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. 6, please see the GAME A battle report from Week 6 here: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1469851045

*** to read the canonical course of events for The Chronicles of Karyle, Ch. 6, please see the GAME B battle report from Week 6 here: http://battleforxilos.warconsole.com/battles/vs-kurar-1469910181
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Karyle’s dropship zoomed inches above the treetops, the jungle landscape all around erupting in chaos. Explosions raked Xilos in all directions as the internal pressure of the rift expanding from the core upset its surface. They were headed to the last signal received from their Guildess, less than a minute’s flight away from their starting location. There would be exceedingly little time as the rift overtook Xilos, and the Guildess’s instructions had been less than entirely clear.

Karyle and his men, those few that remained, were to hold a what their drone told them was a bridge spanning a particularly deep canyon. The Ghar were inbound to the position, but why it still mattered as Xilos collapsed made little sense to Karyle. The Overseer had sent the broad sweeping order of “Regroup” to all Boromites in the area anyway, however, calling them to the designated point for aid and rescue.

*****
SCENARIO EXPLANATION:

Michael and I played mission #5 from the main rulebook, “Return to Base Camp”, and substituted the base camp/hill in the scenario for the bridge in the middle of the board. I would be the defender, with half of my force starting on the bridge, with his Ghar attacking us. We played on a 4×6 table, so all reinforcement rules were taken straight from the scenario as written.

END SCENARIO EXPLANATION
******

Karyle and his few remaining Gang Fighters and Worker Gang members had taken up positions on the bridge, commanding the weaponless drone AI of their dropship to hover directly beneath the bridge for a quick escape. The Ghar approached from the northwest, their hulking suits clambering amongst the uneven ground expertly. The bridge was spanning a canyon set in what appeared to be ruins of an industrial complex on Xilos, the lifeblood of the planet having become a green miasma that filled the canyon below.

“-*SIR. ESTIMATED TIME FOR SAFE DEPARTURE: 3 STANDARD MINUTES.*-”

The drone AI of their ship had broadcast the message to all ranking officers in the vicinity, and Karyle’s feed lit up briefly with green blips of acknowledgement. Blinking his acknowledgement as well, the Overseer began firing his Plasma Carbine at the incoming Ghar alongside his men. The shots bounced off their armor harmlessly, their advance towards the bridge unfaltering.

Forcing himself calm, Karyle tried to think. What would be so important about this bridge that his Guildess would send them here to protect it?

Karyle signaled the ship as he continued to fire, “B418, scan for the location of the Guildess’s personal vessel.”

“-*NO SIGNAL FOUND.*_”

As a powerful blast from the Ghar suits crackled inches away from his head, the epiphany rang clearly in the Overseer’s mind. “Scan again, but this time only straight down towards the core.”

“-*VESSEL B303 FOUND. INBOUND AT MAXIMUM VELOCITY. ETA 2.3333337 STANDARD MINUTES.*-”

It wasn’t the bridge he and his men were ordered to hold; it was the canyon itself… This was his Guildess’s escape route! Karyle instructed B418 to alert the rest of the Boromites, unable to comm them himself under the direct fire of the Ghar suits.

Suddenly, miraculously, a full squad of Lavamites burst from the brush directly behind the Ghar Assault suits, slamming into them with inhuman fury. Karyle’s signal had been heard by several pockets of Boromites left on the surface of Xilos, and they were arriving at last. The lavamites managed to down one suit, but ultimately their attacks were proving ineffective. All the same, the assault had stopped the Ghar suits’ advance to the bridge, buying Karyle valuable time.

The clock ticking, Karyle and his bodyguards fired an expert volley into the second group of advancing suits, managing to kill all three left standing. The Boromites loosed a heartfelt cheer, the Worker Gang running from the bridge towards the friendly lavamites in an attempt to help. Swatting at flitters as they moved, the Worker Gang saw the lavamites cut down a Ghar command squad that had tried to sneak up on them. The distraction proved too much, though, for the lavamites to handle both fronts of attack. The remaining Ghar suits crushed them before turning their attention to the Worker Gang.

Roaring, the Worker Gang loosed a volley from their heavy Mass Compactors, managing to down one of the assaulting Ghar suits before being obliterated.

The timer ticked away steadily on Karyle’s feed. Only another minute, and the Guildess would be out of harm’s way. “HOLD THE BRIDGE! They shall not pass!”

The Ghar assault suits steadily clanked onto the bridge, gunning down Karyle and his men on their approach. One of Karyle’s Gang Fighters pushed the mangled, barely living Overseer over the edge of the bridge to be caught by their drone ship below.

Suddenly, a pair of Boromites were running from the nearby hill, waving for the Gang Fighters to move out of the way. They had fired an X-Launcher shot from the hill before making a run for the dropship. The shot was a direct hit, removing the last Ghar warrior from the fight except for their formidable leader. Undaunted, the Ghar leader walked forward through the smoke of the blast, his suit crouching low but still fully capable.

“FOR THE GUILDESS!” Bursting from the jungle to the east, Overseer Alaric and his remaining Rock Riders were pushing their locomites full tilt towards the bridge. Once they’d seen the location of the signal on the dropship, Alaric and his men had jumped from the dropship to retrieve their locomites, and had arrived just in time.

The Rock Riders rammed straight into the Ghar suit like a battering ram, taking the enemy Leader from his feet but not inflicting any more serious damage. The Ghar expertly sliced through one of the Rock Riders, his clawed armed spinning fiercely.

The ground began to shake more violently, the studs in the bridge’s construction popping like corks in bottles of celebratory stout.

“-*THERE IS NO TIME LEFT. WE MUST LEAVE. ALL UNITS, DISEMBARK FROM THE BRIDGE.*-”

The Gang Fighters leapt as one over the side without hesitation into the waiting craft below. Finally realizing what was happening, the Ghar lumbered towards the edge to peer over just as the Rock Riders abandoned their mounts and leaped over the side to join their comrades.

Like a bomb exploding, the dropship’s engines burst to full, filling the canyon entrance with plasma as it darted out from under the bridge into the open, aimed skyward. Within seconds, the Ghar reeling from the sudden plasma burst of the dropship, the Guildess’s ship burst through the bridge itself at its top speed, advancing skyward as Xilos crumbled behind it.

******

The Guildess ran a strong hand along the scarred shoulder of her Overseer, waking him from his fitful sleep. Karyle had survived the day, but only partially. As the Guildess’s hand reached the plasteel alloy of the upper portion of Karyle’s new arm, he instinctively flinched, followed quickly by a look of shame on his shattered visage. Luckily the medbay was dim, with no one else in the room but the two of them.

“The plasbionics are extremely sensitive at first, Karyle. Do not be alarmed.”

The Overseer’s eye widened at her use of his name and the softness of her tone. Trying to sit up, he met the firm resistance of the Guildess’s hand and was pushed back down.

“There will be plenty of time now that we are free from Xilos to regain your strength…” The Guildess smirked, her eyebrow arching, “… Rock Father.”