Battle for Xilos

Our last battle saw Guildess Arran Gestalin returning to her compound, only to be waylaid by an Algoryn patrol. The Boromites bludgeoned their way through but in the process came into the possession of a deposit of rare and valuable mineral deposit. We join the Guildess as her column nears its destination.

The IMTel never makes mistakes so it must have good reason to continually mess up the order of my pictures. I have numbered each of them to aid mere mortal minds such as ours.

Guildess Arran Gestalin prodded a sore spot where her rocklike carapace was beginning to grow back and ruminated on the fact that if she never saw another Algoryn it would be too soon. “Still” she thought, “A sackful of pride is worth the sack.” The huge chunk of raw baconium in Narwhal’s saddlebag was well worth a few bumps and bruises. She tickled him behind what were probably his ears and smiled as the recalcitrant Locomite playfully tried to bite her arm off. The price this rare mineral would fetch on the Guild markets would more than pay for the inconvenience of being stranded in this Guildforsaken warzone even if the supposed Builder artefacts failed to materialise.

Narwhal was acting up even more than usual, being taunted by the contents of the saddlebag. It was unsurprising as baconium was one of a number of minerals fed to immature lavamites to prompt the development of superior morphological aspects such as the massive growth required in a Matronite Broodmother and the formation of Narwhal’s own horn.

As the group neared the outskirts of the Boromite compound a cry went up from the lead gangers. Gestalin could immediately tell something was amiss as she spotted movement atop the central building. She sighed inwardly, “More Algoryn…”

Unbeknownst to the Boromites, their compound was discovered by another Algoryn patrol while they were away. The commander dispatched several of his squads to survey the surrounding area while he remained to fortify the complex. He was in the middle of setting up defensive positions on the roof of the central building when the original owners returned.

With a surety of purpose drilled into him by many years fighting the Ghar, the Algoryn commander carried out a preliminary threat assessment and directed his three emplaced Mag Light Support teams to open fire on the largest of the approaching rock beasts. In their haste to comply, many of the team’s shots missed their mark. A good number hit home, however and the Guildess was forced to duck for cover behind her mount’s craggy bulk. With his support weapons given their orders, the commander descended to ground level to take the fight to the enemy. Taking position behind the barricades surrounding the central building, he immediately came under fire himself from the Guildess’ gang fighters who had taken position on an overlooking balcony.

Arran Gestalin swore as the fusilade of fire chipped pieces off Narwhal’s hide. The already fractious beast was in danger of stampeding off out of control if this kept up. She applied some gentle persuasion with her Extasor and began to retain some degree of control. (After the debacle of last game, I rolled yet another 10 for Gestalin’s order test, forcing her to go down.)

If Narwhal wasn’t cooperating, the Lavamites needed no encouragement. Their handler could barely keep up with them as they tore across the field (1 on the sprint again!) Having obviously developed a taste for charbroiled Algoryn, they soon tore apart the remaining components of the unfortunate commander’s entourage before taking cover on the opposite side of the baricade. Seeing another chance to assuage their constant hunger, the mites charged up the building’s steps only to be met by a determined salvo of pistol fire from the nearest support team. This picked off several of the diminutive monsters before the remainder wreaked their vengeance on the unfortunate weapon crew. Shaken by the unexpectedly effective defense, the mites retreated to lick their wounds behind the staircase.

Away on the other side of the compound, the Boromite X-launcher continued to drop net shells on the intruders. The use of explosives ran the chance of severely damaging the building and its contents while the comparatively harmless net ammunition would effectively suppress the enemy support teams while minimising collateral damage. With their attention focused on operating their weapon, the Boromites failed to notice the approach of Algoryn reinforcements who immediately opened fire. Thankfully the opening salvo couldn’t penetrate their thick hides and they trusted in their Guildess to keep them safe. This she promptly did. Having regained control of Narwhal, Guildess Gestalin thundered towards the ambushers pouring all the fire she could muster into them. This did the trick as over half the squad was cut down and the rest fled in terror.

In the meantime, the Lavamites continued to mop up the heavily suppressed weapon teams, regaining control of the complex command building. The remaining two teams were taken out by a combination of lava vomit and fire from the gang fighters in the building opposite.

Dragging one of their injured comrades back to what they though was a secured position, an Algoryn medic team surprised the Boromite X-Launchers again. As with their comrades, their attacks proved ineffectual. Not so with the Assault team who followed after them however, as they cut down the X-launcher team in a torrent of Mag-repeater fire. Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be enough to regain control of the compound and realising the hopelessness of the situation the remaining Algoryn made a tactical withdrawal and updated their sector maps with the appropriate hazard warnings.

Although a confirmed artefact of Builder origin has yet to make an appearance in our store campaign, there have been sightings of extremely advanced examples of Antarean technology. The enigmatic and multi-dimensional Tape Meld was again sighted in this sector prompting several IMTel directives to acquire more information on the precise nature of this mighty entity.

It has been said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and like any good magician, Ben is refusing to reveal the power behind his suspensor integrated rulebook. The abrasive table we play on wreaks havoc with printed material as can be evidenced from the sorry state of the spine of my own copy of the rulebook, yet Ben’s pristine copy floats serenely an inch above the surface.