a signal from the Guildess! She’s giving us a set of coordinates. Your orders?”

Grabbing a handrail lining the dropship’s wall as the door hissed to a close, the Overseer attached his plasma carbine to the mag holder at his hip. “We won’t leave the Guildess waiting. Our lives are hers. Do not hesitate at her signal again.” The pilot muttered an ashamed apology, setting the course and slamming down the lever on his console, sending the dropship surging above the trees of Xilos one last time.